New methods: Faster, safer, greener

Professor of Chemistry, Lutz Ackermann from Gottingen University has received an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). The ERC will fund his project "Electrochemical Bond Functionalization (ElectroFun)" for five years with an award of around 2.5 million euros.

The development of environmentally friendly production methods is one of the greatest challenges facing society today. This is where the ElectroFun project excels: it brings together two resource-saving concepts by combining the conversion of otherwise inert molecules with electrocatalysis. The overarching goal is to replace the use of toxic reagents and chemicals by using green electricity and to control the selectivity of electrocatalytic transformations of biomolecules. Using external stimuli provided by renewable forms of energy, waste products can thus be minimised and lengthy synthesis sequences bypassed. This is made possible by the design of innovative catalysis concepts.

Lutz Ackermann, born in 1972, studied chemistry at the University of Kiel. He then worked at the Max-Planck-Institute fur Kohlenforschung in Mulheim and received his doctorate in 2001. As a postdoctoral researcher, he worked at the University of California in Berkeley. From 2003 to 2007, he led an Emmy Noether junior research group at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. In 2007, he pursued an appointment at the University of Gottingen, where he is also the Executive Director of the Wohler Research Institute for Sustainable Chemistry.

Ackermann's work has already been recognised with a number of awards. These include an ERC independent Consolidator Grant from the European Union in 2012 and a Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize from the German Research Foundation (DFG) in 2017. Ackermann is one of the world's leading experts in his field of research, as demonstrated by his publication record. In fact, since 2014 he has consistently been one of the most highly cited scientists worldwide. Visiting professorships have taken him to universities in Osaka, Milan, Madison, Kyoto, Strasbourg and Xiamen, as well as the Ecole superieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la ville de Paris and the Ecole Polytechnique, among many others.

###

ERC Advanced Grants support outstanding researchers already established in their scientific careers in projects that promise ground-breaking new insights.

Contact:

Professor Lutz Ackermann

University of Gottingen

Faculty of Chemistry - Institute of Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry

Tammannstrae 2, 37077 Gottingen, Germany

Tel: +49 (0)551 39-23201

Email: lutz.ackermann@chemie.uni-goettingen.de

http://www. ackermann. chemie. uni-goettingen. de/ index. html

This story has been published on: 2021-04-30. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
China estimates 17 mln railway trips on May 1

Xinhua) 16:58, April 30, 2021

BEIJING, April 30 (Xinhua) -- China's daily railway trips are expected to hit 17 million on May 1, the beginning of the upcoming five-day holiday, according to data released by the Ministry of Public Security on Friday.

It is estimated that the number of railway trips from April 29 to May 6 will reach 100 million, said the ministry.

Chinese railway police will strengthen efforts to eliminate potential risks, patrol major locations during peak hours more frequently and pay closer attention, and intensify crackdown on illegal activities on trains and in stations to ensure passenger safety, the ministry added.

(Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Liang Jun)
He also got to brief the first Black brigadier general, Benjamin O. Davis Jr.

Harkins was deployed for three weeks to Vietnam, where an F-105 had gone down in a serious tropical storm. The pilot escaped, but Harkins was there to investigate the accident. He was in the thick of things and inhaled a lot of Agent Orange that would later cause him to develop cancer, he said.

Harkins served in many other locations, including one of his favorites, Savannah, Georgia. He commanded the weather station to support all aviation at Hunter Army Airfield, providing weather briefings to all pilots. Occasionally, when the cloud cover was heavy, a pilot would set down in a clearing near the interstate highway or at nearby Stewart Army Airfield.

After three years, he went to Korea, where he ran a weather detachment at Osan Air Base. He also went to Germany for three years and came back to Bergstrom Air Force Base in Austin, and then to Barksdale AFB in Shreveport, Louisiana, his last duty station.

Harkins retired from the military as a lieutenant colonel in August 1980. He earned Meritorious Service Medals and received a special fly-by of a Phantom F-4 in full afterburner, he said.
He declined to identify that person, but said it was not Robinson, the soldier investigators say killed her. Robinson killed himself July 1 as police were trying to take him into custody. The family has identified the soldier who harassed her as Sgt. 1st Class Jovanny Rivera.

The report said the investigating officer found no credible evidence to conclude that Robinson sexually harassed Guillen or that they had any relationship outside of their work setting. And it did not find a motive in the killing. Instead, it said Robinson sexually harassed another soldier.

Guillen's family has said that he harassed Guillen. If you cant say why he murdered her, you cant say he didnt sexually harass her, said Guillen family attorney Natalie Khawam in an interview with The Associated Press Friday.

An independent review panel created to dig into the problems at the base concluded last December that military leaders at the base were not adequately dealing with high rates of sexual assault, harassment, drug use and other problems. It also found that the Armys Criminal Investigation Command, or CID, was understaffed, overwhelmed and filled with inexperienced investigators.
Americans often forget that the continents original settlers were not from Europe or Asia or Africa. Rather, they were here long before being driven from their ancestral lands in wars that raged for nearly three centuries before they were totally dispossessed, defeated and confined to reservations.

These original Americans were called Indians because Christopher Columbus, who first encountered them, believed he had discovered a new route to India rather than a huge unknown continent. Now, with more than three million people from India living in the U.S., we refer to these indigenous people as Native Americans. Thousands of place names, including those of more than half the 50 American states, are reminders of those who roamed the land long before these newcomers conquered them with new weapons, bringing diseases to which they had no immunity.

The United States historically has been a melting pot. A test of the strength of the U.S. is the ability to assimilate widely varied groupings into America as a civilization, as the political scientist Max Lerner described integrating one group after another into the fabric of American society.

The Latin words, E Pluribus Unum  from many, one  are inscribed on the Great Seal of the United States. The message is that American life is made stronger, richer, better as diverse groupings exist with one another while remaining proud of their individual ethnic and religious origins.

Donald Kirk is the author of 10 books on Korea, Okinawa, the Philippines and the Vietnam War. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.
As the events unfolded on the street outside the convenience store on May 25, bystanders, who were strangers to one another and to Floyd, gathered on the nearby curb to observe with shock and horror the manner of the officers treatment of George Floyd. Defense counsel described the bystanders sidewalk advocacy as threatening.

But the bystanders did not just watch or walk away. They recognized they had a duty: They saw something and they said something. Of all ages and races, they cried out to the police officers. Several called 911 to report the conduct of the police. And subsequently they gave statements to law enforcement authorities, both state and federal, and testified before grand juries and in court.

They saw something. They said something.

Described by the prosecutor in his closing statement as a bouquet of humanity, the spectators witnessed Floyd calling for his mother and repeatedly crying that he could not breathe. As the officers pulled Floyd from the back seat of a squad car and restrained him on the cement in a prone position with his arms handcuffed behind him, Floyd struggled to breathe and pleaded with Chauvin, who he called Mr. Officer.

His final words were a tearful plea: Please, I cant breathe.
IOWA CITY -- Barbara Wilson, executive vice president and vice president for academic affairs for the University of Illinois System, will become the 22nd president of the University of Iowa on July 15. The Board of Regents, State of Iowa, announced Wilson as its unanimous selection at its meeting in Iowa City on Friday.

Wilson brings extensive leadership experience to her role as UI president. Since 2016, she has served as executive vice president and vice president for academic affairs for the University of Illinois System, which enrolls more than 90,000 students across three main campuses and includes a 462-bed hospital. Before that, she served one year as interim chancellor for the Urbana-Champaign campus, a top-ranked land grant research institution with more than 45,000 students and nearly 2,000 tenure-track faculty.

Wilsons other administrative roles at Illinois have included two years as the universitys Harry E. Preble Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, two years as executive vice provost for faculty and academic affairs, three years as vice provost for academic affairs, and seven years as head of the Department of Communication.
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A deep commitment to community and a hands-on approach shaped Bella Medinas (pronouns: they/them) undergraduate years at Willamette University  and promises to do the same for their future.

An interest in creative problem-solving, helping others and making connections first drove Medina 21 toward an exercise and health science major. The same skills helped the Latinx senior advance opportunities on campus, from guaranteeing gender-neutral restrooms in every campus building to leading student involvement projects.

These experiences and the program itself sharpened their leadership abilities as they progress toward their ultimate goal  to start a prosthetics company.

Prioritizing campus involvement

Medinas interest in prosthetics grew out of high school engineering classes in California, and they sought Willamettes exercise and health science program for its advanced training and experience compared to other programs.

Classes in biomechanics, physiology and physiology of exercise were particularly useful for understanding research. Medina became acquainted with several devices  an EMG, force platforms  that are also used in professional studies, which allowed them to be more critical of research methods, they said.

Professors played a particularly meaningful role in their education. Professor of Exercise and Health Science Stasinos Stavrianeas pushed students to be better critical thinkers, while Associate Professor of Exercise and Health Science Brandi Row Lazzarini was extremely accessible, both in terms of being easy to approach and Lazzarinis habit of recording classes (even before the pandemic) that made it easier to refer back to material, they said.

For someone like me, who had undiagnosed ADHD, it was really hard to refocus if I missed something, Medina said. But in her class, I could go back and make sure I learned everything. Shes very explicit in her expectations, too  the way she taught left us with a very solid understanding of where we were going with the material.

The education Medina found outside the classroom was equally important and widespread.

Leadership training through a service and sustainability track in Jump Start, Willamettes pre-orientation program, prompted Medina to later take on a service-learning coordinator position and become a Take a Break leader. They also became a member of emergency medical provider Willamettes Emergency Medical Services (WEMS), a summer residential and teaching assistant at college prep program Willamette Academy, a peer tutor for biomechanics and a member of the badminton club.

Medina connected to others through campus employment, too. At the Office of Student Involvement, Medina was an office assistant who worked with other student leaders, helped run big events like Family Weekend and managed the Office of Student Activities website before advancing to a bigger role training new employees and directing the offices various projects. At The Bistro, Medina gained tactile and financial skills at the social center of campus, first as a barista then as financial manager. They most valued figuring out how to run a business during the pandemic, a fraught and unpredictable time that provided invaluable lessons on leading during a crisis, they said.

Volunteering off campus gave Medina insight on the greater community. They participated in several Service Saturdays, packaging donations at Marion-Polk Food Share and landscaping at Bush Pasture Park, through the Office of Community Service-Learning.

I recognized I was coming into a community and very much benefiting from it, but they didnt really benefit from me being here, they said. So I wanted to learn more about Salem and the different issues it was facing, and find ways to give back.

Striving for equity

Inclusivity is at the heart of many of Medinas accomplishments.

They worked with Andrea Doyle Hugmeyer, director of the Gender Resource and Advocacy Center, and Jade Aguilar, the former vice president of equity, diversity and inclusion, to ensure gender-neutral restrooms existed on every floor of every building on campus. Medina also co-facilitated the Queer, Trans, Students of Color Club, joined the university Trans* Advocacy Committee and provided mentorship to younger students as a way to pay it forward, they said.

For their senior seminar project, Medina wanted to learn more about website accessibility  adding descriptions to photos, for instance, to ensure people who are visually impaired can still understand whats represented on the page. After a two-year internship with Shannon Levin 08, who owns Mobility Solutions Prosthetics & Orthotics in Salem, Medina offered to examine Levins website and make suggestions. Healthcare websites especially need to be accessible to everyone, Medina said.

In recent months, Medina has been salvaging, repairing and beautifying old bicycles  a combination of their passion for mechanics and aesthetics  and revived the campus Bike Shop, which is currently being run from Montag Den. The idea inspired them after a recent trip to Chicago, when Medina and their partner fixed up old bikes instead of taking public transportation. Building a bike is technically similar to creating prosthetics, and they wanted to keep up on their mechanical skills, they said.

The work wont continue for much longer. In June, Medina will move to Connecticut to start their M.A. in prosthetics and orthotics at the University of Hartford, a program they solely chose for the community involvement opportunities and the chance to work with young people who experience mobility struggles. A two-year residency will follow.

Im happy with everything Ive done and everything Ive learned from Willamette, they said. Im excited to take these next steps.
But Asian culture in America encompasses diverse groups. AAPI Month honors cultures ranging from Chinese, Japanese and Korean to Samoan, Indian, Filipino and Polynesian. It's important to hear voices representing all those groups, says Lee, who will share his own history at a virtual panel called My American Story," hosted by the group Chinese Americans of Lexington, Massachusetts, on May 20.

The event will feature personal histories from leaders in the AAPI community. It's important we become much more visible and participatory in American life, so we can be heard, says Shigeru Miyagawa, another panelist and a Japanese-American professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. With Asians, there is not a unified narrative because we all have very different backgrounds. We have important stories that need to be told."

While most big festivals, panels and performances celebrating AAPI Heritage Month remain virtual, a few are being held in person. Check out some of the offerings below.

Improve understanding to combat hate

This month, activists, community leaders and organizations are hosting events to encourage people to use their voices to ignite social change.

On May 6, AARP will host a free public webinar, #StopAsianHate: Advocating for Our Elders, to call attention to the ways individuals, organizations and communities of color can advocate for AAPI elders as they face fallout from the pandemic, racism and ageism. The discussion will tackle stereotypes and how to provide support, says Daphne Kwok, a vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion at AARP, who will moderate the event.

"Let us all commit to stopping AAPI hate by taking three actions: Learn about how detrimental the model minority myth is to AAPIs; shatter the perpetual foreigner image of AAPIs; and reach out and support your AAPI friends, neighbors, and colleagues, Kwok says.

Similarly, the Asia Society of Texas will host a livestreamed discussion on May 6 about activism and what people and organizations can do to combat ongoing attacks.

"Improving understanding of the AAPI community is important, says Dahua Pan, a board member and secretary of the Chinese Americans of Lexington. If you have a better understanding, then you will have a better appreciation of the community, and that will help build bridges between different groups."

At the virtual legislative leadership summit hosted by the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS), from May 11 to May 13, panelists will examine successes and challenges for the AAPI community in areas ranging from civil rights and business to the digital divide and even Hollywood.

And to better understand the complex history of Asian American violence and how it resonates today, the Chinese American Museum in Washington, D.C., and the 1882 Foundation are cohosting a six-part virtual series entitled Quiet Before: Unearthing Anti-Asian Violence, with sessions running throughout the month and featuring more than 50 speakers.

Celebrate through the arts

Enjoy this AARP livestream concert featuring ukulele player Jake Shimabukuro on May 27 at 8 p.m. ET. This musical event will celebrate the perspectives of AAPI storytellers and explore the connections between music and health.

While there are plenty of serious topics to explore, there's also a chance to dance, laugh and sing. Check out the livestream of the Huraiti Mana Polynesian dance troupe or watch expert hula dancers during a virtual festival on May 2 that's being organized by the Seattle Center and the Asian Pacific Directors Coalition. Or appreciate the graceful art of traditional Samoan dance in an exhibition on May 5 from the American Samoan Community College, which will be available on the Library of Congress website afterward.

If you're looking for lighter fare, tune in May 1 to comedian Sheng Wang's interactive performance. Wang was a writer for ABC's Fresh Off the Boat, a sitcom that charted the experiences of a Taiwanese-American family.
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Michigan (WNEM) -- A shortage of special education teachers in Michigan is growing worse during the pandemic.

That shortage is prompting the state to loosen restrictions just to fill gaps, but those directly affected by the problem say the state needs to act before the problem gets out of hand.

It was a 40 percent increase in retirement from last years numbers, said Kate Dupuis, a special education elementary teacher at Carrollton Public Schools.

Dupuis said the statewide teacher shortage is bad and getting worse. Shes also a mother to a daughter with special needs.

So this is a significant effect to me as a mother to be losing these teachers because then it affects me as a mother because then I only have these years to make sure she gets the skills, Dupuis said.

Dupuis attributed shortages to teacher's burnout, unflexible standardized evaluations, the high cost of education needed to go into the field, and of course the pandemic.

This is just going to continue to increase because of COVID, said Abby Cypher, the executive director of the Michigan Association of Administrators of Special Education.

Cypher said they already had a severe shortage before COVID and things are not getting better.

The state superintendent, Dr. Michael Rice, has even announced a waiver application for special education teachers to go outside of their specialty to teach a wider array of special needs students.

But Cypher doesnt think that alone is enough and is calling state leaders to make a plan.

Look at what we have, what we need, Cypher said. What does our data say and then create a strategic action plan to move forward. Were not seeing people go into the field, were having more programs more teacher preparation programs in Michigan close every year than we have openings.

Cypher adds that there needs to be more of a focus on teacher wellness. She said they are seeing teachers struggle with their mental health throughout the pandemic similar to healthcare workers.

If nothing changes, Dupuis said its just going to bleed into the next school year and beyond.

My need to help is being fed, Im still a person who likes to help and Im doing that. Its just that I dont know if I can survive on that alone and keep going, Dupuis said.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
Republic TV, India's leading English news channel has appointed NKN Media FZC as an exclusive ad sales partner in the UAE region. This partnership offers advertisers & brands in the region an opportunity to partner with one of the most viewed news networks for the discerning South Asian Diaspora in the region.

This comes in the back of Republic TV consolidating its distribution with a carriage agreement with Du, a premium Triple play service provider in the region. The channel is already available on the Etisalat Cable TV platform, E Vision.

Commenting on the announcement Ms. Priya Mukherjee, COO  Distribution. International Revenue & OTT said "Since its inception and post consolidating the leadership position in the Indian TV market, Republic has been looking to expand its International Distribution footprint and this partnership in the UAE is a significant step in that direction. We have seen huge affinity for all our channels in other major markets like North America & UK and we are sure to resonate with the Diaspora in this region. We look forward to working closely with NKN Media to offer Advertisers and Brands a unique Ad Innovation Platform.

On the occasion, Abdul Majid Khan, Chief Operating Officer & VP Revenue - NKN Media said, We are optimistic that this partnership is going to yield the desired outcome in terms of revenue for both of our companies. Having been present in UAE over the years, we have gauged the market pretty well and intend to use our expertise to make this arrangement profitable.

Other than that, the brand awareness of Republic Media Network, is also going to work to our advantage in order to secure advertisement contracts, making the partnership an exciting prospect, he further added.
One thing was clear right up front on Friday: The Fairhope Arts & Crafts Festival, back after a year lost to the COVID-19 pandemic, was not getting off to what youd call a slow start.

Shortly after its 10 a.m. opening, traffic around downtown was dominated by people cruising for parking spaces anywhere within a few blocks of the festival perimeter. Pedestrian traffic was building steadily, flowing into the festival perimeter and swirling around the booths of vendors such as Rich Britnell.

Britnells art is in the style of antique maps -- usually suitable for framing, but sometimes charted out across objects like surfboards and electric guitars. His booth just off the intersection of Fairhope and Section streets was catching a lot of eyes.

Theyre killing me, he said, between transactions. I just sent a text to my wife and kids to send somebody to help me, Im about to sell everything Ive got.

Artist Rich Britnell of Auburn handles a sale during the 2021 Fairhope Arts & Crafts Festival.Lawrence Specker | LSpecker@AL.com

Britnell has been taking part in the event for 25 years and considers it his home festival even though hes based in Auburn, he said. From its earliest hours, the 2021 edition was shaping up to be something special, to his eyes.

Theres a bunch of people walking around smiling without masks on, he said of the crowd. I think its awesome. People have been shut down. You can feel the energy here today that maybe you dont normally do, because people become complacent or take it for granted or whatever the case may be. But theres an energy, including a buying energy, to this. I have no complaints.

COVID hit just in time to completely shut down the spring 2020 festival circuit, robbing artists and craftspeople of one of their most profitable seasons. Things improved some in the fall, but not much. I did one show last year, said Britnell. Everything else was canceled. It really hurt a lot of people in the field.

Opening day of the 2021 Fairhope Arts & Crafts Festival brought an immediate surge of pedestrian traffic into downtown Fairhope, signaling a strong return after the COVID-19 shutdown of 2020.Lawrence Specker | LSpecker@AL.com

A little way up Section Street, painter Laurel Browning of Trussville was also feeling gratitude over the events return. This is my first show back in over a year, she said.

She spoke as she was personalizing a painting just purchased by Tom Franklin of New Orleans. My wife has seen her work elsewhere, said Franklin, and today she told me this was the day.

We didnt really know what to expect, Browning said. We really love Fairhope.

Laura English, a board member for the nonprofit foundation that organizes the fest, said that the crowd had begun building even before the event officially opened.

Isnt it crazy? she said. I see people walking around with bags. Thats always a good sign.

In front of the Page & Palette bookstore at S. Section St. and De La Mare Ave., visitors to the annual Fairhope Arts & Crafts Festival circulate in the street.Lawrence Specker | LSpecker@AL.com

English had previously said that when organizers began making plans for the event last fall, they had to make some decisions based on the speed of the pandemic recovery as predicted at the time. Thats why the festival is happening at the start of May rather than in March. Its also why it was cut down to about 100 Alabama artists, with their booths much farther apart than usual, rather than more than 200 from the Gulf Coast region and beyond.

However, theres much more to the overall experience than 100 or so vendor booths and a food court. The Eastern Shore Art Centers 49th annual outdoor art show is running concurrently, and you can wander from one event into the other without even realizing it. (Hint: The booths in ESACs show are little more closely spaced and include out-of-state artists.) Galleries and other arts institutions in and around the area have additional special displays.

Every business in downtown Fairhope seems to have its doors wide open, and many have wares displayed out front for the passing crowds.

Even those whose wares dont directly fit in to the arts & crafts genre stand to benefit. At Dr. Music, a music shop near the intersection of S. Section St. and De La Mare Ave., proprietor Wade Wellborn was enjoying the traffic.

Im really happy they moved forward with it, Im really happy its all Alabama artists, he said. I think the turnout is going to be great.

Visitors browse the vinyl selection in Wade Wellborn's Dr. Music store in downtown Fairhope during the annual Fairhope Arts & Crafts Festival on April 30, 2021.Lawrence Specker | LSpecker@AL.com

Most of Wellborns shop is taken up with vinyl albums, classic and new. But he also handles vintage stereo equipment, and a unique sideline custom-tailored for visiting browsers in an upscale bayside town. Dr. Musics Sonic Suitcases are pieces of vintage luggage fitted with battery-powered amplifiers, speakers and Bluetooth receivers. Itd be hard to find a hipper way to bring boombox-level volume to the tunes in your phone.

You do have a great weekend with people spending money, said Wellborn. But also people see you and tell other people about you. Festival visitors, or their friends, may return later as vacationers, he said, so it only makes sense for Fairhopes brick-and-mortar businesses to welcome them with open arms.

A "Sonic Suitcase" on display outside Dr. Music in Fairhope during the 2021 Fairhope Arts & Crafts Festival.Lawrence Specker | LSpecker@AL.com

I call it creating goodwill, he said. Anytime they can stuff our town full of people, Im in.

At Fairhope Pharmacy, LouAnne Barnhill Harrell had much the same view. Her family has owned the store for more than 60 years, she said, and the festival has become part of the annual ebb and flow.

We gear up, she said. Everybody in town does this, really, she said.

Her store is a pharmacy, as the name indicates, but between souvenirs and other merchandise its practically a general store. Barnhill said the first step is festival prep is to stock up on sunscreen, umbrellas and raingear and anything else visitors might find themselves suddenly in need of. Next comes souvenir merchandise. The main thing is to have your store as full of merchandise as you can get it. Especially this year, she said, referring to last years drought.

I had tears in my eyes, coming up the hill to the barricades, she said. I have never gotten emotional over Arts & Crafts before, just worn out from it.

Festival info:

The 2021 Fairhope Arts & Crafts Festival will continue rain or shine from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily through Sunday, May 2 in downtown Fairhope. Admission is free.

Shuttles will run from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday from the Fairhope Rec Center at 803 N. Greeno Road. Round-trip tickets are $5. Parking is free in the City Parking Garage and all downtown City parking lots. According to festival information, additional parking can be found at St. Lawrence Catholic Church, Fairhope First Baptist Church, Fairhope United Methodist Church (donation asked for mission trips) and Fairhope Elementary School West (Saturday and Sunday only). Handicap parking will be located in downtown at the corner of Fairhope Avenue and Bancroft. Parking is on a first come first serve basis and handicapped placards are required.

A variety of food trucks and other concession vendors will be on hand in addition to downtown restaurants. Service animals are allowed in the festival, but pets are discouraged because of the large crowds. Children are invited to stop by the Coastal Alabama Real Estate Kids Art Tent on South Church Street to pick up an art activity. The Kids Art Tent is open between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. each day.

For full festival information, visit www.fairhopeartsandcraftsfestival.com.
Attorney General Steve Marshall has asked a judge to dismiss the lawsuit filed by State Auditor Jim Zeigler and three others that tries to block Gov. Kay Iveys plan to lease new prisons.

In a motion filed Friday, the attorney general said the lawsuit was based on strategically timed but legally meritless claims.

Marshall asked Montgomery County Circuit Judge Greg Griffin for a prompt hearing because of the timing. The governor signed 30-year leases for two mens prisons on Feb. 1, and the developer is trying to obtain financing for the projects.

The developer, CoreCivic, would finance, build and maintain the prisons and lease them to the state, which would staff and operate them. The prisons would be in Elmore and Escambia counties.

Zeigler filed the lawsuit Tuesday, along with state Rep. John Rogers, D-Birmingham, Kenny Glasgow of Houston County, a pastor and prisoner rights advocate, and Leslie Ogburn of Elmore County, whose property adjoins the site of the prison planned in Elmore County.

They claimed the prison lease plan would violate a prohibition in the state Constitution on creating debt for the state, among other claims.

In the motion to dismiss, lawyers for the attorney general wrote that the prison leases will not create a debt within the meaning of the Constitution. They said the Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that leases are not state debt if the annual payments are approved by the Legislature. They said the Supreme Court has ruled that the state can enter lease agreements for prisons if they are year-to-year agreements and do not obligate the state in the future for current costs.

In addition, they pointed out that the lease agreements have been posted on the governors website since Feb. 1, so the plaintiffs could have sued much sooner. They said the lawsuit, if not resolved immediately, could disrupt efforts to finance the prisons.

Zeigler has called the prisons a 30-year mistake. In addition to the Elmore and Escambia county prisons, Iveys plan calls for a third prison in Bibb County. The total lease payments over 30 years for all three would exceed $3 billion.

Alabama taxpayers would pay close to $4 billion rent and have nothing to show for it, Zeigler said in a press release today.

Ivey and the Department of the Corrections have been working on the plan for more than two years. They say the three new prisons are the foundation for fixing a system of overcrowded, understaffed, and dilapidated prisons. The Department of Justice sued the state in December, alleging the conditions in mens prisons violate the Constitution because of inmate-on-inmate violence, excessive use of force by staff, and failure to provide a safe environment.

The three prisons would hold a total of 10,000 inmates and replace as many as 11 of the 13 mens prisons operating now.

Critics of the plan say new buildings wont address the violence and poor supervision of prisons alleged by the Justice Department.

The lawsuit came on the heels of a setback for Iveys plan. Two of the investment banks withdrew as underwriters for the CoreCivic prisons in Elmore and Escambia counties.

Ivey has said efforts are ongoing to find a way to finance the prisons, including talks with legislators.

The General Fund budget chairmen in the Alabama House and Senate have said Ivey should drop the lease plan. They said a bond issue approved by the Legislature would be a better approach, partly because the state would own the prisons and could build them on property the Department of Corrections already owns.

The Legislature did not approve prison bond issues proposed by former Gov. Robert Bentley.
This is an opinion column.

Lets get this part out of the way. Ive smoked pot before, although it has been a while. I learned three things.

First, I didnt really like it. It made me giggle for a bit and music sounded more interesting, but mostly I would get impatient waiting for it to wear off.

Second, I could see how it would help sick people, especially someone on chemotherapy who might be struggling to eat. Dont smoke pot if youre trying to lose weight.

Third, and finally, and this part I want to scream 

NO ONE SHOULD GO TO JAIL FOR THIS. EVER.

Ive had way more regrets after a night of heavy drinking than I ever did trying weed, and while the drug affects people differently, this part of the experience seems to be universal. It doesnt make you do crazy stuff. It doesnt break your brain. Its certainly not addictive like nicotine (the inexplicably legal drug I wish Id never tried).

Fearmongers would have you believe the drug is a gateway into heavier, more dangerous substances. To the extent thats true, its likely a self-fulfilling prophecy. Because when I did try pot, the thing I learned was that pretty much all the propaganda Id heard from third grade onward wasnt trustworthy.

What Id been led to believe  by teachers, principals, preachers, police officers who spoke to schools  was outright lies. Our authority figures should have told us the truth from the start.

Which is why Im saying this here  because a great many of them are still telling lies.

This year a bill to legalize medicinal marijuana passed through the Alabama Senate on a 21-10 vote. That was in February. Since then it has been languishing in the House. It has stalled there because Speaker Mac McCutcheon assigned it to not one but two committees for review, and is now being slow-walked to death by the Rules Committee Chairman, Rep. Mike Jones, R-Andalusia.

If passed by the House and signed by the governor, the bill would not legalize recreational marijuana. In fact, it specifically excludes smokable and vapable marijuana, as well as any raw plant product. Sugar coverings would not be allowed, either.

It legalizes medicine. Thats it.

Alabama would join 36 other states that have already legalized medicinal marijuana. Lets face it: Eventually, this will happen everywhere. We have an opportunity, again, to not be last. But again, were passing that opportunity up.

The Legislature passed a bill to make the sweet potato the state vegetable, but it cant find time to vote on medicine that some folks really need.

The bill is dying in the House  killed by the same old lies.

This week 23 of Alabamas 42 district attorneys signed a letter to lawmakers repeating the same old Reefer Madness hysteria. Its a gateway drug that has enchanted youth, they said, that increases the risk of schizophrenia.

For that last claim, the district attorneys cited a former New York Times reporter, Alex Berenson. Berensons work on this subject has been widely criticized by medical experts, and the studies Berenson cites have themselves cautioned that there might have been other factors that influenced the results. Only Berenson omitted that part.

But theres a better reason to doubt Berensons credentials: He has spent the last year blowing what was left of his credibility by denying the seriousness of the coronavirus epidemic, and after having been demonstrably wrong again and again, he is now a leading voice sewing doubt about vaccines by claiming the treatment is killing people, not the disease.

Berenson is so wrong that a brutal takedown in the Atlantic by Derek Thompson called Berenson The Pandemics Wrongest Man.

The man is a crank, but because he says what these 23 district attorneys want to hear, hes their star witness.

That Alabama prosecutors  men and women who are supposed to care about evidence and credibility  would cite Berenson as a source for anything should scare the hell out of anyone who cares about justice.

A recent survey conducted by UAB showed a solid majority of Alabama physicians support legalizing medical marijuana. But who cares what they think?

Not those 23 DAs.

A poll by the Pew Research Center showed 91 percent of Americans support legal medical marijuana and 60 percent supported legalizing recreational use, too. Im not sure 91 percent of Americans agree the White House is in Washington, D.C. or that North America is a continent. But who cares about them?

Not Rep. Mike Jones.

These 23 district attorneys dont care about evidence or expertise. Instead, theyll grasp at the word of anyone  no matter how thin, questionable or incredible  to prove themselves right.

When the problem here is that theyve been wrong for a very long time.

The War on Drugs was a mistake. The criminalization of marijuana was the biggest blunder since the prohibition of alcohol. The battle these 23 prosecutors are fighting has overworked our police, clogged our courts and crowded our jails.

Its a gateway drug, alright, and these 23 have been working the gates.

And now theyre working hard to keep medicine out of the hands of the sick.

Theyre right about one thing, though. There is a risk of addiction. But the only folks Ive seen who got addicted to marijuana are the ones who couldnt stop fighting this stupid War on Drugs.

The only addicts are the 23 prosecutors who signed that letter.

Kyle Whitmire is the state political columnist for the Alabama Media Group.

You can follow his work on his Facebook page, The War on Dumb. And on Twitter. And on Instagram.

More columns by Kyle Whitmire

The fuse John Merrills downfall lit

Alabamas reputation is a crisis no sweet potato can fix

John Merrill cant help himself

Mo Brooks, Stephen Miller and the stunted legacy of Roy Moore

Alabama is dead last for open records. The Legislature could fix that.
A Georgia woman and two children found dead earlier this week in a partially submerged car along the Alabama- Georgia line were shot to death, court documents revealed Friday.

Warrants allege Demetrius Devonte McGhee, 26, of Clayton, Alabama, used a handgun to kill all three people inside the vehicle.

He has been charged with capital murder.

The bodies were found Monday inside a car partially submerged in Lake Eufaula, according to police.

McGhee was taken into custody Wednesday after being released from an Alabama hospital where he was flown after sustaining undisclosed injuries, reports said.

Police identified the adult victim as Remona Hudson of Cuthbert, Georgia, but have not released the names of the two dead children, who all lived together in the small rural town about 25 miles east of Eufaula.

It was unclear how police first developed McGhee as a suspect and what his connection was to the victims.

It was not clear if McGhee had been found in the car with the deceased, whose bodies were found Monday morning inside a blue Toyota sedan near the shore of the lake along the Alabama- Georgia line.

Police have not said how the car wound up there, nor how long it was in the water.

Investigators said Hudson and the children were likely dead before the car went in the water near Old Creek Town Park, where a woman jogging spotted the vehicle Monday and called police.

Officers guarded McGhee at the hospital Tuesday while awaiting the arrival of state investigators, who arrested him the next day, reports said.

Eufaula, where the bodies were found, is about a 45-minute drive south of Fort Benning in Columbus.

Photos showed the vehicle had tinted windows that were visible because the water level didnt quite reach the door handles.

The Alabama State Bureau of Investigation is handling the case.

___

(c)2021 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Atlanta, Ga.)

Visit The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Atlanta, Ga.) at www.ajc.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Federal drug sentencings announced this week in the Southern District of Alabama include a South Carolina man sentenced to 15 years in prison after being caught with 32 kilograms of cocaine in Baldwin County.

According to the office of Attorney Sean P. Costello, acting U.S. attorney for the district, Frederick Turner, 42, of Bee, S.C., was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Kristi DuBose to 120 months on charges of conspiracy to possess and possession with intent to distribute cocaine, and a consecutive 60 months for possession of a firearm during a drug trafficking crime.

The Baldwin County Sheriffs Office Special Operations unit stopped a tractor trailer driven by Turner on Dec. 20, 2019. After a police dog indicated the presence of contraband, officers found a duffel bag containing 32 kilos of cocaine, a handgun that belonged to Turner and a small amount of marijuana belonging to co-defendant Sylvia Guerra.

Turner was interviewed and ultimately admitted to accepting payment for transporting $120,000 in cash to Houston on an earlier trip and for accepting two duffel bags of cocaine for transportation to South Carolina, according to a statement from the U.S. attorneys office. Guerra was separately sentenced to 10 years.

Two other sentencings announced Friday:

U.S. District Court Judge Terry F. Moorer sentenced Alvie Mark Waltman, 48, of Mobile to 9 years following Waltmans guilty plea on a charge of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

According to documents filed in connection with his guilty plea, Waltman was identified during an investigation that began with the arrest of one of the members of the conspiracy on I-10 by the Saraland Police Department, said the U.S. attorneys office. Through undercover work and an analysis of that subjects phone, Waltman was identified as a member of the distribution network. Waltman provided $4,730 in cash to the cooperating co-conspirator to purchase additional methamphetamine for Waltman to distribute in Mobile. Waltman was arrested when he attempted to take possession of nine ounces of methamphetamine.

Moorer sentenced Demetrius ONeill Bryant, 33, of Greensboro to five years following his guilty plea on a charge of possessing multiple stolen firearms in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime.

In connection with his guilty plea, Bryant admitted that on December 21, 2019, he possessed three loaded firearms in his residence in Greensboro. Two of the firearms recently had been reported stolen from gun stores in Demopolis, Alabama and Tuscaloosa, Alabama, according to information provided by the U.S. attorneys office. In close proximity to the firearms, agents recovered marijuana, two sets of digital scales, and a box of plastic baggies. In a garbage can outside of Bryants residence, agents also recovered sales tags corresponding to stolen firearms and observed several large vacuum seal bags emitting the odor of marijuana. Bryant admitted that he frequently has sold marijuana from his Greensboro residence  Additional undisputed evidence introduced at Bryants sentencing hearing established that during his December 2020 arrest on the federal warrant in this case, agents recovered additional firearms, narcotics, and a stolen firearm silencer.

Costello has served as acting U.S. attorney in Mobile since his appointment by acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson in late February, following the retirement of former U.S. Attorney Richard W. Moore. Costello is a Mobile native who had been an assistant U.S. attorney in Mobile since 2003. According to the Department of Justice, he has prosecuted a variety of crimes while focusing on cybercrime, child exploitation, and national security matters, particularly those involving digital evidence.
COVID vaccine shots allegedly kill thousands and send even more people to hospitals, says National Library of Medicine lead doctor Dr. Peter McCullough, according to a report.

The Liberty Sentinel said that McCullough, one of the world's top COVID-19 experts, warned the public about the deadly consequence of using the vaccine in an interview with The New American magazine. McCullough stated that thousands of deaths have already been reported from the administration of the vaccines. Despite this, the American government continues with its mass vaccination program.

The New American host, Alex Newman, explained the purpose of the interview was for the public to hear various views and opinions that mainstream media do not allow or report. Newman said McCullough was interviewed after they condcuted a series with various doctors and that McCullough actually developed a COVID-19 treatment protocol that has proved highly successful and globally-acclaimed. Besides being a professor in medicine and hands-on with COVID-19 patients, McCullough then was the right person to speak regarding the vaccines.

Newman asked McCullough in the interview if there was any possibility that deaths could have been prevented if protocols he devised have been pursued. McCullough affirmed that lives could have been saved through the administration of different drugs.

"This is a fatal viral infection. No single drug works. We need multiple drugs in combination," McCullough began.

"I testified in the US Senate in November 19 because--keep in mind there's an uptake of information and things weren't widely-known back in March," he added. "I estimated that we could have saved half of the lives lost. There are now current estimates of what probably about 85% of all the lives lost that could have been saved with what we call as sequence oral multi-drug therapy."

According to the Liberty Sentinel, McCullough revealed in the interview that there has been "many unnecessary deaths as a result of policy decisions made at various levels of government". The Liberty Sentinel pointed out that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention normally take off from the market any drug that has been reported with 50 deaths based on their VAERS surveillance system. Yet none has been done on the COVID-19 vaccines. McCullough cited, during his interview, precedents in American history with regards to the use of vaccines like the influenza that took out trials when deaths of 25 persons were recorded.

"The CDC has been very clear on this. They are completely optional. No one is obligated is to take these vaccines, simply if one wants to do so," McCullough clarified.

"I think the great concern is we haven't had fair balance on the vaccines with respect to its efficacy and safety. The government may actually be viewed as not being fair broker to patients with respect to information," he stressed. "The vaccine efficacy rate is 70% or 50%. That's not bad...but I don't want people getting the vaccine thinking they are being protected from COVID-19."

The CDC released on Tuesday that the VAccine Adverse Event Reporting System "has not detected patterns in cause of death that would indicate a safety problem with COVID-19 vaccines". The CDC said that 3,848 deaths among COVID-19 vaccinated people were reported to VAERs, which constituted 0.0017% of the 230 million US aministered COVID-19 vaccine doses for December 14, 2020 to April 26, 2021.

The CDC said they have reviewed clinical information regarding the reported deaths and this revealed "no evidence that vaccination contributed to patient deaths". It stressed that VAERs reported deaths after vaccination "do not necessarily mean the vaccine caused the death". The CDC highlighted that the COVID-19 vaccines remain to be safe and effective and pushed the public to get vaccinated as soon as one is eligible.
The next target of mainstream media propaganda is to convince the public that human industry is causing climate change. CNN insiders boasted about that to James OKeefes Project Veritas on hidden camera (after bragging about defeating Donald Trumps re-election).

Marjorie Taylor Greene is preparing to debate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. Some of us will worry whether the debate about the Green New Deal will focus on the most important points. There are a thousand issues and sub-issues. It is easy to get lost or sidetracked.

I suggest laying the axe to the root: Humans have never actually measured the temperature of planet Earth. Lets just start with that.

Is the Earth getting warmer, cooler, or staying the same? Without knowing the planets overall temperature, we cannot say.

Weather stations were never intended to measure global temperatures. They were designed and installed to assist ships and airplanes with navigation  not to measure the Earth on a planetary scale. The limits of scientific measurements must be kept in mind. There are approximately 10,000 localized weather stations at fixed locations on land, and around 2,000 marine buoys and mobile stations.

Scientist Richard Courtney points out (including to the UK Parliament Select Committee) that there is no agreed definition of a global temperature. Furthermore, we would have to calibrate the measurement method against a standard which really isnt possible. The modern world has forgotten that measurement instruments must be calibrated. You cant just grab an instrument and measure something. It must be validated for quality and calibrated to a standard.

This requirement used to be so well-established that our U.S. Constitution authorizes Congress to set standards for weights and measurements. The U.S. Government has always included an office under various names for establishing common standards.

How could we measure the planet? Politicians and journalists understand that statistics require random sampling, which is commonly used in public opinion surveys. We cannot predict how roughly 153 million registered voters are going to vote in an election by sampling only about 1,000 to 1,500 people unless the sample is truly random. We must follow strict statistical methodologies for taking samples smaller than the total population.

Temperature measurements at fixed locations cannot predict the Earth as a whole. The Earths surface is 196.9 million square miles. It is a sphere 24,901 miles in circumference. The surface is 70% oceans and lakes and vast, mostly untraveled oceans like the Pacific or Southern Atlantic or the Arctic Sea. Fatal flaw number one is that people cannot grasp how truly gigantic Earth is.

What if we actually measured the planets temperature? Of the Earths 196.9 million square miles, lets say measuring a 20-mile by 20-mile area is more meaningful than every 1 square mile. So, the data sets population is 492,250 measurements. A new sample, newly randomized, would have to be selected randomly each and every time someone measures Earths temperature.

The size of a random sample determines the margin of error. If we used a smaller sample size, the uncertainty would swamp the small temperature changes that the hypothesis is predicting over decades. The numbers would bounce around from year to year because of the small sample size, not because the Earths climate is actually changing.

Using a handy statistics calculator, we might have to randomly select 18,095 locations  different each time  to get a 0.85% margin of error at a confidence level of 98%. That means that if the global temperature is in the vicinity of 59 degrees Fahrenheit, the margin of error would be half a degree. But we are trying to track tiny changes year by year, so a sample size of 48,897 areas would be more meaningful, producing a margin of error of 3/10ths of a degree at a 98% confidence.

Measurements would have to be taken on the same day, at the same time of day. This is because weather travels. When a violent cold front roars through, the temperature can drop 10 to 20 degrees in less than a day. Unless the measurements are taken at the same time on the same day, the result will be meaningless, because weather systems are always moving around the surface.

This could be done. Mobile weather stations could be airdropped  even by parachute  to randomly-selected locations. The Earths overall temperature could be sampled, say, once a year. Collect the small stations and use them again next year. The stations would get re-used.

Official, NOAA-approved weather stations are available as small, compact, automated designs, either standing on tripods or mounted on pipes in the ground. Amateur versions are listed at around a thousand dollars. Out of the billions being spent on climate science, $500 million could purchase standalone automated devices. The major expense would be transporting them to remote locations once a year and retrieving them. Showing the right way to measure the Earth helps illustrate how it has never been done before.

Image used with permission from Watts Up With That.

Many existing weather stations are at airports. As aircraft changed from propeller planes to jets, and flights began taking off and landing every five to ten minutes, the jet engine exhaust raised temperatures around the airports. Some temperature stations are directly in the path of jet engine exhaust. One station is next to the BBQ grill in the parking lot of a fire department. Others sit next to the heat exhaust of giant air conditioner units.

Image used with permission from Watts Up With That.

Airports were often built way out in the countryside. But over the decades, suburban sprawl has seen buildings and asphalt grow around the airports. Changed readings are measuring the changing environment of urban and suburban construction surrounding the airports. We are measuring the expansion of asphalt, which creates urban heat islands and heat island effects  not planetary changes.

Image used with permission from Watts Up With That.

Concerning satellites, it would take a long discussion to explain the problems. review hyperlinkslets start with the fact that the first LANDSAT satellites were not launched until the 1970s, so its a temporally small data set. Also, satellites are not in contact with the atmosphere and do not measure temperature. They measure infrared radiation at the upper atmosphere, at the edge of space. Then we guess. We guess that IR radiation is (always) correlated with surface temperature, even after traveling through a couple of hundred miles of the atmosphere.

If we dont have a single temperature reading for the entire planet for today, how can we say if the planet is getting warmer or cooler or not changing at all? We cannot talk about the temperature in, say, Geneva or London or New York City only. Isolated cities do not attest to the Earths temperate changes.

Another fatal flaw in climate alarmism is the failure to understand that air moves. Air is made of gases, which, by definition, flow freely. Alarmists try to evoke the image of carbon dioxide as a blanket. But carbon dioxide is not nailed in place. It is free to move. Blankets work because they do not move.

The atmosphere is in constant motion. When warmed, all gases move upwards towards outer space. When CO2 absorbs heat, it rises. Convection transports heat from the surface up to the thin air where jet airplanes cruise. Heat is radiated from there out into space.

The idea that humans are changing Earths climate in a way that endangers us is fear porn. (We are told to fear both floods and droughts from a warmer, moister, rain forest like Earth.)

For some reason, some people (not me) would pay real money (back when we still had movie theaters) to watch horror movies that scare them. Apparently, some people are addicted to the adrenaline rush of getting scared. For that reason, climate alarmists will fight ferociously to make us believe that humans are guilty and we must atone for our sins by sacrificing.

IMAGE: Earths temperature by A. Widburg, using public domain images.

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For those who think now-former Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter should be charged with a crime  let alone murder  I have a simple question: if a surgeon accidentally nicks an artery and kills a patient when she mistakes the scalpel in her hand for a prober, should she be charged with murder, or even manslaughter?

Answer: no.

After all, the surgeon did this thing we all do: she made a mistake. She had no ill intent, let alone malice.

Despite the best intentions and protocols, it sadly happens on occasion, and especially in the heat of the moment during a pressure filled situation like surgery.

The question is, what should happen when it does?

Answer: perhaps the surgeon should lose her job. Perhaps she should be sued civilly for money damages for her negligence.

But what should not happen?

Answer: the surgeon should not go to jail. She is not a criminal. She is, at most, negligent.

Yet that is what our blood thirsty society is now doing with Kim Potter, the veteran Brooklyn Center police officer who accidentally shot Daunte Wright when trying to make an otherwise lawful arrest that quickly went awry when Wright broke the law by forcibly resisting.

Because there is a body camera, the facts are pretty clear.

It was just before 2:00 pm on an otherwise boring Sunday afternoon in Brooklyn Center, a Minneapolis suburb that is about as diverse and middle class as anywhere in America.

Brooklyn Center has 32,000 residents who are roughly 38% white, 27% Black, 18% Asian, and 13% Hispanic. Its Black mayor, Mike Elliott, emigrated from Liberia as a child, and the town has many immigrants from Laos, Vietnam, and West Africa.

In short, Brooklyn Center is, in many respects, the modern face of America, and it is a good face, a pretty face.

On that Sunday, Potter was actually field training a rookie officer, who along with his partner, pulled Wright over for expired tags. Like thousands of stops made every day by good, hard-working officers in America, it was a routine traffic stop.

Until it wasnt.

The officers ran Wrights information and discovered a warrant for his arrest for a gun charge. Obviously, that is no small deal, and equally obvious, normal protocol  no matter Wrights color  requires that the officers arrest him.

As the video clearly shows, the officers did just that. They calmly explained to Wright that he was under arrest, and then professionally instructed him to exit his vehicle. And Wright initially did just that.

So far so good.

But then things quickly  in less than five seconds  went awry. While being handcuffed, Wright resisted, scuffled, and squirmed back into his car. With Wrights car door opened, the rookie officer tried to get Wright back out of the car. But Wright resisted and pushed back.

During these few, adrenalin-rushed, intense seconds, Potter  a veteran  sprang into action and did what the book requires: she came to her partners aide and announced to Wright: Taser, taser.

The goal, of course, was to detain Wright, who by now had committed additional felonies, including forcibly resisting arrest and battering an officer.

And then it happened. Potter discharged her taser. But sadly, it was not her taser. It was her other weapon, the one she was trained long ago to use, her gun.

She fired once and immediately yelled out, Holy shit! I shot him. Wright then fled in his car but died from the fatal wound shortly thereafter.

Theres a word for all this, and as upset and blood thirsty as we all are, it is not murder. Instead, the proper word is accident. A terrible, tragic, and sad accident.

Yes, sometimes even for accidents, people can be  and should be  charged with the lesser criminal offense of manslaughter.

KIm Potter booking photos (Hennepin County Sheriff)

The classic example is drunk driving. You drink and drive and kill someone, you go to jail for manslaughter. You rightly lose your liberty and are a criminal. In short, for what some call gross negligence, there is a criminal penalty.

Another example would be if you accidentally leave a loaded gun on your kitchen table while babysitting and a kid tragically kills herself.

In that instance, you not only lose your baby-sitting job, and you not only get sued for money damages, but you also rightly lose your liberty. You are, in two words, also criminally culpable and will go to jail and lose your liberty.

In those instances, actions dont just have consequences, they also have criminal consequences.

But as sad as it is, what happened with Officer Potter and Wrights death is not that.

Look at the video. It is clear. In the heat of the moment, she made a mistake, a tragic fatal mistake, discharging her gun when she thought it was her taser.

Again, should she lose her job for such a terrible mistake? Yes. Should she be sued civilly for money? Sure. But should she lose her liberty and wear an orange jump suit? No.

If you disagree, then lets get back to where we started: should the surgeon go to jail for her mistake when nicking the artery with the scalpel that she thought was a probe?

Philosophically, morally, and for consistency's sake, whatever your answer, it should be the same answer for both Potter and the surgeon.

In both instances, Wright and the patient are indeed victims. Both die when they shouldnt.

But they are victims of a sworn and trusted persons negligence, not victims of a crime.

By prosecuting the surgeon and Potter as criminals, they arguably also become victims, and we all suffer.

After all, in such a society, who would ever want to be a surgeon or a cop, when after a decorated career doing everything right, you can instantly become a criminal and go to jail based on a momentary mistake made in good faith?

Lets be clear: prosecuting Potter or the surgeon are more political actions done in response to much larger societal issues than they are the dispassionate administration of justice.

Anyone who says otherwise is either naive, trying to sell you something, or using tragic cases to settle other scores.

Born and first bred in Gary, Indiana, William Choslovsky is a Harvard Law School graduate and lawyer in Chicago.

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Canada lacks the miracle that is the United States Constitution. Still, as befits a nation the once-free British founded, it is a country that has traditionally had a few of what we consider to be core English freedoms  freedom of speech, worship, assembly, etc. Those concepts seem far away now, as Justin Trudeau and the various provincial and municipal governments use COVID as an excuse to crack down on those liberties.

I've written before about Canada's draconian and expensive hotel rule for people returning by air from overseas travel. It's gotten so bad that people are flying into the U.S. and driving to their home country to avoid the hotel restriction.

That inconvenience, though, is small potatoes compared to what else is going on in a country that, as of April 30, has had an average of only 653 COVID deaths per million citizens. By contrast, France had 1,530 deaths per million, Germany has had 997 deaths per million, England has had 1,903 deaths per million, and America has had 1,744 deaths per million.

In other words, as the vaccine ramps up, treatments improve, and we get better at protecting the at-risk elderly, Canada should be relaxing its restrictions  but that's not what's happening. Two men, however, are fighting back.

One of those people is already familiar to American Thinker readers. A month ago, American Thinker posted a video of Pastor Artur Pawlowski, who grew up in communist Poland, kicking the Canadian police out of his church. They had come to stop a worship service that exceeded the 15% capacity limit Canada imposes on religious worship. (As a thought experiment, ask yourself if the government would do the same to a mosque.)

Pawlowski insisted (a) that the police come back with a warrant before he would let them into his church and (b) that they communicate with him solely through his lawyer. What happened, instead, was that, on Wednesday, the same officials returned directly to him, not his lawyer, with an extremely specific type of warrant  a secret warrant.

According to Rebel News, a conservative Canadian internet outlet, the government obtained the warrant in a secret hearing, despite knowing the identity of Pawlowski's attorney. The warrant fails to state the evidentiary grounds that justified its issuance. Instead, it simply empowers the state to go into Pawlowski's church during services (something that ordinarily is barred under applicable law) and to arrest anyone who resists.

Pawlowski is planning to go ahead with services today, and it's likely the event will end in his arrest. During a conversation with Jesse Kelly, Pawlowski explained that, having grown up behind the Iron Curtain, he knows what's happening. Moreover, he says that religious people "are a pack of lions" who will "never bow before hyenas."

Pastor @arturpawlowski1, who went viral for defending his church, tells @JesseKellyDC why he refuses to be silent in the face of tyranny.



"We are a pack of lions and lions never bow before hyenas... I grew up behind the Iron Curtain under the boots of the Soviets." pic.twitter.com/XBX4sphmZM  The First (@TheFirstonTV) April 30, 2021

In other words, on matters of conscience, Pawlowski answers to a higher judge than the Canadian government.

Chris Sky is a different kind of conscientious objector in the face of Canada's burgeoning tyranny. Last September, Vice news reported with dripping disdain about Chris Saccoccia (Sky's given name):

A wealthy man who has become one of Canada's most well-known anti-maskers is attempting to open up a network of private schools for the children of his followers to ride out the pandemic. Chris Saccoccia, the son of a wealthy developer, is a childless man who founded a group called Mothers Against Social Distancing, whose Facebook page boasts 4,500 followers. Saccoccia, who goes by Chris Sky online, has been hyping "Private-On-Demand Education Inc." online for weeks to his thousands of, mostly middle-aged women, followers[.]

Could you get a nastier (and more sexist) diss than referring to a man's followers as "mostly middle-aged women"? It's not true  a Canadian friend told me that, in April, her daughter, along with hundreds of other young people, was going to head for an anti-mask rally at a Vancouver beach.

And indeed, hundreds of young people did rally. This video shows Sky speaking to a crowd at the Sunset Beach protest that my friend's daughter attended:

The Canadian government has responded to Sky's popular message by placing him on its no-fly list and arresting him, as happened just three days ago.

Americans need to take seriously what's happening in Canada. When Trump was president, we had a bulwark against this totalitarianism. With Biden in the White House, there's no saying how far the government will go to continue using COVID as a justification to strip Americans of their civil liberties.

Image: Canadian anti-mask campaigner Chris Sky at a Vancouver rally. YouTube screen grab.

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To say the media have a double-standard in how they treat conservatives and progressives is akin to saying the Third Reich treated Jews and Aryans unequally. Nowhere is this more obvious more frequently than on the giant social media cesspool called Twitter. Conservatives get banned for questioning election results or vaccination mandates, whereas progressives routinely  literally  get away with calling for the death of conservatives or even white people in general. Suggest that hydroxychloroquine with zinc may be effective in treating COVID-19, as former president Trump did, and you get banned from the Twitterverse. No matter that the American Journal of Medicine and numerous physicians now recommend taking HCQ and zinc to help prevent or alleviate the effects of the coronavirus. Hell, I got put in Twitter jail  on two separate occasions  for breaking community standards and Twitter's rules of conduct for...well, I don't even know, honestly.

Yet Taylor Marie Maloney, recently championed by the ACLU of Virginia as the "first openly transgender and non-binary person" to be elected student body president of Virginia Commonwealth University, posted on social media that she hates white people and advocates for cop-killing, according to screenshots of the comments published by the Post Millennial. Maloney, endearingly also a Communist activist, has posted such bon mots as "ur reminder to advocate for k*lling of k*ps"; "riot, riot, riot"; and "i hate white people so much its not even funny."

Maloney received a request from the Post Millennial for comment and did not respond, but in a tweet wrote: "I did say all these things." Journalist Andy Ngo reported that after a black nationalist used his vehicle in an attack on the Capitol, killing a police officer, Maloney took to social media to exclaim: "love this we need more of this." Not offensive in any way, apparently.

Moreover, the ironically named Gabrielle Crooks, a student at Stanford University and member of that school's student government, took to Twitter last summer to state, "Yes I think white people need to be eradicated..." Twitter did not ban her. Apparently, advocating genocide...big whoop. Lobbying for a Holocaust against people solely because of their skin color isn't really that bad, as long as their skin color is white. Publicly calling for the deaths of roughly 850 million people is not as egregious as, say, pointing out that there were numerous credible examples of malfeasance in the 2020 presidential election or wishing Nancy Pelosi would suffer an ice cream headache from time to time.

Crooks's student senate page biography states that she aspires to be a "human rights attorney" so she can "address racial violence." She is, apparently, seeking re-election to the student senate even as I write this. In her official candidate statement, Crooks accuses Stanford University of having "serious problems with regard to race."

She is certainly right about that, but for reasons she probably can't conceive.

Graphic credit: CC0 public domain.

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Democrats control the White House; the House of Representatives; the bureaucracy; and, in a way, the cowed Supreme Court. They've passed insanely bad legislation, getting everything they want. They ought to be in the catbird seat, partying hearty, savoring their wins.

But somehow, they aren't. A top Democrat leader has signaled she doesn't want to be around for the finale.

According to Politico:

Rep. Cheri Bustos, House Democrats' former campaign chief, announced Friday she would retire from Congress after this term, in one of the party's first midterm surprises of the cycle. Bustos had stepped down from leading the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee after shepherding the caucus through a House election that cost roughly a dozen seats in a year where Bustos and other Democratic leaders predicted large gains. The Illinois Democrat had remained a member of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's leadership team this year, and few in the caucus directly blamed Bustos for their down-ballot disaster last November. Still, the Illinois Democrat decided not to lead the party arm again, and several people close to Bustos said she had been unhappy in the House in recent years and that her decision was not entirely unexpected. "As I turn every corner on each decade of life, I take time to reflect and evaluate what my next chapter might bring," Bustos said in a statement. "That's how, 10 years ago, I decided to run for Congress. And it's why, today, I am announcing I will not seek reelection after completing this term."

Normally, politicians with ultra-sensitive political noses bail when they sense a coming political deluge against their party. While the rule isn't airtight (Reuters notes that three GOP members are also leaving, in addition to Bustos and one other Democrat), it tends to be indicative. Rats flee sinking ships, as everyone knows. And Bustos, who is a bigshot among the Democrat leadership, has access to more information about what's coming down the pike than most of them.

Her contentless statement about why she is leaving didn't suggest a lot of pride in Democrat achievements, either.

After all, Democrats have rigged elections, spent like sailors, demonized cops, turned government agencies into KGB-like organs on their opponents, politicized the military, whipped up riots in cities, laid groundwork for packing the courts, pushed to scrap the filibuster to end need for any Republican support on their bills, and opened wide the border.

Party time? Nope. Bustos wants out.

It's actually even worse in Bustos's particular case.

First, the last time we heard from Bustos was postElection Night in 2020. Democrats had predicted an expanded majority but instead lost ten seats. Far-left Squad members mixed it up with more moderate Democrats such as Bustos, attacking them something fierce.

On Nov. 5, I wrote this about how things were going:

In an electoral aftermath where they expected to be sitting smug and pretty, Democrats instead have devolved into fights and finger-pointing, pinning the blame on one another for the absence of a blue wave, screeching with fury. That's the report from Politico, which quoted one Democrat lawmaker calling it "a dumpster fire."

...and...

So they all hate each other and are looking to find one among them to blame. Some are calling for Nancy Pelosi's head. Others are questioning why Cheri Bustos, a top Democrat policymaker, is still in her job, especially since no one knows whether she won her re-election yet.

Sound like a nice party anyone would want to lead, particularly to defeat?

Yet for Bustos, the problem is even more personal.

According to Politico, Bustos is heading for the door based on the one thing that concentrates a politician's mind more than anything else: defeat from the voters. Political death. Hers. Like Eric Cantor, remember him? Her congressional district outside Chicago voted for President Obama in 2012 but swung to Trump in 2016 and in 2020 and was trending red. Her re-election in 2020 was indicative enough, with a GOP challenger coming within four points of her. That challenger is getting set to challenge her again.

That's a pretty sorry picture for a Democrat who is part of the Democrat leadership and presumably has access to more Democrat resources to fight off such challenges than other Democrats.

Politico notes that her blue state of Illinois is set to lose a congressional seat as well. If Bustos's re-election is not an indicator of what voters are thinking in the vaunted suburbs, the thousands of voters who voted with their feet based on blue-state policies amount to another signal of no confidence in the sustainability of leftwingery. People don't want to live in the world that leftists rigged and built, and they're moving away from it physically.

They are also voting. Bustos may say she wants to just think about big things, or whatever her nothingburger explanation was, but it appears that in her case, the writing is on the wall. That should serve as a motivating factor for Republicans that maybe they can win again, despite the miasma of effort from Democrats to rig themselves into permanent power.

Image: John R. Connell via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

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The big automotive news is that Elon Musk's Tesla reported record earnings of $438 million for the past quarter. This translates to 93 cents per share on $10.39 billion in revenue. Tesla did this despite a semiconductor chip shortage that is hobbling other car companies like Ford, which had to slash vehicle production at seven plants in North America.

Some see this as proving investors right to give Tesla stock a nosebleed price-to-earnings ratio of nearly 1,700, and thus making Musk the second richest person alive if not the richest. Our betters also preach that the stock market portends the future. So it follows that electric vehicles (EVs) are the coming thing, and Musk must be a genius. Right?

Wrong.

There's much skepticism about EVs. It's not adequately reported in the news, but they have serious technical, environmental, and electrical infrastructure problems to solve before they can seriously challenge internal combustion vehicles on America's roadways. But by any measure, yes, Elon Musk certainly is a genius...but not in the way most people think. As Eric Peters writes:

It is being reported that Tesla's net "earnings" have "surged" to $438 million. What they do not report is that his includes $518 million "earned" via regulatory credits  which aren't cars. Rather, they are monies mulcted from other car companies, paid to Tesla to get "credit" for not having a sufficient number of electric cars themselves.

Peters explains the way it works in California. If a car manufacturer wish to sell internal combustion vehicles in that state, they are required to make a certain number of "zero emissions" EVs themselves. If they don't, they're forced to buy "credit" from Musk for him having made them. Peters calls this extortion. And so it is. One of the results of this racket is that the cost of this "regulatory" extortion is embedded in the price of cars from the non-EV-compliant companies. At the end of the day, it is the consumers who never bought a Tesla product who ends up fattening Tesla's income statement.

Musk got on the green wave early. A large part of his immense fortune ($170 billion) has come by successfully leveraging government regulations into a cash flow for his company.

When reporting on Tesla's financials, the media do mention the regulatory credits the company receives. But it's not dwelled upon. Instead, the news reports quickly move to focus on things like Tesla models under development, EVs delivered, price-to-earnings, Tesla's China operation, and so on. That's all nice, but such things are perhaps secondary to what underpins Tesla's business: regulatory credits. Without them, Tesla's stock wouldn't be sky-high, and Musk wouldn't be getting stock options that have made him so obscenely rich.

The media rolls this way because EVs are an integral part of the Great Reset and the green agenda, both of which corporate media are in full accord with.

To prevent investors from being blindsided, the media should ask questions like these. With other car companies rushing pell-mell to build EVs, how much longer will Musk be able to ride the regulatory gravy train? And when those subsidies stop, will Tesla stock be able to stay at its elevated level? The short sellers feel they know the answers. They've made Tesla the largest short not just in the U.S., but worldwide.

There are countless ways to illustrate how America has changed from yesteryear. Tesla affords one. Just compare the value to society of industrialist Henry Ford to Elon Musk. Ford created things of real substance and wasn't aided by cash transfers from other car companies. Can the same be said about Elon Musk?

Photo illustration by Monica Showalter with use of image by Einstraus via Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 2.0 and PXHere public domain image.
Last week, the New York Times reported that, in a leaked tape, Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif stated that thensecretary of state John Kerry had informed him that Israel had attacked repeatedly Iranian interests in Syria. Because Kerry promptly denied that assertion, claiming he repeated only publicly available information, we refrained from discussing it here. However, now that there's new information again pointing the finger at Kerry, it's time to address the report if only to note the dispute.

According to a Times story last Sunday, Zarif made a three-hour-long audiotape for an oral history project. When the story broke, I discussed here Zarif's points about Qassem Soleimani's death and about the power the Quds Forces hold in Iran. However, I refrained from discussing a bombshell buried way down in the article, long after the short-attention-span reader would already have abandoned reading:

Former Secretary of State John Kerry informed him that Israel had attacked Iranian interests in Syria at least 200 times, to his astonishment, Mr. Zarif said.

That ambiguous language could be understood two ways: either Zarif was astonished at the number of Israeli strikes or he was astonished that Kerry would talk to him about Israel in that way. Across America, the hackles of people supporting both Israel and America's own national security went up because they understood the surprise to come from Kerry's leaking. Was Kerry another Hillary Clinton? After all, this information would have come from security briefings that must have been classified. Republicans, therefore, demanded an investigation.

Kerry, however, vehemently denied the imputation that he'd leaked classified info about an American ally to Iran, stating, "I can tell you that this story and these allegations are unequivocally false. This never happened  either when I was Secretary of State or since."

I can tell you that this story and these allegations are unequivocally false. This never happened - either when I was Secretary of State or since. https://t.co/BTOdFE1khW  John Kerry (@JohnKerry) April 26, 2021

While we here at American Thinker are not particularly impressed with Kerry's history of veracity, in the face of that unequivocal denial, we opted to wait and see if the report had more legs than Kerry's statement. Democrats rushed to back Kerry up, claiming that anything Kerry said was already public knowledge, a narrative the State Department has promoted  and it is true that, on September 2018, the IDF publicly announced that, since 2017, it had hit over 200 Iranian targets in Syria.

On Friday, though, more information emerged suggesting that John Kerry reported this information to Zarif  foreign minister to a regime that openly states its desire to destroy America and Israel  before it was public knowledge. This doesn't mean that the newest information is true or that we're properly understanding it, but the mere fact that there's pushback against Kerry's denial is itself newsworthy.

The new information clarified that Zarif was not surprised that Kerry wanted to discuss publicly available information about Israel. Zarif was surprised because Kerry's statements were the first he'd heard about the Israeli strikes. According to Adam Credo:

Leaked audiotape of Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif indicates he had no knowledge of covert Israeli military strikes before former secretary of state John Kerry provided him with the information, new details that contradict the State Department's recent defense of Kerry. These details are likely to further fuel calls from leading Republicans for Kerry's firing or resignation. The New York Times reported that Zarif said on the tape that Kerry told him Israel launched 200 airstrikes against Iranian interests in Syria. The Times did not provide further details on that issue. But an independent translation of the audiotape commissioned by the Washington Free Beacon shows that Zarif went on to clarify that he had no prior knowledge of these Israeli strikes before Kerry told him. "Kerry told me that Israel had launched 200 airstrikes against you [Iran]," said Zarif. "You didn't know?" asked his interviewer. "No, no," he replied. These new details contradict top State Department officials, who have repeatedly said the information was already in the public domain and not classified.

As Ricky Ricardo used to say to Lucy, Kerry has some 'splainin' to do. If he did indeed release classified information to the Iranians, he needs to exchange his private jets and luxury, gas-guzzling climate czar lifestyle for a nice cell in the federal hoosgow. And if he leaked and doesn't get punished, that will tell Americans yet again that equal justice under the law is no longer an integral part of the American system.

Image: John Kerry meeting with Mohammad Zarif. YouTube screen grab.

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Over the last few weeks, we've heard from a lot of border mayors and congressmen about the mess in their neighborhood. My guess is that a lot of them would have preferred for V.P. Harris to come to Laredo, Texas instead of having a virtual talk with the President of Guatemala.

Anyway, it's not surprising that blues are starting to complain about the Biden policy, especially those facing re-election in 2022 like Senator Mark Kelly in Arizona.

President Biden said nothing of consequence about the border the other night, and the blues are not happy. This is from Bryan Preston:

It is a border crisis. American citizens in the border states are seeing their vehicles stolen, their property overrun, and their lives endangered by chaos as about 1,000 illegal migrants, aliens, whatever term of art the government-media complex prefers to use today, cross into the United States daily. Needless to say, the illegal border crossers are not being screened for COVID. Coyotes dont provide that service in the vehicles they steal to move their human cargo across the border. The United States largely doesnt know who they are, where they came from, or where theyre going. In Texas, it was Democrat Rep. Henry Cuellar who first leaked video of the real conditions on the border to get around Bidens blackout of media coverage.

Can you understand why? Who came up with the idea of letting people in in the middle of a pandemic? We've just seen a silly scene of vaccinated congressmen wearing masks and standing apart from each other. At the same time, we're letting people into the country who are not screened for COVID.

Worse of all, it's obvious that criminal elements have been the single biggest beneficiary of this mess. Bad people are making money moving other people. Don't we call that smuggling?

The blue backlash is coming because Biden's policy is putting a lot of Democrats in political trouble.

PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk).

Image: Snappygoat.

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The tyranny of the reasonable is: if you're not "reasonable," you don't get a voice, and you don't count. This is perfectly expressed in the 16th District Republican congressman, Adam Kinzinger.

The dashing young Kinzinger with steely eyes and square jaw and canned, even, toned verbal delivery comes across as erudite, serious, and reasonable  a political figure who just "wants what's best for everybody." But nothing is farther from the truth. His cooperation with the left has for the past decade chipped away at American freedom through his decisions on Capitol Hill and eroded our liberties a bite at a time.

Kinzinger cooperates and coordinates with members of the Democrat Party who have a deep allegiance to extremist ideas of open borders, redistribution of labor and wealth in the form of money from American's paychecks, division through racial unrest and strife, and transgender tyranny in our schools and even in school bathrooms. Despite this extensive cooperation with the party of "Marx in America," he is considered a reasonable, thoughtful political figure.

So much easier to gulp down lies when told to us through a smile with even, serious tones. People like Kinzinger delivering their message do not seem like radicals or extremists. They seem reasonable. Kinzinger has learned this tactic and executed this persona with perfection, yet his allegiances are anything but reasonable. His allegiances are radical and extreme and part of what is transforming America into a debt-laden, morally bankrupt, tyrannical dictatorship that is closing the noose of tyranny around our freedoms and liberties.

People who consider themselves reasonable consider Kinzinger the same, yet they don't look deeper than Kinzinger's surface persona. Beneath this reasonable persona is a man who has created and led our nation into a worse condition than it has ever been  deeper in debt, morally bankrupt, crime-ridden, with joblessness, rioting, racial division, and a whole host of social and economic problems.

Kinzinger proclaims the need to cooperate with the "other side" as if cooperating with Satan is a reasonable pursuit. The entire apparatus of the Democrat party is constructed to protect their radical far-left ideas. On-demand abortion even after a live birth, welfare for illegals, and redistribution of your paycheck through higher taxes, the complete destruction of the energy industry to replace it with green energy, which is not "green" at all. Open borders. "Slave reparations." IDs for everything except voting. Extreme forms of gun control against law-abiding citizens leaving guns in the hands of criminals. Voter fraud.

All of this has intensified through Democrat leadership and through Kinzinger's leadership and cooperation with Democrats in Congress and the nation. It's time to stop focusing on the reasonable persona and start focusing on the outcomes of allegiances.

We all want someone we can talk to, reason with, and who will listen. We all want a reasonable person in our lives who can discuss matters and a leader who will take the reins and justly provide leadership for those he represents. Kinzinger has yet to hold public meetings in Illinois's 16th District. He's cloistered behind CNN cameras and emerges every two years from Washington, D.C. to campaign, never really understanding who people really are, what they really want, or how to simply relate to people who struggle because of the political decisions he makes and cooperates with.

Reject the tyranny of the reasonable and instead choose the person whose sweat and tears have created a real person engaged in the struggle we are all engaged in. Preferably not a Democrat and preferably someone who sticks to an America First principle. Kinzinger's ideas and cooperation with the party of Marx are not reasonable. They're anti-American, extremist, and radical, disguised in the package of reasonable.

Image: Geoff Holtzman.

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A pastor in Alberta, Canada, Reverend Artur Pawlowski, gained national and international attention for throwing provincial officials out of his parish. Now, the authorities want to see him on the warrant list.

According to Dailywire (DW), a copy of the court order acquired by Rebel News authorizes police and health officials to "to use such reasonable force as they deem appropriate" to gain entry to Pastor Artur Pawlowski's The Fortress (Cave) of Adullam church in Calgary.

In addition, the warrant released on April 23 - and which was not sent to his counsel until this week -states that if he interferes with the police, he would be arrested and brought before a court and treated as a prisoner. The Alberta Health Services (AHS) was identified as the filing team.

The warrant reads as follows: "The Respondent, Artur Pawlowski, together with any other person at the property ... shall grant access to any Executive Officer (as defined in the [Alberta Public Health Act]) in order for him or her to attend at the Property without notice, during the hours of 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., to allow the Executive Officer to exercise his or her powers under [section] 59 of the Act."

The warrant further states: "In the event the Respondent, Artur Pawlowski or any other person refuse to grant any Executive Officer access to the Premises or hinders or interferes with the Executive Officer in the exercise of his or her powers, then any member of Police Service ... shall be permitted to accompany and assist the Executive Officer and use such reasonable force as they consider appropriate to gain access to the Premises and allow the Executive Officer (or anyone assisting the Executive Officer) to exercise his or her powers pursuant to section 59 of the Act."

The warrant continues by stating that if law enforcement has any "reasonable grounds" to believe Pawlowski or someone else has violated the court order, they are authorized to immediately "arrest that person, restrain him or her, and bring him or her before a Justice of the Court of the Queen's Bench to show cause why he or she should not be held in contempt of Court."

Alternatively, a person shall not be detained unless and unless they are granted an opportunity to comply with the warrant.

Brief Background

The pastor first expelled all the state representatives on Good Friday. Last Saturday, they returned to Adullam. As health authorities and police tried to issue him the warrant to enter his church, Pawlowski demanded that they meet with his lawyer.

At present, Pawlowski is urging citizens to assist him in his court fight against Alberta.

"They want me in jail, they want to arrest us only because we dare to worship our God and we want to do it in peace," he said. "They're coming very heavy. They're bringing documents, they're bringing SWAT team, they're bringing health inspectors, police officers and bylaw officers."

The Polish pastor, who grew up behind the Iron Curtain under communist Soviet rule, suspects a growing pattern of governmental control masked as public health care orders.

DW states that if Pawlowski gets imprisoned, he would not be the first pastor imprisoned in Alberta for 'breaking' the Alberta Public Health Act. Pastor James Coates, pastor of GraceLife Church in the Edmonton district, was detained in February and imprisoned in a maximum security prison for holding a worship service, and had to stay in jail for more than a month for refusing to stop preaching.
Tucker Carlson opened Friday night's show with a pointed critique. The rhetorical question was why the Republican leadership is so disconnected from Republican voters. One of the reasons, he said, is Frank Luntz. For decades, Luntz has been giving the GOP leadership its talking points. The problem is that Luntz is not a conservative; he is a corporate servant, and his points always align with corporate America  and lately, corporate America has been aligning with the woke left.

First, watch the video. Then get back to me, and we'll talk:

So, you got all that, right? Frank Luntz is a man who has no loyalty, yet the Republican party leadership is incredibly loyal to him. He's the one who tells them Republican voters love illegal immigration, want amnesty, and think it's a great idea for the government to take their weapons.

But did you notice how often Tucker said he wasn't attacking Luntz? Luntz is a great guy. Luntz is just doing what he does. (One of the things Luntz did in January was to spend an hour ignorantly attacking Trump from a leftist viewpoint as part of an interview he did for a PBS Frontline show called "Trump's American Carnage"  all while being identified as a "conservative.")

So whom should Tucker be attacking? He should be attacking the Republican leadership. Except he didn't. He mentioned that Luntz is friends with Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader, but he didn't name a single other person.

Tucker said the National Republican Congressional Committee, just this past week, invited Luntz to come to their policy summit and tell them what the voters want. What Tucker didn't say is who was at the NRCC's summit absorbing Luntz's assurances that Republican voters, the same ones who gave Donald Trump a 92% approval rating, nevertheless want the opposite of everything Trump stood for: strong borders, the end of illegal immigration, no amnesty, no DREAMers, no deals with China, no gun control, etc.

Even when Tucker later spoke to a very compelling young man, Pedro Gonzales, who spoke powerfully about the need for voters to rise up against GOP representatives who view them as useful idiots, not once did Gonzales or Tucker name which representatives are the ones parroting Luntz's messages rather than listening to their base.

We can certainly guess at some of the ones who are completely enamored of the Luntz message. Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney, Adam Kinzinger, Jaime Herrera Beutler, Anthony Gonzales, Peter Meijer, John Katko, Tom Rice, Fred Upton, David Valadao, and Dan Newhouse  all of them voted to impeach Trump. None of them listened to his base.

But other than that, who was in the room, lapping up the pearls of wisdom dropping from Luntz's lips?

One of the main problems with so much of what goes on today in politics is that no one names names. We're told that "Republicans did this" or the "leadership did that" or that "some are saying..."

In the same way, when we learn that the FBI raided Rudy Giuliani's home and took everything but the Hunter Biden hard drives with kiddy porn, no news report ever tells who signed off on that warrant. Why not?

I'm not talking about doxxing people by putting out their home addresses or naming their children. But shouldn't we know which hitherto faceless civil servants thought it was appropriate to attack the former president's attorney? And moreover, did so while completely ignoring that the current occupant of the White House has a son who committed a felony by lying on a gun application, who never registered as a foreign agent (the charge leveled against Giuliani), and who  let me say it again  reputedly has child porn on his computer?

It's time that the bureaucrats who control our lives stop being nameless and faceless. And it's time that the Republicans who think Frank Luntz speaks for the rest of us should stop being nameless, too.

Image: Frank Luntz. YouTube screen grab.

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The speech President Biden gave to a couple hundred solons acting as a "joint session of Congress" apparently sapped his energy enough to cause some embarrassing moments for the man playing the part of Leader of the Free World...for the next two days.

Commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of Amtrak yesterday, he lapsed into an incoherent word salad, unable to complete a sentence or stay on the same topic. A jumble of thoughts, none of them complete, but all vaguely related to trains:

That's sad, and if he were not occupying the White House, it would be uncharitable to mock him for his mental infirmity. And his physical infirmity, as well:

Biden is being walked like a nursing home patient pic.twitter.com/7KH4sRbBnd  Jewish Deplorable (@TrumpJew2) April 30, 2021

But Joe Biden was plucked from the pack of Democrat presidential contenders and pushed into the nomination and then into an Electoral College majority through the actions of people whose names we don't really know. Criticizing the front man is just a substitute for criticizing the puppet masters. And now he acts as commander in chief on behalf of those people, spouting the rhetoric of compromise and centrism but carrying out radical policies aimed at establishing a one-party state.

That's why his habit of saying that he is "in trouble" when he screws things up in public is so telling.

In his "first 100 days celebration" ceremony, he had difficulty finding his face mask as he began his address. He didn't need one because he was outdoors, and besides, he's been vaccinated, and as his own CDC director said, he's fine without one. But, apparently, the need to keep the public scared (and therefore submissive to power-grabs by the state) dictated that he use a mask as a prop. After fumbling around and not finding the mask (that was right there in his pocket  as you will see), he almost began his speech with the words, "I'm in trouble," rather like a high-schooler facing an assistant principal and worried about being disciplined:

Confused, fully vaccinated Joe Biden desperately looks for his lost mask while outside pic.twitter.com/fbyca42skC  RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 30, 2021

These words are a habit and telling one. Here are two compilations of his continual use of the expression:

Who is Joe Biden always in trouble with? pic.twitter.com/bhWrZknLqu  Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) April 30, 2021

Joey, do you need help? pic.twitter.com/RQ4XlDjMJW  Taylor Day (@TABYTCHI) April 30, 2021

Photo credit: Twitter video screen grab (cropped).

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Not one to discard a useful political prop a moment before its allotted time, President Biden is milking the ominous optics of the black mask for all its worth. The Biden-Harris administration  as COVID-created a phenomenon as anything that's escaped the Wuhan lab  is not ready for a return to complete normalcy just yet. At his sparsely attended address to a joint session of Congress last Wednesday night, Biden signaled his wish to yet extend the crisis atmosphere that's held Americans by the throat for over a year. Though fully vaccinated (as was everyone in the chamber), he pointedly approached the podium fully masked, slowly removing it only when ready to speak. Behind him sat Kamala Harris and Nancy Pelosi, both still ostentatiously trussed. The symbolism was unmistakable and utterly depressing.

Prolonging, perhaps deepening the feelings of lurking disaster and looming upheaval among our people is the key to holding onto power for the Dems, and they're quite willing to pursue that destructive course come what may. Keeping us permanently sweating at "battle stations" is the only way to justify the staggering expenditures Biden pushed in his surreal, C-SPAN-ish performance to a nearly empty House chamber. How else can he hope to extend government control over the behavior and work habits of so many people, thereby deepening the dependency so essential to public support for generally unpopular socialist ideas?

Fear is the Democrat Party's coin of the realm  fear, in all shapes and sizes, coming at you from all directions. Fear of the still hovering Donald Trump and the Deep State dismantlement he attempted. Fear of the indelible bigotry of white people  inherited just by virtue of being born white. And perhaps most profitably in political terms, fear of the continued scourge of COVID-19. Unremitting fear, to such an extent that it justifies the insanely irresponsible profligacy Biden seeks to advance.

Respectfully parting company with FDR, "fear itself "is not "the only thing we have to fear." Sadly, it's become the only thing Democrats have left to peddle!

The mask, Biden's chosen combat headgear, was used quite effectively during the 2020 campaign to convey the false impression that it was he, and not President Trump, who was truly serious about fighting the pandemic. Joe and Dr. Jill wrapped themselves like two walking mummies on most public occasions (perhaps as much a precaution against verbal gaffes as viral infection) and let the public's natural fear do the rest. Unwisely, Mr. Trump was slow to grasp the power of such a cheap, obvious tactic, and it wound up costing him dearly.

However, fear as a means of behavior control produces a diminishing return. Human nature dictates that anxiety levels will eventually subside, despite the best efforts of Joe and Company to stretch their political utility. The Trump vaccines that Biden and Harris derided before their nearly miraculous delivery, and now claim parental rights to, are doing their work. New infections are down, even in badly managed blue states. Warmer weather, bringing greater healthy, virus-fighting outdoor activity, is coming. Herd immunity, that apparent enemy of the power our bureaucratic shepherds have gathered into their hands, seems well on the way.

Joe's mask obsession, faintly ridiculous a year ago when the risk of infection was far more acute, is now laugh-out-loud funny. The preposterous nature of the Brady Bunch screen shot of him being the only masked leader among all those attending an international Zoom conference  as if his computer was about to cough in his direction  finally seems to have penetrated his committee of handlers, since soon afterward, he personally announced a token rollback of CDC masking requirements.

Whether the issue is when to doff masks, or whether to be vaccinated, stampeding people into fearful submission is not leadership. Confidence, earned confidence, in our elected officials, our doctors, and our scientists is what will inspire cooperation and consensual compliance with the wishes  and in a truly free society, they are just wishes, not directives  of health officials.

So President Biden would be well advised to end the mask-signaling and fear-mongering as a means to his political ends, whatever in Heaven's name they may turn out to be. Scare tactics are a double-edged sword; use them too many times, and Joe might find that he risks being politically trampled by that herd (immune or otherwise) that he helped put on a panic-stricken run.

Image: Twitter screen shot, Google screen shot.

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(ANSA) - ROME, APR 29 - Health Minister Roberto Speranza on Thursday signed an order extending a ban on arrivals in Italy from India and Bangladesh to Sri Lanka because of the high levels of COVID-19 contagion in these countries.

Only people with Italian citizenship will be allowed to return to Italy from these nations. (ANSA).


An Illinois church considered having an openly gay man who is also a drag queen serve as their pastor. Here's what Christian Theologians Al Mohler and Ken Ham have to say.

In his "The Briefing" podcast on Wednesday, Albert Mohler called the consideration "doctrinal annihilation."

He also condemned the church's promotion of Isaac Simmons, calling it "an intentional refutation and revolt against the very order of creation that God has provided."

"By the time any kind of church or church body reaches this point, it has already basically embraced doctrinal annihilation. There is virtually nothing left of the historic Christian tradition," Mohler said.

Mohler also pointed out that there are no two opposing stances over Simmons' appointment as a church leader. Rather, what is taking place is a clash between two religions.

"Those two different religions cannot possibly continue to exist in one church or in one denomination," he said. "Once conservatives are out of the picture in the United Methodist Church, this is only the start of where things will go in the future."

Isaac Simmons, Who is he?

Isaac Simmons, a student at Illinois Wesleyan, has been known to be involved in online worship as his drag queen persona, Ms. Penny Cost.

News of Simmons and his clergy candidacy comes as many conservatives in the UMC are reportedly planning to exit the denomination. Earlier this year, a group of theologically conservative United Methodists announced the creation of the Global Methodist Church.

In an interview with CBS News, Simmons said he wasn't expecting to be approved for clergy candidacy, given the UMC's official stance against homosexuality, same-sex marriage.

"My faith and my understanding of God calls me to be a part of that," Simmons said in the interview, "to be a part of that change-making and to be a part of creating spaces where everyone."

Ken Ham Also Aired His Piece

Commenting on the 'prayer' clip of Simmons posted online, Ham said that the claims made have nothing to do with Christianity.

"It's a form of paganism, certainly nothing to do with Christianity," Ham examined. "'She' [actually he] needs to read the first of the Ten Commandments: You shall have no other gods before me." (Exodus 20:3)

Ham also noted that the cultural divide between what is Christian and not is growing wider.

Conservatives Splits

According to Global Methodist Church spokesperson Keith Boyette, UMC leadership has shown "an inability to defend its principles" on LGBT matters.

He explained that "in the United States, particularly, some bishops, clergy, and churches are operating in open defiance to the teachings of the United Methodist Church."

Boyette argued that "such unchecked defiance has destroyed the integrity of the Church."

"In light of this, theologically conservative leaders have decided to launch a new denomination that will be true to its doctrine and teachings and end this endless conflict within the United Methodist Church," he said.

The UMC must still approve an amicable separation proposal at General Conference. Adam Hamilton, a United Methodist megachurch pastor, predicted that there could be "between 3,400 and 7,500 less churches" that will leave the UMC.
Dr Himthani, head of gastroenterology department, was among those who died due to lack of oxygen, said Dr S.C.L. Gupta, hospital director

New Delhi: Twelve critical Covid-19 patients died at the Batra Hospital in Delhi's Mehrauli area allegedly due to oxygen shortage. Six of the 12 people who died had been admitted to the hospital's ICU (intensive care unit) and among the deceased is the hospitals gastroenteritis head, Dr R.K. Himthani (62).

"We ran out of oxygen at 11.45 am. Supply came at 1.35 pm (a second tanker reached at around 4 pm). We were out of oxygen for 1 hour and 20 mins," the hospital told the Delhi high court which was holding the 11th day of hearings into a crisis triggered by a massive wave of Covid infections.

"We hope no lives were lost," the court responded, to which the hospital said: "We have... including one of our own... one doctor."

About 230 people were left without oxygen for 80 minutes.

Batra hospital has 327 patients out of which 48 are in the critical care unit. It has been raising alarms since Saturday afternoon over depleting levels of oxygen supply.

"Once a patient is pushed to the edge without the support of oxygen, it is very difficult to revive him. Unfortunately, we are expecting more fatalities," said Sudhanshu Bankata, executive director of the hospital.

Dr Himthani, head of the gastroenterology department, was among those who died due to lack of oxygen, said Dr S.C.L. Gupta, medical director of the hospital. He had been admitted to the hospital for the last 15-20 days.

The hospital had sent out an SOS message about oxygen shortage on Saturday.

Dr Gupta said they had informed the authorities about lack of oxygen Saturday morning when they had 2,500 litres of the life-saving gas left. The oxygen tanker arrived at 1.35 pm, they said, adding that they were without oxygen for 80 minutes. Saturday was the second time in the space of a week that the hospital ran out of oxygen.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal expressed grief over the incident. "This news is very painful. Their lives could have been saved -- by giving them oxygen on time. Delhi should get its quota of oxygen. Can't see our people dying like this. Delhi needs 976 tonnes of oxygen, but it received only 312 tonnes yesterday. How will Delhi breathe in such a less amount of oxygen?" he said on Twitter in Hindi.

Fortis Hospital in Vasant Kunj has stopped taking admissions due to oxygen shortage. The hospital has four hours of oxygen left, sources said. According to the Delhi Corona mobile application, the hospital has 106 coronavirus patients.

Sehgal Neo hospital in Meera Bagh too sent out an SOS message on Twitter about its dwindling oxygen. "We request urgent assistance in getting #SOSoxygen. We are running out of our backup supply, and have been waiting for a supply since early morning. We have 90 patients on O2 & 13 in ICU," the hospital tweeted around 12.40 pm.

Hospitals across the national capital and its suburbs have been sending out desperate messages of help on social media and other platforms, flagging their dwindling stocks of oxygen.

Delhi has recorded between 24,000 and 28,000 new coronavirus cases per day over the past two weeks, and has also reported record numbers of Covid-related deaths per day. The city's quota of oxygen had been raised to 490 metric tonnes per day, but supply is only around 400 MT, the state government has said.

Sir Ganga Ram Hospital had last week reported the death of 25 of its sickest patients as the administration struggled with depleting oxygen supplies.

Twenty people died at the Jaipur Golden Hospital last week amid shortage of oxygen.

Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia had on Friday said that not for a single day has Delhi been able to receive the allocated quantity of 490 MT of oxygen.
Ray did not start out as a filmmaker with an agenda. He was a storyteller. But he responded to the shifts and changes in the world at large

Cultural power surpasses the transient aggregation of political heft in West Bengal. In the natural order of things, there is a rise and a fall of political leaders and political parties, and power waxes and wanes in proportion to the will exercised by the people as voters. Ousting a cultural icon from his, and more rarely her, space in the pantheon of secular deities is an entirely different matter; it has not happened in recent memory.

The deification of the creative genius is a metamorphosis that is imperceptible but very real. There are two pantheons in Bengal. The first is the conventional pantheon of the divine, crowded by so many avatars of the goddess or gods that only the cognoscenti know the difference. The second is the pantheon of cultural deities, reflecting a particular aspect of the Bengali sensibility, an eclectic array of political leaders, litterateurs, artists, musicians, performers and filmmakers, almost anyone who the Bengali considers to be uniquely gifted and on whom is bestowed the status of an icon.

Satyajit Ray is part of the second pantheon. His centenary year, which begins from May 2, is a moment when the process of this metamorphosis will be visible. In these pandemic times, the homage, the tributes, the celebration and the cultural programmes may have to be in a virtual space, but that will not deter devotees of Rays genius from honouring him by revisiting his work and his creativity in as many ways as possible.

The tributes will not be exclusive offerings of aficionados; the inclusivity of the celebrations will affirm his status as an icon. When Ray died in 1992, even manufacturers of objects as entirely mundane as shovels and construction equipment offered their tribute through advertisements, as a reflection of how significant the filmmakers transition was from mere mortal to one of the pantheon. It did not matter that his films were never the sort of blockbusters that appealed to the masses. In the Bengali perception, Ray was an icon; his work was quintessentially Bengali, but his contribution was recognised as Indias gift to world cinema.

It is revealing of West Bengals unusual ethos that even the BJP, with its claim to being the worlds largest party, scrambled to deploy Satyajit Ray to increase its appeal to the Bengali intelligentsia. If the BJP government in New Delhi lives up to its promise of an Oscar-like film award in the name of Satyajit Ray, Bengalis may be pleased, but that is impossible to predict.

Satyajit Rays oeuvre was not limited to making films, or writing his own scripts, or composing the music for his films. His work is part of the popular imagination. Snatches of his music from the fantasy series, Goopey Gayne Bagha Bayne, have become signatures in the culture of modern West Bengal. His Hirak Rajar Deshe is now the title of an animation series that is a regular satirical take on current politics on a local television channel. The dialogue of his film series featuring the detective that he created, Feluda, is part of the language in which Bengalis think and speak. He pervades the mind and is embedded in the Bengali spirit.

He was not a filmmaker to begin with. He worked as an artist in advertising. He also designed book jackets that are now classics in the world of book design. He created fonts. He created a visual language through his films that is now part of the grammar of filmmaking. The trilogy, the first of which, Pather Panchali (The Song of the Road), made in 1958, is the one of the greatest films ever made. It was the first of the total of 29 films and five documentaries that Ray made.

He worked with unknowns, including the legendary cinematographer Subrata Mitra, who improvised to create the amazing light in Pather Panchali, and the slew of films including Jalsaghar, Teen Kanya, Charulata, Devi, Mahanagar and Nayak. And through that work, men like Subrata Mitra emerged with their extraordinary talent. Soumitra Chatterjee, the legendary actor who passed away in 2020, was a Ray discovery. As were Sharmila Tagore, Aparna Sen and even Madhavi Mukherjee, who had worked in cinema before, but never displayed the awesome talent she did in Charulata, which remains her most lyrical performance ever.

There were distinct periods in the work that Satyajit Ray did. His early films  Apur Sansar, Parash Pathar, Jalsaghar, followed by films like Kanchenjungha and Abhijaan, documentaries including the film on Rabindranath Tagore commissioned on the insistence of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indias first Prime Minister, Bala, on the great Bharatanatyam dancer Balasaraswati, who performs on the Madras Marina with the wind blowing her hair and snatching at her sari, are masterpieces.

The last three films by Ray  Ganashatru (Enemy of the People), Shakha Proshakha and Agantuk  were very different. These were bold critiques on contemporary social issues, including the conflict between rational science and irrational religion, the idea of the civilised and the primitive, of what is normal and sickness of the mind. Ray did not start out as a filmmaker with an agenda. He was a storyteller. But he responded to the shifts and changes in the world at large and his conclusions were sharp, critical and almost a call to action.
In a pragmatic manner, Dr. Michael Brown outlines what might happen when one attempt is made to be diplomatic.



Dr. Brown emphasized in his WND article that assembling a "mob" for intimidation accomplishes little to nothing in the advancement of a cause. He said further that it's ugly, tyrannical, violent and oppressive. It also operates by the power of fear, which often leads to chaos and anarchy.

"That's why the mob must be resisted," he said while noting "Antifa" and "radical BLM" as mobs with "lofty goals."

"In reality, though, it is anything but noble, bearing the stench of hell," said Brown.

The mob version of "community"

According to a November report, Portland rioters destroyed a local church serving the impoverished and mentally ill. They also targeted a female and LGBTQ-friendly apparel boutique.

Seeing the vandalizing of the church and the business establishment, people commented on the hypocrisy of the demonstrators' statements of "unity."

One sarcastic tweet said, "Is this before or after they were chanting 'this is what community looks like!'"

"With regard to the former, this reveals the mob's heart for the hurting and the poor," commented Brown. "With regard to the latter, once more the left devours its own."

In Portland, the police department removed a fencing it had erected around the Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse in June 2020, acknowledging that it was seen as a sign of discord. This transition has been debated for months, as city officials gathered in an effort to restore normalcy to the city.

However, as soon as the fencing was removed, the rioters attacked again. Fox News noted that "just one day after the fencing was removed, rioters marched down the streets of Portland, setting fires and smashing windows."

"This is the mindlessness (and madness) of the mob," deduces Brown. "Take one conciliatory step in the mob's direction, and you will quickly get burned."

The latest case of mob madness involves a church in the state of Washington canceling a speaking function after Antifa demonstrators "threatened to burn down all of its buildings and torch the neighbors' properties too."

Roger Archer, pastor of Motion Church in Puyallup, Washington said that his congregation has long participated extensively in the city, but when he revealed that they will be welcoming Charlie Kirk next month, threats began to flood in.

Since they have several campuses and the city police are overburdened, he decided it was best to cancel the event altogether.

"The soft targets of churches, the elderly, women, children, and law-abiding citizens are vulnerable to anarchists who live free of the fear of reprisal. [T]he cops don't have the manpower to protect the several properties used by the church," explained the pastor in a video post.

Brown added that "although news outlets are still seeking confirmation as to the origin of these threats, others made their sentiments perfectly clear, with tweets like this one from a feminist named Shannon: '@charliekirk11 and his #racism will be speaking at the #motionchurch in #southhill #puyallup on 5/2. #BlackLivesMatter @ProjectLincoln @MeidasTouch #LGBTQ HELP US SHUT THIS n@zi down please!'"

On the move by Pastor Archer, Brown elaborated stating that not only pastors, but also their neighbors should be considered when relocating or expanding their facilities. This eliminates the concern that rioters could erupt or endanger others who live in the surrounding area, as well as the threat of attack on others who attend their events.

"Either way, what pastors cannot do is to back down from their core convictions, even while deciding what is the best way to get the message out, "remarked Brown. "And under no circumstances can they yield an inch to the mob, lest that inch quickly becomes a mile."

From rioters to revivalists!

His article ended with a call to pray for the Motion Church to maintain her stature as she advances righteousness in the community.

"Pray for the spirit of the mob to be revealed more and more, exposing its true, godless, destructive colors," he said.

On the other hand, the scholar said that through prayers, there's hope for the conversion of most rioters and extremists.

"Some of them could become powerful evangelists in the days ahead, taking to the streets with a message of life and liberation as they now give themselves to destruction and bondage," he declared.
EV

Be it a subcompact hatchback such as the Chevrolet Bolt or the Mercedes-Benz EQS full-size sedan, you cant recharge these babies in five minutes. Theres also range anxiety, which stems from great disparities between the Environmental Protection Agencys numbers and the real-world numbers.EVs also cost more than ICEs even if you include the $7,500 federal tax credit, which makes them a little prohibitive to regular people who live paycheck to paycheck. The charging infrastructure leaves much to be desired in terms of connectors, memberships, charging rates, and the number of chargers, a collection of conditions that puts many potentialbuyers off.And finally, charging at home is a hassle in and of itself. Bloomberg automotive analyst Kevin Tynan told Business Inside r that a Ford Mustang Mach-E adds three miles of driving range after 60 minutes of charging from a household plug. Over the course of 12 hours, thats 36 miles (58 kilometers) for an electric crossover with an EPA-rated estimate of 230 miles (370 kilometers) for the smallest battery pack and rear-wheel drive.According to a study published in Nature Energy, roughly one in five EV owners switched back to gas-powered cars over charging woes. Of the people surveyed, more than 70 percent lacked access to Level 2 charging at home. As opposed to a standard outlet that puts out 120 volts of power, Level 2 charging is a little quicker to charge an EV thanks to 240 volts. Also worthy of note, Tesla's Supercharger network rocks 480-volt direct current.The survey also found that almost two-thirds of EV owners dont use public charging stations, which is a worrying proportion if you remember that California sets the eco-friendly trends for pretty much the entire U.S."It should not be assumed that once a consumer purchases an EV, they will continue owning one, noted the authors of the study: researchers Scott Hardman and Gil Tal. "What is clear is that this state of affairs could slow EV market growth and make reaching 100-percent EV sales more difficult.
In between BMWs stubbornness to go for truly boring EV flagships and all the backlash to its styling choices for the 4 Series/M3/M4 models, its easy to forget that the humongous grille is rooted in history. Granted, back then, its dimensions were a bit easier to fit with the general atmosphere, but we digress.We do so because the ancestor from between 1966 and 1977, the BMW 02 Series, had its own icon to wonder at. It was the 2002 Turbo, and its legend also reached the United States, enough so that an example that was up for grabs at auction on Bring a Trailer sold for no less than $193,100.To put this into perspective, its more than a couple of 2021 M4s (it has an MSRP of $71,800) or about as much as three 2021 M2 Coupes, and youd still be left with some change to buy a few tanks of gasoline along with a set of tires to burn rubber at the racetrack.On the other hand, we really have no way of putting this mildlywe'd take the 1974 2022 Turbo any time of day and night. This example is too enticing with its disarmingly charming coupe styling, almost central single exhaust, minimalist interior, 2.0-liter tii M10 turbo four-pot, or BMW M colors...According to the description, it has just 27,407 km (a little over 17k miles), so we know it was properly enjoyed for at least a while during its almost five-decade-long stint on planet Earth. Right now, its probably served with a well-deserved retirement brochure in a well-lit and air-conditioned garage. Well, it really doesnt matter anymore, since it unfortunately already got away and found a new owner.
SUV

Some of the models born overseas make it in the U.S. as well, as the Blue Oval is trying to capitalize on the appeal they have elsewhere. So was the case of the Cortina , a family car that was born in the UK in 1962, that briefly made its way stateside.The Cortina is, historically, one of the Brits most successful cars. In production for two full decades and about five generations, it quickly climbed the ladder to success and became in the 1970s Britains best-selling car. In America however, success was so marginal that after the Cortina was pulled in the early 1970s, no more English-made Fords were brought here.Taking its name from an Italian ski resort, the Cortina proved appealing for global buyers and thanks to its design, engine choices (by the time production ended, there were 9 of them available worldwide), and overall reliability. In the UK alone the nameplate sold overall some 2.8 million units. But like all good things in life, Cortina reached the end of its rope, and was eventually replaced by the Sierra.Next year, the Cortina will turn 60 years, and even if it is a bit premature, the guys over at Car Lease decided to render a possible revival of the Cortina. One that, naturally, takes its cues from the modern-day Mustang, including the electricvariant, but one that probably has zero chances of happening.Given the success of the Mustang, including in Europe, its unlikely Ford will jeopardize that position with the launch of something similar, especially a toned-down version of the muscle car. But what we have here is a nice enough exercise of imagination nonetheless.
The two colors have been and probably will always be the preferred choices for customers going for a car or a motorcycle. Theyre so appreciated, in fact, that sometimes people go to great lengths to have their motorized possessions turned into black or white masterpieces by established shops.Thats kind of what happened to the Street Bob we have here, which started life as one of Harleys stripped-down bobber cloaked in black, but needed some extra touches to get it the full way to darkness, and get renamed Dark Talon.Handling this recent build (the motorcycle was completed earlier this year) was German custom shop Thunderbike . The first order of business was to black out everything that was not already black on this Softail model, but also give the existing paint a fresh coat.Then, the Germans set about fitting new, flat handlebars, a stretched 15-liter (4 gallons) tank, and tons of custom covers. The stock wheels, which measured 16 and 19 inches, have been replaced with slightly larger ones, coming in at 18 and 21 inches, now sitting under custom fenders and wearing Avon Cobra Chrome tires.The motorcycle is powered by the stock engine, which in this case is the 107ci Milwaukee-Eight. It was largely left unchanged, but does get a bit of improved growl thanks to the fitting of a new filter and an exhaust system wearing the logo of Dr. Jekill & Mr. Hyde.Even though it might not seem like it, the changes made to the two-wheeler are worth around 10,000 euros, not including man hours and paint, and that is around $12,000 at todays exchange rate. For reference, a brand new Street Bob starts at just under $15,000.
This second airplane is part of a small fleet of eight expected to be delivered to the U.S. Air Force ( USAF ) this year, and part of a large, 200-units strong Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract assigned to Boeing by the military branch in July last year.The F-15EX represents a major evolution of one of Americas most famous and long-lived fighter jets. The version has been in the works for a while, and when it soared to the sky in the hands of the Eglin pilots, it became the first new F-15 variant to do that in 15 years.Equipped with fly-by-wire flight controls, an all-new digital cockpit, modern AESA radar, and the world's fastest mission computer (the ADCP-II), the F-15EX also makes use of the BAE Systems-made Eagle Passive Active Warning and Survivability System ( EPAWSS )  an array of multispectral sensors capable of detecting incoming threats, giving the planes pilot radar warning, situational awareness, geolocation, and in case of need, self-protection tools.According to Prat Kumar, Boeing vice president and F-15 program manager, the new fighter jet also comes with almost 3 miles of high-speed digital data bus. This feature should allow the aircraft an open architecture, which should translate into a machine that can be adapted to the needs of the future, thus staying in service longer.Once testing of the incipient fleet of planes is completed, USAF plans to purchase more of the F-15EX as part of the National Defense Strategy. The branch aims to replace the aging F-15C, and the new variant will at first be deployed at bases in Florida and Oregon.
Such a long history means there are more models in the companys past than in its present (and some, might argue, more than in the future). Some are so old its literally impossible to come across one, and people have to turn to all sorts of gimmicks to get their hands on a historic model.Like the guys behind this build did. Trying to bring back one of Harley s historic racing models, a Swedish museum by the name of MC Collection got their hands on an original motorcycle engine from 1916 and built a bike around it, trying to capture the essence of what was once the Model 11K racer.The engine belonged to a Model F, and was slapped inside a full loop frame constructed (together with the forks) by former German road racing cyclist Christian Henn. The frame presents itself just like it did on the original Harley of more than a century ago, in the so-called keystone configuration, with stressed members and steel engine plates.This way of building racers gave them better handling but, perhaps equally as important, allowed for the cylinder to be removed with the powerplant still fitted on the bike, allowing for quick intervention during races, if they were required.This 1916 Harley was put together in Sweden more than a decade ago, and in the meantime it made it to the U.S. It was listed as for sale during the Mecum motorcycle auction this weekend, and it got sold for $57,750. As a side note though, whoever bought it will only be using it as a museum piece, because it is not street legal.
Palmdale, CA (93550)

Today

Cloudy in the morning followed by partly cloudy skies and gusty winds during the afternoon. High 79F. Winds SW at 20 to 30 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph..

Tonight

Clear. Gusty winds diminishing after midnight. Low around 55F. Winds SW at 20 to 30 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.
Massive congratulations to the very talented team at MediaMonks who have won Site of the Month March for Into the Storm, thanks to them, for putting together this detailed case study, and thanks to all of you who voted - the winner of the Pro Plan is named at the end of the article.

On August 8, 2010 a civilian airplane crashed in the Alaskan Chugach mountains. A special operations team in the U.S. Air Force was sent out to bring the survivors back to safety. In Into the Storm, we recreate the entire real-life event digitally, showing you exactly what it takes to be a pararescueman first-hand. Demonstrating a whole new interactive documentary form, Into the Storm educates and inspires people to apply to become a pararescueman themselves.

Trailer video.

Setting the scene

To make this interactive documentary feel as true-to-life as possible, we took a lot of time and care to make sure the facts we were going off, were detailed, and the glacier we were building accurately resembled the one where the rescue mission took place. To achieve a well-rounded and realistic experience, we needed to consider three elements: the story, the environment, and the interactions.

To begin, we wanted to know all the details about the original crash and the rescue mission that were available. We wanted to know what the exact weather conditions were like, the timeline of events, the setbacks each pararescueman faced, and the tools they used to make the rescue a success. Additionally, we wanted to identify the key moments during the rescue that led to their success and all the decisions that led to everyones survival.

Image 1 - First storyboard sketches.

Due to the remote nature of the location, we didnt have the capabilities to go to the Chugach Mountains and capture real data. We solved this by taking a slightly unconventional approach: taking screen recordings from Google Earth (see Image 2). The shots available from Google Earth already resembled a helicopter hovering over the mountains. We used these images to help us capture parallax pixel information to create a 3D environment. We captured hundreds of images from Google Earth, from as many angles as we could possibly achieve. We were quite surprised at how accurately the shapes of the mountains developed when using a technique called photogrammetry (see Video 3).

Image 2 - The location from Google Earth.

Video 3 - The photogrammetry software. Every blue square is a captured position that is calculated and merged into one scene.

Video 4 - Results after calculations where we can see the shapes and textures of the landscape.

We then used specialized software (see video 5) to transform the data to an image called a heightmap. By importing the heightmap into World Machine, we managed to improve the resolution to a much higher 16K output where we could add more detail of landscape erosions, layered textures and sharper mountain shapes. This way, we were able to get closer to ground level with our camera angles without losing quality during the experience.

Video 5 - Adding details in World Machine.

After exporting the high-resolution images, we still needed Clarisse from Isotropix (video 6) to handle the heavy landscape, so we could play with the light and mood of the scene. Part of the lighting was manageable in WebGL, but we also created a base by adding accurate details and shadows that were baked and optimized into one large grid texture setup. Once the landscape of the rescue mission was complete, we could start plotting out our scenes and the route of the mission, based on logs from the original rescue team.

Video 6 - We could change the light of the scene combined with all the details.

Involving the audience in the mission

We always knew that this experience would benefit from interactive moments to allow people to participate in the story and feel directly involved. Since the event was so exciting and interesting, we designed these moments to enable users to discover more details and first-hand accounts about the mission, as well as trigger voice recordings from the actual pararescuemen who were there to take the immersion one extra step further.

Image 7 - The Pararescueman.

To signal those key moments where important decisions or events took place on the mission, we turned them into interactive hotspots where the user is required to work together with the Air Force operations team.

Ensuring the interactions were user-friendly and not distracting from the story, we plotted interactions that would only require a simple gesture, whether the user was on mobile or desktop. They included a scroll, a drag, and explore actions:

Scroll: The user is put in the footsteps of the pararescuemen by having to scroll their way through the long trek, all while facing hazardous weather like headwinds and snowstorms. Scrolling faster decreases the visibility the user has in the windy blizzard conditions to make the conditions feel more life-like and perilous.

Drag: The user has to drag down the helicopter to drop, or drag up to airlift people or supplies. By allowing the user to initiate this step in the mission, they feel more involved in the rescue.

Explore: The user is encouraged to look around the plane wreckage and find the information hotspots along the route that trigger audio clips from the pararescuemen on the real trip, explaining what they used and did.

Image 8 - Interactive moment to deploy the team from the helicopter by dragging down.

Building the environment

We used Unity to position the various elements of the scene which meant we had to import the 3D models of the landscape, helicopter, plane, and people into Unity. Using the animation timeline feature in Unity, we were able to animate the camera and helicopter. Once complete, both the 3D data and the animations were exported with a custom exporter to a data format that could be easily used in WebGL.

Image 9 - Scene in Unity showing the path of the rescue mission.

Using WebGL for a dynamic, immersive experience

To create a dynamic, immersive environment, several effects were developed in our custom WebGL framework:

Dynamic lighting

Height-based fog

Dynamic clouds

A dynamic particle system to create the snow

Blowing snow near the surface

Post-production effects, like vignette, contrast, exposure, black and white point, noise and saturation

Snow-on-lens effect

Lens flare

Color grading

Each of these effects were added on a real-world scale to make every scene look as lifelike and physically accurate as possible, helping to create optimum immersion.

Image 10 - Real world scale of scene. Note the little helicopter in the bottom left.

In addition, for almost every effect, multiple properties were made adjustable in real-time in the development environment. This made it very easy to create a unique set of presets for each key moment in the experience.

Image 11 - Tool on the right shows how to adjust effect properties in real-time.

As the user progresses through the story, the presets of the various key moments are seamlessly blended to provide a continuous experience.

Image 12 - Overview of the whole WebGL scene in good weather conditions.

Final thoughts

By bringing in-depth research, data and technology together in one project, we were able to build a highly accurate retelling of a real event. The visual complexity mixed with the simple scrolling story mechanic meant it became an experience that was as spectacular as it was emotionally engaging.

About MediaMonks

MediaMonks is a global creative production company that partners with clients across industries and markets to craft amazing work for leading businesses and brands. Its integrated production capabilities span the entire creative spectrum, covering anything you could possibly want from a production partner, and probably more.

Thanks for tweeting and voting, @mohnish_landge you have won the Pro Plan, DM us on Twitter to get your prize! :)
White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci said in an interview that India ought to consider a temporary shutdown as the country currently faces the worst coronavirus outbreak in the world.

By the numbers: India on Saturday for the first time reported more than 400,000 new coronavirus cases in a 24-hour period, Reuters writes. The country also reported a total of 211,853 deaths.

What he's saying: "There is the immediate, the intermediate, and the long range. I think the most important thing in the immediate is to get oxygen, get supplies, get medication, get PPE, those kinds of things but also, one of the immediate things to do is to essentially call a shutdown of the country," Fauci told the Indian Express.

"We know that when China had this big explosion a year ago, they completely shut down. And if you shut down, you dont have to shut down for six months. You can shut down temporarily to put an end to the cycle of transmission."

Fauci also said India should consider building makeshift hospitals, like those in China: "The intermediate  to get hospitals built quickly. I mean really quickly, within a matter of  you know, they put up these field hospitals that they built during war."

"You should think of this, in some respects, like a war. The enemy is the virus. So you know where the enemy is, so I would make it almost like wartime because its an emergency."

Worth noting: The White House announced it will restrict travel from India starting Tuesday, citing the steep rise in cases in the country and possible emergence of multiple variants.
Bringing food to dining tables in China and the EU with Geographical Indications

People's Daily Online) 17:15, April 30, 2021

The bilateral agreement between China and the European Union on geographical indications took effect on March 1 after eight years of negotiation.

GI is a label used for identifying the geographical origin of a product, and is an important type of intellectual property right.

The agreement, China's first comprehensive, high-level bilateral accord on GIs, will facilitate exports and imports of related products.

Check out this two-minute animated short and see how geographical indications from China and EU countries cross thousands of miles to enter billions of households.

(Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Bianji)
The Taliban threatened to launch attacks on U.S. and NATO troops on Saturday as the May 1 deadline for the complete withdrawal of foreign troops brokered by the Trump administration came and went.

Why it matters: President Biden announced last month that the U.S. would begin withdrawing troops from the country on May 1 but would not finish until Sept. 11, and the Taliban in response vowed to resume attacks on U.S. and NATO personnel.

What they're saying: "As withdrawal of foreign forces from [Afghanistan] by agreed upon May 1st deadline has passed, this violation in principle has opened the way for IEA Mujahidin to take every counteraction it deems appropriate against the occupying forces," Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesperson, said in a statement on Saturday.

The big picture: The Taliban said it would not attend any peace conferences until all foreign troops have left Afghanistan, Axios' Dave Lawler reports.

The Taliban boycotted a peace conference in Istanbul meant to encourage efforts to end the war in Afghanistan and sketch out a possible political settlement between the group and the Afghan government, Al Jazeera reports.

As of now, there are around 10,000 NATO troops in the country, of which roughly 3,500 are American.

The Pentagon is also preparing for possible Taliban attacks on U.S., NATO and coalition forces because of the passed deadline, AP reports.
Lacote said the issue was on the agenda of French President Emmanuel Macrons April 26 phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

There is an intensification of processes, which on the one hand is connected with the April 24 [anniversary of the Armenian genocide] and on the other the fact that there is no progress on Armenian prisoners and other issues, he told RFE/RLs Armenian Service.

Russia, France and the United States have long been spearheading international efforts to end the Karabakh conflict in their capacity as co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group. Moscow single-handedly stopped the autumn war over the disputed territory with an Armenian-Azerbaijani ceasefire deal brokered by Putin on November 9.

The objective is to step up the work of the OSCE Minsk Group, said Lacote. Russia is obviously part of this process because Moscow is present in Karabakh, and the objective is the resumption of a political process so that issues that were not settled by the November 9 document are discussed.

We have a ceasefire, which is an important achievement, but there are also many unresolved issues that need to be addressed in the Minsk Group format, the envoy stressed, adding that the unconditional release of the Armenian prisoners is one of them.

The Kremlin reported earlier this week that Putin and Macron reviewed the developments around Nagorno-Karabakh.

The parties expressed mutual readiness for coordination on various aspects of the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement, including through the OSCE Minsk Group, it said in a statement.

The truce agreement calls for the release of all prisoners held by the conflicting sides. A total of 69 Armenian prisoners of war (POWs) and civilians have been freed to date. More than 100 others are believed to remain in Azerbaijani captivity. Baku is reluctant to repatriate them, having branded them as terrorists.

The European Union said on Wednesday that all remaining Armenian captives must be set free as soon as possible and regardless of the circumstances of their arrest.
Rep. David Valadao ranked immigration and water as his top two legislative priorities during a brief online chat Monday in which he emphasized
It's lit! Houston's favorite rager is making his way back to Houston for his treasured Astroworld Fest.

Supplementing his new merch and sneaker release for his birthday, the Missouri City native announced via social media that the two-day festival will be back for the third time in his hometown. The festival will be held Nov. 5-6 at NRG Park in Houston, Texas.

A LOOK BACK AT ASTROWORLD: Astroworld Festival hits a high note

The festival looks to once again bring back the beloved spirit and nostalgia of AstroWorld, the now-defunct amusement park once housed in the Bayou City.

Scott also released an official trailer for the event via YouTube.

According to a press release, the third annual music festival is expanding from one to two days due to high demand and rave reviews around the festival's lineup. The insanely popular festival has always featured a lineup curated by Scott himself. Past festivals have included acts like Pharrell Williams, Da Baby, Lil Wayne, Young Thug, Megan Thee Stallion, and others.

GIVING BACK TO HIS HOMETOWN: Travis Scott gives back to Houston with winter relief drive

This year's festival features a new theme: "Open Your Eyes To A Whole New Universe," ahead of his forthcoming album "Utopia."

Fans will have to wait in anticipation, as the full music lineup will be revealed at a later date closer to the music festival.

Tickets go on sale this coming Wednesday, May 5 at 10 a.m. on the Astroworld Fest website. Fans are encouraged to purchase tickets now as each of the previous two events has sold out in advance prior to a music lineup being revealed.
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Malcolm Campbell, a longtime publishing executive for national music publications including SPIN, Blender, the Fader and Rolling Stone, died on April 29 at his home in City Island, New York. Campbell, 61, had been battling a recurrence of pancreatic cancer that had first been identified the previous year.

With heavy hearts, we announce the loss of our beloved Malcolm Campbell, who passed away peacefully at home on April 29th, 2021 at 10 pm, read an update on the GoFundMe page set up by friends of Campbells on behalf of his wife Charlene to help pay for medical bills. He was surrounded by his family and CC, his loyal dog by his side, the note continued. There are no words to describe the devastation that is felt by all. Malcolm impacted the lives of countless individuals, friends, and family.

A beloved industry figure with a bearlike frame and a larger-than-life personality  a byproduct of his Tennessee-by-way-of Scotland roots  Campbell is warmly remembered by friends, family, and colleagues for his huge heart, magical ability to connect with others, and unquenchable thirst for spreading fun and good cheer, as experienced by the many who knew Campbell from the legendary events he helped host at South By Southwest and other industry conferences. As the online fundraiser noted, Malcolm always ratcheted up every experience to 11.

A native of Johnson City, Tenn., Campbell graduated from Wofford College in South Carolina and started his career in 1987 at Chicago ad agency Foote, Cone & Belding as an account executive who, according to his own LinkedIn profile, was the best Male Account Executive to ever work on a pantyhose account.  However, management saw my potential with malted beverages and moved me over to the Coors account.

In 1991, he began what would become a three-decade run working on the business and sales side of iconic music magazines, joining SPIN (then a print publication) as a midwest sales manager and moving up to associate publisher and eventually publisher within nine years. Based in New York City, Campbell grew the titles business through an ownership change to reach circulation peaks in the 1990s. Of his experience building and nurturing a national sales team at SPIN, Campbell wrote on LinkedIn simply, We kicked ass.

Malcolm had the same passion whether he was in a boardroom or a barroom, although I know he preferred the latter, says Dan OConor, a longtime friend who worked on Campbells SPIN sales team for 14 years. He was a decorated sales exec in an industry with a reputation for being cutthroat, but always remained a true Southern gentleman.

Campbell moved to competitor Blender magazine in Feb. 2001 as the Dennis Publishing-owned title launched that year to much fanfare and landed on AdAges Hot List. Campbell served as publisher for nearly four years before returning to SPIN for another five-year stint as publisher, from 2006 to 2011.

Hip music and culture brand The Fader followed in 2013, where Campbell spent six years as VP, sales and brand partnerships.

Weve lost a legend, says Andy Cohn, a 16-year veteran of The Fader before departing as president and publisher in 2019. Malcolm was my first boss in publishing at SPIN, and I was lucky enough to have him work with me at the Fader for many years, and countless adventures together. Malcolm taught me how to appreciate every moment, personally and professionally, and never take anything for granted. The world will be a lot less fun without him.

In Jan. 2019, Campbell took the position of executive director of corporate sales, east coast, for PMC/Penske Media, the corporate parent of Variety, where he led a team whose portfolio included Rolling Stone, WWD, Indiewire, SheKnows and Robb Report.

Campbell is survived by a son, Ian, and daughter, Chandler, and wife Charlene.

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The name Zoe Roth might not ring any bells. But chances are youve seen her photo.

One Saturday morning in 2005, when Roth was 4 years old, her family went to look at a house on fire in their neighborhood in Mebane, North Carolina. Firefighters had intentionally set the blaze as a controlled fire, so it was a relaxed affair: Neighbors gathered and firefighters allowed children to take turns holding the hose.

Roth remembers watching the flames engulf the house when her father, an amateur photographer, asked her to smile. With her hair askew and a knowing look in her eyes, Roth flashed a devilish smirk as the fire roared behind her. Disaster Girl was born.

In the years since Dave Roth, Zoes father, entered it in a photo contest in 2007 and won, the image has been edited into various disasters from history, with Roth grinning impishly as a meteor wipes out the dinosaurs or the Titanic sinks in the distance. Now, after more than a decade of having her image endlessly repurposed as a vital part of meme canon, Roth has sold the original copy of her meme as a nonfungible token, or NFT, for nearly $500,000.

The meme sold for 180 Ether, a form of cryptocurrency, at an auction on April 17 to a user identified as @3FMusic. As with any currency, the value of Ether fluctuates, but as of Thursday, 180 Ether was valued at more than $495,000. The Roths retained the copyright and will receive 10% of future sales.

The market for ownership rights to digital art, ephemera and media known as NFTs, is exploding. All NFTs, including the Disaster Girl meme Roth just sold, are stamped with a unique bit of digital code that marks their authenticity, and stored on the blockchain, a distributed ledger system that underlies Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

In the meme hall of fame, Disaster Girl ranks alongside Ermahgerd, a pigtailed teenage girl posing with Goosebumps books; Bad Luck Brian, immortalized in a grimacing yearbook photo with braces; and Success Kid, a toddler on a beach with a clenched fist and an expression of intense determination.

In an interview, Roth said selling the meme was a way for her to take control over a situation that she has felt powerless over since she was in elementary school.

Before making the decision to sell, Roth consulted Bad Luck Brian himself  his real name is Kyle Craven  and Laney Griner, the mother of Success Kid.

Its the only thing that memes can do to take control, Roth recalled Craven telling her.

Disaster Girl memes have spread far and wide. Once, a group from Poland asked permission to use the meme for educational material about a dying Indigenous language. Someone in Portugal sent Roth pictures of a mural with the meme.

You just make it fit however you want to fit it, she said. I love seeing them because Id never make any of them myself, but I love seeing how creative people are.

Over the years, shes seen hundreds of iterations of her picture. One shared last summer during racial justice protests was among her favorites, she said.

Once its out there, its out there, and theres nothing you can do about it, Dave Roth said. It always finds a way to stay relevant with whatever new kind of awful, terrible bad thing is happening, so Ive laughed at a lot of them.

Roth, now 21, is a senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill studying peace, war and defense. She has never been recognized as Disaster Girl outright, she said, but most of her friends and acquaintances know of her meme fame.

People who are in memes and go viral is one thing, but just the way the internet has held on to my picture and kept it viral, kept it relevant, is so crazy to me, she said. Im super grateful for the entire experience.

Even so, she said, she hopes to one day do something meaningful enough to shift Disaster Girl to the second page of search results for her name.

After graduation, Roth plans to take a gap year before pursuing a graduate degree in international relations. She said she would donate the fortune she has made from her likeness  which is still in cryptocurrency form  to charities and to pay off her student loans, among other things.

When shes home, she often walks past the lot where it all started and wonders if locals know that its a meme place, she said.

People who are in memes didnt really have a choice in it, she said. The internet is big. Whether youre having a good experience or a bad experience, you kind of just have to make the most of it.

Ben Lashes, who manages the Roths and stars of other memes including Nyan Cat, Grumpy Cat, Keyboard Cat, Doge, Success Kid, David After Dentist and the Ridiculously Photogenic Guy, said his clients had cumulatively made over $2 million in NFT sales.

He said that NFT sales had helped establish memes as a sophisticated art form and serious pieces of culture.

I think anytime you can find a collector  no matter what the price is  who respects the art behind it and is going to cherish it, thats a successful sale, whether its one Ether or 200 or 300, he said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
After months of negotiating, contract negotiations at the Beaumont ExxonMobil plant ultimately went unresolved and more than 600 workers were officially locked out of the plant Saturday.

United Steelworkers Local 13-243 and ExxonMobil met both Friday night and Saturday morning, as they have been periodically since January, but were unable to agree on a contract, according to both parties.

Unfortunately, we still have not reached an agreement with the union, employees havent been able to vote, and we still face a real risk of a strike, refinery manager Rozena Dendy said in a video released by the company Saturday morning.

By 1 p.m., more tha 200 employees on their regular shift at the plant had been walked out of the facilitys gates  apparently two at a time, according to union representatives on the scene  and the USW started a picket line across the street.

Members of the USW had been gathered across the street from the refinery at a property secured by the local hours before the promised 10 a.m. lockout on Saturday, but there were reports that workers had been escorted off property the night before.

In a message to members sent by the USWs national organization, the union condemned the companys actions and reiterated reports from workers inside the plant that ExxonMobil had started locking employees out at around 10:30 the previous night.

Both the company and the USW sent respective notices in February about the lockout and a potential strike after the current contract expired, and the 75-day notice period was set to expire on Saturday.

The USW still hadnt called an official strike by Saturday night and USW District 13 Representative Richard Hoot Landry said plans were still being formed about what to do next, but the union had intended to avoid a work stoppage from the beginning.

We see it as a sign of arrogance, and were told that the company was going through the lockout because they couldnt risk the potential that might give 24-hour notice to strike, he told the Enterprise. They dont want a situation where they arent in full control.

Several contract proposals had been made through the week, including on Thursday and Friday night, which the USW said were comprehensive, multi-year contracts.

On April 23, it asked for the negotiation process to be extended by a year, but representatives from ExxonMobil said it would only accept a longer contract for the sake of stability.

The company also said it wasnt able to accept the USWs comprehensive offers because they didnt match its plans for remaining competitive moving into the future.

As we have shared previously and explained to the union, these are items that would significantly increase costs and limit the companys ability to safely and efficiently operate, representatives from the company wrote.

Both parties did meet Friday night and offers were made to meet again after those talks failed, but Landry said leadership decided to focus on how to handle the lockout after it was made clear that there wouldnt be room for compromise.

While neither party has detailed specifics of their contract goals, both have mentioned policies that the company believes preserves flexibility, but the USW considers harmful to seniority and safety.

Again, the lockout will continue until the union accepts the companys current offer or the parties otherwise reach agreement, ExxonMobil wrote in a Saturday morning release.

jacob.dick@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/jd_journalism
About a year ago, as a once-in-a-century public health crisis was unraveling across the world, it was abundantly clear how unprepared Texas was for the pandemic.

An aging data collection system within the Texas Department of State Health Services made it difficult for health officials to fully assess the impact of COVID-19, which the state's official numbers say has left nearly 50,000 people dead. Protective gear and COVID-19 tests were in short supply, leaving health care providers and governments scrambling to find supplies. Waves of infection would soon overwhelm entire hospital systems, while morgues across the state would run out of space to store the dead.

READ ALSO: H-E-B is now offering walk-in COVID-19 vaccines at all pharmacies

But now, with vaccines widely available and daily new case totals declining, preparing for the next pandemic is competing for space on the legislative priority list. Hot-button conservative issues  such as the permitless carrying of handguns, voting restrictions and measures targeting transgender children  and the states response to a deadly winter storm have taken up much of the oxygen in the Capitol this legislative session. And the legislative proposals related to the pandemic gaining the most attention from Republican leadership in both chambers are bills that would restrict the governors ability to impose restrictions in public health emergencies.

With fewer than 35 days left in the legislative session, public health experts are urging lawmakers to prioritize preparations for another infectious disease outbreak  the possibility of which health officials say is increasingly likely. Lawmakers this session have filed a flurry of proposals related to the pandemic, many of which are at varying stages of the legislative process. Some, experts say, constitute meaningful reform. Others, they warn, could leave the state worse off.

A boom and bust cycle

Gerald Parker, director of the Pandemic and Biosecurity Policy Program at Texas A&M Universitys Bush School of Government and Public Service, said officials often prepare for infectious diseases in the immediate aftermath of an outbreak. But, as other issues take priority over time, attention to and funding for public health issues fades in what he called a boom and bust cycle.

We're going to be faced with a future series of epidemics, outbreaks  whether they rise in the category of a pandemic, we can't predict, Parker said. But COVID has told us we need to take preparedness much more seriously than we have in the past as a nation.

One area of particular concern for legislators is the power wielded by the governor during prolonged times of emergency. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott faced fierce criticism from officials within his party over unilateral decisions to temporarily shut down Texas businesses and to require face masks be worn in public spaces. Abbott also resisted calls from some lawmakers to convene a special session of the Legislature to consider pandemic-related proposals and to weigh how the state should spend billions in federal relief dollars.

ICYMI: CDC says many Americans can now go outside without a mask

In response, lawmakers have sought to curb the power of the governor during states of emergency or disaster. The Texas Senate earlier this year took up and passed bills that would prohibit nursing homes from shutting down visitation to people deemed essential caregivers. Other measures with Senate backing would forbid the governor from mandating the closure of places of worship or gun stores under any circumstances. These proposals, all of which were listed among Lt. Gov. Dan Patricks top 31 priorities, run counter to guidance from public health experts, many of whom have advocated for strategic closures or capacity limitations as a way to slow the spread of the virus.

The most comprehensive attempt to claw back power from the governor is a proposed constitutional amendment  Senate Joint Resolution 45 and its enabling bill, Senate Bill 1025  that would require the governor to call a special session in order to declare a state emergency that lasts more than 30 days. The special session would give lawmakers the chance to terminate or adjust executive actions taken by the governor, or pass new laws related to the disaster or emergency. It would also specify that a statewide disaster declaration preempts a local one.

In discussion on the Senate floor, state Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, D-Austin, who previously served as Travis County judge, expressed concern that the Legislature would not be able to act quickly enough to respond to events during a disaster.

I don't see this Legislature being able to convene fast enough to answer ... in the kind of disasters I have seen and expect the state to see in the future, Eckhardt said.

Eckhardts concern was shared by medical experts, who cautioned that state and local officials need flexibility to respond to emergencies in real time.

Some of those regulatory ceilings Texas has set prevent a lot of really important work that needs to be done at the local level, said Valerie Koch, co-director of the Health Law and Policy Institute at the University of Houston Law Center. She said that measures like those currently moving through the Legislature often come at the detriment of public health and could exacerbate existing health disparities.

In the Texas House, a wide-ranging pandemic bill that was deemed a top priority of the chambers leadership has so far struggled to gain momentum. House Bill 3 by state Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, would, among other things, carve out future pandemics from how the state responds to other disasters, require local jurisdictions to receive approval from the secretary of state before altering voting procedures during a pandemic and address liability protections for businesses operating during a pandemic. It has languished in the House State Affairs Committee for more than a month.

Koch said that lawmakers should act with some urgency in preparing for the next crisis. But she warned against a knee jerk reaction based on political whims rather than sound scientific evidence that justifies various restrictions.

It's much harder to get public buy in if you are slapping a Band-Aid on problems, rather than exploring and researching and analyzing [and] proposing rules that can be applicable in future circumstances, Koch added.

Some measures from the Senate

Though they havent been flagged as top priorities by Patrick, the Texas Senate last week advanced a pair of bills that represent perhaps the most substantial action by either chamber in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The sweeping Senate Bill 968 by state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, who chairs the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, includes a mix of provisions that experts say would bring mixed results.

The measure would require Texas to contract with companies to guarantee an adequate stockpile of personal protective equipment. It would also create the Office of the Chief Epidemiologist within DSHS to respond to disease outbreaks and coordinate with the Texas Division of Emergency Management. An expert panel, composed of five doctors and four health care providers, would be charged with providing recommendations to the chief epidemiologist during declared emergencies or disasters. And the proposal would require health officials to produce a report on the successes and failures of the states coronavirus response.

READ MORE: Fully vaccinated can travel again, says new CDC guidance

Parker, of Texas A&M University, stressed the importance of cooperation between state agencies in preparedness and response.

The need to work seamlessly is absolutely essential, he said.

However, if passed by the Texas House and signed by Abbott, the measure would also limit the duration of a public health disaster or emergency declaration to just 30 days. Only the Legislature would have the power to renew a declaration. And the bill would ban government agencies or businesses from requiring proof of a COVID-19 vaccination, an expansion of an earlier executive order signed by Abbott that outlawed so called vaccine passports.

Senate Bill 969, also by Kolkhorst, addresses what Parker called the heartbeat of pandemic response: data collection. A glitchy state computer system stymied efforts in the early days of the pandemic to track and manage the coronavirus in Texas and left policymakers with incomplete, and at times inaccurate, data about the virus spread. Reliable and transparent data could better prepare hospitals for a wave of infections or inform decisions about resource allocation, Parker said.

It allows us a better ability to anticipate shortfalls and cover those shortfalls before they even happen, Parker said.

The bill, which was unanimously approved by the state Senate, would require DSHS to publicly post on its website all available de-identified public health data during a disaster and coordinate with local health officials to implement a standardized and streamlined method for sharing information. DSHS would also release compliance reports for laboratories that report data to the state and conduct quality assurance checks to ensure data is systematically reviewed for errors and completeness. Health care facilities that fail to report information could be fined up to $1,000 for each instance.

Lawmakers and the public alike have watched as government agencies responded with sweeping statewide policies to reduce the impact of the virus, Kolkhorst said in a March statement after the bills were filed. Sometimes these measures struggled to find the right balance between public health and our individual rights. We must now utilize the lessons learned over the past year to improve the state's response to any future health event.

Structural, systemic barriers

While experts have pointed to the need to prepare for future health crises, they also say that there are immediate steps lawmakers must take to address longstanding disparities in health care that have been laid bare and exacerbated by the pandemic.

Texas has the largest share of uninsured people in the nation, leaving many with costly medical bills at a time when tens of thousands of people lost their jobs. Communities of color in Texas have disproportionately died from the virus, but vaccine distribution in those areas lags behind whiter, more affluent parts of the state.

These inequities are not new, said Nadia Siddiqui, chief health equity officer at the Texas Health Institute. They are a reflection of the deep and longstanding, underlying structural and social inequities that low-income [communities] and communities of color have faced for too long.

Siddiqui said its vital that lawmakers act now to expand vaccination access in rural areas and communities of color through mobile clinics and partnerships with community organizations. She also stressed the need to expand access to health insurance for low-income Texans. Texas is one of 12 states that have not expanded eligibility for Medicaid, a federal insurance program for low-income people.

And she called on the Legislature to reinvest in an Office of Health Equity. In 2017, lawmakers defunded and quietly shuttered the Office of Minority Health Statistics and Engagement, an office within the Texas Health and Human Services Commission that addressed racial disparities and worked with communities to promote racial equity in health care.

In response, a group of Democratic Texas state representatives filed a measure to formally establish and fund the Office of Health Equity. The Texas House on Thursday is slated to take up House Bill 4139. A similar measure in the Senate by state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, was referred to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee but has not yet received a hearing.

We've really got to address those structural, systemic barriers to opportunity and health within our state, Siddiqui said.

Disclosure: Texas A&M University and the University of Houston 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.

The Texas Tribune is a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans  and engages with them  about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
The Texas House gave initial approval on Wednesday to a bill that would expand the states medical cannabis program to include those with chronic pain, all cancer patients and Texans suffering from PTSD.

House Bill 1535, by Rep. Stephanie Klick, R-Fort Worth, who authored the bill establishing Texas initial medical cannabis program in 2015, would also authorize the Department of State Health Services to add additional qualifying conditions through administrative rulemaking, instead of the Legislature needing to pass a law to expand eligibility.

IN HOUSTON: Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee was behind the historic cannabis decriminalization bill

Currently, patients eligible include those with terminal cancer, intractable epilepsy, seizure disorders, multiple sclerosis, spasticity, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, autism or an incurable neurodegenerative disease. The House must give the bill a final vote, and then the Senate will consider the bill, before it can be sent to the governor to be signed into law.

When hemp was legalized in 2019, the medical cannabis program was rendered mostly moot  with legally permissible cannabis treatments only being marginally more potent than over-the-counter CBD oils or tinctures.

The bill would also raise the THC, or Tetrahydrocannabinol, cap from 0.5% to 5% and make it possible for those in Texas medical cannabis program to have access to much higher doses than currently available. THC is the psychoactive compound which produces a high. The National Organization for Reforming Marijuana Laws doesnt recognize the state's current program as a true medical marijuana program, instead labeling it a medical CBD program because of its emphasis on cannabidiol, derived from hemp and containing only traces of the psychoactive compounds found in cannabis, over THC for medicinal use.

Texas program is called the Compassionate Use Program and has fewer enrolled patients and businesses than most other states with medical cannabis programs. At least some form of medical cannabis is legal in 47 states nationwide, but Texas restrictions put it in the bottom 11 in terms of accessibility, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

There were only about 3,500 Texans registered with the state to use medical cannabis, though advocates estimate that there are over 2 million people eligible based on current law.

Heather Fazio, director of Texans for Responsible Marijuana Policy, says the increased THC limit is a step in the right direction, but it still would limit doctors from being able to decide the proper dosages for their patients.

There's an incredibly restrictive cap on THC, she said. Low levels of THC will work for some people but it doesn't work for others. And so what we think is that doctors need to be the ones making these decisions, not lawmakers.

Fazio said the bill would help bring more Texas patients to the program and help reduce the use of addictive opioids. However, she says the bill still leaves patients behind who desperately need access to this medicine.

While Klicks bill strictly affects the legal use of medical cannabis in the state, lawmakers are also taking up bills that tackle how recreational marijuana use is penalized.

RELAXATION: Secret spot with private access to Frio River offers perfect Texas day trip

The House passed House Bill 2593 on Wednesday, which would reduce penalties for possession of some marijuana concentrate. The penalty for possession of up to two ounces of those products would be lowered to a class B misdemeanor.

And on Thursday, the House will consider House Bill 441, which would lessen the penalty for possession of one ounce or less of cannabis, as well as remove the possibility of jail time or losing a drivers license. Offenders would receive a Class C misdemeanor, with police issuing a citation similar to a traffic ticket punishable by a fine of up to $500.

Fazio said the bill would especially help keep young people from suffering criminal consequences.

Not that we want to condone young people smoking weed, but the punishment for possessing it shouldn't be harsher than the actual use of the plant, Fazio said. The penalties have caused far more harm than smoking marijuana ever could.

While the House has been receptive to bills related to reducing penalties for marijuana use, the Senate has been less welcoming. In 2019, the House approved a bill that would have reduced penalties for marjiana possession, but Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick declared it dead in the Senate  not allowing it to be brought to a vote.

But in recent years, Texans have increasingly demonstrated a desire to see marijuana use legalized in the state. According to the February 2021 University of Texas/Texas Tribune polls, 60% of respondents supported legalization for at least small amounts of marijuana for both medical and recreational use  compared to 49% in 2014.

There's a significant shift happening now, and it's so wonderful to see, Fazio said. To see the shift in the way that this issue is perceived, the seriousness that is given at the legislature and now increased support  it's very rewarding. It's such an exciting time to be an advocate.

The Texas Tribune is a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans  and engages with them  about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
In his final press conference, Malaysias outgoing police chief blasted his boss on Friday for intervening in daily departmental affairs, saying this hampered his work and divided the force.

The meddling continued even after he reported it to the prime minister, Police Inspector-General Abdul Hamid Bador said. But his boss, Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin, said he had the authority to involve himself in police matters.

He [the home minister] is only given the mandate to set policies, the direction of the police force. It is not his job to decide who becomes police commissioner and where, or who becomes the director and where.  Hamzah insisted on assuming the power to decide who will be placed where, Abdul Hamid told reporters.

This made it difficult for me to perform my duties. This led to factions siding with different officials. I hope this does not continue. It is not good for the country, its not good.

Abdul Hamid said he had spoken to Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin about the interference.

I brought it up twice with the prime minister  but nothing was done, he said.

For his part, Hamzah said that, in his capacity as home minister, he chaired the Police Force Commission and therefore had the right to decide on the placement of police personnel.

I am the chairperson of the Police Force Commission. I want to inform you that in the constitution, the chairperson of the police commission is the highest position to determine assignments for police officers, Hamzah said at a press conference earlier on Friday, according to local media outlet Malaysiakini.

He made the comment while acknowledging Friday that he was the one speaking in a widely-shared audio clip leaked online earlier this month, in which he talked with an unidentified person about his power to promote and appoint senior police officials.

I admit it. It was my voice. I have done no wrong. The one who is wrong here is the person who taped my conversation. That is an offense. What I did, is not, Hamzah said.

In the clip, the minister is heard saying he would make some appointments to please King Al-Sultan Abdullah Riayatuddin Mustafa Billah Shah.

What if we give it to our boy, we have to promote him ... His Majesty will definitely like him. I am now the chairman of Police Force Commission ... thats why I will choose those who I know that His Majesty will like, the minister is heard saying.

Custody death

However, the outgoing police chief said the home ministers power over the Police Force Commission (PFC) had its limits, and Hamzahs alleged interference in appointments and transfers undermined attention that needed to go to other areas.

The minister has left dozens of disciplinary cases pending and has only conducted meetings four times since becoming home minister last March, Abdul Hamid said.

If we cannot meet twice a month, then at least we have to meet once a month. Also, the PFC has no office. Imagine. This is what I want to share with the public. It doesnt even have an office. Luckily they didnt set up an umbrella and a table, the police chief said.

In addition, he said the minister needed to look into allegations against the police, including about police brutality, custodial deaths, corruption, and abuse of power, among other issues.

On Friday, Malaysian police said they had launched a probe into a high-profile death in custody, amid allegations that officers beat an ethnic Indian detainee, A. Ganapathy, and then failed to give him sufficient and timely treatment for the resulting wounds.

Ganapathy, 40, who died on April 18, was arrested on Feb. 25 for his alleged involvement in criminal cases.

His mother said that he had a history of heart illness and was diabetic. She alleged that her son was beaten while in custody, which led to the amputation of one of his legs and his eventual death.

According to government data, 257 people have died in police custody between 2002 and 2016.

After Hamzah said he was the person in the voice clip discussing police appointments, the youth- wing chief of opposition alliance Pakatan Harapan said the group would file a police report in Kuala Lumpur against the minister next week. Shazni Munir Mohd Ithnin said the minister had acted beyond the scope of his powers and also implicated the king in his discussion on the voice clip.

Meanwhile, the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0) also expressed concern over Hamzahs conversation in the audio clip.

The Police Force Commission chaired by Hamzah  must make public the criteria used to appoint the IGP in order for public members to evaluate the appointment, Bersih 2.0 said in a statement.

The process of appointing key government officials such as the Inspector General of Police is very important and must go through the Parliament so that the appointment is truly transparent, accountable, based on merit and not based on the decision of the federal minister alone.

Earlier on Friday, Hamzah had announced the appointment of Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani as the next Inspector General of Police replacing Abdul Hamid, whose contract ends May 3. Acryl Sani was earlier the deputy police chief.

Abdul Hamid said the PFC should not have a minister as chairperson.

It would be best, ultimately best, if PFC is not chaired by a minister. I recommend it here, the outgoing police chief said.

Give it to a former chief judge, to be the chair of this commission. With ministers, they bring in their political influence into the commission.
Sureerat Chiwarak, mother of jailed Thai protest leader Parit Penguin Chiwarak who has been on a weeks-long hunger strike, attends a demonstration outside the Criminal Court building in Bangkok, April 30, 2021.

Parit Chiwarak, a jailed student leader of the Thai pro-democracy movement who has been on a weeks-long hunger strike, was sent to a hospital late Friday where he was being force fed through a tube, the corrections department said.

His mother, Sureerat Chiwarak, shaved her head in front of the Criminal Court building in Bangkok after judges again turned down her request that Parit, who is known as Penguin, be released on bail on humanitarian grounds. The court turned down a similar request on Thursday.

Doctors and nurses were concerned that he could go into shock so they agreed that he should be admitted to a hospital outside prison to receive treatment from an expert doctor, Thawatchai Chaiyawat, deputy director-general of the Department of Corrections, said in a Facebook post.

Thawatchais post noted that Parit, who started his hunger strike 46 days ago, has seen his weight drop from 107 kg (236 lbs.) to 94.5 kg (208 lbs.).

His body could not recover because he has not been eating and could not drink enough electrolyte drinks, Thawatchai said.

Parit was sent for a treatment at Ramathibodi Hospital and he was fed through a tube.

Parits transfer to the hospital came nearly two weeks after Sureerat, on April 19, asked the court to free her son from jail so he could be hospitalized.

Parit, who appeared at that hearing in a wheelchair, told the court that his inability to be released on bail hurt his efforts to gather evidence for his defense.

At the hearing, attorneys with Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR), a legal aid group, said Sureerat offered to produce 200,000 baht (U.S. $6,400) if her son were granted bail on what was then his 11th application, so he could get hospital treatment. The court rejected the offer as it has done for all requests.

After appearing in court on Friday to ask that her son be granted temporary release, Sureerat said she was making a symbolic gesture by shaving her head in front of the courthouse.

My son is sacrificing what he loves and I am letting go of something that I love as well. I will start with shaving my hair, told reporters. When the people see me walking around with a bald head, which may be ugly, please know that this injustice is happening in Thailand and it is even uglier than this.

TLHR lawyer Noraset Nanongtoom told reporters that another attorney visited Parit and said he was in bad shape  leading his group to apply for an urgent hearing on a bail request.

Hearing scheduled

TLHR announced the court scheduled a bail hearing on May 6 for Parit and fellow activist Panusaya Rung Sithijirawattanakul, who began her own hunger strike on March 31. The lawyers said both activists would be present for the hearing.

The court previously did not announce dates for bail hearings.

We are comparing this case to the reasoning behind the release of Pai and Somyot who were released on bail, Noraset said, referring to Jatupat Pai Boonpattararaksa and Somyot Pruksakasemsuk, who were released on bail on April 23.

While Pai and Somyot were freed after the court ruled there was no sufficient reason to deny their request, Parit and 16 other pro-democracy activists remain behind bars. One other protester was released on bail as well.

The 20 activists have been charged under Article 112, Thailands strict royal defamation law, which is known as Lese-Majeste. Parit and six other activists were charged in February over a November protest at the Democracy Monument in Bangkok.

Authorities have filed at least 86 charges of violating Lese-Majeste, including 79 against those activists linked to the protests. Each conviction carries a sentence of up to 15 years.

Since their first rally in mid-July 2020, thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators have protested for three demands to be addressed  for Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha to step down, for the Constitution to be amended and for the monarchy to be reformed. Their three-fingered salute, borrowed from The Hunger Games movies, is a symbol for these demands.
Ethnic Karen protesters flash a three-finger salute of defiance and display signs calling for the abolishment of the military dictatorship during a demonstration in Dooplaya district, southeastern Myanmars Karen state, April 22, 2021.

More than 30,000 Myanmar civilians have fled their villages in the eastern state of Karen and are hiding in nearby jungles following air strikes in populated areas in response to the seizure of a government military post by a rebel ethnic army, an official from an NGO said Friday.

Fighting that flared up in March in Karen has driven thousands of ethnic Karen into Thailand, while others cluster near the border. To Myanmars west, Bangladesh has beefed up border patrols to stop an influx of Rohingya trying to join fellow members of their ethnic minority in refugee settlements.

Myanmars northernmost state of Kachin has also seen a longstanding conflict between ethnic armies and the national military intensify since army generals overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1, igniting nationwide protests that were met with fierce violence that has killed 750 people.

The Karen National Liberation Army overran the Myanmar armys Thaw Le Hta military post on the Thai-Burmese border on Tuesday, prompting aerial attacks which sent villagers running to the jungle, said Saw Thu Bi, a spokesman for the Karen Peace Support Network.

Myanmar military attacks on populated areas of Karen state in late March also drove many civilians to flee their homes and seek refuge near the Thai border or into Thailand.

Some of them have fled to Thailand since March 27, and they were driven back by Thailand, he said. This time when the military plane attacked their villages, they did not want to run to the Thai side again.

The Thai government has allowed the relief organization to transport food to the refugees, though it proved difficult because some villagers had fled into the mountains, he said.

On Wednesday, military jets attacked villages along Salween (Thanlwin) River four times, though it is not known if there were any casualties.

That air strike caused more than 300 civilians to flee to Thailand, said K'nyaw Paw, general secretary of the Karen Womens Organization (KWO).

The ethnic Karen refugees have been taking shelter in the mountains for almost three months now, said Say Say from the KWOs central standing committee.

There has been heavy artillery fire [and] the internally displaced persons are afraid and living in fear, she said. They have had so much anxiety since the beginning, and their main concern is safety for their lives. They are now more frightened because of the attack.

There are now more than 30,000 Karen refugees in the area, and it is the most worrying situation in more than 70 years of fighting, she said.

The monsoons will be coming very soon, [and] they are living in cramped quarters and without clean water, Say Say said. They will suffer from diarrhea and other illnesses, such as the flu, which are very common.

Fires burn at a Myanmar military base along the bank of the Salween River following an attack by an ethnic Karen rebel army in southeastern Myanmar's Karen state, April 27, 2021. [AFP/Kawthoolei Today]

Crossing into Thailand

Thailands foreign ministry said Friday that more than 2,200 people from Karen state had crossed the border into Mae Hong Son province this week as they fled fighting between rebels and Myanmar government forces.

Currently, there are still people fleeing unrest from Myanmar to the Thai side for asylum in the area of Mae Sariang district, Tanee Sangrat, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told reporters.

The Thai government has ordered relevant agencies to be prepared by allowing people fleeing unrest from Myanmar to stay in a temporary safe area under the supervision of the military. There they will be screened for the coronavirus, he said.

If there is protracted violence, the Thai armed forces and provincial service have prepared a plan to move the refugees to another shelter to wait, the spokesman said. It is about one kilometer from the border, where humanitarian aid will be provided, such as food, water, and medicine.

The Thai government has prohibited the delivery of relief supplies by humanitarian organizations because of COVID-19 regulations, he said.

Matcha Phorn-in, director of the Sangsan Anakot Yawachon Development Project, an NGO, told BenarNews that there was a lack of cooperation between CSOs, NGOs, the U.N., and the Thai government in dealing with refugee problems. Most of the war refugees are children, women and the elderly, Matcha said.

Our demand is to ask the government to open up workspaces with NGOs, U.N. agencies, humanitarian workers, to provide immediate assistance to refugees without pushing [Myanmar refugees] back, said Matcha, who also urged states to support humanitarian aid for refugees, and grant journalists access to the region.

Col. Sujin Sapsin, the commander of the 7th Infantry Regiment, told the media that the Thai military is still unable to assess the violence in Myanmar.

The refugees are not allowed to enter the regular community area. It is more important to keep the people safe as we are fighting the COVID-19, Col. Sujin said, explaining why some areas along the border in Mae Hong Son province had been closed off to outsiders.

Rohingyas head to Bangladesh

To Myanmars west, Bangladesh has intensified patrols along its border with Myanmar to prevent illegal cross-border entries by Rohingya Muslims living in Rakhine state, Bangladeshi officials said Friday.

Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) stopped 133 Myanmar nationals from entering, 104 of whom were pushed back into Myanmar in March and April alone, they said.

Between January and April, another 31 Rohingya had crossed the border but were handed over to the U.N. refugee agency after authorities found them hiding in a local refugee camp, officials said.

In recent times, there has been an increase in attempts by Myanmar nationals to infiltrate into Bangladesh, so we have intensified patrols along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border to prevent illegal entry, said BGBs operations director Lt. Col. Faizur Rahman, referring to the Rohingya.

A crackdown on Myanmars Rohingya led by the Myanmar military in 2017 drove about 745,000 members of the minority group into Bangladesh, where they now live in sprawling displacement camps. The influx of refugees strained already-scarce resources in Bangladesh, itself a developing nation.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya still live in western Myanmars Rakhine state.

Bangladesh has done more than what it can do for the Rohingyas. Now other neighboring countries should also stand beside them, said Mohammad Delwar Hossain, director general of the Myanmar wing at Bangladeshs foreign ministry.

Some of those seeking to join their families in Bangladesh include prisoners recently released by the Myanmar government during an amnesty marking the Buddhist New Year. Authorities freed more than 23,000 prisoners, including 137 foreigners under the general amnesty.

There are many freed prisoners whose families have already taken refuge in Bangladesh. Thats why they want to come here, said Mostafa Kamal, a Rohingya leader in the new refugee camp at Leda in Teknaf sub-district of southeastern Bangladesh.

Mohammad Tariqul Islam, commander of the Armed Police Battalion No. 16, said that 31 Rohingya who were hiding out in Coxs Bazar district, where the refugee camps are located, were sent this year to a transit camp run by the U.N.s refugee agency in Ukhia sub-district.

Myanmar citizens hold a candlelight demonstration against the military junta in Hpakant township, northern Myanmar's Kachin state, April 29, 2021. [AFP/Kachin Waves]

More IDPs in Kachin state

In Kachin state, on Myanmars northern border with China, fighting between the government military and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), an insurgent group, has intensified since the Feb. 1 coup, displacing about 10,000 people, local residents said.

Ten civilians, a monk, and at least 20 cattle were killed in clashes that began in Momauk township on April 10, they said. At least 30 houses were burned to the ground, forcing villagers to flee to refugee camps and religious schools in neighboring townships, they said.

The current situation is very intense, said one resident. There was shooting all day and all night. A military plane came again and again to attack villages below. People in villages like Sihak and Kone Law and further north cannot live there any longer. Tens of thousands of people are now displaced.

A villager was killed and a woman was seriously wounded when a mortar shell fell on his community on Thursday, residents said.

Fighting has intensified and displaced villagers are having great difficulty finding food, said a local villager from Sihak.

When our cows stepped on the mines they laid, the cows died, he said. We are in a lot of trouble now. The local crops are coming out soon, but we can no longer go to the fields. We have to abandon our crops.

Most of the people affected by the fighting, the latest flare-up in a conflict that has been going on since 2012, between Myanmar forces and the KIA township are Shan, the countrys second-largest ethnic group.

Kachin military analysts say there have been more than 40 clashes in over 70 days, with air strikes on at least 20 occasions.

This time, we are seeing a fight which is a mixture of both military and a revolution, and it will be a fierce and lengthy fight without either side giving up, said Wasaung Sayadaw, a Buddhist abbot who is helping the displaced villagers.

It will be like a revolutionary war instead of the ordinary war because the country as well as the people will suffer for a long time.

KIA spokesman Colonel Naw Bu said the rebel force stands in solidarity with the people to overthrow the military dictatorship.

We will only be able to overthrow the dictatorship if everyone participates in any way they can, he said. The people must be involved in winning this war.

Radio Free Asias, a sister entity of BenarNews, could not reach deputy information minister and junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, for comment

More than 120,000 displaced people in Kachin already were living in over 40 refugee camps before the military coup on Feb 1.

Two motorcyclists killed

Protests against the Myanmar junta and in support of the parallel government continued on Friday in many townships of Yangon, Mandalay and Sagaing regions and in Shan state.

Hundreds of young people marched in Yangon, despite heavy rain.

According to RFA, more than 700 people have been killed by the military and police across the country. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a monitoring group based in Thailand, recorded 759 deaths since Feb. 1 and 4,537 arrests, with 3,485 still detained.

In Mon state, two motorcyclists were killed on the spot when police and soldiers in a car chased and rammed into them Thursday evening, said Lin Tin Htay, a lawmaker in the states assembly, on his Facebook page.

In Mandalays Chanayethazan township, a bomb exploded at a building near the district court Friday morning, prompting a rapid response by security forces, though there were no casualties, a witness said.

Bomb blasts are becoming a daily occurrence in Mandalay with similar attacks earlier this week outside the residences of local officials and offices.
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On the FactCheck page, The Associated Press tracks down some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals that were shared widely on social media. The AP takes those untrue stories, checks them out and sets the records straight in this weekly series of news articles.


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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.
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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.
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GARFIELD, WA - At approximately 5:00 PM on Friday, the Garfield Police Department attempted to stop a vehicle that was driven by a male with known felony warrants. The Garfield Marshal recognized 26-year-old Taylor Shell, of Lewiston, from a recent booking photo and noticed he had several felony warrants in Washington and Idaho.

According to the Whitman County Sheriff's Office, the Marshal attempted to catch Shells vehicle while checking on the status of his warrants. Shell immediately started driving in a reckless manner. Marshal Handley initiated a pursuit and called for assistance from the Whitman County Sheriffs Office. Several Deputies, Palouse Police, and Pullman Police assisted in the pursuit and traffic control in the area.

The pursuit continued for approximately 15 minutes until deputies were able to successfully deploy spike strips. The vehicle continued to drive several miles on flat tires before stopping south of Palouse. Shell was taken into custody without further incident. A passenger in the vehicle later identified as 23-year-old Cassidy Stadtmiller, of Lewiston, was also arrested on a Felony warrant out of Clarkston. Deputies observed heroin and a large amount of used paraphernalia in the vehicle during the stop.

Shell is expected to have his first appearance in Whitman County Superior Court for Felony Eluding on Monday. Police say Shell has been the driver in 4 pursuits since January of this year.
(The Center Square)  Three Puget Sound cities saw construction jobs increase by 5% in the past year despite the pandemic-induced recession.

New data released by the Associated General Contractors of America (AGCA) shows work in the construction industry fell by 57% between March of 2020 and March of 2021. It used government employment data to find the changes. The report blames supply chain disruption, canned projects and the soaring cost of building materials.

Statewide, Washington saw construction employment rise 2%, adding 222,000 jobs to the state economy. Seattle, Bellevue, and Everett combined for a 5% growth in construction jobs. Seattle alone added 5,300 new construction jobs and the Tacoma-Lakewood area came in a close second with a 4% increase.

Most metropolitan areas have not seen as much success. The AGCA reports that less than a third of the 358 urban areas it studied saw construction job growth since the onset of the pandemic.

The Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land in Texas shed the most construction jobs in the same 12-month period31,000marking a decline of 13%. New York City came in second at 24,000 lost construction jobs, followed by Midland, Texas at 10,000.

Industry data shows construction is getting more expensive across the board. Last month, a report from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) blamed rising costs for building materials like lumber adding $24,000 to the average new home price.

Nearly twice as many metros have lost construction jobs as gained them in the past 12 months, even though homebuilding has recovered strongly and the overall economy is in much better shape than it was a year ago, said AGCA chief economist Ken Simonson. Nonresidential construction is still at risk of further declines in much of the country.

Washington was among the states which shut down construction projects when it enacted its initial stay-at-home orders in March of 2020. Construction resumed in June of 2020 with social distancing and face mask rules required. The state Department of Health reports construction sites as the fifth most common source of COVID outbreaks, with 237 cases to date behind the retail, manufacturing, childcare and foodservice industries.

Washingtons unemployment rate in March stood at 5.6% or almost double what it was in the weeks preceding the pandemic, the state Employment Security Department reports. Reports from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics suggest many businesses in Washington lost to COVID shutdowns may not return.

The construction industry is essential to the state. Some 72% of households are priced out of the housing market. In 2020, the median price of a Washington home was $522,023, according to the NAHB. Estimates peg the states housing deficit at 225,000 unitsa rate reflective of the million new residents Washington has welcomed since 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Washington remains under an eviction moratorium through the end of June.
Plus, Bill's Message of the Day, say goodbye to law and order Joe.

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Market Scenario :

HIV prevalence in Africa, specifically in Southern region is very high as compared to North African region. Approximately 1 out of 4 is suffering from HIV. Southern and Eastern region of Africa has one of the highest prevalence rate of HIV, about 19 million people have HIV. While HIV prevalence is low in North Africa but the number of cases of HIV are increasing rapidly. There is no cure for HIV but drugs manufacturing companies are investing huge money in R&D to develop drugs for HIV. Over 3000 patients were died in sub Saharan Africa due to HIV in 2015. Following 10 countries from Africa consists of 80% of total HIV burden which are South Africa, Kenya, Malawi, Ethiopia, Mozambique, United Republic of Tanzania, Nigeria, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

Middle East and Africa HIV Diagnosis & Treatment Market is growing moderately. Middle East and Africa HIV Diagnosis & Treatment Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.3% and expected to reach US$ 2.07 billion by 2023 from US$ 1.65 billion in 2016.

Intended Audience

Hospitals and Clinics

HIV Diagnosis & Treatment drugs manufacturers

HIV Diagnosis & Treatment drugs suppliers

Government and Independent Regulatory Authorities

Research and Development (R&D) Companies

Market Research and Consulting Service Providers

Medical Research Laboratories

Potential Investors

Key Players for Middle East and Africa HIV Diagnosis & Treatment Market:

Some of the key players in HIV Diagnosis & Treatment Market Size are: Abbott Laboratories (US), Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH (Germany), Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (US), Cipla Inc. (India), F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd (Switzerland), Gilead (US), GlaxoSmithKline plc. (UK), Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc.(US), ViiV Healthcare group of companies (UK), Merck & Co., Inc. (US).

Segments:

Middle East and Africa HIV Diagnosis & Treatment Market has been segmented on the basis of diagnosis which comprise ELISA Test, Saliva Tests, Viral Load Test, Western Blot, and Others. On the basis of treatment, market is segmented into Protease inhibitors (PIs), Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs), Nucleoside or nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), Entry or fusion inhibitors, Integrase inhibitors, and others.

Regional Analysis of Middle East and Africa HIV Diagnosis & Treatment Market:

Considering the scenario of the Middle East and African HIV Diagnosis & Treatment market, Africa is believed to be the largest market for HIV Diagnosis & Treatment. Moreover, the Rest of Middle East and Africa is growing and it is the second largest market for Middle East and Africa HIV Diagnosis & Treatment. On the other hand, UAE market is expected to grow at significant rate in the Middle East and Africa HIV Diagnosis & Treatment during the forecasted period. Saudi Arabia is likely to have a limited but moderate growth in the market.

The report for Middle East and Africa HIV Diagnosis & Treatment Market of Market Research Future comprises extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides detail information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different markets segments and regions.

Read More @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/hiv-diagnosis-treatment-market-2990

About US:

Market Research Future (MRFR), enable customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.
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A proposal to kick-start new aggregate mining operations just south of Rivers is dead in the water, according to Minister of Agriculture and Resource Development Blaine Pedersen.

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A proposal to kick-start new aggregate mining operations just south of Rivers is dead in the water, according to Minister of Agriculture and Resource Development Blaine Pedersen.

The minister made this announcement during Wednesdays Question Period in the Legislative Assembly after being prompted for an update on the quarry permit application process by River Heights MLA Jon Gerrard.

"Our government recognizes that this particular piece of Crown land has significant environmental concerns," Pedersen said. "And after careful review  Im pleased to tell the member for River Heights, and to the people around Rivers, that the permit has been denied."

This quarry permit was submitted by representatives from Western Asphalt Products, who wanted to establish surface mining operations roughly 10 kilometres south of Rivers to extract sand, gravel and crushed stone from an area thats around 10 acres in size.

These raw materials, also known as aggregate, would then be used for various infrastructure projects across the province, including highway construction.

However, this proposed mining project faced heavy opposition from a vocal contingent of Rivers residents, especially those who lived adjacent to where the quarry would be set up if approved.

Gerrard briefly echoed some of their concerns during Wednesdays Question Period, having personally toured this area of Westman and met with some of its residents earlier this month.

"The area has native forest and prairie and is an incredible wildlife habitat, including for endangered and threatened species. The area also has important archaeological sites," he said. "The gravel pit would have a significant adverse impact on these (factors) as well as on drainage in the area."

During his tour of the region, Gerrard met with residents Eleanor and Marlin Beever, who have been leasing that section of Crown land for decades for cattle grazing.

As such, the couple has been one of the most vocal detractors of the proposed mining operation, letting their true feelings be known during a public hearing that took place at the Riverdale Community Centre on April 6.

"My dad used to call it Gods country," Marlin said during the meeting. "I dont see why people would want to desecrate that environment, but I guess its hard to see the beauty with dollar signs in your head."

Eleanor and Marlin Beever survey the Crown land that runs adjacent to their own property located just south of Rivers. The farming couple told the Sun earlier this month that theyve fallen in love with this land over the last couple of decades and dont want to see it destroyed by a proposed aggregate mining operation that is being brought forward by Western Asphalt Products. The pair got their wish on Wednesday when Minister of Agriculture and Resource Development Blaine Pedersen publically denied Western Asphalts application during question period in the Legislature. (File)

Talking to the Sun on Thursday, Eleanor said she was relieved to hear that the province had denied this mining application.

"Its been a big part of our life and we would like to leave it for the next generation," she said. "We have a 22-month-old grandson and we would sure like to ensure that he sees and enjoys it."

However, representatives from Western Asphalt told the Sun on Thursday that the companys mining application is still pending at this time.

As of 5 p.m. Friday, the status of the companys quarry lease for this area, registered under the number "QL-3321," is still categorized as "pending" on the provinces Integrated Mining and Quarrying System (iMaQs) website.

A provincial spokesperson responded to the Suns follow-up inquiry on Friday to confirm that the application has been denied.

Adam Mahaney, Western Asphalts Manitoba division general manager, also took issue with Gerrards characterization of the proposed mining site south of Rivers on Wednesday.

"We have to complete a heritage impact assessment, which has not been completed yet," Mahaney said. "But hes basically making claims that there is an Indian burial ground on the site, which nobody knows because nobody has done an impact assessment."

When confronted about these claims, Gerrard provided the Sun with a memorandum from the Manitoba Historic Resources Branch, which has already examined the site in question.

In a letter dated March 8, a representative from the branch stated that they are wary of the impact a mining operation could have on "both known archaeological sites and human burials, as well as unknown heritage resource sites."

"The proposed pit is located on the edge of a large glacial meltwater channel, and there are also numerous archaeological sites in the immediate area, including Precontact Indigenous settlements with intact (tipi) rings and other stone features, as well as historic cart trails, and human burials," the representative wrote. "These factors, to name a few, suggest that any future planned development within the area has the potential to impact heritage resources."

The letter ends with the Manitoba Historic Resources Branch ordering the applicant in question, Western Asphalt, to contract a qualified archaeological consultant to conduct a heritage impact assessment.

According to Mahaney, this process is yet to be concluded, which makes the outright cancellation of this mining application by Pedersen premature.

Western Asphalt Products representative Adam Mahaney, middle, checks his notes during a public hearing that took place at the Riverdale Community Centre on April 6. This meeting was meant to gauge public opinion on the companys proposal to set up an aggregate mining operation just south of town. Even though the companys application was recently denied by the province, Mahaney told the Sun that he aims to appeal this decision. (File)

Mahaney also took issue with Gerrards claim that the proposed mining site is home to endangered species since he said Manitoba Conservation hasnt made this determination on this front during the consultation process.

However, Gerrard told the Sun that at least one Rivers resident told him about the presence of several threatened species of birds during his tour of the area, including the bobolink, red-headed woodpecker and the loggerhead shrike.

The Beevers reaffirmed the existence of these birds in the area during a follow-up conversation with the Sun on Friday, which is why they are already taking steps to try and classify the proposed mining site as protected land moving forward.

"I mean, this is a pretty important piece of land for habitat," Marlin said on Thursday. "Its a wildlife corridor, and it needs to be respected for that. It doesnt need to be torn asunder by a pit that  people in our area would say isnt needed."

Mahaney also mentioned that the Beevers opposition to this new mining application should be brought into question since Marlin has his own registered quarry operations in the same exact area.

A quick search on the iMaQs website revealed that Marlin has registered 15 quarry leases since 2007, with the most recent lease being issued on March 31.

In response, Marlin told the Sun that his mining operations do not pose the same environmental impact that Western Asphalts project would if it was approved.

"Our quarry has nothing to do with what we are trying to save in that piece of Crown land. They are absolutely two separate entities," he said. "Whether or not we have a quarry doesnt change the fact that we have the Crown land under lease and weve had it for years and we want to maintain it and we want to see it protected going forward."

Additionally, Marlin said he and his wife arent the only local residents opposing this mining operation from Western Asphalt, pointing to the April 6 public hearing in Rivers where the vast majority of the attendees who spoke up objected to the proposal.

In fact, at the beginning of the hearing, officials representing Riverdale Municipality revealed that they had received 21 letters from Westman residents opposing the application beforehand and only received four letters in support.

"If Im in a conflict of interest, I can give you the name of 150 other people who are not in a conflict of interest, who are likely as adamant or more adamant than we are to see this piece of land protected," Marlin said.

Mahaney told the Sun on Friday that Western Asphalt is going to appeal the ministers denial of their mining application, wanting the heritage impact assessment to be complete before an official decision can be made.

 kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

 Twitter:@KyleDarbyson
Manitoba recorded its highest daily number of new COVID-19 cases since December, with 295 cases announced Friday.

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Manitoba recorded its highest daily number of new COVID-19 cases since December, with 295 cases announced Friday.

There were 50 new cases in Prairie Mountain Health, which is also the highest single-day total since December.

Acting deputy chief provincial public health officer Dr. Jazz Atwal said during his Friday COVID-19 media briefing that cases of variants of concern now make up approximately 50 per cent of Manitobas new cases, with the highest proportion of cases being found in the provinces south.

Because of this, Manitoba will now treat every positive case of COVID-19 as if it is a variant of concern case.

Of the variant of concern cases the province is seeing, the majority is made up of the B.1.1.7 variant first identified in the United Kingdom.

"With case counts rising and the proportion of (variant of concern) cases increasing, public health needs to focus its resources on first case investigations to get as much information as possible, as soon as possible," Atwal said. "Thats why public health will no longer be specifically notifying all people if they screen positive for the B.1.1.7 variant of concern. In areas of the province where the proportion of (variants of concern) and B.1.1.7 are low such as in northern and remote communities, this notification and check may still occur and continue for B.1.1.7."

With case counts on the rise, Atwal called for Manitobans to adhere to the new health orders put in place earlier this week as "public health cannot do this alone."

Multiple times during the briefing, members of the media asked Atwal to share information from the provinces modelling showing how it expects the third wave of the pandemic to progress.

The doctor declined to provide any information, saying too much emphasis is being put on modelling. Although he downplayed the utility of models, he warned Manitobans to expect further increases in daily case counts.

"Dont worry about a model, lets worry about our interactions with people," Atwal said. "Lets worry about making sure that our friends, our family and our neighbours are adhering to the orders, adhering to the messaging. Lets make sure when its your time to get that vaccine, you get that vaccine."

In December and January, chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin referenced the provinces modelling to warn Manitobans how deadly the second wave could get. He also used modelling to talk about how many lives had been saved by moving the province to code red conditions.

Asked why the province isnt instituting restrictions as severe as those implemented last November, Atwal said there is currently only a 33 per cent week-by-week increase in cases compared to the 50 per cent seen last year.

The province updated its guidelines for the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine on Friday, with anyone aged 30 to 39 now eligible to receive their shot.

In addition, Manitobans who are pregnant, clients of Community Living disABILITY Services, those who work in any health-care setting (including outpatients settings) or work in the provincial vaccine warehouse are now able to book vaccination appointments at super sites and pop-up clinics as of 2 p.m. today.

 cslark@brandonsun.com

SIDEBAR: Providence Therapeutics wants out

The biotech company Manitoba made a deal with to make COVID-19 vaccines in Canada is in the process of organizing a move overseas, the CBC reported on Friday.

Providence Therapeutics CEO Brad Sorenson expressed frustrations with Canadas provincial and federal governments and said his company would work on developing a vaccine for the southern hemisphere.

In February, Premier Brian Pallister announced Manitoba had entered into a deal with the company to have its COVID-19 vaccines still in development manufactured in a Winnipeg facility and for them to give Manitoba first access to doses produced.

Pallister said at the time agreement included a non-refundable down payment of $7.2 million.

In an email to the Sun, the provinces director of media relations and issues management Blake Robert wrote that the deal has not been finalized and no payment was ever made to Providence.

"While Providence is the developer of the vaccine, their Canadian partners Northern RNA and Emergent Biosolutions remain an integral part of Providences vaccine production plans," he wrote. "A finalized agreement would still result in vaccines for Manitoba being produced at Emergents facility in Winnipeg, which supports our governments efforts to enhance domestic vaccine production."

 The Brandon Sun
Last Sunday hundreds (thousands?) of people stormed The Forks in Winnipeg to participate in an odd mix of protests against the unholy trinity of government, vaccines and masks. As of this writing, there have been very few charges laid against these individuals, even though they were clearly acting in disregard of the public health orders. Am I missing something?

Last Sunday hundreds (thousands?) of people stormed The Forks in Winnipeg to participate in an odd mix of protests against the unholy trinity of government, vaccines and masks. As of this writing, there have been very few charges laid against these individuals, even though they were clearly acting in disregard of the public health orders. Am I missing something?

Look, Im a big fan of public protest. Governments need to hear what we have to say  this is one of the basic tenets of democracy  the consent of the governed. Although given the extraordinarily malevolent pandemic we find ourselves enmeshed in, it might be a wise idea to be more serious about dissuading crowds to form.

Im not entirely sure why we pass orders that prevent small gatherings while we tut-tut unhinged anti-maskers gathering by the hundreds. This doesnt make a lot of sense to me.

Wheres our sense of nuance? There is a difference between visiting my parents at their home and hosting a house party sponsored by Speaker City. We cannot expect politicians to have specific orders for each one of us in every circumstance.

The protest seemed like a motley collection of folks  some with "F--- Trudeau" signs and other equally thoughtful signs, including linking Premier Pallister to communism.

I think characterizing Pallister as communist is imbecilic and reflects a lack of understanding by the protesters. Pallister might be viewed as authoritarian by the way he has issued health dictates, but thats not communism, folks. Lets get our insults right.

(Should the inability to properly employ the word "communist" as an insult underscore the need for the K-12 education review? Another column, another time.)

I think our government performance, both federally and here in Manitoba, has been scattershot at best. Neither level has done a great job dealing with the pandemic, but as further vaccines arrive in Canada, and folks are getting jabbed, COVID will eventually become endemic and not pandemic.

There have been signs of sage judgment along the way  Manitoba wisely dropping the age for people to get the Astra Zeneca shot; Trudeau bailing out Air Canada but requiring the airline to provide cash refunds for cancelled flights.

I like the deal Premier Pallister made with North Dakota in which that state will cover both the costs and vaccines themselves of truckers moving products into Manitoba. Its not a huge deal, but its a good one.

My belief is that the vast bulk of the anger we feel these days is misplaced. No one is happy being stuck at home or having our incomes and lives so negatively impacted. Its tough being unable to see our parents or visit with our friends and families. These concerns are all real and tangible. There are countless mental health challenges accompanying these lockdowns.

I get it  youre mad, so am I, but who should I be mad at?

Regardless of who is in office, COVID has struck that jurisdiction. People have died and economies have suffered. This is true of Democratic California and Conservative Ontario just as it is true of Republican Texas and NDP British Columbia.

Were mad because our lives are not particularly fulfilling anymore. Humans are social animals and we are restricted from doing so many of the things that give our lives meaning.

All I can suggest is this  get your vaccine shots. With each shot, we are one moment closer to reopening. I understand vaccine reluctance, but the actual science and research behind these shots are overwhelmingly positive compared to any vaccine Ive ever seen or read about. If youre measuring against perfect, then perhaps your reticence is warranted. But this is not the case  you are measuring against the impact of COVID. I got my AZ shot. Get yours.
He doesnt look a day over 11 but Ginger Meggs is turning 100.

Depending on who you ask, the happy-go-lucky redhead is either a quintessentially Aussie larrikin or Australias answer to Charlie Brown - or both.

Either way, the comic started by Jimmy Bancks in 1921, is one of the longest-running comic strips in the world. As well as its home in The Sun-Herald, it is translated into Spanish and French and syndicated globally, including Thailand, India, France and North and South America, as well as appearing on Instagram, Twitter and Tumblr.

Tristan Bancks, the great-great-nephew of Jimmy Bancks, has written short stories for a book celebrating the centenary of Ginger Meggs. Credit:Edwina Pickles

Comic artist Jason Chatfield is the fifth artist to draw Ginger Meggs - he started 14 years ago at the age of 23 and as far as hes concerned, its a job for life. Copyright is held by Bancks family, who choose the cartoonist.
Of course, its always best to get your own independent financial advice, but economists are fairly unanimous in theirs. To understand exactly why economists dislike active trading so much, you need a crash course in a concept known as the Efficient Markets Hypothesis. And I got it this week when I arranged to meet up for coffee with economics professor Richard Holden from the University of New South Wales. Well, technically I had a hot chocolate, because I cant drink caffeine after noon. But Holden ordered a double espresso and proceeded to explain, at pace. So, Efficient Markets Hypothesis basically says all available information about companies  such as do they have a good chief executive, do they have a good strategy, is the sector going to do well  is already reflected in current stock prices.

Why? Because there are a bunch of people running around on trading desks arbitraging things away. If that wasnt true, then there would be an arbitrage opportunity and then somebody would do that. But cant I do the same? In the lightening-fast world of modern technology and information exchange, no, says Holden. By the time youve read an annual report or a stockbroker has read something and sent out their newsletter, its in the price. Holden previously studied at the University of Chicago, where the inventor of Efficient Markets Hypothesis theory, Nobel prize-winning economist Eugene Fama, also works.

Fama, along with another economist, Kenneth French, also invented the Fama-French 3 factor model, explains Holden  and it is at this point that I am wishing I ordered that coffee... Perhaps the only thing you need to know about that model is that US investor David G. Booth is famous for becoming wealthy trading off it, and the idea that small-cap stocks deliver bigger returns over time than large-cap stocks, as do companies whose book-to-market ratio is high rather than low. It must be said the strategy has, however, taken something of a belting of late, as big growth-oriented companies like Facebook have dominated earnings. Although, as they often do in the sharemarket, things have turned around again more recently as investors speculate on a return to value investing and away from growth. Which is kind of the point. Markets can turn on a dime and financial success in one year is no guarantee of performance in the next, says Holden.

In any case, the bottom line is sophisticated investors can make money. And the best hedge fund managers do, on a risk-adjusted basis. But nobody else can and the evidence is that, in fact, about 80 per cent of fund managers dont. But, I plead, what about the vast industry of fund managers and stockbrokers who slap buy, sell or hold recommendations on stocks? Surely they know something? So, theyre all wrong, says Holden. And theyre fairly rapidly going out of business. As for me, Holden is not against me having a dabble in the sharemarket, as long as I know what Im getting myself into. You should still totally do your thing and report it, but be prepared to show that it might not work.

Its not that Ill necessarily lose all my money by individual stock picking, says Holden. But Ill likely lose out compared to investing in a low-cost indexed fund. How much return are you leaving on the table? Loading The good news, concludes Holden, is that attempting to pick stocks is probably a better use of my time than playing the pokies (yikes!). So, the bottom line is the equity premium, the return to equities over the last 120 years or so, is about 6 per cent over the risk-free rate. That is, on average, the sharemarket house pays out 6 per cent above long-term government bond yields. So fine, have some fun. But view it as partially consumption.
But smaller-sized trams are being prioritised so they can run along tight curves on parts of the network that are inaccessible to E-Class trams. They will also be lighter, avoiding the need for expensive bridge strengthening works, which was required when the heavier E-Class trams were rolled out. A battery-powered trackless tram in the Chinese city of Zhuzhou. Credit:CRRC Zhuzhou Institute, Peter Newman. Tram rides will be smoother, thanks to new technology that helps avoid collisions via on-board cameras and network mapping that warns drivers of obstacles and can automatically apply brakes. They will also be powered differently. Instead of relying on power from overhead wires, which are expensive to maintain and vulnerable to faults, the new fleet will be the first in Melbourne to be partly powered by on-board batteries. They will be equipped with regenerative braking technology, which transfers the kinetic energy released by the trams brakes back into the trams battery, which then helps to power the tram. This will mean a 40 per cent drop in power usage, while there will also be a cap on the amount of energy the tram can draw from overhead lines.

An E-Class tram. This is all about solving yet another problem that arose with E-Class trams: they used so much energy that new traction power substations were needed to power them. What commuters want While the trams size and technology can help smoothen a ride, this ultimately depends on the quality of track. And according to Monash Universitys public transport chair Graham Currie, Melbournes ageing steel tracks have poor rider quality. Slips and falls on trams have increased in recent years. We have a big issue with tram track quality which needs a long-term solution, Professor Currie said.

More hanging straps and hand rails are needed, said Public Transport Users Association spokesman Tony Morton. The lack of handles and grab rails causes commuters to crowd around tram doors, making it difficult for people to get on and off. It means trams run slower and dwell times are longer, Dr Morton said. Melbournes newer trams were imperfectly built for people using wheelchairs and mobility aids and the new designs could bring vast improvements, said Martin Leckey, a committee member for the Disability Resources Centre. But above all else, Mr Leckey said the government must ensure all tram stops and trams are wheelchair-accessible  a project the Transport Department estimates would cost at least $2 billion. By the end of next year, all tram stops must be accessible under federal law. But only 23 per cent of stops are accessible today. Funding to upgrade the network slowed down to a trickle, said Mr Leckey, who uses a wheelchair. It means that me and so many other people who rely on wheelchair access or other mobility aids cant use the trams, he said.

Time for trackless trams? Theyre like electric buses, but better. So-called trackless trams, built and now operating in China, are battery-powered vehicles with rubber wheels that use sensors rather than steel tracks to run. New South Wales and WA governments are looking to roll these trams out, with the Morrison government putting $2 million into a business case for such trams in Perth. Professor of Sustainability Peter Newman, who is leading research into these trams at Curtin University, said the vehicles can travel at high speeds while maintaining a ride so smooth that you could put a cup of coffee on a table and it wont move. They can be plonked onto the road network overnight for around $6 million to $8 million per kilometre, a fraction of the cost of light rail, Professor Newman said. But the trams would be better suited in growth areas such as Wyndham, he said, while Professor Currie and Mr Morton said they would be best used plugging gaps in the bus network.
More than 20,000 new car owners in Victoria will get a $3000 government subsidy if they buy a vehicle with zero emissions under a new plan.

The subsidy is part of a new $100 million Victorian government emissions package, to be funded by a new road user charge which is yet to be introduced.

On Saturday night, the Andrews government also outlined an ambitious plan to have half the cars sold in Victoria be zero-emissions vehicles (ZEVs) by 2030.

New Volkswagen ID.3 electric automobiles at the companys headquarters in Wolfsburg. The company is challenging Tesla as the global leader in EVs. Credit:Bloomberg

The $3000 incentive will be available for vehicles purchased after Sunday May 2. There will be 4000 spots in the program released initially, with further rounds yet to be announced.
My father has been a strong advocate in my corner of pushing me to do bigger and better. He joined [the fire department] when I joined as a cadet, so it was pretty much father and son working hand-in-hand for that, he said. There was nothing else like that; to help other people and see some of the things we see in the line of work we do, with your father. Being able to have somebody in your family that understands and is able to sit down and talk about it, the good and the bad, is huge.
Following three emergency meetings on Saturday, Premier Mark McGowan has announced a security guard in his 20s who works in hotel quarantine tested positive to COVID-19, along with two of his housemates.

The man and his housemates are being moved into hotel quarantine.

Premier Mark McGowan.

Mr McGowan said the man had worked at the Pan Pacific Perth, and may have been infectious in the community since April 27.

The security guard, who is WAs 1001th COVID-19 case, lives in the northern Perth suburb of Nollamara, and during his potentially infectious period he lived with seven housemates. Two housemates have returned positive test results.
Children should be in playgrounds and classrooms, not locked up behind bars.

Yet Queensland continues to imprison children at alarming and unacceptable rates.

Locking more children up will not make us safer.

This injustice is compounded by the fact a staggering 99 per cent of the children entering Queensland youth prison are unsentenced and languishing behind bars for behaviour that a court has not yet found them guilty of.

To make matters worse, the Palaszczuk government introduced laws that will see the number of children in pre-trial detention soar higher. The laws make it harder to get bail in more circumstances than before, making time behind bars the default setting for children in certain cases.
Jaspreet Rai is desperately trying to do her part for the country she left more than 30 years ago: help its people breathe.

An employee inside an oxygen filling centre in Bengaluru, India. Credit:Getty Images

Rai, 53, who moved to Endicott, New York - the birthplace of IBM - from Punjab, in India, is the founder of Sanrai International, a provider of oxygen concentrators. With India now the epicentre of the pandemic, counting about 3500 COVID-19 deaths daily, and oxygen supplies running out, Rai has rushed to help her former homeland cope with its worst crisis in recent history.

This is probably the hardest time theyre going through, Rai says of her 100-strong staff on the ground, who will supply 30,000 units across India in May, several times the 1500 Sanrai normally provides in a year. When you dont have equipment, and youre trying to hold people, and theyre gasping, literally gasping for air. And youre like, look, Ive sold my last unit, I have to wait until the next stock comes in.

Like Rai, millions of Indians spread across the globe - one of the worlds largest diasporas - are trying to do what they can to help their country of origin as heart-wrenching images of people lining up for oxygen cylinders, waiting outside hospitals for a bed or huddling around funeral pyres flash across their screens. Some have been unable to do anything to save family members who have succumbed to the disease.
Major automobile manufacturers Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai Motor, Tata Motors and Kia on Saturday reported a decline in passenger vehicle sales in April compared to March this year as the second wave of the pandemic hit dispatches.

However, Mahindra & Mahindra along with Honda Cars India posted sequential growth in their passenger vehicle sales last month.

Sales in April this year are not comparable with that of the corresponding month a year ago as companies had reported zero sales due to the nationwide lockdown imposed to curb the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) reported a 4 per cent decline in total sales to 1,59,691 units in April as compared to 1,67,014 units in March this year.

Similarly, Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) posted total sales of 59,203 units in April 2021, a decline of 8 per cent from 64,621 units it had sold in March this year.

HMIL Director (Sales, Marketing and Service) Tarun Garg said, "In these challenging times, we stand in solidarity with the nation and are continuing all efforts to support the affected... While our efforts presently focus primarily on supporting the lives and livelihood of people, we have also received positive sales results in April 2021".

Likewise, homegrown auto major Tata Motors said its passenger vehicle sales in the domestic market stood at 25,095 units in April, down 15 per cent from 29,654 units in March this year.

However, compatriot Mahindra & Mahindra said its passenger vehicles sales in the domestic market stood at 18,285 units last month, up 9 per cent from 16,700 units in March 2021.

"With the increase in lockdown restrictions in many parts of the country, we foresee continuing supply chain-related production challenges. While demand remains good, there would be some impact in the first quarter as a result of low customer movement and dealership activity due to the lockdown restrictions," M&M Chief Executive Officer Automotive Division Veejay Nakra said.

In times like these, the company's focus is the well-being and safety of all its associates and dealers, he added.

Honda Cars India also reported a 28 per cent increase in its domestic sales to 9,072 units last month as compared to 7,103 units in March this year.

"The current health calamity has struck the entire nation and at this time nothing is more important than the health and well-being of our countrymen. Of course, it has had an impact on the business and deliveries in the marketplace," Honda Cars India Senior Vice President and Director (Marketing & Sales) Rajesh Goel said.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) said its dispatches to the dealers last month stood at 9,622 units.

"Despite the challenges, we continue to witness good demand owing to personal mobility needs and the same has helped us clock 9,622 units of wholesales in the month of April 2021," TKM Senior Vice President Naveen Soni said.

Kia India reported a 16 per cent decline in dispatches to dealers to 16,111 units in April compared to 19,100 units in March this year, while MG Motor India said its retail sales last month stood at 2,565 units.

MG Motor said its production and vehicle dispatches to dealers last month was significantly higher than retail sales although it currently has an order backlog of over three months across its product lines.

With the second wave of COVID-19 leading to a surge in infections, the company has joined hands with Vadodara-based Devnandan Gases to help it increase the production of oxygen for medical usage.

"In these times, our efforts are directed towards keeping people safe and maximising service to the communities," MG Motor India President and Managing Director Rajeev Chaba 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.)
Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) on Saturday said its total sales declined by 10 per cent to 36,437 units in April as compared with March this year on account of lockdown in various states amid surge in COVID-19 cases.

The Mumbai-based auto major had dispatched 40,403 units to dealers in March this year. It had zero sales in the domestic market in April last year due to nationwide lockdown due to COVID-19.

Passenger vehicles sales in the domestic market stood at 18,285 units last month, up 9 per cent from 16,700 units in March 2021.

Commercial vehicles sales, however, declined by 25 per cent to 16,147 units in April as against 21,577 units in March this year.

The company said its exports last month stood at 2,005 units in April as compared with 2,126 units in March. M&M had exported 733 units in April 2020.

"With the increase in lockdown restrictions in many parts of the country, we foresee continuing supply chain related production challenges. While demand remains good, there would be some impactin the first quarter as a result of low customer movement and dealership activity due to the lockdown restrictions," M&M Chief Executive Officer Automotive Division Veejay Nakra said.

In times like these, the company's focus is the well-being and safety of all its associates and dealers, he added.

"Our customers will continue to experience unrestricted personalised as well as digital and contactless sales and service support," Nakra 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.)
India Ltd (HMIL) on Saturday reported total sales of 59,203 units in April 2021, a decline of 8 per cent from 64,621 units it had sold in March this year.

Domestic sales stood at 49,002 units, while exports were at 10,201 units last month, the company said in a statement.

The sales of April this year are not comparable with that of the same month last year as there were no domestic sales due to the nationwide lockdown imposed in the wake of the outbreak of (Covid-19) pandemic in the country. The company, however, exported 1,341 units in April last year.

HMIL Director (Sales, Marketing and Service) Tarun Garg said, "In these challenging times, we stand in solidarity with the nation and are continuing all efforts to support the affected... While our efforts presently focus primarily on supporting the lives and livelihood of people, we have also received positive sales results in April 2021.
Amid the surge in COVID-19 cases, India conducted 19,45,299 tests in the last 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry informed on Saturday. It is the highest daily test conducted in a day.

"In a landmark achievement to containing COVID-19, the country conducted 19,45,299 tests in the last 24 hours. India's daily positivity now stands at 20.66 per cent," the ministry said.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), as many as 28,83,37,385 samples have been tested for COVID-19 up to April 30.

Meanwhile, the cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country stands at 15,49,89,635.

These include 94,12,140 HCWs who have taken the 1stdose and 62,41,915 HCWs who have taken the 2nd dose. 1,25,58,069 FLWs (1st dose), 68,15,115 FLWs (2nd dose), 5,27,07,921 (1st dose) and 37,74,930 (2nd dose) beneficiaries aged 45 to 60 years. 5,23,78,616 1st dose beneficiaries and 1,11,00,929 2nd dose beneficiaries for more than 60 years old.

On April 30, which marks the 105th day of the COVID-19 vaccination drive, as many as 27,44,485 vaccine doses were administered.

"15,69,846 beneficiaries were vaccinated across 23,356 sessions for 1st dose and 11,74,639 beneficiaries received 2nd dose of vaccine," the ministry said.

A total of 4,01,993 fresh COVID-19 cases were recorded in the last 24 hours taking the cumulative count of the cases to 1,91,64,969, the Union Health Ministry reported on Saturday.

Ten states including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Bihar reported 73.71 per cent of the new cases.

Currently, there are 32,68,710 active cases of COVID-19 in the country. Eleven states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Bihar cumulatively account for 78.22 per cent of India's total active cases.

"The National Mortality Rate has been falling and currently stands at 1.11 per cent. 3,523 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours. Ten states account for 76.75 per cent of the new deaths," the health ministry added.

(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.)
India on Saturday reported a net increase of 98,482 in active cases to take its count to 3,268,710. Indias share of global active cases now stands at 17.26 per cent (one in 6). The country is second among the most affected countries by active cases. On Saturday, it added 401,993 cases, the most in a day yet, to take its total caseload to 19,164,969. And, with 3,523 new fatalities, its Covid-19 reached 211,853, or 1.11 per cent of total confirmed infections.

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In the school district of 16,000 students in K-12, just getting kids to class has also been a struggle this year, either online or in person. Students who live in the city missed an average of one in five days during the first semester, prompting a massive, districtwide push to re-engage students and increase attendance.
At least eighteen persons including 16 COVID-19 patients died in a fire at a hospital at Bharuch in Gujarat in the early hours of Saturday, officials said.

The state government said a judicial inquiry will be conducted into the fire that destroyed the Intensive Care Unit of Patel Welfare Hospital, run by a charitable trust.

"Sixteen patients and two nursing staff were either charred to death or died due to suffocation inside a COVID-19 unit," Superintendent of Police Rajendrasinh Chudasama said.

As many as 50 patients were undergoing treatment at the COVID-19 facility on the ground floor when fire broke out in the ICU around 1 am, probably because of short circuit, said a hospital official.

The fire was doused within an hour. Local people and the kin of patients helped in the rescue operation during which dozens of patients were shifted to other facilities by ambulance. Some were brought out of the building on wheelchairs or on make-shift stretchers of cloth.

The four-storey designated COVID-19 hospital stands on the Bharuch-Jambusar highway, 190 km from Ahmedabad.

Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani announced ex- gratia aid of Rs 4 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased.

He also directed Additional Chief Secretary (Labour) Vipul Mittra and Commissioner of Municipalities Administration Rajkumar Beniwal to conduct inquiry. The two IAS officials arrived at the site on Saturday afternoon and visited the ICU.

The government will also institute a judicial inquiry into the tragedy, Rupani told reporters.

Vadodara Range Inspector General of Police Harikrishna Patel also visited the hospital. Teams of Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) and state-owned power distributor Dakshin Gujarat Vij Company also reached the spot.

Minister of State for Health Kumar Kanani told reporters that round-the-clock use of air conditioners and ventilators has increased the risk of fires at hospitals.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah expressed grief over the incident.

"Pained by the loss of lives due to a fire at a hospital in Bharuch. Condolences to the bereaved families," Modi tweeted.

"I am extremely saddened by the fire accident at a hospital in Bharuch, Gujarat. I express my deepest condolences to the families of all the people who lost their lives in this accident and pray for the speedy recovery of the injured," Shah said in a tweet.

There were chaotic scenes outside the hospital as the authorities tried to calm down the wailing kin of the victims who blamed the hospital administration for the tragedy.

Inside, there were gut-wrenching sights as some patients had been charred to death beyond recognition on their beds or stretchers.

"The fire was so intense that the ICU ward was almost burnt to the ground. All the equipment inside, including ventilators and the fridge used to store medicines and also the beds were incinerated," a witness said.

A relative of a patient who was shifted to the civil hospital was seen looking for his case file in a heap of ashes. "I am looking for the file so that doctors where he was taken can start his treatment immediately," she said.

Earlier on March 26, four patients had died while shifting after a fire broke out at a hospital in Surat.
At least 18 (Covid-19) patients died after a fire broke out at a hospital in Gujarat's Bharuch in the early hours on Saturday.

There were around 50 other patients at the four- storeyed Welfare Hospital when the fire broke out in the Covid-19 ward at 1 am. They were rescued by locals and firefighters, an official said.

"As per information at 6.30 am, the death toll in the tragedy stood at 18. Immediately after the fire, we had confirmation of 12 deaths," a police official told PTI.

The 12 patients in the Covid-19 ward died due to the fire and the resulting smoke, Bharuch SP Rajendrasinh Chudasama said.

It is not clear if the remaining six also died in the Welfare Hospital or while being shifted to other hospitals.

The Covid-19 designated hospital is situated on the Bharuch-Jambusar highway, around 190 km from the state capital Ahmedabad and is being run by a trust.

The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, the official said.

The fire was controlled within an hour and around 50 patients were rescued by locals as well as firefighters, a fire official said. They were shifted to nearby hospitals, he added.
The Chagos Archipelago is one of the most remote, seemingly idyllic places on Coconut-covered sandy beaches with incredible bird life rim tropical islands in the Indian Ocean, hundreds of miles from any continent. Just below the waves, stretch for miles along an underwater mountain chain.

Its a paradise. At least it was before the heat wave.

When I first explored the Chagos Archipelago 15 years ago, the underwater view was incredible. Schools of brilliantly colored fish in blues, yellows and oranges darted among the corals of a vast, healthy reef system. Sharks and other large predators swam overhead. Because the archipelago is so remote and sits in one of the largest marine protected areas on the planet, it has been sheltered from industrial fishing fleets and other activities that can harm the coastal environment.

But it cant be protected from

In 2015, a marine heat wave struck, harming worldwide. Im a marine biologist at the University of Miamis Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, and I was with a team of researchers on a 10-year global expedition to map the worlds reefs, led by the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation. We were wrapping up our work in the Chagos Archipelago at the time. Our report on the state of the reefs there was just published in spring 2021.

As the water temperature rose, the corals began to bleach. To the untrained eye, the scene would have looked fantastic. When the water heats up, corals become stressed and they expel the tiny algae called dinoflagellates that live in their tissue. Bleaching isnt as simple as going from a living coral to a bleached white one, though. After they expel the algae, the corals turn fluorescent pinks and blues and yellows as they produce chemicals to protect themselves from the Suns harmful rays. The entire reef was turning psychedelic colors.

That explosion of color is rare, and it doesnt last long. Over the following week, we watched the corals turn white and start to die. It wasnt just small pieces of the reef that were bleaching  it was happening across hundreds of square miles.

What most people think of as a coral is actually many tiny colonial polyps that build calcium carbonate skeletons. With their algae gone, the coral polyps could still feed by plucking morsels out of the water, but their metabolism slows without the algae, which provide more nutrients through photosynthesis. They were left desperately weakened and more vulnerable to diseases. We could see diseases taking hold, and thats what finished them off.

We were witnessing the death of a reef.

Rising temperatures increase the heat wave risk

The devastation of the Chagos Reef wasnt happening in isolation.

Over the past century, sea surface temperatures have risen by an average of about 0.13 degrees Celsius (0.23 F) per decade as the oceans absorb the vast majority of greenhouse gas emissions from human activities, largely from the burning of fossil fuels. The temperature increase and changing ocean chemistry affects sea life of all kinds, from deteriorating the shells of oysters and tiny pteropods, an essential part of the food chain, to causing fish populations to migrate to cooler water.

Corals can become stressed when temperatures around them rise just 1 C (1.8 F) above their tolerance level. With water temperature elevated from global warming, even a minor heat wave can become devastating.



In 2015, the ocean heat from a strong El Nino event triggered the mass bleaching in the Chagos reefs and around the world. It was the third global bleaching on record, following events in 1998 and 2010.

Bleaching doesnt just affect the corals  entire reef systems and the fish that feed, spawn and live among the coral branches suffer. One study of reefs around Papua New Guinea in the southwest Pacific found that about 75% of the reef fish species declined after the 1998 bleaching, and many of those species declined by more than half.

Research shows marine heat waves are now about 20 times more likely than they were just four decades ago, and they tend to be hotter and last longer. Were at the point now that some places in the world are anticipating coral bleaching every couple of years.

That increasing frequency of heat waves is a death knell for reefs. They dont have time to recover before they get hit again.

Where we saw signs of hope

During the Global Reef Expedition, we visited over 1,000 reefs around the world. Our mission was to conduct standardized surveys to assess the state of the reefs and map the reefs in detail so scientists could document and hopefully respond to changes in the future. With that knowledge, countries can plan more effectively to protect the reefs, important national resources, providing hundreds of billions of dollars a year in economic value while also protecting coastlines from waves and storms.

We saw damage almost everywhere, from the Bahamas to the Great Barrier Reef.

Some reefs are able to survive heat waves better than others. Cooler, stronger currents, and even storms and cloudier areas can help prevent heat building up. But the global trend is not promising. The world has already lost 30% to 50% of its reefs in the last 40 years, and scientists have warned that most of the remaining reefs could be gone within decades.

While we see some evidence that certain marine species are moving to cooler waters as the planet warms, a reef takes thousands of years to establish and grow, and it is limited by geography.

In the areas where we saw glimmers of hope, it was mostly due to good management. When a region can control other harmful human factors  such as overfishing, extensive coastal development, pollution and runoff  the reefs are healthier and better able to handle the global pressures from

Establishing large marine protected areas is one of the most effective ways Ive seen to protect coral reefs because it limits those other harms.

The Chagos marine protected area covers 640,000 square kilometers (250,000 square miles) with only one island currently inhabited  Diego Garcia, which houses a U.S. military base. The British government, which created the marine protected area in 2010, has been under pressure to turn over control of the region to the country of Mauritius, where former Chagos residents now live and which won a challenge over it in the International Court of Justice in 2020. Whatever happens with jurisdiction, the region would benefit from maintaining a high level of marine protection.

A warning for other ecosystems

The Chagos reefs could potentially recover  if they are spared from more heat waves. Even a 10% recovery would make the reefs stronger for when the next bleaching occurs. But recovery of a reef is measured in decades, not years.

So far, research missions that have returned to the Chagos reefs have found only meager recovery, if any at all.

We knew the reefs werent doing well under the insidious march of in 2011, when the global reef expedition started. But its nothing like the intensity of worry we have now in 2021.

are the canary in the coal mine. Humans have collapsed other ecosystems before through overfishing, overhunting and development, but this is the first unequivocally tied to climate change. Its a harbinger of what can happen to other ecosystems as they reach their survival thresholds.

This story is part of Oceans 21

Our series on the global ocean opened with five in-depth profiles. Look for new articles on the state of our oceans in the lead-





Sam Purkis, Professor and Chair of the Department of Marine Sciences, University of Miami

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.




At around 5 pm on April 26, a user from Noida posted an urgent appeal for help in securing a hospital bed or a trained nurse for her father whose oxygen levels were fluctuating. Within the hour, her post had generated sympathy, advice and several leads, including contact numbers of doctors at the Covid Care Centre at Commonwealth Games Village at Delhis Akshardham.

Helpful, verified leads came from the page Covid Community Delhi/NCR - Information Facts Support that was set up to crowdsource information about Covid at the beginning of the pandemic when few knew much about the virus.

If this FB page is helping with information and leads, a couple of Sikh groups under the umbrella of Covid Fight Support Saanjh (CFSS) are doing their bit to organise oxygen cylinders, beds and even food deliveries with volunteers here having turned their private numbers into helplines.

At the helpdesk of Delhi Universitys Miranda House, meanwhile, students are operating nine different helplines almost round the clock to assist in whatever way they can.

The deadly second wave of Covid-19 has shaken up the system and has thousands of families frantically looking for hospital beds, oxygen, plasma. And some ordinary people and organisations are going above and beyond to help them.

Ive been fielding between 300 and 500 calls a day, estimates BA third year student Vitti Joshi. Its a lot, especially with final exams round the corner. But this catastrophic second wave has shown us we have to help each other to survive.



Many members on the Covid Community Delhi/NCR Facebook page  there are over 1,200 of them and some 30 new ones are being added daily  have started delivering food to Covid-positive families, says Meeta Mastani, co-founder of the page.

Others have responded to the crisis with more direct assistance. One of them is Kafeel Khan, the doctor who had red-flagged the oxygen scarcity in Indian hospitals in 2017 when he blew the whistle on the state-run BRD Medical College hospital in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, where 70 children and 18 adults had died after the hospitals piped oxygen supply allegedly ran out. With other civic-minded doctors working under the banner of Doctors On Road, he is going to villages to spread Covid-19 awareness and offer treatment and relief to patients.

Were giving free medicines to those in need and spreading critical messages about social distancing and Covid-appropriate behaviour wherever we go, he says.

Back at Miranda House, Joshi says, To operate our helplines, we have a team of over 20 students who are continuously calling hospitals, oxygen suppliers, ambulance services and more to ascertain what resources they have. All the information is updated on a Google spreadsheet in which users can see the date and time of the last update.

The helpdesk initially began at the behest of the college principal to deal with problems that the colleges students, teachers and alumnae were facing. Very quickly, people got to know about our work and we had to open it up to the general public. Of the 300-500 calls they receive in a day, Joshi says they are able to address some 150.

On Mastanis FB page, strangers support one another every day. The other day, a friend pledged to cook ten meals a day to distribute, she says. Doctors have offered free tele-consults. Others have been tirelessly verifying numbers of hospitals beds, oxygen suppliers, ambulances and more.

Some two weeks ago, when my 91-year-old mother and I tested positive, I also found a nurse, doctor and lots of emotional support through the page, Mastani says.

The work, however, is emotionally and physically draining. I start receiving calls at 6 am and sometimes my phone continues to ring till past midnight, Joshi says.

At CFSS, a member who estimates theyre getting over 1,400 distress calls a day, says, On April 26, we managed to raise the money to buy 87 oxygen cylinders in black from Punjab. But our elation was short-lived as we realised how many more people there were who needed them urgently.



Joshi says that the traumas she has witnessed in the last few days will haunt her for a long time, while Khan struggles to come to terms with the fact that the entire nation is experiencing the horror that he lived through in 2017 in Gorakhpur.

But they all agree that serving others is helping them cope. Were building connections, creating supportive networks, says Mastani. This is what being human is all about.
Over 400,000 fresh cases reported

India reported 401,993 fresh infections on Saturday, taking the cumulative caseload to 19.1 million, according to central health ministry data. This is the biggest single-day rise in cases so far. The country saw 3,523 fatalities due to the pandemic, taking the death toll to 211,853. The active caseload is at 3.2 million, while the total recoveries have surged to 15.6 million. As many as 154 million shots have been administered since the nationwide inoculation programme kicked off on January 16. Of these, 2.7 million were given on Friday. Read more here

Vaccine experts, scientists call on Modi to release epidemiological data

Scientists and medical researchers have asked Prime Minister Modi to allow them access to ICMR's granular data on all residents whove been tested so far, a report in ThePrint said. The ICMR database is inaccessible to anyone outside of the government and perhaps also to many within the government, the scientists wrote. While new pandemics can have unpredictable features, our inability to adequately manage the spread of infections has, to a large extent, resulted from epidemiological data not being systematically collected and released in a timely manner to the scientific community. Read more here

UP worst performer in vaccination drive despite the largest stock

Uttar Pradesh is the worst performer in terms of the proportion of its population that has been vaccinated, despite having the largest stock, a report in ThePrint said. The state has vaccinated less than 1 per cent of its population with at least one dose. The union territory of Ladakh has vaccinated the highest proportion of its population. Gujarat is among the most populated states that have vaccinated the highest percentage of people, Lakshadweep and Tamil Nadu have the highest proportion of wasted vaccines, according to health ministry data, the report said. Read more here

New research: spike protein has a key role in illness

A new study has found that the novel coronavirus' spike proteinswhich are known to help the virus infect its host by latching on to healthy cellsalso plays a key role in the disease itself, a report in The Indian Express said. The findings, published in the journal Circulation Research, also show that Covid-19 is a vascular disease, demonstrating exactly how the SARS-CoV-2 virus damages and attacks the vascular system on a cellular level. Read more here

EXPLAINED: How does Remdesivir work?

Drugs such as Remdesivir are given to patients with moderate or moderate progressing towards severe Covid infection, an explainer in The Indian Express said. The virus releases its genetic material upon entering a human cell, which is then copied using the body's existing mechanism. At the replication stage, the key viral protein, called RdRp, becomes the engine of the virus. Remdesivir acts by directly attacking RdRp. With Remdesivir replacing the feeding material it needs, the virus fails to replicate further, the explainer said. Read more here
The Nepal government has decided to close 22 border points with India amid a sharp surge in COVID-19 cases in the neighbouring country.

The decision came after the COVID Crisis Management Coordination Committee (CCMC) on Friday recommended to the Council of Ministers to shut down 22 out of a total of 35 border points between Nepal and India, according to officials.

Now only 13 border points between Nepal and India will now remain operational.

The decision comes in the wake of rising cases of COVID-19 infections in the southern neighbour.

India's daily tally crossed the grim milestone of four lakh, while the death toll rose to 2,11,853 with 3,523 fresh fatalities, according to the date updated by the Union Health Ministry on Saturday.

The infection tally rose to 1,91,64,969 with 4,01,993 new cases, while the active cases crossed the 32-lakh mark, the data updated at 8 am showed.

Nepal has reported 323,187 COVID-19 cases and 3,279 deaths so far, but cases are going up at breakneck speed.

The country reported more than 5,000 new cases on Thursday and 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.)
The fugitive diamond dealer Nirav Modi, who is wanted in India for allegedly defrauding Punjab National Bank (PNB) out of an estimated $2 billion has filed a permission to appeal in the UK high court against his extradition to India.

Modi, 50, who was arrested in March 2019 and has been held in the Wandsworth prison in south London ever since, was ordered to be extradited by the UK Home Secretary Priti Patel on the April 15, 2021.

Westminster Magistrate's Court's Judge Sam Goozee made a decision on February 25, finding guilty on all the charges saying that the fugitive businessman had a case to answer for and should be returned to India.

The Indian government alleges that Modi and his associates colluded with officials at the state-owned Punjab National Bank to defraud the bank out of more than $1.4 billion by using a credit facility known as Letters of Undertaking, a form of bank guarantee to facilitate international transactions.

The court had been told that the proceeds of the fraud were then laundered through a series of shell companies manned by dummy directors and located in Dubai and Hong Kong. Modi is also charged with the destruction of evidence and intimidating witnesses.

Modi, who had 14 days to appeal the decision, has approached the High Court of appeals on the April 28, 2021 to appeal the decisions made by the lower court judge as well as the home secretary Priti Patel.

It will be decided by the court of appeals judge whether or not to grant the permission to appeal which is done on papers.

Modi is likely to argue on the decision of his mental health issue which was dismissed by lower court judge Goozee saying he was not satisfied by evidence submitted by the defence about Modi's mental and emotional health and that he was satisfied that he was fit to plead once returned to India.

If he is successful in obtaining the permission then the appeal will be heard by a single judge or division bench. Modi will need to demonstrate a strong reason to initiate the hearings for his appeal. The entire process can take a good few months given the covid crisis around the world, especially in India where Modi is sought. If its rejected UK will have 28 days to extradite him.
The third phase of vaccination in took off on Saturday with only a small number of centres inoculating about a few hundred at each centre. Huge queues and confusion around appointments marked the experience on Day 1 of universal Covid-19 vaccination in

State capital Mumbai started vaccinations from around 2 pm at only five BMC-run centres, which had a target of 200 vaccinations per centre. BKC covid vaccination centre (CVC), Nair Hospital, Seven Hills Hospital, Cooper Hospital and Rajawadi Hospital were the only five spots that did vaccinations on Saturday.

People started queuing up at Seven Hills from 8 am in the morning. Many people queued up at Nair Hospital even after their time slots were cancelled. They had managed to book appointments last night, but received cancellation messages on Saturday morning. Television channels reported that similar confusion plagued Pune's CVCs too.

In Nashik, those in 18-45 did online registration and got tokens but vaccination didn't start till late in the day, there's a limited quantity of doses. Only two centres of 55 in Nashik city are giving doses for those above 18 years.

Journalist Yatin Mota tweeted that he managed to get his jab at Nair hospital after a 45-minute wait in a queue.

Dr Ramesh Bharmal, Dean, BYL Nair hospital said they had received vaccine doses on Friday evening following which they directed their staff to give these doses only to registered beneficiaries who are between 18 to 44 years of age. We have been instructed to give jab only to the first 200 registered beneficiaries between 18 to 44 years of age. However there will be no walk-in registration at the centre, he said.

Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar has urged citizens not to rush to vaccination centres after the drive resumes for all. Mumbai has paused vaccinations above 45 years for the time being and on May 1 carried out a handful of vaccinations in five centers.

Even after the availability of vaccine stocks, when vaccination starts, Mumbaikars should not rush to the vaccination centres unnecessarily. I appeal to everyone to leave the house only after receiving the message from the vaccination centre and confirming the availability of the vaccine after registering on the Co-win app, said Pednekar.

Pednekar had said last week that although BMC is planning to place a few mobile vans at various places in Mumbai in the third phase of vaccination.
The plea questions how politicians are able to procure large stocks of the medicine without having the requisite permission under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, when the general public was not getting it

A PIL demanding an FIR and CBI probe into claims of politicians being able to procure and distribute Remdesivir, used for treating (Covid-19) patients, even as others run pillar to post to get the medicine, was mentioned before the Delhi High Court on Saturday.

The plea was mentioned before a bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli by advocate Virag Gupta who was asked by the court to bring the petition on record during the day.

The plea questions how politicians are able to procure large stocks of the medicine without having the requisite permission under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, when the general public was not getting it.

Petitioner Deepak Singh, the chairperson of Hruduya Foundation and a national-level shooter, has contended that "denying access to medicines for one's own political gain is a crime of very serious nature, and affects patients all over India".

Singh has alleged in his plea, filed through advocate Gaurav Pathak, that politicians have been involved in large-scale hoarding, transfer and distribution of crucial medicines like Remdesivir.

"Political parties, most of which are invariably headquartered in Delhi, are taking advantage of their political powers and giving patronage to the medical mafia," the plea claimed.

Besides lodging of FIR and CBI invetsigation, the plea also seeks "detention of persons indulging in black-marketing of Covid-19 medicines as per the National Security Act, 1980" and "disqualification of MPs and MLAs found to be hoarding and illegally distributing Covid-19 medicines".
In a wide-ranging exclusive interview with PTI, Congress leader on Saturday said the entire world is shaken by the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic in India and there are queues everywhere, whether for cyllinders, for life-saving medicines, for hospital beds and even outside crematoriums.

He accused the government of misreading and mishandling the situation and alleged that all early warning signs were ignored, including from scientists.

Here is the transcript of the interview:



Q. The second wave of coronavirus has hit India hard. We see people gasping for medical aid, medicines, They have no access to facilities in the national capital and across the country. How do you see the situation and the response of the government?



Ans. It breaks my heart every single day to wake up to the absolute devastation around us. This is not a wave; it is a tsunami that has destroyed everything in its wake. There are never-ending queues everywhere. There are queues to get an cylinder, queues to refill the cylinder, queues to get life-saving medicines, queues to get a hospital bed, and now there are queues outside crematoriums.

There is a fatal shortage of every single item we need to tackle COVID-19. Our capital's best hospitals are bursting at the seams. We are getting frantic SOS calls for oxygen from India's top doctors. Hospitals are petitioning High Courts for oxygen. Our healthcare workers are seeing patients die in front of their eyes, they cannot save people. India is now the world's coronavirus epicentre. The entire world is shaken by what they are seeing in India.

None of this should have happened. There were multiple early warning signs. Forget the signs, scientists clearly warned the government this would happen they ignored them. We could and should have been much better prepared. And now, where is the government in this crisis? It is completely missing in action. They are obsessed only with saving the Prime Minister's image and blaming others. The new buzzword is that the system' has failed. Who is this system'? Who runs the system'? It's just a ploy to avoid admitting responsibility.

Q. Did the government falter in assessing the Covid situation? Who is at fault?



Ans.

Absolutely. The Prime Minister is at fault. He runs a highly centralised and personalised government machinery, is solely and substantially devoted to building his own brand, is utterly focused on imagery rather than substance. The fact is that this Government completely failed to understand or to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic -- right from the very beginning, despite repeated warnings. Since the very start of this pandemic back in 2020, I kept trying to warn the government about the disaster ahead if we did not urgently prepare but they attacked me and ridiculed me. It's not just me anyone who tried to sound the alarm, the state callously and thoughtlessly ignored.

Modi government let this virus enter India through our airports in February and March of 2020. And then it panicked and without consultation or thought imposed the world's harshest lockdown. Migrant workers were left to fend for themselves and an unprecedented exodus began from the cities. The poorest of the poor were forced to walk hundreds of kilometres home with no support, no aid, no assistance. In his sheer ignorance, the Prime Minister said he would defeat the virus in 21 days, akin to the battle of Mahabharata!



Modi government is plainly arrogant and focuses on perception over reality- declaring victory against the virus is absolute insanity and demonstrates a complete misunderstanding of the nature of what this virus is. The only way to fight corona is with humility and by realizing that you are faced with a relentless opponent, who can adapt and is very resilient. The PM had an entire year to better prepare, protect India, and think through this crisis but what did they do? Did the PM & the Govt add sufficient oxygen capacity, ramp up testing, increase hospital beds, ventilators? Did the PM think long-term about the state of our health infrastructure and start building for the sort of subsequent Corona waves that almost every country in the world was experiencing? It was sheer luck that we emerged out of last year's nightmare, to a point where we had less than 10,000 new cases in a day early in 2021. We were not testing enough then. We are not testing enough now. Where was the preparation for this massive second wave? Why were the jumbo facilities put up last year dismantled? Why did they raise oxygen exports over 700% - think of that number, 700% - in the months before this brutal second wave?



Q. What could the Government have done differently to address the second wave?



Ans. The Modi Government was both grossly negligent and blindly overconfident. The BJP announced the end of the pandemic and congratulated the Prime Minister for his success even as the second wave was just beginning. The Prime Minister himself is on record as having said that India had successfully fought the pandemic and won. In reality, there was no coherent strategy. One, the government should have built massive capacity over the last year testing, oxygen, hospital beds, ventilators. Two, they should not have declared victory prematurely. Three, the Prime Minister and his government did not even acknowledge there was a problem. How can you fix something you don't even accept exists? Four, the government did not act on scientific advice or evidence. They continuously ignored rising cases and were busy instead with election campaigns. They encouraged super-spreader events. They even bragged about them. Our Prime Minister and Home Minister were not even wearing masks in public over the past few months. What sort of a message is that sending to citizens? Five, most importantly, the only solution we have is vaccination. We are supposed to be the largest manufacturer of vaccines in the world. And yet, India is desperately short of vaccines. We are making them, why weren't our people first in line to be vaccinated? If that is not a failure to plan and execute, what is?



Q. With India seeing around 4 lakh cases a day, the highest in the world, is there a case for the national emergency considering the unprecedented crisis?



Ans. We are already in the midst of a national emergency. But just declaring something is not the answer. The biggest problem of this government is it announces and then absconds. Now that the situation is completely out of control, they have dropped the ball and thrown it to the states. They have made the states and citizens truly Aatmanirbhar'. Rely on yourself is the motto. No one will come to help you. Definitely, not the Prime Minister. The need of the hour is to hold hands, work together and heal our people.

India must be the only country in the world facing this massive pandemic without the guidance of an expert and empowered group that is charged with fighting the virus and protecting the people, with planning ahead, anticipating needs and taking the decisions that will result in swift action to save lives.

Q. GoI has said it repeatedly warned states about the second wave and asked them to map the need for essential supplies like oxygen, ICU beds, and continue with containment efforts. Would you say the current situation is a collective failure of the Centre and states?



Ans. The entire country has already been under the Epidemic Act for more than a year. The Centre has absolute power over states under the Act. This is a government that wants to control everything. When cases went down, they declared victory, and the Prime Minister took all the credit as he always does. Now that the situation is terrible, why are you blaming the states?



Out of 162 oxygen plants sanctioned in October by the Centre, only 33 are functional. This was set up with the PM-CARES funds. The Modi Government took tens of thousands of crores of donations in his name, without any transparency, without any accountability. The states have rejected the sub-standard ventilators supplied by the Centre through these funds. States do not even get their GST dues on time. States are dependent on the Modi Government for quotas of oxygen, Remdesivir and Tocilizumab injections. The Modi Government has chained the hands of the states behind their backs, so they are completely powerless, and then asks them to sort out their own affairs. Obviously, the system will collapse.

Q. Adult vaccinations are starting on May 1 along the lines you demanded, but states say they cannot start as they do not have the vaccines. What is your view? Did you seek the expansion of vaccinations too early? TheUK will start adult vaccines from June?



Ans. First, the government set a target of vaccinating 300 million by August. This is the above 45 age category. They managed to fully vaccinate not even 2 percent of the total population. With the mounting pressure of the government not vaccinating enough, they added another 600 million to the list, by starting vaccinations for the 18+ group from May 1. But where are the vaccines? Why did the Modi Government abandon the people between age groups of 18 to 44 years by refusing to take responsibility for their vaccination? Why is there a discriminatory policy on the pricing of vaccines? Why should there be five different prices for the same vaccine? What is the strategy beyond two companies? How can that suffice for almost 1 billion people? We need 2 billion doses. Now, they are scrambling for vaccines. The numbers just don't add up.

Q. You have said the liberalised Vaccine policy is discriminatory. Vaccine makers have reduced prices for states. Your comments?



Ans. This is the story of discount sale', where you mark up the price, and then make a show of reducing it. It is a complete eyewash. Why should states pay more than the Centre to buy vaccines? Why should the states be left to fend for themselves? Why should there be a difference in price for vaccines for the Centre, the States and the private hospitals? Why should the price of thevaccine even for the two companies be different? Why the discrepancy? After all, even when States pay for the vaccination of those between the age groups of 18 to 44 years, it is taxpayer's money.

Q. The government has not invoked compulsory licensing for vaccines despite repeated calls by Congress?



Ans. Dr Manmohan Singh asked for compulsory licensing in his letter to the Prime Minister. The Congress President has repeated it several times now. Other countries have done this. The USA ramped up its vaccine production using their Defense Production Act. We have to do whatever it takes, within our laws, to ramp up the domestic production of vaccines here. We have a domestic manufacturing base. We can manufacture for both India and the world. All the industry needs are licenses and raw materials. It should have been done months ago.

Q. The Congress party has said it is willing to work together with the Centre in the fight against Coronavirus. How will you make it accountable then?



Ans. Congress Party has said from day one that it is willing to work with the government in the fight against Coronavirus and for a year now, even in just the last few days, the Congress President has repeated this position very clearly. We have been consistently giving suggestions on all possible forums. Forget taking them seriously, the government has not even meaningfully acknowledged these suggestions. I see no contradiction in working together with the government in times of unprecedented crisis while at the same time holding it accountable for its decisions. The problem arises when the government doesn't believe in consultation, in carrying everyone along, in tapping expertise it lacks. This government seems to think that acknowledging help is needed is a sign of weakness. The hubris and pettiness of this government are unbelievable.

Q. The Madras High Court has held the Election Commission responsible for the Covid situation. Your views?



Ans. The Court was echoing a widely held view. In the past 7 years, like so many other institutions, the Election Commission of India has also crumbled. The Court has said what it believes, I don't want to make any further comment. Let your readers judge for themselves.

Our Institutions are a warning system- they give us feedback and information on how to respond to crisis but our institutions have been completely destroyed and taken over.

The press, judiciary, election commission, bureaucracy - none of them have played their role of guardian/watchdog. This means India today is like a ship in a storm, sailing without any information.

Corona is just part of the problem - the real problem is that India now doesn't have the capacity to respond to any major crisis because of what has been done to its systems over the last 6 years.

Q. There have been demands within for internal elections and a new Congress president? Are you ready to lead again in such times, especially when there are demands from various quarters within for you to lead?



Ans.

I have always favoured internal organisational elections within the Congress and these will be conducted in time. It is for the party workers to decide as to who should lead the party. I will do whatever the party wants me to do. But right now the focus is on controlling the pandemic, saving lives, and alleviating India's widespread suffering and pain. There will be time for everything else in due course.
Domestic-made cosmetics on 40 percent of Chinese Gen Zer's dressing tables

People's Daily Online) 17:40, April 30, 2021

China's domestically-produced beauty products, ranging from lipsticks with exquisite carving patterns to mini-sized oral irrigators, are gaining increasing popularity among young Chinese consumers born after 1995.

"Forty percent of Gen Zer's cosmetic products are manufactured by Chinese brands," said Xiao Lan, an executive for Tmall, one of the marketplaces of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.

The e-commerce titan has 800 million active users that spend an average of 9,000 yuan ($1,391) each annually on its retail platforms. One fourth of these users were born after 1995 and are more willing to try new stuff than previous generations of consumers, statistics showed.

Compared with those born in the 1970s and 1980s, Gen Z consumers place a greater value on cost performance and the packaging of products, rather than brand impact, reflecting the fact that they were raised amid China's period of rapid economic development, Xiao said.

A number of beauty startups have sprouted up over the past two years in China. In 2020, around 3,000 cosmetic brands opened up official online stores on e-commerce platforms, and more than 2,000 of these were Chinese, accounting for nearly 80 percent of the total.

Meanwhile, 30 new beauty brands have stood out from the crowd on e-commerce platforms, where fierce competition is played out among a growing field of major renowned cosmetic companies, with these brands reporting annual sales revenues of over 100 million yuan each.

Chinese cosmetic brands are not only popular among Chinese consumers, but also highly sought after by female consumers in West Asia, Singapore, Vietnam, Australia and Canada.

More than 30 Chinese brands have launched free global shipping plans, and 25 have developed overseas marketing strategies, with Southeast Asia and Japan being the hottest destinations for exports. Lipstick, eye shadow, and blushers are the most popular categories of Chinese cosmetics among foreign consumers.

It is noteworthy that a broad number of Chinese cosmetic brands, including Perfect Diary, Florasis and Zhuben, made their presence felt at a major beauty award ceremony recently held by Tmall.

"I think the era of domestic beauty products has arrived," said Li Jiaqi, a top-tier Chinese influencer, at the Tmall beauty award ceremony.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji)
Festival staples, upended by by the coronavirus pandemic last year, have resurfaced, the biggest one being free concerts on New Haven Green. Walking tours and bike tours are also back, though the satellite neighborhood festivals which supplement the main festival by bringing local talent to four key sections of the city will be done virtually for the second year in a row.
Earlier this month, Arjun Sharma (name changed on request) visited three hospitals in Delhi with his father, trying to get an oxygen bed for him. His father had tested negative for Covid-19 on an RT-PCR test, but was showing symptoms of the disease--his oxygen levels had dropped and a CT scan showed infection and pneumonia in his lungs.

"Doctors who we consulted said that my father most likely has Covid-19 and should get admitted to a hospital to get oxygen support. But the test was negative despite his serious symptoms, and maybe this was a false-negative test result," said Sharma, a central government employee living in east Delhi.

All three hospitals which Sharma visited with his father were unwilling to admit him. They told him that if his father was Covid-19 positive, they could try to accommodate but since his test had shown up negative, they could not offer him a bed as they were keeping their beds only for those testing positive for Covid-19.

After several days of struggling, and taking the help of other civil society volunteers in Delhi, Sharma has admitted his father to a government-run hospital in east Delhi where his father has been on oxygen support since April 25.

Questions have been raised on whether the RT-PCR test, while essential for accuracy in Covid-19 detection, is returning false negatives, and this has more recently been blamed on the test's purported inability to detect new Covid variants. People who are getting tested may show symptoms of Covid-19 even though their tests give negative results. In other cases, people are unable to get tested due to the shortage of testing kits in different parts of the country, but are showing Covid-19 symptoms. Either way, the gate-keeping of the RT-PCR test is proving cumbersome for many to navigate.

On April 23, the Delhi government issued an order acknowledging that people with RT-PCR negative tests for Covid-19 were being denied admission in Delhi hospitals, despite having symptoms. "No patient requiring medical aid should be denied treatment," said the order.

Experts have long emphasised the need to test people widely, and that even people who are presenting with severe acute respiratory illness or influenza-like illness should be tested for Covid-19 since their symptoms are similar.

Other ways to tell if it is Covid-19

"It is very common, not at all rare," for patients to be infected with Covid-19 but for it to not show up on test results, said Kamna Kakkar, senior resident in the intensive care unit, department of pulmonary and critical care medicine, at Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Haryana.

"Even though the RT-PCR test is a good test, there could have been problems with how the swab was taken, whether it went deep enough to take the sample, or if perhaps the person took the test too late and the virus was no longer in the upper respiratory region but inflammation had settled in inside the lungs." All of this can result in a negative RT-PCR test, she said.

She said this is why doctors are trained to recognise diseases also by their symptoms and not just lab reports.

Given the high number of Covid-19 patients and the shortage of tests, Kakkar says that CT scans and X-rays can be some proxies, which doctors can rely on while diagnosing for Covid-19 especially since people are unable to access tests easily.

However, she said it is mostly junior doctors who meet patients when they first come to a hospital. "When a person comes with fever and shortness of breath, as a senior resident I know it can be a number of things--it could be Covid-19, heart attack, dengue, scrub typhus, chikungunya, even acid reflux. So clinical judgement here is very important, to be able to tell the difference." But since there are mostly junior doctors on the frontline, and the system is overloaded, administrators have insisted on lab parameters like RT-PCR test results in order to be admitted, she explained.

"What if we did not have reliable RT-PCR tests for Covid-19, would we not as doctors still have treated people for the disease based on our clinical observations of the disease in a patient?" said Kakkar.

False negatives

A 'false negative' in diagnostics parlance is when a person actually does have a particular disease but the diagnostic test for it fails to detect that disease.

This can happen if the technology used in the test is not accurate, or not specific or sensitive enough to pick up that disease. It can also happen because the technician performing the test did not conduct it properly, or the reagents used are of poor quality. Sometimes even if the technology is fine and the sample was taken correctly, the sample could have been transported under inappropriate conditions to a lab.

And, as we said before, false negative test results can occur if the sample was not taken at the right time in one's infection.

Any link to variants?

The Indian government has said that the presence of false negatives is also not linked to the new SARS-CoV-2 variants. The RT-PCR tests do not miss the UK, Brazil, South Africa and double-mutant variants, as the tests being used in India target more than two genes, said a press release from the government on April 16.

The RT-PCR tests for Covid-19 look out for the presence of three genes on the SARS-CoV-2 virus. These genes have not changed much and thus the RT-PCR tests which are already in use, are able to identify these genes and give positive results, said Shahid Jameel, director of Trivedi School of Biosciences, Ashoka University. "The new variants which scientists are studying are not likely to drastically impact the ability of RT-PCR tests to give positive results for Covid-19," he said.

As a way to check whether tests work, he said there should be random quality checks and surveillance of these testing kits.

On this, Arokiaswamy Velumani, chairperson of Thyrocare, a large diagnostics chain in India, said that he too is not worried about RT-PCR tests not doing an accurate job for Covid-19. "The government has asked us to send 10 positive and negative samples every month to designated government labs where our test results are verified... This is a continuous monitoring of the quality of these tests to ensure that they are accurate and we are testing correctly," he said.

When to get tested?

Another reason why people may get a negative Covid-19 test result, but may actually be positive for the virus, is if they test too early or too late in their infection. But when is the right time to get tested?

Among the many resources that the World Health Organization (WHO) has shared on testing for Covid-19, there is no specific guidance on when to get tested. IndiaSpend contacted the WHO with queries, and a spokesperson explained the following over email: RT-PCR tests are typically "highly accurate" but "lower viral loads may increase the likelihood of false negative results".

When is a viral load of the SARS-CoV-2 virus likely to be low? On this, the spokesperson said that viral loads are typically high one to three days before the onset of symptoms, or at the time when symptoms begin, and in the early days of illness for mild patients (five to seven days), and possibly longer for severe patients.

"There is no set timing on when a person should be tested, except in the case of if they develop symptoms. If a person develops symptoms, they should be tested as soon as possible," they said. Since symptoms "may develop in hours to days after exposure", they said, "there is no specific set time for testing".

Simply put, one should use their discretion and get tested at the soonest, if one has been in definite proximity with someone who has tested positive for Covid-19 or if one has started to show symptoms, and should not wait until symptoms escalate.

What about close contacts? On this, the WHO says there is no need for all contacts to be tested but they should be quarantined, and if these contacts remain without symptoms, they can be tested "as capacity allows".

In sum, "a negative test result does not guarantee that the person will not go on to develop Covid-19 in the remaining days of the incubation period", the spokesperson said. False-negatives could be due to "poor sampling or processing", they said, adding that when health systems are stressed, "the chances of human error may understandably increase".

The Indian government issued testing strategy documents, which it has updated from time to time, but not since May 2020. An advisory to states based on this strategy was issued in September 2020. Both these documents did not specify when in a person's infection they should get tested.
The of India, which manufactures the AstraZeneca (Covid-19) vaccine, is planning to start vaccine production in other countries as it struggles to meet supply commitments, its chief executive officer told The Times.

"There's going to be an announcement in the next few days," Adar Poonawalla was quoted as saying by the newspaper in an interview published on Friday.

Poonawalla said last week that the would be able to raise its monthly output to 100 million doses by July, later than a previous timeline of end-May. Several states in India have run out of vaccines against Covid-19.

He hoped to increase the Serum Institute's production capacity from 2.5 billion to 3 billion doses a year within six months, the Times reported, adding that he flew to London before Britain banned travellers from India eight days ago.

cases and deaths have surged in India as the world's second-most populous country has reported more than 300,000 new infections daily for nine consecutive days, hitting another global record of 386,452 on Friday.

The surge has led to a public health crisis and forced the government to seek oxygen, medicines and other essentials from abroad.

The nation's cases may peak between May 3-5, according to scientists advising the government.

Some health experts said India became complacent when new cases were running at about 10,000 a day and the novel coronavirus seemed to be under control. Authorities lifted restrictions, allowing the resumption of large festivals and political rallies.
Tamil Nadu on Saturday recorded an all-time high in daily COVID-19 related fatalities at 147 and 19,588 new cases, pushing the death toll to 14,193 and the caseload to 11,86,344 so far.

Recoveries remained significant with 17,164 people getting discharged totalling 10,54,746 till date, the Health Department said.

Active infections, including those in isolation, stood at 1,17,405, a bulletin said.

Chennai accounted for the bulk of new cases with 5,829 taking the total to 3,39,797 till date.

The metropolis leads in the number of fatalities too with 4,791 people succumbing to the virus.

The number of samples tested today were 1,51,452 pushing the cumulative number of specimens examined so far to 2,28,13,859.

Besides Chennai, Chengalpet added 1,445 new infections, Coimbatore 1,257 while 31 districts clocked new cases in triple digits:



Cuddalore 330, Dharmapuri 175, Dindigul 220, Erode 378, Kallakurichi 122, Kancheepuram 332, Kanyakumari 276, Karur 175, Krishnagiri 423, Madurai 711, Nagapattinam 233, Namakkal 258, Pudukottai 164, Ramanathapuram 205, Ranipet 217, Salem 521, Sivagangai 115, Tenkasi 245, Thanjavur 492, Theni 363, Thirupathur 151, Thiruvallur 779, Thiruvannamalai 187, Thiruvarur 224, Tuticorin 638, Tirunelveli 812, Tiruppur 438, Tiruchirappalli 528, Vellore 442, Villupuram 354 and Virudhunagar 405, the bulletin said.

Among the 147 deceased, 33 succumbed to the virus without any pre-existing illness.

Two of them include a 26-year-old man from Thiruvallur and another 28-year-old from Thirvuannamalai due to COVID-19 pneumonia.

As many as 30 of them who tested positive today were returnees from various destinations, the bulletin said.

Meanwhile, police said two persons, including a 28-year- old doctor, were arrested for alleged hoarding of Remdesivir to sell in the grey market.

The police recovered six Remdesivir vials from the duo and further investigation was on, a press release said.
India's electricity generation was 2.9% lower in the last fifteen days of April than the first half of the month, government data showed, as curbs on movement to restrict the spread of the coronavirus stifled demand for power.

Power supplied to Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat - India's richest and most industrial states which together account for nearly a third of the total electricity consumption - fell by over 2.1% during the second half of April, the data showed.

Electricity supply to Karnataka - home to India's tech hub Bengaluru - fell over 15% in the second half of April, an analysis of load despatch data from federal grid operator POSOCO showed, as the state imposed a total shutdown on April 26.

Industries and offices account for half the country's annual electricity consumption. in India generally starts rising from April and peaks in May due to a higher air-conditioning load.

Senior government officials have cited the recovery in demand for power in late 2020 as a sign the economy was beginning to recover from its worst slump in decades.

Power supply to the city state of Delhi - among the worst affected by the pandemic - fell over 10% during the second half of April, while the southern state of Telangana saw the steepest drop of over 23%. India's total power supply fell 3.3%.

India's fresh infections soared to a new global record of over 400,000 on Saturday, and industry officials are concerned the rampant second wave of COVID-19 will dent economic growth.

for the month of April rose marginally compared to March, but was up 40.1% year-over-year as India was under a complete lockdown during the same period last year.

(Reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan; editing by Christina Fincher)
Sri Lanka is looking at sources other than India to purchase the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in view of delay in securing the vaccines from the Serum Institute of India, health authorities said on Saturday.

The supply is being delayed from India. We have to understand that India has to look after their own country before supplying to us. It is not that they have told no to us," Gen Shavendra Silva, the chief of the COVID prevention operations told reporters.

Silva said that presidential advisor Lalith Weeratunga was looking at other country sources to buy the vaccines.

Sri Lanka was left with only 300,000 jabs of India-manufactured Covishield when it started rolling out the second jab.

Sri Lanka began administering the second dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday after assurances from Pune-based Serum Institute that it would send more consignments of the vaccine soon.

Sri Lanka had started its COVID-19 vaccination programme in late January, after receiving 500,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from India as a "gift". Subsequently, Sri Lanka placed orders with Serum Institute for more doses of the Covishield vaccine.

However, the inoculation programme was affected as the AstraZeneca vaccine manufacturer, Serum Institute of India, suspended vaccine supply, due to a spike in the number of cases in India.

The Pune-based vaccine major has entered into a collaboration with the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca to manufacture the vaccine.

Sri Lanka's health officials said that COVAX facility, a global initiative to ensure rapid and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for all countries, regardless of income level, too has been hampered due to delays from the Serum Institute.

Chief epidemiologist Sudath Samaraweera said Sri Lanka is also considering a mix-and-match approach to the second dose roll out.

Experiments are under way in other countries and if there are positive results, we can give another vaccine as the second shot, Samaraweera said.

From January 29 to April 30, around 925,242 people had been given the first jab of Covishied.

China has donated 600,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccines to Sri Lanka. However neither the local health regulators or the WHO have approved its emergency use and the vaccine was administered on 2,865 Chinese workers employed in the country.

(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.)
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Accepting aid for the first time in 16 years, is India back to being a Third World country rather than the emerging superpower of patriotic ambitions? As the second Covid-19 wave overwhelms the country, T N Ninan assesses the question here. And as Shekhar Gupta points out, when both Imran Khan and Xi Jinping rise generously to offer assistance you know you are in a bind. If you read between their lines, one is telling us we arent such a big power compared to it that we pretended to be. The other, patronisingly, is showing us our place in the region, he writes. Read it here

In other views this weekend:

Aditi Phadnis outlines the challenges for Maharashtras chief minister in the coming year even as he struggles with the second wave of Covid-19 and a fracturing ruling alliance. Read it here

Sandeep Goyal tells the quirky story of why Nike sued an arts collective for its sale of Satan Shoes. Read it here

Chintan Girish Modi traces the life and oeuvre of Dadasaheb Phalke to explain why Indias highest award in cinema is named after him. Read it here
Twelve Covid-19 patients, including the HOD of gastroenterology department, of Batra Hospital here died due to shortage, officials said on Saturday. The facility ran out of medical - for the second time in the space of a week - at 11.45 am on Saturday.

We are trying to revive five other critical patients, said a hospital official, reported PTI "We could not save them even after making efforts from our end. Since this wave hit the country, we've been demanding from the govt," said Dr SCL Gupta, Medical Director of Delhi's Batra Hospital.

"Our executive director is in regular touch with government officers concerned and has been updating them about our oxygen stock. INOX and Goel are two oxygen suppliers who supply us oxygen. Neither of them picks up our call," Gupta further told ANI. R K Himthani, head of the gastroenterology department, was among those who died due to lack of oxygen. Himthani had been admitted to the hospital for the last 15-20 days, the medical director said. Gupta said they had informed the authorities about lack of oxygen Saturday morning when they had 2,500 litres of the life-saving gas left. Around 12.30 pm, the hospital authorities claimed they had run out of oxygen. The oxygen tanker arrived at 1.35 pm, they said.

At 7 am, we raised an alarm that we will run out of oxygen by 12 pm. government didnt have any oxygen to supply to us. We were without oxygen till 1:35 pm. As a result, we lost 8 patients, Dr Sudhanshu Bankata, executive director, Batra Hospital, told a news channel.

"Once a patient is pushed to the edge without the support of oxygen, it is very difficult to revive him. Unfortunately, we are expecting more fatalities," said Bankata, executive director of the hospital.

Hospitals across the capital had sent out SOS messages last week about depleting supplies of oxygen.

The government has maintained that the city is not getting its allocated quantity of the life-saving gas. Meanwhile, High Court on Saturday warned of contempt action against Centre if the allocated 490 MT of oxygen is not supplied to Delhi today.

The court took note of eight deaths in Batra Hospital due to lack of oxygen supply and told the Central government "enough is enough".

"Do you mean we will shut our eyes to the people dying in Delhi," it asked the Centre.

"We mean business. Water has gone above the head," the court said and declined to defer its order.

The court said the government had made an allocation of oxygen to Delhi and should fulfill it.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal reacted to the 'painful' news on Twitter and said the capital should be given its quota of oxygen.

"This news is very painful. These lives could have been saved - by giving oxygen on time. Delhi should be given oxygen of its quota. Such deaths of our people are not seen anymore. Delhi required 976 tonnes of oxygen and yesterday only 312 tonnes of oxygen was given. How does Delhi breathe in such a low oxygen?," said Kejriwal on Twitter.             -                          976       312            ? https://t.co/h7C5bcFtD6  Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) May 1, 2021

Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia also reacted to the news on Twitter by bringing out the mismatch in supply and demand of oxygen in the city.
Pune (Maharashtra) [India], May 1 (ANI/NewsVoir): As digital payments continue to rise amidst COVID-19 restrictions, incidents of identity theft, hacking, phishing attack, and data breach have also increased multifold.

As per Norton Cyber Safety Insights Report, over 27 million Indians fell victim to incidents of identity theft in the past 12 months.

While the digital payments infrastructure continues to improve in India, the risk of payment frauds cannot be undermined. To stay covered against financial losses as a result of credit/debit card frauds, one may opt for Fraudulent Charges Cover offered by Bajaj Finance Ltd., the lending and investment arm of Bajaj Finserv.

Things covered under the plan

Offered under Pocket Insurance and Subscriptions, Fraudulent Charges Cover offers coverage up to Rs 80,000 at a nominal premium of Rs. 349/year. With this membership, customers can get reimbursement for unauthorised charges done on their bank or credit card account, using information stolen through online purchases, telephone purchases, in-store purchases, or ATM withdrawals. One can also avail coverage for skimming, cloning, and counterfeit frauds if the incident occurs within the membership period.

Exceptions to keep in mind

Cash advances made using the stolen or lost debit/credit card are not covered under this plan. In case there are losses incurred due to transactions made by any person/family member whom the registered card user has trusted with his/her payment cards are not included in the cover. Also, coverage can only be availed for unauthorized charges made on stolen card, 24 hours prior to reporting the incident to bank/card issuer, and up to 7 days post reporting the loss or theft of credit/debit card.

Trouble-free application and claim process

Applying for this Pocket Insurance plan is an all-online and hassle-free process. All one needs to do is fill up the online application form and make premium payment using UPI, mobile wallet, credit or debit card. To raise a claim, one can simply send an email at general.claims@tata-aig.com or call the toll-free number - 1800119966 to get the needed assistance.

In addition to Fraudulent Charges Cover, there are over 180 plans under Pocket Insurance & Subscriptions that offer coverage against everyday risks, not covered under conventional insurance plans. Some of these products include Wallet Care, Fonesafe Mobile Screen Protection, COVID-19 Insurance, Key Safeguard, and more.

Bajaj Finance Limited, the lending company of Bajaj Finserv Group, is one of the most diversified NBFCs in the Indian market catering to more than 40 million customers across the country. Headquartered in Pune, the company's product offering includes Fixed Deposit, Pocket Insurance & Subscriptions, Insurance, Consumer Durable Loans, Lifestyle Finance, Lifecare Finance, Digital Product Finance, Personal Loans, Loan against Property, Small Business Loans, Home loans, Credit Cards, Two-wheeler and Three-wheeler Loans, Commercial lending/SME Loans, Loan against Securities and Rural Finance which includes Gold Loans and Vehicle Refinancing Loans along with Fixed Deposits. Bajaj Finance Limited prides itself on holding the highest credit rating of FAAA/Stable for any NBFC in the country today.

To know more, please visit: (www.bajajfinserv.in/pocket-insurance-plan).

This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)

DISCLAIMER

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Canada is all set to suspend entry of international students, including from India, to Ontario, the worst-hit province which is battling the third wave of the coronavirus.

According to the Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE), an education service provider based in Ottawa, there were 530,540 international students in Canada in 2020, of which the maximum were from India (34 per cent) followed by China (22 per cent).

Ontario has the maximum number of foreign students at 242,825 or 46 per cent, it said. During a press conference on Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the government is considering halting the arrival of international students in Ontario, following a request from the province's premier Doug Ford to combat the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, the globalnews.ca reported.

Because currently Ontario is the only province to request it, we are happy to work more closely with them, he said. Trudeau said they will be reaching out to their officials" to formalise the request.

However, there is no clarity as yet on when the change will take effect or how long it will last. International students are currently exempt from Canada's COVID-19 travel rules. All students must be able to provide a valid study permit or a letter of introduction that shows they were approved for a permit, according to CTV news.

Ford also called on the federal government to ban non-essential travel after 36 cases of the B.1.617 variant, originally found in India, were identified in the province, the report said. Trudeau reiterated his intentions of working closely with the provinces to quell the spread of the coronavirus and cautioned against any kind of non-essential travel.

We're engaging with other provinces that are hit hard by this third wave to see how we can help," he said. Canada has so far reported 1.22 million coronavirus cases, including 463,000 in Ontario. Of the total 24,219 fatalities, 8,050 were reported from Ontario.

Also read: Canada suspends flights from India, Pakistan for 30 days amid rising COVID-19 cases

Also read: International flights ban extended till May 3
Activists picketed, staged a die-in and waved union banners and the American flag as they packed a portion of Prospect Avenue  closed and guarded by Hartford police  to urge more state spending to reverse racial and income disparities they say were exposed by the coronavirus pandemic. In the well-tended neighborhood of large houses behind gates, protesters called for higher taxes on the rich to fund more spending on education, health care and housing.
Coronavirus vaccination for all those between 18 and 45 years of age has started only in 6 states-- Uttar Pradesh (UP), Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Maharashtra amid a shortage of vaccines. The UP and Gujarat governments have decided to prioritise all those residing in vulnerable districts whereas the Chhattisgarh government will prioritise the poorest of the poor in the state.

States that have begun COVID-19 vaccination for all adults above the age of 18 years from Saturday, May 1

UTTAR PRADESH

The Yogi Adityanath government has begun the inoculation drive for the 18-44 age group in seven districts that have more than 9,000 active cases. These districts include Allahabad, Bareilly, Gorakhpur, Kanpur, Lucknow, Meerut and Varanasi.

The state has also placed orders for vaccines so that they are able to immunise everyone. "We ordered 1 crore vaccines. We have received vaccines for the 45+ category too. We have purchased directly from the companies. We have also floated global tenders for 5 crore vaccines in the state. I am sure that we will be able to take this forward successfully," UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said.

GUJARAT

Coronavirus vaccination drive for all those above 18 years of age has begun in the 10 worst affected districts on Saturday. These districts include Mehsana, Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Kutch, Bharuch and Gandhinagar. Vaccination for the entire state will be rolled out as soon as the vaccines are available in larger numbers.

"CM Shri @vijayrupanibjp in a video message assures people about the commencement of corona vaccination for the 18+ people from tomorrow, May 1, the Gujarat Foundation Day, in 10-most affected districts and will cover the entire state as soon as the vaccine availability increases," Gujarat Chief Minister Office said in a tweet.





CM Shri @vijayrupanibjp in a video message assures people about the commencement of corona vaccination for the 18+ people from tomorrow, May 1, the Gujarat Foundation Day, in 10 most-affected districts and will cover the entire State as soon as the vaccine availability increases. pic.twitter.com/dXkoF3zY0v  CMO Gujarat (@CMOGuj) April 30, 2021

RAJASTHAN

Rajasthan will begin the vaccination drive for people in the 18-45 age group in nine worst-hit cities due to the shortage of vaccines on Saturday. State Health Minister Raghu Sharma said that 7 crore vaccine doses will be needed to inoculate 3.25 crore people aged 18 years and above.

TAMIL NADU

Although the state government is not in a position to begin the vaccination drive, Apollo Hospitals in Chennai has started inoculating people above 18 years of age. The beneficiaries need to register on the CoWIN portal or Aarogya Setu app. Walk-in appointments are not allowed for those aged between 18 and 45 years.

Tamil Nadu: #COVID19 vaccination for people above 18 years of age, begins at Apollo Hospital in Chennai. pic.twitter.com/Er0hKLjGt5  ANI (@ANI) May 1, 2021

MAHARASHTRA

Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope has said the state is likely to begin its vaccination drive today. "Maharashtra CM genuinely feels that the state can start the vaccination drive from May 1. May 1 is also the state foundation day; hence he is inclined to start this drive from that day," Tope said.

The minister added that the programme will be consistent and conducted as per the instructions of the central government.

Maharashtra: #COVID19 vaccination for people in the age group of 18 to 44 years of age, begins at Kamla Nehru Hospital in Pune. pic.twitter.com/NF9LVjs5v1  ANI (@ANI) May 1, 2021

CHHATTISGARH

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said vaccination centres across the state are ready for the inoculation drive. Baghel added that priority will be given to Antyodaya cardholders (poorest of the poor in Chhattisgarh) due to the paucity of vaccines. The Centre will provide 1,03,040 vaccines for the vaccination of people in the 18-44 age bracket to the Chhattisgarh government.

"Since there is a shortage of vaccines, we will start the vaccination from the poorest person in our state who has an Antyodaya card. For this, the beneficiary will have to bring his ration card and Aadhaar card. As we get the vaccine, we will progress in the direction of vaccinating all classes of people respectively," Baghel said.

Also read: Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawalla plans to begin vaccine production outside India

Also read: COVID-19 phase 3 vaccination for 18+ starts today but states don't have vaccine stock
As India steps up COVID-19 vaccination amidst the second wave of pandemic, the first lot of 1.5 lakh doses of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine arrived in Hyderabad from Russia on Saturday.

Developed by Russia's Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Sputnik V was approved by Indian drug regulator last month.

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) had joined hands with Dr Reddy's in September 2020 to carry out clinical trials of Sputnik V in India. The vaccine will will be imported from Russia in limited quantities before Indian manufacturers start producing the vaccine locally.

Dr Reddy's said the first consignment of 1.5 lakh doses of the Russian vaccine has landed in Hyderabad. Subsequent consignments will arrive in the next few weeks, the Hyderabad-based company said.

"...the first consignment of 1,50,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine has landed in Hyderabad from Russia. The rollout of the consignment will be subject to the necessary clearances, which will be processed over the next few days," Dr Reddy''s Laboratories, API and Services CEO, Deepak Sapra said.

"This initial quantity will be used across different channels as a pilot to line up "our supply chain for the larger vaccination programme rollout", he added.

RDIF has inked deals with several Indian pharma companies, including Gland Pharma, Hetero Biopharma, Virchow Biotech, and Stelis Biopharma, for production of the vaccine.

Six manufacturing units have been selected for producing Sputnik V in India. Two of these units will begin vaccine supply by June-July, the other two by August, and the remaining two are expected to begin the supply of the vaccine either by September or October, Sapra had said earlier.

Dr Reddy's, which managed the clinical trials of Sputnik V in India, is also testing the vaccine for its effectiveness against the new variants of SARS-CoV-2 found in India.

Also read: Over 16 crore doses provided to states, UTs free of cost: Centre

Also read: GST mop-up at all-time high of Rs 1.41 lakh cr in April; hits Rs 1 lakh cr for 7th month in a row
Serum Insitute of India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla has moved to London because of threatening phone calls from country's "most powerful" people for instant supplies of COVID-19 vaccine Covishield.

SII is manufacturing AstraZeneca-Oxford University's Covishield vaccine in India.

In an interview to The Times, Poonawalla said he had been getting phone calls from the "most powerful" in India, including chief ministers, and business leaders, for immediate supply of Covishield vaccine.

"Threats is an understatement. The level of expectation and agression is really unprecedented. It's overwhelming. Everyone feels they should get the vaccine. They can't understand why anyone else should get it before them," Poonawalla said referrring to the phone calls.

Explaining the phone calls and the agressive tone, he said, "They are saying if you don't give us the vaccine it's not going to be good. It's not foul language, it's the tone. It's the implication of what they might do if I don't comply. It's coming over and basically surrounding the place and not letting us do anything unless we give in to their demands."

Also read: COVID-19 vaccine: First lot of Sputnik V arrives in Hyderabad

Poonawalla, who is currently in London, said, "I'm staying here (London) an extended time because I don't want to go back to that situation...Everything falls on my shoulders but I can't do it alone...I don't want to be in a situation where you are just trying to do your job, and just because you can't supply the needs of X, Y or Z you really don't want to guess what they are going to do."

SII also plans to begin vaccine production outside India, including UK, and his move to London is also linked to it.

"There's going to be an announcement in the next few days," he said on being asked if vaccines will be produced in UK.

Earlier this week, the Centre had decided to give Y category security to Poonawalla. The government's decision came after the director, government and regulatory affairs at SII Prakash Kumar Singh wrote to the Union Home Minister Amit Shah on April 16.

In his letter, Singh had requested the Union Home Ministry to provide security to Poonawalla. He also talked about the threats that Poonawalla had received from various groups over supplies of SII's coronavirus vaccine.

As India battles the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic, the Centre has opened up vaccination for everyone above the age of 18 years. However, there is a shortage of vaccines with many states not able to start the vaccination for 18-45 age group on Saturday because of lack of vaccines.

Also read: Centre grants Y category security to Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawalla amid threats over Covishield supplies

Also read: GST mop-up at all-time high of Rs 1.41 lakh cr in April; hits Rs 1 lakh cr for 7th month in a row
Serum Insitute of India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla on Saturday said the production of COVID-19 vaccine Covishield is going on at full swing at the company's plant in Pune and he will review the operations after returning to India from London in a few days.

Earlier, Poonawalla had dropped a bombshell by saying in an interview he had extended his stay in London because of threatening phone calls he had been receiving from the "most powerful" people in India for immediate supplies of Covishield.

SII is manufacturing AstraZeneca-Oxford University's Covishield vaccine in India.

Poonawalla is also looking to start production of Covishield outside India, with UK being a possible option. The company will soon make an announcement on the issue.

"Had an excellent meeting with all our partners & stakeholders in the U.K.," Poonawalla tweeted, adding that Covishield production is in full swing in Pune.

Had an excellent meeting with all our partners & stakeholders in the U.K. Meanwhile, pleased to state that COVISHIELD's production is in full swing in Pune. I look forward to reviewing operations upon my return in a few days. - Adar Poonawalla (@adarpoonawalla) May 1, 2021

In an interview to The Times, Poonawalla said he had been getting phone calls from the "most powerful" in India, including chief ministers, and business leaders, for immediate supply of Covishield vaccine.

"Threats is an understatement. The level of expectation and agression is really unprecedented. It's overwhelming. Everyone feels they should get the vaccine. They can't understand why anyone else should get it before them," Poonawalla said referrring to the phone calls.

"I'm staying here (London) an extended time because I don't want to go back to that situation...Everything falls on my shoulders but I can't do it alone...I don't want to be in a situation where you are just trying to do your job, and just because you can't supply the needs of X, Y or Z you really don't want to guess what they are going to do," he had said on his stay in London.

Earlier this week, the Centre had decided to give Y category security to Poonawalla. The government's decision came after Prakash Kumar Singh, director, government and regulatory affairs at SII, wrote to the Union Home Minister Amit Shah on April 16.

In his letter, Singh had requested the Union Home Ministry to provide security to Poonawalla. He also talked about the threats that Poonawalla had received from various groups over supplies of SII's coronavirus vaccine.

Also read: SII's Adar Poonawalla moves to London, cites threatening phone calls from powerful people

Also read: Centre grants Y category security to Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawalla amid threats over Covishield supplies
Sri Lanka is looking at sources other than India to purchase the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in view of delay in securing the vaccines from the Serum Institute of India, health authorities said on Saturday. The supply is being delayed from India. We have to understand that India has to look after their own country before supplying to us. It is not that they have told no to us," Gen Shavendra Silva, the chief of the COVID prevention operations told reporters.

Silva said that presidential advisor Lalith Weeratunga was looking at other country sources to buy the coronavirus vaccines. Sri Lanka was left with only 300,000 jabs of India-manufactured Covishield when it started rolling out the second jab. Sri Lanka began administering the second dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday after assurances from Pune-based Serum Institute that it would send more consignments of the vaccine soon.

Sri Lanka had started its COVID-19 vaccination programme in late January, after receiving 500,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from India as a "gift". Subsequently, Sri Lanka placed orders with Serum Institute for more doses of the Covishield vaccine. However, the inoculation programme was affected as the AstraZeneca vaccine manufacturer, Serum Institute of India, suspended vaccine supply, due to a spike in the number of coronavirus cases in India.

The Pune-based vaccine major has entered into a collaboration with the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca to manufacture the vaccine. Sri Lanka's health officials said that COVAX facility, a global initiative to ensure rapid and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for all countries, regardless of income level, too has been hampered due to delays from the Serum Institute.

Chief epidemiologist Sudath Samaraweera said Sri Lanka is also considering a mix-and-match approach to the second dose roll out. Experiments are under way in other countries and if there are positive results, we can give another vaccine as the second shot, Samaraweera said.

From January 29 to April 30, around 925,242 people had been given the first jab of Covishied. China has donated 600,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccines to Sri Lanka. However neither the local health regulators or the WHO have approved its emergency use and the vaccine was administered on 2,865 Chinese workers employed in the country.

Also read: COVID-19 treatment: 5 Indian drugmakers ink pacts with Merck for molnupiravir

Also read: Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawalla plans to begin vaccine production outside India
John Hynes comes with over 30 years of top management experience in organizations serving both public and private sectors, including CEO of leading technology companies. His expertise in the tech industry, particularly in the US federal market, will greatly contribute to IDEMIA's strategic vision.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210428005462/en/

(Photo: Business Wire)

John is a great professional, whose strategic vision will be a great asset to our Board, said Pierre Barrial, IDEMIA Group President & CEO. His longstanding executive experience in serving the US Federal government and in digital technologies will be hugely beneficial to the Group moving forward.

We are pleased to welcome John Hynes to the IDEMIA Board. With more than 20 years of experience running leading companies that partner with the US government, John is an undisputed expert in security and is a tremendous addition to IDEMIAs Board, said Yann Delabriere, Chairman of the Board.

John Hynes said: Im honored to be joining IDEMIA, a company at the cutting edge of technology, at an exciting time in its development. Alongside Pierre Barrial, the other Board members and the companys management team, I look forward to tapping into my experience to accelerate the companys current and future projects.

After starting his career as an aviator in the United States Navy, John transitioned into the aerospace and defense industry, where he has been a senior leader with some of the industrys preeminent companies. He ran ManTechs security and mission assurance organization, was General Manager of SAICs mission support business, and senior Vice President of TASCs defense and civil group before being appointed COO and then CEO. Following TASCs acquisition by Engility, John became president and COO of the combined business. He went on to be CEO of Applied Insight, and now serves there as Executive Chairman. John is also a member of the Board of Directors of Peraton.

Until recently, he was on the advisory board of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance and on the board of the Capital Area Food Bank. He is a graduate of the US Naval Academy and George Washington University, and a recipient of the Federal 100 Award from Federal Computer Week.

About IDEMIA

IDEMIA, the global leader in Augmented Identity, provides a trusted environment enabling citizens and consumers alike to perform their daily critical activities (such as pay, connect and travel), in the physical as well as digital space.

Securing our identity has become mission critical in the world we live in today. By standing for Augmented Identity, an identity that ensures privacy and trust and guarantees secure, authenticated and verifiable transactions, we reinvent the way we think, produce, use and protect one of our greatest assets  our identity  whether for individuals or for objects, whenever and wherever security matters. We provide Augmented Identity for international clients from Financial, Telecom, Identity, Public Security and IoT sectors. With close to 15,000 employees around the world, IDEMIA serves clients in 180 countries.

For more information, visit www.idemia.com / Follow @IDEMIAGroup on Twitter

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210428005462/en/
Gradual changes will be implemented at Hartford Restaurant Groups businesses, said owner Phil Barnett, whose Que Whiskey Kitchen in Southington and Wood N Taps in Enfield and Farmington have outdoor bars. Like many restaurant owners, he will keep distancing restrictions in place and let customers decide what makes them comfortable. He added, though, that some customers already have told him they are looking forward to the loosened restrictions.
Alan Moore meets the Arab Spring in Alephia 2053, a Lebanese animated feature making waves online. Since debuting on Youtube on March 21, the film has notched up more than eight million views.

Alephia 2053 is set in a desaturated future Arab world ruled by a despotic dictator. The dystopian thriller follows three undercover agents as they go about toppling the tyrant, with the support of the people. Watch it below (English subtitles are available):

The films creator Rabih Sweidan says the project was inspired by Watchmen, the comic book series by Moore and Dave Gibbons, in which superheroes change the course of recent U.S. history. The Lebanese filmmaker told the French paper Courrier International that Alephia 2053 does not have a political aim but is rather an emotional and social study. Yet the film draws on the iconography of past protests and revolutions in the Arab world  not least the Arab Spring, which took place a decade ago.
Yasuke, from LeSean Thomas, feels like part of a cultural shift regarding the centering of other ethnicities within the industry. It already stands out as a show about a Black character in an ancient period: mixing historical fact and fiction with sci-fi and fantasy, Yasuke draws upon tales of the real-life African samurai Yasuke, imagining his life after service to the daimyo Oda Nobunaga (which ended with Nobunagas death in 1582). As an anime series with a Black protagonist, it is not unprecedented  Michiko & Hatchin and Afro Samurai exist, for starters  but its willful engagement with the unwanted politicization of Black peoples bodies feels new for anime.

In the shows present, Yasuke has probably been in Japan longer than he ever was in Africa, having arrived in the country by way of servitude to a Jesuit missionary. But his constant and uneasy adjustment to Japanese society is acutely felt, his otherness and the color of his skin treated as a constant fact of his character; the show is more interested in unpacking that permanent status than most anime. This could be partly attributed to how Thomas himself moved from the U.S. to South Korea and then Japan to pursue his career in animation.

Theres something unique about the matter-of-fact presentation of Yasukes otherness, itself a rebuttal to the idea that its unrealistic to see the African diaspora and Afro-Japanese characters in anime. Notably, Yasuke is not even the only Black character in the show: the Beninese character Achoja arrives in Japan as a mercenary, hired to capture Yasukes ward. But the centering of Yasuke feels special for several reasons: it seems rare to me that the African diaspora is considered in any depth in anime, explicitly discussed in situations central to the narrative, and also somewhat uncoupled from the present day.

Yasuke simultaneously fits into and conflicts with previous interpretations of Black characters in anime. The fantasy and sci-fi elements, alongside the ronin (masterless samurai) protagonist, ensure that the most immediate comparison will be with Afro Samurai, with which Yasuke shares celebrated character designer Takeshi Koike. But as Thomas himself suggested in a recent interview with Polygon, Afro, the lead in Afro Samurai, is something of a cipher, built (lovingly) from afar out of impressions of different elements of African American culture. Yasuke as a character is mostly uncoupled from African American culture; between them, he and Achoja counteract the idea of a monolithic Blackness.

Yasuke isnt perfect in its pursuit of these ambitious plans. Despite Koikes striking designs, and although Yasuke the man cuts an imposing figure (hes recorded as being over six feet tall), the visuals can feel plain outside the fights, the moments of violence depicted with more loving detail than those of peace. The art direction is pretty, the fight scenes exciting, but the stakes start to feel a little hollow as the scale of the conflict between Yasuke and his foes increases.

The show is also somewhat undermined by its choice to introduce robots and the like, as other anime works mythologizing figures from history have done before. But at least here, those robots, wolf women, and demons serve a thematic purpose, emphasizing the absurdity that people treat Yasuke, and not these other outlandish characters, with suspicion.

Even with those flaws, the show is still encouraging, simply because of whose story it decides to tell, and how. Historians speculate that Yasuke was from Mozambique, a country bordering my mothers country of Zambia  a fact that thrills the teenager in me. Its also refreshing to see a Black character who is not a contemporary agent of political change: so many Black heroes in the media are tied to the civil rights movement and fights for political freedom in the present.

This isnt to say that Yasuke the character is apolitical: as a samurai fighting for a powerful, reform-minded warlord, he drives change whether he wants to or not. The show embraces the complications of his position  he does not expressly fight for political change so much as out of a sense of personal obligation to a young girl who crosses his path  but its important that his agency becomes his own. He steps out from simply being a samurai: a tool of enforcement, representative of someone elses will. Starting the series as a ronin, he then chooses who he wants to help.

Its not the case that Black, African, and Afro-Japanese people are invisible in the anime industry  far from it. There are plenty of animators, plenty of cosplayers; there are studios like the American-owned, Tokyo-based DART Shtajio, whose two co-founders are Black. There are caricatured Black characters, but nuanced ones too: the populace of the Cloud Village in Naruto, Atsuko Jackson in Michiko & Hatchin, Aran Ojiro in Haikyuu!, and Dorothy in Great Pretender. Its fine not to have these characters tied to introspection about race; its very welcome to myself, and a lot of other fans, to be free of such agonies for a bit.

But its also affirming to see Yasuke deal with this history and the characters specific ostracization, without making it the defining element of his backstory  he has a history of love and loss, and new companions to protect. Furthermore, the characters mentioned above are in supporting roles; Yasuke is the protagonist. This anime series is one of the few that get at the inescapable politicization of being someone with black skin (and sensitively so).

Black and brown fans of anime, myself included, have made the leap in imagining themselves as the protagonists for a long time already; these activities were probably instrumental in the road to making Yasuke happen. But its also nice to not always have to make that leap  to just look at the screen and see that youre already there.
With the pandemic just getting underway last spring, the town council decided to freeze taxes for the year to give residents the maximum possible financial flexibility. Blonski cautioned this winter that the town needs to catch up with delayed spending.
Originally designed for video games, real-time rendering solutions like Unreal Engine are increasingly being used in the animation industry for their flexibility in the production of cg series and films. However, game engines have often been oriented toward pure technicians and engineers, leaving graphic artists aside in the process.

This issue was what French startup Praxinos hoped to address when it developed and released a painting tool for Unreal Engine. Below, Elodie Moog (company manager) and Fabrice Debarge (CTO) discuss the companys projects.

How did your crew come up with the idea of adding a drawing tool to a game engine?

Elodie Moog: This idea came naturally: on the team, weve all been working in the animation industry for years, not as artists, but as software developers and technical agents. Weve been following various productions over the years, and weve slowly realized that the time when animation productions would be either full 3d or full 2d was over. The war launched in the late 1990s and early 2000s between 2d and 3d has come to an end: their production costs are the same, they both require computers to be efficient, and animation students are trained in both techniques.

Over the last decade, more and more productions have been mixing 2d and 3d in various and clever ways: you will find 3d props in traditional animated films like Ethel and Ernest by Lupus Films and 2d animation in 3d movies like The Peanuts Movie by Blue Sky Studios. Sometimes, 3d and 2d are directly connected in the making process, like the brilliant music video Freak of the Week by Juanjo Guarnido.

Fabrice Debarge: 2d and 3d techniques combined with the emergence of real-time rendering solutions offer even more possibilities in terms of creativity. Fortunately, after we created Praxinos in November 2018, we had the great opportunity to meet staff from Epic Games. They encouraged us to follow this path, and thats how we came out with an ambitious project codenamed Odyssey, which will be a standalone 2d animation software within a 3d real-time environment powered by Unreal Engine.

How can a game engine be an advantage for 2d and 3d animation?

Fabrice: Unreal Engine is a real-time rendering solution. Contrary to classical 3d pipelines that require render farms and long exports to display any result, game engines can apply textures, light shapes, cast shadows, or move cameras instantaneously.

Real-time engines can also serve 2d animation in many ways. Colors, textures, shadows, lights: any of these can be visible immediately and compositing wont be destructive anymore. Lets go even further: at the moment, when traditional animators work, they must alternate between flipping and drawing their animation. With a real-time solution, you can play your animation and modify a specific drawing at the same time, which is a real paradigm shift.

Odyssey sounds promising! But then why did you pause Odyssey to create a painting plugin?

Elodie: Weve never paused Odyssey: ILIAD (Intelligent Layered Imaging Architecture for Drawing), our painting plugin, is just Odysseys first brick. Unreal Engine is an incredible software for virtual productions, but adding a 2d animation tool in it is not a small matter.

Fabrice: Two years ago, when we created Praxinos, Unreal Engine did not even have a drawing tool. And if you cant draw, how can you make 2d animation? It means our team had to create a specific interface and build a brush engine compatible with graphic tablets.

We could have chosen a simple solution with basic default pencils and an eraser, but it would have been too poor and limited. Instead, we decided to base our brush system on Blueprint, a nodal scripting language derived from C++ and available in Unreal Engine, which offers almost endless possibilities.

Elodie: Long story short, once we had the possibility to paint with Odyssey, we realized we would need at least two years to finish this software. The idea to work underground, without telling anyone of our plans for such a long time, seemed like a very lonely and risky road. So we made a bold choice and dedicated a few months of development to adapt Odysseys painting module as a plugin for Unreal Engine, just a few weeks before Annecy 2019. This is how ILIAD was born, and it was undoubtedly the right choice.

Can you tell us more about ILIAD?

Elodie: ILIAD is a free painting plugin for Unreal Engine that allows you to edit textures used on 3d objects. This ability to modify UV map textures is a true game changer  no pun intended  as it enables new working habits within a real-time rendering solution like Unreal Engine.

For instance, the possibility to easily create variations on a character  skin color, hair, clothes, eyes, or details like bruises, scars, makeup, and tattoos  while playing the scene is mind-blowing. For collaborative work, its a considerable time saver. Even for broadcast and film production, it gives a real advantage, as you, the graphic artist, can be on a set with cameras and technicians ready to shoot a scene that requires you to make small changes on the fly to props and characters.

Fabrice: But ILIAD can do more than simply edit existing textures: it can also create new textures, which was not possible in Unreal Engine without our plugin. It may seem trivial, but this is really helpful on many occasions.

Without ILIAD, if you need to create a decal, a scene texture for post process, or a stylized foliage, you have to use a third painting software, export the image, import it in Unreal Engine, set up the shader (named material in Unreal Engine), and check if it works. If it doesnt, you have to go back to the third software, edit your image, and repeat the previous steps all over again. This is not the most fluid workflow.

With ILIAD, you just have to create your texture and the material once, and then any changes made in the texture will be automatically updated. The slightest change, like layers opacity, blending mode, or visibility, will be immediately updated on your assets, in the level.

Elodie: Plus, ILIAD can now edit static meshes directly on Unreal Engine levels. This brings new uses for artists, as they can use this feature to draw sketches or write notes for themselves and their coworkers. As Epic Games is developing more and more features to directly animate 3d characters in Unreal Engine, having a drawing tool nearby can be handful for animator supervisors who need to fix posing, timing, or facial expressions.

In this industry, we often see ambitious projects that will never be completed, mostly for financing issues. ILIAD is a free plugin, so how do you finance your project?

Elodie: Giving ILIAD away for free is something we hesitated over for a while. On the one hand, we needed to make a living; on the other hand, we wanted to encourage Unreal Engine users to try our plugin and give us feedback based on their experience. The best way to do so was to release ILIAD for free as a beta version only.

We decided to make it free forever after we received a Mega Grant from Epic Games. It was a great decision, since ILIAD is now in the Permanently Free Collection of Unreal Engine Marketplace, and you can download its sources from GitHub.

In addition, we benefited from several regional and national subsidies from the French government to support the development of Odyssey.

Fabrice: In parallel, we offer a variety of services, such as the preparation of financing files to support innovation in the animation industry, and specific development on Unreal Engine. We also developed a graphic library (named ULIS) that answers specific needs related to digital image processing: the code of this library is free, but its use for commercial projects needs an extended license with a cost.

We also started to sell content on the Marketplace, starting with a pack of 120 brushes. We also count on future preorder sales of Odyssey as soon as the project will enter its beta phase.

Elodie: But if Cartoon Brew readers want to join in our Odyssey, we will be glad to have their financial support on Patreon for a few bucks a month.

The first step  having a drawing tool  is done. Whats the next step in Odysseys development?

Fabrice: Now weve got the drawing tool, we need a module to manage scene placement in both time and 3d space. The best way to think of this module and its concrete use is to imagine it as a storyboard and animatic tool. Thats how we imagined EPOS, our next plugin for Unreal Engine.

Elodie: Think about how great it would be to wander in your 3d landscape, choose the right angle, and then press a button which automatically creates a camera in your 3d environment, a scene within a timeline, and a transparent board ready to be sketched! Thats exactly what were developing right now, and if everything goes well, we should have a first beta version between spring and summer 2020. We will then start a beta-test program based on selected profiles, so if anyones interested, please submit your application for the beta-test program by filling out this form.

Fabrice: And we have some good news: our associate Antoine Antin has recently joined our workforce to help on very specific projects at Praxinos. Antoine is a storyboard artist and key animator who worked on various worldwide productions, such as Kung Fu Panda 3 at Dreamworks, The Red Turtle, and Napping Princess. We are so thrilled to have him on board!

We cant wait to know more about Praxinos team and projects! Any last words to conclude this interview?

Elodie: I would like to draw everyones attention to the fact that we really want to grow a community around Praxinos. The weird situation caused by Covid-19 cut us off from all animation-related events: no Cartoon Movie or Cartoon Forum, no Annecy Festival, no CTN Animation Expo or ACTF. It makes things harder to start relationships with new fellows.

However, social networks and chat room software are at our disposal for meeting people. So if youre interested in Praxinos, you can show us your support by joining our Discord Server. You can also follow us on the social media of your choice: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, or YouTube. Come one, come all! (We have GDPR-friendly cookies.)
I believe that our defence minister Harjit Sajjan should resign or be replaced by our deflective Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau.

Because both men have handled the way they have responded to the harassment scandals of our senior military officers. Whose actions have cost our military services several good officers to resign from their posts?

Remember, leadership starts at the top. And both of these leader's have shown contempt of our constitutional rights and rules of law. They have ignored, lied, and denied, ever knowing of the allegations that were filed with departments whose responsibility it was to inform them of these allegations. They deny any knowledge of knowing anything about these allegations. They think we as Canadians were are naive to think that this is the truth. Far From It. If this whole fiscal is what we can expect from our most senior government officials, We as Canadians are in deep trouble and we better wake up soon

Mr Prime Minister do the right thing and remove Mr Harjit Sajjan from his position immediately

Wayne Barron
A P&G sachet (Proctor & Gamble)

The Procter & Gamble Company developed P&G Purifier of Water in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). P&G sachets are now centrally produced in Pakistan, and sold to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) worldwide at a cost of 3.5 US cents per sachet. The P&G product is a small sachet containing powdered ferric sulfate (a flocculant) and calcium hypochlorite (a disinfectant). P&G was designed to reverse-engineer a water treatment plant, incorporating the multiple barrier processes of removal of particles and disinfection. To treat water with P&G, users open the sachet, add the contents to an open bucket containing 10 liters of water, stir for 5 minutes, let the solids settle to the bottom of the bucket, strain the water through a cotton cloth into a second container, and wait 20 minutes for the hypochlorite to inactivate the microorganisms.

Lab Effectiveness, Field Effectiveness, and Health Impact

The flocculant/disinfectant powder P&G has been proven to remove the vast majority of bacteria, viruses, and protozoa, even in highly turbid waters. P&G has also been documented to reduce diarrheal disease from 90% to less than 16% incidence in five randomized, controlled health intervention studies. P&G also removes heavy metalssuch as arsenicand chemical contaminantssuch as pesticidesfrom water. Studies showing the efficacy of P&G have been conducted for highly turbid water in the laboratory, in developing countries, in rural and urban areas, refugee camps, and include all age groups.

Benefits, Drawbacks, and Appropriateness

Process for P&G purifier of water system (Proctor & Gamble)

The benefits of Flocculant/Disinfectant Powder are:

Proven reduction of bacteria, viruses, and protozoa in water

Removal of heavy metals and chemicals

Increased free chlorine protection against contamination

Proven reduction of diarrheal disease

Visual improvement of water and acceptability

Transport of sachets easy

Long shelf life of sachets

The drawbacks of Flocculant/Disinfectant Powder are:

Multiple steps are necessaryrequires training or demonstration

Requires a lot of equipment (2 buckets, cloth, and a stirrer)

The higher relative cost per liter of water treated

P&G is most appropriate in areas with a consistent supply chain for sachet resupply and in urban, rural, and emergency situations when educational messages can reach users to encourage correct and consistent use.

Implementation Examples

Woman with P&G sachets in Haiti (D. Lantagne, CDC)

Social marketing organizations, such as the NGO Population Services International, sell P&G sachets in multiple countries.

Local organizations use the socially marketed P&G sachets in their own programming to provide safe drinking water. In western Kenya, students in schools are taught how and why to use P&G, and safe water clubs treat drinking water for all the students. Also in Kenya, HIV self-help groups sell P&G sachets and storage containers as an income-generating activity.

P&G sachets have been widely used to respond to emergencies  from the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia to flooding in Haiti to cholera epidemics in Africa. The Procter & Gamble Childrens Safe Drinking Water program has been given numerous awards, including the Ron Brown Presidential Award for Corporate Leadership in 2007, the EPA Childrens Health Excellence Award in 2007, the Grainger Challenge Bronze Award in 2007, and the Stockholm Industry Water Award in 2005.

Economics and Scalability

Turbid water in Kenya treated with P&G (G. Allgood, Proctor & Gamble)

Each sachet of P&G is provided to global emergency relief organizations or non-governmental organizations at a cost of 3.5 US cents, not including shipping from Pakistan by ocean container. Transport, distribution, education, and community motivation can add significantly to program costs. Sachets are generally sold at product cost recovery for 10 US cents each, for a cost of 1 US cent per liter treated. Currently, P&G projects operate either on partial cost recovery (charging the user only for the product, and subsidizing program costs with donor funds), or fully subsidized free distribution such as in emergency situations. Procter & Gamble sells the P&G sachets at cost, makes no profits on P&G sales, and donates programmatic funding to some projects.

References

Chiller TM, Mendoza CE, Lopez MB, Alvarez M, Hoekstra RM, Keswick BH, Luby SP. Reducing diarrhoea in Guatemalan children: randomized controlled trial of flocculant-disinfectant for drinking-water.External Bull World Health Organ. 2006; Jan 84(1):28-35.

Crump JA, Otieno PO, Slutsker L, Keswick BH, Rosen DH, Hoekstra RM, Vulule JM, Luby SP. Household based treatment of drinking water with flocculant-disinfectant for preventing diarrhoea in areas with turbid source water in rural western Kenya: cluster randomised controlled trial.External BMJ. 2005; Sep 3 331(7515):478.

Luby SP, Agboatwalla M, Painter J, Altar A, Billhimer W, Keswick B, Hoeskstra RM. Combining drinking water treatment and hand washing for diarrhea prevention, a cluster randomized controlled trial.External Trop Med Int Health. 2006; Apr 11(4):479-89.

Reller ME, Mendoza CE, Lopez MB, Alvarez M, Hoekstra RM, Olson CA, Baier KG, Keswick BH, Luby SP. A randomized controlled trial of household-based flocculant-disinfectant drinking water treatment for diarrhea prevention in rural Guatemala.External Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2003; Oct 69(4):411-9.

Doocy S, Burnham G. Point-of-use water treatment and diarrhea reduction in the emergency context: an effectiveness trial in Liberia.External Trop Med Int Health. 2006 Oct; 11(10):1542-52.

Additional Resources

For more information about flocculant/disinfection systems for developing countries visit:
The Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce has been named one of three Communications Excellence Best in Show winners by ACCE, the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives. ACCEs Awards for Communications Excellence program showcases top communications and marketing work of chambers of commerce and similar organizations.





Sybil Topel, Vice President, Marketing and Communications, Chattanooga Chamber, said, Were honored. Many people helped complete this original project swiftly  Eric Lisica, Interactive Content Designer; Jeremy Henderson, Creative Director; and Amanda Ellis, Marketing Communications Manager; each contributed creative concepts, video production, website production and written storytelling. And while our group was producing the work, several other Chamber staff members took on new duties so that the communications machine kept moving smoothly. Were grateful for the teamwork that helped make this happen as we work to attract people to consider Chattanooga as a place to invest, work and grow.





The Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce was named a Best in Show winner for a digital media entry highlightingChattanoogaOpenSource.com, a website the Chamber marketing team created in only two weeks as a recruiting tool for web development and tech companies. The site's video game theme includes a Super Mario-inspired interactive map featuring short videos of Chattanoogans and why they love it here.





"I didnt know we had won until a co-worker called me on the phone to congratulate me, and I said for what? Its always a nice feeling to receive recognition for the hard work youve put into a project, said Eric Lisica, Chamber Interactive Content Designer, who produced the site's videos.



A panel of communications and marketing professionals from 16 U.S.-based chambers of commerce evaluated 173 entries submitted for this years competition. Entries were organized by category  based on the chambers annual revenue  and entry type: campaigns, digital media, event marketing and print and electronic publications. For several years, Chattanooga Chamber marketing team members have served on the judging panel (with no input on the categories that contain their own entries). Judges presented 12 Awards of Excellence and three Best in Show awards.





ACCE named the Chattanooga Chamber 2017 Chamber of the Year, and the Chamber's marketing team has received past Communications Excellence Awards for the Chattanooga Works podcast and the Literally Perfect talent attraction campaign.
Cleveland State Community College has chosen students Samary Holguin and Rebeccah Phanor as keynote speakers for the Spring 2021 Commencement Ceremonies. Approximately 400 degrees and certificates will be awarded during two graduation ceremonies. The first will be held on Friday, May 7, at 5:30 p.m., and the second will be held on Saturday, May 8 at 10 a.m. Both ceremonies will be held in the L. Quentin Lane Center.To enable our face-to-face graduation ceremonies we needed to control our overall attendance, said Dr. Bill Seymour, CSCC president. Rather than inviting outside speakers, we decided to utilize members of the graduating class. So, it made sense to go with two of our most outstanding students.Samary Holguin was born and raised in Orlando and moved to Tennessee in 2014.She is a 2019 graduate of Cleveland High School where she was actively involved in many clubs and organizations. She chose CSCC because she knew it would be the right first step in her educational journey. Since enrolling at Cleveland State, she has been involved in the LEO Club serving as vice president, as well as having served as the vice president of leadership for the colleges Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society for two years. In addition, she has served as the SGA president for two semesters and regularly attends weekly President Cabinet meetings. Ms. Holguin plans to attend the University of Tennessee Knoxville to pursue her bachelors degree. She is the daughter of Jose and Betzy Hoguin and the sister of Lysander, all of Cleveland.Rebeccah Phanor is the fourth of seven children born to Haitian immigrant parents. Her family moved from Florida to Cleveland when she was seven years old. She graduated fromCleveland High School with a 4.0 G.P.A. and decided to attend Cleveland State Community College in the Fall of 2018. During her matriculation at Cleveland State Community College, she has been a very active student in the Honors College, where she was awarded the 2020-2021 Outstanding Honors Student award and has held several leadership positions on campus. She served as a peer mentor, the vice president of the Student Government Association, president of the Diversity Club, and the president of the Baptist Collegiate Ministry. She is also active in her community volunteering with the Unity Center and the Cleveland Homeless Shelter. She currently works at the Boys and Girls Club, where she gets to share her love for children and helping others. She was awarded the Outstanding Leadership Scholarship from Fisk University and will attend in the fall to continue her studies in psychology.For those unable to attend the Cleveland State Community College Spring 2021 Spring Commencement Ceremonies, the events will be streamed live and can be viewed at mycs.cc/graduation.
The property value reappraisal notices for all properties within Hamilton County have been mailed, Assessor Marty Haynes said.

He said, "The reappraisal process is revenue-neutral for local governments. State law mandates the property tax rate must decrease by the overall average increase for county government and local municipal governments. The 2021 property tax rate must produce the same amount of revenue as the previous budget year.

The date on the notice is simply to encourage citizens to call my office as soon as possible.

It would be best if citizens call my office before the County Board of Equalization begins meeting on June 1.

"The deadline to file an appeal with the County Board of Equalization will be June 11, 2021 at 4 p.m. EST.

"If residential property owners have questions about the value of their property, please call 423-209-7990."












So much has happened in these strange and stressful months. Last year at this time, the quest for a COVID-19 vaccine was just a hope shared by researchers. Today, thousands in Connecticut are being vaccinated every day. In May 2020, many health services, such as non-emergent procedures, were closed or curtailed in the wake the virus spread. COVID-19 testing was just rolling out and longstanding issue of health equity was being raised and explored with fresh eyes and new urgency. On the forefront and in the background of every one of these challenges and changes was a health care worker  heroically paving a path forward even though what was ahead was far from certain.
Here are upcoming street closings:

Davidson Road

Davidson Road resurfacing and roadway improvement project will begin Monday, May 3rd, and continue through Monday, May 17, between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. weekdays (weather permitting). Single lane closures will occur with two-way traffic being maintained with the use of a flagman. Brief closures may occur as the equipment is repositioned. Alternative routes are suggested during this time or plan for slight delays.



Reggie White Blvd



Reggie White Blvd will be closed in front of the First Horizon Pavilion on Saturday, May 1, through Sunday, May 2, during the Chattanooga Market.





Palmetto Street

Emergency water main repairs will take place on Palmetto Street between Clark Street and Fortwood Street beginning Monday, May 3, at 8:30 a.m. and will last throughout the day. Please utilize Central Avenue or Houston Street as detours.

REMINDER: Gran Fondo Hincapie Street Closures and Traffic Impact This Weekend



Gran Fondo Hincapie Chattanooga - The following roads and intersections will be closed from Friday, April 30, at 2 p.m. until Saturday, May 1, at 6 p.m. for the Gran Fondo Hincapie setup and bike event.



E Martin Luther King Blvd from Lindsay Street to Houston Street

Houston Street from E Martin Luther King Blvd to E 10th Street

East 10th Street at the intersection of Houston Street

Gran Fondo Hincapie Chattanooga Bike Ride - Cyclists will be escorted by CPD officers starting at 8 a.m. on Saturday, May 1, beginning from E Martin Luther King Blvd, turning north onto Market Street. CPD will be present at all intersections on Market Street, crossing into North Shore, and continuing on Cherokee Blvd. Please watch for instructions from these officers as the cyclists will be given the right of while an officer is present.

A secondary route traveling Manufacturers Road will have officers present at both Highway 27 ramps and at the entrance of Renaissance Park.

The first return cyclists are expected back into Chattanooga around 10 a.m.

Inbound cyclists will return via Tiftonia using Cummings Road, Wauhatchie Pike, turning north onto Cummings Highway until Broad Street. From Broad Street, cyclists will turn on W 33rd, then travel north on Alton Park Blvd / Market Street, right on W 12th Street, continuing onto Houston Street, and back to the closure on E Martin Luther King Blvd. Officers will be located at major intersections/traffic lights for the inbound cyclists.

Cyclists will be required to ride with traffic while following the rules of the road. This is an open course so expect cyclists throughout the city. Please pay close attention to officer instructions when CPD is present.

Most cyclists should complete their routes by 4 p.m.

View CDOT's map of event and road closures for full details of these activities and other projects underway in our public space.
The two Hamilton County Grand Juries got back to work early as COVID cases began to lower.

Hugh Moore, who heads the Concurrent Grand Jury, said the panel has completed a second term while fully complying with safety rules.

He said the new set-up works well except the jury had problems seeing video evidence from witnesses. He asked that the problem be corrected.

Here is the report of the Concurrent Grand Jury:

In compliance with Rule 6(e)(7), Tennessee Rules of Criminal Procedure, the Hamilton County Concurrent Grand Jury for the January - April Term, 2021, submits its Report, as follows:

Concurrent Grand Jury Adapts to COVID-19

Hamilton County's two Grand Juries were the first judicial entities in the County to resume in-person sessions after the March, 2020 shutdown of Courts due to the restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is the second Term during which the Grand Juries have continued to convene, regularly and in-person, while fully in compliance with the restrictions and precautions related to the pandemic. This Concurrent Grand Jury met for a somewhat abbreviated Term of five two-day sessions.

The Office of the Circuit Court Clerk, Larry Henry, and Shawn Johnson, Criminal Justice Public Safety Coordinator, together with the Hamilton County Information Technology team, worked hard to create a new room for the Grand Jury, in the County's MLK Building. Jurors sat at separate tables, and wore masks throughout the daily sessions. All witnesses appeared via an audio/video link with the regular Grand Jury room, in the Courts Building. Everyone whose work and innovative ideas made this new set-up work is due a great deal of thanks.

But one major issue remains with the new arrangement. The Jury cannot effectively see video evidence offered by witnesses. We understand that it is technically possible for there to be a link, via laptop, that would permit the Jury to view video evidence. The Jury has previously requested, and requests again, that if such a link can be established, using an existing laptop, and at no expense to the County, that the video evidence link be ready for the next Grand Jury sessions, which begin on May 17, 2021. If this link cannot be established, then it is the recommendation of this Jury that any witness presenting any evidence other than testimony to the Jury, appear in person before the Jury in the MLK Building.

Cases Presented :

The Concurrent Grand Jury met for five two-day sessions. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic the Jury was not able to conduct its usual inspections of the Hamilton County Jail, the Silverdale Correctional Facility, or the Juvenile Court and Facility.

During this shortened term, approximately 279 cases were presented to the Concurrent Grand Jury. The Concurrent Grand Jury returned 215 true bills, 25 no bills, and 39 presentments.

As in the past, on some days comparatively few law enforcement officers appeared to present their cases. As a result, the Jury would adjourn for lunch before 11:00 am, and then for the day between 1:00 pm and 2:00 pm. The Jury recognizes the many problems inherent in scheduling these appearances (shift schedules, court appearances, paperwork issues, vacations, etc.), but questions whether some improvements might be made, and through those improvements the time of the Jurors be more efficiently used. Apparently there are many cases ready for presentation, and the Grand Jury is always ready to hear them.

Several of the presenting law enforcement agencies allow officers to present cases worked by other officers, which is fully permissible under the law. The Chattanooga Police Department, through Sgt. April Bolton, does particularly well with this method of presentation. Sgt. Bolton will frequently present as many as 5-10 cases at a time, which allows other CPD officers to maintain their regular schedules.

Presentations from Judges and others :

Three Hamilton County Judges took time out of their busy calendars to meet with and take questions from the Jury (Judges Greenholtz, Poole, and McVeagh). The judges' presentations were universally well received and appreciated by the Jury. Most Grand Jurors have no prior experience or familiarity with the criminal justice system. These talks enabled the Jurors to understand where their work fits in the system, and how vital their role is as impartial citizen gatekeepers to the Criminal Courts.

Respect for law enforcement :

During their abbreviated term of service the jurors heard from scores of local law enforcement officers, from not only the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office and the Chattanooga Police Department, but also from several of the suburban municipal departments, Tennessee State Troopers, and others. As with other Juries, these Jurors learned first-hand what these public servants face on a daily basis, and as a result, the Jurors' respect for the service of these law enforcement officers was strengthened. Each of these officers is commended by the Concurrent Grand Jury for their dedication, hard work, and skill.







Silverdale Detention Center :

No inspection was possible.

Hamilton County Juvenile Court :

No inspection was possible.

Hamilton County Jail :

No inspection was possible.







COMMENTS FROM GRAND JURORS

My experience serving on the jury panel was a good one. I gained a greater awareness of and appreciation for the judicial system, legal system, and law enforcement. I appreciated hearing the judge indicate that the pandemic had led to some informality in the proceedings. I picked that up, as well, within the jury panel. I think some instruction ahead of time could be useful. For instance clarifying expectations around formality, since it is held outside of the courtroom. I noticed some jurors being very relaxed, like wearing jeans, and calling other members of the jury things like sweetie and honey, even in the actual "courtroom" so to speak. I know it's a part of the Southern culture, but to me it seemed disrespectful of the context or not having the appropriate formality. A bit too relaxed for a court of law, it seemed to me. I think it could help to clarify at the start that there is still a level of formality expected and instructions on addressing the officers by their titles as well as the respective jurors and members from other roles involved. I know some may not like the formality, but to me it speaks to the importance of the task at hand and helps keep people focused and engaged in the task at hand.

I have a background in working where structure and formality was a major emphasis. So in part I am viewing the formality as important because I have seen some examples of what can happen when lines are crossed in both the professional setting and other arenas.

I hope that makes sense! Overall my experience was very good. I learned a lot about the court system and about trials and legal proceedings. I would love to sit in on a courtroom experience sometime. Thank you for having guest speakers, as well. That was very interesting to hear about that perspective. I previously had fear around the topic of law enforcement and court proceedings. This experience helped me see that those in leadership in this arena are truly providing a service to the community. That makes me grateful for them and the jobs they are doing. I believe I grew in my perspective by having this experience. In other words, I think perhaps God allowed me to have this experience because He knew I needed to heal in the way I view the court system, legal proceedings, and law enforcement. I think this experience has done that for me. Of course I know it's not perfect; any of it, but I needed this experience to challenge my pre-existing views.

Conclusion :

The Jury wishes to extend its thanks to Assistant District Attorneys Bill West and Jerry Sloan who ably and efficiently presented the State's cases, and explained applicable law. The Jury appreciated the always pleasant and polite assistance provided by Sgt. Jeff Reardon, Sgt. April Bolton, and by Don Klasing who scheduled the appearance of witnesses. Larry Henry and his staff in the Circuit Court Clerk's Office (Margo McConnell) supported the Jury in every way.
The story Wreckage Located In Tennessee River is in error. There is no way that the ship wreckage found is USS Chattanooga.

Both ships named USS Chattanooga were commissioned after the Civil War.

The first Chattanooga, a screw steamer, was launched Oct. 13, 1864 by William Cramp & Sons, Philadelphia, Pa.; completed by the Philadelphia Navy Yard and commissioned May 16, 1866, Captain J. P. McKinstry in command.

After final trials in August 1866, Chattanooga returned to the Navy Yard where she was decommissioned Sept. 3, 1866. She remained inactive there and at League Island, where in December 1871 she was holed and sunk at her dock by floating ice. The hulk was sold in January 1872.

USS Chattanooga (I)



Screw Steamer:



Laid down, date unknown, as the screw steamer Chattanooga by William Cramp & Sons, Philadelphia, PA.



Launched Oct. 13, 1864



Completed by the Philadelphia Navy Yard



Commissioned USS Chattanooga, May 16, 1866, at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, CAPT. J. P. McKinstry in command



After final trials in August 1866, Chattanooga, returned to the Navy Yard where she was decommissioned Sept. 3, 1866



Chattanooga remained inactive there and at League Island



In December 1871 she was holed by floating ice and sunk at her dock at League Island



Final Disposition, hulk was sold in January 1872



Chattanooga II (Cruiser No. 16)



(C-16: dp. 3,200; l. 308'10"; b. 44'; dr. 15'9"; s. 16 k.; cpl. 339; a. 10 5", 8 6-pdr.; cl. Chattanooga)



The second Chattanooga (Cruiser No. 16) was launched March 7, 1903 by Crescent Shipyard, Elizabethport, N.J.; sponsored by Miss L. N. Chambliss; completed at the New York Navy Yard; commissioned Oct. 11, 1904, Commander A. Sharp in command; and reported to the Atlantic Fleet.

USS CHATTANOOGA (Cruiser No. 16/PG 30/CL 18 )



Flag Hoist/Radio Call Sign: Nan - Dog - Easy



(Contributed by John Spivey)



CLASS - Denver



Displacement 3,200 Tons, Dimensions, 309' 10" (oa) x 44' x 17' 3" (Max)



Armament 10 x 5"/50, 8 x 6pdr, 2 x 1pdr.



Armor, 1 3/4" Sheilds, 2 1/2" Deck.



Machinery, 4,700 IHP; 2 Vertical, Inverted, Triple Expansion Engines, 2 screws



Speed, 16.5 Knots, Crew 339.



Operational and Building Data



Keel laid on 29 MAR 1900 by Crescent Shipyard, Elizabethport, NJ



Launched on March 7, 1903



Commissioned Oct. 11, 1904



Decommissioned Sept. 17, 1910



Commissioned April 21, 1914



Reclassified on July 7, 1920 as PG 30



Decommissioned July 19, 1921



Reclassified on Aug. 8, 1921 as CL 18



Stricken Dec. 13, 1929



Fate: Sold for scrap March 8, 1930



Mike McCullough

* * *

I appreciate the detail of Mike McCulloughs letter in which he claims that the wreck found in the Tennessee River could not be the USS Chattanooga. However, a simple Google search finds an article at the website of the US Army Quartermaster Foundation that refutes his claim.





To summarize the article, it appears that there was a flat-bottomed stern-wheeler that was hurriedly built at Bridgeport to supply the Union troops at Chattanooga under the order of General Rosecrans. This steamboat operated by the Army Quartermaster Corps was named the USS Chattanooga. The USS Chattanooga was launched on Oct. 24, 1863 and made her first trip on Oct. 29, 1863.





Wayne Cook
With the expiration of state and county pandemic restrictions, Mayor Tim Kelly issued an updated executive order on Friday to modify the citys guidance on COVID-19 precautions and procedures.

The order was updated to remove language stemming from orders by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee and Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger that are no longer in effect, while underscoring city rules and guidelines that will remain in place.

- Removed language affecting McKamey Animal Centers services

- City senior centers shall continue to remain closed

- Removed language in section 1 requiring social distancing and mask usage in non-city buildings and when outdoors.

- Residents are encouraged to follow CDC guidelines in public and private spaces, including social distancing and mask usage.

- Face masks will still be required in all city buildings

- Social distancing guidelines in section 5 covering outdoor events remain in effect

Additionally, the Chattanooga Public Library, in observance of CDC guidelines, will allow residents to browse the stacks beginning on May 3. Existing services such as curbside pickup, digital programming, computer access, as well as passport and notary services will remain available, except at Avondale. To maintain the ongoing safety of both library users and staff, seating and in-person programming will remain unavailable until a later date. As with all city buildings, a face covering is required for entry.

The city will continue to update its pandemic guidance weekly in future executive orders in line with both CDC safety measures as well as local vaccination and infection rates.

The Hamilton County Health Department is expanding their COVID-19 vaccination hours at the Tennessee Riverpark from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekends beginning on May 4. No appointment is necessary, and anyone 16 years of age and older is invited to participate.

Click here to read the order.
Thus far, Marvel has not revealed how Black Panther II will address the tragic death of star Chadwick Boseman in 2020. But co-star Michael B. Jordan has made it no secret hed love to remain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After all, the Black Panther actor said he wanted to play a comic book villain years before he ever joined the MCU as Erik Killmonger.

Michael B. Jordan attending the Black Panther European premiere in London | Ian West/PA Images via Getty Images

Michael B. Jordan played 2 superheroes before joining the MCU

Jordan might have made an impression with his MCU debut in 2018s Black Panther. But the role wasnt his first in the Marvel universe. In fact, it wasnt even his first foray into superhero territory. Jordan plays a teen who  along with a pair of friends (Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell)  develops superpowers in Josh Trankss 2012 found-footage movie Chronicle.

Then just three years later, Jordan re-teamed with Trank for the 2015 Fantastic Four reboot. In that movie, the actor plays Johnny Storm aka the Human Torch opposite Miles Teller, Kate Mara, and Jamie Bell. Just before its release, Trank blasted Fantastic Four on Twitter (via Slashfilm). And the movie turned out to be a notorious bomb and critical disaster.

RELATED: Michael B. Jordan Reveals the Cool Experience He Enjoyed for the First Time During the Pandemic

The actor faced off with Chadwick Boseman in 2018s Black Panther

Although Jordan admitted he was disappointed with Fantastic Four, the self-professed comic book guy told New York Daily News hed prefer to play a villain instead. Especially after playing a series of heroes in films such as Creed, Jordan made it known he was ready to tap into his darker side.

I want to play a villain so bad, just a villain, Jordan told New York Daily News. Ive been playing the good guys, and thats cool. But just to play a villain, thats so opposite of who I am.

Apparently, someone at Marvel has have noticed. Because once Coogler signed on for Black Panther, he brought his Fruitvale Station and Creed star along for the ride. As Erik Killmonger, Jordan went toe to toe with Boseman. And the MCU got one of its most popular super-villains in the process.

RELATED: MCU: Instead of Black Panther 2, Marvel Should Show a Different Side of Wakanda

Will Michael B. Jordan join the Black Panther 2 cast?

In the world of comic books, no one is ever really gone. To that end, some Marvel fans have pinned their hopes on Jordan returning for Black Panther II. After all, Coogler will return for the Marvel sequel. And Jordan has appeared in all of his directorial efforts to date. So why not continue that partnership with the sequel?

While Jordan didnt confirm or deny his involvement in Black Panther II, he did admit a return will always be on the table in some capacity. Even in the first film, Killmonger and Bosemans TChalla both visit the Ancestral Plane, where Wakandan kings commune with past rulers. Killmonger briefly served as the nations king. So a cameo, at least, might be in order.
Everyone has to start somewhere and former Everybody Loves Raymond star Patricia Heaton said that for her, it was no different.

Before she hit it big on the CBS comedy in the career-defining role of Debra Barone, Heaton says she was hired to put her best foot forward.

Actor Patricia Heaton in a scene from the ABC comedy The Middle | Michael Ansell/Walt Disney Television via Getty Images

Heaton did odd jobs as a struggling actor

In a 2003 conversation with A&Es Biography, Heatons brother Michael opened up about a musical job his sister undertook while waiting for her big acting break to come.

She was a singing waitress, he said, at some Italian restaurant where between orders she was supposed to sing either Broadway show tunes or opera songs, I forget.

The manager of the restaurant was getting fresh with her. I had to go down there and punch the guy out.

Patricia told Biography that, with no acting gigs on her horizon, she found herself in New York City wandering the streets, muttering to herself.

I remember walking down the street and I was talking to myself, she said. Out loud. And I was saying, What am I gonna do?

What Heaton said she would do if she hadnt become an actor

When I first moved to California from New York around 1990, I wasnt getting many acting auditions, Heaton told World Vision, an organization she has been active in since 2016. So, one of the first things I did was go to Mexico to help out in an orphanage outside of Tijuana. We spent a weekend repairing a sewage system, laying down a lawn, and throwing a party for the kids there.

Before that time, Id been completely focused on acting and success, but after spending time at the orphanage, I came back completely changed.

Make #MothersDay2021 even more special by giving mom a gift that gives back, like the Unity Necklace I designed for @WorldVisionUSAs Gift Catalog! Order by April 28 to get in time for Mothers Day: https://t.co/GP7oruHd4W pic.twitter.com/PWIoP0WlHf  Patricia Heaton (@PatriciaHeaton) April 27, 2021

RELATED: Patricia Heaton Reveals How She Would Portray Debra Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond Today

Heaton was so moved by her work with the children, she considered a career in missions work.

She continued, On my trip to Rwanda, I realized that God, in his goodness, hadnt asked me to choose between those two doors. Hed opened the missionary door after all. He allowed me to have my acting career, which I love, but also to use it to help people.

As for her unusual early job as a foot model, Heaton told Today in 2018, First of all, I just love the shape of feet, she said. I love my feet. Theyre a size 6, which is a perfect sample size. So when I was struggling in New York, trying to be an actor, I used to do the shoe show that would come to the city four times a year because I had a perfect size 6.

The shoe show staff was so impressed with her feet that they asked her to stay on as a foot model of sorts.

So not only did I get to keep a lot of sample shoes, that they loved my feet so much that they sent me to Italy to do the fit corrections in the factories, the Frankie Heck actor said, laughing. Which was amazing; I had never been out of the country before. One of the gals from the shoe company said, Oh everybody there speaks English. Nobody there spoke English. But it was quite an adventure, and it was terrific. And I really love shoes, I just love shoes so much.
The Halo video game franchise has enjoyed strong support from fans for two decades. The first title launched with Microsofts original Xbox in 2001 and has continued to remain a staple on every Xbox iteration since.

Characters from the highly-anticipated videogame Halo 5: Guardians appeared on Bondi Beach and in the City on October 15, 2015 in Sydney, Australia | James D. Morgan/Getty Images

Halo was a wildly popular video game franchise

The Halo games center around the military leader Master Chief and his leadership of forces from the fictitious United Nations Space Command.

The franchise grew throughout the 2000s and 2010s to include over a dozen titles, including the highly anticipated Halo Infinite due out in late 2021. As a result, fans of the series had been calling for years for Halo to get the Hollywood blockbuster treatment.

Characters from the highly-anticipated videogame Halo 5: Guardians appeared on Bondi Beach and in the City on October 15, 2015 in Sydney, Australia | James D. Morgan/Getty Images

RELATED: Whats New in Halo 5 Multiplayer and How to Play It Early

The Halo movie was highly anticipated for many years

Talks of a Halo movie had been around almost as long as the video game series itself. A live-action Halo film was in development all the way back in 2006, though it would never end up seeing the light of day.

Because Halo is worth so much to Microsoft, the company expected a lot from a cinematic adaptation of it. Microsoft tapped famed British screenwriter Alex Garland to write a script so it could pitch the project to the biggest studios in the film industry.

Microsoft had other demands that couldnt be met, such as creative approval over the director and cast, not putting any money into the production (except for what it paid Garland to write the script), and it wasnt willing to sign over rights for merchandising.

Finally, Fox and Universal agreed to a partnership to create the film, which Microsoft accepted after some hesitation.

Master Chief exits the mine in Balzers Quarry during the HALO 4 launch by Xbox 360 on October 30, 2012 in Balzers, Liechtenstein | Getty Images for Halo by Xbox 360

Why the Halo movie project fell apart

To bring the Halo universe to life on screen, Microsoft wanted to bring on Lord of the Rings and Hobbit mastermind Peter Jackson to direct the project. Instead, Jackson signed on as producer. Guillermo del Toro, meanwhile, was reportedly in talks to direct, but District 9 director Neill Blomkamp was chosen by the studio.

Blomkamp ended up having a lot of problems with both Microsoft and Fox as they all had different ideas for the film. The Halo project was at a standstill and Fox threatened to pull out of the project, pushing Universal to demand that the producers deal be cut. Jackson and the rest of the team refused, and the movie has been shelved ever since.

Ultimately, Microsofts demands and their unfamiliarity with the film industry doomed the Halo film. But that didnt mean that Halo would never make it to the screen.

There have been two live-action web series adaptations of the Halo games so far: Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn and Halo: Nightfall; another Halo TV series is also the way. Despite there not being a shortage of watchable Halo content, many fans regret that a full film production never came to be.
Ghostface is the killer in Wes Cravens Scream. The mask is one of the most iconic faces in horror movie history  not to mention one of the most popular Halloween costumes of all time. Ghostfaces murders might seem fictional, but they are based on very real crimes committed by a serial killer in the 90s.

Ghostface | Daniel Zuchnik/Getty Images

Wes Craven had to fight for the Ghostface mask

Like the masks worn by Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers, the Ghostface mask has become an icon. The warped expression, contorted mouth, and drooping eyes are haunting enough on their own. But its what Ghostface has done throughout the Scream franchise that chills people to the bone.

As Craven once told The Hollywood Reporter, we just let Ghostface be Ghostface. In all of the Scream movies, Ghostface appears the same. The person wearing the mask is always changing. That was the course we took on all the Scream films: Dont mess with that, its just perfect.

Some art I did of one of my favorite masked killers whom brings me a lot of joy. So excited for the 5th installment! #ghostface #scream @RJTorbert @Scream5movie pic.twitter.com/wViryTBtAy  Gage Hubbard (@GageMunster) January 21, 2021

RELATED: Scream 5: Will Matthew Lillard Return as Stu?

Ironically, Craven had to fight with the studio to use the Ghostface mask. He knew the fate of the franchise was hinged on it.

I knew it in my bones that [Ghostface] was a unique find, the horror movie director told the outlet. I had to convince the studio that they had to go the extra mile to get it.

A novelty company conceived the original mask as a Halloween costume. Initially, the masks were mass-produced and offered as part of a Fantastic Faces costume pack. But when Craven licensed the mask in 1996 for the first Scream, the haunting image became the face of the horror industry.

A famous serial killer inspires Ghostface in Scream

Cravens Scream was inspired by countless slasher movies including Black Christmas and When a Stranger Calls. But one serial killer sparked Ghostfaces slashing spree.

Screenwriter Kevin Williamson discovered the Gainesville Ripper, a drifter who terrorized the Florida town in 1990. Over three days, the Gainesville Ripper, otherwise known as Danny Rolling, murdered five college students.

Scream might tell the story of Sidney (Neve Campbell) and her friends being tormented by Ghostface, but Rollings killing spree inspired the masked killer. In The Making of a Serial Killer: The Real Story of the Gainesville Student Murders in the Killers Own Words, Rolling notes how his horrific childhood influenced the murders.

Serial killer Danny Rolling murdered before he became known as the Gainesville Ripper

The Gainesville Ripper is widely known for killing five students in August 1990  one from Santa Fe College and four from the University of Florida. But Rolling had killed before he murdered Christina Powell, Sonja Larson, Christa Leigh Hoyt, Manuel Taboada, and Tracey Paules

According to The Cinemaholic, Rolling broke into a house and killed three residents in November 1989. 24-year-old Julie Grissom, her 8-year-old nephew, Sean, and her 55-year-old father, William Tom, became Rollings victims after he was fired from his job.

Rollings signature became posing his victims. Most often, he would spread his female victims legs open and leave bite marks on them. If this sounds familiar, thats because Ghostface poses his victims throughout the Scream movies.

Rolling also killed his father, James Rolling, in May 1990. He shot him in the head after getting into an argument.
The news has broken that The Last Kingdom, a highly popular series on Netflix, will conclude with season 5, which is a hard pill to swallow for fans. What are viewers saying? We have all the details.

Alexander Dreymon as Uhtred in The Last Kingdom | Joe Alblas/Netflix

The Last Kingdoms season 5

Season 5 is set to be the bitter end to a much-beloved series about Uhtred (Alexander Dreymon), son of Uhtred, a Saxon brought up as a Dane. A lot has happened over the years in the show, but still there is much more to come as the series is based on Bernard Cornwells beloved novel series The Saxon Stories.

Theres no premiere date just yet, but season 5 will follow the next novels in the series, nine and 10, which are titled, Warriors of the Storm and The Flame Bearer, according to Radio Times. It will consist of 10 episodes, and viewers could see it later on this year or in the beginning of 2022.

The reckoning is approaching

It's official! We're all back shooting #Season5 of #TheLastKingdom.

Thank you all so much for your continued support and we'll have more exciting content to share with you soon! pic.twitter.com/llAvG0wptK  The Last Kingdom (@TheLastKingdom) April 30, 2021

RELATED: The Last Kingdom: Fans Weigh in on Their Favorite Female Character in the Series

A video announcement was released on the official social media channels on April 30, 2021, the same day the news was announced ahead of it that the series will be ending after this last season. The video revealed that the series is back in production, which is happening in Hungary, and many of our favorite characters could be seen.

This will be the final season

Unfortunately, fans learned that season 5 will be the final season. Deadline announced the news of the conclusion of the series with season 5, verifying the news with Netflix and Carnival Films.

The executive producer of the series, Nigel Marchant, said [via Variety], We are really proud of The Last Kingdom, which continues to entertain audiences all over the world. We had such a tremendous response to the last season, so are thrilled to be bringing it back for a fifth and final season on Netflix. With such a loyal fanbase, were excited to give viewers a chance to follow Uhtred on the next stage of his epic quest, where not everyone survives.

Dreymon, who will direct an episode in season 5, said, I love this job. Playing Uhtred for 5 seasons has been a wonderful journey. And Im truly grateful to have been given the opportunity to direct. In doing so, I came to fully appreciate the spectacular talent and skill of our cast and crew even more. I cant wait to share it with our fans, without whom none of this would be possible.

Fans react to the news

Alexander Dreymon in The Last Kingdom | Adrienn Szabo/Netflix

As can be expected, fans are talking about the situation, including on Reddit. In a thread titled, [MEGATHREAD] Season 5 is gonna be the last season of The Last Kingdom, fans didnt hold back their opinions.

Many fans seem upset by the news. Wtf no! Why does Netflix need to cancel all the good stuff, but leave the bad stuff there???? a fan asked. F*** this.

Another fan admits its disappointing, and it certainly is for many fans of the series. Well, thats disappointing, one because it could have gone on for longer and two, the main aspect of the story wont get fulfilled, they said.

One fan adds that there is more story. There are more books in The Saxon Stories, so they are indeed correct. Its far too soon to end it now, theres so much more story to tell, they said. Netflix has f***** up massively. Popularity of the show is only growing stronger such a shame at least give it one more season.

This show neeeeds to be picked up by another streaming service, a fan wrote. Its not fair! There is so much story to cover and it an amazing story! This is bull****!

However, one fan says its probably for the best. Even though I expected them to squeeze at least one more season after 5, It is probably for the best to end it now than to drag it out, they said.

While another fan wonders why everyone is upset. Why is everyone upset? they ask. A 5 season story can be solid, a prolonged series for no other reason than to prolong it will always end in a s***show.

Many fans arent happy with the news of season 5 being the last of The Last Kingdom, and we can understand why. But not everyone agrees, which is to be expected.
One nonunion manager, who works in another part of the state government, said in an email: It was very demoralizing for the rest of managers in state service to find out about this. I know the public doesnt have sympathy for us, I get it, but to go years without raises (I have seen colleagues turn down promotions into management because of the lack of salary parity) ... only to find out OPM took care of their own ... very demoralizing.
John Clark was a character in Jack Ryans world. Willem Dafoe and Liev Schrieber played him in movies and now its Michael B. Jordans turn. Author Tom Clancy wrote spinoff books exclusively about Clark, including Without Remorse.

Michael B. Jordan | Nadja Klier/Paramount Pictures/Amazon Studios

Who is John Clark in the book Without Remorse?

Without Remorse is the John Clark origin story, so much so that it begins before his name was even John Clark. The movie begins with John Kelly (Jordan) leading a team of Navy SEALS on a mission in Aleppo, Syria. When John gets home to D.C., hes ready to retire into private security, which couldve still led to plenty of action hero adventures, but retirement isnt in the cards for John.

RELATED: Michael B. Jordan Just Fired the Police from Any Event He Attends

A home invasion claims Johns loved ones and injures him. He rehabilitates in the hospital and agrees to join a mission to get the people responsible. Its Steven Seagals Hard to Kill, only theres no acupuncture involved in Johns rehab.

The action of Tom Clancys Without Remorse

John goes on a bold offensive in public immediately after hes discharged. You have our attention, John. Theres a lot more action than most Clancy movies. Its still tactical. Each scene is about solving a problem, not just fighting and blowing stuff up. John even finds an advantage against an army of armored guards.

L-R: Merab Ninidzes and Michael B. Jordan | Nadja Klier/Paramount Pictures/Amazon Studios

RELATED: Michael B. Jordan Said These 4 Movie Roles Led Him to Join the Protests: Are Creed and Killmonger Included?

The military operations look a bit like Tom Clancy Rainbow Six video games. Theres a squad marching through wartorn Syria, in a bombed-out building. But, the action is always clear. You can see whos shooting at whom, and when a surprise makes things worse. The home invasion is also clear even though its dark. The scene utilizes limited light sources, but its not gimmicky.

Without Remorse director Stefano Sollima always establishes the geography of every scene. For example, John drops his bag on the stairs. Hes on the top level and there are enemies between him and the bag. You know what he has to do to get what he needs.

Michael B. Jordan | Nadja Klier/ Paramount Pictures/Amazon Studios

Tom Clancys Without Remorse ends on a downer

Tom Clancys Without Remorse is exciting for most of its duration. Kellys team is in over their heads and you want to see them make it out. The plot is rather standard issue government conspiracy, but it continues to escalate the danger for the heroes.

Unfortunately, the third act really slows down. Theres a lot of plot to resolve, none of it surprising at that point. So its about 20 minutes of a comedown from a nice high, but the first 90 minutes were good.

Tom Clancys Without Remorse is obviously intended to start a franchise. It is the story of how John Kelly became John Clark after all. It ends on less of a Batman Begins or Casino Royale note and more of an ohhhh, of course. If they do another John Clark movie, hopefully, itll go out on a high.
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Has the American church remained too silent about anti-Asian racism and violence? How can we respond with a biblical and unified voice?

Join us for this free webinar featuring a dynamic panel of seasoned Asian American ministers in conversation about preaching hope, confronting anti-Asian hatred, and serving their diverse communities.

Our Panelists

Mary Chung March

Mary Chung March serves as co-lead pastor of New City Covenant Church in Edina, Minnesota. She also is president of the Evangelical Covenant Churchs denominational Asian Pastors Association and president of the Mosaic (Ethnic) Commission.

She earned her bachelors degree from the University of Michigan and her MDiv and a masters in counseling form Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. She is married to John (co-pastor at NCCC) and is a mom of four.

Juliet Liu

Juliet Liu serves as pastor of Life on the Vine Church, a small missional congregation in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. Juliet is a graduate of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (MDiv, 2005) and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2001).

Prior to coming to Life on the Vine in 2010, she ministered as a college campus minister with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and as the director of worship at both North Shore Chinese Christian Church and Trinity International University. Juliet also serves as chair of the board and writing team member for Missio Alliance, where she formerly served as editorial director.

Peter Lim

Peter Lim is founder and lead pastor at 4Pointes Church in Atlanta. Peter is an ordained minister who is a graduate of UCLA (1995) with a BA in political science, and of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School with a master of divinity (1999) and a master of theology (2000), and of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary with a doctor of ministry (2020). He and his wife, Sung-Ae, are the parents of two adorable sons.

Dennis Liu

Dennis Liu is the co-lead pastor of Vineyard of Harvest Church, a multigenerational, multilingual, and multicultural congregation, in Walnut, California.

He grew up in New Jersey, graduated with his bachelors degree from Cornell University, and earned a MA in intercultural studies from Fuller Theological Seminary in 2005.

After serving as an intern at Vineyard of Harvest Church, he joined the staff of the church full time as the minister to the English congregation. Dennis now serves as co-lead pastor of the church alongside his father-in-law, Kenneth Kwan, who founded the church.

Dennis and his wife, Evangeline, are excited about the future and envision a church that plants many churches!

Michelle Ami Reyes (moderator)

Michelle Ami Reyes is the vice president of the Asian American Christian Collaborative as well as an author, speaker, and activist based in Austin, Texas.

In 2014, Michelle and her husband co-planted Hope Community Church, a minority-led multicultural church that serves low-income and disadvantaged communities in East Austin. Her new book, Becoming All Things: How Small Changes Lead to Lasting Connections Across Cultures, was released this April.
Pro-life organizations awarded $85,000 in grants at National Prayer Luncheon for Life

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Three pro-life organizations, including Students for Life of America, were awarded $85,000 in grants at the sixth annual National Prayer Luncheon for Life on Friday, where several prominent pro-life activists gathered to recognize the efforts of those working to end abortion.

Attendees gathered online and in person at the Gaylord Texan National Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas, to pray, unite, save lives and honor pro-life organizations for their impact on the movement.

This event is designed to bring pro-lifers across America together to pray and to honor high-impact pro-life groups, said Karen Garnett, vice president of culture for Heroic Media who's also the executive director of National Prayer Luncheon for Life, in a statement ahead of the event.

She added, The five nominees for the 2021 National Prayer Luncheon for Life Pro-Life Impact Award have been selected for their demonstrated significant, quantifiable impact and measurable successes in saving lives and winning battles against the abortion industry.

In addition to the Pro-Life Impact Award, which comes with a $50,000 National Prayer Luncheon for Life Pro-Life Impact Grant, a $20,000 Pro-Life Impact Grant, and a $15,000 Pro-Life Impact Grant were given to two other organizations.

At the luncheon, Garnett unveiled the new vision for the National Prayer Luncheon for Life, where she said they will be researching  and helping to educate and raise awareness of really impactful, effective pro-life organizations who are making a big difference moving the ball down the field.

That is what we have done with this first years National Prayer Luncheon for Life Pro-Life Impact Award nominees, she said. Heroic Media produces and publishes Pro-Life Magazine four times a year and were doing the work of reaching out and researching and learning about  doing in-depth interviews with pro-life organizations  to raise their profiles, and for people to be able to understand these are organizations that are returning measurable results. Theyre reporting measurable results and making a significant impact.

For this first year, we chose five nominees who Pro-Life Magazine had already interviewed and published, Garnett added. Next year, were going to open up the nominations process to the country because there may be some amazingly effective pro-life organization demonstrating significant, measurable impact and theyre in a small town and no ones heard of them. Were going to open up the nominations process next year."

While officials with the National Prayer Luncheon for Life picked the nominees this year, Garnett stressed, Were not the ones making the decision about who gets the Pro-Life Impact Award and the three Pro-Life Impact Grants. We put that out to pro-life America, for you all to go on our website, read about each one of them, read about the statistics that they are returning, pray about it and let the Holy Spirit make the decision, she added.

Students for Life of America received the $50,000 National Prayer Luncheon for Life Pro-Life Impact Award.

As Garnett noted, Students for Life of America has trained over 120,000 life advocates and has the most conversations online and in-person with those most targeted by the abortion industry with a 31% minds changed rate with our young people targeted.

Lauren Castillo, SFLAs director of mission advancement, accepted the award on behalf of the pro-life organization. She described it as an absolute honor and privilege to have even been considered for this award, standing next to incredible organizations and their courageous teams.

Castillo added, The Students for Life team across the country are excited to accept this award and we will make great use of it and train thousands of new young leaders in their goal to become not just the pro-life generation, but to [ensure] the future is anti-abortion.

We know that we can abolish abortion in our lifetime," she continued. "We know that with our army of this pro-life generation, were not just saving lives and changing culture, but were standing bold and proclaiming the truth. We want to thank our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who makes this mission possible.

She urged pro-lifers to not just stand with our team and to pray for our young people and for our team and our families, but every single pro-life organization out there because the spiritual battle in pro-life work is very real.

We are standing firm against the enemy every single day, not just Planned Parenthood and not just all the abortionists across the country, but the culture of death, Castillo added, promising that SFLA will continue to get out there and change hearts and minds of this next generation.

Accumulating the second-highest number of votes, Abby Johnson's organization called And Then There Were None, received the $20,000 Pro-Life Impact Grant. Johnson is a former Planned Parenthood clinic director turned pro-life activist.

Highlighting the pro-life organizations accomplishments, Garnett said: And Then There Were None helped 574 workers and seven full-time abortion providers in 43 states escape from their jobs in the abortion industry and experience the peace and joy they were missing. These clients work with state and federal agencies has helped close 26 abortion facilities.

The $15,000 Pro-Life Impact Grant, which was sponsored by Support After Abortion, went to Sidewalk Advocates for Life. Garnett credited "the compassionate outreach of Sidewalk Advocates for Life at 202 abortion facilities nationwide for helping to save 12,709 babies in seven years and helping 72 abortion workers leave the industry and working to effectively close 25 abortion facilities.

The other nominees were Focus on the Family, whose Option Ultrasound Program has resulted in almost 1 million ultrasounds, leading to 465,000 women choosing life for their preborn babies and Susan B. Anthony List, which works to support pro-life candidates and legislation.
Q Summit: Tyler Burns on the 'pain and power' found in the 'paradox' of being a black Christian

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Tyler Burns, president of the Witness, identified lessons the Church can learn from the African American legacy and experience and shared how there is power to be found in the seeming paradox of being fully black and fully Christian.

During a message titled The Gift of the Black Christian Experience, Burns told those gathered at the Q 2021 Culture Summit on April 22 that at the age of 19, he was forced to confront the seemingly contradictory condition of being black and Christian.

I was born black, grew up black in a black family, and was introduced to Jesus at an early age, but sometimes in the life of black Christians, we must confront this reality that ... a black Christian and a black non-Christian will live in the same world and face the same exploitation. Being fully black and being fully Christian sometimes feels like a bit of a paradox.

For example, Burns said that for many black people, its hard to understand how Jesus can be a "healer" when they don't have adequate access to healthcare, how Jesus can be a provider when their communities lack economic provision, and how people can claim to love them but not care about their lives.

It feels like a paradox, he said. Now the good thing, and the good news for us, is that we are not the first or the only group to have faced this paradox.

From Moses to Esther, the Bible is filled with people who had to operate and navigate seemingly contradictory identities, Burns said. Similarly, other minority groups like Latin Americans and indigenous people understand what it means to be ignored and forgotten, he said.

We're not the only people who have dealt with this. We are just acquainted with the pain and grief. There is pain in the paradox of being fully black and fully Christian, he said.

As he wrestled with this paradox, Burns came across the words of former slave Sojourner Truth, who, in response to abolitionist Frederick Douglass struggling with the question of why God hadnt brought full equality to the black community, posed the rhetorical question, Is God dead?

Here's the thing about being black and Christian: In the midst of a paradox, yes, there's pain there ... but just because we're in the midst of pain doesn't mean that Jesus is not in the pain with us, he said.

Here's the truth. When we were in the paradox we found that Jesus met us in the pain of our paradox, and Jesus addressed our pain, but He also gave us power, he continued.

This is the Jesus who can stand at the dead grave of his friend Lazarus and declare: I am the resurrection and the life. This is the Jesus who can shed tears and speak to the tomb. This is the Jesus who says, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? and Into Your hands I commit My Spirit. This is the Jesus who met us, and this is the black Christian tradition.

He urged the Church to center black voices to both find pain and find power.

In black Christian tradition, we can be prayerful and prophetic, we can be weeping and dancing, we can push for joy and justice. We can say we're not alright, but we are going to be alright as black Christians. We can say that the night may be dark, but the morning is sure to come. It's a paradox, but we found power there.

A recent Barna survey found that most black adults in the U.S. believe that to understand the African American experience, it's necessary to understand the role of religious faith in black people's lives.

Most members of the black church also believe faith is crucial to the black experience, with half (50%) agreeing strongly and 38% agreeing somewhat. Faith is also considered a source of emotional strength, with nearly all black churchgoers today strongly agreeing with this sentiment.

Previously, Barna reported that most members of the black church believe the church provides comfort and agency, countering a broader sense of political powerlessness.

Last summer, Doug Weaver, professor of Baptist studies and director of the J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies at Baylor University, told The Christian Post that many churches, particularly white congregations, dont see racial reconciliation as an actionable priority even though they might acknowledge that it is important.

Its not that different racial groups dont think these issues [of race] arent important. Its that theres this question of how important they think it is. If you have a hierarchy of values, which ones are most important to you? I do think thats where the Church at large can be indicted, and that race has not been at the top of the list even though it should be. Churches tolerate racial discrimination. It should never be tolerated, but  history shows that, he said.
Finnish politician under investigation for citing Romans to oppose LGBT pride

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A Christian member of Finlands parliament is under investigation after she cited the New Testament on social media to voice her objection to the Lutheran church's participation in an LGBT pride event.

The Helsinki Times reports that the Helsinki Police Department has opened pre-trial investigations into remarks made by parliament members Paivi Rasanen and Hussein al-Taee, a Shia Muslim.

The police department said in a news release that the two members of parliament have been accused of agitating against an ethnic group.

In June, Rasanen, a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and former chair of the Christian Democrats, took to Facebook to criticize her denominations participation as an official partner of the Helsinki Pride parade.

How does the church's doctrine, the Bible, fit together with the cause where shame and sin are raised as a topic of pride? Rasanen, the former minister of the interior, asked in a June 17 post.

Rasanen, 59, cited Romans 24-27 and posted a picture of the passage from the Bible.

The passage reads: Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creatorwho is forever praised.

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

ELCF is the largest Christian denomination in Finland with over 5 million members.

On Friday, the police department told the daily online newspaper that Rasanens post suggested that LGBT pride events were sinful and shameful.

Al-Taee, a 36-year-old Shia Muslim who was elected to parliament this year as a member of the Finnish Social Democratic Party, is being investigated over Facebook posts published in 2011 and 2012 that are said to be disparaging toward sexual minorities and people of other religions.

In April, Al-Taee apologized for his past remarks about homosexuals and Jews, Sunnis and others, saying that he feels shame for his past comments.

I come from a very conservative background where attitudes, such as gender roles and sexual minorities, are far from what I think now. In my growth environment, homosexuality was a taboo that had no words to deal with, Al-Taee wrote on his website, according to The Jewish News Syndicate.

In my friends circle, one way to deal with this fear was also disdainful speech. As a student in Britain, I became acquainted with a homosexual teacher, I was confused in a way that now seems crazy.

According to the police departments news release, Finnish Criminal Code defines agitation against a ethnic group as making publicly available any information or opinion that threatens, defames or defames a group based on race, color, descent, national or ethnic origin, religion or belief, sexual orientation, or disability.

Agitating an ethnic group is punishable by a fine or two years imprisonment.

In a tweet, Rasanen said she is not concerned about the investigation.

I am not worried about myself, as I trust that this will not go to the prosecutor, the translation of her tweet reads, adding that she hopes this does not lead to Christian self-censorship.

Rasanen is no stranger to controversy as she has become known as a prominent Finnish defender of traditional Christian views on marriage, euthanasia and abortion.

As Evangelical Focus notes, Rasanens views are often more conservative than those in the ECLF leadership.

Rasanens Christian Democrat Party holds five seats in the Finnish parliament.

The Helsinki Times reports that a third pre-trial investigation has been launched against parliament member Juha Maenpaa, who was accused of agitating an ethnic group for statements opposing asylum seekers.
NT Wright on misconceptions about Heaven, the early Christians, and combating biblical illiteracy

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Biblical scholar N.T. Wright believes that failing to read the New Testament in its proper context has a devastating effect on both the unity of the Christian church and the theological understanding of God and the world.

When we fail to care about or recognize the history, literature, and theology of the early Christians, we tend to make them in our own image, Wright told The Christian Post. We imagine that they're just like us with our sorts of concerns, yet very often they're not.

The early Christians, particularly those from the Jewish background, were celebrating the fact that in and through Jesus, something had just happened, and as result, the world was a different place, he continued.

In other words, this was news. Something had happened, something would therefore happen and they were caught up in this new movement. For us, Christianity has collapsed into being a set of good advice about how to go to Heaven when you die. We forget that it started off as news and about something that happened concerning Jesus. If we could reemphasize that, we would all be a lot healthier for it.

Wright, a retired Anglican bishop and now chair of New Testament and early Christianity at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, is seeking to combat biblical illiteracy through his new book, The New Testament in Its World: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the First Christians, co-authored with Michael F. Bird.

Complete with maps, diagrams, and a series of lectures, the book is intended for both students needing an introduction to the New Testament and any Christian feeling stuck reading Scripture, according to Wright.

Its an invitation to walk in the Jewish world, the Greek world, the Roman world of the New Testament, he said. What it was like living in those days, why people thought the way they did, why they looked at things the way they did. And then particularly, what can we actually say about Jesus himself, about the Gospels, about the early Christians, about Paul, about the resurrection?

His goal, Wright said, is to transform the way that the next generation learns and studies the new Testament, both in seminaries and colleges and in churches more broadly.

Its user-friendly enough for the absolute beginner, but then it'll take people on a long way from there into all sorts of exciting stuff, more than they'd ever imagined, he said.

The theologian stressed that the ultimate truth in the New Testament is deeply personal, not a mere how-to guide when it comes to living a good, moral life. He expressed hope thatThe New Testament in Its Worldwill help modern-day believers study and apply the New Testament with a clarified focus and mission.

What you find in the New Testament is this deeply personal encounter; the documents themselves are breathing with this sense that we have actually met the living God in the person of Jesus and He's not like we thought He would be. And that's a bit scary, but it's also very affirming and supportive and life-transforming, he explained.

The New Testament is summed up in Galatians 2:20: I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me, Wright said.

I think that that sense of a debt of love, which only love can repay, is absolutely at the heart of the New Testament, he argued. "It's the same whether you fall in love with music or fall in love with great art or fall in love with another person. Then what you do as a result is not a list of rules. Its I need to plunge myself into this new reality and let it shake me and transform me.

According to Wright, the early Christians were seriously concerned with unity across cultures, ethnicities, and gender; in fact, the topic of unity is threaded throughout Pauls letters. But unity as a Christian imperative is something the modern world has largely forgotten about, he lamented.

As long as we are a wildly disunited, as we are in Western Christianity at the moment, then the powers that run the world take no notice office. Why should they? Because we're just a babble of different voices, Wright said.

The early Christians lived as family, supporting one another in practical, financial, and realistic ways, Wright contended.

They weren't just a religion; they were an outward-facing, but inwardly coherent family. I think it's a challenge to us today when in so many of our churches, the people around us rather look like us. We tend to gravitate towards churches where we feel comfortable because it's people of our culture, our socio-economic group.

The author of more than 80 books emphasized that the New Testament must be read using first-century eyes with 21st-century questions for greater theological and eschatological clarity.

He further delved into his earlier claim that many modern Christians are wrong about the idea of Heaven and the afterlife. The early Christians, he charged, didnt simply exist on earth to go to Heaven. Rather, they sought to bring Heaven to earth through the Gospel.

The early Christians were mostly Jews, and they believed that the world was good, that it was God's world, and that God's aim and intention was not to snatch some people from this world to go and live with Him, but so to remake the world, that it would make sense for God Himself to come and live with us, which is what it says at the end of the book of Revelation," Wright said.

The dwelling of God is with humans, not the dwelling of humans is with God. Of course, that then is the corroboree. But the point is that the New Testament as a whole addresses our culture by saying, Wait a minute, we may actually have been getting our Christianity itself somewhat wrong because we've been imagining the wrong goal to the process.

If Christians would truly study the Scriptures, they would see both the theology and the history addressing us in our historical moment, and saying, let's get the theology right, he said. Maybe this would really help with getting the church itself back on track.

Modern Western culture, according to Wright, has become increasingly Epicurean.

He explained: Its an ancient philosophy, which is that the gods, if they exist, are a long way away. They don't get involved in our world or we don't get involved in their world. So the best thing to do is let the world run itself and make itself. And if you want to pray towards this God, then fine, but don't expect very much from it. That's, that's Epicureanism in a nutshell.

He pointed out that Epicureanism has infected contemporary Western thought in ways that often we don't realize because it's the air we breathe.

Christians have done their best in the last 200 years to find a way of dealing with that, but often by appealing to Plato who said that we have souls that really belong in the upstairs world and that we want to get back there as soon as we can, Wright said. The frustrating thing to me as a historian and a theologian is that actually that's not how the early Christians saw things.

On its own, the simplistic love God, love people mantra popular among Western Christians is problematic, according to Wright, as it raises questions about which god you are worshiping, how its supposed to work, and who these people were supposed to be loving?

In the New Testament when Jesus says the two great commandments are love God and love your neighbor as yourself, this is not to the exclusion of the early Christian belief that with Jesus, the kingdom of God is actually arriving on earth as in Heaven, he clarified. But most people today in our world simply want to reduce this to an ethic: Here's what I'm supposed to do and then it'll be all right.

This book is trying to make people realize that the early Christians were not just a religious movement, they were an everything movement, he explained. This was a whole new way of being human. Of course, loving God and loving your neighbor; that's fine, that's in there. But it needs the structure, the scaffolding, the surround support system of all the other things which we get at through the historical study and theological analysis.

Still, Wright said hes optimistic about the future of Christianity, as he believes people are searching for something and growing through and past the sterility of post-modernity.

Its one of the reasons our political world is so confused. People are hoping if only they vote this way or support that policy, maybe that will be the way to utopia, he said. There is a lot of confusion.

He also challenged Western Christians to lay aside their arrogance, pointing out that most Christians in the world today are not Westerners and do not speak English as their mother tongue.

Christianity is flourishing in sub-Saharan Africa, in Southeast Asia, in Latin America, in all sorts of ways, Wright pointed out. And I think we in the West need to not say, Oh well they're a bit behind and they need to catch up with us. We need to say, Maybe it's we who've gone a bit over the hill and we need to be reminded of where the action really is.

I hope and pray that that will be the effect that this book and the study of the New Testament that goes with it will have on people."
Only 1 in 10 Americans support offering Bible literacy classes in public schools: poll

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As bills in several states would require public schools to offer Bible history classes, a new poll revealed that only about one in 10 Americans support the idea of Bible history electives.

A Hill-HarrisX poll of over 1,030 Americans released last week found that just 12 percent of respondents believe that states should require schools to offer new history classes that teach only about the Bible and no other religious text.

The poll, which has a 3.1-percentage-point margin of error, comes as bills in at least 10 states have been introduced this year that would require public schools to offer Bible classes but would not allow for texts from atheists or other religions to be offered as electives, according to Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Such classes are already legally recognized in seven states, according to The Gospel Coalition.

The new survey found that 16 percent of respondents believe that states should require schools to offer history classes that teach about all major religions, not just Christianity and the Bible.

Seventeen percent of respondents said that they think schools should offer history classes that not only teach the history of all major religions but also the history of atheism.

Nineteen percent of respondents feel that schools should not offer history classes focusing on any religious books. The poll also found that 18 percent of respondents believe states should allow schools to decide whether or not to offer history classes on religion or atheism.

Almost two out of 10 respondents (17 percent) said they were unsure when answering the question.

In 2017, Kentucky passed what has been deemed the Bible Literacy Act, which requires schools to offer elective social studies classes on the Hebrew Scriptures, Old Testament of the Bible [and] the New Testament in order to provide to students knowledge of biblical content, characters, poetry, and narratives that are prerequisites to understanding contemporary society and culture.

The purpose of these courses is to focus on the historical impact and literary style from texts of the Old Testament and/or New Testament era, including the Hebrew Scriptures to teach students knowledge of biblical content, characters, poetry and narratives that are prerequisites to understanding contemporary society and culture, including literature, art, music, mores, oratory and public policy, the Kentucky Board of Education states online.

Similar bills have been introduced by conservative lawmakers in other states thanks to advocacy from Project Blitz, an effort launched in 2015 by the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation. The project seeks to protect the free exercise of traditional Judeo-Christian religious values and beliefs in the public square.

In addition to Kentucky, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a similar bill earlier this month. Arkansas also passed a similar Bible elective bill this year.

The Kentucky bill and similar ones introduced in other states have drawn the ire of secularists who feel that such classes in public schools cross the line when it comes to the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

The clause states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

When broken down by political affiliation, the Hill-HarrisX poll found that 22 percent of Republicans and 25 percent of respondents who classify as strong conservative feel that states should require schools to offer history classes that teach about the Bible only.

On the flip side, 22 percent of Democrats, 24 percent of respondents who classify as strong liberal and 29 percent of those who said they lean liberal feel that states should require schools to offer classes that teach about all religions and atheism.

Twenty-two percent of Democrats and 25 percent of those who identify as strong liberal believe states should not allow schools to offer classes that teach about any religious book. Meanwhile, 16 percent of Republicans said the same.

Critics, such as Americans United, feel that such bills are part of an effort to establish this sort of narrow Christian agenda as the norm for our country.

The [poll] results are interesting because they provide the first snapshot of what Americans really think about this issue, Americans United Senior Adviser Rob Boston wrote in an op-ed.

Thats important because bills that would allow or require public schools to offer classes that purport to teach about the Bible as an academic subject keep surfacing in state legislatures, and a few have even become law.

Natalie Jackson, research director with the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute, told The Hill that the Hill-HarrisX poll is unique in the sense that nearly 20 percent of respondents indicated that they were unsure on this issue.

"I just think there's no real consensus right now on the type of policy, she said.

Although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1963 that school-led Bible reading violates the Establishment Clause, the nations high court left open the possibility for schools to teach the Bible so long as it is presented objectively as part of a secular program of education.

In January, President Donald Trump voiced his support for the Bible literacy class bills that have been introduced in the states. He said they give students the option of studying the Bible.

Starting to make a turn back? Great! Trump wrote in a tweet.

Chuck Stetson, who is in favor of Bible instruction in schools and publishes a textbook he claims is being used in over 600 public schools in the U.S., told The Washington Post that the U.S. is not too far away from a tipping point.

Instead of having to find a reason to teach the Bible in public schools academically, as part of a good education, youre going to have to find a reason not to do it, Stetson was quoted as saying. When the president of the United States gives us a shout-out, thats pretty crazy. . . . Its got the momentum now.

The idea of offering Bible classes in public schools is not new since similar classes have been offered and funded by some public schools across the U.S. As The Washington Post notes, other schools have taken a different approach by allowing children released time to attend church-taught Bible classes.
Preparing for a threat that seeks to replace Christianity

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The American media continues to cover President Joe Bidens Wednesday night address to Congress and the reactions to it. Meanwhile, another politician is making news in ways that are deeply encouraging.

Scott Morrison is the prime minister of Australia and a very public Christian. He spoke recently to the Australian Christian Churches national conference, where he shared his personal faith and sense of call to his position.

The Guardian reports that Morrison is far from alone among Australian prime ministers either in holding religious beliefs or in talking publicly about them. But he is unusual in modern times in expressing such a direct sense of divine calling to the office of prime minister.

The article takes a decidedly skeptical view of this divine calling. This is unsurprising, since the prime ministers holistic faith conflicts directly with the narrative that now dominates our culture.

A threat 'the church has not encountered before'

One of the transformative consequences of stepping away from our daily lives is an enlarged perspective when we return. Like a helicopter sightseeing tour that shows us a beautiful location from a higher view, retreating from the routine can help us see ourselves more clearly from Gods perspective.

One of the clear messages I sensed from God in recent days is that His people must prepare more urgently than ever for the challenges that are coming. We are in the early stages of a movement the church has never faced before, one which threatens us in ways that are now becoming clearer.

Sociologist Philip Rieff describes the era when the Christian movement began as the first culture. It was dominated by a pantheon of gods whose followers were content with their religion and not missionary toward the larger world. According to Rieff, the Christian movement sparked a monotheistic and evangelistic second culture which swept away the first culture.

Now we are in what Rieff calls the third culture, which Australian Pastor Stephen McAlpine describes as hermetically sealed off from anything transcendent. It recognizes only horizontal identity constructions, not vertical ones. Here is where meaning is determined, and here is where authority lies. It is ours to construct  and deconstruct.

McAlpine adds: This third culture is highly evangelistic and actively hostile to second-culture values. For example, it considers sexual freedom and authenticity to be vital to personal and social flourishing. Biblical morality is therefore seen as dangerous to society and potentially deadly to LGBTQ individuals. The same vitriolic stance is taken with regard to abortion, euthanasia, or any other personal freedoms that are threatened by biblical faith.

According to McAlpine, this is a new religion and rival gospel the church has not encountered before. It seeks nothing less than to replace Christianity with its secular vision for a better future.

'My soul pants for you, O God'

What seems to be very bad news is actually the shadowside of very good news.

Every human being is made in Gods image for personal relationship with our Maker (cf. Genesis 1:27). Nothing in secular culture can fill this God-shaped emptiness that Pascal described. The further our society moves from biblical truth, the more people will hunger for biblical truth.

Therein lies our opportunity and our challenge.

Frederick Buechner noted, The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the worlds deep hunger meet. The worlds deep hunger is to hear from God. Not just about Him  from Him. The storms our culture faces are so grave, we cannot navigate them without divine leadership, provision, and protection.

You and I are conduits through whom our Lord speaks to our world. But we cannot give what we do not have. We cannot speak a word from God unless we hear a word from God. To meet the worlds deep hunger, we must first meet with God.

Our deep gladness comes from such intimacy as well: As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God (Psalm 42:1). David testified: O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water (Psalm 63:1).

More than at any time in my lifetime, evangelical Christians need to follow Davids example today. As we face the cultural challenges that lie ahead, we desperately need a transformative, empowering connection with our Lord. I plan to say more about this connection next week; for today, lets close by choosing to make it our first priority as the people of God.

'I dont have time to sharpen my ax'

Ecclesiastes 10 offers this remarkable insight: If the iron is blunt, and one does not sharpen the edge, he must use more strength, but wisdom helps one to succeed (v. 10).

The story is told of a newly hired lumberjack who felled more trees on his first day than anyone else. By the fourth day, however, his output had fallen so far that his supervisor asked him what was wrong.

The man said, I dont understand. Im working even harder than before but cutting less timber. The supervisor asked the lumberjack how often he sharpened his ax. He replied, I have too many trees to cut  I dont have time to sharpen my ax.

When last did you sharpen your ax with God? When next will you?

Originally published at the Denison Forum
Today we filed an action in federal court to fight for the right of every child to have equal access to an education, and to freely exercise their religious beliefs, without interference or intimidation from the government, said Brian Festa, an attorney and co-founder of CT Freedom Alliance, a group that has rallied against the religious exemption legislation passed this week. We did this because we had to do this. The legislators and the governor of the state of Connecticut have abandoned their oath of office, rushing to pass into a law a bill that they knew full well ran afoul of the U.S. and Connecticut Constitutions.
The Christian Post wins 4 EPA awards

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The Christian Post won four awards, including the Award of Excellence for newspaper online, in the Evangelical Press Associations annual contest.

This digital publication offers extensive original reporting on national and global topics of significance, the judges wrote The website is well organized, visually appealing, and easy to navigate.

The Award of Excellence for Newspaper-Online News was presented Friday at the EPA Convention, held virtually this year. CP also won fifth place in the "Critical Review" category for Brandon Showalters review, "Our girls are being irreversibly damaged by the transgender craze;" third place in the "Reporting" category for Sam Smiths article Nigeria's 'genocide': Who is helping the thousands of displaced Christians?; and fourth place in the Cartoon category for Are churches more contagious than casinos?

The EPA, which CP is a member of, describes itself as the worlds largest professional organization for the evangelical periodical publishing industry. Each year, it hosts two contests  the Awards of Excellence contest (for publications as a whole) and the Higher Goals contest (for individual pieces).

Next year's EPA Awards will be held in-person in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
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Throughout the Bible, prophetic ministry played a central role to the point that, if you take it out of the Bible, you no longer have a Bible. At the same time, prophetic ministry presented many challenges, with false prophets doing as much damage as true prophets did good.

The apostle Paul summed up the possibilities and the problems associated with prophecy in a few short verses, writing, Do not quench the Spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good (1 Thessalonians 5:19-21).

So, on the one hand, prophetic ministry should be encouraged, not suppressed. On the other hand, it must be tested.

Unfortunately, in church circles where prophetic ministry is still accepted, we tend to go to one extreme or the other, either welcoming prophecy with little or no discernment or virtually shutting it down with a hyper-cautious attitude.

Today, in light of the failed Trump prophecies, which received widespread media attention, and which followed on the heels of the failed end-of-Covid prophecies, prophetic ministry has a bad name. Not only so, but many believers have become spiritually disoriented while many pastors are asking, Who cleans up the mess now?

In the lead-up to the 2020 elections, amid a storm of pro-Trump prophecies, Bishop Joseph Mattera and I began to discuss the need to convene a number of charismatic leaders, sensing the fallout that would come should Trump not win reelection.

The first conference call took place on February 8, with about 20 leaders participating, and without names being released. That led to the drafting of a Prophetic Standards document, which was then submitted for discussion during a second call on March 15, involving most of the same leaders and some others who had not been part of the first call.

During that second call, the document was reviewed line by line, resulting in many changes and improvements. Then, it was sent to a number of other key charismatic leaders who were not part of either call, resulting in further sharpening of the statement.

It is, therefore, a group statement rather than that of any individual or denomination or stream or network or group.

As for the initial signers, they too represent different denominations, streams, networks, and groups, including megachurch pastors, biblical scholars, theologians, evangelists, leaders of apostolic networks, recognized prophetic ministers, and local church leaders.

It is our hope that this statement will both honor and encourage prophetic ministry while at the same time calling for greater accountability, since unaccountable prophecy has been a bane on the modern Pentecostal-charismatic movement for decades.

As the statement begins, At a time when there are many questions in the Body concerning the gift of prophecy and the ministry of the prophet, and in light of the needs of local pastors as well as individual believers to have practical guidelines for processing prophetic words, as Pentecostal and Charismatic leaders, we felt that now was the opportune moment to produce this current document.

It is not the purpose of this statement to condemn or accuse. Instead, our purpose is to help provide scriptural guidelines for the operation of the gift of prophecy and the functioning of the ministry of the prophet, while at the same time affirming the importance of these gifts and ministries.

To read the full statement, go here. To see the initial list of signers, which represent different nations including the USA, Canada, Australia, Nigeria, Israel, go here. If you are a ministry leader, you can add your name to the list of those who affirm the document here.

As you will see, the statement addresses the question of responsibility for failed prophecies, circles of local and national accountability, assessing prophetic words delivered in unfiltered form on the internet, joining our faith with prophecies, and the definition of a false prophet.

Note also that no judgment should be made on those whose names do not appear on this first list, since the statement was not sent out to multiplied hundreds of leaders, let alone multiplied thousands, to join the initial signatories. However, we invite all leaders to add their names to the document now, giving their affirmation.

We also encourage all interested believers to send this statement to their pastors or spiritual overseers, asking for their affirmation. And we encourage believers to send the statement to prophetic ministers whom they follow, asking for their affirmation as well.

Let us use this unique moment in history to cultivate sound prophetic ministry since the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Revelation 19:10). It is a great gift to the Church, and should neither be neglected nor abused.
Alex Oh resigned from her role as enforcement director at the SEC only days after taking the job due to criticism over her work as a corporate defense lawyer.

The SEC didnt mention reasons for Ohs resignation in a statement released on Wednesday.

However, Oh reportedly resigned after District Judge Royce Lamberth issued an order on Monday, questioning her practice in a deposition in a lawsuit filed against ExxonMobil, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Related: SEC Expands Accredited Investor Rule

Attorney Melissa Hodgman will return to the role of acting director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement, the agency said.

"In light of the time and attention it will take from me, I have reached the conclusion that I cannot address this development without it becoming an unwelcome distraction to the important work of the division," Ohs resignation letter read.

Oh is part of a legal team from Paul Weiss, the law firm defending ExxonMobil in a class action lawsuit filed by lawyers representing 11 Indonesian citizens in 1999, according to Politico.

The Indonesian citizens alleged that ExxonMobils security personnel conducted human rights violations in Indonesia, claiming that the oil company should be held accountable for the murder and torture committed by the Indonesian military during civil unrest between 1999 and 2001. The plaintiffs specifically alleged that the company should be held liable for hiring soldiers to guard natural gas facilities in Indonesia.

Additionally, the lawsuit alleged that an ExxonMobil lawyer based in Asia used a script to answer questions in an unresponsive manner that discouraged the plaintiffs lawyers from getting information.

On Monday, Judge Lamberth ordered ExxonMobil to obtain a witness who would answer every one of those questions again and ordered Oh to explain why she shouldnt face sanctions for her involvement in the deposition. An individual familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal that SEC officials spoke with Oh after the judge issued the order.

SEC Chair Gary Gensler was subsequently criticized for hiring Oh, a corporate lawyer, to head one of the countrys most powerful agencies, according to Politico.

Advocacy groups, including Demand Progress and the Revolving Door Project, sent a letter to Gensler on Tuesday, saying that they were "surprised and disappointed" by his decision to hire her. In the letter, the groups questioned Ohs ability to enforce the very laws and regulations whose enforcement she has built a career of defending against." They urged Gensler to reconsider his hiring decision and instead appoint an attorney with a proven track record of public-oriented service, of which there is no shortage."

Still, in the wake of the backlash, Paul Weiss Chairman Brad Karp defended Oh, claiming Alex is a person of the utmost integrity and a consummate professional, with a strong ethical code.

Oh has worked as a corporate lawyer at Paul Weiss for 20 years, during which she has represented Fortune 100 companies facing government allegations, including Bank of America and Pfizer.

Oh and the SEC didnt immediately respond to Enterpreneur.coms request for comment.

Copyright 2021 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
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As a feminist filmmaker, Antonia Kilian was inspired to travel to northern Syria after forces of the Kurdish autonomous region known as Rojava liberated the city of Minbij from ISIS militants.

It was in Minbij that Kilian met Hala, a young Arab woman who had fled her conservative family and the prospects of a forced marriage and found safety and emancipation at a Rojavan military academy, where she trained to become a soldier in the Womens Protection Units (YPJ)  part of the Syrian Democratic Forces controlled by the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD).

Hala is the subject of Kilians film The Other Side of the River, which is screening at Danish doc fest CPH:DOX and also unspools at next months DOK.fest Munchen.

Speaking to Variety, Kilian says she was familiar with the ideological background of the Rojava autonomous region, but was interested to see how it actually operated in practice. It was really important for me to see how this theoretical concept of grassroots democracy and feminist revolution would look like in reality.

Rojavas young female guerrillas have made headlines around the globe for their part in the fight against ISIS, so much so that even Hillary Clinton is developing a TV series about them via her HiddenLight production company, a project based on Gayle Tzemach Lemmons book The Daughters of Kobani: A Story of Rebellion, Courage, and Justice.

Kilian says it was important for her to try to understand the situation there through the eyes of a woman who is joining them and through the people living there, to see the options they have and what it means for them.

While Hala became the focus of the film, Kilian also explores aspects of Rojavan culture and life in Minbij, which in 2016 became the first major city liberated by PYD forces outside of its core Kurdish region.

Kilian depicts the culture clash that takes place in Minbij between the liberated Kurdish women and the more traditional Arab women of the city. Its an Arab city and my film is about an Arab girl joining a Kurdish army, so its also about this.

Like Hala, other young women from the area eagerly joined the Rojavan forces. Women had been in a precarious situation in the city under three years of ISIS rule and now some felt empowered and welcomed the idea of having a gun in their hands to protect themselves.

Kilian points out that using womens weaknesses to recruit more fighters for an army can be seen critically, but adds that its a complex situation.

Indeed, Kilian notes that the whole concept of a self-organized Kurdish region is based on the political ideology of Abdullah Ocalan, the Kurdish nationalist and founding member of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), who has been imprisoned in Turkey since 1999.

The PYD claims it wants to create a democratic confederacy inside the state of Syria that would recognize all ethnicities and religions, Kilian says. It was important for her to see how an Arab city would react to Kurdish forces coming in and taking control. Nevertheless, the more territory the PYD and its Syrian Democratic Forces took over from ISIS, the more Arab women and men joined their ranks, she adds.

The PKK itself emerged from the revolutionary left in Turkey in the 1970s and female fighters have been part of the guerilla movement since the early 1990s, she adds. The Kurdish people in Rojava are familiar with this concept of radical feminism in a military framework.

Whether Clintons TV series delves into that history remains to be seen.

In making the film, Kilian traveled twice to northern Syria. She lived for a year with a family in the city of Serekaniye, located on the border with Turkey. The house she stayed in and where the family had lived their whole lives was burned to the ground by the Turkish military after the U.S. withdrew its troops from the region, she says.

I am wondering if Hillary Clinton wants to include this part in her [project] about female Kurdish fighters.

Kilian has also criticized the decision by the Danish government to revoke the residency permits of hundreds of Syrian refugees, who will likely be repatriated to the war-torn nation. Syria is dangerous for everyone, not only for international filmmakers going there.

Kilian is currently working on two other observational documentaries about women and the immigrant experience. Via her Kassel-based production company Pink Shadow Films, she is producing and serving as DOP on Bahar Bektas What Happened, about a Kurdish woman in Germany dealing with the question of exile and racism.

She is also shooting Familiar Places, a documentary by director Mala Reinhardt and an all-female crew about a young German-Ghanaian woman and her life and family between Germany and Ghana. After lensing in Germany, the production will head to Accra this summer for further shooting.

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Former Vice President Mike Pence and several other potential 2024 presidential candidates are descending upon Texas next week to thank donors to the 2020 campaign here and to help raise money to flip the U.S House next year.

The group of high-profile Republicans are set to appear May 7 at an Austin resort where each will be interviewed by members of the Texas congressional delegation, according to a schedule obtained by The Texas Tribune. The group includes Pence, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and U.S. Sen. Rick Scott of Florida.
(Editors note: This project is a collaboration between the Plainview Herald and Saint Francis Ministries to showcase kids who are cleared for adoption.)

Eight-year-old Tori is a very sweet, charming, and affectionate little girl. She enjoys being active and on the go. When she is exploring the outdoors, she loves playing with others on the playground and making up her own games.

Tori is very creative and has a great imagination. She loves to have imaginary friends and explores her creativity with drawing.

She loves all things girly, especially all of the Disney princesses and dolls.

Tori loves to help others, especially her teachers at school, she is always eager to helpt out. She loves having friends and is always doing her best to make others laugh.

Tori describes herself, I am a creative, smart, funny girl, and I like making up fun games for everyone to play! She is really excited to find her forever family who will go on her imaginary adventures with her!

---

Tori is one of the children listed on the Texas Adoption Resource Exchange (TARE) website. Visit https://www.dfps.state.tx.us/Application/TARE/Home.aspx/Default for more details.

Saint Francis Ministries is a nonprofit organization and a community-based care provider for the Texas Department of Family Protective Services Region 1. This region includes 41 counties across the Panhandle and South Plains.

To learn more about fostering or adopting, those interested are encouraged to attend one of the monthly virtual meetings hosted by Saint Francis Ministries and other child placing agencies. The meetings provide information about how to get started, the basic qualifications and more, in addition to providing opportunity for attendees to ask questions.

Those interested can visit Saint Francis Texas on Facebook @SFMtexas to register for the online meetings, which can also be found below:

The meetings are scheduled for the second Thursday of the month (Lubbock area  https://lubbock-area-foster-care-adoption.eventbrite.com) and the third Thursday of the month (Amarillo area  https://amarillo-area-foster-care-adoption.eventbrite.com).

For more information, please contact Erin Baxter at (806) 317-5631 or email texasinfo@st-francis.org. Visit Saint Francis Ministries online at https://saintfrancisministries.org.
WASHINGTON - Shivering in freezing temperatures, about 50 U.S. soldiers braced for the worst. Hundreds of Chinese soldiers were about to launch a series of bloody attacks on the hill the Americans had just taken under fire, and no reinforcements were within a mile.

The clash that then-1st Lt. Ralph Puckett and his soldiers experienced that night on "Hill 205" came at the outset of the Battle of the Chongchon River, a pivotal moment in which senior U.S. commanders were surprised by China's full-scale entry into the Korean War.

Thousands of U.S. soldiers died in following days as they withdrew hundreds of miles back into South Korea in what the Army now describes as the longest retreat in U.S. military history.

Puckett, who commanded the Eighth Army Ranger Company, was wounded by a hand grenade in the first attack on the hill on Nov. 25, 1950, but stayed in command. American and South Korean soldiers absorbed five more chaotic, armed assaults through the night before Puckett ordered his soldiers to withdraw the following morning as the Chinese threatened to overrun them.

"I had been wounded three times by then, and I was lying there in my foxhole unable to do anything," Puckett would later recall for an oral history project. "I could see three Chinese about 15 yards away from me, and they were bayoneting or shooting some of my wounded Rangers who were in the foxholes."

More than 70 years later, Puckett, 94, will receive the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for valor in combat, for his actions. President Joe Biden called Puckett at home in Columbus, Ga., on Friday to inform him of his decision to approve the award, said John Lock, a retired Army officer who began petitioning the Army for reconsideration of Puckett's actions in 2003.

The Army credits Puckett with leading his soldiers across an open field to take the hill under intense fire, braving enemy fire repeatedly to check on his soldiers after he was wounded the first time, and directing "danger close" artillery strikes near his own position to ward off advancing Chinese soldiers.

Puckett has said he told his soldiers to leave him behind after he was incapacitated, but two privates first class, Billy Walls and David Pollock, carried him to safety.

Puckett would go on to earn the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation's second-highest award for valor in combat, for his actions in the battle. The recognition came near the outset of a 22-year career that also included a second Distinguished Service Cross and two Silver Stars for valor in Vietnam. Puckett was awarded five Purple Hearts for injuries suffered in combat and two Bronze Star Medals with the V device for valor.

With an upgrade to the Medal of Honor, Puckett will be one of the most highly decorated service members for valor in U.S. military history, Lock said.

Among those who assisted in Puckett's case were Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who contacted the Army on Puckett's behalf a few months before dying of cancer in 2018, and retired Gens. Joseph Votel and Stanley McChrystal, who know Puckett through their mutual service as Rangers, according to documents that Lock provided to The Washington Post.

"Then First Lieutenant Puckett's actions on Hill 205 in 1950 exemplified personal bravery beyond the call of duty, risking his own life as he drew enemy fire so his men could locate, engage, and destroy an enemy machine-gun nest and kill a sniper," Votel wrote in a 2018 letter to Army officials in support of Puckett's nomination.

Puckett's wife, Jean, said in a phone interview that the family hopes to visit the White House for a ceremony. Considering her husband's advancing age and some health problems, she expressed concern about how long it was taking.

"He is not the one who has been pushing it. It has been John and our immediate family, who want him to be able to receive it personally if he is going to be awarded that medal," she said, referring to Lock. "He felt the Distinguished Service Cross was honor enough."

For years, Puckett has been a spiritual and cultural leader of sorts for the 75th Ranger Regiment, the elite fighting force that specializes in raids, airfield seizures and other difficult missions in combat. As an "honorary colonel" for the regiment, he traveled overseas in his 80s with U.S. commanders, including to Iraq and Afghanistan, and regularly met with soldiers at Fort Benning, Ga., the home of both the Ranger Regiment and much of Ranger School.

Votel, who retired as chief of U.S. Central Command in 2019, was commander of 1st Ranger Battalion when he got to know Puckett during an exercise in South Korea. Puckett shared details about his experiences fighting in the Korean War, connecting to the soldiers with his "down-to-earthiness," he said.

"He's a very noble individual He adds a level of dignity, a level of stalwartness, to everything that he is a part of," Votel said in an interview. "He's just really a revered figure in the Ranger Regiment."

Puckett, who was born in Tifton, Ga., retired from the Army in 1971 and settled near Fort Benning after retiring as a civilian in the 1990s. His wife said they met there in a hospital decades earlier as Puckett was healing from the wounds he suffered in North Korea.

More recently, Puckett said he supported women serving in combat units. He said during an interview with The Washington Post in 2015 that he believed some could meet the standards and wanted to see them do it. His granddaughter, an Army captain, is now preparing to become an artillery officer, Jean Puckett said.

Puckett recently made an appearance this month at the Best Ranger Competition, in which two-person teams of soldiers compete in an event stretching over 2.5 days.

"Thank you for being what you are and doing what you're doing," Puckett said in remarks captured and posted online by the Army. "You set the standard for the Army. You set the standard for the Rangers. You set the standard for all of us."
The problems with U.S. broadband networks have been obvious for years. Service costs more than in many other rich nations, it still doesnt reach tens of millions of Americans and the companies that provide it dont face much competition.

Now the Biden administration is promising to do something about all of those issues as part of its proposed $2.3 trillion infrastructure package. The plan, which would devote $100 billion to get all Americans connected, is more idea than policy and lacks a lot of important detail.

But it sketches out a striking new vision of activist government measures intended to improve high-speed internet service, following decades in which the government has largely left the job to private companies.

It would spend $100 billion to future-proof broadband as part of an eight-year infrastructure plan, calling high-speed connections the new electricity thats now a necessity for all Americans. (For history buffs, thats a reference to the Rural Electrification Act  Depression-era legislation that sped the extension of power lines to farms and rural communities.)

It could signal a major policy shift toward lowering the high cost of internet service, rather than just handing money to broadband providers for building out networks. Americans pay too much for internet, the plan bluntly states.

It pushes for greater competition that could lower prices, by encouraging and supporting networks owned or affiliated with local governments, cooperatives and nonprofit organizations. Currently, roughly 20 states restrict municipal broadband. Prioritizing such networks could give them a leg up when the government doles out money for extending service.

The most important thing about what President Biden has done in the proposal is that hes redefined the digital divide, said Larry Irving, a top telecom official in the Clinton administration. The simple act of recognizing that poverty is a bigger indicator of lack of access than geography is a huge statement.

Its not clear how the Biden administration plans to bring that about.

The pandemic has made clear that millions of Americans are not online, a problem that isnt limited to rural areas but includes cities too. The White House says more than 30 million Americans dont have access to high-speed internet at all, and millions more cant afford it.

The divide persists even after the government has spent billions encouraging broadband providers to connect far-flung and often isolated communities. From 2009 through 2017, federal spending on such programs totaled $47.3 billion, according to a government watchdog report. An additional $20 billion is lined up over the next decade for rural broadband, and another $9 billion for high-speed wireless internet called 5G in sparsely populated regions. Billions more flowed to broadband from the three huge relief packages enacted during the pandemic.

Americas rural-internet policy has been an ongoing mistake, said Gigi Sohn, an official in the Obama-era FCC. A lot of what we have is very slow, she said. The White House now says it wants future-proof networks in unserved and underserved areas, so they dont have to be rebuilt again years later because theyre out-of-date.

Exactly what those terms means for what gets built and where isnt clear, either, and many Republicans oppose putting federal funds to work in areas that do have internet even if its slow  whats called overbuilding.

The $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan has its detractors. Some Democrats are disappointed because they wanted more. On the other hand, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky called it a Trojan horse for tax hikes.

Internet access is a bipartisan issue, but Republican leaders of the House and Senate Commerce committees called Bidens approach on broadband wasteful.

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, the Republican ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said Bidens plan would hurt private investment in our networks without actually closing the digital divide. She called for trimming regulations on building infrastructure to help prompt investment. Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the Republican ranking member of Senate Commerce, said the proposal opens the door for duplication and overbuilding.

Congressional Democrats have recently introduced major broadband legislation of their own, including a $94 billion bill from Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, the House Majority Whip, who both said they approved of the White Houses approach.

Republicans concerns echo those from industry. The cable lobbying group NCTA said the White House risks taking a serious wrong turn  by suggesting that the government is better suited than private-sector technologists to build and operate the internet. The NCTA also said it was worried about price regulation. The Biden document does not mention price controls.

Jonathan Spalter, CEO of the lobbying group USTelecom, said that prioritizing investments in government-owned broadband is exactly the wrong approach since taxpayers will get the bill if such networks fail. He also claimed that broadband prices are already falling.

The Labor Department says pricing for telephone services, which includes internet plans along with phone service, has dropped about 7% over the past decade. Internet service costs, which include things like web hosting, have risen 2%. A think tank with a lot of tech-industry funding, New America, says prices are higher in the U.S. compared with Asia and Europe.
He is the sales director at W&O Supply in Norfolk  one of the more than 2,000 companies in 46 states that, along with thousands of workers at Newport News Shipbuilding, have a big stake in what Congress decides about how much money to spend on building and overhauling aircraft carriers. For those companies, their top priority now is to encourage Congress to appropriate the $2.3 billion necessary to keep work on the Enterprise-Doris Miller contract on track next year.
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Now, federal officials are formally asking the court to terminate the unidentified suspects rights to 19 of the 41 dogs recovered, according to a complaint for forfeiture filed Monday. A civil forfeiture warrant for the dogs was entered in U.S. District Court in Richmond on Tuesday, the Times-Dispatch reported.
An overview of Canadas PNP immigration results for April 2021 A look back at PNP activity over the past month.

An overview of Canadas PNP immigration results for April 2021 A look back at PNP activity over the past month.

An overview of Canadas PNP immigration results for April 2021 A look back at PNP activity over the past month. Alexandra Miekus Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

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Canadian provinces issued 3,625 invitations to apply for a provincial nomination for permanent residence last month.



Canadian provinces and territories, with the exception of Quebec and Nunavut, operate their own Provincial Nominee Programs (PNP). Each province sets its own criteria for selecting eligible foreign workers for Canadian permanent residence under its respective PNP. By having their own immigration programs, provincial governments are able to select those individuals who are best suited to meet their local labour market needs.

Along with Express Entry, which is the primary immigration pathway for economic immigrants, PNPs provide a major route to permanent residency in Canada. Between now and 2023, over 80,000 immigrants per year are expected to become permanent residents through these programs alone.

In recent weeks, the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island have issued invitations to workers with a range of skills and professional experience. Invited candidates get the opportunity to apply for a provincial nomination, which will support their eventual application for Canadian permanent residence.

Find Out if Youre Eligible for Canadian Immigration

How does the PNP application process work?

The application process varies within the different provincial nominee programs when it comes to how their various streams operate.

Generally, you can submit an application directly to the province through their respective online portals or a paper-based application process. This month, some paper-based application systems started going digital.

Most PNPs operate on the basis of an Expression of Interest (EOI) system where applicants create profiles detailing their education, work experience, and language skills, among other things, and are then scored against each other. The top-scoring applicants are then invited to apply for a provincial nomination through what are known as draws.

Only immigration candidates who receive an invitation can apply for a provincial nomination and complete applications must be submitted within a given time frame or they will not be considered.

What is the difference between base and enhanced nomination streams?

There are two types of PNPs: base and enhanced. The key difference is that one operates with the Express Entry system, the other does not.

Base nomination streams may be of use to applicants who are not eligible for Express Entry, as they are managed by the provinces themselves. They are more fine-tuned to the regions labour market needs.

Enhanced nomination streams are linked with the Express Entry system. They allow provincial immigration officials to search the Express Entry pool of candidates for principal applicants who match specific criteria. The provinces then invite these candidates to apply for a provincial nomination. The Express Entry pool consists of candidates for Canadas three Federal High Skilled immigration programs: the Federal Skilled Worker Program, Federal Skilled Trades Program and Canadian Experience Class.

Express Entry is similar to any other expression of interest system, in that candidates are scored based on their human capital factors. Express Entry candidates are awarded points based on the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS). They get points for their age, skilled work experience, language ability, and education, among other factors.

If candidates get a provincial nomination through enhanced provincial streams, they are awarded an additional 600 CRS points. This practically guarantees that they will receive an invitation to apply for permanent residence in a subsequent Express Entry draw.

These 600 points can be especially critical to Express Entry candidates with core CRS scores that are lower than the average cut-off scores in federal invitation rounds.

In order to be considered for a provincial nomination through Express Entry-aligned PNP, the first step is to enter a profile into the Express Entry pool.

Many Canadian provinces have multiple Express Entry-aligned streams. In recent years, a large proportion of provincial nominations have been going to Express Entry candidates. Alberta, B.C., Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, and Saskatchewan have all issued nominations to Express Entry candidates over the past month.

April 2021 PNP highlights

Since the beginning of the year, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has been holding PNP-specific Express Entry draws, on average, every two weeks. During the month of April, these rounds of invitations were held on April 14 and April 28 and invited a total of 647 candidates to apply for permanent residence.

Ontario

The Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) held a draw on April 13 where 528 Express Entry candidates with tech experience were invited to apply for a provincial nomination

Ontario ended the month of April by announcing the launch of a new Expression of Interest (EOI) system for two of its provincial immigration programs. This announcement was highly anticipated and is intended to improve the process of filing immigration applications in the province.

Alberta

The Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program (AINP)s Express Entry Stream has been active since the beginning of 2021, after months of silence in 2020. The province held two draws in April and invited a total of 400 candidates.

The AINP uses the stream to search the Express Entry pool for candidates who meet its eligibility criteria, which include a minimum CRS score that is usually around 300.

Saskatchewan

Saskatchewans International Skilled Worker Category also had a busy first few months of 2021.

In April, the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program (SINP) held two invitation rounds through the Express Entry and Occupations In-Demand sub-categories issuing a total of 548 invitations to apply for a provincial nomination.

Manitoba

The Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program held three draws in April and issued 1,009 Letters of Advice to Apply to candidates in the following three Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) streams: Skilled Workers in Manitoba, International Education Stream, and Skilled Workers Overseas. Of the total number of nominations, at least 422 went to Express Entry candidates.

British Columbia

The province invites the top-scoring provincial candidates on a weekly basis through The British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program. Draws under the Express Entry British Columbia, Skills Immigration, Entrepreneur streams as well as the Tech Pilot are held every month. This past month, the province invited 984 candidates to apply for a provincial nomination.

Prince Edward Island

Prince Edward Island held a draw on April 15 and issued a combined 156 invitations to candidates in its Express Entry and Labour Impact categories. This Atlantic province typically holds one pre-scheduled draw per month.

Find Out if Youre Eligible for Canadian Immigration

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Wilkes-Barre, PA (18701)

Today

Partly cloudy early followed by increasing clouds with showers developing later in the day. Thunder possible. High near 90F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

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Fifty-one years ago, in July 1967, in response to an explosion of rioting in poor black urban neighborhoods around the United States, President Lyndon B. Johnson created a National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, to be headed by Illinois governor Otto Kerner. The Kerner Commission issued its report seven months later, on February 29, 1968, in what would be the peak year for such disturbances289, by one tally. From 1964 to 1972, a staggering total of 752 riots occurred, resulting in 228 deaths, 12,741 injuries, 69,099 arrests, and 15,835 incidents of arson.

Most government reports gain brief notice and then languish on a shelf, never again to be examined, except perhaps by historians. The Kerner Report, by contrast, sold more than 2 million copies, putting it on bestseller lists. More important, it became a liberal policy guide, advocating government programs to provide services to the urban poor, police reforms (including an end to white maleonly hiring), and billions of dollars in housing programs to end residential segregation.

In assessing the causes of the riots, the Kerner Report famously declared that white racism is essentially responsible for the explosive mixture which has been accumulating in our cities since the end of World War II. It warned that a failure to change policies and implement its liberal prescriptions would make permanent the division of our country into two societies: one, largely Negro and poor, located in the central cities; the other, predominantly white and affluent, located in the suburbs and in outlying areas.

In retrospect, its clear that the reports explanation of the riots and its prediction about increased racial segregation were wrong. Census data refute the grim forecast. From 1970 to 2010, according to population researchers Jacob Rugh and Douglas Massey, data for 287 metropolitan areas showed steady declines in residential segregation over each of the four decades. While some of the reports policy prescriptions were adopted, its unlikely that these changes were responsible for the decrease in urban segregation. More likely explanations include sharp declines in black poverty rates, reductions in violent crime (especially in black communities), a reverse-migration of blacks from northern cities to the South, massive inflows of immigrants, and inner-city gentrification. Maybe none of these developments could have been predicted in 1968, but in an era in which the old Jim Crow system was already crumbling, it would have been more plausible to forecast a future of less residential segregation, not more.

The Kerner Commission had a blind spot when it came to positive changes in white racial attitudes and black socioeconomic progress. White racism was in sharp decline in the 1960s. Whites overwhelmingly supported the most significant civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, as well as Johnsons War on Poverty, aimed largely at helping African-Americans. By 1963before the era of riots83 percent of whites favored equal-employment opportunities for African-Americans, and 64 percent said that they would not object to having a black neighbor. Indeed, 62 percent of black interviewees in 1968 said that there had been a lot of progress in the previous ten or 15 years in eliminating race discrimination. Throughout the sixties, whites became steadily more liberal in their racial attitudes. Two-thirds of whites supported laws to prevent employment discrimination and to spend more money for jobs, schools, and housing for African-Americans. Forty percent endorsed laws against housing discrimination.

Nevertheless, the Kerner Report called urban black communities ghettos to emphasize blacks limited opportunities for relocation, and it blamed the existence of these neighborhoods on white racism. White institutions created [the ghetto], the commission declared flatly, white institutions maintain it, and white society condones it. The report also implicated white prejudice in refusing to rent or sell housing to blacks in white communities as another reason for the persistence of residential segregation. The precise role of this factor in the creation of racially segregated neighborhoods is hard to gauge, though, because of the difficulty of determining whether white prejudice or black poverty and preferences were responsible. Many blacks did not want to move into white neighborhoods, far from the institutions and life of the black community, as August Meier and Elliott Rudwick put it in their classic text From Plantation to Ghetto. On the other hand, 68 percent of whites surveyed in 1968 thought that blacks miss out on good housing because white owners wont rent or sell to them. While this suggests widespread bias in housing, it also demonstrates whites acknowledgment of the situation. The Kerner Commissions racism charge also may have been an allusion to so-called white flight from the cities to the suburbs, the motivations for which were sometimes racial but often were based on a desire to escape the deteriorating environment of the central cities.

Setting aside the Kerner Reports assumption that American institutions were run by and for whites, its hard to accept that these institutions, much less whites generally, maintained and approved of black slums. The creation of large-scale black urban communities was the result of many factors, including, of course, the desire of millions of Southern blacks to move north. Scant evidence exists that whites condoned black ghettos, though they may not have known what to do about them.

As for black living conditions, the Kerner Commission emphasized the severe disadvantage of blacks compared with whites, finding that [l]ittle basic change in the conditions underlying the outbreak of disorder has taken place. This assessment ignored the impressive black economic progress that took place throughout the 1960s. The drudgery of the black tenant farmer was a thing of the past. By 1970, 28 percent of African-Americans held white-collar jobs. Black family income doubled between 1960 and 1970, though it remained at 64 percent of white income partly because of the rise of the black single-parent family. Throughout the sixties, black male earnings increased more than 4 percent per year, while white earnings went up 3 percent annually.

As the economy expanded, black unemployment fell dramatically. In 1960, the black-male unemployment rate was 7.8 percent; by 1970, it had dropped to 4.2 percent, only 1.6 times higher than the white-male rate. Black poverty levels, though more than three times those of whites, also declined sharply. In 1959, 55 percent of blacks lived below the poverty line; in 1970, that figure had fallen to 34 percent, and to only 20 percent in the northeastern states (where most of the riots occurred). Moreover, a burgeoning black middle class had formed, as indicated by homeownership, which, for blacks in 1960, reached nearly two-thirds of white ownership rates. By 1970, African-Americans owned 42 percent of the housing units in which they lived. In short, when the urban disturbances took place, the black economic picture, while not rosy, certainly was not bleak. Black progress was, by almost any measure, considerable, though compared with that of whites, there remained a long way to go.

Close analysis reveals that adversity was not a cause of the riots. For American communities in the late 1960s, the only important predictor of rioting was the presence of an African-American populationregardless of socioeconomic conditions. As Seymour Spilerman, the first to prove this statistically, put it: the larger the Negro population, the greater the likelihood of a disorder. Little else appears to matter. Spilerman assessed eight measures of deprivation, including unemployment, family income, and education, in the context of disorders in 673 cities between 1961 and 1968. None of the deprivation factors was positively or strongly related to these episodes. By contrast, the size of a citys black population correlated robustly with rioting.

The irrelevance of socioeconomic conditions to the riots represents a major stumbling block for those still holding to explanations that focus on black adversity. One could claim, of course, that virtually all blacks were so low on the socioeconomic scale that every city with a significant African-American population was susceptible to disorder. But riots failed to materialize in many cities. Spilerman found that 75 percent of the 673 cities he studied had zero disorders. And even within riot-torn cities, an estimated 85 percent or more of the black population took no part in the disturbances.

The Kerner Commission hinted at, but never pursued, the most likely explanation for the disorder: the unfulfilled expectations aroused by the great legislative and judicial victories of the Civil Rights Movement and the dramatic struggle for equal rights in the South. Those expectations were overwhelmingly economic. Martin Luther King himself fused the civil rights movement with efforts to promote black gains in the workplace. Coming to the aid of striking black sanitation workers in Memphis, King declared: Now our struggle is for genuine equality, which means economic equality. And President Johnson, in an extraordinary speech at Howard University, declared that the next and the more profound stage of the battle for civil rights would seek not just equality as a right and a theory but equality as a fact and equality as a result. This sort of talk by national leaders raised expectations beyond anything that government and the law were capable of providing. It is much easier to legislate rights than jobs or wealth. Civil rights laws could ensure that blacks may be seated at lunch counters, but they could not guarantee that blacks would own or manage those establishments.

In one sense, the Kerner Report reflected the liberal optimism of its era: federal programs to provide job training, social welfare, and slum clearance would right the wrongs of racism, it was widely believed. But in its bleak analysis and failure to account for the profound changes that had already been set in motion, the report also signaled the liberal pessimism that has become predominant on racial matters ever since. Its easier to see, looking back 50 years later, that the United States was headed in the right direction. The great crusade for civil rights not only drove down residential segregation; it also created opportunities for genuine African-American socioeconomic advancement. Yet the Kerner Report remains somehow deathless, its erroneous predictions taken as prophecy, its misguided prescriptions still blocking more constructive approaches to the problems that remain.

Top Photo: Library of Congress
MOUNT MERON, Israel -- A 21-year-old Cleveland Heights man is among the 45 people who died in a stampede Friday during a Lag BOmer festival in northern Israel.

Youssi Kohn, 21, is the son of Chaya Gitty Kohn, the seventh and eighth grade principal at the Hebrew Academy of Clevelands Beatrice Yavne High School in Beachwood, said Rabbi Simcha Dessler, educational director of Hebrew Academy of Cleveland.

The Academy Family is mourning the passing of Kohn along with his family, Dessler said.

Yossi was an incredible young man who endeared himself to all, was beloved by all, and will be remembered fondly by all, Dessler said in a statement. Our hearts and prayers are with his family and friends during this most difficult time in their lives.

The Lag BOmer festival at Mount Meron in northern Israel is a popular pilgrimage among the nations ultra-Orthodox community. The Associated Press reports that at least 45 people died in the stampede. The New York Times reports at least four Americans are among those killed. Dozens of people also suffered injuries.

Estimates say that about 100,000 people attended the event that honors Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, who lived in the 2nd Century and who many believe is buried in the area where the annual festival takes place.

The stampede happened around 1 a.m. as people tried to leave and congregated in a narrow, tunnel-like passage, according to AP. Witnesses described people falling on a slippery ramp, which caused others to trip and sparking panic.

The officers who were there couldnt care less, Rabbi Velvel Brevda told AP, blaming the government for the deaths of beautiful holy Jews that were killed here for no reason whatsoever.

The Associated Press contributed to this story
China to see travel peak during May Day holiday

Xinhua) 09:44, May 01, 2021

BEIJING, April 30 (Xinhua) -- China will see a travel peak during the May Day holiday as tourism will rebound thanks to the country's success in curbing the COVID-19 epidemic.

About 265 million domestic trips are expected to be made by passengers during the upcoming five-day holiday from May 1 to 5, according to the Ministry of Transport (MOT). May Day, also known as Labor Day, is observed on May 1 in China.

The estimated figure represents an increase of 120.1 percent year on year, close to the 2019 level, the MOT said.

Departure passenger flows are expected to peak on the first day of the holiday with about 57.9 million passenger trips, up 115 percent and 6 percent from the levels in 2020 and 2019, respectively, MOT data shows.

Between April 29 and May 6, the number of railway passenger trips is expected to reach 106 million, up 0.8 percent compared with the same period in 2019, said China State Railway Group Co., Ltd., estimating that railway passenger trips will peak on May 1, reaching 17 million.

A total of 36 direct tourist trains to popular destinations, including northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and northeast China, will be arranged during the holiday, and panda-themed tourist trains will take visitors to tourist cities such as Golmud and Dunhuang.

The number of vehicles hitting the road on the first day of the holiday is expected to exceed 60 million, a record high, the MOT said.

Airlines are also witnessing a boom in flight bookings. According to China Eastern Airlines, during the May Day holiday, its average daily flight volume will exceed 2,700, compared to 2,650 in the same period of 2019.

Domestic ticket bookings have soared since April. In mid-April, the number of single-day flight bookings through qunar.com, an online travel service provider, hit the highest level since the company was established, said Lan Xiang, a data specialist with qunar.com.

The number of daily ticket bookings for the holiday increased by more than 30 percent compared with the same period in 2019, Lan added.

Tourist destinations nationwide have launched new tourism routes and products to provide a high-quality tourism experience for visitors amid the epidemic prevention and control measures.

Beijing's Badaling section of the Great Wall will cap its daily number of visitors at 75 percent of the maximum capacity during the holiday. Visitors need to reserve tickets in advance.

To accommodate the May Day crowds, the Badaling will extend its opening hours during the holiday and launch night tours from April 30 to May 4.

The renowned Changbai Mountain scenic area in northeast China will reopen its southern part to visitors on May 1. The part was previously closed off out of geological hazard concerns.

In Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province, the new building of the Zhengzhou Museum, covering an area of 147,000 square meters, will also open to the public on May 1.

(Web editor: He Zhuoyan, Bianji)
The Crab Carnival works well in West Point because, since its a small town, it just brings everyone together, Senegal said. Local vendors get to sell their products and food, whereas they might not have the best chance in doing so before.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  A few years ago, a man told me this story.

He was a retired professor. He had a healthy pension. His wife had died after a long illness. He had a troubled son, some of it drugs, lots of it due to blowing money.

You wont believe this, he said. Ive got money trouble.

He lived in Michigan. His son lived another state. Because of some decisions the professor had made when his son was young, he felt guilty about not being there enough for his son.

The professor said he had paid for a couple of trips to rehabilitation for his son. He also spent thousands keeping his son out of major debt.

Ive given him money, the professor said. Ive taken out loans. Maxed out credit cards. I even got some of those payday loans. Right now, I cant pay my mortgage.

His family was trying to pull him away from the troubled son and help put his finances in order. Six months after hearing that story, I heard the professor had died of a heart attack.

NOT AN UNCOMMON STORY

The money problems of an addict in the family is something many families dont talk about, said Father Bob Stec, pastor of St. Ambrose Catholic Church in Brunswick.

Stec has worked with families of addicts, especially those on heroin. He mentioned recently talking to six couples who were in premarital counseling.

Two of the six had a sibling who died from heroin, said Stec. The impact on the families is devastating. Its a terrible disease that eats away at so many people.

THE BIG LIE

The addicts not only destroy their owns lives, but also cause chaos and pain to those around them.

Its why the comment, Im just hurting myself by drinking or doing drugs is such a lie.

You want to help people, said Stec. We all do. But I have watched families go broke as they keep sending the person from one rehab center to another.

Those places can cost from $30,000 to more than $100,000.

It may not be because of drugs, but parents step into the financial mess created by their children. They co-sign for loans almost knowing they will be stuck with the payments because the child isnt dependable.

But they do it anyway. They become addicted to helping, be it out of guilt or the fact they enjoy being needed by their children.

Ive had adult children come to me and say they were now having to support their parents because the parents spent so much money on the kid in trouble, said Stec. That creates a lot of resentment in families.

Stec talks about the spiritual battle facing families in these situations. He is involved in the Greater Than Heroin movement at his church and elsewhere.

Leslie Parker-Barnes has worked with youth for more than 30 years. Photo from Arlington Church of God.

WHO CARES THE MOST?

Leslie Parker-Barnes is the Minister of Worship at Akrons Arlington Church of God. She also has been the leader of the Youth Excellence Performance Arts Workshop (YEPAW) with primarily inner-city youth for 32 years.

Sometimes, love means saying No " said Parker-Barnes. Love is not always soft and gooey. Its telling someone, I cant keep helping you hurt yourself. 

Its tempting for parents to care about the school work or the job of their kids more than the kids do themselves. In essence, parents do the work for those who need to work and learn themselves.

What they learn is that someone will bail them out.

Ive had young adults thank me for not helping them in a certain situation years ago, said Parker-Barnes. It was hard not do to it. You want to spare them the pain.

But doing too much for the person at the wrong time just creates more pain.

YOU CANT MAKE ANYONE DO ANYTHING

Because we see the world a certain way, its hard to understand why others on a destructive road fail to do the same.

Some people are going to do what they are going to do, said Stec. You hate to see them crash. But after you have tried to help and tried to help, you realize you cant solve the problem.

In the meantime, you can alienate others in the family. They feel forgotten.

Kids have told me they are tired of being the good kid, and taken for granted, said Parker-Barnes. Theyve told me that they feel they should act up to get some attention. Ive seen it happen.

Those are the children who should receive our financial support. They are the ones who may stumble in life, but have the character to get back up again.

But too often the problem child sucks up all the energy and resources. When the others are in need of encouragement and time, we feel empty. They lose out.

The Rev. Bob Stec, pastor of Saint Ambrose Church, Brunswick has worked with families hit hard by heroin.The Plain Dealer

PRAYING FOR WISDOM

Parker-Barnes has told her kids, You can always come home. Always. I dont care what youve done. You always have a home with us.

But there is a condition.

You know the rules of the house, she said. You have to follow them if you stay here.

Parker-Barnes insists children are looking for structure and order in their lives, even if they rebel against it at first.

None of this is easy for parents dealing with these problems.

Stec suggests parents check a website called relink.org. Another excellent organization is Al-Anon for families in these situations.

The serenity prayer is important for all of us, said Stec.

I love this part of it:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change...

The courage to change the things I can...

And the wisdom to know the difference...

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COLUMBUS, Ohio -Ninety-six more Ohioans were reported Friday to have died with the coronavirus since the last fatality figure earlier this week, bringing the total deaths since the beginning of the outbreak to 19,284.

Another 1,541 new coronavirus cases were reported between Thursday and Friday, below the 21-day rolling average of 1,750. There have been just over 1.07 million coronavirus cases since the beginning of the pandemic.

The state reports cases daily, following the federal Centers for Disease Control and Preventions definition of a case, which includes those diagnosed through genetic PCR or antigen tests, or people diagnosed in a clinical setting -- experiencing symptoms who are linked to a confirmed COVID-19 case, among other criteria.

The state no longer reports fatalities. It instead relies of the federal government, which releases figures twice a week. The last death figures were released Tuesday, when 19,188 Ohio residents had died with COVID-19.

Between Thursday and Friday mornings, 70,419 more Ohioans completed the vaccine, which means receiving a second dose of Pfizer or Moderna shots or the single-dose Johnson & Johnson shot.

This brings the total number of Ohio residents who have been vaccinated to 3.78 million, or 32.95% of the states population.

Another 25,554 Ohioans started their vaccine, and a total of 40.06% of Ohios population has some immunity.

The Ohio Hospital Association said 1,178 people were in facilities with COVID-19, a net decrease of 22 from Thursday, when considering admissions and discharges.

Outside Ohio:

-Across the U.S. 32.3 million COVID-19 cases have been tracked by Johns Hopkins University since the beginning of the pandemic. And 575,000 Americans have died with the virus.

-Across the globe, 150.69 million cases have been tracked, including 3.16 million deaths.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. - Ten years ago, a small group of Ohio Republicans huddled in a Columbus hotel room they called the bunker with census data and a mapmaking program to redraw Ohios congressional maps to their partys maximum advantage.

In a state where the Democratic share of the presidential vote hasnt fallen below 40 percent since George McGoverns 1972 loss to Richard Nixon, Republicans left Democrats with just 25 percent of the states 16 congressional seats.

When redistricting begins again later this year, Democrats hope that a new map-drawing process approved by Ohio voters in 2018 as a way to eliminate gerrymandered districts will bring the states congressional seat ratio more in line with the proportion of the states Democratic voters. Because Ohios population hasnt grown as quickly as other states, the Census Bureau announced Monday the states congressional seats will be reduced to 15 for the 2022 elections, as more populous parts of the country gain seats.

While political analysts expect the new rules will provide a more regular shape to some of Ohios most peculiarly configured districts - such as the duck-shaped 4th district represented by Champaign Countys Jim Jordan - they expect Republicans will still find a way to stack the deck in their favor.

The stakes for doing so are high, as every congressional seat matters to Republicans in Washington who are eager to regain House of Representatives control in the 2022 election. The new Ohio rules allow the states GOP-controlled legislature to approve temporary congressional maps that would be good for just four years by a simple majority if the bipartisan procedure set forth by voters doesnt produce a consensus map. Thats what many political operatives predict will happen.

The current gerrymandered map of Ohio's congressional districts, which include some oddly shaped ones. (Rich Exner, cleveland.com)

Dont bet on Democrats gaining seats

University of Virginia political analyst Kyle Kondik, an Ohio native who serves as managing editor of Sabatos Crystal Ball, anticipates that three safe Democratic seats will be created in the redistricting process - one centered in Cleveland, another centered in Columbus, and a third centered in Cincinnati - with Republicans continuing to hold their current 12 seats.

I think, with the way Ohio is now, a fair map would probably be 9-6 Republican, or 10-5 Republican, but I would expect Republicans to probably have more of an advantage despite this new system, Kondik recently told the Cleveland Club of Washington.

Kondik and other political prognosticators anticipate dismantling of the 13th Congressional District seat that Niles-area Democrat Tim Ryan will leave to run for the U.S. Senate, with much of its turf absorbed by districts to the north and south now represented by Republicans Dave Joyce of Bainbridge Township (14th district) and Bill Johnson of Marietta (6th district).

When it was first drawn, it was drawn to essentially be a safe Democratic seat, taking in a bunch of Democratic voters in Northeast Ohio, Kondik says of Ryans district. He said Republican former President Donald Trumps 2020 performance in the district indicates its really not even that safe a Democratic seat anymore. But it will probably be ripped apart in in the redistricting process.

A map of the Ohio's 13th Congressional District, currently represented by Democrat Tim Ryan.

Kapturs district a likely target

Baldwin-Wallace University political scientist Thomas Sutton and others expect Toledo Democratic Rep. Marcy Kapturs snake on the lake 9th district will be split up as well, with all its Cuyahoga County portions absorbed by the 11th district that Democrat Marcia Fudge of Warrensville Heights represented before becoming U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Its remaining lakefront turf could go into nearby districts represented by Republicans Jordan, Anthony Gonzalez of Rocky River (16th district) and Bob Latta of Bowling Green (5th district).

Republicans drew the district along Lake Erie between Cleveland and Toledo a decade ago as a way to force out Kaptur or former Cleveland Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich, whom Kaptur bested in a 2012 Democratic primary, when Ohio lost two congressional seats after the 2010 Census.

The 2012 remap also put former Democratic Rep. Betty Sutton of Copley Township into the same GOP-leaning district as former Republican Rep. Jim Renacci for a contest Renacci won. Gonzalez now represents that district. To safeguard Republican-held districts in the Franklin County area, the remap put a big chunk of the countys Democratic voters into a new 3rd district that was won by Democrat Joyce Beatty of Columbus. It also put Beavercreek Republican Rep. Steve Austria into the 10th congressional district with Dayton Republican Rep. Mike Turner, prompting Austria to retire rather than run against Turner.

Cook Political Report redistricting analyst David Wasserman, whose nonpartisan newsletter analyzes congressional elections, said that one reason Kapturs district will be in the crosshairs again is that the Toledo area votes more Republican than it used to.

Even if you were to draw a district centered on Toledo, as Kapturs district used to be, it would only have gone for Biden by a point or two, says Wasserman.

Kaptur - the longest serving woman in the history of the U.S. House of Representatives - released a statement on Monday that said Ohios legislature and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine have an obligation to the voters that Ohio will adopt bipartisan map drawing, and declared that every single Republican in power at the state level in Ohio should be held accountable to that promise.

If Republicans follow the law and honor the will of Ohio voters, we can have fair districts that accurately reflect the political makeup of our state and make Ohio much more competitive politically, added a statement from Ohio Democratic Party Chair Liz Walters.

A map of Ohio's 9th Congressional district, currently represented by Toledo Democrat Marcy Kaptur.

Will Republicans be able to limit Democratic seats?

Wasserman is skeptical that Democrats redistricting wishes will come true. He says Republicans in Ohio might be able to limit Democrats to as few as two safely Democratic congressional seats - Beattys Columbus-centered district and Fudges former district - if theyre seeking the greatest advantage for their party.

Even if all of Democrat-leaning urban Cincinnati goes into one district, Wasserman said Republicans could keep control of it by putting the city in the 2nd district that Cincinnati Republican Brad Wenstrup currently represents, and counterbalancing it with Republican-leaning turf stretching as far east as Portsmouth. In that scenario, the rest of Hamilton County could go into a safe Republican seat for incumbent Steve Chabot of Cincinnati, who represents the 1st district.

However, splitting Hamilton County, where President Joe Biden defeated Trump by 57% to 41%, in a way that would keep the Democrats from winning a seat there appears highly difficult.

Under the gerrymandering reform and based on the most recent population estimates, Cincinnati cannot be split, and efforts must be made to keep one district wholly within the county, said Richard Gunter, a professor emeritus of political science from Ohio State University who worked closely on the reform language. Only about 30,000 Hamilton County residents would be left over to be split into other counties.

Upper Arlington Republican Rep. Steve Stivers upcoming retirement to head the Ohio Chamber of Commerce means his territory will be represented by a new Congress member when redistricting occurs, so the 15th district he currently represents could be altered significantly if they need to move incumbents around, says Wasserman.

Turf represented by any other Congress members who retire or seek other offices before the maps are drawn would also be ripe for redistribution. Daytons Turner says hes weighing a run for U.S. Senate, and weak first quarter campaign fundraising from Holmes County Republican Rep. Bob Gibbs has fed speculation he wont seek re-election in the 7th district.

Jordans duck-shaped district will likely be reshaped, but Wasserman says theres too much Republican turf in west central rural Ohio for him to not have a seat.

One way or another, Jim Jordan will have a safe district to run in, said Wasserman. Nobody wants to primary him.

Wasserman believes theres a strong chance Ohios untested redistricting process wont create the neutral maps its designers intended because theres too much incentive for Republicans to push through a partisan map that would be good for just four years. While Democrats seem confident that the Ohio Supreme Court would act as a backstop against a really aggressive gerrymander, Wasserman doesnt think thats a sure thing.

If theres one district thats entirely in Hamilton County and includes all of Cincinnati, that would be a Democratic pickup, says Wasserman. If Republicans are drawing the map, that is probably not going to happen. Likewise, there could be an additional competitive seat in the Columbus suburbs, a competitive seat in Akron and a seat in Toledo. That would be as many as four or six seats for Democrats out of 15. And thats a big swing from two seats. There is a lot on the line in Ohio.

A map of Ohio's 4th Congressional district, currently represented by Republican Jim Jordan.

The new rules

The new redistricting rules imposed by the 2018 reform require that at least 65 of Ohios 88 counties remain in a single congressional district, allow up to five counties to be split between three districts and let 18 others be split two ways. They require that efforts be made to wholly contain a single district within the states three largest counties: Cuyahoga, Franklin and Hamilton.

Cuyahoga is now home to four separate districts, none wholly in the county. Hamilton County has parts of two districts. Of Franklins three current districts, only Beattys is totally within the county.

The new limits also say that Cleveland and Cincinnati cant be split between multiple districts, as both are currently. The large-city rule doesnt apply to Columbus because Columbus is too big to fit in a single district, but reform language requires a significant portion of Columbus to be in one district.

The legislature still has control over approving the new map, but the new rules require 50 percent support from members of each of the two major political parties. If that fails, the work will be turned over to a separate, seven-member commission of statewide elected officials and representatives from the legislature. But that commission cannot approve a new map without at least two votes from each party.

If that fails, the legislature eventually could approve a new map without any minority support, but that new map would be good for just four years instead of the usual decade, and added requirements would be imposed in an attempt to protect local communities and the party in the minority.

Map of Ohio's 11th Congressional district, which was represented by Democrat Marcia Fudge before she became Housing and Urban Development Secretary.

Why gerrymandering is problematic

The Republicans who drew Ohios current congressional districts 10 years ago maximized their numbers by packing as many Democrats as possible in the fewest possible districts. The rest of the states Democrats were put into safely Republican districts where they were so outnumbered their votes would be unlikely to sway elections.

The theory behind this years procedure is to produce districts that are more electorally competitive and more geographically compact.

University of Akron political scientist David Cohen observes that not a single one of Ohios current congressional seats has switched parties in the decade since theyve been drawn. That means party activists who vote in primary elections select the states congressional representatives, rather than general election voters.

Thats an abomination for a representative democracy, says Cohen. If congressional seats are not competitive, whats the point of having elections? Politicians are picking their voters, not the other way around. Thats unethical and really, it is immoral for a democracy to function that way. When we have that situation, representatives arent accountable to their voters.

The fact that Summit County is split among four congressional districts can make it an afterthought for all its representatives, presenting the possibility that it wont be a priority for any of them, Cohen says.

This new redistricting process will be fascinating to watch, says Cohen, who suspects Republicans angered by Gonzalezs vote to impeach Trump might try to unfavorably alter his district as payback. If the parties cant agree on a map, it will mean the districts will last for only four years and in 2025, thy will have to go back to the drawing board and do it all over again. Thats in nobodys interest.

Map of Ohio's 16th congressional district, currently represented by Republican Anthony Gonzalez.

Democrats aim for input

The Census Bureau wont be able to supply the local population data needed for redistricting for several months due to coronavirus-related delays in the decennial population count, but Democrats already have a good sense of what they want.

They say they should keep the four seats that would be safe for Democrats if the letter of the new law is followed: the new Cincinnati district, as well as the Fudge, Beatty and Kaptur districts. They also believe districts in the Akron/Canton region and Columbus area could be drawn in a way that would be competitive enough for them to win.

Katy Shanahan, who serves as Ohio state director of All on the Line, an affiliate of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee chaired by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, says her organization is trying to increase public engagement in every step of Ohios redistricting, and build public awareness of gerrymanderings negative effects. As the mapping process unfolds, her organization will publicize opportunities to engage in the process so what comes out in the end are fair maps that are representative of Ohioans.

She says gerrymandered legislative districts increase polarization, and impede progress on issues the public cares about.

The solution is to fight for the fair maps that we deserve, says Shanahan.

Ohio Senate Minority leader Kenny Yuko, a Richmond Heights Democrat, said he anticipates holding redistricting hearings all over the state this summer to get citizen input on how districts should be drawn.

If somebody wants to have a behind the door, we cant stop them, said Yuko. Its human nature to try to skirt the issue.

Yuko and Ohio House Minority Leader Emilia Sykes, an Akron Democrat, told reporters Friday they hope the state will produce a 10-year map. Sykes said that forcing a four-year map would be a decision made solely by Republicans.

We are happy to be a part of this process, want to be a part of this process and think that the best version will be one in which both parties are able to fully participate and agree to something that can give us a 10-year map, said Sykes.

Adam Kincaid, who serves as executive director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, said his organization coordinates with Republicans in all 50 states to make sure theyve got the tools and information they need to draw maps that comply with federal and state laws. If Republicans need to file redistricting lawsuits, Kincaid said his group can connect them with attorneys.

He said his organization hasnt dedicated staff to Ohio because the states Republicans already have a great staff and people who know what theyre doing.

His organization also isnt engaging in the sort of redistricting-related activism that its Democratic counterpart is doing in Ohio. Kincaid says Democrats are trying to show up at committee hearings and that sort of thing because the states political representation means their party wont have as much control over the process as Republicans.

The nature of our engagements are different, says Kincaid. Republicans have control over the legislature and the ability to draw the lines. They dont have that control. It is a different strategy for them.

Rich Exner, data analysis editor for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer, contributed to this story.

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Ohio anti-fracking activist joins Greta Thunberg to decry fossil fuel subsidies at Earth Day congressional hearing

Dont hold your breath on passing marijuana banking legislation, says Senate banking chair Sherrod Brown

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U.S. Rep. Anthony Gonzalez has double the campaign war chest of Trump-backed challenger Max Miller
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 1) After delivery delays, the first batch of Russia-made Sputnik V vaccines has arrived in the Philippines.

The initial shipment of 15,000 doses landed in Manila Saturday afternoon.

The cargo was welcomed by select task force officials including Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, as well as Russian Ambassador to the Philippines Marat Pavlov.

The arrival of the vaccines developed by Russia's Gamaleya Institute was originally scheduled in April, but delivery was delayed to logistical issues.

Who is it for?

Earlier in the day, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the initial batch of Sputnik V will be distributed to four "big" cities in Metro Manila which she did not yet name.

Vergeire explained the vaccines will be rolled out only in select local governments because of complex storage requirements.

Sputnik V vaccines come in liquid and powdered form. The liquid doses must be stored in ultra-cold temperatures. The powdered version, which has to be diluted before vaccination, can be kept in normal refrigerator temperature of two to eight degrees Celsius, making it easier to transport and store.

Vaccination to continue despite Brazil ban

Vergeire said the Philippines will use Sputnik V despite reports in Brazil against the vaccine.

Brazilian health regulator Anvisa cited "inherent risks" and lack of information on the Russian vaccine's safety and efficacy.

"Kung sakali pong may ibang mga makikita around the globe about this, the manufacturers of Sputnik V have that responsibility to the Philippine government to submit to us these kinds of findings," Vergeire explained during the Laging Handa briefing. "Sa ngayon, wala pa naman tayong natatanggap na ganito."

[Translation: In case we see developments like these around the globe, the manufacturers of Sputnik V have that responsibility to the Philippine government to submit to us these kinds of findings. For now, we have not received such reports.]

She said a possible reevaluation of the Emergency Use Authorization granted to Sputnik V may only happen if the manufacturer submits additional documents.

"Kailangan hong pag-aralan lang. But tuloy pa rin po ang ating pagbabakuna," she noted.

[Translation: We still need to study these. But our vaccination program will continue.]
Lubbock, TX (79409)

Today

Sun and a few passing clouds. Hot. High around 105F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

A mostly clear sky. Low 73F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph.
This year our dine and drink business locations throughout the Gorge have suffered with closures. You can help support your favorites by purchasing take out and gift cards. Many of these business will offer curb-side delivery and some will deliver to your home. Lets keep the Gorge going strong!
Simple products that support skin health have perhaps never felt more necessary to consumers than right now. Vitamin C serum and skin serums in general have, thus far, climbed to the top of Google searches in the U.S. in 2021, registering 1,479,630 and 3,000,110, respectively.1 Not surprisingly, hand cream is projected to be the next essential product, with 1,048,340 searchesequating to 141% growth, SkinStore reports.1 Notably, glowing skin care product claims also were shown to generate 3.2 more sales, and interest in mens skin care has risen 400% in the past five years.1

Across the pond, UK sales in anti-acne serum increased by 51% in 2020, attributed to frequent mask-wearing, but sales in prestige skin care declined 23% as consumers embraced minimalistic solutions.2 According NPD, the basics such as face creams, cleansers and exfoliators remain strong while add-ons, such as eye treatments and masks, declined to minimize routines and spending.2

The Asian skin care market, according to Statista,3 is projected to reach US ~$64.2 billion in 2021, expanding at a CAGR of 5.72% from 2021 to 2025. Here, 72% of sales will be attributed to non-luxury goods. Euromonitor adds that across the region, skin health, pollution and the stress of urban living have encouraged the use of skin care and greater interest in ingredients.4

These market indicators tell us consumers want two things from skin care: health and simplicity. In parallel, the current Cosmetics & Toiletries offers both, with a closer look at fundamental aspects of skin health and a back to the basics for skin care formulating. For example, Pappas (Page 34) considers differences in lipids across age and ethnicity, while Baki (Page 50), Paetzold (Page 32) and Santoni (Page 24) explore facets of the skin microbiome.

In formulation work, Lionetti (Page 52) gives us a primer on pH, while Meyer (Page 58) proposes a sun protection + antioxidant approach for holistic skin care and health. In addition, Expert Opinions (Page 16) describe ways to restore skin homeostasis, while Steventon (Page 18) makes the mind-skin connection and proposes skin care targets to reduce stress. Finally, we continue our preservation during production discussion (Page 42) with case studies in raw materials. We hope you find this issue simply inspiring.

Rachel L. Grabenhofer, Managing Editor

rgrabenhofer@allured.com

https://www.gcimagazine.com/marketstrends/segments/skincare/SkinStores-Skin-Care-Report-An-Analysis-of-Beauty-in-the-US-574090851.html https://www.gcimagazine.com/marketstrends/regions/westerneurope/Study-UK-Consumers-Embrace-Minimal-Skin-Care-574121361.html https://www.statista.com/outlook/cmo/beauty-personal-care/skin-care/asia https://www.euromonitor.com/skin-care-in-asia-pacific/report
SC made it clear that police involved in the coercive action against people for writing distressing social media posts relating to Covid treatment will be hauled up for contempt. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday warned that any coercive action by the police against people in distress sharing their plight or information on the shortage of oxygen, hospital beds, doctors and essential medicines on social media and seeking help will be contempt of court.

Pointing out that free flow of information on the deficiencies and needs during a humanitarian crisis helps in dealing with it effectively, Justice Dhananjay Y. Chandrachud recalled that during the 1970 famine it was this flow of information that helped the government in tackling the problem effectively in contrast to the clampdown in 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.

Making it clear that police involved in the coercive action against people for writing distressing social media posts relating to Covid treatment will be hauled up for contempt, Justice Chandrachud, heading a three-judge bench also comprising Justice L. Nageswara Rao and Justice R. Ravindra Bhat, said, Let a message go out loud and clear to DGPs not to take action against citizens for social media posts about shortage of beds, oxygen shortage, condition of Covid care centres and hospitals etc during pandemic.

Having warned the police against any action against the people for writing social media posts critical of the governments handling of the second wave of Covid pandemic, Justice Chandrachud speaking for the bench said, I flag this issue at the outset. We don't want any clampdown on information If citizens communicate their grievances on social media and the Internet, it can't be said it's wrong information.

Having sent an unequivocal message that any attempt to gag people from airing their grievances or concerns over the difficulties being encountered by them in the treatment of Covid patients, the court in another dig at the Centre sought to know the rationale behind the different pricing of the vaccine for the Centre and the states.

Describing as very disturbing the different pricing for the Centre, states and private hospitals, the court asked, What happens to the marginalised and SC/ST population? Should they be left to the mercy of private hospitals.

The court asked the Centre why it cant buy vaccines and embark on the lines of the national immunization programme.

Telling the Centre not to leave vaccine pricing to the manufacturers, the court said, Dont leave it to the manufacturers. How will they determine equity? Invoke your powers to see that additional facilities are created for vaccine manufacturing.

The court also observed that AstraZeneca is providing vaccines at far lower price to US citizens then why should we be paying so much.

On the shortage of essential medicines, the court said that under the existing legal regime, India can side-step the patent regime and import Remdesivir from Bangladesh or produce it in India under license from Bangladesh.

The court also expressed concern over overworked doctors, nurses and other medical staff attending to Covid patients. The court said that be it government hospitals or private, the doctors and nurses attending Covid patients are reaching a breaking point and must be paid more.

On the conclusion of the four-hour-long hearing which commenced at 12 noon and ended at 4.20 PM with half-an-hour break, the court said that it will pass an interim order which will be uploaded on the top courts website on Saturday.
Sure, it might sound exciting to be famous, with all the moviemaking and lawmaking and parties on boats. But the real exciting parts of these people's lives are the stories you don't even hear ... except for when we tell them to you. Adventures starring such people as ...

1. Ric Flair

Before he was adopted by Dick and Kay Fliehr, the boy who'd grow up to be wrestler Ric Flair lived at an orphanage. Not because his parents died. Because he was a black market baby in an illegal scheme to coerce children out of parents or to even outright steal children.

2. Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway was put on trial and not for public drunkenness or starting a bar fight. He was accused of violating the Geneva Conventions during World War II by acting as an armed combatant while working as a journalist.

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3. Louisa May Alcott

If you just assumed Little Women had to be autobiographical, you might be surprised to learn Alcott lived in a commune at age 10 -- one that forbade wool, cotton, and fertilizer but was majorly into child labor.

4. J. Robert Oppenheimer

Before his work on the atom bomb, Oppenheimer worked under physicist Patrick Blackett, and he didn't much care for the job. So he tried to kill his boss by injecting poison into an apple.

5. Thomas Jefferson

Jefferson owed more than $100,000 when he died. The reason? He spent so much on wine ($1 million a year, in modern dollars). He should have imported the stuff by the barrel considering how much he bought, but he insisted on bottles, sure merchants would pee in the barrels or something if given the chance.

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6. Dustin Hoffman

For details, read 5 Famous People With Mind-Blowing Connections To Evil Crimes

7. Vin Diesel

In 2002, Vin Diesel pulled a family of four out of a car wreck, right before the car burst into flames.

8. Walt Disney

Disney worked for the Red Cross during World War I. His truck broke down during a snowstorm, and he spent three days with it while his partner sought help. Finally, he set out for town and safety, resulting in a court-martial for abandoning his post.
The Minister even dared the government to get a probe done by a sitting judge or any investigating agency. (Photo: Facebook @Eatala Rajendar)

HYDERABAD: A comprehensive day-long survey by the Medak district revenue authorities on Saturday revealed that a few structures came up in assigned lands, which are in possession of Jamuna Hatcheries, owned by minister Etala Rajendar in Achampet and Hakimpet villages.

This is in sharp contrast to the ministers claims that the assigned lands were not put to use by his hatchery and that the original assignees are in possession of the land. The Minister even dared the government to get a probe done by a sitting judge or any investigating agency.

Meanwhile, questions are being raised against the ministers hatchery raising Rs 100 crore from Canara Bank mortgaging the Achampet lands.

Rajendar himself revealed about the bank loan given to Jamuna Hatcheries, which has paid-up capital of just Rs 10 crore. The investigation against him is likely to focus on whether assigned lands were also shown as surety.

"Of the 116 acres owned by the ministers hatchery, 66 acres are of patta lands and the remaining 50 acres were assigned to poor in different spells," Medak collector Dr S. Harish told Deccan Chronicle. Though there were certain discrepancies in patta lands also, we will initially focus on assigned lands as their occupation by the third parties is illegal,'' he said. The collector has submitted an interim report to Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar.

Another major discrepancy found by the officials pertains to the change of land use. All the lands were classified as agriculture and it is mandatory for the hatchery to obtain change of land use from agriculture to non-agriculture by paying the requisite fees. There is no record to establish that the change of land use was done and doubts were raised over the Canara Bank processing the loan without change of land use.

Meanwhile, sources said that of the total 116 acres in possession of the hatchery, a few sheds and roads were constructed in about 20 acres, which included assigned lands. Even constructing a compound wall encompassing assigned lands attracts the provisions of Prohibition of Transfer Act 1977, a senior official pointed out.

Sources also said the minister's family members do not own much patta land in their name. There was a dispute over about 12-acre land between brothers of a family and one of them registered the land in the name of the ministers wife and son despite prohibitory orders.

The minister's camp, however, maintained that no fault can be made out of if a person with proper documents and pattadar passbook sells land the same gets mutated in the minister's family members following due process.
When police first questioned 51-year-old Lara Lynn Ford about why she stole nearly $1.4 million from Ed Youngs Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas, the congregations former business managers initial response was Umm stupid.

She was smart enough, however, to avoid being caught stealing from the church for more than a decade to support a bad spending habit which she sometimes indulged to help people, according to an April 2019 Grapevine Police Department report and court records reviewed by The Christian Post.

When [Officer] Villalobos asked Ford why she committed the theft, Ford replied, Umm stupid, and then elaborated that she has a spending problem. Ford then admitted she didnt have the money in an account, and she would buy things she doesnt need and would help people, Officer T. Karfs wrote.

Earlier this month, on April 16, Ford found out that her actions with the megachurchs money would cost her dearly. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison after she pleaded guilty to theft of property greater than $300,000 in value.

Source:The Christian Post
The Christian Post won four awards, including the Award of Excellence for newspaper online, in the Evangelical Press Associations annual contest.

This digital publication offers extensive original reporting on national and global topics of significance, the judges wrote The website is well organized, visually appealing, and easy to navigate.

The Award of Excellence for Newspaper-Online News was presented Friday at the EPA Convention, held virtually this year. CP also won fifth place in the "Critical Review" category for Brandon Showalters review, "Our girls are being irreversibly damaged by the transgender craze;" third place in the "Reporting" category for Sam Smiths article Nigeria's 'genocide': Who is helping the thousands of displaced Christians?; and fourth place in the Cartoon category for Are churches more contagious than casinos?

The EPA, which CP is a member of, describes itself as the worlds largest professional organization for the evangelical periodical publishing industry. Each year, it hosts two contests  the Awards of Excellence contest (for publications as a whole) and the Higher Goals contest (for individual pieces).

Source:The Christian Post
Elk Grove, CA (95624)

Today

A few passing clouds, otherwise generally clear. Low 46F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

A few passing clouds, otherwise generally clear. Low 46F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph.
Is it sex discrimination to require only men to register for the draft?

news
FX markets are susceptible to a range of factors which affect their volatility, and many traders look to tailor their strategies to capitalize on the most volatile currency pairs.

Currency volatility, often measured by calculating the standard deviation or variance of currency price movements, gives traders an idea of how much a currency might move relative to its average over a given time period. Traders can also gauge volatility by looking at a currency pairs average true range or by looking at range as percent of spot.

The higher the level of currency volatility, the higher the degree of risk, and vice versa. Volatility and risk are usually used as interchangeable terms.Different currency pairs have different levels of volatility on average.

Some traders enjoy the higher potential rewards that come with trading volatile currency pairs. Although, this increased potential reward does present a greater risk, so traders should consider reducing their position sizes when trading highly volatile currency pairs.

What are the most volatile currency pairs?

The most volatile major currency pairs are:

Other major currency pairs, like EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD and USD/CHF, are generally more liquid and less volatile as a result. That said, emerging market currency pairs, such as USD/ZAR, USD/TRY and USD/MXN, can clock some of the highest volatility readings.

MOST VOLATILE CURRENCY PAIRS

Majors - AUD/JPY, NZD/JPY, AUD/USD, CAD/JPY, GBP/AUD

Emerging Markets - USD/ZAR, USD/TRY, USD/MXN

Aside from relatively low liquidity, emerging market currencies tend to be highly volatile in particular due to inherent risk underpinning emerging market economies. The chart below gives an example of how volatile emerging market currencies can be, which shows USD/ZAR (US Dollar/South Africa Rand) exploding nearly 25% higher in just over a months time. There are several other examples of emerging market currency pairs swinging drastically like this throughout history.

What about the least volatile currency pairs?

The least volatile currency pairs tend to be the major currency pairs which are also the most liquid. Also, these economies tend to be larger and more developed. This attracts more trading volume and facilitates greater price stability in turn. To that end, considering EUR/USD, USD/CHF and EUR/GBP trade with high volumes of liquidity, it comes as little surprise they are among the lease volatile currency pairs.

Illustrated below, the average true range (ATR) on USD/CHF ranges between 45-pips and 65-pips, a low average true range compared to other pairs. The average true range of a currency is one of the many ways to measure the volatility of a currency pair. Bollinger Band width is another popular technical indicator used to measure volatility.

Correlation between two currencies can also have an impact on their volatility. The more positively two currencies are correlated to one another might lead to less volatility. Continuing with our USD/CHF example, we note that the US Dollar and Swiss Franc are both viewed as safe-haven currencies.

The US Dollar and Swiss Franc tend to strengthen against their sentiment-linked peers when the market experiences episodes of risk aversion, but the two currencies may not deviate much from each other. This contributes to relatively low volatility readings for USD/CHF.

How to trade currency pair volatility

Forex traders should take into account current readings of volatility and potential changes in volatility when trading. Market participants should also consider adjusting their position sizes with respect to how volatile a currency pair is. Trading a volatile currency pair might warrant a reduced position size.

Awareness of volatility can also help traders determine appropriate levels for stop loss and take profit limit orders. Furthermore, it is important to understand the key characteristics separating themost volatile currencies from currencies with low volatility readings. Traders should also know how to measure volatility and have an awareness of events that might create big changes in volatility.

The difference between trading currency pairs with high volatility versus low volatility

Currencies with high volatility will normally move more pips over a certain period than currencies with low volatility. This leads to increased risk when trading currency pairs with high volatility. Currencies with high volatility are more prone to slippage than currency pairs with low volatility. Due to high-volatility currency pairs making bigger moves, you should determine the correct position size to take when trading them.

There are several ways to measure volatility

To determine the correct position size, traders need to have an expectation of how volatile a currency can be. A variety of indicators can be used to measure volatility like:

Average true range (ATR) .

Donchian channels .

Moving averages (by comparing the moving average to the current price).

Traders can also look at implied volatility readings, which reflect the level of expected volatility derived from options.

Key things traders should know about volatility:

Big news events like Brexit or trade wars can have a major impact on a currencys volatility. Data releases can also influence volatility. Traders can stay ahead of data releases by using an economic calendar.

Volatile currency pairs still obey many technical aspects of trading, like support and resistance levels, trendlines and price patterns. Traders can take advantage of the volatility using technical analysis in combination with strict risk management principles .

Staying up to date with the latest forex pair news , analysis and rates can help you predict possible changes in volatility. We provide comprehensive trading forecasts to help you navigate the market.

DailyFX hosts daily webinars to answer questions and help traders prepare for volatile market conditions.

Supplement your forex learning and strategy development with the DailyFX Education Center .

If youd like to follow prices in the pairs listed above, the demo account can allow access to a live price feed along with a full suite of tools, charts and indicators. Click here to request a free demo with IG group
To me, the much-repeated claim that the task of keeping Carrie placated influences our Prime Minister's decisions seems unbelievable.

Can this really be true? Is the most powerful man in the country, Boris, the original alpha male, so nervous about his fiancee throwing a wobbly that he makes not only domestic but professional choices based on swerving the pots and pans she might chuck his way?

His appointment of Allegra Stratton as the face and voice of Downing Street communications was reported to come down to his fear that Carrie would be cross if she didn't win the gig.

When the investigation into the identity of the 'Chatty Rat' threw up the name of special adviser Henry Newman, Boris apparently said it would cause him problems if true because Newman was Carrie's friend.

Boris Johnson pictured exiting the hall with Carrie Symonds following his keynote speech on day four of the 2019 Conservative Party conference in Manchester in October 2019

And now, as the couple are engulfed in the ludicrous Wallpapergate, it appears he was so eager to keep her happy that when he discovered the price of her proposed Downing Street refurb, rather than risk a confrontation and tell her that a lick of Dulux would have to do, he was to be found wailing at colleagues that her choice of wallpaper was bankrupting him. As if this were a matter out of his control.

Can the brilliant mind, canny operator and populist politician that is Boris Johnson seriously be so terrified of Carrie Symonds that he will do anything that she wishes, no matter the consequences? I very much doubt it.

Of course, there are times when most of us say our other half will 'go mental' about something or other.

I know countless women who not only admit sneaking new clothes into the house so their husbands don't spot yet another purchase, but positively relish saying so. It's a little shared joke that is based on traditional role-play.

Theresa May with her husband Philip (left) and her former member of staff Nick Timothy (right)

But I can't imagine, nor have I ever heard, anyone telling their work colleagues that the reason for some professional decision was to avoid domestic disharmony. Doubtless, there are occasions when that is precisely why something or other took place. But that fact would never be confessed to  because it would sound utterly pathetic.

However, I'm a woman and there's no way we would want it thought our partners could ever influence our professional behaviour.

Can you imagine Theresa May explaining that she couldn't get rid of Nick Timothy because Philip would go off on one?

Or Priti Patel defending her undeclared meetings with Israelis, when she was International Development Secretary, on the grounds that her husband Alex (yes, who he?) was forever nagging her to visit Jerusalem? It just wouldn't happen.

Boris, though, if these reports are true, seems to be conforming to the blokeish stereotype that has long been his calling card. The one that doesn't give a toss about the way his hair looks or if his socks match, or for that matter whether his sofa comes from Ikea or Soane.

That guy will banter with his mates about 'she who must be obeyed' or 'her indoors', blithely apportioning responsibility on the grounds of 'anything for a quiet life'.

But it turns out that this time they weren't his mates he was downloading to but partisan employees keen to report on the tugging of apron strings. And that hoped for quiet life is getting to be about as noisy as it can be.

'Friend' who started the No 10 nightmare

The Tories have form when it comes to interior decoration. Margaret Thatcher was known for insisting that, no matter the grandeur of the room, her curtains must not reach the floor to allow ease of cleaning, while Michael Heseltine was mocked in Alan Clark's bestselling diaries for being unfortunate enough to have to buy his own furniture, rather than inherit it.

That last observation has always been attributed to Clark as an example of his snobbery but it was in fact made by Tory grandee Lord Jopling and reported in the diaries.

Similarly, the now-famous John Lewis nightmare phrase, said to have been used by the current incumbents of No 10 to describe Mrs May's taste in furniture, was not made by either but by a friend describing the interiors they inherited to Tatler magazine.

Throw the book at this cancel culture

Cancel culture has reached a new high, or possibly low, with the news that the American publishers of a recent biography of writer Philip Roth are pulping the book because of accusations of inappropriate behaviour by its author Blake Bailey.

Bailey was given unique access to Roth's friends and papers so those of us who haven't already nabbed a copy are now going to be deprived of the chance of reading an important work about one of the 20th Century's greatest authors.

American writer and biographer Blake Bailey is photographed at Hotel Palomar in Los Angeles in April 2013

In the current puritanical climate, Roth himself probably wouldn't get published, since his behaviour towards women has long been known as hardly fragrant.

But it's wretched that publishers are binning books either about, or by anyone, who has led a questionable life  given that's often the main reason why they're worth reading in the first place.

Lily is no match for the Mitford magic

Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit Of Love has a new television dramatisation next week. I've seen many of Mitford's novels adapted for screen and they always fail to capture the magical essence of the books.

Most of us read the brilliantly sharp Mitford when we were young and inserted our own dreams and fantasies on to the eccentric but glamorous cast of characters.

The added ingredient was our own imagination which is shut down when we watch TV adaptations and I doubt will survive Lily James as flighty Linda, and the strangely cast Dominic West as eccentric Uncle Matthew.

Dulling our imagination: Lily James stars as Linda in a new television dramatisation of Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit Of Love

Dying daffs? They've never looked so good

As a London teenager, the sight of the dying daffodils in Hyde Park was always the signal that it was the end of my Easter holidays. A downbeat moment.

Running in the park last week, I saw those same daffodils withering and the children are back at school. Yet this time, the sight of nature's ritual  still in place 50 years on  felt reassuring rather than depressing when so much else seems difficult and strange.
The real divide in modern Britain is not between Tory and Labour. It is between the metropolitan elite and normal men and women. One side is snobbish, largely state-employed, liberal in manners and views. The other side live in the real world, relying on hard work and long hours to put food on the table and a roof over their children's heads.

One side is scornful of Brexit and nostalgic for the cloudy bureaucracy of the European Union. The other is tired of remote government by distant and insulated elites. It is quietly patriotic and full of common sense. It sees Brexit  rightly  as a chance to bring the country closer to the ground, and government closer to the people.

One side gets its views and its idea of the world from the BBC and Twitter. The other derives its opinions from experience.

They are as different from each other as a pub in Derby is from the Groucho Club in Soho, and the gulf between them has been growing mightily in the past few years.

MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: Almost everyone in this country has better things to worry about than Boris and Carrie's wallpaper

Old Labour, a party of trade unionism and old-fashioned working-class socialism, has little to do with the new, slick, hair-gelled world of Sir Keir Starmer and his revived Blairism, and even less to do with the burned-out, bigoted Trotskyism of Jeremy Corbyn. But this is the unwelcome choice between equally unappealing menus which New Labour has offered to its voters in recent years.

The Brexit referendum liberated such voters from their old allegiances, and it looks as if millions of them will never come back.

The old landmarks have gone. The old loyalties are broken, because the Left's leaders were not loyal to their rank and file. The old slogans do not work.

The voters will no longer troop out obediently to vote according to obsolete class divisions which belong in a dead age of clogs, coal miners and cotton mills. Britain just is not like that any more, and those who believe that it is, or act as if it is, are much like the Japanese soldier Hiroo Onoda, lost in the Philippine jungle, who refused to surrender until 1974, 29 years after the war had ended.

That is not to say that there is not a new war going on, for there is. The country is emerging from its long series of lockdowns. We are starting to take our pleasures again as free people should. Education, in schools and universities, is likewise getting ready to restart properly. Our hospitals and care homes are feeling their way cautiously back to normal. Trains and buses are starting to fill up again, and the prospect of holidays abroad seems real at last.

Life, as we used to know it, is beginning again and the economy must be revived to pay for what we have done and for what we need to do. The Union must be held together. Almost everyone in this country has better things to worry about than the Prime Minister's wallpaper.

Sir Keir fell well below the dignity of the Opposition Leader's high office, making a leaden attempt at humour by going on a well-publicised expedition to the wallpaper department of John Lewis (pictured)

It is in fact very odd that the spokesmen of the new metropolitan elite, who loathe Dominic Cummings for his creditable role in bringing Brexit about, are prepared to take the same Dominic Cummings's side in his silly vendetta against Boris Johnson, his former boss.

The very people who derided him for his wild lockdown ride to Barnard Castle now delight in the non-event of Wallpapergate, and the portrayal of the Premier's fiancee as Carrie Antoinette, a heedless plutocrat mocking the poor with the richness of her soft furnishings.

How foolish this all is. Prime Ministers work 24-hour days, never knowing when officials will burst in on them with urgent demands for decisions. Living above the shop is a burden, not a convenience. There is no proper boundary between work and life. It really is not unreasonable for heads of government to make their private space as pleasant as possible, and all civilised nations recognise this. Seldom has there been so much fuss about a non-issue.

Sir Keir fell well below the dignity of the Opposition Leader's high office, making a leaden attempt at humour by going on a well-publicised expedition to the wallpaper department of John Lewis.

We might ask: 'Has he nothing better to do, or anything more to say?' But the answer might well be that he has not.

He has so far failed to develop any convincing idea of an alternative government, and clearly yearns deep inside for a return to the EU which is politically impossible. He showed this with his absurd defence of the EU's medical bureaucracy, which would have prevented Britain's vaccine success if we had still been under its thumb.

He has also waded into the other empty controversy  about what the Prime Minister did or did not say about a renewed lockdown in a private meeting with close aides.

The Mail on Sunday was aware a week ago of these claims, and reported them responsibly, as an allegation being peddled by enemies of Mr Johnson, rather than as a fact.

We should not forget that the Prime Minister flatly, personally and publicly denies them on the record (by contrast to the anonymous whispers from the shadows which are used to spread such charges).

Mr Starmer, who aspires to high office, should have more sense than to paddle in these murky waters. He knows perfectly well that unrestrained, uninhibited debate is essential to reach wise conclusions on policy. Despite his dapper and unruffled exterior, he must also have lost his own temper in private, and said things which he would not wish repeated in public. For who has not?

By pursuing this issue, and making veiled threats about it in Parliament, he is laying a trap for himself. What if his own aides start to leak his secret thoughts about  say  his Shadow Cabinet colleagues?

Professional life could simply not survive if confidential private discussions cannot be held with some hope of secrecy.

This is even more the case in Government, where matters of national importance are involved. In any case, does anyone think it a good idea to have a Prime Minister who likes lockdowns? Boris's obvious loathing of the whole idea is a great reassurance that he will not use methods such as this unless they are truly needed.

Boris Johnson has shown in his time in office that he is skilled in using the levers of power. He has turned the Tory Party from a fractious mob into a united Government.

By force of personality he liberated the country from the succession of Groundhog Days which were Theresa May's premiership. He got Brexit done. He reached out to the decent Labour voters whose party has abandoned them. And now he has brought us safely through the pandemic.

He deserves, and should receive, the continuing support of the British people.
Nobody would live there by choice. Premiers are forced to dwell in it by stone-faced security chiefs who insist they cannot protect them if they live anywhere else. The Prime Minister and Carrie Symonds are pictured outside Downing Street after the 2019 election

Over many years I have learned to despise most politicians. Im not here to defend any of them.

They are, for the most part, shallow careerists, ignorant of history, utterly uninterested in facts and clueless about the results of their actions. I really have no sympathy with them, and listen with despair to their dim speeches and interviews.

Most of those who report their doings (with some honourable exceptions) are much like them.

Politics is portrayed as showbusiness for ugly people, tedious gossip about who is up or down, in or out.

But honestly, this last weeks stuff about Boris Johnson was exceptionally wretched.

Remember, the politicians and media who have flung themselves on this story with energy and glee were mainly silent and supine about the recent huge assault on Parliament, on personal liberty and on our economy.

Yet here they are, going on and on about the wallpaper and the furniture in the Prime Ministers flat in Downing Street.

I have never visited this place, but I know people who have and I am told it is not especially nice.

Nobody would live there by choice. Premiers are forced to dwell in it by stone-faced security chiefs who insist they cannot protect them if they live anywhere else.

So Id be quite happy if some of my taxes (so much of them already wasted on really bad things) went on making it reasonably comfortable. And if that means paying someone called Lulu a bit over the odds for the wallpaper, I really do not mind.

Actually, a state allowance would be much better than putting the Queens First Minister in the hands of donors, the curse of politics who will always want something in return for their generosity.

As for whether Johnson said that thing about piles of bodies, it is of course interesting, but can we think about it for just a moment?

I have never visited this place, but I know people who have and I am told it is not especially nice

We all say things in private that we would not say in public, especially when we are tired and angry.

Prime Ministers are entitled to assume that those who work closely with them have, in the American phrase, come inside  that is, they have exchanged their freedom to blab for access to real power.

No serious organisation could work without such a rule.

Do we actually want surveillance and disclosure of everything our leaders say in private? Think hard about that before you say that you would.

It is a weary thing to have to say this again, but most of the few truly distinguished people who have headed the Government of this country would have been destroyed if the media of the time had told the world what they were really like their private opinions, their sex lives or their financial secrets  including the one who everybody admires, Winston Churchill.

Id be quite happy if some of my taxes (so much of them already wasted on really bad things) went on making it reasonably comfortable. And if that means paying someone called Lulu a bit over the odds for the wallpaper, I really do not mind

An unwelcome truth

The BBCs propaganda soap opera, Call The Midwife, is now a ceaseless megaphone for liberal causes. Last week it ventured for the third time into the topic of abortion.

Nurse Trixie, played by Helen George, pictured right, has been working in an expensive private clinic and discovered abortions are going on undercover.

Nurse Trixie, played by Helen George, pictured, has been working in an expensive private clinic and discovered abortions are going on undercover

She reports this to the nuns of Nonnatus House, who  being opposed to abortion, as nuns generally are  are shocked and abandon plans to collaborate with the clinic.

Yet in past episodes, an unrestrained case has been made for abortion, with the soap concentrating on the plight of the mother involved, showing a gruesome backstreet abortion in February 2013, and then another  this time fatal to the mother  in February 2019.

This was the cue for pro-abortion speeches by characters in the programme, but not a word against them, despite all the nuns in the cast.

This is odd. But perhaps the reason for it is that campaigners for abortion in this country have always liked to hide the fact that it was legal  under strict rules  before they got their way in 1967.

They dont like the idea we might have settled on a more limited relaxation of the law, rather than the annual disposal of more than 200,000 unborn babies, often on dubious grounds, that we have now.

There are believed to have been 1,600 therapeutic abortions in NHS hospitals as early as 1958, and 2,800 in 1962. More were unrecorded in private hospitals. Some researchers think there were as many as 21,400 legal abortions in England and Wales in 1966, the year Call The Midwife has now reached.

I think anything that touches on this neglected truth is unwelcome to the abortion industry and its supporters in the media.

The horror story buried in a pile of psychobabble

Reading the official report on the case of Jonty Bravery, who cruelly hurled a small child from the top of the Tate Modern, with terrible effects, makes my blood boil.

Amid all the psychobabble and jargon (the report even refuses to use Braverys real name, though his identity is obvious) is the story of someone so dangerous that he simply should not have been free to commit his terrible crime.

A school fellow so badly hurt that the injury could have been life-threatening. Bravery biting a child and saying he needed to see that he had drawn blood to satisfy his need to harm that child. Bravery attacking a staff member at a residential home with a brick, where staff then called the police because they were afraid of trying to take the brick from him. Bravery assaulting a police officer.

By the way, he was taking unspecified medication and there is the usual lack of curiosity about how he might have become so deranged in the first place, though Im assured theres no evidence of illegal drugs. The conclusion: apparently theres a shortage of specialist community provision, among other bureaucratic waffle.

No, theres a shortage of common sense, rapidly becoming tragic.

BBC's latest panic attack

Isnt it interesting how certain countries, normally barely mentioned, suddenly get huge prominence on the BBC?

For months the Corporation reported on Covid figures from Brazil almost every day, somehow failing to mention that it is the sixth most populous country on Earth  an important context for those statistics.

Nor did they compare it with Peru, which locked down hard where Brazil did not. Yet, at the last count, the two countries had almost exactly the same number of Covid deaths per million  Brazil 1,900, Peru 1,868. The comparable figure for the UK is 1,903. By the way, the Czech Republic, one of the first countries to close its borders and the first in Europe to mandate face coverings, is way above us in this dismal chart, at 2,737 Covid deaths per million.

Now it is the turn of India. Once again, when citing figures, little effort is made to point out that India has a population of almost 1.4 billion. This is more than 20 times the size of ours, now approaching 68 million.

But unlike equally vast China, India has a democracy and a free press so cannot hide its problems the way the Peking police state does. Who really knows what is going on in China?

Under normal circumstances, roughly 26,500 Indian citizens die every day from all causes (the equivalent here is 1,700).

Its health service, by common consent, has always been way behind ours. This  though distressing given Indias rising wealth  is nothing new.

We should all be deeply sympathetic to Indias undoubted losses, and do all we can to help a great and suffering country to which we are so closely bound by history. But the use of that tragedy to rekindle panic here is wrong.

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Eleanor Tomlinsons barely been seen since she lit up the screen as Demelza Poldark in five series of the hit Cornish drama. And each time she has, the roles been a world away from the fiery 18th-century redhead that launched her career.

There was unhinged Mary Durrant in the 50s-set Agatha Christie adaptation Ordeal By Innocence in 2018, and sci-fi heroine Amy in the BBCs The War Of The Worlds the following year. But Eleanors latest role is surely her most offbeat yet.

Part-alien, part-human, Candy Skov-King is a drug-addicted criminal in Skys new sci-fi thriller Intergalactic, which follows a group of space-travelling female convicts. Eleanors signature red curls have been replaced with blonde dreadlocks, her face is covered in green scales and  the piece de resistance  her tongue is long and forked.

Needless to say there isnt a corset in sight, but Eleanor insists she wanted a complete change of direction. I needed to find a project that would allow me to jump from period dramas to something totally different, she says, speaking from the shows set in Manchester.

Eleanor Tomlinson insisted she wanted a complete change of direction when she took a role in Sky's new sci-fi thriller Intergalactic, saying she needed a project which would allow her to jump from period dramas to something totally different

I needed a breath of fresh air and a chance to shake things up a bit. And I certainly didnt want to be a redhead  I think weve seen that somewhere before!

She says she had a ball playing Ross Poldarks wife, but in a sense she was a victim of the success of a show that attracted an average eight million viewers an episode. I feared being typecast, famous for just playing that role and only being offered similar parts, she says.

Its not that I didnt like Poldark, I did, a great deal, and I learned so much from it. But I had to break away for my own sanity. Thats why Intergalactic seemed a good choice. Drugs, aliens and a futuristic setting... its so different!

The eight-part series, set in 2143, imagines a world radically different from the one we occupy now. Earth has suffered ecological collapse and old London lies in silt-covered ruin.

Eleanor's signature red curls have been replaced with blonde dreadlocks while her face is covered in green scales for her role as part-alien, part-human Candy Skov-King, a drug-addicted criminal

The Commonworld, a global confederation of governments riddled with corruption, calls the shots, with much of its business conducted from New London, a shiny metallic city built on stilts above the old metropolis.

The last 122 years havent been all bad news on Earth though. The discovery of a new type of fuel called New Aurum that makes it possible to travel faster than the speed of light has allowed intergalactic space travel to take place, and thus the colonisation of distant planets.

Eleanors character Candy is aboard the Hemlock, a spaceship carrying a group of female prisoners from Earth to a penal colony deep in space where theyre due to serve out their sentences. Candy faces several years behind bars for trafficking drugs, but in the first episode the prisoners carry out a mutiny and redirect the Hemlock towards Arcadia, a planet where theyll be safe from the authorities on Earth.

Also on board the ship is political prisoner Dr Emma Grieves (Natasha OKeefe, who played Tommy Shelbys wife Lizzie Stark in Peaky Blinders). Grieves and her knowledge of New Aurum are key to the whole series.

Shes at the core of the story in the sense that without her, life cannot continue to exist, explains Natasha. She knows that mankind may not survive without her, and the people around her know that too, which is why everyone wants a piece of Emma.

Eleanors character Candy, who faces several years behind bars for trafficking drugs, is aboard the Hemlock, a spaceship carrying a group of female prisoners from Earth to a penal colony deep in space where theyre due to serve out their sentences in a world set in 2143

None more so than Dr Benedict Lee (Craig Parkinson, who was corrupt cop Dot Cottan in Line Of Duty), the leader of the world government. He, along with Parminder Nagras character Rebecca Harper, the governments head of security, watch the Hemlocks progress across space on a big screen back in New London.

Lee wants Grieves returned to Earth safe and well so that he can experiment on her, explains Craig. She holds the key to this wonderful new power source New Aurum. If he can untap what makes her tick it will become available, hell be a hero.

The drama visits Candys home planet, the snow-covered Skov, in episode five, and viewers will learn more about her descent into drug addiction. We discover how she abandoned her family, got in with the wrong crowd and couldnt face going home out of shame for what shed become, explains Eleanor.

Shes a bit mad, a bit bonkers, a woman who takes so many different kinds of drugs and is constantly looking for her next hit. But I hope people will be rooting for her. Shes certainly no goodie-goodie, but shes trying to better herself.

All episodes of Intergalactic are available on Sky On Demand and NOW.
Meghan Markle 'may have been wrong' to suggest her son Archie should have been given the title of Prince, her friend Omid Scobie has suggested.

In her bombshell Oprah interview in March, Meghan, 39, said that her son was not made a Prince due to a change in protocol and implied the decision was made due to concerns over 'how dark his skin would be'.

But speaking in a new documentary Discovery+'s Harry and Meghan: Recollections May Vary, Meghan and Harry's London-based biographer said that 'there's more to the story' .

'If we are only going by what Meghan said to Oprah and what the palace have said so far about the situation with Archie, perhaps one can assume that Meghan was wrong in her interpretation of it. But we also know that there is much more to this story that we don't know about,' he said.

Meghan Markle 'may have been wrong' to suggest her son Archie should have been given the title of Prince, her friend Omid Scobie has suggested. Pictured during her interview in March

During the CBS interview in March, Meghan insisted she held no attachment to the 'grandeur' of official titles until she discovered it meant Archie would not get his own security detail unless he was a prince.

Oprah said she had heard that it was Meghan and Harry who did not want Archie to have a prince title, but the Duchess said this was not true and it's 'not our decision to make'.

Meghan said: 'In those months when I was pregnant, all around this same time.... so we have in tandem the conversation of "He won't be given security, he's not going to be given a title," and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he's born.'

The Duchess also said: 'And so, I think even with that convention I'm talking about, while I was pregnant, they said they want to change the convention for Archie.'

In her bombshell Oprah interview in March, Meghan, 39, said that her son was not made a Prince due to a change in protocol and implied the decision was made due to concerns over 'how dark his skin would be'. Meghan is pictured with Archie in South Africa in 2019

However, Archie, who does not have a title and goes by Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, did not have a birthright to be a prince, due to a protocol held for more than a century.

In 1917, King George V issued a written order that only royal offspring who are in the direct line of succession could be made a prince and receive HRH titles.

The Letters Patent read: '...the grandchildren of the sons of any such sovereign in the direct male line (save only the eldest living son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales) shall have and enjoy in all occasions the style and title enjoyed by the children of dukes of these our realms.'

Speaking in a new documentary Discovery+'s Harry and Meghan: Recollections May Vary, Meghan and Harry's biographer Omid Scobie said: 'If we are only going by what Meghan said to Oprah and what the palace have said so far about the situation with Archie, perhaps one can assume that Meghan was wrong in her interpretation of it.'

What is the George V convention? In 1917, the Queen's grandfather issued new letters patent that limited the number of royal family members with an HRH title. These stated that 'the children of any Sovereign of these Realms and the children of the sons of any such Sovereign and the eldest living son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales shall have and at all times hold and enjoy the style, title or attribute of Royal Highness with their titular dignity of Prince or Princess prefixed to their respective Christian names or with their other titles of honour'. In 1917, the Queen's grandfather issued new letters patent that limited the number of royal family members with an HRH title This means that when Prince Charles become King, his grandchildren - including Archie - will all automatically become princes or princesses. It was also decreed that 'grandchildren of the sons of any such Sovereign in the direct male line ... shall have and enjoy in all occasions the style and title enjoyed by the children of Dukes of these Our Realms' (i.e., Lord or Lady before their Christian name).' In addition the letters stated 'save as aforesaid the style title or attribute of Royal Highness, Highness or Serene Highness and the titular dignity of Prince or Princess shall not henceforth be assumed or borne by any descendant of any Sovereign of these Realms. Advertisement

Under the rules, only Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge's eldest son Prince George - as a great-grandson of the monarch down the direct line of succession to the throne - was originally entitled to be a prince.

The Queen stepped in ahead of George's birth in 2013 to issue a Letters Patent to ensure all George's siblings - as the children of future monarch William - would have fitting titles, meaning they were extended to Charles and Louis.

Under the George V rules, Archie would be entitled to be an HRH or a prince when his grandfather Charles, the Prince of Wales, accedes to the throne.

Omid is the latest in a long line of royal commentator to cast doubt Meghan's comments over Archie's title.

Royal biographer Hugo Vickers also said Meghan had misleadingly claimed in her interview that there was a discussion about whether the boy could take the title.

Mr Vickers told BBC Two's Newsnight in March: 'Can I just take this opportunity to clear up one really serious thing that she said which was actually very misleading?

'She said there was a discussion about whether Archie would be a prince or not. There can have been no such discussion.

'I could bore you to death on exactly who is a prince and who isn't, but it's absolutely clear cut. And that is how she led into that whole issue (about racism).

'She was almost saying... slight implication that he couldn't be a prince because of the possible colour of his skin, which is a bit naughty I think.'

Meanwhile, speaking on True Royalty TV's The Royal Beat, royal biographer Katie Nicholl said the remarks were 'misleading' and argued Meghan and Harry would have known about the constitutional position regarding Archie not being a prince.

Discussing Meghan's disappointment that Archie was not awarded the title of prince, Ms Nicholl said: 'Meghan would have known [that this was for an established constitutional reason] and Harry would definitely have known.

'I think it was disingenuous to throw all this together and suggest that Archie wasnt a prince because of the colour of his skin. I think it was misleading.'
Prince Andrew looked relaxed today as he left Windsor Castle following a horse ride at his mother's home.

The Duke of York, 61, sported reflective sunglasses and a navy blue jumper as he drove his Range Rover toward his Windsor Lodge home, where he lives with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson.

Opting for an open-collar burgundy polo top, the Queen's second son looked at ease during the weekend drive.

Prince Andrew looked relaxed today as he left Windsor Castle following a horse ride at his mother's home

The Duke of York, 61, sported reflective sunglasses and a navy blue jumper as he drove his Range Rover toward his Windsor Lodge home. Opting for an open-collar burgundy polo top, the Queen's second son looked at ease during the weekend drive

It comes just a day after Ghislaine Maxwell's lawyer - who once represented one of Osama Bin Laden's henchmen - released the first photo of the jailed socialite since her arrest last year.

So-called 'super lawyer' Bobbi Sternheim shared the close-up snap of Maxwell, 59, on Thursday as her client languishes in jail on suspicion of trafficking and sexually abusing girls as young as 14.

Prince Andrew stepped down from royal duty in November 2019 following a disastrous interview with Newsnight and scrutiny for his friendship with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, Maxwell was Epstein's alleged madam.

In new pictures, Maxwell's left eye has a bruise underneath, while Maxwell's usual short dark cropped hairstyle has grown out, and is flecked with gray hairs.

It comes just a day after Ghislaine Maxwell's lawyer - who once represented one of Osama Bin Laden's henchmen - released the first photo of the jailed socialite since her arrest last year

The British socialite's lawyers included the photo in a court filing Thursday as part of their ongoing concerns about Maxwell's treatment at Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center.

Following the release of the photo, a judge on Thursday ordered the US government to explain why guards repeatedly flash light into Maxwell's cell overnight, an action her lawyers say may have led to the bruising.

Ian Maxwell, Ghislaine brother, said in a statement that he was 'shocked my sister's guards didn't immediately refer her for proper medical care'.

Maxwell is accused of recruiting underage girls who were abused by disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein

Maxwell, who is accused of grooming girls for pedophile ex Jeffrey Epstein, and joining in his abuse of them, has only been seen in court sketches until now, as no cameras or recording devices are allowed at hearings.

In a filing to the federal court in New York, Sternheim wrote that on Wednesday evening Maxwell was 'confronted by MDC staff due a visible bruise over her left eye'.

Sternheim, who represented Al Qaeda terrorist Khaled al-Fawwaz over two US embassy bombings in Africa that killed 224, said Maxwell got what she called a 'black eye' despite 24/7 camera surveillance on her at all time.

The filing said: 'No guard addressed the bruise until Ms. Maxwell, who has no mirror, caught a reflection of her aching eye in the glean of a nail clipper.

'At that point, MDC staff confronted Ms. Maxwell regarding the source of the bruise, threatening to place her in the SHU if she did not reveal how she got it' - the SHU is the most restrictive part of the prison.

Today's pictures - which is only Andrew's second appearance since Prince Philip's funeral last month - comes after the Duke of York has gone into business with Harry Keogh, once a star financier at the Queen's bank, Coutts, before he resigned in March 2018 following a storm over sexual harassment claims. He is pictured with Princess Anne at Prince Philip's funeral

Despite claiming to have no mirror, Maxwell appears to manage some level of maintenance with well-plucked eyebrows clearly on display.

Today's pictures - which is only Andrew's second appearance since Prince Philip's funeral last month - comes after the Duke of York has gone into business with Harry Keogh, once a star financier at the Queen's bank, Coutts, before he resigned in March 2018 following a storm over sexual harassment claims.

Mr Keogh was disciplined after accusations that he inappropriately touched young female staff, made lewd comments and was a heavy drinker.

But it seems the Duke of York has started a business venture with his long-time friend, who attended the wedding of his daughter, Eugenie, in 2018.

The company, which was formed last June, will be a vehicle for Andrew's family investments and will have an unlimited status, which affords it a degree of privacy, The Times reported.

It is named Lincelles, after an 18th-century battle in which the Duke of York commanded the English against the French.
AstraZeneca said Friday that it intends to seek U.S. authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine in the 'coming weeks,' acknowledging a delay in the much-anticipated filing that had been expected by mid-April.

The British-Swedish drugmaker revealed the new timetable as it released first-quarter financial results, which showed that the company delivered 68 million doses of the vaccine to the UK, EU and other countries in the first three months of the year.

The company said it was continuing to work on its application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), noting the 'substantial size of the file' that will include data from U.S. trials as well all other studies completed so far and real-world data collected from use of the vaccine in other countries.

Among the issues that will likely be addressed are indications that the vaccine is linked to rare blood clots, particularly in younger people.

Similar clots led to an 11-day pause on vaccinations with the Johnson & Johnson shot, which was lifted last week, with the conclusion that the clots are so rare the risk doesn't outweigh the benefit of the vaccine (although the condition likely is linked to the shot).

U.S. officials said on Monday that it's unlikely that Americans will get the AstraZeneca shot. The nation is on track to have enough doses for every adult by the end of May with only the three already-authorized vaccines.

But the further delay on authorization for the AstraZeneca vaccine comes after the U.S. promised to send 60 million doses of the shot to other countries and amid growing pressure to send vaccines to India, where more than 3,000 people are dying a day and vaccines are running out.

AstraZeneca said Friday that it intends to seek U.S. authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine in the 'coming weeks,' instead of in mid-April as promised

U.S. officials said this week it would soon send its entire stockpile of 60 million doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine to other countries. They also said it was unlikely the shot would be needed in the U.S. even if it is authorized, so the 300 million ordered doses will probably be shared abroad

Mexico's president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador also said that the country expects about another five million doses from the U.S.

Approximately 2.7 million doses of AstraZeneca's shot were sent to Mexico from the U.S. between late March and April.

None of the additional 60 million doses to be sent to other countries - including, presumably, Mexico's 'probable' five million doses - are available to ship immediately.

Ten million have been filled into vials, but are awaiting regulatory safety testing.

Another 50 million are expected to be produced between May and June.

President Biden (left) said the U.S. will send aid to India, but is under increasing pressure to send AstraZeneca's vaccine - a commitment his administration has yet to make. After a call with India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi (right), Biden said the U.S. would send oxygen, testing supplies and raw materials for India to produce AstraZeneca's vaccine

In total, the U.S. has ordered 300 million doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine in a $1 billion deal.

The firm has brought in about $275 million in worldwide vaccine sales in the first quarter of 2021 alone, despite its various stumbling blocks in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Once the firm applies for FDA authorization, AstraZeneca's shot could face increased scrutiny before it gets U.S. authorization, due to a slew of worrisome side effects, as well as the FDA's claims that the firm misreported data from its trials earlier this year.

Several countries have recommended that the shot be given only to older people because of the potential blood clotting side effect.

Vaccine experts say the blood clots are very rare, less than the blood clot risks of women taking birth control.

When AstraZeneca released data from its U.S. vaccine trial on March 22, company officials said they expected to apply for FDA authorization in the first half of April.

Once the application is filed, an FDA advisory committee will publicly debate the evidence behind the shots before the agency decides whether to allow emergency use.

Ruud Dobber, an AstraZeneca executive vice president, said at the time that if the FDA authorizes the vaccine, the company would deliver 30 million doses immediately, followed by another 20 million within the first month.

However, at least one U.S. plant that was manufacturing AstraZeneca's vaccine - the Baltimore Emergent BioSolutions facility - is no longer doing so, after it mistakenly used an ingredient for the firm's vaccine in a batch of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine, which it was also producing.

The White House said earlier this week that the U.S. would begin sharing its entire stock of AstraZeneca vaccine with the world once it clears federal safety reviews, with as many as 60 million doses expected to be available for export in the coming months.

The move expands on the Biden administration's March decision to share about 4 million doses of the vaccine with Mexico and Canada.

The White House is feeling increasingly confident about the supply of the three vaccines already being administered in the U.S. - Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.

The U.S. has also been under mounting pressure to share more of its vaccine supply with the world, as infection rates surge in countries like India and other countries struggle to get enough doses to protect their most vulnerable residents.

More than 3.1 million people worldwide have died of COVID-19, including more than 572,000 in the U.S.

More than half of U.S. adults have received at least one dose of vaccine, and the government expects to have enough supply for the entire population by early summer.

AstraZeneca reported revenue of $275 million from deliveries of 68 million doses of the vaccine during the first quarter.

AstraZeneca has pledged that it will deliver the vaccine on a non-profit basis as long as the pandemic lasts.

The company said 30 million doses went to the EU, 26 million to the U.K., seven million to Gavi, an alliance that secures vaccines for low-income countries, and 5 million to other nations.

To date, AstraZeneca and partners such as the Serum Institute of India and Fiocruz in Brazil have supplied more than 300 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to over 165 countries, the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker said.

The vaccine was developed by researchers at Oxford University, who licensed the technology to AstraZeneca in an effort to tap into the companys global manufacturing and distribution capacity. AstraZeneca in turn authorizes other companies to produce the shots around the world.
For millions of Britons it is a secret they dare not discuss. A problem they put up with, silently, often for decades.

Incontinence will affect 40 per cent of women, and one in ten men at some point in their lives.

And its not simply an embarrassing inconvenience: it can leave sufferers near-housebound for fear of having an accident.

Others are forced to shell out hundreds of pounds on special pads and underwear to get through their lives.

Sheila Cakebread, 73, from Godalming, Surrey discovered several of her friends were being treated with Botox for years for their incontinence, to great effect

Elizabeth Silver, 66, from Tonbridge, Kent, who is doubly incontinent, has been told by doctors in Tonbridge, Kent, that there is nothing more they can do - though her sister has had good results being treated by Botox

Its not surprising many of those blighted by the problem report high levels of distress, anxiety and depression. Worse still, it seems that when many pluck up the courage to seek medical help, little is forthcoming.

Last week, The Mail on Sunday published details of a damning report that highlighted the failure of NHS services across the country to treat patients with urinary incontinence.

Some wait up to ten years just to get a diagnosis, the report from the Pelvic Floor Society found, while cutting-edge therapies  such as Botox and electrical stimulation devices that target the nerves in the bladder and bowel  are offered to just a tiny fraction of patients.

We asked our readers to let us know if they, too, had struggled to get treatment  and we were inundated with responses.

Many of the stories were heart-breaking, describing years of managing the problem at home, feeling too ashamed to ask for help.

One 83-year-old wrote: I really thought no one else suffered like me and was convinced nothing could be done. Im too embarrassed to say Ive lost control down there.

She, along with many others, admitted they rarely leave the house, and have their lives on hold because of their condition.

Others, having summoned the courage to finally contact a GP, or get a referral to a specialist, felt they had been dismissed. Many were told simply to soldier on, that there was nothing that could be done. Women were told, starkly: Well, you had children. What do you expect?

Most were told to do exercises, known as kegels, to no avail.

Many women suffering from urinary incontinence are told there is nothing that can be done

Kegels involve clenching and relaxing the pelvic-floor muscles, which cradle the bladder and are integral to our ability to hold on. To have any effect, ten minutes of kegels must be done three times a day, for up to six months, and then continued once a day for life. Studies show most people, unsurprisingly, simply give up.

And kegels will not work in every case. They can help with stress incontinence, where the pelvic-floor muscles are weakened or damaged from injury of childbirth.

In those with another form, urge incontinence, they can also have some effect. In these patients, the nerves of the bladder are overactive, causing an uncontrollable need to urinate.

But some people have an over-active pelvic floor, where the muscles are already too tight, and over-exercising them with kegels could make problems worse. It causes muscle fatigue and weakness, which leads to more accidents.

Many incontinence sufferers are afraid to leave the house out of fear of suffering an accident

There are drugs that can help with all types, but these may have serious downsides. Some, called anticholinergics, stop the bladder contracting but can cause forgetfulness and drowsiness. Another class of drug, known as beta-3 sympathomimetics, makes the bladder relax but can cause dizziness and nausea.

I was prescribed a medication that gave me acute indigestion, wrote one 71-year-old reader, who asked to remain anonymous. I went back to the doctor, who said Oh, sorry to hear that, and that was it. No alternatives offered. No advice given. I cant even walk upstairs without having an accident.

Few patients were offered other treatments, although there are numerous options.

Obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Clive Spence-Jones, a pelvic-floor specialist, said the current approach was inadequate.

Telling people to just do their kegels and to put up with it isnt acceptable, he said. And to tell them theres nothing more that can be done is awful.

We know lots of people have been struggling for years through embarrassment before theyll see a doctor, and being dismissed or badly advised will knock them back psychologically and physically.

But there are also other things for patients to try, which should be offered, depending on the type of incontinence they have.

In one third of patients, standard drug treatments fail.

Its vital, when at this point, that patients and their doctors keep trying to find a solution, Dr Spence-Jones said.

Botox injections for urge incontinence are highly successful, reducing incontinence in three-quarters of patients, with effects lasting up to a year before a top-up is needed.

Botox contains a medical form of a toxin that paralyses muscles, reducing the spasms that cause leaks. The procedure can be done under general or local anaesthetic and involves inserting a thin metal tube containing a camera into the urethra. Through the tube, doctors inject Botox into up to 15 sites around the bladder.

Other options include implanting sacral-nerve stimulators, which send electrical pulses to nerves in the tailbone, regulating the bladder or bowel muscles. But too few centres offer these treatments, and many general urologists and gynaecologists have no experience of them.

For Annemarie Mitchell, 77, the problem has continued for more than 40 years  and she is still waiting for a solution after several doctors advised her to soldier on and keep performing her kegels.

One reader wrote: 'It completely changes your life. The clinic is well run and the nurses feel more like a friend, so no embarrassment'

The retired flight attendant from Clevedon, Somerset, began suffering from leaks after the birth of her second child, and had taken to wearing sanitary pads designed for periods. They largely dealt with the problem, but on flights the crew would joke that I was always the first into the toilet after take-off, she said. I did my pelvic-floor exercises  I always have done  and they seemed to help.

But in 2016, Annemarie began having embarrassing accidents, which soaked through her pads. Suddenly, they werent enough. I couldnt drink a coffee when I was out without desperately needing the toilet, I couldnt have wine with a meal and had to start focusing on where the nearest loo was at all times. I cant wear trousers with a zip or buttons, anything that doesnt unfasten easily and quickly.

Youre aware when you lose control  but you cant stop it. I try to stay positive, but I get very depressed about it.

She spoke to three private consultants  one gynaecologist and two urologists. They recommended a physiotherapist at 60 a time, which Annemarie turned down after realising kegels hadnt made a difference. Prescribed drugs also didnt work.

Annemarie gets through a pack of 32 disposable incontinence pants costing 28 every month  which means the issue is costing her more than 330 a year in these alone.

Even then, she wraps them in eight layers of toilet paper for extra protection. After a friend said Botox injections had been her salvation, Annemarie asked to be referred to an NHS incontinence clinic at Southmead Hospital in Bristol, where she had an appointment last month.

The nurses were helpful and positive, she said, and she is now waiting to find out whether a doctor will recommend Botox or sacral-nerve stimulators.

Bristol is one of a few centres, along with Southampton, Liverpool and parts of Berkshire, where readers say Botox is being offered.

Some incontinence patients have reported great improvements having being injected with Botox once every six months

One said it had given her a new lease of life. I suffered for many years, being referred to physiotherapy after taking prescribed medication for approximately seven years, which made my life unbearable at times, she wrote. We should not be ashamed and suffer from this condition when it can be remedied by a simple operation.

Another reader praised the clinic at Liverpool Womens Hospital, where she has a Botox injection every six months.

It completely changes your life, she wrote. The clinic is well run and the nurses feel more like a friend, so no embarrassment.

But others are facing a very different scenario. Margaret Doherty, 74, from Manchester, has been waiting months for a urology appointment after her bladder weakness worsened following a hysterectomy for uterine cancer.

Ive got no idea when Im likely to see a specialist, she wrote.

I have no feeling in my stomach area inside or outside, therefore pelvic-floor muscle exercises are pointless. Id be more than willing to travel to Bristol.

Elizabeth Silver, who is doubly incontinent, has been told by doctors in Tonbridge, Kent, that there is nothing more they can do.

The 64-year-old retired nurse, who had four large babies in quick succession in her 20s, was referred to a continence nurse and advised to carry out kegels after the problem worsened three years ago.

They didnt do any good. I became anxious and depressed, she said. I love walking but I cant go anywhere if theres no toilet.

I was once caught out wearing a pair of shorts and that was just the most awful, embarrassing thing. I end up just not going out.

I had a follow-up appointment two weeks ago and told the doctor the kegels werent doing anything.

They just said the exercises were to stop it getting worse, that I had slack muscles and there was nothing to be done  I just had to put up with it.

He said my condition was minor, but it doesnt feel minor to me  it affects every part of my life.

Her sister, who lives near Southampton, was given Botox for urge incontinence and found it really helpful, and Elizabeth now plans to ask her doctors to consider her for it. In my career, I was taught not to question the doctors, so I havent questioned this  but I know I must, she said.

Its a similar situation for Sheila Cakebread, 73, from Godalming, Surrey. Several friends in neighbouring Berkshire have been given Botox for years for their incontinence, to great effect.

Its sorted their problem, she said. My GP has been fantastic and written lots of letters, but she did say most patients suffering from this dont get any sort of resolution.

Thats shocking. Ive been passed from urology to gynaecology and back full circle since my issue began two years ago, and the consultants just dont seem to be taking it seriously. It feels like theyre so indifferent, and dont quite consider the psychological impact this has.

Im not a little old lady in a rocking chair. I have an active social life. But it means always being well equipped, wearing pads and wondering if youre going to wet yourself. What woman wants that?

Part of the problem, Sheila said, is that because so few women discuss the issue, any failures by the service also go under the radar. If we dont talk about this, the situation will only continue, she said. If it was a problem for men, something would be done. But this is largely a female problem.

Another 64-year-old reader, who asked to remain anonymous, said she had given up after suffering from incontinence since the 1980s. The lifestyle changes did not work, and the prescribed medication failed. At my last hospital appointment, in 2017, the consultant didnt even look at my bladder diary and just referred me back to the GP for a further prescription  case closed.

My life is forever on hold, a handbag full of extra-plus pads and spare knickers. I cant wear trousers or go on long walks. I cant even walk two miles to buy a paper without an accident. It makes my life a misery.

Dr Spence-Jones said part of the problem facing patients was that pelvic-floor services were not yet fully co-ordinated.

Services for cancer patients are streamlined to make sure that you wouldnt have a general gynaecologist treating patients with gynaecological cancer. In the same way, we should not have general gynaecologists or urologists treating patients with pelvic-floor problems, he said. We need more specialist centres.

But experts have also urged women to come forward sooner.

Elaine Miller said it can take up to seven years for women to visit a clinic. One in three women wet themselves, according to statistics, but the reality is its much more common than that because people dont admit to it, she adds.

Even when women do engage in treatment, theres evidence that they minimise the problem and the impact on their lives.

During one clinic last week involving 25 patients, GP Dr Philippa Kaye said four had been women with incontinence problems. Its never normal to wet yourself, unless youre a baby, she said. Do not accept this as just part of the ageing process.

Botox isnt a first-line treatment  you have to start with other things first. Alongside drugs, there are pessaries, and vaginal devices which can stop leaking can also be used. But to be told theres nothing for women, if kegels dont work, is shocking. Weve got treatments for all of it.
Her name, perfectly chosen by her adoring parents, is short for the Spanish word for miracle.

And little Mila is indeed extraordinary.

For this blue-eyed baby girl, cradled happily in her mother's arms, is an astonishing testament to the powers of modern medicine as one of just a few dozen babies worldwide to have undergone pioneering spinal surgery  while still in the womb.

The intricate NHS operation, carried out by a team of 30 when Mila's mother, Helena Purcell, was just 23 weeks pregnant, has saved her from a lifetime of paralysis and incontinence caused by the debilitating condition spina bifida.

Today, the six-week-old is thriving, with little sign of the condition that threatened to overshadow her future.

The intricate NHS operation, carried out by a team of 30 when Mila's mother, Helena Purcell, was just 23 weeks pregnant, has saved her from a lifetime of paralysis and incontinence caused by the debilitating condition spina bifida

'I feel such joy that Mila is finally here, and so healthy, after everything we've been through,' Helena, 41, told The Mail on Sunday last night.

'The NHS medics are heroes in my eyes, and the surgery they did is just mindblowing. If it wasn't for them, Mila would be paralysed. I am just so grateful she has had this chance.'

Mila is all the more precious to Helena and her husband Ian, 46, because her fight to enter the world began long before the operation.

The couple, from Hornchurch, Essex, who already have a three-year-old son, Luca, went through seven rounds of IVF, at a cost of more than 30,000, to have their longed-for second child.

It was a lengthy and emotionally difficult ordeal which left Helena, a languages teacher, all the more determined that this pregnancy  with one of her final remaining eggs  would be a success.

She diligently took her recommended daily dose of folic acid, a supplement that is essential for normal development and can protect against spina bifida.

But on November 22 last year, when Helena went to Queen's Hospital in Romford for her 20-week scan, which checks for abnormalities, the sonographer paused after running through the checklist of vital organs.

'I knew something was wrong,' Helena recalls. 'I asked if everything was OK and she said, 'Just give me a moment  I need to check.' '

Then came the kind of news every expectant parent dreads. The sonographer gently told the couple that their baby had spina bifida.

The debilitating condition, which affects about one in 1,000 babies born in the UK each year, stems from a problem with the neural tube  the structure that eventually develops into the baby's brain and spinal cord.

Part of the tube fails to close properly, leading to nerve damage that can cause paralysis in the legs, incontinence and, in some cases, brain damage.

What the sonographers told Helena and Ian, based on the scan, was devastating. 'There was a big lesion on her spine  it was half open, and the nerves were being pushed out,' Helena says. 'I couldn't stop crying. I was in bits. We had researched it when I was pregnant with Luca, and we knew it would have a huge impact on her life.'

The impact is so life-changing, for both the child and their families, that about 80 per cent of mothers choose to have an abortion.

But for Helena, there was never any doubt that she would keep her little girl.

'I couldn't terminate because of what I'd been through with the IVF. She was already a miracle baby.'

Doctors gently explained their options. When spina bifida is discovered, surgery can take place shortly after a baby is born to close the spine, but this is usually already too late.

But Helena and Ian were given another option: a new, groundbreaking operation on their tiny daughter while she was still inside the womb.

This has been carried out since early 2020 on the NHS after being developed in the US, and involves teams of highly skilled doctors who have been specially trained in the procedure.

It would involve cutting open Helena's uterus to allow the doctors access to Mila. The amniotic fluid that surrounds the baby would be drained away to allow the delicate surgery to take place.

Professor Stephen Powis, medical director of NHS England, has described the operation as trailblazing and 'just one example of the NHS leading innovative treatments across the world'.

But surgery like this at such an early stage in pregnancy  with Mila measuring just 11in  is still not without significant risk.

The odds of losing Mila, the couple were told, were one in 100, and it could cause Helena's uterus to rupture. There was also the risk to Helena herself to consider, which led to some difficult conversations with Ian.

Helena recalls: 'He said, 'Are you doing the right thing? It's got to be the right thing for you.'

'But I felt I had to do it for her  to give her the best chance of a decent quality of life.'

Perhaps fortunately, there was little time to dwell on the possibilities. The couple were told that the operation had to be carried out within a four-week window while Helena was between 23 and 26 weeks pregnant. Too early and the baby is still too small to operate on; too late and the damage cannot be reversed.

But first, even to be accepted for the surgery, Helena had to undergo a battery of tests and scans.

If Mila was unlucky enough to have a chromosomal condition as well as spina bifida  such as Down's or Edward's syndrome  the surgery would be refused. Helena knew that, at 41, the chances were higher than for younger women.

'That was a very long two weeks,' Helena says now. 'I was so stressed, just staring at the walls, waiting for the phone to ring.'

There was huge relief when, on December 3, they were given the go-ahead. The operation would take place five days later at University Hospitals Leuven, in Belgium, funded by the NHS and led by the world-renowned foetal surgeon Professor Jan Deprest with a team of NHS and Belgian doctors.

But even with such specialist care, it was only natural for Helena to worry. 'I was terrified,' she admits. 'Not scared of having the operation  but scared I might lose her.

'I know one per cent is a very low chance, but the risk of spina bifida is one in 1,000, so to my mind at the time that meant I had a much greater chance of losing her in the operation than something that had already happened.'

She and Ian took the Eurostar to Belgium on Sunday, December 6. As the latest coronavirus crisis began to escalate in the UK, they first had to obtain papers showing they had an exceptional reason to travel.

It was early on the morning of December 8 that Helena was wheeled into theatre, tired and stressed after an uncomfortable night. She had been alone overnight, as visiting restrictions meant Ian could not be with her. As he left, he promised to call the minute she was out of theatre.

Moments before the anaesthetic took hold, Helena's NHS consultant Dr Emma Bredaki put her at ease, laying a comforting hand on her shoulder and telling her: 'You're getting the star treatment.'

During the intensive four-hour operation, Helena lay unconscious as the team of 30 got to work.

Alongside the foetal specialists, the operation required neurosurgeons, two anaesthetists  one for Helena and one for Mila  obstetricians, paediatric surgeons, radiologists and neonatologists, in case the baby needed to be delivered in an emergency.

It was 12.30pm by the time Helena opened her eyes groggily. While there was obvious relief for her own sake, her first desperate thoughts were for her baby.

'I just wanted to know she was OK,' she says. 'When Jan told me she was, it was such a relief to hear. It felt like a massive weight had been lifted off me.'

She remained in hospital for just over a week while Mila's condition was monitored, and they returned home on December 23.

She was reassured that the procedure had gone as well as it could have, but ultimately its success would be known only after Mila was born. That would happen in 12 weeks' time, on March 19, the date doctors had scheduled for a caesarean at 36 weeks and five days into Helena's pregnancy.

Even this didn't go smoothly. Just after Christmas, when Helena was 25 weeks pregnant  much too soon for Mila to be born  she began having contractions. Thankfully, these were brought under control using medication.

Helena recalls: 'I was very scared  and just sat in a chair day after day not moving.'

But in the end, Mila's entry into the world went without a hitch. She was born at 3.30pm, weighing a healthy 6 lb 4oz, and announced her arrival with a loud cry.

'I felt such joy that she was finally here,' Helena says. 'To my surprise and delight, they just treated her like a typical baby.'

Doctors checked Mila over carefully in those first few days but there were no signs of any paralysis. Now she can feel her toes, has near normal movement and her bladder and bowel are working normally. While there is a little bit of fluid on her brain  one of the more minor symptoms of spina bifida  doctors are not concerned.

Mila is now having frequent check-ups at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.

Helena says: 'We have to live day by day, but at the moment everything is looking good.'

And for Helena and Ian, their little family of four is now  finally  complete.

'You know, I never really thought it would happen,' she admits. 'I thought I'd just have to accept that I'm blessed with one child.

'But to be blessed with another, after all we'd been through, shows you miracles do happen.'
Lean Fall Stand

Jon McGregor Fourth Estate 14.99

Rating:

It begins like a thriller. When the storm came in it was unexpected and Thomas Myers was dropped to his knees. The air darkened in the distance. There was a roar and everything went white against him. It had a kind of violence he wasnt prepared for. He wrapped his arms around his head and lay flat on the ice to keep from being hurled away.

We are in the Antarctic, 300 miles away from any kind of civilisation. Three men have come to work at Station K for Geographic Information Services: Robert, who is an old hand, and Luke and Thomas, who are novice research scientists. The silence creates its own sound  his ears were ringing from the lack of noise.

The landscape is blank.

The silence creates its own sound  his ears were ringing from the lack of noise. The landscape is blank (above, penguins on a mission in Antarctica)

Actually featureless didnt quite describe it; there were mountains, and ridges, and slopes of scree, and glaciers moving down into inlets and sounds. But without trees, or rivers, or buildings, it was difficult to arrange what he was seeing into any kind of perspective. There was no obvious difference between one mile and 50.

Thomas is the official photographer. To lend a picture scale and perspective, Robert, otherwise known as Doc, had climbed up a cliff nearby. Meanwhile, Thomas had set up his camera on the edge of the ice, while Luke stayed with their skidoo a few metres away.

Over the radio, Thomas was telling Doc where to stand. Doc did a good polar explorer. He had the beard for it. And then the storm came.

Doc had looked up towards Everard Glacier and seen a thick rolling shadow of banked clouds, a faint orange light, a surge of weather coming down towards them. It had come out of nowhere and it had come in fast, the temperature dropping sharply.

Their training has alerted them to the perils of the Antarctic. They had been shown slides of recorded deaths. It was a long list. Navigational errors, hypothermia, climbing accidents, crevasse falls, drownings, incidents in which alcohol was noted as a factor, carbon monoxide poisoning, attack by seals, cardiac arrests, fire.

Their training has alerted them to the perils of the Antarctic. They had been shown slides of recorded deaths (above, a research station on the frozen continent)

They had also been given tips for survival. Its when you dont feel the cold that you really need to worry; once the toe turns black youre better off amputating before it spreads.

Caught up in the blindness of the storm, they cannot see each other. Their radio contact is patchy, with crucial words not coming through. The storm clears almost as quickly as it came.

The sun burned suddenly through the blowing snow. Luke spots Thomas, 50 or 60 metres away. The sight unnerves him. There was clear grey water between them. He didnt understand what he was looking at.

There had been movement of some sort. Something had happened. The storm must have disrupted the ice. Something was wrong.

At this point, Luke hears Thomass voice on the radio. Luke, you saw? You saw? Im moving. Im on an ice floe, Im f***ing adrift.

Its a brilliantly dramatic opening, as striking in its way as the famous first scene in Ian McEwans Enduring Love, in which a hot-air balloon is shooting upwards, with a little boy crouched in its basket, and a man sailing through the air below, desperately clinging to a rope.

To this already harrowing event, Jon McGregor adds another. Doc, the veteran, suffers a stroke and falls. Within a second he has lost his grip on language. McGregors sentences, up to now so spare and simple, echo this new jumble.

He rubbed the numb rawness from his face, reads a sentence on page 63. On the next page this has become: He numbed at the rubness of his face. At first I thought this was a printing error.

But then, five pages later: He floored the numb faceness of his raw. No. Rawed the rub. The rum. The nub. And later still: He rawed the rum nubness of his face. No. Rubbed the rum rawness.

We have gone from exterior to interior: what the author of Arctic Dreams, Barry Lopez, called two landscapes  one outside the self, the other within. And both these landscapes have been fractured by blizzard.

To me, this is the books high point. Though McGregor is attempting to replicate an incomprehensible phenomenon  the collapse of language, the rapid fall from sense to nonsense  he somehow manages to do it in a way that we can follow, and even take a perverse delight in, as we might do in the writings of Edward Lear or Lewis Carroll.

Luke on the radio. The words tumbling jumbled out. He turned from the window and the raw froze and ell. Floor flows and fell. Rose and fell.

Luke finds Doc in his new damaged state. Luke was looking at him. With a something expression. Instubborn. Subordinate You sure youre OK, Doc? Rubbed his face. It was sure where hed fallen. Sore. He was sure. Shore lips, he said. Sore lips, Im sure.

The narrative then moves away from the Antarctic, first to a hospital in Santiago, then to a rehabilitation unit in Cambridge. The contrast between the unpeopled landscape of the Antarctic and the banality of everyday life in a city is severe, as it is meant to be.

But somehow it is rendered even more banal by McGregors slightly threadbare characterisation of the newly introduced players in Docs story  his wife Anna, their two adult children, Annas forthright friend Bridget and various professional caregivers.

It is clear that McGregor has done his research. In his acknowledgments at the end he lists a good many books about stroke and aphasia, and thanks the Aphasia Nottingham self-help group, where he spent several months as a regular guest.

This certainly lends his descriptions of the world of stroke sufferers and their families a strong texture of authenticity. As you would expect, McGregor has a sharp ear for the brusquely matey language of professional care.

People say to Anna: How have you been, lovey? Cathy from home-care services asked what hed been eating, and talked about spending pennies and number twos.

He is also remarkably adept at evoking communication deprived of language. When his wife asks Doc if he is OK, he looked at her and puffed out his cheeks, widening his eyes. He did this a lot now. It seemed to mean something like: well, this is big, thats a big question.

His glimpses of rehabilitation units will ring a bell with those who have had experience of them, not least the hope that families attempt to extract from even the tiniest of signals.

At one point, for instance, Anna watches as a nurse attempts to help Doc urinate. The nurse wanted him to go there and then, but he was clearly too embarrassed. Anna found the embarrassment reassuring.

Intelligent adults are reduced to toddlers. Even the most everyday routines have to be learned afresh.

We have some yes and no questions first of all; I know youve been having difficulty with no, so could you hold your hand up if you want to say no? Can we try that? Does a car hold more people than a bus?

The person who once inhabited this body has disappeared. It is hard for those who loved the former occupant to transfer their love to the dysfunctional shadow who has taken his place.

It was difficult to see past that and think about him as her husband, her partner, a man she had once wanted to kiss.

The sufferer occupies a spare, silent, featureless land, at times equivalent to the Antarctic. He always had to reach for the words. As though theyd been put on a high shelf in the stores. Out of reach. Or left outside, snowed under, needing to be dug out.

Throughout this lonely ordeal, life goes on, and nature with it, in the same reassuring and unnerving way that they did in McGregors great masterpiece, Reservoir 13. As Doc struggles to recall the days of the week or the suits in a pack of cards, the leaves were bright and thin on the trees and the light shone through them as they moved in the wind.

But, for all its virtues, Lean Fall Stand may leave fans of Reservoir 13 feeling disappointed. It is a strange mixture of inventive and pedestrian, beautiful and mundane.

It succeeds as an exploration of language, but possibly just misses as a novel.
The photo of her saviour Natasha that she treasured since the 1970s

When Debbie Gayle told her son Jake her remarkable story  kept secret for nearly five decades  he was determined to track down her mysterious guardian angel. But would finding Natasha bring peace or reopen painful wounds from the past?

For as long as Jake Warren can remember, his mother has kept a framed photograph of a beautiful woman on her bedside table.

I knew her name was Natasha and that it was a very special photo, says Jake, 30. I also knew that my mum had been a ballet dancer, that maybe she had been to Russia and that this woman had somehow helped her. If Id been born a girl, I was going to be called Natasha. But I never sat down to ask, Who is this woman and what really happened?

It was strange that years passed and the story of Natasha was never discussed, given how close Jake is to his mum. His parents separated when he was a baby so it was just the two of them in their South London home.

Its also surprising as, in every other aspect of her life, his mother Debbie Gayle is forthright and funny (his friends describe her as the brunette version of Alison Steadmans character Pamela, from Gavin and Stacey).

My mum has always been an open book, says Jake. The thought that she was hiding something seemed so alien to who she was.

In 2016, Debbie was diagnosed with womb cancer. Her treatment was successful but the experience made her reflect on her life. You have this period when you wait to find if the cancer has spread and I did a lot of thinking, says Debbie, now 64. I realised I had unfinished business. So one day, as they sat in the living room, Debbie found herself telling her son the whole story.

Debbie as a young ballerina in 1973. Her ambition was to train with the Kirov Ballet company.

Her incredible tale is now set out by Jake in a gripping and emotional podcast series called Finding Natasha, due for release on 18 May. It begins in the 1970s, when Debbie was a teenager and a driven and talented ballet student.

I had quite a bizarre, solitary childhood, says Debbie, who grew up in Beckenham, on the border of London and Kent. Her father was a Hungarian Jew who had lost his entire family in the Holocaust  never speaking of it, instead throwing himself into his work and often travelling abroad for long periods. Debbies parents marriage was not a happy one. Her brother was sent to boarding school. I think I took refuge in my dreams, and that dream was to become a great ballerina, says Debbie. I had a gift, but I was also particularly determined, probably obsessed.

Id seen Russian dancers and they were the best in the world. I remember thinking that if I could get to the Kirov Ballet company [now the Mariinsky Ballet], which was the greatest ballet school, it would be the making of me.

This being the height of the Cold War, the relationship between the UK and the then Soviet Union  a repressive Communist regime which sought to exercise total control over its citizens  was extremely hostile.

However, it also had a long history of developing and promoting ballet  there was even a period when orphans were raised to become ballerinas. The Kirov Ballet company was based in Leningrad (now St Petersburg) and had produced dance stars such as Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov.

In 1974, when Debbie was 17, the British Council announced a scholarship for one British ballet student to study there for a year. It was the first scholarship of its kind, an experiment to see if this cultural exchange could promote understanding and ease tension between the two nations. Debbie had been training for six hours a day under legendary teacher Anna Northcote when she won the scholarship and jumped at the chance.

At that age, when you are completely consumed by a dream, you think you can cope with anything, says Debbie. My mother, who loved ballet, thought it was a good idea. But my father had lived through a brutal period and knew what the Soviet regime was like. He told me I had no idea how hard it was going to be. I clearly remember it was the first time Id ever seen him cry. With the arrogance of youth, I told him, Daddy, dont worry, its my dream come true.

Debbie flew to Russia in September 1974. She was met at the airport by a British Council rep who took her to the Kirov, then left. This was the last contact she had with the West. And thats when the mist started to clear from my eyes, says Debbie. From then on, it was a series of shocks.

There was no warm welcome; in fact, no welcome at all. Debbie shared a dorm in the Kirov with five other girls, none of whom spoke to her. There was a deep fear and suspicion of Westerners and everyone was warned not to interact with me.

Debbies bed had no mattress, just a wire base. The toilets stood in a line with no walls or screens between them. And the ballet classes were far harder than she could have imagined, The dancers were in a different league to me, she remembers. Though Debbie had taken some Russian lessons before flying out, shed learnt very little. It took her more than 24 hours to even locate the canteen and when she did, she found the food terrible. Most people bought apples or bread on the black market. I was completely dependent on the canteen and I can only describe it as slop  a sort of gravy with the odd lump, says Debbie. The Soviet Union was grey and grim, she continues.

Debbie training in 1973

The shops had nothing. There were endless queues for bread. I remember seeing two men fight in the snow over some oranges. By the third day I was hungry and scared  thats when I found Natasha.

Natasha was a 19-year-old secretary at the Kirov. I was sitting on the stairs crying because I couldnt find my class, says Debbie. Natasha came out of her office, sat down, put her arm around me and said, Youre the little English girl. Dont cry! She was like an angel.

Although Natasha stressed the need to be discreet, the two developed a friendship  the only one Debbie had. Debbie remembers sticking to Natasha like a giant leech. Theyd drink Turkish coffee in the school basement and take walks around the city to see sights like the Hermitage Museum in the Winter Palace.

By January, though, already weak and malnourished, Debbie became dangerously sick, probably from drinking contaminated water. For several days, she was unable to get out of bed. One night, two men entered the dorm and escorted her to an ambulance. Debbie was taken to a hospital  she has no idea where  and put into isolation. The room had a viewing window for doctors and was locked from the outside.

They didnt feed me, they just gave me water, says Debbie. Id lost huge amounts of weight and lots of hair.

I remember drifting in and out of sleep  I dont know how many days passed. When nurses came in, Id cry and ask if anyone knew I was there. They didnt speak English  they just smiled, then left.

Why would the ballet school let this happen to a dancer who had supposedly been invited to join them on a scholarship? Debbie believes that the school didnt want a Western student. They hadnt asked for me, she remembers. It was an instruction from some bureaucrat in Moscow whod agreed it with the British consulate  and the school wouldnt have had the power to say no.

There had been some high-profile defections to the West from the Kirov, including the huge dance star Mikhail Baryshnikov who had defected to Canada just a few months before I arrived. Anyone from the West was viewed with wariness. I wasnt wanted. When they sent me off to hospital, they had done the right thing and could now forget about me. The hospitals then were very primitive. They didnt know what I had so they prescribed isolation, no food, just water and powerful drugs to knock me out.

The Kirov Ballet performing The Nutcracker in 1965

Debbie believes she was being left to die until one day Natashas face appeared at the window. It was probably the best moment of my life, says Debbie. She put her fingers to her lips, unlocked the door and I fell into her arms crying. She had a coat for me and an apple and she asked if I could walk.

Leaning heavily on Natasha, Debbie stumbled out of the hospital through a fire exit. They boarded a crowded bus back to Leningrad where Natasha took Debbie to her home, a flat she shared with her parents, and put her into her bed. For the first time, Debbie felt safe. Natashas mother fed her soup as Natasha travelled to the British Council to tell them what had happened to the English girl. They hastily passed on Debbies passport and a plane ticket home. Debbies final few days in Russia were spent in Natashas home.

Natasha showed Debbie the English magazines she had hidden under her bed. She was always fascinated by the West, always a bit of a dissident, says Debbie. Natasha also showed Debbie her family photographs  and Debbie asked to keep one picture of Natasha to take home.

It was Natasha who took Debbie by taxi to the airport  Debbie remembers a rushed goodbye and a promise never to forget her. When she arrived in Heathrow, her mother burst into tears at the sight of her and as she recovered in Guys Hospital she found that she had hepatitis. Complaints were made to the British Council, but Debbie doesnt know what came of it, saying, It was a different time, when things were easily brushed under the carpet.

Once back home, Debbie shut down. I thought, I never want to talk to anybody about what happened because no one would believe it. My overwhelming sense was one of failure. I knew I was never going to be the dancer Id thought I could be. It took a long time to get well again and it was fairly evident I was broken. I did dance professionally  in Germany, then the Northern Ballet Theatre  because I didnt know what else to do, but my heart wasnt in it.

Debbie with Jake, aged two, in 1992

When I was 21, I met Jakes dad, a handsome young Army officer, and thought, Ill marry you, have a nice life and forget the horror. But Debbie never forgot Natasha  and was haunted by the fear that she suffered terrible repercussions for what she did. I was so terrified that she had been punished, says Debbie, and I knew that trying to get in touch with her put her more at risk. I didnt talk about her, but I used to pray that she was well and had a happy life.

In 2016, when Debbie finally told this story to her son, he knew he had to find Natasha. As an investigative journalist who had worked for the BBC, and now had his own podcast company, he was in a good position to do so. I remember thinking, If I can find some answers, I know how happy it would make my mum, says Jake. But I had to keep it secret. I didnt want to get her hopes up and I didnt want to scare her either. This was a big thing for her.

The Finding Natasha podcast Jake has made documents his search, and he is helped by a brilliant Russian journalist, Olga. There are a few false leads, names and places misspelt  but Natasha is found. Now an eminent ballet expert, a professor and lecturer, well respected in her field, who still lives in the same flat shed brought Debbie to. She has an adult daughter who looks exactly like the younger Natasha in that old photo, as well as a granddaughter. The moment Jake rings his mum to tell her he has found Natasha is caught on the podcast.

I dont remember what I said but I imagine I sounded like a gibbering idiot, says Debbie.

Very soon, Debbie and Natasha connected on Zoom. I was so nervous, says Debbie, and guess what I did? I did what I always do and cried. Natasha laughed and said, Youre still crying! It was a magical call. Weve had more since then, and lots of emails. Each one of them is precious. We talk about meeting up all the time  one day we will.

Natasha didnt suffer any terrible repercussions for helping my mum, or none that I can gauge, says Jake.

It sounds a cliche, but shes this stoic Russian. My mum describes her as her guardian angel who saved her life, but Natasha doesnt see it that way. In her mind, she did what anyone else would do if they saw someone else in trouble. Shes one of those true heroes who rejects the moniker of hero. For her, shes just incredibly happy to be reunited with my mum after such a long time of worrying and wondering what happened to her.

For Debbie, the reunion has been an emotional rollercoaster. Its an immense gift that Jake has given me, she says. He has grown into this incredible young man who Im so proud of.

He has given me the chance to thank Natasha and let her know how important she was to me, and still is. I know that when my time comes to leave this earth, Ive done the only thing that mattered. The circle is complete.

The Finding Natasha podcast will be available from 18 May. For more details, go to https://messageheard.com/podcasts/finding-natasha
This week Tom gets his teeth into a few American-style fast-food favourites

Left: Shake Shacks cook-at-home burger is a family go-to. RIght: the DIY Philly Cheesesteak from Passyunk Avenue

Well, thats it for the cook-at-home boxes. For the time being at least. Brilliantly put together as they often were, and crucial in keeping so many places afloat, I simply cannot wait to get back into a restaurant, to breathe in that succour-scented hubbub, to revel in the clatter of knives and forks.

Its been nearly five months since Ive sat down and had someone else bring me a drink while I choose food that someone else will cook. Not delivered, spilt and half cold, on the back of some scooter. Rather spirited to my table by a lovely waiter or waitress and placed merrily before me. All I need do is eat, and thank the Lord for the joy of restaurants.

So next week, Eating In becomes Eating Out once more. Hooray. But before that, one last blast, this time draped in the Stars and Stripes. First up, Shake Shack, a burger place imported from New York, and founded by the universally adored Danny Meyer. I was rather sniffy when it first skipped over the pond. But my children are obsessed, and Ive grown to love their taut, pert hotdogs, cheese-drenched crinkle-cut fries and no-nonsense burgers.

In fact, Ive probably ordered more DIY ShackBurger kits (plateaway.com; 25 for four burgers plus 4.95 delivery) than anything else over the past 12 months. Because theyre as simple as they are satisfying.

Fat pucks of fresh ground Aberdeen Angus beef, smashed thin in the pan, then topped with American cheese and stuffed between soft, pillowy potato buns, with a slice of tomato, a leaf of lettuce and a splodge of their creamy/sharp ShackSauce. Four big bites of juice-dribbling burger bliss.

Moving south down the East coast to Philadelphia, and Passyunk Avenues Philly Cheesesteak LoveBundle (passyunkavenue.com; 32.99 for four sandwiches plus 5 delivery). Fry the onions, set aside, then do the same with the decent, thin-cut ribeye steak (rather better quality than most of the stuff youd find back in Philly). Add the cheese (I loved their own-blend Cheez Wiz, although Provolone and American are also available), mix it all together and pile into the crisp, freshly baked rolls. Subtle it aint, but heftily glorious it damned well is.

Drinks: Olly celebrates a special grape

Sauvignon Blanc Day (7 May) is the perfect excuse to enjoy this zesty, uplifting grape. Sancerre in France produces elegant examples at top-whack prices; for good value choose wines from nearby Touraine. Marlborough in New Zealand delivers tantalisingly tropical Sauvignon Blanc  for similar wines at great prices seek out Leyda Valley in Chile. But Bordeaux whites are my top pick for underrated gems.

WINE OF THE WEEK Bordeaux Sauvignon Blanc 2019 (12%), 8, Marks & Spencer. Joyfully bright white with a tropical twist. Superbly zesty and great value.

Irresistible Leyda Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2020 (13.5%), 7.50, Co-op. Searing and bright as a pink grapefruit lightsaber.

Grove Mill Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2020 (12.5%), 8.95, thewinesociety.com. A tropical sunbeam of a wine  succulent and scrumptious.

Le Vin des Copains Touraine Sauvignon Blanc 2019 (13%), 9.99, Waitrose. A luminous peach! Zingy, fragrant and wonderful.
Light at the end of the tunnel? The main issue is whether we gallop out or canter out from the shadow of coronavirus

Big business is in the money  and in America, the biggest money of all. But does this justify the sky-high valuations on Wall Street, and indeed on all assets just about everywhere? That is another matter.

The high-tech giants of the US West Coast have delivered a string of bumper results.

Apple profits doubled as people have switched to 5G phones, cementing its position as the world's most valuable company at more than $2.2trillion.

Microsoft is second at just under $2trillion. Amazon's earnings more than tripled in the first three months of this year, and comes in at $1.7trillion. Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is worth $1.6trillion.

Add in Tesla and Facebook, numbers five and six in value, and the extraordinary thing is the extent to which one part of one country dominates the global league table of market capitalisation.

The only other enterprise in this super-bracket is Saudi Aramco, the Saudi Arabian oil monopoly. But only a tiny proportion of its shares are traded, as more than 98 per cent have been retained by the Saudi government. So it is hard to know what its market value really is.

What is clear from these results is that America Inc has profited mightily from the pandemic. There are two reasons for this.

First, there has been a seismic shift of activity towards this high-tech world that the US dominates: we shop more online, we work more online, we Zoom instead of meeting in person and so on.

Much of that shift  we don't yet know how much  is going to stick. The more that sticks, the more these American giants benefit.

Second, the US economy is racing out of the recession faster than any other large developed country. It grew by a 6.4 per cent annual rate in the first quarter, leaving it just 1 per cent smaller than at its pre-pandemic peak at the end of 2019.

By the end of this year, it may turn out that it has recovered all the lost ground and be back to the size it would have grown to had there been no pandemic at all.

Put these two together and they make a solid case for investing in the US. But to a lesser extent they make a case for investing in equities generally because a US recovery is leading a global recovery.

Take the UK banks. HSBC produced strong results thanks to being able to cut provision for loan losses. A decent recovery means fewer borrowers will default.

The mortgage boom has boosted Lloyds Bank profits. NatWest is still struggling with the Royal Bank of Scotland legacy problems, but it has managed a profit thanks also to better-than-expected repayments on duff loans.

Barclays has just had the best quarter for 13 years  though the market saw some weakness in the future.

The broad message is the same from the other big UK enterprises. BP is doing well, largely on the back of the recovery of the oil price.

AstraZeneca produced better-than-expected profits, not of course to do with the Covid-19 vaccine  which it is heroically producing at cost  but thanks to its other pioneering products.

So the UK recovery is secure, the main issue being whether we gallop out or canter out. We will get new upgraded forecasts from the Bank of England this week that confirm this.

The European recovery also looks solid, though I worry about the overdependence of Italy, Spain and Greece on tourists from northern European countries such as our own.

But as the vaccine rollout there now picks up pace, Europe too will escape the shackles of lockdown. All this is positive. The great question is whether too much of this good news is baked into asset prices.

The value of all US shares is roughly double that of the country's GDP. That is the highest it has been, higher even after the dotcom bubble to 2000. The ratio is called the Buffett Indicator, as Warren Buffett once said it was the best way of valuing US share prices. It has historically been around one. Here, our shares are cheap by comparison.

......................................................................................................................................

Shares may be cheap, but the same cant be said for UK house prices. We have just been told by the Office for National Statistics that thanks largely to record house prices, the total wealth of UK households has risen to 11.4trillion, up 950billion on 2020.

The average Briton is worth around 172,000. But the moneys still tied up in those same four walls. Are we really that much richer?

You see the point. Yes, lets celebrate the recovery, as the markets are doing, but lets keep our feet on the ground too.
He has taken a battering for changing the name of FTSE100 funds giant Standard Life Aberdeen to Abrdn.

But last night, chief executive Stephen Bird hit back, telling The Mail on Sunday that traditional fund management is 'in decline'  and revealing that the rebrand is part of a major strategy shift.

The fund group, which manages 535billion, was mocked last week when it unveiled Abrdn.

Rebrand: Chief executive Stephen Bird's controversial new look, devised by consultants Wolff Olins

Critics joked that the name, pronounced 'Aberdeen', read like 'a burden' and looked as though it contained spelling mistakes.

But Bird said the renaming, devised by consultants Wolff Olins, reflects his attempt to modernise the company and shift it away from mainly selling investment funds and towards wealth management for individuals and digital services for financial advisers.

He said: 'The old traditional asset management industry is in decline. There are too many people living off fees just by sitting on assets. That's not the future, there has to be change that benefits customers. Better value, performance and service.'

Bird said they had expected some criticism, explaining: 'We actually had prepared our board by doing a bunch of brand case studies and virtually every one without exception got slated on day one.

' I remember the headlines 'Aviva kills Norwich Union' and the flak that created. So we were prepared for that. It's about more than the brand, it's what we deliver to our clients.'

Abrdn is undertaking a major overhaul of its Wrap and Elevate websites, which are used by half of the UK's financial advisers to manage their clients' money.

Bird said work should be complete by the summer, adding: 'We've got a brand new release coming in August which is utterly transformational.

'Today, IFAs [independent financial advisers] need to phone our call centres too often, do paper transactions and customer verifications  the new system digitises all of that.'

The asset manager was formed after rivals Aberdeen and 196-yearold Standard Life struck a 11billion merger in 2017. The group sold the Standard Life name to insurance giant Phoenix in February. But like other asset managers, it has suffered from outflows as investors turn to cheap robot funds. Investors pulled out 3.1billion from Abrdn last year.

After selling the Standard Life name, the company was left with the brand Aberdeen  but Aberdeen.com is owned by another firm.

Bird said it would have been 'insane' to let go of the Aberdeen name. 'So this idea of short form Abrdn, protected in digital, is the most rational way to do it.'
When the 2billion Kickstart Scheme was launched by Chancellor Rishi Sunak last autumn, it was seen as a lifeline by many small businesses.

Companies could recruit 16 to 24- year-olds with the Government paying their salary for the first six months and the employer receiving a 1,500 grant to cover costs.

But the scheme has not been without its problems. SARAH BRIDGE reports.

A bright idea: But Renee Watson from The Curiosity Box says using Kickstart has been like pulling teeth

Fantastic.' That was Renee Wilson's enthusiastic response last year to the Government's Kickstart Scheme.

'It seemed like a great opportunity for us to bring new people into our company and try out roles we wouldn't have been able to afford otherwise,' she recalls. 'It felt like a win-win.'

Frustratingly, the scheme has not delivered. Despite registering in November, Renee has so far been unable to recruit anyone for The Curiosity Box, an Oxfordshire-based business she founded five years ago that provides hands-on science activities for children. Last year, business boomed as a result of home-schooling.

Renee is not alone. A number of small businesses have told The Mail on Sunday they have been left frustrated by the scheme.

The Department for Work and Pensions, overseer of the initiative, has also admitted to The Mail on Sunday that only a fraction of the job applications approved have so far resulted in people being recruited.

The Curiosity Box wanted to recruit five people for roles creating videos and graphics as well as market research and social media. Its application was made via a Kickstart 'gateway'  Oxford City Council.

This was because the scheme's original rules required businesses hiring less than 30 people to join forces with other employers. The scheme has since been changed to allow businesses to apply directly. Renee's job adverts finally went live at the end of last week, six months after applying.

'I don't know what has been the cause of the hold-up,' says Renee. 'It's been like pulling teeth.'

She adds: 'It's been infuriating. Not recruiting anyone has stopped us growing. We've missed out on a lot of business opportunities.'

Joe Darwen, founder of Veo.world  an online marketplace where people can buy sustainable fashion, beauty, food and home products  is also disappointed.

He signed up in November to recruit a content producer and graphic designer to improve the company's website. But he has only just seen his recruitment adverts go live at the local job centre in Rusholme, Manchester.

'I've no idea what caused the delay but it took more than five months just to get the job adverts up,' says Joe. 'It feels like a bit of a lottery how quickly the process takes.

'It is also frustrating as the company's needs could have changed since we started the application process. The job centre actually contacted us and asked if we still needed people for these roles as it had taken such a long time.'

Imogen Tinkler founded seasonal food company Bangers and Balls with her husband Duncan in 2017 when the family moved from London to Whitstable in Kent. The company runs food 'pop-ups' in outdoor locations, turning up with a mobile kitchen and supplying meals to people on the spot.

She says: 'I'd read about Kickstart and I was slightly irked that I couldn't take part because of the 30-job rule. But I heard that food businesses were grouping together to apply through gateways so we thought we would give it a go and look for a marketing assistant.'

It took four months for the advertisement to go live. 'It was quite a long time,' she says with some understatement.

'As the months passed I wasn't sure if it was going to happen. It was frustrating and it had a financial impact as there were things we were planning on launching which we had to put back.'

They eventually struck gold, bringing on board recruit Alicia. Even though Imogen had imagined hiring someone local, the fact that Alicia lives in Falmouth, Cornwall, wasn't a problem. While they have never met in real life, they all have lunch together on Zoom once a week.

'We're hoping to employ her fulltime after the six months,' says Imogen. 'Without Kickstart we would never have dared to do this. It's given us a real momentum and she's helped grow the business by blogging about our vision and commitment to food and sustainability.'

Not all small businesses have found the process arduous. Owen Geddes is co-founder of London-based digital marketing company Screen Moguls, a business originally set up to provide bespoke advertising technology to film distributors including Disney, Paramount and Universal.

But when the pandemic hit, the company switched to focusing instead on digital marketing for small businesses. Screen Moguls was one of the first companies to apply through a Kickstart gateway.

By November last year, it had received around 200 applications for each of the five jobs on offer. Owen says: 'Of those we recruited, three have left and that is a risk as some people use it as a stepping stone. But the two still with us are amazing.

'We're moving them both on to full-time, permanent contracts, giving them a pay rise and we're now looking to recruit more through Kickstart.'

Earlier this year, Therese Coffey, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, admitted there was a 'backlog' in the scheme. Last week, the DWP told The Mail on Sunday that as of March 16 it was taking on average 21 days to process applications.

It said that more than 195,000 job applications had been approved since the scheme launched but to date just 16,600 people had actually started work through Kickstart.

Emma Jones, founder of business support network Enterprise Nation, says: 'There is a lot of appetite for Kickstart. The problem is the amount of paperwork involved.' Details about Kickstart are available from www.gov.uk.
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The Kentucky Derby and the first Saturday in May are back together again.

The first jewel of horse racing's Triple Crown will be held Saturday before an expected crowd of around 45,000 at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky.

The race was run last year without paying spectators and after being delayed until Labor Day weekend due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Essential Quality, trained by Brad Cox, was made the 2-1 morning-line favorite for the 1 1/4-mile race for 3-year-olds. Post time is 6:57pm ET.

What pandemic? Maskless attendees of The Kentucky Oaks attend the horse race at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky on Friday - the day before the highly anticipated Kentucky Derby

Horse race fans don some creative headwear as they flock to Churchill Downs in Louisville on Friday

This attendee wore a mask at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky on Friday. Some 45,000 fans are expected to attend the Kentucky Derby on Saturday

Rules still require face masks, but some attendees decided not to wear them at Churchill Downs on Friday

Crowds cheer as jockey John Velazquez (left), who is riding Malathaat, wins the 147th Kentucky Oaks, a day before the Kentucky Derby. The Kentucky Oaks, which is held on the Friday before the Kentucky Derby every year, is a race for three-year-old Thoroughbred fillies

A son of Tapit, Essential Quality made it 5-for-5 in his career when he won the Blue Grass Stakes by a neck on April 3.

'It seems like his game face is on,' Cox said this week. 'I think the one nice thing about Essential Quality is he can adjust (to any pace).'

Luis Saez will ride Essential Quality, who will break from the No. 14 post position. Cox also will send 15-1 Mandaloun to the No. 7 post under jockey Florent Geroux.

Cox, in his first Derby, will try to become the first Louisville native to win the 147th Run for the Roses.

Velazquez was the jockey who rode Authentic (left) to victory at last year's Kentucky Derby, which was held in front of a handful of people

Velazquez, seen above aboard Malathaat (left), is congratulated by Irad Ortiz Jr. after Velazquez won the 147th running of the Kentucky Oaks horse race

Attendees at The Kentucky Oaks wear masks and interesting hats at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky on Friday

After being disrupted by a pandemic, the Kentucky Derby is back with many of its traditions intact

While 45,000 spectators are expected at Saturday's Derby, that's still 100,000 fewer compared to pre-pandemic times

One woman wears a colorful hat as she attends the Kentucky Oaks race at Churchill Downs on Friday

Masks are required - as this attendee knows. Food and drinks are all-inclusive to lessen long lines

Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen also will be seeking his first Derby victory when he saddles 20-1 Midnight Bourbon (jockey Mike Smith, No. 10 post position) and 30-1 Super Stock, who won the April 10 Arkansas Derby.

Asmussen's parents are part owners of Super Stock, who will start in the No. 18 post position.

'The key to Midnight Bourbon having success is for him to be away cleanly, get into a high rhythm,' Asmussen said.

'Super Stock is extremely versatile. He'll go wherever (jockey) Ricardo (Santana Jr.) wants him to.'

Trainers Todd Pletcher and Doug O'Neill, both nominated for the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame this year, each will be aiming for a third Kentucky Derby win.

Pletcher will enter four starters - 6-1 Known Agenda (jockey Irad Ortiz Jr.), 20-1 Dynamic One (Jose Ortiz), 30-1 Bourbonic (Kendrick Carmouche) and 50-1 Sainthood (Corey Lanerie).

Pletcher previously won with Super Saver in 2010 and Always Dreaming in 2017.

Known Agenda, winner of the Florida Derby on March 27, drew the No. 1 post position. The last Kentucky Derby winner who started on the rail was Ferdinand in 1986.

'It certainly wasn't the one we were hoping for,' Pletcher said. 'But I've often said sometimes you get bad trips from good posts, and good trips from bad posts.'

Bourbonic, who will start on the far outside, and Dynamic One, post position No. 11, finished Nos. 1-2 in a relatively slow Wood Memorial on April 3.

Images taken from Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky on Friday show several people who did not wear masks

One woman is ready for the horse race as she wears a hat decorated like a race track with horse figures

The Kentucky Oaks and The Kentucky Derby are events that bring out the pageantry among spectators

Pretty in pink: Horse race fans pose for the cameras as they sport fancy clothing at Churchill Downs on Friday

This horse race fan is eager to show off her fashion sense at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky on Friday

A race fan poses for the camera at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky on Friday

Say cheese! A group of fans pose as they have their picture taken on Friday at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky

O'Neill, who won the Derby with I'll Have Another in 2012 and Nyquist in 2016, will start 8-1 Hot Rod Charlie under rider Flavien Prat.

Hot Rod Charlie, who captured the Louisiana Derby on March 20, will be starting from the No. 9 post position.

'Win, lose or draw, we're bringing great energy to Charlie and he's giving it back to us,' O'Neill said. 'It's a great post, right in the middle of the pack.'

Rock Your World, the second choice at 5-1 under Joel Rosario, will start in the No. 15 post position for trainer John Sadler. The colt, who did not race as a 2-year-old, won the April 3 Santa Anita Derby by 4 1/4 lengths over heavy favorite Medina Spirit, trained by Bob Baffert.

Baffert, who won his sixth Kentucky Derby last year with Authentic, will start 15-1 Medina Spirit from the No. 8 post position with John Velazquez aboard.

Trainer Mark Casse, inducted into the Hall of Fame last year, seeks his first Derby triumph. He will start 30-1 Soup and Sandwich, in post position No. 19 with jockey Tyler Gaffalione, and 50-1 Helium from post position No. 12 ridden by Julien Leparoux.

With the sport trying to move away from race-day medication, this year's Kentucky Derby will be run for the first time without horses using the anti-bleeding drug Lasix.

Churchill Downs used a new 20-horse starting gate last year, when only 15 horses ran. The new gate replaced the standard 14-stall gate and six-slot auxiliary gate.
A father who learned to walk and talk again after he was crushed between a bobcat and a 30-tonne excavator three days before his wedding says his baby daughter helped spark his miraculous recovery.

Tim Smith was using the heavy machinery to clear his property near Toowoomba in Queensland on March 6, 2019, with friends in preparation for his nuptials to his fiance Kym Smith.

When the bobcat got stuck in the mud the group tried to get it out with an excavator but the now 30-year-old builder wound up sandwiched between the machines.

He almost died while being flown to Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital by rescue helicopter, where he lay coma for weeks with injuries so catastrophic that doctors told Kym, 31, he would either die or survive but in a vegetative state.

Following a gruelling two-year recovery, the couple revealed on Wednesday that they finally tied the knot surrounded by family and friends in February this year.

Tim and Kym Smith (pictured) finally got married two years after a tragic accident where Tim nearly died

Pictured: The bobcat and excavator that almost killed Tim Smith on his Queensland property

'Kym's an absolute gem - she stands by me day in, day out so it's really good to be able to call her my wife,' Tim told ABC News.

The mother-of-two recalled the harrowing moment two years ago when her brother-in-law Craig called her to say there had been an accident.

Kym was at the gym when she realised she had a missed call, and rang back because she thought he wanted to chat about electrical work in the marquee for the big day.

When she heard the words 'Tim's had a really bad accident,' her world turned upside-down.

'I cried and yelled at him on the phone and asked him how bad it was. He said, "I don't know but you're not allowed to come here". And so obviously I went,' she told the publication.

Pictured: The rescue helicopter that saved Tim Smith's (pictured on a stretcher) life after he was sandwiched between machinery

Pictured: Tim and Kym Smith on their wedding day in February 2021 with children Hudson and Willow

Tim Smith's wife Kym would take their son Hudson (pictured together) in to see his father in hospital to help his recovery

'I just kept asking if he was going to die and Craig said "I don't know, but it's not going to be good".'

Tim's upper body and head injuries were so critical that his wife-to-be was invited to ride in the LifeFlight chopper during the 30-minute ride to Brisbane, to be with him in case he died.

Critical Care Flight Paramedic Stephen Baigrie was in the helicopter on the fateful day and said Tim's injuries were so extensive that the situation was 'touch and go'.

'He had pretty significant head injuries, a fair bit of blood and, you know, that kind of stuff so it was quite confronting,' he said.

The father spend weeks in a coma, which Kym described as 'traumatising'.

Tim Smith is pictured with his daughter Willow. The news that he would soon have a little girl helped his recovery

Pictured: Tim and Kym Smith and their children Hudson and Willow with Critical Care Flight Paramedic Stephen Baigrie (centre)

She would bring their young son Hudson into hospital to sit by his bed and talk to him as he slept.

If Hudson couldn't be there, she recorded the little boy's voice on her phone to play by his bedside.

After waking up from his coma, the builder spent weeks in the neurology ward before he moved to the brain injury rehabilitation clinic where he spent months re-learning how to walk, talk and do everyday tasks.

Once he was allowed to go back home to Toowoomba, he started doing two therapy sessions per day until January 2020 when he started back at work on a part time basis.

Pictured: Tim and Kym Amith (centre) with the bridal party at their wedding in February this year

Tim's recovery from January last year was slow, until he learned that Kym was expecting a little girl

Tim and Kym have since welcomed their daughter Willow into the world, and wed in February - almost two years on from the day they originally planned

His recovery from that point was slow, until he learned that Kym was expecting a little girl.

'That was the probably the main thing that sort of pushed me along  I wanted to be there to raise my daughter,' he said.

Tim and Kym have since welcomed their daughter Willow into the world, and wed in February - almost two years on from the day they originally planned.

All money gifted by guests was donated to rescue service LifeFlight.

Pictured: Tim and his son Hudson inside the emergency helicopter that saved his life in 2019

'The fact that Tim and Kym are together again, with another child and can look forward to a happy and healthy life together, is a direct result of LifeFlight,' Tim said.

The happy couple met Tim's rescuers on Wednesday, and Mr Baigrie described his recovery as 'remarkable'.

'It's remarkable, actually, to see Tim up and walking around and doing so well. To be able to help give a family that quality of life, it's great,' he said.

Tim still suffers from the effects of his injuries, but is thankful he can still go to work part-time.
Gladys Berejiklian has shared a rare insight into her personal and work life and how relations with other state and territory leaders deteriorated during the coronavirus pandemic.

The usually-private New South Wales Premier has candidly opened up about her strong work ethic, the fallout from a secret relationship with disgraced former MP Daryl Maguire, her response to the state's coronavirus crisis and why she'll never make the move to Canberra.

While many decisions and comments regarding the pandemic made come under heavy fire from other state and territory leaders, Ms Berejiklian makes no apologies in a wide-ranging exclusive interview with Australian Financial Review Magazine.

Staff and colleagues also shared an eye-opening insight into Premier's world, where one staffer described his boss as 'methodical' and said 2am text messages from her aren't uncommon.

Gladys Berejiklian has shared a rare insight into her personal and work life and how relations with other state and territory leaders deteriorated during the coronavirus pandemic

The usually-private New South Wales Premier has candidly opened up about her strong work ethic, the fallout from a secret relationship with disgraced former MP Daryl Maguire, her response to the state's coronavirus crisis and why she'll never make the move to Canberra

Ms Berejiklian's personal life was thrown into the public spotlight last October when she admitted at a ICAC corruption inquiry hearing she had 'a close personal relationship' with former Liberal MP colleague Daryl Maguire.

The bombshell confession not only shocked the public but also floored her own parliamentary colleagues.

One longtime colleague went as far as describing Mr Maguire as 'the last bloke you'd think she'd have a relationship with'.

Not even the premier's family or closest friends had any idea about the five year relationship carried out behind closed doors until shortly before the inquiry began.

Close friends described the first 48 hours following the scandal as rocky.

At the time, a resilient Ms Berejiklian admitted she had 'stuffed up' in her personal life as she pressed on with leading her state through a pandemic.

Looking back, she always knew it would be a difficult time but insists she never feared for her job.

'If you've done nothing wrong, well then you power through and that was always my position. I'm far more rational than emotional and I kind of knew I've done nothing wrong. I also thought the community wanted me there, they wanted me to continue doing the job I was doing,' Ms Berejiklian told the magazine.

While many decisions and comments regarding the pandemic made come under heavy fire from other state and territory leaders, Ms Berejiklian makes no apologies in a wide-ranging exclusive interview with Australian Financial Review Magazine

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian (pictured right) says she didn't fear for her job after her secret five year relationship with former Liberal MP colleague Daryl Maguire (left) became public

She had no need to worry about her job.

As state opposition leader Jodi McKay called for her rival to step down, both sides of the federal government remained tight-lipped about the scandal as Ms Berejikian's office became overflowing with flowers sent by supportive members of the public.

Mr Berejiklian believes she has grown from the lessons learned during the pandemic and says she has become more inspired and enthused with a greater sense of responsibility than ever before.

She recalled of being 'very much on the same page' as Victorian Labor counterpart Daniel Andrews when Australia first entered lockdown in March 2020.

The shared views changed within months when a Melbourne quarantine outbreak put on a spotlight on Victoria's poor contract tracing systems, which sparked a horror second wave of cases and plunged the city into a 112-day lockdown.

NSW, on the other hand, had implemented a world-class contact tracing system and began trialling QR code check-in at venues.

It soon became mandatory in NSW businesses, where as Victorias QR system only became compulsory just last week.

The initiatives allowed Ms Berejiklian to follow the mantra of letting life resume to normal as much as possible with restrictions and to expect occasional outbreak.

Ms Berejiklian defended her handling of widespread outbreaks from the Ruby Princess cruise ship last March, the Crossroads Hotel in July and Sydney's northern beaches at Christmas, all which she described as 'really frightening'.

She also accepted full responsibility for last year's Ruby Princess fiasco.

Ms Berejiklian's relations with other state and territory leaders have become strained due to her approach to the pandemic and her firm belief that domestic borders should remain open.

She became embroiled in a bitter ongoing stoush with Queensland counterpart Annastacia Palaszczuk when the borders between the two neighbouring states were slammed shut for four months late last year.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian (pictured on April 8) says she has grown as a leader in the last year while responding to the coronavirus pandemic

Relations have soured between Gladys Berejiklian (in blue) and Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk (also pictured) in the last year due to border closures

NSW Premier Galdys Brejiklian (right) got on with the job of leading her state during a pandemic when her former relationship with Daryl Maguire (left) became public

Just three weeks after the Queensland borders reopened in December, the borders closed again due to the outbreak on Sydney's northern beaches, throwing Christmas holiday plans into chaos.

The border closure sparked other states to follow suit as another round of public spats Ms Berejiklian and her Queensland counterpart were reignited.

But Ms Berejiklian insists her relations with all the other Premiers have been 'equally tense on the topic of cross-border relations.

'I remember getting abused by other states at the time because we werent reacting quickly enough, 'we should shut down the state, and why werent we doing all of that?,' she said.

'I thought it was a little bit more take than give. But not withstanding that, in a pandemic you try and get beyond that and just do what you think is right. And I kind of gave up worrying what other people thought or how they commented.'

Despite widespread criticisms in the last year, Ms Berejiklian holds a 75 per cent approval rating according to the most recent NSW polling, with most praising her for an effective and panic-free handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

She will become the state's longest-serving Liberal leader next March if she remains in the top job and doesn't have to worry about a state election for another two years.

Ms Berejiklian also opened up about her childhood and being raised by Armenian parents.

She didn't speak a word of English until the age of five but could suddenly string a few sentences together when she needed her tonsils taken out.

Ms Berejiklian ruled out a future move to federal politics, claiming she 'wouldn't cut it in Canberra'.

'I'm a bit of an outsider, as it is,' she quipped.
Pentagon officials are canceling construction of Donald Trump's border wall with funds the ex-president diverted form the military and diverting an unspent $14 billion back to the Department of Justice.

A spokesman said Friday: 'Border wall construction under the previous administration tied up more than $14 billion in taxpayer funds, shortchanged our military, and diverted attention away from genuine security challenges, like human traffickers. Rushed and haphazard wall construction also resulted in serious life, safety, and environmental issues,' the official said.

Trump declared a national emergency in 2019 in an effort to redirect funding to build a wall along the U.S. southern border.

Biden's cancellation of his flagship project came weeks after the US announced it had arrested more migrants who crossed the southern border than in any month since 2001. More than 172,000 people were detained after crossing into the country from Mexico during March.

The Pentagon is to cancel all US-Mexico border wall construction projects paid for with military funds. Wall prototypes are pictured near San Diego in 2018

President Joe Biden announced a halt to border wall construction after taking office in January

A portion of U.S.-Mexico border wall stands unfinished near La Joya, Texas. President Joe Biden paused wall construction by executive order upon taking office in January, 2021

Trump had ordered the diversion of billions of dollars in Pentagon money to pay for the barrier after being denied funding by Congress.

He ultimately bypassed Congress by controversially dipping directly into the Pentagon's coffers, forcing the Defense Department to allocate billions of dollars for the project.

But all that changed when President Joe Biden issued a proclamation on January 20, his first day in office. Biden ordered a freeze on border wall projects and directed a review of the legality of its funding and contracting methods.

'The Department of Defense is proceeding with canceling all border barrier construction projects paid for with funds originally intended for other military missions and functions such as schools for military children, overseas military construction projects in partner nations, and the National Guard and Reserve equipment account,' Pentagon spokesman Jamal Brown said in a statement.

Former President Donald Trump ordered the diversion of billions of dollars in Pentagon money to pay for the barrier after being denied funding by Congress. He is pictured visiting a section of wall in California in 2019

The Defense Department says it will use unobligated money for military construction projects for its initial purpose. The repair work will take place in Texas' Rio Grande Valley and San Diego. Pictured, construction crews replace a section of the primary wall separating San Diego, above right, and Tijuana, Mexico

The Biden administration has reportedly decided to possibly finish wall construction on gaps where the wall was largely completed

Brown said the Defense Department 'has begun taking all necessary actions to cancel border barrier projects.'

'Today's action reflects this administration's continued commitment to defending our nation and supporting our service members and their families,' he said.

Brown said the returned funds would be used for deferred military construction projects.

Trump launched his presidential campaign in 2015 with a pledge to build a wall along the US-Mexico border and to make Mexico pay for it.

Mexico refused and so did the House of Representatives after Democrats took control of the chamber in 2018.

Unused pieces of steel bollard-style wall lay near a portion of unfinished border wall at the U.S.-Mexico border in La Joya, Texas

A photo taken on March 30, 2021 shows a general view of an unfinished section of a border wall that former US president Donald Trump tried to build near the southern Texas border city of Roma

Trump's diversion of funds from the Pentagon had been heavily criticized by lawmakers, who said it put national security at risk and circumvented Congress.

In 2019 alone, the military said more than 120 U.S. military construction projects would be adversely affected by Trump's move.

The Biden administration announced two new projects along the 1,900-mile U.S.-Mexico border.

One will address soil erosion in a 14-mile stretch of barrier construction by the Trump administration near San Diego, California while another will see holes in the Rio Grande Valley levee system left by the wall construction project filled in.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement late on Friday afternoon that it was acting to 'protect border communities.'

'Construction under the prior administration blew large holes into the Rio Grande Valley's flood barrier system to make way for a border wall. The flood barrier system had long provided low-lying regions of Hidalgo County, Texas, protection from catastrophic flooding, and these breaches have threatened local communities. DHS will start work to quickly repair the flood barrier system to protect border communities. This work will not involve expanding the border barrier,' the DHS statement said.

In a photo taken last month, a family of immigrants who arrived illegally across the Rio Grande river from Mexico stand in line at a processing checkpoint before being detained at a holding facility by border patrol agents in the border city of Roma, Texas

A massive influx of migrants, including record numbers of teenagers and children without their parents have been coming across the border.

In March, 172,331 migrants were taken into custody by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The numbers are the highest recorded in 20 years.

A White House official told CNN that the number of migrant children being held in jail-like conditions by US Customs and Border Protection dropped nearly 84% in the span of a month. As of Wednesday, there were 954 children in CBP facilities, down from a peak of 5,767 on March 28.

Additionally, Biden said because the Trump administration waited so long to cooperate with the presidential transition - due to Trump contesting the election results - his transition team was unable to get information it needed from the relevant government agencies.

'We didn't find out they had fire a whole lot of people that they were understaffed considerably,' the president said.

President Biden continued to blame the Trump administration for the situation at the border; above immigrant families wait to be processed by U.S. Border Patrol agents after crossing the Rio Grande into South Texas

He also said the Trump administration failed to plan for the seasonal upsurge that comes every spring.

'They didn't have beds that were available. They didn't plan for the overflow,' he said, arguing conditions for the kids, who have been put into overcrowded shelters with some sleeping on the floor, are better now.

'There's a significant change right now, significant change in circumstance for children coming to and at the border,' he said.

According to Customs and Border Patrol data, the number of immigrants apprehended along the southern border jumped from 96,974 in February to 168,195 in March.

The last time single-month apprehensions were that high was in March of 2001. Additionally in March, CBP apprehended 18,656 unaccompanied minors at the southern border, a record since at least October 2009 and double February's numbers.

Republicans see the issue as one they can use to make in roads with voters in the 2022 midterms and have criticized Biden heavily on it, particularly for refusing to call the situation a 'crisis.' Biden used that word earlier this month when talking about the border but the White House quickly walked it back.
NASA has told Elon Musk's SpaceX to halt building a lunar spacecraft, pending the outcome of challenges by rival bidders Jeff Bezos and defense contractor Dynetics at the Government Accountability Office, the agency said on Friday.

NASA's decision means SpaceX has to stop any work specifically related to the moon program contract until the GAO makes a ruling, expected August 4 at the latest.

A SpaceX spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Earlier this month, NASA awarded SpaceX the lunar contract over billionaire Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and defense contractor Dynetics.

The high-profile project aims to put humans back on the moon for the first time since 1972.

Blue Origin on Monday filed a protest with the GAO, arguing among other things that NASA gave SpaceX the chance to revise its bid but did not give that chance to Blue Origin.

SpaceX founder and chief engineer Elon Musk (seen above in Cape Canaveral, Florida on January 19, 2020) has been told by NASA to halt construction on a lunar lander

SpaceX was contracted by NASA to build a lunar lander. The HLS Starship will include the company's tested Raptor engines, along with pulling inspiration from the Falcon and Dragon vehicles' designs

SpaceX beat out Jeff Bezos' (above) Blue Origin and another company, Dynetics. Bezos and Dynetics earlier this week filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office against NASA

Musk trolled his fellow multibillionaire Bezos on Monday, joking that he 'can't get it up (to orbit)' after the Amazon founder's space company filed a protest against NASA for picking rival SpaceX to build a lunar lander

Blue Origin also argues the decision extends SpaceX's "monopolistic" control in space exploration.

The GAO confirmed that Dynetics has also challenged the NASA contract award to SpaceX.

'Pursuant to the GAO protests, NASA instructed SpaceX that progress on the HLS (human landing system) contract has been suspended until GAO resolves all outstanding litigation related to this procurement,' the agency said on Friday.

Musk trolled his fellow multibillionaire Bezos on Monday, joking that he 'can't get it up (to orbit)' after the Amazon founder's space company filed a protest against NASA for picking rival SpaceX to build a lunar lander.

Musk took to Twitter to tease Bezos over that lawsuit on Monday evening, and replied to a tweet sharing a New York Times story about the space wrangle, writing: 'Cant get it up (to orbit) lol.'

Bezos' company said that its bid was $5.99billion while SpaceX's bid came in at $2.91billion, according to AL.com.

Musk's Starship - the futuristic, shiny steel rocketship that's been launching and -on one occasion - exploding in Texas - beat out landers proposed by Bezos' Blue Origin and Dynetics, a Huntsville, Alabama-based subsidiary of Leidos.

News of Bezos 50-page protest was first reported on Monday by The New York Times.

Bob Smith, CEO of Blue Origin, said NASA's decision to award the contract to SpaceX was based on flawed evaluations.

Smith also accused NASA of placing a bigger emphasis on cost than it said it would. He said the space agency should have stuck to its oft-stated desire to award the contract to two companies.

'It's really atypical for NASA to make these kinds of errors,' Smith told the Times.

'They're generally quite good at acquisition, especially its flagship missions like returning America to the surface of the moon.

'We felt that these errors needed to be addressed and remedied.'

'NASA has executed a flawed acquisition for the Human Landing System program and moved the goalposts at the last minute,' the company said in a statement.

'In NASA's own words, it has made a "high risk" selection,' the Blue Origin statement said.

Their decision eliminates opportunities for competition, significantly narrows the supply base, and not only delays, but also endangers Americas return to the Moon.

'Because of that, weve filed a protest with the GAO.'

Lawyers for Blue Origin told AL.com that 'NASA had indicated an overriding intention to make two awards but due to perceived shortfalls in currently available and anticipated future budget appropriations, it made only the award to SpaceX, eliminating HLS competition, and effectively locking down immediate and future lunar landing system development and launch and lunar landing opportunities.'

America has not witnessed a human landing system since 1972 and NASA has been planning an epic return to the moon for quite some time.

However, the historic moon landing turned into a space race between billionaires when NASA announced last year that SpaceX, Blue Origin and Dynetics were competing to turn the plans into a reality.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said during a live feed in April: 'With these contract awards, America is moving forward with the final step needed to land astronauts on the Moon by 2024, including the incredible moment when we will see the first woman set foot on the lunar surface.'

The initial 10-month contracts totaled to $967 million: Blue Origin received $579 million, Dynetics $253 million and SpaceX was awarded $135 million.

But now, it will be SpaceX's innovation that will carry the next two American astronauts the the lunar surface.

Blue Origin has been working on moon landing system, known as Blue Moon, since 2017. The firm had designed a mockup for a revised version it planned to send to the moon

The Artemis mission, which is set for 2024, will see four spacefaring heroes board the Orion spacecraft that will be rocketed off to space by NASA's powerful Space Launch System (SLS).

Once in orbit, two crew members will transfer to the SpaceX human landing system (HLS) and head to the moon.

After approximately a week exploring the surface, they will board the lander for their short trip back to orbit where they will return to Orion and their colleagues before heading back to Earth.

Kathy Lueders, NASA's associate administrator for Human Explorations and Operations Mission Directorate, said: 'With this award, NASA and our partners will complete the first crewed demonstration mission to the surface of the Moon in the 21st century as the agency takes a step forward for womens equality and long-term deep space exploration.

'This critical step puts humanity on a path to sustainable lunar exploration and keeps our eyes on missions farther into the solar system, including Mars.'

SpaceX's HLS Starship will include the company's tested Raptor engines, along with pulling inspiration from the Falcon and Dragon vehicles' designs.

The lander will feature a spacious cabin and two airlocks for astronaut moonwalks.

'The Starship architecture is intended to evolve to a fully reusable launch and landing system designed for travel to the Moon, Mars, and other destinations,' NASA shared in the announcement.
A long-shot bid to pass legislation that would make the District of Columbia the nations 51st state got a little longer on Friday.

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said that he opposes unilateral action by Congress to make the nation's capital a state. Manchin says he believes any such move needs to be done through a constitutional amendment.

The Senator also highlighted how prior Republican and Democratic administrations thought the same thing.

Manchin is the first Democratic senator to come out against the D.C. statehood bill while Republicans are united against it.

Although there is support for the bill among Democrats in the Senate, the bill will not succeed without Manchin's support in the Senate.

The legislative filibuster requires 60 votes to pass the legislation. Currently, Democrats hold 48 Senate seats, with America's two independent senators siding with them on votes. Republicans have 50 seats, with Vice President Kamala holding a tie-breaker vote.

'They all came to the same conclusion. If Congress wants to make D.C. a state, it should propose a constitutional amendment,' Manchin said in an interview with the West Virginia MetroNews radio network. 'It should propose a constitutional amendment and let the people of America vote.'

Sen. Joe Manchin said Friday that he does not support the D.C. statehood bill

A map provided by the D.C. government shows how the city would be divided into Washington, Douglass Commonwealth, with the red area - that includes the White House, Capitol, many federal agencies and the National Mall - staying under federal control

Earlier this month, the House approved a bill strictly along party lines to make the District of Columbia a state with one representative and two senators, while a tiny sliver of land including the White House, the U.S. Capitol and the National Mall would remain a federal district.

An identical statehood bill passed the House in 2020, but it died in the then-Republican-controlled Senate. Now, with the 2020 elections having given Democrats control of both chambers of Congress and the White House, some have been pushing to eliminate the filibuster so that only a simple majority in the Senate would be needed to get legislation passed.

The D.C. statehood bid would be one of the initiatives that could conceivably pass under such a scenario.

Still, such a tactic would require total Democratic unity, and Fridays radio interview with Manchin demonstrated anew that they dont have it.

In a party-line vote last week, House Democrats passed H.R. 51 which would make Washington, D.C. the country's 51st state, solving the problem of around 712,000 Americans having no representation in the U.S. Congress

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., is the first Democratic senator to come out against DC statehood bill snd it will not succeed without Manchin's support

A Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police car sits outside an apartment building in the Carver-Langston neighborhood in Northeast D.C. last May

WOULD D.C. BE THE BLUEST STATE? HERE'S HOW THE CITY VOTED IN THE LAST FIVE ELECTIONS Since 2000 the district has voted for Democrats in presidential elections over 85% of the time. It peaked in 2008 when 92.5% of the district voted for Barack Obama. Republicans have pointed to these voting demographics to argue that the bid for statehood is nothing more than a 'power grab'. The alternatives they have considered include obsolving residents of federal taxes or the retrocession of much of the district back into Maryland. 2020 JOE BIDEN (D) - 92.2% DONALD TRUMP (R) - 5.4% 2016 HILLARY CLINTON (D) - 90.9% DONALD TRUMP (R) - 4.1% 2012 BARACK OBAMA (D) - 90.9% MITT ROMNEY (R) - 7.3% 2008 BARACK OBAMA (D) - 92.5% JOHN MCCAIN (R) - 6.5% 2004 JOHN KERRY (D) - 89.2% GEORGE W. BUSH (R) - 9.3% Advertisement

Manchin has also stated unequivocally that he will not vote to eliminate or weaken the filibuster, which allows senators opposed to a bill to stage a debate on it until its allocated time runs out. He is among a handful of Democratic senators who have not openly supported the D.C. statehood initiative.

Republicans argued during the House vote that the measure wouldnt withstand judicial scrutiny. Manchin said he would 'tell his friends' that if they pursued statehood through legislation, 'you know its going to go to the Supreme Court.'

'Every legal scholar has told us that, so why not do it the right way and let the people vote and see if they want a change,' Manchin said.

Such an amendment would not go up for an election. Rather, a proposed amendment to the Constitution would have to be approved by a two-thirds majority of both chambers of Congress, and then legislatures in 38 states must ratify the language adopted by Congress in order for the amendment to become valid.

D.C. has long chafed under its relationship with Congress, which has the power to essentially veto or alter any local laws. Its population is larger than that of Wyoming or Vermont and its estimated 690,000 residents pay federal taxes, vote for president and serve in the armed forces, but they have no voting representation in Congress.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbias nonvoting member of Congress, did not mention Manchin by name in a statement her office released Friday. But it was clearly intended as a rebuttal to his comments.

'First, no new state was admitted by constitutional amendment,' Norton said. 'All 37 new states were admitted by Congress, and there has never been a successful constitutional challenge to the admission of a state. The Constitution commits admission decisions solely to Congress.'

Campbell Wallace, a spokesperson for Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., and sponsor of the Senate's statehood bill, said the Constitution does not prohibit the granting of statehood to Washington, D.C. It does lay out the process by which states are admitted, though, 'and D.C. is now taking those same steps that 37 other states have taken since 1791.'

Prior to last weeks House vote, Democratic Rep. Mondaire Jones sparked fury on the floor by calling Republican arguments against statehood 'racist trash,' as D.C. is a majority-minority city.

'One Senate Republican, said that D.C. wouldn't be a 'well rounded working class state.' I had no ideas there were so many syllables in the word white,' the freshman New Yorker said.

'One of my House Republican colleagues said that D.C. shouldn't be a state because the District doesn't have a landfill,' he continued. 'My goodness, with all the racist trash my colleagues have brought to this debate I can see why they're worried about having a place to put it.'

Rep. Andy Harris, a Republican from Maryland, said that turning D.C. into a state wasn't what his state intended.

'This is Maryland's land we're talking about. How dare the Congress take Maryland's land from it,' he said on the House floor.

Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina, also said the vote was linked to the progressive's 'wish list' stemming from Biden's $2trillion infrastructure plan and new climate policies.

'This is not about a balance of power, this is about more power,' she said. 'This is about government-run health care, a 93 trillion [dollar] Green New Deal, packing the Supreme Court, higher taxes and a bigger, less efficient form of government.'

In June, the House voted 232-180 approving D.C. statehood, sending the bill to the U.S. Senate where it died in the last Congress.

Not a single House Republican voted in favor of the legislation.
This is the shocking moment armed police arrest a man after he 'pulled out an axe at a clothing shop' in an upmarket neighbourhood.

Officers raced to the scene at around 8.25pm on Friday evening in Swiss Cottage, north-west London, after being called to reports of a man with an axe.

Footage shows the policemen being pointed towards the man, believed to be in his 20s, by a group of onlookers. The pair are then seen shouting at the man to 'get the f*** down' as they run towards him.

Police confirmed the man was arrested on suspicion of carrying an offensive weapon and remains in custody. No injuries were reported.

Two armed police officers raced to the scene at around 8.25pm on Friday evening in Swiss Cottage, north-west London, after being called to reports of a man with an axe

Footage shows one policeman holding up his weapon while approaching the man, who has since been arrested on suspicion of carrying an offensive weapon

In the video, a policeman can be heard saying: 'Armed police. Stay where you are. Show me your hands. Get the f*** down.'

The other policeman shouts: 'Get on the floor, get on the f***ing floor'.

The man then lies down and is arrested, while a third police officer also arrives. An onlooker sat on the balcony overhead says: 'That's crazy'.

An eyewitness who captured the video claimed the man had 'pulled out an axe' at a clothing shop, telling MailOnline: 'The shoppers and shop owners got him out.

The man lies down and is arrested, while a third police officer also arrives. An eyewitness who captured the video claimed the man had 'pulled out the axe' at a clothing shop

Onlookers pictured on Fairfax road after the man was arrested on Friday evening. A spokesperson for the Met Police said the man remains in police custody

'The perpetrator then paced around outside before armed police arrived and arrested him 10 minutes later.'

A spokesperson for the Met Police said: 'Police were called to Fairfax Road, NW6 on Friday, 30 April shortly after 20:25hrs following reports of a man with an axe.

'Officers, including armed officers, attended the scene where the male, believed to be in his 20s, was arrested on suspicion of carrying an offensive weapon. There are no reports of any injuries.

'He remains in police custody.'
Jerry Falwell Jr, the former president of Liberty University who left the school last year amid scandal, appeared at a student gathering last weekend and invited several of them to attend the real Liberty graduation at his farm next month.

Falwell resigned as president and chancellor of the evangelical college in Lynchburg, Virginia, last year after it was learned that his wife was having an affair with a pool boy, Giancarlo Granda, who was trying to extort the couple.

Despite the acrimony surrounding his departure, Falwell doesnt appear ready to let go.

A video circulating on Twitter and a longer clip obtained by Religion News Service shows Falwell speaking to a gathering of Liberty University students at a comedy show last weekend.

Jerry Falwell Jr, the former president of Liberty University who left the school last year amid scandal, appeared at a student gathering last weekend and invited several of them to attend the real Liberty graduation at his farm next month

Were going to have the real Liberty graduation, Falwell is heard saying. In another clip from the same event, Falwell tells the students: If youre not a senior but youre dating one, you can come, too.

Falwell resigned as president and chancellor of the evangelical college in Lynchburg, Virginia, last year after it was learned that his wife, Becki (seen left with her husband), was having an affair with a pool boy, Giancarlo Granda (right), who was accused of trying to extort the couple

DailyMail.com has reached out to Liberty University seeking comment.

The former president can be seen standing on an outdoor stage which was decorated with handmade signs.

Falwell is seen holding a microphone in front of the students and urging them to come to an event at our farm on May 8.

Were going to have the real Liberty graduation, Falwell is heard saying.

In another clip from the same event, Falwell tells the students: If youre not a senior but youre dating one, you can come, too.

Falwell resigned as president of Liberty University last year after revelations that he drank alcohol. Falwell posted this photo to his Instagram page in August last year - before quickly deleting it - with his pants unbuttoned and his arm around a woman. His caption read: 'More vacation shots. Lots of good friends visited us on the yacht. I promise that's just black water in my glass. It was a prop only.'

Students at Liberty University in Virginia are not allowed to drink alcohol and are banned from engaging with media that contains lewd lyrics, sexual content and nudity

Falwell tells the students in the video that he and his wife, Becki Falwell, were out to dinner when their daughter, a junior at Liberty, was at the comedy show.

He said he showed up to invite the students to his farm.

During his brief speech, the former university head said his daughter was probably so pissed at me right now.

He then encouraged the students to tell their peers about the invite as fast as you can on social media.

We gotta move quickly, he said.

Falwell later told RNS that he was joking about the party being the real graduation.

He said that he is planning an event at his 500-acre farm in Bedford County, where his family has lived for 33 years.

Falwell said the event is my way of saying thank you to students who have supported him throughout the last year.

I just want to thank the students because theyve shown me so much love through all this ordeal, he told RNS.

Everywhere I go, theyre so forgiving. Theyre so loving. And I want to reciprocate by having them out to my farm.

Falwell said the party is scheduled for May 8 and will be held if his health permits. He said he has been treated recently for blood clots, a condition that also affected his mother.

When Falwell was asked if it was appropriate for the former president of the university to host students at such an event, he said: I live right here, and Ive got a big farm, and I got a bunch of students that I love and that love me, and Im going to do it.

Falwell added: I dont care whether anybody likes it or not.

Save71, a group of Liberty alumni, doesnt like it. The group said the party was not appropriate in light of allegations of sexually predatory behavior by the Falwells.

Falwell later told RNS that he was joking about the party being the real graduation. He said that he is planning an event at his 500-acre farm (above) in Bedford County, where his family has lived for 33 years. Falwell said the event is my way of saying thank you to students who have supported him throughout the last year

The group called on the university to protect students.

Last year, a former Liberty University student who played in a band with Becki Falwells son came forward with claims she performed oral sex on him and pursued him on Facebook for months when he was 22, Politico reported.

In the sexual encounter, the former student said he had finished band practice with the Falwell's eldest son Trey and was at the Falwell home in Cifax, Virginia when Becki allegedly jumped into bed with him and began to perform oral sex on him.

He claimed her husband was away at the time.

He said that he gave in to her advances but rejected her later ones when she pursued him with gifts and chit chat on Facebook messages.

'She was the aggressor,' he said of the relationship.

The former student said on some occasions hed stay up drinking whiskey and playing music with Trey and would crash in the guest bedroom of the Falwells home next to Treys bedroom.

He said on one occasion in either August or September 2008, he stayed over and heard giggling next to him and found Becki in the room, but got her to leave.

A few nights later he stayed the night again at the Falwells home and Becki came into the guest bedroom where she climbed into his bed and took down his pants.

'I was like, "Uh, what are you doing?"' he said. The man claims she proceeded to give him oral sex.

Afterwards, the student said he feared word would get out and he would tarnish the legacy of Jerry Falwell Sr, a respected evangelical pastor who died the year prior.

A fellow bandmate, who was unnamed in the report, said the former student told him about the encounter with Becki a month later.

That bandmate said Becki would flirt and make innuendos with the former student during band practices while her son was present.

The former student provided screenshots of messages Becki sent him that suggest a flirtatious relationship.

Last year, a former Liberty University student who played in a band with Becki Falwells son came forward with claims she performed oral sex on him and pursued him on Facebook for months when he was 22, Politico reported

In one message she said: '[Redacted] said that she wants you to cut bangs when you get your hair cut. I think that you are beautiful just like you are. You dont want to cover up those killer eyes of yours and you know the bandana drives me wild oh well, do whatever YOU want to do. Now you have my two cents.'

According to Politico after months of chasing the former student she wrote to him: 'Maybe time will heal whatever wounds that I have caused and your Christian heart will allow you to forgive me.'

He claimed she also tried to contact him on social media using fake accounts where she posed as a blonde North Carolina woman in her early 20s.

'She was saying stuff a 20 and 21-year-old wouldnt say. [It was] like real Southern charm. Stuff that older people say. And I said [to myself], "Hold up, not only is this an old person, its Becki,"' he said.

'So I said, "I think I have a feeling who this is. Why are you doing this right now on this account?"' the former student recalled. 'I think she was embarrassed, because I kinda remember her being defensive about it.'

He said she would offer him gifts including CD's and tickets to see Kings of Leon.

The former student, who is now 34, says he hasnt heard from Becki Falwell in more than eight years until last August when the pool boy scandal with Giancarlo Granda broke out.

He said she texted him to say hello and share her agony on the scandal.

The former student who says Becki Falwell pursued him was in a band with the Falwell's eldest son Trey Falwell (above)

She texted him: 'This is a nightmare. It just keeps getting worse.'

The former student said that the incident with Becki made him spiral into a long battle with his faith and mental health. He didn't tell his family about the incident and only confided in a few close friends.

'I dont want to be a homewrecker. That took a toll on the soul,' the former student said.

'It made [him] feel bad. It was a depressing thing; he struggled with depression [afterwards],' a former bandmate said.

Becki and Jerry Falwell Jr have dismissed the former student's claims as 'false and fantastic claims'.

'It is unfortunate that the coverage of our departure has turned into a frenzy of false and fantastic claims about us. These false and mean spirited lies have hurt us and our family greatly and we will respond fully with the truth at an appropriate time,' they said in a statement to the outlet.

Liberty University said no students registered sexual misconduct claims with the university against Becki.

'This is a fresh allegation, as far as we can tell,' Scott Lamb, the vice president of the nations largest evangelical university in Lynchburg, Virginia said.

The allegations against Becki came just days after it was learned that Giancarlo Granda, a one-time Miami pool boy-turned-business partner of the Falwell family, said he had a yearslong sexual relationship with Falwells wife.

Jerry Falwell Jr was an early supporter of Donald Trump, and spent millions on causes to support the former President

It was also claimed that Jerry participated in some of the liaisons as a voyeur.

Although the Falwells acknowledged that Granda and Becki Falwell had an affair, Jerry Falwell denied any participation.

The couple alleged that Granda sought to extort them by threatening to reveal the relationship.

Earlier this month, Liberty filed a lawsuit seeking tens of millions of dollars in damages from Jerry Falwell Jr.

The complaint, which was filed in Lynchburg Circuit Court, alleges Falwell crafted a well-resourced exit strategy from his role as president and chancellor in the form of a lucrative 2019 employment agreement while withholding damaging information from the evangelical school about a personal scandal that would explode into public view the following year.

Despite his clear duties as an executive and officer at Liberty, Falwell Jr. chose personal protection, the lawsuit says.

It also alleges that Falwell failed to disclose and address the issue of his personal impairment by alcohol and has refused to fully return confidential information and other personal property belonging to Liberty.

In a statement, Falwell said the lawsuit was full of lies and half truths and called it an attempt to defame him and discredit his record.

I assure you that I will defend myself against it with conviction, he said.
Jeopardy! winner Kelly Donohue has said he is 'truly horrified' at claims he flashed a white power signal after winning his third consecutive contest.

Donohue made the hand signal on Tuesday night's show as he stretched out three fingers and placed them across his chest, with many viewers interpreting it as a white supremacist hand gesture.

It came after he put one finger to his chest after his first win, and two on his torso after claiming victory for the second day in a row.

'I'm truly horrified with what has been posted about me on social media,' Donohue wrote in a Facebook post denying claims of racism.

'I absolutely, unequivocally condemn white supremacy and racism of any kind. People who know me personally know that I am not a racist, but for the public at large it bears repeating: I am not a racist and I reject and condemn white supremacy and all forms of bigotry for the evil they are.

'Jeopardy!' contestant Kelly Donohue has 'unequivocally' condemned white supremacy and racism having been accused of making a racist gesture after flashing the OK sign. He said that it simply represented the three daily wins he had

'I absolutely, unequivocally condemn white supremacy and racism of any kind,' Kelly Donohue wrote in a Facebook posting after being accused of making a racist gesture

'It's shameful to me to think anyone would try to use the stage of 'Jeopardy!' to advance or promote such a disgusting agenda. During the taping of my fourth episode, I was simply raising three fingers to mark my 3rd win. There was nothing more I was trying to indicate,' Donohue explained.

'I deeply regret this terrible misunderstanding. I never meant to hurt a soul and I assure you I am no friend of racists or white supremacists,' his post continued.

'I hope my feelings on that matter are clear now,' he wrote.

Eagle-eyed viewers were quick to note the gesture Donohue bore resemblance to that of a white power symbol.

Donohue is pictured during his introductions to the show after each of his successive wins

Various screen grabs of Donohue's gesture also saw many on social media accusing him of making a racist gesture.

The hand gesture has been used by far right-wing groups to represent white supremacy with the three fingers representing a 'W 'and the forefinger and thumb coming together to form a 'P' to represent 'White Power'. The motion was classified as a symbol of hate by the Anti-Defamation League in 2019.

Donohue's gesture saw him hold up three fingers to form an 'OK' sign before tapping it to his chest three times.

'He held his thumb and forefinger together with his other three fingers extended and palm facing inward, and he tapped his chest,' explained an open letter from 450 former Jeopardy! contestants.

'This, whether intentional or not, resembled very closely a gesture that has been coopted by white power groups, alt right groups, and an anti-government group that calls itself the Three Percenters.'

Jeopardy! has so far not made any comment regarding Donohue's gesture which he claims was innocent

Donohue, first posted on Facebook Wednesday morning to clear the air

This hand gesture has been used by far right-wing groups to represent white supremacy, and The Anti-Defamation League classified it as an official symbol of hate in 2019.

'Regardless of his stated intent, the gesture is a racist dog whistle. Some of the first people to notice this were not affiliated with Jeopardy! in any way  they were viewers who couldn't believe what they'd seen, captured it on video, and shared it to Twitter. Among them were people of color who, needless to say, are attuned to racist messaging and not appreciative that the show allowed this symbol to be broadcast.

'His public Facebook profile also featured a cover photo of Frank Sinatra making a similar gesture,' the letter reads. 'This was either erased or made private on Wednesday morning, along with hundreds of public comments on his few 'Jeopardy!'-related posts.'
The car stolen from the family of the Oatlands crash victims has been found dumped in a parking lot.

Leila and Danny Abdallah's home in Telopea, in Sydney's north-west, was targeted by a burglar at 11.45am on Wednesday.

Three of the Abdallahs' children died in February last year when they were hit by an out of control 4WD driven by a drunk and drugged-up driver.

Sienna Abdallah, eight, her siblings Angelina, 12, and Antony, 13, and their cousin Veronique Sakr, 11, were mowed down as they walked to buy ice cream.

The hearts of the nation were with Leila Abdallah and Danny Abdallah (pictured) after three of their children were killed by a drunk and drug affected driver in 2020 in Sydney

Ms Abdallah was in her kitchen on Wednesday looking at photos of the children when she spotted a man walking out her front door with a bag full of stolen items.

'I was too focused on my kids' pictures, Anthony and Angelina's and Sienna's videos, I didn't feel it, I just felt him leaving,' Mrs Abdallah told 9News.

'They took my bag, our jewellery, one of my children's phones, but the biggest thing is they took memories.

'They opened my bedside table where I have a photo of my kids on badges of my kids and Veronique [Sakr] and they didn't care.'

On Saturday police confirmed the car was found in Blackett, 30km west of the family's home.

Now the family is reeling again after a thief (pictured) entered the Abdallah family home on Wednesday and stole a handful of items before fleeing the scene in a stolen car

Detective Superintendent Darryl Jobson warned the thieves police would be coming for them unless they turn themselves in.

'In the past 12 months the victims have endured an incredible ordeal and I appeal to the conscience of the people responsible for this crime to hand themselves in to the police,' he said.

'If you don't have a conscience, we will get your names and we will be knocking on your door.

'It is absolutely disgusting. It is absolutely abhorrent to enter a home while people are there.'

CCTV footage shows a man in black pants and a black hoodie running from the home.

He then fled the scene with an accomplice in what police believe was a stolen white Audi.

Siblings Antony, (pictured right) Angelina and Sienna Abdallah all lost their lives in a shocking car crash in Sydney last year

Family at the scene (pictured) of the horrific car crash in 2020 which claimed the lives of three innocent children in Oatley in Sydney

Police believe the robbery was opportunistic and was not intentionally targeting the Abdallah family.

The intruder is described as Caucasian in appearance, about 183cm tall and aged in his 20s with light hair.

Police, using a helicopter and dogs, were unable to locate the men, who remain at large.

The pair are also believed to attempted another home invasion in nearby Dundas.

Earlier this month, Davidson was jailed for at least 21 years in the Parramatta District Court for four counts of manslaughter.

With time already served, he will be eligible for release in January of 2041.
Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan and his family were forced to hide inside while a man allegedly screamed death threats outside their home.

Mr McGowan's wife Sarah locked their three children in a room while Gavin Michael Higgs, 33, allegedly threatened to kill the family.

The premier was getting changed shortly after arriving home when Higgs appeared outside their home in Rockingham, Perth, about 8.30pm on April 21.

His wife rushed inside from the verandah and locked the doors before securing their terrified children Samuel, 17, Alexander, 15, and Amelia, 11, in the locked room.

Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan and his family were forced to hide inside while a man allegedly screamed death threats outside their home

Mr McGowan's wife locked their kids in a room while Gavin Michael Higgs, 33, allegedly threatened to kill the family at their Rockingham home at 8.30pm on April 21

Higgs was then arrested by police a short distance from the house.

He appeared in Rockingham Magistrate's Court on Friday where he was granted bail on strict conditions,

However, he was unable to meet the requirements and was taken back into custody and will return on May 28, The West Australian reported.

Mr McGowan praised WA Police for its 'swift response'.

'My whole family was there at the time, but everyone is OK and that's the main thing,' he said.

The motive for Higgs' alleged threats remain unclear, but did not cause Mr McGowan to waver in his support for harsh snap lockdowns.

His wife Sarah (second from right) rushed inside from the verandah and locked the doors before securing their terrified children Samuel, 17, (left) Alexander, 15, (second from left) and Amelia, 11, (right) in the locked room

He boasted his approach was the best way to 'crush and kill' coronavirus outbreaks, despite lockdowns having no effect on preventing either of WA's quarantine breaches turning into community outbreaks.

WA's Chamber of Commerce and Industry estimates the cost of the lockdown and subsequent restrictions to be more than $200 million.

But the premier maintains utilising WA's isolation to crush outbreaks is the best solution.

'I don't want to give that away,' he told reporters on Friday.

'The idea we allow it to linger and we have ongoing lockdowns and ongoing measures that remove ordinary life for extended periods, I don't think is the right model.'

Mr McGowan said NSW's response to an outbreak on the northern beaches last summer had resulted in months of restrictions and cost billions of dollars.

Small businesses in Perth and Peel that incurred direct costs, such as loss of perishable goods, will be eligible for support grants of $2,000.

Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan and his family were forced to hide inside after a man allegedly screamed death threats outside their home

He appeared in Rockingham Magistrate's Court on Friday where he was granted bail on strict conditions, however he was unable to meet the requirements and was taken back into custody

The state on Friday posted its sixth consecutive day of no new local cases after Perth and Peel went into a long-weekend lockdown.

Western Australians will be free to flock to the sellout Western Derby AFL match between West Coast and Fremantle on Sunday.

However, they must wear face masks under restrictions that will remain for Perth and the Peel region until 12.01am on May 8.

Masks will not be required outdoors from this Saturday unless physical distancing is not possible, such as at major sporting events.
Bernie Madoff's cause of death was kidney disease and hypertension, according to his death certificate.

The 82-year-old died on April 14 inside Butner prison in North Carolina.

He had been sentenced to 150 years in July 2009, and served his entire sentence at the prison, with fellow inmates including Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard and mob boss Carmine Persico.

Madoff's death certificate, obtained by TMZ, also listed his profession a 'real/estate broker' - the job he famously exited in disgrace.

Bernie Madoff is seen in March 2009, leaving court. He was sentenced to 150 years. His cause of death was revealed on Friday

Madoff, seen in 2003, died on April 14 at the age of 82. He died of hypertension, heart disease and kidney failure

He had requested compassionate release, given his poor health, but was denied.

His body was cremated inside the prison.

Madoff robbed victims 37,000 victims in 136 countries of $64.8 billion, taking one's money to pay off the other, for two decades before finally being arrested in 2008 after his two adult sons turned him in.

He never showed any remorse, and described his victims as 'greedy', according to New York Magazine.

Many of his victims came from the Jewish community where Madoff had been a major philanthropist.

Bernie and Ruth Madoff in Palm Beach, Florida, before his 2008 arrest. Madoff died aged 82 in prison on Wednesday

His wife, Ruth, 79, is living is Connecticut but has been seen recently in Palm Beach, Florida, where Bernie's younger brother Peter also lives with his wife Marion.

His adult sons Mark and Andrew turned him in to the authorities after he confessed to them that the investment firm he was running was a Ponzi scheme and 'one big lie'.

Mark stopped speaking to him and hanged himself in 2010, on the second anniversary of his father's arrest.

He was so ashamed of his father that he couldn't live with the guilt of his crimes anymore.

Andrew died from lymphoma in 2014.

He had beaten cancer once but it returned in 2011, after Bernie's arrest. He blamed his father for his deteriorating health.

Ruth claimed to have cut Bernie off but journalist Jim Campbell, who had unfettered access to her for years, revealed to DailyMail.com that Bernie was still writing to her from prison when he died.

Campbell said he did not believe she would ever 'completely uncouple' from him.

Before he was jailed, she made a deal with prosecutors to that she'd be allowed $2.5million to pay for his legal fees.

She has since reached a settlement with a small group of some of his tens of thousands of victims to pay them $600,000.

Bernie and Ruth Madoff with their sons Andrew and Mark. Andrew died of cancer in 2014, with Mark killing himself in 2010

Among Madoff's victims was Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, whose foundation lost $15.2 million.

'The pain experienced by the victims of Mr. Madoffs fraud is not diminished by his death, nor is our work on behalf of his victims finished,' said Irving Picard, a lawyer appointed as a trustee of the compensation fund.

'My legal team and I are committed to continuing to identify and recover Mr. Madoffs stolen funds and return them to their rightful owners.'

Another former investor who did not want to be named told The Philadelphia Inquirer: 'One less thief in the world.'

Loretta Weinberg, New Jersey's Senate Majority Leader who lost money with Madoff along with her late husband Irwin, had a stronger reaction.

'I'm not saying kaddish. That's my reaction,' she told NJ.com. Kaddish is a Jewish mourning prayer.

She added: 'I continued living my life in a much more productive manner than he has.

'His death didn't provide any sense of closure. I havent thought about him very much over the last number of years unless someone from the media called me. I didnt need him to die for a sense of closure.'

lene Kent, the daughter of a Long Island doctor who lost his life savings, told The New York Post: 'The fact that he suffered at the end is almost poetic justice for the suffering he inflicted. I cant say Im shedding a tear.'

Another couple who lost their retirement savings with Madoff said they blamed the government for not monitoring Madoff or the industry more closely.

'When you lose your whole life savings, it doesn't matter if it's a dollar or $1 trillion. You just lost everything you worked for your whole life. That was our future. That's what we based many life decisions on what is our fiscal responsibility. We were invested with an icon of Wall Street,' Ronnie Sue Ambrosino told Long Island News.

'We felt we were insured. And all of that fell through. The government was not there. They didn't live up to their responsibility. And that's where we find fault,' she added.
A truck driver who drastically misjudged a left turn has knocked down two sets of traffic lights in a bizarre driving fail on a suburban street.

The mishap in Laverton, in Melbourne's west, was caught on video by a passenger in a trailing car who posted the clip to TikTok.

The semi-trailer is seen mounting the footpath as it creeps around the tight turn, but after it mows down the first set of lights.

The driver continues to maneuver around the corner like noting happened, and seconds later another set of lights gets mowed down and ripped out of the ground.

It is not clear whether the driver stops following the failed turn, but in the video the truck appears to continue on his way.

Daily Mail Australia contacted the motorist who filmed the incident for more information.

Social media users went into a frenzy over the video.

'What was he thinking? That wasn't even close to a proper turn!' one wrote.

Others joked: 'Didn't need those lights anyway' and 'at least the indicator was on'.

Another wrote: 'He just kept driving like nothing was happening. Haha'.

A truck driver who drastically misjudged a left turn has knocked down two sets of traffic lights in a bizarre incident on a suburban street

When the truck mows down the first set of lights, the driver just continues to maneuver around the corner like 'noting happened'.

Some inferred the truck looked 'brand new' and that the driver must have 'clearly been very inexperienced'.

'I deal with truckies on the regular as part of my work and a lot of them are downright scary,' one commenter wrote.

'Some of them shouldn't be out on the street, much less operating heavy machinery.'

Victoria Police could not confirm if anyone was fined or charged over the strange incident.
Booze prices are set to tumble around Australia as alcohol producers are handed a tax cut to boost the hospitality sector's recovery.

Australian drinkers have long endured some of the most expensive pints in the world, with Perth ranking second only to Oslo, due to enormous taxes.

But on Saturday the federal government announced tax cuts of up to $250,000 a year for liquor producers hit by coronavirus.

The move will come into effect from July 1, and will be unveiled when the federal budget is handed down later this month.

Booze prices are set to tumble around Australia as alcohol producers are handed a tax cut to boost the hospitality sector's recovery

Australian drinkers have long endured some of the most expensive pints in the world, with Perth ranking second only to Oslo, due to enormous taxes

Producers will be allowed to sell triple the amount of alcohol before being required to pay excise tax, reducing their overall tax burden.

The government rebates brewers and distillers up to 60 per cent of their tax money when their product leaves the warehouse, up to a cap of $100,000.

However, under the changes, the first $350,000 will be remitted by the government, the Daily Telegraph reported.

The tax cuts will be worth $255 million a year to the liquor industry.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the tax cut would greatly benefit smaller brewers and distillers, which move smaller volumes and may fall under the cap.

'Australian brewers and distillers are world leaders in their field and this measure is going to assist them to continue to invest, grow and create jobs,' he said.

Four Pillars Gin boss Stuart Gregor said the boost for the sector was welcomed by liquor producers.

'It's also a great day for drinkers in Australia because it will give the distillers of Australia a better chance to get their drinks into the bars, clubs, hotels of Australia,' he said.

'If they're particularly small they might be able shave a couple of bucks off the price (and) it probably means they won't have to raise their prices.'

On Saturday the federal government announced tax cuts of up to $250,000 a year for liquor producers hit by coronavirus
More than 3,000 people were seen rough sleeping on the capital's streets during the third coronavirus lockdown and more than half of them were sleeping rough for the first time, figures show.

Some 3,002 rough sleepers were identified by outreach teams in London between January and March, according to data from the Combined Homelessness And Information Network (Chain).

More than half (52 per cent) of these were sleeping rough for the first time, and 11 per cent were known to be permanently living on London's streets, the figures show.

A rough sleeper rests at the entrance of theatre, closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in London, Monday, Feb. 8, 2021

In January, as the country entered its third lockdown, the Government urged local authorities to 'redouble their efforts' to safely accommodate people sleeping rough as part of the Everyone In initiative

The total number of rough sleepers recorded during this quarter was down almost a fifth (19 per cent) from the same quarter in 2020 and down 9 per cent from September to December.

In January, as the country entered its third lockdown, the Government urged local authorities to 'redouble their efforts' to safely accommodate people sleeping rough as part of the Everyone In initiative.

The Chain figures show that 1,587 people were placed in emergency accommodation between January and March, up 72 per cent from the last quarter.

The Salvation Army said the fall in rough sleepers reflects the success of these efforts, warning that numbers will creep up if support structures in place because of the pandemic are removed.

Lorrita Johnson, the Salvation Army's director of homelessness services, said: 'Although real progress was made as part of the Everyone In initiative and other schemes to help prevent and relieve homelessness during the pandemic, it is vital we keep up the momentum and ensure long-term investment for homelessness services.

'This is key as an economic downturn is likely to mean more people are forced to sleep on the streets in the coming months and years.'

The charity Crisis warned that vulnerable groups are still falling through the cracks, particularly people with no recourse to public funds (NRPF) amid confusion over whether they can be lawfully supported.

Crisis urged councils to heed a recent High Court ruling on the matter, which said rough sleepers who would not usually be eligible for help can be given emergency housing during the pandemic.

Crisis chief executive Jon Sparkes said: 'It's deeply concerning that we entered the new year and a third national lockdown with over 3,000 people sleeping on our streets and 316 people forced to live this way day after day.

'Rough sleeping at any time is unacceptable, but we must remember this was when coronavirus cases were rapidly accelerating, and temperatures were freezing meaning this situation was all the more dangerous and deadly.

'While fewer people were sleeping rough during this time due to councils going to great lengths to get everyone in, people did continue to fall through the cracks, largely because of their immigration status.

'The same issue persists today so we must stress that while the threat of the virus remains among us, we urge councils to continue to provide everyone with a safe place to stay in line with the recent High Court judgment.'

A spokesman for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: 'We have so far housed 37,000 people during the pandemic through our ongoing Everyone In initiative, and we expect councils to continue ensuring all rough sleepers are safely supported.

'We continue to work with councils, charities and other partners to protect the most vulnerable and are providing over 750 million this year alone to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping.'
Sacked minister Johnny Mercer will lead a 'respect our veterans' march after the controversial trial against two paratroopers accused of murdering Official IRA leader Joe McCann effectively collapsed.

Mr Mercer - who left his ministerial role after expressing frustration at a lack of progress on legislation to protect British veterans who served during the Troubles from prosecution - attended Belfast Crown Court yesterday.

He went in support of Soldier A and Soldier C, who now face an agonising wait to find out whether their case will be dropped completely after a judge in the landmark trial ruled crucial evidence inadmissible.

Prosecutors have agreed that they have no case without the evidence - but can still challenge the judge's decision.

The daughter of a British soldier killed by McCann last night told MailOnline she was delighted at the judge's verdict and branded it 'great news'.

Anna-Marie Bankier, 47, was just 23-months-old when her father Cpl Bob Bankier, 25, was shot dead in Belfast on May 22, 1971, becoming one of the first British soldiers to be killed in The Troubles.

McCann was understood to have led the terrorists responsible for his death.

Mr Mercer last night announced he would be helping to organise a 'respect our veterans' march through London on May 8.

He said it would show the 'strength of feeling', adding: 'We will keep doing it until legislation is brought forward to end the current pursuit of elderly veterans for service in Northern Ireland that seemingly has no end in sight, whatever happens in this court in Belfast.'

Sacked minister Johnny Mercer (pictured) will lead a 'respect our veterans' march through London on May 8 after the controversial trial against two paratroopers accused of murdering Official IRA leader Joe McCann effectively collapsed

Former Gordon Highlander, Colin Timms (centre), with supporters of Soldier A and Soldier C outside their trial at Laganside Court in Belfast on Friday

Reacting to yesterday's court result, he told MailOnline: 'As predictable as day follows night.

'At some point someone in Government will find the courage to protect these men from those who want to rewrite history.'

Prosecutors have until Tuesday to say whether they will challenge Mr Justice John O'Hara's decision to exclude key interview statements.

The trial over the killing of Official IRA commander McCann in Belfast almost 50 years ago is the first prosecution relating to a Troubles shooting since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.

But Justice O'Hara said statements the soldiers gave to authorities immediately after the shooting in 1972  and again in 2010  must be 'entirely excluded' from proceedings.

Joe McCann, pictured above, 24, was shot dead by soldiers in the Markets area of Belfast in 1972 while dressed in disguise as he attempted to evade arrest at the hands of Royal Ulster Constabulary officers

His ruling has huge consequences for the 200 veterans at risk of criminal investigation relating to alleged offences in Northern Ireland including murder and manslaughter

In the hours following the shooting of 24-year-old McCann a number of British soldiers, including the two defendants, were 'ordered' to make statements without being cautioned or given access to legal advice.

Concluding that this rendered the evidence inadmissible, Justice O'Hara also slammed the lack of a police investigation at the time of the shooting.

The soldiers were contacted in 2010 by Northern Ireland's now defunct Historical Enquiries Team (HET) which was investigating unsolved Troubles deaths.

Photograph said to show Joe McCann with an American M1 carbine during a gun battle for Inglis Bakery in Eliza Street in The Markets area of Belfast in 1972

Joe McCann's long IRA career in full over just seven years of attacks 1965 - Joins the IRA at the age of 17 Dec 3, 1965 - Convicted of possessing Army bayonets and being an IRA member and was sentenced to a year in prison. July 29, 1969 - Fined for assaulting a police officer. March 9, 1971 - Reports he was involved in the murder of Provisional IRA member Charlie Hughes. The Provisional IRA was a breakaway faction from the official IRA. It was formed in 1969 by a group of traditionalists who operated under paramilitary-style tactics. It was aided by weapons supplied by Irish American sympathisers and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. May 22, 1971 - Believed to have been part of the murders or two soldiers. June 28, 1971 - Convicted of breach of the peace at an IRA funeral and is sentenced to six months, but absconds on bail. August 10, 1971 - Involved in a bakery siege and subsequent firefight. September 21, 1971 - He is implicated in the attempted murder of four police officers. February 22, 1972 - Took part in the bombing of Parachute Regiment headquarters in Hampshire that killed seven civilians. February 25, 1972 - Implicated in the attempted assassination of home affairs minister Lord Kilcooney. April 15, 1972 - He is shot dead in the Markets area of Belfast. The Official IRA say he was responsible for killing 15 British soldiers. Advertisement

The veterans cooperated voluntarily to provide 'answers to families' after McCann's relatives wrote to them asking 'for truth and the circumstances around his death'.

McCann - who was wanted for a number of terrorist attacks including the murder of at least two soldiers - was shot in the Markets area of Belfast while evading arrest.

Justice O'Hara said that when the soldiers were interviewed in 2010 they were not cautioned for any suspected offence, and mainly relied on their 1972 statements.

Following the HET interviews, investigators said they had found no 'new or compelling evidence' and ruled the case should go no further.

Furthermore, the officials believed that even if they had found new evidence, the case would be referred for a 'full-blown police investigation'.

But following a review of the case in 2014 the men were charged without having been interviewed or arrested by police.

Justice O'Hara criticised the Police Service of Northern Ireland, saying: 'What was required and never took place is that the PSNI should have interviewed the defendants under a specific caution for murder. If that had been done and admissions had been made a prosecution would have been possible.'

He said it was not legitimate to put the 1972 evidence before the court 'dressed up and freshened up with a new 2010 cover'.

Ms Bankier's father, British soldier Cpl Bob Bankier, 25, was shot dead in Belfast on May 22, 1971. The terrorists responsible were said to have been led by McCann.

Ms Bankier said: 'I think it is great news. It is good for the soldiers, they are so old now and one of them has had a stroke so was unable to remember anything.

'I thought it was completely unfair it ever ended up in court.

'I think it is a double standard because if anyone was still alive who had killed my father, they would have got off scott-free  nothing would have happened to them, would it?

'If my father was alive he would have been disgusted that these two men had been taken to court, I was disgusted too, it goes without saying.

'What has happened was so long ago it should be just left.

Veterans and supporters pictured outside court as the trial began of two former British paratroopers charged with the murder of Mr McCann at Belfast Laganside Courts on April 26

'If anything was going to be done it should have happened in the first few years afterwards  not now.

'I am pleased this case has collapsed. It is the right thing to have happened.'

Proceedings against the paras - who are both in their 70s and one of whom who cannot remember the shooting after suffering a stroke - had been described as a political witch hunt by critics.

It only went to court after Northern Ireland Attorney General, John Larkin, referred it to the Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Herron. This was despite the soldiers being told after the shooting they would not be prosecuted.

Even as recently as 2010 when they agreed to help the HET on the understanding it was to help give the McCann family gain some closure they were told again no prosecution would come from it.

Former veterans minister Johnny Mercer - who left his ministerial role after expressing frustration at a lack of progress on legislation to protect British veterans who served during the Troubles from prosecution - reacted to the case yesterday

IRA terrorist suspects are rounded up by British soldiers on Bloody Sunday in Londonderry

The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonated two 6-pound gelignite bombs at two pubs in Guildford, England. Police escort members of one of the families from the Old Bailey.

The relatives of Mr McCann and his widow Anne (front centre) arrive with solicitor Niall Murphy at Belfast Crown Court in Northern Ireland on April 26

Who is Northern Ireland Attorney General John Larkin? John Larkin referred the two paratroopers to the Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Herron during his time as Northern Ireland Attorney General. This was despite the soldiers being told after the shooting they would not be prosecuted. Mr Larkin was the Attorney General between May 2010 and June 2020. He was intended to serve a four-year term in the role - but was reappointed in 2014 and 2015. He drew controversy after his tenure began over countless issues - including his views on abortion. He suggested banning any more prosecutions over events which preceded the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. John Larkin referred the two paratroopers to the Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Herron during his time as Northern Ireland Attorney General Advertisement

Who is Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Herron? Stephen Herron was appointed Northern Ireland's Director of Public Prosecutions in 2017, and took over the role in January the next year. He is a solicitor specialising in criminal law. In 2013, he became senior assistant director at the Public Prosecution Service. During this time, he lead criminal justice reform initiatives. Overall, he was responsible for 50,000 prosecutions each year. At the time of his appointment, he said: 'I am delighted to accept the post of DPP. I have worked in the service for the last 15 years and it is an honour to have the opportunity to take on this role.' Stephen Herron was appointed Northern Ireland's Director of Public Prosecutions in 2017 Advertisement

A plaque on the spot where Mr McCann was shot dead on Joy Street in Belfast. The image of it is based on a photograph of Mr McCann said to be taken in August 1971

How did it get to court? 1972 - After the shooting the three soldiers - one of whom who has now died - were told by the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Attorney General they would not be prosecuted. 1973 - The Director of Public Prosecutions reviews the case and says there is no sufficient likelihood of conviction. 2010 - The surviving two soldiers give as best a statement they can to the Historical Enquiries Team after being reassured it would not lead to a prosecution in the absence of any further evidence. 2013 - The HET report finds soldiers were not justified in shooting dead McCann. 2014 - Northern Ireland Attorney General, John Larkin, refers case to the Director of Public Prosecutions 2016 - DPP announces that the two surviving soldiers will be charged over the murder of McCann. 2021 - After a protracted series of legal hearings the trial begins in Belfast, with it expected to run for four weeks, but collapses after just two days. Advertisement

Mr McCann was shot dead as he ran away from police and Army on Joy Street in Belfast in April 1972.

Lawyers for the soldiers expressed concern that the prosecution was trying to 'launder' the inadmissible 1972 statements and get the evidence contained in them before the trial using the 'backdoor' of the 2010 statements and interviews.

Prosecution barrister Louis Mably conceded the soldiers should have been cautioned.

'There were plainly deficiencies in the approach adopted by the HET,' he said.

Mr Mably insisted there was no set legal rule that evidence obtained as a consequence of the 1972 inadmissible statements was itself inadmissible as a consequence.

He said it depended on the circumstances of the case.

He said Soldier A 'voluntarily' relied on the 1972 statement in his 2010 engagement with the HET and he said Soldier C went further, offering new 'incriminating' evidence of his involvement in the shooting during interview.

The Crown lawyer acknowledged that the various statements from the soldiers were the only evidence available to court capable of proving that they fired shots at Mr McCann on the day.

In response, the judge asked: 'So without the interviews the case must inevitably fail?' Mr Mably replied: 'On that basis my lord, yes.'

Speaking outside Laganside Court in Belfast afterwards, solicitor for the McCann family Niall Murphy said they had 'very strongly held views' about the ruling.

He added: 'They are mindful that the matter is live before the court and looking forward to the exhaustion of an appeal.

'To that end, we will reserve comment until next Tuesday.

'They very much look forward to an appeal being launched.

'That's under consideration at present.

'We will know the position more clearly on Tuesday morning.

'There are very strongly held opinions in respect of what has transpired in this case.

'We will make those public at the appropriate time.'

IRA commander 'had already killed 15 British soldiers and tarred, feathered and shot informers before he was shot dead by two paratroopers' almost 50 years ago, their landmark murder trial heard

An IRA commander allegedly murdered by two former paratroopers almost 50 years ago was responsible for the deaths of 15 British soldiers, a landmark trial heard yesterday.

Joe McCann was shot dead by soldiers in the Markets area of Belfast in 1972 while dressed in disguise as he attempted to evade arrest at the hands of Royal Ulster Constabulary officers.

In Belfast, he was in charge of 'punishment' and 'reprisal' attacks which involved 'tarring and feathering' and shooting people, Belfast's Laganside Courts heard.

McCann lured Army patrols into an ambush before firing at them 'from cover' as his 'known modus operandi', the Daily Telegraph reports.

He was immortalised in Republican folklore after a photograph of him holding a rifle during a siege at a bakery during a firefight with the Army in August 1971 circulated around the world. It appears in two plaques in Belfast in his memory.

The 24-year-old, who was known as the 'Officer Commanding of the 1st Battalion of the Official IRA' and a member of the IRA Army Council, was at the time of his death suspected of the murder of two soldiers, including Corporal Robert Bankier, one of the first killed during the Troubles.

He was also wanted for the attempted murder of four policemen and suspected of being involved in the attempted assassination of the then home affairs minister Lord Kilclooney, facts agreed between the prosecution and defence in the case revealed.

The court heard that reports had linked the father of four to a bomb attack at the Parachute Regiment headquarters in Aldershot in February 1972 which killed seven civilians.

The court heard that police held a large amount of information on McCann at the time of his death.

As well as suspicion of his involvement in a number of murders, he was known as a 'well-skilled gunman'.
Three airport hotel employees test positive for COVID-19 in Taiwan

Xinhua) 09:45, May 01, 2021

TAIPEI, April 30 (Xinhua) -- Three employees of Novotel Taipei Taoyuan International Airport hotel were confirmed infected with COVID-19 Friday, said the local monitoring agency for the disease.

This came after one of their colleagues tested positive on Thursday.

The three new cases are the latest ones linked to Taiwan-based China Airlines, whose crew members usually quarantine at the hotel after returning to the island.

Previously, 10 cargo pilots at the carrier and five of their family members were diagnosed with the virus.

The source of infections may also be overseas pilots who stayed in the hotel and cannot be solely traced to the pilots of China Airlines, the agency said.

The island also recorded four new imported COVID-19 cases from Kazakhstan, Egypt, the Philippines and India on Friday.

The total number of confirmed cases on the island has risen to 1,128, including 12 deaths, according to the agency.

(Web editor: He Zhuoyan, Bianji)
A federal jury found a former Netflix executive guilty Friday of receiving lucrative stock options and more than a half-million dollars in bribes and kickbacks from tech companies to approve contracts with the streaming giant.

Michael Kail, 49, of Los Gatos, California, is a former Netflix vice president who oversaw the companys internet technology department.

'We are very disappointed in the jury's verdict,' defense attorney Julia Jayne said. 'It goes to show that an innocent person can be convicted when there are so many counts stacked against them and there is a powerful corporation, Netflix, driving the investigation and prosecution.'

Michael Kail, 49, of Los Gatos, California, is a former Netflix vice president who oversaw the companys internet technology department

He must now forfeit his $2.6 million three-bedroom, two-bathroom Los Gatos home (pictured) to the federal government

Jayne said Kail helped drive the success of Netflix as a cutting-edge technology company. He intends to appeal, she said.

Kail was indicted in 2018 on 19 counts of wire fraud, three counts of mail fraud, and seven counts of money laundering. He had pleaded not guilty to the offenses.

The trial began April 19 in federal court in San Jose, California. The jury found him guilty on 28 of the 29 counts.

Prosecutors said that Kail had accepted more than $500,000 in kickbacks - as well as valuable stock options - in exchange for approving millions of dollars in contracts for nine tech companies seeking to do business with Netflix between February 2012 and July 2014.

In a statement, the the Department of Justice said: 'He used his kickback payments to pay personal expenses and to buy a home in Los Gatos, California in the name of a family trust.'

The Mercury News reports he must now forfeit his $2.6 million three-bedroom, two-bathroom Los Gatos home to the federal government.

The Zillow listing for the property reads: 'This home has been updated and expanded and is in good condition ready for your buyers to move right in or remodel! Rare 3 car garage - Bring your imagination and creativity.'

Kail created and controlled a limited liability company, Unix Mercenary LLC, to receive the bribes, fund personal expenses and buy a home in Los Gatos, California, prosecutors said.

Kail was indicted in 2018 on 19 counts of wire fraud, three counts of mail fraud, and seven counts of money laundering. He had pleaded not guilty to the offenses. His Los Gatos home is pictured

The trial began April 19 in federal court in San Jose, California. The jury found him guilty on 28 of the 29 counts. Pictured: his home which he must forfeit

Netflix prohibits its employees from having conflicts of interest and requires them to disclose actual or apparent conflicts of interest and to report gifts from people or entities seeking to sell to the company, authorities said. Kail worked at Netflix from 2011 until July 2014.

He could face up to 20 years in prison and fines and will likely be sentenced in three months. He remains free on bond in the meantime.

Netflix declined comment on the verdict.

'Not only did Mr. Kail deprive Netflix of its money and resources by abusing his position as VP of IT Operations,' FBI Special Agent in Charge Craig D. Fair said in a statement, 'he created a pay-to-play environment whereby he stole the opportunity to work with an industry pioneer from honest, hardworking Silicon Valley companies.'
Pictured: US Ambassador Arthur Sinodinos

Australia's man in Washington has suggested the border could stay shut until the entire world is vaccinated.

US Ambassador Arthur Sinodinos told an online forum for the Hudson Institute that although border closures are costing Australia's economy billions, it might be years before citizens get on a plane or return home without having to quarantine.

There were hopes that when Australia's Covid vaccine rollout is completed late this year the border shutdown, which has been in effect since March, 2020, would come to a end.

But Mr Sinodinos said it may take a lot longer given how scared Australians citizens are and how popular strict lockdown measures have become with the public as a result - giving politicians plenty of incentive to support them.

Passengers in Perth from Qantas flight QF583 are escorted to waiting buses by Police Officers

Australia's man in Washington has suggested that Australia's border could remain shut until the entire world is vaccinated

Poll Should Australia keep the border closed until the whole world is vaccinated? Yes, even if it takes until 2023 Yes, but open next year if it takes too long No, open when we are vaccinated Should Australia keep the border closed until the whole world is vaccinated? Yes, even if it takes until 2023 328 votes

Yes, but open next year if it takes too long 112 votes

No, open when we are vaccinated 717 votes Now share your opinion





'Until the world as a whole is vaccinated, and I'm thinking here of India, and other places, then we're never going to be completely out of this,' he said.

'This is a genuine externality problem, or public good problem, where we're all in this together and people in developing countries being vaccinated is as important as people in our own countries being vaccinated.'

With the highest case numbers in the world in the US, there has been 'a real urgency' to get vaccinated for public health reasons, he said.

Mr Sinodinos said Australia has not faced the same pressures because case numbers have been far lower.

'For us there's a real economic imperative to getting borders open,' he said.

'We have major industries like international education which require people coming in, immigration has been a big driver of Australian growth and that's really tailed off.'

Waiting until the whole world, including hard-hit developing countries like India, is vaccinated could trap Australians at home until well into 2022 or even 2023.

Pictured: Arrivals at Ballina Airport under Covid screening checks by a health worker

Passengers arrive on a Qantas flight from Melbourne at Sydney Airport to be met by health officials taking their temperature (pictured) with domestic travel back on across the country - but there's no end in sight for international border closures

Although the federal government has described vaccines as the 'best hope' to keep Australia's economy 'moving and connected' - its also admitted it isn't prepared to hang the nation's global reopening on the jab.

'Vaccination alone is no guarantee that you can open up,' Health Minister Greg Hunt said earlier this month.

'If the whole country were vaccinated, you couldn't just open the borders.

'We still have to look at a series of different factors: Transmission, longevity [of vaccine protection] and the global impact - and those are factors which the world is learning about.'

Australians could face unprecedented measures to prevent people returning from Covid-stricken India including jail time. Pictured are funeral pyres of coronavirus victims burning in New Delhi as relatives perform last rites at a crematorium

India's Covid-19 crisis spiked out of control this week with daily deaths exceeding 3,000. In this photo relatives wearing PPE carry the body of a loved one

Australia on Saturday made it illegal to fly home from Covid-ravaged India under threat of five years in jail at a $66,600 fine.

Health Minister Greg Hunt announced the unprecedented and draconian restriction on Saturday morning, which will begin at 12.01am on Monday.

The emergency law, invoked under the Biosecurity Act, could see anyone who has been in India in the past 14 days charged with a crime.

It is also the first time in history the Australian Government has used any kind of emergency powers for that purpose.

At the moment, the only overseas designation Australians can travel to without express permission, or return from without having to quarantine is New Zealand.
A woman has died after becoming trapped in the passenger seat of a car that was hit by a bus in Sydney's west.

Police were called to Argyle Street, near the intersection with OConnell Street, in Parramatta shortly after 8am on Saturday after a sedan and bus collided.

The front-seat passenger in the sedan, a woman believed to be aged in her 40s, was unable to be freed from the wreckage and has died at the scene.

The front-seat passenger in the sedan, a woman believed to be aged in her 40s, was unable to be freed from the wreckage and has died at the scene

Police were called to Argyle Street, near the intersection with OConnell Street, in Parramatta shortly after 8am on Saturday after a sedan and bus collided

The driver of the sedan, a man believed to be also aged in his 40s, and the male bus driver have been taken to Westmead Hospital with minor injuries and for mandatory testing.

The bus wasn't carrying any passengers at the time of the crash.

Argyle Street is closed between OConnell and Pitt streets and traffic is expected to be disrupted in the area for some time.

Officers from the Crash Investigation Unit and Parramatta PAC will be investigating the incident.

They are appealing for anyone who witnessed the crash, or who has dashcam vision, to contact police via Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Akries Sommerville, 24, allegedly opened fire at the Brooklyn restaurant while being sought by police in Littleton, North Carolina, on charges of kidnapping and robbery with a weapon

The suspect accused of attempted murder after allegedly shooting two diners at New York's famed Peter Luger steakhouse was on the run from North Carolina cops at the time of the shootings.

Akries Sommerville, 24, allegedly opened fire at the Brooklyn restaurant on Thursday while being sought by police in Littleton, North Carolina, on charges of kidnapping and robbery with a weapon.

Littleton Police Chief Phillip Trivette told DailyMail.com: 'He doesn't need to be on the street. He's dangerous. He's going to kill someone.'

Sommerville has been charged with two counts of attempted murder.

Cops had earlier said that Sommerville 'was considered armed and very dangerous', with the suspected gunman said to be well-known to cops in Littleton.

Trivette claimed to DailyMail.com that Somerville has a 'habit' of committing crimes in North Carolina, then fleeing to New York City, where he has family.

Sommerville was arrested a few blocks away from the steakhouse on Bedford Avenue and S. 10 Street and was in the hospital Friday morning for an 'unknown reason,' according to the NYPD, which delayed the formal charges.

He is said to have flown into a drunken rage during a family dinner during an argument about women, and allegedly tried to open fire on his cousin and two pals after they escorted him out of the restaurant.

A gun believed to have been used in Thursday's shooting is pictured under trash bags outside Peter Luger steakhouse in Brooklyn

A medical glove and spoon sits on the ground outside the Williamsburg restaurant on Thursday night, in the wake of the shooting which injured two

NYPD detectives investigate the shooting, which saw two innocent diners shot after a drunk customer was allegedly ejected by his friends and cousins following an argument about women

Part of the sidewalk outside Peter Luger was taped off on Friday as detectives investigated the shooting

A group of bemused diners could be seen inside the famed steakhouse apparently continuing their meal as the investigation progressed around them

Amel missed them, it is alleged, but struck two other diners eating nearby. One victim, aged 30, was shot close to his spine, and remains in hospital. The other victim, a 57 year-old man, was shot in the gut and has since been released from hospital.

In addition to the attempted murder charges, he was also charged with two counts of criminal use of a firearm and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon.

In relation to his North Carolina warrants, Akries Somerville along with his younger brother Armel are accused of stealing an undisclosed amount of money and valuables from a man who was tied up, beaten up and then had a gun held to his head at his home in Littleton, North Carolina, in February.

'If either suspect is seen we urge caution and recommend calling 911 immediately as both are to be considered armed and very dangerous,' the Littleton Police Department had warned earlier in April.

Sommerville has a number of outstanding warrants in Littleton for violent crimes, including kidnapping and robbery with a deadly weapon.

Earlier in April, the Northampton County Sheriffs Department announced that his brother Armel, 19, was arrested on charges of first-degree murder.

Officials in North Carolina say they are planning to work with their New York City counterparts in ensuring Sommerville is brought to justice.

This is the scene the morning after a shooter opened firing outside of Brooklyn's popular Peter Luger Steakhouse, hitting two innocent diners in the cross fire

The scene outside Peter Luger Steakhouse in Brooklyn is a lot quieter Friday morning following Thursday night's shooting created a chaotic scene

Police tape is pictured outside the famed Peter Luger Steakhouse in Brooklyn

On Thursday night, the gunshots sent diners scrambling.

Travis, a diner from Arizona, told The New York Daily News that when shots rang out, 'People hit the ground and were crawling on top of one another.' Thursday's shooting saw two innocent bystanders injured, when a family feud spilled over at the Williamsburg restaurant, which opened in 1887.

The gunfire broke out at about 9:45pm - before the rowing family members had even eaten their food, The New York Post reported.

Two diners at a table of 11 got into a heated argument, and one of them, later identified as Sommerville, allegedly pulled a gun and started firing.

Instead of hitting his target, two men eating outside were hit - a 30-year-old struck in the shoulder and a 57-year-old hit in the stomach.

Both men were taken to Bellevue Hospital, where they were expected to survive, the paper reported.

With servers and customers ducking for cover, someone inside the steakhouse called 911, and police officers monitoring a nearby anti-police demonstration responded in seconds.

The gunman was arrested with the help of his cousin, who identified him.

The gun was recovered from a garbage can around the block, on South 10th Street, police said.

Police are seen outside the restaurant following the shooting in Brooklyn on Thursday

Thursday's shooting outside the upscale Brooklyn restaurant comes amid a surge in gun violence in New York City following the bloodiest week so far this year, with 50 people shot across the city.

That is a 257 per cent spike from the same time last year, when the pandemic forced New Yorkers into their homes.

Last weekend, 31 people were wounded and six were killed in 28 shootings.

Earlier this month, a concerned Brooklyn mother called Nicole confronted the mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, during a radio phone-in about shootings, and asked him: 'What's being done?'

The mayor blamed COVID-19 for the crime spike, saying: 'I think it comes back to this horrible combination of things we saw, you know, people didn't have jobs, almost a million people lost their jobs, schools were closed, houses of worship were closed. Things really were falling apart.'

De Blasio shifted to the focus to the city's reopening measures, which he says will cut crime as people return to work.

He also cited his 'community based solutions to gun violence' and two anti-gun crime initiatives, called Cure Violence Movement and Crisis Management System.

New York City has seen 257 per cent spike in gun violence from the same time last year

CURE's website claims it 'leverages young men of color' to act as 'credible messengers of an anti-violence message' in areas hit hard by gun crime.

Crisis Management System deploys mediators to try and cool down brewing conflicts before they spill into violence, and connect 'high risk individuals' to services aimed at stopping them from offending.

De Blasio oversaw in June a $1 billion reduction in New York Police Department's $6 billion budget, at the height of the 'defund the police' protests.

The deal involved moving school safety agents, who are unarmed but wear police uniforms, into the Department of Education; canceling a July class of roughly 1,100 police recruits; and shifting certain homeless outreach operations away from police control.

Critics say it has made the city less safe.

De Blasio has been met with widespread disdain by New York's officers, and will complete his second and final term as mayor in office in November.
Tucker Carlson says Republican lawmakers are disconnected from their supporters partly because they listen to conventional liberals like Frank Luntz, whom he accused of serving left-wing corporations such as Google.

The Fox News host took aim at the veteran GOP pollster Luntz after Axios quoted him last week as saying that Republicans are more pro-immigrant than elites realize.

Luntz said he conducted focus groups of prospective voters and that he came away with the impression that the gaps between Democrats and Republicans on hot-button issues like immigration and border security arent as wide as thought.

Carlson on Friday ridiculed Luntz for suggesting that Republicans support granting permanent legal status to Dreamers, or undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as young children.

Tucker Carlson (left) says Republican lawmakers are disconnected from their supporters partly because they listen to conventional liberals like Frank Luntz (right), whom he accused of serving left-wing corporations such as Google

The Fox News host blasted Luntz for suggesting that Republican voters, in fact, are dying to give amnesty to as many foreign nationals as they possibly can.

Carlson said sarcastically: Theyre demanding it right away!

He then played a clip of an interview with Luntz in which the pollster says that Trump supporters are in favor of providing a path to citizenship to the Dreamers.

Carlson accused Luntz of taking the same position on immigration as that of Google, and that his views were applauded by open borders activists.

Luntz has been toadying for big corporations like Purdue Pharma, the maker of the highly addictive painkiller OxyContin, which has been blamed for helping fuel the opioid epidemic.

The Fox News star also hit out at House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Luntz is a close personal friend of the congressman, according to Carlson.

That relationship gives Frank Luntz outsized influence over the Republican Partys policy positions, Carlson said.

The prime time host also mentioned that Luntz is friends with President Biden.

Carlson ridiculed Luntz for claiming that there was growing support among Republican voters for offering a path to citizenship to undocumented migrants. The image above shows immigrant families scrambling into the bank of the Rio Grande after crossing the US-Mexico border in Roma, Texas on Friday

On Twitter, Luntz reacted to the segment on Carlson's show by tweeting: 'That explains all the angry, misspelled messages in my inbox tonight.'

Last year, Luntz revealed that Biden came over to me and gave me the biggest hug after he learned that the pollster suffered a stroke while conducting a focus group in New Hampshire in January of last year.

Joe Biden is a kind man, Luntz told MSNBC in October.

Hes a decent man. Hes been through hell himself, on several occasions.

On Twitter, Luntz reacted to the segment on Carlson's show by tweeting: 'That explains all the angry, misspelled messages in my inbox tonight.'

In March, 172,331 migrants were taken into custody by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The numbers are the highest recorded in 20 years.

A White House official told CNN that the number of migrant children being held in jail-like conditions by US Customs and Border Protection dropped nearly 84% in the span of a month. As of Wednesday, there were 954 children in CBP facilities, down from a peak of 5,767 on March 28.

President Biden has claimed that because the Trump administration waited so long to cooperate with the presidential transition - due to Trump contesting the election results - his transition team was unable to get information it needed from the relevant government agencies.

'We didn't find out they had fire a whole lot of people that they were understaffed considerably,' Biden said.

According to Customs and Border Patrol data, the number of immigrants apprehended along the southern border jumped from 96,974 in February to 168,195 in March.

The last time single-month apprehensions were that high was in March of 2001. Additionally in March, CBP apprehended 18,656 unaccompanied minors at the southern border, a record since at least October 2009 and double February's numbers.

Republicans see the issue as one they can use to make in roads with voters in the 2022 midterms and have criticized Biden heavily on it, particularly for refusing to call the situation a 'crisis.' Biden used that word earlier this month when talking about the border but the White House quickly walked it back.
Western allies need to 'push back' against a more aggressive China despite the threat of further economic pain, Australia's man in Washington warns.

Ambassador to the US Arthur Sinodinos told the Hudson Institute in an online forum that Beijing is 'lashing out' at countries that are in any way critical of the increasingly authoritarian regime under Present Xi Jinping.

But in a massive show of force, the British Royal Navy is preparing to send the largest naval fleet 'in a generation' to the South China Sea, in a move sure to infuriate the Communist Party.

the British military are preparing to send the largest naval fleet 'in a generation' to the South China Sea, in a move set to infuriate the Communist Party. Pictured: the HMS Queen Elizabeth

Australia and its allies will continue to 'push back' against a more aggressive China under Xi Jinping (pictured left), Ambassador to the US Arthur Sinodinos (right) said.

Over the past year China has slapped over $20 billion worth of arbitrary trade bans and tariffs on Australian exports as punishment for calling for an independent inquiry into the origins of the Covid pandemic - which first appeared in Wuhan in 2019.

The Communist Party is also furious at Australia for speaking out on China's human rights abuses in Hong Kong and Xinjiang, banning Huawei from the National Broadband Network and scrapping Beijing's Belt and Road infrastructure deal with the Victorian government on the grounds of national security concerns.

'We've had a few bumps in the relationship in recent times and I think that's a function of Beijing being more assertive and aggressive in projecting its power in the region and countries like Australia pushing back,' Mr Sinodinos said.

'The relationship has reached a certain equilibrium and it's bumping along the bottom.'

Australia enjoyed a cozy relationship with China in years gone by, focusing on trade and economic cooperation while simultaneously strengthening its security and defence partnership with the US.

Shocking disparities between Australia and China's military power shows we would struggle in a war, amid fears that tensions both nations are nearing tipping point

Pictured: A US-made F-16 jet fighter lands on a runway in Taiwan

Pictured: Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers assembling during military training at Pamir Mountains in Kashgar, northwestern China's Xinjiang region

'As China has become more powerful and assertive under Xi Jinping the ground rules have changed and it's not so easy to compartmentalise things, particularly when it overlaps with our national security,' Mr Sinodinos said.

'So it wasn't so much a conscious policy decision that we are going to reset our relationship with China, it was the accumulation of a series of decisions where we were elevating what was in our national interests and that antagonised China.'

Australia's man in Washington said it was unlikely there would be a 'reset' in the relationship any time soon.

'It's now China's attitude that if countries act this way they need to be put in their place,' he said.

'But allies and partners including the US by working together should push back in areas of overreach and convince China they are better off cooperating with the international system because we want them to be strong and prosperous, that's in everyone's interests.'

This is the route the British armada will take from next month, reaching Japan this summer after travelling via a number of hotspots that will upset Russia and China

During the voyage, the Navy will avoid the Taiwan Strait as 'Big Lizzie' sails towards Japan in the final leg of the trip to avoid provoking China

AUSTRALIA VS CHINA MILITARY FORCE Place on global Military Strength Ranking 2021: China - 3rd globally Australia - 19th globally Military personnel: China - 3.3 million people Australia - 80,000 people Fighter jets: China - 1,200 Australia - 75 Tanks: China - 3,205 Australia - 59 Rocket projectors: China - 2,250 Australia - 0 Submarines: China - 79 Australia - 6 Fit for service population: China - 617 million people Australia - 8.7 million people Defence budget: China - $233billion Australia - $42billion Labour force: China - 775 million people Australia - 12.5 million people Population: China - 1.4 billion Australia - 25 million Source: GlobalFirePower.com Advertisement

His comments come after a tumultuous month in Canberra where the likes of Defence Minister Peter Dutton, Former Defence Minister Christopher Pyne and Home Affairs secretary Michael Pezzullo, all suggested the 'drums of war' in the region are getting louder.

There are grave fears Beijing will use its ever-growing military might to 'reunify' Taiwan with mainland China.

China-watchers say annexing the island backed by the US and Japan is a strategic goal of President-for-life Xi.

In recent weeks, China repeatedly incurred on Taipei's airspace and maritime borders, sending 25 military aircraft into its defence 'identification zone'.

Pressure is now mounting on Australia and fellow 'Quad' members - Japan, India and the US - to keep Beijing's forces at bay as tensions escalate.

Beijing has become increasingly aggressive in disputed territories, stamping out pro-democracy groups in Hong Kong and cracking down on Muslim minorities in Xinjiang under its 'One China' policy.

The authoritarian state also continues to encroach on Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, and Brunei in the South China Sea and even had a deadly border skirmish with India last year.

With tensions simmering between China and democratic nations, the UK will send the largest 'signal of maritime and air power' in a generation to the region.

Aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth will depart for its first operational deployment in a move set to infuriate Russia and China.

The $5 billion warship, with eight RAF F35B stealth fighter jets on board, will set off for Asia on May 24 accompanied by six Royal Navy ships including HMS Defender and HMS Diamond, a submarine, 14 naval helicopters and a company of Royal Marines.

The Carrier Strike Group will visit India, Singapore and then to Japan via the South China Sea.

HMS Defender, based at the Portsmouth Naval Base, will also sail with 'Big Lizzie' on its world tour

Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen (pictured) has remained staunch in the face of Chinese aggression - with many nations now at loggerheads with the communist superpower
Donald Trump's allies are deeply troubled by Wednesday's raid on his lawyer Rudy Giuliani's apartment, it has been claimed.

Their fears emerged as a transcript of a conversation between Giuliani and a Ukrainian official was published, laying bare what seems to be the substance of the FBI's investigation into the former New York City mayor.

Giuliani's Manhattan home was targeted in a dawn raid orchestrated by New York prosecutors, who for the last two years have been looking into whether Giuliani acted illegally when working on Ukraine.

The work was looking into whether Joe Biden had acted improperly when pressuring Ukraine's then-president to fire their chief prosecutor. He was also looking for 'dirt' on Joe's son Hunter.

A transcript of his July 2019 call which seemed to be the start of the investigation was published by BuzzFeed on Friday.

Rudy Giuliani, speaking at the rally before the Capitol riot on January 6, had his home raided

Trump tasked Giuliani with looking for 'dirt' on Hunter and Joe Biden in Ukraine

Giuliani's own actions may, it is thought, have fallen foul of lobbying and registration rules. He insists that he has acted properly at all times.

On Friday CNN reported that members of Trump's inner circle were worried about who may be next - or what Giuliani could say.

'This was a show of force that sent a strong message to a lot of people in Trump's world that other things may be coming down the pipeline,' one Trump adviser told CNN.

Seven FBI agents turned up at dawn, and seized Giuliani's electronic devices.

Rudy Giuliani's Upper East Side home was raided at 6am on Wednesday

Rudy Giuliani's apartment building on the Upper East Side of Manhattan

Federal investigators executed a search warrant Wednesday on Rudy Giuliani's New York City apartment and office, seizing electronic devices. Giuliani is pictured after the raid on his home

He said on Thursday night that the seizure was overly dramatic and unnecessary, as he had repeatedly volunteered to hand over the devices himself.

Michael Cohen: Giuliani is an 'idiot' who will turn on Trump - and Trump will not hesitate to 'throw him under the bus' Michael Cohen has said Rudy Giuliani 'would give Donald Trump up in a heartbeat' after federal agents raided the former New York City mayor's home and office. Speaking to CNN Thursday, Trump's former fixer called Giuliani an 'idiot' who has 'no relationship' with the ex president, who, he says, operates in a 'garbage can orbit'. Federal agents raided the 76-year-old's apartment Wednesday, taking with them his electronic devices including computers and cellphones. After news of the raid broke Wednesday, Cohen - who was also subject of a federal raid and would eventually plead guilty to eight federal counts - tweeted: 'Here we go folks.' He said Thursday: 'He's [Giuliani] nervous and rightfully so. Rudy will give up Donald in a heartbeat. Donald will throw anyone and everyone under the bus. 'Rudy has been shady for a long time. 'We have no idea how expansive this investigation is going to ultimately reveal itself, because Rudy's an idiot. And that's the problem. 'Rudy drinks too much. Rudy behaves in such an erratic manner, that, who knows what's on those telephones or what's on his computers?' Cohen was convicted in 2018 of campaign finance violations while working as Trump's personal attorney  he was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to nine charges. Less than a year after his sentencing, Cohen was released from Otisville Correctional Facility in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic on compassionate grounds. He has been confined to his Trump Park Avenue apartment in Lenox Hill ever since July 2020. Advertisement

The Trump adviser told CNN the raid seemed to suggest, worryingly for many, that Justice Department officials could be more willing to pursue investigations into his presidency than they had previously believed.

Two other members of Trump's inner circle told CNN they agreed with that assessment.

They also expressed concern about what Giuliani might say or do.

'Even the most loyal people have their breaking point,' said a person close to the former president.

'I think we've seen some more surprising instances of things like that happening, especially with Michael Cohen.'

Cohen, who was Trump's long time 'fixer' and attorney, began cooperating with prosecutors in 2018, served prison time, and has become one of Trump's fiercest critics,

Cohen told CNN on Wednesday he believed Giuliani would 'give up Donald in a heartbeat' if faced with an indictment.

'Prior to Donald becoming president, Rudy didn't like Donald and Donald didn't like Rudy,' Cohen claimed. 'He certainly doesn't want to follow my path down into a 36-month sentence.'

The concern among Trump's confidantes comes as the transcript of the July 2019 call between Giuliani and a Ukrainian official was made public.

The call is between Giuliani and Andriy Yermak, who at the time was newly-elected President Volodymyr Zelensky's top foreign policy advisor. Yermak is now Zelensky's chief of staff.

Giuliani attempts, on the call, to establish a working relationship between Kiev and Washington DC - bypassing the usual State Department channels to speak directly for Trump, although he is at pains to emphasize that he cannot speak for his boss.

He is particularly emphatic that the new president should investigate Biden, who, while serving as vice president, had pushed for the firing of the country's chief prosecutor, Viktor Shokin.

Shokin, who was seen with suspicion in the West, was fired in March 2016, as part of an anti-corruption initiative developed by the State Department and coordinated with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

Giuliani seeks an investigation, and wants Zelensky to publicly accuse Biden.

He also wants Ukraine to investigate possible interference in the election, and back the idea that Ukraine - not Russia - could have tried to tip the scales in favor of Trump.

'All we need from the president is to say: I'm gonna put an honest prosecutor in charge, he's gonna investigate and dig up the evidence, that presently exists and is there any other evidence about involvement of the 2016 election,' Giuliani tells Yermak.

'And then the Biden thing has to be run out.'

Volodymyr Zelensky took over as Ukraine's president in May 2019

Zelensky is pictured on April 26, speaking at the 35th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident

Giuliani says: 'He offered Poroshenko a $1.2 billion loan guarantee, critical to Poroshenko's success as president, in exchange for getting rid of a prosecutor general, that he didn't wanna get rid of.

'Somebody in Ukraine's gotta take that seriously.'

Trump is pictured speaking at CPAC in February

Giuliani then turns to Hunter Biden's energy firm, Burisma.

As part of a campaign to discredit Joe Biden and accuse him of influence peddling, Giuliani was keen for details of Hunter's work on the board of the company.

'That investigation of Burisma has been started, discontinued, started and discontinued about three times,' Giuliani complained.

He also issued a bizarre warning to the new president, via his aide, saying: 'What I wanted to tell the president is: be careful.

'Probably it's a little arrogant to say that. I shouldn't say that about being careful.

'But just as a person interested: be careful of the people around you, because they can very easily they can very easily get you into trouble.'

He did not provide more detail.

He did, however, say he was concerned that some people around Zelensky were not Trump supporters.

'I don't to speak for the President, I'll speak as his friend,' said Giuliani.

'To see some people around him (Zelensky), who aren't just opposed to the President (Trump), but said some very, very personal nasty things about him (Trump) is is trouble.'

Trump and Giuliani, two New Yorkers who have known each other for decades, in August 2020

He concluded: 'That gets kinda personal and it interferes with a really good really good relationship.'

Giuliani then circles back twice to the idea that Trump would like Zelensky to publicly announce an inquiry into Biden's activities.

'I think that it'd be very, very helpful in clearing this up, if the President (Zelensky) at some point could say something publicly,' Giuliani said.

'If he could make some statement at the right time. That he supports a fair, honest law enforcement system.

'And that these investigations go, wherever they have to go.'

The latest Giuliani revelations come a day after sources told The New York Times that the probe is looking into the firing of former US Ambassador to the Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.

The paper was told that feds are looking into whether Giuliani got then-President Donald Trump to fire Yovanovitch to please Ukrainian officials.

She is said to have caused ripples with her hardline stance on rooting out Ukrainian corruption.

The Times highlighted that if Giuliani orchestrated her firing to please Ukrainian officials, he may have broken US laws about lobbying foreign officials.

Trump's first impeachment saw him accused of trying to coax Ukrainian officials into giving him embarrassing details on Joe and Hunter Biden.

Giuliani denies all allegations of impropriety.
An eight-year-old boy's complaint to his parents that his hands were feeling 'funny' during a family lunch became the moment his life was turned upside down.

Ollie Hawes, from the NSW Mid North Coast, was playing with his cousins on a family holiday in April when his mother Helen noticed something seemed amiss.

Ms Hawes said she looked away for a moment, but as she turned back to Ollie his face had 'drooped'.

The boy had suffered a 'significant' stroke.

Ollie Hawes, 8, was diagnosed with with a progressive condition called moyamoya, a rare blood vessel disorder in which the carotid artery in the skull becomes blocked or narrowed, reducing blood flow to your brain

Ollie Hawes, eight, suffered a stroke at Easter. He pictured being pushed in a wheelchair by his brother Alex

'It wasn't clear but he managed to say to me, "my hand feels funny". He was still stood up but it was just his right side was a bit odd,' she told 7News.

Ms Hawes, a registered nurse, rushed her son to a local hospital before he was transferred to Sydney's Children's Hospital at Westmead.

A CT scan and MRI later diagnosed him with a progressive condition called moyamoya, a rare blood vessel disorder in which the carotid artery in the skull becomes blocked or narrowed, reducing blood flow to your brain.

'The doctors had seen that the vessels were extremely small and fine and there wasn't enough blood being supplied to that area of the brain but they could see that it was being supplied,' Ms Hawes said.

The first symptom of moyamoya disease is usually a stroke or recurrent transient ischemic attack, especially in children.

'Turns out that Ollie, the little warrior, had been battling this for some time, with his vessels already compensating for blockages in various arteries elsewhere in his brain,' an online fundraiser to support the youngster's family reads.

The first symptom of moyamoya disease is usually stroke or recurrent transient ischemic attack, especially in children - but Ollie had already been fighting it for some time with his vessels compensating for blockages in arteries elsewhere in his brain

Helen Hawes with her son Ollie, who is recovering from a 'significant' stroke he suffered at Easter

Ollie had a stroke in the early hours of the morning leaving him with right-sided hemiparesis - paralysis on one side of his body - and loss of speech except for the words 'yes' and 'no'.

The eight-year-old had surgery to try and remove the emboli before he spent nine days in intensive care.

Ollie has been undergoing physiotherapy since the medical episode and last week started to walk again.

Ollie Hawes (centre) is pictured with his brother Alex and father Shannon. The stroke left Ollie with paralysis on one side of his body

Helen Hawes (pictured with Ollie and her other son) said she looked away for a moment, but as she turned back to Ollie his face had 'drooped'

Ms Hawes said Ollie's speech has been improving recently, but he still struggles with finding the words he wants to say.

'There are signs of hope for a good recovery each day and thankfully his comprehension is still there as he understands conversation and is still able to have a laugh,' Ms Parry said.

Ollie was diagnosed with the blood condition hereditary spherocytosis when he was two, and doctors may believe it could be linked to his moyamoya.

Young Ollie loves nothing more than 'tearing around on his motorbike' with dad Shannon and brother Alex. The three of them are pictured above

Ollie Hawes is also a keen young fisherman

Aside from the blood condition - which his brother also has and had caused no obvious problems - Ollie showed no warning signs.

The fundraiser describes Ollie as a 'naturally sporty kid' who loves 'tearing around on his motorbike at home with his dad and little brother'.

He also goes fishing regularly and is a big NRL fan, as well as a promising footy player with the Bowra Tigers junior rugby league team.

He will continue to have regular MRIs and CT scans.

The GoFundMePage to help Ollie's parents pay for his recovery has so far raised over $17,000.

Ms Hawes said the support from the local community had restored her faith in humanity.

Ollie's experiences and recovery have prompted Ms Hawes to raise awareness about the condition.

She said it isn't widely known that 'kids have strokes as well' as older people.
Billionaire tycoon Eli Broad - who made his fortune in the homebuilding and insurance businesses, then gave much of it away to charity - has died aged 87.

Broad, whose net worth was estimated at $6.9 billion, passed away at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on Friday after what spokesman Suzi Emmerling described as a long illness.

The philanthropist was born in New York's Bronx in 1933, but made LA his adopted home, and adored the city. He lavished his fortune on turning it into a cultural hotspot, and played a pivotal role in creating the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, which opened in 1979.

Broad's influence helped the museum secure Count Giuseppe Panza di Biumo's noted collection of Abstract Expressionist and Pop Art. But the arts facility struggled financially despite the enthusiasm of its wealthy benefactor, with Broad bailing it out to the tune of $30 million after it came close to running out of cash in 2008.

Property and insurance tycoon turned arts philanthropist Eli Broad, pictured, died in Los Angeles on Friday aged 87

Broad is pictured at the 2015 opening of his $150 million contemporary art museum, named the Broad. He funded the enterprise himself, and is credited with transforming downtown Los Angeles into a thriving cultural district

Broad was the only child of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants, with his family moving to Detroit when he was seven, where his dad opened a dime store.

Broad, whose surname is pronounced 'Brode,' trained as an accountant, and married wife Edythe Lawson shortly after graduating.

The couple remained married until Broad's death, and have two sons, Jeffrey and Gary.

Broad began his career at a small accounting firm, but made his fortune after forming a partnership with Donald Kaufman to build cheap and cheerful tract houses in Detroit's suburbs,

The partnership - who christened their firm the Kaufman and Broad building Company - quickly became successful, and expanded to Phoenix in Arizona as well as Los Angeles, where Broad moved in 1964.

Broad, pictured in New York in 1986, made his fortune in property development and insurance

He quickly fell in love with the city, and hailed it as a meritocracy which offered opportunities to anyone willing to work hard.

Broad struck gold again in 1971 after spending $52 million on Baltimore based insurance company Sun Life.

It was renamed Sun America in 1993, and boomed after Broad began selling annuities and financial planning services to baby boomers.

Broad netted more than $3 billion when Sun America was sold to insurance giant the American International Group in 1993.

He became an avid art collector during the 1960s after touring the galleries of Los Angeles' La Cienega Boulevard with Edythe.

Broad's first big purchase was an $85,000 drawing by Vincent Van Gogh.

Broad and wife Edythe pictured at the Broad at its 2015 opening. The couple were avid collectors of work by living artists including Jeff Koons, one of whose sculptures is pictured behind the Broads

He also bought pieces by Matisse, Modigliani, Miro and Henry Moore, and was an enthusiastic supporter of living artists, including Cindy Sherman, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Jeff Koons.

Explaining his enthusiasm for contemporary art, Broad told The New York Times: 'Im not an art historian, but I read a lot, went to museums, went to auctions, spoke to dealers.

'And I became interested in the art of our time. Why? It reflects whats happening in our society. And frankly I enjoyed meeting the artists, visiting with them, talking to them about how they see the world, which is far different than people who spend all their time in business.'

Broad's collection was regarded as one of the world's finest, and dubbed 'a masterpiece' by LA Times art critic Christopher Knight in 2012.

He began making big philanthropic donations during the 1990s, including $10 million Pitzer liberal arts college in Claremont, California in 1991 to construct new buildings.

Broad is survived by wife of 54 years Edythe. The couple, who wed in 1954, have two sons

The same year, Broad gifted $20 million to Michigan State University to set up a graduate school of management and MBA program.

Broad's most generous single donation was the $140 million he spent setting up the Broad, a lavish art museum that opened in LA in 2015.

The building houses Broad's collection of more than 2,000 contemporary works of art.

Broad worked with Los Angeles civil leaders and developers to help turn the city's once neglected downtown into a thriving cultural district, which includes the Broad, Walt Disney Concert Hall and Museum of Contemporary Art.

The billionaire had a reputation for being intensely ambitious, impatient and curt, and conceded in his 2012 memoir The Art of Being Unreasonable that he was 'not the most popular person in Los Angeles.'

But Broad's focus on transforming his adopted home also saw him lavished with praise.

Founding director of the Broad Joanne Heyler told the Times there were 'very few in LA's history who have come remotely close to his sense of duty and willingness to put his own time and effort - pressing his political connections, strong-arming business peers into stepping up for the arts - the way he did.

'What stood out to me and inspires me was his truly profound commitment to the ultimate goal of serving the public,' she added.

And Los Angeles County Museum of Art director Michael Govan said: 'His impact on LA will be felt far into the future.'

Explaining his own philosophy during a Forbes magazine interview in 2003, Broad said: I want to give back, and I also have a big ego.

'Id rather be recognized for doing good than for just making money.'
Australia's education minister has raised concerns proposed changes to the national curriculum focus too heavily on Indigenous history at the expense of western culture.

Under draft changes, students would learn how European colonisation was experienced by Indigenous people as an invasion, which critics said risked turning Australia into a 'nation of cretins'.

Education Minister Alan Tudge said it was good to include more emphasis on Indigenous history but expressed concern the draft failed to strike the right balance.

Mr Tudge did acknowledge it is 'particularly pleasing' to see mathematics standards lifted in the draft however he slammed a proposal to teach times tables at an older age

'We should honour our Indigenous history and teach that well,' the federal education minister told Sky News.

'But equally that should not come at the expense of dishonouring our western heritage which has made us the liberal democracy we are today.

'We have to get the balance right and I'm concerned that we haven't in the draft that's been put out.'

University of Queensland professor Kenneth Wiltshire slammed the proposed changes, and said the body responsible should be abolished.

'We will create a nation of cretins awash in a world where they have no understanding of the history of civilisation, human thought, human philosophy, values, or principles which have produced lessons to be acknowledged by all societies,' he told The Australian.

'No amount of swiping screens or pushing buttons to pop up unsubstantiated internet entries will compensate for this.'

Mr Tudge said a curriculum with more emphasis on Indigenous history would be a 'positive development' but warned it shouldn't come at the expense of teaching shouldn't come at the expense of teaching 'classical and Western civilisations and how Australia came to be a free, liberal democracy'.

'Both are important to a rich understanding of our nation's history. There is more work to be done on this domain,' he said.

Mr Tudge fears language like 'invasion' could turn students into activists.

Under draft changes, students would learn how Australia's British colonisation was experienced by Indigenous people as an invasion

'Certainly some people from an Indigenous perspective saw things very, very differently to what the white settlers saw it from (sic) and that should be taught as well,' he said.

Mr Tudge did acknowledge it is 'particularly pleasing' to see mathematics standards lifted in the draft however he slammed a proposal to teach times tables at an older age.

'I am perplexed as to why some basic concepts such as times tables are pushed back from Year 3 to Year 4 as this goes against the general trend,' he said.

Education ministers from around the country will discuss the draft at a meeting in Melbourne on Friday.

The proposed changes will be open to public feedback before the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority hands a final draft to ministers later in the year.

Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge said it was good to include more emphasis on Indigenous history but expressed concern the draft failed to strike the right balance

'I will be looking for some changes from what I've seen so far,' Mr Tudge said.

A review of the existing curriculum found outdated ideas were in contrast to Indigenous calls for truth-telling history.

It also found there was too much emphasis on Indigenous history before Europeans arrived.

ACARA chief executive David de Carvalho said students should be taught the perspectives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

'It's important that all Australian students have the ability to discuss these important issues and understand these core concepts,' he told SBS News.
This blog covers software patent news and issues with a particular focus on wireless, mobile devices (smartphones, tablet computers, connected cars) as well as select antitrust matters surrounding those devices.
Saturday Night Live cast members will not be forced to appear on next weekend's show along side controversial host Elon Musk amid an outcry over the Tesla CEO being selected to host the show.

After SNL announced on Saturday that Musk will host the May 8 episode, cast members Bowen Yang and Aidy Bryant posted Instagram Stories taking aim at the billionaire.

They are believed to be unhappy that a business tycoon has been chosen to host the show instead of a figure from the arts, although Musk's outlandish tweets and ambitious projects have made him a pop culture icon.

'Speaking historically, if a cast member has been that unhappy, they don't have to do it,' a source told The New York Post on Friday.

They said that Lorne Michaels, the boss of SNL, 'won't ever make them do anything they don't want to do.'

Several Saturday Night Live cast members have aimed sly digs at Elon Musk in their Instagram stories, expressing annoyance that the Tesla CEO has been selected to host the show

None of the cast members of SNL have yet pulled out of the show due to Musk hosting

No cast members have pulled out of the show yet, the paper said.

Rehearsals will begin on Tuesday.

The source added: 'Whether you like him or not, Elon is a very interesting character. He's very much a showman.'

Musk, known for his unique banter on Twitter, tweeted: 'Let's find out how live Saturday Night Live really is.'

Yang posted the tweet on Stories with the response 'what the f*** does this even mean'.

And hours after the hosting announcement, Bryant seemed to aim a subtle shot at Musk, the world's second richest man, by posting an old quote from Senator Bernie Sanders calling it a 'moral obscenity' that the 50 richest people in America own more than the bottom half combined.

Bowen Yang posted Musk's tweet on Stories with the response 'what the f*** does this even mean' after Musk tweeted: 'Let's find out how live Saturday Night Live really is'

Aidy Bryant seemed to aim a subtle shot at Musk, the world's second richest man, by posting an old quote from Senator Bernie Sanders

Andrew Dismukes, who became a featured player this season after serving as a writer since 2017, also joined in, joking 'Only CEO I wanna do sketch with is Cher-E Oteri' in reference to a former SNL star.

The snide remarks were made on Stories that disappear after 24 hours, but eagle-eyed fans took screenshots.

Musk's selection as host is unusual for Saturday Night Live, which typically taps actors, comedians and other entertainers.

In one notable exception, Donald Trump hosted in November 2015, as he was pursuing his presidential bid, in a move that cast members grew to rue and looked back on as 'embarrassing and shameful'.

Musk's scheduled May 8 appearance on Saturday Night Live builds upon his recent run of success.

Tesla's stock is worth nearly six times more than it was before the pandemic started, leaving Musk with an estimated fortune of $177 billion, second only to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, according to Forbes.

Andrew Dismukes, who became a featured player this season, also joined in, joking 'Only CEO I wanna do sketch with is Cher-E Oteri' in reference to the former SNL star

And his SpaceX recently a launched a mission that sent astronauts to the International Space Station.

SNL doesn't make a habit of having business executives host its show, but Musk is far from a stuffy corporate type.

He regularly jokes around on Twitter, where he has nearly 52 million followers and has gotten into legal trouble for making disparaging remarks about critics.

He also once hinted that he might lead a buyout of Tesla, with that nugget resulting in Musk being fined $20 million by stock market regulators.

Miley Cyrus will be the musical guest on the night Musk hosts. Fan reaction to Musk's selection was largely negative, though it is seen as a lucrative move that will likely draw curious viewers.

Though visionary, Musk has become a controversial figure on account of his out of the box business moves and his often ludicrous Twitter antics.

Though a surefire way to get eyeballs on the screen, many fans took issue with the tech wizard hosting, as they felt he didn't need more exposure as he boasts a net worth of $177B dollars

He has shot himself in the foot on more than one occasion after going off on everything from his Tesla stock pricing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In May 2020 he tweeted: 'Tesla stock price is too high imo,' which wiped $14B off the company's value, as angry people fired back that his statements caused them to lose thousands.

In response to the COVID-19 lockdown he tweeted 'FREE AMERICA NOW,' and some began to dub him 'Elon Mask.'

And the marijuana-toking business mogul jeopardized his business again when he made what he dubbed a joke on the novelty holiday 4/20, writing: 'Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.'

That tweet garnered a lawsuit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and required him to pay a $20M settlement fine, in addition to being forced to step down as chairman of Tesla's board of directors for three years.
The five-metre crocodile launched itself into boat and attacked a fisherman

A fisherman was just two inches from certain death when a monster five-metre crocodile jumped into his boat and tried to devour him.

Chris Perger, 32, who lives at Wollongong on the NSW south coast, was in the Northern Territory last month on a fishing trip at the Kakadu National Park when he cheated death.

Perger was camping on a boat along the South Alligator River and had just finished dinner with a group of three friends when the croc attacked on April 24.

Chris Perger, 32, (pictured) was in the Northern Territory last month on a fishing trip at the Kakadu National Park when he cheated death after a crocodile tried to devour him

Chris Perger (pictured above right) was on a fishing trip to the Top End last month when he was attacked by a huge crocodile

'(Fellow fisherman) Riley (Wilson) screamed out 'Croc!' and then lunged out of the way before this massive croc jumped about three metres into our boat,' Perger told Northern Territory News.

'I was sitting on a chair, and it reached right out at me and had a big snap. It (the croc) got one of its teeth in my side, but if the seat wasn't there, it would have got me  5cm closer it would have pulled out my torso.

Mr Perger said he was shocked how fast the predator jumped into the boat and attacked him before he could do much to react.

NT Health later confirmed croc attack, and that Perger was treated at Jabiru Health Centre on Anzac Day last Sunday for body grazes.

Perger and his three friends stopped on the river near the banks of Mud Island to cook dinner when the attack happened.

Despite his brush with certain death, Chris Perger (pictured) has no plans to give up fishing

The attack was at the Kakadu National Park (pictured) in the Northern Territory on April 24

The smell of the food on board the boat is said to have 'motivated' the hungry reptile.

Crocodile expert Adam Britton described the behaviour as 'unusual'.

'It can happen, especially if they've got something to rest against like the side of a boat,' he told ABC News.

He also said he had heard that the crafty croc pushed itself over the gunnels before attempting to attack Perger.

Dr Britton warned fishermen to remain vigilant as the recent wet season filled up river systems, making it easier for crocodiles to freely roam.

Kakadu rangers are on the lookout for the crocodile, which is likely to be removed if found.

There were six crocodile attacks on humans this year across Australia, with one fatality in north Queensland.

The remains of Andrew Heard, 69, were found inside a four-metre crocodile in February.

The keen angler had gone on a fishing trip to Gayundah Creek, located between Cairns and Townsville, in a tiny dinghy boat.

The large reptile was later euthanised.
A baby boy has been diagnosed with Covid in hotel quarantine after arriving in Western Australia from overseas with his parents.

The infant is the son of a woman who previously tested positive in hotel quarantine.

His father tested negative.

The baby's diagnosis marks the state's 1000th case of Covid since the pandemic began.

It comes after WA Premier Mark McGowan said Western Australia will continue to use snap lockdowns to 'crush and kill' coronavirus outbreaks.

The baby's diagnosis marks the state's 1000th case of Covid since the pandemic began

The infant is the son of a woman who previously tested positive in hotel quarantine

Restrictions were eased on Saturday in the Perth and Peel regions following a week of strict measures.

West Australians will be free to flock to the footy but must wear face masks indoors and on public transport under restrictions that will remain for Perth and the Peel region until 12:01am on Saturday May 8.

The state on Friday posted its sixth consecutive day of no new local cases after Perth and Peel went into a long-weekend lockdown.

WA's Chamber of Commerce and Industry estimates the cost of the lockdown and subsequent restrictions to be more than $200 million.

But the premier maintains utilising WA's isolation to crush outbreaks is the best solution.

'I don't want to give that away,' he told reporters on Friday.

'The idea we allow it to linger and we have ongoing lockdowns and ongoing measures that remove ordinary life for extended periods, I don't think is the right model.'

Mr McGowan said NSW's response to an outbreak on the northern beaches last summer had resulted in months of restrictions and cost billions of dollars.

Small businesses in Perth and Peel that incurred direct costs, such as loss of perishable goods, will be eligible for support grants of $2000.
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A mother suffering from coronavirus died in a hospital car park after desperately waiting for three hours for a bed amid India's spiralling Covid crisis.

Jagriti Gupta laid helpless, gasping for breath, in a car outside the state-run GIMS hospital in Noida, as friends begged staff for treatment.

But authorities were unable to attend to the 35-year-old engineer as the virus continues to rip through the country and decimate its resources, with India becoming the first in the world to record 400,000 daily cases overnight.

One witness told NDTV: 'I was standing right there as her (Jagriti Gupta's) landlord ran around, asking for help. But no one listened to him. Around 3:30 pm, she collapsed. When the landlord ran to the reception to report that she is no longer breathing, the staff rushed outside and declared her dead.'

The country reported 3,500 deaths yesterday, bringing its total number of fatalities to almost 212,000 - only Mexico, Brazil and the United States have logged more.

It comes amid concerns from Delhi scientists that minor mutations in some Covid samples could 'possibly evade immune response' and require more study.

A forum of scientific advisers - known as the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genetics Consortium, or INSACOG - set up by the Indian government has told authorities that while they were flagging the mutations, there was no reason currently to believe they were expanding or could be dangerous.

It comes as:

The country steps up its vaccination drive to include all adults - although there are warnings of jab shortages in many areas;

More than 30 Australian cricket players, coaches and commentators have been left stranded in India after Sydney made it illegal for them to return with the threat of jail;

At least 18 people, including two healthcare workers, were killed in a fire at a Covid-19 hospital in the western Indian state of Gujarat

A mother suffering from coronavirus died in a hospital car park after desperately waiting for three hours for a bed amid India's spiralling Covid crisis

Dr Sohil Makwana posted two images - one of him covered in wet PPE and another of him standing in a soaked salmon-coloured shirt - as a reminder of the intense strain health staff are under

A health worker wearing a personal protective equipment (PPE) suit cleans the floor inside a banquet hall temporarily converted into a Covid-19 coronavirus ward in New Delhi

Patients breathe with the help of oxygen provided by a Gurdwara, a place of worship for Sikhs, under a tent installed along the roadside

Family members unload the body of a COVID-19 victim as they arrive at the cremation ground to perform the last rites in New Delhi

A woman with a breathing problem receives oxygen support for free at a Gurudwara (Sikh temple), amidst the spread of coronavirus disease

Health workers wearing a personal protective equipment (PPE) suits attend patients inside a banquet hall temporarily converted into a Covid-19 coronavirus ward in New Delhi

The country has a limited number of shots available domestically, worsening a grim second wave of infections that has left hospitals and morgues overflowing while families scramble for increasingly scarce medicines and oxygen

At least 18 people, including two healthcare workers, were killed in a fire at a COVID-19 hospital in the western Indian state of Gujarat

The blaze started around midnight in the intensive care ward of the Patel Welfare Hospital, a designated COVID-19 facility, in Bharuch city, 115 miles (185 km) north of state's main commercial city, Ahmedabad

People stand around the Welfare Hospital after a deadly fire in Bharuch, western India

A sign reading 'New Covid Centre, Welfare Hospital Bharuch & Research Centre' is seen at a the hospital, which was treating Covid patients

Another 386,452 infections and 3,498 deaths were officially recorded on Friday - but medics have warned the true figures could be ten times greater, putting daily infections at 3 million and fatalities at 30,000.

The percentage change in daily Covid infections by Indian state on April 25 compared to at their peak, most of which were recorded last year. States which have surpassed their peak infection rates by more than 300 per cent include Ladakh in the far north, Gujurat and Rajsthan in the west, Uttar Pradesh in the northeast and Chhattisgarh in the central eastern part of the country. Andra Pradesh in the east and the cluster of states in the far northeast of the country remain below their peaks of the first wave, suggesting that they may yet have another wave to live through

Thirty Australian cricket stars are stranded in India and face jail if they try to go home More than 30 Australian cricket players, coaches and commentators have been left stranded in India after Sydney made it illegal for them to return with the threat of jail. It comes after stars Adam Zampa and Kane Richardson were able to arrive in Melbourne on Thursday on a commercial flight from Doha via a travel loophole. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that route, and others through Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, had now been closed to put a total ban on travel from India, which recorded 400,000 new cases of coronavirus on Saturday. The government yesterday went a step further as it unveiled an emergency bill that will see anyone arriving from India jailed for up to five years or fined up to 37,000. Thirty-four Australians remain in India - 12 players, 11 coaches, four commentators, two umpires and five support staff, as well as a commentator from New Zealand who lives in Australia. Among the star players are Glenn Maxwell, Pat Cummins, Steve Smith and David Warner, while big names like Ricky Ponting, Simon Katich and David Hussey are coaching. Advertisement

INSACOG has found more mutations in coronavirus that it thinks need to be tracked closely.

'We are seeing some mutation coming up in some samples that could possibly evade immune responses,' said Shahid Jameel, chair of the scientific advisory group of INSACOG and a top Indian virologist. He did not say if the mutations have been seen in the Indian variant or any other strain.

'Unless you culture those viruses and test them in the lab, you can't say for sure. At this point, there is no reason to believe that they are expanding or if they can be dangerous, but we flagged it so that we keep our eye on the ball,' he said.

In another visual indictment of the frontline struggle, a doctor shared a harrowing photo on social media showing him drenched in sweat.

Dr Sohil Makwana posted two images - one of him covered in wet PPE and another of him standing in a soaked salmon-coloured shirt - as a reminder of the intense strain health staff are under.

But the doctor insisted he was 'proud to serve the nation', as the country hit a grim milestone of cases in its desperate battle to keep the virus under control.

In a follow-up tweet, he wrote: 'Talking on the behalf of all doctors and health workers.. we are really working hard away from our family.. sometimes a foot away from positive patient, sometimes an inch away from critically ill oldies... I request please go for vaccination.. it's only solution! Stay safe.'

The image clearly resonated with many, as it was retweeted nearly 17,000 times and received more than 132,000 likes on the social media site.

Across the country, vulnerable people are being supplied with oxygen tanks to help them breathe, with cleaners working round-the-clock to prepare hospital wards and families cremating the bodies of loved ones.

In another visual indictment of the frontline struggle, a doctor shared a harrowing photo on social media showing him drenched in sweat.

Dr Sohil Makwana posted two images - one of him covered in wet PPE and another of him standing in a soaked salmon-coloured shirt - as a reminder of the intense strain health staff are under.

But the doctor insisted he was 'proud to serve the nation', as the country hit a grim milestone of cases in its desperate battle to keep the virus under control.

In a follow-up tweet, he wrote: 'Talking on the behalf of all doctors and health workers.. we are really working hard away from our family.. sometimes a foot away from positive patient, sometimes an inch away from critically ill oldies... I request please go for vaccination.. it's only solution! Stay safe.'

The image clearly resonated with many, as it was retweeted nearly 17,000 times and received more than 132,000 likes on the social media site.

Across the country, vulnerable people are being supplied with oxygen tanks to help them breathe, with cleaners working round-the-clock to prepare hospital wards and families cremating the bodies of loved ones.

India, the world's biggest producer of jabs, had now stepped up its vaccination drive to include all adults, although several states have warned of acute shortages.

The country has a limited number of shots available domestically, worsening a grim second wave of infections that has left hospitals and morgues overflowing while families scramble for increasingly scarce medicines and oxygen.

'We hope that we will get vaccines tomorrow or the day after ... I ask you to please not queue up at vaccination centres on Saturday,' the Chief Minister of the hard-hit state of Delhi, said on Friday.

A man walks past a funeral pyre of a person who died from coronavirus during a mass cremation at a crematorium in New Delhi

It comes amid concerns from Delhi scientists that minor mutations in some Covid samples could 'possibly evade immune response' and require more study. Pictured: Critical patients being given free oxygen in Uttar Pradesh

A forum of scientific advisers - known as the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genetics Consortium, or INSACOG - set up by the Indian government has told authorities that while they were flagging the mutations, there was no reason currently to believe they were expanding or could be dangerous. Pictured: A mass cremation in New Delhi

Patients receive free oxygen amid a rise in coronavirus cases across the country in Ghaziabad at Uttar Pradesh, India on May 1

A priest who works at a crematorium performs the last rites of a patient who died of Covid-19 amid burning funeral pyres in New Delhi

A woman wearing an oxygen mask in New Delhi. Free oxygen has been distributed by a Gurdwara (Sikh Holy place) as a service for Covid victims

People stand while waiting for refilled oxygen cylinders outside the store in New Delhi. India has recorded 401,993 new Covid-19 cases in the first time

A body is prepared for the last rites at funeral pyres for Covid-19 victims in New Delhi, India

A Covid-19 patient breaths with the help of an oxygen mask in his car outside the Guru Tech Bahuder Hospital in New Delhi

A man carries a refilled oxygen cylinder after they were distribution outside the store in New Delhi

India's healthcare system is struggling to cope with the coronavirus crisis, which has killed 211,853 people and infected more than 19 million, according to health ministry data on Saturday. Pictured: People waiting by refilled Oxygen tanks in New Delhi

A man is helped by his relatives after being discharged outside Guru Tech Bahuder Hospital in New Delhi, India

Family members of Covid-19 victims perform last rites at Sangam, the confluence of rivers Ganges and Yamuna in Prayagraj, in India

A dozen people were reported killed after a fire in a hospital treating COVID-19 patients in a suburb of Mumbai on April 23. Earlier 22 patients died at a public hospital in Maharashtra where Mumbai is located when oxygen supplies ran out due to a leaking tank. Pictured: A burning funeral pyre in New Delhi

A body of a Covid-19 victim lies covered in white cloth next to a burning pyre of another victim at a cremation ground in Prayagraj, India

A man sits solemnly alone after he performed the last rites of his relative who died of Covid-19 in New Delhi, India

A crematorium worker picks up ashes while cleaning after last rites were performed for patients who died of Covid-19

A Covid-19 patient who is struggling to breathe is helped with an oxygen mask in his car outside the Guru Tech Bahuder Hospital in New Delhi

Critical patients receive free oxygen provided by a Gurdwara amid a rise in coronavirus cases across the country in Uttar Pradesh

Workers carry the body of a person who died from coronavirus during a mass cremation in New Delhi

The body of a person who died from Covid-19 is seen ahead of its cremation in New Delhi, India on May 1

Demonstrators in protective suits and masks lie on a road during a protest demanding to stop election and campaign rallies in the eastern state of West Bengal amid the Covid crisis

A priest prepares to perform the last rites of a Covid patient who died during the pandemic. A mass cremation is being carried out in New Delhi

A female Covid patient struggling to breathe hugs her son while waiting for free oxygen provided by a Gurdwara in New Delhi

Family members wearing Personal Protective Equipment stand next to the body of their relative who lost his life due to coronavirus in New Delhi

Critical patients receive free oxygen provided by a Gurdwara in Ghaziabad amid a rise in coronavirus cases across the country

Critical patients receive free oxygen at Uttar Pradesh. India's healthcare system is struggling to cope as cases soar

Men walk past the burning pyres of victims who died from Covid-19 during a mass cremation at a makeshift crematorium in New Delhi

Workers and family members bring a body for cremation near multiple funeral pyres of victims of Covid-19 in India

Workers and family members bring a body for cremation near multiple funeral pyres for Covid-19 victims

A body is being cremated at Gazipur crematorium in India today. The sky is seen filled with smoke as the fires raged

Hundreds of people were seen queuing across Ahmedabad, the main commercial city in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat to get vaccinated.

Then last night, at least 18 people, including two healthcare workers, were killed in a fire at a COVID-19 hospital in the western Indian state of Gujarat.

The blaze started around midnight in the intensive care ward of the Patel Welfare Hospital, a designated COVID-19 facility, in Bharuch city, 115 miles (185 km) north of state's main commercial city, Ahmedabad.

'Sixteen patients and two staff members have died in the fire. Twelve of them died due to fire and smoke,' said R.V. Chudasama, a superintendent of police in Bharuch.

'Preliminary investigation shows the fire was caused because of a short circuit,' he said.

Local news channels showed footage of a hospital ward completely destroyed in the fire.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a tweet he was 'pained by the loss of lives due to a fire at a hospital in Bharuch.'

India's healthcare system is struggling to cope with the coronavirus crisis, which has killed 211,853 people and infected more than 19 million, according to health ministry data on Saturday.

A dozen people were reported killed after a fire in a hospital treating COVID-19 patients in a suburb of Mumbai on April 23.

Earlier 22 patients died at a public hospital in Maharashtra where Mumbai is located when oxygen supplies ran out due to a leaking tank.

Meanwhile, actor Arjun Gowda, star of movies such as Yuvarathnaa and Odeya, has used a break in his filming schedule to volunteer as an ambulance driver to help those in need.

He set up Project Smile Trust, which aims to reach out to those left completely stranded by the pandemic.

He told Times of India: 'We want to ensure that we help out anyone in need irrespective of where they come from or what religion they practice. I'm also ready to travel across town for help.

'I ended up taking someone who lives in Kengeri all the way to Whitefield to get them admitted in the hospital.

'I plan on continuing with this help for the next couple of months as the current situation is quite back and I want to do my bit to people in whatever little way that I can.'

A man wearing PPE performs the last rites of a deceased relative in a disused granite quarry repurposed to cremate the Covid dead in India

A crane places new biers in an area used to cremate the dead in India. A variant is wreaking havoc across the country and overwhelming crematoriums

A mourner wearing Personal Protective Equipment waits to perform the last rites of a deceased relative in Bengaluru, India

A worker is seen turning over the funeral pyres at a crematorium in Delhi last night. The country of 1.4 billion is in the eye of the world's Covid storm, with funeral pyres burning around the clock in Delhi and Mumbai and hospitals under armed guard to protect oxygen supplies.

It comes after it emerged yesterday that an Indian woman died after police were accused of taking her oxygen cylinder away to give to a VIP amid acute shortages and a health system overwhelmed by the world's fastest growing Covid outbreak.

Video circulated on social media shows a man crying and begging officers on his hands and knees outside a private hospital in the city of Agra in Uttar Pradesh.

'My mother will die if you take away her oxygen cylinder,' Anmol Goyal, 22, told the police as the cylinder was carried out of the hospital on Tuesday night.

He and his 17-year-old brother had sourced the oxygen themselves after the hospital ran out, bringing it to the Covid ward and placing it by their mother's bed.

But the cylinder was confiscated by the police for someone deemed to be more important, according to The Times of India correspondent who shared the video on social media.

Two hours later the Goyals' mother died.

Video circulated on social media shows a man crying and begging officers on his hands and knees outside a private hospital in the city of Agra in Uttar Pradesh. 'My mother will die if you take away her oxygen cylinder,' Anmol Goyal, 22, pleaded with officers as the cylinder was carried out of the hospital on Tuesday night. Agra Police have vehemently denied the claims, saying: 'It was an empty cylinder being taken away from the hospital for refilling.'

An ambulance overburdened with Covid victims in Maharashtra state is the latest grim evidence of the carnage unfolding throughout the country of 1.4 billion as a new mutation of the virus rips through the population. Police officers reportedly snatched the phones out of people's hands as they tried to photograph the ambulance, its suspension sagging under the weight of the dead, outside a morgue in the city of Beed on Friday. Beed district chief Ravindra Jagtap vowed to punish those responsible, but added that there are just two ambulances to carry the dead to the city's crematorium and more were needed.

Police pose with alleged Covid thieves outside a police station in west Delhi. Oxygen cylinders are being sold on the black market for more than 1,000, compared to the pre-pandemic price of around 60.

Relatives wearing personal protective equipment lower the body a Covid victim into a grave at a cemetery in Delhi on Friday

A family member performs the last rites at a crematorium in Jammu, northern India, on Friday. The army opened up hospitals today as PM Narendra Modi seeks to avoid a humanitarian crisis

Health workers install oxygen cylinders for COVID-19 patients at a makeshift hospital in the Indian capital on Friday. Delhi is recording roughly 25,000 new cases each day, but the true figure is believed to be as much as ten times greater

A municipal worker wearing a face mask uses a fumigation spray machine near a vaccination centre in Mumbai on Friday

Beds are prepared inside an emergency Covid centre which is preparing to open in Mumbai amid a colossal surge in cases which has overrun hospitals in the city of 12 million residents

Eighteen people killed in hospital fire At least 18 people, including two healthcare workers, were killed in a fire at a COVID-19 hospital in the western Indian state of Gujarat last night. The blaze started around midnight in the intensive care ward of the Patel Welfare Hospital, a designated COVID-19 facility, in Bharuch city, 115 miles (185 km) north of state's main commercial city, Ahmedabad. 'Sixteen patients and two staff members have died in the fire. Twelve of them died due to fire and smoke,' said R.V. Chudasama, a superintendent of police in Bharuch. 'Preliminary investigation shows the fire was caused because of a short circuit,' he said. Local news channels showed footage of a hospital ward completely destroyed in the fire. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a tweet he was 'pained by the loss of lives due to a fire at a hospital in Bharuch.' Advertisement

Agra Police have vehemently denied the claims, saying: 'It was an empty cylinder being taken away from the hospital for refilling.'

India is in the eye of the world's Covid storm, with funeral pyres burning around the clock in Delhi and Mumbai and hospitals under armed guard to protect oxygen supplies.

Despite emergency medical gear arriving from Britain and the United States, including a USAF cargo jet with 400 oxygen cylinders on Friday, there remains an acute shortage of oxygen, medicines and beds across India.

People are dying in the streets and on stretchers outside the overcrowded hospitals, while lucrative Indian Premier League cricket matches are played just a few hundred yards away.

The league attracts many star players from Australia, whose officials have now put an unprecedented ban on citizens returning from India.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has defended the policy today, despite the move being blasted as 'horrifying' and 'outrageous'.

The federal government made made it illegal to fly home from India under threat of five years in jail and fines of $66,600.

Health Minister Greg Hunt announced the draconian restriction today, which will begin at 12.01am on Monday.

Mr Frydenberg stood by the the government's decision, saying Prime Minister Scott Morrison acted on medical advice.

'We have taken drastic action to keep Australians safe, and what we face in India is a very serious situation where the medical advice provided to the federal government has been to put in place these strict measures,' he said on Sunday.

Asked if it was irresponsible then to leave Australians there and effectively lock them out of their own country, Mr Frydenberg said the measure was drastic but temporary.

'The best thing we can do is get supplies into India, which is what we're doing - ventilators, masks, other PPE equipment,' he told reporters.

'We're doing everything we can to support India at this very difficult time (but) we've also got to protect Australians.'

Labor backed the flight ban as the 'right call' but suggested criminalising citizens for trying to return is another story.

Senior Labor MP Jason Clare told the ABC the flight ban was 'the right call' based on health advice, however criminalising citizens for trying to return was another story

'It'd be a big call to make it a crime for Australians trying to get home  what we should be doing is trying to make it easier.'

'We charted a flight to Wuhan (in China) to get Aussies out and took them to Christmas Island.'

'Why aren't we doing that now?'

Australia's Covid exiles: THIRTY Australian cricket stars are stranded in India and face JAIL if they try to go home after Sydney made it ILLEGAL for them to go home

More than 30 Australian cricket players, coaches and commentators have been left stranded in India after Sydney made it illegal for them to return with the threat of jail.

It comes after stars Adam Zampa and Kane Richardson were able to arrive in Melbourne on Thursday on a commercial flight from Doha via a travel loophole.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that route, and others through Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, had now been closed to put a total ban on travel from India, which recorded 400,000 new cases of coronavirus on Saturday.

The government yesterday went a step further as it unveiled an emergency bill that will see anyone arriving from India jailed for up to five years or fined up to 37,000.

Thirty-four Australians remain in India - 12 players, 11 coaches, four commentators, two umpires and five support staff, as well as a commentator from New Zealand who lives in Australia.

Among the star players are Glenn Maxwell, Pat Cummins, Steve Smith and David Warner, while big names like Ricky Ponting, Simon Katich and David Hussey are coaching.

Steve Smith is pictured with his wife Dani Willis. Smith was purchased for $390,000 at February's auction to represent the Delhi Capitals. David Warner, pictured right with wife Candice, is earning 1.3 million

David Warner and Kane Williamson are seen in full PPE as they travel on a plane during the IPL

AJ Tye, Adam Zampa and Kane Richardson made the decision to escape the lucrative league early while Test players Steve Smith, Dave Warner and Pat Cummins (pictured with fiancee Becky Boston) stayed put

Adam Zampa and Kane Richardson touched down in Melbourne late Thursday afternoon via a commercial flight from Qatar, exposing a gap in Scott Morrison's travel ban.

Funeral pyres have been burning around the clock in cities across India to cope with the dead (pictured: a crematorium in Bengaluru)

Health workers wearing a personal protective equipment (PPE) suits attend patients inside a banquet hall temporarily converted into a Covid-19 coronavirus ward in Delhi on Saturday

Cummins' contract is worth 1.8 million, while Warner is earning 1.3 million.

In addition to the cricketers, more than 9,000 Australian citizens are believed to be in India.

Mr Morrison promised that the sporting stars would not receive any preferential treatment under the new rules to protect Australia's successful zero Covid strategy.

'They have travelled there privately,' the PM said on Tuesday. 'This wasn't part of an Australian tour. They're under their own resources and they'll be using those resources too, I'm sure, to see them return to Australia in accordance with their own arrangements.'

The lucrative Twenty20 tournament is due to wrap up on May 30 and the players are housed in a 'biosecure bubble,' with no plans to cancel any fixtures.

Earlier this week, organisers came under renewed flak as a match between the Rajasthan Royals and the Mumbai Indians was played just a few hundred yards away from Delhi's largest hospital where patients were dying for lack of oxygen.

England's Jos Buttler played in the fixture along with Indian stars Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah.

Cricket Australia released their own statement earlier this week after Mr Morrison announced the new travel ban on India, saying it was in constant discussion with players and coaches in the country.

'We will assist where possible,' the statement read. 'We will continue to liaise closely with the Australian government following today's announcement that direct flights from India to Australia will be paused until 15 May, and monitor the situation between now and the tournament's scheduled conclusion on 30 May.'

It comes as Western Australia's premier, Mark McGowan, warned that quarantine facilities in the state had already been placed under huge strain by people arriving from India.

Mr Morrison promised that the sporting stars would not receive any preferential treatment under the new rules to protect Australia's successful zero Covid strategy

Glenn Maxwell (pictured with his partner Vini) is on 1.4 million with Royal Challengers Bangalore

Batsman Chris Lynn, pictured with partner Karlie Andrews, who has led calls for Cricket Australia to organise a plane to get players out of India

Moises Henriques (pictured with partner Krista), who is playing for the Punjab Kings, also remains in India

Mr McGowan said on Tuesday that there was 'huge pressure now on all our quarantine facilities as a result of people coming from India.'

'What makes it more galling is people have gone over there, over the course of the past few months,' he added.

One of the girlfriends of the cricket stars, Chris Lynn, who is earning $357,000 200,000 playing for the Mumbai Indians, led calls this week for Cricket Australia to charter a plane to get the players out.

Karlie Andrews told Daily Mail Australia she did not feel comfortable commenting on the current situation 'as everything is still up in the air' - but admitted fellow WAGs are keen to get their loved ones home to Australia as soon as possible.

'I know the IPL is doing everything they can to keep our players safe in their bubble,' she said.

'And I know all partners would obviously love to have their significant other home safe and well ASAP when IPL is complete.

'Hopefully (Chris) is home at the end of May. It is not ideal and I miss him heaps but it won't be forever and so just have to hang in there.'

Ms Andrews said she was hopeful Cricket Australia would charter a flight to pull the players out of India once the IPL finishes but noted she was 'not sure' that would be the case.

Australian cricketer Adam Zampa (pictured with fiancee Harriet) touched down in Melbourne along with Kane Richardson on Thursday

India is in the eye of the world's Covid storm, with funeral pyres burning around the clock in Delhi and Mumbai and hospitals under armed guard to protect oxygen supplies.

Despite emergency medical gear arriving from Britain and the United States, including a USAF cargo jet with 400 oxygen cylinders on Friday, there remains an acute shortage of oxygen, medicines and beds across India.

People are dying in the streets and on stretchers outside the overcrowded hospitals, while IPL matches are played just a few blocks away.

The tournament has continued, with players offering donations to help Covid victims and others making the case that it provides much needed relief for the fearful population.
The body of Gold Coast mother of three Kelly Wilkinson was discovered in a home on the Gold Coast on April 20

An ex-US marine accused of burning his estranged wife alive allegedly jumped into a pool after he too caught fire to dampen the flames.

Police will allege Brian Earl Johnston, 34, doused Kelly Wilkinson, 27, in petrol and set her alight on April 20 at her home in Arundel on the Gold Coast before the flames spread to his body.

He is accused of then jumping into a nearby swimming pool to save himself, the Gold Coast Bulletin reported.

Police allegedly found a trail of blood leading from the Spikes Court home to a property where Johnston was found in nearby Langer Place.

Ms Wilkinson, 27 who is believed to have already complained twice to police about her ex, died at the scene outside her home.

The couple's three children, all aged under nine, were at the home but unharmed.

Brian Johnston, 34, has been charged with the murder of Ms Wilkinson on April 20. Above, the pair on their wedding day

The couple holding one of their children during a holiday in the US. Johnston (right) has woken up from a coma and is under police guard at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital

Police charged Ms Wilkinson's estranged husband Brian Johnston (pictured) with her murder on Friday

They have been taken in with Ms Wilkinson's sister Danielle Carroll - who has five children of her own.

Neighbours reported seeing flames shoot up over the fence on the day of the alleged attack and raced into the yard.

Johnston allegedly fled the scene but was tracked down to the nearby property.

He was allegedly carrying a knife sheath and semi-conscious.

Police said they discovered three knives and duct tape in the same backyard, but the post-mortem found the items did not cause her death.

They said one of the knives was found under Ms Wilkinson's head, another in the pool and a third in the grass.

The family of Ms Wilkinson are seen during a vigil for the mother-of-three on the Gold Coast on Monday

More than 1,000 locals turned out to pay tribute to Ms Wilkinson, many wearing green, her favourite colour

Police also located a melted plastic fuel container, a duffel bag with rope inside, a crow bar and duct tape.

Johnston was charged at the Royal Brisbane and Womens Hospital after waking from an induced coma and charged with murder, breaching bail and a domestic violence order.

His lawyer Chris Hannay confirmed police had formally charged his client with the murder of Wilkinson.

The victim's devastated family have claimed that Johnston was controlling and dictated what the 27-year-old wore, how she styled her hair and even banned her from getting a driver's licence or a job.

Kelly Wilkinson messaged her ex-husband Brian Johnston's former fiancee, who lives in the United States, on March 29 local time in the United States to ask: 'Was he ever abusive in any form?' Queensland Police confirmed she sought a domestic violence order on that same date

She had even gone to the lengths of contacting Johnston's ex-girlfriend in the United States to ask if he had been abusive towards her.

'I'm sorry to message you with such a sensitive subject,' Ms Wilkinson said in messages obtained by Daily Mail Australia.

'When you were with Brian was he ever abusive in any form?

'We are in Australia...I'm wondering if there's a pattern with him he needs help.'

The pair married when she was just 18, before separating a couple of months ago.

On Monday evening, about 1,000 people, many wearing Ms Wilkinson's favourite colour green, gathered at the Gold Coast Titans training ground to pay a silent tribute to Ms Wilkinson.
A series of failings within Victoria's hotel quarantine system led to 275 guests being put at risk of contracting blood-borne diseases such as HIV and hepatitis B and C.

Between March and August last year the same blood glucose monitoring device was used across multiple guests, a review by Safer Care Victoria has found.

The devices carry out a finger prick test on guests and are intended to be used on one person only.

Safer Care Victoria said none of the 275 guests referred to get tested contracted any viruses but not everyone identified in the review could be contacted.

Several failings within Victoria's hotel quarantine system led to 275 guests being put at risk of contracting blood borne diseases such as HIV and hepatitis B and C (testing facility is seen at View Melbourne Hotel)

File image pictured of a finger prick blood sample being taken in France in July 2020

'No former quarantine residents exposed to potential cross-contamination have been identified as having contracted a blood borne virus as a result of having their blood glucose level tested,' a spokesperson said.

'Of those successfully contacted, many were found to have used their own device and were not at risk, or did not have the test. To date, 275 people have been referred for follow up testing, with no positive results related to this incident.

'However, not all residents identified in the review of health records were able to be contacted, despite multiple attempts.'

The devices were used on people with diabetes or who were pregnant.

The review said the blame was to lie with how quickly the quarantine program was set up so 'important clinical governance was not established'.

'That is, there was no guidance, training or oversight to help team leaders or registered nurses understand these devices were not appropriate for use on multiple people,' the review said.

A group associated with the Australian Open are seen lining up at a testing facility at the View Melbourne Hotel in February. None of the 275 guests that were referred to get tested contracted any viruses

The review said the blame was to lie with how quickly the hotel quarantine program was set up and a lack of training given to medical staff using the devices (pictured returning traveller arrives at hotel quarantine facility in Melbourne)

It was also found that logistics and supply, nursing leadership and recruitment, and the unfamiliar environment nurses were working in all contributed to the incorrect use of the devices - as well as a lack of training.

The use of both paper and electronic records also caused complications in detecting the guests who may have been at risk.

Safer Car Victoria said all of its 13 recommendations from the review had been implemented or were underway.

As Covid-19 is not transmitted through blood there was no risk of the virus spreading from the device.
South Asian communities in England were more at risk during the second wave of coronavirus than other ethnic groups, a study has found.

Researchers said disparities for hospital admissions and death from Covid-19 improved for most minority ethnic groups between the first and second wave of the pandemic.

But this gap widened for those from South Asian backgrounds between the February to September wave and then September to December last year.

The findings, published in the journal Lancet, are based on 17 million adults in England, which is thought to be the largest study to date.

Dr Rohini Mathur, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: 'Despite the improvements seen in most minority ethnic groups in the second wave compared to the first, it's concerning to see that the disparity widened among South Asian groups.

Researchers said disparities for hospital admissions and death from Covid-19 improved for most minority ethnic groups between the first and second wave of the pandemic (file image)

'This highlights an urgent need to find effective prevention measures that fit with the needs of the UK's ethnically diverse population.'

The scientists said health factors - such as body weight, blood pressure and underlying health conditions - as well as household size could be some of the key factors for disparity in Covid-19 mortality for South Asian groups.

Dr Rohini Mathur, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Possible solutions could include reducing structural disadvantage and inequality as well as improving access to healthcare across all minority ethnic groups, the researchers said.

Dr Mathur said: 'While multigenerational living may increase risk of exposure and transmission (from children or working age adults to older or vulnerable family members), such households and extended communities also offer valuable informal care networks and facilitate engagement with health and community services.

'In light of emerging evidence that minority ethnic groups are less likely to take up the Covid-19 vaccine, co-designing culturally competent and non-stigmatising engagement strategies with these communities is increasingly important.'

The Covid-19 pandemic is thought to have had a disproportionate impact on minority ethnic communities in the UK when compared with white groups.

Reasons for this could include living in deprived areas, working in front-line jobs, and having poorer access to healthcare.

For their study, the researchers analysed partially anonymised electronic health data from 17,288,532 adults in the OpenSAFELY database.

Ethnicity was self-reported by participants and grouped into five main categories - white, South Asian, black, other, and mixed.

The Covid-19 pandemic is thought to have had a disproportionate impact on minority ethnic communities in the UK when compared with white groups (file image)

Data showed that during the first wave, nearly all minority ethnic groups had higher relative risk for testing positive, being admitted to hospital and intensive care units (ICU), and death, compared to white groups.

ICU admissions were more than doubled for all minority ethnic groups compared with white groups, the researchers said, with black people more than three times more likely to be admitted to ICU after accounting for other factors.

The researchers found these risks lessened during the second wave for all minority ethnic communities, with the exception of South Asian groups.

Writing in a linked comment, Dr Daniel Morales of University of Dundee, and Dr Sarah Ali, of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, said that the main challenge now is ensuring Covid-19 vaccination programmes are rolled out effectively amongst all minority ethnic groups.

They said: 'There are reports of increased (vaccine) hesitancy in minority ethnic groups, including those working in front-line health and social care roles, who knowingly face an increased risk of contracting Covid-19.

'Unless vaccine hesitancy is tackled head on, differential vaccine uptake may further exacerbate health inequalities faced by minority ethnic groups.'
A security guard at a Perth hotel quarantine facility has tested positive to Covid-19 along with two of his housemates.

The guard, aged in his 20s, worked at the Pan Pacific hotel on April 24, 25 and 26.

Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan said while the city wouldn't be going into a second lockdown yet it was still a possibility.

The man - who had received his first dose of the Pfizer vaccination - and his two housemates have been moved into hotel quarantine.

'What has helped enormously is that, due to the interim restrictions we have had in place since Tuesday, they have significantly reduced movement in the community and everyone has been wearing masks,' Mr McGowan said in a snap press conference on Saturday evening.

A security guard at a Perth hotel quarantine facility has tested positive to Covid-19 along with two of his house mates. File image of pedestrians walking through a pedestrian overpass at a train station in Perth on April 27

'That gives us some confidence that the risk of transmission is significantly lower than it would normally be.

'These factors and the fact we have picked up this case as early means we can avoid moving into a lockdown at this point.'

How the security guard became infected is not yet known but officials said there may have been some transmission from international arrivals moving into the hotel on April 24.

CCTV of the hotel will be reviewed and health authorities confirmed he had worked on the same floor as two positive cases.

The infected man lives in a house with seven people in Nollamara but so far only two others have tested positive, one being from Canberra.

Health authorities believe he may have been infectious for four days in the community before testing positive.

PERTH LOCATIONS POTENTIALLY EXPOSED TO COVID-19 BY CITY'S THREE NEW CASES Mirrabooka - Mirrabooka Mosque, Masjid Al Taqwa Friday, April 30 1.15pm  2.00pm Balcatta - Coles  Northlands Shopping Centre Thursday, April 29 4.30pm  5.15pm Joondanna - Agha Juice cafe Wednesday, April 28 6.50pm  8.00pm Balcatta - Smokemart  Northlands Shopping Centre Wednesday, April 28 1.30pm  3.15pm Balcatta - Northlands Fresh  Northlands Shopping Centre Wednesday, April 28 1.30pm  3.15pm Stirling - Spudshed supermarket Wednesday, April 28 1.30am  2.30am Victoria Park - Swan Taxi Victoria Park Tuesday, April 27 1.50pm  2.45pm Advertisement

Premier Mark McGowan said a second lockdown would not happen just yet but did not rule it out

On Tuesday he had dropped friends to work and visited another person's house later that day.

Potentially infected locations visited by the man include Spudshed in Stirling, the Northland Shopping Centre in Balcatta and Coles in Balcatta.

He had also visited a juice cafe in Joondanna and a mosque in Mirrabooka on Friday morning.

Mr McGowan has told all Perth and Peel residents they will need to wear their masks again while indoors and outside.

Mr McGowan has urged all Perth and Peel residents to wear their masks again while indoors and outside

'We understand that on the evening of Thursday the 29th of April (the guard) developed symptoms, which he thought was related to his COVID Pfizer vaccine,' Mr McGowan said of the state's 1,001st Covid case.

'On Friday morning  that is yesterday  he went to a hotel quarantine facility for his weekly PCR test, under the requirement we have in place for hotel quarantine workers. That test result came back this morning and was confirmed to be positive.'

Contact tracers are desperately working to find any residents who may have come into contact with the security guard.
A 20-year-old man who died after jumping into the River Thames to rescue a woman who fell from London Bridge has been nominated for a bravery award.

The City of London Police nominated Folajimi Olubunmi-Adewole for the award after he lost his life diving into the river after spotting the woman fall from the bridge.

Police have said it is 'absolutely right' that he is nominated for the award from the Royal Humane Society.

The force is also looking to award him with a commendation from Commissioner Ian Dyson.

Folajimi Olubunmi-Adewole, 20, known as Jimi, drowned in the River Thames after diving in to rescue a woman

Pictured: A police boat on the River Thames with London Bridge in the background during the search for the man who jumped into the river to save a woman

Known as Jimi, Mr Olubunmi-Adewole was on his way home from work around midnight on April 26 when the woman fell from the bridge.

After diving in to rescue her, the woman and another man who also jumped into the water were rescued by the Coastguard and the Metropolitan Police's river unit, but Jimi was not found after a search which called off after more than an hour.

Police then said a body which was later formally identified to be that of Jimi was discovered at 6am on Saturday.

A City of London Police spokesperson said: 'We feel that is absolutely right to recognise the bravery and selfless actions of Folajimi Olubunmi-Adewole, known as Jimi.

Folajimi Olubunmi-Adewole, 20, drowned in the River Thames after diving in to rescue a woman

Jimi's family are devastated by his death and want him to be rewarded for his bravery

'To honour his memory and heroism, we have contacted the Royal Humane Society to start the nomination process for their bravery award, and we are also looking to award Jimi a commissioner's commendation from the City of London Police.

'Our thoughts remain with his friends and family at this difficult time.'

As the plans were announced, his family paid tribute to him, describing him as an 'loving son' and 'best friend' who is 'irreplaceable'.

In statements through the police, his father Michael Adewola, 63, said: 'Jimi is a loving son and my best friend. He has a good heart and always willing to help everyone around him. I'll forever miss him.'

Jimi died after jumping into the River Thames to rescue a woman who fell from London Bridge. Pictured: London Bridge

Mr Adewola earlier told The Sun: 'Jimi was a very nice, kind young man, he was the heart of our family.

'He was full of live, he had his life to live, he was ambitious and he was so gifted.

'He was a previous boy, and so respectful and pure-hearted. Sometimes I don't know how these boys are like this together, he was just something else.

'We want justice for him. 'We want his life to mean something, it will always mean something to us, but he should be rewarded for the bravery he showed, he deserves a medal for what he did.

'He is a very unique and angelic soul, and I am proud him, so proud, and I want to know the world he is the deepest and most wonderful man.'

His mother Olasunkanmi Adewole, 54, added: 'I feel bad, because my son was trying to rescue a woman.

'My son Jimi is my strength, he takes care of me and everyone. I'm empty without Jimi. I pray to have peace in my life.'
Residents in 17 Adelaide suburbs have been put on high alert after fragments of coronavirus were detected in wastewater.

South Australia Health authorities confirmed on Saturday a 'low positive result' had been detected from the BH02 sub-catchment zone which covers areas from North Haven down to West Lakes Shore in the city's west.

'This result could be explained by historic cases, however it is a timely reminder that people should get tested for COVID-19 with even the mildest of symptoms,' SA Health said.

South Australia Health authorities confirmed on Saturday a 'low positive result' had been detected from the BH02 sub-catchment zone which covers areas from North Haven down to West Lakes Shore in the city's west (pictured wastewater treatment plan in Adelaide)

South Australia currently has 33 active cases with two more infections recorded on Saturday in returned travellers (pictured masked passengers at Adelaide Airport)

Authorities will continue to retest the catchment and monitor if more traces of the virus are found.

The catchment includes suburbs Birkenhead, Osborne, Ethelton, Exeter, Glanville, New Port, North Haven, Largs Bay, Largs North, and Peterhead, Semaphore, Semaphore Park, Semaphore South, Taperoo, Tennyson, West Lakes and West Lakes Shore.

South Australia currently has 33 active cases with two more infections recorded on Saturday in returned travellers.

On Tuesday authorities confirmed there was just 12 rooms left in hotel quarantine for positive cases prompting Premier Steven Marshall to halt international flights for three days.

Mr Marshall said he had asked Prime Minister Scott Morrison to put a 'pause' on flights due to the worrying rise in cases in India, as well as infections in his states' hotel quarantine program.

The announcement comes after the state recorded 14 new coronavirus cases on Monday, all in returning overseas travellers.
Glastonbury fans will be relieved to hear the festival is back on - as long as they bring their own guitar and keep the noise down from 11pm.

The home of the festival, Worthy Pastures in Somerset, is opening its fields up to campers this summer.

It means there will not be any headliner or famous faces appearing on stage, but for those who want to continue the tradition of travelling to the area it has come as a welcome relief from coronavirus restrictions.

The 'tranquil, family-friendly site' will be offering tents from 425 for three nights as well as food traders, a bar and a 'village store' offering local produce and freshly baked bread.

There will be showers and composting toilets but holidaymakers will have to pack enough clothes for their stay because there will not be any laundry facilities.

Glasto Thingy, an online chronicler for the festival, said: 'I think it looks great. There seems to be a fair bit of excitement. I think the spaces will go pretty quickly.'

The home of the festival, Worthy Pastures in Somerset, is opening its fields up to campers this summer. Pictured, the festival in 2015

Advertisements have suggested a stay at the campsite will be a chance to get 'back to basics'.

And for larger bookings, an eight-person scout tent costs 1,125 for six nights over the August bank holiday weekend.

In its statement, the festival said: 'After what has been a challenging year for so many, we're so pleased to be able to provide the opportunity for our crew to do what they do best, and we can't wait to welcome our first guests back on to the farm. It will be a much-needed boost to morale all round!'

Bookings opened at 10am this morning.

The 'tranquil, family-friendly site' will be offering tents from 425 for three nights as well as food traders, a bar and a 'village store' offering local produce and freshly baked bread. Pictured, one of the tents available

In January the music festival's co-organiser, Michael Eavis - who curates the lineup with his daughter Emily, said he was 'so sorry' to have to cancel the event for the second year in a row.

Most live music events, including Glastonbury, were wiped out last summer by the pandemic and a recent study warned that without state support, Britain's 1.3billion live music industry is heading for another summer washout.

Michael and his daughter Emily said: 'With great regret, we must announce that this year's Glastonbury Festival will not take place, and that this will be another enforced fallow year for us.

Glastonbury Festival founder Michael Eavis (pictured in 2013), said he was 'so sorry' to have to cancel the event for the second year in a row

'In spite of our efforts to move heaven & earth, it has become clear that we simply will not be able to make the Festival happen this year. We are so sorry to let you all down.

'As with last year, we would like to offer all those who secured a ticket in October 2019 the opportunity to roll their 50 deposit over to next year, and guarantee the chance to buy a ticket for Glastonbury 2022.

'We are very appreciative of the faith and trust placed in us by those of you with deposits, and we are very confident we can deliver something really special for us all in 2022!

'We thank you for your incredible continued support and let's look forward to better times ahead. With love, Michael & Emily.'

Last year marked the 50th anniversary of Glastonbury, and the June festival in 2020 had been set to see Sir Paul McCartney, Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar perform on the hallowed grounds of Worthy Farm in Somerset, south west England.
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Riot police came under attack in Paris today as thousands took to the streets for the traditional May 1 Labour Day protests across France and the rest of the world in defiance of lockdown rules.

Thousands also poured onto the streets of Berlin, Istanbul, Madrid, Paris and Turin for the workers' day.

There were 18 arrests in the French capital by mid-afternoon, with disturbances breaking out along the route of an organised march.

'Tear gas is being used to restore order, but the attacks are ongoing,' said an officer at the scene. 'Organised gangs are specifically targeting officers.'

France is currently under lockdown because of the Coronavirus pandemic, but this did not stop trade unions and other organisations encouraging protests against President Emmanuel Macron's administration.

There were chants of 'Macron resign' as the march rallied thousands between Republic and Nation squares on Saturday afternoon.

Youths wearing black balaclavas and brandishing metal bars were seen smashing shop and bank windows.

BERLIN, GERMANY: Riot police take up a position in a street in the German capital tonight in front of a burning barricade

BERLIN, GERMANY: Police officers wearing riot gear take a person into custody in front of a burning barricade in Berlin tonight

BERLIN, GERMANY: Protestors throw a waste paper bin into a burning barricade this evening as they continue to take part in the May Day protests

BERLIN, GERMANY: Firefighters work to extinguish a blaze on a street during a May Day protest in Berlin this evening

BERLIN, GERMANY: A wall of police officers surrounds a fire which has broken out on a street in berlin to provide space for firefighters to tackle it

BERLIN, GERMANY: Firefighters work to put out a fire on a street in Berlin as the May day protests continue into the night

BERLIN, GERMANY: A police officer in Berlin confronts a protestor during a May day protest in the German capital this evening

PARIS, FRANCE: A water cannon is fired by police forces in the French capital to try and break up the crowds of protestors

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM: Police officers in riot gear move up to an advanced position during clashes at a park in Brussels this evening

PARIS, FRANCE: A protester kicks in a bank window at the International Labour Day protests on May 1 as demonstrations turned ugly as the crowds vented their fury at Emmanuel Macron

PARIS, FRANCE: A demonstrator holds a flare during demonstrations in the French capital today as they protested against Macron

PARIS, FRANCE: A Gilet Jaune, or yellow vest, protestor stands in front of a burning barricade holding his hand up with an inscription calling for President Macron to resign

PARIS, FRANCE: Riot police with shields move in to quell the disruption as red hot flares are hurled in their direction near the Place de la Republique

PARIS, FRANCE: A Gilet Jaune, or yellow vest, protestor screams towards French Riot Police as they protest through the streets of Paris on May Day against President Macron's economic reforms, the insufficient state of the French public health system and the French Government's response to the Covid Pandemic on May 1

Protesters stand near a burning trash bin in the street during the annual May Day

TURIN, ITALY: Riot police clash with protesters during the protest of the May Day in Turin, Italy. Every year May Day is used to mark the fight for workers' rights, with unions and associations converging in the streets

ISTANBUL, TURKEY: Riot police officers scuffle with demonstrators as they attempt to defy a ban and march on Taksim Square to celebrate May Day, during a nationwide 'full closure' imposed to slow the rate of the coronavirus disease

ISTANBUL, TURKEY: Police detain a demonstrator as they clash during a May Day rally marking the international day of the worker

BERLIN, GERMANY: Demonstrators attend a protest on their bicycles against gentrification and high rents in front of the Victory Column earlier today during the May Day demonstrations

BERLIN, GERMANY: Thousands of people joined a May Day protest in the German capital earlier today

BERLIN, GERMANY: A huge number of protestors participate in the annual 'Revolutionary May 1' protest march earlier today

BERLIN, GERMANY: A row of police officers in Berlin stand in front of a large group of protestors earlier today

BERLIN, GERMANY: A huge crowd of people walk through the streets of Berlin earlier today as they took part in May Day protests

BERLIN, GERMANY: Police wearing riot gear stand huddled together as they observe people taking part in May Day demonstrations in the German capital earlier today

TORINO, ITALY: A hooded figure holds a red flare in the air during the May Day protests in Italy earlier today

TORINO, ITALY: A group of police officers wearing riot gear stand together watching a group of demonstrators in Torino earlier today

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM: A crowd of demonstrators are almost completely enveloped in a cloud of red and white smoke at the May Day protests earlier today

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM: Two protestors are stood surrounded by tear gas in the Belgian capital earlier today as people gathered in the Bois de La Cambre park for the May Day protests

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM: A line of police officers wearing riot gear and holding batons and shields are seen holding rank during the second 'La Boum - L'Abime' festival in Brussels earlier today

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM: A number of people who gathered in a park in Belgium earlier today faced off against police officers

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM: A protestors kicks a football towards a line of police officers at a park in Belgium earlier today during a May Day protest

There were regular anti-Macron riots every Saturday in Paris before the Coronavirus crisis, most of them organised by the so-called Yellow Vests movement.

Named after their high-viz jackets, they caused millions of euros worth of damage around the Champs Elysee and other major tourist attractions.

Major acts of vandalism even saw the Arc de Triomphe itself being ransacked, while police had their weapons stolen nearby.

Mounted officers, water cannons, and armoured vehicles capable of spreading high-intensity gas were all used in weekly security operations.

The Vests were joined by extremists from the far Right and the ultra-Left, as well as anarchists intent on causing as much damage as possible.

They forced crisis-ridden Mr Macron to climb down on imposing green surcharges, and he also increased the national minimum wage by seven per sent, and scrapped tax on bonuses, in response to the trouble.

PLAUEN, GERMANY: Supporters of the Third Way far-right political party gather for a rally earlier today

PLAUEN, GERMANY: A German police vehicle is stopped in the middle of the road in Germany during a far-right rally of the Third Way group

BERLIN, GERMANY: Police officers in the German capital of Berlin struggle to deal with demonstrators today

BERLIN, GERMANY: A demonstrator in Berlin grabs hold of the leg of a police officer today during the May Day protests

PARIS, FRANCE: Protesters react to tear gas at the International Labour Day protests

PARIS, FRANCE: A Yellow Vest protester gestures near a fire during the traditional May Day protests

PARIS, FRANCE: Firefighters carry police officer away from clashes during the traditional May Day protests

PARIS, FRANCE: Police head towards protesters at the International Labour Day protests on May 1

PARIS, FRANCE: French riot police stand in formation during clashes with protesters as part of the traditional May Day protests

BERLIN, GERMANY: A large crowd of demonstrators attend a protest in the German capital earlier today on their bicycles to protest against gentrification and high rents

BERLIN, GERMANY: German police officers stand in a group watching over a crowd of demonstrators in the capital earlier today

BERLIN, GERMANY: Huge crowds of people are gathered together in the German capital as they take part in the May Day protests

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN: Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in the streets of central Stockholm today to protest against the country's Covid-19 restrictions

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN: Police officers in Sweden are seen removing a man with a guitar from the crowd of demonstrators in the capital who gathered to protest against coronavirus restrictions

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN: A large crowd of protestors gathered in the Swedish capital earlier today to demonstrate against the national Covid-19 rules

TURIN, ITALY: A woman, who's face is covered with a white bandana, stands behind a banner in the middle of a May Day demonstration in Turin earlier today

TURIN, ITALY: Red smoke fills the air above a number of demonstrators in Turin earlier today as people gathered to take part in the May Day protests

BRUSSELS, BEKGIUM: Police use a water cannon to put out a fire at the Bois de La Cambre park in Brussels, Belgium, earlier today

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM: The water cannon was also used to disperse a crowd of demonstrators earlier today

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM: A man lies down in front of police vehicles equipped with water cannons in Brussels earlier today

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM: A huge wave of police officers walks towards a crowd of demonstrators in Belgium earlier today to break up a protest

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM: Protestors who gathered at the 'La Boum - L'Abime' festival in Belgium are seen dancing to music, with one person even sitting on the shoulders of another demonstrator

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM: A group of protestors in Belgium hold up a sign which reads 'Mom I am fed up' during a gathering to protest against government-imposed anti-Covid measures

The independent Mr Macron, leader of the Republic On The Move party, won the French presidential election in a landslide in 2017, but he is now dubbed the 'President of the Rich'.

He will attempt re-election in a year's time, but the far-Right leader Marine Le Pen, of the National Rally party, is already making inroads into his vote.

The atmosphere was similarly tense in the Turkish capital, where officers were seen tackling demonstrators, grappling them around their faces and pulling their hair.

In Turin, hundreds scrummed with riot police as red flags bearing the hammer and sickle buffeted in the wind.

And in Madrid, deputy prime minister Carmen Calvo marched with other members of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party.

Meanwhile, the Russian Communist Party held a more subdued commemoration for Karl Marx in Moscow where the authorities still revere the Soviet Union, despite its atrocities and failings.

TURIN, ITALY: A line of riot police officers make their way along a road in Turin earlier today as a number of people gathered to take part in the May Day protests

TORINO, ITALY: A line of riot police officers block off a road in Torino earlier today in response to the May Day demonstrations

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN: Demonstrators on the streets of the Swedish capital lock their arms together in a line to prevent police officers from breaking up the crowd earlier today

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN: A tattooed woman holds a white rose in her hand earlier today as she joined hundreds of people taking to the streets to protest against coronavirus restrictions

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN: Signs which read 'Love is the cure' and 'until you wake up, I will fight for you!' are held in the air by demonstrators in Sweden earlier today

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN: People at the front of this group of demonstrators linked their arms together to form a human chain to prevent members being taken away from the protest today

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN: A man is led away from a group of demonstrators in the Swedish capital earlier today during May Day protests

MADRID, SPAIN: Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo and candidates for Madrid's regional elections Pablo Iglesias from 'Unidas Podemos' and Angel Gabilondo from ''Spanish Socialist Workers' Party'' (PSOE) attend a protest to mark the International Labour Day

MOSCOW, RUSSIA: Members of the Communist Party take part in demonstrations in the Russian capital on Saturday

TURIN, ITALY: A protester wearing a protective mask holds a green smoke bomb during the protest of the May Day

TURIN, ITALY: Protesters march through the city to mark International Workers' Day

MADRID, SPAIN: Socialists hold red flags with the hammer and sickle during May Day protests in Spain on Saturday

MOSCOW, RUSSIA: Russian Communist Party Leader Gennady Zyuganov greets supporters as State Duma Deputy Valery Rashkin (right) looks on in front of the monument to German political theorist Karl Marx during the rally marking the International Labour Day

MOSCOW, RUSSIA: Communist Party supporters attend the rally marking the International Labour Day

MOSCOW, RUSSIA: Communist Party members attend the rally marking the International Labour Day as part of Soviet traditions

MADRID, SPAIN: Hundreds march through the streets of the Spanish capital on Saturday to celebrate workers' rights

MADRID, SPAIN: People march past the City Hall during the traditional May Day rally on Saturday
A bloody Anglo Saxon conflict believed to have taken place in Liverpool which forged modern England is seen by historians as one of the most significant battles in British history but remains largely unknown to its people.

The Battle of Brunanburh in 937AD saw King Aethelstan's English forces fight a Viking-led alliance in a brutal combat which saw six kings and seven earls killed.

At the time of the battle, Britain was a divided nation ruled by the Celts in the far north, the Earls of Northumberland (of Norse, viking decent) in the north of England and most of Ireland while the Anglo Saxons controlled central and southern England.

The Battle of Brunanburh in 937AD saw King Aethelstan's English forces fight a Viking-led alliance in a brutal combat which saw six kings and seven earls killed

The site of the battle has been a mystery despite its historical significance, with archaeologists most recently claiming it took place near Liverpool

Brunanburh saw the Anglo Saxons go head to head with a joint army of Celts and Norse warriors.

The site of the battle has been a mystery despite its historical significance, with archaeologists most recently claiming it took place near Liverpool.

The conflict mainly played out in shield-wall clashes where a long line of ironbound willow shields were carried by warriors also wielding swords, spears and axes, The Telegraph reports.

The attackers would throw spears and shoot arrows at the enemy's shield-wall hoping to break the defence before coming into close contact.

THE BATTLE OF BRUNANBURH The Battle of Brunanburh, which pitted a West Saxon army against a combined hoard of Vikings, Scots and Irish in 937, was one of the most decisive events in British medieval history. In 927, King Aethelstan invaded Northumbria, occupied York and expelled King of Ireland Anlaf Guthfrithson's kinsmen, the rulers of York and Dublin. Ten years later, in the summer of 937, Anlaf and Constantine launched their invasion with 'the biggest Viking fleet ever seen in British waters'. At some point later in the year Aethelstan advanced out of Mercia and attacked the main allied army around Brunanburh. In a battle described as 'immense, lamentable and horrible', King Aethelstan defeated a Viking fleet led by the Anlaf and Constantine, the King of Alba. Anlaf escaped by sea and arrived back in Dublin the following spring. Had King Athelstan - grandson of Alfred the Great - been defeated it would have been the end of Anglo-Saxon England. But upon victory, Britain was created for the first time and Athelstan became the de facto King of all Britain, the first in history. Advertisement

Shields clashed with shields and fighters hacked at each other in the brutal battle as they tried to open a gap in the first line of defence before ranks behind would fill in.

If the shield-wall broke the savage fighting became even bloodier with warriors slain as they tried to flee.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a collection of annals in Old English, said of the battle: 'Never greater slaughter/Was there on this island, never as many/Folk felled before this/By the swords' edges.'

After researching medieval manuscripts, uncovering weapons and carrying out land surveys, experts believe the true battlefield was in Wirral.

It has been rumoured to have taken place in County Durham, Yorkshire and Cheshire.

In 927, King Aethelstan invaded Northumbria, occupied York and expelled King of Ireland Anlaf Guthfrithson's kinsmen, the rulers of York and Dublin.

Ten years later, in the summer of 937, Anlaf and Constantine launched their invasion with 'the biggest Viking fleet ever seen in British waters'.

At some point later in the year Aethelstan advanced out of Mercia and attacked the main allied army around Brunanburh.

In a battle described as 'immense, lamentable and horrible', King Aethelstan defeated a Viking fleet led by the Anlaf and Constantine, the King of Alba.

Anlaf escaped by sea and arrived back in Dublin the following spring.

Had King Athelstan - grandson of Alfred the Great - been defeated it would have been the end of Anglo-Saxon England.

But upon victory, Aethelstan prevented the dissolution of his kingdom in what historian Alfred Smyth described as 'the greatest single battle in Anglo-Saxon history before Hastings'.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle described at the time how Athelstan's forces chased after the Scots and Vikings after they had been vanquished, and slaughtered them mercilessly.
In the last year alone, aerospace company Boeing has fired 65 employees and disciplined 53 others over racist, discriminatory and hateful behavior, the company reported on Friday.

The disciplinary actions came as a result of Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun's 'zero-tolerance' policy implemented in June 2020 in the wake of the George Floyd murder.

'As we have witnessed horrific images in the news and heard heartbreaking stories from our people, our determination to advance equity, diversity and inclusion has only become stronger,' Calhoun told employees in a report.

'There is no place for hate within our company, and we will keep expecting the best from everyone in their interactions with one another,' he added.

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun (pictured) says 'There is no place for hate within our company, and we will keep expecting the best from everyone in their interactions with one another'

The company also outlined it's plans to diversity it's workforce in it's August 2020 'Racial Equity Action Plan'.

In a bid for more transparency to keep the company 'accountable' Boeing also released a detailed report of its hiring demographics.

That report revealed that of the company's 140,000 employees, 66.8% are white, while 6.4% are black, 14.2% are of Asian descent, 7% are Hispanic, and 3.6% listed as 'more.'

Additional data shows that 79.2% of the company's executives are white, 6.5% black, 8.3% Asian and 4% Hispanic.

Calhoun says the company aims to increase black representation in it's workforce by 20% in the U.S. by 2025.

'This work is a business imperative for us, because diversity and inclusion make us better in every way; when everyone has a voice, everyone is inspired to succeed together,' the report said.

'As we resolve to do better, the gaps we see in our representation show us where we must focus our efforts to address disparities,' the report added.

The company culture shift comes as Boeing is currently in the midst of a racial discrimination lawsuit.

The aerospace company is planning to increase black representation in it's workforce by 20% in the U.S. by 2025.

The disciplinary actions came as a result of Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun's 'zero-tolerance' policy implemented in June 2020 in the wake of the George Floyd (pictured) murder

A black employee is suing the aerospace company claiming a hostile work environment in a South Carolina plant.

The employee claims that a company supervisor assigned African-American employees to work in 'undesirable' and hazardous areas of a plant while white employees were sent to more 'desirable' locations, Forbes reported.

Boeing denies the allegations.


An anonymous Good Samaritan has donated a block of land so a home can be built for the three young children of a mother who was allegedly burned to death by her estranged ex-husband.

Police allege former US Marine Brian Earl Johnston, 34, doused his ex-wife Kelly Wilkinson, 27, in petrol and set her alight on April 20 at her home in Arundel on the Gold Coast.

Johnston has since been charged with Ms Wilkinson's murder and breaching a domestic violence order.

A series of community appeals were launched in the aftermath of the alleged attack to help Ms Wilkinson's grieving family.

The campaigns were focused on her children aged between two and eight - who were home at the time of the alleged murder but unharmed.

A Good Samaritan has donated a block of land so a home can be built for the three young children of Kelly Wilkinson - who was allegedly burned to death by her ex-husband Brian Johnston (Ms Wilkinson and Johnston pictured together)

Ms Wilkinson's sister Danielle Carroll and her husband Rhys, who have five kids of their own, have stepped in to look after the 27-year-old's three children.

An anonymous donor has since come forward with a block of land on which a home can be built for the children, The Gold Coast Bulletin reported.

Gold Coast entrepreneur Tamika Smith - whose stepbrother and Ms Carroll are married - had started an appeal for land, labour and building supplies.

The location of the land has not been disclosed to respect the family's privacy.

Brian Johnston, 34, has been charged with the murder of Ms Wilkinson on April 20. Above, the pair dance on their wedding day

Meanwhile, a GoFundMe appeal set up by another of Kelly's sisters, Natalie Wilkinson, to help the children is nearing $300,000 in donations after 10 days.

Gold Coast entrepreneur Tamika Smith played a leading role in helping raise support for the family of Ms Wilkinson

More than 4,800 people have so far donated to the fundraiser, which has a target of $1million.

Ms Smith said the family was 'overjoyed' at the news of the land donation.

'This is more than a house, it's about a lot of good men coming forth and saying we're going to stand up and protect those kids.

'They've all phoned me up and said, "What have we got to do to help those kids?".'

Construction giant Metricon and more than 30 other suppliers are understood to have joined the campaign led by Ms Smith.

The donation comes as it emerged that Queensland Police will allege Johnston jumped into a pool after the attack when he too caught fire.

Neighbours reported seeing flames shoot up over the fence on the day of the alleged attack and raced into the yard.

Police charged Ms Wilkinson's estranged husband Brian Johnston (pictured) with her murder on Friday

Johnston and Ms Wilkinson pictured on their wedding day. Queensland Police will allege Johnston, an ex-US marine, jumped into a pool after he too caught fire to dampen the flames

Johnston allegedly fled the scene but was tracked down to the nearby property.

He was allegedly carrying a knife sheath and semi-conscious.

Police said they discovered three knives and duct tape in the same backyard, but the post-mortem found the items did not cause her death.

They said one of the knives was found under Ms Wilkinson's head, another in the pool and a third in the grass.
A controversial mural of George Floyd in Phoenix has been painted over.

The mural depicted Floyd's face on a $20 bill, with the hashtag '#the_price_of_black_lives' hanging above his head.

The $20 bill was in reference to the counterfeit bill Floyd allegedly used on May 25, 2020, prior to his arrest and death at the hands of police officer Derek Chauvin, who was recently convicted of Floyd's murder.

But the mural sparked outrage among some in the community and was recently defaced, prompting its removal from downtown Phoenix on Friday morning.

The George Floyd mural painted in Phoenix is no longer there after being painted over Friday

Artist Jeremie 'Bacpac' Franko painted the mural in Phoenix last year to spark a conversation

Phoenix artist Jeremie 'Bacpac' Franko, who painted the mural on a block wall on Oak Street, covered it in beige paint.

'I have to do what white people are not able to do very well and that is give up the platform,' Franko said to the Arizona Republic.

The defeat came after some community activists decried the mural for its traumatizing capabilities and lack of input from black community members.

'This is a mural designed by white people that celebrates white violence,' resident Kelvin West said. 'It creates a space for black people to continue to be traumatized.'

The artist has seen her work defaced and criticized by black members of the community

Pictured: Kelvin West, one of the community members who spoke out against the mural

'The mural came out of nowhere, not one black person was involved in the making of this mural, putting it together or designing it,' West added. 'The mural came out of nowhere, not one black person was involved in the making of this mural, putting it together or designing it.'

Franko's intention in painting the mural was starting a conversation in the city.

'Every time I do a mural, I want to start a conversation,' Franko said. 'I want people to say what does that mean?

'This is about the story that we don't hear, that these cops thought that this guy deserves to be killed over an allegedly counterfeit $20 bill. This guy wasn't hurting anybody.'

Of her particular mural, Franko added, 'To me, it was the symbolism that that's the price of a black life?'

Social media showed what the mural looked like after it was defaced

'I have to do what white people are not able to do very well and that is give up the platform,' Franko said after taking down the mural

It took Franko 13 hours to paint the mural last June, which she did for free. But on March 29, the mural was defaced.

Vandals put Xs over the eyes and mouth of Floyd and scribbled 'FENTANYL' on his forehead, implying that the drug was responsible for Floyd's death and not Chauvin's knee.

Franko spent four and a half hours fixing the mural the next morning, vowing to fix it every time it was defaced.

'You want to do it again? Im right here. Im going to fix it,' Franko said to Phoenix New Times. 'You don't get to hijack the message. You dont get to take away the honor of this man and his family. Im going to fix it every time.'

The defacement of the mural only served to create more problems for West and other community members, though.

'The mural got defaced, which created an opportunity for more black trauma,' West said.

After the mural was removed on Friday, some took to Twitter to celebrate its demise.

'Good, it should have never been there in the first place,' Ronnie Norton wrote of the mural.

'Poor judgment by the painter,' another user added.

Whether or not the mural's removal changes the conversation in the Coronado neighborhood remains to be seen, though.

'As a black person living in this neighborhood over five years, combating racism almost on a daily basis, having caused me depression and having to heal, this neighborhood is not a safe space for Black people,' West told the Arizona Republic.

Murals for George Floyd have attracted unwanted attention recently, especially in the wake of Chauvin's conviction almost two weeks ago.

In Houston, a mural was defaced with the words 'N**** lives don't matter' just days after the conviction.

'As a human, it's just wrong to do something like that; knowing that we're healing and knowing that we're in pain as a community,' artist Daniel Anguili told KHOU 11.
Florida is set to become first state to punish social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and Youtube for 'deplatforming' politicians with fines of up to $250,000 a day.

Florida's Republican governor Ron DeSantis is set to sign the bill in a clear nod to his close political ally, former president Donald Trump, who was banned from most social media platforms following the January 6 attack on the nation's capitol.

S.B. 7072 was passed in the House with a 77-38 vote and in the Senate, 23-17.

The bill would prohibit social media companies from permanently deleting or banning political candidates.

Florida's Republican governor Ron DeSantis is set to sign the bill in a clear nod to his close political ally, former president Donald Trump (pictured together)

Former President Donald Trump was banned from Facebook and Twitter after he continued to spread misinformation regarding the 2020 election following the capitol riots (pictured)

Suspensions of up to 14 days would still be allowed, and platforms can remove individual posts that violate terms of service, the bill says.

The bill would also allow Florida's elections commission to hand out fines to social media companies who ban politicians from their platforms.

The bill goes back to the Senate to approve the amended House version of the bill that calls for social media platforms to be fined $25,000 a day if a political candidate is deplatformed and $250,000 if the politician is a statewide candidate seeking public office.

This bumps up the Senate's previous version of the bill that called for $100,000 a day for statewide candidates and $10,000 a day for other candidates.

Democrats claim this bill is a political reaction to Trump being banned from Facebook and Twitter after he continued to spread misinformation regarding the 2020 election after the capitol riots.

'Stop inciting insurrection against our republic. We're hearing this bill because Twitter finally deplatformed former President Trump after five people were killed in an insurrection he incited at the U.S. Capitol,' Democratic state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith said during debate on the bill, NBC News reported.

'This bill is not about President Trump,' Republican state Rep. John Snyder rebutted. 'This bill is about the 22 million Floridians and their First Amendment rights.'

S.B. 7072 would prohibit social media companies like Facebook (pictured) from permanently deleting or banning political candidates in Florida

Donald Trump's Twitter account was suspended after he continued to spread misinformation regarding the 2020 election

Net Choice, a trade group for internet companies, testified against the bill during a hearing arguing that it would violate the companies' free speech rights.

'The First Amendment makes clear that government may not regulate the speech of private individuals or businesses. This includes government action that compels speech by forcing a private social media platform to carry content that is against its policies or preferences,' NetChoice President Steve DelBianco said.

DeSantis has condemned the 'oligarchs in Silicon Valley' for deplatforming Trump and other conservatives, azcentral.com reported.

DeSantis has claimed Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are tougher on the political right in terms of censorship.

DeSantis revived his claim when a roundtable he hosted in March was removed from YouTube because the governor and scientists he invited were accused of airing COVID-19 misinformation, azcentral.com reported.
Music festivals set to take place this year could be scrapped again unless there is a government backed insurance scheme, organisers have warned.

Around a quarter of UK festivals have already been called off over uncertainty surround the pandemic, including Boomtown, a Winchester based event due to take place in August.

In February, the event sold out its 66,000 capacity, but it has now been postponed to 2022 due to a lack of coronavirus cancellation insurance.

Music festivals could be scrapped again if the government don't back an insurance scheme, festival organisers have warned

Glastonbury Festival, the traditional season curtain-raiser in June, has also been postponed to 2022 and will instead run this year online, with others delaying their events to September and October.

Organisers are warning that the rest of the planned events for 2021 are also at risk without the urgent intervention of the government.

The Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) has called on the government to back cancellation insurance, which would allow organisers to plan events without suffering financial losses if they are forced to cancel them.

'We have been warning government that the UK's 2021 festival season would be quickly eroded if they failed to act on cancellation insurance,' Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) chief executive Paul Reed, told the BBC.

It comes after Boomtown, a 70,000-person music festival, cancelled this summer's event, blaming the lack of a government-backed insurance scheme.

'It's now red alert for the UK's festival season.'

He added that nearly three quarters of AIF members will require financial support to return in 2022 if they have to postpone this year.

Meanwhile, dozens of Tory MPs have written to Boris Johnson to demand he step in to ensure live music events and festivals can go ahead this summer.

The 42 MPs want the Prime Minister to back a 250million insurance scheme for event organisers to ensure festivals can go ahead after 21 June.

Reminding Mr Johnson of his promise of a 'one-way road to freedom' by 21 June in accordance with the roadmap, the MPs write that 'this underwriting should not cost the taxpayer a penny'.

Around a quarter of UK festivals have already been called off over uncertainty surround the pandemic

Among the signatories are Mark Harper and Steve Baker, chairman and deputy chairman of the Covid Recovery Group of Tory backbenchers.

The letter said: 'With the success of the vaccine rollout and as we head towards 21 June, it's vital that ministers act now to ensure live music events and festivals can go ahead this summer by assuming contingent liabilities against cancellation and restrictions imposed by government.

'Without this, most music festivals and live events will be cancelled this summer with countless job losses and business closures.

'This scheme would save 1.1billion of costs to the industry, would give confidence to organisers so that they can prepare for their festivals to go ahead, would turbocharge Britain's economic recovery and would bring hope to millions of festival-goers and young people - who have borne the brunt of lockdown - that life this summer will be a normal one.'

Dozens of Tory MPs have written to Boris Johnson to demand he step in to ensure live music events and festivals can go ahead this summer.

It piles more pressure on the Treasury to insure festivals through an indemnity arrangement, which has been backed by the likes of Jools Holland and Robert Plant.

The government has said it is exploring if further support can be provided.

So far, the Culture Recovery Fund has spent more than 34m supporting festivals including Glastonbury, Boomtown and the Hay Literary Festival held in Hay-on-Wye, Wales, a spokesperson said.

The government plans to run a test event in Sefton Park in Liverpool over the Bank Holiday weekend to try to work out how festivals can reopen in the city.

It is hoped the results of the pilot will be positive and that organisers will be able to secure insurance for their events this summer.

The Association of British Insurers said: 'We understand that this has been a difficult and uncertain time for the events industry.

It added that commercial insurers are unable to offer cover with the ongoing pandemic.
The risk of hotel quarantine facilities failing to stop Covid-19 leaking into the community in New Zealand is three times higher than in Australia, according to a new study.

Research by the University of Otago found 13.2 in every 1,000 cases can be linked back to hotel quarantine failures in New Zealand.

By comparison, there are just 4.1 breaches connected to every 1,000 infections across the ditch.

The data comes despite repeated localised and state-wide lockdowns in Australia due to the virus breaching the walls of quarantine hotels.

While the risk was higher in New Zealand, the study found the country had 10 failings while Australia had 14 breaches in quarantine up to March 31 this year.

The risk of breaches causing coronavirus to seep out of hotel quarantine facilities in New Zealand is three times higher than in Australia, according to a new study (passengers arriving in Sydney Airport are pictured)

The researchers found the risks of breaches may be related to the rules imposed on guests while isolating at the hotels.

New Zealand quarantine hotels have shared recreational, smoking and exercise areas while those in Australia are confined to their rooms for the duration of their 14-day stay.

Health experts at the University of Otago said there were steps New Zealand could take to lower the risk of any potential quarantine breaches.

These include enforcing vaccination requirements and quarantine periods before travellers arrive in the country.

The country could also benefit from setting up a facility similar to the Northern Territory's Howard Springs quarantine hub which hasn't had a single coronavirus case leave its walls, the university researchers said.

Another major factor influencing the risks of failings is whether or not staff are vaccinated.

The study found half of New Zealand quarantine breaches could have been avoided had all frontline border workers received the jab.

Health experts at the University of Otago said there were steps New Zealand could take to lower the risk of any potential quarantine breaches like enforcing vaccination rules. Pictured are passengers wearing masks at Sydney International Airport

Since June last year more than 127,000 people have passed through Auckland's quarantine facilities, while Australia has seen nearly double this number.

The most notable breach of hotel quarantine was in Victoria with a second wave sparking an extensive 112-day lockdown which resulted in around 800 deaths.

In Perth on Saturday authorities confirmed a hotel security guard and his two roommates tested positive to Covid-19.

The man may have been infectious in the community for four days before he tested positive, authorities say.

How the man contracted the virus has not yet been determined.
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Thousands of 'Kill the Bill' protesters have marched through central London today as officers arrest seven people and crowds take to the streets in 40 towns and cities across the country against increased police powers.

Demonstrators were seen pouring through Trafalgar Square on Saturday with little care for social-distancing to demand the government scrap a new bill which criminalises marches deemed a 'public nuisance.'

The Met Police confirmed seven people across the capital city have been arrested today, adding: 'The demonstration has reached #VauxhallPleasureGardens where people remain. Officers are on site and continue to engage with those taking part.'

It is the latest in a series of protests against the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill.

Hundreds also rallied in Brighton, Bristol, Cheltenham, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Truro and Sheffield despite the continued threat of coronavirus.

The legislation was the subject of widespread dissent in March, particularly in the student area of Bristol where police were subjected to abuse which Boris Johnson described as 'disgraceful.'

Demonstrators take part in a protest against the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill 2021 in central London on May 1, 2021. Previous 'Kill the Bill' demonstrations have turned violent, with protesters demanding the withdrawal of the legislation, which critics say harshly restricts the right to peaceful protest

Demonstrators walk through the streets of London earlier today during a Kill the Bill protest. One person is seen holding up a sign which reads: 'Don't talk to them'

A protester holds a smoke canister during a 'Kill the Bill' protest in central London today

Demonstrators are seen gathering near Buckingham Palace in central London during a 'Kill the Bill' protest this afternoon

Demonstrators hold signs outside the Home Office, as they take part in a 'Kill the Bill' protest in London, Britain, May 1

Demonstrators hold up a banner during a march through central London as part of the 'Kill the Bill' protests

A police officer during the march in London today with a protestor seen holding up a 'Kill the Bill' sign in the background

Police officers stand guard outside the Home Office on Saturday as hundreds of people arrive to demand the bill is killed

Protestors march past Admiralty Arch on the Mall in central London during a 'Kill the Bill' protest on Saturday. Among the flags flying is the black banner of Antifa

Protesters are joined by a bus rigged up with a tannoy system during today's protest in the capital

A coalition of activist groups are staging the demonstrations today as the bill progresses through parliament this month.

Sisters Uncut, a feminist group helping to lead the action, have condemned the legislation as 'authoritarian.'

Dani Cane, a youth worker who plans to attend the protest on Saturday told The Big Issue: 'The police have repeatedly proven that they are drunk on power, and will always use violence against us, not just against the most vulnerable people they routinely target, but anyone who they deem to be not behaving in a way they approve of.

'It is vital that we prevent this bill from being passed in order to keep ourselves safe and resist the authoritarian abuse of state power. We must be able to hold the police accountable for the violence they relentlessly cause.'

Jess Sharp, a domestic violence worker who was also heading to the demos, said: 'The police are bullies and perpetuate endless violence, giving them more power puts us at more risk and so we cannot allow this bill to pass.'

A line of police officers stand behind a crowd of Kill the Bill protestors in London earlier today as people continue to demonstrate against new legislation called the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill

Re flares are held in the air by these two women in the middle of a crowd of Kill the Bill demonstrators in London earlier today

A number of banners were held in the air by protestors in the capital today as they marched in protest against proposed new legislation

A group of demonstrators hold up a banner in London earlier today and are followed by a number of people waving flags

Multiple 'Kill the Bill' signs are waved in the air earlier today in London as protestors gathered to demonstrate

Protestors march down the Mall in central London during a 'Kill the Bill' protest on Saturday, May 1, 2021. The demonstration is against the contentious Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. The Bill was drafted partly in response to previous disruptive action by Extinction Rebellion and also the Black Lives Matter movement.

Demonstrators hold flares as they protest against the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill in central Manchester today

The Government's Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill would see the police handed greater powers to tackle demonstrations.

The Bill was drafted partly in response to previous disruptive action by Extinction Rebellion and also the Black Lives Matter movement.

The proposed legislation would give police in England and Wales more powers to impose conditions on non-violent protests - including those deemed too noisy or a nuisance, with those convicted liable to fines or jail terms.

A Home Office spokesman said: 'The right to protest is a cornerstone of our democracy, but over recent years we have seen an increase in the use of disruptive and dangerous tactics.'

He added: 'These new measures will not stop people from carrying out their civic right to protest and be heard, but will prevent large scale disruption - enabling the silent majority to get on with their lives.'

Speaking ahead of the protests today, Commander Simon Dobinson of the Metropolitan Police, said: 'We have attempted to make contact with the organisers of Saturday's demonstrations.

'It is their responsibility to comply with the regulations and ensure their gathering is safe.

'Officers will be present to try to engage with protestors, to explain the restrictions, encourage compliance and take steps to enforce the restrictions if it is necessary to do so.

'Anyone intending to engage in violence or disorder needs to understand that police we will take steps to prevent that behaviour. We will not tolerate attacks on our officers and staff.'
Dame Hilary, 68, (pictured) whose withering assessment of the Duchess of Cambridge as 'plastic' caused an outcry in 2013

Booker Prize winner Dame Hilary Mantel has delivered another Royal broadside, describing the Monarchy as a 'self-punishing institution' facing the 'endgame'.

Dame Hilary, 68, whose withering assessment of the Duchess of Cambridge as 'plastic' caused an outcry in 2013, said of the Queen: 'I wonder if she's the only person who really believes in the Monarchy now, and I'm sure she believes with all her heart.'

The Wolf Hall author's historical novels chronicle the brutal fate suffered by Royal consorts in Tudor times.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph magazine yesterday, she said she wished the Queen had abdicated to make way for Prince Charles.

'I understand she thinks of this as a sacred task It's a conflict because most of the world sees the Royal Family as a branch of showbusiness.'

Reflecting on the death of the Duke of Edinburgh, Dame Hilary said that at the end of any long marriage, ordinary people sought routine and were 'able to mourn in a natural way'

Asked about the Monarchy's future, she added: 'I think it's the endgame. I don't know how much longer the institution will go on'

'No other family would be expected to parade a very elderly, newly widowed lady before the TV cameras, and yet it's taken for granted that's what will happen'

Reflecting on the death of the Duke of Edinburgh, Dame Hilary said that at the end of any long marriage, ordinary people sought routine and were 'able to mourn in a natural way', adding: 'But what recent events bring home is how far the Monarchy's arrangements with the media have turned it into a self-punishing institution.

'No other family would be expected to parade a very elderly, newly widowed lady before the TV cameras, and yet it's taken for granted that's what will happen  just as it's taken for granted that a new Royal mother will appear beaming on the hospital steps within a day of giving birth.

'I'm not sure if it will outlast William. So I think it will be their last big era. There's no legitimate public interest behind it'

'There's no legitimate public interest behind it.'

Asked about the Monarchy's future, she added: 'I think it's the endgame. I don't know how much longer the institution will go on.

'I'm not sure if it will outlast William. So I think it will be their last big era.'

Eight years ago, Dame Hilary dismissed Kate Middleton as a personality-free 'shop window mannequin' with a 'plastic smile' whose 'only point and purpose' was to give birth.
Violent crime is surging in Minneapolis with homicides last year spiking to the second highest levels ever as the COVID-19 pandemic and protests in the wake of George Floyd's death devastated the city.

Of the 5,426 violent crimes recorded in Minneapolis last year, 83 of them were homicides, according to the city's police crime statistic data.

It is only the second highest number of homicides since 1995 when a record 97 homicides were recorded.

That record 1995 figure resulted in the city being branded 'Murderapolis' by national media.

Violent crime was already trending upward in the first half of last year but it really started to spike after Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on May 25 - sparking widespread protests and a movement to 'de-fund police'.

Crime rates this year are already surging.

So far in 2021, there has been 1,398 violent crimes, according to police crime statistics.

Of the 5,426 violent crimes recorded in Minneapolis last year, 83 of them were homicides, according to the city's police crime statistic data. It is only the second highest number of homicides since 1995 when a record 97 homicides were recorded

Twenty four of the violent crimes in the first four months of this year have been homicides.

Last week, there were 107 violent crimes reported across the city, which is up from the 60 that occurred in the same week in 2020.

Police in Minneapolis are already predicting a return to 'Murderapolis' this year.

'We're gonna blow Murderopolis off the charts this year,' a Minneapolis police officer told journalist Michael Tracey in a report published on Substack.

Officers say they have noticed a spike in gun violence and that more people than ever seem to have guns.

The city's gunshot detection data shows more than 24,000 bullets were fired across Minneapolis last year.

In the week following Floyd's death last year, nearly 1,400 gunshot were recorded across the city.

More than 550 people were wounded in shootings last year, which includes fatalities, according to the data.

More than 80 percent of those shot were black and 62 percent of the total number were from Minneapolis.

The number shooting victims in 2020 was a 100 percent increase compared to the year prior.

Carjackings spiked to 375 last year, which was up 331 per cent from the same period in 2019.

It is only the second highest number of homicides since 1995 when a record 97 homicides were recorded. That record 1995 figure resulted in the city being branded 'Murderapolis' by national media. A 1995 crime scene is pictured above in Minneapolis

Of the 5,426 violent crimes recorded in Minneapolis last year, 83 of them were homicides, according to the city's police crime statistic data

So far in 2021, there has been 1,398 violent crimes, according to police crime statistics. Twenty four of the violent crimes in the first four months of this year have been homicides. The number of homicides in the first few months of this year are exceeding last year's rates

The city's gunshot detection data shows more than 24,000 bullets were fired across Minneapolis last year. Pictured above is a chart tracking the last seven days of gunfire across the city

Authorities have said the spike in violent crimes comes down to the COVID-19 pandemic and the unrest the city faced in the wake of Floyd's death.

Some police argue it is down to the police department's resources being stretched thin given the widespread anti-cop attitude since Floyd's death.

Back in February, it was revealed that Minneapolis was planning to spend $6.4million to hire dozens of police officers, at a time when some City Council members and activist groups had been advocating to replace the police department following Floyd's death.

The City Council voted unanimously to approve the additional funding that police requested.

According to the Minneapolis Police Department, there are only 638 officers available to work, which is roughly 200 fewer than usual.

An unprecedented number of officers quit or went on extended medical leave after Floyd's death and the unrest that followed, which included the burning of a police precinct.

As officers from the department started resigning, many claimed it was due in part to post-traumatic stress disorder from a summer of unrest.

Some City Council members have been pushing to replaced the police department with a public safety department that would include law enforcement and other services.

Officers who spoke to Michael Tracey say the attitude towards police and the push to defund the department had led to Minneapolis seeming like the 'Wild Wild West'.

'Usually a cop should take about ten calls a day,' one officer said. 'I'm already at like, thirty. So that's way overboard. I mean, you're gonna have burnout. You're gonna have people quitting.'

Authorities have said the spike in violent crimes comes down to the COVID-19 pandemic and the unrest the city faced in the wake of George Floyd's death by officer Derek Chauvin

Protesters burn the Minneapolis Police Department 3rd Precinct during protests over the Minneapolis in May

That officer claimed that another 14 of their colleagues had resigned from the department last month after Derek Chauvin was found guilty of killing Floyd.

'One of us is gonna get killed and nobody cares. And that's what's sad. Nobody cares. Not the citizens, not our brass. Not our administration, not our city. They don't care. They don't care one bit,' the officer said.

The officer predicted that even more would leave the next time police are shown in a negative light across the city.

'We're getting fed up. All of us. And there's only a few of us left that really want to work for the city,' the officer said.

'We're not gonna be here. We're gonna all leave. So this is gonna get worse before it gets better.'

It comes after the Justice Department announced last month it was opening a sweeping investigation into Minneapolis policing practice.

The move came after Chauvin was found guilty on April 20.

The Justice Department was already investigating whether Chauvin and the three other officers charged in Floyd's death violated his civil rights.

'(The) verdict in the state criminal trial does not address potentially systemic policing issues in Minneapolis,' Attorney General Merrick Garland said at the time.

The new investigation is known as a 'pattern or practice' - examining whether there is a pattern or practice of unconstitutional or unlawful policing.

The Minneapolis police said in a statement that the chief, Medaria Arradondo, 'welcomes this investigation' and will fully cooperate with federal prosecutors.

Arradondo 'understand that the intent of this inquiry is to reveal any deficiencies or unwanted conduct within the department and provide adequate resources and direction to correct them,' the statement said.
She might struggle to match the real-life dramas swirling around Downing Street at the moment, but a former No 10 insider is writing an erotic political thriller about salacious goings-on in Westminster.

Provisionally titled Whips!, the explicit novel is already being described as a cross between House Of Cards and 50 Shades Of Grey  and with characters said to be based on real-life political figures, it is being nervously awaited in Whitehall.

Its author is Cleo Watson, a protegee of Dominic Cummings, who was secretly writing the book while she was working for Boris Johnson. A friend of the 32-year-old said: It is going to be very racy  soft-porn really. And it is likely to give the lawyers a lot of work.

Cleo Watson and political advisor Dominic Cummings arrive at 10 Downing Street in 2019

Cleo Watson is a pivotal powerbroker who left Downing Street when Mr Cummings was ousted

Ms Watson, a pivotal powerbroker who left Downing Street when Mr Cummings was ousted in November, has told friends it will feature thinly disguised characters such as Sir Teddy Hammer, who will bear a striking resemblance to Sir Eddie Lister, Boris Johnsons outgoing strategic adviser.

Whips! revolves around a young, female Commons researcher who is thrust into a dark, Machiavellian world of feuding and trysts after working on the successful party leadership campaign of a Tory MP.

For her part, Ms Watson worked alongside Mr Cummings on the Vote Leave campaign before entering government under Theresa May. She was frequently photographed arriving in Downing Street with a rather dishevelled Mr Cummings, a North London neighbour with whom she would share lifts.

A description in The Mail on Sunday of the pair looking like a gazelle with a pit pony is understood to have left Mr Cummings unamused  but Ms Watsons nickname stuck.

After departing as Mr Johnsons head of priorities and campaigns when Mr Cummings lost his power struggle with the Prime Ministers girlfriend Carrie Symonds, Ms Watson now works as an adviser to Alok Sharma, president of the COP26 climate change summit.

While she has been creating fictionalised versions of her colleagues, Ms Watson will also be dramatised herself, as one of the characters in the forthcoming Downing Street TV drama This Sceptred Isle. Actress and model Greta Bellamacina has been cast to play her.

Its author is Cleo Watson, a protegee of Dominic Cummings, who was secretly writing the book while she was working for Boris Johnson

After departing as Mr Johnsons head of priorities and campaigns when Mr Cummings lost his power struggle with the Prime Ministers girlfriend Carrie Symonds, Ms Watson now works as an adviser to Alok Sharma (pictured)

Cleo, who recently married a financier called Tom, is one of five sisters and is neither the first to go into politics  nor into middle-class erotic fiction. Her eldest sibling, 42-year-old Annabel, known as Bee, was Mrs Mays chief of staff, while Molly wrote a racy chronicle of the horsey set in Ledbury, Herefordshire with Bee as one of the characters.

In The Pink recounted the escapades of two sisters who abandoned their careers in London to follow their dreams of a sunny rural idyll and were thrown into a hair-raising world where the horses have cocaine habits and the locals have developed their own alternative to Viagra.

One passage says of Bee: As she stands, whip in hand, her bottom and thighs showcased by skintight white jodhpurs rising out of spurred boots, she looks at once wanton, but also proper to the point of being prim.

The Watson sisters  Cleo, Bee, Molly, Nell and Flora  enjoyed an idyllic childhood in a 400-year-old mansion in the Brecon Beacons, and were educated at the 30,000-a-year Haberdashers Monmouth girls boarding school, where Nell, now 35, was head girl. Flora, 39, is a talented gift designer.

Their grandfather, Vice Admiral Sir Dymock Watson, was a Second World War veteran who later commanded the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious before being put in charge of British naval forces in the South Atlantic. In the 1950s, he bought Trebinshun House, where the girls and their brother Archie were raised.

Last night, one of Ms Watsons friends said: Whips! will be a lot more explicit than Mollys book  there will be plenty of action for honourable members.

Cleo will be drawing on all of the stories she has heard about sex and skulduggery during her career  its an erotically charged The Thick Of It.
Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte have taken part in the traditional Lily of the Valley ceremony at the Elysee Palace in Paris.

The couple wore masks as they celebrated the May 1 event holding the flowers which are a symbol of spring.

The tradition began at the beginning of the 20th century with lily of the valley flowers sold on May 1.

Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte have taken part in the traditional Lily of the Valley ceremony at the Elysee Palace in Paris

French President Emmanuel Macron gave a speech during the traditional Lily of the Valley ceremony at the Elysee Palace

It comes ahead of Macron's decision to start unwinding the country's third lockdown on Monday.

The number of people hospitalised for COVID-19 in France decreased on Friday for the fourth straight day and the average number of new daily infections fell to the lowest in more than a month.

The overall number of hospitalisations was down by 557 to 28,930 and the number of patients in intensive care wards fell by 129 to 5,675.

The health ministry reported 24,299 new confirmed virus infections, taking the total to 5.6 million - the world's fourth-highest.

The couple wore masks as they celebrated the May 1 event holding the flowers which are a symbol of spring

The couple wore masks as they celebrated the May 1 event ahead of Macron's decision to start unwinding the country's third lockdown on Monday

The increase of 3.2 per cent over last Friday was the lowest week-on-week percentage increase since end July 2020.

The seven-day moving average of new cases, a closely watched indicator, is now down to just over 25,000, from a high of more than 42,000 mid-April.

France also reported 290 new coronavirus deaths, to 104,514, the eighth highest tally globally.

Elsewhere on Saturday, police scuffled with protesters in Paris on Saturday, firing tear gas as thousands turned out across France for May Day workers' rights demonstrations.

Rungis International Market CEO Stephane Layani addresses businessmen alongside French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee palace

The couple wore masks as they celebrated the May 1 event holding the flowers which are a symbol of spring

A police source told AFP that far-left 'black bloc' protesters had repeatedly tried to block the trade union-led march in the French capital, with 34 people detained.

Some protesters smashed the windows of bank branches, set fire to dustbins and threw projectiles at police, who responded with volleys of tear gas and stingball grenades. An injured policeman had to be evacuated, an AFP journalist saw.

The CGT union said nearly 300 May day protests were planned around the country, with authorities expecting around 100,000 demonstrators to join them in total.

The crowds held placards with different demands, ranging from the end of the nighttime curfew in place as part of coronavirus restrictions, to a halt to unemployment reforms due to come into force in July.

Members of the yellow vest anti-elite movement, which rocked Emmanuel Macron's presidency two years ago before largely fizzling out, could also be spotted at protests up and down the country.
Justin Ray Boersma, 19, has been charged with first-degree murder

A confrontation in a Starbucks drive-thru ended with a man being shot dead and a teenager facing a first-degree murder charge.

The teen allegedly cut in front of another driver, which led the driver to pounding on the teen's window and ripping off a door handle.

When the other driver began returning to their car, however, the teen allegedly proceeded to fire shots, killing the other driver.

The incident happened at a Starbucks in Lake Worth Beach, Florida around noon on Wednesday afternoon.

Justin Ray Boersma, 19, allegedly cut in front of a truck with his Nissan Versa in the drive-thru line, according to witnesses cited in an arrest report.

After the cut-off, a man, Samuel Joseph Rossetti, 31, got out of his black Chevrolet Silverado and walked up to Boersma's Versa.

Rossetti allegedly started to bang on the driver's side window of the car and proceeded to rip the handle off the door before he began to walk back to his own vehicle.

Samuel Joseph Rossetti, 31, was killed in a shooting at a Florida Starbucks on Wednesday

The incident began after Boersma allegedly cut Rossetti off in the drive-thru line

Boersma told detectives later that his girlfriend and infant child were in his car, as well as another friend.

Boersma's girlfriend was screaming 'We have a baby in the car' during the alleged attack, he added.

Boersma allegedly armed himself with a gun and fired three shots at Rossetti before driving away. He told detectives that he was worried about his family's safety and believed Rossetti could be retrieving a weapon.

As he was driving away, witnesses saw Boersma allegedly hit another car with his vehicle. He would later say that he fled so he could call a lawyer before surrendering.

The arrest report reveals Boersma did not see Rossetti with a weapon, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

Deputies and a citizen with medical training administered CPR on Rossetti until help could arrive.

Rossetti then began returning to his car when he was shot three times

Pictured: Investigators probe the scene after Wednesday's deadly shooting

He was transported to St. Marys Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

A neighboring business did record the incident on surveillance cameras, but that footage has not been publicly released.

Deputies used the license plate seen by witnesses to track Boersma to a house ten blocks away from the shooting.

A video recorded by a surveillance drone showed a man covering the Nissan Versa with a tarp, though it's not clear if Boersma was that man.

Afterwards, several people in the home left in a Nissan Sentra, which was halted by a traffic stop conducted by deputies.

The arrest report that a handgun was found in a plastic bag under a childs car seat during a search.

Deputies were able to track down Boersma and arrest him during a traffic stop

Boersma is currently being held on first-degree murder charges without bond

The man driving the car, who was not Boersma, pleaded ignorance about the handgun, claiming that it did not belong to him.

The gun's caliber matched the shell casings at the scene of the shooting, however, and was collected as evidence, according to investigators.

Five people in total were in the Sentra, including Boersma, his girlfriend, and the infant. Passengers from Rossetti's car were then brought to the traffic stop, where records show they identified Boersma as the shooter.

Boersma has also been charged with firing a weapon in public and is being held without bond.

One criminal defense attorney believes Boersma may have a case under Florida's notorious Stand Your Ground law.

'I think this is a case that was actually built for Stand Your Ground law,' Palm Beach County criminal defense attorney Patrick McKamey told CBS 12. 'It looks like a great case.'

'The defense can reasonably argue, its unreasonable to think that if hes not in fear for his life or the life of those in the vehicle, why would somebody with an infant in the car go out and start shooting,' McKamey added.

Rossetti leaves behind a family, including a foster son.
Noel Clarke encouraged drama school students to remove their clothes during improvisation workshops, it has been claimed.

Twenty women who knew Clarke in a professional capacity accused the Kidulthood and Doctor Who actor of sexual harassment and bullying in a series of shocking claims published by The Guardian on Thursday.

Six more people have now come forward with further allegations of misconduct against the 45-year-old, including former students at the London School of Dramatic Art.

It was reported that Clarke encouraged students to remove their clothes during improvisation workshops, titled Facing Your Fears, before the school's founder Jake Taylor was alerted.

Clarke denied the LDSA allegations through his lawyers.

Noel Clarke, 45, (pictured) encouraged drama school students to remove their clothes during improvisation workshops, it has been claimed

Mr Taylor told the publication that after being told about the alleged conduct he said he swiftly 'stopped [Clarke] doing the classes'.

'Nobody should ever be asked to take their clothes off by a member of staff, or anybody,' he added.

Clarke's lawyers also denied that the school had ever asked him to stop giving classes, according to The Guardian, adding that the exercise was designed to relax students' anxieties and 'normalise' removing clothes in a safe environment.

They added that participation for the male and female adult students was not compulsory.

Clarke yesterday apologised 'deeply' for his actions and said he will be seeking professional help but has 'vehemently' denied sexual misconduct or criminal behaviour.

The actor and producer, who is married to make-up artist Iris Da Silva, said it has become clear to him that 'some of my actions have affected people in ways I did not intend or realise'

The actor and producer, who is married to make-up artist Iris Da Silva, said it has become clear to him that 'some of my actions have affected people in ways I did not intend or realise', and offered an apology to those affected.

His comments came amid reports that Bafta spent two weeks deciding how best to respond to allegations against Clarke prior to presenting him with one of its highest honours, the Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema Award.

The father-of-three was suspended from Bafta following the allegations and Sky took the decision to 'halt' filming of the latest series of his east London crime drama Bulletproof.

Many of Clarke's female costars, including Alexandra Roach, have since claimed he is a 'sexual predator' and said the raft of sexual harassment and bullying allegations against him are the British film industry's 'best kept secret'.


Noel Clarke told one of his accusers to 'get your f**** out and pee' on his friend during a prank that left her in tears.

Footage has emerged of Clarke, 45, and fellow cast member Jason Maza pulling a cruel joke on Jahannah James, leaving her visibly upset.

Jason drinks a cocktail provided to him by Jahannah, before pretending to suffer from an allergic reaction to citrus fruit, saying he doesn't feel well and dropping to the ground.

Clarke then fakes a phone call to 999, asking whether Jason has to 'swallow some of the ammonia to soothe it', telling Jahannah: 'Just take your f**** out and pee on him, what's wrong with you?'

The actor came up with the stunt after hearing through the Brotherhood actress' producers that she was planning her own prank on the pair.

The clip has come to light following 20 women who knew Clarke in a professional capacity coming forward, making sexual harassment and bullying allegations about him to The Guardian.

Clarke yesterday apologised 'deeply' for his actions and said he will be seeking professional help, but has 'vehemently' denied sexual misconduct or criminal behaviour.

Jahannah, a star in Clarke's hit movie Brotherhood, is one of his alleged victims named by the newspaper, claiming she was secretly filmed doing a naked audition that was so upsetting she still cries 'years later'.

Clarke (pictured left, with co-star Jason Maza) came up with the cruel stunt after hearing through the Brotherhood actress' producers that she was planning her own prank on the pair

Jahannah James, a star in Clarke's hit movie Brotherhood, is one of his alleged victims named by The Guardian. Twenty women who knew Clarke in a professional capacity have come forward, making sexual harassment and bullying allegations about him

While Clarke pretends to be on the phone in the video, he says: 'I'm not shouting at you but this girl's being an idiot.'

The producer then adds: 'I know the ambulance is on its way, but what can I do now? What can I do right now?'

He then looks over to Jahannah and says: 'What are you crying for? I know you didn't mean to do it. Do you think I think you're gonna put an orange in his face on purpose?'

Clarke continues: 'He's going red, what can I do right now? I don't have any ammonia, how can I get ammonia? Pee on him? I'm not peeing on him.

'Would that help? So he has to swallow some of the ammonia, that'll soothe it?'

Jahannah asks 'what?', while Clarke tells her: 'You need to pee on him.' The actress says: 'Can everyone turn around? Oh my God Jay, I'm really sorry.'

Clarke tells her: 'You need to pee on him. Quick!'

After she explains she can't, he replies: 'Just take your f**** out and pee on him, what's wrong with you?'

She asks: 'Can you pee?', to which he says: 'I'm not peeing on him. Just put your leg on the chair, put your leg up here.'

Jason then reveals the cruel joke by pointing at Jahannah and laughing, with Clarke saying: 'You can't prank me.'

Jason drinks a cocktail provided to him by Jahannah, before pretending to suffer from an allergic reaction to citrus fruit, saying he doesn't feel well and dropping to the ground

Clarke then fakes a phone call to 999, asking: 'I know the ambulance is on the way - what can I do now?', before questioning whether Jason has to 'swallow some of the ammonia to soothe it'

Clarke asks: 'What are you crying for?', while Jahannah is left visibly upset by the prank

It comes after Jahannah tweeted yesterday: 'Bafta knew about the allegations before his award and decided they didn't believe it'.

A film producer, and friend of Jahannah, claimed Clarke admitted he had planned to 'f*** her then fire her' her before groping her in a lift as well as exposing himself while driving together in LA, while another actress allegedly propositioned by Clarke described it as her '#metoo moment', a nod to the victims of Harvey Weinstein.

Actress and producer Philippa Crabb, who is also one of the 20 alleged victims named by The Guardian, shared an Instagram story posted by her relative of the newspaper's front page.

The original post read: 'Finally. Waited six years for this day', to which Philippa responded: 'Literally. Sorry if I haven't replied to you - my inbox is bursting with messages of support and it's all pretty overwhelming, but I appreciate you all SO much.'

Meanwhile, Clarke's female co-stars have claimed he is a 'sexual predator' and say the raft of sexual harassment and bullying allegations against him are the British film industry's 'best kept secret'.

After Jahannah explains she can't pee on him, Clarke replies: 'Just take your f**** out and pee on him, what's wrong with you?'

Jason reveals the cruel joke by pointing at Jahannah and laughing, with Clarke saying: 'You can't prank me'

Alexandra Roach, who stars alongside the actor in ITV's Viewpoint, said she 'sees, hears and believes' the women making the accusations.

Clarke's Kidulthood co-star Jaime Winstone also broke her silence to throw her support behind the disgraced actor's accusers in a poignant Time's Up post.

The actress, 35, who appeared opposite the actor in the 2006 film as Becky, shared the image on Instagram alongside a caption saying: 'When you're late to the party but you've been on the list for 15 years.'

The actor and producer, who is married to make-up artist Iris Da Silva, denied all allegations from the 20 women but said it has become clear to him that 'some of my actions have affected people in ways I did not intend or realise', and offered an apology to those affected.

His comments came amid reports that Bafta spent two weeks deciding how best to respond to allegations against Clarke prior to presenting him with one of its highest honours, the Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema Award.

The father-of-three was suspended from Bafta following the allegations, while Sky took the decision to 'halt' filming of the latest series of his east London crime drama Bulletproof.
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Medina Spirit stormed to victory in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday to deliver trainer Bob Baffert a record seventh win in the Run for the Roses.

Under jockey John Velazquez, Medina Spirit jumped to an early lead and fended off challenges down the stretch to cross the line first in front of 51,838 fans in the largest U.S. sporting event since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

The win was Hall of Fame jockey Velazquez's fourth in the Triple Crown race, which returned to its usual first Saturday in May spot on the sporting calendar having been pushed to September last year due to the pandemic.

Medina Spirit won by a half-length on Saturday, giving Baffert his seventh victory, the most of any trainer in the race's 147-year history.

Medina Spirit #8, ridden by jockey John Velazquez, (R) crosses the finish line to win the 147th running of the Kentucky Derby

John Velazquez celebrates with the winners trophy after guiding Medina Spirit to win the 147th running of the Kentucky Derby

Medina Spirit #8, ridden by jockey John Velazquez, (R) crosses the finish line to win the 147th running of the Kentucky Derby ahead of Mandaloun #7, ridden by Florent Geroux, at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky

Trainer Bob Baffert's horse, Medina Spirit, saw him secure his seventh Kentucky Derby win

Medina Spirit #8, ridden by jockey John Velazquez, (R) crosses the finish line to win the 147th running of the Kentucky Derby ahead of Mandaloun #7, ridden by Florent Geroux, and Hot Rod Charlie #9 ridden by Flavien Prat, at Churchill Downs

Medina Spirit #8, ridden by jockey John Velazquez, leads the field around the first bend

Some 51,800 attended - around 100,000 less than usual, and there are safety protocols in place

Medina Spirit held off Mandaloun in the final stretch of the fastest two minutes in horse racing

The jockey and trainer - both Hall of Famers - teamed up eight months ago to win a pandemic-delayed Derby in September with Authentic, who raced to an early lead and hung on. That wasn't so surprising.

This one was.

Sent off at 12-1 - astronomical odds for a colt trained by the white-haired, two-time Triple Crown winner - Medina Spirit was in a street fight thundering down the stretch.

The dark brown colt was pressed by Mandaloun on his outside. Hot Rod Charlie was coming fast outside of Mandaloun, with 5-2 favorite Essential Quality giving chase on the far outside.

'I kept waiting for all those horses to pass him,' Baffert said. 'When he got to the eighth pole, we said, `This guy has got a shot.'

Velazquez knew he had plenty of horse left.

'We got to the 16th pole and he put his ears down and kept fighting,' the jockey said. 'I was so proud of him.'

In the paddock, Baffert watched in amazement as one of the least heralded Derby runners of his long career dug in at the front.

'You could tell he was laying it down and Johnny was riding hard,' Baffert said. 'He was just relentless.'

Medina Spirit led all the way and ran 1 1/4 miles in 2:01.02. He paid $26.20, $12 and $7.60.

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear presents Medina Spirit owner Amr F. Zedan the Kentucky Derby Trophy after the 147th running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs

John Velazquez on Medina Spirit, third from right, leads the pack into the first turn of the Kentucky Derby

Medina Spirit also gave Bob Baffert a record 7th Kentucky Derby win

Racegoers at The Kentucky Oaks on the day of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville on Saturday

Elaborate hats were on full display at the Kentucky Derby 147 at Churchill Downs

Velazquez earned his fourth Derby victory aboard the dark brown colt that was purchased as a yearling for $1,000 and was a bargain-basement buy at $35,000 for current owner Amr Zedan of Saudi Arabia.

'He doesnt know how much he cost,' Baffert said, 'but what a little racehorse.'

Baffert punched his right arm in the air after watching the finish on the video board in the paddock. He was swarmed by his wife, Jill, and youngest son, Bode, with celebratory hugs.

'I'm really, really surprised,' the 68-year-old trainer said.

It wasn't false modesty. Baffert had been low-key about his chances after two of his best horses - Life Is Good and Concert Tour - were derailed along the Derby trail.

Medina Spirit isn't the typical high-priced talent with a fancy pedigree in Baffert's California barn.

'I cannot believe he won this race,' the trainer said. 'That little horse, that was him, all guts. He's always shown that hes been an overachiever. His heart is bigger than his body.'

Spectators cheer after Medina Spirit, ridden by John Velazquez wins 147th Kentucky Derby

John Velazquez riding Medina Spirit acknowledges spectators after winning the 147th running of the Kentucky Derby

Medina Spirit #8, ridden by jockey John Velazquez, leads the field into the fourth turn on his way to winning the race

John Velazquez sprays champaign in celebration after guiding Medina Spirit to win the race

Medina Spirit has never finished worse than second in six career starts and two of his three losses came to Life Is Good, who likely would have been the Derby favorite had he not been injured.

'Ive rehearsed this speech in the shower and treadmill,' Zedan said. 'Never thought I was going to do it, but here I am.'

Mandaloun - one of Louisville trainer Brad Cox's two entries - finished second and returned $23.00 and 13.40. Hot Rod Charlie, partly owned by five former Brown University football players, was another half-length back in third and paid $5.20 to show.

Essential Quality, also trained by Cox, finished fourth.

Baffert won back-to-back, having tied Ben Jones with his sixth victory last year when the race was run in September without spectators because of the coronavirus pandemic.

'The seven wins? I can't believe I won two,' Baffert said. 'Thats what I love about this business: Nobody knows for sure.'

John Velazquez aboard Medina Spirit (8) celebrates after winning the race at Churchill Downs

From up above, Media Spirit's victory is clear for all to see as the horse won by almost half a length

Trainer Bob Baffert of Medina Spirit, raises the trophy after winning the 147th running of the Kentucky Derby with Medina Spirit, his seventh career Kentucky Derby win, at Churchill Downs

Jockey John Velazquez hugs Medina Spirit in the winner's circle after securing victory

Trainer Bob Baffert, his son Bode Baffert and wife Jill Baffert celebrate with the trophy after Medina Spirit won the race

Two women wear bright dresses with plunging necklines along with wide-brimmed sunhats and face masks to complete their Kentucky Derby look

A maskless attendee makes her way to the highly anticipated Kentucky Derby in a simple white outfit with matching white hat

Velazquez became the first jockey to win consecutive Derbies since Victor Espinoza in 2014-15. The 49-year-old rider also completed the Kentucky Oaks-Derby double for the first time since Calvin Borel in 2009, winning the $1 million race for fillies on Friday.

Velazquez had told Baffert a night earlier not to underestimate Medina Spirit, named for the second holiest city in Islam and capital of the Medina province in Saudi Arabia.

'Every time I asked him for a little more, he gave me more,' Velazquez said.

The Derby went off on a sun-splashed day with attendance of 51,838 - about 100,000 fewer than usual. Fans were told to wear masks inside the track, but plenty of them did not.

O Besos finished fifth, followed by Midnight Bourbon, Keepmeinmind, Helium and Known Agenda. Highly Motivated was 10th, ahead of Sainthood, Like The King, Bourbonic, Hidden Stash, Brooklyn Strong, Super Stock, Rock Your World (the 9-2 second choice), Dynamic One and Soup and Sandwich.

A fashion-forward spectator matches her color-block outfit with her bedazzled purse as she makes her way to the Kentucky Derby

A spectator keeps it chicwith a black face mask to go with her outfit as she makes her way to watch the horse race at the Kentucky Derby on Saturday

A spectator keeps it simple with a yellow hat with a pink flower to go with her large multi-colored necklace for the highly anticipated Kentucky Derby

A Kentucky Derby attendee donning a large brim pink hat with her aviator shades wont have any problems with the sun getting in her eyes as she watches the horse race

A woman makes a serious fashion statement with her all white outfit with a matching white mask and hat at the Kentucky Derby

Florals was the theme of this well-dressed couple's outfit as they attend the Kentucky Derby one year after the horse race was disrupted by the pandemic

An attendee shines bright in her yellow getup with matching headwear for the 147th Kentucky Derby this weekend

Pictures from Louisville's Churchill Downs shows the bourbon to be flowing again, flowery hats back on heads and people back on the scene together with 19 horses.

The 147th edition race came less than eight months after it was run without spectators last September because of COVID-19, making it the shortest time between Derbies in history.

'I was hoping to enjoy my Derby win a little longer,' joked trainer Bob Baffert, who earned his sixth last year with Authentic.

The eerie silence that settled over Churchill Downs last year when no spectators were allowed is being replaced by attendance of about 45,000 - some 100,000 less than usual. Masks are required. Food and drinks are all-inclusive to lessen long lines and separate payments for every transaction.

With the Derby restored to its usual day, last year's upside down Triple Crown has been righted. The Preakness follows on May 15 and the Belmont, which kicked off the series a year ago, concludes it on June 5.

A spectator is sure to standout in the crowd with her large white floral headpiece at the 147th Kentucky Derby

A racegoer shows of her love of horses with a floral and feather hat featuring a horse figure right at the center to compete her Kentucky Derby look

One spectator goes all out in a homemade, uniquely decorated hat as she carries two stuffed horses to watch the 147th Kentucky Derby

A spectator stays in theme with a red beard that goes with his rose suit and top hat featuring a horse figurine with a rose in its mouth

A woman wears a flashy green and pink hat with flowers to the 147th Kentucky Derby at Louisville, Kentucky

Three dapper gentlemen wear their brightest suits to the Kentucky Derby, an event that is known bringing out the pageantry among spectators

One woman takes a picture with her cellphone as she dons a pink, feathery hat as she attends the Kentucky Oaks race at Churchill Downs

An attendee at the Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky wears a horse-themed hat to go with his rose facemask

A racegoer at the 147th Kentucky Derby wears a matching mask featuring a lipstick mark to go with her red and black outfit

Attendees will be required to wear mask to enter Churchill Downs for the 147th Kentucky Derby due to COVID concerns

A woman accessorizes her flowery hat with a matching pink mas and pink tinted shades at Churchill Downs for the 147th Kentucky Derby

Attendees in their best outfits form a line as they make their way to enter Churchill Downs on Saturday for the 147th Kentucky Derby

Horse race fans pose for the cameras as they sport marching horse-themed outfits at Churchill Downs on Friday

An overhead shot of a woman making her way to the Kentucky Derby in her best hat to match her simple black outfit

A spectator wears a bedazzled mask to go with her wide brim white hat to the 147th Kentucky Derby in Louisville, Kentucky

A woman wears a black and gold mask to go with her teal hat as she makes her way to watch the races at the Kentucky Derby

A group of fashionable ladies kept up with Kentucky Derby tradition and wore their best outfits with matching headwear

Three men put their best foot forward and show off their bright and colorful footwear to go with their funky outfits for the 47th Kentucky Derby

A spectator makes sure she get the shot on her cellphone while she wears a large, white floral headpiece to the 147th Kentucky Derby

The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission received a complaint this week from a group of human rights attorneys and students at the University of Louisville seeking to have Sheikh Mohammed banned from the Derby over alleged human rights abuses.

A judge in England ruled that he orchestrated the abductions of two of his adult daughters.
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Almost 200 migrants were intercepted by Border Force officials as they crossed the English Channel today - with the total number so far this year surpassing 2,100.

The Home Office confirmed that another 185 migrants attempted the journey in nine separate incidents today.

These latest arrivals mean that the total number to make the crossing this year is now 2,293 - including 223 in January, 308 in February, 831 in March and 746 in April.

It comes as French authorities prevented at least three events involving 40 migrants on Saturday.

Two Italian ports also faced an influx of hundreds of migrants after a charity ship sailed toward a Sicilian port with 236 people rescued in the Mediterranean from traffickers' boats with a further 532 being rescued by the Italian coastguard.

Almost 200 migrants were intercepted by Border Force officials as they crossed the English Channel today - with the total number so far this year surpassing 2,100

These latest arrivals mean that the total number to make the journey this year is now 2,293 - including 223 in January, 308 in February, 831 in March and 746 in April

There were 185 migrants were intercepted by Border Force officials as they crossed the English Channel today

The Home Office confirmed that the migrants attempted the journey in nine separate incidents today

These latest arrivals mean that the total number to make the journey this year is now 2,293 - including 223 in January, 308 in February, 831 in March and 746 in April

The arrivals, who appeared to be a mix of young men and women, were all wearing orange lifejackets and were escorted onto the marina with one wearing flip flops as they were accompanied by officials.

A spokesperson for Home Office said: 'We are working closely with our partners in France to stop these unnecessary journeys and the ruthless criminal gangs behind them.

'As a result more than 2,500 people have been prevented from making the dangerous crossing so far this year, and we have also secured 65 small boat related prosecutions since the start of 2020.

'There is more work to be done and our New Plan for Immigration will fix the asylum system, cracking down on the business model of people smugglers who put lives at risk by facilitating dangerous journeys into the UK.'

Last month Miss Patel announced that border guards patrolling the Channel will be given powers to turn back migrant boats.

The crackdown will be dependent on France and other countries accepting the return of migrants.

Border Force officials were seen helping one woman off the boat after she was picked up making the crossing

The Home Office confirmed that another 185 migrants attempted the journey in nine separate incidents today

The planned shake-up includes other controversial steps such as stripping failed asylum seekers of support and accommodation.

Foreign nationals could also be refused UK visas if their governments do not accept deportations of their own immigration rule-breakers from Britain.

France struck a deal with the UK in November to tackle illegal Channel crossings but has so far resisted the idea of having dinghies sent back to its northern beaches.

The Government's new plan for immigration, published in full on March 24, revealed the bill for the asylum system is set to rise to more than 1.3billion this year, from just under 1billion in 2019-20.

Last month Miss Patel announced that border guards patrolling the Channel will be given powers to turn back migrant boats. Pictured: Migrants arriving earlier today

Almost 200 migrants were intercepted by Border Force officials as they crossed the English Channel today

It comes as French authorities also prevented at least three events involving 40 migrants today.

Two Italian ports faced an influx of hundreds of migrants on Saturday too as a charity ship sailed toward a Sicilian port with 236 people rescued in the Mediterranean from traffickers' boats, while Italian coastguard and border police took 532 others to a tiny island.

The maritime rescue group SOS Mediterranee said a ship it operates, Ocean Viking, pulled the migrants to safety four days ago from two rubber dinghies.

Under instruction from Italian authorities, the Ocean Viking was sailing to Augusta, Sicily, with its passengers, who it said included 119 unaccompanied minors.

SOS Mediterranee said some told rescuers they were beaten by smugglers in Libya and forced to embark on the unseaworthy dinghies despite high waves.

On Italy's southern island of Lampedusa, which is closer to North Africa than to the Italian mainland, mayor Salvatore Martello said migrants from four boats that needed rescue stepped ashore overnight.

They were taken to safety by Italian coastguard and customs police boats.

Separately, an Italian navy vessel rescued 49 migrants, Italian state TV reported.

Still in the central Mediterranean on Saturday was another charity boat, Sea-Watch 4, with 308 people on board who had been rescued in four separate operations from trafficker-launched vessels, Sea-Watch said in a statement.

The first rescue, of 44 people, took place on Thursday, it said.

Sea-Watch 4 has requested a port to disembark the migrants from both Italy and Malta.
Daily new COVID-19 cases in South Korea remained in the 600s for the third straight day Friday as sporadic clusters were reported nationwide amid concerns of another wave of infections. Yonhap



Daily new COVID-19 cases in South Korea remained in the 600s for the third straight day Friday as sporadic clusters were reported nationwide amid concerns of another wave of infections.



The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 627 more coronavirus cases, including 593 local ones, raising the total caseload to 122,634.



The tally was down from 661 new cases for Thursday and 680 Wednesday; while the number of locally transmitted cases fell below 600 for the first time since April 11.



The country also added three more deaths, raising the total death toll to 1,831.



The health authorities warned of another wave as infection clusters at various facilities, including restaurants and workplaces, continued amid the warm spring weather.



The number of new daily cases has shot up to near 800 in recent weeks after staying in the 300s to 400s in March.



The government decided Friday to extend its current social distancing rules and a ban on private gatherings of five or more people for three more weeks until May 23.



Currently, the greater Seoul area, home to more than half of the country's total population of 52 million people, is under Level 2 social distancing measures, the third highest in the administrations' five-tier plan, with the rest of the country under Level 1.5.



The government plans to apply a revamped social distancing system from July if daily virus cases remain under 1,000 by the end of June.



A total of 3.32 million people have received at least their first shots of a COVID-19 vaccine since the country started its vaccination program Feb. 26, accounting for 6.5 percent of the population.



AstraZeneca's vaccine has been given to 1.77 million people, while the same number has received Pfizer doses.



A total of 16,196 people complained of side-effects after vaccination, up 697 from a day earlier, but 98.1 percent of them experienced mild symptoms, including muscle pain and fever.



The KDCA said 75 deaths after vaccinations have been reported, up two from the previous day, but added that the exact causes remain unknown as it could not determine causality.



The country aims to vaccinate 12 million people by the end of June in a bid to achieve herd immunity by November.



Of the locally transmitted cases, Seoul reported 187 new infections, while the surrounding Gyeonggi Province identified 187. The southern port city of Busan reported 28.



The number of new imported cases came to 34, raising the total to 8,356.



Patients experiencing serious symptoms across the country reached 174, up from 164, the KDCA said.



The total number of people released from quarantine after recovering from the infection was 112,337, up 915 from the previous day. (Yonhap)


Lockdown has been good for cosmetic surgeons like Tijion Esho. His clinics in London and Newcastle offer the standard range of anti-wrinkle jabs and fillers to well-heeled, middle-aged women and even the occasional pop star.

Thanks to the rise of video conferencing  and unprecedented scrutiny of how we look  business is booming.

But for the past 12 months, Dr Esho and his staff have seen a new sort of client walk through the door, clients with demands he cannot, and will not, meet.

'People used to bring in pictures of celebrities they wanted to look like,' he says.

'Now they send me digitally manipulated images of their own faces  pictures they've altered themselves.'

Giulia is pictured left as she normally looks and right and right with her hair lighter and her lips bigger

The new clientele is young. Most are women in their 20s. And they want to look like their edited photographs on Instagram and Snapchat.

'At least ten patients a week are asking for this. I don't recognise them when they come in because they look so different to the edited pictures they've sent previously by email,' says Dr Esho.

'These images are hyper-exaggerated, very sculpted and completely unrealistic. People are chasing impossible, unachievable looks.'

Dr Esho is not the only person to conclude that young people of both sexes  but especially girls  are in the grip of a face-editing frenzy. Or that it is creating widespread misery.

Hundreds of respondents to Parliament's recent body-image inquiry said that edited and filtered photos on social media are a major cause of negative feelings. Research by the Girl Guides suggests that a third of young women will post only digitally altered photos on social media, such is the demand to look like the best version of themselves.

And in response, MPs, mental-health charities and even the Royal College of Psychiatrists are demanding action.

Giulia is pictured left cat's eyes and smoother skin and right with plumped up cheeks and lips

They want digitally altered pictures to be labelled and say the face and body-editing apps must be regulated.

'I have absolutely no doubt that the bombardment of over-edited, idealised images of what people aspire to look like is having a very damaging effect on young people's wellbeing,' says Caroline Nokes, the Conservative chairman of the Women and Equalities Committee, which ran the body-image inquiry.

'What struck us was the evidence of the pressures young people feel under to look perfect all the time. I was shocked by the number who felt unhappy or very unhappy with the way they looked. It is a really terrifying direction of travel.'

With dozens of apps available, altering photographs has never been easier.

The market in filters and face-editing apps is already valued at 250 million and rising, thanks to an explosion of young people wanting to look as polished as the celebrities they follow on social media  celebrities who themselves edit their appearance.

Both Instagram and Snapchat offer filters for free, plumping lips, smoothing skin and exaggerating cheekbones at the touch of a button.

Instagram's 'Kylie Plus Kendall' filter promises to turn you into a hybrid version of the two youngest Kardashian sisters, while TikTok's most popular feature is the 'shrinking filter', which slims faces. Facetune, a popular paid-for app, costs 3.99. It lets users carry out more radical 'surgery' and claims it can make every selfie look as though it 'came straight out of a high-fashion magazine'.

They are addictively easy to use. Within seconds, we can widen smiles, whiten teeth and conceal eye bags. We can plump lips, cinch in waists, enlarge breasts and even create the so-called thigh gap. Spots can be zapped, grey hairs coloured, and, for men, bald patches filled in.

Nothing illustrates the problem better than the furore that resulted when an 'unauthorised' bikini picture of Khloe Kardashian appeared on the internet by mistake.

There was nothing wrong with the photograph, of course. But it hadn't been edited. To the horror of Khloe's PR team, the snap revealed a normal female body  not the curated shape her fans are used to seeing. Team Khloe threatened legal action against any social-media user who reposted it.

Not that multi-millionaire Khloe thinks there's anything wrong with the heavily filtered lifestyle she projects. According to her, tweaking pictures is no different to having her nails done.

She uses filters, she says, to 'present myself to the world the way I want to be seen' and will continue to do this 'unapologetically'.

'It's almost unbearable trying to live up to the impossible standards the public have all set for me,' she said in an unlikely bid for sympathy. She had nothing, though, to say about the wider effect of the fake images that she and other celebrities promote.

Parliament's body-image inquiry found that according to under-18s, social media is the single most important thing to affect how they feel about the way they look.

It also found that more than a quarter of young people spend five or more hours on social media on any typical day. And that 61 per cent of adults and 66 per cent of children feel negative or very negative about their body image most of the time.

The inquiry also identified a 70 per cent increase in demand for cosmetic procedures  a so-called Zoom Boom  driven, it said, by the increasing amount of time spent online.

Even young men appear to be suffering, with diagnoses of conditions such as Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) growing rapidly.

'The social-media giants have such a massive responsibility here,' says Ms Nokes. 'It would be fantastically easy for them to stick a badge on a picture to show it had been put through Facetune or another app. That would be evidence of them taking their responsibilities seriously.

She is pressing the Government to include labelling measures in its Online Harms Bill  but with little expectation of success.

'Anecdotally, parents are very worried about how long their children spend on screens and how they're getting depressed about the way they look,' she says.

'I want the Government to recognise that there's a real problem here. It paints a bleak picture for the future unless the Government is bold enough to do something.'

Nothing illustrates the problem better than the furore that resulted when an unauthorised bikini picture of Khloe Kardashian appeared on the internet by mistake

She points out that, in France, any commercial image that has been edited must be labelled 'photographie retouchee', or 'retouched photograph'.

But British legislation should go further and cover any image or a face or body that has been digitally altered, believes Ms Nokes.

Dr Luke Evans, a Conservative member of the Health and Social Care Committee and a GP, is also supporting the campaign. He has sponsored a private member's Bill demanding that all digitally altered commercial images be labelled.

Dr Antonis Kousoulis, director of The Mental Health Foundation charity, is also calling for laws to make labelling compulsory.

'Constant exposure to unrealistic images impacts mental health and can lead to body dissatisfaction, eating disorders and low moods,' he says. 'There has been an increase in eating disorders over the past couple of years and this must be connected to the visual culture we live in now. It's not just the exposure but also the editing process towards a single, narrow ideal with specific characteristics: muscly for men, and for women an impossible combination of muscular yet feminine.'

He addS: 'We would also support an age restriction for these apps, many of which lure customers by being free to download and then asking for in-app purchases. This is predatory.'

In a recent survey, the charity found that one in eight young people had suicidal thoughts because of their body image.

Christie Sutton, 29, a visual merchandiser from London, started using filters only two years ago but now hates the way her face looks without them and has considered cosmetic surgery.

'Insta filters are oddly addictive,' Ms Sutton says. 'Now, when I see my actual face, even with a full face of make-up, I'm unhappy because 'filter me' is 'better me'.

'Before the selfie culture took off, aside from my crooked teeth and small lips, I was relatively happy. I thought I had quite good, clear skin. Now I probably wouldn't post a picture without at least adding a skin-smoothing filter.

'Filters have definitely affected my self-esteem. The self I see in the mirror will never measure up to the attractive person I see on the screen.'

Even though she has no need, Ms Sutton admits she has looked into getting Botox in her forehead, and fillers in her lips and under her eyes.

Young women like her are all-too-familiar to cosmetic clinics.

Dr Esho says his clients increasingly request sharper jawlines, fuller lips, bigger eyes and smooth skin. Requests to emulate the cat-like eyes of celebrities such as Bella Hadid have more than doubled in the past year, he adds.

Harley Street aesthetics doctor Joshua Van Der Aa says he often receives edited pictures from prospective clients several times a day.

'Plumped-up lips, fox eyes, slimmer noses, razor-sharp jawlines, contoured cheeks and poreless skin  the so-called snatched look  is typically what we're seeing and being asked for because of filter overuse,' he says. 'Mainly it's women in their early to mid-20s, but it's also established, professional women too, and men are not immune.

'I spend a lot of time talking people out of unnecessary work and won't administer a treatment if the end result exaggerates any facial feature beyond normal, anatomical proportions.

'Filters are not real. They are a gimmick and should be viewed as such.'

The number of people he sees with botched surgery is higher now than it has ever been.

He adds: 'I've had countless young women in tears because the fox-eyes look has gone wrong.

'Heart-shaped Russian lips are having a moment right now too, unfortunately.

'This technique may look good in pictures but complication rates are high. I dissolved seven cases in a single weekend recently.'

That is to say he injected the patients with solvent in order to remove the filler in their lips  a painful process.

Dr Paul Banwell, a cosmetic surgeon based in London and the South East, and a visiting professor at Harvard Medical School, confirms there is a boom in enquiries from people trying to achieve what he calls 'Instagram Face'  poreless skin, plump, high cheekbones, cat-like eyes, long, cartoonish lashes, a tiny, neat nose and full lips.

'It's almost cyborgian,' Dr Banwell says. 'The use of digital enhancement on social media is so commonplace nowadays that many patients come to me with phone pictures saying, 'That's how I get most likes and followers and could we do that in reality?' '

He refers as many as 30 per cent of his clients to a psychologist for body dysmorphia, rather than carrying out surgery.

The new clientele is young. Most are women in their 20s. And they want to look like their edited photographs on Instagram and Snapchat [File photo]

It is only in the past few days that the Government has finally passed legislation banning under-18s from having cosmetic Botox and fillers.

For Dr Esho, it's a relief. 'I was receiving Botox requests from children as young as 14 and even from parents saying they gave consent for their children to have the treatment,' he reveals.

'I always refused but, of course, there are any number of unqualified practitioners out there who would do it.'

Dr Jonathan Goldin, vice-chairman of the Royal College of Psychiatrists' faculty of child and adolescent psychiatry, says some are even targeting their advertising at teenagers.

'I'm hearing more and more about teenagers who want breast implants or collagen in their faces,' he adds.

'They talk about feeling a pressure to live up to an expectation. They look at images that have been doctored and have filters on and compare themselves unfavourably. The Government has appointed Ofcom as the online harms regulator and we want these apps and filters to be part of what they regulate.

'Companies like Instagram are very clever. We think they should be prioritising young people's mental health over advertising revenue. These very wealthy tech companies should be contributing a significant percentage of their revenue towards research in this area.'
Extinction Rebellion activists are deliberately causing enough criminal damage during protests to ensure they are tried by juries.

Under the law, anyone accused of damage valued at less than 5,000 is dealt with by a magistrate. But if the sum involved is higher, they can be brought before a jury  where protesters believe they stand a better chance of being acquitted.

The group has admitted to the tactic after six defendants were last month found not guilty of damaging oil giant Shells London HQ in April 2019.

Meanwhile, nine female activists have been charged with causing criminal damage to HSBC banks building in Canary Wharf, London, by shattering 19 windows.

Morgan Trowland, 38, glued himself to the ground on Tower Bridge in London at 11am when co-ordinated action began by Extinction Rebellion yesterday

A spokesman told The Mail on Sunday that the group has intentionally carried out more than 5,000 of damage during protests, saying: Magistrates will always rule in the same way, but if we get in front of a jury these things will happen.

The people will decide and they will do what they did the other day and rule in our favour.

They wont acquit in every case, but its a different game now. We will be carrying on with this tactic, nothing is going to change.

The comments came as protesters staged more than 200 one-man roadblocks across the country yesterday by sitting in front of approaching traffic.

Under the law, anyone accused of damage valued at less than 5,000 is dealt with by a magistrate. But if the sum involved is higher, they can be brought before a jury  where protesters believe they stand a better chance of being acquitted

The group is also thought to be plotting further action against newspapers in the coming months after blockading the delivery of 500,000 copies from printing press sites last September.

Meanwhile, another six protesters successfully appealed against their convictions at Southwark Crown Court last week after it was found that police failed adequately to assess conditions for making dispersal orders in Parliament Square and Oxford Circus in April 2019.

XR said about 3,000 of its activists have been arrested since the groups campaign began in 2018, with just under 1,000 already convicted in magistrates courts.

The Government is planning to introduce a new Police and Crime Bill to help combat protests including those by XR.

Assistant Chief Constable Chris Noble, National Police Chiefs Council lead for policing protests, said: The public would expect us to take action in these cases and we will continue to do so.
Derek Chauvin's sentencing is weeks away and the Minnesota attorney general is among those seeking an aggressive sentence for the former cop.

Chauvin was convicted in the May 2020 killing of George Floyd two weeks ago, found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter.

Chauvin pressed his knee against Floyd's neck for nine and a half minutes as Floyd complained of trouble breathing and eventual became motionless.

In paperwork filed with the judge on Friday, Attorney General Keith Ellison asked for an 'aggravated sentence' on behalf of the state, citing several factors in the memorandum.

Those factors include Floyd's vulnerable position on the ground, that he was treated with 'particular cruelty,' Chauvin's abuse of authority, the presence of at least four children, and that Chauvin 'committed the crime as part of a group of three or more persons who all actively participated in the crime.'

Minnesota AG Keith Ellison is seeking an 'aggravated sentence' for Derek Chauvin

Derek Chauvin was convicted in the death of George Floyd nearly two weeks ago

Chauvin was convicted of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter, though he will only be sentenced on the most severe charge

In regards to the 'particular cruelty,' Ellison argues Chauvin 'continued to maintain his position atop Mr. Floyd even as Mr. Floyd cried out that he was in pain, even as Mr. Floyd exclaimed 27 times that he could not breathe, and even as Mr. Floyd said that Defendants actions were killing him.'

In the memorandum, Ellison notes that only one aggravating factor needs to be proven to justify an aggravated sentence.

'The State respectfully requests that the Court find the facts necessary to support the existence of all five aggravating factors and state those facts on the record,' the memorandum concludes.

George Floyd was killed when Chauvin pressed his knee on Floyd's neck for over nine minutes

Chauvin could face up to 40 years in prison, though he'll likely be sentenced to less than hal of that based on Minnesota's sentencing guidelines

'Based on these aggravating factors, the State respectfully requests an upward sentencing departure in this case.'

Prosecutors did not specify how long they want Chauvin's sentence to last.

USA Today reports defense attorney Eric Nelson is opposing a tougher sentence for Chauvin, claiming the state has not proven the aggravating factors.

'The assault of Mr. Floyd occurred in the course of a very short time, involved no threats or taunting, such as putting a gun to his head and pulling the trigger  and ended when EMS finally responded to officers calls,' Nelson said.

Because of Minnesota law, Chauvin will only be sentenced for second-degree murder, the most serious charge.

He could be sentenced to up to 40 years in prison, but based on his clean record, he's more likely to be sentenced to 10-15 years under Minnesota sentencing guidelines, unless aggravating factors can be proven.

Pictured: Derek Chauvin during the incident that ended George Floyd's life

The other cops involved in Floyd's death will face trial in August

Just last week, Ellison told 60 Minutes host Scott Pelley his initial reaction upon hearing the guilty verdict was 'gratitude, humility,' followed by sympathy for Chauvin.

'I will admit, I felt a little bad for the defendant,' Ellison told the CBS current affairs show. 'I think he deserved to be convicted. But he's a human being.'

During that interview, Ellison also suggested that he didn't want an especially harsh sentence for Chauvin.

'I think it is important for the court to not go light or heavy. I don't know if it's right for a judge to send a message through a sentence because the sentence should be tailored to the offense, tailored to the circumstances of the case,' Ellison told 60 Minutes.

Ellison previously stated that he 'felt a little bad for the defendant' after Chauvin's conviction

Last week, Ellison also told The Star Tribune that there wasn't much celebrating after Chauvin's conviction.

'It's sad, very sad,' said Ellison. 'One man's dead and another man's going to prison for a long time.'

Chauvin is currently in Oak Park Heights prison - Minnesota's only maximum security facility - and will be sentenced on June 16.

Prosecutors will be back in court in August, pursuing convictions against three other officers involved in Floyd's fatal arrest: J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, and Tou Thao.
Cher has led the tributes for her Moonstruck co-star, the Oscar winning actress Olympia Dukakis, who has died aged 89 after months of failing health.

Dukakis, who starred in Moonstruck and Steel Magnolias, died at her home in New York City on Saturday morning.

Dukakis won an Oscar for her role as Rose in the 1987 film Moonstruck where she starred as Cher's mother, and the pair remained close.

'Olympia Dukakis was an amazing, Academy Award-winning actress,' Cher wrote in a Tweet on Saturday afternoon.

'Olympia played my mom In Moonstruck, & even though her part was that of a suffering wife, we (laugh-cry emoji) ALL the time. She would tell me how much she loved Louis, her 'handsome talented, husband'.'

Cher revealed she spoke with Dukakis just three weeks ago.

Cher said she told Dukakis: 'Olympia it's Cher, I love you.'

Dukakis replied: 'Oh Cher, I love you'. 'She was weak but happy,' Cher said.

Dukakis is survived by their three children: Christina, Peter and Stefan.

Her husband of 56 years, Louis Zorich, died in 2018.

Her cause of death has not been revealed.

'My beloved sister, Olympia Dukakis, passed away this morning in New York City. After many months of failing health she is finally at peace and with her Louis,' her brother Apollo said in a statement.

Cher has led the tributes for her Moonstruck co-star Olympia Dukakis, who died in New York City on Saturday aged 89

An emotional Cher Tweeted her grief for her fallen co-star, and how she called Dukakis just three weeks before her death

The Oscar-winning actress died after months of failing health

Dukakis, who is pictured above with Cher in 1989, acted in more than 130 theater productions, 60 films and 50 TV series throughout her career

Her husband of 56 years, Louis Zorich, died in 2018. She is survived by their three children: Christina, Peter and Stefan

Throughout her decorated career, Dukakis acted in more than 130 theater productions, 60 films and 50 TV series.

She was a Golden Globe nominee for the 1992 miniseries biopic Sinatra and also received Emmy Award nominations for Lucky Day, More Tales and the City and Joan of Arc.

Dukakis was also a decorated state actress having performed in more than 100 Broadway and off-Broadway productions.

She was given a Hollywood Walk of Fame star back in 2013.

Dukakis won her Oscar through a surprising chain of circumstances, beginning with author Nora Ephron's recommendation that she play Meryl Streep's mother in the film version of Ephron's book 'Heartburn.'

Dukakis got the role, but her scenes were cut from the film. To make it up to her, director Mike Nichols cast her in his hit play 'Social Security.' Director Norman Jewison saw her in that role and cast her in 'Moonstruck.'

She won the Oscar for best supporting actress and Cher took home the trophy for best actress.

She referred to her 1988 win as 'the year of the Dukakii' because it was also the year Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, her cousin, went up against George H.W. Bush as a the Democrat candidate in the 1988 presidential election.

Her cousin is former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, who went up against George H.W. Bush as a the Democrat candidate in the 1988 presidential election.

At the ceremony, she held her Oscar high over her head and called out: 'OK, Michael, let's go!'

Dukakis won an Oscar for her role as Rose in the 1987 film Mooonstruck (above) where she starred as Cher's mother

Dukakis is pictured above with Dolly Parton in the 1989 film Steel Magnolias

Following Moonstruck, Dukakis went on to star alongside Shirley MacLaine, Julia Roberts, Sally Field, Dolly Parton and Darryl Hannah in Steel Magnolias

Born in Lowell, Massachusetts on June 20, 1931, Dukakis had yearned to be an actress from an early age.

Her had parents immigrated to the United States from southern Greece. She and her brother Apollo grew up in New England as first-generation Greek-Americans.

Her parents insisted she pursue a more practical education, so she studied physical therapy at Boston University on a scholarship from the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis.

After earning her bachelor's degree, she worked at an understaffed hospital in Marmet, West Virginia, and at the Hospital for Contagious Diseases in Boston.

But the lure of the theater eventually led her to study drama at Boston University.

It was a shocking change, she told an interviewer in 1988, noting that she had gone from the calm world of science to one where students routinely screamed at the teachers.

'I thought they were all nuts,' she said. 'It was wonderful.'

Her first graduate school performance was a disaster, however, as she sat wordless on the stage.

After a teacher helped cure her stage fright, she began working in summer stock theaters.

She moved to New York City in 1959 before making her Broadway debut in 1962 in The Aspern Papers.

She married her husband Louis, who was an actor and producer, that same year.

During their first years of marriage, acting jobs were scarce, and Dukakis worked as a bartender, waitress and other jobs.

She and Zorich had three children - Christina, Peter and Stefan. They decided it was too hard to raise children in New York with limited income, so they moved the family to a century-old house in Montclair, a New Jersey suburb.

She is pictured second from left in the 1993 miniseries Tales of the City with Chloe Webb, Laura Linney and Paul Gross

Dukakis starred alongside John Travolta, Kirstie Alley and George Segal in Look Who's Talking

She was given a Hollywood Walk of Fame star back in 2013

Dukakis has spoken at length of initially struggling to only find parts playing ethnic roles given her Greek heritage and name.

'It would have been a hell of a lot easier to get acting jobs if my name were Day instead of Dukakis, but then I wouldn't have had the satisfaction of seeing the family name - my parents' name - displayed so visibly during that time,' she wrote in her 2003 autobiography, Ask Me Again Tomorrow: A Life in Progress.

She was cast in Moonstruck when she was 56 years old.

Dukakis recalled taking the role for the money and regarded it as one of her lesser works - despite it being one of most well-known films.

'All of the attention I was getting was lovely, of course, but I was more than a little confused about why it had come at this point, and with this role, which, to my mind, was not the greatest part I had ever played,' she said.

Her Oscar victory kept the motherly film roles coming.

She was Kirstie Alleys mom in 'Look Whos Talking' and its sequel 'Look Whos Talking Too,' the sardonic widow in 'Steel Magnolias' and the overbearing wife of Jack Lemmon (and mother of Ted Danson) in 'Dad.'

But the stage had been her first love.

'My ambition wasnt to win the Oscar,' she commented after her 'Moonstruck' win. 'It was to play the great parts.'

She accomplished that in such New York productions as Bertolt Brechts 'Mother Courage and Her Children,' Eugene ONeills 'Long Days Journey into Night' and Tennessee Williams 'The Rose Tattoo.'

For two decades she ran the Whole Theater Company in Montclair, New Jersey, specializing in classic dramas.

While her passion lay in stage, a line from her Oscar-winning performance as Rose nonetheless seemed fitting: 'I just want you to know no matter what you do, youre gonna die, just like everybody else.'
A memorial of candles and flowers still lies near the scene of the latest atrocity in London's violent crime wave.

The killing of teenager Junior Jah in the borough of Newham happened just a stone's throw from Mayor Sadiq Khan's new City Hall  leaving those in the area too terrified to leave their own homes.

The 18-year-old was killed just four years after his brother Ahmed, 21, was stabbed to death in the same area as he bought a soft drink.

The killing of teenager Junior Jah in the borough of Newham happened just a stone's throw from Mayor Sadiq Khan's new City Hall  leaving those in the area too terrified to leave their own homes

The 18-year-old was killed just four years after his brother Ahmed, 21, was stabbed to death in the same area as he bought a soft drink

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, pictured yesterday at the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Neasden, was accused by his Conservative rival for mayor Shaun Bailey of cutting 38 million from police budgets and closing 38 police stations

And in the past four months, 12 teenagers have been stabbed to death in the capital, and there are fears the killings could reignite the gang wars that have plagued the city during Mr Khan's term as London Mayor.

It is all the more galling to the victims' families that the latest murder took place in the shadow of the Mayor's 'vanity project'  The Crystal building, soon to be his new office.

Barring a political earthquake, voters are set to give the Labour politician another five years in office at the local elections this week.

Londoners cite crime as their No 1 concern but Mr Khan's critics accuse him of being preoccupied with traffic-calming measures and crippling increases to the Congestion Charge.

Conservative mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey said: 'How many tragedies will it take before Sadiq Khan actually takes responsibility for rising crime in London?'

Since Mr Khan came to office in May 2016, at least 114 teenagers have been murdered. Of those, ten were killed in Newham  including two last month. According to police statistics, 6,335 crimes have been reported to police within walking distance of the new City Hall in the past three years, including 1,357 violent or sexual offences.

The latest murder took place in the shadow of the Mayor's 'vanity project'  The Crystal building, soon to be his new office

Despite the tsunami of crime, two nearby police stations, Plaistow and Stratford, were closed in 2017 to save about 540,000 a year.

Mr Bailey added: 'Since becoming Mayor, Sadiq Khan has cut 38 million from police budgets and closed 38 police stations.

'And while he can't seem to find the money to hire more police or reopen police stations, he can seem to find millions to move City Hall to Newham  a pointless vanity project that won't improve the lives of any Londoners.'

The stations have been replaced with contact points in libraries, supermarkets and post offices  but that is not enough for the people of Canning Town.

Dave Marquis, 67, told The Mail on Sunday: 'I've lived here for 30 years. They lost control of this area ten years ago. There aren't enough policemen on the streets.

'I want to see police officers walking the beat like they used to when I was a child and actually talking to the community they serve. Sadiq Khan is not doing enough to tackle this and the proof is right there with what happened last week [to Junior Jah]. He needs to get more policemen on the streets but instead he's obsessed with trying to charge us just for owning cars.'

Just three days before Junior was killed, Fares Maatou, 14, was stabbed to death in Canning Town

Another resident, who did not wish to be named, said they were too frightened to leave their home in the evening, adding: 'I've lived here all my life and it's definitely getting worse. The gangs are trying to take over and are getting more violent.

'All of my children have moved out to Essex and they want me to move too. I used to walk my dog around here at night but I won't do that any more. It's just not safe.'

One resident tried to come to the aid of Junior, who was attacked in Coolfin Road last Monday.

She said: 'I undid his jacket and checked his pulse  he had a gunshot wound in his chest, it was bleeding badly.' Comparing parts of London to notorious areas of New York, she said: 'This is gang-related and I don't want gunshots outside my house  this place is like the Bronx now.'

Just three days before Junior was killed, Fares Maatou, 14, was stabbed to death in Canning Town.

Locals say the Freemasons estate, where the Jah brothers lost their lives, has been run down for years. And yet it is in the shadow of the Royal Victoria Dock, lined with new buildings, cranes and The Crystal, constructed in 2012 at a cost of 30 million.

Mr Khan plans to move the current City Hall staff into the angular steel-and-glass building at the end of the year, with at least 13.6 million budgeted for the move plus 3.3 million for renovations. However, it is too small to accommodate everyone so some staff will have to work from London Fire Brigade's headquarters in Southwark.

While the move is designed to save an estimated 60 million over the next five years, the Conservatives and Lib Dems on the London Assembly have expressed frustration that the numbers 'don't add up'.

Nick Vandyke, Tory London Assembly candidate for the area, said that if Mr Khan did come to East London then at least he 'will notice what is going on'. He added: 'I don't think he has his priorities right. There is money that could be spent on policing and on our youth and he isn't doing that.'

According to police statistics, 6,335 crimes have been reported to police within walking distance of the new City Hall in the past three years, including 1,357 violent or sexual offences

Gabin Sinclair-Constance, director of London programmes at youth charity Leap Confronting Conflict, said funding for youth centres in the capital had been stripped away over the past decade.

He added: 'For a young person to be killed down the road from his older brother is devastating and it shows that four years of whatever work has taken place in Newham has not even made a dent in the problem.' Two teenagers, aged 14 and 15, have been charged over the murder of Fares Maatou. There have been no charges relating to the death of Ahmed Jah, while police are appealing for information about Junior's death.

Last night, a spokesman for Mr Khan said the Mayor's thoughts and prayers were with the Jah family. He added: 'The safety of Londoners will always be Sadiq's top priority. That is why, despite huge Government cuts to police and youth services since 2010, the Mayor has invested more than 1 billion in policing and 70 million in preventative youth services.

'Sadiq set up England's first Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) to tackle the underlying causes of violence. The VRU is currently providing targeted support in Newham through the My Ends programme.'

The spokesman said the move from City Hall to The Crystal building was designed to save money long-term, which would be reinvested into the capital 'including action to tackle violence'.
Not only does Emily Mortimer write, direct and act in the much anticipated show, she appears to have employed at least 12 members of her family and close friends in the production  including her mother, two children and two nephews

It wouldnt be the first time the acting profession has been labelled incestuous.

But a glance at the star-strewn cast for new BBC drama The Pursuit Of Love suggests that a number of them were extremely well acquainted long before the series started filming last year.

Not only does Emily Mortimer write, direct and act in the much anticipated show, she appears to have employed at least 12 members of her family and close friends in the production  including her mother, two children and two nephews.

The three-part series, which starts next Sunday, is based on Nancy Mitfords classic novel and tells the tale of the Radletts, a family loosely based on Mitfords with her six aristocratic siblings.

It includes such famously colourful characters as the many-times-married Bolter, played by Mortimer, and Uncle Matthew, who hunts his children across the Oxfordshire countryside with bloodhounds.

But as The Mail on Sunday can reveal, the connections between Mortimers cast members are almost as close and tangled as those between the Mitfords themselves.

Tongues first started wagging when two of the shows A-list leads, Lily James and married Dominic West, were photographed smooching during an alfresco lunch in Rome last year.

While their fellow actors might not have reached quite such a scale of intimacy, they are certainly close  related by blood or through long-established family ties.

Those appearing on the credits include Mortimers lifelong friends, the aforementioned West and Dolly Wells, her bridesmaid Martha West and two members of the famous Fox acting dynasty, who are close to the sprawling Mortimer clan.

Even Mortimers brother-in-law has a role to play in the inter-war drama, one of the first to be filmed amid Covid-19 restrictions, which are said to have added nearly 2 million to the eventual 10.8 million cost.

The recruitment policy for the series might seem rather cosy, not to say convenient, to some.

But Mortimer  daughter of the late Rumpole author John Mortimer  has openly admitted she enjoys the freedom of a director to choose who they want for roles and is well-known for having friends and family alongside her on set.

Some were also cast in her 2013 sitcom Doll & Em, which imagined her childhood friend Dolly Wells as her assistant. Others contributed behind the scenes.

West, 51, (left) star of The Wire, Les Miserables and The Affair, is more in demand than ever. But he was happy to clear his busy schedule for his long-time friend Mortimer, whom he has known for years

In a recent interview, she admitted that casting her own children could be seen as total nepotism and much frowned upon but countered that they were both good actors who had been cast in a major Hollywood film.

No rules have been broken, but credits for The Pursuit Of Love might seem hard to square with BBC guidelines on the matter, which state that productions should always be accessible to all to ensure that we are able to make the most of the very best, diverse talent.

Charles Collier, founder of the production company behind the drama, Open Book, said: You have to reserve the right as an artist to be inspired by the people you know and the people who are the inspiration in your life.

You cant just suddenly box-tick and say well, none of that matters. Its not in any way removing opportunity from others.

Emilys children Sam and May were at the top of her list but had to go through the same rigorous casting process.

Their mum would not have asked us to see them and we as producers would have said On your bike had they not been any good. It really is a creative community. Its absolutely the way in which theatre, film and TV has always worked. Its not jobs for mates, its because theyre right for the role. Its totally normal to get creative communities that naturally come together.

So who made Mortimers exclusive directors cut? How are they all connected  and to whom?

The in-demand 32-year-old Lily James (right) shares a talent agency, Tavistock Wood, with Mortimer and four other cast members, who include Dominic West, Freddie Fox and his mother, Joanna. Lily knows Freddie through drama school

DOMINIC WEST: Uncle Matthew

West, 51, star of The Wire, Les Miserables and The Affair, is more in demand than ever. But he was happy to clear his busy schedule for his long-time friend Mortimer, whom he has known for years.

The original link was with Polly Astor, the daughter of Conservative MP Michael Astor, one of Mortimers closest childhood friends. West was in a relationship with Polly before his marriage to landscape designer Catherine FitzGerald, and they had a baby together in 1998  a daughter named Martha.

MARTHA WEST: Jassy Radlett

That baby is now 23 and an actress in her own right. And, thanks to her mother and father, her connections to Mortimer also run deep. She was chosen to be bridesmaid at Mortimers 2003 wedding to actor and producer Alessandro Nivola, and is also godmother to their 17-year-old eldest son Samuel. Martha plays the youngest Radlett daughter, Jassy, whose childhood ambition is to run away from home.

FREDDIE FOX: Tony Kroesig

Fox, 32, is part of the Fox family acting dynasty, son of Day Of The Jackal star Edward Fox.

Emilys nephew Felix (pictured) is in the show, but she has not said which part he plays

He is the godson to Mortimers late father, Sir John, the celebrated barrister-turned-author who wrote Rumpole Of The Bailey. Fox attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Lily James, who plays the lead in The Pursuit Of Love. Fox, who starred as convicted killer Jeremy Bamber in ITVs White House Farm, will play Tony Kroesig in Mortimers drama, the enigmatic heir to a wealthy banking family who falls in love with Linda Radlett.

JOANNA DAVID and PENELOPE GOLLOP (Bitchy ladies at Ritz)

In a sign of how close the Fox and Mortimer families are, Freddies mother, actress Joanna David, bags a role in the show. She starred in two episodes of the 1980 television adaptation of Mitfords second Radlett novel, Love In A Cold Climate. This time she only has a bit part  as bitchy lady in the Ritz.

She is joined on screen in a cameo from Mortimers mother, Penny.

She and Joanna have been friends for years and once lived next door to each other in West London.

FELIX MORTIMER

Emilys nephew Felix is in the show, but she has not said which part he plays.

Felix bagged a small role in Doll & Em. Another unnamed nephew is also set to appear in the drama.

Dolly, 49, (right) and Emily co-wrote and starred together in the Sky series Doll & Em and Dolly has appeared in Bridget Joness Diary and the horror spoof Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

DOLLY WELLS (Aunt Sadie)

One of Mortimers best friends, they are so close to the point where its almost weird, Emily has said.

They have known each other since they were seven, thanks to the friendship between their fathers  Dollys father was the late John Wells, the actor, satirist and Private Eye contributor.

Dolly, 49, and Emily co-wrote and starred together in the Sky series Doll & Em and Dolly has appeared in Bridget Joness Diary and the horror spoof Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

SAM AND MAY NIVOLA (Matt and Jassy Radlett)

Mortimers two children with her husband Alessandro have not been overlooked. Sam, 17, plays a teenage Matt Radlett while 11-year-old May stars as the young Jassy. The siblings are also set to appear in an unnamed Hollywood film, still in production.

Mortimers two children with her husband Alessandro have not been overlooked. Sam, 17, plays a teenage Matt Radlett while 11-year-old May (pictured) stars as the young Jassy

GEORGE VJESTICA (helped compose soundtrack)

Vjestica is married to Mortimers younger sister, Rosie, and happens to be the guitarist in rock group Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds. He recruited several of his high-profile music mates to form an awesome band to play their arrangement of Dye Ken John Peel for a scene at a ball where Linda Radlett meets Tony Kroesig.

This impromptu set-up included members of The Pogues, The Specials and The Bad Seeds.

Vjestica (pictured) is married to Mortimers younger sister, Rosie, and happens to be the guitarist in rock group Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds

DOMINIC GERAGHTY (Fascist banker)

Another long-term friend of Mortimer, he attended Trinity College, Dublin, with Dominic West. The pair starred in a number of college shows together, and Geraghty also introduced West to his wife, FitzGerald.

Geraghty is an actor and producer, known for British comedy Churchill: The Hollywood Years, which starred Christian Slater as Churchill.

LILY JAMES (Linda Radlett)

The in-demand 32-year-old shares a talent agency, Tavistock Wood, with Mortimer and four other cast members, who include Dominic West, Freddie Fox and his mother, Joanna. Lily knows Freddie through drama school.

It has been reported that Lily, star of The Dig and Rebecca, will not promote the Mitford drama alongside Dominic West, following the publication of those photographs of them together in Rome.

Meanwhile, the connections dont end with the cast.

Lilys Tavistock Wood agency is part of Open Book  a joint production venture between BBC Studios and The Curtis Brown Group, and Open Book is one of the production companies that made The Pursuit Of Love!
A senior aide to David Cameron was secretly helping Uber almost two years before Downing Street launched a lobbying campaign to protect the online taxi firm, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Emails reveal how Daniel Korski, one of Mr Camerons special advisers, lobbied the Greater London Authority  then led by London Mayor Boris Johnson  after Uber complained that it was at risk of losing its licence to operate in the capital.

Mr Korski urged Kit Malthouse, then Londons Deputy Mayor for Business, to look into Ubers case and see what we might do. Critics last night said the intervention laid bare the influence Uber had with the Cameron administration.

Daniel Korski urged Kit Malthouse, then Londons Deputy Mayor for Business, to look into Ubers case and see what we might do

Emails reveal how Daniel Korski, one of Mr Camerons special advisers, lobbied the Greater London Authority

Taxi boss asked for a private lift Uber requested a private lift for its millionaire chief executive during crunch talks with Transport for London last year. Dara Khosrowshahi met the then Transport Commissioner Mike Brown in January 2020 during a dispute over whether the online taxi firm should be allowed on the capitals roads. Two months earlier, Uber had been banned in London and a court was still due to hear its appeal when news of the two men meeting was leaked. Emails show that Mr Khosrowshahis security team visited TfLs headquarters four days before the meeting and requested if possible, a lift to be isolated for the visitors. This was rejected. After the meeting, a Uber security guard emailed a junior TfL employee to thank him for helping organise the visit, adding: I have something for you as a thank-you for all your help. The email prompted a complaint to the police from cab drivers amid bribery fears, but a detective found that the TfL employee had only been given a tie pin, which was declared as a gift. Last night, TfL said the meeting did not concern regulatory activities and was documented. Uber said: We have a continued dialogue with TfL on a wide range of issues. Advertisement

The former Prime Minister and George Osborne have faced persistent questions over their efforts in 2015 to lobby Mr Johnson against introducing a string of proposed curbs on Uber.

The Mayor and his aides received angry messages from No 10 and forthright texts from the then Prime Minister and his Chancellor. At the time, Rachel Whetstone, a then friend of Mr Cameron, was a senior Uber executive.

The internal emails show that lobbying for Uber began earlier than previously thought.

The online taxi firm had been given permission to operate on Londons roads in May 2012 but by 2014 Transport for London had launched an investigation into whether it was complying with laws governing private hire vehicles.

In particular, there were concerns that smartphones used by drivers to pick up customers were acting as taximeters, which private hire vehicles are banned from using. On January 3, 2014, Corey Owens, Ubers then head of global policy, emailed a senior Foreign Office diplomat in San Francisco warning that TfL has threatened to revoke our licence to operate in London.

The diplomat forwarded the email to another senior official who flagged up Ubers concerns, asking: Do you have any advice on how we might help or someone they can speak to about this?

That day Mr Korski emailed Mr Malthouse and Julian Glover, a special adviser at the Department for Transport.

Could I ask you to take a look at a problem Uber seems to be facing with TfL? he wrote.

Seven months later, TfL decided not to revoke Ubers licence, helping its expansion in the capital.

Grant Davis, chairman of the London Cab Drivers Club, which obtained the documents under Freedom of Information laws, last night said: These emails confirm that David Camerons office made sure that Uber had a clear path to operate in London. The impact this has had on what is regarded as the finest taxi service in the world is nothing short of devastating.

Mr Korski declined to comment.
Four children have been taken to hospital after eating jelly sweets containing cannabis which left them vomiting uncontrollably in a Surrey commuter town.

A 12-year-old girl, a 12-year-old boy and a boy aged 13 suffered 'a violent reaction from eating jelly sweets that they believed contained cannabis', Surrey Police said.

A fourth 12-year-old boy was taken to hospital by his family as a precaution because he is also believed to have eaten the sweets in Epsom.

It comes just weeks after Met Police issued a warning about cannabis-laced sweets after 'several' schoolchildren were rushed to hospital in the nearby Sutton area.

The sweets look like normal gummy bears or similar treats but are infused with cannabis and cause a similar effect to smoking it.

While no-one has ever died as a direct result of cannabis, users or those who have never taken the drug can misjudge doses, especially when eating it, and suffer side effects like vomiting and panic attacks.

Four children have been taken to hospital after eating jelly sweets containing cannabis which left them vomiting uncontrollably, Surrey Police said. Police said they were called by the South East Coast Ambulance service to the parade of shops on Pound Lane. Epsom, where three children were vomiting uncontrollably and falling in and out of consciousness

The sweets look like normal gummy bears or similar treats but are infused with cannabis (an example pictured, nothing suggests these were the sweets consumed by the children) and cause a similar effect to smoking it

South East Coast Ambulance rushed to a parade of shops to find three children vomiting uncontrollably and falling in and out of consciousness today.

They were taken to hospital by ambulance where all four will remain overnight for observation.

There is a suggestion that the sweets may have been supplied to the children at the nearby Court Recreation Ground.

Police do not have a clear description of the sweets involved, although a similar report from Friday night involved 'jelly apple rings' which appear as green jelly circles.

Detective Sergeant Lee Marks, of Surrey Police, said: 'We are, of course, trying to understand what these sweets are, where they came from and what they contain.

'However, our immediate priority is to warn parents; and to tell children in the area not to be tempted to try them as they are obviously causing substantial harm.

While no-one has ever died as a direct result of cannabis, users or those who have never taken the drug can misjudge doses, especially when eating it, and suffer side effects like vomiting and panic attacks (stock picture)

The rules on cannabis in the UK Cannabis is illegal for recreational use in the UK, although it has been available on prescription for medicinal purposes since it was approved by the Government in July 2018. Doctors are able to prescribe medicine derived from marijuana, but the decision to must be made by a specialist doctor  not a GP, the Government rules. At the time of law change, the Home Secretary Sajid Javid (2018-2019) said: 'Following advice from two sets of independent advisors, I have taken the decision to reschedule cannabis-derived medicinal products  meaning they will be available on prescription. 'This will help patients with an exceptional clinical need.' Cannabis is illegal for recreational use in the UK, although it can be prescribed for medicinal purposes Mr Javid added it was 'in no way a first step to the legalisation of cannabis for recreational use'. It came after he granted an exceptional licence for Alfie Dingley, then six, and Billy Caldwell, then 12, to use cannabis for their epilepsy. Possession of the class B drug still carries an unlimited fine and up to five years in jail, while dealers face 14 years in prison. Some products that might claim to be medical cannabis, such as CBD oil or hemp oil, are available to buy legally as food supplements from health stores. But there's no guarantee these are of good quality or provide any health benefits. Advertisement

'These types of products, which may be marketed as "cannabis infused" or "CBD infused" are illegal, and therefore unregulated, in the UK.

'They can appear to be commercial products with professional packaging, but this should not be taken as a sign that they are safe or legal.'

In March, Met Police issued an urgent warning to parents after 'several' schoolchildren were rushed to hospital after eating gummy sweets laced with cannabis.

The pupils, from the Sutton area, had to receive urgent treatment after suffering side effects on March 12, while officers have warned of others falling ill since then.

Police said children caught with the weed sweets will be referred to them.

It is not clear exactly how many youngsters have been affected.

One school in the area, Greenshaw High School, shared the police notice on its Twitter account.

The warning said: 'There has been an increase in young people buying what at first appear to be regular jelly sweets, gummy bears or similar sweets.

'These sweets are not what they appear to be. They are in fact mixed with cannabis and have a detrimental effect on those eating them.

'Sadly, a number of school pupils in Sutton have been either made very ill or hospitalised as a result of eating them.'

It comes just months after 13 teenage girls were put in hospital following a similar incident at La Sainte Union Catholic School in Highgate, Camden in October.

Scotland Yard later confirmed the sweets contained THC - the active component in cannabis.

Some of the girls spent the night at a hospital in Barnet, with the school at the time asking parents to obtain a 'written statement,' on how the drug-laced sweets were brought into school.

The girls were thought to have headed back to class, where they reported feeling dizzy, while some vomited.

One parent, Jan, who did not want to give her last name said: Weve heard that they ate too many of the Gummie Bears and then started feeling sick when they went into class.

The teacher became concerned because one of the girls vomited and the others felt as if they were about to. Were still waiting to hear the full story from the school but its very worrying that this kind of behaviour is taking place during school time.

Cannabis is illegal for recreational use in the UK, although it can be prescribed for medicinal purposes.

Some MPs have also said recently they believe the drug could become fully legalised in just a few years.

The Metropolitan Police has been approached for further comment.

Police have now issued a warning to parents and said children caught with the weed sweets will be referred to them
Joshua Wolf Shenk, editor-in-chief at Believer magazine and artistic and executive director of the Black Mountain Institute, handed in his resignation after flashing his staff during a Zoom meeting.

In February, Shenk stood up during a Zoom call and exposed himself to about a dozen staffers from Believer magazine and the Black Mountain Institute, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Shenk's literary agent, Ira Silverberg, told the Los Angeles Times that he was soaking in a bath to relieve nerve pain related to fibromyalgia during the Zoom call.

Shenk had chosen a virtual backdrop to hide his location and was wearing a mesh shirt on top but when he stood up to charge his computer without turning off the camera or covering the lower half of his body he exposed himself to staffers.

Joshua Wolf Shenk, editor-in-chief at Believer magazine and artistic and executive director of the Black Mountain Institute, handed in his resignation after flashing his staff during a Zoom meeting

Joshua Wolf Shenk served as editor-in-chief at Believer magazine (pictured) before resigning

On March 24, the publisher of Believer magazine and staff at the of Black Mountain Institute, a literary arts center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas were informed that Shenk resigned due to the incident, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Shenk shared the news of his resignation in a farewell letter.

He called the Zoom incident 'a dumb, reckless choice to disregard appropriate setting and attire for a Zoom meeting. I crossed a line that I can't walk back over. I sorely regret the harm to you  and, by extension, to the people we serve. I'm sorry.' he wrote.

At least two witnesses of the incident reported it to the university's Office of Equal Employment and Title IX, LA Times reported.

The University dismissed and closed the Title IX complaints when Shenk resigned.

'After my lapse in judgment, I decided to resign so that BMI's work  sparking culture in Southern Nevada, publishing The Believer, and hosting writers persecuted in their home countries  could best continue in their exceptionally capable hands,' Shenk said in a separate statement to the LA Times.

Silverberg said that Shenk had already been negotiating a transition in leadership at the institute prior to the incident.

The university declined to comment, saying it 'doesn't discuss personnel matters,' The Times reported.

Shenk is the author of the books 'Lincoln's Melancholy' released in 2005 and the 2014 book 'Powers of Two.'
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Boris Johnson was warned that a senior civil servant in the heart of his Downing Street operation was suspected of leaking sensitive information  but declined to order an investigation, The Mail on Sunday understands.

The official, who still works in the Prime Ministers private office, was being watched by Dominic Cummings and his No 10 allies after a series of hostile leaks appeared during the dramas of the Covid crisis and the Brexit negotiations. But their concerns are said to have been brushed away by Mr Johnson on the grounds that the official was too good to be moved on.

The revelation is the latest twist in the saga of scandal and leaks which has embroiled Mr Johnson over his 200,000 flat renovation, lobbying rows and his opposition to Covid lockdowns, amid claims Labour is running a Redthroat network of spies in Whitehall.

Boris Johnson was warned that a senior civil servant in the heart of his Downing Street operation was suspected of leaking sensitive information  but declined to order an investigation

Boris Johnson, Carrie Symonds and Dominic Cummings, celebrated winning the general election on December 13, 2019

Yet, the relationship between Mr Johnson, right, and his former chief advisor, Mr Cummings, left, has descended into open hostility

Last week, Mr Johnson faced a storm of criticism over furiously denied claims that he was prepared to let the bodies pile high in their thousands rather than order more lockdowns. The cabal of Vote Leave loyalists around Mr Cummings were blamed for spreading the alleged remarks, but The Mail on Sunday understands that the reported remarks first started circulating among civil servants in Whitehall.

One source said last night: It wasnt Dom and his gang who started all this. The door to the PMs office was open during the discussions, and his words would have been clearly audible outside the meeting.

Mr Johnson denied making the remarks when pressed by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer during heated Commons exchanges last week, leading Sir Keir to quote the Ministerial Code which holds that Ministers who knowingly mislead Parliament will be expected to offer their resignation.

Allies of the Prime Minister say they are relaxed about this prospect because while they acknowledge that Mr Johnson made clear his opposition to further lockdowns, if a secret recording emerges of the conversation he will not be forced to resign because he did not speak that line as reported.

Sources say that during the heated meeting in October, held after he had reluctantly agreed to introduce the November lockdown, Mr Johnson had angrily matched the passionate pro-lockdown arguments of Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove.

After Mr Johnson said there should be no more f****** lockdowns, an aide protested that he was risking the sight of bodies being piled high in their thousands.

An irritated Mr Johnson replied: So be it.

Doubts about the Prime Ministers precise form of words are the reason Sir Keir added, when pressing Mr Johnson in the Commons: or remarks to that effect.

The Mail on Sunday reported last week that lurid claims were circulating about Mr Johnson making a comment about bodies, but we declined to publish the quote in full when its accuracy was fiercely denied by No 10.

The revelation is the latest twist in the saga of scandal and leaks which has embroiled Mr Johnson over his 200,000 flat renovation, lobbying rows and his opposition to Covid lockdowns, amid claims Labour is running a Redthroat network of spies in Whitehall

The official, who still works in the Prime Ministers private office, was being watched by Dominic Cummings and his No 10 allies after a series of hostile leaks appeared during the dramas of the Covid crisis and the Brexit negotiations. But their concerns are said to have been brushed away by Mr Johnson on the grounds that the official was too good to be moved on

Downing Street has been shaken by the fact that the report gained traction despite the flat denials and the absence of any on-the-record confirmation.

Aides feel caught in a pincer movement between Mr Cummingss guerrilla operation and the Governments enemies within the Civil Service. No 10 believes Mr Cummings has constructed a news grid, similar to that operated by Downing Street, to deploy his anti-Boris material, mainly centred on the row about the funding of the No 10 flat decorations.

The irony is that Mr Cummings is now working in unintentional concert with the same moles who he accused of trying to sabotage his Brexit strategy when he was working for Mr Johnson.

Senior Tories believe the Redthroat network has been feeding inside information to the Labour Party, which then farms it out to friendly media outlets. Downing Street was furious when its plans to override the Brexit agreement during negotiations with the EU last autumn were leaked during a delicate stage in the talks.

A source said: We first suspected there was a mole inside No 10 after Boris came out of hospital, and by accident rather than design only one official knew his arrangements, which then appeared in a paper. But Boris brushed away the concerns, saying the person was too good to lose.

Downing Street sources deny the Prime Minister is feeling the pressure, insisting that the rows are Westminster bubble issues with limited cut-through to the electorate

The MoS knows the identity of the official in question, but No 10 said it was unaware of any concerns.

The plot thickened after the decision to order a second lockdown was leaked by the now-infamous Chatty Rat before the PM had signed off the decision, prompting a furious Mr Johnson to order the seizure of mobile phones from Ministers and aides to find the leaker.

Six months later, No 10 is no closer to naming the culprit or culprits, despite the use of cutting-edge technology by the security services to access private phone messages.

Last week, Cabinet Secretary Simon Case admitted it was unlikely the investigation would come to a clear conclusion, even though No 10 has pointed the finger at Mr Cummings. For his part, Mr Cummings has blamed Henry Newman, a No 10 adviser who is close to Mr Johnsons fiancee Carrie Symonds. Mr Newman denies being involved. The confusion means that multiple leakers with the common aim of damaging the Prime Minister are able to use each other for cover, leading to bluffs and counter-bluffs worthy of a John le Carre novel.

To add to the sense of a siege mentality in Downing Street, Mr Johnson is this weekend getting used to a new mobile phone number for the first time in 15 years after his previous number was found at the bottom of a 2006 press release.

It has frustrated advisers who want the Government to be on the front foot politically on the eve of council elections and the Hartlepool by-election.

As our political columnist Dan Hodges reports today, Ministers claim that despite Mr Johnson dismissing Flatgate as a farrago of nonsense, the combination of intense political pressures and the demands of family life in the Downing Street flat have forced him to seek sanctuary in bathrooms.

One said: He hasnt been getting the support he thinks he needs. So hes taken to trying to find quiet rooms in No 10 to tuck himself away. Once they found him taking refuge in a toilet.

Another said: Hes looking for more and more excuses to be away from No 10. When youre PM there are lots of meetings and briefings and sub-committees you have to chair. And whos doing that? Whos actually running things?

Last week, Cabinet Secretary Simon Case admitted it was unlikely the investigation would come to a clear conclusion, even though No 10 has pointed the finger at Mr Cummings

Mr Cummings has blamed Henry Newman, a No 10 adviser who is close to Mr Johnsons fiancee Carrie Symonds. Mr Newman denies being involved

Downing Street sources deny the Prime Minister is feeling the pressure, insisting that the rows are Westminster bubble issues with limited cut-through to the electorate. They point to yesterdays YouGov survey which predicted that despite weeks of negative publicity about the Government, Labour is on course to lose dozens of council seats on Thursday in the Red Wall constituencies won by the Tories at the General Election.

The poll projects a nine-point swing to the Tories in Red Wall areas, with the Conservatives making up to 122 gains. Sir Keir is also braced to lose the Hartlepool by-election, which would be the first time the constituency has failed to return a Labour MP to Westminster since its creation.

Tory strategists hope that a strong set of local election results will act as a firebreak for the Government. The next challenge will come on May 26, when Mr Cummings gives evidence to the joint committee of MPs investigating the Governments handling of the coronavirus crisis.

Reports that Mr Cummings is preparing a bombshell dossier of text messages and emails implicating Mr Johnson as personally to blame for the UKs high Covid death toll have not calmed nerves, but an ever-positive source said: That wouldnt be great, obviously, but a lot of what Cummings is likely to say has already been put out there. Its all now priced in to the debate. Hopefully.

Tory donor: Why should I have to pay for Boris's baby's a**** to be wiped?

Concerns about the state of Boris Johnsons personal finances grew last night amid claims that Tory donors had been asked if they would help the Prime Minister to cover the cost of his childcare.

A senior Conservative source told The Mail on Sunday that one donor had reacted angrily to an approach by responding: Why should I have to pay for his babys a*** to be wiped?

It is among a swirl of fresh allegations about Mr Johnsons financial arrangements, with suggestions that the Prime Minister had tried to persuade the partys bankrollers to cover the cost of both a live-in nanny at Downing Street and Mr Johnsons personal trainer.

Concerns about the state of Boris Johnsons personal finances grew last night amid claims that Tory donors had been asked if they would help the Prime Minister to cover the cost of his childcare

The flat saga started in 2020, when Mr Johnson grew alarmed by the rising costs of refurbishments to the Downing Street flat at No11, pictured, that he shares with Ms Symonds

As the bill approached a reported 200,000 for items such as 800 rolls of wallpaper, Mr Johnson was told that the taxpayer-funded allowance for redecorations was capped at 30,000 a year

No10 did not deny yesterday that donors had been approached  but insisted that Mr Johnson had personally paid for both members of staff.

When asked about claims that a friend of Carrie Symonds had covered the cost of the Prime Ministers nanny and personal trainer, before being repaid by Mr Johnson, a Downing Street spokesman said: Im not getting into that.

The spokesman added: The Prime Minister has covered the cost of all childcare.

The flat saga started in 2020, when Mr Johnson grew alarmed by the rising costs of refurbishments to the Downing Street flat at No11 that he shares with Ms Symonds. As the bill approached a reported 200,000 for items such as 800 rolls of wallpaper, Mr Johnson was told that the taxpayer-funded allowance for redecorations was capped at 30,000 a year.

No10 denies that the total cost of the work was close to 200,000.

When he asked his aides whether a Tory donor could cover the difference, Mr Johnson is understood to have been warned by Dominic Cummings that it was potentially illegal and he should take out a commercial loan. Tory chairman Ben Elliot is reported to have said it would be madness.

Members of Mr Johnsons former inner circle are blaming Lord Lister, the Prime Ministers outgoing adviser, for allowing the approaches to donors despite the objections. At the time, Mr Johnson was telling friends that he was broke because of his expensive divorce from his second wife, Marina, and the pay cut he took to become Prime Minister.

He is reported to have told friends that he needs to earn about 300,000 a year  twice his salary  to stay solvent.

But another source claims that Mr Johnson was exaggerating his poverty to stop Marina coming after him for any more.

Sources say that Mr Johnson has belatedly taken out the commercial loan recommended by Mr Cummings to cover the costs.

Top aide is on the brink after only four months

Boris Johnsons chief of staff is on the brink of leaving Downing Street after just four months in the job, sources claim.

Former Treasury civil servant Dan Rosenfeld has had a baptism of fire since he took up his position in January, and has been the subject of hostile briefings from all sides as the factional wars have raged in No 10. Within weeks of him starting, it was claimed that a Sack Dan campaign was under way due to his management style.

One official claimed that in meetings he was imbued with the false bonhomie of David Brent in The Office. Another said: Hes obsessed with process and paperwork rather than politics and people.

Boris Johnson's chief of staff Dan Rosenfeld, pictured right, is thought to be considering leaving his job, while Munira Mirza, left, who heads the No 10 Policy Unit, has also been under question

It means that the Prime Minister is once again faced with a search for a strong hand to bring discipline to the No 10 machine.

The future of Munira Mirza, who heads the No 10 Policy Unit, has also been under question.

Government sources reported talk a few weeks ago that she was on her way out. Ms Mirza is one of the few long-term aides to Boris Johnson still in government, having previously been a Deputy Mayor for Education and Culture while he served at City Hall.

Mr Johnson last month lost Lord Lister, another ally from his London Mayor days, who quit the Government after repeated questions over his private interests.

A source said No 10 adviser Henry Newman had been touted as a potential addition to the Policy Unit  until Dominic Cummings accused him of being the Chatty Rat who leaked lockdown plans. Mr Newman denies the claim. Last night, a source said Ms Mirza was likely to stay in her job, but the widespread view is the Policy Unit needs a shake-up, adding: It is regarded to be not strong enough. They are not producing anything.
Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong / Korea Times file





By Kang Seung-woo







On the occasion of Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong's participation in the G7 Foreign and Development Ministers' Meeting set for next week, talks between Chung and his Japanese counterpart Toshimitsu Motegi are expected to take place on the sidelines.







However, diplomatic observers are not pinning high hopes on their long-delayed meeting paving the way for the immediate normalization of the soured relations between Seoul and Tokyo.







Currently, bilateral ties between South Korea and Japan have slumped to their worst level in years over wartime history issues, so Chung, who took office in February, has yet to have had a phone call with Motegi due to Japan refusing contact.







According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Friday, Chung is scheduled to fly to Britain, Sunday, to attend the ministers' meeting and his itinerary also includes bilateral discussions with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.







Although the ministry's announcement did not feature a meeting with Motegi, a senior official said negotiations were being held with several countries to hold one-on-one meetings, including Japan, and that an additional announcement could be made.







"On the sidelines of a multilateral conference, it would be feasible for Chung and Motegi to meet each other," said Shin Beom-chul, director of the Center for Diplomacy and Security at the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy.







"However, Japan strongly insists that South Korea itself address the diplomatic dispute, a request that the government cannot comply with, so it would not be easy to see any immediate improvement in the bilateral ties even if their foreign ministers meet."







Yang Ki-ho, a professor of Japanese studies at Sungkonghoe University, expressed a similar view.







"With the ongoing dispute showing no signs of abating, the Japanese side does not seem to be sincere about the meeting as a failed meeting could be unfavorable to its government as well. In that respect, even if the envisioned meeting is held, it might be in an informal setting like a standing meeting," Yang said.







The professor said the two foreign ministers should meet each other given that there are pending bilateral issues with regard to Tokyo's wartime forced labor and its plan to dump radioactive wastewater, as well as North Korea's nuclear program, adding that it could be the last opportunity for them to meet each other in person.







Compounding the situation, South Korea-Japan reconciliation is losing momentum within both governments, according to Shin.







Entering this year, President Moon Jae-in had sought to mend ties with Japan in order to take advantage of the Tokyo Summer Olympics in July as momentum to revive stalled talks with North Korea, as he successfully improved ties with Pyongyang through the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in 2018, in which the reclusive state participated, thereby leading to both improved inter-Korean and U.S.-North relations.







Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi / Korea Times file





However, Pyongyang's decision not to attend the quadrennial sporting event due to the COVID-19 pandemic has stifled Moon's peace efforts.







"The South Korean government appears to believe there is no merit in improving ties with Japan in terms of the North Korea issue," Shin said.







The expert also said Japan is not interested in bettering ties with South Korea, as the country is on good terms with the United States.







"A call for excluding South Korea from the U.S.-led Indo-Pacific Strategy has been emerging as a mainstream argument in Japan although Washington may not agree," Shin added.


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Suddenly Princess Charlotte seems quite the young lady. Perhaps it is her long hair, worn down instead of pushed back off her head in a bow, but as this official photograph released to mark her sixth birthday today clearly shows, she hasnt lost her mischievous grin.

Spirited females feature throughout Royal history and Charlotte has inherited a forthright confidence  what her mother calls a feisty side.

Sandwiched in age between older brother George, seven, and three-year-old Louis, she is more than capable of holding her own. Family friends describe her as determined and bright as a button  both in brains and personality.

The image shot yesterday in Norfolk by her mother Kate is the latest in a series of delightful mementoes of Charlottes birthdays taken by the Duchess and also featured here.

In the new picture, Charlotte wears a Rachel Riley floral summer dress and her widest smile as Kate captures something of her impishness too. Similar traits are shared by the women on her mothers side of the family.

Princess of smiles: Charlotte in a pretty floral print dress in the picture released yesterday to mark her big day. It was taken by keen photographer the Duchess of Cambridge in Norfolk this weekend

Age one: A handout photo released by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge of Charlotte at Anmer Hall in Norfolk as the young Princess celebrated her first birthday in 2016

Age two: An image released as part of a series of delightful mementoes of Charlottes birthdays taken by the Duchess. At some point in the future, Charlotte will be the only daughter of the King

Her great-uncle, Gary Goldsmith, said of Charlotte last month: She is really cheeky and confident, just like the rest of the family. I think shes the one Im most excited to watch grow up.

Although her parents have always fiercely protected their childrens privacy, restricting the number of photocalls they take part in each year for instance, they have been more relaxed of late.

During lockdown, they shared their experiences of homeschooling, with William admitting it was a bit of a nightmare and joking that he struggled with Year 2 maths.

Along with her brothers, Charlotte was pictured clapping for carers during the first lockdown and delivering packages of homemade pasta to isolated pensioners on the Sandringham Estate. In a video with David Attenborough, Charlotte was heard declaring: I like spiders. Do you like spiders too?

At some point in the future, Charlotte will be the only daughter of the King, and will inevitably face intense scrutiny, a fact that has not escaped her parents.

Before that time, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will continue to ensure their childrens lives are as normal as possible.

Age three: A handout photo released by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge showing Princess Charlotte with her brother Prince Louis in a pictured taken by her mother at Kensington Palace in London

Princess Charlotte aged four (pictured left) and five (right). Her great-uncle, Gary Goldsmith, said of Charlotte last month: She is really cheeky and confident, just like the rest of the family. I think shes the one Im most excited to watch grow up

When they do appear in public, though, it is invariably Charlotte who steals the show  never more than at the Royal Familys traditional Christmas Day church service in 2019 when she delighted well-wishers by pulling cheeky faces, cheerily waving, stopping to accept presents and even hugging a woman in a wheelchair.

At Princess Eugenies wedding the previous year, bridesmaid Charlotte revelled in the spotlight, waving enthusiastically to crowds at St Georges Chapel, Windsor.

The first of her scene-stealing cameos came aged just 13 months on the Buckingham Palace balcony during the Queens 90th birthday celebrations.

Held in Kates arms, she put a finger in her ear at the sound of the Red Arrows, then threatened to steal her great-grandmothers thunder by giving her own wave to the thousands below.

The Queen, then Princess Elizabeth for England, pictured around the age of six. The first of Charlotte's scene-stealing cameos came aged just 13 months on the Buckingham Palace balcony during the Queens 90th birthday celebrations

Princess Elizabeth (to become Queen Elizabeth II) with her mother and father in the late 1930s (left) and with her sister Princess Margaret as children in the 'grounds' of the model house - Y Bwthyn Bach - presented to them on Elizabeth's sixth birthday by the people of Wales in 1933

The new photograph follows the release of a video of Charlotte with her brothers and their parents to mark the Duke and Duchess of Cambridges 10th wedding anniversary last week. It showed the family enjoying time outdoors at their Norfolk residence Anmer Hall and on sand dunes at a nearby beach.

In the video, Charlotte was seen playing and toasting a marshmallow on a camp fire.

While she adores spending time with grandparents Carole and Michael  as well as grandpa Charles  William and Kate have ensured that she also learns about her other grandparent, Princess Diana.

Charlotte was given the middle name Diana and christened at the same Sandringham church where her grandmother, who died 24 years ago, was baptised.

Every Mothers Day, both she and George write loving messages in homemade cards to Diana. This year, Charlotte wrote in a card adorned with a giant heart and flowers: Dear Granny Diana. I am thinking of you on Mothers Day. I love you very much. Papa is missing you. Lots of love Charlotte.

The new photograph follows the release of a video of Charlotte with her brothers and their parents to mark the Duke and Duchess of Cambridges 10th wedding anniversary last week

It showed the family enjoying time outdoors at their Norfolk residence Anmer Hall and on sand dunes at a nearby beach. The clip was posted with the accompanying message: 'Thank you to everyone for the kind messages on our wedding anniversary'
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Boris Johnson today tries to mount a political fightback following weeks of turmoil by appealing directly to voters with a package of 'real issue' policies on lifting the lockdown and tackling crime.

The Prime Minister  who has been battered by criticism over his Downing Street flat renovations  promises to remove the limit on mourners at funerals from May 17, scrap the 'metre plus' social distancing rule from June 21, and, within days, issue the first list of 'green' countries that holidaymakers can visit without quarantine.

In addition, he uses an article for today's Mail on Sunday to promise a crackdown on crime, including tougher measures to deal with drug gangs and street violence, and a new task force to counter a surge in dognapping. Mr Johnson also writes that given the 'freedoms' made possible by the vaccine rollout, 'I have absolutely no doubt that our economy will bounce back strongly'.

He adds: 'What I do know is that safety and security on our streets is absolutely critical for sustained investment and economic growth. That is why we must continue to use this moment to drive home our advantage  take out the gangsters and the misery they cause  and make our streets safe from Covid, and safe from crime.'

The Prime Minister is set to issue the first list of 'green' countries that holidaymakers can visit without quarantine within days (Greece pictured)

His comments come after weeks of rows over 'Flatgate', stories about lobbying sleaze and claims  which he denies  that he made insensitive remarks about the Covid death toll. Tory strategists hope that the headlines will be dismissed by voters in this week's local elections as 'Westminster bubble' issues that do not affect their daily lives.

One of the most welcome moves in Mr Johnson's fightback package will be scrapping the legal limit of 30 mourners at funerals from May 17.

Venues will instead be able to set their own capacity limits consistent with the 'metre plus' social distancing rule. It will apply to both indoor and outdoor services. The distancing rule will itself be dropped from June 21, heralding the advent of a near-normal summer.

A source said: 'We will be able to go pretty far on abolishing social distancing.' However, businesses will be encouraged to keep in place some measures, such as glass screens.

Boris Johnson - who has been battered by criticism over his Downing Street flat renovations  promises to remove the limit on mourners at funerals from May 17

It has not yet been decided whether masks will be retained in certain settings, while some restrictions might be kept 'in reserve' in case there is a serious third wave of infections next winter, despite the success of the vaccination programme.

The list of 'green' countries which British citizens can fly to and from after May 17 is expected to be announced as early as Friday, and will be reviewed every three weeks.

According to one source, Portugal is 'on the cusp' of being included. A new Government slogan will tell potential holidaymakers: 'Travel safely, plan ahead.'

Meanwhile, Lord Chancellor Robert Buckland will set up the pet theft task force to tackle the surge in the number of dogs being stolen since last year's lockdown.

Mr Johnson is also launching a drive to stem what he describes as the 'contagion' of drug gangs using so-called county lines networks to spread 'misery'.

The Prime Minister is trying to regain the political initiative after three separate investigations were launched into the No 10 refurbishments by the Electoral Commission, Cabinet Secretary Simon Case and Lord Geidt, the new adviser on ministerial interests.

It is also hoped that the PM will scrap the 'metre plus' social distancing rule from June 21 as he mounts a political fightback following weeks of turmoil

Last night, the Prime Minister faced fresh questions over his financial affairs after The Mail on Sunday was told that Tory donors had been asked if they would help the Prime Minister to cover the cost of his childcare. A senior Conservative source told this newspaper that one donor had reacted by saying: 'Why should I have to pay for his baby's a*** to be wiped?'

There were similar claims that Tory bankrollers were asked to cover the cost of a personal trainer for Mr Johnson. No 10 did not deny yesterday that donors had been approached, but insisted the Prime Minister had 'personally paid' for both members of staff.

When asked about claims that a friend of Mr Johnson's fiancee Carrie Symonds had covered the costs, before being repaid by the Prime Minister, the spokesman said: 'I'm not getting in to that.'

Meanwhile, Tory MPs mounted a rearguard action against the Electoral Commission, criticising its 'lamentable record' and urging the Prime Minister to axe the body investigating him. One MP, Peter Bone, said the watchdog 'was not fit to investigate a drinks party in a brewery It should be abolished.'

No 10 officials were also buoyed by more good news on the retreat of Covid: just seven deaths were recorded yesterday, the lowest comparable figure since September 4 and a fall of a third in the past week.

The number of positive tests, at 1,907, was down 11 per cent. Meanwhile, a further 129,657 first vaccine doses and 405,456 second doses were administered yesterday, taking the proportion of UK adults with a first dose to 65.2 per cent. A total of 28.4 per cent have had both doses.

It means that the number of adults receiving their second jab is likely to pass the 15 million mark today.

In his MoS article, Mr Johnson turned his focus to law and order, saying: 'We need to bring the hammer down hard on the gangs  at every stage.'

Portraying Labour as 'soft on crime', he writes: 'We are backing the police in the fight, with new powers to tackle street violence (consistently opposed by Labour) and we are supporting their efforts with tougher sentences for serious sexual and violent offenders.'

And on dognapping, he says: 'This crime is far too often dismissed as relatively trivial I don't agree. If you are cynical and nasty enough to steal a dog, in an organised gang, then you will almost certainly be party to other types of crime as well.'

Holidays are back... and families will get green list update every 3 weeks

By Anna Mikhailova

Families are set to get the go-ahead to take summer holidays in some popular European hotspots before the end of the month, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

The Government is expected to announce as early as this week the first countries that Britons can visit without having to quarantine  but the list is only believed to include a handful of destinations.

Sources say the so-called green list will be updated every three weeks, raising the prospect that new countries  including popular destinations in Europe  will be announced before the end of this month. For much of the country, the half-term break starts on May 31.

Under the traffic-light system for foreign travel, those returning from green countries will not need to quarantine but will have to take two Covid tests  one before they return to the UK, which can be either a lateral flow or PCR test, and a PCR test on the second day after they arrive back.

Those who return from countries designated as either amber or red will still have to quarantine, either at home or in a hotel, and have three compulsory tests. Government officials are debating whether to stick to previous policy plans of having all children under 11 exempt from having to take the tests.

The majority of European countries are expected to be given amber status this week, but there is optimism that some will turn green when the list is next updated.

The ban on overseas holidays will end on May 17, along with the threat of fines for attempting to travel without a permitted reason.

Ahead of the cautious return to international travel, the Government will shortly unveil a new slogan Travel Safely, Plan Ahead. It will replace the current Minimise Travel guidance. An announcement by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps of which countries have been given which colour is thought to have been pencilled in for Friday, although it could slip to early next week. Ahead of it, the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC), which provides evidence-based analysis to the Government, will assess the latest data from around the world.

The system is based on four main criteria  the percentage of the population that has been vaccinated, the Covid infection rate, any emerging coronavirus variants and the strength of a countrys genomic sequencing that would allow variants to be detected.

It is understood the JBC assessment means only a small number of countries will make the first green list. These are thought to include Malta, Gibraltar and Israel.

Any tests required for travel for green, amber and red countries will have to be paid for privately. Costs, however, have been falling, with some firms charging just 45 per test.

Many countries require tests to be completed before leaving the UK, but Greece recently became the first major European country to announce that vaccinated Britons will not require any to enter. Spain, Portugal and France have also indicated they will follow suit.
The Queen has been hit with another security scare after a male and female intruder scaled a fence and broke into her Windsor estate, reports claim.

The man, 31, and his girlfriend, 29, gained entry to the grounds of the Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park last Sunday.

The lodge is Prince Andrew's official residence and he was at home at the time of the incident, insiders said.

The grounds are home to All Saints Chapel where the 95-year-old Queen - who is still grieving the loss of her husband Prince Philip last month - attends church.

It is also a spot where the Monarch rides her horses and takes her corgis for walks.

Both intruders were arrested and taken to Maidenhead police station - but have since been let out on bail.

It comes just weeks after a 44-year-old woman who claimed to be engaged to the Duke of York was let into Royal Lodge by bungling security guards.

The Queen has been hit with another security scare after a male and female intruder scaled a fence and broke into her Windsor estate, reports claim. Pictured: The Queen walking her dogs in Windsor in 1994

The man, 31, and his girlfriend, 29, gained entry to the grounds of the Royal Lodge (pictured) in Windsor Great Park last Sunday

Reacting to last Sunday's incident, a source told The Sun: 'This is an astonishing lapse.

'Everyone was on high alert after the first intruder, now this happens. Heads could roll.'

Thames Valley Police said officers were called to reports of two intruders on the grounds that Sunday. MailOnline has approached the force for comment.

On April 19, a woman, 44, spent 20 minutes wandering the grounds of Royal Lodge after she conned security guards into believing she was engaged to Prince Andrew.

Officers were so taken in by the Spanish national's polished appearance they even paid her cab fare before waving her into the grounds of Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park, reported The Sun.

The woman spent 20 minutes wandering the grounds of Royal Lodge before heading inside the Grade II listed building to ask a member of staff where the duke was.

Police were called and she was held in the lobby after she told the staff member she was engaged to Prince Andrew, her name was Irene Windsor and she lived there with the duke.

The lodge is Prince Andrew's official residence and he was at home at the time of the incident, insiders said

In the woman's handbag maps of the Royal Lodge and other Royal Family residences were found, alongside a self-defence key ring in the shape of a cat that featured two sharp prongs.

She was originally arrested on suspicion of burglary before being sectioned and a security review has now been launched.

Prince Andrew's police protection was scaled back last year as part of cost-cutting measures as he withdrew from Royal duties because of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

He still has Met Police personal protection but his officers are no longer routinely armed.

Private Security at the Royal Lodge, which Andrew shares with his ex-wife Sarah, Duchess of York, is provided by the Privy Purse, The Queen's private income.

It is understood the intruder flew into the UK from Spain on Saturday, the day of Prince Philip's funeral three miles away at Windsor Castle.

Despite security forces being on high alert for the funeral, the woman was allowed through the front gate to the Royal Lodge, apparently without being asked to show any proof of identification.

She claimed to have a lunch appointment with the duke, and demanded security officers pay her cab fare.

Police were called and she was held in the lobby after she told the staff member she was engaged to Prince Andrew, her name was Irene Windsor and she lived there with the duke. Pictured, houses on the Windsor estate

A source said: 'She was apparently very smartly dressed, in suit trousers, a yellow blouse and peach jacket, and had her hair done up and full make-up.

'She cut quite a glamorous figure and the guards were completely taken in by her.

'The woman demanded they pay her cab fare as she was a close friend of Prince Andrew, and they obliged before helpfully pointing her on her way towards the Royal Lodge.'

Prince Andrew and Fergie have lived at the Royal Lodge since 2004, two years after its former occupant, the Queen Mother, died.

Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank, who had their baby boy August in February, have also been living at Royal Lodge during lockdown.

Sources said Prince Andrew was home at the time of the intrusion, but it is not known if he was aware of it at the time.
Police are desperately trying to track down the parents of a seven-day-old baby girl after the pair ignored medical advice to take her to A&E.

The baby - who police are referring to as 'Baby Graham' - is the daughter of Azara and Machel Graham from south London.

During a routine post-natal assessment, the parents were told the infant is suffering symptoms consistent with a serious respiratory condition.

Medics said she needed to be taken to A&E for an urgent assessment but the Grahams failed to follow the advice and their whereabouts is now unknown.

Police are desperately seeking the parents of a seven-day-old baby girl after the pair ignored medical advice to take her to A&E for a serious respiratory condition. The baby - who police are referring to as 'Baby Graham' - is the daughter of Azara (left) and Machel (right) Graham

The force said it has launched a high-risk missing person investigation and is conducting urgent inquiries.

Met Police have visited the couple's Southwark home several times in the last 24 hours, a statement added.

So far they have found no trace of the couple nor the baby.

Detective Chief Inspector Lucy O'Connor, who is leading the investigation, said: 'We are becoming increasingly concerned for the safety of Baby Graham.

'Her parents have not followed the medical advice they were given and in doing so, could be putting her health at risk.

'There will be a time and a place to explore their reasons, but right now our priority has to be the safety of this very young baby.'

During a routine post-natal assessment, the parents were told the infant (file image) is suffering symptoms consistent with a serious respiratory condition

She added: 'While we would of course ask the public to keep an eye out for Baby Graham's parents, we believe it's likely they are being accommodated by relatives or associates.

'I would urge those people to put the welfare of this tiny baby girl above any other loyalty they may have and get in touch with the police.

'I would also appeal directly to Azara and Machel to do the right thing and to go to the nearest A&E so that Baby Graham can get the care she needs.'

Anyone who sees the baby or her parents is urged to call police on 999 quoting reference 21MIS011809, while anyone with any other information that could be useful should call 101.
John Kerry sold off hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of shares in oil and gas firms after he was made Joe Biden's Special Presidential Envoy for Climate - and weeks after warning that mankind has just nine years to save the planet.

Kerry revealed in official disclosures that he has received millions of dollars from salary, consulting fees and from liquidating stock that he held since President Biden took office.

Documents that cover most of 2020 which run up to January 2021 reveal how Kerry, 77, also held hundreds of thousands of dollars of investments in energy-related companies that could well be affected by policies that he will help develop as Joe Biden's new climate envoy.

But he was warned by the State Department's ethics office that the investments were a 'significant risk of a conflict of interest' - and agreed to sell them.

Kerry held between $204,000 and $960,000 stock in around three dozen firms connected to the energy sector, including electric, oil and gas, and nuclear energy.

He has also previously held high-ranking positions within firms and entities that could now by affected by his climate policies. The details were all contained in documents obtained by Axios.

Kerry told in February that mankind only has a matter of years to avoid a climate catastrophe.

He told CBS in February: 'Well, the scientists told us three years ago we had 12 years to avert the worst consequences of climate crisis. We are now three years gone, so we have nine years left.'

Financial disclosures from Special Presidential Envoy for Climate and former Secretary of State John Kerry reveal that he is one of wealthiest members of Biden administration

The details were listed in a series of documents that details his financial dealings

And he suggested that the Paris Accords on climate change - which America recently rejoined after Donald Trump withdrew - might not go far enough to help.

He said: 'Even if we did everything that we said we were going to do when we signed up in Paris we would see a rise in the Earth's temperature to somewhere around 3.7 degrees or more, which is catastrophic.'

The disclosure documents also show how when Biden entered the White House, Kerry received the bulk of his income from a $5million salary from Bank of America for his role as chair of its Global Advisory Council.

It means Kerry is among the wealthiest members of the Biden administration.

He also received honoraria from other banks, universities and healthcare companies totaling close to $400,000 along with various other salaries including $39,000 from Yale University.

Kerry managed to rake in more tens of thousands from Deutsche Bank and investment capital firm CSLA Limited.

He also made $125,000 in consulting fees from The Rise Fund, a $2 billion 'social impact' investment project founded by musician-turned-activist Bono and philanthropist Jeffrey Skoll. The fund claims to be which is an investment firm with a significant renewable energy portfolio.

Kerry's vast stock portfolio is also enhanced through a trust fund he holds with his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry, 82, heiress to the Heinz food company, pictured center. Daughter, Alexandra Kerry, 47 is pictured right, in 2016

Kerry received the bulk of his income from a $5million salary from Bank of America for his role as chair of its Global Advisory Council

The filings also reveal he divested between $4 million and $15 million in assets across more than 400 companies.

A disclosure report filed by Kerry show that he served as the chairman of the advisory board for Climate Finance Partners and as president of the Vietnam Sustainable Energy Corporation.

'The State Department's Ethics Office reviewed Special Presidential Envoy Kerry's assets and investments upon his appointment to identify holdings that could pose a significant risk of a conflict of interest,' a State Department spokesperson said in s statement. 'Special Presidential Envoy Kerry agreed to divest the assets identified by the Ethics Office and has done so.'

Some of the energy-related companies which Kerry had invested include hydrocarbon exploration company ConocoPhillips, international petroleum refinery company Valero Energy and gas and electric provider Southern Company.

The amount of shares held was relatively small with values between $1,001 to $50,000 each.

The disclosure also reveal that Kerry has reduced his financial interests in energy sector companies in recent years.

Zurich Insurance paid Kerry a $90,000 honorarium, Deutsche Bank paid him an honorarium of $45,000 while Cornell University gave Kerry a $22,500 honorarium

Kerry, who was a senator for Massachusetts for 28 years from 1985 to 2013 became Secretary of State under the Obama Administration from 2013 to 2017. Both are pictured here in 2008

The documents show that Kerry earned between $15 million to $65 million from his other investments, mainly from dividends and capital gains from divesting his financial assets.

They include shares in big firms including Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, and Goldman Sachs.

Kerry's vast stock portfolio is also enhanced through a trust fund he holds with his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry, heiress to the Heinz food company.

'The State Department's Ethics Office reviewed Special Presidential Envoy Kerry's assets and investments upon his appointment to identify holdings that could pose a significant risk of a conflict of interest,' a State Department spokesperson told Axios.
Families are set to get the go-ahead to take summer holidays in some popular European hotspots before the end of the month, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

The Government is expected to announce as early as this week the first countries that Britons can visit without having to quarantine  but the list is only believed to include a handful of destinations.

Sources say the so-called 'green list' will be updated every three weeks, raising the prospect that new countries  including popular destinations in Europe  will be announced before the end of this month. For much of the country, the half-term break starts on May 31.

Under the traffic-light system for foreign travel, those returning from green countries will not need to quarantine but will have to take two Covid tests  one before they return to the UK, which can be either a lateral flow or PCR test, and a PCR test on the second day after they arrive back.

Families are set to get the go-ahead to take summer holidays in some popular European hotspots before the end of the month, The Mail on Sunday can reveal (Gibraltar pictured)

Those who return from countries designated as either amber or red will still have to quarantine, either at home or in a hotel, and have three compulsory tests. Government officials are debating whether to stick to previous policy plans of having all children under 11 exempt from having to take the tests.

The majority of European countries are expected to be given amber status this week, but there is optimism that some will turn green when the list is next updated.

The ban on overseas holidays will end on May 17, along with the threat of fines for attempting to travel without a permitted reason.

Ahead of the cautious return to international travel, the Government will shortly unveil a new slogan 'Travel Safely, Plan Ahead'. It will replace the current 'Minimise Travel' guidance.

An announcement by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps of which countries have been given which colour is thought to have been pencilled in for Friday, although it could slip to early next week. Ahead of it, the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC), which provides evidence-based analysis to the Government, will assess the latest data from around the world.

The system is based on four main criteria  the percentage of the population that has been vaccinated, the Covid infection rate, any emerging coronavirus variants and the strength of a country's genomic sequencing that would allow variants to be detected.

It is understood the JBC assessment means only a small number of countries will make the first 'green' list. These are thought to include Malta, Gibraltar and Israel.

Any tests required for travel for green, amber and red countries will have to be paid for privately. Costs, however, have been falling, with some firms charging just 45 per test.

Many countries require tests to be completed before leaving the UK, but Greece recently became the first major European country to announce that vaccinated Britons will not require any to enter. Spain, Portugal and France have also indicated they will follow suit.
Boris Johnson today promises a 'ruthless' crackdown on dognapping and other pet crime.

Demand for dogs during the pandemic triggered a massive rise in thefts, with some breeds fetching up to 4,000 each  four times pre-Covid prices.

Lord Chancellor Robert Buckland has set up a taskforce that the Prime Minister said would ensure that the 'criminal justice system is dealing properly with anyone who is so malicious as to steal a dog'.

Writing in The Mail on Sunday, opposite, Mr Johnson  who owns a white, male Jack Russell cross called Dilyn with his fiancee Carrie Symonds  says the crime is too often dismissed as trivial and on a par with shoplifting.

Boris Johnson today promises a 'ruthless' crackdown on dognapping and other pet crime. Demand for dogs during the pandemic triggered a massive rise in thefts, with some breeds fetching up to 4,000 each  four times pre-Covid prices

Writing in The Mail on Sunday, opposite, Mr Johnson  who owns a white, male Jack Russell cross called Dilyn with his fiancee Carrie Symonds  says the crime is too often dismissed as trivial and on a par with shoplifting

But he adds: 'I believe strongly in the broken windows theory  that if you want to stop serious crime, then you must also be ruthless in dealing with offences that might seem second order to some, but which in reality cause huge pain and grief to the victims.'

The new measure is part of a broader crackdown on crime.

Mr Johnson said that police, partly helped by Covid which has restricted criminals' movement, are winning the war on county lines drugs gangs which use dedicated phone lines to send mass texts to customers and organise networks of couriers, often children and vulnerable adults, to move drugs from cities to smaller towns.

Lord Chancellor Robert Buckland (above) has set up a taskforce that the Prime Minister said would ensure that the 'criminal justice system is dealing properly with anyone who is so malicious as to steal a dog'

'Overall, it looks as thought there is about a 20 per cent reduction in the prevalence of these gangs,' writes Mr Johnson. 'But we are only just at the beginning of this fight; we must do more.'

He adds: 'We need to bring the hammer down hard on the gangs  at every stage. So when the drugs mules take the trains, they have to contend with British Transport Police who are equipped with drug-sniffing dogs.'

Mr Johnson, who vowed to 'take out the gangsters', also announces:

Overall crime is trending down and 90 per cent of county lines gangs in Norfolk have been 'rolled up';

Towns such as Swale in Kent and Bangor in Wales are now free of the scourge of county lines gangs;

New police powers to tackle street violence are being reinforced with tougher sentences for serious sexual and violent offenders;

Since the start of the year, police have recovered 27 stolen dogs in Hertfordshire, 26 in Surrey, 83 in Suffolk and 80 in Carmarthenshire.

Dog ownership has soared since the first lockdown, with 2.2 million people getting one in the first six months of the pandemic. But new figures have also revealed that dog thefts have risen by a fifth in the past year.

Data from 37 of Britain's 45 police forces shows an estimated 2,438 dogs were reported stolen last year, a 19 per cent increase on 2019 when there were 2,026.

Pensioner, 66, is left 'broken' by violent dognapping Pensioner Mike Jasper was attacked and had his sprocker spaniel Ted (above) stolen while walking on a common Pensioner Mike Jasper was attacked and had his sprocker spaniel Ted stolen while walking on a common. The 66-year-old was assaulted from behind by two men who made off with his beloved three-year-old pet in December. The retired police officer was knocked to the ground and one of the attackers stood on his wrist until he let go of the lead while walking on Cannon Hill Common in South London. Mr Jasper's dog had helped him cope with depression and his daughter Lucinda told how the theft had severely damaged her father's mental health. 'Since Ted's been taken, Dad has just been completely broken,' she said. 'He can't leave the house. He's suffering really badly from depression and as a family, it's really upsetting to see because he had made such good progress with his mental health.' Advertisement

Charities believe the overall figure is significantly higher. Volunteer group DogLost reported a 170 per cent leap in the number of pets reported stolen from 172 in 2019 to 465 last year.

Katy Bourne, the Police and Crime Commissioner in Sussex, has called for the theft of pets to be categorised separately to improve police data.

She found via an online survey that more than a fifth of 124,000 respondents had either had a pet stolen, or knew someone who had, during the past year.

Almost 65 per cent of respondents said they feared taking their pet for a walk during the day.

Staffordshire bull terriers were the most popular breed targeted by thieves, with 97 stolen in 2020, accounting for 21 per cent of all dogs with named breeds stolen in 2020.

Mr Johnson says that he imagines some non-dog-owners will think the police might be better employed elsewhere.

'That is to miss the point,' he writes. 'If you are cynical and nasty enough to steal a dog, in an organised gang, then you will almost certainly be party to other types of crime as well.'

BORIS JOHNSON: From pet thieves to drug gangs, we need to hammer down hard on criminals causing so much misery

Boris Johnson: The bearers of this epidemic were mainly young people  and the phenomenon was the county lines drug network

Long before Covid we had a different type of plague in this country. It was a contagion that spread from the ports to the big cities, and then out along the road and the rail networks to sleepy county towns and coastal communities.

The bearers of this epidemic were mainly young people  and the phenomenon was the county lines drug network.

Everywhere they have gone, the county lines drug gangs have brought misery  drugs-fuelled robbery, drugs-fuelled burglary, and the tragic deaths of young kids on the street, sacrificed in the gang war for territory.

When I stood on the steps of Downing Street, I vowed to do whatever it took to roll up those county lines networks and to defeat the gangsters  because crime hits the poorest hardest, and it wrecks the lives of the most vulnerable.

If we are to succeed in levelling up across the UK, we must give everyone the security and confidence that comes from having a safe street and a safe home.

This year crime overall is trending down, and it is one of the few consolations of the appalling Covid pandemic that it has helped us in the fight.

Criminals, like everyone else, have had their movements restricted. Burglary is down. Robbery is down. The murder rate is at last showing signs of turning down, and because lockdown has helped to make criminals conspicuous we have been using this period to round up the gangsters  the peddlers of death  and to attack the whole foundation of the county lines model.

Of course that means tackling the miserable problems of the 300,000 who have become addicted to crack and heroin. It is their drug abuse that is overwhelmingly fuelling the crime wave  and so we have invested massively in treating addiction, with the biggest uplift in funding for rehabilitation for 15 years.

But you cant just solve the problem with rehab, let alone by recycling the same people in and out of prison, at huge taxpayer expense.

We need to bring the hammer down hard on the gangs  at every stage.

When I stood on the steps of Downing Street, I vowed to do whatever it took to roll up those county lines networks and to defeat the gangsters  because crime hits the poorest hardest, and it wrecks the lives of the most vulnerable (STOCK IMAGE)

So when the drug mules take the trains, they have to contend with British Transport Police who are now equipped with drug-sniffing dogs. Nine hundred people have been arrested in the last year.

When they go by car, their number plates are monitored with automatic recognition systems, and we are punching holes in the organised crime groups by cracking their secret chats  exposing operations like the lab in Kent that was making 27 million street benzo pills that were intended for Scotland.

In the last 16 months, the police believe that they have rolled up about 90 per cent of the county lines drugs gangs in Norfolk. Towns such as Bangor in Wales and Swale in Kent have been declared county lines-free.

Overall, it looks as though there is about a 20 per cent reduction in the prevalence of these gangs.

But we are only just at the beginning of this fight; we must do more. And so we are not only putting more police out on the streets, with 8,771 of the 20,000 already recruited.

We are also backing the police in the fight, with new powers to tackle street violence (consistently opposed by Labour).

And we are supporting their efforts with tougher sentences for serious sexual and violent offenders  measures to protect the public that Labour, incredibly, voted against on a three-line whip. On crime, voters have a clear choice in PCC and council elections this week.

It is not just a question of coming down hard on violent and dangerous criminals. I believe strongly in the broken windows theory  that if you want to stop serious crime, then you must also be ruthless in dealing with offences that might seem second order to some, but which in reality cause huge pain and grief to the victims.

One crime type that has risen in prominence during the pandemic is, oddly, pet theft  mainly the stealing of dogs. At present this crime is far too often dismissed as relatively trivial  on a par, say, with shoplifting.

I dont agree. That is why the Lord Chancellor Robert Buckland has set up the Pet Theft Task Force, to make sure that the criminal justice system is dealing properly with anyone who is so malicious as to steal a dog.

One crime type that has risen in prominence during the pandemic is, oddly, pet theft  mainly the stealing of dogs. At present this crime is far too often dismissed as relatively trivial  on a par, say, with shoplifting (stock image)

Since the start of the year, police operations in Hertfordshire have recovered 27 dogs and made three arrests; 26 dogs in Surrey, and three arrests; 83 dogs in Suffolk, six arrests; 80 dogs in Carmarthenshire, two arrests.

I can imagine that there may be the lips of some non-dog-owners that may curl in amusement at these statistics, and think that the police might be better employed doing other things.

That is to miss the point. If you are cynical and nasty enough to steal a dog, in an organised gang, then you will almost certainly be party to other types of crime as well.

This is a fight that can be won.

When I was running London, for eight years, we backed the police all the way  and they brought crime down by 23 per cent, and the murder rate down by 50 per cent.

And you cant back the police properly if, like the Labour Party, your first instinct is to blame them and to criticise when things go wrong.

This country is moving forwards cautiously but I hope irreversibly through the steps of the roadmap. Week after week we are seeing how the vaccine rollout is helping to restore our freedoms  and with those freedoms I have absolutely no doubt that our economy will bounce back strongly.

We will make use of our Brexit freedoms to turbo-charge that recovery, with the flexibility that has enabled us already to perform the speedy vaccine rollout, to deal with the prospect of the European Super League, and to launch the freeports in Teesside and elsewhere.

I dont know whether Jes Staley of Barclays is right to say that it will be the most dramatic recovery since the end of the last war. What I do know is that safety and security on our streets is absolutely critical for sustained investment and economic growth.

That is why we must continue to use this moment to drive home our advantage  take out the gangsters and the misery they cause  and make our streets safe from Covid, and safe from crime.
New Zealand has paused the trans-Tasman travel bubble with Western Australia after the state recorded three new Covid-19 cases.

The ministry of health announced on Sunday that it was no longer accepting flights from the state after carrying out a rapid public health assessment.

'Scheduled direct flights from Western Australia to New Zealand should be immediately paused while a further assessment is carried out, including a further assessment and information from Australian health officials,' a statement read.

It comes after a security guard at a Perth quarantine facility and his two housemates tested positive to Covid-19 on Saturday.

New Zealand has paused the trans-Tasman travel bubble with Western Australia after the state recorded three new Covid-19 cases

It comes after a security guard at a Perth quarantine facility and his two housemates tested positive to Covid-19 on Saturday

The guard, aged in his 20s, worked at the Pan Pacific hotel on April 24, 25 and 26.

A flight scheduled to arrive in Auckland from Perth at 5:50am Sunday has been cancelled.

New Zealand has also advised any traveller who has returned from Perth and visited any of the exposure sites in the last four days to self-isolate immediately.

The Western Australia government has listed on its website all the places that have been visited by confirmed Covid-19 cases.

The locations can be found across the suburbs including Nollamara, Mirabooka and Madeley.

The grounding of flights from Perth to New Zealand marks the second time flights have been suspended since the trans-Tasman bubble opened on April 18.

Flights between New Zealand and Western Australia were suspended less than a week later, when the Perth and Peel regions were sent into a three-day lockdown after recording a case of community transmission on April 23.

The bubble, which followed months of negotiations between the largely coronavirus-free neighbours, was hailed as a major milestone in restarting a global travel industry that has been crippled by the Covid-19 pandemic.

New Zealand's tourism industry was its biggest export industry before Covid-19, with Australians accounting for about 40 percent of the international visitors.

The bubble, which followed months of negotiations between the largely coronavirus-free neighbours, was hailed as a major milestone in restarting a global travel industry that has been crippled by the Covid-19 pandemic (pictured, New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern)

The grounding of flights from Perth to New Zealand marks the second time flights have been suspended since the trans-Tasman bubble opened on April 18

Residents in Perth are anxiously awaiting news whether the city will be plunged into another lockdown following the new Covid-19 cases.

State premier Mark McGowan did not impose a lockdown on Saturday, but warned that could change by Sunday or Monday.

'We are effectively in a holding pattern and I hope we can avoid going back into lockdown,' he said.

The premier said health authorities had asked for time to conduct contact tracing over the weekend.

The early detection of the cases, combined with WA's interim restrictions following a snap three-day lockdown last weekend, were the factors that justified holding off on another lockdown, the premier said.

Authorities on Saturday were more optimistic than they would otherwise be because of attendance limits at venues, takeaway at eateries, and compulsory mask wearing.

All Perth and Peel residents must wear masks indoors and outdoors, regardless of proximity to others.

Flights between New Zealand and Western Australia were suspended less than a week after the trans-Tasman bubble opened on April 18
A senior Labour MP has admitted illegally obtaining prescription-only tranquillisers from a vulnerable constituent.

The Mail on Sunday can reveal that Stephen Doughty, the party's frontbench spokesman for Africa and International Development, sent a late-night text message asking Byron Long for tablets of diazepam, better known as Valium.

Mr Doughty  who is seen as a rising star in Sir Keir Starmer's Shadow Cabinet  last night apologised for the lapse in 2019 which he said occurred after he suffered panic attacks ahead of a planned overseas flight.

The 41-year-old, who has spoken openly about his mental health issues, said he has periodically been prescribed medication, including diazepam, over the past 12 years to deal with panic attacks and anxiety disorder.

Diazepam is categorised as a Class C drug and possession of it without a prescription carries a maximum two-year prison sentence.

MP Stephen Doughty with vulnerable constituent Byron Long during one of their regular meetings at the Quantum Cafe in Cardiff

A spokesperson for the Cardiff South and Penarth MP said: 'Stephen apologises unreservedly for any error he made in making this request, which was to a friend who he had shared many highly personal, trusted and mutually supportive conversations with about mental health over many years.'

In a text message to Mr Long at 11.08pm on July 19, 2019, Mr Doughty invited his constituent to his flat.

'Cuppa tomorrow morning at mine? You want to meet Charlotte [his cat]? 930am? X'.

Mr Long replied: 'Love too see you 9.30 xx'

Diazepam: Killer pill that costs just pennies Immortalised in The Rolling Stones' 1966 hit Mother's Little Helper, diazepam is a prescription-only drug given in tablet form to patients who suffer from anxiety, insomnia or muscle spasms. Better known as Valium, it is highly addictive so doctors rarely give it to patients for long periods. Without a prescription, it is designated a Class C drug with a maximum punishment of two years in prison for possession. It has become an increasingly popular street drug with illegal versions flooding into Britain and being sold for just pennies per pill. Drug poisoning deaths due to diazepam have shot up from 160 in 2009 to 243 in 2019, while figures show its use has increased during the pandemic. Four years ago, TV star Ant McPartlin went into rehab for addiction to sedatives including diazepam. Actor Heath Ledger and pop star Michael Jackson also battled addiction to drugs including diazepam. Advertisement

The MP texted back: 'Great :) look forward to introduce her finally x ps do you have any spare diazepam by any chance? I haven't been able to get to GP and need some for flying next week! X.'

Mr Long replied: 'Of course 7 ok 5 mg.'

Mr Doughty responded: 'That would be brill but only if they are spares!!'

Mr Long texted back: 'Spare x.'

Father-of-two Mr Long, who has suffered from anxiety, depression and PTSD since 2010, claims that he passed as many as 140 diazepam pills to the MP during up to 20 meetings at a coffee shop in Cardiff between 2017 and 2019.

He claims a pattern developed that would see Mr Doughty invite him to the Quantum Cafe in Cardiff where, as they sat together on a leather sofa and sipped coffee, he would slip diazepam pills to Mr Doughty. He says he did so because he believed it would ingratiate him with the MP, who would then be more willing to help with his various housing problems.

The MP last night flatly denied those claims and said he had provided extensive help to his constituent without condition.

Mr Doughty's spokesman said: 'Stephen categorically denies having obtained 140 diazepam tablets from Mr Long his regular meetings with Byron consisted of tea, coffee, cake and chat between two friends.'

Mr Long met the MP in 2013 when he approached Mr Doughty for help over the Bedroom Tax and his housing benefit. Impressed by the MP, he joined the Labour Party and threw himself into campaigning. He was named 'champion campaigner' by Welsh Assembly member Vaughan Gething in 2016.

From 2017, he and Mr Doughty struck up a close friendship: the MP would send him pictures of his cat and give him gifts. 'At the start, it felt really special getting so much attention from Stephen,' said Mr Long. 'There aren't many constituents who would get as much attention from their local MP.

Stephen Doughty, the party's frontbench spokesman for Africa and International Development, is seen as a rising star in Sir Keir Starmer's Shadow Cabinet

'I really felt as if he sympathised and wanted to help me. We always talked a lot about the local party and he seemed to value my opinion. He seemed to trust me and confided in me really personal things about his life.'

By 2019, however, Mr Long says he began to doubt the level of help with his housing issues that Mr Doughty was actually providing.

He submitted a 'Subject Access Request' to Mr Doughty's office to obtain all the correspondence relating to his case and was disappointed by the reply. 'I just feel really disappointed and let down  and worst of all I am still trapped in this block of flats,' he said.

Mr Doughty's spokesman last night insisted that the MP and his team 'have spent a considerable amount of time assisting him, as they would do any other constituent, to the best of their abilities'.

Mr Long, 62, who has not seen the MP since 2019, said: 'I feel completely let down. All those years, I thought I was helping Stephen and Stephen was helping me. Now I know it was all lies.'

Mr Doughty was elected to Westminster in 2012 and has been the shadow international aid spokesman since April last year. In 2017, as his friendship with Mr Long was deepening, he praised local police for cracking down on drug deals in Butetown  ironically the area of Cardiff where they would meet for coffee.

At the time Mr Doughty encouraged people to raise the alarm about drug misuse. 'If anybody is aware or suspects any activity relating to drugs, however small, I urge you to call the police,' he said.
Britain's electoral watchdog, which is investigating Boris Johnson's 'cash for curtains' flat makeover at No 10, was last night branded 'biased', 'incompetent' and ripe for abolition.

Tory MPs tore into the Electoral Commission's 'lamentable record' and urged the Prime Minister to press ahead with replacing it.

Senior Tory backbencher Peter Bone led the charge, saying the watchdog 'was not fit to investigate a drinks party in a brewery. This is a biased and incompetent organisation. It should be abolished. And if the Government does not introduce such a Bill in the Queen's Speech this month, I will propose it myself in a backbench Bill.'

He was joined by Tory colleagues Philip Davies and Andrew Bridgen in demanding a radical overhaul of the watchdog. The MPs denied they were taking revenge on the Commission for the makeover investigation.

But Mr Bone accused the watchdog of unveiling the inquiry to save its own skin and stave off radical plans to replace it, a move that some expected to be in this month's announcement of new Government legislation. Last night, one Cabinet Minister privately admitted that with the inquiry under way, it would be 'very tricky' for Mr Johnson to go ahead with a major revamp.

In a dramatic intervention into the No 10 flat row last week, the watchdog  which regulates party funding and political donations  announced it was carrying out 'a formal investigation' to look into whether the Tory Party had any role in transactions relating to the makeover and if they were properly declared.

It sparked anger on the Tory benches for allegedly prejudging the outcome of the inquiry by saying it was 'satisfied that there are reasonable grounds to suspect that an offence or offences may have occurred'.

Mr Johnson has insisted that he settled the 58,000 bill to redecorate the flat himself, but there are claims that this was only after the Party originally paid for the work to help out the cash-strapped Prime Minister.

Tory staff have now been warned by party bosses that they face severe criminal consequences if they fail to co-operate with the Commission's inquiry and hand over all relevant information about the controversial refurbishment.

However, many MPs had been expecting this month's Queen's Speech to include plans to rein in the watchdog after a series of highly controversial investigations as well of allegations of anti- Brexit bias.

Only last year, the then Electoral Commission chairman Sir John Holmes was denied an extension to his four-year term by MPs.

Senior Tory backbencher Peter Bone led the charge, saying the Electoral Commission 'was not fit to investigate a drinks party in a brewery

The PM and Carrie Symonds face the prospect of handing over emails and phone messages after the elections watchdog dramatically announced an investigation

In a bombshell move, the Electoral Commission opened a formal investigation into the funding of the lavish refurbishment of the couple's official flat. Pictured: A design by Lulu Lytle, who is believed to have carried out the refurbishment

He had faced criticism for saying that he regretted the result of the Brexit referendum in 2016 and condemning the 'panoply of Eurosceptic nonsense' from pro-Leave campaigners months after he was nominated as head of the watchdog.

Despite a requirement to 'uphold its impartiality', three former commissioners also criticised Brexit while in their posts.

The watchdog also came under fire for allegedly persecuting Brexit campaigner Darren Grimes by slapping a 20,000 fine on him for electoral offences during the referendum  only to see the penalty overturned in the courts.

Yesterday, the watchdog was accused of wrongly recording two charitable gifts by tycoon Sir James Dyson as donations to Tory MP Michelle Donelan, which meant the BBC could refer to the entrepreneur as a prominent Tory backer.

The watchdog has been also been slated by MPs across the political spectrum for being 'too bureaucratic'. And last year, Tory Party chairwoman Amanda Milling appeared to signal that the Commission in its current form would be replaced by saying it was 'simply not fit for purpose' and was 'too willing to push for the prosecution of political and party activists'.

Last night, North-West Leicestershire MP Mr Bridgen said the regulator had a 'history of politically motivated investigations'.

He echoed his party chairman's verdict, saying: 'It has demonstrated through its actions that it is not fit for purpose in its present form.'

Shipley MP Mr Davies said the watchdog had a 'lamentable track record and 'a massive overhaul' was needed 'to restore some credibility and confidence in this organisation'.

However, Labour accused the Tories of trying to hobble the watchdog because it was investigating how the Prime Minister paid for his flat refurbishment.

Shadow Cabinet Office Minister Cat Smith said: 'The Conservatives' attempts to weaken and intimidate the Electoral Commission come straight out of the Republican Party playbook.

'This is just one part of a concerted strategy by the Tories to remove scrutiny and proper accountability. The Conservative Government must make a clear statement revoking these threats.'

Government insiders played down the prospect of immediate action over the Commission, saying an independent review into it was still ongoing.

A Commission spokesman said: 'Parliament has given us a duty to investigate electoral offences. Where we have reasonable grounds to suspect that such offences may have occurred, we are duty bound to act in order to establish the facts. This process should not be undermined by unsubstantiated allegations of bias.'

Sources also insisted that in recording donations to Ms Donelan, it simply reflected how the gifts was declared by the MP on the Commons' register of outside interests.
South Koreans bade farewell Saturday to Roman Catholic Cardinal Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk in a funeral mass at Seoul's landmark Myeongdong Cathedral. Yonhap



South Koreans bade farewell Saturday to Roman Catholic Cardinal Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk in a funeral mass at Seoul's landmark Myeongdong Cathedral.



Cheong, who was made Korea's second cardinal in 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI, died Tuesday night at a Seoul hospital at the age of 89.



He served as the Catholic archbishop of Seoul for 14 years from 1998, before becoming archbishop emeritus of the capital.



Cardinal Andrew Yeom Soo-jung, the Catholic archbishop of Seoul, recalled that Cheong appeared serious and strong but that, underneath that appearance, he was a soft and gentle person with a broad mind full of love.



"Cardinal Cheong showed to us through his life that when you throw everything away, you can get everything." Yeom said, overwhelmed with emotion, during rites at Myeongdong Cathedral in central Seoul, where Cheong was baptized as an infant in 1931. "He showed what a happy life is and how to follow God's will."



About 250 people  one-fifth of the cathedral's seating capacity  sat socially distanced during the service due to health restrictions.



The greater Seoul area, home to more than half of the country's 52 million people, is under Level 2 social distancing, the third highest in the five-tier system meant to curb the spread of COVID-19.



Cheong's death has sparked tributes from Pope Francis and President Moon Jae-in as well as an outpouring of grief from ordinary South Koreans.



Pope Francis said in a message read by Apostolic Nuncio to South Korea Alfred Xuereb that he was deeply saddened to learn of Cheong's death and offered his heartfelt condolences to the clergy, and religious and lay faithful of the Archdiocese of Seoul.



Moon paid his respects to Cheong during his visit to the cathedral with first lady Kim Jung-sook, Thursday. Moon described Cheong as a "big hill" of South Korea's Catholic community and a "guru of the nation."



More than 46,600 mourners visited the cathedral during a three-day mourning period through Friday to pay their last respects to Cheong, according to the Catholic Archdiocese of Seoul.



South Korea is home to 5.9 million Catholics, accounting for 11.2 percent of the country's total population.



Cheong will be buried in a Catholic cemetery in Yongin, on the southern outskirts of Seoul, where many celebrated priests, including Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan, are entombed.



Born in 1931 to a devout Catholic family in Seoul, Cheong entered the Catholic University of Korea in 1954 and obtained his bachelor's degree in theology.



After he was ordained in 1961, he served in a pastorate for seven years in Seoul. He also taught students at a Catholic high school in the capital.



In 1968, he went Italy to study. At the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome, he majored in canon law and acquired a master's degree.



Two years after he returned to South Korea, Cheong was appointed as the youngest Catholic bishop in Korea at age 39. (Yonhap)


China's Covid-19 vaccines were developed fast, rolled out rapidly around the world and proclaimed by President Xi Jinping as a 'global public good' to showcase his country's benevolence.

Hundreds of millions of doses have been despatched abroad after being sold to 28 countries and given away free to more than 60 poorer or strategically important places in an attempt to plug supply gaps around the globe.

This vaccine diplomacy  branded by Beijing as the Health Silk Road  is a key part of the Communist regime's propaganda drive after its early cover-ups inflamed the pandemic and amid growing global suspicions over the virus's true origins.

Yet Singapore's supplies have been sitting in storage since February. Several countries, including Poland, South Korea and Vietnam, rejected the vaccine offer due to the lack of reliable data about efficacy or trials.

The pro-China president of the Philippines declined his shot.

A healthcare worker inoculates an elderly man with a dose of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination centre set up at the Bicentenario Stadium in Santiago, Chile

Workers unload containers transporting a batch of the Sinovac coronavirus vaccine at the international airport of Santiago, Chile

A woman receives her second dose of the Sinovac vaccine at a clinic in Santiago, Chile

Syringes of the Sinovac vaccine and models depicting coronavirus at a factory in Beijing

Chile used a Chinese vaccine in one of the world's fastest vaccination drives, but then saw a strange surge in Covid cases. In the UAE, some recipients had to be given a third injection after two were found to deliver insufficient immunity.

Other nations have been left infuriated by supply failures. Turkey's president rebuked China's foreign minister over shortfalls that forced the closure of vaccination sites, and now cases have exploded.

In Mexico, delays have forced the postponement of second doses.

So are China's efforts to exploit the desperate global desire for protection, which have seen it use vaccines as a weapon to encourage nations to toe its line over Taiwan and accept technology companies such as Huawei, suddenly backfiring?

This weekend, the World Health Organisation (WHO) is weighing up available data to decide whether to give emergency use listing to two key Chinese vaccines, a safety endorsement that guides regulatory agencies around the world.

China's Covid-19 vaccines were proclaimed by President Xi Jinping as a 'global public good' to showcase his country's benevolence

The move comes amid concerns over the lack of peer-reviewed studies and published data on clinical trials of the vaccines, unlike those developed by Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson that have received a WHO listing.

'We don't have a lot of clarity about them, which is very unusual,' says Peter English, a British expert on vaccines and communicable diseases, who is concerned about the wide range of results from countries using Chinese vaccines.

Chong Ja Ian, professor of political science at the National University of Singapore, told the Washington Post his government had accepted a Chinese vaccine to avoid giving offence to Beijing but could not approve use given its limited data. 'Singapore has options, unlike some of the countries which have received [the Chinese vaccine] Sinovac,' he added.

There are two main Chinese vaccines being sent around the world.

The first to be reviewed by WHO is made by Sinopharm, a huge state-owned firm that claimed 79 per cent efficacy  impressive but significantly lower than jabs made by Western or Russian rivals.

Another by Sinovac, which has distributed more than 260 million doses worldwide, varied in trials from 50.7 per cent efficacy in Brazil  marginally above the 50 per cent threshold deemed acceptable for use  to more than 83 per cent in Turkey.

A healthcare worker checks on people under observation after receiving a dose of the Sinovac vaccine at a makeshift vaccination site in the Jose Toribio Medina public school, in Santiago, Chile

The results of an earlier trial were even worse: the jab was estimated to be just 49.6 per cent effective against symptomatic cases, a figure that dropped to 35 per cent when asymptomatic Covid infections were included.

Studies in Chile found alarmingly low levels of protection after the first shot, with one reporting a single dose to be only three per cent effective, while a second found it was 16 per cent effective, rising to 67 per cent after the second shot.

These figures, along with the arrival of more virulent strains and a relaxation of rules, might help to explain why Chile's hospitals were overwhelmed with patients as cases rose to record levels last month, despite an impressively fast vaccine rollout.

Chile has vaccinated more than four in ten citizens, not far behind British and Israeli rates  yet its confirmed fatality rate from Covid is 16 times higher than the UK, with ten times more cases.

Such figures are a shattering blow to China's efforts to promote its pharmaceutical industry, which has been plagued by scandals and low trust within its own borders, as well as setting back global efforts to curb the spread of the virus.

'This suggests Chinese vaccine science is not as advanced as in other areas,' said Nikolai Petrovsky, a vaccine developer and professor of medicine at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia.

Prof Petrovsky said China was relying largely on older technologies that use inactivated viruses mixed with aluminium-based compounds, called adjuvants, that stimulate human immune systems.

This well-established process is similar to how vaccines have been made for a century, but it is harder to ensure quality control and eliminate variability when inactivated viruses are rushed into mass production, compared with modern genetic techniques being harnessed by the West.

People wearing face masks walk by others lining up for a Covid vaccine in Beijing last month

'Unless Chinese firms can improve standards and provide data to show consistent effectiveness, their vaccines are likely to be used only by desperate countries where any vaccine may be attractive, particularly if provided for free,' said Prof Petrovsky.

In a setback to Xi's vaccine diplomacy efforts, George Gao, of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, admitted there was a 'problem' that the efficacy of their vaccines was 'not high', before he quickly rowed back, claiming 'a complete misunderstanding', and his comments were censored.

Last week, the EU warned that China's vaccine diplomacy is backed by 'disinformation and manipulation efforts to undermine trust in Western-made vaccines'.

'Russia and China are using state-controlled media, networks of proxy media outlets and social media to achieve these goals.'
Prison chiefs have been accused of ridiculous plans to sell tampons to inmates at mens jails.

Minutes of meetings of the Prison and Probation Service Transgender Advisory Board detail a proposal to add feminine hygiene products to the canteen list of items allowed to be bought at more than 100 mens prisons in England and Wales.

The minutes for February, obtained under Freedom of Information rules, say: [Redacted] suggested that having one canteen list would help as everyone, including transgender prisoners, could access the same items  for example, tampons in male prisons for transgender males.

Prison chiefs have been accused of ridiculous plans to sell tampons to inmates at mens jails

The board recommended an examination of the plan and minutes of a subsequent meeting state: It was mentioned that canteen lists for prisons appeared to be different for prisons in the female and male estates. The question was asked whether the lists could be consistent, particularly the canteen list for transgender prisoners.

But campaigners described the plan as a complete waste of time given the near total absence of inmates in male prisons who would have need for sanitary products.

The Ministry of Justice last night said there are two male inmates who were born women serving sentences in mens prisons.

Dr Kate Coleman, director of the campaign group Keep Prisons Single Sex, said: This is ridiculous. Its just politically correct virtue signalling for the sake of it.
The uncle of murdered PCSO Julia James yesterday urged the public to help the hunt for her killer, saying: Lets find this monster before he can cause more grief to another family.

The 53-year-old grandmother was bludgeoned to death while out walking her Jack Russell terrier on a path through woodland close to her home in the Kent hamlet of Snowdown, near Canterbury.

Dozens of officers have combed the woods and surrounding fields since Tuesday afternoon when her body was found but they have yet to find a murder weapon or a significant clue to her attackers identity.

Julia James on her wedding day, with her son Patrick (left) and daughter Bethan (right)

The body of PCSO Julia James, pictured, was found on Tuesday afternoon near her home in the Kent hamlet of Snowdown, near Canterbury

Heartbroken uncle Michael Turnbull (pictured), from Canterbury, appealed on social media for the publics help to catch the killer

Heartbroken uncle Michael Turnbull, from Canterbury, appealed on social media for the publics help to catch the killer.

Julia has been taken from us by some worthless, cowardly excuse for a human being for no other reason than his own sense of self-gratification to justify what he did, leaving behind a family full of broken hearts and sadness, he said.

He told how she was a mother to two children, Bethan and Patrick, and a grandmother to Jaxxon. Julia was funny, kind, caring, always saw the good in people and, most of all, was full of love.

Please share this and let us find this monster before he can cause more grief to another family.

His moving appeal came as the police community support officers daughter Bethan Coles, son-in-law Chase and grandson Jaxxon paid a visit to a makeshift memorial to read the heartfelt messages left with dozens of floral tributes.

Mrs James had been working from home when she took her dog Toby for an afternoon walk. She was seen leaving at around 3pm before her body was found an hour later on a country path with her loyal Jack Russell waiting by her side.

Kent Police investigators described a potential sexual motive for the murder as an important line of inquiry. They declined to disclose whether her body was found fully clothed.

Detectives have also not ruled out a link to Mrs Jamess work as a PCSO with the Kent force, most recently as a member of its domestic violence unit. National Crime Agency officers are also helping the investigation.

Floral tributes have been left near the scene were PCSO James was murdered. Police are still searching the area looking for the murder weapon or evidence linking the killer to the crime

Two women lay flowers in a park in Aylesham village yesterday close to the scene where PCSO Julia James was found

Two PCSOs patrol the area near to the flowers left for PCSO Julia James at a park in Aylesham village in Kent

Local residents have voiced their fears over the killer still being at large. One female dog walker reported a man in a van exposing himself to her two weeks ago, a mile from the scene of the murder.

The killing occurred just two miles from where Lin Russell, 45, and daughter Megan, six, were bludgeoned to death in 1996. Nine-year-old daughter Josie was left close to death but recovered.

Mrs Jamess husband Paul, 57, a hypnotherapist she married four years ago, has so far been too upset to speak of his loss. Her son Patrick Davis, 23, has said he is devastated by his mothers death.

Police colleagues have also been paying tribute to the PCSO, who served for 15 years, by leaving flowers by the village of Ayleshams mining memorial not far from her home.
Five maternity units in England still ban pregnant women from having a partner for support, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

While the majority of NHS hospitals have changed their policies in a victory for this newspaper's Lone Births campaign, a handful continue to ban partners from attending vital scans  despite falling Covid rates.

Last night, MPs criticised those maternity units that have refused to budge as acting in a way that is 'verging on the criminal'. In April, NHS England issued new guidance calling for 'urgent action' from remaining trusts to start allowing partners to attend.

The maternity units that continue to ban partners from attending vital appointments are: Walsall Manor Hospital, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital in Margate, William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Tunbridge Wells Hospital and Medway Maritime Hospital, according to NHS England records disclosed to The Mail on Sunday.

The maternity units that continue to ban partners from attending vital appointments include Walsall Manor Hospital (pictured)

The guidance makes it clear that partners should be allowed to attend appointments at 'all stages' of pregnancy  including scans.

One woman, who has her 12-week scan this week at Medway, said the 'anxiety is crippling' her, knowing she has to face it alone. She said: 'I have had two previous miscarriages, so this child is wanted hugely'.

A week ago she was admitted to hospital with a 'severe bleed'  yet the Kent hospital still won't allow her partner into the scan.

Conservative MP Alicia Kearns said: 'It is an utter disgrace that some NHS trusts still believe they can justify forcing women to go through scans or miscarriages alone. It is verging on the criminal.

'Our clinicians are vaccinated and a quarter of all UK adults have had both vaccines, so there is no excuse. Thankfully, the vast majority of NHS trusts have seen sense, and I'm so relieved our campaign has saved so many families from unnecessary trauma.'

Nadine Dorries, the Maternity Minister, praised The Mail on Sunday's campaign

Nadine Dorries, the Maternity Minister, praised The Mail on Sunday's campaign.

She said: 'We know partners, friends and relatives provide essential emotional and physical support for mothers right through pregnancy, and we have always said we wanted to ensure Covid-19 measures were not in place a second longer than necessary.

'The Mail on Sunday's campaign to end lone births has rightly highlighted this issue and the anguish it can cause women who have to go it alone.

'NHS England published further guidance in April, giving more advice for trusts to make sure they can safely support visits.

'We know that many trusts are taking these steps already, but we are working to make sure there is a consistent experience for families across the board.'

The guidance has made clear to hospitals that 'everything should be done' to allow partners to attend at all stages of pregnancy and birth since December.

Despite this, some only changed their policies recently. Surrey and Sussex maternity unit has only allowed partners to be present at all stages since April 12.

NHS England said: 'Hospitals must ensure that women are safely accompanied at every stage of their maternity journey, including for scans, and the overwhelming majority of maternity units are doing this.'
The world's first fully autonomous ship is set to make its maiden voyage across the Atlantic next month.

Inspired by the ship that brought the Pilgrims to North America, 'Mayflower 400' will be guided by artificial intelligence rather than a human crew.

If all goes well, it will depart from Plymouth, England on May 15 and arrive at Plymouth, Massachusetts, about 3,000 miles and two weeks later.

The original Mayflower, which transported 102 Pilgrims and other passengers, took 10 weeks to reach its destination in 1620.

Mayflower 400 was set to embark on its transatlantic cruise last September for the Mayflower's 400th anniversary, but was delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Mayflower 400 is set to embark on the first transatlantic voyage by an autonomous ship on May 15, 2021. Its voyage was originally set for September 2020, the 400th anniversary of the landing at Plymouth Rock, but it was postponed by the pandemic

The 50-foot trimaran will take roughly the same route as its ancient predecessor, only it won't carry any passengers or crew.

The Pilgrims were escaping religious persecution and sought to establish a settlement in the New World when they set sail from Plymouth, England, on September 16, 1620.

Just over 400 years later, the Mayflower 400 will gather critical scientific data about the ocean.

Powered by solar energy, it was unveiled in 2017 as a partnership between IBM, the University of Plymouth, autonomous craft specialists MSubs, and the marine-research nonprofit ProMare.

Mayflower 400 (pictured) relies on an onboard AI Captain using cameras, radar and Watson, IBM's AI platform

'The single biggest challenge is the ocean itself,' said ProMare founder Brett Phaneuf.

'No ship has ever been built that can survive whatever the ocean could throw at it.'

With no captain or onboard crew, Mayflower 400 uses AI to traverse the ocean in its quest for data and discovery.

It has a sophisticated system of cameras and radar to continue learning about its environment.

Having an uncrewed craft provided an advantage in the 'unforgiving environment,' Rosie Lickorish, a specialist in emerging technologies at IBM, told AFP.

The interior is different from the original Mayflower: Instead of beds and a galley, there are just rooms with science experiments set up

While the Mayflower 400 won't have any human crew or passengers, a team in the UK will monitor the vessel 24 hours a day, ready to take control of the ship remotely if necessary

'Having a ship without people on board allows scientists to expand the area they can observe,' Lickorish said.

A team in the UK will monitor the vessel 24 hours a day, ready to take control of the ship if necessary.

Built in Poland to ProMare's specifications, the 5-ton, 50-foot-long vessel incorporates many advanced marine architecture features, all designed to withstand the stresses of extended trips at sea.

'The key to putting an autonomous ship at sea, without humans at the helm, was computing technology that could power onboard intelligence,' according to IBM.

The Mayflower 400 will gather critical data on whale populations, sea levels, microplastics in the ocean, and other research topics.

The Mayflower, 1620 The original Mayflower was built in Harwich, North Essex Journey time: 60 days Speed: 5 knots (max) Length: 30m Weight: 180 tons Propulsion: Wind (three masts) Crew: 30 Passengers: 102 Navigation system: A compass, an hourglass, nautical charts and a logline Mission: Carry pilgrims from England to the New World. Source: IBM Advertisement

The Mayflower, 2021 The new Mayflower (above) is powered by an AI captain and solar power Journey time: 12 days Speed: 10 knots (max) Length: 50 foot (15m) Weight: 5 tons Propulsion A hybrid of wind and solar energy, with diesel backup generator Crew: 0 Passengers: 0 Navigation system: Motion and rotation sensors, Global Navigation Satellite System Mission: Research marine life, sea levels and ocean pollution. Source: IBM Advertisement

The Mayflower 400 will gather critical data on whale populations, sea levels, microplastics in the ocean, and other research topics.

That data will be made available to researchers free of charge.

The vessel relies on an onboard AI Captain that uses computer vision, automation software and Watson, IBM's AI platform.

The 'AI Captain' was trained with more than 1 million nautical images so it can recognize ships, bridges, land, debris and other hazards.

The AI Captain can communicate verbally with other ships in the area to warm them of its approach or convey other information.

Human operators will program the Mayflower's destination, but it will figure out its own course, factoring in the weather, ocean currents, collision regulations and other variables.

The ship's operators tell the Mayflower its destination and the vessel is expected to plot the best course, considering the weather, currents and other variables. Like the original Mayflower it will journey from Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, but in considerably less time

Pictured: A visualization of MAS's AI Captain. AI Captain was trained with more than 1 million nautical images so it could recognize other ships, bridges, land and other hazards

MAS can also react to ocean traffic in real time using a combination of radar, cameras, and the Automated Identification System (AIS), which transmits information such as the Mayflower's latitude and longitude to other boats.

Without humans on board, the ship 'becomes a machine rather than a floating hotel,' said Phaneuf.

'If you take the human factor out of ships, it allows you to completely reimagine the design,' he said.

'You can focus purely on the mechanics and function of the ship.'

While the original Mayflower was a wooden sailing vessel, MAS is a 'highly-sophisticated trimaran with an even more sophisticated interior', said Goetz Linzenmeier, chairman and founder of Aluship, which built the hull.

'In this new Mayflower this is also a technological adventure, fortunately no life is at risk,' said Linzenmeier.

The interior is also different from the living quarters of the original ship: Instead of beds, there are just rooms with science experiments.

One will test samples of seawater throughout the journey and store it in bottles for a staffer to inspect when the ship arrives in Massachusetts.

MAS has already been on several trial runs over the last six months ahead of its transatlantic voyage.
SpaceX will attempt the first US splashdown of returning astronauts in darkness since the Apollo 8 moonshot in 1968.

The Elon Musk-owned company is targeting the predawn hours of Sunday to bring back three NASA astronauts and one from Japan, after dangerously high wind scuttled a pair of earlier attempts.

The astronauts - only the second crew to fly SpaceX - will depart the International Space Station (ISS) Saturday night aboard the SpaceX Dragon capsule that carried them to the orbiting laboratory last November.

Splashdown is scheduled for six and a half hours later, around 3am ET in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Panama City, Florida.

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Expedition 64 Flight Engineers and SpaceX Crew-1 members Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Soichi Noguchi. SpaceX is targeting the predawn hours of Sunday, May 2, to bring back three NASA astronauts and one from Japan, after dangerously high wind scuttled a pair of earlier attempts

SpaceX brought back a station cargo capsule with a splashdown in darkness in January.

The event added to NASA's confidence for a nighttime homecoming, said Rob Navias, a spokesman at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

'SpaceX has done numerous dress rehearsals and spent a lot of time with nighttime recoveries,' he said.

Navias said the time slot provided the best weather conditions in the coming days.

SpaceX this weekend will attempt the first US splashdown of returning astronauts in darkness since the Apollo 8 moonshot in 1968

The capsule carrying Apollo 8's three astronauts - the first men to fly to the moon - splashed into the Pacific near Hawaii before dawn on Dec. 27, 1968. The crew only orbited the moon and took stunning pictures

The capsule carrying Apollo 8's three astronauts - the first men to fly to the moon - splashed into the Pacific near Hawaii before dawn on Dec. 27, 1968.

The Russians also had one crew splashdown in darkness, back in 1976.

The two-man capsule could not dock to the Soviet Union's Salyut 5 space station as intended and had to make a hasty return, ending up in a partially frozen lake in Kazakhstan - in the middle of a blizzard. It took hours for recovery teams to rescue the cosmonauts.

Even with the early hour, the Coast Guard promises to have more patrols to keep sightseers at a safe distance. On a Sunday afternoon last August, pleasure boaters swarmed the capsule that parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico with the first SpaceX crew.

The departure of NASA's Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker and Japan's Soichi Noguchi will leave seven aboard the space station. Their replacements - representing the U.S., Japan and France - arrived last weekend in their own SpaceX capsule for a six-month mission.

The three remaining crew members - one American and two Russians - launched in a Russian capsule from Kazakhstan three weeks ago.

The departure of NASA's Mike Hopkins (second right), Victor Glover(second left) and Shannon Walker (left) and Japan's Soichi Noguchi (right) will leave seven aboard the space station. Splashdown is set for around 3am ET in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Panama City, Florida

NASA initially set the return date to April 29, but poor weather in the splashdown zone forced officials to push undocking to Friday.

Crew-2 mission brought the latest batch of astronauts to the ISS Sunday, which overlapped Crew-1 that was set to head home to Earth a few days later.

However, NASA released an official statement Tuesday announcing a delay due to poor weather conductions in the splashdown zones off the coast of Florida, which currently predict wind speeds above the recovery criteria.

The returning astronauts, Crew-1, launched to the ISS on November 15, 2020, which was the first to follow the historic Demo-2 mission in May 2020.

It was only the second time that SpaceX, which is owned by Elon Musk, sent people into orbit in its Dragon capsule via its Falcon rocket.

The crew led by Hopkins, an Air Force colonel, includes physicist Walker and Navy Cmdr. and rookie astronaut Glover, who is the first black astronaut to spend an extended amount of time on the space station.

Noguchi also became only the third person to rocket into orbit aboard three different kinds of spacecraft.

The team of four named their capsule Resilience given all the challenges in 2020, most notably the global pandemic.
She had one of the more eye-catching looks at Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony thanks to a super-short bobbed hairdo.

But Halle Berry cleared up confusion among her fans on Friday when she revealed she had only been wearing a wig for the ceremony.

The 54-year-old Oscar winner showcased her stunning caramel-colored hair in a gorgeous sunlit selfie posted to her Instagram page.

It's back! Halle Berry, 54, revealed her oft-mocked bob at Sunday's Oscars ceremony was just a wig as she showed off her long caramel-colored locks on Instagram on Friday

Halle appeared to be out in nature with tall trees and leaves in the background as a lens flare from the sun partially obscured her face.

She wore a floppy hat and beamed while looking off into the distance.

Her blond-accented locks were styled in playfully messy waves resting gently on her shoulders.

She cleared up any confusion about her hair in her caption: 'Oscar bob...just kidding,' she wrote.

Hair reveal: She cleared up any confusion about her hair in her caption: 'Oscar bob...just kidding,' she wrote; pictured on Sunday

Gorgeous: Halle paired her choppy bob, which was longest in front where it framed her face, with a stunning sheer magenta gown with a voluminous skirt and a massive bow on her torso; seen on Sunday

Her fans seemed reassured in the comments.

'Of course! I didnt believe it for a second!' wrote one person.

'So glad that was a wig - your natural hair is gorgeous,' another person complimented her.

One user joked: 'Dont ever do that again.'

But others defended her right to try out new looks.

'Even if you weren't I can't understand why people tripped so hard. Don't they know they don't get a vote? Personally I loved it, edgy and super cute,' wrote one user.

Relief: 'So glad that was a wig - your natural hair is gorgeous,' read one of the comments; seen Sunday

Having a laugh: Lord Farquaad, the villain of the first Shrek movie, was a popular comparison thanks to his less-than-chic hair, though he wore more of a mullet than a bob

Halle paired her choppy bob, which was longest in front where it framed her face, with a stunning sheer magenta gown with a voluminous skirt and a massive bow on her torso.

But despite making a stylish entrance at the ceremony held in Los Angeles' Union Station, the look quickly led to some hilarious memes from viewers who just weren't feeling the new 'do.

Lord Farquaad, the villain of the first Shrek movie, was a popular comparison thanks to his less-than-chic hair, though he wore more of a mullet than a bob.

'Love halle berry but who told her this hair was a good,' complained one Twitter user.

'Someone wanna explain to me why Halle Berry's haridresser gave her a Lord Farquaad cut,' another user seethed.

Forgotten look: Josh Hartnett's choppy short hair from more than 20 years earlier was also compared to Halle's look

Classic: Others thought her hair looked like Moe's bowl cut from the Three Stooges

Close: Another user compared it to a severe bob that Fred Armisen wore on Saturday Night Live while dressed as a woman

Joking around: 'Oh Halle Berry. I thought it was impossible to make her look bad but that hair is....not great Bob,' added another person, making a joking Mad Men reference at the end

Josh Hartnett's choppy short hair from more than 20 years earlier was also compared to Halle's look.

Others thought her hair looked like Moe's bowl cut from the Three Stooges.

'Is Halle Berry's hair stylist a Three Stooges fan?' joked one person.

Another user compared it to a severe bob that Fred Armisen wore on Saturday Night Live while dressed as a woman.

'Oh Halle Berry. I thought it was impossible to make her look bad but that hair is....not great Bob,' added another person, making a joking Mad Men reference at the end.

Animation fans: Some fans compared Halle's hair to Edna Mode, the superhero costume designer from the Avengers

Whoops: One person imagined her asking her hairstylist: 'Have you ever seen Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka?'

Some fans compared Halle's hair to Edna Mode, the superhero costume designer from the Avengers.

Others thought she looked like Johnny Depp's deranged version of Willy Wonka.

One person imagined her asking her hairstylist: 'Have you ever seen Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka?'

Another popular comparison was Claire's awful asymmetrical bob from Fleabag.

'So sorry to Halle Berry but her hair cut is giving me Claire from Fleabag energy,' joked a Twitter user.

But now that she's back to her preferred long locks, Halle likely won't have to deal with the teasing anymore.
Toni Collette has landed her next role, playing a murder victim in an upcoming limited series for HBO Max.

The 48-year-old actress will star alongside Colin Firth in The Staircase for the streaming platform.

She will play the late Kathleen Peterson, who was famously murdered by her husband, Michael Peterson, in 2001.

Latest role: Toni Collette has landed her next role, playing a murder victim in an upcoming limited series for HBO Max. The 48-year-old actress will star alongside Colin Firth in The Staircase for the streaming platform

The eight-episode series has been in development for two years and is based on the 2004 docuseries of the same name, which was updated with new episodes in 2018, reports Variety.

The show initially premiered on Canal+ before it moved to Netflix, where it received widespread attention and garnered critical praise.

It is also inspired by various books and reports about the case of Michael, who will be played by Firth.

The now-77-year-old author claimed that his spouse had died after falling down the stairs at their home in North Carolina, although police suspected that he had killed her and covered up his evidence.

Latest project: Toni will play the late Kathleen Peterson, who was famously murdered by her husband, Michael Peterson, in 2001. The eight-episode series has been in development for two years and is based on the 2004 docuseries of the same name

Murder case: The now-77-year-old author claimed that his spouse had died after falling down the stairs at their home in North Carolina, although police suspected that he had killed her and covered up his evidence; he was eventually convicted of murder (here on trial in 2011)

He was eventually convicted of murder, although his sentence was later reduced to voluntary manslaughter.

The acclaimed Australian performer has been focused on streaming content recently, having appeared in the 2019 Netflix limited series Unbelievable and the 2021 outer space drama Stowaway, which launched on the platform earlier this month.

She will also appear in the upcoming drama Pieces of Her for the streamer.

The longtime theatrical star first made a splash on the small screen with her Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning work on the Showtime series United States of Tara.

Full schedule: The acclaimed Australian performer has been focused on streaming content recently, having appeared in the 2019 Netflix limited series Unbelievable and the 2021 outer space drama Stowaway, which launched on the platform earlier this month

Acclaim: The longtime theatrical star (seen here in 2019) first made a splash on the small screen with her Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning work on the Showtime series United States of Tara

Firth replaced Harrison Ford as the star of the show as the Indiana Jones star was initially supposed to fill the role of Michael, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Other performers who will be involved in The Staircase have not been announced as of yet.

The forthcoming series will be helmed by Antonio Campos, who will direct six episodes of the show, as well as writer Maggie Cohn.

HBO Max's head of original content, Sarah Aubrey, gave a statement where she expressed her confidence in the series' development team.

Previous star: Firth replaced Harrison Ford as the star of the show as the Indiana Jones star was initially supposed to fill the role of Michael, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Other performers who will be involved in The Staircase have not been announced as of yet

Adaptation: 'With the enormously talented Colin Firth at the center of this adaptation, the story of The Staircase will continue to captivate audiences with every bizarre twist and turn,' said HBO Max's head of original content Sarah Aubrey; Peterson is seen in 2011

'It is a thrill to collaborate with Antonio Campos, Maggie Cohn and Annapurna Television for the exploration of this true-life story thats rife with dramatic revelations,' she said.

She also lauded the selection of the 60-year-old actor to lead The Staircase and expressed that the show would retain the captivating qualities of the original docuseries.

'With the enormously talented Colin Firth at the center of this adaptation, the story of The Staircase will continue to captivate audiences with every bizarre twist and turn,' she added.

Campos commented that, although he had encountered difficulties in getting the forthcoming adaptation off the ground, he was happy to see his efforts come to fruition.

'This has been a project I have been working on in one way or another since 2008...It's been a long and winding road, but well worth the wait,' he said.

The Staircase currently has no set premiere date.
She recently showed off an extremely rare camouflage Birkin bag on Instagram.

And on Friday, Cardi B posted more sensational visuals to her account, this time in a revealing lime green ensemble that was part business suit, part sexy and sheer revealing outfit.

The Bodak Yellow performer, 28, stood in a stairwell wearing the incredible getup, which consisted of a high-waisted mini skirt that showed off her incredible curves.

Business and pleasure: On Friday, Cardi B posted more sensational visuals to her Instagram account, this time in a revealing lime green ensemble

On top, Cardi wore a matching jacket with long sleeves that ended in baby blue cuffs.

Underneath the jacket was one strip of green fabric covering her breasts, over an outrageously sexy sheer black top.

Her sleek and straight dark hair was highlighted with platinum blonde strips that framed her heavily made up face beautifully.

Sexy: The Bodak Yellow performer stood in a stairwell wearing the incredible getup, which consisted of a high-waisted mini skirt and outrageously sexy sheer black top

Cardi wore a trademark long manicure, in chocolate brown, and stood in strappy blue heeled sandals.

Her pedicure was a bright shade of white.

The outspoken rapper also populated her Instagram Cab stories on Friday with links to her new song with DJ Khaled, Big Paper on which she is featured.

It comes after she was seen the night prior with her husband Offset leaving Craig's in West Hollywood, California.

Couple: It comes after she was seen the night prior with her husband Offset leaving Craig's in West Hollywood

Cardi has been seen on Instagram holding various coveted Birkin bags, as seen on her account last week while modeling a gorgeous tan outfit by designer Babajagne.

In that spread, she carried a camouflage Birkin, one of the many high end bags the star has thanks to her long-standing relationship with fashionable reseller Prive Porter.

Last October, she also showed off her extremely rare Swarovski Birkin, in a video clip that also included the camouflage handbag and one other.
It's been almost a year since their royal wedding day, and Princess Beatrice and her new husband are clearly still in the honeymoon phase.

The Queen's granddaughter, 32, and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, 36, were spotted leaving Loulou's private members club in Mayfair on Friday night after a meal together.

Beatrice opted for a smart look in a head-to-toe black ensemble which she accessorised with dark blue suede boots.

Evening out: Princess Beatrice and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi were spotted leaving Loulou's private members club in Mayfair on Friday night after a meal together

Meanwhile Edo looked smart in a simple navy suit, white shirt and black coat as he stepped out with his wife.

The VIP visitor wore her hair in a half up half down do and typically kept her makeup to a minimum.

The pair looked smitten as they left the swanky eatery together arm in arm after enjoying an evening in luxury.

Style: Beatrice opted for a smart look in a head-to-toe black ensemble which she accessorised with dark blue suede boots

The night out comes after a difficult period for the couple, as the royal family came to the official end of the mourning period for Beatrice's grandfather Prince Philip.

Edo joined Beatrice for the funeral two weeks ago, marking his first royal ceremony since the couple tied the knot last summer.

Beatrice wore a long collared jacket, believed to be a custom Claire Mischevani coat, as she attended St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, accompanied by her husband for the funeral.

Date night: Meanwhile Edo looked smart in a simple navy suit, white shirt and black coat as he stepped out with his wife

Family: Edo joined Beatrice for the funeral of The Duke of Edinburgh two weeks ago, marking his first royal ceremony since the couple tied the knot last summer

She paired her sophisticated ensemble with a round hat embellished with a large black bow and a pair of understated stiletto heels as she joined her family to mourn the loss of the late Duke of Edinburgh.

Beatrice and her husband joined other royals outside St George's Chapel ahead of the funeral, including her younger sister Princess Eugenie, her husband Jack Brooksbank, Kate Middleton and Zara and Mike Tindall.

The couple then entered St George's Chapel and sat alongside Eugenie, 31, and her husband Jack, as well as Zara and Mike - both of which have recently welcomed baby boy's who they named after Prince Philip - for the emotional ceremony.

Days earlier, Princess Beatrice shared a lesson she learned from her grandfather at her final public appearance before his death - explaining how he encouraged her not to become 'obsessed with solutions' and to focus on the journey to get there instead.
gettyimagesbank



By Nam Hyun-woo



Regulations on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are surfacing as an issue for next year's presidential election here, as parties and presidential hopefuls are formulating policies to win support from the younger generation, who are flocking to the digital tokens with the belief that these are the only lucrative investment opportunity left for them.



According to party officials, the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) have both begun policy and regulation studies on cryptocurrencies.



During a meeting with reporters, Tuesday, DPK spokesman Rep. Han Jun-ho said the party will explore measures on the cryptocurrency issue within its policy planning committee.



Initially, the DPK was reported to be planning to set up an organization within the party to look into digital currency policies. However, it took a step back, in what appears to be a cautionary move to prevent policies or bills from being leaked at an immature stage.



Despite the party-level moves, DPK lawmakers are individually speaking out on proper regulations for "crypto-investments." During an April 26 online seminar, Rep. Kim Byung-wook said, "(the government) should come up with a proper review of systems to protect crypto investors and do better than warning of the risks."



The PPP is also making efforts to capitalize on the cryptocurrency issue as political leverage. The party has already set up a taskforce to study systems and policies to protect investors, with acting Chairman Rep. Joo Ho-young criticizing the DPK and the government for being "at a loss" over cryptocurrency issues.



The parties' moves came amid growing criticism of the government's plan to impose tax on income generated from crypto investments, while not acknowledging digital tokens as financial assets or protecting investors with laws.





Acting Prime Minister Hong Nam-ki, right, walks past Rep. Joo Ho-young, left, acting chairman of the main opposition People Power Party, after paying his condolences to the late Cardinal Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk at Myeongdong Cathedral in Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap



Acting Prime Minister Hong Nam-ki said in a press conference, Tuesday, that the government will stick to its initial plan of levying duties on "virtual assets" from Jan. 1 next year, despite opinions urging the government to postpone its implementation.



"It is difficult to equate virtual assets with stocks or bonds, which are stipulated as assets designed to help the public increase their wealth in a productive manner," Hong said. Though he did not acknowledge cryptocurrency as an asset that can be regulated under financial law, he stressed that income generated from crypto trading is subject to duty because of "the equity of taxation," adding trading works of art is also subject to taxation.



Along with Hong, Financial Services Commission (FSC) Chairman Eun Sung-soo also said in early April that the country's cryptocurrency trading firms that do not register with the Financial Intelligence Unit by September could be closed, triggering a backlash from cryptocurrency investors.



An online petition calling for Eun's resignation for "attempting to suppress the cryptocurrency market" was posted on the Cheong Wa Dae website, April 23, and had garnered more than 146,000 signatures as of Thursday afternoon. Cheong Wa Dae is required to give answers to petitions which secured more than 200,000 signatures within 30 days from posting.



'Last chance'



Despite cryptocurrencies' volatile price swings, the number of Koreans investing in them has been on a steady rise for several years, and it is showing a noticeable growth this year, with those in their 20s to 30s jumping on the bandwagon.



According to FSC data submitted to Rep. Kwon Eun-hee of the minor opposition People Party, the number of new subscribers to Korea's top four cryptocurrency exchanges which require real-name accounts was 2.5 million in the first quarter of the year. They accounted for 48.8 percent of the total number of subscribers at the exchanges during the period, doubling the number of total subscribers.



Of the new subscribers, 32.7 percent were in their 20s, followed by those in their 30s at 30.8 percent  indicating that digital tokens are now a go-to investment option for the younger generation.



"At first glance, this can be attributable to the recent uptrend in Bitcoin and other major tokens' prices," an official at a leading cryptocurrency exchange here said. "However, what underlies this movement is the young generation's sentiment that cryptocurrencies are the only remaining option for them to increase their wealth through investment, given the circumstance of Korea's real estate market."



For a long period of time, property was regarded as one of the most reliable methods for Koreans to increase their wealth. However, home prices and rents in metropolitan areas have continued to soar and it has become almost impossible for young people with an average income to purchase or lease homes through savings or mortgages. The Moon Jae-in government's policies of tightening banks' lending criteria has also made it more difficult for young people to purchase homes while failing to serve the original purpose of controlling the country's housing prices.



As real estate policies have failed, experts say the younger generation have shifted focus to the stock and cryptocurrency markets.



Former lawmaker and economist Yoo Seung-min wrote on Facebook: "The country's awful real estate policies have deprived the younger generation of the dream of owning their own home, and they have been forced to jump into the stock and Bitcoin markets because they see no way of buying a home even after getting the largest loan available to them."



Against this backdrop, those in their 20s or 30s cast their ballots for the main opposition PPP candidates during the April 7 by-elections to pick new mayors of Seoul and Busan. Both the PPP and DPK interpreted the outcome as the young generation's anger at the government's real estate policies.



With the government now also signaling hardline policies on cryptocurrencies, the ruling DPK is attempting to distance itself from the Moon administration in an apparent effort to prevent digital tokens from becoming another issue that could find the party losing the "youth vote" during next year's presidential election.





Gyeonggi Governor Lee Jae-myung, second from left, gestures during a visit to a fair on basic income at KINTEX in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, Wednesday. Courtesy of Gyeonggi photo press corps
He is known for his role as Superintendent Ted Hastings in the wildly popular BBC police drama Line Of Duty.

But Adrian Dunbar once took on a much calmer role, as it was revealed he is the voice behind a classic children's book that is often read as bedtime story.

The Northern Irish actor, 62, recorded the audio version of Sam McBratney's much-loved book, Guess How Much I Love You, in 2005.

The day job: Adrian Dunbar, best known for playing Ted Hastings in BBC police drama Line Of Duty, has been revealed as the voice behind the audio version of a classic children's book

The story follows Little and Big Nutbrown Hare, a father and son, as they attempt to express their love for each other and has sold more than 43 million copies worldwide.

Adrian also sings lullabies and presents interactive games on the lively hour-long recording, that was taped 16 years ago.

Speaking to The Mirror, one fan said: 'Most villains and corrupt cops would be kept awake at night with nightmares at the thought of a Ted Hasting interrogation  but my kids have listened to Adrian's singing to lull them to sleep for years.'

Bedtime story: The Northern Irish actor, 62, recorded the audio version of Sam McBratney's much-loved book, Guess How Much I Love You, in 2005

This comes as Line Of Duty fans eagerly await the highly anticipated series finale of Line Of Duty sixth series tomorrow night (BBC One, 9pm).

Fans of the show are convinced the series six trailer gives away who survives the shoot out between DI Fleming and PC Pilkington.

Last Sunday's instalment of the hit police drama  which drew in an eye-popping 10million viewers  saw Kate [Vicky McClure] locked in a tense showdown with Ryan [Gregory Piper], with two gunshots heard as the screen faded to black.

Yet keen fans have claimed they already know the outcome from watching the trailer, while Adrian Dunbar has revealed that there's already been 'a very big clue' about what happens in next week's episode.

Cliffhanger: This comes as Line Of Duty fans eagerly await the highly anticipated series finale of Line Of Duty sixth series tomorrow night (BBC One, 9pm)

Putting their amateur detective skills to the test, several Line of Duty fans took to Twitter after Sunday's show to suggest that the series six trailer had the answers.

They were quick to point out one blink-and-you-miss-it scene which sees Kate standing next to Acting Detective Superintendent Jo Davidson [Kelly Macdonald] - which has yet to air on the show.

Fans thus deduced the scene must happen in the aftermath of the shooting - indicating Kate survives. Although nothing is known of Ryan's fate.

One person declared: 'Screen grab from #Lineofduty session 6 @BBC trailer. #katefleming looks p***ed, #jodavidson has her hands in the air. THIS SCENE HASN'T OCCURRED YET. #katefleming lives for at least 1 more episode.'

And another wrote: 'Nah she's no dead! Major spoiler if you Look back at the original season 6 trailer - both Jo and Kate get stopped by armed police, exact same clothes they were wearing just now. I reckon Ryan either missed or the second shot was Jo.'

Adrian appeared to back up the theories as he appeared as the first guest back in the Good Morning Britain studio on Monday, pointing fans away from the misspelt 'definately' but insisting many 'already know' her fate.

In typical AC-12 style on Sunday's show, a twist emerged in the form of a throwback clue to the 2019 series showing the word definitely misspelt as 'definately' in Jo's messages - a clue that previously suggested Hastings could be one of the bent coppers he is so hellbent on finding.

Have they cracked it? Line Of Duty fans are convinced the series six trailer gives away who survives the shoot out between DI Fleming and PC Pilkington

Interesting: Adrian revealed that there's already been 'a very big clue' about what happens to Kate in Line of Duty while appearing on GMB on Monday

Drama: On Sunday's instalment of the hit police drama, Kate [Vicky McClure] was seen locked in a tense showdown with Ryan Pilkington [Gregory Piper]

Reflecting on Sunday's dramatic show, Adrian said: 'Great cliffhanger again, Jed loves his cliffhangers. And a lot of LOD fans know [what's coming next for Kate].'

Presenter Adil Ray then jumped in asking: 'They've worked it out you mean?'

Adrian continued, knowingly nodding his head: 'A lot of Line of Duty fans know what's going on. All will be revealed in the fullness of time.'

Susanna then despaired as she said: 'I feel like you're giving us a really heavy piece of information that I can't for the life of me work out.'

Adrian then dropped the bombshell: 'Yes, there's been a very big clue. I'm giving you a scoop. As the first guest back on the show, I am giving you a massive scoop. There's a clue out there as to what happens next.'

Hints: While appearing as the first guest back in the Good Morning Britain studio, the Ted Hastings actor, 62, pointed fans away from the misspelt 'definately' as they searched for clues

Trying to keep up! Speaking for many across the nation, Susanna told Adrian: 'I feel like you're giving us a really heavy piece of information that I can't for the life of me work out'

Susanna then probed about another huge moment in Sunday's show which saw the misspelt word 'definately' pop back up in messages Jo Davidson was receiving.

She said: 'When Jo Davidson was exchanging texts, they sent back a message that including a spelling mistake. Definitely is not spelled with an A.'

And Adrian told her: 'Correcto. You're getting there. You're still not there where this present clue is concerned.'

Elsewhere in his GMB interview, the actor continued: 'Line of Duty does seem to be a bit old school. People are happy to watch it, talk about it, wait for the next episode.

'Jed structures it so it's like that, so we have the cliffhangers. You're going to come across somebody whose talking about it during the week.

Detective work: Several fans made the connection between the trailer and the fact we have yet to see the scene where Kate and Jo are seen walking around a car

'The BBC people send me notes and they say, 'you can't talk about this, this and this'. Now and again, leaks do happen. It's a show that depends on collusion with the public.'

Adrian also chatted about how the cast are kept in the dark about the show's ending when they start filming, with Jed giving pointers on how they should act.

He explained: 'Once you see the episodes lining up, you think, we've covered that well, the audience knows that know.

'Regarding the ending, Jed always gives himself a bit of leeway. The ending is never set in stone and we don't get that episode until late in the day.

'We don't know for the first three eps. Sometimes he may turn around and decide to say to one of us, can you just do a look over here or a look over there.'

Adrian also remained coy about whether he'd be in another series, telling Adil he has 'no idea', but admitting that 'if the numbers are good and the BBC are happy I'm sure there will be [another season]'.

Turning back to Kate, Adrian stayed tight-lipped about her role in next week's episode and beyond when asked if she'll be in another series.

He said: 'It's hard to tell. I wish I could tell you.'

Adrian added: 'We have a character whose old school like Ted who puts it out there, we should be adhering to those old fashioned values like loyalty and integrity.'

Line Of Stress! Line Of Duty fans were sent wild on Sunday evening as the latest episode ended on a nail-biting cliffhanger as Kate and Ryan were locked in a showdown
Virgin River star Daniel Gillies debuted the new love in his life, Julia Misaki, in February, seven months after he filed for divorce from Rachael Leigh Cook.

Now, some six weeks after their divorce was finalized, Gillies is giving his 3.8 million Instagram fans and followers a glimpse into a day in the life of the new couple frolicking on the beach.

Misaki also couldn't resist sharing some images of their relaxing afternoon together on Instagram, which included a short video of her planting a kiss on her new man's cheek.

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Fun in the sun: Virgin River star Daniel Gillies and new lady Julia Misaki gave their Instagram fans and followers a glimpse at their day on the beach on Friday

In all, Gillies, 45, posted five photos of the pair showing off their toned bodies by striking a number of poses on the beach as the waves came crashing into the shore.

It turns out they color coordinated in the fashion department, with Gillies wearing turquoise swim trunks and his ladylove in a matching turquoise bikini.

'ok, but here's the difference: we *know* we're being a**holes,' the actor joked in the caption.

On the same fashion page: Gillies, 45, and Misaki, 40, color coordinated by wearing matching turquoise swimwear

Cozy: Misaki, a professional cellist and model, rested her head on her man in another photo

Beaming: When Misaki wasn't smiling during their beach time, she was laughing

The couple

The couple are wearing sunglasses while looking off into the distance in one photo.

There's another where Misaki rests her forehead on Gillies and a solo shot of her bursting out in laughter, all while giving a hint of her cleavage in her skimpy two-piece.

Misaki, a professional cellist and model, had the look of love in a black-and-white selfie snap showing swimmers in the background enjoying the ocean water on a lovely Friday afternoon.

The look of love: Misaki called her new beau, 'My person,' when she shared images from their beach day on Instagram

Scenic: The pair relaxed in their lounge chairs, maybe 100-feet from the shoreline

Toned and fit: Misaki showed off her fab figure in her skimpy bikini top

Special touch: She also shared a message left on a steamy mirror

Misaki also shared a series of photos from their time on the beach on Instagram with the simple but sweet caption: 'My person. @mr.danielgillies.'

In a short video, the pair could be seen relaxing on lounge chairs on the sand with the sound of gusty winds in the background.

Once Gillies realized his lady was filming a selfie, she turned to her right and gave him a cute kiss on his cheek.

Gillies and Misaki went Instagram official with the relationship this past February when he posted a selfie of them together.

Misaki gave her man a sweet kiss on the cheek in a short video

New love: The couple went Instagram official with their relationship in February

Leigh Cook, 41, has also moved on in the romance department since the former couple announced their separation in June 2019.

Last August, the She's All That actress opened up about the new man in her life, 14 months after going public with her split from Gillies.

'He's really great. I did good, if I do say so. Definitely hitting out of my league there,' the Minnesota native told Us Weekly of her new beau Kevin at the time.

'I met someone really nice, and I adore him. He's fantastic.'

Leigh Cook and Gillies share two children together: daughter Charlotte, seven, and son Theodore, six.
Yazmin Oukhellou set temperatures soaring earlier this week when she shared a sizzling snap of herself in a thong bikini set.

Taking to Instagram on Wednesday, the former TOWIE star, 26, flaunted her toned physique as she promoted one of her favourite brands.

With her long brunette hair cascading in curls down her back, Yazmin smouldered for the camera in the black two-piece, which featured glitzy metallic detailing.

Wow: Yazmin Oukhellou, 26, set temperatures soaring earlier this week when she shared a sizzling snap of herself in a thong bikini set

The TV personality wore a full face of glam for the shoot, and accessorised with a luxury gold watch on her left wrist.

She captioned her snap: 'Comeback season.'

Sharing a second snap to her Instagram Stories, Yazmin zoomed in on her muscled midriff.

Yazmin recently embarked on a new career in Dubai, following the breakdown of her relationship with ex James Lock in February.

Stunning: With her long brunette hair cascading in curls down her back, Yazmin smouldered for the camera in the black two-piece, that featured glitzy metallic detailing

She has turned her back on the new series of The Only Way Is Essex because she 'wants to pursue a career in real estate in the United Arab Emirates'.

A spokesperson for TOWIE told The Sun: 'Yaz has decided to stay in Dubai to pursue a career in real estate so she won't 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.'

Yazmin has since posted a number of Instagram posts of her new job, working for real estate brokers Property Hawk, in the office and out on viewings with clients.

Dubai is on the UK's red list of countries, meaning if Yazmin 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 after the start of her trip to Dubai was marred by the breakdown of her relationship with co-star James.

Moving on: The former TOWIE star decided to relocate to the United Arab Emirates city following the breakdown of her relationship with James Lock

The TOWIE couple mutually agreed to cut ties after their relationship turned toxic.

James flew home while Yazmin stayed in the UAE.

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.
Line Of Duty's explosive series six finale is set to kick off on Sunday night, with avid fans (and AC-12 themselves) desperate to discover the identity of 'H'.

And ahead of the show, former Line Of Duty star Craig Parkinson, who played OCG 'Caddy' Matthew 'Dot' Cottan, predicted that the final episode of the series will 'break hearts'.

Meanwhile Craig, 45, praised the show makers for delivering a great production after Covid-19 forced them to halt filming last year, and hailed the show as one of the most 'iconic' dramas in years.

Exciting stuff: Former Line Of Duty star Craig Parkinson, who played OCG 'Caddy' Matthew 'Dot' Cottan, predicted that the final episode of the series will 'break hearts' (pictured in character)

Speaking on the Sky podcast Backstage, the actor told how the latest installment of the Jed Mercurio written series has come at a great time it gave viewers something to gossip about as lockdown restrictions lifted.

He also predicted that there may be a heartbreaking end for fans as the final scenes of the series play out over the weekend.

He said: 'I'm so proud of the guys for going back after the break, getting it done without any illness and delivering one of the iconic great British dramas that we've produced in the past few years.

'Talk about timing, we all need AC-12 in our life right now, albeit I'm sure they're going to break some hearts at some point.'

Well done: Meanwhile Craig, 45, praised the show makers for delivering a great production after Covid-19 forced them to halt filming last year, and hailed the show as one of the most 'iconic' dramas in years

Meanwhile, Craig who hosts his own Line Of Duty podcast, says hosting the show has led him to get invested 'so deep' into the series as he 'forensically dissects' each episode.

He said: 'I'm watching things in advance of the rest of the nation, I'm having to watch things two or three times, I'm forensically dissecting these episodes, my social media timeline is awash with the maddest of theories you could possibly imagine.'

As each episode plays out on screen, social media is soon awash with fans theories as they attempt to dissect every morsel of detail left by writer Jed.

Speaking of the fandom which has grown and grown since the first series in 2021, Craig explained: 'It's built slowly and steadily over the years, and they are obsessive.

Chat: Speaking on the Sky podcast Backstage , the actor told how the latest installment of the Jed Mercurio written series has come at a great time it gave viewers something to gossip about as lockdown restrictions lifted

'I have friends that have been in Doctor Who and they talk about the Doctor Who fans - I mean, the Line Of Duty fans are up there with their devotion and their love for these characters that Jed's created.

'It's kind of amazing if I'm honest, I'm certainly not slagging them off, you know. We wouldn't be anywhere without them - and I'm one of them.'

The final of Line Of Duty looks to be an action-packed finale episode complete with a police standoff, the return of balaclava men and the discovery of a written note with THAT 'definately' misspelling.

A new trailer sees Superintendent Ted Hastings (Adrian Dunbar), who is facing imminent retirement, state: 'All of these suspicious deaths were orchestrated by one officer in particular, H. The fourth man.'

Praise: 'I'm so proud of the guys for going back after the break, getting it done without any illness and delivering one of the iconic great British dramas that we've produced in the past few years'

Popular: Speaking of the fandom which has grown and grown since the first series in 2021, Craig explained: 'It's built slowly and steadily over the years, and they are obsessive (pictured in character with Vicky McClure as Kate Fleming)

Hastings' powerful words went alongside flashbacks of the deaths of solicitor Jimmy Lakewell, police officer Lisa Patel, journalist Gail Vella and former Detective Inspector Marcus Thurwell- whom fans believe is still alive.

The trailer then shows acting Superintendent Jo Davidson (Kelly MacDonald) leaving the high-security prison in handcuffs, only to end up alone in a van with a corrupt prison officer who previously injured Lindsay Denton in series three.

Jo says: 'What's going on?', before the camera flashes a sinister look from the prison officer.

A handwritten note is also teased in the trailer, with the word definite misspelt to mirror what viewers have seen previously.

Trailer: In a teaser released on Monday, viewers can be certain of an action-packed finale episode with a police standoff, the return of balaclava men and that 'definately' misspelling

AC-12: The trailer starts off with Superintendent Ted Hastings (Adrian Dunbar), state: 'All of these suspicious deaths were orchestrated by one officer in particular, H. The fourth man'

A huge clue of the identity of H began to emerge in series five, when the OCG communicated with 'H' through a computer.

Eagle-eyed fans were quick to notice H spelling definitely as 'definately', and this misspelling has been repeated in subsequent episodes.

Will this handwritten report be the breakthrough AC-12 need to close in on 'the fourth man'?

It certainly seems Hastings and his team are on to something as police cars sped down the road, with armed officers closing in on a residential area during the trailer.

Fall from grace: The trailer then shows acting Superintendent Jo Davidson (Kelly MacDonald) leaving the high-security prison in handcuffs

Clue: A handwritten note is also teased in the trailer, with the word definite misspelt to mirror what viewers have seen previously- will this be the clue AC-12 needs?

Crime: The police board shows AC-12's work so far; with DI Dot Cottan, Chief Superintendent Derek Hilton, Gill Biggeloe and OCG members including Lisa McQueen and Tommy Hunter

The Superintendent briefs DI Kate Fleming, DI Steve Arnott and DC Chloe Bishop as they arrive at the scene.

Hastings says: 'AFO's will secure the suspect down', while the words 'Every investigation has led to this... H'.

And it only gets more dramatic as balaclava men jump out of vehicles armed with guns themselves. Kate opens the police van, brandishes her gun and shouts: 'armed police' before the screen fades to black.

The Line Of Duty series six finale airs on BBC One on Sunday at 9pm.

Shootout: And it only gets more dramatic as balaclava men jump out of vehicles armed with guns themselves

Coming back: Line Of Duty will be back on Sunday night and fans are eager to find out whether AC-12 will finally crack the case on the elusive H
She was seen on Sunday night presenting at the 93rd annual Academy Awards.

And on Friday, Reese Witherspoon cut a summery figure when she was spotted out with her family at the Country Mart in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles, California.

The Election actress, 45, sported a classic denim jacket over a lovely white summer dress as she was accompanied by her husband Jim Toth and their son Tennessee James.

On Friday: Reese Witherspoon cut a summery figure when she was spotted out with her family including son Tennessee James in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles

Witherspoon cinched her light button down dress with a tan leather belt at the waist.

She matched it with strappy sandals.

The Oscar winner wore a straw fedora sunhat as well as large sunglasses to shield herself from the California sunshine.

Easy breezy: The Election actress, 45, sported a classic denim jacket over a lovely white summer dress

Casual family outing: She was accompanied by her husband Jim Toth and their son, near San Vicente Boulevard in LA

She also donned a yellow and white gingham face covering in light of the continuing coronavirus pandemic.

The actress's blonde hair was down, resting on her shoulder underneath her hat.

Reeses husband Jim, 51, wore camouflage cargo pants and a white T-shirt.

Their son, eight, was wearing a blue T-shirt and gray pants.

The Big Little Lies star, who won an Oscar for her portrayal of June Carter in 2005s Walk The Line, presented the Best Animated Feature Film Oscar at the Academy Awards on Sunday night.

Oscars darling: The Big Little Lies star, who won an Oscar for 2005s Walk The Line, presented the Best Animated Feature Film Oscar at the Academy Awards on Sunday night

She arrived at the glitzy event with her BLL costar, Laura Dern.

And this week, Reese graced the cover of Time Magazine, as part of their 100 Most Influential Companies issue.

Her cover was one of five different images released throughout the world and focused on her growing 'media empire.'

Following a career slump in the mid-2000s, which saw the actress appearing in several critical and commercial disappointments, she co-founded the production company Pacific Standard in 2012, which was a merger between her earlier production company and Australian film producer Bruna Papandrea's production company.

What a great date: Reese arrived at the glitzy event with her BLL costar, Laura Dern; seen here on her Instagram earlier on Sunday

After Papandrea parted ways with her, Pacific Standard became a subsidiary of her media company Hello Sunshine in 2016.

Even as her acting career was at its nadir, Reese has produce acclaimed and successful projects, including the Ben Affleckstarring thriller Gone Girl (2014) and the drama Wild from the same year, which earned her another Oscar nomination.

Some of her most successful productions have been in television, including the hit HBO series Big Little Lies, which she also starred in.

Since 2019, she has starred in and executive produced The Morning Show for Apple TV+, and she starred in and executive produced the Hulu miniseries Little Fires Everywhere in 2020.
Channing Tatum has asked a judge to set a trial date to settle the financial terms of his divorce from his ex-wife Jenna Dewan.

The 41-year-old star finalized his divorce from the actress, 40, in November of 2019, but the former couple are still yet to come to an agreement over some of their financial details, including the terms of any child support payments for their seven-year-old daughter Everly and 'how to split the assets from the Magic Mike' franchise.

And according to E! News, Channing's legal team says the trial should require around five days to complete.

About time: Channing Tatum, 41, has asked a judge to set a date for a five-day trial to finalize a financial settlement with his ex-wife Jenna Dewan, 40, even though the divorce was finalized in 2019

The publication reports the actor has made the request over 'issues' pertaining to 'dissolution, child support, spousal support, attorney fees, division of some property, and reimbursements and credits.'

On Saturday, sources told TMZ that 'one of the lingering issues' involves the Magic Mike franchise that they 'built together during their marriage.'

They have reportedly been in 'intense mediation over percentages, but couldn't strike a deal' on how to divide the franchise's earnings.

After the massive success of Tatum's film, Magic Mike and Magic Mike XXL, Dewan claims she found the choreographer for the Magic Mike live shows in Las Vegas and relocated to London with him and their daughter when the show moved overseas.

Moving on: Since their split, Jenna became engaged to Broadway star Steve Kazee  with whom she now has 13-month-old son Callum; seen in 2019 in LA

Since their split, both Channing and Jenna have gone on to start romances with other people, with Jenna getting engaged to Steve Kazee  with whom she now has 13-month-old son Callum  and Channing enjoying a relationship with Jessie J, whom he eventually split with late last year.

Channing and Jenna both share joint legal and physical custody of Everly.

The couple were declared legally single by a judge in February of last year.

Meanwhile, Channing recently said he was worried he wouldnt be able to 'connect' with his daughter when he first became a single father in an interview with Parents magazine earlier this year.

On their own: The couple were declared legally single by a judge in February of last year; seen together in 2017 in Hollywood

'When I became a single father, I had a lot of fear about connecting to Everly in every way that a little girl might want. I didn't wear nail polish or know how to braid hair,' he explained.

However, the Hail, Caesar! star soon learned how to be there for his daughter, and now loves taking part in girly activities that make Everly happy.

'But now I do both. I jumped with both feet into this magical world, and I was rewarded with a kind of love that I don't think I would have ever been able to have otherwise.'

The acclaimed actor said that his daughter was the inspiration for his first children's picture book, The One And Only Sparkella, which features illustrations by Kim Barnes.

Culture shock: Channing has said he worried about becoming a single father and connecting with his daughter Everly because he 'didn't wear nail polish or know how to braid hair'

He announced the book, which is dedicated to Everly, with a funny photo of himself wearing pink fairy wings.

'Guys, I don't know about you but things got a little weird for me in quarantine,' he wrote in the caption. 'I ended up accidentally locking myself in my 7 year old daughter's room. And I ended up finding my inner child.

'So this is what I created for my little girl,' he continued. 'From what is, I guess, the little girl in me. Thanks for reading.'
She recently received dozens of bunches of white roses from an admirer.

And Demi Rose was showcasing her infamous curves in a plunging grey bikini for a sizzling new snap uploaded to her Instagram on Friday.

The influencer, 26, put on a very busty display in the skimpy two-piece from PrettyLittleThing as she posed up a storm.

Wow! Demi Rose was showcased her infamous curves in a plunging grey bikini for a sizzling new snap uploaded to her Instagram on Friday

The star looked incredible in the bikini top which she teamed with a green sarong that was tied around her tiny waist.

She wore her brunette locks slicked back off her pretty features, which appeared to have been enhanced with soft touches of make-up.

Demi kept her accessories minimal but did opt for a leaf design necklace and dark green nail polish.

Ample assets: The influencer, 26, put on a very busty display in the skimpy two-piece from PrettyLittleThing as she posed up a storm

Earlier this week Demi appeared to have caught the eye of someone special, as she shared a post which saw her posing in front of dozens of white roses.

The beauty displayed her figure in a barely-there nude bikini by PrettyLittleThing, as she showcased her ten incredible bouquets of flowers.

Demi was wearing a skimpy white bikini top, which she teamed with a matching sarong in the snaps which she captioned: 'Vibe so high the universe matched it.'

Incredible: Earlier this week Demi appeared to have caught the eye of someone special, as she shared a post which saw her posing in front of dozens of white roses

On her Instagram Stories, Demi revealed she had been sent the floral delivery as she filmed the bouquets arriving at her house.

She shared the handwritten note which had come with the delivery, which read: 'To Demi, the Goddess, from...', however the sender's name was blanked out.

Demi also wrote: 'Thank you. This is paradise', as she further shared her appreciation.

The new snaps come after the brunette beauty recently opened up to MailOnline about how she shot to stardom at the age of 14 after being bullied in school.

Smell the roses: The star displayed her figure in a barely-there white bikini, as she showcased her ten incredible bouquets of flowers

Demi recalled: 'I was bullied in school, I wanted to make friends outside of it so I ended up spending a lot of time online.

'I was even interested in virtual reality as a kid, I was always on the computer and then MySpace came around and I found my calling.'

She experienced her first taste of fame when pictures of her on the beach as a young teenager went viral on Instagram.

Birmingham native Demi shared: 'I only ever got Instagram because someone made a fake profile of me on there with 3,000 followers and I was really envious.

Special delivery: On her Instagram Stories, Demi revealed she had been sent the floral delivery as she filmed the bouquets arriving at her house

'I was like, "wow, how can someone using my pictures get that much?" And then I started an account and it went from there.'

From the age of 18, the bombshell  who currently boasts 16 million followers  signed with a modelling agency and her career went from strength to strength.

Demi has been sharing a slew of snaps from her sunny travels in recent months  including trips to the Maldives and Tanzania.

She is currently residing in Ibiza.
A contestant from The Bachelorette New Zealand has died at age 31.

Tavita Karika was found overnight by his best friend and Bachelorette co-star Marc Johnson.

'I can confirm that Tavita did pass last night around midnight,' he confirmed to Stuff on Friday.

Tragedy: Bachelorette New Zealand star Tavita Karika died on Thursday aged 31

'I got there about 10 minutes into the ambulance crew being at the scene, and about 10 to 15 minutes after that they informed us that they cannot help him,' he continued.

'I was with him in his final moments. There was a lot of family and friends.'

While no other specifics about his death have been released, it's been confirmed by the NZ Herald that Tavita died around midnight on Thursday in Wellington.

'I was with him in his final moments': Tavita was found overnight by his best friend and Bachelorette co-star Marc Johnson (pictured together)

Tavita was born in Christchurch but later moved to Wellington after finding fame on reality TV.

Friends have since started a GoFundMe to raise money to transport his body back to Christchurch and to help with funeral costs.

'With heavy hearts we announce the passing of our friend Tavita Antoni Karika,' they wrote in the GoFundMe.

Flashback: The late reality star first shot to fame on the Kiwi dating show Heartbreak Island in 2018 (pictured)

Fame: Tavita was a standout contestant on last year's season of The Bachelorette NZ

'On the 29th of April 2021 Tavita took his last breath and with that our hearts. If you had the pleasure of knowing Tavita you will know just how difficult this is for his family, friends and all who loved him.

'We are wanting to raise as much as we can to help Tavita's family with funeral costs and getting our boy home.'

In addition to appearing on The Bachelorette last year, Tavita was also a contestant on the 2018 season of the Kiwi dating show Heartbreak Island.

Outside of television, he worked as a model and personal trainer and had just completed a barber's apprenticeship before his death.
The upcoming crime thriller Midnight In The Switchgrass released its first film stills featuring stars Megan Fox and Bruce Willis on Friday.

The 34-year-old Transformers actress and the 66-year-old action star appear as FBI agents who run across a serial killer's trail in the creepy crime film.

The upcoming film notably also stars Megan's real-life boyfriend Machine Gun Kelly, whom she met for the first time on the film's set back in March of 2020.

First look: Megan Fox, 34, and Bruce Willis, 66, appeared in the first stills released Friday from the upcoming crime thriller Midnight In The Switchgrass

Megan and Bruce look serious in the new stills, which show them in plainclothes.

She wears a gray and black varsity-style jacket with a black top and matching jeans, while the Die Hard star fit the bill of a screen detective with a charcoal suit.

Megan, who plays Bruce's partner in the film, sits down with him for some coffee in a more low-key image from the production.

Karl Helter (Willis) and Rebecca Lombardi (Fox) are in the midst of an investigation to break up a sex-trafficking ring in Texas when they find their investigation intersecting with the path of a notorious Texas serial killer, known in real life as the Truck Stop Killer.

Chilling: They star as FBI agents who run across a serial killer's trail while trying to break up a sex-trafficking ring in the creepy crime film

Helping hand: They team up with Texas Ranger Byron Crawford, played by Once Upon A Time In Hollywood's Emile Hirsch, who has been on the killer's tail for years

In order to track down the serial murderer, they team up with Texas Ranger Byron Crawford, played by Once Upon A Time In Hollywood's Emile Hirsch, who has been on the killer's tail for years.

But Willis and Hirsch's characters are forced to kick their investigation into high gear after Fox's agent is kidnapped by the killer, leaving them with little time to find her alive.

Although the killer in the film is inspired by the Truck Stop Killer Robert Ben Rhoades, the film has little connection to the real case, and Rhoades never abducted an FBI agent.

Rhoades is currently serving a life sentence without parole after being convicted of murdering three women, though he may have slain more than fifty women during his active years.

Lukas Haas is also featured in the film, as is Orange Is The New Black's Jackie Cruz.

New love: Not featured in the first batch of film stills was Megan's boyfriend, rapper and rocker Machine Gun Kelly, 31, whose credited in the film by his given name, Colson Baker

Cute: Emile shared a photo of some of the principle cast, minus Bruce, to his Instagram in June 2020 to mark the return to production. MGK was seen wrapping his arms around Megan

Not featured in the first batch of film stills was Megan's boyfriend, rapper and rocker Machine Gun Kelly, 31, whose credited in the film by his given name, Colson Baker.

The couple met in March 2020, when filming on Midnight In The Switchgrass began in Puerto Rico, but production was halted just a week after starting due to the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

Emile shared a photo of some of the principle cast, minus Bruce, to his Instagram in June 2020 to mark the return to production four months after it went on hold.

'Four months later, the gang is quarantined together to resume shooting of Midnight In The Switchgrass in the amazing Puerto Rico,' he wrote.

Pictured next to MGK, who had his arms wrapped around Megan, was the film's director Randall Emmett and his fiancee, Vanderpump Rules star Lala Kent.

'I am so fortunate to make my directorial debut with Midnight In The Swithgrass, and to work with such an extraordinary cast and crew,' Emmett said in a statement to People. 'You cannot go wrong when you pair actors such as Megan Fox, Emile Hirsh and Bruce Willis with an exceptional story of crime, deceit and suspense. We can't wait to share it with the world.'

Midnight In The Switchgrass will go into wide release in July.

Lovebirds: Megan has seemingly been inseparable from the rapper since the start of their relationship, which began shortly after they met on set in March 2020

Lovestruck: Earlier this week, she shared a short clip of herself jumping into MGK's arms while at UFC 261, the first indoor sporting event to allow full attendance since the start of the pandemic

Megan has seemingly been inseparable from the rapper since the start of their relationship.

Earlier this week, she shared a short clip of herself jumping into MGK's arms while at UFC 261, the first indoor sporting event to allow full attendance since the start of the pandemic.

Megan was previously married to Beverly Hills, 90210 star Brian Austin Green from 2010 until their separation last year.

The couple share three sons, Noah, eight, Bodhi, seven, and Journey, four.
The Wire actor Chris Clanton was shot in the ear in Baltimore in an incident that is still being investigated.

Chris, 35, was hospitalized as a result of his injuries but has now been discharged, TMZ reported this Friday.

A Baltimore Police Department spokesperson revealed that the incident occurred at approximately 7pm this Thursday.

Frightening time: The Wire actor Chris Clanton was shot in the ear in Baltimore in an incident that remains under investigation

The city's Metro Crime Stoppers tip line and detectives from the Northeast District Shooting are open to hearing from those with intel about the crime.

Chris had a recurring role on HBO crime drama The Wire which ran from 2002 until 2008 and was set in Baltimore.

He portrayed Savino Bratton - an enforcer for a drug trafficking gang - on nine episodes during the first and fifth seasons.

HIs acting jobs since then include the crime drama King Of Baltimore and an uncredited role in the horror comedy The Human Centipede III (Final Sequence).

Recovery process: Chris, 35, was hospitalized as a result of his injuries but has now been discharged, TMZ reported this Friday

In 2008 Chris was stabbed in the buttocks and chest at a party in Maryland and had to be hospitalized at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.

Then in late 2019 he was arrested for allegedly violating a protective order, only to escape police custody after being taken to a hospital for a preexisting condition.

Chris claimed in a Facebook post that he fled the hospital after he caught sight of a policeman snorting cocaine.

Iconic show: Chris had a recurring role on HBO crime drama The Wire which ran from 2002 until 2008 and was set in Baltimore

'When I said something about it he pulled a small handgun from his bag and said "I would hate to say you had this and fill you with my Mag. I walked to the door looking for another officer. He was the only one. During one of his episodes. I was alone and basically walked out of the front door,' he alleged.

'I WILL NOT BECOME JUST ANOTHER NUMBER ON POLICE DART BOARDS....DO YOU REALLY THINK I WILL RUN BECAUSE OF A VIOLATION TO A PROTECTIVE ORDER?'

He thundered: 'BALTIMORE CITY REFUSES TO GIVE A STABLE MAN HIS SON AND WOULD RATHER HIM LOOK UP THE STATE!!!!!'

Mugshot: In late 2019 he was arrested for allegedly violating a protective order, only to escape police custody after being taken to a hospital for a preexisting condition

Chris declared in the same Facebook post: 'I AM TURNING MYSELF IN,' and the police arrested him a second time at his Baltimore home.

His lawyer claimed that Chris 'sought police assistance' to 'retrieve his son' from his maternal grandparents and alleged the 'sons mother was arrested two weeks ago on September 4, 2019, for committing felony domestic violence crimes against Clanton and is being held in Baltimore City (BaCi) custody on "no bail" status.'

Chris' attorney also claimed that while he was in the hospital he was never 'advised that he was under arrest or had any pending charges or warrants against him.'




President Moon Jae-in said Saturday his government will step up efforts to create more employment opportunities, which were severely dented by the COVID-19 pandemic, in his message to mark Labor Day.







Moon also reaffirmed the government's unwavering commitment to building a society that abides by labor standards and guarantees workers' rights.







"The government is doing its best to bolster job recovery and strengthen the employment safety net on the belief that maintaining jobs is the first step toward recovery. But there are still many people coping with difficulties," Moon wrote on Facebook.







"The government will diligently continue to promulgate policies to create more jobs and prevent workers from suffering from a delay in receiving pay, and bullying at work," he said.







South Korea reported the first job additions in March after witnessing losses for the 12th straight month in February amid the fallout of the pandemic.







Last year, the number of employed people reached 26.9 million, 218,000 fewer than the previous year, and the largest year-on-year job losses since the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.







"The pandemic cannot be a reason for the country to delay labor reforms. Reducing working hours is a process of sharing jobs and raising the quality of life," Moon said. (Yonhap)


Lori Harvey stunned in an all-black ensemble when she was spotted heading out to lunch in West Hollywood on Friday.

The 24-year-old daughter of Steve Harvey was on her own after having an untraditional date at a shooting range in Orange County on Wednesday with her beau Michael B. Jordan, 34.

Lori was meeting up with some friends for an al fresco lunch at Crossroads Kitchen, though her hunky boyfriend didn't join them.

Stepping out: Lori Harvey, 24, was spotted in West Hollywood on Friday as she got lunch at Crossroads Kitchen with some pals, just days after she went to a shooting range with her beau Michael B. Jordan

Lori stood out thanks to her high-waisted black pinstripe slacks, which accentuated her hourglass figure.

She kept her look simple with a figure-hugging black T-shirt that was tucked into her pants.

The 5ft3in beauty had her raven tresses styled into cornrow braids, and she covered her elegantly made-up face with a black mask to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.

She accessorized with a watch with a snaking strap that wrapped around her wrist and a black handbag with a Cuban link chain.

Back in black: The daughter of Steve Harvey wore pinstripe high-waited slacks with a form-fitting black top and a black handbag

On Wednesday, Lori joined Michael for some target practice at a shooting range south of Los Angeles in Orange County's Stanton.

According to TMZ, the couple were at Field Time Target & Training for a few hours.

The gun range shared videos of both Michael and Lori firing handguns at targets to its Instagram Stories, along with some photos of the beaming actor with the employees.

According to staff, he had visited the same location months earlier to prepare for filming his action thriller Without Remorse, based on the book of the same name by Tom Clancy.

Shooting range: On Wednesday, she joined Michael at Field Time Target & Training in Orange Country for some target practice

Familiar: According to TMZ, staff said he had visited the range months earlier to prepare for filming his action thriller Without Remorse, based on the book of the same name by Tom Clancy

Michael look casual and anonymous in a charcoal sweatsuit, while Lori wore black sweatpants with a graphic hoodie.

The Fantastic Four actor wore black Nike high tops, while she had on a pair in green and white.

The staff at the gun range described Michael as being kind and courteous during his visit, and he took some time to speak with the employees and snap photos with him.

He apparently made a good enough impression with everyone that he was named an honorary member of their team.

His and hers: Both he and Lori took turns firing handguns at the range

Polite: The staff at the gun range described Michael as being kind and courteous during his visit, and he took some time to speak with the employees and snap photos with him

It's not clear if Michael is already training for another firearms-heavy film, or if he and Lori were just having a non-traditional date night.

He's been working overtime in recent days to help promote his film Without Remorse.

The movie, which was released digitally on Amazon Prime on Friday, is a spin-off from the better known films and shows featuring Clancy's CIA analyst Jack Ryan.

The character has been played in succession by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck and Chris Pine.

Michael's character John Kelly (he's better known by the name John Clark) was also previously portrayed by Willem Dafoe in 1994's Clear And Present Danger, opposite Ford.

Self-promotion: On Thursday, Michael used a charity event to promote his Amazon film. He help pack up care packages at the Amazon Fresh location in Ladera Heights

Helping out: The actor, who opted for a beige sweatsuit, was also working with the nonprofit Village for Vets, which supports veterans around LA

Making a difference: Michael helped the employees to put together boxes of food for more than 600 veterans in the area, according to the Los Angeles Times

On Thursday, Michael used a charity event to promote his Amazon film.

The actor, who opted for a beige sweatsuit this time, helped load care packages put together by Amazon Fresh employees at their Ladera Heights location and their partners with Village for Vets.

The nonprofit organization helps provide services and support to homeless and at-risk veterans throughout Los Angeles.

Michael helped the employees to put together boxes of food for more than 600 veterans in the area, according to the Los Angeles Times.

'I just want to connect with the community as much as possible,' Michael told the newspaper. 'Making movies is a blessing, its a gift. So to be able to give back when I can and really make that connection and shorten the gap [is meaningful].'

The Wire actor spent time with veterans to help flesh out his role.

Good deeds: 'I just want to connect with the community as much as possible,' Michael told the newspaper. 'Making movies is a blessing, its a gift. So to be able to give back when I can and really make that connection and shorten the gap [is meaningful]'

Tough time: In an interview with Esquire published on Friday, Michael opened up about the intense training required for Without Remorse, including weapons training like the kind he did at the shooting range

Systematic: 'It was training across the board. You look at the project, you see what stunts we have to prepare for, and then we have specialized training for that,' he explained

'Its heavy and intense to hear what theyve seen and lived through on a daily basis out there,' he said. 'It haunts them, but theres also a sense of pride and honor. Theres a code and a love they have for what they do that is unmatched.

'Being able to talk to some of them and hear a little bit of what they go through, I have nothing but respect for them. Its truly incredible.'

In an interview with Esquire published on Friday, Michael opened up about the intense training required for Without Remorse, including weapons training like the kind he did at the shooting range.

'It was training across the board. You look at the project, you see what stunts we have to prepare for, and then we have specialized training for that,' he explained.

'Hand-to-hand combat is something that Im pretty familiar with, but working with the incredible stunt team, my stunt double that Ive worked with for many years  we have a rapport and short-hand, so developing the choreography was something we had to do.'

He also had to spend hours upon hours in water tanks due to several aquatic scenes.

True to life: Michael added that he worked with the director and screenwriter to make John Kelly/John Clark more 'real' by tailoring him to his experiences

Impressive: Michael had to work in water tanks extensively and said he was able to hold his breath for almost three minutes at the height of the production

Michael added that he worked with the director and screenwriter to make John Kelly/John Clark more 'real' by tailoring him to his experiences.

'If you change the character from previous iterations to myself, theres a certain specificity in certain situations that it has to be,' he said. 'And from the specific stems the universal, to have people relate from that aspect of it all. So that was pretty much it. Just trying to tell a great story.'

As he was a producer, he said that he was heavily involved in updating the book, which was published in 1993, for modern tastes.

Asked about how much he likes seeing movies in theaters, the actor admitted he enjoys seeing films in a theater, though he didn't sound particularly attached to theaters, which perhaps isn't surprising from someone whose production company signed a first-look deal with Amazon.

Man of Steel? The interview concluded with a question about rumors that Michael might be in the running for a Superman film written by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Mum's the word: 'Oh, man. Come on, man, you know I cant answer these questions,' he replied with a laugh, though he didn't deny his interest in the project

The interview concluded with a question about rumors that Michael might be in the running for a Superman film written by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

The Man of Steel is rumored by be intended for a Black actor in the upcoming film, though few details have been released about the project.

'Oh, man. Come on, man, you know I cant answer these questions,' he replied with a laugh.' But Im flattered that people are always bringing me up in conversations around those things. Its flattering.'

Notably, he didn't say deny his interest in the project.
Elsa Hosk welcomed her first child - a baby girl named Tuulikki Joan Daly on February 11.

Within seven weeks, the Swedish supermodel would be back to work striking poses in front of the camera for some of the biggest fashion houses in the world.

Now, just 10 weeks out from giving birth, Hosk looked to already be back in fine form when she paraded her post-baby body in a skimpy bikini.

Fine form: Elsa Hosk, 32, was the picture of confidence when she struck a pose in a pink and blue bikini, just 10 weeks after giving birth to her daughter Tuulikki

Oozing confidence, Hosk, 32, dropped into a signature pose with one leg forward in the blue and pink floral two-piece with an array of lush green trees all around her.

She also carried a large hat with a similar color and pattern scheme on what appears to be a warm and sunny day in her new adopted home of Pasadena, California.

Her long blonde tresses were pulled back into a loose ponytail in the photo along with a black-and-white snap showing her in the very same bikini.

The former Victoria's Secret Angel appeared to be completely at ease after confessing her figure has changed since giving birth, and that she's appreciative for her 'new curves'.

The Swedish supermodel also struck a pose in the two-piece in a black-and-white photo

Family time: The catwalk queen and partner of six years, Tom Daly, took their daughter for a walk in a stroller in Los Angeles on Friday with gal pal

On Friday, Hosk and her partner of six years, Tom Daly, stepped out for a walk with their baby daughter, along with a gal pal.

She gave more than a hint of her midriff in a white crop top that was paired with faded blue jeans and black boots.

The fashionista also wore a two tone blazer and stylish sunglasses at times, and pulled her blonde locks into a ponytail with a part in the middle.

It appeared, Daly took the lead when it came to pushing Tuulikki in her stroller in black slacks and white button-down shirt.

Casual-cool: Hosk gave more than a hint of her midriff in a white crop top that was paired with faded blue jeans and black boots

Fashion touch: At one point, the supermodel put on a two tone blazer over her white crop top

The catwalk queen also took to her Instagram page on Friday to share a series of photos of herself decked out in blue denim jumpsuit.

Hosk has been giving her 6.5 million Instagram fans and followers updates on her post-pregnancy life.

Having had Manhattan as their primary home for many years, the couple moved across country, into a $4.3 million five-bedroom home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of South Pasadena, near the end of 2020.

Feeling fashionable: The Stockholm, Sweden native got dressed up for Friday in a blue denim jumpsuit and off white heels

Flattering: The number had a loose fit and was cinched in at the waist

Lovely: She had her blonde tresses styled long with some sift waves and a center part

Relaxing: Hosk also struck a pose while sitting down outside her home in Pasadena, California
Married At First Sight star Alana Lister rung in her birthday with a night on the town on Friday.

The brunette celebrated turning 31 with a handful of friends at The Arc at Nobby's, which is located in Miami on the Gold Coast.

Alana looked ready to party in an eye-catching and sparkly top, which flaunted her surgically-enhanced bust.

Time to celebrate! On Friday, Married At First Sight star Alana Lister went braless and flaunted her surgically-enhanced bust in a sparkly plunging top as she celebrated her 31st birthday on the Gold Coast

Alana went braless on the night, due to the top's backless design.

She teamed the top with a pair of high-waisted white trousers and white high heels.

The reality TV star and former teacher finished her look with her long dark locks out and over her shoulders and makeup including fake eye lashes, bronzer and a nude lip.

Dolled up: The reality TV star and teacher finished her look with her long dark locks out and over her shoulders and makeup including fake eye lashes, bronzer and a nude lip

Hot to trot: She teamed the top with a pair of high-waisted white trousers and white high heels

Daring: Alana went braless on the night, due to the top's backless design

Time to party: The brunette celebrated turning 31 with a handful of friends at The Arc at Nobby's, which is located in Miami on the Gold Coast

She appeared in high spirits as she met up with her friends and celebrated her big day.

The budding reality star meanwhile, recently admitted that her cleavage was the result of a boob job.

During an Instagram Q&A, the school teacher said that her ample assets were surgically enhanced.

'My boobs are not natural. That question gets asked a lot,' she said.

Birthday girl: She appeared in high spirits as she met up with her friends and celebrated her big day

Admission: The budding reality star meanwhile, recently admitted that her cleavage was the result of a boob job. During an Instagram Q&A, the school teacher said that her ample assets were surgically-enhanced

The Brisbane native also revealed that she has no immediate plans to join monthly subscription website OnlyFans.

'Personally right now, I wouldn't really consider it, but I'm definitely supportive of the women who do it. I think it is empowering for women,' she said.

It comes after Alana hit back at her haters on Sunday, calling out 'keyboard Karens' who were criticising her for wearing racy outfits.

'I wouldn't really consider it': The Brisbane native also revealed that she has no immediate plans to join monthly subscription website OnlyFans

Hitting back: It comes after Alana hit back at her haters on Sunday, calling out 'keyboard Karens' who were criticising her for wearing racy outfits

'Just jumping in here really quickly to say thanks to all my queens for your love. I so appreciate it,' she said in an Instagram video.

She continued: 'Just to respond to some of the real Karen-like comments that I've seen on some of my videos and photos in regards to what I'm wearing or what I'm not wearing and what a man's going to think of me because of that...'

'Firstly, that's a man's problem,' she snapped. 'And secondly, thank you for your concern, but I'm doing just fine.'

'I wish I had the time to educate you on world history and discrimination and sexism and politics and morals and ethics and socialisation,' she added.

'I feel like if I did, you would maybe understand that the reasons that you think the things you think are because you are just simply a product of a hugely corrupt, archaic system that forces women to hate women and shame them just because of their sexuality.'

Alana went on to say the shaming comments were 'outdated', 'oppressive' and don't have a place in society in 2021.
The new action-thriller film, Without Remorse, based on Tom Clancy's novel of the same name, is now streaming on Amazon Prime.

On the heels of the April 30 premiere, Jodie Turner-Smith opened up about the special military training she went through in preparation for her role as Lt. Commander Karen Greer, alongside her co-stars that included Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Bell.

It turns out the British-born actress, 34, was in the second trimester of her pregnancy when the cast endured rigorous boot camp-style training to be in top physical shape for the demanding film.

Heavy load: Jodie Turner-Smith revealed she was in the second trimester of her pregnancy while training for the action-thriller film, Without Remorse; the new mother stunned in a red dress for the virtual premiere of Without Remorse on April 30

'[Training] wasn't straightforward because I was pregnant, so that definitely added a layer of complexity to it,' the actress, 34, revealed in an interview with Variety

'But I went after it. I gave it all of myself.'

To put Turner's-Smith's condition into perspective when she headed into training: a woman in her second trimester is the middle phase of pregnancy that lasts from weeks 13 to 28, or months four thru six.

New role: The British-born star, 34, plays Lt. Commander Karen Greer, a brand new character in the franchise universe, who's the niece of James Greer  Jack Ryan and John Kelly's (better known as John Clark) frequent ally  and a decorated Navy Seal

Training for two: To put Turner's-Smith's physical condition into perspective when she headed into training: a woman in her second trimester is the middle phase of pregnancy that lasts from weeks 13 to 28, or months four thru six

The Queen & Slim star explained how being pregnant with her daughter Janie, who she shares with husband and actor Joshua Jackson, presented a whole new set of challenges for her as they all tried to keep up with their expert trainers.

'We worked really closely with these guys on set who were there to teach us how to operate in combat, how to move with and around each other, how to talk to each other,' she confessed.

'We're emulating guys who have been working together, alongside each other for years, so there needed to be a sense of familiarity and comfort and ease to how they work together.'

The team: The actress shared a photo taken on set with her Without Remorse co-stars Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Bell

Training: Turner-Smith also shared video of the casts' military preparations on Instagram

One of the most challenging parts of the whole experience was when she had to prepare and film underwater stunts.

'I don't know if you know this, but when you are pregnant, it's very hard to hold your breath,' Turner-Smith said before adding, 'So, I had unique challenges that my co-stars didnt have.'

Turner-Smith's Lt. Commander Greer is a brand new character in the franchise universe, who's the niece of James Greer  Jack Ryan and John Kelly's (better known as John Clark) frequent ally  and a decorated Navy Seal and Clarks former team member.

Expert eye: The actress also shared a selfie photo of herself with co-star Jamie Bell and former Reconnaissance Marine & Special Operations instructor Buck Doyle, who helped train the cast

Jordan plays elite Navy Seal John Kelly/Clark, one of the most famous characters in Tom Clancys Jack Ryan universe.

The shoot kicked off in October 2019, but it was interrupted and temporarily halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film was eventually completed by the following October.

Turner-Smith and Jackson would eventually welcome their daughter Janie to the world in April 2020.

Out now! Without Remorse started streaming on Amazon Prime on April 30
Taika Waititi is currently working on the next Thor sequel, titled Thor: Love & Thunder.

And the 45-year-old filmmaker gushed about the franchise's leading man Chris Hemsworth during an interview with Richard Wilkins for Weekend Today.

When asked how filming for the blockbuster is going, Taika said: 'Great - we've got four weeks left, I can see light at the end of the tunnel. It might be the best Marvel film ever!'

'It might be the best Marvel film ever!' Thor director Taika Waititi gave fans an update on the next film in the franchise during an interview this week

Speaking about Hemsworth specifically, the Kiwi director praised the Aussie hunk's sense of humour.

'He is a funny guy, he's a good friend and he's also someone that you just want to hang out with all the time,' he said.

'And I think that's all you really want from a superhero or a main character in your movie.'

'He is a funny guy': Speaking about Hemsworth specifically, the Kiwi director praised the Aussie hunk's sense of humour

Russell Crowe recently confirmed his role in the upcoming Marvel blockbuster, Thor: Love and Thunder, after much speculation.

The 57-year-old Hollywood star revealed he's set to play the god Zeus in the flick, which his A-list pal Chris, 37.

Rusty dropped the bombshell at during an interview on JOY Breakfast with The Murphys, explaining that he was due to complete his last day of filming.

'He's a good friend and he's also someone that you just want to hang out with all the time,' the director said of Chris

'Now, I'm gonna get on my bicycle, I'm gonna ride up to Disney-Fox studios... and round about 9:15, I shall be Zeus in Thor 4,' Russell said.

He added: 'It's my last day of Zeus-ing about.'

The film is currently scheduled for release on May 6, 2022.
Willow Smith has stepped out for the first time since publicly revealing she is polyamorous as she headed out for dinner with her brother Jaden on Friday.

The daughter of movie stars Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith enjoyed a date night with her boyfriend Tyler Cole at Nobu in West Hollywood, along with her sibling and his female pal.

On Wednesday Willow, 20, revealed she was polyamorous during a discussion with her mother and grandmother on Red Table Talk, but has been in what appears to be a monogamous relationship with Tyler since 2017.

Emerging: Willow Smith stepped out for the first time since revealing she is polyamorous as she headed out for dinner with her boyfriend Tyler Cole at Nobu in West Hollywood onFriday

Willow cut a laid-back figure in an oversized black coat as she headed to the swanky eatery with her boyfriend Tyler.

The actress' beau opted for a dark green matching tracksuit and an oversized denim jacket, while Jaden opted for a similarly casual ensemble.

He was joined by a mystery blonde female pal during the meal after Willow spoke publicly about her dating preferences.

MailOnline has contacted a representative for Jaden Smith for further information.

Casual: The daughter of movie stars Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith was joined by her brother Jaden as they exited the swanky eatery

Laid-back: Willow cut a laid-back figure in an oversized black coat as she headed to the swanky eatery with her boyfriend Tyler, who she began dating in 2017

On Wednesday Willow spoke publicly about being polyamorous, but noted that she can't see herself 'going past two partners.'

Willow, who appears to be a monogamous relationship with her boyfriend, Tyler Cole, made the revelation on her mother's Facebook show Red Table Talk.

She explained: 'With polyamory, I feel like the main foundation is the freedom to be able to create a relationship style that works for you and not just stepping into monogamy because that's what everyone around you says is the right thing to do.'

'So I was like, how can I structure the way that I approach relationships with that in mind? Also, doing research into polyamory, the main reasons why monogamous relationships - or why marriage - why divorces happen is infidelity.'

Dinnertime: Jade was accompanied by a mystery female pal as they headed out together

Mystery: The actor headed out with his female friend to the California eatery following Willow's public revelation

Willow - who practices ethical non-monogamy, meaning that all partners give consent to being polyamorous - was met with resistance from her grandmother Adrienne Banfield-Norris, who said: 'For somebody like me, it feels like it's really all just centered around sex.'

Smith then gave her 'Gammy' an example of a couple who might have opposite appetites for sex.

'Are you gonna be the person to say, you know: "Just because I don't have these needs, you can't have them either?"' the Rise songstress explained.

'And so that's kind of one of the reasons why I actually was interested in poly because I was introduced to it through kind of a nonsexual lens. In my friend group, I'm the only polyamorous person, and I have the least sex out of all of my friends.'

FYI: On Wednesday Willow spoke publicly about being polyamorous on Red Table Talk, but noted that she can't see herself 'going past two partners.

Willow - who said the 'history of marriage really irks me' - found a more open, compassionate listener in her mother Jada.

'I'm okay with whatever you do,' the 49-year-old Matrix 4 action star shrugged.

'When you were like, "Hey, this is my get down." I was like, "I totally get it." Wanting to set up your life in a way that you can have what it is that you want, I think anything goes as long as the intentions are clear.'

Willow's 'coming out' was not a revelation as she already confessed she was bisexual and polyfidelitous (a form of non-monogamy) two years ago on her weekly Facebook Watch series.

'I love men and women equally and so I would definitely want one man, one woman,' the Calabasas native said at the time.

Candid: She said: 'I feel like the main foundation is the freedom to be able to create a relationship style that works for you'

'I feel like I could be polyfidelitous with those two people. I'm not the kind of person that is constantly looking for new sexual experiences.

'I focus a lot on the emotional connection and I feel like if I were to find two people of the different genders that I really connected with and we had a romantic and sexual connection, I don't feel like I would feel the need to try to go find more.'

Since 2017, Willow has been in what appears to be a monogamous relationship with Tyler Cole, whom she met through her big brother Jaden.
She's forged a successful career as a model and television presenter.

And on Thursday, Laura Csortan lent her star presence at the Shannakian Fine Jewellery Mother's Day Luncheon in Sydney's The Boathouse in Rose Bay.

The 44-year-old showed off her washboard abs in a chic blue long-sleeved midriff, which she paired with a slinky floral maxi-skirt and nude strappy heels.

Abs-olutely incredible: Laura Csortan (pictured), 44, showed off her washboard abs in a chic blue midriff and a floral skirt as she led the arrivals at a fine jewellery luncheon in Sydney's Rose Bay on Thursday

Laura's caramel locks cascaded down her back and shoulders in structured waves, and her striking facial features were enhanced with elegant makeup.

The mother-of-one was also joined at the event by PR powerhouse Roxy Jacenko, who posed for a number of playful photos with TV personality Jo Casamento.

Roxy drew attention to her trim pins in a thigh-skimming black frock, accessorising with black pointy-toe kitten heels and statement bling.

Playful: PR powerhouse Roxy Jacenko (right), 41, drew attention to her trim pins in a thigh-skimming black frock, as she posed for playful photos with TV personality Jo Casamento (left)

Curves ahead: Jo accentuated her ample assets in a pale blue body-hugging jumpsuit, paired with nude pointy-toe heels and delicate silver jewels

The 41-year-old tied her newly dyed brunette locks into a sleek ponytail at the nape of the neck, and her makeup included a subtle smoky eye and a nude lip.

Meanwhile Jo accentuated her ample assets in a body-hugging pastel blue jumpsuit, which she teamed with nude pointy-toe heels and delicate silver jewels.

Her blonde locks fell around her face and shoulders in structured waves, and her eyes were enhanced with false lashes, statement gold eye shadow and kohl liner.

Glamorous: Former Bachelor star Lisa Hyde (pictured) offered a glimpse of her toned tummy in a brown halterneck top and black high-waisted pants. The entrepreneur accessorised with black open-toe heels, a Louis Vuitton tote bag and a stylish headscarf

Beauty: Lisa's brunette locks were styled straight underneath her chic headwear, and her makeup was elegant

Former Bachelor star Lisa Hyde offered a glimpse of her toned tummy in a brown halterneck top and black high-waisted trousers.

The entrepreneur added black open-toe heels, a Louis Vuitton tote bag and a chic headscarf to the event day look.

Her brunette locks were styled straight underneath her headwear, and her makeup was elegant.

Former Studio 10 presenter Jessica Rose, 50, showed off her style credentials in a floral top, paired with a statement skirt, cowboy boots and a fluffy pink cape jacket.

Guests were treated to a lavish lunch of oysters, seafood and cocktails, and perused the latest collections from the jewellery label.
She only welcomed her baby boy Santiago in January.

And Dani Dyer was seen heading to the train station with her baby boy nestled in his pram, after it was reported she and boyfriend Sammy Kimmence are 'still together' despite the possibility of a prison sentence following his guilty plea.

The Love Island star, 24, opted for a casual grey padded coat over ripped jeans as she donned a face mask for the outing with her baby boy.

Casual: It comes after Dani took her baby son Santiago, three months, for a day out in London

Following her outing Dani revealed she is back on the running circuit, taking to Instagram on Saturday to share a sweaty selfie as she declared: 'Started back running again... it's gonna take me some time for my fitness to be back.'

Despite just having embarked on an intense exercise session, Dani, looked radiant in the snap and went makeup-free with her hair swept into a ponytail.

While out and about on Friday, the star briefly picked up the tot before placing him back in his pram as they headed home following a day of shopping in the capital.

Last week Dani returned to social media for the first time since her boyfriend Sammy pleaded guilty in court to scamming two men out of 34,000.

Sweet: The former Love Island star headed to the train station with her baby boy after a day of shopping in the capital

Back to it: Dani is back on the running circuit, taking to Instagram on Saturday to share a sweaty selfie as she declared: 'Started back running again'

Low-key: Dani opted for a casual grey padded coat over ripped jeans as she donned a face mask for the outing with her baby boy

The reality TV star was seen focussing on spending quality time with their three-month-old son as she enjoyed a farm trip with some pals.

She also shared a throwback snap of her little boy to Instagram Stories on Friday and marvelled at how much Santiago has grown in the past three months.

The Instagram posts came after Dani reportedly vowed to stand by her boyfriend Sammy Kimmence as he faces jail after pleading guilty to fraud.

Simple: The star briefly picked up the tot before placing him back in his pram as they headed home following a day of shopping in the capital

Determined: Dani has reportedly vowed to 'stand by' her boyfriend Sammy after he plead guilty to scamming two men out of 34,000

In a statement the star's representative confirmed they are 'still together' after he appeared at Portsmouth Crown Court on Monday and admitted duping two men out of 34,000 on Monday.

Dani, who welcomed son Santiago with Sammy in January, has reportedly vowed to stick by her beau after he made a last-minute change to plead guilty, and has now been told he could face prison time.

When asked whether they were still in a relationship, Dani's rep told The Sun they are 'still together.'

A source close to the star added: 'She's vowed to stand by him, he's the father of her baby.'

MailOnline contacted representatives for Dani Dyer for further comment at the time.

Mother and son: Last week Dani was focusing on spending quality time with their three-month-old son as she enjoyed a farm trip with some pals

How he's grown! She also shared a throwback snap of her little boy to Instagram Stories on Friday and marvelled at how much Santiago has grown in the past three months

Super cute: Dani also shared a snap of a very trendy new summer outfit for Santi displayed on a 'baby Kimmence' stand

While Sammy was appearing in court on Monday, Dani took to Instagram Stories to reveal she'd taken son Santiago for his latest round of innoculations.

Sharing a snap of her baby boy in his car set, she wrote: 'Oh my beautiful boy had his second lot of jabs today...

'The constant crying hasn't started yet I'm hoping this time round he will be okay, had to hold back the tears when she injected him. Just love him so much hate him being in pain.'

It comes after Sammy was warned on Monday he faces jail after he admitted scamming two elderly men out of 34,000 by posing as a financial investor.

The entrepreneur duped Peter Martin, 90, and Peter Haynes, 80, between 2016 and 2018 by persuading the vulnerable pensioners to allow him to invest their money.

Now Kimmence, who had denied all the charges and pleaded not guilty only last week, faces a possible prison sentence after a last-minute change of plea.
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It was a meeting of showbiz minds in Woolloomooloo on Friday as A-list pals Rita Ora, her rumoured 'love interest' Taika Waititi, Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher enjoyed dinner at the China Doll restaurant in Sydney.

The stars were seen settling down for a glitzy meal with Rita opting for a plunging white shirt and matching flared trousers for the outing, as rumours continue to swirl she's been dating the Thor director.

Meanwhile Christian, who has been in Australia to film Thor: Love And Thunder, offered a glimpse of his newly shaven head which he has donned for the role.

Lunch date: It was a meeting of showbiz minds in Woolloomooloo on Friday as A-list pals Rita Ora (pictured), her rumoured 'love interest' Taika Waititi, Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher enjoyed dinner at the China Doll restaurant in Sydney

Having a ball with her pals, Isla looked sensational in a black, button-down frock that showed off a hint of cleavage, the actress looking immersed in the lively conversation happening around the star-studded table.

Russell, who is of late sporting long, grey hair and a bushy salt-and-pepper beard, leaned over the table to talk to various guests, and appeared jolly indeed.

Sacha left his Borat costumes at home, trading them in for a hipster look, including a fedora, black polo shirt and beige slacks, with the comedian stroking his chin as the scintillating conversation reached its peak.

A new look: Christian, who has been in Australia to film Thor: Love And Thunder, offered a glimpse of his newly shaven head, while Isla look sensational in a black, button-down frock, joined by her casual husband Sacha

Chatty: Russell, who is of late sporting long, grey hair and a bushy salt-and-pepper beard, leaned over the table to talk to various guests

The group enjoyed modern Asian cuisine at the trendy, award-winning eatery, located at the historic Finger Wharf in Woolloomooloo, a harbourside suburb in Sydney's inner-city.

While he was not pictured, director Taika was also at the catch-up, spending some time on the balcony where Rita held court, chatting to actress Britney Theriot, after the meal.

The pair have sparked romance rumours in recent weeks, and on Friday night stepped out at the premiere of Stan's RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under at the Sydney Opera House.

Close by: While he was not pictured, director Taika was also at the catch-up, spending some time on the balcony where Rita held court after the meal, amid rumours the pair are dating

They avoided being photographed on the Opera House red carpet together, and appeared very coy indeed when they were spotted sneaking into the venue.

The British pop star, 30, and the New Zealand-born Thor director, 45, entered the Sydney Opera House event together, but were careful to remain a few feet apart.

The outing was the latest in a series of meet-ups between the two, who have reportedly been 'dating for over a month' while the songstress has been in Sydney filming The Voice.

Keeping low key: They avoided being photographed on the Opera House red carpet together, and appeared very coy indeed when they were spotted sneaking into the venue. Rita and Taika are pictured on Friday night

On? The outing was the latest in a series of meet-ups between the two, who have reportedly been 'dating for over a month' while the songstress has been in Sydney filming The Voice

Time out: Rita and Britney Theriot (left) looked deep in conversation as they stepped onto the balcony during the low-key dinner

Casually cool: Britney, wearing a boho skirt and black tank top, strolled outside the eatery with Rita during the star-studded dinner Down Under

Rita also recently sent fans into a frenzy when she shared an incredibly cosy photo with Taika to Instagram.

Meanwhile, Isla, her husband Sacha and their children relocated from Los Angeles to Sydney in December last year.

It's been widely speculated that they moved Down Under to escape the coronavirus pandemic ravaging the US, however some reports claim they were actually fleeing America's tumultuous political climate.

Good conversation? Isla looked immersed in the lively conversation happening around the star-studded table

Eats: The group enjoyed modern Asian cuisine at the trendy, award-winning eatery

The place to be: It is located at the historic Finger Wharf in Woolloomooloo, an ocean-side suburb in Sydney's inner-city

'They didn't want to raise their kids in Trump's America,' an insider told The Sydney Morning Herald of the couple's decision to move to Australia.

The couple have since enrolled their three children at a school in Sydney.

Another UK export enjoying Australia's shores is Batman star Christian, who quietly touched down in Australia recently to film the upcoming Marvel movie Thor: Love and Thunder.

Moves: Isla, her husband Sacha and their children relocated from Los Angeles to Sydney in December last year

Reasons: It's been widely speculated that they moved Down Under to escape the coronavirus pandemic ravaging the US, however some reports claim they were actually fleeing America's tumultuous political climate

Locals: The couple have since enrolled their three children at a school in Sydney

Christian's wife Sibi Blazic and their two children, Emmaline and Joseph, have joined the star Down Under.

Thor has been filming at a number of locations around Sydney including the city's Centennial Park.

Christian will play a villain opposite Chris Hemsworth in the new Marvel flick.

In town: Another UK export enjoying Australia's shores is Batman star Christian, who quietly touched down in Australia recently to film the upcoming Marvel movie Thor: Love and Thunder

Star power: He's a baddie! Christian will play a villain opposite Chris Hemsworth in the new Marvel flick

Last month, Russell confirmed his role in the upcoming Marvel blockbuster, Thor: Love and Thunder, after much speculation.

The 57-year-old Hollywood star revealed he's set to play the god Zeus in the flick, which his A-list pal Chris Hemsworth, 37.

Rusty dropped the bombshell at during an interview on JOY Breakfast with The Murphys, explaining that he was due to complete his last day of filming.

God status: Last month, Russell confirmed his role in the upcoming Marvel blockbuster, Thor: Love and Thunder, after much speculation

Not bad! The 57-year-old Hollywood star revealed he's set to play the god Zeus in the flick, which his A-list pal Chris Hemsworth, 37

A slew of international stars have swarmed to Australia's shores in recent months, as the country's low rate of Covid infection makes it ideal for big budget productions.

Australia is also seemingly all set to become the hub for filming blockbusters from the Marvel franchise for the 'foreseeable future'.

According to The Daily Telegraph, Disney - who bought Marvel for US$4billion in 2009 - are ditching their headquarters in Atlanta, US, in favour of Sydney.

In town: A slew of international stars have swarmed to Australia's shores in recent months, as the country's low rate of Covid infection makes it ideal for big budget productions

Super stars: Australia is also seemingly all set to become the hub for filming blockbusters from the Marvel franchise for the 'foreseeable future'

'There is nowhere in the world where films can be shot in the way they can be here in Australia,' a studio source revealed.

'Sydney is the perfect place for the Marvel blockbusters because most are essentially shot in front of a green screen. The whole studio is essentially transplanting itself from the US.'

It's said that Marvel head Kevin Feige is set to make a move Down Under permanently, and film the next batch of Marvel movies at Moore Park's Fox Studios.

Looks tasty! Sacha looked impressed with his meal as he tucked in

A series of American productions have moved to Australia amid the coronavirus pandemic, with the land Down Under earning the nickname 'Hollywood 2.0'.

The Tinseltown exodus shows no signs of slowing down, with Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell set to film Ron Howard's Thirteen Lives in Queensland.

Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence is also expected to travel to Australia soon to film the latest Fantastic Four film, according to The Daily Telegraph.
Helen Mirren has joined forces with an Italian comic for a hilarious sketch to encourage locals to get the Covid vaccine.

The Oscar winner, 75, appeared in the fun clip with comedian Checco Zalone, who falls madly in love with her upon learning she's had the jab and launches into a passionate tune in her honour.

It comes as Italy finally reached its target of administering 500,000 vaccines per day after a slow start to its distribution of jabs, with at least 14 million people receiving their first injection so far.

Get jabbed! Helen Mirren has joined forces with an Italian comic for a hilarious sketch to encourage locals to get the Covid vaccine

In the sketch, titled La Vacinda, Zalone, whose real name is Luca Pasquale Medici, playing a flustered Spaniard stopping at a house in Puglia, where Helen currently owns a farmhouse, to ask her for directions.

The actress, who is tending to a tree, offers some advice on where to go, but Zalone is clearly distracted by her exposed shoulder.

Asking why she has her right shoulder open, Helen noted she'd received her Covid vaccination, leading Zalone to launch into a romantic Latin love song for her.

The video then showed the pair enjoying a romantic walk in the vineyards and enjoying tea at her farmhouse.

Funny: The Oscar winner appeared in the fun clip with comedian Checco Zalone, who falls madly in love with her upon learning she's had the jab

The chorus is a reference to Helen's jabbed status, saying: 'I love to dance with you, O'Vacinada, face to face with this immunised old girl.

He later sings: 'I don't care if your ankles are a bit swollen Your movements are so suave and sensual it seems your femur is original.'

Zalone posted the clip on his Facebook page, writing: 'Herd immunity has not arrived yet but at least there is the vaccine.'

For many years Helen has had a holiday home in Tiggiano in Puglia with her husband Taylor Hackford, and has previously threw her support behind a campaign to halt a deadly bacteria that has affected thousands of olive trees in the area.

Which way do I go? The clip shows Zalone, whose real name is Luca Pasquale Medici, stopping at a house in Puglia, where Helen currently owns a farmhouse, to ask her for directions

She told Italy's news agence Ansa in 2017: 'We need to help the Salento to save its ancient olive trees.

'They are plants which have an extraordinary value for agriculture and for the landscape. Some of them are more than 2,000 years old, and now they are dying.

'It is incredible that these olive trees could have been seen by Virgil and the Emperor Augustus, as history recounts.'

Earlier this week Italy finally hit its target of administering 500,000 COVID-19 vaccinations in a single day, according to Health Minister Roberto Speranza.

Romantic: The actress, who is tending to a tree, offers some advice on where to go, but Zalone is clearly distracted by her exposed shoulder

The perfect woman: Asking why she has her right shoulder open, Helen noted she'd received her Covid vaccination, leading Zalone to launch into a romantic song for her

Officials had originally hoped to pass it mid-month but had to push this back mainly because of supply delays and persisting doubts over shots produced by AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.

'Vaccines are the real way out of these very difficult months,' Speranza wrote on Twitter.

The Italian government said that as of early Friday, some 19.4 million vaccinations had been carried out, with 5.8 million people having received their full vaccine cycle - just under 10% of the total population.

The figures are in line with the European Union average.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Joe Biden / EPA-Yonhap



The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Saturday it will continue to coordinate with the United States to help encourage Washington to resume long-stalled denuclearization talks with Pyongyang at an early date.



The U.S. said Friday it will not seek a "grand bargain" in its denuclearization negotiations with North Korea, but will continue to engage with Pyongyang to completely denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, after the Biden administration wrapped up its North Korea policy review.



"South Korea and the U.S. will continue consultations over the North Korea policy on the occasion of their leaders' summit scheduled for this month and meetings of their foreign ministers," said an official at the foreign ministry.



The official said Seoul has received detailed explanations in advance from the U.S. over the outcome of the North Korea policy review.






Kate Garraway has revealed that her former GMB co-star Piers Morgan advised her to keep notes on husband Derek Draper's battle with COVID.

Following the publication of her book The Power of Hope, she told Iain Dale on LBC Radio on Friday that the tome may not have happened if it hadn't been for 56-year-old Piers' suggestion at the start of her husband's ongoing ordeal.

The TV star, 53, told how the journalist said to her to write everything down, but that she didn't at first because 'there didn't seem time', yet later took his advice.

Wise words: Kate Garraway released her new memoir The Power of Hope and revealed she was given advice by Piers Morgan to keep notes of husband Derek Draper's battle with Covid (pictured together in 2018)

In her new memoir, The Power Of Hope, Kate tells in raw detail about Derek's ordeal and pays tribute to 'the brilliant team of doctors and specialists' who've looked after him and how what they've learnt has helped the treatment of others.

She describes how the toughest experience of her life began in March last year when Derek was taken to hospital with very low oxygen levels.

His condition worsened and he became one of the most stricken patients, remaining in intensive care for a year and despite having returned home he is seriously ill and doctors say he was the most seriously sick patient to have survived the virus.

Discussing her path to releasing the book, Kate gave the candid interview on Friday, where she attributed her notes to Piers saying: 'It was actually Piers Morgan who very early on said 'you've got to write this down...

New: The Good Morning Britain presenter, 53, said the book (pictured) might not have happened if it hadn't been for Piers' suggestion to keep notes

'And I didn't, really, because there didn't seem time to write things down. But he said to just write words that you'll remember because he said you won't remember some of these things.'

The mother-of-two added that when her husband first fell ill, she was keeping 'huge amounts of notes' of his condition due to how busy staff were.

She said: 'I began to take lots of notes about things like oxygen levels, liver enzymes and everything, so I've got this strange sort of medical book.'

Prior to her chat, Piers urged followers to read the book as he took to Twitter to pen: 'This is such a fantastic book. Powerful, moving, heart-breaking, inspiring, courageous and funny'.

Struck down: Derek contracted Covid last year and also suffered with complications caused by the virus. He was hospitalised in April and doctors put him into a coma the following month (pictured in 2019)

Kate recently revealed that Derek had a rare brain inflammation in an extract from her book, published in Metro.

She explains: 'This, they told me, was a unique historical event, a one-off splurge of inflammation, and the fact that it showed up in some form on the earlier CT scans from back in April meant it happened right at the start when Derek was first on ECMO [a machine which oxygenates the blood].'

Doctors told Kate: 'We can't rule out some kind of recovery, but we can't rule out him never recovering.'

Meanwhile, Kate recently admitted she feared at one point that Derek - who recently came home after a year in hospital - may never remember her and their kids, Darcey, 15 and Billy, 11.

Speaking on 'This Morning', she said: 'For me, I just dreaded he wouldn't remember us, which is rather selfish of me actually. Because I don't know whether he would've been in a better or worse position.

'At one point we thought we might be caring for him at home and we'd be strangers. And that's terrifying for him, and strange for us.

'But he definitely knows us, and he definitely is pleased to be home, and we're so glad to have him home.'
They are engaged to be married after her fiance Carl Woods proposed earlier this month, following a whirlwind 10 month romance.

But Katie Price and Carl showed there may be some trouble in paradise after they engaged in a playful domestic when Carl left hairs in the bath on Friday night.

The former glamour model, 42, scolded her beau when she went to have a nice relaxing bath and found the tub covered in shaving clippings left by him.

Oh dear: Katie Price and her fiance Carl Woods showed there may be some trouble in paradise after the former glamour model became angry Carl had left hairs in the bath on Friday night

Taking to her Instagram story Katie showed fans the grubby bath tub with his razor still left in it and screamed: 'Are you for real?'

'You said you'd run me a bath and it's full of hair and I've emptied it and it's absolutely swamped with your hairs so you definitely have shaved.'

As Carl could be heard laughing from the other room, she added: 'It's so unfair, you would have made me get in that  it's disgusting. It's not funny.'

Dirty: The former glamour model, 42, scolded her beau when she went to have a nice relaxing bath and found the tub covered in shaving clippings left by him

Angry: Taking to her Instagram story Katie showed fans the grubby bath tub with his shaver still left in it and screamed: 'Are you for real?'

Carl, filming himself from the comfort of their bed, then told her: 'It's only a little bit of hair.'

She replied: 'It's disgusting, I'm not getting in that. Why would you do that to me?'

Spotting him posting footage of the row on Instagram later she replied, writing simply: 'D**k .'

Reaction: Spotting him posting footage of the row on Instagram later she replied, writing simply: 'D**k'

She then shared a video of her with the shower head saying: 'Yeah, washing his hair out. Cheeky b*****d.'

It comes after news earlier this week that Carl has put in an offer for a 800,000 property for the TV star and her children to live in - while her 'mucky mansion' makeover is completed.

Katie is currently renovating her property and plans to live there with car dealer Carl and her kids when it is completed.

Until then, Katie and her brood will live at Carl's new stunning Essex pad, which he will later rent out in the hopes of turning it into a business venture.

Loved-up: It comes after news earlier this week that Carl has put in an offer for a 800,000 property for the TV star and her children to live in - while her 'mucky mansion' makeover is completed

A source told MailOnline: 'Carl has put in an offer on the property but nothing has been accepted yet.'

The huge property has been freshly renovated ahead of their move and boasts three reception rooms, five bedrooms and two bathrooms.

The cladded property looks over sprawling fields as well as a nearby river.

Inside the house there is also a dressing room and ensuite in Katie and Carl's bedroom, as well as an open plan living and kitchen area.

Home: The huge property has been freshly renovated ahead of their move and boasts three reception rooms, five bedrooms and two bathrooms

A neutral colour scheme throughout the home offers a contemporary and clean finish, meaning the couple will be able to put their own stamp on the place.

The family were previously living in another of Carl's properties in Essex, however he recently sold the place for 445,000 before buying the new home.

Katie and her children had been living with Carl - while they weren't with their fathers - after a flood damaged their family home.

A source told MailOnline: 'Carl has put in an offer on the property but nothing has been accepted yet'

The possible move comes following Katie and Carl's engagement - which marks the seventh time she has been proposed to - after 10 months together.

Katie has previously spoken of how she loves that Carl makes her own money and bought her ring, unlike some of her previous suitors.

Speaking to OK! Magazine, she said: 'I didn't have to buy my own ring this time!

'It was made from scratch and came out of his own money. He designed it  it's really special. It's like a fairy-tale ring and massive.

'It's like something out of Hollywood. It's more than I could dream of.'

Katie is mum to Harvey, 18, from her relationship with Dwight Yorke. While she welcomed children Junior, 15, and Princess, 13, with ex-husband Peter Andre.

She also shares Bunny, six, and Jett, seven, with ex Kieran Hayler.
Matthew Morrison and his pregnant wife Renee soaked in their final moments before their family of three soon becomes four.

The 42-year-old Glee star took a romantic stroll with his expectant bride, 36, along the beaches of Tulum, Mexico, as they enjoyed a final vacation before welcoming their second child.

The couple held hands as Renee's growing baby bump was on full display in a revealing bikini.

Getaway! Matthew Morrison, 42 and his pregnant wife Renee, 36, took a romantic stroll with his expectant bride, 36, along the beaches of Tulum, Mexico, as they enjoyed a final vacation before welcoming their second child

The model grinned from ear-to-ear as they walked next to the water while her bulging tummy got some fresh air.

Her printed top highlighted her expanding curves, with strings laced over her cleavage.

She added in a black sarong that blew in the ocean breeze as the lovebirds basked in the sunshine.

Cheeky: The model grinned from ear-to-ear as they walked next to the water while her bulging tummy got some fresh air. Her cheeky bottoms sat just below her stomach and kept her perky bum out to avoid any tan lines

Renee pulled her hair back into a casual ponytail and black sunglasses as she wrapped her around around her loving husband.

Matthew, meanwhile, went for a relaxed white t-shirt emblazoned with a grey 'X' and high-cut blue swim shorts.

He added in a white hat and sunglasses as the pair shared a few laughs while he held onto her waist.

At one point, the doting dad paused to take photos of his stunning wife and capture the current state of her pregnancy.

Photo shoot: At one point, the doting dad paused to take photos of his stunning wife and capture the current state of her pregnancy

Baby bliss: The couple are expecting their second child to join three-year-old son Revel. They started dating in 2011 before becoming engaged in 2013 and eventually getting wed on October 18, 2014, at a private home in Maui, Hawaii

The couple are expecting their second child to join three-year-old son Revel.

They started dating in 2011 before becoming engaged in 2013 and eventually getting wed on October 18, 2014, at a private home in Maui, Hawaii.

Matthew and Renee revealed in March that they are expecting another little one after a series of fertility struggles.

The Tony Award-nominated actor took to Instagram with an ultrasound shot of their unborn child, super imposed with words of affirmations.

Congrats: The couple revealed in March that they are expecting another little one after a series of fertility struggles

Colorful: Matthew took to Instagram with an ultrasound shot of their unborn child, super imposed with words of affirmations

'After 3 miscarriages, a pandemic, and the loss of many loved ones.... Renee, Revel, and I are elated to be bringing a little joy into the world,' he wrote. 'Patience, reflection, and introspection are a few of the many tools that we have learned this year.

'And we are excited to bring those tools into our parenting. Cant wait to meet our little baby boy/girl? Who knows! We are waiting for the big day to greet the being that will change our family yet again!'

He noted that the commission was created by Marco Santini 'who took our ultrasound and activated it with our words of affirmation, love, and intention.'

'Thank you for sharing your gifts, time, and love that went into this piece. It will always hold a special place in our hearts and home!,' he added.
She is known for flaunting her eye-catching figure during various work assignments.

And on Friday afternoon, Victoria's Secret model Joy Corrigan was seen doing what she does best during a photoshoot in Miami Beach.

The 26-year-old fashion industry figure appeared to be soaking up all that the tropical early-morning sun had to offer as she frolicked in the warm tropical waves and posed on the sand.

Doing her thing: Joy Corrigan was seen flaunting her eye-catching figure during a photoshoot in Miami Beach on Friday afternoon

Corrigan was dressed in a bright pink bikini top that placed much of her toned midsection on full display.

She partially covered her swimsuit with a black crop top that was pulled down on one side.

The model paired her top with a matching bikini bottom that accentuated her impressively sculpted legs and thighs.

The fashion industry icon's gorgeous blonde hair was partially covered by a pair of swimming goggles, with the remainder flowing in the coastal breeze.

Eye-catching outfit: The Victoria's Secret model wore a bright pink bikini top and a matching bottom during her time in the waves

Luscious locks: The runway fixture's gorgeous blonde hair cascaded down her back

Corrigan began her modeling career at an early age and went on to appear in several advertisements for Victoria's Secret.

The Massachusetts native went on to grace the cover of several publications, including Maxim, GQ and Marie Claire, among numerous others.

The fashion industry icon went on to found a clothing brand with her sister in 2019, which they named Naked Species.

During an interview with Authority Magazine, Corrigan spoke at length about her career and offered advice to other prospective models.

Multi-talented model: Corrigan began her career in the fashion industry at an early age and went on to co-found a clothing company called Naked Species

She told her fans not to 'feel bad about turning down opportunities that arent part of your dream or passion to give you time to focus on what you truly desire. Also, be flexible enough to adjust your plan when things dont work out.'

The runway fixture went on to speak about how her mother has been one of her most inspirational figures and noted that she showed her the value of hard work.

Corrigan remarked that her mother 'birthed and raised ten children with my father, while also being a successful businesswoman. She taught me that you can be a successful career woman and still make time for family.

Pro tip: During an interview, the fashion industry icon encouraged prospective models to be 'flexible enough to adjust your plan when things dont work out'

'I have always found that no matter what level you are in your career, being kind to everyone on set regardless of your position goes a long way,' she added.

The model concluded the interview by remarking that she was attempting to stay in touch with her loved ones amid the ongoing state of the pandemic.

'I would love to encourage people to reach out and check on their friends, family, and loved ones. Especially in this hard time... Its really easy to feel isolated and alone in an ever-connected society,' she said.
Suzanne Somers isn't your typical grandmother.

The 74-year-old actress looked youthful as she donned a similar outfit to her 25-year-old granddaughter Camelia, in a snap of the two posted to her Instagram account on Thursday.

'Who wears short shorts? Twinning with my granddaughter @cameliasomers!,' she captioned the pic of them both sporting leg-baring denim shorts.

Twins! Suzanne Somers, 74, looked like the spitting image of her 25-year-old granddaughter Camelia in a snap of the two posted to her Instagram account on Thursday. 'Who wears short shorts? Twinning with my granddaughter @cameliasomers!,' she captioned the pic

The Three's Company star wore a long sleeve black top and brown boots that were almost identical to Camelia's white tank top and fuzzy slides.

'I have always told the kids, "I'm a different kind of grandmother!",' she added.

The duo showed off matching long blonde locks as they posed in the sunshine of Palm Springs, California, where Somers resides.

Their sun-kissed skin was on full display as they both showcased their sculpted legs.

Not a regular grandmother: 'I have always told the kids, "I'm a different kind of grandmother!",' she wrote in caption of the post; pictured here in 2018

Camelia also posted the stunning photo and commended her grandmother for her ageless beauty.

'Didn't expect to twin with my grandma when I threw on these shorts this morning,' the young actress wrote.

'SHE'S HOT!!!!,' The Bold and The Beautiful alum added.

The Thighmaster entrepreneur has been outspoken about taking the aging process in stride.

'Hot': Camelia also posted the stunning photo and commended her grandmother (here in 2019) for her ageless beauty: 'Didn't expect to twin with my grandma when I threw on these shorts this morning,' the young actress wrote, 'SHE'S HOT!!!!'

Happy couple: Last month, the Step By Step veteran gushed about her voraciously active sex life with her husband Alan Hamel, 84, after being married for more than four decades; pictured in 2019

'We don't have to fall apart as we age. One thing I love about aging  and I do love aging  I've got a wisdom that no young person can buy. You earn it,' she told People in June.

Last month, the Step By Step veteran gushed about her voraciously active sex life with her husband Alan Hamel, 84.

They have been married for more than four decades, and she shared that 'because of hormones we're having a lot of sex' on a recent episode of the podcast Heather Dubrow's World.

Suzanne added: 'And at this stage of life most people think that's, you know, over the hill. Too much information but what time is it, like noon? There's already been three - I've had sex with him three times so far today.'

Side by side: The dynamic duo are pictured together at Studio 54 in 1978, a year after they tied the knot with a priest and a rabbi jointly performing the wedding

She dished that he was awake and ready to romp at 4:30am and she drily asked him: 'Could you just wait like till the sun comes up?'

Back in 2019 she revealed to DailyMail.com that Alan's libido gets a boost from injections of the melanocortin based peptide PT-141.

'I'm kind of in that groove, like when you were younger and you're in the mood all the time, and so is he because he's on hormone replacements,' she spilled.

Suzanne discovered that PT-141 is a 'sexual stimulant that works on your brain' and integrated it into her sex life with her man.

Through the years: Suzanne and Alan, who lived together for years before they got married, are pictured in a portrait in 1980

'I thought: "Wow, what a great thing." Because men have had Viagra, but this is actually a shot for both men and women that's not a drug,' she insisted.

'It just stimulates that part of your brain that says: "Hey, I'm kind of in the mood." And, so, isn't that a wonderful thing? And it's not a drug, so I love it.'

They married in 1977 and although they did not have any children together, they had each become parents during their previous marriages.

Suzanne married Bruce Somers in 1965 at the age of 19 and had a son with him named Bruce Jr. before their divorce in 1968.

Meanwhile when he was 19 himself, Alan married a woman named Marilyn with whom he had his son Stephen and daughter Leslie.

More recently, the couple have worked together hosting Virtual Happy Hours from their home bar on Facebook Live amid the coronavirus lockdowns.
Millie Mackintosh and her husband Hugo Taylor made sure their daughter Sienna turned one with a bang on Saturday.

Sharing snaps of the festivities on Instagram, Millie, 31, revealed that they had given their lavish London home a pink makeover, decking it out with balloons, beautiful flowers and even a miniature tipi for their little girl to play in.

Millie looked gorgeous in a ruffled gingham dress for the occasion as she sipped champagne, while Hugo, 34, cut a dapper figure in a pink shirt and black jeans.

Happy birthday: Millie Mackintosh, 31, and her husband Hugo Taylor, 34, made sure their daughter Sienna turned one with a bang on Saturday

As for the birthday girl, her doting parents dressed her in an adorable pink party frock.

In a video shared by her mum on social media, Sienna was seen giggling as she unwrapped presents.

Millie also revealed she had ordered a beautiful floral birthday cake for her daughter.

Sharing snaps on Instagram, Millie wrote: 'Decorations fit for a princess! Thank you @elarievents for creating this dream backdrop for Sienna's first birthday.'

Wow: Sharing snaps of the festivities on Instagram, Millie revealed that they had given their lavish London home a pink makeover as she sipped on champagne

It comes hours after Millie shared a topless throwback photo of her baby bump taken the day before she welcomed Sienna into the world.

Posting the snap on Instagram, doting mother Millie wore nothing but a pair of black briefs and as she posed in her bedroom mirror.

The radiant photo - taken in Millie's bedroom - was dated 30 April 2020.

Transformation: Millie and Hugo decked out their home with balloons, beautiful flowers and even a miniature tipi for their little girl to play in

Stylish: Millie looked gorgeous in a ruffled gingham dress for the occasion as she cradled her daughter in the loving snaps

Days earlier, Millie revealed having larger breasts as a new mum has been a challenging 'adjustment' and she felt her lowest post-pregnancy when 'nothing fitted.'

Millie admitted she 'never had to dress for boobs' before welcoming daughter Sienna last year and joked her new cleavage is an 'obstruction.'

In an exclusive interview with MailOnline, Millie revealed she varied between being in awe of her body after giving birth to feeling 'stressed and self-conscious' over nothing fitting her post-postpartum.

Lucky girl: In a video shared by her mum on social media, Sienna was seen giggling as she unwrapped presents

She said: 'I never had to dress for boobs before! It has definitely been an adjustment. Milk boobs, they get bigger in pregnancy and then when your milk comes, that's literally a whole other thing.

'They're just like obstructions! They just wouldn't fit in anything. Then they started getting hard and leaking, it was a whole thing in that heatwave of last summer.'

Millie recently confessed to being 'ashamed' of her postpartum body.

But she insists those negative feelings came when she was at her lowest and frustrations about her clothes not fitting took over.

Impressive: Millie also revealed she had ordered a beautiful floral birthday cake for her daughter

Decorations: Taking to Instagram, Millie shared many photos of the day, including snaps of their gorgeous party decorations

She explained: 'I said at the time I did find it really hard having a baby and there were moments I did feel ashamed about my postpartum body. That is how I felt on a low day, not all the time.

'I was trying to emphasise I would go between being in awe of my body and like "wow I created this baby" and having all this appreciation for myself and "I'm making milk and feeding her and it's amazing" and other days I felt like  "argh, nothing fits, I feel uncomfortable and when I leave the house someone's taking my picture."

'I had that stress to think about, that made me feel more self-conscious  but I didn't feel like that all the time.

'I do massively appreciate my body. As time went on, it got easier but I think it's really important to be honest about these feelings and not to lie and say "I love my postpartum body every day!" I wanted to be honest about my reality but it's not like that for everyone.'

Millie, who was first famed for throwing drinks on Made in Chelsea, attending glamorous parties and being part of the west London set alongside close pal Caggie Dunlop, admitted something finally clicked in her life after she became a mum.

She said: 'It has changed me a lot. It has taught me a lot of lessons and I feel like I have come into myself more. I always wanted to be a mum. Things have clicked for me.

'There are tough days and tough times but I really love it and Sienna's amazing and I actually feel really fortunate to have had her during a lockdown because for us there have been a lot of benefits like having all the family time together with Hugo off work because he was on furlough, we had basically a year, the three of us, which was really amazing.
Ellie Bamber has already made it big in TV by starring in BBC dramas The Serpent, The Trial of Christine Keeler and Les Miserables, but shes yet to pick up her first big blockbuster pay cheque it seems  as you can tell from her car!

The 24-year-old has been pictured driving what I would call a beaten-up, second-hand BMW banger, above, which is even older than she is.

She might prefer the term classic.

TV star Ellie Bamber, 24, pictured, was wearing an oversize fine knit cardigan and carrying a Chanel rucksack while out and about in north London earlier this week

The star, pictured in her 30-year-old BMW convertible might be able to upgrade her 3-series now she is on the Disney payroll

Not only that, but she was pictured in North London, wearing a tired-looking dressing-gown style coat that doesnt exactly scream Hollywood megastar in the making.

Yet that is precisely what she is, as she starts filming Lucasfilms big fantasy blockbuster series Willow next week and will soon be raking it in, now shes on the Disney payroll.

Expect an upgrade from the 30-year-old BMW 3 Series soon...

Isabella's famous last words

At the emotional climax of the classic film Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart tells Ingrid Bergman: Well always have Paris, before their characters part ways for ever. And now the actresss daughter, Isabella Rossellini, has said farewell to her lockdown lover in just the same way.

Isabella has been enjoying a pandemic romance  her first for 20 years  with a mystery man, but sadly has ended things now lockdown is over.

I didnt expect that at 68 you can have a fling after 20 years, says New-York based Rossellini, whose exes include Gary Oldman and Martin Scorsese. I have to say it was very pleasant and very surprising.

We were caught in my house in those early months and now hes gone back to the West Coast, where he lives. So I always quote, Casablanca-style, to this man, Well always have Covid. 

My Lips are sealed, but...

Which famously attractive British TV drama star has taken a hunky male lover?

The pair enjoy languorous weekdays together at a smart postcode in East London, but at the weekend the A-list actor returns to the family home 75 miles away where his wife lives blissfully unaware with their baby!
She recently jetted back to the UK from Dubai after an extended stay in the UAE city for work.

And Gabby Allen looked on fine form on Saturday as she arrived at Capital Tower in London's Waterloo for a rooftop fitness session with Raise LDN.

The fitness fanatic, 28, was joined by fellow Love Island stars Arabella Chi and Amber Gill, as they beamed away while arriving at the event with pal Lorna Florence.

Look who it is: Gabby Allen looked on fine form on Saturday as she arrived at Capital Tower in London's Waterloo for a rooftop fitness session with Raise LDN

Gabby flashed a hint of washboard abs as she arrived for the gruelling workout, donning a white crop top beneath a cropped grey zip-up top.

She added a pair of white leggings and bright blue trainers to her sporty look, while carrying her essentials in a white bag slung over her shoulder.

The reality star appeared in good spirits as she displayed her toned figure in her fitness gear before heading inside.

Ready to go: The fitness fanatic, 28, was joined by fellow Love Island stars Arabella Chi and Amber Gill as they beamed away while arriving at the event with pal Lorna Florence

Meanwhile Arabella, 30, and Amber, 23, appeared excited for the challenge ahead as they giggled and chatted while walking down the street with their model pal.

Arabella dressed her incredible physique in a pair of khaki leggings, paired with a white hoodie and matching padded jacket.

She added white trainers and socks to her attire, while she slung a quilted white handbag across her body.

A newly-slimmed down Amber meanwhile looked amazing in a black padded jacket, black leggings and bright pink trainers.

Looking good: Gabby flashed a hint of washboard abs as she arrived for the gruelling workout, donning a white crop top beneath a cropped grey zip-up top

Workout ready: She added a pair of white leggings and bright blue trainers to her sporty look, while carrying her essentials in a white bag slung over her shoulder

Let's go! Meanwhile Arabella, 30, and Amber, 23, appeared excited for the challenge ahead as they giggled and chatted while walking down the street with their model pal

The beauty busied herself with her phone while strolling with her fellow fitness enthusiasts as they made their way to the fitness event.

The Love Island winner recently revealed that vile social media trolls motivated her to overhaul her fitness regime after unveiling her incredible one stone weight loss.

Amber who slimmed down with the help of a personal trainer, admitted she decided to get in shape after piling on the pounds by gorging on takeaways in lockdown.

Stunner: Arabella dressed her incredible physique in a pair of khaki leggings, paired with a white hoodie and matching padded jacket

Fitness enthusiast: She added white trainers and socks to her attire, while she slung a quilted white handbag across her body

Peachy: The model showed off her shapely posterior in her skintight leggings

Hello: Arabella looked back and flashed a smile before making her way inside

Since unveiling her impressive weight loss, Amber, who since launched the workout platform Amber Flexx, said she's never felt better, and urged her fans to take on the same challenge before lockdown restrictions are lifted.

Amber told The Sun that like most of the nation her weight crept up during lockdown, after her previously fast-paced life helped to keep her slim.

She said: 'The only enjoyment came from planning what I was going to eat. If I wasn't in the gym I couldn't motivate myself and eating healthily went out of the window.'

Ready to train: Meanwhile, a newly-slimmed down Amber looked amazing in a black padded jacket, black leggings and bright pink trainers

'I stopped getting enjoyment out of taking selfies or sharing photos on Instagram. I ordered takeaways because I didn't like cooking, and was snacking because there was nothing else to do.'

Amber added that she decided to do something back in October when vile trolls started commenting she was 'fat' under a TikTok post.

She added: 'After some horrible comments, I was thinking, ''I'm just going to start exercising and see what happens''.'
Jessa Duggar Seewald and her husband Ben have broken their silence following the arrest of brother Josh Duggar for possession and receipt of child pornography  to which he pled not guilty on Friday April 30.

The reality star and soon-to-be mother of four children, 28,  who claimed to have been one of his alleged victims  released a statement alongside her husband on Instagram Saturday in which they said they were 'saddened,' by the news.

The couple is the latest to condemn the father of six's actions with sisters Jinger and Jill releasing statements alongside parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, after the sex pest's behavior was exposed.

Speaking out: Jessa Duggar Seewald, 28, and her husband Ben broke their silence Saturday following sex pest brother Josh Duggar's arrest on two counts of child pornography

Sadness: The joint statement read: 'We are saddened to hear of the charges against Josh. As Christians, we stand against any form of pornography or abuse and we desire for the truth to be exposed, whatever that may be'

The joint statement read: 'We are saddened to hear of the charges against Josh. As Christians, we stand against any form of pornography or abuse and we desire for the truth to be exposed, whatever that may be.'

'Our prayers are with their family as they walk through this difficult time,' the pair concluded.

Jess's sister Jinger Vuolo posted a statement Friday on behalf of she and husband Jeremy Vuolo, after news of Josh's arrest made headlines.

'We are disturbed to hear of the charges against Josh. While this case must go through the legal system, we want to make it clear that we absolutely condemn any form of child abuse and fully support the authorities and judicial process in their pursuit of justice.' her message read.

And their sister Jill also poke out after news of the arrest: 'We just found out this information yesterday,' Jill and husband Derick Dillard said in a statement to People before details of the charges were made public. 'It is very sad.'

Not guilty: Josh Duggar, 33, pleaded not guilty to child porn charges on Friday during a virtual federal court hearing after he was booked for the receipt and possession of graphic minor material

Booked: Duggar was taken into custody in Springdale, Arkansas a day earlier after turning himself in but the charges were not announced at the time

Steep sentence: If convicted, Duggar faces up to 20 years in prison

Meanwhile, Josh's cousin Amy King revealed she's 'devastated' by the charges.

Speaking to The Sun, Amy, 34, said: 'At the moment I have no comment to make. I'm kind of speechless, we just hope it's not true.

'I spoke with several of my cousins after we heard about the arrest. We're in shock, but we don't want to think the worst of someone, you want to think the best. If it is true it would absolutely devastate a lot of people.'

Amy added: 'Everybody that knows Josh would be devastated. Just thinking about it makes me want to have a glass of wine right now.'

The former 19 Kids and Counting star pleaded not guilty to the federal charges on Friday during a virtual court hearing during which was ordered to live with a third party with no children if he is granted bond.

Reality fame: The Arkansas-based family rose to fame on 19 Kids And Counting and she and Ben are soon to have a fourth child

Jinger Duggar - now known as Jinger Vuolo - has released a statement to condemn her brother Josh after he was arrest on possession of child pornography. She is pictured here with husband Jeremy Vuolo

Speaking out: Jinger said she was 'disturbed' by the charges against her brother in a post she shared to Instagram on Friday

'We just found out this information yesterday,' Jill and husband Derick Dillard said in a statement to People before details of the charges were made public. 'It is very sad.'

Josh's cousin also spoke out - telling The Sun 'If it is true it would absolutely devastate a lot of people.'

Duggar was taken into custody in Springdale, Arkansas a day earlier after turning himself in but the charges were not announced at the time. He is charged with receiving and possessing material depicting the sexual abuse of children.

According to the indictment, he is alleged to have downloaded child sexual abuse material online in May 2019. Some of the child pornography material he is accused of possessing shows children under the age of 12.

If convicted, Duggar faces up to 20 years in prison.

Prior to the charges being formally announced, a source told The Sun that his wife was 'standing by' him and accompanied him to the police station.

His arrest followed a Homeland Security raid on his now-closed car dealership, Wholesale Motorcars, in Springdale, Arkansas back in November 2019. He was not charged at the time.

'We love Josh': The disgraced star's parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar appear to be standing by their son and said they will 'continue to pray' for him and his family

'The accusations brought against Joshua today are very serious' His parents issued this statement on Friday

His parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, issued a statement on Friday, saying they were praying for their son and pregnant daughter-in-law.

'The accusations brought against Joshua today are very serious,' they said.

'It is our prayer that the truth, no matter what it is, will come to light, and that this will all be resolved in a timely manner. We love Josh and Anna and continue to pray for their family.'

The couple rose to fame on TLC show 19 Kids and Counting which documented their family life in rural Arkansas and raising their kids in a devout Christian Baptist environment.

The arrest marks Duggar's latest brush with the law after his father, Jim Bob, reported him to police in 2006 for allegedly molesting five young girls over multiple occasions back when he was 14 and 15.

Large brood: The arrest marks Duggar's latest brush with the law after his father, Jim Bob, reported him to police in 2006 for allegedly molesting five young girls over multiple occasions back when he was 14 and 15

It took several years and a tip-off to local police that finally forced Jim Bob to report his son's behavior to authorities.

Josh's behavior was first discovered in March of 2002, when one of his youngest sisters went to Jim Bob 'very upset and crying'. Josh admitted to touching her breasts and genitals while she was sleeping on multiple occasions.

In the report, Jim Bob said Josh was 'disciplined,' though didn't reveal what the discipline entailed.

But there were more incidents to follow after that. And it was revealed that Jim Bob decided to finally go to authorities after an anonymous tip was made to the Arkansas State Police Child Abuse Hotline about Josh's behavior.

Finally speaking to police on Dec. 12, 2006, Jim Bob said when he learned about what his son was doing, he 'met with the elders of his church and told them what was going on.'

Jim Bob, reported Josh to police in 2006 for allegedly molesting five young girls over multiple occasions back when he was 14 and 15. He waited several years before reporting it and only did when an anonymous tip was made to the Arkansas State Police Child Abuse Hotline about Josh's behavior

It wasn't until May 2015, when the police report leaked in the media, that details of the accusations against Josh went public. The reality show was cancelled by TLC two months later

They sent Josh to a Christian program that consisted of hard physical work and counseling from March 17, 2003 to July 17, 2003.

It later emerged that the institute's founder, Bill Gothard, was accused of sexually harassing or assaulting 34 women in 2014 and resigned shortly afterward.

It wasn't until May 2015, when the police report leaked in the media, that details of the accusations went public. The reality show was cancelled by TLC two months later.

Duggar's sisters, Jessa and Jill Duggar, have since claimed they were two of their brother's alleged victims.

Duggar's wife Anna and family all stood by him after the sex abuse scandal emerged, with Jessa and Jill saying they had forgiven him.

Josh and wife Anna, who has stood by him throughout his legal woes, are expecting their seventh child together

Josh and Anna's announcement on Instagram three days earlier that they are expecting another child. 'It's a GIRL!!!!!' the caption for the clip began

He also issued a public apology addressing the claims saying: 'Twelve years ago, as a young teenager, I acted inexcusably for which I am extremely sorry and deeply regret. I hurt others, including my family and close friends.'

Just months later, Duggar was rocked by another scandal when it was revealed that he had an account on Ashley Madison - the cheating website for married men.

He released yet another statement apologizing for cheating on his wife, saying: 'I have been the biggest hypocrite ever. While espousing faith and family values, I have secretly over the last several years been viewing pornography on the Internet and this has become a secret addiction and I became unfaithful to my wife.'

His arrest on the latest charges came just days after he and his wife Anna announced they were expecting their seventh child.

Anna shared the news to Instagram on Saturday with a video of herself and her husband hugging in a field with all six of their kids running toward the camera.

Anna was pregnant in 2015 when the molestation became public knowledge. They have been married since 2008

The announcement doubled as a gender reveal as pink confetti came out of a clear umbrella the couple - who are both 33 - was holding over their heads.

Prior to the charges being formally announced, a source told The Sun that his wife was 'standing by' him and accompanied him to the police station.

'Anna is standing by her husband as she always has,' the source said. 'Josh and Anna asked the family to pray for them, and said that they love them.'

Meanwhile, TLC issued a statement in light of the arrest, telling People: 'TLC is saddened to learn about the continued troubles involving Josh Duggar,

'19 Kids and Counting has not aired since 2015. TLC cancelled the show on the heels of prior allegations against Josh Duggar and he has not appeared on-air since then.'

Jill, 29, also came out as one of Josh's victims. Jim Bob and Michelle also told the local police that Josh had 'apologized' to his victims and said they had 'forgiven' him

Just months after the molestation allegations hit headlines, Duggar was rocked by another scandal when it was revealed that he had an account on Ashley Madison - the cheating website for married men

Josh has had several scrapes with the law in recent years.

Four of the girls were his sisters but he was never criminally charged. He spent several months in a Christian rehab facility where he was treated for a sex addiction.

He was sued by a porn star in 2015 for allegedly assaulting her during sex but the lawsuit was later dropped.

Duggar is also currently in the midst of a separate legal battle after a civil lawsuit was filed against him for real estate fraud.
"Forced labor" in Xinjiang a false assertion: Xinjiang official

Xinhua) 09:52, May 01, 2021

BEIJING, April 30 (Xinhua) -- The so-called forced labor in Xinjiang is a false assertion, a spokesperson with the government of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region said here on Friday.

In response to accusations of forced labor in Xinjiang, spokesperson Xu Guixiang told a press briefing that the employment of people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang is protected by law, and Xinjiang has been strictly implementing the country's labor law.

Moreover, people in Xinjiang have freedom in employment, and what the government does is to improve employment policies and provide a good employment environment, Xu added.

"Whether in Xinjiang or any other region of China, the rights and interests of workers of all ethnic groups are respected and protected by law, including the rights to religious beliefs, ethnic cultures and languages," Xu said.

The forced labor accusations against Xinjiang, which were fabricated by certain anti-China forces in the United States and the West, constitute power politics and bullying practices, said Xu.

He added that their purpose is to undermine China's participation in global value chains, weaken the global competitiveness of Chinese enterprises, and use the Xinjiang conspiracy to contain China.

(Web editor: He Zhuoyan, Bianji)
AmorePacific's cosmetics store in Gwangyo, Gyeonggi Province / Courtesy of AmorePacific



By Kim Jae-heun



Last year, AmorePacific gave up its No. 1 cosmetics firm position in sales to LG Household & Health Care (LG H&H) after reporting 4.93 trillion won ($4.4 billion) in sales compared to the latter's 5.55 trillion won.



In response, AmorePacific declared that it would go all-out in its online business to reclaim its former title, while LG H&H promised to maintain its current position through global diversification.



Until recently, AmorePacific had decided not to focus on the e-commerce sector as it believed it would have to offer discounts for online products, which could impact sales at its physical outlets. Franchisees of its sub-label skincare brands also agreed with this strategy.



However, the company has no choice now, especially after its Chinese market was struck hard by the COVID-19 pandemic; although the situation enabled the online cosmetics market to flourish at the same time.



In March, AmorePacific established a new digital sales team and started to sell promotional products online both in Korea and China. Two months earlier, it offered its premium brand Sulwhasoo products on a live e-commerce platform, and achieved 160 million won in sales in one hour.



"We are aiming to increase revenue from our premium brands via e-commerce by at least 30 percent this year," an AmorePacific official said.



LG H&H's strategy, on the other hand, is to target a broader international customer base through global expansion.



The firm is targeting the North American market first through New Avon, which it acquired in 2019. It will use New Avon's local retail channels to sell its Belif and Beyond brands.



LG H&H also secured a business license to sell Physiogel's skin care products, and is targeting the Chinese market with the brand.



Physiogel's business performance in the Chinese market will decide which among the two corporate cosmetic giants wins. AmorePacific's sales coming from China make up 80 percent of its overseas sales, while LG H&H's sales there constitute 50 percent.



The Chinese market is back on track again as cosmetics sales there grew by 40 percent between January and February compared to the same period last year.



AmorePacific closed 200 stores in China last year; but this year is looking for opportunities through online shopping platforms such as Tmall.



LG H&H saw its online cosmetics business in China soar 21 percent in 2020, and will focus on selling premium brands there this year.



"Whether local cosmetics brands will be able to accomplish a third boom will depend on their performance in the Chinese market," said Daishin Securities researcher Han Yoo-jung.


Coronavirus

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Focus to shift from mass clinics

nwicker / Nathan Wicker/The Daily Sentinel Nathan Wicker/The Daily Sentinel Linda Marshall administers a COVID-19 vaccine to Rebecca Gonzalez during a shot clinic Wednesday at the Nacogdoches County Exposition and Civic Center. Large shot clinics will soon come to an end at health officials shift focus to a more targeted approach. nwicker / Nathan Wicker/The Daily Sentinel Nathan Wicker/The Daily Sentinel Anthony Vargas, an LVN with Excel ER, prepares a syringe during Wednesdays shot clinic at the Nacogdoches County Exposition and Civic Center. nwicker / Nathan Wicker/The Daily Sentinel Nathan Wicker/The Daily Sentinel SFA nursing instructor Michelle Klein prepares a syringe with the COVID-19 vaccine during Wednesdays clinic at the Nacogdoches County Exposition and Civic Center. nwicker / Nathan Wicker/The Daily Sentinel Nathan Wicker/The Daily Sentinel An unused syringe prior to being prepared with the COVID-19 vaccine. nwicker / Nathan Wicker/The Daily Sentinel Nathan Wicker/The Daily Sentinel Nurse Matthew Malloy (left) administers Hanna Jacksons vaccine during Wednesdays clinic at the Nacogdoches County Exposition and Civic Center. nwicker / Nathan Wicker/The Daily Sentinel Nathan Wicker/The Daily Sentinel Javier Gonzales receives a COVID-19 vaccine from Matthew Malloy of Nacgodoches Memorial Hospital during a shot clinic Wednesday at the Nacogdoches County Exposition and Civic Center. Large shot clinics will soon come to an end as health officials shift focus to a more targeted approach. nwicker / Nathan Wicker/The Daily Sentinel Nathan Wicker/The Daily Sentinel John Jenkins (left) receives his vaccine shot from Kelly Poole (right) during Wednesdays clinic at the Nacogdoches County Exposition and Civic Center.

Just shy of a third of eligible Nacogdoches County residents are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and the days of mass vaccination clinics where public health officials offer upwards of 2,000 shots a day soon could be coming to an end.

After a shot clinic with more than 1,800 patients this week, 28.2% of county residents 16 and older are fully vaccinated. Thats more than 14,000 people, and an additional 5,000 people have received at least one dose of the two-dose vaccine made by Moderna.

Theres more vaccine available now than people who want vaccine for now, said Nacogdoches Fire Chief Keith Kiplinger, who is in charge of logistics for local shot clinics.

Starting this month, health officials will shift to a more community-focused model for shot clinics.

Were going to reformulate a bit and do more targeted clinics, trying to reach neighborhoods and populations all over the county, Kiplinger said. Were going to try to get out in the community a little more. Weve reached the point we wont fill 1,000 appointments in a day.

Demand remained high this week. Somewhere around 350 people funneled into the clinic at the Nacogdoches County Expo Center during the first hour.

They were lined up in the road when we got here, said County Commissioner Robin Dawley who volunteered to transport patients in an ATV from the far ends of the massive parking lot to the door of the expo center.

As demand soared, the typical workforce was drastically diminished.

Stephen F. Austin State University Nursing students typically give the majority of shots during the mass vaccination clinics. This week, those students, who are easily distinguished by their SFA-colored purple scrubs, were largely absent to prepare for final exams ahead of next weekends graduation.

I have two who volunteered, SFA nursing instructor Michelle Klein said during the clinic. But Ive got to make them leave soon because they have a major exam tomorrow.

Paramedics  Kiplinger included  stepped in to give shots alongside nurses from Excel ER and both the citys hospitals as well as SFA instructors.

The nursing students play a vital role, clinic organizers said, and a dozen of them have been hired to continue shot clinics throughout the summer.

The typical all-hands-on-deck approach extended beyond giving shots and rides to patients. Nacogdoches City Manager Mario Canizares was directing patients to tables to fill out consent forms. A hospital administrator was sorting Band Aids. Dozens of people from all walks of city and county government took on roles.

Since shot eligibility opened to all Texans older than 16, a diverse group has been showing up for inoculation. Wednesdays crowd seemed to be an even mix of older adults and SFA students. The university provided bus service to the clinic several times throughout the day.

Another clinic is scheduled for May 5. Both Moderna and Johnson & Johnson shots will be available. The Johnson & Johnson shot was briefly on pause as the federal Food and Drug Administration evaluated its safety following reports of incredibly rare but serious blood clots.

Appointments are available from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and can be scheduled by going to tinyurl.com/VacNac or by calling 936-305-8488.

Health officials are also expecting to soon receive a shipment of Pfizers vaccine, which is approved for teens as young as 16. The Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are not approved for use in anyone younger than 18.

Pfizer is also seeking permission to lower their minimum age to 12 after clinical trials.

As that rolls out thats another big clinic day, Kiplinger said. I see us doing a big clinic day on a Saturday where moms and dads can bring their kids.
Beenie Man has been at the top of Dancehall music since the 1990s. The 47-year-olds stage performance and musical abilities have given him a Grammy award and several Mobo awards.

He and his long-time arch-nemesis, Bounty Killer, are credited by producers Swizz Beatz and Timbaland with setting the performance bar for the online music series Verzuz when they performed last year and have since received equity in the billion-dollar multimedia company Triller after a partnership deal with Verzuz.

In this interview, Beenie Man shares stories about his other rivals, conquests in Dancehall, and insight into how he managed to remain relevant in music over the years.

Wah yah deal with JR

Beenie, greetings, you are arguably the best performer in the world. My favorite performance with you was with Capleton at Amazura nightclub. Tell me about that time.

It wasnt something that was planned. We deh a show and the time was done, the same thing that started our rift brought back the unity. The time a finish and Capleton fi work and I say come een fyah man. I got back into good vibes and good music. It was a serious gesture and it worked because he respected it and him love it and when me see wah gwan I got into the vibes. Before that me and Capleton never talked and that night deh we talked with music.

I noticed it seemed as if you both recorded the songs together at the same time.

Yes, it was the same timeline. Hits after hit, me get a hit and him get a hit. Sometimes me get two hits but it was so competitive between me and him but then it just turned into love.

Your songs captured the essence of the time. Whats different between then and now?

You know Dancehall different now because artists anuh friend, them not on the same beat. But I cant adapt to that.

You have dabbled in many different genres of music, even K-Pop.

Yes, I cant beat wah gwan now but we (cant) lose the authenticity of where the music coming from. We not even sampling a Reggae drum that means we lose the authentic Jamaican feel. Dancehall come from Rubba Dub. Every dancehall artist from Michigan and Smiley and U-roy used to be chanters of songs, thats where its coming from. We do all Pocomania dancehall.

I heard Clevie, (of Steelie and Clevie) said when he started making rhythms he used to call the music reggae and it was the people who called it Dancehall.

Yes because it used to play in the dance hall. Hear why we became dancehall artists; We stayed. Everyone else came and got a band and left. Bands dont play in dancehall, sound systems play in dancehall. So they called us dancehall artists.

Who made you want to become a dancehall artist?

When I realized I could talk. I had a stutter, but when I sang the words flow. So me a seh ok I see wah gwan and start DJ when the teacher called me up to read. My yard was the Ethiopian Orthodox yard because my father was sent here by Sellassie I.

Jimmy Cliff was there and my Uncle was playing in his band and that was the base where I was brought up. There was a sound called Master Blaster. So I would sing the reading books and then I met a DJ named General Trees and I would watch him DJ. Then I said this is what I wanted to do from his influence.

Did your family support you when you began?

My mother, who called it buggy yagga music, is a christian and she never liked DJ business. But then I won Tastees (song competition) and started coming on TV I got popular and she didnt stop me.

Rest in Peace to her. Tell me another moment that validated your music and career?

Other than winning Tastees, my defining moment was 1991 when Mandella came to Jamaica. I decided to pick up back music after going through tough times. In 1991, Mandela came to Jamaica and I went on stage and got a boo. That was the day I decide that music is it. Some man discouraged me but I had two directions; I didnt forward back to my yard. I deal with the road that will free me.

Did you meet Mandela?

After I became a star I met him in South Africa.

You won a Grammy. What do you think of the organization?

The youngest person on the Grammy board is my age, changes will come but thats the United States Of America. Its an American business and them take long to change things. Right now is a reggae Grammy for, whether you sing dancehall, Soca or Reggae (laughs). Dancehall is one of the biggest music in the world. When Rihanna sings it its still Dancehall.

Dancehall music makes up only 1% of the worlds music consumption.

What happened to Justin Biebers song? When they categorize the music people dont recognize where it comes from. It doesnt need no other name. If dancehall is not marketable why does Sean Paul sell so much?

How do you suggest (dancehall) artists sell more records?

Artists just need the right team. If I had, for example, you on my team, I as an artist with a brand, I know that will go cause I have a brand.

Whats the name of your upcoming album?

Simma, it is a reminder, so when me seh Simma the world will know its Beenie Man.

Big up, Beenie Man.

Thanks, J Big Up.
When asked if reaching herd immunity is important, Dr. Tom Balcezak, of Yale New Haven Health, has a simple answer.

If you dont want people to die of this disease, absolutely, he said.

But the question is whether its feasible, despite continued progress with the states vaccine program.

Bridget Lesizza, for example, cannot be vaccinated against COVID, according to her doctors advice.

My cardiologist advised me not to get vaccinated because there wasn't enough research on patients like myself to understand how it would affect my heart, she said.

Four years ago, Lesizza went into cardiac arrest four times in rapid succession. It was later determined that she had brugada syndrome, a disruption of the hearts rhythm and a dangerous fluid buildup around her heart.

They discovered that I had gotten the flu vaccine, said Lesizza, who owns the Reef Shack in Fairfield. With some people when you get vaccinated, you can get a buildup of fluid around the organs.

Shes not against vaccinations. Far from it: She has encouraged her social circle to get vaccinated. We were joking, Get vaccinated for me! Do it for Bridge!

In fact, Lesizza is hoping enough people in Connecticut and the United States get vaccinated against COVID-19 so she does not face the prospect of the rest of her life behind a mask.

Im banking on people getting vaccinated and building up the herd immunity to go on living life without a mask, she said. Emotionally, that would just take too much of a toll on me.

Bridget Lesizza / Contributed photo

Defining immunity

Herd immunity, or population immunity, which UConn Healths David Banach described as a high enough level of immunity to prevent the ongoing transmission of infection, is a somewhat moving target.

I think what we know is that immunity, at least based on neutralizing antibodies, lasts at least six months, said Banach, an infectious disease physician and hospital epidemiologist at UConn Health. We don't know if it's going to be six months, 12 months, 18 months, but it's at least six months.

There are some complicating factors. Some people in and outside Connecticut will refuse to be vaccinated, and children younger than 16 are not yet eligible. Even when you add those who are naturally immune from contracting the virus with those who have been vaccinated, it might not be enough to prevent transmission of the virus.

I think it's going to be difficult for the entire state and the entire country to achieve population-level immunity. And then, you know, we live in a global world, Banach said. I think getting there will be really difficult on the current trajectory.

The number to shoot for is 85 percent. That, according to UConn computational biology professor Pedro Mendes, is how many people must be immune in a given population to prevent transmission of the virus given the new variants that are more infective.

It is now much harder to estimate given that the variants are all mixing up, he said. So it may be prudent to say 80 to 85 percent.

He estimates 46 percent of the state is immune, including those who have been vaccinated and those who have recovered from COVID.

The critical vaccination level to achieve herd immunity is not exactly known, but must be in the range of 75 to 85 percent, Mendes said. Therefore, this is hard to achieve without vaccinating children younger than 16 (which comprise close to 20 percent of the population). Obviously, adults that refuse to take the vaccine will also make it difficult.

Global and local

Stopping or just decreasing viral transmission is important, Balcezak said, to prevent the emergence of new, potentially more infectious and deadly variants. The more opportunity the virus has to replicate the more likely a variant will emerge that evades immunity.

It will eventually make its way to the United States, he said. There is no way you can close your border to these things.

So whether we reach global population immunity depends on what we decide as a country and as a world, Balcezak said.

Banach believes reaching herd immunity on a global scale, or even statewide, is unlikely anytime soon.

Herd immunity, which is typically, classically defined as population-level immunity within a state or country, that is going to be very difficult to achieve, he said.

But on a smaller scale, on a town-wide level, it is theoretically possible that enough people will be vaccinated to limit transmission of the virus.

Within communities, maybe given towns for instance, they may be able to achieve a high enough proportion of immunity, that the risk of spread within that town would be quelled sufficiently, Banach said. There's a huge disparity in vaccine coverage between towns in Connecticut. It's pretty striking that some towns have very high levels of vaccination, over 70 percent, and other towns are much lower.

Community-level immunity would suit Lesizza just fine.

I live my life at the community level, she said. The community level is more important, because thats how we all live.

If not immunity then lower transmission

Success, Banach said, is not an all-or-nothing proposition. Every individual vaccination reduces the virus ability to transmit and replicate.

Being able to decrease transmission doesn't necessarily require that a certain percentage of the population be immune, he said. I think we'll still see benefits in terms of reducing transmission as we increase vaccination. Even if we cant achieve total population immunity, we can still impact transmission by increasing our level of immunity, particularly in certain communities.

Balcezak is a bit more hopeful. We are not finished in terms of our ability to vaccinate, he said.

There are barriers to vaccination, including both hesitancy and access issues, Balcezak said, but there may be encouraging factors as well.

Population immunity will be achievable only if we can get children to be vaccinated, Mendes said, and there has been some progress on that front.

Some colleges are asking students to be vaccinated in order to return to campus in the fall. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is considering proposals to vaccinate children as young as 12. There is ongoing research to examine the possibility of vaccinating children as young as 6 years old against COVID-19.

There are vaccine mandates, but also incentives. Some companies and states are offering incentives to get vaccinated against COVID. In Connecticut, some restaurants are offering free drinks. In West Virginia, the state is offering a $100 savings bond.

It may be a combination of all of those things that gets us over that hump, Balcezak said. I would not be surprised if a year from now we were having a completely different conversation.
Thank you for reading!

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May brings an eclectic range of new K-dramas to watch as viewers look for their next fix after a run of big shows, including "Vincenzo," that are now winding down.



On offer will be a new period drama, a modern twist on a Korean folk tale, and a romance set during the Gwangju Uprising, among others.



'Bossam: Steal the Fate'





A poster for 'Bossam: Steal the Fate' / Courtesy of MBN



The next period drama to grace TV screens will be a drama set in the Joseon Era in ancient Korea. "Bossam" is a popular Korean steamed pork belly dish, but the word also connotes an old custom whereby an ageing bachelor would secretly wrap a widow in a blanket to make her his wife.



The show stars Jung Il-woo as Bau, a degenerate who performs this questionable "bossam" custom for money and, during one such engagement, mistakenly kidnaps Princess Soo-Kyung, played by Kwon Yu-ri.



Soo-Kyung is the daughter of Prince Gwanghae and, in a secret political agreement, she wed the older brother of a man she loved, only to become a widow on her wedding day. (airs May 1, MBN)



'Youth of May'





A poster for 'Youth of May' / Courtesy of KBS



Lee Do-hyun and Go Min-si, who played brother and sister in last year's hit Netflix series "Sweet Home," will reunite as the protagonists in a budding romance in the "Youth of May." Lee plays Hee-tae, a top medical student, while Go Min-si plays Myung-hee, a nurse at the same hospital.



The show is set in May, 1980, during the Gwangju Uprising, in which government troops shot dead hundreds of pro-democracy protesters. The show will present the romance of Hee-tae and Myung-hee against this tumultuous backdrop, as a Gwangju hospital fills to beyond capacity with injured protesters  an image recently seen in the hit movie "A Taxi Driver." (May 3, KBS2)



'Mine'



A poster for 'Mine' / Courtesy of tvN



While we wait for season three of "The Penthouse" to come on air in June, we'll get another glimpse of the world of women fighting in high society in the tvN drama "Mine." Lee Bo-young stars as Seo Hee-soo, a top actress who gives up her career when she marries the second son of the powerful family behind the Hyowon Group. Though no longer an actress, she tries her best to play her new role, acting the part of the confident daughter-in-law in this family.



Meanwhile, Kim Seo-hyung plays Jung Seo-hyun, the refined and rational woman married to the family's eldest son. The show will explore the lives and tribulations of these strong women, as they go up against prejudices and try to figure out what is "mine." (May 8, tvN)



'Doom at Your Service'





A poster for 'Doom at Your Service' / Courtesy of tvN



Park Bo-young returns to the small screen in the romantic drama "Doom at Your Service," which in Korean has the lengthy and memorable title "One Day Doom Entered My House through the Front Door."



She plays Dong-kyeong, a young editor who has been working for a web novel company for six years and has been working hard ever since the death of her parents. Seo In-guk stars as Myeol-mang, a messenger between the gods and humans who appears before her.



Dong-kyeong's ordinary life is turned upside down when she signs a 100-day contract with the stoic Myeol-mang, who follows fate unhesitatingly and without emotion. (May 10, tvN)



'Move to Heaven'



A poster for 'Move to Heaven' / Courtesy of Netflix



Currently starring in the action drama "Taxi Driver," Lee Je-hoon will also be on screen in May as the lead actor in "Move to Heaven," the latest Korean original series from Netflix. The show has a unique premise with its focus on the workers of a service that handles the homes and effects of the recently departed.



Geu-roo, played by Tang Joon-sang, is a young man with Asperger's syndrome who works at such a service, called "Move to Heaven," which is run by his father. One day his own father dies, and his new guardian is his uncle Sang-goo (Lee Je-hoon), a cold character who spent time in jail. The unlikely pair begin running the service together. (May 14, Netflix)



'My Roommate is a Gumiho'



A poster for 'My Roommate is a Gumiho' / Courtesy of tvN
Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Friday asked the state government to reconsider its decision to go ahead with the conduct of final exams to Class 10 and Intermediate in the wake of the spread of Coronavirus.

A division bench headed by Chief Justice A.K. Goswami and Justice C. Praveen Kumar heard a batch of petitions filed by students seeking either postponement or cancellation of the exams in the wake of the prevalence of the second wave of the pandemic.

The court observed that when nearly 30 lakh students and teachers were to take part in the exercise, how they could be protected from getting infected with the virus. It asked how exams would be held for students infected with the virus as they were supposed to be either in home isolation or in the hospital taking treatment as per the norms of the Centre.

The court said that several states either deferred or cancelled the exams while CBSE and ICSE also followed suit and asked the state government to reconsider its decision on the conduct of final exams and asked the government to file a memo and posted the next hearing on May 3.

However, advocate-general S. Sriram informed the court that the state government was taking all necessary measures to conduct the exams without causing any trouble to the students.

It may be mentioned that the state government, despite facing severe criticism from the opposition parties on its decision to go ahead with the conduct of annual exams for Class 10 and intermediate, has been maintaining that it was for the good academic future of the students.

Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy also clarified on the issue by saying that it would take no time either to defer or to cancel the exams but as their government was committed to safeguarding the academic interests of the students, they had taken a decision that involved a lot of preparations for the conduct of exams to ensure no student or teacher to be infected with the virus.
ARBL belongs to the family of former TD legislator Galla Arunakumari and Guntur TD MP Galla Jayadev.  DC Image

NELLORE: Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (AP PCB) on Saturday ordered immediate closure of plants belonging to Amara Raja Batteries Limited (ARBL) at Karkambadi and Nunegundlapalli villages in Chittoor district.

The board attributed closure orders to severe pollution caused by ARBL plants in the surrounding villages.

ARBL belongs to the family of former TD legislator Galla Arunakumari and Guntur TD MP Galla Jayadev.

In the notice served to Amara Raja company on Saturday, board officials underlined presence of high levels lead in blood samples collected from people of the villages.

The lead values in blood are high (35%). Excess lead values in blood samples of those in surrounding villagers show that operation of these units is endangering public health the notice said.

PCB further requested AP SPDCL to disconnect power supply to ARBL-run MVRLA, automotive batteries division, small battery unit, tubular unit, and unit 3 located along Chittoor-Bangalore road at Nunegundlapalli village of Bangarupalem mandal in Chittoor district.

Management of ARBL has said they are taking all necessary steps to comply with orders given by AP PCB. They have also pressed into action contingency plans to avoid dislocation in supplies of batteries to their customers across product segments, including essential-service segments like defence, hospitals and telecom.

We shall continue to make our efforts to engage with AP PCB authorities in the interest of avoiding dislocation in supplies to some of our largest clients in sensitive sectors. At a time of a national emergency in the form of the Covid pandemic, such dislocation could be calamitous, the management said in a press release on Saturday.
The Chief Minister directed Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar to obtain a comprehensive report from the District Collector and also asked the Vigilance and Enforcement department to find out the truth in the allegations. (Photo: twitter @TelanganaCMO)

HYDERABAD: Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday ordered a probe into the allegations of a poultry farm owned by Health Minister Eatala Rajender encroaching assigned lands in Achampet village in the Chief Ministers native Medak district.

The Chief Minister directed Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar to obtain a comprehensive report from the District Collector and also asked the Vigilance and Enforcement department to find out the truth in the allegations (made against the ministers company). The Chief Ministers decision comes in the wake of a vernacular TV channel, owned by his own family, airing reports claiming to have exposed the encroachment of assigned lands by the health minister.

However, later in the evening, Rajendar held a press conference and dared the Chief Minister to get a probe done by a sitting judge or any investigating agency empowered by the law of the land and prove that he encroached land belonging to the assignees. Describing the media reports as a pre-planned attack to malign his image, the Minister said truth would ultimately prevail.

Sources close to the Chief Minister told Deccan Chronicle that Rao in all likelihood would remove Rajendar from the Cabinet. The swift political developments will have far-reaching consequences and huge impact on state politics. All eyes are on the next move of Eatala, a strong and wealthy politician hailing from Mudiraj community and a close associate of finance minister T. Harish Rao.

The CMs camp waited for the ministers press conference to see if he would quit on his own but the defiant minister not only declined to step down but also made several comments that would have a direct bearing on the Chief Minister or on his governments decisions.

The CMO official media release also said, The CM issued orders that the preliminary inquiry into the matter should be done immediately, giving strength to the rumours that Rao was in a hurry to get rid of the health minister. The situation reached a flashpoint now, said sources in the CM camp.

According to T News, owned by Rao family, the health ministers Jamuna Hatcheries was in possession of large extent of assignment land and was laying a road across their lands despite protests from the villagers. A former district collector and a serving additional collector went on record that the health minister asked them to regularize lands in his companys favour but they refused as it was against rules.

The health minister was a close confidant of the Chief Minister during the struggle for separate statehood and even during the first term of the TRS government. Known for his proximity with Harish Rao, the health minister had fallen out of the CMs camp after his controversial remarks that the party did not belong to any individual. Sources said the relationship deteriorated particularly after a section of the ruling party made serious attempts to install KCRs son and Minister KT Rama Rao as Chief Minister.

The flashpoint, the insiders say, was candid remarks made by the health minister in the past few days with regard to the failure of the health care system to handle the Covid pandemic. At a time when Chief Minister and son and minister K.T. Rama Rao were in isolation after getting infected, the health minister shot into the limelight. Though he primarily attacked the Centre, he had to inadvertently admit the flaws in the state also.
HYDERABAD: An uneasy calm prevails between Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and health minister Etala Rajendar ever since the TRS government assumed office for the second term in December 2018.

Notably, while KCR took oath as CM for the second term shortly after the TRS won the assembly polls with a landslide majority, he took only Mohd

Mahmood Ali into his cabinet. KCR carried on the show in this form for two months until February 12, 2019.

A two-man show for such a duration was a record of sorts in the Indian governance system.

KCR expanded his cabinet on February 12, 2019 by inducting ten ministers. Speculations were rife in TRS circles then that Eatala's name was missing in the list of 10 names finalised by the CM on February 11, 2019 -- a day prior to the cabinet expansion.

Lending credence to this, Etala rushed to Pragathi Bhavan and remained there for several hours till late in the night for an audience with KCR. It was rumoured that KCR included Eatala's name only after much deliberation.

TRS circles say the mental gap between KCR and Etala came about on that day and that it only widened as days passed.

Eatala has been indirectly expressing his disquiet through symbolic acts of dissidence and defiance by way of periodic public outbursts. These were prominently being carried in the media, causing embarrassment to the TRS leadership and providing ammunition to the Opposition to attack KCR and the ruling TRS party.

In August 2019, Eatala caused a furore when he said he did not seek the minister post under BC quota and went on to say that a minister post is not anyone's 'biksha' (alms) to him. He stressed that he was among the 'owners' of the TRS party, as compared to some others who had defected from other parties to the TRS and started habitation in it as 'tenants'.

Eatala said he and those like him who had participated in the Separate Telangana movement and helped achieve statehood have every right to be called the owners of the TRS party.

This 'owners versus tenants' controversy raged in public and party forums, more prominently in the TRS, and found their echo in the media for several months.

Eatala is reportedly sore at KCR also for the encouragement that the CM gave to Gangula Kamalakar from his native Karimnagar district, as in his induction into the state cabinet. KCR assigned the party's poll duties to various ministers including Gangula recently while Etala was kept away from the mainframe.

In February 2021, the outspoken Eatala openly commented on the Centre's controversial farm laws, saying he would stand by the farmers and that, to him, the farmers' interests came first. This, after KCR gave a statement that states had no option but to implement the Centre's farm laws.

In the midst of the recent assembly budget session on March 22, TRS working president KT Rama Rao drove Eatala from the assembly to Pragathi Bhavan in his convoy. This triggered speculation as to what KTR discussed with Eatala for about two hours. Word spread that KTR specifically asked the health minister to refrain from making controversial public comments, in his own interest as well in the interests of the party.
The survey covered not only lands where Jamuna Hatcheries is located but also the adjoining government and assigned lands.  Facebook

HYDERABAD: Several teams of Vigilance and Enforcement (V&E) wing and Revenue department are camping in Achampet and Hakimpet villages to probe into the land-grabbing allegations. V&E officials are led by an officer of the rank of Superintendent of Police Manohar while the revenue officials are led by District Collector S. Harish and Additional Collector Ramesh.

The teams spoke to farmers, whose lands were allegedly taken possession of forcibly by Jamuna Hatcheries, owned by Etala Rajendar. Meanwhile, revenue officials, led by Toopran RDO Ramprakash also began an inquiry. Harish and Ramesh visited the villages to check the progress.

Teams from vigilance, ACB, revenue and survey department started inquiry at the ground-level at 8 am and completed it by evening.

Farmers told the inquiry teams that Rajendar and his henchmen snatched their lands by threatening them and paid just Rs 2 lakh to Rs 3 lakh per acre.

A team, led by Vigilance and Enforcement DG Purnachandra Rao, who is also DG of ACB, examined the lands in Hakimpet village.

A digital survey of 177 acres was carried out within three hours. The most advanced DGPS survey machines were used to ensure accuracy. All the surveyors in three revenue divisions of Medak district were deployed for accomplishing the digital survey within a few hours.

The survey covered not only lands where Jamuna Hatcheries is located but also the adjoining government and assigned lands. It is learnt that the company even mortgaged three acres of assigned land in Survey No. 130 of Achampet with Canara Bank, Abids branch in Hyderabad, and had obtained loans.

V&E SP Manohar told reporters that their inquiry could continue for another two or three more days, that is till they came to a conclusion.
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Konkona Sensharma On Geeli Pucchi, Ajeeb Daastaans: Its My First Film That Has Received Such A Strong Response

The anthology format which has taken over the film industry is perhaps one of the coolest trends ever followed. We get a few short stories all strung together, which end up staying on our mind long after we are done watching the film. Well, Netflixs recently released original Ajeeb Daastaans did exactly that-- left us wanting more with four beautiful tales. One of the most loved stories which has been receiving praise on social media is Neeraj Ghaywans Geeli Pucchi starring the very talented Konkona Sensharma and Aditi Rao Hydari.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Konkona Sensharma (@konkona)

Konkona, who is undoubtedly one of the most versatile actresses ever, played the role of a factory worker named Bharti Mandal. She is well-educated and aspires to get a higher-paying data operator job but loses the opportunity to Priya Sharma aka Aditi due to her caste. The performances have been lauded by the audience as well as critics. In a chat with Mid Day, Konkona shared that this is the first time she received such a response. She explained, I am used to my films not being seen by or not reaching many people, so this outpouring of love has been overwhelming. Its my first film that has received such a strong response.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Konkona Sensharma (@konkona)

Talking about her character, she shared, For me, the trickiest scene was where Bharti talks to Priya [Aditi Rao Hydari] in the locker room after her confrontation with a male worker. Thats the turning point of the story. Bharti was a complex character, but her complexities make her more human on screen. Its thanks to Neeraj and co-writer Sumit Saxenas nuanced writing that these characters have come to life. We rarely see women making bad choices on screen. But here, [Bharti] is not a monolithic identity; there are shades of grey to her.

Well, we cant wait to see Konkona shine on-screen soon again!
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Buyers will soon be able to return to mart rings, while adhering to public guidelines.

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue, confirmed the return to mart rings will be possible from May 17. The decision to lift restrictions was taken at a Cabinet meeting yesterday (29th April). Online trading will continue to be facilitated, alongside the return of in-ring buying.

Buyers may attend the sales ring and view stock in pens. However, this must be done by prior appointment with the livestock mart. Buyers who wish to be present at ringside must wear face coverings and adhere to strict 2m social distancing. Marts must also prevent the congregation of members of the public in the mart car park or at entry ways into mart buildings.

Marts must operate according to Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs) which have been approved by their Regional Veterinary Office.

DAFM said it was important to note that cattle throughput from January 1 to March 14, 2021 was at 94% of the comparable period in 2020. Sheep throughput in the same period was at 100% of the comparable period for 2020.

Commenting on the decision to allow buyers to return to mart rings, Minister McConalogue stated: Following approval at a meeting of the Cabinet today, I am pleased to announce that livestock marts may facilitate in-ring buying from May 17, once it is done in a safe manner and is compliant with all national COVID-19 public health guidelines.

The return of in-ring buying will continue to be augmented by the facilitation of online sales which have worked exceptionally well during this challenging time for all of us.

"The move to online-only platforms in October has proven to be an excellent way of trading cattle and sheep, with strong throughput, coupled with steady prices over this time. In fact, online sales have been proven to reach a much higher number of farmers and agents than the traditional in-person sales.

Most importantly, I know that the move to online-only sales has played a major role in helping to reduce the number of COVID-19 cases for Ireland. I am looking forward to this significant progression towards a blended approach of online and in-ring sales, which will continue into the future. I again commend the work of mart managers and farmers for engaging so meaningfully with all public health guidelines in recent months. Your heroic efforts have helped to ensure the continuity of live trade while, most importantly, keeping our communities safe.
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About the library district

The Umatilla County Special Library District was approved by voters in 1986 as a special taxing district. It includes all of Umatilla County, with the exception of the city of Hermiston.

The library districts mission is to work in partnership with the libraries to ensure excellent library services, programs and continuing education opportunities for all.

For questions, contact 541-276-6449, director@ucsld.org or visit www.ucsld.org.
SALEM  House Speaker Tina Kotek has introduced a resolution to expel state Rep. Mike Nearman, following new evidence that Nearman plotted with supporters before allowing an incursion of the state Capitol in December.


Harriet Isom, a former U.S. ambassador and career diplomat who served in Asia and Africa from 1961-96, grew up in Pendleton and has retired to the family ranch.
As the year progresses, top spots for bass will include the John Day Pool of the Columbia River, the Snake River reservoirs and the lower reaches of the Grande Ronde and John Day rivers


Location: Milwaukee - Wisconsin

Location: United States of America District of Columbia (virtual)

Location: Mequon - Wisconsin Job Description Position Summary : Individual Contributor - responsible for creating , implementing and sustaining enterprise-wide programs and processes to support company Product Environmental Compliance initiatives.



JOB SUMMARY:

The Project Engineer -Product Compliance defines, supports program development, and leads global projects to help the company establish and maintain compliance with new or changed product environmental standards, certifications, and regulations including those required for management of hazardous substances in products, energy efficiency of products, and end-of-life responsibilities.



The Project Engineer is responsible for maintaining knowledge on applicable environmental product standards, certifications, and regulations which can include those required for management of hazardous substances in products, energy efficiency of products, and end-of-life responsibilities.



This role is also responsible for working with New Product Introduction processes -as a Subject Matter Expert to support product design and development activities - to ensure that new Rockwell Automation products meet relevant global environmental regulations. ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

Functional

Responsible for development and implementation of enterprise-wide programs and processes to support company Product Environmental Compliance initiatives. Includes leading projects to address global product environmental regulations related to hazardous substances, energy efficiency, and end-of-life management.



Essential Functions Develop and implement strategies to ensure company compliance with product environmental standards and directives. Present strategies to stakeholders and decision-makers to secure support for programs as necessary.

Monitors and understands complex regulatory and market drivers and their ability to affect product lines. Works with business partners to assess risk and strategy for ensuring compliance of RA products.

Data analytical skills to manage and interpret complex data sets to understand regulatory impact and support decision making. Leadership Lead enterprise wide cross functional teams to identify and address product design issues related to emerging or revisions to existing global environmental directives, regulations and standards.

Identifies and works with internal and external groups, including the Global Product Standards & Regulations organization within Rockwell Automation to analyze and communicate regulatory trends and positions and shares information with impacted business groups.

Supports internal and external customers by addressing requirements for product compliance information, including communication strategies.

May represent Rockwell Automation in external organizations including standards development committees and cross-company teams. Interpersonal Work within Rockwell Automation to ensure that product design and new products developed are compliant with standards and directives to ensure global market access.

Establish cross-functional relationships Business Responsible for the plan and schedule for projects which are of significant and strategic importance to the corporation.

Build partnerships at the management level of RA business units.

Works with Strategic Sourcing and Rockwell Automation suppliers to ensure the the supply chain is positioned and responsive to support Rockwell Automation compliance programs.

Gives presentations to share information and obtain support for compliance programs on an enterprise-wide basis.

Manages aggressive objectives in context of higher-level business goals / constraints. EOE, M/F/Disabled, Vet *Qualifications : Bachelor's Degree : Engineering, Science or Data related degrees or demonstrate work experience relative to environmental compliance with a four year degree.

Legal authorization to work in the US is required. We will not sponsor individuals for employment visas, now or in the future, for this job opening. Demonstrated ability to frame and manage effectively, and with high quality, a large quantity of ambiguous or complex work.

Strong analytical and problem solving skills are required.

Demonstrated data analysis skills, including data collection, ETL

Familiar with EPR data sets and their use in environmental software platforms

Demonstrated experience in project management techniques and processes. Minimum experience 5 years in similar role Preferred Qualifications: Bachelor's Degree preferred in Electrical, Mechanical, Industrial, Quality or Computer Engineering, Data Science, Chemistry or related technical field with knowledge in the application of basic engineering and manufacturing principles, theories, and techniques.

8+ years' experience in Manufacturing/Development Engineering Organization, preferably in an electronics manufacturing organization or environmental compliance programs.

Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively through all levels in the organization. Exceptional verbal and written communication skills are required in addition to presentation skills.

Previous experience with product stewardship, environmental regulations, product standards, certifications, conformance agencies, or quality/continuous improvement is strongly preferred.

Experience in new product development, including utilizing the Rockwell Automation Common Product Development (CPD) Process as well as knowledge of SAP, is strongly preferred.

PMP certification

Demonstrated ability to influence stakeholders and drive change management projects is preferred.

Further education in engineering, business administration, operations or project management is a plus.

Familiarity with Rockwell Automation products is a plus. TRAVEL Willing to travel up to 10% (including international) for promotion and implementation of various initiatives and programs. The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by people assigned to the job. They are not intended to be an all-encompassing list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required of personnel so classified, Reasonable accommodations to essential functions of the job will be made if necessary. #LI-MM1 We are an Equal Opportunity Employer including disability and veterans. If you are an individual with a disability and you need assistance or a reasonable accommodation during the application process, please contact our services team at +1 (see application details).


Just after his first week of official practice, new transfer Jesse Miritello persuaded sever
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Athens, AL (35611)

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Amazon may soon be more accountable for more products than the ones it directly sells. According to the LA Times, a California state appeals court has ruled that Amazon is responsible for the safety of third-party products available through its marketplace following a 2015 hoverboard fire. While the internet giant argued that it was only connecting buyers with sellers, judges determined that there was a "direct link" in distribution that made the company liable.

The company won the initial ruling. At the time, a judge sided with Amazon's view that it was just advertising sellers' products rather than participating in sales.

In a statement to the Times, Amazon said it "invests heavily" in product safety by screening sellers and products. it also keeps watch on the store for hints of problems. The company declined to comment on the appeal court decision, including whether it intended to challenge the ruling at the state Supreme Court.

The decision, if it holds, could force Amazon to change policies. The tech giant may have to step up its vetting process for sellers and be ready to accept liability for safety problems, including lawsuits. Other stores with similar third-party marketplaces would have to follow suit. That, in turn, might be good news for shoppers you could see fewer sketchy products in online stores, and you'd have a better chance of resolving safety issues.


Circuit Design Flows Engineer Santa Clara Valley (Cupertino) , California , United States Hardware Summary

Posted: Apr 28, 2021 Role Number: 200243171 Do you want to utilize your engineering background to make big things happen? As part of our Digital Design Engineering group, you'll take imaginative and revolutionary ideas and determine how to turn them into reality! Join us, and you'll help crafting tools that allow us to bring customers experiences they've never before envisioned! We have an extraordinary opportunity for Circuit Design Flows Engineers. This is a highly visible role at the heart of a processor design effort, making a critical impact delivering products to market quickly. Key Qualifications We are looking for applicants with 1~2 years of experience in the development of SRAM/register file and EDA automation.

Proficient in scripting in Perl, Python and/or TCL, Shell.

Familiarity with Machine Learning to optimize flows and QA checks.

Familiarity with industry-standard circuit simulator and debug tools, and transistor level STA tools.

Knowledge of timing, power, noise and IR analysis.

Ability to provide automations for rapid and dynamic design needs. Description Imagine yourself at the center of our hardware development effort. Where you will collaborate with all fields, playing a strategic role of getting functional products to millions of customers quickly. You will have the opportunity to integrate and come-up with new insights, as well as work with a team of hardworking engineers. As a circuit design flows engineer for custom digital team, you will perform the following: Responsible for working with design/CAD team to implement new automation flows and QA checks Debug and provide quick solutions for digital IP designers and/or users. Define and develop QA checks to verify EDA views of SRAM and register files. Work collaboratively with the circuit team to define and maintain design flows and tools. Education & Experience BSEE / MSEE is required.


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Have a question about this story? Do you see something we missed? Do you have a story idea for David? Send an email to davidc@enidnews.com.
The five alleged suspects behind Lady Gaga's dognapping and dog walker shooting incident all pleaded not guilty after the arrest.

A new report from the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office revealed a new development in the case. According to the document, the five culprits who allegedly stole the two French bulldogs and shot Ryan Fischer pleaded not guilty.

The arrested group includes James Jackson (18), Jaylin White (19), Lafayette Whalley (27), Harold White (40), and Jennifer McBride (50).

The latter is the same woman who returned Koji and Gustav to the police after the "Bad Romance" hitmaker announced a monetary reward. During that time, she claimed that she was not part of the group that performed the crime.

However, the suspects reportedly dropped off the French bulldogs to her to claim the reward.

"Jennifer McBride (the woman) responded to the reward email to return the dogs. She ultimately brought the dogs to LAPD Olympic Station. Detectives were able to establish McBride had a relationship with the father of one of the suspects, Harold White," the press release said, per People.

Per the Los Angeles Police Department, the suspects received charges for attempted murder and robbery. Still, they all pleaded not guilty during the arraignment in court on April 29.

More Details About Lady Gaga's Dognapping Suspects

In another update, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office detailed that Jackson, White, and Whaley were the ones present at the scene.

The three were charged with attempted murder, second-degree robbery, and conspiracy to commit robbery.

Jackson, who shot Fischer, also received multiple charges of a felon carrying a concealed firearm in a vehicle and assault with a semiautomatic firearm. White then got one count of assault that caused bodily injury.

READ ALSO: Oprah Winfrey Launches Massive Tool to Learn Self-Worth After Breaking Down on National TV

The other two - elder White and McBride - were also accused of being accessories to the attack. McBride faced a charge of receiving stolen property while the other got one count of possession of firearms.

"Detectives do not believe the suspects were targeting the victim because of the dogs' owner," the LAPD's statement said, per Fox News. "However, evidence suggests the suspects knew the great value of the breed of dogs and was the motivation for the robbery."

The five alleged suspects are scheduled to face court again on May 11.

Fischer nor Lady Gaga has released a new statement regarding the recent arrest yet.

READ MORE: Why Was Josh Duggar Arrested? Former '19 Kids and Counting' Star Faces Federal Level Charges

See Now: Famous Actors Who Turned Down Iconic Movie Roles
Study confirms greater risk of poor COVID outcomes in minority ethnic groups in England, with inequalities widening in the second wave for South Asian groups

Largest study so far of more than 17 million adults in England confirms that minority ethnic groups had a higher risk of testing positive, hospitalisation, admission to intensive care units (ICU), and death from COVID-19 compared with white groups, even after accounting for other factors known to increase risk like deprivation, occupation, household size and underlying health conditions.

Disparities for hospitalisation and death lessened for most minority ethnic groups between pandemic waves 1 (February to September 2020) and wave 2 (September to December 2020), but increased for South Asian groups.

To tackle ethnic disparities in COVID-19 risks, the authors call for reducing structural disadvantage and inequality, improving quality of and access to healthcare, and improving uptake of testing and vaccination. They also stress the need for more intensive strategies tailored to improve outcomes in South Asian communities.

Minority ethnic groups had higher risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 and of COVID-19-related hospitalisations, intensive care (ICU) admissions and death compared with white groups in England, according to an observational study published in The Lancet.

The COVID-19 pandemic is understood to have had a disproportionate impact on minority ethnic communities in the UK and beyond. This study accounted for a large number of explanatory variables such as household size, social factors and health conditions across all ethnic groups and at different stages of COVID-19, from testing to mortality. Understanding drivers of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 in minority ethnic communities will be crucial to public policy efforts to overcome inequalities.

"Minority ethnic groups in the UK are disproportionately affected by factors that also increase the risk for poor COVID-19 outcomes, such as living in deprived areas, working in front-line jobs, and having poorer access to healthcare. Our study indicates that even after accounting for many of these factors, the risk for testing positive, hospitalisation, ICU admission and death was still higher in minority ethnic groups compared with white people in England. To improve COVID-19 outcomes, we urgently need to tackle the wider disadvantage and structural racism faced by these communities, as well as improving access to care and reducing transmission," says lead author, Dr Rohini Mathur of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK. [1]

On behalf of NHS England, the research team used the new secure OpenSAFELY data analytics platform to analyse partially anonymised electronic health data collected by GPs covering 40% of England. These GP records were linked to other national coronavirus-related data sets for the first and second waves of the pandemic - including testing, hospital data and mortality records. Ethnicity was self-reported by participants in GP records and grouped into five census categories (white, South Asian, Black, other, mixed) and then a further 16 sub-groups.

Possible explanatory factors, including clinical characteristics, such as BMI, blood pressure, smoking status and conditions such as asthma and diabetes were included in the analyses alongside demographic information such as age, sex, deprivation and household size.

Of 17,288,532 adults included in the study, 63% (10,877,978) were white, 5.9% (1,025,319) South Asian, 2% (340,912) Black, 1.8% (320,788) other, and 1% (170,484) mixed. Ethnicity was unknown for 26.3% (4,553,051) people.

During wave 1, nearly all minority ethnic groups had higher relative risk for testing positive, hospitalisation, ICU admission, and death compared to white groups. The largest disparities were seen in ICU admissions, which were more than doubled for all minority ethnic groups compared with white groups, with Black people more than three times more likely to be admitted to ICU after accounting for other factors.

The proportion of people testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 in wave 1 was higher in South Asian groups (0.9% test positivity), Black (0.7%) and mixed groups (0.5%) and compared with white people (0.4%).

"Higher risks for testing positive and subsequent poor outcomes amongst minority ethnic groups suggest that people may delay seeking testing or accessing care for SARS-CoV-2. This may be due to lack of access to testing sites or conflicting health messaging. It may also suggest that some may be fearful of losing income or employment if required to quarantine after testing positive as minority ethnic groups are more likely to work in insecure jobs with poorer workplace protections. People who need to be tested as well as those who test positive must be supported better if we are to reduce disparities in COVID-19 outcomes," says Dr Mathur. [1]

Compared with wave 1, the relative risk for testing positive, hospitalisation, ICU admission, and death were smaller in pandemic wave 2 for all minority ethnic communities compared to white people, with the exception of South Asian groups. South Asian groups remained at higher risk for testing positive, with relative risks for hospitalisation, ICU admission, and death greater in magnitude in wave 2 compared to wave 1.

"Despite the improvements seen in most minority ethnic groups in the second wave compared to the first, it's concerning to see that the disparity widened among South Asian groups. This highlights an urgent need to find effective prevention measures that fit with the needs of the UK's ethnically diverse population," says Dr Mathur. [1]

After accounting for age and sex, social deprivation was the biggest potential explanatory factor for disparities in all minority ethnic groups except South Asian. In South Asian groups, health factors (e.g., BMI, blood pressure, underlying health conditions) played the biggest role in explaining excess risks for all outcomes. Household size was an important explanatory factor for the disparity for COVID-19 mortality in South Asian groups only.

"While multigenerational living may increase risk of exposure and transmission (from children or working age adults to older or vulnerable family members), such households and extended communities also offer valuable informal care networks and facilitate engagement with health and community services. In light of emerging evidence that minority ethnic groups are less likely to take up the COVID-19 vaccine, co-designing culturally competent and non-stigmatising engagement strategies with these communities is increasingly important," says Dr Mathur. [1]

The authors caution that there are some limitations to the study including an inability to capture all potential explanatory variables, including occupation, health-related behaviours, and experiences of racism or structural discrimination. They call for improving the completeness of ethnicity recording in health data to further support the conduct of high quality research into addressing health inequalities for COVID-19 and beyond.

Writing in a linked Comment, Dr Daniel Morales, University of Dundee, UK, and Dr Sarah Ali, Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, UK, (who were not involved in the study), said: "The pressing challenge is now ensuring that COVID-19 vaccination programmes are rolled out effectively amongst all minority ethnic groups. Key to this, will be ensuring that vaccine hesitancy is urgently addressed. There are reports of increased hesitancy in minority ethnic groups, including those working in front-line health and social care roles, who knowingly face an increased risk of contracting COVID-19. Unless vaccine hesitancy is tackled head on, differential vaccine uptake may further exacerbate health inequalities faced by minority ethnic groups."

###

Peer-reviewed / Observational study / People

NOTES TO EDITORS

This study was funded by the Medical Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation. It was conducted by researchers from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the University of Oxford, TPP, NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Immunisation, the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre, the University of Leicester, and University College London, full list at the end of the Article.

The labels have been added to this press release as part of a project run by the Academy of Medical Sciences seeking to improve the communication of evidence. For more information, please see: http://www. sciencemediacentre. org/ wp-content/ uploads/ 2018/ 01/ AMS-press-release-labelling-system-GUIDANCE. pdf if you have any questions or feedback, please contact The Lancet press office pressoffice@lancet.com

[1] Quote direct from author and cannot be found in the text of the Article.
Professor of Chemistry, Lutz Ackermann from Gottingen University has received an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). The ERC will fund his project "Electrochemical Bond Functionalization (ElectroFun)" for five years with an award of around 2.5 million euros.

The development of environmentally friendly production methods is one of the greatest challenges facing society today. This is where the ElectroFun project excels: it brings together two resource-saving concepts by combining the conversion of otherwise inert molecules with electrocatalysis. The overarching goal is to replace the use of toxic reagents and chemicals by using green electricity and to control the selectivity of electrocatalytic transformations of biomolecules. Using external stimuli provided by renewable forms of energy, waste products can thus be minimised and lengthy synthesis sequences bypassed. This is made possible by the design of innovative catalysis concepts.

Lutz Ackermann, born in 1972, studied chemistry at the University of Kiel. He then worked at the Max-Planck-Institute fur Kohlenforschung in Mulheim and received his doctorate in 2001. As a postdoctoral researcher, he worked at the University of California in Berkeley. From 2003 to 2007, he led an Emmy Noether junior research group at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. In 2007, he pursued an appointment at the University of Gottingen, where he is also the Executive Director of the Wohler Research Institute for Sustainable Chemistry.

Ackermann's work has already been recognised with a number of awards. These include an ERC independent Consolidator Grant from the European Union in 2012 and a Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize from the German Research Foundation (DFG) in 2017. Ackermann is one of the world's leading experts in his field of research, as demonstrated by his publication record. In fact, since 2014 he has consistently been one of the most highly cited scientists worldwide. Visiting professorships have taken him to universities in Osaka, Milan, Madison, Kyoto, Strasbourg and Xiamen, as well as the Ecole superieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la ville de Paris and the Ecole Polytechnique, among many others.

###

ERC Advanced Grants support outstanding researchers already established in their scientific careers in projects that promise ground-breaking new insights.

Contact:
WASHINGTON - The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) presented its Master Interventionalists of SCAI (MSCAI) designations during the SCAI 2020 Scientific Sessions Virtual Conference MSCAI recognition ceremony.

The MSCAI designation is awarded to individuals who have demonstrated excellence in invasive/interventional cardiology over the course of their career and for their commitment to the highest levels of clinical care, innovation, publication, and teaching.

This year's MSCAI designations were awarded to the following group of outstanding interventionalists:

Ian C. Gilchrist, MD, MSCAI

Dr. Ian C. Gilchrist is a professor of medicine for Penn State University's College of Medicine at the Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, PA. Dr. Gilchrist graduated from Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH and then obtained his medical degree from Columbia University. He received his residency and cardiology fellowship training at the St. Luke's/Roosevelt Hospital Center in NY, and then an Interventional Cardiology fellowship at the Cooper Medical Center, Camden, NJ. Dr. Gilchrist is board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Diseases, Interventional Cardiology, and Critical Care Medicine. Dr. Gilchrist has published widely in the cardiovascular field with over 250 papers or book chapters. He has been involved in more than 200 multi-centered drug and device trials. He is probably best known for his advocacy for transradial catheterization which he has performed for more than 25 years at Hershey. He is one of the founding members of the SCAI transradial group and the TRIP radial training courses. He has been instrumental in defining how to incorporate right heart catheterization with transradial techniques and the safety of the procedure while maintaining patients on anticoagulants such as Coumadin. He has also been involved in revamping the health care process such that that stent procedures can be done as a same day procedure without hospital admission resulting in significant reduction in healthcare costs and potential risks of hospitalization. Recent clinical trials have demonstrated that the use of transradial procedures saves life and reduces complications versus the legacy transfemoral approaches and it is now considered the standard of care in most of the world. Dr. Gilchrist has lectured widely on these topics both domestically and internationally.

Eberhard Grube, MD, MSCAI

Professor Eberhard Grube is professor of medicine, head of the Center of Innovative Interventions in Cardiology (CIIC) University Hospital Bonn, Germany and consulting professor, division of cardiovascular medicine, at Stanford University School of Medicine and consulting professor of the INCOR Heart Institute of the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Dr. Grube received his first degree in medicine at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelm-University in Bonn. His cardiology training was completed at University of Wisconsin, Medical School and University of Bonn, Medical School. Dr. Grube received his board certification in internal medicine, in cardiology and in angiology from the North Rhine Chamber of Medical Doctors and his post-doctoral lecturing qualification from the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelm-University in Bonn. His research interests include drug eluting stents, distal protection devices, debulking devices, restenosis and in-stent restenosis as well as structural heart disease in particular transcatheter therapy of aortic and mitral diseases.

Carey Kimmelstiel, MD, MSCAI

Dr. Kimmelstiel is the director of the cardiac catheterization laboratories and interventional cardiology at Tufts Medical Center and is a professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. He trained at Downstate Medical Center-Kings County Hospital, the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and Tufts Medical Center. Early in his career, Dr. Kimmelstiel's academic interest focused on heart failure. Subsequently, he turned his interest to mechanistic studies focusing on the effect of various pharmacologic agents on platelet function during PCI. More recently, he has focused on structural cardiac interventions, primarily alcohol septal ablation for hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy and PFO closure. Dr. Kimmelstiel was among the earliest interventionalists to perform alcohol septal ablation for HCM. He was also among the first to advance the techniques employed in this procedure by targeting the correct sub-branch vessel with contrast echocardiography allowing smaller doses of ethanol to be used. He is routinely invited to major national and international meetings to lecture on this topic. He has also been at the vanguard in the implantation of PFO/ASD closure devices for cryptogenic strokes or migraines. His volume of implants led the way in the major national trial which led to the FDA approval of this procedure. Dr. Kimmelstiel enjoys clinical research, both as a participant and administrator having served on, or chaired, dozens of clinical events committees and data and safety monitoring boards. He takes pride in collaborating with colleagues to perform novel procedures within the catheterization laboratory which has led to programs in PFO closure, alcohol septal ablation for HCM and even delivery of babies to mothers with high-risk cardiovascular disease. Professionally, Dr. Kimmelstiel is most proud of the fellows that he has helped to train. He is honored to have received many teaching awards, including most recently the Dedication to Teaching Award from his former Interventional Cardiology Fellows. An example of his mentoring and the lasting impact on trainees was his development of an mobile app in which he and former trainees can share coronary angiograms with one another, to exchange advice on approach to complex interventions.

Ehtisham Mahmud, MD, MSCAI

Dr. Ehtisham Mahmud is professor and division chief of cardiovascular medicine and holds the Edith and William Perlman Chair at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. He also serves as the executive director of the UC San Diego Cardiovascular Institute and director of its interventional cardiology program. Dr. Mahmud leads one of the largest academic cardiovascular programs in the United States. His research interests include robotics, interventional therapeutics for chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension, investigational pharmacotherapies and devices used in cardiovascular interventions. His clinical focus is on complex coronary, structural heart, and carotid interventions. Dr. Mahmud is extensively published, and serves on multiple regional and national scientific committees. Dr. Mahmud completed fellowships in coronary and peripheral vascular interventions at Emory University in Atlanta and cardiovascular medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine. He also completed an internal medicine residency at UC San Diego and earned his medical degree at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. He is board-certified in cardiovascular disease and interventional cardiology. Dr. Mahmud has served on multiple committees for SCAI including chairing the Education and Nominating Committees, having been the program chair for the Annual Scientific Sessions (2018), and as president (2019-2020).

Ron Waksman, MD, MSCAI

Ron Waksman, MD is associate director, division of cardiology, MedStar Washington Hospital Center and director of cardiovascular research and advanced education for the MedStar Heart and Vascular Institute at the MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC. With over 20 years of experience in leading edge medical technologies, Dr. Waksman is a world-renowned interventional cardiologist and is a highly sought-after principal investigator for pre-clinical and clinical studies conducted in the United States and abroad. Dr Waksman has performed over 5,000 coronary interventions throughout his career. His current research interests include brachytherapy for restenosis prevention bioabsorbable/ biodegradable stents, HDL therapy, intracoronary imaging, valvular heart disease and catheter-based treatment of renal denervation. Dr. Waksman has authored/co-authored more than 310 published manuscripts and over 230 abstracts. He is also the author/co-author of more than 20 book chapters and the editor/co-editor of six books in the field of cardiology. He earned his medical degree from the Ben Gurion University in Israel and completed residencies in medicine, cardiology, and interventional cardiology at Hadassah University in Jerusalem, Israel. Subsequently, Dr. Waksman completed his fellowship in interventional cardiology in 1994 at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, GA.

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About SCAI

The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions is a professional organization representing more than 4,000 invasive and interventional cardiology professionals in approximately 75 nations. SCAI's mission is to promote excellence in invasive/interventional cardiovascular medicine through physician education and representation, and advancement of quality standards to enhance patient care.
Saturday, May 1, 2021

By Corinne Murdock

[P]arents need to wake up and become more aware of what their children are being taught.

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 Dr. Swain

According to Nickelodeon, even environmental issues are caused by systemic racism. The term for that, they explained, is environmental racism.

In response, Dr. Carol Swain revealed that progressive agendas are controlling mainstream childrens programming. Whats more: most parents dont recognize it. Dr. Swain joined Fox & Friends host Ainsley Earhardt to discuss Nickelodeons latest teaching moment.

I dont think [parents] realize [that] childrens programming, whether we talk about cartoons or [] Sesame Street, [] have adults with progressive agendas who are not trying to educate your children, said Dr. Swain. Theyre trying to indoctrinate them with ideas that come from the radical left in academia. Theyre not content with destroying the lives of college students. Now theyre focused on K-12.

In an hour-long Earth Day special episode, Nickelodeon told kids that systemic racism is evident in environmental issues like Cancer Alley in Louisiana and the air quality in New York.

Dr. Swain said these ideas are nothing new. She explained that shes heard about them since the 1970s. Progressive left academics simply repackaged their thesis papers and lecture halls to fit into kid-friendly cartoons.

I would say that Sesame Street and all of the childrens programming have become tools for the progressive left, said Dr. Swain. And as far as environmental racism, I started hearing about it in the 1970s in academia: it was in law schools, it was in graduate public policy schools.

[embedded content]

In the episode, Nickelodeon depicted one common cause behind a litany of complex environmental issues. According to Dr. Swain, thats not education  its indoctrination.

If you look at the conditions that were identified in the video, its far more complicated than that: theres a whole field of land use and those decisions about where to locate plants have a lot to do with jobs as well as local economies and the cost of land. Those are factors, asserted Dr. Swain.

Dr. Swain assessed that Nickelodeons content focus is littered with the hallmarks of critical race theory (CRT), which is rooted in Marxism.

She also pointed out that adults were puppeteering any kids featured in the episode.

If you watch the [whole] video, you see children with talking points. And these are talking points that they were handed by someone else, explained Dr. Swain. These are talking points Ive heard before in academia; theyre not talking things that children would naturally come up with.

Earhardt asked Dr. Swain what could be done.

Dr. Swain said awareness was the first step.

[P]arents need to wake up and become more aware of what their children are being taught, asserted Dr. Swain.
The states grid operator surprised CPS Energy and other Texas utilities this week when it said it will begin collecting on millions of dollars in unpaid charges from Februarys winter storm.

An added surprise for the utilities: The bills will be $6 million higher than previously expected.

When a Texas power company goes out of business  as several did in the wake of the February winter storm  grid operator Electric Reliability Council of Texas takes whatever its owed by the defunct business and spreads the cost among the utilities still operating, including CPS.

On Wednesday, however, State District Judge Aaron Haas in San Antonio granted the city-owned utility a temporary restraining order preventing ERCOT from passing the debts of out-of-business power companies to CPS.

ERCOTs latest unilateral and aggressive move is an attempt to unlawfully force our customers to pay for the insolvency of other market participants, caused by ERCOTs own mistakes, CPS chief executive Paula Gold-Williams said. To help correct this problem, CPS Energy will continue to work tirelessly to put its customers first.

When the state needs more power to meet demand, ERCOT can raise the price of electricity to encourage power generators to produce more and capture a larger profit.

CPS and other utilities contend that ERCOT left prices at the maximum level  $9,000 per megawatt hour, up from around $30 per megawatt hour prior to the storm  for 32 hours too long during the winter storm.

When several of CPSs power plants seized up during the freeze, the utility bought power on the statewide wholesale market at through-the-roof prices.

In its lawsuit, CPS said there was enough power statewide by Feb. 18 to meet demand, alleging that the high price wasnt necessary at that point.

CPS also argued most power plants werent operating properly during the storm because of a lack of fuel or equipment malfunctioning in the cold. Those werent problems that setting the price for wholesale electricity at the maximum level would have solved, CPS said.

Keeping the prices at the $9,000 per megawatt hour cap created $16 billion in additional charges that utilities such as CPS now owe, according to Potomac Economic, an independent market monitor that oversees the ERCOT market.

Potomac recommended that state officials re-price electricity sold during that time, but the Texas House of Representatives shot down a measure that sought to do that.

Even so, ERCOT officials have claimed the statewide electric grid wasnt stable by Feb. 18, and the high market price was necessary.

The grid operator wanted to keep the price at the highest level to ensure there would be enough power available as more homes and businesses began using electricity again.

ERCOT acts as a clearinghouse for the wholesale power market in Texas. When a utility such as CPS generates excess power at its power plants, it can sell it to ERCOT, which then sells the power to another utility elsewhere in Texas.

When the transaction is complete, the buyer pays ERCOT, which then pays CPS.

But when power companies go out of business, like the Brazos Electric Power Cooperative did following the winter storm, it cant pay ERCOT for power it bought. Instead, ERCOT then charges every other utility in the market for the power the defunct company owes for.

To recover CPSs portion of those payments, ERCOT told CPS that it would charge the utility just over $1 million this week and over $1 million in mid-May.

CPS officials said ERCOT has previously assured utilities it would wait several months before charging the uplift payments.

ERCOT also said it corrected a software error that undercharged for electricity sold on Feb. 15, early in the storm. The error resulted in $6.2 million in undercharges that ERCOT is now billing to CPS and the other utilities operating in Texas.

We did identify a software error that led to an approximately $6 million undercharge across the market, an ERCOT spokeswoman said. ERCOTs board of directors approved the correction in an April 13 meeting.

The error had to do with how the software determines Real-Time On-Line Reliability Deployment Price Adders, she said. These are price adders intended to account for out-of-market, reliability actions taken by ERCOT, particularly during emergency conditions.

But if ERCOT can retroactively correct those prices, it should also correct the overcharges during the 32-hour window in February, CPS said in the petition it filed in Bexar County District Court on Wednesday.

ERCOT itself has repriced when it benefits them, as when there was a software error during the Winter Storm Event, CPS said. But it refuses to correct a $16 billion error when it would not benefit them.

Haas set a May 12 trial date for CPS temporary injunction hearing.

diego.mendoza-moyers@express-news.net
Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas theater on the far West Side  its first in San Antonio  will not reopen, a casualty of pandemic-related shutdowns.

The Austin-based theater chains Westlakes location, at 1255 S.W. Loop 410, opened in 2004.

Were sad to confirm that because of the ongoing impact of COVID on our business, we will not be reopening that theater, said spokesman Ryan Fons.

Alamo Drafthouses theaters at 618 N.W. Loop 410 in the Park North shopping center and 22806 U.S. 281 in Stone Oak will remain in operation. The Park North location is open, and the Stone Oak location is expected to reopen in June.

The companys New Braunfels cinema is permanently closed, too. Alamo Drafthouse filed for bankruptcy protection in March and said it did not expect any disruption in operations aside from the closure of the New Braunfels location and two others.

The future for Alamo Drafthouse is very bright as we see more people returning to our theaters each weekend, and expect a full rebound later this year with highly anticipated films weve anxiously waited to see on the big screen together, Fons said.

On ExpressNews.com: COVID pushes Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas into bankruptcy

Another local theater, Regal Cinemas Fiesta Stadium 16 at 12631 Vance Jackson Road, permanently closed in February. The owners of the building are marketing the site for sale to developers who want to build an apartment complex, according to a lawsuit filed recently over unpaid rent.

Theaters have been ravaged by the pandemic. Many shut down last spring, and some have yet to reopen, their owners piling up months of lost business. Movie studios are postponing releases or turning to streaming services for new content.

Alamo Drafthouse closed its theaters in the spring and recently settled litigation with its Park North landlord over unpaid rent. The company started reopening locations last fall and posted a list Thursday on its website of theaters slated to reopen this summer.

Its a lot of (expensive) work to wake one of these babies up  considerably more than a little bit of dusting  so thats why weve been slow to reopen locations in 2021, it said.

madison.iszler@express-news.net
WASHINGTON - The Biden administration said Friday it has canceled border wall projects paid for with funds diverted from Department of Defense accounts, a widely-expected move that follows Biden's decision to suspend construction activity on former president Donald Trump's signature project.

Trump diverted about $10 billion from military construction accounts and counternarcotics programs to pay for hundreds of miles of steel barriers along the Mexico border, an effort that Biden has denounced as wasteful and ineffective.

"The Department of Defense is proceeding with canceling all border barrier construction projects paid for with funds originally intended for other military missions and functions such as schools for military children, overseas military construction projects in partner nations, and the National Guard and Reserve equipment account," said Jamal Brown, deputy Pentagon spokesman, in a statement. "Today's action reflects this Administration's continued commitment to defending our nation and supporting our service members and their families."

Trump built 450 miles of new barriers during his term, much of it across the deserts and mountains of southern Arizona where his administration built along national forest land, wildlife preserves and other federal property already under government control. It built far less in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, the busiest area for border crossings and the epicenter to a major migration influx.

Friday's joint announcement from the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security did not indicate how much money the cancellation will save, nor whether leftover funds would be used to pay demobilization costs to contractors whose bulldozers and excavators were brought to a halt on Jan. 20.

An estimate prepared by the Army Corps of Engineers last fall determined there would be about $3.3 billion in leftover funds if Biden chose not to proceed with Trump's constructions plans for about 285 additional miles of border barriers. The government would save about $2.6 billion after paying demobilization costs to contractors, the estimate found.

It's also unclear the fate of unfinished border wall segments funded with about $5 billion in congressional appropriations to DHS during Trump's term. GOP critics of Biden's decision insist he is legally obligated to spend the funds on barrier construction, but Democrats want leftover DHS construction funds to be used on border improvement and security projects.

In a separate statement Friday, DHS said it would use congressionally appropriated funds to repair flood levees in the lower Rio Grande Valley that were damaged during border wall construction. The effort will not expand the barrier, the department said.

Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas, whose district includes portions of the river levee, praised the decision to use the funds for repair projects.

"It's imperative that these structures are fixed prior to the hurricane season," he said in a statement.

The Biden administration will also remediate a site adjacent to the structure in San Diego damaged by soil erosion, releasing photos that show holes where sediments have been swept away.

In a statement, DHS described the projects as "initial steps to protect border communities from physical dangers resulting from the previous administration's approach to border wall construction," and said the department "continues to review the extensive problems" created by Trump's project.

"DHS will soon complete a plan that identifies additional measures to address the damage resulting from the prior Administration's border wall construction," the statement said.

The announcement said unused military construction funds would be used to pay for previously deferred military construction projects, and the Pentagon is reviewing the deferred project list to determine new priorities.
Jacque Callanen, the elections administrator for Bexar County, says Saturdays local elections have stimulated more inquiries about one subject than she can recall in 38 years of working the polls.

City council and school board races are officially nonpartisan. But more than ever, voters want to know the candidates party affiliations and why those arent listed on the ballot.

Its just part of the national narrative, Callanen said. People want to know who is Democrat or Republican. I think its the residual effect of the 2020 presidential election.

Callanen said she has received more calls than usual from polling site supervisors concerned that overzealous party activists and those connected to this years San Antonio ballot initiatives might come to blows in the parking lot.

If youre new to town and perhaps from cities such as Philadelphia, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Washington, D.C., or New York, you may be wondering why our city and school board elections are nonpartisan.

Its because Texas, like many other states, generally requires local elections to be free of party affiliation, though nothing prevents candidates from identifying themselves by party in their campaign literature and speeches.

By contrast, races for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and other statewide offices in Texas are partisan, with candidates nominated by parties. So are elections for district attorney, county commissioner and other county offices.

San Antonio enshrined the nonpartisan municipal election in 1951 in its charter. Texas larger home-rule cities are legally allowed to abandon that practice, but it hasnt happened here.

Partisan divisions in this country have been intensifying for decades. Vast swaths of Americans choose friends, neighborhoods, churches and bowling leagues based on political views.

Presidential historians and cultural arbiters say the polarization reached a high point during the presidency of Donald Trump, especially the 2020 election season.

Nationally, the fight between partisans is absolutely in the sewer, said Christian Archer, a political strategist who has worked on numerous campaigns in San Antonio. But there is no reason there should not be civility when it comes to building and protecting our neighborhoods.

If San Antonio were to go totally partisan, we would go the way of Austin and Washington, and thats not who we are, Archer said. For the 20 years Ive been involved here, there is almost an immediate pivot on the day after the election to, How can we get down to running the city?

That might be why, for many San Antonio politicians, the cloak of nonpartisanship comes in handy for deflecting uncomfortable questions about political identity, such as who they voted for in the last presidential contest.

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Greg Brockhouse, a former San Antonio city councilman in his second race to oust Mayor Ron Nirenberg, has run a nearly textbook Republican campaign built on faith, freedom and family, and he mocks President Joe Biden in stump speeches and podcasts. But he refused in a recent interview to disclose whether he voted for Trump or Biden in November.

Thats national politics, Brockhouse said. Im in a nonpartisan race.

Nirenberg, whose policy preferences and rhetoric often place him solidly among Democrats, ducked a similar line of questioning from the San Antonio Express-News.

But it would be wrong to suggest that these and other local politicians never take sides on divisive national issues such as abortion, immigration policy, corporate taxation or Trumps baseless claims that fraud robbed him of reelection.

Nirenberg, for example, acknowledges he mostly votes for Democrats, and he has backed labor unions, LGBTQ rights and peaceful Black Lives Matter protests.

But he rarely speaks the D word in public in any partisan sense.

Texas Take: Get the latest news on Texas politics sent directly to your inbox every weekday

Getting rid of partisanship was an artifact of the Progressive Era and often came in tandem with cities moving to a council-city manager system of government, explained David Crockett, chair of the political science department at Trinity University (and yes, a distant relative of the Alamo hero.)

The idea was to restore civility to the often-caustic world of politics, but some thought that was little more than a polite veneer, like spraying air freshener on a stockyard.

In Texas, the nonpartisan election framework was marketed as a way to bring a more efficient, businesslike culture to cities. Control remained with white male business elites  often Democrats before the 1990s, often Republicans afterward.

The National League of Cities suggests that nonpartisan elections may produce more cooperation between officials and perhaps less political campaign spending. Other advocates say nonpartisan elections encourage voters to do more of their own research and rely less on party propaganda.

Historically, nonpartisan elections have lower overall voter turnout. Republican and Democratic activists have long argued that the absence of party labels can confuse voters and that without those cues, some will be influenced by candidates perceived ethnicity.

Into this debate, the larger partisan divide in the United States has been steadily encroaching.

George W. Bush was the most polarizing president in polling history, until Obama, and then Trump, Crockett said, and many local politicians have downplayed their party affiliation to avoid the risk courting partisan revulsion.

Tucker Gibson, a Trinity University professor emeritus of political science and author of several books on Texas politics, likes to put a spin on the most frequently heard cliche in support of nonpartisan local elections: Theres no partisan way to pave a street.

That may be true, said Gibson, a crusty liberal. But theres often partisanship in deciding where that street will go. Nonetheless, he remains a big fan of nonpartisan municipal elections.

As does Kevin Wolff, a former Bexar County commissioner for 12 years and a City Council member for four, a man who almost lowers his voice when he describes himself as a moderate Republican.

I would say our political party system has worked well, said Wolff, son of Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, a longtime Democrat. But there is a divide in our country now that harkens back to the Civil War, and it is only widening and deepening. You court disaster when you govern by the extremes, and if you codify that in the local election process, you only make a bad decision worse.

He said part of the reason he chose not to run for Congress was that he was tired of having the crap beat out of me by both sides. At the local level, if you are rational, you can actually accomplish some things.

I am scared for the stability of our country after watching the people who stormed the U.S. Capitol. Im blaming the party system, not just the Dems or Republicans. I hope the middle will ... make some noise, Wolff said.

He said it would be a huge mistake for the Legislature to pass House Bill 2092, introduced by Rep. Scott Sanford, a Dallas-area Republican, requiring candidates for municipal office to declare a party affiliation.

Requiring that, Wolff said, would only encourage candidates who have mastered the skill set of getting elected, not that of governing.

bselcraig@express-news.net
The West Side has been home to Amelia Valdezs family for 100 years.

After moving from Muzquiz, Mexico, the family picked cotton and lived in corrales  rows of small houses  along Apache Creek, where they also washed their clothes. But in the 1950s, badly needed flood control projects covered springs and creek beds with concrete and cut off neighborhoods from one another.

Today, plans to construct hike-and-bike trails and restore the ecosystem of Alazan, Apache, Martinez, San Pedro and Zarzamora creeks have been in the works so long, some may have written them off or forgotten about them. But restoration of the creeks has quietly moved forward.

After 13 years on the back burner, the upgrades are expected to revive the soul of the historic West Side.

Valdez, a cultural programmer with the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center and co-chair of the Historic Westside Residents Association, likes to walk on the updated Apache Greenway and reflect on her familys history. She rides her bike on the trail three times a week, taking a short jaunt to Our Lady of the Lake University or, depending on how my body is doing, pedaling more than 25 miles to the Mission Reach and back.

Its a thing of beauty to ride on the trail, said Valdez, 61. She purchased a better bike and has lost a lot of weight trail-riding.

Renovation of the greenway trails on Alazan and Apache creeks attracted cyclists from outside the community who spread the word through social media and recreational apps such as Strava. A second phase adding 6.7 miles of paths, for a total of 13 miles, has nearly completed the West Side hike-and-bike network.

Billy Calzada, Staff / Staff Photographer

That whole trail thing got me going. Everybody can ride on that, Valdez said. There are families that ride. There are bikers for the first time. Ive heard that they come into the West Side and say theyve never seen this side of town.

For me, it helps that I can get up, open my gate and walk a few feet to get on that trail, she said.

Still, Valdez says, theres more work that could be done. For example, the trail could use more lighting, benches and other amenities, as well as text on the history and culture of the West Side  such as the Mission Reach.

Its not as pretty as I would like it to be or as accessible, Valdez said. If youre coming from downtown, wouldnt you love to know a little bit about the West Side and how beautiful it is?

Robert Ramirez, co-chair of the Westside Creeks Restoration Oversight Committee, said a $15 million city-county project from 2017 that built trails and environmental upgrades at Elmendorf Lake has been a portal for many to discover the beauty and nature of the area.

Billy Calzada, Staff / Staff Photographer

One comment we hear frequently from people who come from different parts of the city to see Elmendorf Lake Park and then hear about our hike-and-bike trails is they had no idea this was happening on the West Side, Ramirez said.

On ExpressNews.com: Federal reimbursements to aid local creeks projects

Restoring the ecosystem

The West Side project, which dates to 2008, was embraced as a part of the entire greenway system, which has been funded by a sales tax approved by voters in 2000 for creek-side trails. Another component would restore native plant life and fish, bird habitats and wildlife.

Most of the West Side trail segments have been built, but the ecosystem restoration has largely been left undone. Officials hope to secure a $2.7 million federal grant for a pre-construction engineering and design study.

Restoring the natural settings that were erased in the 20th century could return the area to its roots, conjuring more tales passed down through families like the Valdezes, Ramirez said.

We heard anecdotal stories from residents and their generations past about how they used to go collect plants and fruit, vegetables from the creeks, and fish, crawfish. And all of that stopped with the channelization, he added.

The 3.5-mile Apache Creek Greenway, set to reopen in June after completion of accessibility upgrades, has been named a National Recreational Trail by the National Park Service, joining the greenways on Leon and Salado creeks and the Medina and San Antonio rivers with similar designations.

Daniel Leal, Parks and Recreation Department urban designer and Westside Creeks trail coordinator, announced the designation last week to the Linear Creekway Parks Advisory Board. He said National Park Service officials noted the city really showed an effort on making a trail that works for the community, with a path that connects walkers, runners and cyclists to parks, schools and streets, with a good maintenance plan in place.

It will cast attention, nationally speaking, about this trail, Leal said.

The scheduled fall completion of a 2.8-mile expansion of the Alazan Creek Greenway, which currently extends a half-mile south from Woodlawn Lake, will connect with the Apache Greenway. From there, users can walk or pedal to the San Pedro Creek trail and San Antonio River Mission Reach, which extends 8 miles south, past Mission Espada.

Basic transportation

The West Side trails, unlike other greenways, are designed for basic transportation as much as recreation. The Alazan extension, funded with the 1/8-cent sales tax for local greenways and a $2 million Federal Highway Administration grant, will have 11 street connections for short-term commuting.

On ExpressNews.com: Input sought on historic Black church site by San Pedro Creek

Cosima Colvin, a longtime downtown-area District 1 representative on the linear parks board, welcomes the progress for the West Side and some of the citys most economically disadvantaged residents.

But she doesnt want the area suddenly overrun with gung-ho cyclists in neon Spandex, whizzing past walkers and baby strollers. The trails typically have 15 mph speed limits and rules of etiquette, with cyclists yielding right of way to pedestrians.

Billy Calzada / Staff Photographer

We want to make sure that the people that live around these trails are aware of them, Colvin said. If we get a bunch of Tour de Francers racing through there, and discouraging people with dogs and people with strollers, then thats something we need to address.

Colvin is skeptical, even bitter, about the Westside Creeks project. Before joining the linear creeks board in 2012, she served on a subcommittee focused on Martinez Creek, which runs north-south, connecting with Alazan.

Martinez has a small trail, less than a mile long. A 1.4-mile southward extension is fully designed but not funded because the sales tax for greenways has expired and the money is set to run out in mid-2022. On the north end, the Martinez Creek alignment runs below and parallel to Interstate 10, on the east side of the highway, to just north of Hildebrand.

What now exists of the Martinez trail is impossible to reach safely by foot or bicycle from the other side of I-10, Colvin said.

Now that were not funded anymore, I dont know when or if Martinez will ever be developed, she said.

Shes also concerned about gentrification  higher rents and taxes in areas that see public investment. Examples have included increased rent facing hundreds of tenants near a $57.3 million beautification project on the first segment of the San Pedro Creek Culture Park downtown. The City Council approved a $1 million plan in 2019 to help residents facing rising rents and potential eviction.

Colvin said she doesnt view a protective zone along the creeks, like one in place along the San Antonio River, as a solution because it would likely be developer-friendly. But shes not about to hold up progress for the West Side.

I am not willing to continue disinvestment as a solution. I am not willing to withhold this amenity from neighborhoods because it might gentrify them, she said. I want to see the government do its job. And as good as they are at public investment, that must include a human component.

Part of the original scope of the Westside Creeks project  flood control, rechanneling and beautification of a 2.2-mile section of San Pedro Creek billed as the Culture Park  has been put on a fast track for construction by Bexar County. The second of six segments of the project is under construction. It is managed by the San Antonio River Authority.

Meanwhile, the county last year received the final installment, about $26 million, of $61 million it had sought in reimbursement from the federal government for the Mission Reach, completed in 2013. The county had put up funding for the federal share of that $271 million river project to keep it on schedule.

A Westside Creeks conceptual plan released in 2011 envisioned nearly $250 million in environmental restoration and trails for Alazan, Apache and Martinez creeks. With the full reimbursement for the Mission Reach secured, officials have said Westside Creeks will be a top priority for federal funding requests.

The river authoritys new general manager, Derek Boese, who has experience working with and for the Army Corps of Engineers, is expected to help put the creeks environmental upgrades on a faster timeline.

Billy Calzada, Staff / Staff Photographer

On ExpressNews.com: Bexar County affirms support for Greenway trails

A unifying network

Project boosters say President Joe Bidens administration is likely to favor urban ecosystem projects and hike-and-bike trails that, along with sidewalks and bike lanes on streets, can make San Antonio safer, particularly for people who cant afford cars.

The Westside Creeks oversight committee, which meets quarterly, will hold its next virtual meeting at 6 p.m. May 18. More information on the meeting is available at the projects website, westsidecreeks.com.

Ramirez, the panels co-chair, is hopeful a strong planning process will avert displacement or gentrification by addressing any potential concerns upfront.

The community needs to be engaged at every step of conceptualization, brainstorming, assessing options, planning and implementation, so that you dont have these charges later on that the community was ignored and that things are being done to the community as opposed to with the community, Ramirez said.

Our creeks and hike-and-bike trails are opening up the West Side to the rest of the community, he said. So the symbiosis, the reciprocation, is what Im looking at as our vision  just a more unified San Antonio.

shuddleston@express-news.net
MAP: 2021 homicides in San Antonio

A woman accused of killing her boyfriend, a local rapper and Beyonces cousin, has been indicted on a murder charge.

The case against Sasha Skare, 21, was among more than 260 felony indictments handed down by Bexar County grand juries this week. Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales said jurors issued true bills of indictment in 2,042 cases.

Skare allegedly shot and killed Martell Kardone Derouen on Jan. 22, according to her indictment. Derouen was 34 years old.

Police got a call on Jan. 28 that Derouen had not been heard from in several days.

Officers went to The Towers apartments at 16735 La Cantera Parkway around noon where they found Derouen dead in his apartment with a gunshot wound.

Derouens estranged wife at one point told police he had been at living with Skare, his new girlfriend, an affidavit said.

Bexar County Sheriff's Office

A witness heard Skare and Derouen arguing until he told her to get out and the apartment door slammed shut, the affidavit said. The witness then heard Skare pounding on the door, followed by a gunshot.

Skare, who was arrested Feb. 6, remains in Bexar County Jail with bail set at $125,000.

The case is being prosecuted by the family violence division. Murder is a first-degree felony punishable felony punishable by five to 99 years or life in prison and a possible fine of up to $10,000.

In a separate case, a grand jury indicted Abdi Ali Shidad in the killing of two women that occurred on Feb. 14, just before the winter freeze that left thousands without power.

Investigators said Shidad shot the women at the Cottage Creek apartments in the 4800 block of Ray Bon Drive.

On ExpressNews.com: Police arrest woman accused of killing San Antonio rapper in his La Cantera-area apartment

Officers found the victims, Anastasia Simms and Leah Anders, at 12:30 a.m. while responding to a 911 call for a shooting. They were already dead when the officers arrived, police said.

Shidad was arrested at the scene.

He has been indicted for capital murder. In addition, the grand jury indicted him on a charge of knowingly and recklessly causing bodily injury to Remus Blair, who was also found shot alongside Simms and Anders.

Capital murder is punishable by life in prison without parole or the death penalty.

Shidad, 22, remains in jail with bail set at $1,000,000.

Jurors also indicted two brothers, Sijifredo and Wilfredo Montemayor, each on a charge of attempted capital murder of a police officer.

The two are accused of being involved in the Feb. 3 shooting of Balcones Heights police Sgt. Joey Sepulveda, an 18-year veteran of the force.

Sepulveda was responding to a report that two men, identified as suspects in a burglary at the SOL Apartments, 6945 W. Interstate 10, were sitting in a white pickup on the property, Balcones Heights police said.

Sepulveda approached the brothers, who were in a white pickup, and started talking to them. He drew his stun gun and ordered them out of the vehicle after they repeatedly disregarded his commands, Balcones Heights police said.

Wilfredo Montemayor began shooting, investigators said, hitting Sepulveda in the neck.

Sepulvedas partner, officer Edgard Ortiz, returned fire, injuring Sijifredo Montemayor, investigators said. The brothers then fled the scene.

On ExpressNews.com: Balcones Heights chief calls survival of sergeant who was shot a miracle

Sijifredo Montemayor, 30, was arrested the next day by Tamaulipas State Police in Mexico. Wilfredo Montemayor, 28, was arrested three days later while walking along Loop 410 near Perrin Beitel Road on the Northeast Side.

Ortiz is credited with saving Sepulvedas life after he rushed him to an area hospital. Sepulveda was released from San Antonio Military Medical Center after surgery.

Both brothers remain at the Bexar County Jail. Wilfredo Montemayors bail totals $1,020,000, but he was remanded without bond for violating his parole on a conviction of possession of a controlled substance. Sijifredo Montemayors bail is set at $500,000.

Attempted capital murder of a police officer is a first-degree felony. The punishment ranges from five to 99 years or life in prison and a possible fine of up to $10,000.

Also among the indictments were two cases of intoxication manslaughter.

In the first case, Christian Alexis Cazares, 24, is accused of drunken driving and hitting and killing Michael William King on Nov. 13.

King, 64, who was homeless, was asleep under a bridge at the Vance Jackson Road and Northwest Loop 410 intersection, San Antonio police said.

Reports show that Cazares failed to make a complete left turn and ended up jumping the curb, hitting a concrete wall and then running over King.

The second case occurred a week later, on Nov. 20. Robert Collett Jr., 38, is accused of driving a pickup while drunk around 1:30 a.m. in the 16500 block of U.S. 281 North, near Brook Hollow.

Police said Collett was speeding when drove into the back of a sedan, killing Sylvia Santoy, 61.

Intoxication manslaughter is a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison and a possible fine of up to $10,000.
Mike Collier is drawing a Venn diagram on a cafe napkin.

The accountant-turned-politician is at a local coffee shop, explaining what transformed him from a Republican into a Democrat.

He draws two overlapping circles, with an oval section in the middle. The circle on the left represents Democrats and the one on the right represents Republicans.

Collier, 60, points to the middle section and says, There was a time where a lot of people lived here. Ive lived here my whole life. Theres still a lot of us here.

Collier goes on to tell the story of how, in 2013, a group of Republicans asked him to consider running for the nonpartisan office of Houston city controller. When he met them, however, their questions had little to do with the job of overseeing the financial operations of a city.

They wanted to know Colliers position on abortion and whether they could count on him to oppose gay rights.

They wanted me to carry the culture-war banner, Collier said.

If Collier didnt know before that meeting, he knew once it was over: He wanted no part of what the GOP had become, a machine that routinely stirs up wedge-issue resentments, with little regard for solving the real-world problems of everyday Americans.

In 2014, with no idea how to run an effective campaign, he entered the race for state comptroller as a Democrat, losing decisively to Republican nominee Glenn Hegar.

Four years later, Collier took on the big dog of Texas culture wars, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. To the surprise of many, Collier received nearly 4 million votes and came within 4.8 percentage points of Patrick.

As Collier likes to point out, he actually outperformed Beto ORourke, the Democratic rock star of the 2018 Texas midterms, in roughly two-thirds of the states 254 counties. (Primarily the rural ones.)

Now, hes gearing up for a potential rematch with Patrick.

Over the past few weeks, Collier has been on what he calls an exploratory tour of the state. He visited East and West Texas before stopping in San Antonio, on his way to the Rio Grande Valley.

Collier isnt really exploring his own intentions on this exploratory tour. His mind is made up: Hes running.

His tour is more about laying down a foundation and making sure his fellow Democrats will welcome him back for another shot.

Collier is an affable, approachable, avuncular, white-haired man who radiates assurance and competence, if not charisma.

Hes a pragmatic moderate with a background in the oil and gas business. Hes not someone who will ever thrill grassroots Democrats in the way that ORourke did in 2018. His hopes rest on converting enough disaffected conservatives tired of GOP leaders ignoring real problems in favor of stigmatizing transgender kids or limiting voter access.

When you think about what really matters to voters, they care about jobs first, Collier said. Do they feel that their income is secure? Then do they feel like their community is secure?

In 2022, he will emphasize what he calls colossal policy failures from Patrick and other Republican leaders on issues such as Medicaid expansion and maintenance of the states power grid.

The GOP-controlled Legislature has refused to pass Medicaid expansion, which would provide health coverage to more than 1 million uninsured Texans, with 90 percent of the cost (95 percent for the first two years) paid for by the federal government.

Thats why parties lose, thats why tides turn, when folks dig in, not thinking long term, but just thinking about the next primary, Collier said.

The vulnerability of the states power grid was exposed during the February winter freeze that resulted in massive rolling blackouts.

Philosophically, we like a light regulatory touch (in Texas), Collier said. But we have to regulate, to make sure we have the (energy) capacity winterized to survive a downturn.

He said its not enough for the Legislature to give the Public Utility Commission the authority to require winterizing. Collier said lawmakers need to compel the PUC to do it.

Collier served as a senior adviser to President Joe Bidens 2020 Texas campaign and said he learned more from the experience than in his own two statewide races combined.

It was a world-class campaign operation, very data driven, very disciplined, he said. And I had a chance to see how all the pieces fit together, in a way that I never had before.

For Collier, that means bringing in young, energetic operatives to help him shape his message and to use data to help him understand how those messages are getting across.

My point of view is that the policy is mine, Collier said. I own it.

Im always open to new ideas, but my point of view is pretty much stabilized. Its road tested and pressure tested. The question is, how do you communicate?

Colliers fate in 2022 will be determined by how well he answers that question.

ggarcia@express-news.net | Twitter: @gilgamesh470
We live in a diverse country, where people have a lot of different preferences about how to live. For example, a 2016 Pew Research Center survey found 59 percent of Americans believed children with two parents were better off if one parent stayed at home, but 39 percent thought children were just as well off if both parents worked.

So which side was right? Well, obviously, neither. It depends on the personality, values and circumstances of the people in each particular family.

Our debates about family structure have been poisoned by people who cant acknowledge difference without immediately rendering some judgment. Family pluralism is a source of strength for this country, not a weakness.

It should be said that peoples views on what is the ideal family form are powerfully linked to their class standing. As research by scholars at the American Compass think tank has shown, people in the working class and to a lesser extent the middle class are more likely to prefer the breadwinner model, in which one parent stays home, when children are younger than 5. Families making more than $150,000 are more likely to admire the dual earner model, in which both parents work.

The crucial question is this: In a society with such a diverse array of family forms, which kind of family structure should the government favor? My answer is, None. The role of government is to help people build the kind of family they prefer, not tell them what kind of family they should prefer. Government should be neutral about what kind of family is best.

President Joe Bidens American Families Plan has one element that beautifully accomplishes this, by extending the child tax credit, or child allowance. If parents want to use the extra money from the credit to help pay for day care, they can. If they want to use it to reduce work hours time so they can spend more time at home, they can. The child tax credit will help millions of families do what surveys show they already want to do  have more kids than they can now afford, and spend more time at home.

But the Biden administration is not entirely neutral when it comes to family policy. When, during a conference call, I asked three administration officials Thursday about this, they mentioned two other social goals. First, getting people working. We want parents to be in the workforce, especially mothers, said Susan Rice, head of the Domestic Policy Council. Second, the administration wants kids in classroom settings, to extend the public school system down two years. The administration is aggressively expanding child care subsidies and pre-K programs.

These are understandable public goals, but I wonder about the emphasis. In the first place, direct parental subsidies  perhaps because they let parents cut back on work and cultivate their kids social and emotional skills  can be a powerful tool to boost kids educational attainment.

Second, when it comes to parenting there are no one-size-fits-all solutions. Whether a child will be helped or harmed by professional child care experience depends an awful lot on the nature of the particular child, the particular care center and the particular parents. These are circumstances only the parents, who are right there, can know, so parents should be given maximum power and flexibility to make decisions.

The way to do that, the family scholar W. Bradford Wilcox of the University of Virginia argues, is to focus money on direct subsidies and go big.

Because the Biden administration is trying to be all things to all people, Wilcox emailed me, it partially funds a number of initiatives, including the child allowance. Id much rather see the administration cut out the money promised for pre-K and child care and fully fund a generous child allowance.

Finally, I worry about the class politics of all this. In that American Compass research, more-affluent families support day care expansion but working-class families overwhelmingly support direct subsidies. Thriving meritocrats may be eager to reenjoy the satisfactions of full-time work, but in one 2018 survey only 28 percent of married mothers said working full time was ideal. Forty percent said working part time was ideal.

We are living in a time of huge economic and educational inequalities, and seething populist resentments as a result. I worry that the upper middle class will be inviting a furious backlash if it is seen to be privileging its parenting preferences through the use of state power.

Over the past few decades the economy has placed enormous strain on American families, forcing people to have fewer kids and spend less time with them than they would prefer. A fully generous child tax credit would give some parents a chance to step back from the job market for a few years while their kids were young  if they so chose.

The opportunity to drastically improve American family life is suddenly right before us.
On Monday, the Census Bureau announced preliminary 2020 census results. Texas population grew by almost 4 million people from 2010  more than any other state. This means increased political clout on the national stage and billions of additional federal dollars flowing our way. While welcome news, Republicans prevented the state, and themselves, from faring even better.

Texas is the only state in the country to receive two additional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and two additional Electoral College votes. So, for the next decade, Texas will elect 38 representatives and have 40 Electoral College votes. We are still second to California but are closing the gap.

We probably could have closed the gap more. Many observers predicted Texas would gain three House seats. But throughout the spring of 2020, Texas lagged behind other states in our census participation. This is not new in the Lone Star State. Nevertheless, the state government did little to assist.

The state Legislature adjourned its 2019 session without allocating funds to promote counting state residents. This contrasts with efforts in places such as California, which spent $187 million to encourage participation.

The lack of state support is disappointing. A George Washington University Institute of Public Policy analysis in February 2020 estimated Texas received over $100 billion from the federal government in 2017 for programs based on census counts. Another report from the same organization suggested a 1 percent undercount of Texans could cost the state more than $300 million annually for a decade. This means fewer dollars for Medicare, hospitals, school lunches, highways and a host of other programs.

It seems evident that a modest state investment would have yielded a net benefit. But in a demonstration of the power of partisanship in American politics, Republicans in the Texas Capitol were unwilling to pony up funding.

Republican hesitance reflected an objection to helping pay for a task assigned to the federal government. There was also controversy over possible inclusion of a citizenship question and, more generally, what groups of residents are more challenging to count. Many Democrats argued Republicans feared outreach efforts that would increase the tally of people of color.

The real irony is that by not investing in census efforts, Republicans probably undermined their own political fortunes. Despite some recent Democratic inroads, Texas remains a largely red state. Thus, an additional Electoral College vote would likely go to the Republican presidential candidate in 2024 and possibly 2028.

Control over both chambers of the state Legislature and the governors office means Republicans will also be in charge of drawing the states new House district boundaries. Texas has a rich tradition of gerrymandering, and the political consequences can be significant. For example, after revising the states map in 2003, Republicans were able to gain a majority of Texas House seats the next year for the first time since Reconstruction.

There is every reason to suspect Republicans will again try to draw lines to benefit the party. And their efforts to do so will be freer from federal oversight than before. The U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Shelby County v. Holder (2013) essentially gutted Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. That section had required locations with histories of discriminatory practices to get preclearance for election changes.

Had many of the same Republicans who will draw district lines supported funding to promote the census, they might have one more district to create. Presumably, this would mean one additional seat for the GOP in the U.S. House. With the narrow majority held by Democrats, this could mean the difference in party control of the chamber in the 2022 elections.

Texas Republicans may not lose sleep over fewer federal dollars for Medicaid, low-income tax credits or AmeriCorps. But potential consequences for power in the national government may lead them to rue hampering efforts to count every state resident.

Will they do anything differently for the 2030 census? For the sake of Texans benefiting from federal programs, which is all of us in some way, I hope so. For the fate of the GOP, I am indifferent. Of course, by the time decisions about promoting 2030 census efforts arise, it may be Democrats making those decisions. Population growth in the state continues to be driven primarily by people of color, and they have tended to vote for Democrats.

Joe Gershtenson is an associate professor of political science at St. Marys University. The views presented are solely his and do not represent the views of St. Marys University.
Fairfield Public Schools health educators win awards

Fairfield Public Schools Health Education department has been selected as the 2021 recipients of the Outstanding Community Partner Award by the Fairfield University Center for Social Impact and the Community Engaged Learning Program.

This award recognizes a particular partner organization that has advanced the mission of community engagement at Fairfield University in an exceptional way. It comes with a $500 contribution to support the FPS Health Education departments work and acknowledges the long standing collaboration between FPS and Dr. Maggie Wills, a member of Fairfield Universitys Communication department.

Groups of Fairfield University students work closely with FPS Health Educators to offer mini workshops to high school seniors on substance use, mental health and the transition to college. This years program was virtual due to the pandemic.

Special recognition goes to Lori Mediate, Fairfield Public Schools health coordinator, for her leadership and advocacy, making the program as successful and effective as it has been.

Fairfield Warde celebrates two outstanding educators

The Connecticut Parent Teacher Association has recognized Warde High School Principal Paul Cavanna, and teacher Jennifer Racioppo for their excellence in education.

It is not often that a school gets to celebrate a CT PTA Outstanding Administrator / Teacher Award Winner, which makes it even more special that Fairfield Warde High School gets to celebrate two.

Visit https://www.ctpta.org/ct-pta-awards-dinner for more details.

Rotary Club having a shred fest

The Rotary Club of Fairfield is sponsoring a Shred Fest May 1. The drive-thru event will allow community members to destroy, and dispose of sensitive documents safely and securely. Far too often people keep personal documents longer than needed, or worse, toss these documents away in trash bins, which puts them at risk for identity theft and fraud. Businesses can also benefit from the cost, and convenience of the drive-thru, and have a jump on cleaning out their outdated files and unneeded paperwork.

The event will accept paper documents to be shredded onsite at First Church Congregational, 148 Beach Road, Fairfield, for $10 per box (15x12x10) and $15 for a larger box. To make it convenient, and as contact-free as possible amid the coronavirus pandemic, drivers will pull up, pop the trunks on their vehicles, pay and drive away.

The money collected will be used to fund community grants for local charities and non-profit organizations and to support international service projects helping children, women, health services and clean water.

Visit: fairfieldrotary.org for more information.

Fairfield Rotary Club scholarships available

The Fairfield Rotary Club Foundation is offering $24,000 in scholarships to graduating seniors from Bridgeport, and Fairfield high schools who will be attending college this fall. Three $8,000 scholarships are available. All completed applications, and supporting documentation must be received by May 7. Apply at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RotaryScholarship2021

Westport referral group seeks new members

The Westport Business Networking International (BNI) Chapter is currently seeking new members to start making news business connections in the spring season in specific business categories.

The chapter is a group of 48 business professionals looking to connect. The group holds weekly meetings on Zoom, but will resume in a hybrid, or in-person format sometime this summer, or fall. Classifications that are open include: Interior designer, developer, heating and air conditioning contractor, fitness club, or personal trainer, chef, and attorneys that practice estate, and elder law.

All of the business professionals are experienced, at the top of their fields and represent a top flight network of business services and solutions in Fairfield County.

Only one person per profession is allowed to join BNI chapters. The chapter in Westport has one Certified Public Accountant, one architect and one insurance agent.

Visit www.WestportBNI.com for more information. All visitors must preregister for Zoom access to BNI.

Contact Visitor Hosts Ernie Addario of Salon Paul Michael at info@salonpaulmichael.com or Curtis Bentley of Health Directions at Curtis@health-directions.com to learn more.

Salon Paul is located at 1258 Post Road E. in Westport. Health Directions is located at 1300 Post Road, Suite 100, in Fairfield.
The tidbits of good news have been few and far between since the COVID virus landed on our shores, but one surprising result is the increase in pet adoptions from shelters.

Its nationwide, said Terrie Nylund, who serves as Co-Director of Bright Eyes Care and Rehab, Inc. Terrie serves with Co-Director Darolyne Holland.

Nylund and Holland told the Sun Times that Bright Eyes only has one dog available for adoption, along with several cats.

According to Nylund, when the virus hit and people were forced to stay at home, people had the time to spend with pets.

Nylund, who is originally from Ohio, moved to Choteau from Great Falls with her husband, Steven, in 1986 when the couple acquired the hardware store in Choteau.

Before long, Nylund was volunteering one day a week at the Great Falls Humane Society shelter. At the time, said Nylund, There was nothing in Choteau. People would ask me to take animals to Great Falls, and I saw how many animals were going to the shelter coming from Teton County. They would call and say that they had found a stray; I cant take care of

Bright Eyes Care & Rehab Center, Inc., came into being as a 501(c)3 in 1999. Local animal lovers and landowners Jim and Barb Arensmeyer donated two acres for the facility. Then they donated another acre, bringing the total to three.

By August 2005, through fundraising and a lot of sweat equity, Bright Eyes had erected their building east of Choteau.

There were no grants available at the time, said Nylund. We had bake sales.

While not sure about the exact size of the building, Nylund and Holland estimate it to be about 2,500-3,000 square feet.

The layout for the building is Nylunds vision.

The facility has the capacity for 12 dogs and 22 cats. Over the years Bright Eyes has cared for a turtle, duck, chicken, mini-poodle, bunny and a Golden Eagle. The cared for the eagle until staff from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks could arrive.

Bright Eyes is a no-kill shelter. The longest they have kept an animal is for six years, a dog with special needs.

On the day of my visit, they have about a dozen cats in the shelter, and one of them, Duncan, has special physical needs. The mostly black cat appears healthy and is the friendliest of the bunch. He jumps up on some of the cat furniture in a room with other cats and reaches out his front paws and stretches out his fingers just as wide as he can, just begging for attention. And he gets it.

There were quite a few rooms with cats on this day, and every room was absolutely spotless.

There were three dogs, but two belonged to Darolyne who had brought them into work with her to give the lone tenant, Sage, some company during the day.

The cats were well fed and seemed to be enjoying their stay, as well as each others company.

The three dogs, well they had to say hello to the stranger with some barking and wagging tails. The barking quieted down quickly.

The dog area, and all of the other parts of the facility, were also spotless.

But there is more to the Bright Eyes that cat rooms and kennels.

When an animal comes to Bright Eyes, unless they know the medical background of the animal, it will go into the exam room. A basic checkup is performed and the animal is vaccinated, except for rabies, which must be administered by a veterinarian.

There is a treatment room where the staff will clean ears, trim nails and doctor wounds.

For cats and kittens coming into Bright Eyes, after they are examined, they will go into the Feline Isolation Room. The cats and kittens will stay in this room for five days. During that time the staff will observe their behavior and give any administered vaccines enough time to become effective. It also allows Bright Eyes to feel certain that the new arrivals do not carry anything contagious to the other cats.

There is a Kitten and Adolescent Cat Room where young cats and kittens are isolated until they have been spayed or neutered at about five or six months of age.

There is also an Adult Cat Room.

Just as with the cats, there is a Canine Isolation Room. All dogs and puppies are isolated and observed here for five days.

Once the dogs are known to be healthy, vaccinated, spayed or neutered and do not show evidence of aggression, they are moved to the Canine Adoption Hall. These are roomy kennels with access to outside pens.

Bright Eyes also has a visitation room, complete laundry and dog shower.

Weather permitting, the cats, too, are able to access an outdoor play area.

The annual price tag to operate Bright Eyes comes to about $92,000. A large portion of that comes from out-of-state donors who visit the state. Even though adoptions rose during COVID, donations dropped 60 per cent, according to Nylund.

Bright Eyes benefits beyond handling pet adoptions. For four years the organization has held Feline Spay and Neuter Clinics. This years clinic will be held on Saturday, May 15 at East Slope Vet Clinic in Choteau. For details, see advertisement in this newspaper. In 2019, 84 cats and kittens were spayed or neutered.

These clinics are open to residents throughout Teton County, and from Augusta to Valier.

For dog owners, Bright Eyes offers assistance to cover the cost for spay/neuter for dogs.

Both Nylund and Holland have lengthy experience working with animals at Double Arrow Veterinary Clinic.

Darolyne Holland grew up in New Hampshire, and moved to Montana in 2001 and arrived in the Sun River Valley in 2005. She still resides in the Valley, and have been with Bright Eyes for a year.

There are two volunteers who help, but one of the co-directors are on hand during regular hours.

For those wanting to check out the dogs and cats at Bright Eyes that are looking for a permanent home, they can go to www.petfinders.com

If you would like to participate in some of the fundraisers conducted by Bright Eyes, they offer quite a few opportunities over the year. On July 4 in Choteau, they will have their Fourth of July Bake Sale in the park. They will provide information on Bright Eyes and will have adoptable pets at the park.

In August, Bright Eyes will have their Pennies for Pets. They will set up at Rexs Market and collect change. According to Terrie Nylund, some supports save up their coins all year for this fundraiser.

In September, Bright Eyes plans to hold an open house. This is not so much as a fundraiser, but a chance for people to check the shelter out and enjoy a free luncheon. During the open house, Bright Eyes puts on Paw Prints on our Hearts. Using animal-safe paints on your dogs paws, they have your dog walk across a canvas, leaving their paw prints. You can take the canvas home and have it framed.

To raise funds for the feline spay/neuter clinic, Bright Eyes used to put on their Spayghetti and Neutles Dinner. Last year, the event was canceled due to COVID. The dinner has been rescheduled for this fall.

Supporting annual memberships are available, starting at $10 for an individual and topping off at $500 for a lifetime membership.

From 2001-2018, Bright Eyes Care & Rehab has reunited 663 pets with their owners; performed 1,651 spays and neuters; helped with adoptions of 722 cats and 641 dog adoptions and assisted adoptions. An adoption assist is when Bright Eyes is contacted by a pet owner looking to find a new home for their pet. Bright Eyes will work to find a good home for the pet.

If you are in the grocery or at Sams Club, think about Bright Eyes and put a little extra in your shopping cart. Terrie and Darolyne told the Sun Times they can always use paper towels, laundry detergent, Dawn dish-washing detergent, bleach, toilet paper, dog chews, kitty toys and unscented clay cat litter.

For more information, contact Bright Eyes Care and Rehab at (406) 466-2100, or email them at brighteyes@3rivers.net. Their office and shelter are open Tuesday through Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and on Saturday and Sunday from 8:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. The shelter is closed on Monday and Friday.
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Alia Bhatt joined hands with Faye DSouza a couple of days back to give out necessary information for COVID relief. Alia and Faye have been sharing numbers of hospitals, medications as well as doctors who are providing aid to the people of the country.





Alia has been sharing information about several different cities, today, she took to Instagram to reveal contacts about NGOs who are working relentlessly for COVID relief. The names of NGOs that are provided are from New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Check out the contacts below










Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 30, 2021) - Ameriwest Lithium Inc. (CSE: AWLI) (the "Company" or "Ameriwest") is pleased to announce that it has granted stock options (each, a "Stock Option") to acquire an aggregate of up to 900,000 common shares of the Company to each of certain directors and/or officers of the Company in accordance with the provisions of the Company's current stock option plan.

Each of the Stock Options vests as to one-sixth on the date of grant, as to one-sixth on each date which is 12, 18 and 24 months from the date of grant and as to one-third on the date which is 12 months from the date of grant.

About Ameriwest Lithium Inc.

Ameriwest Lithium Inc.is a junior Canadian-based mining company with a focus on identifying and evaluating mineral resource projects for further exploration and future development, if warranted. The Company is currently focused on exploring the ESN Project located in White Pine County, Nevada, which Ameriwest has the sole and exclusive option to acquire, and the Koster Dam property located in the Clinton Mining Division of British Columbia, in which Oakley has a 45% interest.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

Glenn Collick

Chief Operating Officer, Director

For further information, please contact:

Glenn Collick

Chief Executive Officer, Director

(778) 868-2226

The Canadian Securities Exchange has not in any way passed upon the merits of the matters and Private Placement referenced herein and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release.

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information

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OTTAWA (dpa-AFX) - Canadian Pacific Railway Limited (CP, CP.TO) said that it filed a formal objection with the Surface Transportation Board or 'STB' stating that Canadian National Railway (CNR.TO, CNI) or CN does not qualify for a waiver of the STB's rules for major transactions with respect to CN's unsolicited proposal for Kansas City Southern (KSU) or 'KCS'. In its letter, CP explained that the CN/KCS transaction does not satisfy any of the criteria that the STB relied upon in finding that the waiver should apply to a CP/KCS transaction, which the STB granted to CP on April 23, 2021. In March, Canadian Pacific Railway agreed to acquire Kansas City Southern in a stock and cash transaction representing an enterprise value of about $29 billion. The deal included the assumption of $3.8 billion of outstanding Kansas City Southern debt. In April, Canadian National Railway made a proposal to buy Kansas City Southern in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at $33.7 billion, including $3.8 billion of KCS debt. 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.
SEOUL (dpa-AFX) - Kia Motors America reported that sales for the month of April 2021 was 70,177 vehicles, up 121.3 percent from 31,705 vehicles in the previous year. 'With five Kia models setting sales records in April and the successful launches of the Sorento SUV and the all-new Carnival MPV continuing to drive customers to showrooms, Kia is experiencing unprecedented momentum,' said Sean Yoon, president and CEO of Kia Motors North America and Kia Motors America. The company said it is confident its strong performance will continue through the year. 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.
Geneva, NY (14456)

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MOBILE, Ala. (WALA)  Mobile County this week slipped in the very high risk category of the states COVID-19 index, but health experts are not pushing the panic button.

The Alabama Department of Public Health bases its risk indicator on trends, not overall numbers. Mobile County is considered very high risk because cases are up over the past 14 days. But the number of people currently infected is substantially lower than it has been for most of the pandemic.

Under the states scoring, a county with much higher numbers might be considered low risk if they are lower than they were 14 days earlier.

Any small little change in those numbers, percentage-wise, can take us from the low-risk indices to the very high risk quickly, because its based on a percentage change, said Scott Chavers, an epidemiologist who is head of COVID-19 response for the Mobile County Health Department. And so, please treat those numbers with caution. We are still, overall, doing very, very well.

At a press briefing, Chavers reeled off the latest figures.

In the last 24 hours here in Mobile County, we added 15 cases of COVID-19, he said. We added three hospitalizations, and we were actually down four with respect to those currently hospitalized. So, again, numbers are going down.

Still, infections have trended a bit higher in Mobile County even as they have continued to decline in Baldwin and other surrounding counties. Alabama State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris is at a loss to explain why.

I dont have any particular, you know, event or outbreak or, you know, concrete reason that would explain it, he said. You know, I think one thing we really learned about this disease is theres a lot we dont know about this disease. Its never been this, you know, giant deluge thats flooded the whole state at once except for, you know, maybe the holiday season in December.

Harris said his agency also is closely monitoring the percentage of COVID-19 tests coming back positive. That number has crept back over 5 percent  a red flag. But Harris noted it still is lower than its been for nearly the entire pandemic.

Our percent positivity rate, in some sense, is better than weve ever seen it, he said.

Other trends are positive, as well. Overall daily infections have held steady since coming off the Christmastime surge.

Hospitalizations are far below the peak and have stayed under the 500-mark for most of the last two months.

But Chavers said the slight uptick in the numbers points to the importance to fight complacency.

Whats concerning there is that when youre in a plateau, youre kind of at a steady state, he said. And you really want to see those numbers continue to go down. And they have started to go back up a little bit. And thats not only for COVID, but also for influenza.
China ramps up environmental protection efforts in Qinghai's Sanjiangyuan area

People's Daily Online) 10:13, May 01, 2021

China has redoubled its efforts towards the protection of the Sanjiangyuan area in the northwestern province of Qinghai over the past years by establishing a national park.

The Sanjiangyuan National Park, China's first pilot national park, has been established to protect the local environment. The area is known as the countrys water tower because it houses the headwaters of the three great rivers of the country: the Yangtze, the Yellow and the Lancang rivers.

(1) Photo shows blue sheep, under second-class state protection in China, wandering in the Guoluo Tibetan autonomous prefecture, northwest Chinas Qinghai province. (2) Photo shows a herdswoman taking care of her yak in northwest Chinas Qinghai province. (3) Photo shows two rangers rescuing a wild animal trapped in broken ice on a lake in northwest Chinas Qinghai province. (Photo/Courtesy of Sanjiangyuan National Park's management committee)

Covering a total area of 123,100 square kilometers, the national park emphasizes the protection of the entire ecosystem, including all of the local natural resources such as wild animals, water, grassland, and forests.

Since the national park started its trial operation in 2016, local herdsmen have been recruited to help protect and improve the environment. Their work includes patrolling the pasture as well as monitoring and rescuing the parks wildlife. To date, there are 17,211 rangers operating in the national park.

Kunsang, now 39 years old, is a Tibetan herdsman-turned park ranger for the headwaters of the Yellow River in the national park. He usually starts work at 8 a.m. and finishes all his tasks by 6 p.m., noted the man, who has taken up the post since 2016.

On Nov. 16, 2020, Kunsang put his life at risk while attempting to save a wolf trapped in an broken ice patch on a lake. Braving temperatures of minus 10 degrees Celsius, Kunsang rushed over to the wolf and pulled the wild animal out from the icy opening on the frozen lake with the help of his colleague.

"The wolf was in danger, and I never thought about how cold the frozen lake water was," the man recalled, adding that all he wanted was just to save the animal in that moment, affirming that wildlife is of enormous value to the overall integrity of the the national parks ecology.

The efforts of rangers including Kunsang are paying off, and the national park has seen its wild animal populations bounce back noticeably in recent years.

Hoh Xil (Kekexili) National Nature Reserve, one of the largest no mans lands in China and a part of the Sanjiangyuan National Park, is now home to more than 70,000 Tibetan antelopes, said Wang Xiangguo, deputy director of the park. The official explained that the population numbers for the rare species, which is under first-class state protection in the country, once declined sharply to no fewer than 20,000 due to the impacts of illegal hunting.

Meanwhile, the national park has adopted new technologies to better monitor the water quality in the area. Since 2018, when an intelligent terminal operation system was first introduced, other technologies such as water quality sensors, video monitoring equipment, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) have also now been widely applied in protecting water resources.

Local villagers have also joined in efforts to make the Sanjiangyuan areas waters even clearer. They have not only made garbage sorting a part of their daily life, but also consciously picked up trash they happened to come across for disposal at centralized treatment in their villages.

"Environmental protection is a top priority for us, as its benefits are significant," said Chapu, director of Niandu village, Angsai township of Yushu Tibetan autonomous prefecture in Qinghai province. "Today, it is not rare to see seniors and children alike picking up rubbish alongside the meadows," the official added.

Thanks to all the joint efforts, the national park has also witnessed remarkable improvements in its ecological environment over the past five years.

The annual average water conservation volume grew by over 6 percent, according to a report from Chinas National Development and Reform Commission released in March 2020.

The report also indicated that in the national park, the grassland coverage and grass yield also rose by over 11 percent and 30 percent respectively from a decade ago.

Over the past five years, two large lakes  Gyaring and Ngoring  situated in the Yellow River's headwaters region in the national park, saw their areas increase by 74.6 and 117.4 square km, respectively. Meanwhile, the area of wetlands has increased by 104 square km, and the number of lakes has reached 5,849.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji)
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Fort Wayne, IN (46808)

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William Weber West, 93 of Gainesville, Texas passed away on June 2, 2021. He was born on April 7, 1928 in Atchison, Kansas to Lee West and Elizabeth (Weber) West. He married Mary Ellen Peyrot on May 17, 1951 in Gainesville, Texas. William enlisted in the U.S. Army on January 5, 1951 in Gaine
On Saturday, June 12, Sunrise Movement Long Beach will host a virtual teach-in event with the goal of educating people on the national Good Jobs for All campaign that advocates for Congress to support the Green New Deal.


Silicon Validation Engineering Program Manager Santa Clara Valley (Cupertino) , California , United States Hardware Summary

Posted: Apr 30, 2021 Role Number: 200243937 Imagine what you could do here. At Apple, new ideas have a way of becoming extraordinary products, services, and customer experiences very quickly. Bring passion and dedication to your job and there's no telling what you could accomplish. Dynamic, intelligent people and inspiring, innovative technologies are the norm here. The people who work here have reinvented entire industries with all Apple Hardware products. The same passion for innovation that goes into our products also applies to our practices strengthening our dedication to leave the world better than we found it. Do you want join us in these pursuits? Join us to help deliver the next groundbreaking Apple product! Come to Apple and work within a team to deliver a broad range of silicon technologies. This is an extraordinary opportunity to engage with the latest technologies and deliver groundbreaking Apple products year after year. You will go beyond the industry norm and demonstrate creativity in problem solving, ability to think dynamically and outside of standard convention, and adapt quickly to new technical areas. As a Program Manager within the HW Technology Program Management organization, you will be responsible for leading Apple's silicon validation programs - from board design, through factory builds, deployment and support in the hands of silicon validation engineers. This is an individual contributor role, working on a Senior Program Management team that drives silicon program schedules and resolving technical issues that enable delivering silicon on-time. This position will collaborate with multi-functional teams that enable validation teams to resolve silicon issues blocking product development starting with initial silicon bring-up through production release and beyond. Key Qualifications Requires at least 2+ years of experience in silicon design, verification, validation

5+ Years Program or Project Management, Systems Support

Experience managing, organizing and maintaining multiple projects simultaneously.

Phenomenal leadership skills and ability to encourage team members with an innate ability to see the bigger picture.

Flexible and able to find workable solutions when unforeseen issues arise.

Dedicated to own/drive project development using well-defined metrics.

Proven experience running silicon projects from concept to production is considered a plus. Description Work on a PM team responsible for driving technical issue resolution to enable timely silicon to meet daring product schedules Craft and run silicon validation hardware programs and processes, including board design, specification and schematic approvals, factory builds. Define allocation requirements for multiple silicon validation teams and work with system teams to acquire the hardware necessary to execute silicon validation plans within tightly defined schedules. Focused issue reporting and communication of program risks and status. Attend and drive technical sessions with multi-functional teams to track and follow-up issues/escalations Technical understanding of system design and silicon validation planning. Education & Experience MS / BS Degree in technical subject area.


Without the current restrictions, Graven said 176 people could die and over 700 people could be hospitalized in the next few months, primarily in May.

Graven said a short stoppage of activity would pay off in the short and long term.

"We have just three to four weeks until we will be in good shape," he said.

While extolling the personal health and community cooperation shown by those who were vaccinated, Brown said a decision to not be vaccinated was a personal choice.

But trying to stop people from getting vaccinated during a declared state public health emergency was not acceptable. Brown said she was aware of the Thursday incident in which anti-vaccination activists heckled students arriving at a school-sponsored clinic at Bend High School. Police were called and the group dispersed.

School staff also received often anonymous messages calling them "Nazis" for approving the vaccinations on the school property. In Oregon, anyone age 15 or older can agree to medical services  including immunization  without parental consent.
The Benton County district attorney has determined Corvallis Police Officer Daniel Granillo was justified in fatally shooting Jeffrey Appelt on April 3.

In a summary of his findings released Friday, District Attorney John Haroldson announced that his office has concluded Granillo was acting in accordance with Oregon law for the use of deadly force. The law, Haroldson noted, says someone is justified in use of deadly force if the person reasonably believes the target is committing or attempting to commit a felony involving the use or threatened imminent use of physical force against a person or is using or about to use unlawful deadly physical force against a person.

Haroldson said he and senior members of his staff met with members of the Benton County Major Crimes Team on the day of the shooting to discuss how to proceed with an investigation of the use of deadly force by Granillo.

In addition to discussions with detectives and officers investigating the shooting, Haroldson said, his office reviewed police reports concerning Appelt prior to the April 3 incident, parole supervision records, medical and mental health records, video footage of events leading up to the shooting, footage of the shooting itself and other records.
Oregon Rep. Mike Nearman has been charged with official misconduct in the first degree and criminal trespass in the second degrees.

The charges were filed Friday by the Marion County District Attorneys Office. Both alleged offenses stem from an incident that occurred last Dec. 21, when protesters entered the Oregon State Capitol. Nearman, a Republican who represents House District 23, was seen on video opening a side door at the Capitol to admit the protesters.

The case was investigated by the Oregon State Police. Nearman is scheduled to be arraigned at 9 a.m. May 11 at the Marion County Circuit Court Annex, located at 4000 Aumsville Highway in Salem.

Because the case remains an open criminal prosecution, the Marion County District Attorneys Office said it cannot discuss any facts or details related to the investigation.

Nearman has said he allowed the protesters in enter the building to ensure that the legislative sessions taking place were conducted openly.

The misconduct charge is a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by a maximum 364 days in prison and a $6,250 fine.
Gettysburg, PA (17325)

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Here's what the intersection of Grand, First and I-70B will look like when construction is completed by May 2022. Work on this project is to s
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TOPEKA [mdash] Lydia N. Hostetler, 89, of Topeka, died at 4:25 a.m. on Tuesday, June 8 at her residence. She was born on April 8, 1932, in LaGrange County, to Noah J. and Amanda Mae (Bontrager) Raber. On April 23, 1953, in Honeyville, she married Ervin D. Hostetler. He died June 3, 2017. Sur
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Funding With Fines

Finding Funds Elsewhere

Costs Are Ongoing

By Jake GrovumAs the nationwide push intensifies for police to wear body cameras, states and cities have encountered one consistent roadblock to adopting the technology: the cost.The price of a single camera ranges widely, from less than $100 to more than $1,000, based on the size of the purchase (larger police departments often get a discount) and whether the deal includes data storage services. But managing and storing the video costs many times the price of the cameras themselves. And because the technology is so new, its likely that it will have to be replaced fairly quickly, which would require additional expenditures.In a survey of 40 police departments by the Police Executive Research Forum conducted last fall and released this year, nearly 40 percent of departments without body cameras cited cost as the primary barrier to using them.President Barack Obama has called for $75 million in new federal spending to help pay for 50,000 police body cameras for local police departments. States are struggling with whether cameras should be worn all the time and whether the video should be a public record, which also can affect costs. As of April 20, 34 states were considering 117 bills related to police body cameras, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). So far, only a handful of states have figured out how to pay for them.They (cameras) can be a really great tool if implemented correctly, said Lindsay Miller, a senior research associate at the police forum, a membership organization of police and government officials, academics and others who work in the field. Its not as easy as sticking a camera on an officer and sending them out in the field.Put simply, Miller said, The money has to come from somewhere.In New Jersey, legislation enacted last fall requires officers or the vehicles they routinely use in traffic stops to have cameras, either on the officer or on the dashboard in the car.Giving local governments the option  body camera or dashboard camera  was a compromise to help pass the bill, said Democratic Assemblyman Paul Moriarty, who sponsored the legislation. The measure only applies to newly acquired vehicles, and it exempts officers who work in administrative roles or detectives who dont regularly conduct traffic stops.The most significant part of the compromise, however, is the funding mechanism: The legislation levies a $25 surcharge on convicted drunken drivers, a fine that stays in the municipality where the offense occurred. That funding can go toward purchasing cameras or data storage and other expenses that make having police cameras workable, Moriarty said.We have a problem here with the state mandating something and not coming up with some way to pay for it, he said. Some of these larger cities, theyre strapped for cash  and some of the smaller ones too.Lawmakers in some other states are trying a more straightforward approach. They are calling for state money to help pay for a technology they see as a necessity, and one for which the public and local police departments are clamoring.A measure advancing in Texas, for instance, would dedicate $50 million in state money to implement a requirement that officers across the state wear cameras. Several body camera bills have gained bipartisan support in Austin; one already has cleared the Senate, and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has signaled his support for body camera legislation this session.Democratic Rep. Ron Reynolds, who is pushing the $50 million measure, said finding the money to support body camera requirements was just as important as the requirement itself.If theres no funding, then its nothing more than an unfunded mandated; its nothing more than a noble idea, Reynolds said. A lot of these municipalities, they don't have the revenue to do it, theyre barely getting by now, they have to make it based on lean budgets.Reynolds admits his bill could change as the session winds toward its June adjournment, but he is optimistic the state will provide at least some money to pay for body cameras.Worst case scenario were going to have limited funding where we can establish good practices and some good pilots, Reynolds said. Texas is going to be probably the first state with a full comprehensive body camera bill, and thats going to send big shockwaves across the country because were known as a fairly conservative state, a red state, and were going to take the lead.Some lawmakers in South Carolina, particularly the South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus, want the state to spend as much as $21.5 million for police body cameras in the wake of the Walter Scott shooting. Scott, an African-American, was shot in the back and killed by a white police officer as he ran away in North Charleston, South Carolina, on April 4. The shooting was captured on a cellphone video by a bystander.The Police Executive Research Forum survey found most agencies spent between $800 and $1,200 per camera to purchase them, a daunting price tag for departments already strapped for cash.But it is the ongoing costs that are the real challenge. The New Orleans Police Department plans to purchase 350 body cameras, but is budgeting $1.2 million over five years, mostly for data storage. Other departments, the police forum found, expect to spend $2 million for a few years of data storage.In Iowa, the Des Moines Police Department is looking for $300,000 just to start a body camera program. Duluth, Minnesotas initial $5,000 purchase of 84 cameras ballooned to about $78,000 for licensing and data storage. Last year, Duluths police budget was $19.1 million, while Des Moines spent more than $59 million on its police force.Many states are debating the issues that surround police cameras without tackling the funding question, said Richard Williams, a criminal justice policy specialist with the NCSL. In many instances, he said, lawmakers are focused how long departments should have to keep video, and if or when recordings should be made public.Miller, with the Police Executive Research Forum, said those issues are important, but that for police departments, cost is the overriding concern.Officers could potentially record millions of videos a year, any number of which could be used as part of a criminal proceeding, a public records request or for another official purpose. The cost of downloading, logging, handling and storing all that video can be staggering.Most of the agencies that we worked with say the biggest issue is the backend data storage, she said. It can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to store video each year.Costs were a stumbling block in Utah this year, where state lawmakers debated but didnt pass body camera legislation. Meanwhile, some departments around the state are using the technology  and trying to meet the costs associated with it.In Clearfield, Utah, a city of about 30,000 located 30 miles north of Salt Lake City, the police department has been using body cameras since 2010. But recently, data storage problems came to a head, and for a few weeks, the department was forced to use DVDs to store video because it ran out of computer server space.The more you use them, the more storage it takes, and the costs increase, said Mike Stenquist, an assistant chief. The public wants more, it also costs more. It creates a lot of problems.Its not likely to get any better either, Stenquist said. Years ago, the department used older model cameras that needed to be recharged frequently and could only record two hours of video at a time, meaning officers had to return to the office frequently to download any recordings.New models last longer and have greater storage capacity, he said. But now theres another problem: The newer cameras record high-definition video, which means the video files are much larger, a reality that contributed to the departments recent data crunch.The data just builds up, Stenquist said. Now that we have better cameras that record through a whole shift, its taking three or four times the data storage.Between cost concerns and public access questions, Stenquist said, its probably inevitable that state lawmakers will have to step in.Its just become pretty muddy about whats going to happen in the future, he said. Theres a lot of work to be done.
Privatizing to Save Money and Time

The Effects of Inefficient Outsourcing

Guidelines to a Successful Outsourcing Deal

Last summer, residents of Maywood, Calif., woke up one morning to find the government as they knew it gone. After years of corruption and mismanagement, the small, blue-collar city south of Los Angeles fired almost all of its employees, dismantled its police department and contracted with a neighboring city to take over most municipal tasks. On July 1, local officials announced that Maywood had become the countrys first city to be fully outsourced.It was an unprecedented move spurred by a loss of commercial liability insurance and Workers Compensation. As the city drowned in deficits and faced multiple lawsuits, city leaders saw outsourcing as a light at the end of a collapsing tunnel.But it was only a mirage.Bell, Calif., the city that Maywood officials had tapped to run its services, erupted with a pay and pension scandal, forcing several top Bell officials to resign. By September, Bell had scrapped its contract with Maywood, leaving the city to fend for itself and find new contractors for its outsourcing hopes.The search for financial salvation is sweeping the country as local governments grapple with waning sales and property tax revenues. The economic recession has strangled budgets, forcing layoffs and the disbanding of departments. Feeling pushed to the brink of bankruptcy, cities are trying to find effective ways to make do with less. Maywood, in its outsourcing attempt, may be the most extreme example, but in California and other states in the past decade, more public officials have turned to outside sources for help in providing services at a lower cost to the state.In theory, the idea of contracting public services to private companies to cut costs makes sense. If someone is willing to fix streets or put out fires for less money, that should be a plus for a governments bottom line. Many state and local governments have identified hundreds of millions of dollars in savings by hiring outside contractors -- or a neighboring citys services -- to handle tasks like trash collection, pothole repair, and water and wastewater treatment.But according to analysts, outsourcing is by no means a perfect solution. Some agencies dont have the metrics in place to prove in advance that outsourcing a service will save money. Problems from poorly conceived contracts can create cost increases that surpass the costs of in-house services, and if theres shoddy contract oversight, a government is vulnerable to corruption and profiteering. The privatization of public services can erode accountability and transparency, and drive governments deeper into debt. Governments at all levels are just desperate to balance their budgets, and theyre grasping at privatization as a panacea, says Susan Duerksen, director of communications for In the Public Interest, a project that examines privatization and contracting. But theres evidence that it often is a very bad deal with hidden costs and consequences when you turn over public service to a for-profit company.Various governments -- from small towns all the way up to federal agencies -- have been sending public services to the private sector since the 1980s. The trend stems from the common belief that private companies can help governments save or make money by doing jobs faster and cheaper, or managing a public asset more efficiently.This past March, for example, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie created the state Privatization Task Force to review privatization opportunities within state government and identify barriers. In its research, the task force not only identified estimated annual savings from privatization totaling more than $210 million, but also found several examples of successful efforts in other states. As former mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell saved $275 million by privatizing 49 city services. Chicago has privatized more than 40 city services. Since 2005, it has generated more than $3 billion in upfront payments from private-sector leases of city assets. In 2005, West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin worked to transform the states Workers Compensation Commission into a private insurance carrier, BrickStreet Insurance. That has led Workers Compensation rates to decline about 30 percent statewide, translating to more than $150 million in annual employer savings.Sterile philosophical debates about public versus private are often detached from the day-to-day world of public management, the New Jersey Privatization Task Force reported. Over the last several decades, in governments at all levels throughout the world, the public sectors role has increasingly evolved from direct service provider to that of an indirect provider or broker of services; governments are relying far more on networks of public, private and nonprofit organizations to deliver services.The report took careful note of another key factor: The states most successful in privatization created a permanent, centralized entity to manage and oversee the operation, from project analysis and vendor selection to contracting and procurement. For governments that forgo due diligence, choose ill-equipped contractors and fail to monitor progress, however, outsourcing deals can turn into costly disasters.No industry has gone through greater outsourcing catastrophes in the past year than government IT. Last fall, Texas cut short its seven-year contract with IBM, an $863 million deal that called for IBM to provide data center and disaster recovery services for 27 state agencies. When an audit criticized the states Department of Information Resources for lax oversight, inadequate staffing and sloppy service, the partnership fell apart. In Virginia, the states 10-year, $2.3 billion IT contract with Northrop Grumman to run the states computers, servers, e-mail systems and help desk services also has been plagued by inadequate planning, cost overruns and poor service.Technology plays such a critical role in the storage and delivery of vital data that even minor delays and deficiencies can disrupt business operations, such as car registration renewals, and unemployment and medical care services. In August, a storage area network failure in Virginia knocked two dozen state agencies computer systems offline in another devastating blow to the states IT outsourcing contract. A week later, the state Department of Motor Vehicles still couldnt process drivers licenses at customer service centers because databases were down.The problem is that outsourcing deals are really about risk, says Adam Strichman, co-founder of Sanda Partners, an outsourcing consultancy. Youre taking the risk of the unknown and dumping that on your supplier, he says. Youre outsourcing a problem to a company that has limited control over the root cause of the problem. The only way for a public-private partnership to work, he suggests, is to drive transformation from within the agency. And thats the hard part. Red tape usually prevents governments from making significant modifications, and private companies lack the authority to enforce real changes. When such a public-private stalemate stunts a project, it helps to have an exit strategy.Those risks extend beyond the technology world. In 2009, in the wake of an audit of economic development agreements between Niagara Falls and two developers, New York state Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli discovered that the projects faltered because the city failed to monitor development contracts. One of the projects, a downtown retail mall, has been vacant since 2000; the second project, which began in 1997, yielded nothing more than a rudimentary building foundation.Before governments hire outside contractors, its important to examine the cost-effectiveness, says Nicole Hanks, deputy press secretary of the state comptrollers office. More times than not, its less expensive to use state workers instead of outside contractors.A good outsourcing deal starts with a thorough cost-benefit analysis to see if a third party can effectively deliver services better and more cheaply than public employees. Strichman says governments should hire an outsourcing consultant who can provide an independent assessment. But even with a consultant, conflicts of interest can tarnish a golden opportunity. After all, private companies may want to provide a service efficiently and well -- and often do -- but governments must ride herd on implementation of the contract. As Duerksen points out, a companys motivation is not the common good; its profit. If they can cut corners in any way, they often do.In that regard, the provider that offers the lowest bid might not be the best option. But with his experience in several large-scale government outsourcing deals, Strichman has seen first-hand that in a bidding war, the company that has a liberal interpretation for the lowest price wins, which inevitably leads to strife when high expectations meet underachievement. Anyone can bid any outsourcing deal 5 percent cheaper, but the problem is you dont know what they cut out, he says. When price reductions appear unrealistic, theres no magic. They are unrealistic.Even with the proper oversight channels, policies wont work if departments dont participate. In 2005, the Wisconsin Legislature passed a law that required a cost-benefit analysis be completed for any purchase of service more than $25,000. The law outlines analysis procedures and reporting requirements. Soon after, the Contract Sunshine Act was enacted, requiring all Wisconsin agencies to provide online information about state contracts in excess of $10,000.The laws were created to promote transparency and to ensure that agencies complete an effective cost-benefit analysis prior to procurements. But compliance has been low, says Janice Mueller, state auditor for the Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau. We were asked to look and see why state agencies are not consistently reporting, she says. Its really difficult to compel compliance.In other cases, outsourcing efforts may be stifled by union contracts or a lack of available services. Mayor Sharon McShurley in Muncie, Ind., wanted to outsource the citys fire protection services to save money. But the city ceased its cost analysis after realizing that no such private services existed in the area. It does tie our hands as administrators trying to figure out how to balance the budget and provide services with a reduction in revenue, she says. I like the idea of outsourcing. Competition drives prices down. We dont have the revenue that we used to have.
Joe Biden will come to the presidency with close to a clean slate on the issue of federal-state-local relations. How will he tackle the big issues he can't escape?The best insight into the former vice president's approach to federalism comes from his work in directing the Obama administration's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act . The core of that effort was pumping out more than $800 billion to stimulate the economy following the 2008 economic collapse, an amount that at the time seemed nearly unthinkable. A big chunk of the money went to state and local governments for health care and infrastructure.Biden's strategy: Get the money out fast, warn state and local governments about the risks of mismanaging the cash, and reinforce that warning with full transparency. His office created a website, remarkable for the time, that allowed anyone to track, in real time, what money was flowing where, for which projects. It was a GIS-based map that drilled down to what was happening, quite literally, on any block anywhere in the country.The do-it-fast, do-it-in-the-spotlight approach is something sure to carry over into Biden's administration. So too, perhaps, is the idea of having the vice president play a central role in directing such an effort, which might be a clue to Kamala Harris' the role in the next four years.But what will be Biden's federalism agenda for 2021 and beyond? Here are five issues where he's likely to act.We will soon add to the battle about containing the virus the question of how best to distribute a vaccine (or, more likely, vaccines). This is sure to be even more difficult than the mask/no-mask melee of the last months. There's the tough question of who gets it first, but even more difficult is the puzzle of how to get shots to the arms of hundreds of millions of Americans.The Trump administration is leaving behind an 11-page "Operation Warp Speed" game plan to distribute the vaccine. It's remarkably thorough, and it builds on the assumption that the effort will work through partnerships between the federal and state governments and between government and the private sector.But that's not so much an answer as it is a door into much bigger questions. Just what role will the states play in the vaccination process? Although government has gotten much better at supply chain management since the disaster of Hurricane Katrina, the production and distribution of the vaccine will be a supply chain challenge unlike anything the government has seen in recent decades. The Defense Department will be deploying its vast expertise to help the effort, but the federal government itself doesn't have the capacity to get the vaccine into the hands of those giving the inoculations. The states inevitably will play a big role in directing the front-line effort.State and local governments have administered a bit more than 155 million coronavirus tests in the first 10 months of the pandemic, and that has been an enormous struggle. We will have the bulk of more than 330 million Americans to vaccinate, and some vaccines will require a booster within a few weeks. To meet the demands of the vaccine, we'll need to quadruple the distribution capacity, and we'll need to do that in half the time we've spent testing Americans for the virus.Moreover, state governments simply don't have the capacity to store and distribute the vaccine at the super-cold temperatures many of them will require. That means that companies like CVS, Walgreens and Walmart will inevitably be on the front lines to deliver at least some of the vaccines, with heavy transportation support from UPS and FedEx. But if much of the effort will be in private hands, what role will already taxed state public health systems play? The vaccinations will require unprecedented collaboration between state governments and private companies, in a complex system where public trust is already suffering.So how will the Biden administration attack the problem of running the vaccine supply chain  and of managing the ticklish balance between the feds and the states and between the states and private companies?If any bipartisan deal seemed possible in the early months of the Trump administration, it was for a big infrastructure program. Trump had doubled Hillary Clinton's infrastructure plan with a pledge to invest $1 trillion . State and local governments eagerly put together their lists and lobbied hard for the plan, and even in the tumultuous start of the Trump administration it seemed the one big initiative that might pass Congress.But Republicans on Capitol Hill regularly blocked the plan, asking how the federal government would pay for it (although Democrats grumbled that Republicans had no such worries about the big tax cut plans Congress passed). Now, with state and local governments reeling from the effects of the COVID-19 economic collapse, will Biden step forward with a new infrastructure plan? He campaigned on just that , and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has offered it as a possible bipartisan deal . But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his chamber's Republicans remain as implacable as ever on infrastructure, and they'd like nothing better than to spike Biden's ambitions.Can Biden roll his infrastructure promises, especially to large Democratic cities that proved so important in helping him win the presidency, into a state and local government relief bill? That raises the larger question of Biden's plan for the next phase of economic stimulus.Before the election, one of the biggest stumbling blocks to a bipartisan stimulus bill was the size of federal relief to state and local governments . Democrats initially wanted $900 billion. Republicans drew the line at no more than $400 million. Democrats will now want more than that and, with the election behind them, Republicans might not be inclined to give even that much. That, in turn, will only double down on McConnell's role in shaping Biden's prospects on the Hill.We're going to have another stimulus bill, perhaps in December and certainly by the early days of the Biden administration. How will Biden steer his way through the need for a stimulus, Democrats' eagerness to capitalize on Biden's victory for a sweeter deal, the Republicans' readiness to embarrass Biden on the first outing, and Republican grudges about the role that Philadelphia and Milwaukee and Detroit played in pushing Biden over the top?COVID-19 isn't going away anytime soon, and that's going to heat up the debate over providing health care  and Medicaid-based health insurance  to poorer Americans. There will be a pledge to ensure that every American can get the vaccine, regardless of income, and that's a step down the road of providing help to Americans who lost health coverage after COVID-19 layoffs and continue to struggle to get back on their feet.If the Republicans win their challenge to the Affordable Care Act before the U.S. Supreme Court, they'll face their recurring dilemma about how to protect elements of Obamacare that people like, especially coverage for pre-existing conditions. If the Democrats win in the high court, there will be an effort to expand coverage even more. One way or another, the front lines of these national health-care battles will end up in the states. Does that mean that the health-care divides in the U.S. are sure only to grow as the states go in different directions?Biden's speech after winning the election called this "a time to heal," and he clearly sees his most important job as bringing a divided country together. Many of these divisions, however, depend far more than we often acknowledge on the decisions of state and local governments. One of this year's most horrific events, the killing of George Floyd, occurred at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, but it also reflected the broader problem of policing in many communities across the country. And Trump's campaign promise to keep the suburbs safe was a dog whistle about the spread of Section 8 subsidized housing beyond the cities.No matter how soaring Biden's rhetoric, his success in healing America will depend ultimately on building partnerships with state and local governments. The forces of national polarization grow from local divisions, in fierce debates raging from policing to housing to homelessness to mask-wearing and, especially, to race.It's hard to imagine an election where the federalism issues were more hidden below the surface but more clear in their underlying importance. Biden's administration might have an explicit federalism strategy, or it might pick these issues off one at a time. One way or another, we're surely heading for a massive rethinking of federal-state-local relations in the months to come.
Max Verstappen is clearly not happy with the condition of the asphalt at Portimao and Lewis Hamilton agrees. The two also fear what will happen in Turkey later in the year.

The wind makes it difficult for many drivers on the circuit in Portugal, but that is made a lot worse by the new asphalt that was laid last year in Portimao. Due to the extremely low grip, a sudden gust of wind can cause a complete change of direction for the drivers.

Moreover, it is not only Portimao that has problems with the new asphalt, last year there were also complaints in Turkey. "I really don't understand what they have done to make it worse, but the track in Turkey used to have a lot of grip. The last time we went there we had no grip at all and more and more circuits seem to use that asphalt," Lewis Hamilton told the press conference after qualifying, reports Formula 1.com.

Read more This is what time the Grand Prix at Portimao starts!

A terrible prospect

According to the seven-time world champion, it causes more problems than just drivers looking for grip. "When we're struggling to get grip, it also means it's harder to follow other drivers. So that has a knock-on effect, so we actually have to demand the good stuff back."

With last year's experience, Max Verstappen is therefore not looking forward to the Turkish Grand Prix either. "I don't even want to think about that, it's probably going to be..." "It's going to be horrendous", Hamilton immediately adds.
Grand Haven, MI (49417)

Today

Partial cloudiness early, with scattered showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. High 82F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Clear to partly cloudy. Low around 65F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph.
Christian Horner thinks McLaren's Zak Brown is sending a message about the "pressure" he may be coming under from new engine supplier Mercedes.

McLaren supremo Brown this week revealed an open letter raising his concerns about "team affiliations" and calling for "secret ballot voting" at the F1 Commission.

"I heard about that and I can only assume it's because of pressure applied from the supplier," Red Bull's Horner responded at Portimao.

"If that is the case, it is a shame. McLaren are one of the most historic teams in Formula 1, they've always had a big voice.

"It would be a shame to need to go behind a secret ballot, but a team has a right to request that. If that's what it needs to take independent votes, then we don't have a major issue with it," Horner added.

However, Wolff denied that he puts pressure on Mercedes-powered teams to follow the works team on political matters.

"You have seen in the past that Toro Rosso has voted like Red Bull, probably without any exceptions, and Haas has gone the Ferrari way. In our case, we have never tried to influence a team," the Austrian insisted.

(GMM)
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Les membres du gouvernement ont pris note de du debut de la phase 2 de la reouverture qui aura lieu le 1er mai 2021, que le Premier Minsitre a preside quatre Steering Committee sur les pluies torrentiels du 25 au 29 AVril 2021, de larrivee procahine des  High Volume Flood Pumps , des actions prises par le The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Centre, que le prix de la tonne de sucre sera Rs 13,000.00 a partir du 1er avril 2021 entres autres.

1. Cabinet has taken note of the second phase of resumption of economic, commercial and other activities as from Saturday 01 May 2021, while maintaining certain restrictions in order to ensure that there is no resurgence of COVID-19 in the local community. As a general rule, the following should be adhered to:

(a) social distancing;

(b) wearing of masks;

(c) regular washing of hands / use of sanitisers; and

(d) proper ventilation as far as possible.

Appropriate Regulations would be made by the Minister of Health and Wellness to designate places/premises that would, inter alia, remain closed.

2. Cabinet has taken note that the Prime Minister chaired four meetings of the Steering Committee on Torrential Rain from 25 to 29 April 2021 during which the Committee was apprised of the prevailing situation following heavy/torrential rainfalls, especially in the Southern region of Mauritius and also reviewed the preparedness plan to mitigate the impact of torrential rain thereat.

3. Cabinet has taken note of the status of the project of acquisition of trailer mounted flood pumps and firefighting vehicles for the Mauritius Fire and Rescue Service, financed under the Indian Line of Credit. These high-volume flood pumps would enable the removal of large amounts of water from flooded areas, including inundated houses, buildings and courtyards, thus assisting in saving life and property. The pumps are expected to be received in early June 2021. The supplier would thereafter send a team of technicians to train the firefighters to operate the equipment.

4. Cabinet has taken note of the actions taken by the Ministry of Local Government and Disaster Risk Management in view of the heavy rains forecasted by the Mauritius Meteorological Services as from 27 April 2021. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Centre upgraded the National Emergency Operations Command to Level III on Tuesday 27 April 2021 at 09 30 hours due to the worsening of the weather. The Vice-Prime Minister, Minister of Local Government and Disaster Risk Management chaired a meeting of the National Crisis Committee on 26 April 2021 with all stakeholders to review the situation and discuss on the preparedness measures to be taken. Various measures were urgently activated on ground by the Land Drainage Authority, the Road Development Authority, the National Development Unit and the Mauritius Fire and Rescue Service.

5. Cabinet has taken note that the Mauritius Sugar Syndicate has revised the estimated ex-Syndicate (ex-MSS) price payable for sugar for Crop 2020 from Rs12,000/T to Rs13,000/T of sugar, which has become effective as from 01 April 2021.

Small cane planters producing up to 60T of sugar would continue to benefit from the enhanced guaranteed price of Rs25,000/T of sugar produced.

6. Cabinet has agreed to the implementation of a project for the construction of a modern warehouse for pharmaceutical products and other medical consumables for storage of medical and non-medical items on a Design, Finance, Build, Operate and Maintain model at Cote dOr.

7. Cabinet has taken note that in view of the critical COVID-19 situation and the acute shortage of Oxygen in India, the Government of Mauritius has donated 200 Oxygen Concentrators to that country.

Cabinet has also taken note that the Government of Mauritius would donate 100 cylinders of Oxygen, five million single-use hand gloves, 250,000 goggles and 10,000 swabs to Madagascar.

8. Cabinet has taken note of the implementation of a Road Assets Management System by the Road Development Authority (RDA) to ensure an effective maintenance of the road network falling under its purview. The RDA is statutorily the Highway Authority responsible, amongst others, for the maintenance of motorways and main roads. The maintenance responsibility includes the preservation of the assets of the road network with a view to ensuring an acceptable level of service in terms of riding quality, comfort, safety and environment considerations. The RDA would revamp its present Maintenance Division into a Road Assets Management Division and its activities would include:

(a) managing and maintaining the entire road network under the responsibility of the RDA;

(b) undertaking rehabilitation works to bring the roads up to pre-defined standards within specific deadlines;

(c) carrying out improvement works aiming at adding new characteristics to the roads in response to new traffic, safety and other conditions;

(d) undertaking emergency works required to reinstate the roads immediately after any damage has occurred; and

(e) constantly revising service delivery based on durability.

9. Cabinet has taken note of the findings of the third Report of the National Wage Consultative Council on the impact of the introduction of the national minimum wage in January 2018 and its review in January 2020. The Report covers the period June 2019 to June 2020 and additional timeframes.

The Report emphasises that comparison of indicators for Quarter 2 of 2020 should be considered with necessary caution due to the significant impact of COVID-19. The salient features highlighted in the Report include, among others:

(a) Impact on the Economy, the Wage Rate Index, Employment and Unemployment;

(b) Employment in Export Oriented Enterprises;

(c) the Wage Distribution as measured by the Gini coefficient and by the Inter-Decile Ratios;

(d) the National Minimum Wage and Relative Poverty Line;

(e) the evolution of Wage Distribution; and

(f) Compliance with the National Minimum Wage Regulations.

The National Wage Consultative Council would seek the assistance of the International Labour Organisation for the formulation of the fourth report on the impact of the introduction of the national minimum wage with a view to aligning the exercise on international best standards.

10. Cabinet has agreed to the Ministry of Environment, Solid Waste Management and Climate Change signing an Agreement with:

(a) the Central Electricity Board; and

(b) the Utility Regulatory Authority.

on the Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMA) for Low Carbon Island Development Strategy for Mauritius project, funded by the Global Environment Facility.

The aim of the project is to ensure a low carbon path for Mauritius and would culminate into the formulation of a first National Climate Change Mitigation Strategy and Action Plan in line with the Climate Change Act 2020. The NAMA project would play a pivotal role in the conduct of detailed assessments and setting up of mitigation targets for sectors such as Energy, Transport, Industrial Processes and Product Use, Agriculture, Waste Management (solid and liquid) and Forestry. These would form the basis for the formulation of the revised Nationally Determined Contributions to be submitted prior to COP 26 in November 2021.

11. Cabinet has taken note that the Minister of Health and Wellness would promulgate the Clinical Trials (Medical Devices Trials) Regulations 2021 under the Clinical Trials Act. The Regulations set out, inter alia, the following:

(a) the registration process of any person wishing to conduct clinical trials in respect of a medical device in Mauritius;

(b) the relevant fees to be paid;

(c) the validity of the trial licence;

(d) the conditions for the granting or refusal of an application;

(e) the renewal of a licence; and

(f) the compliance with prevailing rules.

The fees for the various categories of devices have been recommended by the Clinical Research Regulatory Council.

12. Cabinet has taken note that the Fact Finding Committee to inquire into the recent death of renal dialysis patients at the New Souillac Hospital to be chaired by Mrs Deviyanee Beesoondoyal, GCSK, former Judge, would have as Assessors, Dr P. Chitson and Dr S. Mareeachalee.

The Terms of Reference of the Committee would be to inquire into and report on:

(a) the circumstances leading to the renal dialysis patients at the New Souillac Hospital getting infected by COVID-19 and whether they had received the appropriate treatment thereafter;

(b) the circumstances leading to the death of the 11 patients;

(c) the conditions in which the dialysis patients were quarantined at Tamassa Hotel, including medical arrangement made for their dialysis sessions;

(d) whether all existing sanitary protocols had been followed at the New Souillac Hospital and at the quarantine facility at Tamassa Hotel;

(e) whether the Dialysis Unit of the New Souillac Hospital is adequately staffed and equipped to provide treatment to patients;

(f) whether measures were taken to provide for the vaccination of staff against COVID-19;

(g) whether there has been any act of negligence which led to the death of any dialysis patient; and

any matter ancillary to (a) to (g) above and to make appropriate recommendations.

13. Cabinet has taken note that the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has selected Lespwar the mobile app for the Elimination of Gender Based Violence as WSIS Prizes 2021 Champion which is among the top five in its category AL C10, Ethical dimensions of the Information Society.

Government launched, on 25 November 2020, a mobile app for the elimination of Gender Based Violence. The mobile app named Lespwar is in line with the values of respect and peace and the mobile app upholds the fundamental values of freedom, equality, solidarity, tolerance, shared responsibility and respect for others. Victims of Gender Based Violence in need of help can secure the assistance they require at all times. A panic button on the mobile app triggers the immediate response of relevant authorities.

14. Cabinet has taken note of the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic prevailing across the world. With regard to Mauritius, as at 30 April 2021, 1,238 cases (including imported cases) of COVID-19 had been registered. There were currently 81 active cases of COVID-19 in Mauritius, out of which 64 were local cases and 17 imported cases. Contact tracing exercises and random testing are being carried out in accordance with the established protocol. The public should observe strict sanitary precautions.

Cabinet has also taken note of progress in the implementation of the national COVID-19 vaccination programme and arrangements being made to administer the second dose of vaccine.

Cabinet has further noted that the Anti-Influenza Vaccination Campaign 2021 would resume on Monday 03 May 2021. As the confinement period would end on 30 April 2021, the campaign would be open to all eligible beneficiaries across the island.

15. Cabinet has taken note of the publication of a Compendium of Judgments delivered by the Public Bodies Appeal Tribunal (PBAT) for period 2012 to 2018 by the Ministry of Public Service, Administrative and Institutional Reforms. The need for the Compendium of the Judgments of the PBAT was deemed important to guide public institutions to improve on procedures and processes with a view to ensuring justice and fairness in appointment and promotion exercises. The Compendium would also provide Public Officers with several references on the issues raised in different past appeals and their outcomes.

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Under a new agreement, Avfuel will supply Textron Aviation with Neste MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel at its Wichita headquarters location on an ongoing basis. Textron Aviation will use the product as fly away fuel for new aircraft deliveries as well as to fuel customer demo flights.

The agreement makes Textron Aviation Avfuels first original equipment manufacturer (OEM) customer to take the fuel at regular intervals. The use of SAF aligns with Textron Aviations commitment to meet industry goals for reducing carbon emissions.

Avfuel also recently reached an agreement with Bell Textron, the rotorcraft division of Textron Inc., in Fort Worth, Texas, for ongoing supply of Avfuels Neste MY SAF. Bell will incorporate SAF into all Bell Training Academy (BTA) and customer demonstration fleet aircraft, becoming the first rotorcraft customer to receive SAF supply from Avfuel.

Neste MY SAF is made from sustainably sourced, renewable waste and residue materialssuch as used cooking oil. It is a drop-in fuel that, once blended with petroleum jet fuel, meets ASTM D-1655 specification for jet fuel.
The price of copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) rose to $9,990/t on 29 April, marking a ten-year high and closing in on the record high LME price of $10,147.50/t on 14 February 2011.





In its new Copper Monthly Insights, Roskill said that the ongoing surge in copper pricing is taking impetus from President Bidens new CO 2 targets. Roskill also noted that world visible stocks saw a seasonal rise to 881kt by 23 April 2021. These stocks, however, currently represent only 1.9 weeks of consumption in 2021. Total Chinese stocks (658kt) are equivalent to 2.6 weeks consumption while Rest of the World stocks (223kt) are only equivalent to 1.1 weeks consumption.

There is accumulating evidence of a robust demand recovery in China and the ROW, Roskill said. Chinese refined consumption rebounded 18% YOY in Q1 2021. Unwrought imports to China jumped 25% YOY to 552kt, while concentrate volumes surged 22% YOY to a new monthly record of 2,171kt. Goldman Sachs and Robert Friedland, Founder of Ivanhoe Mines, suggest prices of US$15,000/t might be seen by 2025, due to restricted supply and bullish demand growth.

Although Chile and Peru contributed 40% of global mine supply in 2020, Roskill observed, copper production there is yet to fully recover to pre-pandemic levels. Mining in both countries continues to be affected by restrictions introduced to control the pandemic. In April, a surge in case numbers lead to the closure of the Chilean border and a subsequent jump in the copper price.

Volumes of copper scrap imports have been declining annually since 2017. Annual imports of material classed as E-scrap have also been decreasing since 2018. E-scrap is a valuable raw material input for copper smelters and is a rich source of copper, tin, gold, silver and many PGMs.
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A week after arriving in Green River, Christopher Nielsen recalls feeling stressed about not having any job prospects and the possibility of being homeless. He had come to Green River from Utah to help look after his friends two children as they worked to establish themselves after moving to the city.

Dealing with a lack of sleep as well, Nielsen told Third Judicial District Court Judge Suzannah Robinson one of the children, 5-year-old Anthony James Radcliff, wasnt listening to him as he tried to convince the child to eat his meal.

I lost my temper and shook Anthony, he said....
A former Wyoming Legislator from Green River entered not guilty pleas to misdemeanor charges of solicitation of prostitution and interference with a peace officer Friday afternoon.

John Hastert, 62, was arrested Thursday after Sweetwater County Sheriff's Office deputies claim Hastert attempted to seek sexual favors from an undercover operative during a sting operation initiated by multiple Wyoming law enforcement agencies. Hastert is also accused of resisting arrest, being taken down by multiple officers as he allegedly tried to avoid being handcuffed.

The solicitation of prostitution charge carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $750 fine while the interference with a peace officer charge carries a maximum sentence of one year in jail and a fine of $1,000. Hastert's trial date was set for Sept. 9, 2021. He was issued a bond of $4,500 with 10% cash required by Third Judicial District Circuit Court Judge Craig Jones. As part of his bond conditions, Hastert is prohibited from using social media, as well as the website and app provided by Skipthegames.com.

According to charging documents, an investigation involving the sheriff's office, Wyoming Department of Criminal Investigation and Homeland Security Investigations were conducting an investigation into human trafficking at the Rock Springs Clarion Hotel, located at 2518 Foothill Boulevard. As part of this investigation, an investigator from Homeland Security Investigations posed as a female prostitute on Skipthegames.com and was contacted by a person using a ViOP phone number, which investigators claim is a common tactic used by sex trafficking buyers to contact potential victims. A text conversation started April 28 and continued the next day, where the investigator set her rates at $100 for 15 minutes, $200 for 30 minutes and $300 for an hour.

Investigators claim Hastert asked what the half-hour rate was and later stated what specific acts he was interested in, telling the operative he would arrive at the hotel at 4 p.m. Thursday. At about 4:05 p.m., investigators witnessed Hastert walking through the hotel parking lot, wearing a blue shirt and blue jeans. The agent texted Hastert to go to room 138 and agents heard a knock at the door at 4:10 p.m. Court documents state one of the investigators, identified as SA Allison observed Hastert through the peephole in the door.

Documents state a takedown command was given and Allison opened the door displaying his badge. Lt. Joseph Tomich of the Sweetwater County Sheriff's Office, wearing ballistic armor with his badge on the left of his chest and a yellow "sheriff" placard on the right chest, identified himself as police and grabbed Hastert by the shirt collar in an attempt to bring him into the room. Hastert allegedly tried to pull away from Tomich as Tomich gave commands to stop fighting him. Tomich pushed Hastert into a wall to gain control of him as Hastert allegedly continued struggling. Allison, an undercover operative and a detective identified in documents as Det. Rhea assisted Tomich in gaining control of Hastert, dragging him to the ground as Hastert allegedly continued fighting the officers.

Tomich and Allison were able to gain control of Hastert's left hand and placed a handcuff on it as Hastert allegedly continued to resist arrest by placing his right hand underneath himself. Tomich utilized a "pain compliance technique" on Hastert's left arm, after which he was arrested. Tomich received cuts to his right palm and right ring finger during Hastert's alleged attempt at resisting arrest.

Documents state Hastert initially refused to identify himself, but later verbally identified his name and date of birth. Tomich performed an internet search on Hastert and found photographs from his time with the Wyoming Legislature to identity him.

During a post-arrest interview, investigators claim Hastert admitted he knew street slang through the skipthegames.com website, admitting to previously soliciting prostitution in Casper and Salt Lake City. Investigators also claim Hastert admitted to using a "burner" phone to communicate so his wife would not find out what he was doing. During a search of Hastert following his arrest, Tomich discovered three $100 bills, along with some pocket change and two cloth face masks. There were no other items such as a phone, wallet or identification on him. The charging documents state Tomich knows this to be a common act with human trafficking buyers to avoid substantial losses if they're the victim of robbery.

Hastert, a Democrat, was a long-serving member of the Wyoming Legislature, being elected to both the House and Senate. Hastert was initially elected to represent House District 39 in 2002, serving from 2003-2007. In 2006, he won election to Senate District 13, serving from 2007 to 2019 after losing his 2018 re-election bid to Republican challenger Tom James. During his time in the Legislature, Hastert served in many leadership roles. He was the Senate Minority Caucus Chairman from 2009-2010 and 2013-2016, the Senate Minority Floor Leader from 2011-2012 and the Senate Minority Whip from 2017-2018. He was a member of many committees, including the Senate Appropriations Committee, Management Council, Select Water Committee and Workforce Development Council.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Care Compare website refreshed its star ratings. Star ratings are meant to help consumers understand the quality of care provided by hospitals.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services methodology for calculating the star rating has been updated, affecting the ratings of healthcare centers nationwide. Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County is no exception.

The 5-year-old CMS star rating system summarizes a variety of measures into a single star rating for each hospital. CMS simplified and revised its methodology after receiving stakeholder fe...
The Johnson and John single-shot vaccine is available to Sweetwater County residents after distribution was temporarily halted following reports of blot clotting in rare instances.

According to the Sweetwater County District Board of Health, use of the vaccine resumed Wednesday.

According to the board of health 15 instances of blood clotting was reported out of 6.8 million doses of the vaccine distributed. The issue was reported in women aged 18-59 and included other symptoms including nausea, abdominal pain,easy bruising or bleeding, and shortness of breath between six and 15 days after va...
Mauritius has announced an easing of confinement as from 01 May 2021. Work Access Permits will no longer be required, and a number of public activities will be allowed including outdoor physical exercises and the use of public transport.

Beauty parlours, private medical and dental practices, veterinarian practices and opticians will also be allowed to resume their activities.

Restrictions are being maintained for places that could involve large public gatherings including gymnasiums, cinemas, community centers, casinos, bars, discotheques, schools and restaurants and places of worship, among others.

Mauritius has been in confinement since 09 March 2021, following cases of COVID-19 transmission detected in the community. Mauritian authorities noted an improvement in conditions since.

In a statement to the nation, Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth urged the population to remain vigilant and observe all precautions to prevent further spread of the virus.

The tourism industry will be resuming preparations for the reopening of borders planned for mid-2021.

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Take a brief look at data released from the 2020 census and one thing becomes very clear -- the West is booming.

The population growth in many of Wyomings neighbors over the last decade is staggering. Utah saw an 18.4% increase in its population. Idaho saw a 17.3% increase, while Colorado had 14.8% growth in its population. Even South Dakota and Nebraska had notable gains in their populations, recording growth of 8.9% and 7.4% respectively. Wyomings population grew too -- by 2.3%. According to a Wyoming Tribune-Eagle article, that amounts to a little more than 13,000 more residents in...
As Roku reached the end of its contract with Google to host the YouTube TV app on its channel store, Roku sent all its customers an email notifying them that they may lose the ability to use the YouTube TV channel on Roku devices. In this messages to consumers, it pointed at Google and accused it of unfair and anticompetitive requirements that are, according to Roku, designed to allow the collection of user data and to manipulate search results. That was on Monday.

Fast forward to Friday, Roku has actually removed the YouTube TV channel from its store and issued a statement to Droid-Life. You can find the full statement in the Source link. In the statement, Roku laments that Google allowed the agreement to fall through. Roku iterates that it didnt try to raise its fees, but that it wanted Google to commit to four things:

First, not to manipulate consumer search results. Second, not to require access to data not available to anyone else. Third, not to leverage their YouTube monopoly to force Roku to accept hardware requirements that would increase consumer costs. Fourth, not to act in a discriminatory and anticompetitive manner against Roku.

Roku will continue to allow existing YouTube TV subscribers on the Roku platform to use the app, but will not allow new subscribers to download the app until a new agreement is reached. Roku hopes that Google will embrace principles that have made streaming so popular for millions of users bu giving consumers control of their streaming practices. [Roku] believes consumers stand to benefit from Google and Roku reaching a fair agreement that preserves these principles and [Roku] remains committed to trying to achieve that goal.

In a rebutting statement, Google points out the Roku terminated our deal in bad faith amidst our negotiation and often engaged in this tactic with other streaming providers. Googles responding statement denies Rokus claims about data collection and search result manipulation. As per Google, We have never, as they have alleged, made any requests to access user data or interfere with search results. This claim is baseless and false.

YouTube TV logo on screen with a Roku TV Remote

Our offer to Roku was simple, writes Google in its statement. and [it] still stands: renew the YouTube TV deal under the existing reasonable terms. Google also accused Roku of trying to renegotiate another agreement pertaining to the YouTube app. According to Google, this is a separate contract that doesnt expire until December.

Google says its committed to ensuring [its] members continue to have access to YouTube TV and will continue advocating on behalf of [its] members. Sadly, when companies disagree on decisions like this, the customers are the ones who lose. Imagine (as an average consumer) needing to go out and buy another (probably redundant) streaming device to use your favorite (expensive) TV service because two companies were unable to agree.

Source 1  2
Following the buzz around the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE as of late, the latest leak comes from the actual phone maker. As first reported by Galaxy Club, Samsung Mexico had briefly displayed mention of the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE in its homepage.

The website read Conoce mas sobre Galaxy S21 FE which translates to Learn more about the Galaxy S21 FE. This was written below a photo of the Galaxy S21 and the Galaxy S21 Ultra. The name of the unreleased phone has since been removed from the home page, but there is a screenshot provided by Galaxy Club.

Source: Galaxy Club

Weve heard rumors about the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE since February and Samsung hasnt yet addressed how the phone will look. Luckily, we've already seen leaked renders of the phone that popped up earlier in April.

Galaxy S21 FE render

So far, rumors have pointed to a 4,500 mAh battery, and speculations suggest the phone may have a 6.4-inch flat display. The selfie camera is said to be a 32MP unit and the phone could arrive in gray, green, purple, pink and white. A report from March suggested that Samsung may be planning to release the Galaxy S21 FE sometime in Q4 of this year.

Source
Xiaomi went all-in with the Mi 11 Ultra this year, producing what is its first proper mainstream flagship smartphone ever to be released internationally (as last year's Mi 10 Ultra was a China-only affair).

The company unveiled the Mi 11 Ultra's European eye watering 1,199 pricing at an event in late March, but it stayed mum on a release date for the continent.

Now thanks to Xiaomi's official Dutch Facebook page, we know that the Mi 11 Ultra is expected to finally become available on May 11. Get it? May 11.

This is at least true for the Dutch market, and even if the other European countries don't end up getting the Mi 11 Ultra on the same day, the launch elsewhere can't be far behind. So it looks like it's time to start saving, and doing it quick.

In the meantime, while you wait, why not take a look at our in-depth review of the phone?

Thanks for the tip, Victor Droogh!

Source
Yet hesitancy is not the only reason behind racial and ethnic disparities. Muhlenberg Colleges Pennsylvania 2021 Public Health Poll showed that regardless of race, most respondents said they would get the vaccine as soon as it was available to them. Nonwhite people were also less likely than white people to say they wouldnt get the vaccine at all.
A mid-level restaurant, like Chilis, Red Robin or Panera.

Light industry to keep jobs in the area.

More retail so we don't have to go to Tucson.

Better and more mass transit options.

All of the above.

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The Southern Way (lots of sugar)

The Yankee Way (no sugar or sweetener)

The Arnold Palmer (lemonade added)

Plantation Iced Tea (with fruit)

Half sweet and half unsweet mixed together.

Unsweet with a no calorie sweetener.

With fruit garnishment such as a lemon or lime.

I drink my iced tea in different way than listed here.

I don't drink iced tea.

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President Joe Biden highlighted higher than expected COVID-19 vaccination levels, as well as legislation successes, but also laid out some of the things left to do, such as passing a new voting rights act named for late U.S. Rep. John Lewis.




Haiti - FLASH : All religious hostages have been released





All Catholic religious kidnapped on April 11 at the Croix-des-bouquets hhttps://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33471-haiti-politic-religious-kidnapped-by-deviant-elements-of-society.html by the gang "400 Mawozo" still in the hands of the kidnappers released Friday morning safe and sound (2 French religious : Father Michel Briand (67) and Sister Agnes Bordeau (80) as well as 2 Haitian religious and 2 lay people) confirmed the Society of priests of Saint-Jacques to which the religious belong.



"We found our confreres, the nuns and members of the family of Father Jean Anel Joseph in good health" adding "[...] our thanks also go to the ambassadors of France and the United States, for their discreet and efficient diplomatic support, as well as to all the political and moral authorities of the country as well as to the governments for their unwavering support."



It is not known if a ransom was paid against their releases.



Let's recall that the kidnappers had already released 3 religious on April 22 (Sister Anne-Marie Dortellus, Father Hugues Baptiste and Lovely Joseph) https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33547-haiti-flash-the-kidnappers-release-3-religious-after-12-days-of-kidnapping.html



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33471-haiti-politic-religious-kidnapped-by-deviant-elements-of-society.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33547-haiti-flash-the-kidnappers-release-3-religious-after-12-days-of-kidnapping.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33459-haiti-insecurity-the-church-victim-of-kidnapping.html



SL/ HaitiLibre


















It was the largest public gathering in Israel since COVID-19 restrictions were lifted a few weeks ago as the number of cases plummeted.

More than 100,000 people, mostly ultra-Orthodox, had gathered in the town of Meron for a massive bonfire lighting ceremony to mark the Jewish holiday of Lag B'Omer.

In one of the worst peacetime disasters in Israel's history, at least 45 people reportedly died and more than 150 were injured in a stampede at a Jewish holy site in northern Israel. The stampede apparently began when a walkway collapsed, with tens of thousands of people at the site.

Witnesses told media the stampede began around 1 a.m. Friday in a narrow passageway that was slippery from spilled grape juice and water. The passageway was known as a bottleneck at the site.

Recovering in a hospital, Avraham Leyva told Israel Television that there were a lot of people on top of him, and as others slipped, more and more people fell. He said he was on top of someone who wasn't breathing. He said police came and began rescuing people but it took a long time.

The rescue operations took many hours. Social media was flooded with posts looking for people who were missing. Israeli police opened an investigation into the cause of the tragedy, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday would be a day of national mourning.

He said there were heartbreaking scenes of people who were crushed to death including children. He also praised the rescuers and said their fast work prevented a much larger disaster.

Israel's president said his office had opened a call center to help families who were looking for their loved ones. He also lit 45 candles outside his residence, representing the number of those confirmed dead. So many Israelis rushed to donate blood that blood banks told people to stop coming. Arab towns offered food and drink to the survivors of the tragedy.

Police officials had previously warned that the mass gatherings in Meron were dangerous. Tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Israelis come every year to the site, which is the burial place of the 2nd century sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai. Last year, police sealed off the site to prevent gatherings that could spread the coronavirus.
Putting this together became a total village effort involving people both in and outside of our school, Hergenrother said. Our teachers have been asking for donations from people they know out in our community. One of our teachers has been asking for gift cards at grocery stores.




Haiti - FLASH : Suriname suspends all flights from Haiti





In the space of 2 weeks, 6 charter flights arrived from Haiti to Suriname in April 2021 carrying a total of nearly 600 Haitian passengers on tourist visas including many unaccompanied children.



At the same time, the sub-prefecture recorded a record number of asylum requests that Haitians justified by citing insecurity, kidnapping, assassinations as the main reason for their asylum request, which prompted the authorities prefectures of French Guiana, to seize the French Ambassador to Surinam.



The President of Suriname, Chan Santokhi, has decided to open an investigation to determine the legality of these so-called "humanitarian" charters from Haiti, in the midst of a health crisis, and who organize them.



Pending investigation results President Santokhi has suspended all flights from Haiti



According to the first preliminary results of the survey, a Haitian individual identified as Jean Mixon, a car dealer also at the head of a "Team Haiti" foundation, would be the one who organizes these charter flights, under the guise of solidarity. Accused of human trafficking, he claims his inoncency, claiming that he organizes these trips out of sheer kindness



The Haitian consul of Suriname was not informed in advance of the entry into the country of these compatriots and many questions remain unanswered : how unaccompanied minors were able to travel and what is the final destination of these Haitians ? For many observers, this is a new immigration route, financed by poverty that would have as its final destination : French Guiana



S/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Politic : The PM asks OAS help in support of the dialogue with the opposition





Faced with the intransigence of the opposition, which refuses to reach a political agreement with President Jovenel Moise in view of the referendum and the elections scheduled for this year, the Prime Minister ai Claude Joseph, in a correspondence dated April 28, 2021, addressed to Luis Almagro, Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), requests the sending to Haiti of a mission of the Organization in support of the ongoing dialogue with all actors of national life.



Letter from the Prime Minister :

"Mr. Secretary General,



I have the honor to refer to Resolution CP/RES.1168(2315/20) of March 17, 2021 of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) to inform you that the government of the Republic of Haiti is ready to host an OAS mission in support of the ongoing dialogue with all actors in national life with a view to concluding a political agreement likely to facilitate the organization of the constitutional referendum and elections at all levels during the year 2021 according to the timetable established for this purpose.



I take this opportunity to reaffirm the unwavering will of the President of the Republic, His Excellency Jovenel Moise, and of the government to do everything possible to guarantee the organization of free, honest and democratic elections to renew the political staff and ensure the transfer of power to a President elected on February 7, 2022.



I take this opportunity to renew to you, Mr. Secretary General, the assurance of my highest consideratione



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - PNH : Strengthening of conditions to be accepted in recruitment offices





Leon Charles, the Director General a.i of the National Police of Haiti (PNH) revised the prerequisites required to be accepted in the various recruitment offices of the PNH in order to register. This decision of the High Command was taken with a view to improving the personnel integrated into the hierarchy.



To this end, the modalities established by the General Management relating to the recruitment process within the police institution have been reinforced. Thus, a young man or a young woman wishing to integrate the ranks of the Police Corps, must henceforth accompany his application with letters of reference bearing the valid signature of at least two personalities enjoying very good reputation in the social body. Can serve as a reference, honest police executives, religious leaders, teacher writers and any other personality of the same ilk.



Leon Charles intends to deal with certain problems identified in the public security service as and when possible, for which the PNH has heavy responsibility. "At first glance, the emphasis is on the recruitment model in order to skim applicants /B> who want to integrate the institution, with a view to a stable and efficient police force."



HL/ HaitiLibre


















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The U.S. and its NATO allies went into Afghanistan together on Oct. 7, 2001 to hunt the al-Qaida perpetrators of the 9/11 terrorist attacks who lived under the protection of the countrys Taliban rulers. Two months later, the Taliban had been defeated and al-Qaida fighters and their leader, Osama bin Laden, were on the run.
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Deputies seize meth, crack, coke and cash, jail alleged trafficker on $1.6M bond

A suspected drug dealer was jailed on a $1,157,000 bond on Wednesday after detectives with the Henderson County Drug Task Force with assistance from the Transylvania County Sheriffs Office executed a search warrant at 1619 Fruitland Road.

During the search deputies seized 424 grams of methamphetamine, 1,078 doses of MDMA/Ecstasy, 16 grams of crack cocaine, 10 grams of cocaine, three grams of fentanyl, 53 grams of marijuana/THC products and $4,550 in cash. Bryon Antonio Gaines was arrested and charged with trafficking in methamphetamine level 3, trafficking in MDMA, three counts of possession with intent to sell and deliver schedule II controlled substance, possession with intent to sell and deliver schedule VI controlled substance and maintaining a dwelling for drug sales.





Henderson County Sheriff Lowell Griffin urged anyone with information regarding suspected drug activity to contact the Sheriffs Office at 828-694-2954 or submit an anonymous tip via its mobile app, available for download free in the App Store and Google Play by searching for Henderson County Sheriff.
Hendersonville man handed 22-year prison term for child sexual exploitation

A 58-year-old Hendersonville man on Thursday was sentenced to 22 years in prison for the sexual exploitation of a child, Acting U.S. Attorney William T. Stetzer announced.

Chief U.S. District Judge Martin Reidinger sentenced Jeffrey Allen Buley, ordered him to serve a lifetime of supervised release, register as a sex offender after his release and pay $7,602.23 as restitution to his victim.

Chief C. Blair Myhand of the Hendersonville Police Department join Acting U.S. Attorney Stetzer in making

todays announcement.

According to court documents and todays sentencing hearing, law enforcement learned that Buley was using the Discord messaging app to communicate with a minor male. Court records show that the communications were sexual in nature, and, on at least one occasion, Buley instructed the minor to transmit live video of himself engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

On July 30, 2019, HSI agents executed a search warrant at Buleys residence, seizing Buleys cell phone and other electronic devices. A forensic analysis of the devices revealed that Buley used the internet to distribute and receive child pornography and to engage in sexually explicit online chats concerning minors. On June 22, 2020, Buley pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation of a child. Buley is currently in federal custody and will be transferred to the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons. All federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole.

In making the announcement, Stetzer thanked HSI and the Hendersonville Police Department for their investigation of the case.




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I feel that if there is an organization today from the extreme right that is following in the footsteps of the Order, Manis said, you will not know anything about it until it is too late and they have already done something dastardly.
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Bidens appearance in Philadelphia, his third visit to Pennsylvania while in office, comes as he marks his first 100 days as president. It also follows his speech to Congress on Wednesday, when he outlined his $2.3 trillion jobs and infrastructure plan and previewed some $1.8 trillion in proposed spending on education, child care and other family needs.
James Edward Wygal, 69, of Emory, passed away May 30, 2021, at home. Visitation will be Tuesday, June 8, 2021, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Coker-Mathews Funeral Home. A celebration of life service will be held at a later date at his home, which was his sanctuary and his favorite place. Mr. Wygal was
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The 2020 election year was the first time Pennsylvania voters were able to use the new no-excuse mail-in ballot option allowed under Act 77 of 2019. The change allowed voters to cast a mail-in ballot without having to be absent from their home voting precincts, an option previously reserved for absentee voters.
What to do if someone is at risk of dying by suicide
They asked the justices to pick someone who will be a fair and neutral arbiter who has some distance from the political process and who has no interest in running for a seat in the Legislature. They said the chair should be several years removed from engaging in the political process and should not have been involved in lobbying recently at any level of government.
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OSI Group is a global food solutions company based in Aurora, Illinois, with locations in 18 countries across the Americas, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. Otto Kolschowsky started this company in 1909 as a family-owned butcher shop and meat market. When his sons joined the business in 1928, he named it Otto & Sons. Now known as OSI Group, the company has a long history of accomplishments over the last 112 years. One of its most noteworthy early accomplishments was being the first supplier of fresh ground beef to the newly-opened McDonald's restaurants in 1955.

The partnership with McDonald's paved the way for Otto & Sons to grow to become OSI Industries. This transition continued into the 1960s and 1970s as OSI retained its partnership with McDonald's and grew along with the new chain of fast-food restaurants.

By the late 1960s, McDonald's consolidated its nationwide pool of meat suppliers from 100 to only four, when cryogenic freezing became the norm. The company, which was then operated by Otto's grandsons and still went by the name Otto & Sons, was one of the four meat suppliers McDonald's chose. This led to the decision in 1973 for Otto & Sons to build its first meat processing facility dedicated to serving only the needs of McDonald's restaurants. Clients other than McDonald's became part of the company's Glenmark brand. This brand supplied specialty meats to Chicago-area restaurants, and processed meats to local supermarkets.

Otto & Sons became OSI Industries in 1975 to better represent its standing as a technologically advanced food processing company rather than a family butcher shop. As the heirs of Otto Kolschowsky reached retirement age, they chose to bring on longtime financial consultant Sheldon Lavin as an investment partner and he became part owner of the company. OSI Industries opened a second facility outside Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1977, and one year later, international expansion began with the first joint venture in Germany. Today, the global company is known as OSI Group, and operates over 65 facilities in 18 countries, employing about 20,000 people.

Who Does OSI Group Serve?

OSI Group has a worldwide reputation as a premier food provider. The company's partnerships include the top retail and foodservice brands around the world. Clients of OSI Group appreciate the company for its ability to create concept-to-table food solutions that their consumers love. Here are just a handful of commitments that clients can expect when they choose to partner with OSI Group:

Customized food solutions prepared to the client's exact specifications

Ongoing commitment to sustainability

Efficient food supply chain expertise that clients can trust

Uncompromising quality assurance and food safety practices

Deep knowledge of flavors preferred around the world

Research and development facilities that allow clients to further explore their meal ideas

Strong commitment to act with integrity and put the customer first

OSI Group's Food Safety and Quality Assurance Practices

The world's largest food brands know they can trust OSI Group to keep their food safe. OSI Group makes a strong commitment to protecting the products, reputation, and brands of its clients. A team of highly experienced quality assurance experts is present within the processing network to ensure the following:

Employee compliance to pre-determined specifications

Implementation of proven process control and supply chain measures

Implementation of strict food tracking and tracing systems

Secure transportation of food items at the completion of processing

OSI Group follows the food safety steps known as Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) systems. All OSI's facilities actively maintain Global Food Safety Initiatives (GFSI) certification or other globally recognized certifications for their food safety and quality systems. These additional measures ensure that all food products leaving an OSI Group facility are safe and of the highest quality.

At OSI Group, employees aim to exceed client expectations and food safety standards set by regulatory agencies. The company partners with several additional agencies to achieve this goal and expects its suppliers to adhere to the same high standards that it holds. The following are the tracking measures used by OSI Group to further ensure safety and quality:

Customer, internal, and third-party audit scores

HACCP deviation monitoring

Environmental sanitation surveillance

Frequent reporting on product consistency

Monitoring of raw materials and ingredient standards

Tracking of process control measures

Sanitation microbiological surveillance

Employees of OSI Group understand the importance of consistency, quality, and taste of every food product. They continually evaluate these factors during processing to ensure the final products meet client expectations. Each week, employees and department supervisors meet with plant management for sensory evaluation sessions. Each facility also performs an internal audit on its own work once per quarter.

OSI Group takes its commitment to animal welfare and the environment seriously. Two ways the company demonstrates this is by participating in eco-management systems and supporting several organizations to advance these causes.

Why Food Companies Should Partner With OSI Group

With a history of over 100 years, the most stringent safety requirements in the business, and a commitment to delighting the client, OSI Group is poised to meet the needs of food companies around the world. Interested organizations may contact OSI Group to learn more about what a partnership with one of the world's top food solutions companies can do for them.

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Whether you are a high school graduate looking to pursue a career in nursing or want a change from your current career to a job that allows you to care for and be there for others, there are several degree programs and other training options that you might want to consider in order to help you on your pathway towards becoming a nurse.

Working as a nurse is one of the most personally satisfying and rewarding career paths in the world, with several opportunities for career progression and advancement to pursue. Nurses are needed in every aspect of healthcare from hospitals to outpatient clinics to doctor's offices, within the community and in schools and prisons. No matter where you are right now in terms of your career, choosing the right nursing degree program for you is essential. There are several different nursing degree programs and courses to choose from for those who are interested in pursuing this career choice. Here are some of the main nursing degree qualifications that are available, and how to come to the right conclusion when choosing the most suitable one for you.

Licensed Practical Nurse Qualification:

If you are just getting started with your nursing degree and want to start working as a nurse as quickly as possible while working your way up the ranks of the career while on the job, getting licensed practical nurse certification might be an ideal choice for you. Once you are working as a licensed practical nurse, there are several options to consider if you want to continue furthering your career with various bridging programs that are available for LPNs who want to gain an associate's degree or bachelor's degree in nursing.

Licensed practical nursing programs will usually take around a year to complete and you can find them offered by community colleges, hospitals and other healthcare institutions, and vocational and technical schools.

Associate's Degree in Nursing:

While getting licensed practical nurse certification might be the quickest way to get your career in nursing started, it will usually lead to an entry-level position with a very basic rate of pay. If you want to make sure that you can maximize your earnings as a nurse as quickly as possible and want to enter the workforce in a position with a little more responsibility, an associate's degree in nursing could be the fastest option for you to become a registered nurse. As associate's degree is typically the minimum qualification that employers will require for you to start working as a registered nurse, although more and more employers are asking for nurses to have at least a BSN, or at least be prepared to work towards achieving a BSN after finding employment.

Bachelor's Degree in Nursing:

The BSN is the most popular degree option for getting into nursing, and more and more employers are requiring nurses to have this qualification as a minimum. This degree program will typically take around four years to complete full-time, although there are part-time study options for students who need to fit studying around working full-time and other commitments.

Along with attending classes and lectures to improve your nursing knowledge and skills, the BSN will also involve some practical work that you will carry out as a nursing student at a hospital or other clinical setting. If you already have a nursing qualification such as a licensed practical nurse certification or an associate's degree in nursing, you may be able to get your BSN faster by building on the knowledge and skills that you already have.

Accelerated BSN Programs:

If you already have a bachelor's degree in another subject or are working as a different healthcare professional and want to change your career to nursing, the ABSN degree program is designed to help you achieve your BSN qualification in around half the time that you would expect the traditional degree route to take. An ABSN is a fast-paced, intensive course that allows you to save money and time when getting your bachelor of science in nursing degree by building on the knowledge and skills that you have already developed in the past. Since it is designed for students who already hold a bachelor's level qualification in a different subject, this is the ideal option for those who want to facilitate a career change into nursing and achieve their new career goals as quickly as possible.

Nursing Bridging Programs:

Bridging programs are designed for already qualified nurses to move up the career ladder by improving their qualifications. One of the most popular bridging programs for nurses is the ADN-BSN program, which is designed to allow those with an associate's degree in nursing to build on the knowledge and skills that they already possess to earn a BSN.

In New York State, the BSN-in-10 rule that requires all registered nurses to earn a BSN within ten years of entering the workforce has made this a very popular choice of program. Since it allows nurses to build on what they already know, a BSN bridging qualification is often faster and cheaper compared to taking the traditional route.

Nursing Apprenticeships:

For those who prefer to learn on the job in a more hands-on way, nursing apprenticeships are a newer alternative to getting a nursing degree that more students are considering. Apprenticeships combine learning on the job and in the classroom in a way that allows students to earn money as they learn and earn a BSN qualification or similar. They are ideal for hands-on learners who prefer to get involved with the work that they will be doing and want the chance to save money on tuition and earn as they learn.

Advancing Your Nursing Career - What Advanced Degree Programs are Available?

Whether you are already qualified as a registered nurse or are planning to get into an advanced nursing career in the future, it's worth getting to grips with the range of advanced nursing career options that are available for you to choose from. Working as an advanced practice nurse such as a nurse practitioner or working your way up into nurse management and executive positions in the healthcare industry will often require you to have obtained an advanced nursing degree. Similarly, you will need to earn an advanced nursing degree if you want to pursue a career in nursing education and be instrumental in educating and preparing the next generations of nurses.

Master of Science in Nursing:

The master of science in nursing or MSN degree program is usually the minimum requirement for the majority of advanced nursing roles. Whether you want to start a career as a family nurse practitioner or are interested in a role in nurse leadership or management, it's likely that you will be required to earn an MSN before you can begin.

You can find general master's degree programs that are designed to prepare you for a wide range of advanced nursing roles, or master's degrees that are designed to prepare you for a specific role, such as a nurse practitioner, as is the case with the Texas Womans University's Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) degree. Visit the Texas Womans University site to find out more.

Understanding where you want your further nursing career to take you is important when choosing which advanced degree to study for since there are so many options available with different future careers in mind.

Doctor of Nursing Practice:

The highest available nursing degree option is a doctor of nursing practice, which is often required for the majority of senior nursing roles, working in research as a nurse, or working as a nurse educator to teach and prepare the next generation of nurses for their future role. The doctor of nursing practice degree is typically offered as a practice-based degree to prepare students for a role as an advanced nurse or nurse educator, however, if you are interested in taking the research route, you can consider a Ph.D. in nursing, which is a degree program of equal value that places more emphasis on research rather than practice.

Studying Nursing Online - What are the Benefits?

Whatever nursing degree level you are considering studying, whether you're just starting out with preparing for your future career as a nurse or are already a registered nurse looking to improve your career with an advanced qualification, you have probably heard a lot about online nursing degrees. In recent years, online degree programs have grown massively in popularity and are a top choice for many nurses who want to advance their careers while continuing to work full-time in nursing and save money on the associated costs of going to college. Some of the main benefits of choosing to study for an online nursing degree program at any level include:

Flexibility:

The added flexibility is one of the main reasons why an increasing number of students are opting to take an online nursing degree program. Unlike traditional degree programs where students are required to attend classes on campus at certain times throughout the week, many online programs are completely flexible, which allows students to choose the best time for them to study based on their personal schedule and needs. This makes online nursing degree programs a popular choice among students who want to change their current career to nursing and will need to or prefer to continue working full-time while gaining their qualification. Advanced online nursing degree programs are also a popular option for full-time nurses who are looking to advance and improve their future careers but do not want or have the ability to take time off work while they are studying.

Cost:

Another great benefit of opting for an online nursing degree is that it can often work out much cheaper compared to taking the traditional route. While tuition fees are usually much the same for both online and offline programs, you might be able to find a college that charges less for an online degree due to the fact that these programs will often cost the college less to deliver. However, even if you're not saving much in terms of tuition, there are many areas where online students are able to save money.

The lack of commuting to classes on a daily basis, for example, can save a huge amount of gas money over the four years that it will take to complete the degree. In addition, students are able to study at a nursing school that is preferable to them even if it's not local, making it easier and cheaper for students to get a degree from the college of their choice without the need to relocate. Also, there is often a lower opportunity cost for professionals who are working full-time and want to become a nurse or eventually advance their nursing careers.

Due to the flexible nature of online programs, aspiring nurses or advanced nurses are easily able to continue working as they study, meaning that there will be fewer earnings lost in the process.

Options:

Finally, studying online is becoming an increasingly popular choice for aspiring nurses - meaning that when it comes to study options, there's definitely not a shortage of choice. An increasing number of colleges and nursing schools are understanding just how popular online programs are becoming, leading to a huge range of online nursing degree programs and advanced degree programs becoming available for students.

Whether you are looking to change your career with an ABSN program to help you get into the nursing profession as quickly as possible while still working in your current job, want to improve your current nursing qualification with a bridging course designed to help you achieve a BSN in less time than the traditional route or are hoping to improve your career and become a family nurse practitioner in the future, you will be able to find a range of online degree programs that are suitable for your needs.

Whether you're already working as a nurse and want to advance your career or are thinking about a career in nursing for the future, choosing the right nursing degree for you is the first step to take.

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The Barlow Volunteer Fire Department was called to Wheatfield Road at 3:52 p.m. The firefighters arrived to find a man trapped in a portable toilet. Pictures that the fire department posted from the scene show a tree that fell down right near the portable toilet and one that fell onto the hood of a van.
Due to an increase in COVID-19 cases, President Joe Biden's administration expects to implement travel restrictions from the United States to India starting Tuesday. According to White House press secretary Jen Psaki, the move responds to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Travel restrictions from the US to India to start on Tuesday

In a statement, Psaki said, "The strategy will be applied in light of exceptionally large COVID-19 caseloads and various variants circulating in India." Foreign nationals traveling from India to the United States are subject to the restrictions, not US residents. Lawful permanent residents of the United States and their relatives, foreign authorities, and others traveling for humanitarian, public health, or national security purposes are among those who are exempted.

Exempt passengers must also show evidence of a negative COVID-19 test or recovery from the virus three days before boarding their flight to the United States, said the CDC. The agency also suggested having a test and quarantining unvaccinated passengers after returning to the US.

The decision has been communicated to airlines. Flights from India would not be banned under the scheme. According to the White House, the US will continue to assist India's public health response and provide the country with emergency supplies.

United and Air India both fly nonstop between the United States and India, USA Today reported. According to aviation data company Cirium, United has four regular flights, and Air India has daily and weekly flights. United's timetable will not be altered soon, said spokesman Charles Hobart.

COVID-19 cases have risen dramatically in India. There were about 350,000 coronavirus cases and 2,670 deaths in February. The statistics from S.V. Subramanian, a professor of population health and geography at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, indicate that there have been more than 3 million cases, a ninefold rise, and 17,000 deaths in April.

Read Also: Will Brazil Follow India: Country Approaches 400,000 COVID-19 Death Toll Amid Vaccine Disruptions, Loosening Restrictions

US pledges to continue helping India

The US government already advises against traveling to India, citing the country's highest warning level in CDC and State Department ratings. The White House announced earlier this week that if the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine gains federal clearance, the US will distribute up to 60 million doses.

Biden promised steadfast assistance for the people of India who have been affected by the recent increase in COVID-19 cases during a phone call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Small and large oxygen cylinders, regulators, pulse oximeters, about 184,000 rapid diagnostic tests, and about 84,000 N-95 masks were among the first shipments of emergency supplies promised to India by the Biden administration in the last 24 hours, according to Psaki.

Doctors and news outlets have cited anecdotal - but inconclusive - data to indicate that the country's outbreak is being driven by a homegrown version known as B.1.617. People who have been completely vaccinated are becoming infected. However, the evidence so far shows that another variant, the particularly infectious B.1.1.7, circulated extensively in the United Kingdom and the United States, could also be a significant cause.

According to NY Times via MSN, one out of every five COVID-19 tests is positive in India, but experts believe the actual toll is even higher. Due to a shortage of vaccines, some Indian states said they would not comply with the government's order to extend vaccinations to all adults starting on Saturday. So far, only a limited percentage of the population has been vaccinated.

Dr. Gottlieb says travel restrictions on India will not impact US cases

Dr. Scott Gottlieb said that the Biden administration's newly proposed sanctions on travelers from India are unlikely to play a major role in reducing new coronavirus cases in the United States. Gottlieb, who sits on the COVID-19 vaccine producer Pfizer board, believes the White House's prime motive for banning travel from India is the coronavirus strain known as B.1.617. It was discovered in the city for the first time and is thought to be highly infectious.

According to a source familiar with the issue, the travel order is likely to extend to non-US citizens or permanent residents who have recently visited India. That means the restrictions would probably follow the same format as those put on most travel to the United States from China, Brazil, and the European Union, potentially banning any travelers from India from visiting the United States.

Related Article: Biden's Menthol Flavored Cigarette Ban Sparks Controversy, Here's What the White House Says

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
India's coronavirus crisis may be one of the worse in the world as it reaches over 400,000 new cases in just 24 hours. As of this writing, the total number of cases is recorded at 19.1 million, statistics from The New York Times show.

Being the second most populated country in the world, India is at high-risk of spreading the disease. But how did the surge happened? According to Reuters, scientific advisers warned the government early in March about a new coronavirus variant that may affect the area.

Said warning was issued by the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genetics Consortium or INSACOG to a top official of Prime Minister Narendra Modi last March 10. But it is not clear if the health ministry has passed the information to India's leader.

INSACOG is comprised of scientific advisers whose primary task is to detect genomic variants of the coronavirus. The group determined B.1.617, now known as the Indian variant, early in February.

However, the government failed to impose restrictions to avoid spreading the virus. Instead, millions of people not wearing masks and not observing social distancing attended religious gatherings like the weeks-long Kumbh Mela and political rallies.

A statement was released to the media about the two coronavirus mutations called E484Q and L452R which they tag as of "high concern." Said draft mentioned that "E484Q mutant viruses escaping highly neutralising antibodies in cultures, and there is data that L452R mutation was responsible for both increased transmissibility and immune escape."

INSACOG reported to NCDC director Sujeet Kumar Singh who then warned the government about the new variant, suggesting strict and immediate lockdown to stop the spread. But Modi opposed lockdowns as it has put millions out of work last year which is not good for the economy.

Maharashtra, where the samples containing the variant was found, is India's worst-affected state with over 4 million recorded cases. Other states with over 1 million cases include Karnataka, Kerala,Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and its capital, New Delhi.

On the other hand, a TikTok video by user hotvickkrishna is going viral wherein he created a skit to show how Indias COVID-19 crisis happened. Watch it below:

Read Also: Countries Help India Amid Devastating COVID-19 Disaster, Here's How You Can Help Too

India COVID-19 Crisis in Pictures

As news about the increase of coronavirus cases in India begin to spread online, many people have expressed their concerns and shared the hashtags #HelpIndia #HelpIndiaBreathe #IndiaNeedsOxygen, #IndiaCovidCrisis, and others. People are sharing posts about the current situation in the area in the hopes of raising awareness to global leaders who may be able to help India get more oxygen tanks, acquire vaccines, and other medical aid.

Here are some powerful yet heartbreaking pictures of the current situation in India.

Indian Covid-19 Death Toll Continues To Mount

Surging Wave Of Covid-19 Ravages Indian Cities

India Struggles To Contain Huge Wave Of Covid-19 Infections

India records more than 300,000 covid infections in a single day

India faces spiralling numbers of Covid-19 infections

Vaccinations Fail To Keep Up As Covid-19 Death Toll Continues To Mount

Related Article: Indias Coronavirus Deaths More Than 200,000 During Surge

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Yes, in times of crisis, a governor must be able to act quickly.

No, all decisions should be made in conjunction with the states Legislature

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A trooper on patrol Friday morning stopped a van in Weisenberg Township after seeing it traveling in the left lane of I-78 at 10 mph over the speed limit. The trooper wrote in a police affidavit that he observed numerous indicators of criminal activity during the stop and got the drivers permission to search the vehicle. The search revealed 68 kilograms, or nearly 150 pounds, of cocaine hidden inside multiple portable speakers, the affidavit says.
Copyright  2021 at Sun Newspapers/ APG Media of East Central Minnesota. Digital dissemination of this content without prior written consent is a violation of federal law and may be subject to legal action.
A Lima teen has been sentenced to a minimum of 28 years in prison after having two trials for two separate armed robberies on Monday. Juan Freeman, 18 was facing aggravated robbery charges for incidents that happened at Hermies Party Shop and Little Caesars within hours of each other in January of 2020. Freeman decided to have the judge hear his cases versus having a jury trial and each incident was tried separately. During the trial, investigators and witnesses to the armed robberies testified in court. Freeman and his partner Nazier Howard, 19 were only able to get money at one of locations, which totaled a little over $100. Judge Terri Kohlrieser deliberated and found him guilty on all charges and sentenced Freeman to 28 to 32 years in prison.
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Six Citgo executives held in Venezuela since 2017 were released from jail into house arrest Friday night in an apparent gesture of goodwill toward the Biden administration as it mulls its approach toward the Maduro government controlling the South American country.

Maria Elena Cardenas  the wife of Gustavo Cardenas, one of the detained executives of the Houston refiner  said she received a brief call Friday evening from her husband, telling her that they were granted house arrest. The Associated Press, which first reported the news, said it received confirmation of the executives partial release from lawyers and family members of the men.

Citgo did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Venezuelan officials could not be immediately reached.

Its bittersweet news, Cardenas said from her Katy home. We are very thankful, but this is not enough. The result we want is that my husband comes back home.

Gustavo Cardenas and five other Citgo executives have been in and out of jail for more than three years, held as political pawns by the government of President Nicolas Maduro as it clashed with the U.S. government under the Trump administration. Citgo, the U.S. subsidiary of Venezuelas state oil company, PDVSA, is controlled by a board appointed by opposition leader Juan Guaido, who is recognized by the U.S. and some 60 other countries as the legitimate leader of Venezuela.

In November 2017, the six Citgo executives were summoned to PDVSAs headquarters in Caracas for what they were told was a budget meeting. Instead, military intelligence officers swarmed into the boardroom and hauled them off to jail on charges of corruption and embezzlement. The men, most of whom are U.S. citizens, have all pleaded innocent.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Citgo executives sentenced to prison in Venezuela over corruption charges

Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who has negotiated the release of other Americans held by hostile governments, traveled to Caracas in July and met with Maduro. He didnt win their freedom, but days later two of the Citgo Six  Cardenas and Jorge Toledo  were freed from jail and put in house detention. The other detained executives are Tomeu Vadell, Jose Pereira and brothers Jose Luis and Alirio Zambrano.

On Thanksgiving Day last year, the executives were found guilty by a Venezuelan judge and sentenced to prison terms of more than eight years. The mens lawyers said the verdict was based on little or no proof presented by the Venezuelan government.

Family members are hopeful relations between Caracas and Washington can improve under the Biden administration. Former President Donald Trump took a hard stance against Maduro, imposing sweeping sanctions and offering a $15 million reward for his arrest, as Venezuela  once one of the richest oil states in South America  spiraled into political and economic chaos. Its unclear how Biden will go about addressing Venezuela still under Maduros power.

Maria Cardenas, who has been waiting for her husbands release for the past three years, said she is trying to keep her hopes up that further negotiations can help secure her husbands release.

We hope that Gov. Richardson and the Biden administration can do more, she said Friday evening. We have been waiting for his return so long. We just need him to come home as soon as possible.

paul.takahashi@chron.com

twitter.com/paultakahashi
Caddo Lake, on the Texas-Louisiana border, commands a deserved spot in both states rich mythology and pride of place.

Most Texans, even those who never have seen the shallow, sprawling, cypress-and-Spanish-moss-dressed water body on Big Cypress Bayou (and inevitably anyone who has actually visited the lake), believe it to be a spectacular and special natural wonder.

The inland waterway holds a high diversity of native aquatic life. More than 90 species of fish have been documented as native to the lake and associated waters; some of them, such as chain pickerel, are found almost nowhere else in the state.

More than 20 species of mussels live in the lake and adjacent wetlands.

More than 40 species native to the lake and its wetlands are threatened or endangered.

Along with noting Caddos otherworldly beauty and amazing biodiversity, locals recount some amazing history that has occurred on the lakes waters and banks. Some of its even true.

Legends of the lake

The lake was the site of the nations first offshore oil production when, in 1911, a well was punched through the bottom of Caddo Lake and produced more than 400 barrels a day.

Claudia Alta Taylor, known to the world as Lady Bird Johnson through her marriage to President Lyndon Johnson, was born in the town of Karnack on Caddos shore. And, the story goes, her deep love of the natural world and her resulting efforts on its behalf were triggered by the impression Caddo Lake made on the young Claudia.

Too, theres the history of steamboat travel on the lake and Big Cypress Bayou, the steamship port of Jefferson, outlaws, the Regulator-Moderator War and plenty of ghosts.

But one of the most commonly repeated facts about Caddo Lake  Its the only natural lake in Texas  is misinformed myth. The state holds dozens of natural lakes, some covering hundreds of acres, scattered from the playas of the Panhandle to the oxbows in East Texas river bottoms and the resacas of South Texas.

And, truth is, Caddos not even a natural lake  at least not in its current incarnation. Caddo Lake was a natural lake, though.

Natural beginning

For at least a couple of thousand years, the area now covered by Caddo Lake was a low-lying reach of swamp and small natural lakes veined by Big Cypress Creek and other waterways.

Geologists and hydrologists are not certain about the exact timing, but sometime in the past thousand years  some say as long ago as 1100 A.D., but most say 200-400 years ago  something happened to cause water to flood the basin and form Caddo Lake.

The generally accepted theory is that a massive log jam on the Red River (into which Big Cypress Creek flows) created a natural dam that caused water to back up behind it and flood the area on whats now the Texas/Louisiana border.

This Great Red River Raft  which obstructed more than 70 miles of the Mississippi River tributary  and Caddo Lake were noted by the first explorers of European heritage to visit the area.

The Caddo Lake that existed when pioneers moved into Northeast Texas in the early 1800s was much larger and deeper than the one that exists today.

In the 1830s, removal of part of the Red River Raft allowed steamboats access into Big Cypress Bayou near whats now Shreveport, La., a city named after Capt. Henry Shreve, who headed much of the raft-removal effort. Those steamers regularly traveled into Texas as far as the town of Jefferson, several miles up the bayou from Caddo Lake.

In 1874, after more than 40 years of working in fits and starts, the entire Red River Raft was removed and backed-up waters, including much of what had been Caddo Lake, drained.

In the wake of the raft removal, Caddo Lake was too shallow for steamboats. What remained of the lake was mostly a series of shallow, swampy waters.

Oil boom forces change

In the early 1900s, the search for oil brought changes to the diminished lake. A well drilled over a patch of Caddo Lake  the first over-water oil well in the nation  hit pay dirt, triggering an oil-exploration boom in the area.

To make more of the swampy country accessible to oil drillers using barges, a dam was thrown across Big Cypress Bayou near Mooringsport, La., in 1914. The resulting reservoir, which covers about 25,000 surface acres, is the latest manifestation of Caddo Lake.

Between 1968 and 1971, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers modified the 1914 dam. The dam uses an outlet weir system rather than the gate system seen on most modern dams, limiting reservoir managers ability to manipulate Caddos water levels.

Todays Caddo Lake is appreciably smaller in surface area than it was prior to removal of the Red River Raft.

The ancient lake can no longer claim to be wholly natural, and certainly faces serious threats because of infestations of invasive plants. But Caddo continues to function as the core of Texas most ecologically diverse freshwater system  and stands as a soul-stirring natural and cultural icon.
Retired Conroe Fire Department Lt. Neal Radford is being remembered by colleagues as a leader and friend following his death from COVID-19, whose vaccine he promoted as he battled the virus.

Radford died Thursday afternoon at CHI St. Lukes Health The Woodlands Hospital after a near month-long ICU stay. He was 52.

He was crucial in laying the groundwork to what we are today and the successes we have today, said Conroe Fire Lt. Lloyd Sandefer.

Eagerly championing safety, Radford helped better the departments equipment and staffing, Conroe Fire Assistant Chief Mike Legoudes said. He worked to implement a vehicle replacement program through the City of Conroe, helping ensure a safe ride for firefighters, Legoudes explained.

Radford was instrumental in helping us progress the department forward to serve the citizens better, Legoudes said.

Even in his final weeks, Radford was advocating for the sake of others, urging people be vaccinated against COVID-19.

This Covid is no joke I wish to God I had gotten a vaccine please if you get a chance get the dang vaccine, read an April 1 post on his Facebook page.

More than a coworker

Radford joined Conroe Fire in March 1998, ascending to the rank of lieutenant in October 2008 and retiring in July 2015.

Legoudes, who started about three years after Radford, recalls him as encouraging of new department recruits and caring deeply about others. Legoudes knew he could rely on Radford.

He would give me an honest assessment and help me make better decisions. He was also the kind of person who would give you unsolicited advice if he thought you were doing something wrong, Legoudes said. His input and his influence made me a better chief officer. He wasnt just my coworker. He was my friend too.

Radford grew up in the city of Montgomery. Married to Molly Radford, he was a father to an adult son, Riley, and an adult daughter, Sunni. He was also a grandfather.

He graduated from College of the Mainlands fire academy in Texas City and the Houston Community Colleges police academy, according to his LinkedIn profile. Prior to Conroe Fire, Radford served at the Montgomery Fire Department and the North Montgomery County Volunteer Fire Department.

Radford was vice-president of the Conroe annex of the International Association of Fire Fighters union for five years beginning in the late 2000s.

He cared about the health and safety of every single firefighter on the line, said Sandefer, who is president of the Conroe Professional Firefighters Association, IAFF Local 2731.

Sandefer noted one special memory he and the nonprofit Conroe Firefighters Foundation has of Radford from its 2019 Fire Up the Bands concert benefiting the members benevolence fund. Radford crafted a custom-made wooden writing pen, donating it to the events live auction. After the auctioneer shared Radfords background with attendees, bidding fervidly took off.

The pen sold for $5,000  a sum returned to Radford as a surprise payoff for a new fitted prosthetic leg he needed.

Final respects

To honor Radford, state Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, on Thursday had a flag fly over the Capitol in Austin. The flag will later be presented to Radfords widow. Creighton and state Rep. Will Metcalf, R-Conroe, are also possibly planning a proclamation to pay tribute to him, Sandefer said.

Radfords remains were taken from the hospital 12 miles north to a funeral home in Conroe in a procession Sandefer hailed as emblematic of the professionalism, solidarity and fraternity between Montgomery County first responders.

At Conroe Police Chief Jeff Christies orders, Radford was escorted by six of the departments cruisers and two Woodlands Fire Department trucks. Upon the procession reaching Conroe a different Conroe Fire engine truck filed in by each district it passed through.

The funeral service, whose date has not been announced, will feature a similar procession sending Radford to his final resting place.

jose.gonzalez@chron.com

twitter.com/jrgzztx
Mark Winema / Getty Images/Mark Wineman / Getty Images

A woman was found dead early Saturday in a ditch in the Cloverleaf area of northeast Harris County, official said.

Deputies were dispatched around 3 a.m. to the 14000 block of Victoria Street, where they found the unidentified body, said Sgt. Ben Beall of the Harris County Sheriff's Office homicide division.
In yet another indictment of Houston ISD's special education department, an internal audit published this month found extensive issues with the districts staff training practices and protocols, putting the district at risk of denying students with disabilities their legal right to services.

Staff from HISDs internal audit department and the Houston-based firm McConnell & Jones LLP jointly concluded that HISD did not develop and manage its training program to effectively meet the districts needs after interviewing employees and reviewing numerous special education materials, according to a 32-page report.

The auditors, who only analyzed the departments approach through the 2018-19 school year, took particular issue with HISDs lack of virtual staff training, poor tracking of in-person training attendance and haphazard recordkeeping. HISD staff legally are required to identify students with disabilities, develop plans for meeting their learning needs, implement those plans and meet specific goals set for each student.

Teaching professionals, including general education teachers that may have special education students in their class, are the individuals responsible, the auditors wrote. Therefore, it is crucial for each school district to ensure that their teaching professionals receive the appropriate training to implement the (plans) for the respective disability identified.

In a statement Friday, HISD administrators said they have made numerous changes since 2019, including weekly monitoring of compliance data, monthly audits of student files and the addition of online training sessions. Employees performance plans also will specify which training courses are mandatory and optional in 2021-22.

The HISD Office of Special Education Services has actively addressed the audit findings contained in the report, district administrators said in their statement.

HISDs audit committee chair, Trustee Holly Maria Flynn Vilaseca, said the inquiry emerged after prior reports of issues with special education in the district. She added that its now up to the administration to respond to the recommendations that come from the audit.

McConnell & Jones partner Odysseus Lanier, whose firm was hired by HISD to help conduct the audit, declined to comment on the findings.

The audit marks the fourth report in the past four years sharply criticizing HISDs special education department.

A 2018 audit by the American Institutes for Research found 10 broad areas needing improvement in the department. Several months later, a board-led committee examining HISDs service to students with disabilities described the situation as grave.

In September 2020, state investigators concluded HISD had failed to fix significant, systemic and widespread issues with special education, prompting the appointment of two conservators responsible for overseeing changes in the district. HISD administrators refuted the findings, arguing in part that they were based on outdated information.

HISD provided special education services to 7.9 percent of its 209,300 students in 2019-2020, the lowest rate among Texas largest school districts. About 10.5 percent of students statewide received special education services last school year.

The internal audit took a more narrow approach by focusing only on staff training, often referred to in education circles as professional development. During her three-year tenure leading the district, HISD Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan often said the special education department would provide more and better professional development to remedy issues documented by outside organizations.

While the auditors findings are based on practices from two-plus years ago, they suggest major improvements to training protocols were needed.

For instance, the auditors wrote that HISDs special education department cannot and did not enforce professional development under practices in place at the time.

Accordingly, the department did not require specific professional development for special education and general education teachers to ensure their understanding of how to implement (student learning plans), the auditors wrote.

Those issues were exacerbated by an outdated approach to training, the auditors noted. All of the nearly 350 training sessions offered between September 2018 and July 2019 were conducted in-person, limiting participation by staff. Nobody enrolled in 50 of those sessions, the auditors found.

The auditors also were concerned that HISDs special education department did not maintain training materials for professional development courses or provide evidence showing how instructional documents were created.

The shortcomings occurred during the first full year of Lathans tenure as interim superintendent and Special Education Executive Director Shannon Verretts leadership of the department.

Verretts team created a three-year strategic plan in 2018 to tackle special education issues, though the state investigation suggested the effort has not led to substantial changes. In a June 2020 report to board members, HISDs special education leaders said they had added 73 online training courses, expanded campus-based professional development, created numerous written training materials and added more accountability measures.

jacob.carpenter@chron.com
Benjamin Crump, civil rights leader and attorney for George Floyds Family, will give the commencement speech at Texas Southern Universitys graduation ceremony.

Crump, an advocate for social justice, will speak at the ceremonies at 8:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. on May 8 at Alexander Durley Stadium.

"Ben Crump exemplifies moral courage. Throughout his career, he has spoken truth to power, reminding us of the impact that a single voice can have, said TSU Interim President Ken Huewitt. As our graduates prepare to make their difference in the world, I have no doubt they will find both strength and inspiration in his words.

Crumps work has led to legislation preventing excessive force and developing implicit bias training and policies.

He has represented families in several high-profile civil rights cases including, Third Ward native George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown as well as the residents of Flint, Michigan who were impacted by poisonous water.

The attorney represented nine of the 13 Black women who were victims in the Holtzclaw Oklahoma City Police rape case in 2015. He worked on the precedent-setting U.S. Supreme Court case involving excessive police force against Houstonian Robbie Tolan in 2008.

Crump is the president of the National Civil Rights Trial Lawyers Association and previously served as president of the National Bar Association. Hes won the NAACP Thurgood Marshall Award, the SCLC Martin Luther King Servant Leader Award, the American Association for Justice Johnnie Cochran Award and the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Eleanor Roosevelt Medallion for Service.

Crump graduated from Florida State University and received his law degree from FSU College of Law.
The Texas Legislature is considering two bills that would make expansive changes to how the states elections are run, limiting early voting hours and banning drive-thru voting, among other restrictions.

Those provisions and several others target initiatives Harris County had tried in the 2020 presidential election, which saw a record investment of taxpayer dollars aimed at making it easier to vote, as well as record voter turnout. The Republican authors of the legislation, Senate Bill 7 and House Bill 6, say they are necessary to improve election integrity and prevent voter fraud.

There is no evidence of widespread fraud in last years election or any other in modern Texas, though rare cases of voter fraud have been documented in local elections.

Voting rights experts say the bills  which include measures that would apply only to the states most populous counties, all of which are predominantly nonwhite  would discriminate against voters of color. Republicans say the measures target those counties, including Harris, because they were mainly the ones to introduce new election programs in 2020 that the bills seek to prevent.

The Texas Senate passed SB 7 on April 1 and was awaiting House action until Thursday, when the Republican-controlled House Elections Committee advanced a version of the bill that replaces it with HB 6. There are stark differences between the bills: SB 7 would restrict early voting hours, regulate the distribution of polling sites and ban drive-thru voting, while HB 6 does not address any of those areas. Republicans still may add the restrictions back into the bill when it reaches the House floor.

The Chronicle breaks down key provisions in each bill and how the practices targeted worked in Harris County during the November presidential election.

Allocation of polling sites

SB 7 would require counties with at least 1 million residents to proportionately distribute polling places based on the number of eligible voters in each state House district within the county. For example, if a district contains 10 percent of a countys eligible voters, 10 percent of the countys polling places would have to be located in that district.

Republican senators say current election laws do not prevent election officials from dispersing polling locations in ways that benefit one party over the other. During Senate debate over SB 7, state Sen. Bryan Hughes, a Republican from Mineola who authored the bill, said he had seen evidence that election officials in some large counties were distributing polling places in a partisan manner, though he did not cite a specific example.

During the first days of early voting in the 2020 November election, voters in west Harris County  a traditionally Republican area  experienced long lines that prompted Republican county commissioners to seek more voting machines in their precincts. In response, the county deployed more iPads in an attempt to speed up voter check-ins and sent new machines to some overburdened sites.

The polling site provision would limit the ability of populous counties like Harris to place polling sites in urban centers convenient to many residents. Several counties in Texas, including Harris, Travis and Fort Bend use countywide voting, which allows voters to cast ballots at any poll location rather than their assigned precinct. That change proved popular in Harris County last year.

Former Harris County clerk Chris Hollins, who oversaw the 2020 election, said the provision uses population data based on where people sleep, rather than where they work or otherwise spend the day, likely producing long lines in dense commercial areas.

You have people who come into downtown, the Galleria area, the Medical Center, and certainly during early voting, you're much more likely to vote in those places where you spend your daytime hours than where you sleep, Hollins said.

Harris County Elections Administrator Isabel Longoria said research by her office found the provision would result in the loss of polling places from districts represented by non-white representatives.

No matter how you cut, it would appear to us that youre shifting the number of locations that would be in Black, Latino and Asian communities to giving more locations to areas that are represented by white representatives, she said.

Drive-thru voting

Both bills would prohibit the type of drive-thru voting Harris County allowed last November, with the permission of the secretary of state. Texas long has allowed curbside voting for sick and disabled voters. The states largest county launched 10 drive-thru sites last year, where any voter could cast a ballot from inside their vehicle.

More than 127,000 voters, or about 8 percent of the total, used this method during the presidential election. A group of Republicans sued to shut the sites down, arguing they were an illegal expansion of curbside voting, but a federal judge ruled they lacked standing to bring the case.

At least three other counties  Bee, Calhoun and Kerr  implemented drive-thru voting in 2020. None drew the same criticism from Republicans.

SB 7 would clearly settle the issue. The bill states that each polling place must be located inside a building, and specifically excludes tents or temporary structures, which Harris County had used for drive-thru voting. Voters would be prohibited from casting a ballot from inside a car unless they qualify for curbside voting.

Republicans say drive-thru voting is risky because poll watchers cannot clearly see inside voters vehicles. They have also expressed concern that other occupants of a vehicle could inappropriately pressure a voter to choose certain candidates. However, no evidence has surfaced of election fraud being committed at any of the Harris County drive-thru sites during the four elections since the county began offering that voting option.

Early voting hours

During early voting in the 2020 election, Harris County extended polling hours to 10 p.m. on three of the 18 days of early voting, beyond the typical 7 p.m. closing time. On the penultimate day of early voting, election officials kept eight early voting sites open for 24 hours.

SB 7 would outlaw both practices by requiring early voting to begin no earlier than 6 a.m. and ending no later than 9 p.m. Counties with at least 30,000 residents would be required to keep the polls open for exactly 12 hours each weekday during the final week of early voting.

A total of 17,425 Harris County voters cast their ballots after 7 p.m. during the November 2020 election, according to the elections administrators office, comprising about 1 percent of the nearly 1.66 million votes cast during the entire election.

No accusations of wrongdoing or fraudulent activity arose during extended polling hours in 2020.

During Senate debate over SB 7, state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, asked Hughes if he had any evidence of increased instances of fraud at night. Hughes did not directly respond to the inquiry, stating instead that he had heard reports of difficulty finding election workers and poll watchers to staff the polling sites late at night.

Hollins said he had no trouble staffing the polling sites during extended hours. He said the longer hours were intended to accommodate the anticipated record turnout and schedules of those who work long hours.

Despite the low after-hours turnout, Hollins said he hopes county officials will continue to offer extended voting hours because the cost of doing so is minimal.

Poll watchers

SB 7 allows greater access to poll watchers, partisan observers appointed by candidates and political parties to witness votes being cast and counted.

Hughes said in a television interview that poll watchers ensure election laws are followed, and they play an important role in ensuring voters who speak a different language or may be intellectually disabled are not coerced by the people they choose to help them with their ballot.

Under existing law, poll watchers are allowed to stand conveniently near election officials. Under SB 7, they would be entitled to be near enough to see and hear and allowed to move freely around a polling place or counting station.

The bill would eliminate a provision prohibiting poll watchers from recording audio or video and allow observers to send recordings to the secretary of state if they reasonably believe they depict illegal election activity. HB 6 would prohibit election workers from ejecting poll watchers from voting sites unless they commit an offense related to voter fraud.

This language would require election workers to tolerate a range of behaviors by poll watchers, including harassment of voters, said Eliza Sweren-Becker, a voting rights expert at the Brennan Center for Justice.

Voter intimidation is prohibited by federal law, and this disempowers local election officials from being able to protect their voters from violence and intimidation, Sweren-Becker.

Longoria said that while proponents cast poll watchers as the publics eyes and ears over the elections process, some observers during last years presidential election were disruptive and uninformed about the complexities of Texas election law. In some cases, she said they mistook routine election procedures as evidence of fraud.

Our election workers are trained on the law and are sworn to uphold the law, and then you have these poll watchers who are there to mix things up, Longoria said. They think they are there to be the election worker, and thats the problem.

Mail ballots

Both bills would prevent local officials from sending mail-in ballot applications to voters who had not requested them, and HB 6 would make doing so a felony. The provision responds to Hollins attempt in 2020 to send applications to all 2.4 million registered voters in Harris County, which was blocked by the Texas Supreme Court in a lawsuit filed by Paxton.

Republicans argue the Texas Election Code requires election officials to send applications to all registered voters that request them but does not say anything about mailing applications to other voters.

Texas is one of a handful of states that requires an excuse for voting by mail. Residents must be at least 65, disabled, out of the county or incarcerated during the voting period. In a separate lawsuit, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that lack of immunity to COVID, or fear of contracting the virus, was not a disability by itself but could be combined with other health factors to qualify a voter for a mail ballot  an interpretation the court left open to voters.

Throughout the election, Hollins said the drive to expand mail-in voting was fueled by concerns about voters contracting the virus at the polls during a high-turnout election.

He said he had viewed the application mailout to all 2.4 million voters as a pandemic-related initiative that the county was unlikely to repeat in future elections.

By the time the Texas Supreme Court blocked the mailout, Hollins office already had sent applications to all voters 65 and older, all of whom are automatically eligible to vote by mail.

Both bills would block election officials from sending unsolicited applications even to those who meet the eligibility requirements.

Paper trail requirement

Several provisions of S.B. 7 and H.B. 6 are supported by Harris County officials. Longoria said those include a requirement that counties use voting machines that produce a paper record and provide an online tracker so mail voters can see when their ballot is mailed to them, received by election officials and then counted.

Harris County already complies with both provisions.

jasper.scherer@chron.com

zach.despart@chron.com
A Harris County court on Friday sentenced a 24-year-old MS-13 gang member to life in prison without parole for the fatal ambush shooting of a teenager in 2016.

A jury found Douglas Alexander Herrera-Hernandez, known as Terror, guilty of capital murder in the June 13, 2016 slaying of Estuar Quinonez, 16, in Missouri City, according to the Harris County District Attorneys Office.

We are trying to break the back of this organization by sending their assassins to prison for as long as possible and we will remain unrelenting in our pursuit of these criminals who band together to terrorize communities, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said in a statement.

Herrera-Hernandez and several other gang members lured Quinonez to Buffalo Run Park, where he was shot at least 15 times, including the head, as he sat on a bench. Quinonezs killers wanted to silence him as he had witnessed several gang-related murders, according to the DAs Office.

Prosecutors told jurors Herrera-Hernandez admitted to calling gang leaders in El Salvador for permission to kill Quinonez, the DAs Office added.

An August 2018 Houston Chronicle story reported that Herrera-Hernandez was one of seven men charged in connection to the death of Quinonez, an informant for the Houston Police Department.

Herrera-Hernandez and four other gang members were involved in the boys death, some hiding in the bushes, when he was taken to the park at 11 p.m. under the pretense of smoking marijuana. The man seated beside him on the bench fired first, according to court records obtained by the Chronicle.

Though Quinonezs murder was committed in Fort Bend County, prosecutors agreed to pursue the case in Harris County for continuity. Prosecutors originally sought the death penalty for Herrera-Hernandez, the Chronicles story reported.

MS-13, also known as Mara Salvatrucha 13, is a transnational gang. Originating in Los Angeles, its members were deported to Central America in the 1980s. The gang retains a presence in Houston and along the East and West coasts of the United States, as well as other major cities in the country, the DAs Office explained.

jose.gonzalez@chron.com

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Family members of a man slain by an undercover deputy in Missouri City are confused by a Harris County grand jurys decision not to indict the law enforcement officer, a spokesman said Saturday.

At a news conference attended by Joshua Johnsons parents, Wilhelmena and Richard Beary as well as Rep. Al Green, family spokesman James Hudson said the family expected Deputy Tu Tran to go before a jury over the fatal shooting.

Authorities said Tran, a Harris County Sheriff's Office deputy, fired multiple times at 35-year-old Johnson in the early hours of April 22, 2020, in the 1500 block of East Ritter Circle. The family has questioned official accounts of the shooting and said they hope ballistics reports give them more clarification.

I dont know what happened, but I know that justice was not served, he said.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Grand jury declines indictment for deputy in Joshua Johnson killing

Johnsons family is devastated at the news, Green said. They will go to church tomorrow and meet with the Harris County District Attorneys Office Thursday, but will withhold announcing plans until after that meeting.

This does not close the case for them, Green said.

The deputy was part of a violent crimes operation to arrest a capital murder suspect from Dallas, believed to be in the neighborhood. Authorities say Johnson, who was not the suspect, approached the lawmans unmarked vehicle with his cellphone flashlight and a pistol, later found to be a BB gun.

When Johnson raised his weapon, Tran shot from his car, authorities said. Johnson ran away but died in a nearby driveway.

The district attorneys office provided all evidence to a grand jury, District Attorney Kim Ogg said Friday. Grand jury proceedings are secret in accordance with state law.

The DAs office went to the scene the morning of the shooting and hired a ballistics expert, Ogg said. Prosecutors cant reveal what they presented to grand jurors, although Ogg said evidence can include reports, recordings and records of testimony by witnesses.

Johnson was house-sitting for his parents hospitalized neighbor and had been concerned about a break-in in the days leading up to the shooting. He told another neighbor, Robert Pringle, that he recently found a window and door left ajar on the home, leading Pringle to speculate that Johnson might have thought the deputy was the intruder.

Johnson died at the scene. The deputy was not wearing a body camera, which Green again questioned Saturday.

"Youre not going to catch everybody red-handed," he said.

If he had been wearing a body camera, "maybe well have some justice," Green said.

Tran is back on active duty. A grand jury declined to indict him in 2016 after fatally shooting a 24-year-old man outside a Houston night club while he and three other deputies were working an off-duty security job. He was disciplined the following year after a television news helicopter crew witnessed him striking a handcuffed suspect in the throat after a 85-mile chase that ended in Jefferson County.
NASAs tiny helicopter is not ready for retirement.

Ingenuitys one-month mission was upped on Friday, and the helicopter will now help the Perseverance rover as it searches for signs of ancient Martian life.

Our team has been extremely happy and proud of Ingenuitys flight to date, MiMi Aung, Ingenuitys project manager, said during a NASA news conference, and now its like Ingenuity is graduating.

More on Ingenuity: 5 things to know about NASA's tiny helicopter

The helicopter, weighing 4 pounds on Earth and 1.5 pounds on Mars, was a technology demonstration to prove powered, controlled flight is possible on the Red Planet. Its fourth flight occurred Friday morning, with the helicopter climbing 16 feet, moving 436 feet south and returning to land where it took off.

The helicopters systems have performed beyond expectations, enabling additional flights. But more importantly, the Perseverance science team has determined that Ingenuity wont hinder the rovers exploration.

The Perseverance science team is going to explore the area rather than quickly driving to another part of the Martian surface. If the rover had driven farther away, the helicopter would be too slow to tag along. Ingenuity has to use solar panels to recharge its batteries between flights.

Based on the rocks that we have seen in the area, we really wish to spend a considerable amount of time where we are, said Ken Farley, the missions project scientist and a professor of geochemistry at Caltech. So its sort of a fortuitous alignment of these two things.

In this nearby area, he said the rover could find rocks, potentially mudstones, that were deposited in the middle of the lake that once filled Jezero Crater.

This is the kind of environment that we expect to be most habitable by organisms that might have existed on Mars billions of years ago, he said, as well as having the capability to preserve biosignatures over the billions of years since the climate changed and the lake dried.

The rover will likely spend the next several hundred Martian days in the nearby region, collecting samples that it will ultimately leave in caches on the planets surface. A mission is being planned to collect the samples and return them to Earth.

Ingenuity might assist the rover by providing aerial images of rocks and other features that interest the science team. It might also fly into regions the rover cannot reach.

Technology demonstrations like Ingenuity are really, really important, said Lori Glaze, director of NASAs Planetary Science Division. Weve learned so much from this little technology demonstration that will enable future aerial systems and explorers.

The helicopters first flight was April 19. It lifted itself 10 feet, hovered and then came back down. It began moving laterally on subsequent flights, going farther and faster.

Fridays flight will be essential in finding Ingenuitys next home. Images from the flight will be used to create 3D digital elevation maps and find a safe landing spot along Perseverances southern route.

Then Ingenuity will take a one-way trip to that airfield. After this fifth flight, the helicopter will transition to an operations demonstration phase thats slated to last 30 Martian days.

It is expected to fly less frequently during this operations demonstration. Then the team will reevaluate if the helicopter will continue flying.

More on Perseverance: NASA's Perseverance rover lands safely on Mars

Well check on the health of the helicopter, Glaze said. Well see if its being helpful to Perseverance, or if there are impacts to the ability of Perseverance to do its core science jobs.

The tiny helicopter does have a finite life. Ingenuity was only designed to survive its 30-Martian-day window for technology demonstration flights. Some of its commercial parts were not designed for the rigors of space.

Its components are repeatedly freezing and thawing, and the helicopter team expects something will eventually break.

We will be celebrating each day that Ingenuity survives and operates beyond the original window, Aung said.

andrea.leinfelder@chron.com

twitter.com/a_leinfelder
Consider the salamander, a fascinating little amphibian that resembles a cross between a frog and a lizard. With slender, smooth-skinned bodies, stubby snouts and long tails, most species of salamanders live underground in caves and aquifers. Most are about six inches long (except for the 6-foot-long Japanese giant salamander). Theyre harmless, except for a gland on their neck that emits a foul-tasting, occasionally poisonous liquid when would-be predators presume to take a bite.

More than 600 species of salamander inhabit the earth, not including the species most often spotted in Texas  that is, the lab-created, predatory mutant called the gerrymander. Concocted by power-mad political scientists in thrall to the party in control of state government, the invasive species is designed solely to assure that the party in power  either Republican or Democrat  stays in power, the wishes of the voter be damned. Like the salamander, the gerrymander resists the light of day.

Gerrymanders appear every 10 years, in response to the release of U.S. Census population figures determining the number of congressional districts available to each state. A small  and, no doubt, grotesque  herd is in gestation at this very moment as the Texas Legislature turns to its task of rearranging boundaries for the U.S. House of Representatives, the Texas Legislature and the State Board of Education. With Texas gaining two congressional seats as a result of population gains recorded by the 2020 Census, the gerrymander will be in the news regularly during the next few months. And rightly so.

The census reflects a reality weve been living with for at least the past decade. The center of gravity for a nation long dominated by the Northeast and the Midwest has shifted southward, to Texas and other Sunbelt states.

Its hardly an exaggeration to say that as Texas goes, so goes the nation. A larger Texas congressional delegation means not only more seats at the federal table, and more money, but also an opportunity to show representative democracy at work. Demographically, Texas has changed drastically during the past decade as the state heads toward majority-minority status. Redistricting is supposed to reflect those changes.

Thats where the creature called the gerrymander comes into play. Unlike its namesake, the gerrymander is a shape-shifter, depending on the needs of the party empowered to do the drawing of district lines on a map. A gerrymander might have a slender body, stubby snout and long tail as it curves around neighborhoods and cuts through counties, or it might rely on freakishly long legs, a bobbed tail and a bulbous body to encompass the areas where the desired voters live. For a particularly hideous example, look at the 2nd Congressional District, held by Dan Crenshaw, a Houston Republican. With its spade-shaped head, attenuated trunk and crooked tail, the 2nd District gerrymander resembles a monster from a 50s-era Japanese horror movie.

Salamanders have managed to survive for eons; gerrymanders are almost as hardy and adaptable. Lawmakers who rely on their utility zealously guard their well-being. The U.S. Supreme Court handles them as delicately as an endangered species, despite the bad taste  indeed, the poison  they transmit to the body politic. Although racist gerrymandering is still illegal  sorry, Texas!  the high court in June upheld the practice of gerrymandering by one party for the sole purpose of protecting its partisan hegemony.

Its not just the gerrymanders torturous curvature thats offensive. In a democracy, the people are charged with electing their representatives. Our unnatural reliance on gerrymanders gets it backwards: Representatives get to choose their people, their voters. Relying on increasingly sophisticated technology to tailor-shape their gerrymanders, members of the majority party stretching district appendages with God-like precision to create the right amalogomation of voters to increase the likelihood of Republican victory. The true aim of redistricting  ensuring that everyone is fairly represented  gives way to a partisan scheme to enhance the political power of one group often at the expense of another.

Gerrymanders have been useful little creatures since they were first concocted in 1812 to protect the power of Massachusetts Gov. Eldridge Gerrys Democrat-Republican Party. Thanks to the gerrymander, a portmanteau word created by a poet named Richard Alsop, Gerrys party won more state senate seats, even though the Federalist opposition garnered more votes statewide.

Texas lawmakers, regardless of party, have been enthusiastic gerrymanderers for decades. Voters would have to pry lawmakers district-drawing power from their cold, dead hands but some states have done just that. They have established nonpartisan redistricting commissions to draw boundaries that reflect population changes and election fairness, not partisan power. In years past, former state Sen. Jeff Wentworth, a San Antonio Republican, tried for years to persuade his fellow lawmakers to establish a redistricting commission for Texas. He got nowhere. A similar state-level effort would be even more quixotic today.

We must look to Washington, where House Democrats last month passed House Resolution 1, comprehensive voting-reform legislation that would require each state to use independent commissions, not self-interested lawmakers, to approve newly drawn districts. The commission would include five Republicans, five Democrats and five independents. Lawmakers would be ineligible to serve. The legislations chances in the Senate are 50-50, literally.

Even if President Joe Biden has the opportunity to sign HR 1 into law, a redistricting commission would not do its work for another decade. What Texans can do now is pay attention to the process. House Bill 3112, the Texas Redistricting Transparency Act, would establish requirements for transparency, public information and public involvement. In a state with a regrettable history of ignoring minority voting rights and fairly apportioned districts  Texas has violated the Voting Rights Act in every redistricting cycle since 1970 with racially gerrymandered districts  these basic rules, spelled out, are necessary.

Someday, perhaps, the gerrymander will meet its well-deserved fate: Extinction. Meanwhile, Texas voters must insist that lawmakers do their work in the open. Salamanders can hide in the depths of darkness but representatives of the people cant. Their carefully concocted, grotesquely shaped gerrymanders must be hauled to the surface, into the bright light of day.
The Army said Friday that Pfc. Vanessa Guillen was sexually harassed by a supervisor who suggested they have sex with another person, but no one in her chain of command took action when she reported the incident.

An investigation into the chain of commands actions before and after Guillens death concluded that the encounter profoundly impacted her morale.

Following this incident, another supervisor noticed a marked changed in her demeanor, which prompted the supervisor to ask if she was okay, the report said.

EARLIR THIS WEEK: Girlfriend of Vanessa Guillen's suspected killer asks a judge to toss her confession

The long anticipated Army Regulation 15-6 investigation into Fort Hood chain-of-command actions surrounding Guillens disappearance and death last year also found that the posts acting commander at the time, Maj. Gen. Scott Efflandt, did a poor job of engaging with news media and lost trust with her family as the controversy erupted into an international story.

Billy Calzada /San Antonio Express-News

It contradicted the posts denials that Guilleen had filed a sexual harassment complaint. Maj. Gen. Gene LeBoeuf, chief of staff of Army Forces Command chief of staff, suggested the information came to light as investigators continued their work.

They interviewed extensively, 151 different witnesses, and so as part of that extensive investigation they were able to uncover perhaps additional information that was not uncovered before, he told reporters Friday afternoon.

In detailing the failures of leaders across Fort Hoods command chain, one of them Efflandt, the report stated eight officers and non-commissioned officers would be given general officer memorandums of reprimand, with another person told theyll be relieved.

It said that three of five current or former leaders of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment would receive general officer memorandums of reprimand.

A total of 21 officers and NCOs were disciplined, but the Army did not identify those receiving reprimands and none of them have forced out of the service.

A news release issued Friday said the latest disciplinary actions were in addition to the previously announced reliefs of Efflandt, and Col. Ralph Overland and Command Sgt. Maj. Bradley Knapp, the former commander and command sergeant major, respectively, of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment.

As of today, accountability actions have been initiated against members of Spc. Guillens chain of command from junior through senior leaders, the release said.

This is a developing story. Check back here for more details. sigc@express-news.net
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Ghost guns that were secured by the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department are on display during a press conference held by Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) in Washington, D.C., February 2020.
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Imperial Valley News Center

Former Sheriff and Former Deputies Convicted of Conspiracy, Misuse of Funds, and Other Offenses

Chester County, South Carolina - A federal jury convicted a former South Carolina sheriff and two of his former deputies of conspiracy and a range of other charges, such as deprivation of civil rights during an unlawful arrest, falsification of records, and various charges relating to their misuse of funds and personnel.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, former Sheriff of Chester County, South Carolina, George Alexander Underwood, 57, of Chester, former Chester County Sheriffs Office Chief Deputy Robert Andrew Sprouse, 46, of Ridgeway, and former Chester County Sheriffs Office Lieutenant Johnny Ricardo Neal Jr., 41, of Lancaster, conspired to use their positions to enrich themselves by obtaining money to which they were not entitled, cover up their misconduct, and obstruct investigations into their misconduct. Evidence showed Underwood and Sprouse violated the rights of a Chester County resident, K.S., who was filming the Sheriffs Offices response to a crash scene on Nov. 20, 2018, by arresting him without probable cause. When the FBI began investigating these civil rights violations, Sprouse and Neal tried to cover up what happened by creating a false incident reports and Sprouse made false statements to the FBI.

Additionally, court documents and evidence presented at trial showed the three defendants directed on-duty Sheriffs Office employees to provide manual labor or other services that personally benefited Underwood and Sprouse, including requiring them to help with extensive renovations of a barn on Underwoods property in order to add a bar, a television viewing area, and other amenities. Underwood and Sprouse took family members on a trip to a conference in Reno, Nevada, and charged the cost to the Sheriffs Office. Underwood and Neal also engaged in a scheme in which they skimmed money from payments owed to other Sheriffs Office employees for off-duty work at public safety checkpoints.

Underwood, Sprouse, and Neal were removed from their positions with the Chester County Sheriffs Office in approximately May 2019 after they were initially indicted by a federal grand jury.

Underwood was convicted of conspiracy, deprivation of rights, federal program theft, and wire fraud. Sprouse was convicted of conspiracy, falsification of records, false statements, and federal program theft. Neal was convicted of conspiracy, deprivation of rights, falsification of records, federal program theft, and wire fraud. A sentencing date has not yet been set. Each defendant faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence

Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicholas L. McQuaid of the Justice Departments Criminal Division made the announcement.

The FBI investigated the case. The Office of the Attorney General of South Carolina and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division aided the investigation.

Trial Attorneys William M. Miller and Rebecca M. Schuman of the Criminal Divisions Public Integrity Section are prosecuting the case. The U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of South Carolina investigated and initially indicted the case.
Imperial Valley News Center

Woman Sentenced for Production and Distribution of Child Pornography

Greensboro, North Carolina - A North Carolina woman was sentenced Monday to 50 years in prison followed by 20 years of supervised release for production and distribution of child pornography.

Alyson Brooke Saunders, 25, of Greensboro, pleaded guilty to one count of production of child pornography and one count of distribution of child pornography on November 5, 2020. According to court documents, in or about January and February 2019, while employed at a day care facility in the Middle District of North Carolina, Saunders admitted to using five minor victims in her care to create sexually explicit images and videos, including some in which she also engaged in hands-on sexual abuse of some of the children. The defendant then sent these images and videos to an online co-conspirator, with the knowledge that he intended to post them on the internet.

The defendant in this case exploited her position as a caregiver to produce sexually explicit images of vulnerable young children with the purpose of providing the images to a co-conspirator, said Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicholas L. McQuaid of the Justice Departments Criminal Division. Thanks to a proactive investigation by our law enforcement partners and the departments continued commitment to combatting child sexual exploitation, the defendant was apprehended and received a significant penalty for her heinous crimes.

When people in positions of trust and responsibility exploit children it not only steals the childs innocence, it can also teach them not to trust any more, which can cause lifelong trauma, said Special Agent in Charge Ronnie Martinez of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) North Carolina. Thanks to the great work done by HSI and its law enforcement partners, this predator will no longer be able to victimize children or spread those disturbing images

HSI in Winston-Salem investigated the case with assistance from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations.

Trial Attorney Nadia Prinz of the Criminal Divisions Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) prosecuted the case.
Imperial Valley News Center

U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garlands Call with Mexico Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero

Washington, DC - U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland spoke Monday afternoon by phone with Mexico Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero. The two leaders affirmed their commitment to work together to address law enforcement matters that impact the people and communities of the United States and Mexico. In particular, the Attorneys General discussed the need to continue bilateral cooperation to fight organized and transnational crime, and to disrupt the supply chains of illegal and illicit drugs.

Other areas to further strengthen bilateral cooperation were also highlighted, including firearms tracking, illicit finance, and human smuggling and traffickers.
Imperial Valley News Center

Former Attorney for Municipalities in Puerto Rico Sentenced for Bribery

San Juan, Puerto Rico - A former attorney for three municipalities in Puerto Rico was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison after he was convicted of four counts of bribery with respect to programs receiving federal funds.

Alejandro Carrasco, 64, of San Juan, was convicted by a federal jury of four counts of bribery with respect to programs receiving federal funds on Dec. 11, 2019. According to evidence introduced at trial, at various times between July 2009 and June 2012, Carrasco was an attorney providing legal services to the Puerto Rican Municipalities of Barceloneta, Rio Grande, and Juncos. During that time, he accepted bribes, disguised as legal fees, from a contractor in exchange for agreeing to assist the contractor in obtaining contracts with the three municipalities.

The evidence introduced at trial revealed that, in total, Carrasco accepted more than $180,000 in bribes in exchange for helping the contractor obtain more than approximately $2.3 million in municipal contracts. The evidence also revealed that Carrasco urged the contractor to bribe other public officials in the municipalities.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicholas L. McQuaid of the Justice Departments Criminal Division and Special Agent in Charge Rafael Riviere of the FBIs San Juan Field Office made the announcement.

The FBIs San Juan Field Office investigated the case.

The U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Puerto Rico indicted the case. Trial Attorneys James I. Pearce and Nicole R. Lockhart of the Criminal Divisions Public Integrity Section prosecuted the case.
Imperial Valley News Center

Cameroonian Citizen Extradited from Romania to Face Covid-19-Related Fraud Charges

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - A citizen of Cameroon was extradited to the U.S. Monday to face federal charges for his alleged involvement in a fraud scheme perpetrated against American consumers.

Desmond Fodje Bobga, 28, made his initial appearance in federal district court in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Tuesday. He was extradited from Romania. Bobga is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, forging a seal of the U.S. Supreme Court, and aggravated identity theft.

According to the charges, from around June 2018 to around June 2020, Bobga knowingly conspired with others to offer puppies and other animals for sale on internet websites. He and others communicated by text message and email with potential victims to induce purchases. Following each purchase, Bobga and co-conspirators claimed that a transportation company would deliver the puppy or other animal and provided a false tracking number for the pet. Bobga and his co-conspirators, acting as the transportation company, then claimed the pet transport was delayed and that the victim needed to pay additional money for delivery of the pet.

Bobga and co-conspirators told some victims that they needed to pay more money for delivery because the pet had been exposed to the coronavirus. The perpetrators used false promises and bogus documents regarding shipping fees and coronavirus exposure to extract successive payments from victims. Among the fake documents were a Refundable Crate and Vaccine Guarantee Document that purported to have been issued by the Supreme Court of the United States of America and bore the seal of the Court, along with the signature of a Clerk of the Court. After Bobga and the co-conspirators received money directly and indirectly through wire communications from the victims, they never delivered the pets.

The Department of Justice is committed to prosecuting fraud schemes that take advantage of American consumers, including schemes that seek to exploit the COVID-19 pandemic, said Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton of the Justice Department's Civil Division. We are grateful to the U.S. Attorneys Office in the Western District of Pennsylvania and to the FBI for their partnership on this matter, and we greatly appreciate the efforts of Romanian law enforcement.

From across the globe, Desmond Fodje Bobga and his co-conspirators callously exploited consumers who were seeking the companionship of a pet to alleviate the isolation and stress caused by the COVID pandemic, said Acting U.S. Attorney Stephen R. Kaufman for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Today he stands before the court in Pittsburgh to face justice.

Mr. Bobga created false websites to advertise puppies or other animals, communicated with customers in the U.S., obtained payment and then provided nothing in return, said FBI Pittsburgh Acting Special Agent in Charge Carlton Peeples. His extradition to Western Pennsylvania to face these accusations sends a message to others looking to exploit victims in the U.S. that the FBI will stop at nothing to find you and put a stop to these scams.

The criminal charges detail the alleged dealings of Bobga and his co-conspirators with victims in Western Pennsylvania and elsewhere. For example:

One victim, of New Brighton, Pennsylvania, was seeking to purchase a mini-dachshund for her mother in mid-March of 2020. Victim 1 was induced to lose $9,100 due to false claims that the puppy was being shipped, needed insurance, and was exposed to COVID-19;

Another victim, of Fruitland, Iowa, was seeking to purchase a mini-dachshund for herself in mid-March of 2020. False claims induced Victim 2 to lose $1,840; and

A couple in Dallas, Texas, who were seeking to purchase a dog and lost $1,800, were induced to make successive payments based on claims about transportation issues and other matters.

The criminal charges include a reference to a website, lovelyhappypuppy.com, to which Bobga allegedly directed numerous victims to view puppies that he fraudulently claimed to sell:

The wire fraud conspiracy and wire fraud charges provide for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison. Forging of seal provides for a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Aggravated identity theft provides for a mandatory two years in prison. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The prosecution is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ira M. Karoll of the Western District of Pennsylvania and Wei Xiang of the Civil Divisions Consumer Protection Branch.

The FBI Pittsburgh Field Office conducted the investigation leading to the charges in this case. The Justice Departments Office of International Affairs provided substantial assistance. Law enforcement authorities in Romania, including the Romanian National Police, Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and the Cluj Brigade for Combating Organized Crime, provided significant cooperation.

If you believe you are a victim in this case and would like to opt-in to receive notifications or if you have any questions about your rights, please contact the Victim Witness Coordinator at 412-894-7400
Imperial Valley News Center

Former Minister of Industry and Member of Parliament of Barbados Sentenced for Laundering Bribes

New York - A former Minister of Industry and elected member of Parliament of Barbados was sentenced Tuesday to two years in prison for his role in a scheme to launder bribe payments from a Barbadian insurance company through bank accounts in New York.

Donville Inniss, 55, a U.S. lawful permanent resident who resided in Tampa, Florida, and Barbados, was convicted by a federal jury of two counts of money laundering and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering on Jan. 16, 2020. According to the evidence presented at trial, in 2015 and 2016, Inniss took part in a scheme to launder into the United States approximately $36,000 in bribes that he had received from high-level executives of the Insurance Corporation of Barbados Limited (ICBL). In exchange for the bribes, Inniss leveraged his position as the Minister of Industry to enable ICBL to obtain two insurance contracts from the Barbados government to insure over $100 million worth of government property. To conceal the bribes, Inniss arranged to receive them through a U.S. bank account in the name of his friends dental company, which had an address in Elmont, New York.

Donville Inniss engaged in a bribery and money laundering scheme to line his own pockets at the expense of the people of Barbados, said Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicholas L. McQuaid of the Justice Departments Criminal Division. International corruption undermines trust in governments, threatens our national security, and prevents the free market from functioning fairly for law-abiding people and companies. Todays sentence sends a strong message that the Department is committed to prosecuting corrupt officials like Inniss who seek to use the U.S. financial system to hide their bribe payments.

In accepting bribes and laundering the payments through banks on Long Island, Inniss not only abused the public trust that was placed in him by the people of Barbados, he also stained the U.S. banking system with the proceeds of his corrupt scheme, said Acting U.S. Attorney Mark J. Lesko of the Eastern District of New York. The defendants sentence today reflects the seriousness of his crimes.

In addition to the prison sentence, the court also ordered Inniss to pay $36,536.73 in forfeiture.

The FBI investigated the case.

Assistant Chief Gerald M. Moody Jr. of the Criminal Divisions Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sylvia Shweder and David Gopstein for the Eastern District of New York prosecuted the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Claire Kedeshian is handling the forfeiture aspects of the case.

The Justice Departments Office of International Affairs also provided assistance in this matter. The department appreciates the cooperation provided by its law enforcement colleagues in Barbados during this investigation.
Imperial Valley News Center

Federal Grand Jury Returns a Superseding Indictment Adding New Charges in the Conspiracy to Kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer

Detroit, Michigan - A federal grand jury in Michigan returned a superseding indictment Wednesday that adds new charges of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction against three defendants and adds federal firearms violations against two defendants in the case alleging a conspiracy to kidnap the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer.

According to court documents, Adam Fox, 40, of Wyoming, Michigan; Barry Croft Jr., 45, of Bear, Delaware; and Daniel Joseph Harris, 23, of Lake Orion, Michigan, are charged with knowingly conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction against persons or property in addition to the kidnapping conspiracy charged in October 2020. The superseding indictment further alleges that Fox, Croft and Harris intended to use the devices to destroy a nearby bridge, in effect, harming and hindering the governors security detail and any responding law enforcement officers.

The superseding indictment also alleges that on Sept. 13, 2020 in Lake County, Michigan, Croft and Harris knowingly possessed a destructive device that was not registered to them in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record as required by federal law. Harris is alleged to have possessed, between July 10, 2020 and Sept. 13, 2020, an Anderson Manufacturing, Model AM-15, .223/5.56 mm caliber semiautomatic assault rifle with a barrel of less than 16 inches in length, that was not registered to him.

Defendant Ty Garbin entered a guilty plea in December 2020 to the original indictment charging him with conspiracy to kidnap Governor Whitmer. Garbin faces up to life in prison for his conviction and awaits sentencing.

Defendants Adam Fox, Barry Croft, Kaleb Franks, Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta each face up to life in prison if convicted of the kidnapping conspiracy. Fox, Croft, and Harris each face up to life in prison if convicted of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction. Croft and Harris each face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of possession of an unregistered destructive device. Harris faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of possession of an unregistered short barrel rifle. If convicted, a federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The new charges arise from an ongoing investigation conducted by the FBI, with valuable assistance provided by the National Security Divisions Counterterrorism Section, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, including the Michigan State Police.

An indictment is merely an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Harvey Weinstein is set to be extradited to Los Angeles within 30 days to face further charges of rape and sexual assault.

The disgraced movie mogul, who is currently serving a 23-year sentence in Buffalo, New York, appeared before a judge on Friday morning (30 April) in a virtual hearing. Erie County Judge Kenneth Case indicated Weinstein would be sent to Los Angeles come 30 May.

The only way Weinstein will avoid extradition is if New York Governor Andrew Cuomo intervenes or if Weinsteins attorneys successfully contest the arrest.

We don't need to come back, the judge reportedly said during Friday's hearing. He has 30 days to contest the arrest or have the governor disapprove of the transfer.

Weinstein's attorney Norman Effman told the judge that he would file paperwork within the that time period, a move that would potentially require another court appearance to discuss the extradition.

I can tell you I intend to file and I will do it as quickly as possible, Effman reportedly said.

According to The Los Angeles Times, in Los Angeles Weinstein faces four counts of forcible rape, four counts of forcible oral copulation, two counts of sexual battery and one count of sexual penetration by force connected to the alleged assaults of five women from 2004 to 2013.

Earlier in April, Effman said his client did not want to be extradited yet due to his health issues needing medical attention. He is scheduled for some dental procedures to save his teeth  hes lost, I believe, four at this point, he said.

Weinstein was found guilty in February 2020 of third-degree rape and of a criminal sexual act. He was sentenced the following month to 23 years in prison.

Weinsteins legal team signalled its intention to appeal shortly after the verdict became known in February. Weinsteins attorney Donna Rotunno told the press at the time that his legal team would absolutely be appealing, adding that the fight is not over.

The former film producer has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex.
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan traded accusations over the worst clashes between the two ex-Soviet central Asian neighbours in decades that left at least 20 people dead, about 150 injured and 10,000 displaced over a water dispute.

The clashes started on Wednesday with gunfire between the Kyrgyz-Tajik troops on the border for most of the day.

The dispute occurred around a water supply facility near the village of Kok-Tash, in Batken region of Kyrgyzstan after a CCTV camera was installed on the power line poles by the Tajikistan troops. The Kyrgyz side tried to hack it down, prompting clashes.

The spokesperson of Kyrgyz Ministry of Health said: "As of 7:50 a.m. [01:50 GMT], the total number of those injured as a result of the incident on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border stands at 134, with 13 of them having died.

While the official count of causalities from Tajik side is unclear, Ria- Novosti news agency said three Tajik citizens died and 31 were injured, including the mayor of Isfara city who received a gunshot wound.

The two countries declared a ceasefire late on Thursday and agreed to pull back military units after heavy clashes. But heavy firing broke out in the stand-off zone on Friday afternoon, reported Interfax news agency.

The videos showed automatic guns blazing at the standoff zone and building on fire.

"It is still premature to say that the situation has been completely leveled off. The consequences of the military clash are very difficult. I note that the Tajiks have removed bulldozers from the village of Arka in the Leilek region," an official of the Kyrgyz government said, reported Ria- Novosti.

The shooting occurred between both military units and civilians", a police representative from Batken.

More than 10,000 people were evacuated from several villages, under direct threat from clashes.

Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan share about 980 km long border with a large part of it unmarked, leading to disputes over water, land and pastures. The loose demarcation of the border has led to a number of clashes since the two became independent in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Kyrgyz National Security Committee accused Tajik side of provocation on 29 April by using squad weapons to fire shots on their side of the border. It said that she shelled several areas of the Batken region using Mi-24 helicopter.

However, Tajikistan said the other side opened fire first on the border guards and accused Kyrgyzstan of attempting to take over the Golovnaya water station area, which Tajikistan claims its own territory. It said Kyrgyz fired mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.

An expert at the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of World Economy and International Relation Stas Pritchin told Tass news agency that Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have had a long history of border disputes and both claim portions of each other territory.

The dispute remains unresolved as locals and criminal groups remain at odds even as authorities lead talks to resolve border conflicts.

Neighboring Uzbekistan offered on Thursday to mediate the conflict.

A strategic ally of the two countries, Russia, welcomed the ceasefire and said they are closely monitoring the conflict.
South Asian communities in England experienced greater levels of Covid-19 infection, severe disease and death during the second wave when compared to other minority ethnic groups, according to scientists.

Researchers said that while disparities for hospital admissions and death improved for most minority ethnic groups between the first (February to September 2020) and second (September to December 2020) wave of the pandemic, it widened for those from South Asian backgrounds.

The findings, published in The Lancet journal, are based on 17 million adults in England and is thought to be the largest study to date.

Dr Rohini Mathur, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK, said: "Despite the improvements seen in most minority ethnic groups in the second wave compared to the first, it's concerning to see that the disparity widened among South Asian groups.

"This highlights an urgent need to find effective prevention measures that fit with the needs of the UK's ethnically-diverse population."

The scientists said health factors - such as body weight, blood pressure and underlying health conditions - as well as household size could be some of the key factors for disparity in Covid-19 mortality for South Asian groups.

Based on their findings, the researchers are calling for more intensive strategies tailored to improve outcomes in South Asian communities in addition to reducing structural disadvantage and inequality and improving quality of and access to healthcare across all minority ethnic groups.

Dr Mathur said: "While multigenerational living may increase risk of exposure and transmission (from children or working age adults to older or vulnerable family members), such households and extended communities also offer valuable informal care networks and facilitate engagement with health and community services.

"In light of emerging evidence that minority ethnic groups are less likely to take up the Covid-19 vaccine, co-designing culturally competent and non-stigmatising engagement strategies with these communities is increasingly important."

The Covid-19 pandemic is thought to have had a disproportionate impact on minority ethnic communities in the UK when compared with white groups  with living in deprived areas, working in front-line jobs, and having poorer access to healthcare putting them at higher risk of severe disease and mortality.

For their study, the researchers analysed partially anonymised electronic health data from 17,288,532 adults in the OpenSAFELY database.

Ethnicity was self-reported by participants and grouped into five main categories - white, South Asian, black, other, and mixed.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 5 June 2021 A long exposure photograph captures the rotation of the earth as the stars blur into circles over Knowlton church ruins in Dorset Nick Lucas/SWNS UK news in pictures 4 June 2021 Balloonists take flight during the opening of the Midlands Air Festival in Alcester, Warwickshire PA UK news in pictures 3 June 2021 Members of the Household Cavalry during the Major General's annual inspection of the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment in Hyde Park, London PA UK news in pictures 2 June 2021 Hannah Vitos of the Blenheim Art Foundation, poses for a photograph next to artist Ai Weiwei's Gilded Cage (2017) sculpture in the grounds of Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, Britain Reuters UK news in pictures 1 June 2021 People swim in the Sky Pool, a transparent swimming pool bridge across two exclusive residential blocks standing next to the US Embassy in Nine Elms, in London, Tuesday, June 1, 2021 AP UK news in pictures 31 May 2021 People enjoy the hot weather at Brighton beach Reuters UK news in pictures 30 May 2021 People venture into the sea as they enjoy themselves during a hot day on Brighton Beach AP UK news in pictures 29 May 2021 Swimmers at the Stonehaven Open Air Pool in Aberdeenshire, which reopens after lockdown restrictions were eased PA UK news in pictures 28 May 2021 Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson gestures as he meets Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban at Downing Street in London REUTERS UK news in pictures 27 May 2021 White Pelicans in the sunshine in St James's Park, London PA UK news in pictures 26 May 2021 Boats are seen at Southsea Moorings in Portsmouth Reuters UK news in pictures 25 May 2021 York Glaziers Trust employees Kieran Muir (left) and Emily Price (right) remove a stained glass window panel at the start of a new five year, 5m project to conserve York Minsters South East Transept and its medieval St Cuthbert Window PA UK news in pictures 24 May 2021 Dark rain clouds above an oast house at Bewl Water reservoir near Lamberhurst in Kent during one of the rainiest Mays on record, with the UK seeing 131 per cent of the usual months rainfall already PA UK news in pictures 23 May 2021 The Premier League trophy with the Manchester City club colour ribbons on, at Etihad Stadium, prior to the last Premier League match of the season. City will finally pick up the trophy after they won the league on 11 May Getty UK news in pictures 22 May 2021 Gary Kenny lifts the Buildbase FA Vase Trophy after Warrington Rylands won the FA Vase Final against Binfield at Wembley Stadium Getty UK news in pictures 21 May 2021 A family buffeted by the wind whilst crossing the the Millennium Bridge in London, with wind and rain forecast to ravage the UK on the first Friday that people have been allowed to meet in large groups outside in England PA UK news in pictures 20 May 2021 Devon And Cornwall Police Demonstrate Their Skills For Policing The G7 Summit Getty Images UK news in pictures 18 May 2021 An employee stands before a costume for the Queen of Hearts by Bob Crowley on display at the Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London PA UK news in pictures 17 May 2021 Passengers prepare to board an easyJet flight to Faro, Portugal, at Gatwick Airport after the ban on international leisure travel for people in England was lifted following the further easing of lockdown restrictions in England PA UK news in pictures 16 May 2021 Emergency workers at the scene of a suspected gas explosion, in which a young child was killed and two people were seriously injured, on Mallowdale Ave Heysham which caused 2 houses to collapse and badly damaged another PA UK news in pictures 15 May 2021 Pro-Palestinian activists and supporters let off smoke flares, wave flags and carry placards during a demonstration in support of the Palestinian cause as violence escalates in the ongoing conflict with Israel, in central London AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 14 May 2021 Member of staffs tighten screws and paint a Marlin skeleton, before it goes on display at the Natural History Museum in London, as the museum prepares to reopen to the public on 17 May, following the further easing of lockdown restrictions in England PA UK news in pictures 13 May 2021 A worshipper at the Baitul Futuh Mosque in Mordon, south London, ahead of Eid al-Fitr. 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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. 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Data showed during the first wave, nearly all minority ethnic groups had higher relative risk for testing positive, being admitted to hospital and intensive care units (ICU), and death, compared to white groups.

ICU admissions were more than doubled for all minority ethnic groups compared with white groups, the researchers said, with black people more than three times more likely to be admitted to ICU after accounting for other factors.

The researchers found these risks lessened during the second wave for all minority ethnic communities, with the exception of South Asian groups.

Dr Daniel Morales, of the University of Dundee, and Dr Sarah Ali, of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, said the main challenge now is ensuring Covid-19 vaccination programmes are rolled out effectively amongst all minority ethnic groups.

They wrote in a joint comment: "There are reports of increased (vaccine) hesitancy in minority ethnic groups, including those working in front-line health and social care roles, who knowingly face an increased risk of contracting Covid-19.

"Unless vaccine hesitancy is tackled head on, differential vaccine uptake may further exacerbate health inequalities faced by minority ethnic groups."

Additional reporting by PA
A tribe in Utah says the cancellation of the 2021 Burning Man festival for another year has inspired a sigh of relief.

The chairwoman of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe in Utah, Janet Davis, told NPR she welcomed the cancellation of the event that draws tens of thousands to the Black Rock Desert annually.

"For us it is a sigh of relief," said the chairwoman. We don't know who's vaccinated and who's not. We've been trying to keep our reservation safe and that happening was too soon for us to open."

Burning Man attendees, according to Ms Davis, moseyed on through and moseyed on out of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation en route to the event.

The tribe, NPR reported, is closed to outside visitors in an attempt to reduce the threat of Covid tearing through the reservation.

You're not talking about 65  75,000 people, Ms Davis added, in reference to the increase in traffic through tribal lands to reach the Black Rock Desert.

For organisers of the annual festival of counter-culture, Covid was also a cause for concern, with Burning Man facing a number of uncertainties that could not be resolved in time for the 26 August start.

The CEO of Burning Man, Marian Goodell, said in a blog post on Tuesday that although the rate of vaccination in the US and in Utah was rising, the difficult decision to cancel the event for the second year in a row was based on the best information available to us.

While fans of the festival were left dismayed, Ms Goodell added that building community is what Burners do best. [But] we also recognise the pandemic is not over.

It follows the cancellation of the 2020 event and growing calls for Burning Man to be scaled-back by locals.

Before the announcement, organisers indicated that the 2021 festival would be capped to 69,000 attendees  down from 80,000 before  and that they were considering requiring attendees to prove Covid vaccination.

The first edition of Burning Man took place in 1986, with recent editions attracting a number of billionaires, including Telsa founder Elon Musk and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who were reported at recent festivals.
Two men have been injured after a shooting erupted following a dispute at an iconic steakhouse in New York, police have said.

Officers responded to reports of a shooting at the Peter Luger Steak House in Brooklyn at around 9.45pm on Thursday, the New York Police Department (NYPD) said in a statement.

Investigators discovered that a 24-year-old man and another man who were dining inside the restaurant had become engaged in a verbal dispute.

The 24-year-old male then left the restaurant stood outside on the pavement and began to shoot in the direction of the building, police said,

As the suspect opened fire, two men who were sitting in the outdoor eating area were hit.

A 57-year-old victim suffered a gunshot wound to the stomach, police said, while another 30-year-old man was hit in the shoulder.

Both men were transported to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition and are expected to survive their injuries.

The 24-year-old male fled the location on foot and police canvassing the area following the incident apprehended the suspect, police said.

The New York Post first reported the incident and said that police managed to arrest the suspect with the aid of a family member. A firearm was recovered from the sidewalk, an NYPD spokesperson said.

The NYPD said that an investigation into the incident is ongoing and charges against suspect are pending at this time.

Peter Lugers opened in 1887 and quickly became a neighborhood favorite in predominantly German Williamsburg, according to its website.

The Independent has contacted the restaurant for comment.
 Close White House vows to ignore Trump if Facebook reinstates him

The Facebook Oversight Board has upheld the platforms decision to ban Donald Trump for posts related to the attack on the US Capitol in January by his supporters.

An independent group that reviews the companys most complex issues, the oversight panel also found that the platform was wrong to ban Mr Trump indefinitely, and insists that the company apply and justify a defined penalty  giving it six months to review its initial decision.

Mr Trump has reacted to the news with fury, demanding that these corrupt social media companies must pay a political price.

For its part, the White House says that social media companies have a responsibility to combat the spread of misinformation.

The presidents view is that the major platforms have a responsibility related to the health and safety of all Americans to stop amplifying untrustworthy content, misinformation, disinformation  especially related to Covid-19, vaccines and elections, press secretary Jen Psaki said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Liz Cheneys days in the House GOP leadership look to be numbered, with her immediate senior Steve Scalise officially coming out against her.

Mr Trump released another statement attacking Ms Cheney as throwing his support behind Elise Stefanik as the new party conference chair.
About 100 House members have not taken the Covid vaccine, speaker Nancy Pelosi said in defence of Joe Bidens sparsely populated address to the joint session of Congress.

Ms Pelosi was asked why the president wore a mask, and the Chamber was socially distanced, when public health officials are encouraging vaccinations to ease those pandemic restrictions.

Only 204 people were allowed to witness Mr Bidens speech in person on Wednesday night compared to 1600 that usually attend.

Ms Pelosi said the numbers were at the direction of the US Capitols Office of Attending Physician because "about 75 per cent" of members have received the vaccination.

With 435 House members, that 25 per cent gap represents about 108 who have not received the vaccine, or have not reported it.

The protocols for Mr Bidens speech had been criticized as excessive since most, three quarters, have received the vaccine.

"All of the requirements that we had [on Wednesday] are not about security but in terms of Covid. Covid had us in a room where normally 1600 people would be gathered," Ms Pelosi said.

"The Capitol physician insisted that social distancing, that mask-wearing were necessary."

The 75 per cent ratio of House members unvaccinated has remained unchanged since Axios first reported on 14 March that the Capitol physician couldnt make recommendations on "the modification or relaxation of existing social distancing guidelines" until it is clear on the total numbers.

It has lead to a delay in Congressional voting as members need to enter the Chamber in socially distanced waves to vote on legislation.

Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy sent a letter to Ms Pelosi in March saying its time to end proxy voting and resume full-time, in-person committee hearings.

She said this week that could happen if everyone was vaccinated, "but we cant require vaccinations for the members much less for the American people".

While Ms Pelosi said she cant ask the Capitol physician for the names of who is or isnt vaccinated, she suggested that its Republicans and not her Democrat colleagues.

"Heres the thing, we cannot require someone to be vaccinated. Thats just not what we can do. It is a matter of privacy to know who is or isnt," she said.

"Republicans come up to me and say, lets shorten the time for votes, lets shorten the time for votes, I said well, tell your friends to get vaccinated, that would help."
The U.N. special envoy for Syria said Wednesday that key global players are interested in stepped-up international diplomacy to unlock progress toward ending the countrys 10-year war.

Geir Pederson called for exploratory discussions to help test possibilities and bridge the gaps of mistrust.

Pedersen told the U.N. Security Council he spoke about the need for more constructive and comprehensive diplomacy to make progress toward resolving this highly internationalized conflict with senior officials from a number of countries. They include Russia the United States, Turkey, Iran, the Arab world, Europe and other council members. He said he also spoke to the Syrian government and opposition.

I appreciate that key international interlocutors are expressing interest in this idea, Pedersen said. At the same time, it is clear that mistrust and a desire for others to move first are prominent elements in the minds of many.

Syrians in March marked a decade since peaceful protests against President Bashar Assads government erupted in March 2011, touching off a popular uprising that quickly turned into a full-blown civil war. Despite a decade of fighting and a broken country, Assad remains firmly in power and the country is economically devastated.

Pedersen said a new international format" could bring stakeholders to the table. With a relative, albeit fragile, calm on the ground, and many capitals understanding the need for a way forward, we need to explore what is possible" and we should not lose further time," he said.

Since the war erupted, there have been many high-level gatherings designed to stop the fighting and guide Syria to a political transition. Locations included Istanbul, Paris, Rome, Vienna and Geneva and included assemblies with names such as Friends of Syria and the London 11. In 2016 it was the International Syria Support Group. None has made a lasting impact.

Pedersens contention that international diplomacy is essential for peace in Syria came with a warning to prioritize the proactive search for a settlement of the Syrian conflict. He said that's especially the case in light of the potential for the last year of relative calm to deteriorate.

Pedersen pointed to a significant escalation" in the last rebel-held stronghold in northwest Syria, including airstrikes on a U.N.-supported hospital, the shelling of residential areas in western Aleppo, and strikes on the Syrian-Turkish border among several other trouble spots.

The worsening violence comes ahead of a government-scheduled presidential election May 26, which Pedersen stressed is being held under Syrias current constitution without any U.N. involvement.

The United Nations continues to emphasize the importance of a negotiated political solution to the conflict as called for in a Security Council resolution adopted in December 2015, Pedersen said. It unanimously endorses a road map to peace in Syria approved in Geneva on June 30, 2012 by representatives of the U.N., Arab League, European Union, Turkey and all five permanent Security Council members.

It calls for the drafting of a new constitution and ends with U.N.-supervised elections under that document with all Syrians, including members of the diaspora, eligible to participate.

Pedersen has been trying, so far unsuccessfully, to get the Syrian government and the opposition to start negotiating a new constitution.

He told the council that after the co-chairs from both sides couldnt agree on terms and methodology for a sixth session of the constitutional committee he proposed a compromise on April 15, which the government said it will respond to next week.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council the failure to enact a new constitution is proof positive that the so-called election on May 26 will be a sham. Until U.N.-supervised elections occur under a new constitution, she said, we will not be fooled.

Russias U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia whose country is Syrias closest ally, said Moscow continues efforts to make sure the intra-Syria dialogue is successful and hopes Pedersen can bring the government and opposition together for a new session of the constitutional committee.

As for the upcoming presidential vote, he said: We lament the fact that some countries are up in arms against the very idea of the upcoming elections and have already declared them illegitimate.

On the economic front, U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock warned that Syria's economic crisis is worsening, with more than half the households reporting not having sufficient, or sufficiently nutritious food."
Katie Taylor remains undefeated, she remains the undisputed queen at lightweight, but the Irish icon was pushed to her absolute limit by Natasha Jonas in a gripping 10-round contest.

A razor-tight decision, which saw Taylor triumph (96-94, 96-95, 96-95) on the cards, deserved a raucous crowd in Manchester, as both women displayed immense desire alongside their skills, with each round providing back and forth action.

Taylors 12th consecutive world title fight, with her quartet of belts on the line in a rematch of the 2012 Olympic contest, was one of her most enthralling to date thanks to the Liverpudlian challengers thudding arsenal of shots and strength to last the distance.

The fight caught fire from the opening bell, with an intense opening bringing both women close enough to fit inside a phone booth. But it was Taylors speed and subtle movement that saw her take the initiative.

But the margins for error were evidently slim, as Taylor ducked in with her head in the second round, grazing Jonas forehead to prompt a cry in protest.

Despite Taylors busy approach, Jonas rallied quickly, unloading the heavier shots in the third, with a thudding left put behind her clever southpaw jab.

It prompted encouragement from Jonas trainer, Joe Gallagher, who screamed: Shes all over the place, Tasha.

Boxing is always at its best when the styles fit just right, and this was a prime example where one of Taylors strengths, her eagerness to get off early and take control of the exchanges, played into Jonas hands, handing her opportunities, with the 36-year-old finding her composure to counter beautifully.

Jonas started to sit down on her shots in the seventh, too, slipping to the right and digging to the body, but Taylor incredibly persevered with the output rarely dipping.

Belief was growing in the challengers corner though, with uncertainty growing as to how the judges might be interpreting the contest.

And while Taylors class has been apparent for years, it was her toughness that shone through here. It deserved a roaring crowd in recognition, but the quality exchanges, deep into the fight, prompted louder and louder cries from each corner.

Both womens variety of shots kept each guessing: Jonas turned to the uppercut late on as Taylor found a home for the left hook alongside a textbook straight right.

With the fight up for grabs entering the final two rounds of this contest, Taylor crucially found a second wind, which ultimately proved vital to the outcome of the fight. A flurry of shots closed the ninth round and 10th rounds.

She needed it, too, with Jonas committed to the body and piling on the pressure, only for Taylor to pin her to the ropes, unloading the tank as the final bell sounded.

A rematch surely awaits down the line, with Taylor conceding afterwards that her rival has everything that it takes to win a world tile. The legendary career of Taylor marches on though, this time her grit and determination enabling her to overcome one of her toughest challenges yet.
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Imagine it is 6 am in the morning. You have just arrived in the hospital. You are donning yourself in the PPE suit and enter the super-restricted, COVID ICU- somewhere where no one would dare go. A lot of things used to revolve in my mind at that time the most important being the realisation that I am seeing a phenomenon that is not even described in our textbooks. I was wearing a suit which was in a shortage at that point and entering into a field where all you could see is only suffering breathlessness, despair, isolation and death. When you have faced such a scenario, you tend to freeze at that moment and I did too.

PTI

'Difficult year'

Needless to say, it has been a difficult year. I started working in COVID wards and ICU last year around May-June. Every day I used to walk into the ICU hoping that the 8-bedded ICU would show some inactivity as my suit was really hurting the cartilage of my nose or that my latex allergy was acting upon my hands. But not a single day or duty went by when I was not edging on something or the other. The toughest part was the morning rounds and informing the attendants on the phone about their relatives condition. As a doctor, counselling is a skill were not taught in medical school. It is learnt a hard way. Maybe this is why most Indian doctors, who are at the zenith of their medical excellence, are low in human ethics. But I have perhaps started to learn this unattainable skill somehow, maybe because of my upbringing or my surroundings. But damn, learning it was tough.

BCCL

One such day, our nodal officer told me weve received a distress call from a prominent politician in the government and that his known patient needs to be admitted ASAP. I was asked to block any beds coming from the emergency. This patient arrived soon after- a gentleman in his 30s, on an oxygen mask but breathing heavily. On initial assessment, it felt that his oxygen requirements would increase in the night. But he would probably survive. An hour later, the patient waiting in the emergency would come up to the bed next to this patient. She was an older lady, gasping and taking long breaths. It felt as if she was drowning in her own fluids. An hour later she stabilised and my duty was now coming to an end. By the time my duty ended, the CO2 retention would start acting up on me. I used to feel dizzy and sleepy. But I knew if I kept sitting, I would probably faint. So in the last hour of my duty, I would go to each patient, for a final round and I would talk to each patient about how he/she/they were feeling. This kept me active before my reliever came. Meanwhile, I came the next day and saw the older, more serious lady had survived. The gentleman next to her had died in the night.

BCCL

'People in India dont want to donate blood'

This sort of situation is not new in the Indian healthcare system because a lot of what goes on in a typical government hospital in India goes unnoticed. I would give an example of a personal incident. People in India dont want to donate blood. During my internship, a pregnant woman needed 2 units of blood. She had lots of attendants waiting outside the labour room-anticipating the birth of their heir. But she gave birth to a girl. I went to meet the attendants of this lady, told them about the loss of blood and that she needed it for survival. They asked me if its a boy or a girl. I told them it was a girl. An hour later, none of her attendants stayed. Her mother, a lady in her 50s, was the only one left outside. She kept asking me about the status of her daughter. It was heartbreaking. Fortunately, she survived. But were not all lucky. It is useless to expect people to truly leave their nature or leave our social evils, even during a testing time. This pandemic is not unique in that regard.

I have seen people retracing their steps back when they used to see me coming back to my apartment. Some of them run away as if I am a harbinger of disease and dread. So much for being a doctor in our nation!

BCCL

This year, COVID has hit us all, yet again, in a predictable but ruthless way. Pandemics are not tricky. They come back with waves again and again, and its easy to predict their behaviour if youre prepared. I think this says a lot about why we are suffering so much.

'I have seen more than twenty people losing their lives to this disease'

At this point in time, in the last two weeks, I have seen more than twenty people losing their lives to this disease, including children.

If you have never gone to a governmental hospital in India, then you truly are one of the luckiest people in this country. This was a truth I came across during my MBBS days. These hospitals are old, shackled buildings, with cockroaches and rats in Operation theatres and ICUs, and poor, debilitated, archaic equipment in the wards. I cannot only blame the current government in the management of this pandemic but all governments of this country, so far, that they have overlooked the visible, yet ignored, the plight of the poor and their healthcare system. Lack of ventilator beds, doctors, nurses is nothing new in the Indian scenario. A few years back Delhi faced a widespread Dengue epidemic in 2015-17. Even then, we had no beds, no ventilators and I was caught in the midst of such ineptness, like so many other healthcare professionals. I have seen family members and attendants take their helplessness and anguish on me and my colleagues because we were the ones who used to explain to them that there are truly no beds available in the hospital. It is indeed a bureaucratic gun, which is shot keeping on the doctors shoulders, and nobody talks about this.

Representational Image/AFP

COVID-19 has exposed this gaping and infected wound in our healthcare system to the world, and now all that we have is to run and hide like rats or silence those who speak.

A few years back when I first started my career, I saw how bad our healthcare is and how unprepared it is for any epidemic {let alone a pandemic}. I thought of a bleak future if this system was to be tested. I thought of the day when this dilapidated system would crunch from its bureaucratic pillar. I thought of the day when the entire onus of healthcare would come on doctors and healthcare workers and they would be exposed to the ramifications, which we see daily in the form of casual violence. I thought of the day when the truly poor and helpless would have to succumb to this unpreparedness.

Today you see such a day had finally arrived.

Disclaimer: The author is a Delhi-based doctor and he has requested anonymity for this article.


The Supreme Court on Saturday refused to stay the counting of votes for panchayat polls in Uttar Pradesh.

The apex court also said no victory rallies shall be permitted during the counting, beginning on Sunday, or after the process is over.

The State Election Commission, it said will fasten responsibility on gazetted officers for the observance of COVID-19 protocols at counting centres.

AP

What SC said

It also directed the state SEC to preserve CCTV footage of the counting centres in states till the Allahabad High Court concludes hearing the pleas before it.

Earlier the SC had in a snark remark asked that "Despite the situation, you need to go ahead? Can you have it after two weeks so that the medical facilities can be improved?" the court said.

"You want to proceed despite all odds? Heavens will not fall if counting is deferred by three weeks," the SC asked.

BCCL

"Teachers' association has filed a petition, and they are unwilling to work. How do you handle the situation?" the court further asked, referring to the plea which mentioned 700 teaches died during the polling process.

The UP Election Commission had assured the SC that it will adhere to Covid protocol for the counting process.

The panchayat elections in UP along with the assembly polls in various states amid the second wave of COVID-19 had resulted in much criticism.

AP

Madras HC pulled up EC

Earlier this week, the Madras High Court had pulled up the Election Commission for allowing political rallies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Your institution is singularly responsible for the second wave of COVID-19. Your officers should be booked on murder charges probably" Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee had said.

On Friday the HC refused to entertain a petition by the ECI seeking to restrain media from publishing the courts oral observations blaming the poll body for the rise in Covid-19 cases.

BCCL

The ECI said these oral observations had caused it grave prejudice and that police complaints were being filed against it seeking action for criminal offence. Rejecting requests by senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, representing ECI, to direct media houses to confine their reports to written orders and to refrain from reporting oral observations of judges during the court proceedings, the court said the Commission can anyway approach the courts if any frivolous complaints are made.
Americas top pandemic expert and the White House chief medical adviser, Dr Anthony Fauci, prescribed a number of measures that India should immediately take to take on the second wave of Covid-19 in a war footing. The three primary recommendations laid down by Fauci are an immediate imposition of lockdown for a couple of weeks, setting up of emergency units as hospitals like China and having a central organisation.

AP

Fauci, in an interview to The Indian Express, said another most important thing in the immediate is to get supplies of oxygen, medication, PPEs. He also said looking at the magnitude of the crisis, India should look at putting together a crisis group that would meet and start getting things organised. After looking at the visuals of the grave Covid crisis in India on CNN, the expert said that the country is in a difficult and desperate situation".

PTI

On lockdown

One of the things you really need to do that to the extent that you can  is shut down temporarily the country, I think is important. If we want to time out and go back to what I said. There is the immediate, the intermediate, and the long range. I think the most important thing in the immediate is to get oxygen, get supplies, get medication, get PPE, those kinds of things but also, one of the immediate things to do is to essentially call a shutdown of the country," he said.



BCCL

We know that when China had this big explosion a year ago, they completely shut down. And if you shut down, you dont have to shut down for six months. You can shut down temporarily to put an end to the cycle of transmission. So one of the things to be considered is to temporarily shut down. Literally, lock down so that you wind up having less spread," he said.

On emergency units

Secondly, India should follow what the Chinese did when they had a crisis, he said. You might recall, literally, within a few days to weeks they built these emergency units that served as hospitals to take care of people. It was an accomplishment that everybody marvelled at. It just seems to me, what I was viewing on television, what people were looking for a desperate need for hospital and care. Thats the first thing."

Representational Image/AP

Get hospitals built quickly. I mean really quickly, within a matter of  you know, they put up these field hospitals that they built during war. You should think of this, in some respects, like a war. The enemy is the virus. So you know where the enemy is, so I would make it almost like wartime because its an emergency. And, finally, in the longer range, in a matter of a couple weeks, I would do whatever you can do to get vaccinated. To have a country like India, where two per cent of people are vaccinated, is a very serious situation. You absolutely have to get more people vaccinated.

On central organisation

Then, the Centre can mobilise different groups of government, he said. For example, what is the role of the military? Can the military come in and help? I mean, you can immediately get military help the way we, in the United States, have used our National Guard to help us distribute the vaccinations."


International Labour Day or International Workers Day is celebrated on May 1 in many nations of the world. Over 80 countries officially celebrate the day by giving employees or labourers a holiday. But from last year, labour day warrants introspection, as the lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic have thrown new harsh challenges at migrant workers in India, clouding their future with uncertainty. From May 1, 2020, to May 1, 2021 nothing had changed for these workers, These pictures throw light on the reality of the migrant workers during the pandemic in India.
In a tragic incident, a 33-year-old woman lost her battle with life after failing to get admitted to a hospital on time.

The woman, identified as Jagriti Gupta, was originally from Madhya Pradesh and was working as an engineer in a company in Greater Noida.

She was living alone in Noida while her family, including her husband and children, were in Madhya Pradesh.

Reuters

According to reports, Gupta had tested positive for COVID-19 and was isolating at home.

On Thursday Gupta's condition worsened and a friend who lives in the same accommodation and her landlord tried to get her admitted to a hospital.

Turned away by three hospitals

First, they took her to Kailash Hospital where they were told there are no vacant beds. At SRS Multispeciality Hospital in Delta 1 and Sharda Hospital, they had similar experiences.

Finally, they took Gupta to the Government Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS) and they were once again told that there were no beds available.

Her friend and landlord kept running from pillar to post trying to get her admitted, but to no avail.

Twitter

By 2 pm Gupta's condition worsened and she died inside the car, in GIMS campus.

GIMS director Dr RK Gupta said they had 287 patients against 215 (150 with oxygen) beds on Thursday. We have many extra beds. The woman who died was not taken inside, he said.

Government in denial

The tragic death comes even as the Uttar Pradesh government continues to say that there is no shortage of hospital beds or medical oxygen in the state.

The Yogi Adityanath-led government even went on to say that those trying to create panic on social media by saying that there is a shortage of beds and oxygen in Uttar Pradesh will have their assets confiscated.

BCCL

Uttar Pradesh projected to become the worst hit

Uttar Pradesh is currently the fourth-worst hit state in India and has reported over 12.5 lakh cases so far.

Last week, a presentation by Niti Aayog member (health) VK Paul had said that UP will report 119,000 Covid-19 cases daily by April 30.

Reuters

It said that Uttar Pradesh would report the highest daily cases number in India by April 30 at 119,604, followed by Maharashtra at 99,665, Delhi 67,134 and Chhattisgarh at 61,474.
The international community is rushing medical assistance to India as the country fights a massive virus surge that is crippling the countrys healthcare system.



In a gesture of solidarity, the United States, European Union, Russia, France, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Bahrain and the UAE among others have dispatched medical equipment, oxygen tanks and cylinders. Take a look at the pictures:
Researchers at the Indian Institue of Science Education and Research (IISER) in Bhopal have created an affordable oxygen concentrator called Oxycon that could help deal with the shortage of oxygen in this COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report by PTI.

IISER Bhopal

Also Read: Oxygen To Food: Facebook, WhatsApp Groups Offering Help For Covid-19 Care

Siva Umapathy, Director, IISER Bhopal who has instrumental in the development of Oxycon explains that the concentrator has been made with the help of open-source technology and material. The concentrator is portable, easily customisable and deployable.



According to the researchers, Oxycon is capable of providing 93 to 95 percent pure oxygen with a flow rate of 3 litres per minute, according to the researchers. The device essentially absorbs the air from the surrounding and concentrates the oxygen to offer it to the patient in need.

Umpathy explains the tech behind Oxycon, "It has a compressor that takes ambient air and passes it through columns having material named zeolite under an optimized pressure. Two such columns are used in alternate cycles and electronically controlled valves are used for this purpose to make it automatic and provide a continuous oxygen supply.

Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at IISER Bhopal, Mitradip Bhattacharjee who was also a part of the development of Oxycon further explained that the material zeolite actually absorbs nitrogen from the air and releases it back into the atmosphere while making the oxygen more concentrated. For the valve controls, theyre making use of a programmed microcontroller based circuit.

Left: Siva Umapathy, Right: Mitradip Bhattacharjee/ IITSER Bhopal

While competing systems cost around Rs 60,000 to 70,000, Oxycon has been priced at just Rs 20,000 per unit.

Bhattacharjee further added, "This system prototype has already been developed and compared with the commercial systems currently available at the market and we have received positive outcomes. We are actively looking for industrial collaborations to further improve and manufacture the system at a larger scale and to deploy it after necessary testing and approvals."
Glacial melting due to global warming has probably been altering Earth's poles since at least the 1990s, a new research said.



The axis Earth spins around is always moving and the way water is distributed on Earths surface is one factor that drives the drift. Melting glaciers redistributed enough water to cause the direction of polar wander to turn and accelerate eastward during the mid-1990s, according to a new study published in Geophysical Research Letters.

NASA/ JPL-Caltech

ALSO READ: Agriculture Output Dropped 21% In Past 60 Years Due To Climate Change

The melting of the worlds glaciers has nearly doubled in speed over the past 20 years, according to a comprehensive new study published in Nature.

Between 2000 and 2019, glaciers lost 267 gigatonnes (Gt) of ice per year, which now account for about a fifth of global sea-level rise. The authors estimated that the mass loss was equivalent to submerging the surface of England under 2 metres of water every year.

AFP

Notably, half the worlds glacial loss is coming from the United States and Canada, the study found.

ALSO READ: 25% Marine Mammals On Brink Of Extinction From Climate Change And Pollution

The Earths spin around the invisible axis--running through the center of Earth's mass--is dependent, in part, on the distribution of weight around the globe and it shifts just like a spinning top, which starts to lean and wobble as its rotational axis changes.

Earth's polarity is not a constant, NASA said in an explainer on polar shifts. Earth has settled in the last 20 million years into a pattern of a pole reversal about every 200,000 to 300,000 years, although it has been more than twice that long since the last reversal.

Peter Reid, The University of Edinburgh

The magnetic north pole has been creeping northward by more than 600 miles since the early 19th century--which is when explorers first pinpointed its location--it is moving faster now migrating northward about 40 miles per year, as opposed to about 10 miles per year in the early 20th century, the space agency said.

ALSO READ: New Zealand Brings World's 1st Climate Change Law For Banks, Investment Firms

During the mid-1990s, melting glaciers redistributed so much water that it changed the direction of the routine polar wander to not only turn eastward but also accelerate, the researchers said in a statement.

The study noted that the average drift speed between 1995 and 2020 increased about 17 times from the average speed between 1981 and 1995.

Reuters

The researchers found that the contributions of water loss from the polar regions is the main driver of polar drift, with contributions from water loss in nonpolar regions, which explains the eastward change in polar drift.

Vincent Humphrey, a climate scientist at the University of Zurich, said this evidence reveals how much direct human activity can have an impact on changes to the mass of water on land.

The analysis revealed large changes in water mass in areas like California, northern Texas, the region around Beijing and northern India, areas that have been pumping large amounts of groundwater for agricultural use.

The recent change to the Earths axis isnt large enough to affect daily life. Humphrey said It could alter the length of day, but only by milliseconds.


Worlds largest pharmaceutical company Pfizer is testing a potential treatment for Covid-19 and according to its CEO Albert Bourla, the experimental oral drug could be available by the end of the year.



Bourla told CNBC that clinical trials are underway for the pill that can be ingested orally at home to combat Covid-19 when illness is first detected. If that goes well and the Food and Drug Administration approves it, the drug could be distributed across the US by the end of the year, the report added.

Reuters

ALSO READ: People Will Need Third Covid-19 Vaccine Dose In 12 Months, Says Pfizer CEO

This comes after a Daily Telegraph report, which said that up to 60 volunteers, all clean-living adults aged between 18 and 60, are being given the antiviral drug at two Pfizer locations, one in the US and the other in Belgium.

Late last month, the company kicked off an early stage clinical trial of a new antiviral therapy for the disease. The antiviral drug, codenamed PF 07321332, is part of a class of medicines called protease inhibitors that bind to a viral enzyme and prevent the SARS-Cov-2 virus from replicating in the cell.

Reuters

The same protease inhibitors helped turn the tide on the spread of other viral pathogens such as HIV and hepatitis C virus.

Tackling the Covid-19 pandemic requires both prevention via vaccine and targeted treatment for those who contract the virus, said Mikael Dolsten, Pfizer's chief scientific officer, in a statement.

Given the way that SARS-CoV-2 is mutating and the continued global impact of Covid-19, it appears likely that it will be critical to have access to therapeutic options both now and beyond the pandemic.

Getty Images

Pfizer is testing two antivirals, one that is injected intravenously and another that is administered orally, but is currently focusing on the latter since it avoids taking a trip to the hospital.

Together, the two (oral and injected antivirals) have the potential to create an end to end treatment paradigm that complements vaccination in cases where disease still occurs, Dolsten added.

Meanwhile, Bourla also asserted that impoverished countries get greater access to vaccines. In India, its a horrible situation and also in other parts of the world where the penetration and availability of the vaccines is lower, Bourla told CNBC in an interview.

AFP

So, setting aside the moral issues, if we will not be able to provide solutions for countries dealing with deadly outbreaks, such as India and Africa, those nations will become the pool where the virus will replicate and generate variants.

The Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine has proved to be over 95 percent effective, but Israel is also examining dozens of cases where people experienced heart inflammation after taking a shot.


While many states across the country struggle with shortage of COVID-19 vaccines, a truck carrying 2.40 lakh doses of Covaxin was left abandoned under mysterious circumstances in Madhya Pradesh's Narsinghpur district.

A PTI report, citing police, said the truck carrying vaccines worth Rs 8 crore was left parked for nearly 12 hours after its driver and conductor went missing.

India Today

The Tamil Nadu-registered vehicle was transporting the vaccine from Hyderabad to Karnal in Haryana, Narsinghpur superintendent of police Vipul Shrivastava said.



The matter came to light on Friday afternoon when the police were informed that a truck, with a mention of vaccine- manufacturer Bharat Biotech on it, was parked near Kareli bus stand, around 16 km from the district headquarters, the official said.

"We contacted the transport company TCI of Gurgaon and informed them about the driverless truck. The company also got worried when they couldn't contact the driver after finding out the GPS system that the vehicle remained stationary at Kareli," Shrivastava said.

Also read: Telangana Govt Gets Permit For Testing Drone Delivery Of COVID-19 Vaccine

Representational Image/PTI

It was reported that the company then arranged for another driver and the truck set off for Karnal at 8 pm. It said that the driver Vikas Mishra is still missing.

"We tracked down his phone at a place 16 km from the spot. As the engine of the vehicle was on, its refrigerator with vaccine doses was functioning. So, I feel that vaccines were safe," he added.

Also read: Facebooks New Vaccine Finder Tool For India Will Show Nearby Inoculation Centres

Representational Image/Bloomberg

When asked if incidents of truck loots had been reported on the route in the past, Shrivastava said road robberies are almost naught in the region.



"Circumstantial evidence suggests that the driver was not robbed. Efforts are on to trace the driver, who is in his early to mid-20s and hails from Amethi, Uttar Pradesh," the official added.



Also read: If All Indians Are Not Vaccinated Soon There Could Be A Third Wave Of COVID-19 Later This Year
People theorized that large-bodied and long-lived mammals like elephants and whales are more prone to cancer due to its weight and size. In the contrary, these large creatures are actually less susceptible to cancer than most animals.

Cancer has already been prevalent to animals since the dinosaur era. It is caused by cell division and mutation in DNA which leads to unregulated growth cells that forms cancerous tumors. Experts said that body weight increases risks to cancer.

While it is not yet fully understood, it is said that the more a person weighs, the more cells are there to mutate. However, this correlation does not necessarily affect the animal kingdom, specifically for cetaceans.

Researchers have been studying on how these cetaceans, such as whales have lower rates of cancer and how the results could impact human understanding about the disease.

What makes Whales less susceptible to Cancer

Researchers from Arizona State University conducted a study breaking down DNA components of large mammals and the potential cancer suppression mechanisms in cetaceans such as whales. They pulled up genomes of humpback whale, as well as the genomes of nine other cetaceans which belongs to mammalian group such as dolphins and porpoises, for them to know how these animals have less cancer tendencies than others.

Their findings explained that some regions in whale genome evolves faster than most mammals and contains genes that are essential for normal cell function, such as control of cell cycle, cell proliferation and DNA repair. The evolving cells are said to have mutated into tumor suppressor genes. Since whales are gigantic in nature, they need this 'housekeeping genes' to maintain their fitness. These same genes suppress tumors which causes cancer.

Furthermore, the Molecular Biology and Evolution reported that whales have slower mutation rates, although they have more cells in the body than most mammals. The slow rate limits whales' exposure to cancer-causing mutations.

Also read: Whales Came From Land-Dwelling Tiny Deers That Lived 50 Million Years Ago

Natural Selection and its impact on Human Perspective

Carlo Maley, an evolutionary biologist and a senior co-author of the Molecular Biology and Evolution study explained how natural selection became a variable to the whales' cancer-suppressing genes and its attributes. The main concern now is how to adapt these natural changes to preventing cancer in humans.

Maley expanded that the goal is to determine how the evolution of whales in beating cancer can provide brighter and wider perspective for human that this is possibly in our nature as well. The study paves way for better understanding of cancer suppression phenotype through experiments with whale cell and might be the first step in generating whale-derived human cancer drugs.

Researchers are hoping to develop more preventive strategies and therapies for human cancer through these results. The study implies that through mapping out development of different animal species and how they fight off cancer will make us learn more that this disease is prevalent and has been present all along, and a solution is not impossible.

Just what another researcher noted, if whales and elephants evolved to beat cancer, human just also might.

Also read: Cetacean Strandings: Whales Are Beaching Themselves, Who Do We Blame?
People wait to receive a dose of the Covishield, AstraZeneca-Oxford's Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine, at Max hospital in New Delhi on May 1, 2021 during the first day of India's vaccination drive to all adults. (Tauseef Mustafa/AFP via Getty Images)
Indian American U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks about travel restrictions for India prior to boarding Air Force Two before departing from Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in Hebron, Kentucky, April 30, 2021, as she travels to Cincinnati, Ohio, to speak about the Administration's economic policies. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
A lawsuit has been filed against Samsung that claims the company used faulty glass coverings for the rear camera setup on its flagship Galaxy S20 series smartphones.



According to the law firm Hagens Berman, Samsung has ignored a widespread defect prevalent on the Galaxy S20 series of smartphones where the protective glass on top of the camera module shatters unexpectedly during normal use, reports XDA Developers.



Samsung is being accused of fraud, breach of warranty, and violations of several consumer-protection laws, the report said.



"Samsung sold its Galaxy S20 as a high-end option for consumers, with a 'professional' grade camera, charging upwards of $1,600 per device, only to have them suddenly lose a major aspect of their functionality," said Steve Berman, managing partner of the law firm.



The law firm said that Samsung sold its smartphone range with a defect affecting the rear camera module's glass that shatters spontaneously, with no external force applied, even when the phone is inside a protective case.



The defect is said to be affecting the entire Galaxy S20 series including the Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20+, Galaxy S20 Ultra, Galaxy S20 FE and all the 5G variants of these phones as well.



Notably, this issue has been around ever since the phone series first launched as a certain owner of the Galaxy S20 reported about the issue on Samsung's community website just four days after it went on sale.



However, according to the customers, the company refused to cover the issue under warranty, the report said.

*Edited from an IANS report


SCORES of mourners yesterday thronged Glen Forest Memorial Park cemetery in Harare to pay their last respects to Flight Lieutenant Anita Mapiye who died in last weeks helicopter crash in Arcturus.

The horror crash claimed the lives of two pilots, Flight Lieutenant Mapiye, Wing Commander Thomas Tinashe Manyowa as well as aircraft technician Flight Sergeant Tinodiwanashe Chikamhi.

All three were buried yesterday, with Flight Lieutenant Mapiyes burial at Glen Forest, while Wing Commander Manyowa and Flight Sergeant Chikamhi were buried in Chinhoyi and Masvingo respectively.

In a message read on his behalf by Air Force of Zimbabwe Commander Air Marshall Elson Moyo, Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander, General Philip Valerio Sibanda, expressed his deepest condolences to the Mapiye family.

The Commander Defence Forces General Philip Valerio Sibanda, Service Chiefs, General and Air Officers, senior officers, officers, men and women of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces and their families wish to convey their heartfelt condolences to the Mapiye family on the untimely passing on of Flight Lieutenant Anita Mapiye as a result of the fatal Air Force of Zimbabwe aircraft crash, he said.

Gen Sibanda said Flight Lieutenant Mapiye had a bright future ahead of her after making a name for herself in a male-dominated field.

She was the first female helicopter pilot in the Air Force of Zimbabwe. Anita was keen on breaking new ground and had a promising career in the Defence Forces as she was now part of the VIP transport aircrew.

May the family draw comfort from the knowledge that the entire Zimbabwe Defence Force commiserates with you as you go through this difficult period. May the almighty God give you strength to deal with the sad loss and may Anita fly high in the blue skies, he said.

Flight Lieutenant Mapiyes father, Mr Elias Mapiye, was at a loss for words as he said he had lost his jewel. The pilot is survived by her eight-month-old baby Munana.

In his own eulogy, Air Marshall Moyo said: Anita was decorated with the Zimbabwe Independence medal. Ladies and gentlemen, as we gather here and pay our last respects to Flight Lieutenant Anita Mapiye who served the Air Force of Zimbabwe for nine years, we shall always remember her for her constructive, resourceful and outstanding personality.

On behalf of the Commander Air Force of Zimbabwe, officers and members of the Air Force of Zimbabwe, I would like to express my deepest condolences on the sad loss of Flight Lieutenant Anita Mapiye to the bereaved family, friends, relatives and Air Force of Zimbabwe at large.

To Anita we say thank you for your loyal service to the Air Force of Zimbabwe and the nation at large, may your soul rest in eternal peace.

Government has since has set up a board of inquiry to investigate the cause of the helicopter crash, which also claimed the life of 18-month-old Jade Pfenyere, who was on the ground. Flight Lieutenant Mapiye was born on April 3, 1991 in Harare and was attested into the AFZ on September 27, 2012.

She earned her flying wings on July 1, 2017 after graduating at Number 6 Squadron, Josiah Tungamirai Air Force Base. Wing Commander Manyowa was a highly proficient helicopter pilot with more than 20 years flying experience. Sunday Mail
A firefighter was injured on April 29 during a large fire at a chemical plant in eastern Missouri that forced evacuations in nearby neighborhoods.

Fire personnel responded to the scene at the Manor Chemical Plant in Affton, where the fire was reported about 2:45 p.m., authorities said. Witnesses in the area reported hearing several explosions during the fire.

Employees of the plant were evacuated safely and the fire was extinguished by about 5 p.m., said Lt. Matt Coppin of the Metro West Fire Protection District.

The firefighter was taken to a hospital but Coppin said he didnt know the extent of the injuries or how the firefighter was injured.

The south St. Louis County business is a wholesale chemical distributor but also makes custom blends of chemicals for cars, paint, printing, dry cleaning and industrial manufacturing, according to its website. Some of the products Manor Chemicals sells include acetone, rubbing alcohol and other flammable chemicals.

Up to 10 chemicals may have been involved in the fire, Coppin said. Thirteen fire agencies and 62 fire trucks responded to the blaze.

St. Louis County police helped evacuate people within a half-mile of the plant. St. Louis County police said most residents and businesses were allowed to return about 6 p.m.

Students in Affton schools were held past dismissal until about 4:45 p.m., when school officials were allowed to release them.

Affton is about 11 miles (17.70 kilometers) southwest of St. Louis.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Missouri Chemicals
Burma Almost Half of Myanmars Population Face Poverty Next Year:  UN Report  

Anti-regime protesters in Yangon in February. / The Irrawaddy

The impacts of military rule and the COVID-19 pandemic could force nearly half of Myanmars population into poverty by 2022, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has reported.

The UNDP said a year into the coronavirus crisis, the Feb. 1 coup compounded its socioeconomic effects. If the situation on the ground persists, the poverty rate could double by the beginning of 2022, it warned in the report published on Friday.

Myanmar has 54.5 million people, according to the World Bank. The country has been under the military rule for three months on Saturday.

In the worst-case scenario, 48.2 percent of Myanmars population will live in poverty, the report said. It said the twin crises were causing significant losses of wages and income, particularly for small businesses, and restricted access to food, basic services and social protection for the wider population.

Achim Steiner, the UNDPs administrator, said: From 2005 to 2017, Myanmar managed to nearly halve the number of people living in poverty. However, the challenges of the past 12 months have put all of these hard-won development gains at risk.

Without functioning democratic institutions, Myanmar faces a tragic and avoidable backslide towards levels of poverty not seen in a generation, Steiner said.

Myanmar, a least developed country, has made significant achievements in poverty reduction over the last decade. In 2017, Myanmar had a poverty rate of 24.8 percent, down from 48.2 percent in 2005.

By the end of 2020, 83 percent of Myanmars households reported that their incomes had been, on average, almost halved due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the number of people living below the poverty line was estimated to have increased by 11 percentage points, according to the UNDP.

The situation worsened further with the February coup, with projections indicating a further 12 percentage point increase in poverty, the UNDP reported.

It warned that all economic reports since the coup indicated that country is approaching economic collapse.

Last year, Myanmars GDP growth has fallen to 1.8 percent due to the effects of COVID-19, however, the World Bank and Asian Development Bank were forecasting a bounce back to 6 percent growth this year.

The World Bank has since projected that Myanmars economic growth is set to shrink by 10 percent this financial year as military rule hammers what was one of the regions fastest-growing economies.

It said protests, strikes, military action, reductions in mobility and disruption to public services, like banking, logistics and internet access, would crush economic activity.

Following the coup, foreign direct investment dried up, including in existing projects, as western countries imposed sanctions on the military regime. Nearly 200,000 garment workers and around 300,000 to 400,000 construction workers lost their jobs following the coup, according to trade unions.

The UNDP said women and children are expected to be hit heaviest by COVID-19 and military rule, especially in urban areas, where most low-income families live. Myanmars cities have also been at the center of the coronavirus outbreaks and military crackdowns.

Child poverty is expected to remain high, with more than half of children living in poverty in the pessimistic scenario. This will further exacerbate the intergenerational transmission of poverty, which, coupled with potential school closures, may have a devastating impact on the human capital of the next generation, UNDP said.

Without rapid corrective action on economic, social, political and human rights policies, these scenarios will derail Myanmars efforts to achieve its Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, the agency reported.

International support will play an important role in safeguarding the well-being of Myanmars population, it added.

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Burma Myanmar Coup Highlights in 90 Days

Anti-regime protesters in Yangon in February. / The Irrawaddy

Myanmar has now been under military rule for three months. Here is a timeline of the major events since Feb 1.

Feb 1: Myanmars military seizes power in a coup claiming the 2020 November general election that brought a landslide victory to the National League for Democracy (NLD) was marred by fraud. It arrests the leaders of the democratically elected government, including President U Win Myint, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and region and state ministers.

The military announces a yearlong state of emergency and says a new election will be held and power transferred to the winner.

Feb 2: Myanmars people bang pots and pans to protest against the coup. This form of protest has been taking place at 8 pm daily across the country ever since.

Myanmars military forms the State Administrative Council (SAC) with military officers and selected civilians replacing NLD ministers.

Feb 3: Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is charged under the Export and Import Law and Natural Disaster Management Law and remanded in custody.

Additional charges are later filed against her under the Telecommunications Law, sedition law and Natural Disaster Management Law in Naypyitaw. She also faces a charge under the Official Secrets Act in Yangon Eastern District. She faces a total of six charges and has not been allowed to meet her lawyers in person.

The military blocks access to Facebook, the primary means of access to the internet for the overwhelming majority in Myanmar. It is later followed by overnight internet shutdowns, which have since been lifted.

Feb 4: Led by 32-year-old Dr. Tayzar San, around 20 people took to the streets against the military regime in Mandalay. The street protests from Mandalay then spread across the country.

Feb 5: The Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), a body representing the elected NLD lawmakers from the 2020 November election, is formed.

Feb 6: Anti-regime protests begin in Yangon and other cities, followed by a total internet blackout which is lifted the following day.

Feb 8: Many civil servants come out on strike and join the civil disobedience movement (CDM). Mass protests with hundreds of thousands of protesters take place in Yangon, Mandalay, Naypyitaw and other cities. Some private banks have to close as their employees join the CDM. Myanmars military imposes a ban on gatherings of more than five people in Yangon and other areas.

Feb 9: Ma Mya Thwe Thwe Khine, 19, is shot in the head as police open fire on anti-regime protesters in Naypyitaw. She later dies of brain injuries.

Feb 11: People, including celebrities, stage a protest outside the Chinese Embassy in Yangon in response to alleged Chinese support for Myanmars military. Protests continue daily outside the embassy until Feb 20.

Feb 13: People protest outside the offices of United Nations agencies and the US Embassy in Yangon, calling on the international community to take action against the SAC.

Feb 15: In an interview with Myanmars media, Chinese ambassador Chen Hai says the political situation in Myanmar is absolutely not what China wants to see and dismisses social media rumors of Chinese involvement in the Feb. 1 coup as complete nonsense.

Feb 19: Ma Mya Thwe Thwe Khine, who was shot in the head in the first shooting of junta forces, dies at a 1,000-bed public hospital in Naypyitaw, becoming the first victim to be shot dead since the coup. The SAC says she was shot by fellow protesters.

Feb 22: In what the biggest day so far of defiance since the coup, large crowds of protesters joined a general strike against the junta, closing businesses and flooding on to streets across the country. The protests are referred to as the five twos revolution, a reference to the date 22.2.2021.

Feb 24: Facebook and Instagram ban Myanmars military and military-controlled state media, citing exceptionally severe human rights abuses and the clear risk of future military-initiated violence in Myanmar.

Feb 26: The military-appointed Union Election Commission (UEC) meets political parties in Naypyitaw during which UCE chairman U Thein Soe says the results of the 2020 general election are invalid.

Leaders of some political parties that did not win a single seat in the November poll ask the UEC to abolish the NLD.

Myanmars ambassador to the United Nations, U Kyaw Moe Tun, in his speech to the General Assemblys informal meeting on Myanmar, called on the international community to use any means necessary to reverse the coup and protect the countrys people. He flashes a three-finger salute, a sign of protest, while addressing the meeting.

Feb 27: The junta announces the dismissal of U Kyaw Moe Tun, saying the envoy betrayed the country and had spoken for an unofficial organization which doesnt represent the country and had abused the power and responsibilities of an ambassador. U Kyaw Moe Tun later sends a letter to the president of the UN General Assembly to say that he still holds the post.

March 3: More than 30 are killed in at least four cities in one of the bloodiest days since the coup as soldiers and police fire live rounds into crowds of protesters.

March 6: Junta forces detain ward-level NLD chairman U Khin Maung Latt in Yangons Pabedan Township. His dead body is returned the following day. Dozens of similar cases follow as activists and protest leaders die overnight in military custody.

March 8: The SAC revoked the licenses of five media outlets, Mizzima, DVB, 7 Days, Myanmar Now and Khit Thit Media.

Junta forces abduct U Zaw Myat Lin, manager of a vocational institute run by the NLD in Yangons Shwepyithar Township. His dead body is returned the following day.

March 11: Myanmars military regime sues The Irrawaddy for its Feb. 20 video showing the police asking for 13 million kyats (US$9,200) from relatives to release striking doctors detained at an anti-regime protest.

March 14: In another of the deadliest days since the coup, more than 50 people die in Yangons Hlaingtharyar Township as the security forces carry out a murderous crackdown on anti-regime protesters. Some Chinese-owned factories were set on fire in Hlaing Tharyar and Shwepyithar.

The Chinese Embassy urges Myanmars authorities to take measures to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens, projects and businesses.

The military council declares martial law in Hlaing Tharyar and Shwepyithar.

March 15: Martial law is declared in North Dagon, South Dagon, Dagon Seikkan and North Okkalapa townships in Yangon and five townships in Mandalay.

The junta blocks mobile internet access, the primary source of internet for the majority in Myanmar. Mobile internet access remains unavailable until May 1.

March 21: The Home Affairs Ministry declares the CRPH and its related organizations to be unlawful associations.

March 27: The military regime holds Armed Forces Day in Naypyitaw.

More than 100 protesters are killed across the country on the bloodiest day of the protests to date as people fill the streets, defying a military warning that they could be shot in the head and back.

The UN human rights high commissioners office said it had received reports of scores killed, adding that this violence is compounding the illegitimacy of the coup and the culpability of its leaders.

March 31: The CRPH says it will abolish the military-drafted 2008 Constitution.

April 1: A striking policeman leads civilians to attack a police outpost in Tamu, Sagaing Region. The policeman dies in the attack that sees the four junta police officers killed.

The military regime blocks wireless internet access, making fiber internet the only means to get online in the country.

April 4: The European Union announces the suspension of all the development projects in Myanmar.

Apr 8: Eleven people die and dozens are injured as junta forces impose a violent crackdown in Taze, Sagaing Region, where anti-regime protests are gaining momentum.

April 9: At least 82 people are killed as junta security forces raid a protest camp in Bago where anti-regime protesters have rallied each day against the coup for 68 consecutive days. Many people are detained during the raid that forces more than 1,000 people from their homes.

April 10: At least eight police officers are killed as the tripartite Brotherhood Alliance of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, Taang National Liberation Army and Arakan Army attacks a police outpost in Lashio, northern Shan State.

April 15: Prominent protest leader Ko Wai Moe Naing in Monywa is detained after his motorbike is rammed by junta forces in a private car. The 26-year-old activist faces 10 charges, including high treason.

April 16: The CRPH forms the National Unity Government (NUG), with President U Win Myint and State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi taking their original positions, and ethnic leaders and activists appointed as ministers.

The Home Affairs Ministry later declares the NUG to be an unlawful association. The junta also says it will blacklist striking doctors which it has sued for incitement.

April 24: In his first foreign trip since the coup, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing attends the ASEAN summit on Myanmar in Jakarta. A five-point consensus is reached on ending violence, facilitating a constructive dialogue between all parties, a special ASEAN envoy to facilitate the dialogue, acceptance of aid and a visit by an envoy to Myanmar.

Myanmars people express their disappointment as the leaders fail to mention the release of political prisoners. 

April 26: Coup leader Min Aung Hlaing says he will carefully consider ASEAN leaders recommended steps for solving the crisis after the situation stabilizes.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman says: China will maintain close communication with ASEAN and support its mediation efforts while reaching out to all parties in Myanmar in its own way, so as to secure an early soft landing for the situation in Myanmar.

April 29: Airbases in Magwe and Meiktila are attacked with rockets.

April 30: The Assistance Association of Political Prisoners said 759 people have been killed, 3,485 are in detention out of 4,537 detained while 1,316 warrants have been issued by the regime since the February coup.

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Ahead of the special Asean Summit in Jakarta last Saturday, a woman prepares a placard out of crossed-out portraits of Myanmar's junta chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing during a protest against the military coup. (Photo: Reuters)

At its recent special summit in Jakarta on Myanmars crisis, Asean reached its diplomatic maximum by coming up with a five-point consensus that will likely prove too little and too slow. Constrained by consensus and its non-interference principle where any of its 10 members has a virtual veto, Aseans overdue response to Myanmars fast-escalating violence on the ground is likely to prove ineffective. As Aseans diplomacy faces limitations, more of Myanmars outcomes are likely to be decided by the use of force in an intensifying civil war.

The preparations in the lead-up to the summit were telling. Confronting what is an existential crisis, three of the groupings leaders managed to skip the summit, namely those from Laos, the Philippines and Thailand. Chaired by Brunei, which is under absolute rule, the leaders meeting took almost three months to organise, possibly longer had Indonesia not manoeuvred diplomatically to make it happen. The wide range of Aseans governing regimes matters when having to deal with a rogue members autocracy.

When it finally took place, Aseans five-point consensus understandably calls for the cessation of violence, dialogue and humanitarian assistance. The two additional inputs, which the organisation considers a breakthrough, were the setup of an Asean envoy to facilitate mediation and a delegation to visit Myanmar and meet all concerned parties. These latter two moves starkly contrasted with two earlier calls by Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore for the release of political prisoners and the restoration of democratic rule based on election results from last November, that awarded a resounding mandate to the civilian-led National League for Democracy under Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under detention since the day of the coup.

Even with a diluted agreement, it became clear just hours after the summit that Senior General Min Aung Hlaings attendance was a one-way deal. He gained acceptance among Asean leaders while agreeing to a document that has no timetable and no enforcement. The ball should be in the juntas court but it is still with Asean, which has to come up with an envoy and organise a delegation to visit Myanmar. For the junta, the self-styled State Administration Council (SAC), time and circumstances are on its side.

Snr Gen Min Aung Hlaings inclusion among Asean leaders was duplicitously spun for domestic audiences through state-run media. Official media suggested that it was the military strongman who had the upper hand vis-a-vis Asean, that the coup was well explained and understood among Myanmars neighbours. The accompanying junta press release merely noted that it will give careful consideration to constructive suggestions by Asean Leaders but only when the situation returns to stability in the country because immediate priorities were to maintain law and order. In other words, Myanmars military will comply with Aseans five points on its own terms at a time of its choosing.

As Asean-led diplomacy makes headway only on paper but not on the ground, the focus inside Myanmar will likely shift to an intensified showdown between the Tatmadaw and the SAC on one hand and the National Unity Government (NUG), comprising the elected parliamentarians under the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, the Civil Disobedience Movement, and the Ethnic Armed Organisations (EAOs), among other anti-coup columns.

Unlike past popular uprisings, the anti-military civilian opposition in the past has not been able to organise under a working structure that constitutes a shadow, competing government. The NUG followers so far have been effective in denying the Tatmadaws ability to administer the country and operate basic infrastructure and services. State functions have ground to a halt at the expense of the Myanmar people who are willing to pay the price to demonstrate that the ruling generals can take and keep power but they cannot run the country.

This confrontation has become more physical, characterised by clashes between security forces and an inchoate peoples army using guerrilla tactics and homemade weapons. In the ethnic areas, armed clashes have increased in frequency and intensity, whereby the Karen and Kachin armies overran several Tatmadaw outposts in recent weeks. In return, the Tatmadaw deployed more airstrikes at will and is capitalising on its aerial superiority. Displaced persons and refugee flows, particularly to Thailand, can be expected.

As military confrontation between the Tatmadaw and the EAOs expands with dim prospects for a diplomatic solution and Asean mediation, there have been calls for outside intervention. One proposal is an imposition of a no-fly zone to pin down Myanmars air force, which is equipped with Russian-made advanced helicopter gunships and fighter jets. More outlandish is the suggestion for offshore missile strikes by the United States to bring the Tatmadaw to its knees. These proposed external interventions are dangerous and ill-considered.

If a superpower such as the US or China intervenes directly through military operations, it will mean ownership of the conflict. For the US, it would involve resources and aims in yet another country many Americans can barely locate on a map. For China, a direct intervention, as opposed to influence through proxy and client forces in northern Myanmar, would threaten Beijings economic and strategic interests in the country. Moreover, once one major power intervenes, the risk is that others may follow suit in a free-for-all.

What the anti-Tatmadaw forces need strategically is the neutralisation of Myanmars air force. In tactical terms, this means the acquisition of anti-aircraft capabilities. If air power can be denied, ground forces will have a better chance to achieve at least a stalemate. A striking example was when Afghan insurgents fought a Soviet invasion and occupation army in the 1980s and turned the tide towards stalemate after receiving US-made Stinger anti-aircraft missiles. On the contrary, if Myanmars air force enjoys complete air superiority, anti-coup opposition forces are more likely to lose on the ground.

No one with any conscience should want to see civil war in Myanmar but it is happening. It is a result of Snr Gen Min Aung Hlaings naked power grab and theft of a democratic mandate overwhelming rendered by the Myanmar people last November. If there has to be a fight, let it be fair in adherence to the will of Myanmars vast majority.

Thitinan Pongsudhirak is a professor and director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn Universitys Faculty of Political Science in Bangkok. He earned a PhD from the London School of Economics with a top dissertation prize in 2002. Recognized for excellence in opinion writing from the Society of Publishers in Asia, his views and articles have been published widely by local and international media.

This article first appeared in The Bangkok Post.

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Soldiers are deployed in Yangon to crack down anti-regime protesters on March 3. / The Irrawaddy

The coup is destined to fail. It will fail because the senior leadership has not understood how much less in control of the country the Tatmadaw (the military) actually is today. The coup is a total overreach by the Commander in Chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. Not only did the coup completely upend the (albeit uneven) progress towards democracy and the (fragile) peace process that were underway, but it threatens the very interests of many from within the former regime of Senior General Than Shwe as well as powerful regional players with major geopolitical stakes in the country. The Commander in Chief has unleashed such a level of brutal violence against the very widespread civilian protests that many inside the Tatmadaw should be worried. The Tatmadaw, who have always seen themselves as the protectors of the integrity of the nation, risk becoming the architects of Myanmars implosion.

The Commander in Chief probably believed that the Tatmadaw could follow the old playbook of oppression and military occupation that had worked in the late 1980s, the early 1990s and even in 2007 following the Saffron Revolution. But he hadnt counted on the fact that Myanmar today is a fundamentally different country. The people of Myanmar, and especially the young, have tasted the relative freedoms that came with the opening up of the country in 2011, and they are not prepared to surrender these freedoms.

The Commander in Chiefs idea of staging a coup to deal with an undesired political outcome might have worked had it not been for an earlier military Seven Step Road Map. The Road Map was the last juntas (State Peace and Development Council) plan to civilianize the government. Its final step was put in place following the 2010 election. Despite many problems with the 2008 constitution, from 2011 Myanmar started down the route of separating the military from the governance of the country. Until then the military were directly involved in all aspects of economic and social life. The civil administrators were for the most part retired or demobilized military officers. The economy was either directly in the hands of the senior leadership of the SPDC or was run indirectly for the benefit of shadowy military and other crony elites. Even the thousand or so militia and criminal economic actors in control of resource-rich areas had to acknowledge, for their survival, the authority of the Regional Commanders, who were themselves part of the SPDC leadership structure.

But starting in 2011, all of this changed. Following the lead of President U Thein Sein, much of the former leadership either retired or took off their uniforms to manage the political and economic opening of the country. And the transformation was truly radical. Regional assemblies and Chief Minsters (albeit appointed by Naypyitaw) replaced the Regional Commanders. Political space opened up and unheard-of levels of freedom of expression slowly emerged. Extremely hopeful ceasefire negotiations started with ethnic resistance groups that had, until then, refused any such overtures. Key among these was the Karen National Union (KNU), historically among the most important ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) in the country. Even if as of 2016 many of the processes stalled under the post-2015 elected National League for Democracy-led government, the transformation of the governance architecture of the country had irreversibly changed  or so it seemed.

But there was one group who seemed to have missed these changes, and that was the current Tatmadaw leadership. During the years of transformation, the Commander in Chief was actively engaged in fighting insurgents (and terrorizing ethnic nationality civilian communities) in remote areas of Kachin, northern Shan and subsequently Rakhine states. As a result, the period of transformation passed him by, and he staged a coup on Feb. 1. But rather than taking control of the country, he has opened up a Pandoras box. The young and civil society have mobilized against the military in a manner unseen before; administrative officials, public civil servants, transport workers and many other workers have gone on strike; in addition, some significant EAOs have recruited, rearmed and taken up a very public posture in opposition to the coup, even in some cases actively appearing on the streets of provincial towns to defend the right of the people to protest.

Making the future stability of the country even more complicated, new ethnic armed and other resistance groups are being formed in a number of areas, particularly western Myanmar, which before the coup had been relatively calm. Meanwhile, the banking system and the broader economy are on the verge of collapsing, and health and public medical services are no longer able to function, with the very real prospects of a multi-faceted country-wide health emergency on the near horizon.

Three months after the coup, the country is sliding quickly into becoming a failed state. The urban centers of Myanmar risk being caught up in guerrilla warfare. Previously contested but broadly peaceful ethnic ceasefire areas are being plunged back into active armed conflict. There is a real prospect that vast areas of Myanmar may find themselves under the control of no one individual group or authority and/or having to deal with predatory criminal networks under the control of warlords (individuals with the command of a militia), criminal economic actors (the same without armed men), or criminal networks. This is in stark contrast to the conditions existing in parts of the country, where longer established EAOs have articulated political agendas and are providing governance and services to vulnerable populations in their areas of control or influence.

Situations of state failure are not easy to recover from. The emergence from a failed state configuration is not a simple question of filling a void, it demands the destruction of an existing criminal equilibrium as a pre-condition to even starting to establish forms of accountable governance. A failed state is defined by an environment of widespread corruption, criminality, involuntary movement of populations, sharp economic decline, and violence. To paraphrase the seventeenth century philosopher Thomas Hobbes, life for the individual in a failed state is one of continual fear and the danger of violent death; it is basically solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. And that is the prospect facing the people of Myanmar today.

As Myanmar rapidly hurtles into the abys, the most frightening consideration is that the Commander in Chief is probably oblivious to the extent and consequences of this initial miscalculation. The not-too-distant past teaches us that one should not underestimate the inability of the Tatmadaw to understand how desperate and volatile the socio-economic conditions that they have created are actually becoming. Under the SPDC, the military leadership lived with the fiction of double-digit growth rates. During the period 2002-2007 the official GDP growth rates ranged from 12.2% to 13.6%, which would have put Myanmar on a par with Singapore, which it clearly has never been. Literacy rates of more than 96% were also officially reported during the same period, figures that were never reflected in the realities encountered on the ground. It was this inability to understand the socio-economic realities of the population which triggered the Saffron Revolution following the dramatic price increases of fuel and compressed natural gas in August 2007. The Tatmadaw leadership today is no different. It is an institution completely unable to comprehend the structural destruction of the state that it is causing.

The coup has failed, and the Tatmadaw will ultimately lose the war.

Whilethrough the utilization of overwhelming force, increasing firepower, and unrestrained brutalitythe Commander in Chief can try to defeat the peaceful protesters and bring down the civil disobedience movement through their annihilation, it will be at the cost of the destruction of the country. And in so doing, the Tatmadaw will have confirmed a well-deserved place in the Hall of Infamy. Is this how those who believed they had a historic destiny to preserve the nation want to be remembered by history?

Charles Petrie is former UN Assistant Secretary General, UN Resident & Humanitarian Coordinator Myanmar (2003-2007). In November 2007, he was declared persona-non-grata by the then regime for having exposed publicly the underlying socio-economic causes of the Saffron Revolution . His views are his own.



You may also like these stories:

Commentary: Militarys Latest Coup Pushes Myanmar Into Revolt

Ethnic Armed Groups Unite With Anti-Coup Protesters Against Myanmar Junta

Two Mandalay Journalists Seized by Myanmar Junta Forces




A married woman has died in a Catholic priests house in Lusaka, Zambia after she had lied to her husband she was going for a funeral.

The woman is a member of the Catholic Womens league from St Maurice Catholic Church in Lusaka. The Church has suspended Father Abel Mwelwa and also forced him to pay for the funeral expenses following the incident.

Father Abel Mwelwa invited the married woman to the parish house on the night of Holy Thursday. Archbishop Alick Banda eventually suspended the clergyman as the judicial vicar of the Archdiocese of Lusaka moments after the occurrence became public.

I hereby wish to inform you that I have with immediate effect suspended the Rev. Ringford Abel Mwelwa from the priesthood indefinitely. With this suspension, he ceases to be Parish Priest for Kaunda Square Parish. Secondly, the priest also ceases to be the Judicial Vicar of the Archbishop of Lusaka, reads a note from the church.

Reports say the woman died after the priest injected some substance into the deceased. This was in an attempt to abort her pregnancy. The womans family is demanding a proper police investigation into the cause of death.
With tax season coming in, Americans have three recurring problems in mind: unemployment, taxes, and stimulus checks. The Biden Administration promises financial support alongside the IRS, which oversees the delivery of these stimulus payments. However, to ensure that eligible individuals can receive their monetary benefits, a tax exemption has been implemented.

The Biden Administration's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package program continues, and there are rumors of a fourth wave of stimulus checks coming in. However, before that happens, Americans need to complete their transactions from the first, second, and third waves.

It could get confusing with the new policies, eligibilities, phase-out, and payment credit that comes out during each wave. Try reading through these articles to get your payments sorted out

$10,200 Tax Exemption Status

With the pandemic ongoing, people can be subjected to unfortunate circumstances such as debts and unemployment. Fortunately, IRS reported that The American Rescue Plan enacted on March 11 will exclude $10,200 as unemployment compensation paid in 2020.

This benefit is open to individuals who have a modified adjusted gross income (AGI) less than $150,000. For married couples, each spouse will be receiving the unemployment compensation of $10200 per individual. However, if the AGI is exactly $150000 or more, they are exempted from receiving the Tax Exemption.

The Tax Exemption works by ensuring the $10,200 unemployment insurance will not be taxable. For example, you are entitled to receive $20,000 worth of benefits. Assuming you have exactly $20,000 tax payment dues, only $9800 will be taxed. A total of $10200 in its entirety must be delivered to your account, as the financial support provided by the government.

Unfortunately, not all states will be implementing this tax exemption. Cnet reported 13 States who do not provide the tax break:

Colorado

Georgia

Hawaii

Idaho

Kentucky

Massachusetts

Minnesota

Mississippi

New York

North Carolina

Rhode Island

South Carolina

West Virginia

Read Also: How to Check Unclaimed Property and Money from Your State: Online Tools to Use

How to File for Unemployment Compensation

If you are eligible for the benefit, you should immediately apply for the benefit! IRS has some instructions available online through their website.

You would need to file Form 1040, 1040-SR, 1040-NR. The website has these forms available and ready for download. It is recommended you should print and complete them before visiting the IRS office to save yourself time. After completing them, you might have to submit these forms yourself through the IRS counter.

The $10,200 Tax Exemption should be a big help to the eligible families who desperately need financial aid in these difficult times. For people who have already filed their taxes before this announcement, IRS would determine if the taxpayer is owed a refund. You might still be required to fill the forms provided above. Refunds will start rolling out sometime this May.



Related Article: Fourth Stimulus Check Tracker: Updates on New Payment, Tools, Calculators for Proposed $2000 Relief
Ithaca, NY (14850)

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Chance of a shower or two during the morning, followed by partly cloudy skies in the afternoon. High around 85F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

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MiMi-Sandra of Fort Worth, born 7 September 1945 in Jacksonville to Joe Selman Gore and Jeffie Gwendolyn (Lazenby) Gore. Preceded by her parents and five siblings. Survived by her husband, daughters, four siblings, nieces and nephews.




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Dec. 1, 1935 - June 4, 2021 After a brief illness, Nate Huff entered the presence of Jesus on Friday, June 4, 2021 at St. John Medical Center, Tulsa, OK. His daughters were by his side. Nate was born in Iron River, Michigan, to Odes Huff and Ruth (Johnstone) Huff. As a young man, he moved to
Patty Meritt, UAF Early Childhood Education Program adviser, and Col. Christopher Ruga are seen at a ceremony Friday celebrating a partnership between UAF and the US Army Garrison Alaska.
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Sydney, AU, Australia, 05/01/2021 / Hearsay The Legal Podcast /

Hearsay The Legal Podcast is pleased to present a practical way to enable lawyers to obtain their CPD points in the most convenient and flexible way. The process involves combining the interview-format podcast interviews with e-learning multimedia content which are always available for further reference. The episodes on Hearsay are based on an interview format wherein the guests will be asked about their experiences, stories from their career that are worth sharing on this platform, and other details which are very important for aspiring or budding lawyers. The first season of Hearsay Podcasts was an instant hit and had garnered impressive reviews by the experts and those concerned. Guests such as current and former judges, barristers, specialist attorneys, economists, academics, and consultants were a part of the thought-provoking interviews.

Obtaining adequate CPD points are very important in the career of a lawyer. Hearsay The Legal Podcast makes it an easy journey by bringing the content forward in the most unique and engaging manner. These episodes are not just interviews but detailed notes of summary papers, infographics, cases, reports, articles, and a lot more. And it doesnt stop there. At the end of every podcast, there is an e-learning quiz that tests the knowledge of the listeners. The Hearsay platform also tracks the episodes that were reviewed by the listeners and the quizzes completed.

Hearsay The Legal Podcast

This tracking information will help lawyers check their progress each CPD year and produce a report in case of an audit. Acquiring the mandatory CPD points each year could be quite a task but not if they are engaging, fun, and informative. The podcasts have witnessed a rise in the number of listeners ever since the first episode. It has also gained momentum amongst the lawyer community because these educational podcasts are fascinating and backed by a multimedia platform that allows these lawyers to become CPD compliant in the most effective manner. Australian lawyers can totally rely on Hearsay, the Legal Podcast to satisfy the requirements that come with Continuing Professional Development or CPD.

Lawyers can now claim up to five CPD points per year from Hearsays audio-only material. To claim more points, lawyers should also interact with other summary materials, references, e-learning modules, notes, etc. Every episode that is featured on Hearsay consists of one different topic. So, lawyers can pick and choose the one that interests them the most and collects points during the process. The e-learning modules consist of 10 questions per episode which are very easy to answer with attentive listening. The best thing about signing up with Hearsay is that members would get to complete the CPD requirements at their own convenience. More than anything, this CPD scheme is totally based on self-assessment and lawyers can improve their knowledge and skills in areas that are relevant to their practice. Hearsay is totally FREE for students.

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A Kansas City mother is recovering after investigators say a woman intentionally drove an SUV to hit her and her baby as they walked in their neighborhood.
In his first major policy speech, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin laid out a vision of warfare starkly different from how "the last of the old wars" of the past two decades were fought, urging the military to move toward a faster, more innovative approach capable of acting at the "speed of war." Austin listens to a reporter's question while addressing the media following talks at the German Defense Ministry on April 13, 2021, in Berlin.
Authorities in suburban Kansas City say a sheriff's deputy has fatally shot a woman after being called to a home to check on the welfare of a resident there. The Cass County Sheriff's Office says in a news release that the shooting happened after deputies were called to a Garden City home ar
Park Hye Soo returns to the big screen after receiving a wave of backlash due to the bullying issue.

In a recent report cited by Osen, the "Age of Youth" star's agency Studio Santa Claus confirmed that the 26-year old actress has begun filming the movie "You and I."

The low-budget movie was helmed by actor and film director Jo Hyun Chul, who is famous for his role in the smash hit K-drama "Hotel Del Luna" and 2019 SBS drama "The Lies Within."

Park Hye Soo and the "Memories of the Alhambra" star first worked together in their 2020 comedy-drama "Samjin Company English Class," where the actress plays the lead character Shim Bo Ram, and Jo Hyun Chul portrays Choe Dong Soo.

Netizens Blasted Park Hye Soo's Comeback amid Bullying Issue

Following the confirmation regarding her comeback, Netizens aired their dismay over social media and slammed the 26-year old actress.

Twitter users called Park Hye Soo "shameless" and have "no conscience" for choosing to appear in a movie despite her ongoing controversy.

park hye soo moving on from all the mess and chaos she created. its like her scandal didnt cause the staff not be paid after working their ass off during winter, as if she didnt ruin the debut of actors in dear m. no sense of shame or conscience at all. fck her. pic.twitter.com/4IwxJ65KN0   (@9597jaeyong) April 30, 2021

the shamelessness and audacity of park hye soo amaze me. its on a whole another level.  im just speechless. pic.twitter.com/n4mjZ350sb   (@9597jaeyong) April 30, 2021

Park Hye Soo is filming another drama now...while her bullying scandal isnt over. shes making other actors WAIT ON HER to finish filming Dear M, while she films another drama....wtf  makaroni  (@yutamag0tchi) April 30, 2021

On the other hand, an individual referred to the actress' upcoming drama and said that the show should refilm "Dear.M" instead of Park Hye Soo starring as a lead character.

im gonna be honest, i dont want dear m to air and see park hye soo in it. better refilm that or file a case to compensate the people who worked hard on this drama.   (@9597jaeyong) April 30, 2021

What Started Park Hye Soo's Controversy

Amid the news and update regarding the upcoming drama "Dear.M," lead actress Park Hye Soo faced accusations regarding school bullying.

It came after an online user exposed the "Introverted Boss" star and claimed that the user, referred to as "C," was a victim of harassment by a "popular actress who has a pure image."

A few days later, the online user named the actress and said that it was Park Hye Soo.

Her agency immediately addressed the allegations and denied that their talent was not involved in school violence.

In addition, the agency shared that they have conducted a thorough investigation regarding the "authenticity of the content of the alleged victim's post."

"As a result, we have confirmed that the posts are false information aimed to malicious slander Park Hye Soo by exploiting the social atmosphere of school violence," Studio Santa Claus statement reads.

Park Hye Soo Bullying Scandal Leads to Delay of Korean Drama "Dear. M"

ALSO READ: 5 Korean Actors and Actresses Who Were Involved in Bullying Scandals

Despite her agency's statement, KBS 2TV released a statement saying that the forthcoming drama had been delayed following the controversy "surrounding one of the "Dear.M" cast members."

Moreover, the broadcasting network added that this move is to "ensure a high-quality release.

"Dear.M" was initially scheduled for February 26 with 12 episodes but was postponed due to Park Hye Soo's bullying scandal.

Park Hye Soo Spoke About the Bullying Issue

With the effect of the controversy, the "Age of Youth" star addressed the issue and said that she's the one who experienced bullying.

In a lengthy note posted on Park Hye Soo's Instagram, she began by denying the claims and recalled that she was victimized by "malicious and false rumors."

At the time, she was rumored to went to the United States not to study but to have an abortion. This would cause her to "wake up to texts with severe curse words and sexual harassment."

In the end, the actress apologized to KBS and the cast and staff of "Dear.M" for causing trouble.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 'Dear.M' to Possibly Re-Shoot Following Park Hye Soo's Scandal

KDramastars owns this article.

Written by Geca Wills
Multifaceted actor Kwak Dong Yeon took a break from acting to dominate the pages of The Star magazine.

Kwak Dong Yeon Steals the Spotlight with His Newest Magazine Pictorial

In a recent pictorial with one of the popular fashion magazines in South Korea, The Star, Kwak Dong Yeon exudes overflowing charisma under the theme of "One Fine Day."

Looking fresh and charming, there is no doubt that the "My ID is Gangnam Beauty" star can be versatile anytime and anywhere, may it be acting onscreen or merely projecting for a photoshoot.

The 24-year-old actor looked at the camera with his gentle smile, showing a comfortable aura that makes the atmosphere friendlier and brighter.

Meeting Geumga Plaza Residents is One of Kwak Dong Yeon's Memorable Experiences

Kwak Dong Yeon was asked about his experience while doing the drama "Vincenzo," and according to him, meeting the Geumga Plaza residents is one of the happiest moments he had while doing the project.

He shared, "One of my memorable experiences was during the first day I met the actors in Geumga Plaza. I just see them during the script reading and since then I haven't seen them after several months because I always worked with the Babel Group actors."

Kwak Dong Yeon continued, "When we finally met again (Geumga Plaza residents), we talked about being a fan of each other, saying that we are watching the drama well. We were both curious about each other and even for a short period of time, I had a great time knowing them while filming."

As he plays the role of Jang Han Seo, the actor also shared the most important point when portraying the role. He said that his character may be a villain, but it is not that easy to portray, because Jang Han Seo is a person that is impossible to hate.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: 'Vincenzo' Star Kwak Dong Yeon is Your New K-Drama Hero

The "Love in the Moonlight" star also said, "I wanted to elicit a response from the viewers who still cheered for my role being beaten by his brother Jang Joon Woo (Ok Taecyeon) and as a person being ambitious to own the Babel company."

The interviewer asked the actor's personality behind the camera, and the "Vincenzo" star expressed, "I am a person who has a pleasant personality. Even when I am not working, I want to spend my everyday life happily and content."

What can you say about Kwak Dong Yeon's newest magazine pictorial? Will he have a happy ending in "Vincenzo"? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!

For more K-Drama, K-Movie, and celebrity news and updates, keep your tabs open here at Kdramastars.

Kdramastars owns this article.

Written by Shai Collins




Three Colorado officers who laughed at body camera footage of the violent arrest of a 73-year-old woman with dementia are "no longer employed" by the department, Loveland Police Chief Robert Ticer said Friday.

Karen Garner was arrested in June for walking out of a Walmart with $13.88 worth of items, according to a federal lawsuit filed earlier this month. She was arrested and left with multiple injuries, including a broken humerus, a dislocated shoulder and a sprained wrist, according to the lawsuit.

The arresting officer, Austin Hopp, had been placed on administrative leave. Another officer involved in the arrest, Daria Jalali, had also been placed on administrative leave -- as were community service officer Tyler Blackett and Philip Metzler, who supervised Hopp and Jalali at the time of the arrest.

The lawsuit includes video showing Hopp, Jalali and Blackett laughing as they watched the body camera footage of Garner's arrest.

Ticer said Friday that Hopp, Jalali and Blackett are "no longer employed" by the police department. Though the chief would not say whether the officers had stepped down, police spokesman Tom Hacker told CNN the three officers resigned.

"I share the community's concerns on this," Ticer said when asked for his reaction to the bodycam footage. "It hurt to see that. I've been in law enforcement 32 years and what I saw in there hurt me personally."

CNN has reached out to the Fraternal Order of Police and the Loveland Police Officers Association for comment. Justine Bruno, assistant to the Loveland City Manager, said this week that some of the officers named in the lawsuit had retained legal counsel through the police union. Attempts to reach the officers have been unsuccessful.

Hopp had been on the job for one year and Jalali had been with the department for three years, Ticer said.

Garner's family says she is now 'fearful, distrusting, reclusive'

Garner initially filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on April 14 against the city of Loveland and three police officers, including Hopp and Jalali, for alleged excessive use of force. An amended lawsuit filed Sunday added Blackett and another officer to the complaint.

Loveland is about 50 miles north of Denver.

CNN obtained body camera footage of the arrest from the office of Garner's attorney, Sarah Schielke.

The amended lawsuit included a video showing Hopp, Jalali and Blackett laughing as they watched footage of the June 2020 arrest, according to Schielke.

"We are physically sickened," Garner's family said in a statement this week. "We are angry. Our hearts could not possibly ache any more. Once fiercely independent, happy, carefree and a great lover of the outdoors, she is now fearful, distrusting, reclusive."

The 8th Judicial District Attorney's Office of Colorado has requested an investigation of the incident by Fort Collins Police Services. The US Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado and the FBI are assisting.

"The statements on the videos are very concerning," District Attorney Gordon McLaughlin said.

Ticer said an internal affairs investigation by the city's human resources director and a third party will follow the district attorney's probe.

"Our goal at the Loveland Police Department has always been to make our community proud. We failed and we are very sorry for that," he said Friday.

Bodycam footage 'is like live TV,' officers say

Part of the video included in the lawsuit was shot in the Loveland Police Department's booking area shortly after Garner's arrest.

In the video, Hopp gave Jalali a fist bump when asked how the arrest went.

"Well, I thought it went great," Hopp said, adding, "I think we crushed it."

Later in the video, as officers began watching, Jalali, who assisted in the arrest, said body camera footage was "like live TV."

Blackett responded, "the bodycam show," as someone giggled.

"Bodycams are my favorite thing to watch. I could watch livestream bodycams all day," Jalali said.

As the three continued watching, it appeared Jalali became uncomfortable with the video.

"Can you stop it now?" she asked.

"What?" Hopp responded.

According to a YouTube transcription of the video, Hopp then asked, "Are you ready for the pop?" as Jalali covered her ears.

"Hear the pop?" Hopp asked.

The pop referred to something in the video but it's unclear what.

"I hate this," Jalali said.

"This is great," Hopp responded.

"I hate it," Jalali said.

"I love it," Hopp said.

Viewing of the video and the conversations about took place as Garner was 10 feet away in a cell, according to Schielke. She remained in cell for two and a half hours, the lawsuit said, until she was taken to a hospital.
New Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. High 92F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies during the evening will give way to cloudy skies overnight. Low 76F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph.
People react on the dance floor as Nightclub Circus hosts the first dance event, which will welcome 6,000 clubbers to the city's Bramley-Moore Dock warehouse on April 30, 2021 in Liverpool, England. The event is part of the national Events Research Programme which will provide data on how events could be permitted to safely reopen. (Anthony Devlin/Getty Images)
The Transportation Security Administration is extending the Biden-era transportation mask mandate.

The rule requiring masks on all travelers in airports, airplanes, terminals, trains, buses and boats was set to expire May 11, and comes as some governors have rescinded orders or allowed mask requirements in their states to expire. The mandate now lasts until September 13.

Earlier this month, federal officials consulted with health experts in considering whether to renew the requirement, an official familiar with the discussions told CNN at the time.

The TSA says it has received reports of 2,000 people who violated the rule, which took effect February 2. The agency also recently began sending citations to alleged violators, an official told CNN earlier this month. The official could not say how many have been issued. There are multiple investigatory and review steps before a citation is ultimately issued.

In January, Biden signed an executive order mandating interstate travelers wear a mask, and on his first day in office, he challenged Americans to wear masks for 100 days to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.

At the time, mask requirements stemmed from local government orders governing terminals and airports, plus rules from individual companies and operators outlining passenger conduct. The Trump administration resisted calls from the industry and workers to develop a mask requirement, and then Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao said that she believed the issue could be better handled by companies and their employee unions.

Voices within the aviation industry that had pushed both the Biden and Trump administrations for such an order have called for it to be renewed. They said the Biden administration's order in February added teeth and consistency to a patchwork of local orders that applied to buildings like airports, and company policies requiring masks on airplanes and other vehicles.

Flight attendant groups that had pushed for the mandate applauded Friday's move.

The Association of Flight Attendants said it "will keep passengers and aviation workers safe," and the Association of Professional Flight Attendants called wearing a mask "the simplest way we can safeguard passenger and crew safety."

This story has been updated with additional reporting.
CHILOQUIN, Ore.  The U.S. Forest Service and partner agencies are preparing for several large prescribed burns in the Fremont-Winema National Forest covering almost 5,000 acres. The burns may begin over the week of May 3, forestry officials said.

Two areas have been identified as sites of the burns. The LoMi prescribed burn is set for 800 acres near Klamath Marsh, off the Silver Lake Highway. The North 2 prescribed burn, estimated at roughly 4,200 acres, is located seven miles northeast of Chiloquin. Officials said that it is located near the burn scar of the Two Four Two Fire from September.

Firefighters are preparing lines and ensuring that resources will be on hand to control the fires. LoMi will likely be ignited by fire crews, while the North 2 fire may be ignited from helicopters over the course of several days, weather permitting.

"Prescribed burns are only conducted as weather conditions and resources allow, including factors like temperature, humidity and wind speed, and ensuring there are enough firefighting resources available to conduct the burn safely," the South Central Oregon Fire Management Partnership (SCOFMP) said in a statement.

Residents in these areas may see aircraft, fire equipment on roadways, and potential smoke impacts. Visitors should avoid the area of Forest Road 4502, which officials will be marking due to its proximity to the North 2 project.

Smoke could linger in the area for five to seven days. North 2 is close enough to Chiloquin that people who are smoke sensitive are encouraged to be prepared.

While this may look a bit like wildfire response, especially the aerial ignitions for North 2, we are safely applying fire to the landscape to reduce hazardous fuels and restore forest health, said Chiloquin Ranger District assistant fire management officer Evan Wright. We are taking care to make sure conditions are right for both prescribed burns to be safe and successful to benefit our local communities, neighbors and the forest.

Fire managers have been watching weather conditions over the past six weeks, attempting to determine the best window for these burns to go forward.

The weather so far this spring has presented some challenges, said Wright. We are involving plenty of firefighting resources, as well as pre-positioning equipment which will be engaged throughout the prescribed burn process  from ignition to completion  to help ensure the burning operations stay within the project boundaries.

SCOFMP said that the impacts of the Two Four Two Fire last year underlined the need for prescribed burns in the Chiloquin area, helping to protect the community from further unpredictable fires and improve forest health.
SALEM, Ore.  In a press conference on Friday morning, Governor Kate Brown defended her decision to place 15 Oregon counties under "Extreme Risk" restrictions after the state surpassed a benchmark of 300 people hospitalized with COVID-19.

"Moving any county into Extreme Risk is not a decision we take lightly," Brown said, pointing to the hospitalization metric added in early April that kept a number of counties from entering Extreme Risk for several weeks in spite of rising case rates.

Vaccination progress has meant that fewer seniors are being hospitalized with COVID-19 symptoms, Brown said, but severe cases have increased among younger groups with the increasing spread of virus variants. The Governor said that hospitalizations of people 18 to 34 has increased nearly 50 percent.

"I was presented with data showing two paths that Oregon could take," Brown said. "One in which we took no additional action and stood by while more people die from this disease, or another that required a temporary tightening of restrictions for certain counties, but could save hundreds of lives and prevent as many as 450 hospitalizations over the next three weeks. As your Governor, I chose to save lives."

Brown reiterated that Oregon's restrictions should be lifted by the end of June as vaccinations proceed, and highlighted another $20 million in relief funds earmarked for struggling businesses. That funding will be distributed to counties for them to make available.

Oregon's COVID-19 restrictions  particularly in Extreme Risk counties where indoor dining is prohibited effective Friday  have earned increasing pushback from local government officials and small businesses foundering under a year's-worth of fluctuating constraints.

In a letter addressed to Brown earlier this week, dozens of county commissioners and the Oregon Restaurant & Lodging Association argued that restaurants and other impacted businesses have not been highlighted as a primary vector of viral spread, while much of Oregon's population most vulnerable to COVID-19 has had the chance to become vaccinated.

Dr. Peter Graven, lead data scientist with OHSU's Business Intelligence unit, indicated in Friday's press conference that three or four more weeks of risk level restrictions would be effective in curbing the spread of COVID-19 when paired with current vaccination trends.

"We already know this policy is effective when Oregonians put their minds to it," Dr. Graven said. "Following the risk level policies for those counties in Extreme or High Risk is another huge sacrifice, but if we can follow a short pause in those activities where the virus thrives  namely indoors, without masks, and in close proximity to people outside our household  our modeling shows that it will effectively halt increases in cases, and prevent another 176 Oregonians from dying of COVID-19 and over 700 more hospitalizations."

Graven insisted that shifting to outdoor-only dining in counties with rapid spread is "the right policy."

RELATED: Gov. Brown meets with CVC officials before tour cut short for safety and security concerns

According to Oregon Health Authority data, most of Oregon's largest COVID-19 outbreaks continue to occur at a few types of workplaces  state prisons, warehouse facilities, food processing facilities, and hospitals. However, there are several ongoing outbreaks at restaurants, the largest totaling 21 cases as of this week's report.

The OHA also lists outbreaks at schools and childcare centers. Most outbreaks have been relatively small, but one  Summit High School in Bend  has infected 60 students and one staff member. Brown said that she would not change current policies allowing for full-time classroom learning in Oregon schools, despite the increase in cases among younger groups.

State epidemiologist Dr. Dean Sidelinger said that Oregon's overall rise in cases can be attributed to a number of different sources, including social gatherings, attendance at bars and restaurants, workplace outbreaks, and an increasing prevalence of untraceble community spread cases.

Sidelinger indicated that Oregon's case trends have started to resemble where they were in the fall of 2020, when surging cases pushed the state close to overwhelming hospital capacity. COVID-19 hospitalizations peaked at 584 last year, Sidelinger said. There were 339 people in Oregon hospitals with COVID-19 as of Friday morning.

"Without taking action, that curve, that number of Oregonians who are sick and at risk for dying, will continue to increase," Sidelinger said. "So these measures are designed to help limit the transmission from individuals as we get more vaccines into arms."

As of Friday, Brown said that roughly half of all adult Oregonians had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
WASHINGTON, D.C.  More than $28 billion in funding intended to support struggling U.S. restaurants goes up for grabs on Monday. The "Restaurant Revitalization Fund" is one component of the American Rescue Plan that was signed into law on March 11.

Made available through the U.S. Small Business Administration, the Restaurant Revitalization Fund offers a total of $28.6 billion in direct relief for restaurants and other food establishments that have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and accompanying shutdowns.

The fund can provide restaurants with relief equal to their pandemic-related revenue losses  up to $10 million per business, and no more than $5 million per location. Funds have to be used for allowable expenses by March 11 of 2023.

Restaurants are the core of our neighborhoods and propel economic activity on main streets across the nation. They are among the businesses that have been hardest hit and need support to survive this pandemic. We want restaurants to know that help is here, said SBA Administrator Isabella Guzman. The SBA has focused on the marketplace realities of our food and beverage businesses in designing the Restaurant Revitalization Fund to meet businesses where they are. And we are committed to equity to ensure our smaller and underserved businesses, which have suffered the most, can access this critical relief, recover, and grow more resilient.

Registration for the relief funds began on Friday, and the SBA will begin accepting applications on Monday, May 3, at 9 a.m. Pacific time. The online application will remain open to any eligible restaurant until all the funds are gone.

SBA said that for the first 21 days that the program is open, it will prioritize applications from businesses owned by "women, veterans, and socially and economically disadvantaged individuals." After that, eligible applications will be funded on a first-come, first-served basis.

The agency gave the following breakdown of how you can prepare and apply for the relief funding:
This week's Secret Okanagan Spot in the SOS series is Valley Glen Wetland, located just north of the intersection of Valley and Yates roads in Kelowna, above. It is a key part of Brant's Creek Linear Park in the Glenmore Valley  the most picturesque small-creekside trail in the city.
Paramedics take away a person from Revera Westside Long Term Care Home during the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto, Monday, Dec. 7, 2020. As Ontario's Long-term Care Minister pledged to work towards a "safe and modern" update to the sector, experts are hoping the lessons from the province's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic won't be forgotten. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
Hopkinsville, KY (42240)

Today

Showers early then scattered thunderstorms developing later in the day. High 82F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%. Locally heavy rainfall possible..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms during the evening followed by occasional showers overnight. Low 71F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.
India opened up vaccinations to all adults on Saturday as the officials reported a record 401,993 new COVID-19 cases in one day  and as 18 COVID patients died in a fire at one hospital, and 12 died at another hospital that ran out of life-saving oxygen.
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On April 26, 2020, the nation was shocked by the suicide of Dr. Lorna Breen, a New York City emergency physician who was recovering from COVID-19 in Virginia. Dr. Breen is one of an unknown number of health care professionals who have experienced mental illness or taken their lives over the past year. Although this issue is longstanding, Dr. Lorna Breens tragic death has galvanized many in the health care community. Spearheaded by the, which has led the charge in combatting the epidemics of burnout, suicide, and mental illness in our health care professional community, we have organized around this cause with renewed rigor. That is why the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) is partnering with the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes Foundation to advocate for increased mental health access for health care professionals and trainees.

Mental health has become increasingly important in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, as health care providers are stretched to their limits as they are asked to perform above and beyond their credentials. Even before the pandemic, it had been shown that  about twice the prevalence of the general working population in the U.S.  and about 10 percent experience suicidal ideation. There are many hypothesized causes of these high rates, including a loss of autonomy and feelings of powerlessness. No matter the source, it is paramount that we address this crisis head-on to protect our workforce for the future. And it isnt just health care providers that face the fallout  it has been shown that burnout and mental illness in health care results in lower quality of care, lower patient satisfaction, higher medical errors, and higher staff turnover.

The process of fighting for mental health access for current and future health care professionals must be multifaceted, involving health care institutions, training programs, lawmakers, trainees,

students, professionals, and larger society. Training programs and health care institutions must engage in education, programming, and policy development that centers well-being and mental health support for all providers, since we are also losing future health care workers to suicide as students. Lawmakers and elected officials can support these efforts by providing resources and funding for programs that center mental health treatment and wellness initiatives. This is exactly what the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act will do.

Wonderfully, the 2021 American Rescue Plan that passed has provisions modeled after the Lorna Breen Act:

$80 million to train health care professionals and public safety officers in strategies to reduce and address suicide, burnout, and mental and behavioral health conditions

$20 million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to carry out an education and awareness campaign to encourage health care professionals and first responders to seek support and treatment for their own behavioral health concerns, identify and respond to risk factors in themselves and others, and address stigma

$40 million in grants for health care providers to establish or expand programs to promote mental and behavioral health among their health professional workforce

However, there are provisions of the Lorna Breen Act which are not included in the COVID-19 package that still must be passed, including a federal study into the mental health and burnout of health care workers. Further, the Lorna Breen Act will serve as a roadmap for the $140 million appropriated in the American Rescue Plan. The Lorna Breen Act will also provide for ongoing funding of the programs since the COVID-19 package is a one-time allocation. AMSA strongly supports the Lorna Breen Act  in fact, this piece of legislation was one of the main policies we advocated for in a recent Advocacy Day, organized for almost 100 future physicians who visited 25 legislative offices on March 8, 2021. As future health care workers, it is important to shape our future profession, so our colleagues are not burning out.

We have a chance to take a meaningful step in fighting burnout and mental health issues in the health care profession. We have lost too many valued and vibrant health care professionals due to an illness that is treatable but stigmatized  including the devastating loss of Dr. Lorna Breen. The Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act will leave a lasting legacy for bettering our health care community, taking the first step in addressing this horrible crisis. Endorsement of the Lorna Breen Act is not limited to medical students, other health care workers, students, and hospitals have a stake. We ask that you do your part by contacting your elected officials in support of this legislation today.

Iowa medical students advocating for the Lorna Breen Bill to U.S Senator Chuck Grassleys legislative staff (AMSA Advocacy day on March 8, 2021).

Mattie Renn and Thomas Pak are medical students. Corey Feist is co-founder, Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes Foundation.

Image credit: Mattie Renn, Thomas Pak, and Corey Feist
As large numbers of people began to leave one of the events, they thronged a narrow tunnel-like passage that sloped downward and ended with a series of steps. The floor had become slippery with spilled water and juice, according to witnesses. As some in the crowd slipped, those behind them fell on top of those on the ground.
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MOHAWK VALLEY, Ore. -- Mohawk Valley residents are divided about a measure set to appear on the May 18 special election ballot that would create a Mohawk Valley Law Enforcement District if passed.

That means the area along Marcola Road would be assigned a full-time sheriff's deputy who would be responsible for covering the same area as the Mohawk Valley Rural Fire District currently serves.

The average Mohawk Valley homeowner would have to pay an additional $121.42 per year, or about $10.12 per month, according to Lane County's website. That's "based on the median assessed home value of $252,949."

But not all residents are willing to pay that cost.

"To only get one officer that's only going to work one shift, so two thirds of the day we're still not going to have any protection. I don't know what kind of hours they're going to spend out here, what their focus is going to be, so it's kind of difficult for me to throw that much money at him."

As of now, there are currently 25 deputies that serve all of unincorporated Lane County. During most shifts, three deputies are tasked with covering the roughly 4,600 square miles of unincorporated Lane County, according to Lane County Sheriff Cliff Harrold.

"The response times can be pretty slow at times if we do need a deputy out here," said Terry Alberts, who owns the Mohawk General Store alongside his wife. "If we have a problem here at the store and need to call someone, it'd be nice to know that there's somebody that's on duty out in this area."

Harrold said having a deputy in the community will help provide more efficient service.

"A deputy who's tied into the community gets more of the puzzle pieces, so they're actually able to solve issues because the community is involved with them and that really only comes with relationship building," Harrold said.

When Harrold first became involved with the sheriff's office about 30 years ago, there was a resident deputy program involving ten deputies that were assigned to specific communities around Lane County, including one assigned to the Mohawk Valley, the sheriff said.

"In 2019, there was a group of folks in the McKenzie and a group of folks in the Mohawk Valley that reached out to me to say, 'Sheriff, what do we have to do to get our deputy back,'" Harrold said.

Anyone who lives in Mohawk Valley and has questions about the ballot measure is encouraged to call Harrold at 541-682-6790.
In the last year we've lost thousands of family members, friends and co-workers to COVID-19. We'd like to give you a chance to honor their memory.

Share a Memory
Workers at the New York Daily News on Friday voted to join The NewsGuild of New York in an election verified by the National Labor Relations Board.
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IFA President Tim Cullinan has said the new Food Ombudsman/Regulator must have real teeth and be able to hold processors and retailers to account.

I acknowledge the move by the Minister to transpose the Unfair Trading Practices Directive into national law, and to have a public consultation process on a wider remit of the Food Regulator/Ombudsman.

However, we cannot have any foot dragging in getting an office set up. It must have full powers of investigation, the ability to make findings and the authority to impose sanctions, he said.

At present, farmers feel that processors and retailers are abusing their dominant market positions with impunity and that the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) has failed farmers, he said.

The recurring evidence of large retailers dominating the market with excessive buying power has to stop. This drives prices to farmers to unviable levels, often below the cost of production, he said.

IFA fought hard at EU level to introduce the Unfair Trading Practices Directive.

We welcome the fact that this will be transcribed into Irish law before the May 1st deadline required by the EU. This will automatically outlaw a number of key unfair trading practices, he said.

The EU Directive gives the power to Member States to legislate for additional legal requirements, going beyond the scope of the UTP Directive.

This option must be backed up by serious legislation. At present, only 6% of farmers in Ireland are under 35 years of age. We will not attract young people into the sector unless they get a fair return for what they produce, he said.
IFA Livestock Chairman Brendan Golden has welcomed the announcement by the Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue that buyers can return to the mart ring from Monday, May 17.

This is an important part of the re-opening of the country and it will help the normal flow of trade in marts, along with the online facilities that will remain in place, he said.

IFA raised the issue of allowing buyers and sellers into the marts at a recent meeting with the Tanaiste Leo Varadkar.

Brendan Golden said arrangements for those selling livestock can be facilitated safely by marts from May 17, and should be considered.

He said the phased return to the normal operation of marts is a recognition of the responsible actions of farmers and marts throughout the lockdowns.

The IFA Livestock Chairman reminded everybody attending the marts to adhere strictly to the public health guidelines and controls that will be in place.

We all have a part to play in our progress towards a full return to normality, he said.
Two males are due to appear before Kilkenny District Court in connection with a significant drugs seizure on the outskirts of the city yesterday.

A car was stopped at an anti crime checkpoint on the Freshford Road.

Approximately E20,000 worth of cocaine and a quantity of cash was seized.

Searches are ongoing.
St Beacons Cemetery in Mullinavat was the venue for a special ceremony to mark the tragic death of a Kilkennyman during the War of Independence.

Family members were among the small group who marked the centenary of the passing of 23-year-old James Hoban, who was gunned down in Mullinavat on April 19, 1921.

Hoban, a farmers son who hailed from Glendonnel, Mullinavat, was selling pigs at the Fair of Mullinavat, with his elderly uncle James Walsh, when the tragedy occurred.

The records show that James Hoban was hit by many bullets which were discharged from a machine gun mounted on the top of a Rolls Royce armoured car. The soldier concerned hit Hoban in both legs from about 100 yards.



Noreen and Pat Hoban, descendants of James Hoban, with Sean Maher at the grave in Mullinavat. Maher gave an oration at the graveside as part of the ceremony to mark the centenary

Hobans wounds were dressed in Costellos Shop (later Brogans) before he was taken to Waterford. He died in the county and city Infirmary Hospital at 7pm that evening.

In keeping with gatherings under Covid measures allowed, Sean Maher welcomed a group from Mullinavat to mark the event 100 years to the date and time that James Hoban died from his wounds inflicted by machine gun fire.

As the evenings weather conditions delivered a heavy mist, Mr Maher welcomed relatives of James Hoban to the event, which was staged by kind permission of Fr Liam Barron at the grave of James Hoban in Mullinavat. Present also was a representative of the quartermaster general of the Old IRA of the South Kilkenny command, Richard Kenneally.

A beautiful song recalling the event, which was written by a local man, was sung with gusto by Tom McEvoy gave a lovely rendering of his composition to these present. A cross was placed on the grave by the Hoban relatives, while Liam Kenneally, the eldest son of Richard Kenneally, placed a tricolour garland on it.

The cross was kindly donated by Martin Power of the undertaking family in Ferrybank. His great-grandfather Tom Power and his wife Catherine ONeill buried James Hoban in 1921, in James mothers peoples grave 100 years ago.

A small group was present at the commemorative ceremony and sang a beautiful hymn which led by Michael Aylward, who was present also as a Peace Commissioner.

Sean Maher, thanks to information supplied by author and historian Eoin Walsh (writer of Kilkenny in times of Revolution 1900-1923), gave a brief description of the event of that fateful day.

Events began when James Hoban went to sell pigs with his uncle on the day. The pig fair in Mullinavat was an important event for farmers and buyers from Waterford and other places.

The street would have been pretty full, with cart loads of pigs to be sold and bought. The pig buyers of Waterford would have come early in the day.

The British Soldiers, with a compliment of Black and Tans and RIC personnel, had come from Dublin that morning and had mounted a large military gathering in Mullinavat.

The soldier concerned in the shooting was found not guilty, for reason that the fuse was too light on the machine gun, and was described in the enquiry that followed as an accidental killing.

The shooting and the subsequent death of an innocent by standard by personnel of the British Forces was heard with great disbelief and a lot of anger.

The Kilkenny People from April 23, 1921 carried the following about the incident:

SHOOTING SENSATION AT MULLINAVAT

FARMERS SON DIES FROM WOUNDS

James Hoban, Glendonnel, near Mullinavat, was wounded by machine gun fire accidentally discharged from a military lorry passing through Mullinavat on Tuesday morning about 11.30 oclock.

He was engaged selling pigs at the time of the unfortunate occurrence, which created a painful sensation in the district.

He was conveyed to Waterford military hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries at about 7 oclock the same evening. Deceased was a farmers son, aged about 23 years.

In conclusion Sean Maher thanked the painstaking work done by Bernie Kirwan for finding the grave, as James Hoban was buried in an Aylward from Buckestown grave.

Sean thanked Fr Liam Barron for allowing the ceremony to take place in the grounds of his church, Noreen and Pat Hoban from the present generation of Hobans for their presence at the ceremony and Martin Power undertakers for the wooden cross and breastplate. The song that Tom McEvoy, who more often than not uses his Irish name of Tomas MacAodhBhui, sang a great composition that told the story of this terrible event in Mullinavat village.

The last four lines of Tom McEvoys song were:

The funeral was held the following day,

Mid scenes of sorrow and much dismay.

The rising moon behind Sliabh Cruinn,

Is now a paler shade of grey.

It is intended to erect a memorial stone to mark the War of Independence at a later stage in the year when the public can attend and a proper ceremony will be held in honour of all on this occasion. It was not possible to do that on this occasion or to publicise the event - an event that many people would have liked to be present at.

Finance is required to go ahead with the memorial stone. Donations can be made by contacting Sean Maher, tel 087-6731415 or email seanmaher2510@gmail.com
President of Kilkenny Chamber of Commerce Colin Ahern welcomed businesses to the Chambers recent 2021 AGM, the second such AGM to be held online.

Mr Ahern, Kilkenny Ormonde Hotel, was re-elected to his second year as President, and Brian Keyes, Iconic Newspapers, was elected as Vice President.

In his address, Mr Ahern said the manner in which Kilkenny businesses adapted to ensure their survival and the safety of their customers and staff must be commended. He noted that this has not been the case nationwide and indeed Kilkenny has been widely commended in the media and is seen now as a leader in how businesses, communities and local authorities can work together, to navigate through and create a future, post Covid-19.

In any normal year the big news story would have been Brexit and whilst it has been overshadowed by Covid, it has been a huge challenge for exporters and the retail sector, in particular. When we stepped into the unknown at the beginning of the year, it was clear that most Irish businesses had prepared as well as they could have and had taken the consequences of Brexit seriously from the onset, said Mr Ahern.

In Ireland, business will always find a way to do business and Irish people are better than most at that. The shipping lines that opened up nearly overnight from Ireland to mainland Europe have laid waste to the concept of our dependency to trade through the UK and I have no doubt that we will become an even stronger trading nation in the long run. As a representative and supportive organisation, our members needed our help.

Faced with new and unique challenges imposed upon their businesses, this is where our Chamber has really stepped up.

Over the past 14 months our Chamber staff have worked tirelessly to ensure that the voice of business in Kilkenny has been heard. Both locally and through Chambers Ireland, we have lobbied Government Ministers, senior officials, county councillors, and the local authority, to ensure that appropriate financial supports were made available to all, from central Government and the county council.

Last year the Chambers of Commerce made more lobbying returns than IBEC, ISME and the IFA put together. Kilkenny Chamber has been at the heart of that throughout, attending meetings in the last number of months with An Taoiseach, An Tanaiste, the Minister for Finance, along with local TDs. Only last week we met with Minister of State Malcolm Noonan and secured his commitment to champion our cause in several key areas such as the Town Centre First Scheme, the TUSEI, N24 and the extension of the Ring Road.

Undeterred by the fact that our usual events were curtailed by the pandemic, Kilkenny Chamber moved its networking events online and ramped up activity in this area.

During the last year we ran more events than ever before, as our Chamber Chats were increased to keep our members engaged and informed, Mr Ahern outlined.

The attendance figures were a testament to the success of this increased activity.

We kept the legacy of our renowned Kilkenny Business Awards Gala Night alive, successfully running a standalone awards programme, which this year saw the Presidents Award go to Bobby Kerr and the Lifetime Achievement Award to Mrs Kitty Donohoe. Without the support of our sponsors and media partners the Kilkenny People and KCLR this would not have been possible, and I would like to thank them sincerely for their unwavering support in keeping this great event front and centre in 2020.

Last Christmas you would all have seen the wonderful new lights on the Parade and in collaboration with Kilkenny County Council and Kilkenny Leader Partnership, it was the Chamber who made the application for almost 100,000 funding, which made this project possible.

The Chamber also drafted a strong submission last month to the Development Plan, which included observations and recommendations on housing, transport, broadband, TUSEI, tourism, retail and the public realm.

Going forward, Kilkenny Chamber will continue to operate the Kilkenny Gift Voucher scheme which has ring fenced over 750,000 for Kilkenny businesses since its introduction, Mr Ahern said.

In 2020, we successfully collaborated with the Local Enterprise Office and the county council to promote the scheme, increasing our voucher sales by 50% , to well over 200,000 in 2020, in the process. The Kilkenny Gift Voucher is currently accepted in more than 150 outlets and I would encourage you all, if you are inclined to give a voucher as a gift, to choose the Kilkenny Gift Voucher and support local, shop local and click local where at all possible.

Mr Ahern concluded by thanking the members for their ongoing support and local media for their support in covering the Chambers endeavours this year.
ST. PAUL, Minn. - It's an ongoing effort to keep a roof over renters' heads.

Friday Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is highlighting the Rent Help MN program.

As many families are still out of work or have reduced hours.

The program works to help those not able to keep up with monthly rent and utility payments.

Lieutenant governor Peggy Flanagan says, COVID has impacted our lowest-income workers, and those who have been hardest hit are the same families who pay more than 50 percent of their income on housing.

When the pandemic first hit, Walz urged everyone to stay home to slow the spread and save lives.

There were a lot of months in there dating back as far as March of 2020 that a lot of folks were in pretty precarious situations, and then that snowballed month after month. Tomorrow is May 1st. The rent is due again, says Governor.

The program will provide a total of 375 million dollars to the state, and officials intend on running the program well into 2022. For assistance go to renthelpmn.org or call 2-1-1.
MASON CITY, Iowa  A jury has failed to reach a verdict over a woman accused of exposing herself near a preschool.

Krista Elisabeth Mary, 41 of Lake Mills, was arrested and charged with indecent exposure after preschool employees called police on October 8, 2020, about Mary naked on the steps of a home in the 400 block of North Pennsylvania Avenue in Mason City.

Mary pleaded not guilty and her trial began on April 27 but after hearing all the evidence, the jury could not return a verdict and a mistrial was declared.

A second trial is now scheduled to begin on June 22 in Cerro Gordo County District Court.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  Prosecutors are asking a judge to give Derek Chauvin a more severe penalty than state guidelines call for when he is sentenced in June for George Floyd's death, arguing in court documents filed Friday that Floyd was particularly vulnerable and that Chauvin abused his authority as a police officer.

Defense attorney Eric Nelson is opposing a tougher sentence, saying the state has failed to prove that those aggravating factors, among others, existed when Chauvin arrested Floyd on May 25.

Chauvin, who is white, was convicted last week of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for pressing his knee against Floyds neck for 9 1/2 minutes as the Black man said he couldn't breathe and went motionless.

Even though he was found guilty of three counts, under Minnesota statutes hell only be sentenced on the most serious one  second-degree murder. While that count carries a maximum sentence of 40 years, experts say he wont get that much.

Prosecutors did not specify how much time they would seek for Chauvin.

Under Minnesota sentencing guidelines, the presumptive sentence for second-degree unintentional murder for someone with no criminal record like Chauvin would be 12 1/2 years. Judges can sentence someone to as little as 10 years and eight months or as much as 15 years and still be within the advisory guideline range. To go above that, Judge Peter Cahill would have to find that there were aggravating factors," and even if those are found, legal experts have said Chauvin would likely not face more than 30 years.

In legal briefs filed Friday, prosecutors said Chauvin should be sentenced above the guideline range because Floyd was particularly vulnerable with his hands cuffed behind his back as he was face-down on the ground, and that he was intoxicated. They noted that Chauvin held his position even after Floyd became unresponsive and officers knew he had no pulse.

Prosecutors also said Chauvin treated Floyd with particular cruelty during the lengthy restraint, saying Chauvin inflicted gratuitous pain and caused psychological distress to Floyd and to bystanders.

Defendant continued to maintain his position atop Mr. Floyd even as Mr. Floyd cried out that he was in pain, even as Mr. Floyd exclaimed 27 times that he could not breathe, and even as Mr. Floyd said that Defendants actions were killing him, prosecutors wrote. They added that he stayed in position as Floyd cried out for his mother, stopped speaking and lost consciousness.

Defendant thus did not just inflict physical pain. He caused Mr. Floyd psychological distress during the final moments of his life, leaving Mr. Floyd helpless as he squeezed the last vestiges of life out of Mr. Floyds body, prosecutors wrote.

They also said that Chauvin abused his position of authority as a police officer, committed his crime as part of a group of three or more people, and that he pinned Floyd down in the presence of children  including a 9-year-old girl who testified at trial that watching the restraint made her sad and kind of mad.

Nelson disagreed, writing that Mr. Chauvin entered into the officers encounter with Mr. Floyd with legal authority to assist in effecting the lawful arrest of an actively-resisting criminal suspect. Mr. Chauvin was authorized, under Minnesota law, to use reasonable force to do so.

Nelson said Floyd was not particularly vulnerable, saying he was a large man who was struggling with officers. He wrote that courts have typically found particular vulnerability if the victims are young, or perhaps sleeping, when a crime occurs.

Nelson also said Floyd was not treated with particular cruelty, saying that there is no evidence that the assault perpetrated by Chauvin involved gratuitous pain that's not usually associated with second-degree murder.

The assault of Mr. Floyd occurred in the course of a very short time, involved no threats or taunting, such as putting a gun to his head and pulling the trigger ... and ended when EMS finally responded to officers' calls," Nelson wrote.

He also said the state hasn't proven that any of the other officers actively participated in the crime for which Chauvin was convicted. Those officers are scheduled to face trial on aiding and abetting charges in August. He also wrote that the presence of children in this case is different from cases in which children might be witnessing a crime in a home and unable to leave.

And, he said, the state failed to prove that Chauvin's role as a police officer was an aggravating factor, saying that Floyd's struggle with officers showed that Chauvin's authority was irrelevant to Floyd.

Cahill has said he will review the attorneys' written arguments before determining whether aggravating factors exist that would warrant a tougher sentence.

No matter what sentence Chauvin gets, in Minnesota its presumed that a defendant with good behavior will serve two-thirds of the penalty in prison and the rest on supervised release, commonly known as parole.
MANTORVILLE TOWNSHIP, Minn.  A rollover crash injured one person in Dodge County Friday night.

The Minnesota State Patrol says it happened around 11:40 pm near the intersection of 600th Street and Highway 57. The Patrol says Rafael Martinez De Escobar Hernandez, 35 of Red Wing, was eastbound on 600th Street when he went off the road, cross the highway, and rolled.

Hernandez suffered what are described as non-life threatening injuries and was taken to St. Marys Hospital in Rochester for treatment. The State Patrol says alcohol was involved in this crash.

The Dodge County Sheriffs Office, Mantorville Fire Department, and Dodge Center Ambulance assisted at the scene.
The pair allegedly went to the park to do crystal meth together, but when they reached the Harlem Meer at E. 109th St. and East Drive, the woman changed her mind and tried to leave, but her companion jumped her and pulled her to the ground, authorities said.
The U.S. Small Business Administration has come up with the Restaurant Revitalization Fund to support small businesses that have experienced economic distress during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Registration for the grant opened Friday and all you have to do is be an owner of a restaurant, bar, or other small business to qualify.

The fund will provide a total of 28.6 billion dollars.

Interim Small Business Development director of southeast Minnesota, Mark Thein, says the success of small businesses is crucial to the economy.

He says, Not just the big businesses, they're influential too - but there's a lot of small business owners that have 20 employees or less, 10 employees or less, or 5 employees or less, that really contribute to our GDP.

The economic benefit for our employment and wages for those small business owners - is just going to be unbelievable for those who are in that industry, Thein adds.

Thein expects the funding will go fast and it is a simple two-step process. The first step is to register at the Small Business Administration website. The applications will be open Monday, May 3rd. To register visit https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/covid-19-relief-options/restaurant-revitalization-fund.
SIOUX CITY, Iowa  A woman is accused of embezzling over $270,000 from a North Iowa church.

Melissa Noland has been indicted for wire fraud in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa.

Federal prosecutors say Noland was hired in August 2014 by First United Methodist Church in Mason City as a financial records keeper. A federal indictment states that between January 2015 and January 2019, Noland stole or otherwise misappropriated $274,222.09 from church accounts. Shes accused of writing checks to herself, directly depositing money into her accounts, and using church funds to pay credit card debts and her personal internet service.

Court documents state Noland is expected to file a guilty plea at a hearing on May 12 in Sioux City federal court.
James Caballero is wanted for violating his bond just weeks after deputies said he beat his wife then kidnapped their kids.
Cahokia man accused of going to the Philippines to engage in sexual acts with 14 year old girl
In a grim year for healthcare workers, two nurses in Missouri grew closer together and fell in love as they battled the pandemic together.
We are heading back to a well-known Missouri city, thanks to Mark Twain and a young lad named Tom Sawyer.
The lost lambs were then handed over to the Animal Care Centers of NYC, who transported the b-a-a-aing beasties to the Skylands Animal Sancturay and Rescue in Wantage, N.J. with new names based on different dessert flavors: Vanilla Bean, Pistachio, Rocky Road, Candy Cane, Coconut, Tiramisu, Cannoli and Pumpkin, an ACC spokeswoman said.
Kokomo, IN (46901)

Today

Showers early then scattered thunderstorms developing later in the day. High 81F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

A few clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 67F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph.
The judge declined to send Fotoohighiam back to jail right away but said he could grant the prosecutor's request at any time.
Standing outside, he fired off three shots at his dining companions, but missed the intended targets completely, officials said. Instead, he hit Pedro Leon, 57, in the stomach and California tourist Soren Knoll, 30, in the shoulder. The bullet traveled through Knolls body to his back and spine, prosecutors said.
A deputy with the Pinal County Sheriffs Office initially started pursuing a vehicle on Thursday around 10 p.m. after the driver, identified as Jonathan Atland, turned around and opened fire. The 25-year-old suspect then lead the officer deep into downtown Chandler in Maricopa County, where he rammed through a gate to the airport, according to a press release from the Gilbert police department.
President Joe Biden is restricting travel from India starting on Tuesday as that country battles a deadly surge of Coronavirus infections.

But how do people in the country feel about traveling to India?

At San Francisco's airport Friday night, many of the travelers said they were headed to India to see family after not being able to be with them for more than a year because of the pandemic.

They has some peace of mind because they were vaccinated here.

But they're flying with mixed emotions.

India is now the first country to record 400,000 infections in one day, and only two-percent of the population is vaccinated.
Taylor was 26 when a group of Louisville police officers entered the home she shared with boyfriend Kenneth Walker in the early morning hours of March 13, 2020, and fatally shot her. The cops were not charged with her death, as Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron claimed the shooting was justified.
WHITEWATER  Geneva Lake Conservancy, with its partners Lakeland Audubon Society and the City of Lake Geneva Avian Committee, recently announced the second biennial Kettle Moraine Bird Festival on Saturday, May 8, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. The festival is at Bromley Woods, W5798 Greening Road, Whitewater. May 8 is also World Migratory Bird Day. Festival participants can expect to see a variety of warblers as well as many other forest interior birds. Bromley Woods is one of the Conservancys new nature preserves and features an oak woodland and savanna and kettle pond, which provide habitat for many declining bird populations. Bird walks will be offered at 8, 9 and 10 a.m., followed by an optional gourmet boxed lunch under an open tent in an oak savanna. During the lunch, birding expert Wayne Rhode, of Walworth, will give a presentation on warblers. Rhode has over 50 years of birding experience and has photographed over 270 species of birds in Wisconsin, including 35 species of warblers. Spring migration gives us a great opportunity to engage in citizen science like Migratory Bird Day, said Maddie Olivieri, the conservancys community outreach manager. Some of these birds fly from Argentina all the way to Canada, and it is incredible that we here in Walworth County play a part in supporting that migration. Along with their partners, the conservancy is also offering a special bird event on Friday, May 7 for students from local private and public schools. Organized by the Avian Committee, approximately 50 Walworth County students will be bird watching on the preserve with Audubon guides. The student event is made possible by a grant from the Environmental Education Foundation of Lake Geneva. The Conservancy would like to thank its event sponsors Alliant Energy and We Energies Foundation. The event is open to the public and registration is limited. The bird walk is $5 and the walk with lunch and presentation is $20.
RACINE  By beefing up the Internal Revenue Services to go after billionaires who arent paying their share of taxes through loopholes and other methods of dubious legality, President Joe Biden aims to fund massive new spending plans to help the nation see the light at the end of the COVID-19 pandemic tunnel.

But U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., and other Republicans arent buying it: They dont think itll be possible to recoup as much as $6 trillion in new spending in 2021 the Biden administration is considering in 2021 alone.

I look at what the Biden administration is proposing: The spending side is $6 trillion new spending this year  thats unreasonable. Its not focused. Its going to have a lot of inefficient, wasteful spending associated with it, Steil said during a phone call Thursday afternoon, less than 24 hours after Bidens primetime 100th day address.
In wake of several demonstrations in the area, a group of 27 protesters sued the city in U.S. District Court, alleging they were brutalized by police sent there to supervise and diffuse tensions, according to the Columbus Dispatch. Marbley in his 88-page opinion concluded some of the members of the Columbus Police Department had no regard for the rights secured by (the First Amendment of the Constitution) this bedrock principle of American democracy.
A key value of the site where the village of Geneva was plated is that it was situated on one of the most beautiful lakes in the United States. This was particularly important to many of the early whites who lived in the village during the two decades preceding the Civil War. Most had come to Geneva from upstate New York, particularly from the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York.

The lake was named Geneva by the surveyor John Brink in honor of his home town of Geneva which was on Seneca Lake in upstate New York. These early settlers were enamored with the new village, the beautiful lake, and the surrounding countryside because it reminded them of the region in upstate New York where they had come from.

One need only look at a modern map of the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York to get a sense of where these early settlers came from. Scattered throughout the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York are small towns named Sharon, Delavan, Walworth, and Palmyra. Imagine how delighted these newcomers from upstate New York were when they arrived in southern Wisconsin where they found a countryside very similar to the one that they had left behind.
It will benefit our community, Jones said. There will be someone staffed there during the day.

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Peters said, as part of the agreement, the two will be paid by the Town of Linn when they are working for that department.

The idea of this whole contract is that the city will have no out-of-pocket costs, Peters said. The idea is they will be billed regularly for each person that is out there.

During the city council meeting, Alderwoman Cindy Flower asked if the Lake Geneva Fire Department has enough staff to provide the two EMTs to the Town of Linn.

The Lake Geneva Fire Department currently has 43 employees.

Are we ok to staff our own needs?, Flower asked. Were confident with the same amount of staff we have, we can staff not only our department but someone elses, too?

Peters said the fire department currently has the appropriate amount of staff, but added that the departments staffing numbers fluctuate from time to time.

He said most local departments have staffing issues.
Sheskey reported the gun stolen to the Racine Police Department on Sept. 16. According to the police report, he told the officer he had last seen the gun, a fully loaded Glock 17, the previous day when it was left in the glovebox of his girlfriends car, which was parked on the street in Racine. The report states that Sheskey told the Racine Police officer at 2:50 a.m. on Sept. 16 that his girlfriend noticed that papers were thrown on the front seat and that he told his girlfriend to check the glovebox for the gun. Thats when they realized it was missing.

The police report states that there was no sign of forced entry.

In the internal investigation report from the Kenosha Police Department, Sheskey said he had a secure location to keep his guns at his Kenosha home, but after he left home following the Blake shooting, he began storing the gun in the glovebox of his vehicle or his girlfriends vehicle. The report states that Sheskey realized on Sept. 15 after the gun was stolen that both the glovebox and the vehicle where the gun had been stored were left unlocked.
He loved the City of Lake Geneva, Karen said.

This is where he called home, and thats why I wanted to do this celebration of life, Karen said. Theres so many people here who wanted to celebrate his life, because he passed away in Florida.

Karen said her father did not talk about his work at home.

He tried to keep it separate, Karen said. My mother was a stay-at-home mom. She raised five children. As much as my dad was the bread winner, he would not be where he was without my mother.

While she knew him outside work, Karen said those who worked with her father described him as a fair person to work for but would hold them accountable when necessary.

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He would call you out when you needed to be called out, but he would give you kudos when you deserved those as well, Karen said.

Former Lake Geneva Police officer Ralph Braden, who worked with Chief Newberry for about 15 years, said he enjoyed working with the former chief.

He said Richard Newberry established a police liaison program with Badger High School and a gang unit for the Lake Geneva Police Department during the mid-1990s.
This past year has proved to be challenging for food access and distribution in Maryland. But theres a lot to be learned from the challenges and responses.

The final day of the Western Maryland Food Council virtual conference focused on the realities of food access and distribution in Maryland.

Caitlin Mislaszek, a program officer with Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, discussed the results of a Johns Hopkins survey of food access during the pandemic, specifically the successes and problems faced by the food policy councils in providing food and getting that food into the hands of those in need.

The Western Maryland Food Council is one of over 300 food councils in the country.

The Johns Hopkins survey revealed some interesting information in relation to the year-long pandemic, one point being that food councils and the local government were only slightly or moderately prepared for the pandemic.

Some of the successful actions taken by food councils across the country in response to the food crisis were coordinating the available resources with the expressed needs of the communities, and using social media to educate and inform the public about the food challenges and some of the solutions available.

The survey also asked what projects the food policy councils endorsed for the future. Among the top endorsements were improving food access, working to eliminate hunger and poverty, and policies to support food production.

When asked what actions the councils planned in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, actions included signing petitions and advocating for policies of partner organizations, making policy recommendations to governments, meeting with those policy makers to discuss food network policies, and educating the public about food networks and policies.

A deepening concern about racial and social equity and taking these inequities into consideration when making decisions was important to 81% of the food policy councils.

New Challenges in the Face of a Pandemic

After the survey results were discussed, Amy Moyer, executive director of the Western Maryland Food Bank, spoke about the front-line reality of food access and distribution in western Maryland.

She said that virtually overnight everything changed for their food bank. Who needed food and how those in need could obtain food became broader and deeper problems.

The food bank had to figure out how to protect its workers preparing and delivering food as well as those facing food shortages.

Moyer said the food bank offered drive-by pickup that was able to serve hundreds of cars within hours. The food bank saw a 60% increase in needs.

An unforeseen dilemma with food distribution has been transportation. If the needy do not have access to cars, how can they get enough food?

With a grant from the United Way, the Western Maryland Food Bank is instituting a Jump-Start Carts program, and will distribute roller carts so walkers can easily carry away enough food from the food bank.

These carts also encourage people to go to markets where they can buy fresh food rather than buying a few processed food substitutes at a convenience store, Moyer said.

The food bank is also working on a program to show people how to prepare the fresh produce theyre receiving from the food bank.

Future Harvest

The third presenter was Dena Leibman, executive director with Future Harvest CASA.

Leibman spoke about the food network of the Chesapeake Bay region and how Future Harvest is working to strengthen it.

Future Harvest developed a report on the concerns of farmers, ecologists, government and individuals.

The six areas of concern are: racial injustice and inequity throughout the food network, obstacles to small and mid-size agriculture, achieving environmental goals in farm practices, how to inform and educate the public about agriculture, the need to continue research, and how to expand food access.

Among the initiatives undertaken by Future Harvest is the reparation of land to Black, Indigenous and people of color, also referred to as BIPOC.

Legislatively, Future Harvest is working on right-to-farm laws and on-farm sales. It is also establishing a Food Systems Czar to oversee food networks and distribution on a national level. Other issues include incentivizing government facilities, restaurants and grocers to buy local; and addressing the issues of bar coding, geo-locating and expanding access to meat processing facilities on the local level.

One long-term project being undertaken by Future Harvest is the development and maintenance of data collection for a State of the Chesapeake Food System Report.

Data for this report will be gathered annually, including the number of food-producing farms in the region, the number of acres in regenerative agriculture, and the number of BIPOC farms.

Leibman said that government, research institutions and private industry will be able to use the data in the report to make sound policy and business decisions to protect and strengthen the food network  locally, regionally and nationally.
A man in Thailand upset with his wife hanged their 11-month-old daughter on Facebook Live and then killed himself, police said Tuesday.

Police Col. Jirasak Siemsak said officers found the bodies of 20-year-old Wuttisan Wongtalay and the baby in an abandoned hotel in Phuket province after receiving reports of the video.

He felt neglected by his wife because they had been fighting, so he took his 11-month-old daughter to the site of the crime which is the abandoned hotel, Jirasak said. Then we found the bodies hanging off the hotel.

The man made the broadcast Monday evening, and the video was made inaccessible by Facebook late Tuesday afternoon.

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The mother of the child was crying and was very sad, Jirasak said. I am also very sad. It is a personal dispute, and they were still very young.

The incident came less than two weeks after a man in Cleveland broadcast himself on Facebook Live shooting a man to death. A series of other offensive broadcasts, including sexual assaults, has caused Facebook to seek ways to block such videos as quickly as possible.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said last week that his company has a lot of work to do on the problem.

The chief investigator in the Phuket case, Lt. Jula-at Suwannin, said police have yet to question Wuttisans 20-year-old widow because they are giving her time to grieve.

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Father of missing South Pasadena boy released from jail as search continues near Santa Barbara
Before the reported slaying of Army Specialist Vanessa Guillen last year, the Texas soldier told her mother that she was being sexually harassed and reported it to her superior, according to U.S. Army documents released Friday.

Based on the report, Army investigators uncovered that Vanessa Guillen was sexually harassed by a superior noncommissioned officer in her unit and not by the man suspected of killing her. However, the officer determined was not named in the report.

According to The Hill, the summary of the investigation indicated that Guillen reported that she experienced sexual harassment on two occasions. And in both instances, her supervisor failed to report the incident. Other leaders were also not able to take appropriate action regarding the situation.

But despite the reports, the Army noted that there is no evidence that the sexual harassment was related to Guillen's death.

RELATED ARTICLE: Slain Soldier Vanessa Guillen Honored With Memorial Gate at Fort Hood

Suspects in Vanessa Guillen's Death

Vanessa Guillen was last seen on Apr. 22 last year, before Spc. Aaron Robinson allegedly hit her in the head with a hammer multiple times inside an armory room in Fort Hood, Texas.

The suspect reportedly could not dispose of Guillen's body by himself, so he contacted his girlfriend, Cecily Aguilar, and asked her to help.

The two allegedly took Guillen's body to the Leon River, about 20 miles away from the Army base. They buried Vanessa Guillen's remains near the river.

Army officials were not able to confirm as to what was Robinson's motive for killing Guillen. The remains of the 20-year-old female soldier were found last Jun. 30.

The day that Guillen's remains were found, Robinson killed himself while the police tried to arrest him, CrimeOnline reported.

Despite not having found any credible evidence to conclude that Robinson sexually harassed Vanessa Guillen, the latest report indicated that he sexually harassed another female soldier in Fort Hood between April to September 2019.

Army's Actions on the Sexual Harassment

In a statement released Friday, the Army said five current or former leaders of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment in Fort Hood had been fired because of the new report. Three of them were to receive General Officer Memorandums of Reprimand.

Another eight noncommissioned and commissioned officers had further action referred against them, with one to be fired. The punishments and firing mark a total of 21 personnel to be disciplined because of the investigations that started after Vanessa Guillen's disappearance.

Army Forces Command Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Gene LeBoeuf shared on Friday that none of their actions will bring Guillen back. But the official added that her memory drives them to be better.

He added that the death of the Texas soldier would drive the Army forward to affect change for the people, communities, and nation.

"You are witnessing action for culture change," he noted. The Army has confirmed that Guillen was sexually harassed after the investigation team reviewed over 6,000 emails, analyzed some 11,500 pages of documents, and interviewed 151 witnesses.

In one incident, the report said that the female soldier was in her troop orderly room when one of her supervisors made an inappropriate sexual comment in Spanish, which translates as a solicitation for her to participate in a "threesome."

The said supervisor also specifically targeted and called her out in front of her peers, and made an example out of her. After a supervisor noticed a marked change in her demeanor, Vanessa Guillen and another soldier told the official about the inappropriate sexual comment.

Between Sept. 16, 2019, and Oct. 9, 2019, two soldiers reported the incident to Vanessa Guillen's unit leaders, but they failed to launch an investigation.

READ MORE: Vanessa Guillen's Entire Fort Hood Chain of Command Fired

WATCH: Army Report Says Vanessa Guillen Was Sexually Harassed Before Her Death - From CBS Evening News
Portland, TN (37148)

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Rain showers in the morning with scattered thunderstorms arriving in the afternoon. High near 80F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Locally heavy rainfall possible..

Tonight

Thunderstorms in the evening, then variable clouds overnight with still a chance of showers. Low near 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.
UVA engineering computer scientists discover new vulnerability affecting computers globally

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - In 2018, industry and academic researchers revealed a potentially devastating hardware flaw that made computers and other devices worldwide vulnerable to attack.

Researchers named the vulnerability Spectre because the flaw was built into modern computer processors that get their speed from a technique called "speculative execution," in which the processor predicts instructions it might end up executing and preps by following the predicted path to pull the instructions from memory. A Spectre attack tricks the processor into executing instructions along the wrong path. Even though the processor recovers and correctly completes its task, hackers can access confidential data while the processor is heading the wrong way.

Since Spectre was discovered, the world's most talented computer scientists from industry and academia have worked on software patches and hardware defenses, confident they've been able to protect the most vulnerable points in the speculative execution process without slowing down computing speeds too much.

They will have to go back to the drawing board.

A team of University of Virginia School of Engineering computer science researchers has uncovered a line of attack that breaks all Spectre defenses, meaning that billions of computers and other devices across the globe are just as vulnerable today as they were when Spectre was first announced. The team reported its discovery to international chip makers in April and will present the new challenge at a worldwide computing architecture conference in June.

The researchers, led by Ashish Venkat, William Wulf Career Enhancement Assistant Professor of Computer Science at UVA Engineering, found a whole new way for hackers to exploit something called a "micro-op cache," which speeds up computing by storing simple commands and allowing the processor to fetch them quickly and early in the speculative execution process. Micro-op caches have been built into Intel computers manufactured since 2011.

Venkat's team discovered that hackers can steal data when a processor fetches commands from the micro-op cache.

"Think about a hypothetical airport security scenario where TSA lets you in without checking your boarding pass because (1) it is fast and efficient, and (2) you will be checked for your boarding pass at the gate anyway," Venkat said. "A computer processor does something similar. It predicts that the check will pass and could let instructions into the pipeline. Ultimately, if the prediction is incorrect, it will throw those instructions out of the pipeline, but this might be too late because those instructions could leave side-effects while waiting in the pipeline that an attacker could later exploit to infer secrets such as a password."

Because all current Spectre defenses protect the processor in a later stage of speculative execution, they are useless in the face of Venkat's team's new attacks. Two variants of the attacks the team discovered can steal speculatively accessed information from Intel and AMD processors.

"Intel's suggested defense against Spectre, which is called LFENCE, places sensitive code in a waiting area until the security checks are executed, and only then is the sensitive code allowed to execute," Venkat said. "But it turns out the walls of this waiting area have ears, which our attack exploits. We show how an attacker can smuggle secrets through the micro-op cache by using it as a covert channel."

Venkat's team includes three of his computer science graduate students, Ph.D. student Xida Ren, Ph.D. student Logan Moody and master's degree recipient Matthew Jordan. The UVA team collaborated with Dean Tullsen, professor of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of California, San Diego, and his Ph.D. student Mohammadkazem Taram to reverse-engineer certain undocumented features in Intel and AMD processors.

They have detailed the findings in their paper: "I See Dead ops: Leaking Secrets via Intel/AMD Micro-Op Caches."

This newly discovered vulnerability will be much harder to fix.

"In the case of the previous Spectre attacks, developers have come up with a relatively easy way to prevent any sort of attack without a major performance penalty" for computing, Moody said. "The difference with this attack is you take a much greater performance penalty than those previous attacks."

"Patches that disable the micro-op cache or halt speculative execution on legacy hardware would effectively roll back critical performance innovations in most modern Intel and AMD processors, and this just isn't feasible," Ren, the lead student author, said.

"It is really unclear how to solve this problem in a way that offers high performance to legacy hardware, but we have to make it work," Venkat said. "Securing the micro-op cache is an interesting line of research and one that we are considering."

Venkat's team has disclosed the vulnerability to the product security teams at Intel and AMD. Ren and Moody gave a tech talk at Intel Labs worldwide April 27 to discuss the impact and potential fixes. Venkat expects computer scientists in academia and industry to work quickly together, as they did with Spectre, to find solutions.

The team's paper has been accepted by the highly competitive International Symposium on Computer Architecture, or ISCA. The annual ISCA conference is the leading forum for new ideas and research results in computer architecture and will be held virtually in June.

Venkat is also working in close collaboration with the Processor Architecture Team at Intel Labs on other microarchitectural innovations, through the National Science Foundation/Intel Partnership on Foundational Microarchitecture Research Program.

Venkat was well prepared to lead the UVA research team into this discovery. He has forged a long-running partnership with Intel that started in 2012 when he interned with the company while he was a computer science graduate student at the University of California, San Diego.

This research, like other projects Venkat leads, is funded by the National Science Foundation and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Venkat is also one of the university researchers who co-authored a paper with collaborators Mohammadkazem Taram and Tullsen from UC San Diego that introduce a more targeted microcode-based defense against Spectre. Context-sensitive fencing, as it is called, allows the processor to patch running code with speculation fences on the fly.

Introducing one of just a handful more targeted microcode-based defenses developed to stop Spectre in its tracks, "Context-Sensitive Fencing: Securing Speculative Execution via Microcode Customization" was published at the ACM International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems in April 2019. The paper was also selected as a top pick among all computer architecture, computer security, and VLSI design conference papers published in the six-year period between 2014 and 2019.

The new Spectre variants Venkat's team discovered even break the context-sensitive fencing mechanism outlined in Venkat's award-winning paper. But in this type of research, breaking your own defense is just another big win. Each security improvement allows researchers to dig even deeper into the hardware and uncover more flaws, which is exactly what Venkat's research group did.

###

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 public engineering school in the country for the rate of Ph.D. enrollment growth since 2015. Learn more at engineering.virginia.edu.

This story has been published on: 2021-04-30. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Woburn, MA (01801)

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Cloudy with occasional showers for the afternoon. High 89F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

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Partly cloudy. Low 63F. Winds light and variable.
As a businessman Eli saw around corners, as a philanthropist he saw the problems in the world and tried to fix them, as a citizen he saw the possibility in our shared community, and as a husband, father and friend he saw the potential in each of us, Gerun Riley, president of The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, said in a statement Friday.
Kayla Moitui wants to save the world one child at a time.

The Easton Area High School senior hopes to be a pediatrician one day. And not just one who helps Easton area children.

She dreams of opening practices in this area and around the world focusing on low-income and underprivileged youths.

She got a big boost toward her dream when she was selected as a Stamps Scholar. The program will give her free tuition, room and board for four years at the University of Pittsburgh plus a $17,000 stipend for the independent academic pursuit of her choice. Only five potential Pitt Panthers out of 900 applicants won the scholarship.

She knew she had it when a package from the university showed up at her Forks Township door.

It was Feb. 24 at 11 a.m. Thats how memorable it was, Moitui said. I almost had to dodge my head around the papers to make sure I didnt get any tear stains on the contract.

She knew she wanted to be a pediatrician after volunteering to help build a school in Kenya. Its the same school her parents attended before emigrating to the Lehigh Valley, where Kayla and her brother were born.

There was only one room for more than 80 students, and the Moituis helped add several buildings.

I met some amazing children and I want to find a way to give back to that community and give back to the world, she said.

The scholarship was created by Roe and Penny Stamps. It offers free tuition at 37 different colleges and universities.

Moitui underwent a grueling application process that required three interviews.

It was definitely a very thorough process, she said.

Scholars need to demonstrate leadership. She served as president of the Aevidum Club, a mental health awareness organization. She participated in the UNICEF Club, Reading Olympics, volleyball team, choir and volunteered with her church and at a nursing home.

She also found time to tutor blind and visually impaired students, an issue that touches her personally. Her brother, Kenneth, suffers from a condition that is gradually taking away his sight. He was profiled in a 2017 lehighvalleylive.com story about his determination and his beloved place in the Easton Area High School community.

His vision loss remains stable. Hes now a student at East Stroudsburg University.

Moitui said she plans to use the $17,000 stipend on research into differing educational opportunities to children around the world.

She thanked her parents, her brother, and Easton Area teachers Rachel Peters, Crafford Harris, Morgan Hammerstone and Brandon Kazan for their help with the application process.

I am so blessed to have such amazing role models at my side, she said.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to Lehighvalleylive.com.

Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com.
Pennsylvania state police found five pounds of marijuana in a car pulled over for a traffic stop on Interstate 78, according to court papers.

The criminal complaint says police pulled over the car for speeding and failing to move into the unoccupied right lane of the highway at 9 a.m. on Thursday in Lower Saucon Township.

The occupants of the car, Yan-An Chencen and Zixian Chencen, declined to permit police to search the car, records say. A drug-sniffing dog, however, indicated there was contraband in the car. After obtaining a warrant, police found the five pounds of marijuana, records say.

Zixian Chencen, 21, of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Yan-An Chencen, 18, of New York City, were each sent to prison in lieu of posting $100,000 bail. Each is charged with possession with intent to deliver marijuana, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

The court records dont say whether the Chencens are related.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to Lehighvalleylive.com.

Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com.
Five public high schools in the Lehigh Valley cracked the top 100 in a state ranking released last week.

The rankings come from U.S. News & World Report, which ranked more than 17,800 public high schools throughout the country. (Private entities like Catholic schools were excluded.)

The idea is to measure how well schools serve students from various social and economic backgrounds, based on six criteria, according to the publication.

Topping the 2021 list was Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia. The same school was ranked top in the nation in 2020, pennlive.com reports.

Making the top 100 in Pennsylvania from Lehigh and Northampton counties were Southern Lehigh Senior High School (77), Nazareth Area High School (84), Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts (85), Saucon Valley Senior High School (87) and Lehigh Valley Academy Regional Charter School (92).

Warren Countys highest-ranking high school in New Jersey was Warren Hills Regional High School (200).

For community bragging rights, for example, the Bethlehem Area School Districts Liberty High School (404) was ranked higher than Freedom High School (463). Easton Area High School (300) trailed Wilson Area High School (105). (Phillipsburg High School came came in 225th in New Jersey, for those looking at a cross-river rivalry.)

Following are the state rankings for Pennsylvania and New Jerseys public high schools, and you can search for your school. (You can click the state names here to view them, since the database tables may not display on platforms.)

The criteria that went into the U.S. News & World Report rankings are as follows:

College readiness (30% of the ranking): The percentage of 12th graders from the class of 2018-2019 who took at least one AP or IB exam by the end of their senior year and the percentage of 12th graders who earned a qualifying score on at least one AP or IB exam in high school. Earning a qualifying score is weighted three times more than taking.

College curriculum breadth (10%): The percentage of 12th graders from the class of 2018-2019 who took a wide variety of AP and IB courses across the multiple disciplines and the percentage of 12th graders who earned a qualifying score on them. Earning a qualifying score is weighted three times more than taking.

Reading and math proficiency (20%): Measures how well students scored on state assessments that measure proficiency in reading and mathematics. Passing these assessments can be required for graduation.

Reading and math performance (20%): The difference between how students performed on state assessments and what U.S. News predicted based on a schools student body. U.S. News modeling across all 50 states and the District of Columbia indicates that the percentage of students from historically underserved subgroups  defined as Black students, Hispanic students, and students who are eligible for free and reduced price lunch  are highly predictive of a schools reading and math scores.

Underserved student performance (10%): How well the student population receiving subsidized school lunch and Black and Hispanic populations perform on state assessments relative to statewide performance among students not in those subgroups.

Graduation rate (10%): For the 2021 rankings, the graduation rate corresponds to the 2019 graduation cohort who would have entered ninth grade in the 2015-2016 school year. The high school graduation rates were collected directly from each state along with the math and reading assessment data.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com.

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com.
'Sure wouldn't Ireland be grand if we put a roof on it?'

Well the capital town in Laois is in line to get a roof, so Portlaoise locals and visitors can dine and drink al fresco whatever the weather.

A Portlaoise councillor has received a positive response from Laois County Council on her suggestion to get a grant to buy a retractable cover for Main Street in Portlaoise.

Cllr Catherine Fitzgerald says it would make the town unique and attractive for tourists and locals, no matter the weather.

This project would be of great benefit to the community and hospitality businesses. The Old Fort Festival had a very successful canopy. It would make the town unique and attractive for visitors and all the community, for Christmas markets and festivals. We are totally weather dependent.

Cllr Fitzgerald also asked for the top square in Portlaoise to have a new focus on events.

The shrine area in Market Square seems kind of left out. It was always a huge meeting place, it had seats. It lends itself to the public realm, she said.

Her motion was tabled to the April meeting of Portlaoise Municipal District.

Cllr Noel Tuohy seconded it and said it is an excellent idea.

Council Director Simon Walton replied that they are looking for funding.

Laois County Council notes the policy shift towards outdoor dining and outdoor performance and events spaces. The Council is currently and will continue to engage with any funding streams that support weather proofed outdoor dining spaces and/or weather proofed outdoor spaces suitable for performances and events. Subject to agreement on detail Main Street, Market Square and/or other suitable locations can be considered for any such grant schemes, he said.

No final plans have been made yet on any pedestrianisation of the Main Street for outdoor dining this summer.
The CEO of a wealth management and investment advice firm has claimed before the High Court that he was wrongly summarily dismissed from his 125,000 per year job last week.

Rory Mason, who is the CEO and the beneficial owner of 15% of the firm's shares of Dublin-based firm GillenMarkets says that his employer has wrongly accused him of gross misconduct, namely that he stole 14,000 from the firm.

He strongly denies any wrongdoing, and claims that the "accusation of theft" re "utterly without foundation" and claims they are a "contrived attempt" to remove him from his position as CEO "by whatever means necessary".

He also says that he was "left shocked" and "utterly taken aback" by the accusations made at the meeting between him and the company chairman Mr Dermott Browne.

Oisin Quinn SC for Mr Mason told the High Court that the money was paid to his client by way of an annual bonus, which he said was fully disclosed to and approved by the company's board.

It is his client's case that he is the subject of baseless and false allegations and Mr Mason was dealt with by the chairman without any process of investigation at all.

Counsel the defendant's actions amount to breach of his client's legal entitlements as well as his constitutional rights, and rights to natural justice.

As a result, Mr Mason has sued his employer, ILTB trading as GillenMarkets, and Mr Dermot Browne, the company's chairman.

At the High Court on Wednesday Mr Justice Senan Allen granted Mr Mason a temporary injunction, on an ex-parte basis, preventing the defendants from implementing or terminating Mr Mason's purported dismissal.

The court also restrained the defendants from publicising, repeating, or communicating in any form the misconduct alleged against Mr Mason.

Seeking the injunctions Mr Quinn, appearing with Ray Ryan Bl and instructed by solicitor Simon McAleese, said that had been difficulties within the company's board for some time.

Counsel said that prior to the allegation of theft being made against Mr Mason, his client has been asked by the company to leave his role as CEO and take up another position within the firm, which he declined.

Following the meeting with the chairman, who the court heard has not day to day role in the operation of the company, Mr Mason was also told that the matter could be reported to both the Gardai and the Central Bank of Ireland, which regulates the company.

At that meeting counsel said that Mr Browne also told Mr Mason to write a letter of resignation and return all company property to the firm.

Mr Mason, a father of five who is aged in his mid-fifties, said in a sworn statement to the court said that during that meeting "It was clear that I was being fired," and that he was being given a short window to resign, which he declined to do.

Counsel said that any dismissal would have a huge impact on Mr Mason's professional reputation within the financial services sector, where he has worked for the last 25 years.

He has been with GillenMarkets for some years, and the company has been successful and grown, counsel said.

The matter was adjourned and will return before the court next week.
WHEN we reconnected last week, it was nearly 12 months to the day since we helped him open that account.

Im referring to a young gentleman who reached out for investment advice in late March 2020. He had 8,000 to invest and wanted to know what he should be doing with it.

He didnt have the knowledge, or perhaps confidence is a better word, to do it himself. He had registered with some online investment platforms because his friends had, but they didnt make sense to him. And he didnt really have the time or interest to track his investments and he wouldnt know when to buy or sell or make switches. It felt like hard work and it just wasnt for him.

Anyway, long story short, once we carried out our due diligence, out of all the many providers and funds available, I thought Zurich Lifes, 5 Star Global fund, suited him best, and he agreed. So, within a couple of days the account was open, money lodged, job done.

Fast forward 1 year, and as planned we had a date locked into our diaries to have a catchup. And it was a really good conversation because we both knew how his fund had performed.

His 8,000 now stood at 11,783.

Which was an increase of 47% in just 1 year.

He was obviously delighted with the return and as happy as he was, there was a tinge of regret that he hadnt opened the account sooner, but better late than never as they say.

I remember when he made contact, there were others who reached out too, and the trigger for everyone was an article, I wrote called buy the dip, but watch out for the dead cat.

It turned out that those, who followed through with the advice, did in fact buy the dip and have enjoyed incredibly good returns.

And just in case you were wondering, what would have happened if their timing was really poor and they set up their accounts at the worst possible time i.e. just before the onslaught of Covid, yes, their investment would have initially dropped in value, but it would have recovered, and theyd have still, ended up with an increase of 18.4% on their investment 12 months later.

Anyway, following our meeting, I began to wonder about those who contacted me at the same time last year but never followed through with the account.

So, I decided to reach out to some of them and find out whether they opened a different account or what happened? They seemed enthusiastic at the time, but nothing ever arrived back.

And of the four that I did speak to, three of them told me they did nothing. They didnt open any account and the funds were still sitting in either their deposit or Credit Union account, earning nothing.

The other person I spoke with, decided to go solo and set up an on-line trading account with Degiro.

When I asked him, how his investments had performed, overall he said some were good, and some very bad. It was a lot of work, which he didnt mind but the returns werent what hed hoped for.

The scores on the doors showed the return on his investments over the past 12 months amounted to about 7% which was actually really good.

And you know for me it didnt matter, that someone else was able to achieve a return nearly 7 times greater without any involvement or sleepless nights.

What was important, was that both followed through and set up their accounts.

There were three people I knew of, and there are probably many more like them, who didnt do anything, and thats a shame, but its not uncommon either.

And in fairness, the biggest problem for most people is that good investment advice will always sound great and makes more sense when looking back at the past or planning ahead for the future. It may not sound so great in the moment when you have to use it.

Which creates a problem because for whatever reasons, inaction when it comes to our finances is widespread, and unfortunately it can have serious implications. There have been many studies which have shown people are slow to take effective action with their money, and the term used to describe this phenomenon is called financial inertia.

Its when people put off financial planning or setting up investment accounts or paying off debt or monthly budgeting etc. even though they know they need to. They are in a state of doing nothing, and always procrastinate when it comes to making decisions about anything related to money.

And the reasons they dont follow through and take action isnt down to laziness, although for some it probably is, the bigger and more common reasons that hold people back, are a fear of making a mistake, fear of losing money, confusion over how and where to get started, being faced with too many choices, being too busy, or the hassle and stress of setting up new accounts and completing paperwork.

Unfortunately this hesitation leads to many lost opportunities that compound over time.

And some try to convince themselves otherwise and tell themselves that small amounts wont matter in the overall scheme of things but think again. I read one study recently which suggested the annual opportunity cost for not putting your money to work was up to 1,820 for every 10,000 saved.

So, be in no doubt, that inertia is an enemy to making progress with your finances. Being in that state of flux means your finances remain stuck in the doldrums, while those around you are making progress, not because they make any more money than you do, but because they took action and did something.

The good news is that this financial inertia can be overcome, and the strongest and best intervention usually comes from that internal force which drives you towards achieving a particular goal. Having that pull rather than push towards achieving something that has meaning for you, makes sense.

Regardless of whatever your triggers are, you need to recognise that the longer you wait to take action, the harder your money (and you) will have to work in order to catch up and you also may have to take more risks than youre comfortable with.

Look, nothing I or anyone else says, can motivate you better than you can. You know what your reasons for inaction are, and you also know what your strengths and weaknesses and shortcomings are.

And theres no way to know or guarantee that any new account opened now will deliver 47% again in the year ahead, but theres one way youll never find out and thats by doing nothing.

So, Id encourage you to do something, and that might be opening up a new account, or increasing your pension contributions, or saving into equity purchase schemes, or monitoring your monthly outgoings, or paying down debt and so on.

And if youre still having difficulty, Id recommend you reach out and consult a financial adviser, because if theyre any good, theyll get to understand your situation, theyll keep things simple and guide you at a pace youre comfortable with.

Liam Croke is MD of Harmonics Financial Ltd, based in Plassey. He can be contacted at liam@harmonics.ie or www.harmonics.ie
A burglar who wielded a champagne bottle when he entered his female neighbour's house in the middle of the night has had his sentence reduced by the Court of Appeal.

Jack McCarthy (24), of Ardbhaile, Mayfield, Co Cork carried out the burglary on April 11 at a house near his home in Ardbhaile. He was sentenced at Cork Circuit Court last year to four years in prison with the final year suspended for two years. President of the three-judge Court of Appeal Mr Justice George Birmingham on Friday reduced that sentence to three years with the final six months suspended.

Mr Justice Birmingham said McCarthy had entered a signed plea of guilty at the earliest opportunity in the District Court and maintained that plea when sent forward to the Circuit Court. The judge said he wants to "reiterate our view of the desirability of encouraging that practice." He said such an early guilty plea is valuable and deserves "significant weight" when sentencing judges are considering mitigating factors that might reduce an offender's sentence. In McCarthy's case, he said, the judge had correctly set a headline sentence of four years but the Court of Appeal felt that the early guilty plea warranted a greater reduction from the headline.

He also noted evidence that McCarthy, a drug addict, had shown genuine remorse and before the offence had tried to enlist in a residential rehabilitation programme but was unable to do so because of the first public health lockdown.

Justice Birmingham added: "That he recognised his need for help and was willing to seek it out was significant." Aggravating factors in the case included McCarthy's previous convictions, which include one for burglary, two for assault and two for possession of knives.

Setting out the background, Mr Justice Birmingham said three female occupants of a house in Ardbhaile heard a noise and went to their front door where they found an unknown man holding the door open. That man fled and the three women then saw their neighbour, McCarthy, at the top of the stairs coming out of a bedroom with a bottle of champagne in one hand and an unidentified implement in the other.

McCarthy did not find the bottle in the house but had brought it with him and Mr Justice Birmingham said the only reason for doing so was to use it to threaten or intimidate the female occupants of the house. He noted the level of distress the three women felt.

McCarthy was arrested later that night and gardai found on him a mobile phone belonging to one of the women. He was initially too intoxicated to be interviewed but later made full admissions and entered an early plea.
A key objective of the Irish National Rural Network (NRN) is to promote innovative initiatives that can help people in the farming community and in rural areas to maximize the success of the objectives set out in Irelands Rural Development Programme (RDP) on behalf of the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine.

A recent Entrepreneurial Young Trained Farmer case study they carried with 27-year-old Karol Devaney from Co Sligo is a key example of how the network communicates important opportunities and outputs in the RDP to the general public.

Karol graduated from University College Dublin in 2019 with a degree in Agricultural Science majoring in Food and Agribusiness Management. He now farms at home at the foot of Benbulben in Barnaribbon, Drumcliffe where his family has farmed since the 1960s.

His progression in farming over the past few years, as well as his entrepreneurial endeavours to date, is an inspiring story, and one that can assist and encourage other young Irish farmers to actively engage with, and avail of the various schemes and supports available to them under the Rural Development Programme (RDP), as well as to think outside the box in relation to the future trajectory of their career in agriculture.

Farming runs through Karols blood, with his family being farmers for as far back as he knows, both on his mother and fathers side.

My grandfather Tom was raised in Glencar, Co Leitrim, and he went to America to work for around eight years and then came back and bought the farm our family has now, said Karol.

Today, my Dad and uncle, along with myself and my sister, Joanne, farm here on a mixture of owned and rented land.

In relation to their system of farming, Karol explains that they are sheep farmers who keep predominantly Blackface Mountain Ewes with some Blackface crosses. These are then mated to a mixture of Blackface, Cheviot and Charollais Rams.

Our farming system is designed to be time and labour efficient. We try to use easy lambing rams and hardy, easily maintained ewes. We lamb them all outside and dont feed any concentrates to our ewes in Spring. This system suits us for multiple reasons, namely because have a large number of sheep, our farm is quite fragmented, and we all work off farm.

Karol adds that we also own a sheep shearing business here called DSS -Devaney Shearing Services. Dad has been shearing for over 30 years and built up a good reputation locally, so we are carrying on the shearing tradition now. Its tough work but good money once you get faster at it.

Support under the RDP (2014-2020)

Supporting young farmers wishing to enter the agricultural sector is a key priority of Irelands RDP. Throughout the European Union, such measures aimed at stimulating generational renewal in agriculture are increasingly viewed as crucial to the survival, continuity and future prosperity of the agri-food industry, traditional family farm model and broader sustainability of rural society.

Since graduating from UCD, Karol has leased a nearby farm and entitlements in his own right. He has also availed of an additional top-up payment on his Basic Payment (BPS) under the National Reserve - Young Farmer Category upon doing so.

Karol explains that this approach has certainly been very beneficial for me personally in terms of getting a start in farming, I am the eldest of 9 children and dad is only in his early 50s so he has a good farming career ahead of him and it made sense at the time for me to start my own flock.

I have noticed however that there is a lot of competition for land locally both for leasing and buying and its difficult to expand. The fact that I am leasing both my entitlements and land means that at the end of the lease I could be left with nothing but a flock of homeless sheep! That being said, it has given me a good lift off in my farming career. All going well I will buy some land of my own in the next couple of years.

Entrepreneurial Activities - Eweknit

Karol is also an entrepreneur, having set up the Eweknit brand farmers in 2018.

He explains that with Eweknit, I create content for farmers in the form of a regular podcast as well as supplying gear and clothing for members of the farming community too.

Explaining the background and motivations for establishing this enterprise, Karol says that he went shearing full time in Australia and New Zealand after I graduated from UCD, but once the Covid-19 pandemic hit, I was forced to stay in Ireland, and it was then that I started the podcast, and then a few months after that, started selling clothing.

Eweknit has been very well received so far so I intend to bring out more products and expand the business. I have quite a few international listeners on my podcast, and a number of orders have gone oversees to countries such as Australia, the US and around Europe also, he said adding he is looking forward to getting out to shows and events when things begin to open-up again.

I intend to support worthy causes with Eweknit and sponsor some shearing competitions, and stock judging shows, etc.

Karol also highlights the advantages of working for himself, in that his work is extremely variable, and suited to his own schedule and interests.

One day I might be shearing sheep, the next day Ill be in the mart, the next day Ill be tweaking the website and the next day Ill be packing orders or recording a podcast with a guest, he notes. You have to fulfil multiple roles and learn quickly which seems to suit me.

Whilst shearing, ecommerce and podcasting appear to require different skillsets, Karol explains that they also overlap in surprising ways.

Shearing or any other form of agricultural contracting is a great way to network with farmers and learn about different farm systems, even if it is sometimes what not to do! he said.

The podcast and the brand complement each other very well. With the podcast, I add value to participants profile for free whilst simultaneously raising awareness about the brand. The podcast is also a great way to network with and learn from smart people.

Reflecting on the challenges and opportunities in starting your own business as a young entrepreneur, Karol admits that he often looks at fellow graduates from UCD working for big companies now, and sometimes I wonder am I going down the right path.

Theyre certainly making more money than me at present. I guess the cool thing about having your own business however is the potential in the long term. Being a business owner, you take on more accountability and more risk than if you are working for someone, but the hope that is in the long term there will be greater upside.

LEADER Programme



Karol also has an in-depth understanding of rural development policy and funding, particularly the LEADER Programme, having carried out his work experience with County Sligo LEADER Partnership Company while studying at UCD.

Karol believes that LEADER funding can play a huge role in helping to ensure the future sustainability and viability of rural Irish society, both from an economic and social perspective and he plans to avail of support under the LEADER Programme to help advance his Eweknit business over the next few years.

Irelands Rural Future

Looking towards the future of farming and rural society here in Ireland, Karol acknowledges that while its hard to predict, it will certainly look different from the way it does today.

One of the biggest challenges, I think, facing the sector will be keeping young people in agriculture. Technology is advancing on society like a tidal wave, and the focus is now on created jobs in the IT sector.

Farming, while challenging, is a rewarding lifestyle and a good, healthy way to make a living. I also think that farms should be smaller, rather than bigger, in the long term. This would result in more people being involved in the industry, with positive knock-on impacts to rural society more generally.

If more people had their own farms and were growing even some of their own food for example, it would also make a huge difference to the environment.

Karol admits that farms seem to be going in the other direction at the moment however, particularly in the dairy sector.

On what advice he would give to other young farmers seeking to diversify their farm income, Karol explains that while he is still early on in his entrepreneurial journey, he would say that if youre thinking of doing something just start right away. Unless you hit the business lottery its going to take years to get to where you want to go, and you will not get it perfect the first time so just start. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

For more see: https://www.eweknit.com/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/Eweknit/

Instagram:www.insta

gram.com/eweknitapparel/?hl=en

Twitter: www.twitter.com/eweknitapparel

YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UC7f66pGEzN7ceOdzaU7z3Sg
An application to change the date on a summons was accepted by Judge Kevin Kilrane who said it was not prejudicial to the defendant.

The case of drug driving before the court involved Christopher Gillen, 17 Devins Drive, Cranmore, Sligo who was charged with the offence on September 28, 2019 at Doon, Boyle, Co Roscommon.

The prosecutions case had been heard last month and the case had been adjourned for both sides to make their arguments on that specific point.

On the last occasion, arresting officer, Garda Aisling OBrien, detected the defendant driving at 133kph in a 100kph zone at 11.55pm on September 28, 2019.

She stopped him and spoke with him and said he was giddy and his eyes were dilated. She formed an opinion that he was under the influence of an intoxicant and he provided an oral specimen that showed positive for cannabis.

Mr Gillen was arrested and brought to Carrick-on-Shannon Garda Station where he was processed and provided a specimen of blood. The fine for speeding was paid.

John Anderson, solicitor, argued that the date on the summons, September 29, was incorrect and that the alleged offence took place on September 28.

He said there was no application by the State to amend the date and said it effectively prejudiced his client.

Inspector Emmet Treacy said the accused was stopped before midnight but the test was carried out on the 29th and he asked for the date to be amended.



When the case came back before the court last week, Mr Anderson again contended the date on the summons was incorrect.

Insp Treacy said Mr Gillen was stopped for speeding at 11.55pm on the 28th but the garda formed her opinion and arrested him at 12.23am on the 29th. Insp Treacy submitted case law that reasoned there was no prejudice in relation to the date on the summons.

Mr Anderson said the matter had been before the court six times. He said there was no evidence his client had been driving on the 29th and the States evidence was he was driving on the 28th.

Mr Anderson said to amend the date at such a late juncture would prejudice his client and he applied for the case to be dismissed.



Judge Kevin Kilrane said that prejudice cannot exist in a vacuum. He said there must be real prejudice such as excess alcohol in the breath and the prosecution seek a hearing stating excess alcohol in the blood. He said such a case would be prejudicial.

Judge Kilrane said if there cant be prejudice in theory and prejudice must be shown to exist. He said the case boiled down to a bare technical point that someone who was driving at five minutes to midnight on the 28th but was not driving after midnight on the 29th, that the charge should relate to his driving before midnight rather than after it.

He said the courts were there to do justice between the parties and he said a point such as this couldnt possibly be used to defeat a case that was put forward correctly.

He said he was going to amend the summons to read the correct date of the 28th.



Mr Anderson also raised the matter of delay in regard to the blood sample certificate taking three months to issue.

Judge Kilrane said he has previously heard evidence from a doctor in the Medical Bureau of the lengthy processes used and he could not find a delay was excessive in this case.

Judge Kilrane convicted and fined Mr Gillen 300 and disqualified him from driving for one year.
A man who attacked and raped a woman he met on the dating app Tinder has been jailed for seven-and-a-half years.

During the attack in the woman's home, Peter Loughran (36) banged the woman's head off of the floor and slapped her in the face when she started praying out loud. At one point he began filming her with his phone and slapped her in the face when she tried to cover her face with her hair.

The Central Criminal Court heard that Loughran took off the victim's clothes very aggressively before proceeding to rape and later orally rape her.

The incident came to an end after the victim told Loughran she was insulin dependent, pretended to faint and said she would die unless she went to hospital. She pretended to collapse as they were leaving the apartment, then went back inside her home once he had left and locked the door.

Loughran, originally from Co Monaghan, with an address at Glasnevin Downs, Ballygall, Dublin, pleaded guilty to rape and oral rape at an address in Dublin on January 5, 2018. His four previous convictions include convictions for possession of drugs, drink driving and public order offences.

At a sentencing hearing on Friday, Vincent Heneghan SC, prosecuting, read into the record a medical report which stated that after the offence, the victim was diagnosed with genital herpes which appeared to be a new infection and likely the result of the assault.

In her victim impact statement, which was read by counsel on her behalf, the victim said that Loughran not only destroyed my life but he also drastically changed my future.

The memories of that day of horror will never be erased from my mind no matter how hard I try, she said in her statement.

The victim said that mentally and physically the marks are on me forever. She said that if she is alone in her home she is afraid to open the door and if it is a man, she is afraid he will lock her in a bedroom for another night of torture.

She said she has scars on her vagina as a result of this and has an incurable STD. She said she is afraid she has passed the STD onto her child and will have them tested in the future.

I just want it to be over, I never want to speak about this again, she said.

Justice Paul McDermott said the effect of this kind of assault on a person within their own home is very difficult for people looking in on the facts of this case to appreciate and understand.

Justice McDermott said the trauma that is visited in those circumstances is stark and deep. He said that very significant and terrible damage had been done to the victim.

He said the offences were carried out in her home by a man who was essentially a trusted guest. He said the assaults were carried out  in a manner that was quite degrading and that her repeated pleas for him to stop were rejected.

Justice McDermott said that these factors, as well as a recording being made of some of what Loughran did, were aggravating factors in the case.

He said that Loughran had expressed what he was satisfied was genuine regret and remorse. He noted that the accused has been assessed at a low to moderate risk of sexual reoffending and is willing to engage with any appropriate programme.

Justice McDermott sentenced Loughran to nine years imprisonment, but suspended the final 18 months on strict conditions including that he refrain from using any online dating app and not contact the victim or her family in any way.

Additional evidence

At a previous sentencing hearing, Garda Catherine Byrne told Mr Heneghan that a week or two before the incident, the victim had met Loughran on Tinder and they struck up a conversation.

Gda Byrne said the victim invited Loughran into her apartment and they had a conversation about general things. He drank half a beer and said he had drunk a lot of whiskey that day, but the victim later said she did not get a smell of alcohol from him and he did not seem drunk.

Loughran kissed her and then became aggressive and said he would massage the woman's back. He turned her around and during the massage, Loughran put his hand under her top and grabbed her breast.

The victim got scared and told the man it was time for him to go.

Loughran asked for water and followed her into the kitchen where she said he should leave. He said it was cold and asked if he could go to her bedroom so he could get warm as it was the only room with a heater and she replied he could get warm before leaving.

In the bedroom Loughran took off the victim's clothes very aggressively. Loughran penetrated the victim's vagina and anus with his fingers on several occasions.

He raped the victim while not wearing a condom, but was only able to insert the top of his penis. He also bit the woman's breasts.

At one point, he started to film her with his phone and slapped her in the face when she tried to cover her face with her hair. She started screaming and he hit her head off of the floor three times.

At another stage, he stopped touching her for a while and she started praying out loud. He told her to stop and slapped her in the face.

The victim believed that the incident would go on for days and started trying to negotiate with the man. She said she had a boyfriend who would soon arrive and a flatmate who was moving in the next morning, but Loughran did not believe either of her claims.

She tried to calm him down and reminded him of his family who he had mentioned in conversation earlier. He became calmer and said he would go if she helped him ejaculate.

She asked how and he said she could give him oral sex, which she did. Loughran praised her and said he would now fuck her ass, causing her to panic and start kicking and punching.

The incident came to an end when Loughran allowed the victim to go to the bathroom, but came with her and refused to leave. While in the bathroom, the victim pretended to vomit, tried to force herself to vomit and told him she was insulin dependent.

The victim pretended to faint and told Loughran that she would die unless she went to a hospital. He started to panic, put his clothes on and said he would take her to hospital.

As they left the apartment the victim pretended to collapse and Loughran told her to wait and he would go get his car. Once he had left her flat she went inside, locked the door and immediately called gardai.

The victim was brought to hospital by gardai, where she was examined and found to have bruising on numerous parts of her body including her genital and anal area.

In interview with gardai following his arrest, Loughran denied the offences and said that 90 per cent of what she said was not true. He said that what sexual contact there had been was consensual and he denied violently attacking her.

Gda Byrne agreed with James Dwyer SC, defending, that his client told gardai he had grown up in Monaghan. She agreed his client had agreed to go into custody of his own volition after pleading guilty in October 2020.

In a letter of apology, which was read out on his behalf by his counsel on Friday, Loughran said he sincerely apologised for what the victim had to endure.

The accused said his actions were not only wrong but inexcusable. He said he cannot expect forgiveness, but hopes the victim can one day forget and live a happy life.

Mr Dwyer said his client had undergone an STI test and was clear of the infections he was tested for, but as the defence had not known the victim had been diagnosed with genital herpes, his client had not been tested for it.

Counsel submitted that his client pleaded guilty at an early stage and did not have any relevant convictions. He submitted that his client had demonstrated insight and remorse into his offending behaviour and has demonstrated a capacity to rehabilitate.
With Jalali backing him up, Hopp is seen on bodycam footage roughly detaining Garner, who had walked out of a Walmart with $13.88 in merchandise she hadnt purchased in June. The ailing woman, who is suing the police department, suffered injuries including a broken humerus and a dislocated shoulder, according to her lawsuit.
Iarnrod Eireann (Irish Rail) have announced key future dates for customers to be aware of following recently issued Government guidelines.

First of all, the company urges customers to be aware of changes to their regular service timetable due to the Bank Holiday Weekend.

All services to/from Heuston require bus transfers this Saturday and Sunday due to major track works.

Looking forward, Iarnrod Eireann will be operating a full timetable again from Tuesday, May 4.

On Monday, May 10, train capacity for passengers will increase from 25% to 50%.

This increase in capacity coincides with the return of inter-county travel for non-essential workers.
The Public Health Agency (PHA) in Northern Ireland and the Health Service Executive (HSE) in the Republic of Ireland are urging people to stick to key public health advice and exercise caution over coming weeks, particularly with regard to cross-border activity. The call comes as Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland progress on the easing of their respective lockdowns.

Dr Gerry Waldron, Head of Health Protection at the PHA, said: As lockdowns ease in different ways either side of the border, we really want people to continue to exercise caution and restraint to help limit the spread of coronavirus. Some border communities have seen high levels of COVID-19 infection during the pandemic, so we need to act responsibly to help keep case numbers down and ultimately save lives.

We know there is a temptation to travel either side of the border to engage in activities as lockdowns ease, but if we see large number gathering or people abandoning public health advice, we could see cases rise significantly on both sides of the border. Viruses dont recognise borders, so we all need to act with caution.

Sticking to public health advice and behaving responsibility is the best way to help keep COVID-19 case numbers down and ensure that everyone can enjoy the benefits of easing lockdowns as safely as possible.

The PHA and HSE are warning that if we collectively fail to stick to public health guidance, viral transmission will increase and we will inevitably see increased cases reappear  no-one wants lockdown measures being reintroduced, so everyone has a responsibility to continue to adhere to the guidance.

Dr Anthony Breslin, Director of Public Health for HSE North West, said: The key advice around getting vaccinated when eligible, washing your hands, keeping your distance and wearing a face covering when appropriate still apply. By sticking to these steps, we can help ensure that as restrictions ease, we can enjoy the benefits while also keeping ourselves and those around us safe on both sides of the border.

It is also important not to move beyond what the guidelines permit at any given time or to take advantage of differing circumstances either side of the border in a way which could increase risk.

We also shouldnt become complacent as vaccination continues to be rolled out. Vaccines have an important role to play, but can never provide 100% protection, which is why the other public health steps are still important.

The opportunities we have for more normality are a positive, but could very quickly become a negative again if we put ourselves and others at risk by forgetting about the key steps to help stay safe. The last thing we want is to see restrictions being reintroduced, so it is important that every one of us does what we can to avoid that.

The core advice around what we can do to reduce our risk of getting COVID-19 or passing it on has been in place since the start of the pandemic and it is really important that we continue to follow these steps as we society starts to open up again:Wear a face covering indoors where social distancing isnt possible, or where its required, such as in shops, shopping centres, taxis, public transport and banks.

It is also essential to wear a face covering properly and to handle it appropriately with clean, or else it wont provide the maximum level of protection.

You should also maintain a social distance of at least 2m (around 6ft) between you and anyone outside of your household, to minimise your exposure to the virus and reduce the potential of spreading the infection.

It is also important to wash your hands properly, as this is one of the most effective things you can do to help prevent the spread of coronavirus. Wash hands regularly, and use sanitiser outside your home when hand washing isnt possible

If you are indoors, try to keep the area well-ventilated.

If you sneeze or cough, catch it, bin it, kill it.

Dr Waldron concluded: The advice is simple, but its there for a reason  to help keep us and those around us safe. Dont take unnecessary risks, exercise common sense, and take every step available to help protect yourself, your loved ones and communities on both side of the border.

Lets all make sure we do what we can to stay safe.


COVID has changed all our lives but only for it Liz Joscelyne and John Paul McCarthy wouldnt have found the love of their lives.

The pair, both in their 40s, had lived a few miles apart in Athlacca and Kilmallock for the last 20 years but had never set eyes on each other until last October. Now they are engaged to be married.

It was local councillor PJ Carey who played Cupid without knowing it. Liz manages Rathcannon House, a Georgian property featured on Airbnb. Business was understandably quiet late last year so she looked for a new job. Cllr Carey encouraged her to go for a job in Irema in Kilmallock, where he works, and Liz got it last October.

John Paul also works in Irema but love didnt blossom there. Not used to the rather sedentary working environment of a factory Liz decided to take up running to keep fit.

I love to keep fit, I'm an outdoor person, the factory lifestyle didnt suit me so I had to keep doing something, like running, said Liz.

Again Cllr Carey gave sage advice, steering Liz towards Kilmallock AC.

I was told about John Paul because he's a very good runner and I was told to go with him as he was a nice guy and very patient, said Liz. It was then that love began to blossom.

After about a month I suppose we started seeing each other. Working in Irema helped too. I'd see him on breaks and passing through, she said. So they met in October, started going out in November and John Paul popped the question in early April. He is fast off the mark on and off the track!

We knew what we had so what was the point of waiting? He took me to Ardpatrick Hill. We often go walking there. Its beautiful. He proposed at the top. He's a lovely guy, he's the nicest guy Ive ever met anyway, said Liz. Maybe fate did bring them together as their lives have followed very similar trajectories.

Were both from England. Im from Essex and John Paul is from Doncaster  half our lives were in England. We both settled in south Limerick, only a few minutes drive from each other and we never knew about each other, said Liz.

They were quick to get engaged but are in no rush to get married. Liz said they have to save up and will walk down the aisle in more normal times.

At least they have the venue sorted, Rathcannon House where Liz is back working. She has a busy summer ahead as they are nearly booked up until the end of September with lots of interest from staycationers.

But she returns to Rathcannon House with a husband-to-be because of a global pandemic.

It was Covid that brought us together because I went into Irema. I would had never gone in there if it wasn't for Covid and I would have never gone running.
LIMERICK councillors have unanimously passed a motion calling on Irish Water to come up with a five-year sewage treatment plan for the county.

And members have also once again reiterated their opposition to the proposed county development plan which would among other things see an effective ban on the construction of one-off housing.

Fine Gael councillor for Abbeyfeale Liam Galvin, who proposed the motion at a special meeting, said: If we adopt this county development plan with the plan the government has rolled out, the only people who will do well out of this are at the passport office. Because the people of rural Limerick will have nowhere to live. Thats not me being dramatic, thats the reality of it.

Irish Water has to introduce a five-year treatment plan. A five-year-old child could draw this up. There isnt a plan. Irish Water certainly hasnt got a plan in relation to the provision of sewage treatment for the towns and villages we all represent which are so badly in need of infrastructure.

The new county development plan, if it goes unchanged, will prioritise cluster developments near current settlements, with lands to be zoned.

However, Cllr Galvin added: We seem to be doing things upside down and back to front and getting nowhere with it.

If we sit back and think about what we are doing  we are zoning land and designating land inside of towns, and there is no infrastructure to build. If this was a private business, the first thing youd do is go away and get your infrastructure right before you have a plan, added the councillor.

His party colleague, Cllr John Egan, wants the State utility to have a time limit placed on its roadmap for rural Limerick  within the next three months.

Fine Gaels council leader John Sheahan said there is no point members planning for the future housing needs of the county town of Newcastle West, for example, without any news about whether the water treatment plant are going to be upgraded.

At present, Irish Water has not given a date for when this will happen.

We are in a sticky conundrum here, he told the meeting.

Councillor Tom Ruddle, an auctioneer based in Newcastle West, said there is a serious shortage of property in the town.

Where are young people going to live? I think young people are going to revel against all of this. The onus is on us to try and make a stand, he said.

Like a number of other councillors, he criticised Irish Water, describing the body as not fit for purpose.

Even with new homes, its costing 10,000 to make a water connection. Fifteen years ago, youd pay just 1,000 for a connection. The council would deal with it, and it was easy as you were dealing with a single entity, Cllr Ruddle added.

Independent councillor Jerome Scanlan said the development plan needs to be deferred until fresh and foul water is sorted.

The former Fine Gael man said pressure should be brought to bear on county Limericks trio of TDs.

A spokesperson for Irish Water said investment in infrastructure in Limerick is ongoing with numerous with numerous water and wastewater projects in varying stages of development.

The current Capital Investment Programme covers the period 2020  2024. In this period, Irish Water plans to invest 5.2 billion in drinking water and wastewater quality and capacity and new infrastructure. In developing the plan, we have engaged extensively with local authorities to identify priority investment areas and to support growth in the delivery of our strategic plan, they added.
THE allocation of 1.5m in funding for works at the Foynes Flying Boat and Maritime Museum has been broadly welcomed.

The monies, under the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund, are part of a 75m investment for 24 landmark regeneration projects in rural communities across the country.

Announcing details of the allocations, Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys said:

These projects will breathe new life into towns and villages across the country making them attractive and vibrant places for people to live, work, socialise and raise a family

The funding earmarked for Foynes will go towards what has been described as the ambitious reimagining of the existing museum.

The Chairman, Gerry Guihen, and Board of Directors of Foynes Flying Boat & Maritime Museum have also expressed their delight with the recent announcement.

This grant along with a previous commitment from the Department of Tourism, Culture & Arts of financial assistance to the tune of 1.75m means that our very ambitious development plans can proceed.

We are very thankful to Limerick City & County Council for putting this project forward and for supporting our efforts to get the remaining finances needed to complete the build. Without their buy in this project would not have been successful. Mr Guihen confirmed.

The new build will include a 112 seater Cinema, an expanded Archive, library and research centre, while a conference centre / multi purpose room will have the capability of seating 300 people concert style.

We have been working on this development for the past three years with a total cost of 4.8M to deliver it. The Museum has already expended over 600,000 to bring it through design, planning and ground floor expansion and acquiring extra space around the Museum.

We now have a further contribution of 100,000 to make from our own resources. When complete it will create extra employment, provide facilities that can be used not just by tourists but by the local community and business enterprises based in and around Foynes Gerry Guihen continued.

Other news features that the museum will boast include a

New large Board Room/ meeting/ training room

A Maureen OHara Museum wing.

A New expanded Aviation exhibition rooms.

Expanded Childrens Exhibition area and a twelve desk remote working hub with facilities.
TRIBUTES have been paid following the death of an industrialist who founded one of Newcastle Wests most well-known firms.

Peter Matson, the story goes, looked on from his horse in the hills above Newcastle West, before deciding to set up Scanglo International in the town, with the firm a key employer for decades.

Due to various takeovers, the firm is now known as Rettig Ireland, and it still retains a presence in Limericks county town.

Denis Murphy, who worked alongside Peter over 40 years, said he was such a nice man to work with.

There was an old tale told this man was into the fineries of life. He drove a nice car, and was into horseriding, he said, The story goes he was riding in the hills above Newcastle West, and looked down and said wouldnt that be a lovely town for a factory?

Scanglo was set up 53 years ago, later merging with Myson before becoming known as Rettig in the year 2000.

Mayor Michael Collins, who represents the town on the council said: Its been a very long-standing firm in the community. Hes given great employment down through the years. Its probably fed whole families! Many generations worked there.

He also offered his condolences to the Matson family.

It was significant in that he did look to Newcastle West as a location to put the factory, and for that, the people of Newcastle West and its surrounds, we are very grateful for that, the first citizen said.

Peter died in Florida following a short illness, aged 81 years.

His funeral will take place in the USA at a later date.

The beloved husband of Barbara and dear papa to Adam and Ivanna and a dear grandad, he is survived by sisters Liz Barry, based in Manister, and Diana Rusher, who lives in Britain. A brother of the late Richard.

Peters family have said it was a life well lived, and that hell be missed by all his relatives and his international friends.

May he rest in peace.
Film guru Ronan O'Meara has been scouring the TV schedules to find movies to watch as we begin the month of May.

Here are 16 to choose from over the next week....enjoy!

Reservation Road: Saturday, TG4 @ 8.40pm

The futures of two families, the Learner's and the Arno's, are forever changed one night after a chance occurrence on Reservation Road. An upsetting film no doubt, and maybe one to record and watch when times aren't so grim, but it's fine slice of life. A twisting turning look at loss and grief that might surprise you with how it plays out. Mark Ruffalo, Joaquin Phoenix and Jennifer Connelly do powerful work.

The Swimmer: Saturday, Sony Movies @ 10.50pm

Ned is living the suburban life in a New England valley. One day he realises he can swim his way home via a series of swimming pools dotting the backyards of his neighbours. As he sets off on his journey he makes a connection with the people who own them. A strange and surreal but oddly funny story about a person trying desperately to hold on to a life he's not living anymore. Bruce Lancaster is a spectacular lead.

Vertical Limit: Saturday, RTE One @ 11.45pm

K2. The second highest mountain in the world but the most dangerous. When Annie Garrett and her team find themselves trapped in the death zone and only her brother Peter has the skills to save her. This action thriller from 2000 is a very silly but very entertaining watch. It's far fetched stuff but it's so well made and put together you'll forgive it a lot. Robin Tunney, Chris O'Donnell and the much missed Bill Paxton lead a starry cast.

Our Man In Havana: Sunday, Sony Movies @ 3pm

Jim is an English immigrant living in Cuba. His day job isn't working out too well for him so he jumps at the chance of a bit of espionage excitement when it's offered to him. He weaves a web of lies that make him look like a hero but lies have a tendency to backfire. Alec Guinness is a joy in this 62 year old comedy that still feels fresh today. Maureen O'Hara, Noel Coward, Burl Ives and Ralph Richardson all add to the fun.

Pet Semetary: Sunday, Channel 4 @ 10pm

The Creeds have moved to the countryside to get away from the hustle and bustle of Boston life. There's something weird on their land and it comes in rather handy when tragedy strikes. This 2019 adaption of one of Stephen King's darkest stories isn't as successful as the 1989 version but there's plenty here to recommend including a spooky mythology and nice turns from Jason Clarke, Amy Seimetz and the mighty John Lithgow.

Dog Soldiers: Sunday, Film4 @ 11.20pm

A group of soldiers on routine training in the Scottish highlands find themselves under siege from a pack of beasts that should not exist. Neil Marshall's debut film is awesome. Hilarious, horrific, quotable, fun, disgusting and damn scary. A rare horror comedy that gets it's blend just right. All this and we get a wicked cast too. Sean Pertwee, Kevin McKidd, Liam Cunningham and Darren Morfitt who's just deadly as Spoon.

The Delinquent Season: Monday, RTE One @ 9.30pm

Danielle and Jim. Chris and Yvonne. Two couples in love, living the good life with their kids, From the outside things look flawless. But on closer inspection.... This 2018 Irish drama is a strange choice for a bank holiday Monday evening slot because it's a hell of a downer but it's one that's very well acted by a peach of a cast. Cillian Murphy, Eva Birthistle, Catherine Walker and Andrew Scott all bring their best to the table.

Tulip Fever: Monday, BBC2 @ 10pm

Amsterdam. 400 years ago. A painting is commissioned and the painter falls in love with the woman he's working with. She's unhappily married to an older man and accepts the younger man's advances. This erotically charged drama was caught up in the turmoil of the Weinstein arrest and vanished fast but it's worth discovering for yourself. It's a lovely looking film and Alicia Vikander and Dane DeHann do well in charge.

Das Boot: Monday, TCM @ 11.05pm

Set in 1942 during the Battle of the Atlantic, this is about the crew of a German submarine and the daily horrors they faced trying to stay alive in WW2. An unusual film in that we see the war both through German eyes and see these men for what they were, ordinary joe's following commands and suffering for it. Intense, claustrophobic and frightening stuff but really worth a watch. Jurgen Prochnow in the lead is phenomenal.

Maniac: Tuesday, The Horror Channel @ 12.55am

Frank owns a mannequin shop. He's a strange guy and that's putting things mildly. He gets even stranger when a young artist asks for his help and dark desires come bubbling to the surface. Elijah Wood stars in a remake of the infamous and long banned 1980 original and turns in a genuinely creepy performance in this ghoulish, surreal and at times nauseating look at the madness bubbling around inside the minds of men.

Elizabeth: Tuesday, Film4 @ 11.05pm

The death of her sister Queen Mary has elevated Elizabeth to the throne in the year 1588 and the position she has inherited is messy with external and internal strife making her position rather tenuous. The film that made Cate Blanchett famous is a strong one, a good looking, intelligent history lesson that proves once again that the Brits were always at it. Blanchett, Kathy Burke, Christopher Eccleston and Richard Attenborough all do great work.

Walking Out: Wednesday, Film4 @ 7.05pm

A father and son head into the deep Montana countryside in an effort to fix their estranged relationship during a hunting trip. A vicious encounter far from civilisation forces them to work together. A rough watch that's showing surprisingly early in the evening but a film that's worth your while with it's beautiful cinematography and solid performances from Matt Bomer and Josh Wiggins as Senior and Junior.

Reds: Thursday, Talking Pictures TV @ 9pm

The Bolshevik Revolution has done a number on John after he's travelled to Russia to write about it and when he returns to America he's a full blown communist. It leads him to the love of his life but it makes things complicated too. A big epic drama written by, directed by and starring Warren Beatty. It's length and pace may be off-putting to some but it's a muscular yet intimate slice of history. Beatty and Diane Keaton lead a packed cast.

Up In The Air: Thursday, BBC2 @ 11.30pm

A business man who spends his life travelling from place to place makes a connection with a woman who does the same and for the first time in his life thinks about settling down. George Clooney and Vera Farmiga lead a drama that's equally funny and sad. A story about people who think they have it all and have nothing at all and a caution about the silliness of valuing your work life above all else. Well worth a go.

The 'Burbs: Friday, The Horror Channel @ 2.35am

The Klopecks are an odd bunch and when they move into a quiet cul de sac the neighbours start getting suspicious, especially Ray and Art. Joe Dante's 1989 comedy is a nicely subversive watch that still hits the spot 32(!!!!) years later. Tense, scary and flat out uproarious at times. Tom Hanks is as always the perfect every-man and gets amusing support from the late Carrie Fisher, a bonkers Bruce Dern and that staple of 80's cinema, Corey Feldman.

When Harry Met Sally: Friday, BBC1 @ 10.50pm

Harry and Sally have been friends forever. They chat first thing in the AM and last thing in the PM. They'd be fantastic together. Their friends think so. But they claim they can just be friends without other nonsense getting in the way. Rob Reiner's comedy drama is a classic. Endlessly amusing and quotable and full of moments you know even if you're new to the film. Meg Ryan, Billy Crystal, Carrie Fisher and Bruno Kirby are all superb.

As always visit hamsandwichcinema.blogspot.com/ for more film and tv chat.
Fugitive diamond dealer Nirav Modi has filed an appeal in the United Kingdom High Court seeking permission to challenge the decision against the extradition order made by the lower court and passed by the UK Home Secretary.

On April 15, the UK government had signed an order for the extradition of Nirav Modi to India.

"On February 25, the District Judge gave judgment in the extradition case of Nirav Modi. The extradition order was signed on April 15," UK's Home Office spokesperson had said.

Nirav Modi, wanted in India on the charges of fraud and money-laundering, was arrested in March 2019 in London and charged with money laundering and defrauding Punjab National Bank (PNB) of more than 11,000 crore.

In February, a UK court had ordered his extradition to India to stand trial after dismissing arguments of his "mental health concerns", saying they are not unusual in a man in his circumstances.

Judge Samuel Goozee, sitting at Westminster Magistrate's Court in London, rejected each of the grounds laid out by Nirav Modi's defence against extradition.

He faces multiple charges in cases being handled by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.

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Sri Lanka is looking at sources other than India to purchase the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in view of delay in securing the vaccines from the Serum Institute of India, health authorities said on Saturday.

The supply is being delayed from India. We have to understand that India has to look after their own country before supplying to us. It is not that they have told no to us," Gen Shavendra Silva, the chief of the COVID prevention operations told reporters.

Silva said that presidential advisor Lalith Weeratunga was looking at other country sources to buy the coronavirus vaccines.

Sri Lanka was left with only 300,000 jabs of India-manufactured Covishield when it started rolling out the second jab.

Sri Lanka began administering the second dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday after assurances from Pune-based Serum Institute that it would send more consignments of the vaccine soon.

Sri Lanka had started its COVID-19 vaccination programme in late January, after receiving 500,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from India as a "gift". Subsequently, Sri Lanka placed orders with Serum Institute for more doses of the Covishield vaccine.

However, the inoculation programme was affected as the AstraZeneca vaccine manufacturer, Serum Institute of India, suspended vaccine supply, due to a spike in the number of coronavirus cases in India.

The Pune-based vaccine major has entered into a collaboration with the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca to manufacture the vaccine.

Sri Lanka's health officials said that COVAX facility, a global initiative to ensure rapid and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for all countries, regardless of income level, too has been hampered due to delays from the Serum Institute.

Chief epidemiologist Sudath Samaraweera said Sri Lanka is also considering a mix-and-match approach to the second dose roll out.

Experiments are under way in other countries and if there are positive results, we can give another vaccine as the second shot," Samaraweera said.

From January 29 to April 30, around 925,242 people had been given the first jab of Covishied.

China has donated 600,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccines to Sri Lanka. However neither the local health regulators or the WHO have approved its emergency use and the vaccine was administered on 2,865 Chinese workers employed in the country.

















This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.

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Denham Springs, LA (70726)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms in the morning becoming more widespread in the afternoon. High 88F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy. Low 72F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph.
Darryl Howard, now 58, was freed in 2016, but Fridays pardon from Gov. Roy Cooper allows him to seek up to $750,000 in compensation for the time he spent locked up.
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A.rtificial I.mmortality provides a diverting if superficial survey of how fast-evolving technology might be able to extend our lives  or at least some of our memories and characteristics. Featured as Hot Docs opening night selection, this Canadian documentary from director Ann Shin presents once-fantastical ideas now edging toward reality in a form palatable to broadcast viewers looking more for casual entertainment value than weighty investigation. But the film is weakened by its gratuitously first-person perspective, chosen for no obvious reason beyond the director evidently wanting to star in her own movie.

After an opening quote from Seneca, Shin takes center stage and stays there, as introduced at her 52nd birthday party, then perusing old family photos with two daughters. Her own mother has died, and her 78-year-old father is in a retirement home with dementia. But what if her own existence could somehow be elongated so that one day her grandchildrens grandchildren could know her?

The rest of the film is a sampler of current innovation, insights and sometimes sheer yearning related to such desires. Shin visits participants in the Transhumanist movement, some of whom are Christians who believe God surely meant for humans to eventually make death optional, turning life as immortal as the soul is said to be. (Much later we meet a cleric who takes great offense at this, noting that traditional theology already has that afterlife thing all worked out.)

At a consumer electronics show in Vegas, AI avatars are glimpsed, into which may be digitally uploaded mind files comprised of ones archived memories and mannerisms. Interviewee Deepak Chopra already has just such a clone of himself, which has absorbed his nearly 100 books and stiltedly interacts with others from that knowledge database. Soon Shin is compiling her own images and intel toward the same ends. When she shares a preliminary result with her kids, however, they treat the awkward screen demi-Mom as a sort of novelty toy  not unlike a trained talking parrot  which seems just about right.

We also hear from technology developers, media theorist Douglas Rushkoff, and BINA48, a robotic android with a human-like face that can hold simple conversations. But what exactly is immortal about a programmed artificial mind divorced from the original consciousness it has lifted select reminiscences, opinions and personality quirks from? Shin is told the goal is that future generations benefit from your wisdom. But cant that ego balm be equally sated by a video, journal or other less-elaborate (or creepy) record left behind? The documentary doesnt even touch on some basic ethical issues, like the fact that these technologies are very likely to benefit (and economically milk) only the most privileged, wealthy First Worlders  becoming a final frontier in luxury items.

Among the few skeptics included, a neuroscientist scoffs that all this is pie in the sky, the human brain being the most complex structure in the universe. He says every individuals memories are so nuanced and ever-changing that they cannot possibly be simply replicated in artificial form.

At the end, Shin muses, Life is so fleeting. I wonder if AI will ever be able to capture that, capping this tech travelogue on a suitably trite note. Of course, shes already achieved a form of immortality by placing her incessantly-onscreen self at the center of a movie that had no particular need for a forced autobiographical hook.

A.rtificial I.mmortality is briskly paced and slickly assembled, with animation deployed to illustrate some of its more challenging concepts, plus clips from Blade Runner and 2001 to remind us of AIs familiar, menacing form in popular fiction. But ultimately it seems too glib to override the thought that people so concerned with chasing immortality ought better to concern themselves with actually getting the most out of their mortal lives.

Reviewed in Hot Docs Film Festival (online), San Francisco, April 29, 2021. Running time: 74 MIN.

Running Time: Running time: 74 MIN.

Production

(Documentary  Canada) A Crave Original presentation of a Fathom Film Group production in association with Canada Media Fund, Ontario Creates, Rogers Group of Funds. Producers: Erica Leendertse, Hannah Donegan. Executive producers: Ann Shin, Gerry Flahive.

Crew

Director: Ann Shin. Writers: Shin, Julia Nunes. Camera: Iris Ng. Stephen Chung. Editors: Steve Taylor, Shannon Kennedy, Geoff Matheson. Music: Todor Kobakov.

With

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Olympia Dukakis, a character actress best known for her Oscar-winning supporting turn in Norman Jewisons Moonstruck and for her role as the wealthy widow in Steel Magnolias, has died. She was 89.

Dukakis brother, Apollo Dukakis, confirmed her death to Variety. Apollo Dukakis announced her death in a Facebook post, writing: My beloved sister, Olympia Dukakis, passed away this morning in New York City. After many months of failing health she is finally at peace and with her Louis.

The actress was 56 when she came to prominence overnight thanks to her Oscar-winning turn in Moonstruck, the 1987 film in which she played, with an extraordinary comic ethnic gusto characteristic of the movie as a whole, the mother of Chers character. The Washington Post singled out Dukakis for praise: Cher and Nicolas Cage are backed by an equally quirky cast of marvelous supporting players  especially Olympia Dukakis, whose role as Lorettas world-weary mother Rose is expected to get Oscars attention.

Dukakis, who also did a lot of television work, was thrice Emmy nominated, first for the 1991 TV movie Lucky Day, the second time for Armistead Maupins More Tales of the City in 1998 and the third time in 1999 for the miniseries Joan of Arc.

When she won her Oscar for Moonstruck in 1988, she gave a shoutout to her cousin Michael, then campaigning for president in her acceptance speech. Probably made before her Oscar changed her fortunes, Mike Nichols Working Girl, released later that year, returned Dukakis to the sort of role she had had on a regular basis for much of her career: She was 12th credited for her role as the personnel director.

By the next year, however, she was third-billed, behind John Travolta and Kirstie Alley, in baby comedy Look Whos Talking, in which she played the pregnant Alleys mother in a manner reminiscent of her work in Moonstruck. She returned for the 1990 sequel.

Herbert Ross 1989 hit Steel Magnolias, starring Julia Roberts, Sally Field, Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Shirley MacLaine and Dukakis, drew women of all ages with its effective sentimentality and even more effective one-liners, but Rolling Stone said, For the real fun, stick with MacLaine as the town crank and Dukakis as the wealthy widow who goads her to distraction; theyre priceless.

The actress starred with Diane Ladd and Ellen Burstyn in the Bill Duke-directed 1993 film The Cemetery Club, about three Jewish women all of whom find themselves widowed over the course of a year and must reconstruct their lives, with Dukakis character prickly and strong-willed.

Dukakis was part of the Greek chorus that was either a charming conceit or an ungainly one, depending on whom you ask, in Woody Allens 1995 romantic comedy Mighty Aphrodite, in which the chorus comments on the Allen characters infidelity. Also that year she appeared as the skeptical, hard-nosed principal in sentimental Richard Dreyfuss vehicle Mr. Hollands Opus, and as the mother of a gay man in the AIDS drama Jeffrey.

The next year she had a small role in Danish auteur Bille Augusts spiritually based period film Jerusalem. The actress also had a small but powerful role in the 2005 father-son road movie The Thing About My Folks, starring Peter Falk and Paul Reiser.

In 2006, Dukakis was part of the ensemble cast of The Great New Wonderful, a series of vignettes about life in New York City a year after the 9/11 attacks, and she did excellent work in Sarah Polleys Alzheimers drama Away From Her, starring Julie Christie, in which Dukakis character reveals an unwaveringly realistic view of a difficult situation  her husband is an Alzheimers patient as well.

She played a senile grandmother in Jon Kasdans In the Land of Women, starring Adam Brody, Kristen Stewart and Meg Ryan. But much more interesting was writer-director Thomas Fitzgeralds 2011 film Cloudburst, in which Dukakis starred with Brenda Fricker as a lesbian couple who travel to Canada in order to get married. Variety said, Dukakis outdoes even her most memorable earlier turns as Stella, the irrepressible old dame determined to spring her lover free.

Her TV work included playing Anna Madrigal, the flamboyant matriarch presiding over an apartment house in San Francisco, in HBOs 1993 Armistead Maupins Tales of the City and the 1998 sequel Armistead Maupins More Tales of the City, for which she drew an Emmy nomination; and 2001s third entry Further Tales of the City.

Among the many TV movies in which Dukakis appeared was HBO and BBCs The Last of the Blonde Bombshells (2000), starring with Judi Dench and Ian Holm and focusing on a reunion of a group of women who formed an orchestra in London during WWII.

Dukakis was a series regular on the brief 2004 CBS sitcom Center of the Universe, starring John Goodman and Jean Smart. She also guested on numerous TV series, providing voices on Frasier and The Simpsons and appearing on Numbers; Law & Order: SVU, as a defense attorney; and HBO detective comedy Bored to Death.

Born in Lowell, Massachusetts, Dukakis graduated from Boston University and studied acting with Peter Kass in Boston.

Dukakis first experience on Broadway was as an understudy in 1962 on the original play The Aspern Papers, written by Michael Redgrave based on a story by Henry James and starring Maurice Evans and Wendy Hiller. Dukakis won an Obie in 1963 for her work Off Broadway in Bertolt Brechlts Man Equals Man. She hit the stage in 1964 in the one-nighter Abraham Cochrane. She returned to Broadway in 1974 in Peter Ustinovs Whos Who in Hell, but its run proved brief as well. Much more successful was her 1986-87 run in Andrew Bergmans Social Security, directed by Mike Nichols and also starring Ron Silver, Marlo Thomas and Joanna Gleason. In 2000 she starred on Broadway in the one-woman show Rose, in which she played an 80-year-old Jewish woman in Miami Beach who talks to the audience of her life, including her experiences in the Holocaust.

She made her television debut in 1962 on an episode of The Doctors and the Nurses, also guesting on Dr. Kildare the same year. The actress made her bigscreen debut in the 1964 film short Twice a Man. Over the next 10 years she had a number of small, often uncredited, roles in films including Death Wish. In the Peter Yates 1969 film John and Mary, starring Dustin Hoffman and Mia Farrow, Dukakis played the Hoffman characters mother; she also had a supporting role in 1971s Made for Each Other, starring Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna.

Dukakis was one of the stars of a 1974 political film by writer-director Jules Dassin called The Rehearsal, concerning the massacre of students protesting the ruling junta in Greece; many famous people were involved with the film, including Laurence Olivier, Arthur Miller, Melina Mercouri, Maximilian Schell and Arthur Millet, but by the time the film was completed the junta fell and it was never publicly seen in this country until decades later. In 1975, the actress appeared in a Great Performances presentation of a production of Chekhovs The Seagull that also starred Frank Langella, Blythe Danner and Lee Grant. She had supporting roles in Philip Kaufmans The Wanderers in 1979 and in Taylor Hackfords The Idolmaker in 1980. But despite years earning credits in film, on television and onstage, the actress did not break through until Moonstruck in 1987.

Much later, Dukakis taught master classes in acting throughout the U.S. and elsewhere. In July 2020, a documentary feature about her life, titled Olympia, was released in the U.S.

Dukakis is predeceased by her husband, actor Louis Zorich, who died in 2018. She is survived by daughter Christina Zorich, an actress; and sons Peter and Stefan Zorich.

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Caritas Migrant House sits where the semi-arid Sahel region gives way to the Sahara Desert, on the edge of the urban sprawl of Gao, a town of more than 85,000 inhabitants in the landlocked West African nation of Mali. But as the location of Ousmane Samassekous unobtrusively observant The Last Shelter, the refuge can feel far removed from such grounded realities. With a steady stream of travelers passing briefly through, as much as the house is brick and mortar, it is also a metaphor, for a kind of mid-flight mental state. On the edge of the middle of nowhere, at the very front of the back of beyond, and only 200 miles from Timbuktu  a name still defined in English dictionaries as the most distant place imaginable  the Migrant House is a physical and psychological rest stop for when youre nowhere near where youre going, but too far gone to go back.

Samassekous approach, inspired by an uncle who left for Germany 32 years ago and vanished somewhere en route, is itself distant. His voice is never heard, his presence never felt, there is no scripted narration and no onscreen titling to introduce us to his subjects. Its only incidentally that we even learn their names: Esther, a 16-year-old girl from Burkina Faso who dreams of going to Algeria with her companion, Kadi. Mariko, who has visions of a woman at his window, whom he wants to marry and bring with him to Europe. Natacha, a quiet and prayerful middle-aged woman has been at Caritas for five years  were never quite sure why  passing the days playing chess and dice games by herself. Even the Houses genial manager, Eric Alain Kamdem, who greets the new arrivals, advises them, helps them with forms and onward travel, cuts their hair and listens to their stories, is peripheral. In another film, his tireless work on the migrants behalf would be heroized.

But here, the story is less of one mans endeavors than of the collective comings and goings and brief encounters that happen between the Houses institutional-aqua-blue walls. Arrivals from Benin and Burkina Faso meet stranded travelers from the towns of Bamako and Bordj Badji Mokhtar. They share the bare rooms, sleeping on thin mattresses, pulling up plastic chairs into companionable knots around the TV to watch Rey Mysterio take on another WWE opponent. Sometimes they drink and chat together at night outside; other times they have informational talks that become a kind of group therapy. Those on their way out into the world are told cautionary tales by those on their way back: Better a small job at home than to chase big delusions abroad, says one. They mutter to each other about jihadists and the military, they draw makeshift maps in biro on scraps of paper marking the best way to avoid checkpoints and Al-Qaida strongholds.

Kamdem tries, not always successfully, to get each one to give just a single phone number of a friend or relative  many are distrustful. But a striking opening scene tells us what he needs those numbers for: The sandy ground outside Caritas is also a graveyard. The many unclaimed bodies of migrants now lie under pitiful makeshift mounds that stretch off into the distance, marked only by rusting signs bearing little more than a name and a place  Ivory Coast, Guinea, Togo. For far too many nearly anonymous people, this place of temporary respite becomes their place of permanent rest.

At times, the films restraint can work against it: There are so many stories wed like to understand better but that without specific context seem a little bewildering. But when Samassekous diffident camera sharpens its focus a moment, it can yield a peculiar intimacy, like during the remarkable soliloquy from Esther at the end of the film. In it, she explains her reasons for deciding to continue on to Algeria, but as she never meets the cameras eye, it feels like she is talking to herself, in an inner voice that is poetic and strange and wrenching.

And at the other end of the scale, there is a moment of grandeur. Over stark desert photography, Samassekou layers the stories of the many guests who have crossed the Sahara. At first its a palimpsest of voices describing the journeys hellishness and how it can drive you mad, but it builds and builds until its a choral roar of anguish. Just as The Last Shelter has rich, soulful depths beneath a quiet surface, it suggests this human cacophony underlies the silence of the desert, part the primal scream and part the endless, ongoing lament of the migrant, who only briefly, in places like Caritas, gets to draw breath.

Reviewed at CPH:DOX Festival (online), April 28, 2021. (Also in Hot Docs Film Festival.) Running time: 86 MIN. (Original title: Le Dernier Refuge)

Running Time: Running time: 86 MIN.

Production

(Documentary  Mali-France-S. Africa) A Point Du Jour, Les Films Du Balibari, DS Productions and STEPS production (World sales: STEPS, Cape Town). Producers: Estelle Robin You, Andrey S Diarra, Don Edkins, Tiny Mungwe.

Crew

Director, writer, camera: Ousmane Zorome Samassekou. Editor: Celine Ducreux. Music: Pierre Daven-Keller.

With

Eric Alain Kamdem, Esther, Kadi, Mariko. (French dialogue)

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Marc Bauder, whose documentary Who We Were, a visually stunning cinematic search for solutions to the increasingly dire problems facing Planet Earth, unspools at Copenhagens CPH:DOX, is going in a very different direction on his next project  a narrative feature film about a cross-dressing flamenco dancer and Jewish resistance fighter who killed Nazis in occupied Poland.

Dolores will tell the true story of Sylvin Rubinstein, whose Russian mother was forced to moved with him and his twin sister Maria to Poland in 1917. Initially poor, he and his sister shot to fame in the 1930s, becoming flamenco superstars as the dancing act Imperio y Dolores and touring Europe and the world, including shows in London, New York and Melbourne.

Back in Poland when the Germans invaded, they were forced into the Warsaw Ghetto, but Sylvin managed to escape. He eventually became a resistance fighter, dressing as Dolores, the elegant persona of his lost sister, and a skillful assassin. After the war he remained in West Germany, where he continued his successful career as Dolores, albeit strictly in music halls.

He was dancing as his sister on stage in West Germany to bring her to life or be close to her, says Bauder. This was the starting point for me. Its very interesting how a person is thinking and trying to keep part of the past present in another country, reinventing themselves in the 50s and 60s. This is the main goal of the film.

Bauder has the script ready and hopes to begin financing the film this year.

Sylvin Rubinstein was also the subject of a 2004 documentary by Marian Czura and Kuno Kruse, Er tanzte das Leben.

Dolores will be a major shift from Bauders most recent work, Who We Were, which premiered this year in Berlin.

Who We Were brings together six leading intellectual figures, among them German astronaut Alexander Gerst and American oceanographer Sylvia Earle, to discuss the grave problems facing humanity, and Planet Earth as a whole, and their possible solutions. Berlin-based Films Boutique is handling Who We Were internationally.

The film took its name from a planned book by acclaimed German writer and TV presenter Roger Willemsen, who died before completing it. Bauder was already at work on his film when he came across Willemsens writings. Although he never completed the book, which would have looked back from the future to the present day, Willemsen nevertheless included some of its key elements in what came to be known as his Future Speech, which he gave at his final public appearance in February 2016. It was a passionate appeal to the next generation not to accept things as they currently are. Bauder paired the text with his own work in making the film, which includes Willemsens observations throughout.

People always look at the problems of the world in a monothematic manner, says Bauder. I wanted to make a film of multiple perspectives, one that illustrated the connectivity of all our actions. I wanted to span the status of the world and reflect it from different angles.

To that end, Bauder also recruited leading economist Dennis Snower, French Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard, Senegalese philosopher Felwine Sarr and Janina Loh, a leading German researcher in the field of critical posthumanism.

It was Gerst, however, who Bauder first had in mind when he started work on the project, the director says. You have to leave your daily routine to reflect from outside, an overview akin to the perspective of an astronaut, he recalls thinking.

Gersts mission to space and return to Earth also paralleled the journey of discovery and rethinking daily life presented in the film.

It was at the Russian launch site in Baikonur, where Gersts mission began, that Bauder met a writer for German magazine Geo and told him about his film project. Bauder commented that humans know more about space than they do about the ocean and that he was looking for an expert on the subject. The writer suggested Earle, who has been active in the field of oceanography for more than 65 years.

The connection led to one of the films most visually ambitious arcs, taking viewers into the far reaches of space and into the depths of the planet itself  a planet, Earle argues, that should not be called Earth, but rather Ocean.

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Could the pandemic make us better people?

For those of us lucky to emerge from the past year intact - physically, mentally, financially - there are many reasons to be grateful. Theoretically, we could use this experience to become more thoughtful and intentional, less judgmental and reactive. We could appreciate more and criticize less. We could, in a word, be nicer.

Throughout the pandemic, we've been awash in feel-good stories about celebrating essential workers, uplifting local businesses, appreciating what we have - all shining a light on our better angels. A year ago, Kelly Ripa told The Washington Post, "I think we're all going to be better off for this" because "we're all being satisfied with less."

But, if experts in history and science are any guide, this altruism is probably not going to last. We are more likely to put this behind us as soon as possible, dive back into life with abandon and push boundaries. If anything, we will probably be less concerned with what other people think. Carpe diem, baby.

Dorothy Paredes, a 42-year-old Austin resident, has lived with cancer for the past 15 years. The pandemic didn't fundamentally change her - if anything, it made her more determined to savor every day. "It made me say, 'Life is short. Things can happen - cancer, covid, whatever,'" she said. "Why are we waiting? Why are we holding back?"

If past is prologue, the deadly flu epidemic of 1918 and 1919 should help us understand how we will navigate the post-covid years. "I think it's fair to say that people want to forget as soon as possible," said Laura Spinney, author of "Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World." "That is pretty much the pattern for pandemics throughout history. If you talk to public health experts, they talk about us going through this cycle of panic and complacency: We panic when a pandemic declares itself, and then we forget about it as soon as it's gone."

In France, where she lives, there are more than 170,000 monuments to World War I. They were built in the 1920s and 1930s, a ubiquitous reminder of the millions who died. But she couldn't find a single monument to the 1918 pandemic in the country, even though it killed more people - 50 million to 100 million around the world, according to estimates.

How to explain such a discrepancy? Humans make sense of life through compelling stories, explains Spinney - that's why some events are recorded in our historical memory but others are not. War lends itself to great novels, poetry and movies: It has good and evil, and a more definitive beginning, middle and end - all the components of human drama. Pandemics are harder to understand, and defy simple narratives. Another factor, said Spinney: "Wars destroy people and they destroy infrastructure. It takes much longer to rebound from a war than from a pandemic, which only kills people."

Historians used to believe that the Roaring Twenties were the rebound from the Great War, but some scholars now consider the pandemic an equally significant factor in the rush to seize the day, to defy fear and death, whether consciously or not. The emphasis was not on introspection, but experience and moving forward. The 1918 flu did launch a number of public health reforms, but was rarely discussed outside of scientific circles.

There's a chance the 2020 pandemic could be different. "Infectious diseases were the major killer of humanity in 1918," even before the 1918 flu pandemic, said Spinney. "Since then, they've been taken over by the chronic diseases of old age. So that's a major change in the way that we think about how our lives are going to end and what are our greatest vulnerabilities. We're far more obsessed with Alzheimer's than with measles. And you can see that in the vaccine hesitancy movement." We might remember the coronavirus more because it's so different from the diseases that usually kill Americans.

Another factor that might help this pandemic buck the trend of being forgettable: computers.

"Anybody with access to the Internet in the world could, if they were so inclined, watch infection rates and death rates in almost real time from the beginning of this pandemic," Spinney said. "From the very beginning, we've had a sense of it as a global phenomenon, at least to much greater extent than in 1918." In other words: We all have a story this time.

Pennsylvania State University historian Ran Zwigenberg studies trauma in Holocaust survivors and victims of the bombing of Hiroshima. Holocaust survivors struggled to cope with a horrific past; Hiroshima survivors had to live with the ongoing trauma of an uncertain future. "Radiation stayed in the bodies," said Zwigenberg. "They didn't know if they were going to get sick. And every time they caught a cold, it was like, 'Is this it?'"

What they all had in common? "Generally speaking, most people - if they could - tended to embrace life. Not hedonism, but family. To have children, build a future. A lot of them turned inward." The ones who turned outward embraced activism, bearing witness to give some purpose to what happened to them. And some, of course, were irretrievably broken. The one constant was learning to live with the constant, nagging feeling that the world was an uncertain place.

Still, it's hard to come to definitive conclusions about how these experiences affect people. "You can't quantify suffering," said Zwigenberg.

Paredes and Iram Leon, founding members of the Texas Cancer Survivors Coalition, have lived with fear for years. Paredes was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 26, and Stage 3 ovarian cancer at 36 and then again two years later. Leon, 40, developed a rare brain cancer when he was 30 and was given a 12 percent chance of surviving a decade.

"It's always, 'When is it going to happen?' not if," said Paredes. "My outlook changed. It became about timeline, deadlines. Everything seemed very rushed."

Leon said he focused on his young daughter and close friends, but stopped forming new relationships. And everything became the "last" time he'd do anything. "You get some things done, but I've lost all future perspective. A friend was talking about my daughter's high school graduation - she's 14 now - and I realized I haven't thought four years in advance since I was 29."

Cancer didn't change their basic personalities. Leon thinks it may have softened some of his hard edges; Paredes said it made her a tiny bit less patient with people complaining about life's minor annoyances. And, in many ways, the pandemic reinforced the sense of urgency both already felt.

There's an important distinction between living with extreme trauma or life-threatening illness and living with the possibility of getting sick. But, for most Americans, this past year was the first time they were confronted with mortality on a daily basis. The virus spilled out of our televisions, computer screens, social media accounts - amplifying every fear, second-guessing every choice. The instinct to act on the future instead of dwell on the past is very understandable and very human.

Still, diving back into life can also be shortsighted, said Leon. "The problem with 'seize the day' is that it shortens your learning span. If you think everything is your last chance, you're not really paying attention to what you need to learn for the next time. Because you don't think there's going to be a next time."

In early April, the New York Times published a story asserting that "You can be a different person after the pandemic" with some concerted effort - and that the pandemic might offer a push to try it. It sparked a meme among social media users who posted the headline along with a photo of a character who morphs from one persona to another.

Even if we are inclined to use this time as a chance for self-improvement, it's hard to know if or how the pandemic might really affect us now or in the coming years.

Wiebke Bleidorn and Chris Hopwood are psychologists at the University of California at Davis who study how personalities develop and change. For behavioral scientists, the pandemic - along with other historic events of 2020 - is "a great opportunity because it's a major life event that we had no control over - it just happened to us," said Bleidorn.

How any individual responds, of course, depends on what exactly they experienced over the past year, said Hopwood. He has avoided the pandemic's tragic effects and is looking forward to returning to the world, but "other people who are in the health-care field and have been on the front lines, or who are African Americans dealing with the stresses of Black Lives Matter, or who have lost loved ones, or who are in families where there's real political divisions - they could really have enduring negative effects of this pandemic."

Whether and how this alters personality is another question. In theory, there's an opportunity for positive transformation: Changing habits systematically over time can lead to enduring shifts in outlook. Still, there's a high bar for what scholars consider permanent change. "A change of behavior that's not associated with a change in the way you think and feel about yourself, it doesn't really count from our point of view," Hopwood said.

Plus, Bleidorn said, most people start out with what scholars call a "set point" - a collection of traits and behaviors that fluctuate in response to specific life events. People typically grow and mature, but usually return to their essential nature.

That doesn't mean we can't try to be better.

As a college professor once told Leon: "Learn from someone else's mistakes. You don't have enough time to make them all on your own."
The man accused of fatally stabbing a man and seriously injuring five others at Sugar Rush Partyland has been released on bond, according to Webb County Jail records.

Webb County court records show that the bond for Anthony Tays Jr., 18, was to remain the same at a combined $525,000 but to be posted with pre-trial services with weekly reporting, curfew from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. and an ankle monitor with fees.

Tays was released on Friday, jail records show. His attorney had filed a petition seeking bail reduction on April 16. The hearing happened April 20 before 406th District Court Judge Oscar J. Hale Jr. via Zoom, according to online court records.

Tays is accused of fatally stabbing Jaime Leal-Rodriguez, 22, and injuring five other men. He was served with warrants on April 6 charging him with one count of murder and five counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Tays stepfather, Lester Herrera, fired shots in the air during the altercation inside Sugar Rush, according to the arrest affidavit. Herrera, 34, remains at large.

To report his whereabouts, call police at 795-2800 or Laredo Crime Stoppers at 727-TIPS (8477). Information provided via Crime Stoppers may be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000. Callers will remain anonymous.

The incident unfolded when officers responded to a shooting at approximately 4:58 a.m. April 5 at the Sugar Rush Partyland on 4502 McPherson Road. Responding officers encountered four men ages 25, 26, 29 and 31 with injuries.

Officers who canvassed the area observed several pieces of shattered glass from beer and liquor bottles. Police also discovered several spent casings scattered on the floor. Laredo Medical Center emergency personnel called police saying that Leal-Rodriguez had been dropped off with injuries he sustained at Sugar Rush. Leal-Rodriguez had several cuts and lacerations to his upper torso. He was later pronounced dead due to his injuries.

Shortly after, police learned about a 23-year-old man who had arrived at Doctors Hospital with a laceration to his arm. The investigation revealed he was stabbed at Sugar Rush, states the affidavit.

Surveillance video from the business showed Tays taking out what appears to be a knife and stabbing one man who was giving his back. Then, Leal-Rodriguez appears to defend the man as he punches Tays. Leal-Rodriguez and Tays fell to the floor with Leal-Rodriguez on top, states the affidavit.

Leal-Rodriguez punches Tays in the face several times while Tays continues swiping Leal-Rodriguezs back with the knife. Leal-Rodriguez gets up and staggers toward the entrance door where he is seen tending to another injured person, according to court documents.

However, Tays is subsequently seen on video walking toward Jaime (Leal-Rodriguez). As Jaime (Leal-Rodriguez) is seen directing his attention to the injured party, Tays comes from behind with the knife still in hand and swipes at Jaimes (Leal-Rodriguezs) upper chest area. Jaime (Leal-Rodriguez) immediately grimaces before quickly escaping through the front door where he is seen walking through the shattered glass of the door and to the parking lot. Preliminary medical reports indicate that Jaime (Leal-Rodriguez) subsequently bled out from the apparent stab wounds and ultimately died, states the affidavit.

The video also showed Herrera shooting a firearm up in the air multiple times. Tays has denied the allegations and claimed that he was the one assaulted, according to court documents.

Recently, Tays appeared in court seeking his release arguing that his continued detention was unlawful based on evidence without probable cause. But 406th District Court Judge Oscar J. Hale Jr. ruled that Tays was lawfully detained.
The man arrested for attempting to sexually assault a 13-year-old girl followed her from school and told her You are cute before attempting to carrying out the act, according to an arrest affidavit.

Ruben Enrique Garza, 18, was served with an arrest warrant charging him with aggravated sexual assault (attempted), a second-degree felony that carries a punishment of up to 20 years behind bars and a maximum fine of $10,000. He was later released on bond, custody records show.

Parents, students and staff are encouraged to call 956-273-8911, 956-273-1446 or 956-273-1447 to report suspicious activity, according to Laredo ISD officials. They should call 911 in case of an emergency.

Laredo ISD is fervently committed to the safety and well-being of our students and staff, the district said in a statement. The incident occurred off campus as the student was walking home after school. We are grateful to the City of Laredo Police Department for quickly apprehending the assailant. We are fortunate to have an excellent working relationship with local law enforcement to keep our entire school community safe.

Laredo police officers said the case unfolded when they responded to an emergency call at about 4:18 p.m. on April 22 in the 2400 block of Sanchez Street. The caller stated that a man wearing a green shirt and black shorts tried to sexually assault his 13-year-old daughter.

An appointment was made for the child on April 21 at the Childrens Advocacy Center. During a forensic interview, the girl stated she was walking home from Christen Middle School when she noticed a man in a pickup stop next to her by Vidaurri Avenue and Park Street, about five blocks from school. He asked her if she had snap  Snapchat  or other social media.

I saw you (since) you were by the school, and youre cute, the suspect told the girl, according to the affidavit.

She continued walking. As she approached a pedestrian bridge, she noticed the pickup truck park at the stop sign located at Santa Isabel Avenue and Sanchez. She noticed the driver appeared to be a young male and thought that maybe he went to a school nearby. She then felt afraid because the vehicle did not move.

As she walked up the pedestrian bridge and looked back momentarily, she noticed the pickup reversing and attempting to park. She started walking hurriedly thinking the male would come after her.

The next time she looked back, the male was running toward her so she began to run. However, he caught up to her toward the end of the bridge, states the affidavit.

She told him to leave her alone. But the suspect replied, Hey, you are cute. Lets do something, states the affidavit. He got closer and allegedly grabbed her from behind. She yelled for help as she fought him off while he tried to undress her, according to court documents. The suspect then got off of her and told her, Stupid girl, before running back to his pickup, states the affidavit.

She then ran home to her mother. She described the suspect as being young and having light complexion. He was wearing a green shirt with a Nike logo, black Under Armor shorts and white shoes. He was driving a gray Chevrolet Silverado. She stated she had never seen the man before.

On April 21, police released images of the man to the media as a person wanted in a special investigations case.

Garza and his parents arrived at LPD headquarters on April 23. The father told police that his son, Garza, was the person of interest and wanted to know what happened to his son, according to court documents.

Authorities spoke to the parents of Garza and obtained consent from them to enter the home in the 100 block of Barracuda Drive. At the home, police photographed a silver 2018 Chevrolet pickup, and recovered a green shirt with a Nike logo and black Under Armour shorts.

(The mother) informed (a sergeant) that her son, Ruben Enrique Garza wanted to turn himself in and do the right thing, states the affidavit.
However, the two groups still disagree on whether Spc. Aaron Robinson, the man accused of killing Guillen, harassed her prior to her death. Army investigators concluded that Robinson harassed a different female soldier, but Guillens family says he was one of multiple soldiers who harassed Guillen before she was killed.
Mason Lee Miller, of Lockport, son of Kaitlyn LaJoie and John Miller, Jr., passed away June 5, 2021. Brother of Isaiah and Jeremiah; grandson of Kenneth and Jennifer LaJoie, Sandra Green and John Miller, Sr.; also survived by great-grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Services will be pr
Logan, WV (25601)

Today

A few showers in the morning with scattered thunderstorms arriving in the afternoon. High around 80F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms in the evening, then variable clouds overnight with still a chance of showers. Low 69F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%.
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La Porte County residents told to keep their masks on as COVID surge continues
(Alliance News) - The historic post-Brexit trade deal between the EU and Britain come into effect on Saturday, as the fifth anniversary of the Brexit vote approaches.

The trade deal - struck in late December - had been provisionally applied since the beginning of 2021 to allow the European Parliament time to ratify it.

The UK parliament gave its green light back in December.

After EU lawmakers overwhelmingly voted in favour earlier this week and the Council of the EU gave its final approval, the new rules were officially published in the EU's journal.

This was the final step before the trade agreement could enter into force on Saturday.

The more than 1,000-page treaty covers not just commercial relations, but also competition rules, fishing arrangements, and the future terms for cooperation on policing and justice, transport and energy.

Its main goal is to avoid customs duties and keep trade flowing as freely as possible.A However, checks and formalities are still necessary.

Since London's departure from the EU single market at the end of 2020, relations between Britain and theA EU have been strained by disagreements on the application of Brexit agreements and on Covid-19 vaccine supplies.

The EU accuses the British side of reneging on its agreements on special trade rules for Northern Ireland by unilaterally extending a grace period for their full application.

The European Commission has started legal action, and the two sides are in talks to resolve the dispute.

Britain voted to leave the EU by a majority of 52% on June 23, 2016.

source: dpa

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Sheskey further stated that at his Kenosha residence he had secure locations for his firearms; however, once he was forced to move, he did not have an opportunity to provide a safe location inside the home in which he was now living in, Nosalik wrote.
Take a few minutes and scroll through some of the local news from the past week:
Its not just the Tourism Sector thats desperate to find out which countries are on the UKs Green List, theres tons of Brits living in the Balearic Islands who are desperate to see their families and visit the UK with as little hassle as possible.

There's been endless speculation about when the list will actually be revealed and the latest date being bandied about is Tuesday, May 4.

Gibraltar, Malta and Portugal are tipped to be on the Green list, but there are doubts about whether France, Spain, Greece and Italy will make the cut.

Tourists returning from Green list countries wont have to quarantine but they still have to submit a negative PCR test on arrival in the UK.

Tourists returning from Amber list countries will have to quarantine at home for 10 days and submit a negative PCR test on arrival in the UK and have two more tests.

Tourists returning from Red' list countries will have to quarantine in a Government approved hotel at their own expense, submit a negative PCR test on arrival in the UK and have two more tests.

I for one will be crossing my fingers that Spain and the Balearic Islands are included on the Green List!
Manchester Center, VT (05254)

Today

Cloudy skies early will become partly cloudy later in the day. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 83F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

A few clouds from time to time. Low 53F. Winds light and variable.
A bullet-ridden historical marker highlighting the lynching of Mary Turner in 1918 has been removed from its location near Hahira, Ga., and will be replaced due to extensive vandalism.
Stringer has lost key endorsements and is facing a growing chorus of calls for him to pull out of the crowded mayoral race, in which he was considered among the top contenders. He denies the charges leveled at him by Kim and says he has no plans to quit.
Burak Yilmaz again starred as Lille stayed on course to win the Ligue 1 title by beating 10-man Nice 2-0 on Saturday, a result that keeps the northern side a point clear of defending champions Paris Saint-Germain at the top of the table with three games left.

Yilmaz and fellow Turkish international Zeki Celik scored the goals for Lille against a Nice team who played most of the second half a man short after defender Jordan Lotomba was sent off.

Veteran striker Yilmaz, 35, had been the inspiration with a brace as Lille came from 2-0 down to win 3-2 at Lyon last weekend and he was also the catalyst here as Christophe Galtier's side responded perfectly after PSG had beaten Lens 2-1 earlier to move provisionally to the summit.

Yilmaz scored with a pinpoint low strike into the far corner from 20 metres following a Jonathan David lay-off on 13 minutes, and he also struck the post in the second half.

After Lotomba was shown a second yellow card for a foul on Jonathan Bamba at the start of the second half, Celik volleyed in Lille's second goal in the 56th minute as he latched onto a clearance and volleyed in from just outside the box.

If Lille win their final three games against Lens, Saint-Etienne and Angers, they will be champions for the first time since 2011.

"Three points, a clean sheet, it's good," captain Jose Fonte told broadcaster Canal+.

"It was important to win at home because we hadn't won here for a while, and the battles goes on. We have three difficult games left and we just need to keep fighting."

PSG are lying in wait for a slip up, while third-placed Monaco -- the best team in Ligue 1 in 2021 -- will move back to within two points of top spot if they can beat Lyon on Sunday.

Neymar scored one goal and set up the other for Marquinhos as PSG edged Lens at home to claim a vital three points in between the two legs of their Champions League semi-final against Manchester City.
Leicester missed a chance to cement their grip on third place in the Premier League after a 1-1 draw against 10-man Southampton at St Mary's on Friday.

Southampton had to play 80 minutes without Danish defender Jannik Vestergaard after he was sent off for a foul on Jamie Vardy.

But James Ward-Prowse's second half penalty briefly put Ralph Hasenhuttl's side ahead before Jonny Evans headed Leicester's equaliser.

Jannik Vestergaard was sent off

Leicester remain in third place, but fourth placed Chelsea would close the gap to just two points if they beat struggling Fulham on Saturday.

Fourth place will be reduced to a Europa League qualification spot if Chelsea win the Champions League, Arsenal win the Europa League and both clubs finish outside the top four.

So Leicester need to hang onto third place to be sure of qualifying for next season's Champions League.

Fourth place might still be enough for Brendan Rodgers' team, but they have only four matches left to guarantee their berth in Europe's elite club competition.

In an FA Cup semi-final rematch after Leicester's 1-0 win at Wembley two weeks ago, Southampton gave a better account of themselves to end their three-game losing streak.

Leicester had powered to a top-flight away record 9-0 win against Southampton on their previous visit to St Mary's in 2019.

But they found it much tougher this time and should have been behind early on when Nathan Tella, unmarked eight yards from goal, shot weakly at Leicester keeper Kasper Schmeichel.

Southampton were reduced to 10 men in the 10th minute after Vestergaard's slip left Vardy clean through on the edge of the penalty area.

Vestergaard responded to his blunder with a desperate lunging tackle, but although the centre-back made contact with the ball, he clattered into Vardy's ankle in the process, earning a red card from referee Robert Jones.

Despite their numerical advantage, Leicester struggled to take control and Southampton winger Nathan Redmond threatened with a long-range blast that Schmeichel palmed away.It took over half an hour for Leicester to carve out a serious chance when Kelechi Iheanacho picked out Youri Tielemans and the Belgian's low drive forced a fine save from Saints keeper Alex McCarthy at his near post.

Southampton were battling impressively and they took the lead in the 61st minute thanks to a helping hand from Iheanacho.

Stuart Armstrong's shot thumped into Iheanacho's out-stretched arm and Jones pointed to the spot, with Ward-Prowse smashing the penalty past Schmeichel for his ninth goal this season.

James Maddison's long-range curler was tipped over by McCarthy, who made an equally good stop from Ayoze Perez's rising strike moments later.

Finally hitting their stride, Leicester equalised in the 68th minute as Evans met Iheanacho's pin-point cross with a powerful header that gave McCarthy no chance.

Vardy, set up by Maddison's pass, could have won it for Leicester with seven minutes left, but McCarthy made a brilliant save with his legs to repel the close-range effort.
WORCESTER  Becker College will lay off 329 people by the end of June as it ceases operations, according to a notice posted Friday with the state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.

Of those 329 positions, 245 jobs are in Worcester and 84 in Leicester, according to the states Worker Adjustment and Retraining (WARN) Act website. The effective date of the layoffs is June 30.

Becker Colleges board voted in March to close at the end of the current academic year, citing the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, declining enrollment, rising costs and a too-small endowment.

The college promised to help its students transition to other schools through the end of August, but Becker will not open in the fall. On its website, Becker lists a slew of agreements with other area colleges designed to help students continue toward two- or four-year degrees.

The Massachusetts Digital Games Institute, had been closely tied to Becker College, announced this week it will move to Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

According to Becker Colleges federally mandated institutional profile for fall 2020, it had 45 full-time and 163 part-time faculty, 142 full-time staff and 53 part-time staff, for a total of 403 employees. The same document said the college, founded in 1784, had 1,308 full-time students and another 367 part-time students.

Becker received a $3.31 million Paycheck Protection Program loan in April 2020. In return, Becker promised to retain 284 jobs.

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AMHERST  The Town Council at Mondays meeting is scheduled to act on a $31.9 million regional school budget proposal that decreases spending, that was previously voted in the affirmative by school board.

This spending plan, which if approved by Amherst Town Council, would take effect in the fiscal year that begins July 1, is $231,754 less than the current Amherst-Pelham Regional School system budget.

Despite the overall decrease, the towns share  its annual assessment  would increase to $16,748,783, or a 2.1% hike, data provided by the school department shows.

As the largest community in the four-town district, measured by school enrollment, Amherst would pay roughly 80% of the combined local contribution  that is projected to total $20.755 million in the coming fiscal year.

This four-town local contribution is slated to increase 1.5% in fiscal 2022  should the four towns all approve the proposed regional school system spending plan. Amherst-Pelham regional school committee endorsed it following budget hearings earlier this year.

The assessment to be paid by the town of Pelham would increase 4.2%, to $929,525, according to the school data.

Shutesburys assessment would decrease 3.9% to $1.6 million; and Leverett would pay nearly $1.5 million, a decrease to their fiscal 2022 assessment of 0.5%, compared to fiscal 2021.

The other major source of revenue, Chapter 70 education aid, that is estimated to go to the grades 7-12 regional district in fiscal 2022, is $9,601,357  an amount $2,070 less than the current state aid.

One factor that explains why the local assessments do not accord with the actual budget cut proposed for fiscal 2022  with two towns paying more and two, less - is because the assessment calculation are partially based on a communitys ability to pay.

After much haggling  since last fall  representatives from the four towns appear to have agreed on a compromise in which 65% of the local contribution would be calculated using the states wealth-based formula; and the balance, using straight head-counts, or enrollments by town. The head-count method is part of the four-town regional school agreement.

Town and school officials refer to the state assessment-calculation formula as the statutory method, part of the 1993 Education Reform Act.

In a report from Amhersts Finance Committee to the Council, the FinCom said they are recommending the assessment method at 65% of the statutory method and 35% by the Regional Agreement for FY22.

The committees report also said: The assessment will be consistent with the Council Budget Guidelines. We are not indicating support for continued movement in steps toward the statutory method. This is a reasonable method for FY22.

In contrast to previous years, the school district  like all districts and cities and towns in the commonwealth and across the country  have gotten extra federal aid related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) approved by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden in March will mean nearly $122 billion allotted to the 50 states, which represents the third ESSER pandemic related funding installment.

The estimated $1.83 billion allocated to Massachusetts, in the March ESSER-3 package, is nearly double the previous two federal education aid packages combined, in education aid from Washington D.C. to the state.

All three combined, the $2.76 billion federal stimulus for K-12 amounts, in ESSER-1, 2 and 3 amounts to 52.3% in additional education aid, viewed from lens of the $5.28 billion projected Chapter 70 state education aid spending this fiscal year, being disbursed to public school districts in Massachusetts.

In Hampshire County, the combined Amherst (K-6) and Amherst-Pelham (7-12) regional school amounts for ESSER-1 equals $416,136; for ESSER-2, it is $1,403,526 -- totaling $1,819,626, state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education data for the previous two federal aid packages shows.

In the Belchertown school district, the DESE data indicate ESSER-1 of $80,051, ESSER-2 of $557,806, total equals $637,857.

Granby, $69,773 and $282,308, total $352,081.

Hadley, $50,549 and $186,900, total $237,449.

Northampton, $374,267 and $1,453,259, total $1,827,526.

South Hadley, $173,086 and $681,811, total $854,897.

The ESSER-1 in Ware is $273,950, ESSER-2 is $1,039,848, for total of $1,313,798.

During Tuesdays Amherst School Committee meeting, which governs grades K-6, Superintendent Michael Morris said the towns elementary schools had received $186,063 from ESSER-1 and that $150,587 remains unspent.

He said the plan is to allocate this money for needed expenses by June 30.

The ESSER-2 funds allocated for grades K-6 equals $676,016.

The superintendent said this money would be spent in the fiscal year that begins on July 1.

He said the DESE has not yet informed Massachusetts school districts how much each would obtain from ESSER-3.

Morris said the plan is to spend this money in fiscal year 2023 and the one after that.
SPRINGFIELD  The owners of the former Mount Tom quarry are asking a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge to toss out a 2002 agreement that gives the state an option to claim the property.

Attorney Jonathan R. Goldsmith, representing Mt. Tom Companies LLC and its two principal owners Matthew L. Donohue and Timothy P. Kennedy, told the court during a hearing Friday he intends to file motions asking that the agreement be voided because it is not contained in the deed on file with the Hampden County Registry of Deeds.

Goldsmith acknowledged there was an agreement at the time of the sale to give the state the option to purchase property in the future.

Under bankruptcy law, we can have it declared void because it was not recorded, Goldsmith said.

He cited section 544 of the U.S. bankruptcy code, which allows trustees to avoid transfers of property that were agreed to prior to the declaration of bankruptcy, and Massachusetts General Law chapter 184, section 25, which frees real estate owners from an indefinite reference attached to a property if the owner was not originally a party to it or was not notified of it.

The intricacies of bankruptcy law are very unique, he said. If it were not in bankruptcy, we would not have this argument. We would be bound by the option to purchase.

Goldsmith said he would file his motions with the court by next week, and then it will be up to Judge Elizabeth D. Katz to decide.

Carol Iancu of the Massachusetts attorney generals office, representing the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, told the court that Goldsmiths argument doesnt hold water.

The DCR is absolutely entitled to the title, a clear title free of encumbrances, Iancu said.

Under terms of the original sale in 2002, the state purchased 144.7 acres of property that used to be the Mount Tom ski area. The land was purchased to preserve the mountain in its natural state and for outdoor recreation.

Under terms of the agreement, Mt. Tom Companies, which owns the 16-acre quarry site, was allowed to continue to mine rock from the site for 10 years. Once it ceased being a quarry, the state was entitled to claim the property at no cost.

It ceased operations in 2012.

Ianco said it is important to take into consideration the context of the sale of 381 acres of the former ski area to federal, state, and non-profit organizations for a combined $3 million was to protect and preserve the mountain.

The state DCR formally moved to exercise its option on Dec. 7, giving its 60-day notice that it intended to acquire the property on March 25. That same day, Mt. Tom Companies LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the face of debts totaling $420,000.

The largest amount owed is $327,263 owed the city of Holyoke in property taxes dating back to 2013. The company also owes $93,336 to Site Reclamation LLC.

Site Reclamation is the sister company to Mt. Tom Companies, and is also owned by Donohue and Kennedy. It also purchased the adjacent Boys and Girls Club property in December for $100,000. Under terms of the purchase of the parcel by the club in 2002, DCR had the right to make a counter offer against any offer to purchase the parcel on Mount Tom. The six-month window to make a counter offer lapsed in December allowing Site Reclamation to acquire the parcel

The point of contention involving the quarry site has to do with its future.

Donohue and Kennedy want to operate a for-profit venture were the quarry hole will be filed in with clean fill from regional construction sites. In a period of 20 years or so, the quarry would be filled in and the original slope of the mountain restored.

DCR is interested in preserving it as it is but with a few safety precautions, including warning signs and a safety rope on top of the 160-foot ledges. The property since it ceased being a working quarry has become home to rare and endangered species and plants.

Iancu said refilling the quarry would harm the habitats that have developed there, and would also expose areas residents to increased truck traffic and vehicular exhaust.

To fill the quarry hole would mean 23 to 30 trucks a day driving in and out of Mount Tom for the next 20 to 30 years, she said.

Iancu also that any plan to fill in the quarry would require multiple permits for state and local agencies, and as far as she knows, none have been sought.

There is a lot of uncertainty if this project is ever permitted to go forward, she said.

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Go out and vote for Susan Wright, Trump said Saturday in an email message to supporters. She will be strong on the Border, Crime, Pro-Life, our brave Military and Vets, and will ALWAYS protect your Second Amendment. She will never let you down.
BOSTON  A day after the Senate unanimously passed a $600 million bond bill for a new Holyoke Soldiers Home and expanded veterans services statewide, a Chicopee lawmaker rapped the Senate for making the bill so top-heavy it may not pass.

The bond bill has wound its way through the Legislature since being proposed by Gov. Charlie Baker last year following A deadly COVID-19 outbreak at the state-run facility for veterans. At least 77 elderly residents lost their lives, with dozens more veterans and staff sickened by the virus.

The Senate approved the bill 40-0 Thursday, two weeks after the House passed its own, $400 million version, also unanimously. The Senate version tacked on $200 million as a nod to regional equity, to explore more veterans services in other geographic pockets across the state. The Senates version also included more than a dozen policy amendments around regional equity, soldiers home governance and other matters.

Wagner voiced his displeasure with the amendments early Thursday evening, and doubled down on Friday with a lengthy statement.

The Massachusetts House of Representatives recently voted to authorize $400 million of state borrowing for the construction of a new Soldiers Home in Holyoke. Prior to the House vote, the House Speaker and Senate President jointly agreed and affirmed that each branch would take action to advance the borrowing legislation, deemed as both urgent and time-sensitive. The agreement stipulated that during this legislative session, the Legislature would work to reform the statewide structure and governance system for veterans homes and services. Within the context of this agreement, the House unanimously passed the borrowing bill on April 15, Wagners statement read.

He continued: The Senate version of the bill, approved yesterday, added $200 million more in borrowing authorization while also adding more than a dozen policy related amendments to the bill. These policy measures, in particular, were not the subject of public hearings, nor were they subject to debate and a vote by the House of Representatives. The expanded scope of the Senate bill will likely result in the appointment of a conference committee, to attempt to reconcile the differences between the two bills, which will delay a final enactment vote.

An enactment vote is the final vote before a bill heads to Bakers desk.

The need for a new Soldiers Home is well documented. Seventy-seven veterans, who honorably served our nation, died from Covid-19 related illnesses, in a facility that was ill-equipped to respond to a fast-moving infectious disease. The Soldiers Home is on state-owned land and a new facility can be built on the same site, with care continuing to be provided for our states veterans in the existing facility. The time to act is now. Delaying this project, for which there is a demonstrated need, is unacceptable, the statement concluded, seemingly laying blame for any further delays in the lap of the Senate.

The state is working to beat an Aug. 1 deadline to secure up to $260 million in reimbursement funding from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

With his statement of Friday, Wagner attached an April 9 joint statement from House Speaker Ronald Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka outlining what appeared to be a previous agreement the bodies had before the House vote.

Although Wagner said Mariano agrees with him about the problems with the Senate bill, the speaker has declined comment. Spilkas office did not return a request for comment on Friday.

State Sen. John Velis, D-Westfield, one of the champions of the project, said he fully expected the bill would head to a joint, six-member conference committee.

Lets not lose focus here. I think it is absolutely critical that we remember who this is all about. This is about the men and women of our armed services who selflessly put themselves in harms way for the benefit of us all, Velis said. If there was ever an instance to put politics aside it is this. The Senate, House, and Governors bills all have their own differences. This is a normal part of the process and I have every confidence that if a conference committee is formed, the differences between the bills will be resolved.

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A fund that helps members of the military and their families from Rhode Island during times of crisis received a $50,000 donation on Friday, authorities said.

The donation was the result of a fundraising campaign spearheaded by Gov. Daniel McKee last year.

The Rhode Island Military Family Relief Fund assists National Guard, active duty and reserve military members and their families in times of crisis with one-time emergency financial assistance grants.

The grants can be used to help cover rent, mortgages, utility bills, medical services, prescriptions, insurance and vehicle payments and other expenses.

Since 2015, the fund has raised more than $346,700 for 113 families.

While the brave men and women of our military are serving our state and nation, their families are at home serving too. It is our duty as Rhode Islanders to do all we can to support them, McKee said in a statement.

The fund was established by former Lt. Gov. Charles Fogarty in 2004.
SPRINGFIELD  The City Council is considering designating the Gunn Block at 473-477 State St. a local historic district, aimed at enhancing its preservation and future use.

Believed to be the oldest still-standing commercial building in Springfield, the Gunn Block is across from the Springfield Armory National Historic Site and is already listed as a historic property by the city and state. The three-story block, built circa 1830, was stabilized last year by its owner, DevelopSpringfield, aided by a $250,000 grant from the Community Preservation Committee and $168,000 from the MassDevelopment brownfields program.

The council is expected to consider final approval to the one-building historic district at its meeting Monday at 7 p.m.

Chris Russell, executive director of the Springfield Business Improvement District, which is managing the property for DevelopSpringfield, said the Community Preservation grant came with a request for the site to become a local historic district as added protection and for increased funding potential.

There are two competing proposals from private developers seeking to convert the long-vacant building into first-floor retail space and upstairs apartments, Russell said this week.

Groups that have endorsed the local historic district include the Springfield Historical Commission, Springfield Preservation Trust board of directors and the Maple High Six Corners Neighborhood Council.

The Preservation Trust noted in a letter to the Historical Commission and City Council that both the trust and Preservation Massachusetts have the Gunn Block on their lists of most endangered historic properties.

This local historic district will help preserve the building for future city residents, the trust said.

The neighborhood council, in a letter to the Historical Commission and council, said it values the many historic properties in Maple High Six Corners and wants to see the Gunn Block restored.

Its preservation is vital as an enhancement to the Springfield Armory National Historic Site located across State Street, the neighborhood council said. Without the creation of the Gunn Local Historic District, needed funding may be more difficult to obtain, putting its future in jeopardy.

The Gunn Block was built to house Elisha Gunns West Indies Goods store, which included products such as coffee, rum, molasses, sugar and spices. The second floor had a large hall for social events, including meetings of the Hampden Lodge of Free Masons and armory workers who met to organize and promote their own welfare, according to local reports.

DevelopSpringfield, a public-private partnership, bought the property in 2013 after the city condemned the site the previous year.

The City Council last month approved another single-building historic district for the former All Saints Church in the Forest Park neighborhood, now owned by The Drama Studio, bringing the number of historic districts in Springfield to 17.

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President Bidens affinity for President Franklin D. Roosevelt is well documented. Both men took office during unprecedented economic crises and sought vast historical expansions of government programs and spending to address the turmoil.

During Bidens first address to a joint session of Congress Wednesday night, he tried to justify tax increases on the wealthy to pay for $4 trillion in proposed initiatives -- after the passage of a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill -- by noting that 85% of Americans received $1,400 rescue checks.

Naturally, Biden turned to his big-government mentor, saying, In another era when our democracy was tested, Franklin Roosevelt reminded us: In America, we do our part. We all do our part. Thats all Im asking.

Describing the speechs tenor, Axios Jonathan Swan wrote, Im told Biden deliberately echoed the empathetic, quietly impassioned tone of FDRs Fireside Chats on the radio from 1933-44.

Continuing that theme, the president validates the new spending as a once-in-a-generation investment in America itself and the largest jobs plan since World War II.

Herein lies the problem: Biden is attempting to become the modern incarnation of FDR without the equivalent of World War II. According to the U.S. Debt Clock, the national debt is $28.2 trillion, but the gross domestic product is only $21.6 trillion. Thus, the debt-to-GDP ratio is 130%. According to The Balance financial site, that number surpasses the two back-to-back ratio records set during, and just after, the war  114% in 1945 and 118% in 1946.

Given that comparison, what if, while channeling FDR, Biden is thrust into a war that threatens our national survival?

During his speech, he patriotically talked up competing with China to win the 21st century as another justification for record spending and taxing. But, while briefly touching on foreign policy, he never mentioned defending Taiwan. Nonetheless, Biden said that President Xi Jinping is deadly earnest on China becoming the most significant, consequential nation in the world. He and other autocrats think that democracy cant compete in the 21st century.

As Biden spelled out, the U.S. needs domestic transformation, unification, and modernization to remain the worlds leader, but he should not ignore war clouds gathering over Taiwan. Defense leaders believe it is not if but when China will test the new president in what could begin a military showdown to win the 21st century. Such a confrontation would cost untold trillions at the most inopportune time. Worse, simulated war games show the U.S. would not be victorious.

Chinese leaders watching Bidens speech had to be delighted that he did not voice support for Taiwan. Is Biden sending a signal of weakness, increasing a threat comparable to what FDR faced in 1939 when Hitler invaded Poland?

Here is the situation as seen by Adm. John Aquilino, nominated to lead the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command while testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee in late March. Asked when he thought China would militarily overtake Taiwan, he answered, My opinion is this problem is much closer to us than most think. Later he added, Washingtons credibility as an ally to places like Japan and the Philippines is at stake if the island were to fall to Beijing.

Even more perilous, Aquilino testified that a Chinese military presence on Taiwan would give Beijing sway over two-thirds of global trade, which passes through the sea lanes near the island.

How would a confrontation with China impact U.S. spending? For comparison, lets look at the debt increases FDR incurred after the start of World War II. At that time, 1939, the U.S. national debt was $40 billion, rising to $72 billion in 1942. In 1943, at the heart of the war, debt was $137 billion. Then those debt records were set in 1945 with $259 billion and $269 billion in 1946.

If China seizes Taiwan, expect the following three questions to loom large.

First, how can the U.S. afford a war over Taiwan? At current Debt Clock projections, by 2025, our national debt will be $50 trillion with GDP at $26 trillion  a debt-to-GDP ratio of 192%. The extent to which added military spending would heighten that imbalance is mind-boggling to fathom.

Second, for the reasons stated by Adm. Aquilino, can the U.S. afford not to defend Taiwan?

Third, do the American people have the stomach for such a war? As we wind down two decades fighting in Afghanistan, you can practically hear the question on Main Street and in Washington: Is this another quagmire halfway around the world?

There are no good solutions. The U.S. is a racially, politically polarized nation drowning in debt, and some say that our best days are in the rear-view mirror. Meanwhile, China -- now with the worlds largest navy -- is itching to test Biden. If you want a reality check, read this threat assessment document from the director of national intelligence.

Then consider this: If China attacks Taiwan and the U.S. does not defend our ally, China may be emboldened and, like Hitler, continue conquering until stopped.

While emulating the New Deal FDR, Biden could also become the wartime FDR  with real fireside chats after our critical communications infrastructure is hacked.

Myra Adams is a media producer and writer with numerous national credits. She served on the McCain Ad Council during the GOP nominees 2008 campaign and on the 2004 Bush campaign creative team. She can be reached at MyraAdams01@gmail.com or @MyraKAdams on Twitter.
Three Massachusetts police officers and a dispatcher are earning praise for preventing a Florida grandmother from losing $25,000 to a scammer.

Dracut Sgt. Lawrence Flynn, Lt. Wilmer Buote, Detective Megan Farley and dispatcher Andrew Talmacci went into action on April 3 when a woman called Dracut and Miami police to say her mother had sent the money to an address in Dracut, Chief Peter Bartlett told The Lowell Sun for a story Friday.

The woman told police her mother had received a call from someone claiming that her grandson had been arrested and needed $25,000 for a lawyer so he could be released.

The package had not yet been delivered, so the officers intercepted it.

The ability to recover funds for the victim of a scam is an incredibly rare occurrence, Bartlett said in a statement.

I am very proud of these officers and dispatcher Talmacci for their dedication and thorough work, which resulted in the recovery of a large sum of funds for a well-meaning person who had unfortunately been targeted by someone with ill intentions, he said.

The incident remains under investigation.
A 53-year-old Worthington woman and her dog have been located after going missing Friday and spending the night in the woods, officials said.

The woman took her dog for a walk in the Peru State Forest from the area of River Road in Worthington shortly after 6 p.m. Friday. She and the dog got lost and were not able to find their way out of the woods before nightfall, according to Massachusetts State Police.

A search began around 9:30 p.m. Friday when the woman did not return home. Authorities were not able to find the pair after an initial search.

After spending the night in the forest, the woman and dog were able to make their way to River Road in Worthington after the sun came up, state police said in a statement.

The two were located near the womans residence around 7:10 a.m. The woman was assessed by emergency medical personnel and did not appear to have any significant injuries, state police said.

Those involved in the search included the State Police-Russell Barracks, State Police K-9 Unit, State Police Special Emergency Response Team, State Police Air Wing, Franklin/Hampshire County State Police Detective Unit and the Worthington Police and Fire departments.
A man has been arrested in the stabbing reported at a Central Massachusetts storage facility on Wednesday.

Carlos Gonzalez, a 51-year-old from Worcester, was located at a hotel in Sturbridge on Friday and placed under arrest on the charges of assault and battery on a family member, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and strangulation. He had two previously existing warrants, police said.

Shrewsbury police responded to Extra Space Storage at 53 Clinton St. Wednesday evening following a report of a woman stabbed in the neck.

Upon arrival, officers found a 37-year-old woman who had sustained a severe stab wound to her neck from a broken glass tube, Shrewsbury police said.

She was transported to an area hospital for treatment and is expected to survive.

Gonzalez was arrested following a joint effort by Shrewsbury police detectives, Massachusetts State Police and Sturbridge police.
As a Leominster resident sat down at the Spanish American center recently on Spruce Street to get immunized against COVID-19 as a part of a UMass Memorial Health clinic, Eric Dickson introduced himself as a doctor, going through a set of questions before poking a syringe into the mans left arm.

Not every health care system CEO may be out on the front lines administering vaccines. But for Dickson, giving people hope in the form of a shot is a bright spot more than a year into the pandemic.

Its the simplest medical procedure I could possibly do, Dickson said. Though simple, Dickson sees the work as impactful. Helping at a vaccine clinic is something he does about once a week, part of his strategy to lead by example and bring health care directly into neighborhoods as a response to the pandemic.

In the last 12 months, UMass Memorial has had to put a laser focus on equity issues, working to bring health care out into underrepresented communities as the Black and Latino residents of Central Massachusetts have seen a disproportionate rate of COVID infections. The topic of equity is a consistent one for Dickson, popping up throughout a busy day last week from morning meetings, to time at the vaccine clinic, and during afternoon visits at a Community Health Link location in Leominster.

We knew there were inequities and we had worked on them, but we never saw inequities like this, Dickson told a MassLive reporter, who shadowed him for the day on April 21. We had to respond in a different way and that different way had to be testing ... and we had to get into the underserved neighborhoods for testing, and vaccination, the same thing.

People in vulnerable populations dont always have the access to health care that they need. And locally, residents of color were three times more likely to be diagnosed with the coronavirus, Dickson said.

If youre non-English speaking, to go to a foreign place and leave a center like this, a Spanish American Center, thats really scary. We have to find a way to bring the care to the people instead of the people having to come to the care, said Dickson, who got his start with UMass Memorial about 30 years ago as a respiratory therapist.

Irene Hernandez, the director of Active Life Health Care, an adult daycare center in Fitchburg, said having vaccines available in Leominster was instrumental for residents who have no way to drive to the large-scale vaccine sites at Gillette Stadium or in Boston. Access in a walkable neighborhood at a trusted center helps buttress vaccine propaganda made to stoke fear, she said.

Historically, were not at the table, Hernandez said. I just thank UMass, Dr. Dickson, Rosa Fernandez, for making sure this happens here, at this location, at the Spanish American center, because it really takes care of the marginalized populations that arent able to access equity in health care.

At the clinic, translators helped doctors prepare to administer shots, asking residents if they felt sick, if they had ever been on any medications for the coronavirus before and if they had ever had an adverse reaction to a vaccine before. The process went smoothly, with a quick shot in the arm and then a 15- or 30-minute wait in an adjacent room.

Eric Dickson, the CEO of UMass Memorial Health, poses for a photo with Victor Ortiz after administering a COVID-19 vaccine shot in Leominster.

Before the Leominster vaccine clinic, Dickson had changed from a blue shirt and tie worn for the mornings formal meetings into a more casual black pullover labeling the 54-year-old CEO as part of UMass Memorials vaccination team. The same garment was worn by other system employees working at the vaccine clinic, including Dicksons wife, Cathy Jones, an emergency physician.

Lately, Dickson can often be heard speaking about the difference between being non-racist and being anti-racist. One of the health care systems equity goals this year was to eliminate the gap seen in pediatrician visits between white children and Black or Latino children. The topic got attention at one of Dicksons morning meetings.

Officials said the system is seeing more Black and Latino children coming in for annual well-child visits. For Black children, the rate of patients who had their annual visit is now 64.9%, up from a baseline of 59% in October 2020. Among Hispanic children, the rate has increased from 64% to 69.2%. Since the system made changes earlier this year, including proactively calling families that had no-showed for a well-child visit before, the system had seen fewer cancellations.

UMass Memorial Chief Quality Officer Eric Alper said it was too soon to claim victory on the systems goal, but noted the improvement.

Its that extra work that is moving this, Dickson said, taking a brief moment to celebrate the progress. Weve got to eliminate the gap. Thats the ultimate goal.

Among changes made during the last year was a rebrand for the health care system, which is the largest employer in Central Massachusetts and the third-largest health care system in the state.

UMass Memorial Health dropped the word care from the end of its name and unveiled a new slogan: The Relentless Pursuit of Healing.

While the health care we provide is incredible, we actually provide so much more, the organization said in a video announcing the new name. By changing our brand name to UMass Memorial Health, were signaling to those we serve that we work just as hard to prevent illness, keep them healthy and improve all aspects of life.

During COVID, UMass Memorial turned to its army of problem solvers

During a late morning virtual meeting with leaders from various UMass Memorial departments, Dickson heard that staffing levels remain an area of concern.

I get an earful during these meetings but its a useful earful, as it allows me to understand the challenges you face every day and if I dont understand those challenges its hard for me to help, Dickson told colleagues.

Allison Wendt, who said shes worked as a nurse manager in the emergency department and in other roles at UMass Memorial since 2005, told Dickson that beyond staffing, one of her challenges is the increase in pediatric psychiatric patients.

Dickson listened to similar stories from roughly a dozen employees. He thanked the group for working hard during the pandemic and encouraged them to get some rest so they could come back to the table with fresh ideas.

Having an army of problem solvers saved us during COVID, Dickson said, his voice easily booming through a face mask. Thats why we got the field hospital twice and the governor went to us and he didnt go to the other health care systems, because we could pull it off.

As the pandemic slows down, the system is not shifting away from taking health care efforts outside the systems hospitals. New projects for the health care system include hospital at home, which is slated to start in August. Dickson said that program will allow for two physician or nursing visits a day to patients at home, as well as other services like physical or occupational therapy, or respiratory therapy.

Theres a lot needed to get the program off the ground, including IT training as those involved will rely on a mobile app, Dickson said.

In general, Dickson said he wants the system doing more digital medicine, things like moving emergency room, rehab and skilled nursing services into the home setting.

Dickson said he feels his sweet spot as a leader is in long-term strategic planning and understanding how to navigate through the external environment while staying close to the front lines. While he focuses on external relationships and a patient focus with the systems caregivers, the rest can fall to the presidents, the vice presidents and the people who run operations. Dickson said hes tough on his executives because they make a lot of money and are expected to bring in results.

For Dickson, last Wednesday brought a packed schedule with little time to check emails or take a lunch break. For sustenance in between meetings, Dickson said his favorite healthy snack is almonds. At an afternoon stop at the Community Healthlink/Lipton Early Intervention program on Erdman Way in Leominster, Dickson and his staff left a bag of dark chocolate. Hes gotten into the practice of leaving employees with healthy snacks.

At Community Healthlink, Dickson sat with employees for a huddle, hearing stories about working through the pandemic and helping to problem solve. He learned that getting parent signatures has been a struggle and offered to help the office obtain DocuSign, a seemingly simple fix that drew smiles and sighs of relief from workers.

Eric Dickson, center, the CEO of UMass Memorial Health, visited with workers at Community Healthlink/Lipton Early Intervention program on Erdman Way in Leominster.

Leading through a pandemic and racial tensions

In the last year, the hardest part of leading the system through a pandemic was in seeing his own employees get sick, said Dickson.

I have worked in medicine for a long time and people get sick, we do everything to prevent it. We do everything we can to take care of them. But when youre having your own people go in and take a risk, that was the hardest thing, Dickson said.

Now, fewer hospital employees are contracting COVID, though not everyone is fully vaccinated. Among the UMass Memorial ranks, about 80% of 14,000 employees have been inoculated as of last week. Every week, a few more get the shot, Dickson said.

Everybody wants a shot or a medication that has no side effects or risks, Dickson said. There isnt any.

The flu shot has been a requirement for UMass Memorial employees. As of now, the COVID shot is not because it remains under emergency use authorization.

As soon as it is fully FDA approved were going to mandate it, Dickson said. Because if people choose not to be protected themselves, thats one thing, but if youre working in a health care environment where you could carry an infection that could infect our patients or your coworker, thats when we have to say you know what if you dont want to be vaccinated  we do this with influenza  you just cant work here.

Preparing to take a stand on mandatory vaccinations, Dickson also felt the need to take a stand last week when jurors came to a verdict in the trial of former Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin, who has been convicted of murdering George Floyd by pressing his knee into the mans neck for more than 9 minutes last May. After the guilty verdict came out, Dickson issued a statement. Typically a hospital system would not comment on the outcome of a trial. But the last year, replete with conversations about racism and the treatment of Black people in America, changed that.

We were prepared for a not guilty verdict and a guilty verdict. I had both statements written. And some people said, jeez why do you feel like you have to comment on this and some people said well, it wasnt passionate enough in terms of anti-racism, Dickson said.

Dickson said CEOs have a big megaphone, one that they have to use carefully. Thats among the reasons why he chose to participate in a COVID vaccine trial last year.

People said what are you, crazy getting that? Its the same thing as being here, you go first, Dickson said from the Leominster vaccine clinic. If youre in a leadership role and you want people to do something, you go first.

For Dickson, running the hospital system ultimately comes down to one thing: the people.

Develop your people. Its all about the people, he said. I dont know whats going to happen next, but I know if I have great problem solvers, well get through with flying colors.

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Mostly cloudy in the morning. Isolated thunderstorms may develop later in the day. High 87F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

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That recognitions allows Lovehoney to use the Queens Award emblem in all of its marketing endeavors. The company said the top royal also bestowed that recognition upon it in 2016.
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Where we take issue, actually major issue, with a railroad that could soon see a multi-billion dollar infusion in cash from Washington is how Amtrak has been such a royal pain in the neck here in its most important city. From that first train on the first day, a run from Penn Station to Philly, New York has been Amtraks linchpin, the center of the Boston-to-D.C. Northeast Corridor, the only part of the national network that is both essential and doesnt bleed money.
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Heres a point no less picayune than Jim Johnsons: Any oath violation was not for Deutschs current term of office and he never breached his current oath. Deutsch cheated on his taxes in March 2016, during his first term. He was reelected in 2017 and took a new oath for the term starting Jan. 1, 2018. If Corp Counsel wants to live by ridiculous technical arguments, it should die by them.
Riverhead, L.I.: In response to Voicer Glenn Hayess letter BLM is real American patriotism: To subject a group of people to a governmental system that began with the enslavement and disenfranchisement of all people with dark skin is the greatest injustice known to me. When you realize that the very same government is allowed to police with impunity the descendants of those enslaved people, you cant help but wonder why those descendants would still trust and believe in said government. If our entire race (Black) was denied any level of recognition or governing authority during the foundation of the government, how can that government rationally think it is fair to claim any level of authority over Black people? Would you pledge allegiance to the government that began while all of your ancestors were enslaved by it? Elohim Harib Bay
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Bobby AI provides information with telephone numbers and addresses segregated into sections: oxygen cylinders, concentrators, ICU beds, ventilators, Remdesivir, plasma donors, among others.

The information can be accessed by all android users with default Bobble Indic keyboard across all over 120 Indic and international languages, along with IOS and users of Bobble's regional keyboards (including Marathi, Malayalam, Bangla and Hindi keyboards). Users of the platform can also share the links with others.A"The last few weeks have been exceptionally hard, with the second wave of the virus outbreak in the country, and depleting resources. Social media platforms have been filled with people seeking help,a Ankit Prasad, CEO, and Founder, Bobble AI, said in the statement."Seeing the massive need to provide essential sources of information and resources inspired us to collate a simple and easy-to-share database of important links for Covid-19 related resources. It is time that each organisation steps up and contributes in their own way in this hour of grave crisis," Prasad added.Source: IANS
The latest subject on Kanganas radar seems to be the recent cover of the Time Magazine, and the journalists and authors behind the cover story. The cover story was about just how bad the covid situation has turned in India.

 Instagram/kanganaranaut

Recently, the actress put up a video on her social media accounts, in her usual vitriolic manner, blaming the Time Magazine, veteran journalists Barkha Dutt & Rana Ayyub and many other intellectuals, and asked the central government to take action against individuals who ruin Indias image, on an international platform.



Please watch warning to all those who are going to their foreign daddies to cry about India.... your time is up .. pic.twitter.com/pW1lwzip8R  Kangana Ranaut (@KanganaTeam) April 30, 2021

In the video, Kangana states that each time India faces a crisis, western media pounces on the opportunity, and treats India as a failed state. She believes that, in such instances, Indians are seen as monkeys who have no idea how to survive, how democracy functions, and that intellectuals who complain about the government are actually helping western media foster this image.

In her tirade, she also called the COVID-19 virus as the communist virus & the Wuhan virus, and why dont Indian intellectuals dare to use the same labels as her. Well, we can answer that for her, it is because of a concept called nuance.

This tirade of her, as expected, has people on Twitter in splits.

Didi ek ICU bed dhoondh k dikha do Dilli mein aaj ki date mein. Main khud bandar ka vesh dhaaran karke ghoomungi agar aap kaamyaab hogayin toh.  Jasleen Kaur (@JasleenJuly) April 30, 2021

Mele papa sabse strong. Mele papa ke sab dushman. Pal Mele paka sabko dhishum dhishum karke maarenge. Mele papa supelhelo  TheUnpopularOpinionIN (@TheUnpopularO13) April 30, 2021

Get the reference?

The difference is that their government took accountability and didnt leave the country to die! They were not holding rallies or allowing religious assemblies! If anything, THEY WERE NOT THREATENING TO ARREST PEOPLE WHO SEEK FOR OXYGEN!  jinx (@p00nksi) April 30, 2021

Seriously @KanganaTeam u just keep shocking me Everytime

Like how can u still believe in ur nonsense

India had a yr to prepare and had data from all across th globe to analyze

It knew the consequences

And yet even then the situation in India is dire

Lyk how their is a difference  Prakhar Mathur (@Prakhar030420) April 30, 2021

Do facts even matter now? Just asking...

US Prez lost polls due to covid handling

Italy PM resigned due to covid handling

UK PM said sorry for mishandling covid



All above were criticized. But you only get upset if Modi is criticized. pic.twitter.com/xKrXIBZ8Xc  Ravi Ratan (@scribe_it) April 30, 2021

Ahhh I see what you did there. Now thats a clever response.

I was her die hard fan. But today she mentioned about Monkeys. Monkeys are the symbolic representation of Jai shree Ram. She is indirectly accusing monkeys for spoiling modi Ji's image internationally.This is monkey Jihad. Not My Kangana  Jitesh Rochlani (@JRism9) April 30, 2021

And then, there were a lot of others as well who shared her sentiments.

Just watch these pictures

Who provided pics & aerial shots of burning pyres, crematoriums, funerals to NYtimes, WPost, Time magazine, The Australian etc? Barkha Dutt, Rana Ayyub, Arundhati Roy are all anti-nationals who sell this pandemic porn for money & to malign image of ! pic.twitter.com/9mKwyIwINY   | shadowbanned for life (@krishnajindal07) April 30, 2021

Absolutely right kangana there is a very big international planning against India and modi to globally defame our country they are scared of our growth as a nation but India will become a super power and no one can stop it  JR (@JiggeshR) April 30, 2021

Well said Kangana The time is up for all those anti social, anti national, left liberal cabals, pseudo seculars, Jihadists and Lutyen gang and they will be brought to justice sooner than later for sure Satyameva Jayathe  Ramakrishna Botcha (@RamakrishnaBot5) April 30, 2021

Dear Ranaut ji ,

Humein or sacche Indians ko aap par



  

Proud hai khud par, Mai ek Sachi Hero ka fan hu 

Keep going pic.twitter.com/NrHGuZAqBJ  sunnymann (@sunnyma60675255) April 30, 2021

Irrespective of where you stand on this issue, the fact remains that we are going through one of the worst public health crises to have ever befallen us. That is why, it is necessary that you get vaccinated, and continue to follow the SOPs set to prevent contracting the virus.

Also, where do you sit on this entire debate? What are your thoughts on this? Do let us know in the comments below.
In summer 2020, The New York Times coordinated a nationwide project to document the lives of Americans out of work because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study involved collaborating with 11 other local newsrooms around the U.S. The Messenger-Inquirer was the only newspaper from Kentucky in the collaboration. The resulting collection of stories was published Oct. 23, 2020, in the New York Times print edition and at nytimes.com/outofwork. The following list is the Messenger-Inquirer's local unemployment coverage from that time period; read more by clicking the "New York Times Project" header. Click on "Out Of Work In America" to go to the full
The nurse triumphantly picks up the needle and raises it as if its that scene in The Lion King when Simba is presented. I think back to when the pandemic first began and they said itd take at least a year to develop a vaccine. It was a timeframe that sounded insane because I figured wed all probably be dead by then, if not of the virus then of old age. As I raise my sleeve and with my bare arm for the taking, I definitely dont flex. (Okay, I may have flexed a little.) The guy drifts the needle towards me and, whoops. It slips out of his hand like a wet fish and falls into his lap. After a very scientific inspection of the tip of the needle and maybe a little blow of air as if it were a Nintendo cartridge, I am officially injected. (Cue another blast of air horn!)
KABUL - Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs, Mirwais Nab, met with Qatar's Ambassador in Kabul, Saeed bin Mubarak Al-Khayarin Al-Hajar to discuss the peace process, consolidate regional cooperation in the post-withdrawal period of the Resolute Support Mission and expand bilateral relations.

Given the announcement of the withdrawal of the Resolute Support Mission's forces from Afghanistan, the Deputy Foreign Minister appreciated the Qatari government's hosting of the Afghan peace talks and spoke of the beginning of a new chapter in the international community's cooperation with Afghanistan.

Mr. Nab described the strengthening of constructive cooperation between the two countries as vital to regional peace and prosperity while stressing expanding bilateral collaboration.

The Qatari Ambassador praised the Afghan government's comprehensive efforts to achieve lasting peace through a political solution and reassured the Deputy Foreign Minister of his country's continued support for peace and prosperity in Afghanistan.

Both sides highlighted the importance of expanding relations further and emphasized implementing economic, trade, and educational projects between the two countries.
Most public drinking water supplies are meeting new PFAS standards

Most public drinking water supplies are meeting new PFAS standards

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy recently announced that most of the 2,700 municipal and other large drinking water systems are meeting the state's new standards limiting per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in public drinking water supplies.

The new standards -- among the most stringent and comprehensive PFAS standards in the nation -- were adopted in August 2020. The provisions include establishing drinking water standards, sampling requirement, public notification requirements and laboratory certification criteria.

The goal is to reduce exposure to seven PFAS compounds in drinking water. PFAS exposure can lead to adverse health outcomes in humans. The most-studied PFAS chemicals are PFOA and PFOS, which can cause reproductive and developmental, liver and kidney, and immunological effects in laboratory animals.

"Even before Michigan adopted these new rules, we started working with the systems that we suspected would be out of compliance based on our past water testing data and also began expanding our testing program to identify other potential supplies that could find themselves out of compliance," said Abigail Hendershott, executive director of the Michigan PFAS Action Response Team (MPART). "Over the course of the past nine months, EGLE staff have analyzed testing data and worked with these supplies on solutions. More than half now meet standards and we are continuing to work with the handful of remaining systems to bring them into compliance."

EGLE has also received testing data from 85 percent of the 1,299 smaller non-community, non-transient water supplies in the state. EGLE staff are currently working with one village, a mobile home park, and nine of the other non-community supplies to explore short- and long-term solutions to achieve compliance with the PFAS rules.

Through established MPART partnerships, EGLE is working closely with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and local health departments to establish short-term measures on a case-by-case basis, based on risk, to address the health and safety of the consumers of water for these supplies. Long-term solutions include connections to nearby municipal water supplies, new wells and treatment systems, and grant funding under the state's $500 million MI Clean Water plan to modernize water infrastructure.

Most are not in violation based on this first round of test results under the new rules because compliance under the standards is based on a running average of the four previous quarterly sampling results. A system whose average result over four consecutive quarters is above any of the PFAS drinking standards is considered out of compliance. All systems are proactively working toward compliance with EGLE and have implemented interim solutions to protect customers while the issues are addressed.

An exceedance of new PFAS standards after four quarters of tests averaging above the criteria would require systems to issue a public notice with mandatory health effect language within 30 days. Community water supplies must also report PFAS standard violations in their consumer confidence reports.

EGLE is posting data for drinking water systems still working toward compliance on the MPART website.

Drinking water systems demonstrating consistent non-detections for the seven regulated PFAS compounds can eventually move to annual testing for the compounds.

Given the progress made to achieve compliance so far, EGLE does not plan to immediately issue fines for non-compliance during the first year of the new rules. To help systems reach compliance, EGLE will enter into Administrative Consent Orders (ACO) with drinking water systems establishing a timeline for achieving compliance. The ACOs will also stipulate fines if compliance deadlines are missed.

Photo caption: PFAS samples in test tubes at EGLE lab.

Like this content? Follow us on Twitter at @MichiganEGLE or on Youtube.com/MichiganEGLE

Take a short survey and let us know what you think about MI Environment.
As Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was addressing the state April 29 announcing the MI Vacc to Normal Challenge, Huron County residents were expressing concerns and frustrations with the announcement.

So shes trying to bribe people to get the vaccine, or should I say blackmail, Shaun Staniland of Bad Axe said on the Tribunes Facebook page.

Stanilands comment received numerous signs of support, including a comment from Karen Lapp adding that the governor is holding the state hostage.

However, not everyone agreed with Staniland and Lapp. Judy Rogers said people should get the vaccine and stop whining before adding that previous generations of people eliminated the prevalence of diseases like polio, measles, mumps, diphtheria and more by receiving vaccines for them.

The plan ties the coronavirus vaccination rate of Michigan residents over the age of 16 to a staggered reopening of the state.

Under the plan, as more people vaccinated, the state will allow returns to the office, relax indoor capacity limits and eventually lift health orders that were put into place to curb the coronavirus pandemic.

The MI Vacc to Normal plan is the first time the Whitmer administration has provided a measurable goal for the reopening of the state. Two weeks after each milestone is reached, the state will ease restrictions on various sectors as follows:

Step 1  55%

Lift requirements for employers to require remote work

Step 2  60%

Increase indoor capacity of stadiums to 25%

Increase indoor capacity at conference centers/banquet halls/funeral homes to 25%

Increase capacity at excercize facilities and gyms to 50%

Lift curfews on restaurants and bars

Step 3  65%

Lift all indoor capacity limits, requiring only social distancing between parties

Relax current limits on residential social gatherings

Step 4  70%

Lift Gatherings and Face Mask Order

No longer impose broad mitigation measures unless virus threatens to overwhelm medical system, or other unanticipated circumstances arise, such as the spread of vaccine-resistant variants.

Other commenters on the Tribunes Facebook stated the vaccines were not approved by the Federal Drug Administration, which is not true. The vaccines are being administered under an FDA Emergency Use Authorization, which is provided when the agencys experts determine the known and potential benefits of the vaccine outweigh its known and potential risks.

The vaccines were developed during the Trump Administrations Operation Warp Speed, which partnered the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Defense to help accelerate the vaccines development and production.

A U.S. Government Accountability Office, showed that COVID-19 vaccine development under OWS generally followed traditional practices, with some adaptations.

FDA issued specific guidance that identified ways that vaccine development may be accelerated during the pandemic, the GAO report reads. Vaccine companies told GAO that the primary difference from a non-pandemic environment was the compressed timelines.

According to the GAO, vaccine companies were able to simultaneously manufacture the vaccines while conducting clinical trials phases, which sometimes were combined or ran concurrently.

According to the states vaccination dashboard April 29, there was a statewide vaccine average of 49.6% of residents with the initial dose  less than 6% short of the first MI Vacc to Normal phase.

In the Upper Thumb, Huron County continued to lead the region in vaccination rates with 44% of the county population being fully vaccinated and 50.6% having the initial dose.

Tuscola County has 33.3% of its residents fully vaccinated and in Sanilac County 31.9% of the residents are fully vaccinated.

It is unclear when the state anticipates the first phase of the MI Vacc to Normal plan will be reached.
We recently faced the vaccine hesitancy of a 50-year-old patient of ours with a history of breast cancer. She saw us at our cancer center for a check-up to make sure that there were no signs of recurrence. Fortunately, she appeared to be cancer-free and as is our routine we offered her the chance to be referred immediately across the street to receive the Pfizer vaccine.
Every April 24, Armenians around the world gather to honor their ancestors who perished at the hands of the Ottoman Turkish state in the genocide of 1915 to 1923. Armenian Americans anxiously await the annual proclamation from the White House marking this date. They are anxious because, despite much effort on the part of Armenian Americans and their friends, no American president had used the word genocide to properly name this crime against humanity.

Starting with George H.W. Bush, euphemisms such as tragedy, massacres, annihilation, mass killings and great atrocities have peppered these annual proclamations. Barack Obama and Donald Trump adopted a transliterated Armenian word, Meds Yeghern, to identify this crime  a word often mistranslated as the great calamity, thus removing all agency from the concept.

Armenian Americans will now no longer approach April 24 with anxiety and frustration. President Joe Biden used genocide in his proclamation, not once but twice.

This long-practiced omission of the correct word was a reflection of a geopolitical calculus to placate the sensitivities of our erstwhile yet untrustworthy NATO partner, Turkey. As most genocide and Holocaust scholars know, Raphael Lemkin, the Polish Jewish jurist who created the word genocide, was initially motivated by the fact of Turkish impunity for their crimes when he sat down to craft an international law to prevent and punish genocide. For Lemkin, the annihilation of the Armenians was a preview of what was to come in the Holocaust. He freely used the term genocide  this crime of crimes  to describe the fate of the Armenians. Yet ironically, American presidents continued to dance around the word for more than 30 years.

Joe Biden was the first president who ended this charade of obfuscation. As a senator he had no hesitation in characterizing the extermination of the Armenians as genocide. After Congress overwhelmingly voted to recognize the Armenian genocide in December 2019, the White House was bolstered in its effort to speak the truth, a value that Biden has taken as a mantra of his administration.

Yes, the autocratic Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his surrogates have complained most vociferously, pointing to American hypocrisy with regard to our own ill-treatment of African Americans and Indigenous peoples. But unlike Turkey, the United States has constructed on Washington, D.C.,s National Mall museums of African American History and Culture and of the American Indian. Included in their halls are exhibitions that do not whitewash American oppression of these groups.

Unlike in Turkey, the word genocide is not censored in displays that describe the destruction of Native peoples. Yes, our journey of coming to terms with our history has only begun, but Turkey has done the opposite, continuing on the path they began in 1915.

Impunity and genocide denial have contributed to cycles of violence perpetrated by the Turkish state and their ultra-nationalist partners both domestically and internationally. Within Turkey, the destruction and oppression of minorities  including Greeks, Assyrians, Alevi Muslims, Kurds and most recently the LGBTQ community  continues to this day. President Erdogan has now exported violence across international borders into Syria, Iraq, Libya, and the Caucasus.

The 44-day war of aggression in the fall of 2020 by Turkey and Azerbaijan against the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) continues this cycle of violence. The anti-democratic and authoritarian regimes of Erdogan and Azeri president Ilham Aliyev make no pretense that their goal is the elimination of all Armenians from their indigenous homelands.

If President Biden is truly committed to combating authoritarianism and strengthening democracy abroad then he could have found no better place to start than by speaking the truth about the Armenian Genocide. We applaud him for having done so.

Armen T. Marsoobian is first vice president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars and a professor of philosophy at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven.
GREENWICH  Being a single mother of two is hard. Its even harder when both children are nonverbal and on the autism spectrum  and theres a pandemic.

My job is 24 hours, said Timea Zadori of Greenwich.

Like many working mothers in America, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the local woman to choose between her job and caring for her sons  Noah, 9, and Noel, 10  who struggled to understand why their lives changed so drastically last year.

Zadori is not alone. About 2.5 million women left the workforce since the beginning of the pandemic, according to Labor Department data.

Before the pandemic hit, Zadori worked 6.5-hour days as a nanny and housekeeper in Darien. But soon after schools shuttered in March 2020, she ended up quitting her job to take on the sole responsibility of caring for her children.

They dont understand why they are still quarantined for most of the day in their house, she said. It was a nightmare for them. Now, thank God the playground is open, and they can leave the house. But the past year, it was really difficult for them.

Even when in-person learning returned this scholastic year, Zadori said she still had to be available for her sons.

Each time there was a potential COVID-19 exposure at Julian Curtiss, the childrens elementary school, Zadori and other parents are immediately called to retrieve their children. When the kids are home, Zadori must act as their special education teacher, helping them with speech, occupational therapy, math and proper handwriting techniques, for example.

It was really complicated because I have to teach both boys at the same time, Zadori said.

Since leaving her job last year, Zadori said she has spent all her savings just to survive, even turning to GoFundMe to cover the costs of her childrens medical bills. Ten days after she launched it, it had yet to garner any donations.

COVID-19 has created a lot of situations, but when youre challenged with issues with your kids, your kids come first and youll do anything for them, said Michael Garcia, Zadoris case manager at Jewish Family Services.

In October, a social worker at Julian Curtiss recommended Zadori seek support from Jewish Family Services. Since then, the organization has worked with the school district and the Greenwich Department of Human Services to help Zadori and her children with monetary assistance and food support.

Zadori is also a part of Jewish Family Services FACTS program, which is short for Families Affected by COVID-19 Transitional Services and seeks to improve the lives of families, over a 90-day period, through case management services.

Also, Zadori is an immigrant who moved to the United States from Szeged, Hungary, in 2003. About a decade later, after Noah and Noel were born, she moved back to her native country. However, disappointed with the special education services for children with autism there, she returned to America after three years.

Zadori hopes to become a U.S. citizen, like her sons. Almost four years ago, with help from the Greenwich YWCA, she applied for citizenship through a visa program.

COVID-19 has slowed the court process, however, and Zadoris lawyer has said it could take more than five years to complete.

Shes trying to do the best for her kids, with the situation that shes in, and its been a struggle, said Garcia, Zadoris case manager at Jewish Family Services. Thats where our organization and other organizations have tried to come in to support her, and if it werent for us, I dont know what she would have done in certain cases.

Their latest effort: Raise money for a working car.

Zadoris decade-old car recently began having problems and her mechanic deemed it unsafe to drive. But without a vehicle, she cant get to her sons many doctor appointments.

Were looking for reliable transportation for her, said Rachel Kornfeld, executive director of Jewish Family Services.

If community members are willing to help, they can donate to a special Jewish Family Services fund to help raise money for another vehicle. Checks should be made payable to Jewish Family Services for the transportation fund, Kornfeld said.

Someone can donate a car  its tax deductible, she added. If theres a dealership in town, that would be interested, that would be amazing. We would look into anything.

tatiana.flowers@thehour.com @TATIANADFLOWERS
MIDDLETOWN  Two fledgling businesses will be moving into the citys incubator space at the old Remington Rand typewriter company factory in the North End: a barbecue catering endeavor and skate shop/screen printing operation.

Economic Development Commission members unanimously approved the measures this month. The Common Council will consider the resolution at its Monday night session.

The two new businesses, to be located at the The R. M. Keating Historical Enterprise Park at 180 Johnson St., are moving from Cromwell: Skatz Smokez BBQ & Catering will be leasing a 1,000-square-foot space, while Found Apparel, a skate shop and screen-printing business, will be leasing a 3,000-square-foot area.

Cassandra Day / Hearst Connecticut Media

The Found Apparel lease will generate a minimum of $223,572 over two decades, according to documents filed for the upcoming Common Council meeting. The Skatz Smokez BBQ & Catering contract will generate a minimum of $29,200 over its terms.

Spoke + Spy/Kiro Bespoke cidery will be moving to a new location inside the building, expanding to 2,000 square feet; and 860 Brewing/Forest City Brewing, which currently leases 1,000 square feet of space plus an additional 400 for storage, is expanding in the adjacent space.

The Forest City lease will generate a minimum of $137,030 over its term, and Spoke + Spys will net the city at least $63,709 over five years.

Cassandra Day / Hearst Connecticut Media

Tenant agreements are between five and 10 years, with the option to extend the contract for two five-year terms.

Its definitely exciting, Mayor Ben Florsheim said. It really is important for Middletown, because so much of our economic strength comes from two areas: Main Street and the immediately surrounding area, and the Industrial Park Road manufacturing corridor (where FedEx and other companies are located).

Incubator spaces at the city-owned facility are offered to small business owners at a reduced rate to help them grow, Planning, Conservation and Development Director Joseph Samolis has said.

This building is so unique, within the neighborhood, and the city, in terms of its structure and what it offers to the business community, Florsheim said. Its a space to get started and potentially expand, as many of have  either on site (such as Forest City) or they outgrow the space and move into their own facility.

A couple of entities that formerly occupied the old factory have done the latter, the mayor said.

The build-out of these new spaces totals nearly $100,000, according to Samolis. At the same time, local leaders are working with the office of U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3 , to find federal dollars to help in the cost of renovations, Florsheim said. If that happens, its going to be even more of an anchor for the neighborhood and more of a destination for visitors.

There are many more areas that can be developed for tenants, the mayor said. Its such an enormous building. Theres a lot of space thats very raw. There could be a lot more in there than there is now, and thats the hope. The seeds have been really well-planted there.

The Keating site is occupied by several gyms, a lightning company, another brewery, kettle corn, lawn care and other entities.

Those are all doing well, but there could be quite a lot more activity happening in and around that building if we get the funding to finish that work, Florsheim said.

The public can visit Stubborn Beauty and Forest City to get cold brews and even sit outside. The mayor anticipates these sorts of places will lure visitors from the area and beyond. The hope is it becomes a multipurpose, indoor/outdoor destination.

There are other nearby attractions, such as the Phil Salafia Canoe & Kayak Launch just steps away, something the mayor calls one of the hidden gems of Middletown. It takes you out on the one of the most beautiful spots on the Coginchaug River that gets a lot of love from the people who are there.

Cassandra Day / Hearst Connecticut Media file photo /

People who visit the breweries and cidery, for example, may see the river and return to Middletown to enjoy the outdoors. Next time theyre out, theyre back with their canoe or kayak. Thats all the better, Florsheim said.

Trail work will soon be conducted in the area, making it enjoyable for recreation enthusiasts of all types. Paving that lot, getting some grass, and landscaping is definitely a goal for the future to make it more of a place where people can come and gather, and have a variety of activities available to them, the mayor said.

The Common Council meeting will be streamed live on WebEx Monday at 7 p.m. For information, visit middletown.granicus.com.
Active duty members, veterans and survivors may be eligible for free or discounted internet, and up to a $100 discount on a computer, thanks to a new program from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

The Emergency Broadband Benefit Program is a $3.2 billion federal initiative created by Congress to help lower the cost of high-speed internet for low-income Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic.

To be eligible for the program, a household or household member must:

Have an income that is at or below 135% of the federal poverty guidelines or participate in SNAP, Medicaid or Lifeline;

Participate in the free and reduced-price school lunch or breakfast program;

Have received a federal Pell Grant during the current year;

Have experienced a substantial loss of income due to job loss or furlough since Feb. 29, 2020, with a total 2020 income at or below $99,000 for single filers or $198,000 for joint filers; or

Meet the eligibility criteria for a participating provider's existing low-income or COVID-19 program.

For a family of four in most of the country, an income equal to 135% of the poverty level is $35,775; for a family of two, that amount is $23,517. Income limits are higher for Alaska and Hawaii. See the Department of Health and Human Services website to calculate other levels.

For the purposes of this program, income includes:

Salary or earnings

Unemployment compensation

Social Security

Veterans' benefits

Survivor benefits

Pension or retirement income

However, families who exceed the federal poverty level still may be eligible for the program if at least one member of the family meets another criteria, such as receiving a Pell Grant, receiving SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program -- commonly referred to as food stamps) or is attending a school where every student receives free or reduced-price lunches.

Families who suffered a substantial loss of income in the past 12 months are also eligible, even if they make more than the poverty level.

Participants approved for the program will receive up to a $50 monthly discount on qualifying high-speed internet from their provider, they may also receive up to a $100 discount for a laptop, desktop or tablet computer purchased from their internet service provider. Those who seek to receive the discount on a computer must pay at least $10 but less than $50 after the discount is applied. Each participating household is limited to only one internet and one computer discount in all situations.

A list of participating internet service providers can be found on the FCC website.

The temporary program is scheduled to end either when the money runs out or six months after the COVID-19 emergency is declared officially over, whichever is sooner.

"Families in every corner of the country have been struggling to get online throughout this pandemic, Jessica Rosenworcel, acting chairwoman of the FCC, said in a news release. For those families, we now say help is around the corner. In less than two weeks, we will have a new way for disconnected Americans to access the internet to carry out their day-to-day life, so they can reach the virtual classroom, take advantage of telehealth and seek new employment opportunities. I'm proud of the work we've done as an agency to get this program off the ground in record time."

The program began on May 12, 2021. Visit the official program website for more information.

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Hours after lobbyist Jean Kim held a press conference on Wednesday to say that the city controller and mayoral candidate had repeatedly groped me in 2001, not long after Eric Schneiderman, whod later resign as state attorney general for physically abusing women, introduced them and shed started interning for Stringers 2001 public advocate campaign (Stringer says that she was a volunteer, not an intern, who hed already known and not through Schneiderman, and that theyd had a consensual sexual relationship for a few months and then a collegial platonic one until he didnt hire her for his 2013 controller bid and she signed on with his rival in that race, Eliot Spitzer), another mayoral candidate called on Stringer to drop out at a debate hosted by Dominic Carter, whose conviction for beating his wife was overturned on procedural grounds, and David Paterson, both hosts on the same radio station as serial divorcee Rudy Giuliani, whose office and home had been raided that morning by the feds while he was on the phone with his former police commissioner Bernie Kerik, who in the months after 9/11 used an apartment that had been donated for use by weary first responders at Ground Zero as a love nest for an affair.
CAMP PENDLETON -- "Expect to start by getting wet."

That's about all the 138 newly minted grunts chosen to participate in the new Infantry Marine Course, or IMC, pilot had been told about the final two-day capstone test of their skills. But on Wednesday afternoon, just before the start of the event, they got the full scenario: They'd be dropped from a small boat into the South China Sea and have to swim, in full combat gear, 300 yards to a nearby ship.

For the purpose of training, they approximated this by waterproofing their buoyant packs, getting hosed down with their rifles and woodland camouflage utilities, and jumping into a 25-meter pool to swim 12 long lengths with gear in tow.

By the end of the first length, a few Marines were clinging to the side of the pool to catch a breath under the watchful eye of swim instructors. Others formed clusters of three or four, working together to keep their heads up and propel the bulky packs. A few strong swimmers settled into a kicking rhythm and quickly left the rest of the group behind.

Read Next: As Tank Battalions Shut Down, Dozens of Marines Are Joining the Army

But despite the struggles of some, infantry leaders standing poolside looked on in approval. Some of the Marines showed up to the course completely unable to swim; but at the conclusion of the 14-week course, 90% of them had achieved water safety intermediate certification, meaning they had the skills needed to survive in deep water.

"They're not just surviving in the water; they're thriving," Lt. Col. Walker Koury, commanding officer of Infantry Training Battalion, or ITB, said as he watched poolside. "Any of these Marines, you could throw them off a boat and they'd be all right."

The previous Marine Corps infantry training course had no water component at all. But after 20 years of fighting in desert regions in the Middle East, the service is reorienting itself to a new mission -- one where proficiency and comfort in and around the water is vital. And the loss of nine troops to drowning in a horrific Marine Corps amphibious assault vehicle accident last year has increased the sense of urgency to develop and maintain these skills.

The investigation into that fatal accident stated that at least one Marine inside the sinking AAV was panicking as the vehicle filled with water because he couldn't swim. Aleta Bath, the mother of Marine Pfc. Evan Bath, a 19-year-old from Wisconsin who died in the accident, said when she read that in the report, she knew it was referencing her son.

"He barely passed his swim qualifications, and then they didn't do any further training," she told Military.com in March. "I already had been told that he was very nervous that day and so when I read ... that, it's hard to see that in black and white."

Bath said she's haunted by picturing her son's final moments. The investigation found that several of the Marines in the AAV never completed egress training to leave a sinking vehicle and hadn't been given an emergency safety brief before heading into the water.

"Knowing the horror that he must have felt, and realizing that he's in this big ocean by himself ... and he can't swim very well," she said. "They put my son who couldn't swim with no training in there."

U.S. Marine Pfc. Benjamin Cameron, a student with Alpha Company, Infantry Training Battalion, School of Infantry - West, jumps into the pool before conducting a 300-meter squad swim with packs as part of the capstone exercise for the Infantry Marine Course on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, April 28, 2021. (Jeremy Laboy/U.S. Marine Corps)

Koury, who completed multiple tours as a liaison and foreign exchange officer in Japan, said he drew on his experiences in the Pacific in developing the course's water component.

"We found that in a lot of these little places that you're working with, out in [the Japan-based] 3rd Marine Division, it's difficult to get to. So typically, you're seeing small boats, stuff like that," he said. "So when we were developing the course, we said, how can we best make this amphibious part work?"

Rather than focusing on safety from a specific small boat platform or connector, he said, planners decided to start with water skills.

"We used to joke that if you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball," he said. "If you can [swim], we can pretty much put you on any type of platform and get you safely ashore."

The concept of making Marines better swimmers isn't entirely new. Then-Marine Commandant Gen. Robert Neller proposed a plan in late 2017 that would add swimming competency as a promotion requirement for enlisted Marines. He was motivated to do so, he said, after three Marines died in the water after their MV-22 Osprey went down off the coast of Australia. Neller's plan was never realized by the time he retired, however.

In the IMC pilot program, swimming was not mandatory. But all the Marines were given time at the pool every week, and they used it.

Sgt. Raz Ornelas, a swim instructor for the course, said he was thrilled to see every Marine get in the water.

"To me personally, I feel like it should always have been a huge emphasis, as we are an amphibious force," he said. "As well as the matter happening almost a year ago with a particular unit."

Asked if he was referring to the July 30 AAV accident off the Camp Pendleton coast, he nodded.

The horrors of that mishap are still fresh; a recently released investigation found aging equipment and flawed planning contributed to the tragedy.

"It's a black eye for us," said Gunnery Sgt. Blake Burkhardt, chief instructor for ITB. "So how do we fix it ... we need to make swimming a pass and failable event."

But swimming, the Marines are learning, is not just about water survival. It may also have injury prevention benefits. Despite the increased length of the Infantry Marine Course -- 14 weeks compared to eight-and-a-half in the previous iteration -- grunts are getting injured less often. Attrition in the course is down from 12% to just 4%, and only six Marines have gone down with musculoskeletal injuries, leaders said.

Col. Coby Moran, commanding officer of School of Infantry-West, attributed that in part to building swimming into physical training.

"So you're getting good at swimming. That increases your amphibious competence; we're getting better fitness out of it," he said. "And that's also deloading your system and reducing those musculoskeletal injuries. So when you look at that package, we, I think, have a much better appreciation of what swimming can do for you."

The service will conduct three more infantry course pilots over the summer -- one more on the West Coast, and two on the East Coast. Findings from the course will inform not only the final version of IMC, but possibly other training courses as well.

-- Gina Harkins contributed to this report.

-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.

Related: The Marine Corps Is Experimenting with a Concept that Could Reshape the Infantry
Every Permanent Change of Station, or PCS, move comes with its own challenges. But navigating the official military move systems the Defense Department administers through U.S. Transportation Command, or TRANSCOM, doesn't have to seem impossible, said one military move expert -- as long as you don't make one of these three huge mistakes.

Matt Butler retired from the Air Force after specializing in helping military members and families move their personal property from duty station to duty station. Now, he works as a DoD civilian at TRANSCOM, which is responsible for overseeing the military move process.

Listen now: DoD Moving Officials Answer Your Biggest PCS Questions (with Matt Butler)

In an episode of the PCS with Military.com podcast, he shared the three biggest PCS mistakes he sees.

Mistake: Waiting to turn in your orders. Receiving official orders to your next duty station is an exciting moment. But before you start sorting through the garage or post that cute announcement on social media, you have one critical task that cannot wait: taking your orders to the military transportation office.

Turning those orders in triggers the military move process, including scheduling your packers and contracting someone to relocate your belongings, Butler said. But too many military members wait until the last minute to take that step, creating a backlog and potentially delaying their move.

"In my time, I've seen a lot of customers that will come in, maybe a week or two [before] with their orders, and try to make a move," he said. "When you wait to the last minute, especially in the summertime, more than likely you're not going to get the dates that you want to have. ... You want to make sure as soon as you get those orders, you go into your transportation office, so that they can process your shipment. [It] is very important."

Mistake: Failing to prepare your home. Just how much stuff the military will pay to have moved to a new location is based on Defense Department regulations that factor in the service member's rank and whether he or she has dependents. Go over your weight allotment? You'll be required to pay for it out of pocket.

That means getting rid of excess clutter before your packers arrive can help make sure your home is ready to move in a way that meets what you actually want and need.

"If you exceed your Joint Travel Regulation weight entitlement, then you will have to owe the government for that," Butler said.

Making sure your home is prepared for your move also will ensure that you avoid packing accidents -- like moving a trash can full of garbage.

"Just making sure that it's clean, that it is organized, so the movers can get in there, do what they need to do, pack it up and get out of there," he said. "If you have trash in there, it's going to be a bad situation when you receive it."

Mistake: Forgetting to separate out the items you need to keep with you. Every military move comes with a pile of things you want left off the moving truck, such as your binder of important documents, an air mattress or two, or your coffee maker. But if you don't place those things in a clearly marked area, they could be packed into your shipment accidentally, Butler warned.

"It's very important that you have things that you do not want moved separated from the things that you do want moved," he said. "It's a big hassle ... and it can cost money as well if you're trying to get that taken out of a shipment. So it is very important just to have that separated."

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No matter how you tackle it, a military Permanent Change of Station (PCS) move likely is going to cost you money. Military family advocates estimate each PCS costs on average about $5,000 out of pocket. And even if you manage to get most of the PCS-related costs reimbursed, you're still likely paying something upfront.

That, said military money expert Ryan Guina in an episode of the PCS with Military.com podcast, is just one of the many reasons military members and their families need to get tabs on their finances during each military move. Here is some of his best military money advice for any PCS.

Listen now: What You Need to Know About Paying for Your PCS (with Ryan Guina)

Get smart on your allowances. The military move system is designed with the idea that the Defense Department will foot the bill for getting you from one home to another through payments known as allowances. And while the reality is more complicated, getting expenses covered is a matter of knowing what money is available. For example, understanding those rules will save you from misunderstanding how many vehicles will be relocated for you or what expenses to expect for your pets.

"Just really start reading, contact their customer service, read the FAQs and educate yourself on what your situation is going to be like," he said. "Educate yourself and understand that if you have a question, there's going to be an answer somewhere, and there's probably a program in there to help you somehow. It's just a matter of educating yourself and kind of being an informed consumer."

Know that not every situation is the same. Even as you learn what pay or allowances you could receive, it's also important to know that the things available to help the family next door may not be available to help you. That's because those allotments change, depending on where you are moving from, where you are going and whether the whole family is going, too.

"You can mix and match and choose your own adventure 100 different ways," he said. "Each of them are going to have slightly different outcomes. So the key here is to get educated and understand that each situation is going to be a little bit unique."

Use the Government Travel Card wisely. As of 2021, most if not all military members are required to use the Government Travel Card (GTC) to pay for the bulk of their PCS expenses, like lodging. But just how the GTC can be used and the process for getting it paid off when your move is over can vary by military service. That means it's important for users to pay close attention to the information they are given about the GTC and keep receipts for everything.

"So this is one of those things where you always stay up on top of your paperwork and get it filed as soon as possible," he said.

Keep Up-to-Date for Your Next PCS

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While much of navigating your military Permanent Change of Station (PCS) move is up to you, some factors are just a matter of rules and regulations. But navigating that information can be confusing and riddled with rumor and misinformation based on one individuals experience.

On this episode of the PCS with Military.com podcast, Matt Butler, a Defense Department civilian employee at Transcom whose 22-year Air Force career focused on helping service members move their personal belongings, gives us insight and information on those rules and regulations.

His special focus on details just for the 2021 moving season will help you make your military move the best it can be.

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The following is an edited transcript of this episode of PCS with Military.com.

Amy Bushatz 0:00

Moving well and happily with the military is a skill set with two parts. There are things that take practice over time, like home organization, keeping that military moving paperwork and binder together and figuring out the most effective way to find new housing that you can love. And then there are the things that just take straight up knowledge, things like understanding, working through your finances around your move. And the big project of dealing with the PCS, rules and regulations from the Department of Defense. Those rules and regulations can seem like a foreign language, especially if you feel like you've been left alone to figure them out. Even the best transportation office briefing in the world may leave you feeling like there are many, many things you don't know, but should. And for that, today we have Matt Butler. Matt retired from the Air Force in 2019, after 22 years in uniform, a lot of which he spent working with the military and DoD and civilian personal property, and the various offices that help military members and their moves. Since then, he's moved to Transcom, first as a contractor, and now as a DoD civilian employee. In short, this guy knows what he's talking about. And I am so glad he's here with us today. Matt, welcome to PCS with Military.com.

Matt Butler 1:22

Thank you very much.

Amy Bushatz 1:24

Thanks for coming on with us. So start by telling us you I mean, you were in the Air Force a long time, how many times have you moved with or even without the military?

Matt Butler 1:33

Okay, with the military has been about 10 times, which includes PCS, is a permanent change of stations and also local moves where you're moving off base to on base. So that what those moves moving overseas to England or to Germany, and stateside assignments, such as Georgia, and Massachusetts, and also Illinois, and some other locations.

Amy Bushatz 1:58

Yeah, so you really you got around, you know how to move? Yes. Yeah. All right. So you and, you know, the beauty of that is like, you are working in the property office, personal property office, helping military members and DoD civilians, aka customers, deal with their military moves, but you also are experiencing it, too.

Matt Butler 2:20

Yes, ma'am. Definitely. And, you know, that that kind of feeds into like, how, you know, if I see some issues, then definitely the customers are seeing it as well. So we're going to briefing customers, and we're definitely want to, you know, detail, you know, things that they may see in the future, and how to handle those situations as well.

Amy Bushatz 2:41

Oh, yeah. 100% that's really exactly how I approached my job at Military.com, too, because I'm a military spouse. And I'm a system user. And I think, well, you know, like, if I'm experiencing this, someone else must be too. So that's, that's such a important insight for people to know that, you know, they're not alone in the wilderness. Someone out there is, is dealing with this, and they've been through it.

Matt Butler 3:05

Exactly.

Amy Bushatz 3:06

Yep. All right. Okay. So I want to just like dive in here, no beating around the bush, what are two or three of the biggest mistakes you've seen military members or customers make in their move?

Matt Butler 3:20

Okay, well, one of them is definitely not being prepared, such as once the military member or civilian or the customer, gets their orders taken over to the transportation office to start them off, that is very, very important. And in my time I've seen a lot of customers that will come in maybe a week or two with their orders and try to make a move. Now while that may be possible, that is not the process, you want to get your orders into the transportation office so they can start your move, get the carrier situated, you know, have you give the customer information about their move, and have it you know, flow properly. When you wait to the last minute, especially in the summertime, more than likely, you're not going to get the dates that you want to have. Because in the summertime, you know, 40 to 60% of all household shipments are happening within that time. So regardless if it's the summertime, or you know, which is called the peak season, because a lot of shipments are happening then, or the non peak season, you want to make sure as soon as you get those orders, you go into your transportation office, so that they can process your shipment, is very important.

Amy Bushatz 4:33

So and there's a big difference between I have orders that I got today and they say I'm supposed to move in two weeks and I got my orders and then I waited a super long time to come and talk to you all and get the setup.

Matt Butler 4:45

Exactly, definitely because a lot of people may not know the process, a lot of you know, back in the day, your personal a lot of personal property offices used to be able to book the shipments right then in there. Now you're dealing in and currently The counseling office that's called a PPPO, which is a personal property processing office, they process your shipment dealing with the paperwork, so they're dealing with the customer, but then they have to send that paperwork over to a JPPSO. So, which is a joint personal property shipping office, that's your booking office, and they have a large area of responsibility. So it's not going to get booked as fast. And also, you know, your, your capacity for carriers can be a lot lower too. So the sooner that you get that information over to your counseling office, the faster they can get it to the JPPSO office, and then the faster they can be booked so that you can, you know, make arrangements to, you know, maybe plan to move out your house or make your other plans that you need to do for your move as well. So it's very, very important as soon as you get those orders to go see or go go to your, your counseling office.

Amy Bushatz 5:54

Get that get that ball rolling. Okay, what are what are some other things?

Matt Butler 5:58

Another thing is, um, okay, once you're okay, your shipment is already booked. Now the you know, when the movers come over to your house, it's very important that you have things that you do not want move separated from the things that you do want moved. So, you know, that's a big thing. If you have things that needed to be safeguarded, like your passport, any kind of jury, any important documents, such as family, medical records, or dental records, or even photo albums, things that you know, you just want to take with yourself, because you hate if it got lost or damaged, it's very important that you have that separated from the things that you do want to get moved. Because you know, it's a big hassle, if you are in, and it can cost money as well, if you're trying to get that taken out of a shipment. So it is very important just to have that separated. Other things are like your professional books, paper and equipment that's called your pro gear. So things that you use for your profession, you want to make sure to that that's separated as well. And the reason for that being separated, that's free weight, that's weight that doesn't count against your joint travel regulation wait entitlement. So you want to make sure that that's separated and annotated on your inventory as being pro gear. So that's very important.

Amy Bushatz 7:13

Yeah. I like to separate my coffeemaker. Yeah.

Matt Butler 7:18

That's not weird. That's something that you're gonna need is your next place. So it was definitely you know, you won't have that separated, right? So you can bring it.

Amy Bushatz 7:23

My next place?

Matt Butler 7:24

Very important.

Amy Bushatz 7:25

Right now. Forget that. Forget the next spot. This is like a today problem right. And also your, your cat, separate the cat, do not let the cat be in the boxspring. Because I cannot tell you how many times I've heard this story is not have a good ending.

Matt Butler 7:42

Exactly, right. And then one last thing I would say is just, um, preparing your home as well. So you know, making sure that you don't have you know, trash or additional things, not necessarily things that you want to take with you, but definitely things that you don't want to have packed. So just making sure that you know it's clean, that is organized, so the movers can get in there, do what they need to do, pack it up, and get out of there without you, you know, because if you have things that you don't want to have shipped, that weight will count against you, if you exceed your joing travel regulation weight entitlement, then you will have to owe the government for that. So definitely have things that you want to have moved, that's very important thing to have noticed that customers sometimes make mistakes with.

Amy Bushatz 8:34

I mean, we've all I think unpacked something that we were like, well, how did that get in there? You know. And I mean, I've even more often than somebody accidentally having their cat packed is the horror story of unpacking some very old and not very good smelling trash. And it happens, you know, and the only way to make sure it's not going to happen is to go through your house and take out all your trash. Yeah, because let's not assume that our packing team is looking in every bin before you know, it's just like, it's not reasonable. You know, so there you go.

Matt Butler 9:12

Another thing, if you're moving overseas, you know, it can take two, two and a half months for your shipment to get to the destination. If you have trash in there. It's gonna be a bad situation when you receive it.

Amy Bushatz 9:23

Yeah, that's the that's where the bad the cat thing comes in?

Matt Butler 9:26

Exactly.

Amy Bushatz 9:28

I gotta I gotta fill people in about this because I keep mentioning it. Now there are I mean, people have lost their pets this way over the rainbow bridge, shall we say, because the cat goes missing on moving day and the cat is still missing and the cat is still missing. And then you find it when you unpack and nobody wants that to happen to anybody else. Ever. And cats get spooked. They hide in your mattress, boxspring whatever. So secure your kid. Secure your pets. Secure your trash.

Matt Butler 10:02

Very important, very important.

Amy Bushatz 10:06

All right, so I, you know, I see consistent questions in these military move Facebook groups, I know people are just itching to have answered. So I'm hoping you can just address them for us. Well, fire drill style, if you will.

Matt Butler 10:20

Okay.

Amy Bushatz 10:20

What do you think?

Matt Butler 10:21

Let's do it.

Amy Bushatz 10:21

All right. Okay, so the first is and, and I confess, y'all, this is partially my fault, because I'm the one who reported this and started the, I'm not gonna call it a rumor because it was actually told to me, but then it was untold, and that didn't get out. So in 2018, Transcom officials told me that military members would have the option to have their household goods sealed in crates at their home for all moves. And then that didn't happen. Is that something that could happen eventually?

Matt Butler 10:51

Yes, definitely. Code Twos, which is a crated shippment. So this is still an option, but there's definitely criteria that needs to be met. And I can go through basically a list of what they are. What you need to know is for a Code 2, the criteria to have to meet is that you do not have a delivery address, you require storage in transit. So basically, storage, you know, once it gets to the destination. You shipment is traveling more than 800 miles. Your shipment does not contain extra large items that will not fit into a container. And those items such as motorcycles, or oversize mattresses. If you move between one October and 14 May, your shipment cannot exceed 3,000 pounds. And if your move is between 15 May and 30 September, your shipment cannot exceed 10,000 pounds. And, but the thing is, if your shipment does not meet the criteria that just went over, you may still request a container. But you may have to pay excess costs for it. But your local transport transportation office can definitely assist you with this.

Amy Bushatz 12:09

Cool, so it's it is an option, but within very specific parameters.

Matt Butler 12:14

Yes, ma'am.

Amy Bushatz 12:16

Yeah, okay, cool. Thank you for listing those out for us. I think that will help people understand what they are, you know, what's available and what's not. Okay. People are confused about whether they can pack, pre-pack, rather, their items before the movers get there. Because for a while, it was like, oh, if you pack them, then they don't have to take them and they can unpack them. And now that sort of maybe changed? I don't know, fill us in? What's the rule?

Okay, in regards to that, customers can pre pack. But it's, you should definitely should definitely keep the lid open. Because at the end of the day, the packers, they will need to inspect the items to determine the condition and repack just for liability reasons as required. So they can pack it, but just keep it open. So the movers can you know inspect items and you know, maybe it's not a good box and they need to repack it. So that's the rule on that.

Yeah, so it's a it's a combo. It's not, you can't do it, and they won't accept it if you do that. And it's also not, you can do it and they'll just take it away and have a nice day. It's somewhere in between.

Matt Butler 13:26

Yes. Because you know, the movers they're, they're required to pack everything. So I know, I do it myself when I'm about to move, I'll pack inside of a box, you know, just so it's easier for me. I know where things are, but definitely keep that lid open because like I say it's a liability thing if you say that you pack something in a closed box and it gets to the destination and now you can't find it. So liability thing so it's definitely important to just keep that box open, but you can have your stuff in the box.

Amy Bushatz 13:59

Yeah, I we have a podcast episode with a home organizational expert Christa Curtis, who likes to pre pack in clear plastic totes. And you know, she leaves the they're easily opened and then of course they're either put in a box or wrapped in paper something. They do a lot of OCONUS moves. She's this season doing actually an OCONUS to OCONUS move and so, you know she has home organizational ninjaed this process to allow her to unpack more easily just like you said. So. Alright, this is a big one because it's a source of recent controversy -- I'm not gonna say controversy. Speculation, a change what's going on? Should families tip their movers or feed them lunch? What? And fill us in on what happened with the recent. I'm not even gonna say it's a rule change because it was a FAQ change. I don't know what's going on. Tell us about it.

Matt Butler 15:03

Okay To answer this question, no, supplying meals or refreshments is never required. And moreover, providing monetary tips is discouraged. And if your TSP requests either, please let your local transportation office know. Remember, you have a quality assurance person that works at that transportation office or counseling office that you can always reach out to if you see something that's wrong, or if you even if you have any kind of questions, just reach out to that person, that person is there to make sure that you have a quality move. So but to answer your question, no, it's not required.

Amy Bushatz 15:36

So why is monetary, monetary tips discouraged?

Matt Butler 15:43

It's discouraged because it's, it turns into, okay, I got a tip, maybe. Now, I'm just speaking this off in my mind, I got a tip of my last move, you know, speaking from maybe the movers mind, and it turns int an expectation but it is definitely not a requirement at all.

Amy Bushatz 16:01

Yeah, yeah. I personally love to eat lunch. So I figure other people also love to eat lunch. And I also know that, and I've heard other military family members say this, that there's a concern that if I do not feed my movers, or maybe even tip them, that they're going to break my stuff on purpose. And I can see how people get there. But what can you address that? Like, should people be afraid of that?

Matt Butler 16:33

No. If they have any concerns, again, that's when you get to go speak to your quality assurance person, but you should not have the fear of your things being broken or stolen, because you don't feed your movers, that is not a requirement, the transportation service providers, they have the same rules that we're speaking about. So it's not an expectation, but like I said, it's never required for that. You should not feel that I have to do this at all.

Amy Bushatz 17:03

Mm hmm. Okay, cool. Thank you. Thank you for putting us putting us to ease on that.

What recent rule or regulation changes should people know about as they navigate this 2021 moving season? What's what's new, what's different? Tell us what we need to know.

Matt Butler 18:03

Okay, I'll go over a few of them for you. So one is, so the seven day spread window is a new rule, which provides more certainty for customers, when scheduling their move. The spread date refers to the window, which is a seven was a seven calendar days within your moving, within which your moving company must pick up your shipment. So that is definitely a good thing. Because it gives the customer more clarity of when their shipment will be picked up. So that's a real good move that has changed this year for the customer.

Amy Bushatz 18:37

So how was it before? I mean, what is that? What is that a change from what were people experiencing before?

Matt Butler 18:44

Well, especially in the summer times, um, a lot of locations will have their preferred days and sometimes it will have to do a secondary preferred day. But having a seven day window gives more flexibility for when the shipment is actually being booked by the booking office and also for the transportation service provider or the movers when booking this shipment. So they are required to have your pickup date within those seven days. So that is a very important way of doing it now. So before we may be they will have to go back and forth with days because maybe they didn't have the movers didn't have any availability to pick it up. So with this way, the transportation service providers, the counseling office, the booking office, and the customer are all involved in this and basically they've agreed to make it happen during this time. So it works out best.

Amy Bushatz 19:43

Awesome. Awesome. Okay, what else? What else has changed? What do people need to know?

Matt Butler 19:47

Another thing is a claims enhancement. So there's additional guardrails to ensure families are made whole faster, so customers choice to receive replacement if offered by the moving company or full replacement. Previously, before that it was just a TSP, that the transportation service provider, or the moving companies choice on how the customer would be reimbursed or how they're, item would be replaced. So this way, there's, there's an option, there's a choice for the customer. So that's really good. Also, under the claims enhancement, there's a seven day response limit for the moving company, to, to customer counter offers during the claims process. So now that you have that time standard, where you're going to hear something back within seven days, so that's really good. Also salvage deadlines to moving companies at 45 days from the inspection. Previously, it was 30 days after settlement. So that's customer as well. And repair firm deadline. So moving companies must hire at 20 days and complete at 45 days from the claim. So that's, that's a really good one as well.

Amy Bushatz 21:01

Yeah. So what I hear you saying is a lot of changes to let people have more specific expectations about how they will be interacting with and hearing from their transportation provider, after specifically after the move for most of these. So your stuff is broken, or your deliveries that or whatever, maybe you have a little bit of damage, maybe it's a lot, maybe, you know, hopefully it's none. But if you do, the process is very specific, and designed to get you the answers that you need and really settle. I mean, we use the word settlement, you know, for monetary, but really settle your life down as quickly as possible.

Matt Butler 21:50

Right, exactly. The main thing is just to improve that customer experience and make sure to have a quality experience for this. So a lot of these moves are definitely to to make that better for the customer.

Amy Bushatz 22:04

Yeah, yeah. So Transcom, speaking of customers, Transcom uses the term customer responsibility, which means things that the military members and or their families need to know and know, for working with the movers. One customer responsibility we already talked about is getting those orders to the office as quickly as possible. Can you give us some examples of other customer responsibilities with the move?

Matt Butler 22:27

Sure, definitely. So one customer responsibility that's very important is ensuring that they're at their residence at the time of delivery, or pickup between 0800 and 1700, it's very important to ensure that they are there for when the movers get there to deliver or, or pick up there or start packing their things. So that's very important. And another thing if you're not, if the customer is not there during those times, and the movers try to deliver or, or start packing their things and have to leave, the customer can can be charged for that attempted delivery or attempted. That's very important. Another thing is, if you have any pro-gear, like I said earlier, ensuring that you know is separated from your regular personal property, and also listed and make sure making sure it is listed on your inventory. It's kind of as little tought to go after the fact to try to prove that is pro-gear. But if you're doing it at the beginning, then you won't have to worry about it at the end. So that's very important. Um, another thing if someone is acting on your behalf, and when I say that, I mean, if you're not going to be at your residence to release your personal property or to receive your personal property, it's very important at the time of counseling that you identify who you're releasing or receiving agent will be. And you know, putting that in DPS and maybe if something changes after your counseling, you can either go back into your counseling office and try to update that or you can do a power of attorney to identify who will be releasing or receiving your personal property on your behalf. So that's an important thing. Ensure that you know any personal property that you have in attics or crawl spaces are removed prior to the packers are prior to the packers arriving. So it's important prior to just making sure that you go up into your attic and go to your crawl space and taking those things down so that the movers can pack those for you. Additionally, removing all wall-mounted items from the walls prior to them movers arriving is not the movers responsibility to remove anything from was also they are not responsible for disconnecting your your TVs if you have components connected to it or your washing machines and dryers. So making sure that you're disconnecting or removing all those items prior to the movers arriving is very important. And also let me see here if we have again ensuring that you go through the house to ensure to everything that you want it that you want to have moved has been packed. So just walking around your house prior to the movers leaving just to make sure that they packed up everything that you want to you know, you don't want the movers to leave and you walk inside your, you know, a closet you see, you know, this didnt get packed up. So that's very important.

Amy Bushatz 25:17

Yeah, yeah, I've definitely had that happen, whereas open a cabinet and ta-da, there's all my stuff.

Matt Butler 25:24

Exactly, you know. So that's, that's very important. And then just, you know, document any notice damages to the moving company, as item, you know, when you receive your items, and just making sure that you when they come into your house and you notice any damages, or you notice something's missing, identify that with your, your movers at the time. If you notice it after the fact you still can, can move can, you know, identify any loss or damages afterwards, but this is just to alleviate some of the stress and may have happened. So definitely, these are some good customer responsibilities. Yeah, to take care of.

Amy Bushatz 26:00

Yeah. And you can note that damage, if you see something gets if you see something, say something, if you see something get damaged on its way out of your house, you can note that at the time, right? And have them I mean, make sure it's written down on that inventory sheet right there. When we moved from Fort Campbell, Kentucky to Alaska several years ago, I watched the mover, you know, not on purpose, obviously, but damage my boxspring like they ripped the bottom of it or something. Right. And I was able to say to the to the manager on site, you know, who is also packing and moving stuff. Hey, like, I noticed this, I'm sorry to tell you this, can you write it down? And he was very cool about it and made sure it was noted. But you know, I'm not sure three months later, I would have or whatever it was right, it was a long time because we were coming to Alaska, that I would have noticed that it had been wrecked. Yeah, if I hadn't been watching him.

Matt Butler 27:00

Right. And that's very important because even with the inventory, a lot of customers think that they have to automatically sign a document if they don't agree with it or, but even if, because, you know, when the movers are packing your things, they're gonna write down the condition of your items as well. The thing is, if you don't agree with the condition that they stated that your items are in, there is a block on the inventory where you can say, for item, you know, 13 I do not agree with the condition that they put my my property in for you know, specific items or whatever, just so that's noted and then you can sign it, you sign it saying okay, you know, my couch, this couch is totally damaged or whatever you can you can contest that basically.

Amy Bushatz 27:49

Yeah, yeah. Okay, so is there a top responsibility you find people are surprised by that they just didn't know they're supposed to do and maybe until it's too late.

Matt Butler 27:58

Right. So before you start to move, before you start moving into the house, customers should ask the movers to accompany them on a survey of the residence this way they can point out and agree upon any pre existing damage if there's any, this includes stained carpets, damaged walls and more. And once the once this has been noted, the movers can start unpacking the truck, the movers should also put down mats, plastic to protect the flooring near high traffic areas. In addition, movers are required to reassemble any furniture that was disassembled and to start up the move and unpack any or all boxes that you request. And this is often called a full unpack, most members decide not to ask the movers for a full on pack as if they you know if they prefer to put the items away on their own. And additionally, they will place items at a spot you designate only one time so they're not going to be moving your personal property more than once. So you cannot tell the movers to put your bed on the third floor then change your mind a few hours later. And request to be put in a basement so that's very important.

Amy Bushatz 29:04

Yeah, so I want to I want to note with that because I think there's a lot of fear for the unpack that and because you know we've heard horror stories whether it's rumors or actually happened or happened to one person and then became just bigger than life thing, right that's totally a thing, about the movers, unpacking quote, unquote, unpacking your stuff and placing it on one surface called the floor and not on one surface called the countertop or the cabinet you pointed to right? And so it it makes it so that I don't want all of my stuff on the floor. Therefore, I will not be asking for this. But I could you know if I'd known the rule or my responsibility to figure out where I wanted stuff, or the movers responsibility and what that looked like I could have saved everybody some trouble and had the unpack done or at least partially done before the movers ever left and now you know, I have glasses in a cabinet not on the floor, because that's not where anyone wants them, and all is well. But for me, I find that actually to make that possible, I'm walking through and using like, painters tape on cabinets, not necessarily for the movers, but for myself to decide where I want things. And so all things are possible when you know where you're belongings, they're gonna belong.

Matt Butler 30:26

Exactly

Amy Bushatz 30:29

And then I love what you noted about the walking through the home and noting any damage, because man, I had not thought of that, first of all, and second of all, my goodness, you know, if you, I imagine new to the home, right, you just moved there. You may not even notice that damage beforehand, because you just got there. And then the movers come in all the stuff is in they leave and you're looking at, you know, some banged up wall wondering is was that there before? Did that get there today? I don't even know.

Matt Butler 31:01

Exactly.

Amy Bushatz 31:04

Yeah, that's a that's a thing. Okay. Let's speaking of damage, can you give listeners two or three insights into filing a claim? When you've experienced a lot of goods damage, you know, they're small claims, there's big claims, some are easier, some are harder, walk us through?

Matt Butler 31:21

Okay, well, the first thing is definitely getting noticed of loss or damage within the 180 days from the delivery date to your TSP, which is your transportation service provider. So that's very important just to initiate that piece of it. So you have the notice right there, the second piece is actually filing the claim. So you have nine months from the delivery date to file your claim with your tsp. And a key part with that the TSP must confirm receipt of your claim within 15 days. So that is very important. Another piece is you know, you're going to be working with your TSP to assess your claim. So, you know, the TSP has 30 days to make an offer, or deny liability for the claim for anything that's under $1,000. And then they have 60 days on a claim for anything that's over $1,000. And they must respond within seven days. So that's really good. Um, you know, if they're going to be repairing the item, the TSP must hire a repair company within 20 days and have that company inspect the items within 45 days. And the final settlement, so the final settlement, or you can transfer to the military claims office. So you may settle the claim by accepting or rejecting in full or per item. So you must make the TSP providers are required to make the payment within 30 days, and pick up any salvage items within 30 within 30 days after being deemed beyond repair. Another thing you should never feel pressured, so only accept an offer that you feel completely satisfied. And if you're not satisfied that other option I was talking about the military claims office, you can consider contacting the military claims office if you're unhappy with the final offer. Or if the TSP has not communicated with you within 30 days, I just want to add one last piece. So an alternate filing option, which is called a quick claim settlement. So if offered on delivery day, you may file paperwork in person with the transportation service provider to promptly resolve minor loss or damages. And those items that does not exceed $1,000. And as the payment is made within five days of claim submissions, you may still file other claims for loss or damages discovered after delivery, excluding the item filed under the quick claim. So that's just another option for the customers just to you know, try to make sure that they're reimbursed for their items for any loss or damages.

Amy Bushatz 33:52

Yeah, that's a that's a good one to use. If you watch something come off the truck, you immediately see that it's damaged. And maybe it's something you wish you could use right now. Right? I'm trying to think of a well my coffeemaker. Oh, boy. Okay, so that sucker comes off, and we can see shes broken. Why did I let you pack this? Why didn't I bring this important thing with me. Who can say, but here it is, I you know, I have noticed its damaged. I have reported it. I've done this quick claim process. And now I'm getting reimbursed essentially, or at least to the you know, determined value for that item. And now I can go and replace it and peace in our time because I have had my morning coffee.

Matt Butler 34:41

Yes, yes. That's correct. And that's always if the transportation service provider, if they offer you that option. So that's definitely a good option for many customers.

Amy Bushatz 34:52

So you've moved, you've worked in this field a really long time. You know what you're doing based on have easy years of experience in the field. Can you give us three or so best tips for military members and their families getting ready for a move? Tie it all in a bow for us.

Matt Butler 35:11

Definitely. Okay, well, the first one and I said this earlier, it is very important that customers arrange their moves as soon as they get orders. And if possible, try to avoid moving during the summer peak season. During the summer peak season, about 40 to 60% of the yearly shipments occurred during that time. Additionally, the Fourth of July is a very, very busy time. So definitely avoid the Fourth of July moving during that time. For my second one, if you don't agree with the conditions that the packer stated your property is in, ensure that you annotate it on your inventory. never argue with your Packers. And if you have any issues, make sure that you call Did you contact your local quality assurance inspector to ins to assist. And if anything changes with your move, you know, maybe your assignment has changed or anything that's going to affect your move, ensure that you contact your transportation office immediately. They are there to assist

Amy Bushatz 36:06

There to assist. Thank you so much for this insight and this fun conversation today. Matt, it's been a pleasure to have you on PCS With Military.com. Thank you so much for joining us.

Matt Butler 36:18

Thank you very much for having me.
One of the challenges with any military Permanent Change of Station (PCS) move is that you likely wont ever see your new home until you actually arrive with your stuff already packed away. The Pentagon doesnt pay for house-hunting trips or new duty station fact-finding missions.

In this episode, Army spouse Kellie Artis shares her best tips and tricks for understanding your future home and dealing with all of the things you need to know about it without actually being there. Artis is the chief operations officer of Millie, a company that helps military members move by connecting them with resources and local insight on their upcoming location.

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The following is an edited transcript of this episode of PCS with Military.com.

Amy Bushatz 0:00

If you're anything like me, the second those military move orders, or even the rumor of military move orders hits your radar, you're researching the heck out of your next duty station. Where should you live? What schools should your kids attend? Where is the nearest Target? And is it or is it not a Super Target? In short, only the important stuff. But of course, you're also doing this from afar. On the one hand, nothing is better than the feeling of knowing you've got housing all locked and loaded before you even watch the movers pack the van. On the other hand, putting together your new life from a distance is basically a trust fall. How would you really know what you want if you've never spent significant or often any time there? Today's PCS with Military.com guest is a top expert on dealing with your new duty station while still at your old one. Kellie Artis is an Army spouse and part of the brains behind Millie, a wealth of information and help for duty stations nationwide, and a real life army of military spouses from all branches whose only job is to be your eyes and ears on the ground at your upcoming duty station home. Today, Kellie is going to give us her best intel on setting up your new home from afar. Kellie, welcome to PCS with Military.com.

Kellie Artis 1:53

Hey, Amy, thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

AB 1:57

I'm so excited to talk to you today. I just love what you guys do. So this is going to be fantastic. Start by telling us how many times you have personally moved with the military or otherwise.

KA 2:10

Okay, so you threw me off on this question because I usually say seven, which is our number of official PCSes and we did most of those in, like, three years, a three year time span, which is kind of crazy. But I counted back with my non-military moves. And I was really restless in college. So I get to add eight more moves. I know I have problems with people. I just don't like living with people. It's hard y'all. So um, yeah, I moved a couple of times when I was a kid and then like almost every eight months in college.

AB 2:44

Okay, but were you at the same college or ..?

KA 2:49

Yeah. Oh my God. Like filling up your laundry basket kind of move like not like, not you hauls in big moving trucks and stuff. It was like take eight trips and get it done. So oh, my gosh.

AB 3:00

I'm liking it. That is so, that is so real. Oh, the days when all of our household goods. Well, first that we didn't even know the words "household goods." Like what we own could not be called household goods, those days.

KA 3:13

Great, right? Wardrobe, a toaster and my Margarita glasses probably.

AB 3:19

That's right, who needs clothes? It's fine. All right. So it does not take a rocket scientist to see why dealing with your new duty station from your old one is not the best, right? But I'm sure you've seen some pretty dramatic examples of times this has been a huge problem. Can you give us a couple?

KA 3:37

Oh my word. Yeah, I can give you a ton. And we hear this a lot from folks that kind of stumble upon us out of a need. But yeah, often it's just the inability to go to the actual location ahead of time. So, you know, obviously, it's ideal to like, we call it recon, we're gonna wait, we're gonna gobble up all the jargon, y'all because it's just fun. So you know, oftentimes you want to go like recon your new duty station, check out the neighborhoods, you know, actually look at the house. I don't know before you sign a lease, but often, that's a luxury that we just don't have available to us, especially this past year with travel restrictions and the pandemic. I mean, it just has been crazy. So we have heard so many crazy stories usually has to do with the home being misrepresented, right? Or just not getting the whole picture. Usually you see what someone who is advertising their home wants you to see. And that's not their fault. I mean, they're trying they have an incentive to get the house rented or sold. Usually, we deal with more mishaps on the rental side because you don't necessarily have an advocate working for you like an agent. So yeah, we've heard of things like a family that has you know, a child with a severe cat allergy walking in and being like bowled over by cat pee smell right as soon as they open the door. Or maybe there's like a power line transformer big, huge gnarly thing in the backyard that probably admits not amazing things for your brain. Like, didn't make the listing photo, right? We've heard of like cemeteries, we've heard of some more, you know, dramatic things and more concerning things like mold infestations in homes, safety concerns with like railings and whatnot. And even farther down the line of scary and sad are the actual scams that exist. And those actually do happen where somebody will list a home that doesn't actually even exist. So they kind of prey on people, some people prey on the fact that we're under this really compressed timeline. They know we're not there, right? We're not in the actual location, can't even drive by it, to see if it's real. And we're kind of stressed out when we're doing it. So yeah, those are just some of the things that we see.

AB 5:46

And nothing adds to your -- two things you just said, I want to go back to first of all, nothing adds to your stress, like coming to your new home and finding what is actually a cemetery?

KA 5:57

Oh, well, it's mainly that it was near, it was adjacent. So like, you know, this actually happened to me as a kid, but then I had heard this story again, recently, apparently, my family moved to a home when I was like two years old. And then realize that there was a cemetery like kind of in the backyard like and I had a cousin that lived with us at that time, who was old enough to be really freaked out by it. So we ended up not living in that house for very long. But yeah, it I mean, it happens like we've heard you know, heard of people like moving in across the street and there's a penitentiary, you know, like, unless you know the area you have no idea what's outside of that little frame on the the window, you know, or the the photo gallery in your browser. Like you really have no clue you can try Google Streets, you know, sometimes that can lend a little bit of perspective. We encourage people to do that. But yeah, sometimes we're just a little bit too trusting.

AB 6:54

And then the second thing you said, you mentioned people being scammed. I have a friend at Fort Campbell, who opened her door one day to find her new renters for the house that she was not renting and had not listed.

KA 7:07

Oh crap. So they just kept up at her address. Yeah. So yeah, sometimes it could actually be an actual house that somebody has like grab pick because think about it. If you've ever listed your house online. I think there are probably photos of my house on Zillow somewhere from yeah, forever ago, you could just grab them and yeah, it happened.

AB 7:23

Yes, she was an Army spouse. And they were an Army family. And she's like, I am so sorry, but I do not have your money. I don't have your money. And I live here like I can't, there's nothing I can do about this.

KA 7:41

Sadly, in those situations, a lot of times, you're kind of just out of luck. The installations provide housing. Usually there's some sort of inventory. Sometimes there's not, sometimes there's a like crazy waitlist, you know, and it, it varies so drastic or drastically from base to base. But for the most part, I think the military kind of just assumes that you're, they've given you a valid option. Yeah, outside of that valid option, you're kind of on your own. And though it is buyer beware.

AB 8:10

These guys literally were in her driveway with a U-Haul. I mean, it could not have been more like a dramatic situation. Terrible for everyone and she felt so bad, you know, but my goodness, what do you, what do you even do? You know, but then -- Okay, so then the other thing I thought is like, so we had the ability to go on a house hunting trip, when we moved from Fort Benning to Fort Campbell. It's about an eight hour drive. So totally doable, right. Like for the peace of mind. So we go out there, we find a place to live, we see it with our eyeballs, you know, like we've not just online, we noticed that there is in fact the transformer you mentioned. And we're like, that's fine. We're like yeah, free medical care, whatever. Yeah. And, you know, all good. Okay, so fast forward to actually moving there. We realized like this is not the neighborhood for us, you know, like we lived there for not even a year we did not like the neighborhood we did not like where we ended up living we did not like the area you know, it's just like it wasn't great. That part of Campbell is surrounded by a lot of farm areas that used to have trees and don't anymore, and so there can be a lot of wind there, and the wind would just come off of these fields. And that house would just shake, you know, hated that. And just things like that, like things you wouldn't know unless you had actually lived there. I think that's another thing right? Like even doing a house hunting trip did not solve my I did this from a distance problem because I you know, maybe the house was better than something I would have signed for had I not been there. But at the same time, like there's all this like intel, that once I lived there. I was like we're moving down the highway.

KA 9:59

And you know, it often takes like that experience before you know these things. I mean, in California, there's this tax called Mello-Roos. And it affects all kinds of things. I want to say like Arizona, people get these things called swamp coolers to heat or cool. I forget what? It's been a minute since I've done all this research. But there are all these little quirky things that you don't know until you realize you missed it, right? And then you're like, oh, I should, you don't even know to ask that question. Why would you? Or it does help to have that sort of insight, and have people that you can either ask, or you can look up online and say, like, Hey, what do you what do you wish you had known? Like, what was your? What was your thing? What was your thinking about the wind coming off and shaking the house? What was that moment for you at this duty station? People will tell you because they know.

AB 10:49

Yeah. So it brings us to what my next question, which is: how do folks solve this issue? Like what have you seen?

KA 10:55

I mean, a lot of times, it's relying on your networks, right? It's asking the folks like, so if I knew that, you know, you had been at Fort Campbell. It's a Hey, Amy, what was your experience like moving to Campbell? What neighborhood did you pick? Why? Why did you pick where you picked? Okay, let me let me back up a little bit. So I did this for Millie. We actually ran focus groups and the questions that we asked folks have questions of folks that were currently living at each of the duty stations. Hey, Okay, first of all, tell me everything. Right. Tell me like you mentioned in the intro, like where is it target is it Walmart, is it dollar store, right, those that matters? You know, how close are things? How close is the base, really not based on what the websites say? Right? Okay, because they all lie, y'all everybody lies about commutes. Everybody lies about commute time.

AB 11:50

And the difference between I live 10 minutes from Fort Campbell and at Fort Campbell. And I like I live 10 minutes from base at Fort Campbell and I live 10 minutes from base and Tampa are two entirely different things.

KA 12:03

Is it by the crow flies? Or is it what sort of base are we talking -- I'm at Fort Bragg. This base is gigantic end to end. So depending on which county you choose to live in, you know, it could really drastically matter and based on which you know, unit specifically your spouse or service member is serving at really it does impact over time. And you know, even though you think like a 30 minute commute would be fine, because you really love this house. And the photos are just so amazing. Actually, what is the impact of that on your life? You know what I'm saying? Like you're your family, have you accurately assessed your family.

AB 12:39

And here at fort, I'm at Joint Base Elmendorf. And in Alaska, here at JBER, your 40 minute commute becomes an hour and a half if someone hits a moose.

KA 12:51

Those are things you need to know and then what kind of vehicle and tires. Do you need that, you know, vehicle as it does the weather because of the snow? So yeah, so those were all the kind of questions that we tried to end. You don't have to do a little bit of prodding, because if you think about it, once you've lived in a place for a minute, you do get used to the thing, and you don't recognize it as an issue anymore. Or you forget you come, you become normalized to it, you acclimate to it, whatever the case, and for incoming folks that are brand new, you always have to like remember back, what were the things you complained about? What were the pain points for you? What were the adjustment? Issues? Like what were the things that hung you up that you wish you had known? And had you known them? What would you have done differently? So those are all the kind of questions we asked and we always got a totally different answer depending on which duty station it was. Which makes our lives super fun because there's no way of like, there's no standard you know, like there's no knowing anything. The one cool thing that I will say from researching all of these duty stations in bulk was kind of that there was sort of a template though, like you know what I mean? There's always kind of like certain areas that you kind of know you just don't know what they're called yet because you don't know the area yet. You know, some duty stations call like areas we differentiate areas in different ways. Sometimes it's neighborhood sometimes it's cities. Sometimes it exits off the highway, right like some in Fort Campbell. They they go by exit six and 10 and I'm like no, what's the city called? Because I don't see exit six on a map. You know what I'm saying? Like you can go in the Facebook groups and you hear people chatter you know about these different areas. How are you supposed to know what that even means? If you've never been there and you've never driven down that road and you don't know what the different exits.

AB 14:34

So it means don't live in Oak Grove just okay. However, there are people who really liked Oak Grove and I know it guys like, let's level set you do you but I didn't like over here.

KA 14:50

So another really key point that I want to point out especially about the content that we offer is that we did try to be cognizant of every price point. Every lifestyle, we actually are really objective in our information. So even though I would get on the focus group calls, and a lot of times I get people like Amy. I would still try to dig and set like, figure out, okay, so if I am, if Oak Grove makes the most sense for me, and for my family or for my budget, okay, cool. But then tell me about that area, like, let's dig a little bit deeper. If I need to live in that area, or at that, you know, in that neighborhood that's really close to base because of the needs. We've already assessed in our family, we need super short commute, we need to be close to a medical facility, like different things like that. And we end up kind of landing in an area that maybe not maybe not super popular with the military crowd. Okay, cool. But how am I going to make the most out of that area? Because there are always pockets and gems and oh, yeah, really cool things to discover. So we did try to dig pretty, pretty deeply and be fair to all of our sweet little military areas, they all have their own unique flair. And there's something for everybody.

AB 16:10

One of the things that you have been talking about, it's kind of having this inside scoop. And, of course really helps solve a problem with that by having an inside scoop for hire, if you will. Where did this idea even come from?

KA 16:25

Yeah, so it started from a need, right? It's always like, okay, so I don't know how many times you do this, I do this a lot. I get online, I'm looking for something, I can't find it. I'm like, there should be a solution to this problem that I'm dealing with right in this moment. So it's kind of funny, I found Millie after it had barely become a company. Like they were just brand new to the scene. And I found Millie, because I was having issues with a rental property that I was self managing from a few states away. And it was so irritated, because I had just fired my property manager and was gonna have to drive five hours to go let a painter into this house, because it was vacant. I was so annoyed. I'm like, yeah, I can ask my friends to do it. I don't want to burden my friends, you know, whatever. Anyway, come across Millie. And, like, I'm so glad this is the thing. So backing up, Millie came about because it was founded by two veterans. And one of those veterans Ken Robbins, our CEO, is married to an awesome real estate agent. And she found herself having to, every time she PCS like restarting her entire business, right, like so here, we kind of always try to tackle a couple of problems. So we've always been super focused on PCS, and obviously, in alleviating that stress, making sure that people connect with verified folks and like trusted professionals and people who have actually PCS, right, not people who are just interested in like, you know, selling to the military. Right. So I always wanted to make sure that there were like, folks that were relatable and authentic, and, you know, top quality professionals that we could provide to our our military families. But then also, we're very cognizant of the military spouse unemployment problem. So a lot of what we do, I mean, we don't, we don't hire a ton of people, and most of our you know, help is is contracted. But we're still really adamant that anything anyone ever does for us, they're compensated for it. There's no volunteering, were just completely adamant about that. So what happened was, you know, here's this amazing military spouse, real estate agent, who, you know, had to change locations, change duty stations up to like the Northern Virginia area. And they kind of put her down at the bottom of the brokerage thinking, well, you can't be a good agent, because you just got here, you have to learn the area. She's like, not true. So what she did was just focused on military clientele. She's like, I know all the questions people have. And I can tell them all the answers, and I've done this a million times. I'm amazing at PCSing. And so anyway, she ended up climbing really quickly up the ranks through her brokerage, just focusing on military, home sales, because people sought her out, she became like a trusted professional. And you'll see this across the country folks seek out, you know, the veteran, the military spouse, agent, because there's a shortcut. There's vernacular, we don't have to catch people up. We don't have to explain why we're on this timeframe. You know, like, What do you mean, you can't come see the house before you buy it? We don't have to do that.

AB 19:22

Right. And it's like what you're talking about with having people you can turn to, you know, just through the Facebook hivemind. Right, like, they knew that we all speak the same language and that you know, that when I say what's the commute?

KA 19:48

So what what happened then was these two vets launched Agent Hero, which is a real estate agent referral network and all of our agents are exclusively veterans and military spouses. We love civilian agents, we think they're amazing. We try to help them with resources to be better agents for military families. But our network is exclusive to those who have PCS. And they also have to meet tons of really pretty strenuous metrics to make sure that they're not like hobby agents, you know, because we want to make sure that if we hand a military family to one of our agents, they will take extremely good care of them, right, because we don't have time, we don't have time to fire agents and find new ones because we're unhappy or they're there fell off the radar, or they went on vacation and didn't tell us right, like, so. Agent heroes started as this network of trusted professionals. And then we decided really quickly that we also needed to wrap those professionals in a ton of information and resources. So we built Millie, which became sort of the umbrella brand, and houses all of the content and resources, we have information for over 85% of the active duty population. So all of the bases that are stateside, that you will potentially be moving to we probably have covered for you on the base or on the website. So you can go research it for free. No gates, no emails, nothing, just go on, find your base, learn as much as you can. From there, we then have another network of providers called Millie Scouts. And these folks are our military spouses. They're all independent contractors are basically available for like gig work. So you know, we say TaskRabbit, kind of, they can actually be your eyes and ears on the ground. So you do hire them, they do charge for their services, and rightly so I mean, I think that all of our time is valuable, and they should be should be compensated for their for their time and talents. And I guarantee you, they'll go above and beyond, you know, so we set some rates, but usually they'll give you you know, because you know how it goes right. So I fussed at them all the time. I'm like, price your services better. But they're also living the life, you know, they're cognizant of financial constraints as well. So, so yes, you can hire them to go do a FaceTime tour, and make sure that you know, the house is as represented on the listing, right, they've actually this year have been really busy with HHG support. Household goods. We've had a lot of folks reaching out to us saying that they needed help with their move, because they were having a PCS separately from their service member. It was probably one of the top concerns we saw this year because of the pandemic and because of all the things but yeah, there were there were families that were having to you know, either the spouse went ahead or the servicemember went ahead. Either way, somebody was stuck by themselves with, you know, a team of movers or in a couple of toddlers, you know, we had a few pregnant spouses who were trying to do this solo with kids running around, it was crazy. And y'all know if you've done this, I think it's a three adult job to monitor and be present, while the move is actually happening. Because it is just chaos. And I think if we had three adults, for every agent, she'd like supervise, we'd probably not have as many issues with, you know, claims and whatnot, but we don't have that. So what we've been doing is helping supplement some of that just project management sort of stuff. And like, Hey, can you run and pick up the subs from Publix? For lunch, right? Even little things like that are checking off inventory. They're available just to kind of be like an assistant. So yeah, we've had some pretty creative requests. And for the most part, the scouts are able to accommodate. They're not like heavy lifters or they're not going to put your furniture together. But they're there's so much that they can do for you to include walking into a home and telling you. Yeah, it smells like happy. Right? Yeah.

AB 23:39

Okay, so what are three things spouses and service members can do before official orders come up to deal with their new duty duty station while still at the old one?

KA 23:50

Yeah, so the number one thing I think, is research. And that could be because I'm kind of a research nerd. Maybe not everyone gets as excited about this as I do. But the first thing that I would say do, even if you've got like a shortlist of two or three places, go ahead and start, like getting immersed in the area, like start understanding what it's like to be stationed at that place. You can start with Facebook groups if you want, but I'm going to throw a big huge caution out there. A lot of the times the only thing you hear about a duty station are the negative things because those folks are the ones that have just not enjoyed their time. So be really careful and kind of read between the lines of what people say. Especially if they're saying it loudly in some of the groups.

AB 24:33

Because there's so much nuance to that like it can be the greatest area and you had the world's worst time and it has nothing to do with area and everything to do with the Army. Or it could because you moved to Oak Grove I don't know. You know what like, thinking about it you know, people always ask me about Fort Campbell, what do you think, whatever, and I say something to the effect of Fort Campbell's lovely -- we didn't have a great time there. Ah, Oak Grove is great. Sort of. It's a little windy for me, so moving out of Oak Grove was the right decision for our family. People love it. But that's totally like what you're saying. Fort Campbell the area's beautiful, Land Between the Lakes is one of my favorite places on the planet. I never want to live there again.

KA 25:25

Right. And that's fine. And so but the problem, though, is if you're moving to Fort Campbell, the last thing you want to hear is how horrible some out had? Because what are you doing? You're setting yourself up, right.

AB 25:35

I'm fully aware that my perception of Fort Campbell has absolutely nothing to do with the area or even any other unit on base. It is a snapshot of one point in time. Yeah, one unit for one person.

KA 25:49

Yeah, it's true. And it's You're right, it's super nuanced. So I would say wait until you have all kinds of warm fuzzies about a place before you dive into the Facebook groups and start asking people for resources and recommendations, right. So I mean, I'm going to encourage you to go to our website, it's GoMillie.com, you can look up your duty station and get kind of an overview and understand like what you're looking at, when you go to the Facebook group, right? So GoMillie will lay it out for you. And there's maps and photos, that military spouses that live there took, right, there's all kinds of really, like, relevant perspective that you can get, and then take that from there and then start diving down. If there's something that looks like it's interesting for you, or if that that type of, you know, those amenities are important. We also have some ebooks that can help you do the family assessment that we've been talking about. Understand, like, do you need to be 10 minutes from Target or are you okay, being farther out? Alright, that matters, right?

AB 26:46

So let's add, though, that we like your resources so much at Military.com that we have them linked, as you know, to a variety of our own base guide pages. Yeah, that just, you know, just an endorsement there because we know that content you guys to put together is so useful that we think other people should look at it too.

KA 27:05

Thank you. Yeah, and we're super thankful for that. We think it's helped a ton of people because even when I was doing my research for the base guides on Millie, I kept coming across Military.com was like, Oh, great. So Alright, so look up, you know, our our website, Google, obviously, another fun little tip that I give for research is Instagram, look up some prominent instagramers. From those areas, I think about influencers, right, who are going out and eating food and taking photos of their dessert or, you know, going on hikes. Amy, right? Like all the outdoorsy folks like start trying to curate some of that in your feed. So you're starting to kind of get visually immersed in the area before you get there to it kind of gives you a behind the scenes look at how like how the locals live. Or, you know what's incredible about that one of the good photo ops even right, so those are the beautiful places that you're going to want to explore.

AB 27:54

And nothing inspires you about a new duty station as much as desert.

KA 27:58

I mean, for real and like you don't want to live there for six months before you uncover that. Go ahead and do that on day one. Maybe take advantage of that early. And that's honestly, that's part of what we're trying to do, right, we want folks to get adjusted before they go so that they don't lose time when they get there. It's hard enough, y'all we are lonely, when we first get to a duty station, we are tired, we are focused on getting everyone else settle in. So do as much of the legwork as you can while you still have the energy and the excitement behind it. And that way you can maybe skip a little bit of that, you know transition period that takes so long. Alright, my second one is network. We've already talked about this a little bit with the Facebook groups. I want to encourage everyone to reach out to one of our scouts. You just go to the website Scout.GoMillie.com. Contact the Scout, there's a little contact button, you can message them just like hey, I'm moving there. What's it like, right? They love these conversations and they're happy to help. If you get to a point where you need to hire them you have someone that you've already made a relationship or connection with or relationship with. And they'll be standing by maybe there's some trust built up. They're happy to pass along resources, things like that. We also have a Facebook group if you if you're interested in that. But yeah, just go ahead and reach out to them. Start this conversations ask your network. Hey, have you all ever been stationed at Fort Campbell since we're picking on Fort Campbell? They haven't. And they know people that have like ask them to okay do you know anyone that station there? You don't have to be friends with them. But ask reach out to them and say hey, I'm headed to the area. Can you tell me about where you live? Why do you like it? Do you wish you had not chosen it? Those are easy conversations that every one of us are happy to have. The next one I have is connect so and this goes back to my go ahead and get started living there before you get there. I really really like Chamber of Commerce websites, the Visitor Center website. If there are National Parks nearby. Amy I know you're gonna love this. Go ahead and find out where the parks are especially this year, find out what the outdoor activities look like, find out where the restaurants are, where's the nightlife? Where's the downtown? What are the cultural events that are happening in that area, and start putting some of that stuff on your calendar. It's easy to do on Facebook, if you find Facebook events that you're maybe look interesting, go ahead and start like responding to this event and getting it literally on your calendar. Because when you get there, you're going to be tired, and you're going to want to leave your house, but you're not going to know where to go. And the last thing you want to do is pull out your phone and try to figure out, well, what are we doing this weekend? If y'all have husbands like my husband, it's like, what are we doing this week? I don't know. I'm not the party planning committee, you know? Not at all. Do some of this beforehand. Plan little excursions. Give yourself a break from the boxes, you know, it helps you meet folks, you know, while you're out helps you go ahead and get adjusted to your new community. It gets you outside, which is always healthy and good for you. And it just yeah, it just helps you sort of like embrace where you're living. You can, you can get walled in really quickly, and sometimes that's hard to climb out of so just do it as soon as possible.

AB 31:11

Absolutely. Oh my goodness, such good tips. Okay. Last question. Do you have any special advice for our poor little friends who are trying to deal with moving overseas or back from overseas or between places that are overseas, there's a lot of seas and you are.

KA 31:29

So I've never done an OCONUS overseas move. I've always been one that has been scared to leave, I'm such a homebody, my husband bless him, he's always wanted to go overseas. But my number one tip is probably just going to be get as organized as you possibly can organize yourself, organize your files, organize your stuff, or as your mind and do everything farther in advance than you think you need to. If you're overseas already, you should have already gotten yourself organized to a point. So try not to lose that. Right? Try to hang on to that in those systems and try to keep things fresh in your mind so that when you come back, it's not as jarring as it probably was the first time but heading overseas for the first time back to reach out to your networks, tap other people for advice. If you're headed to somewhere that you know someone is already there, that's an obvious, you know, hey, tell me everything. What do I need to know every step of the way, and then rely on the resources like the official do de resources to the sponsor program for oconus moves is still pretty vibrant. And there are tons of people who are eager and happy to help you out for living overseas specifically, so tap into those resources as well.

AB 32:39

Wonderful. Kellie, thank you so much for coming on PCS with Military.com. I appreciate your time, and all of your advice and expertise and that sweet network of awesome you've got going on there.

KA 32:51

Thank you so much, Amy. This was awesome. And I encourage everyone to go to Military.com for all of their awesome PCS resources and enjoy the rest of the series.
Military spouses know the challenges of a military Permanent Change of Station (PCS) move dont end with the packing and unpacking. Relocating a career or a small business adds an entirely new layer of complexity.

Fortunately, highly successful military spouses like Marine Corps spouse Lakesha Cole are willing to pass on what theyve learned to make life a little bit easier for the next person. In this episode, Lakesha skips the how-tos on paperwork and goes straight to the things business owners need to think about that may not have even made the to-do list.

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The following is an edited transcript of this episode of PCS with Military.com.

Amy Bushatz 0:00

Military spouses and family members know that military moves are just a part of life, and that they have to keep their personal lives and careers on a plug and play basis if they want to succeed. But some things are easier to move across the nation or world than others. For example, making new friends is one thing, but relocating your entire business is something entirely different. And yet, entrepreneurship is a really attractive option for military spouses and families because it relies on your own personal hustle instead of someone hiring you. How you develop something that can pack up and move with you is more art than science. To help us with tips and tricks for that art is the Lakesha Cole, a Marine Corps spouse whose family recently retired to the Tampa, Florida area. rakeesha, a former Armed Forces Insurance Military Spouse of the Year is one of my favorite people to talk to you, because she's full of amazing ideas and vision has the success to backup what she says and never does anything janky she's even PCSed an entire brick and mortar business from one side of the world to the other. That's some crazy magic. Lakesha, welcome to PCS with Military.com.

Lakesha Cole 1:12

Hi, Amy. Thank you for having me.

Amy Bushatz 1:15

No jankiness here today because we've got you on the pod. Alright, tell us how many times have you moved both with and without the military?

Lakesha Cole 1:31

Oh, wow. Um, I actually so I was born and raised in Portsmouth, Virginia. And I didn't move until I was about 14, we moved to the Camp Lejeune, North Carolina area. My mom was a federal government worker. And that was actually my first move ever. And then from there. We've probably PCSed six times five, six times.

Amy Bushatz 1:54

Yeah. It's, it's crazy. Because in this life, we lose track of that stuff. You know? How many other people lose track of how many times? No one?

Lakesha Cole 2:05

No one.

Amy Bushatz 2:06

But you guys were also stationed overseas. So one of the at least one of those moves was to Japan and then one of them was back from Japan. Right. All right. And did you do any OCONUS to OCONUS PCS? Which is like a whole different situation.

Lakesha Cole 2:20

That was my first out of country experience. Yes. Right. Um, I there's really nothing that can really prepare you for that, for that experience. Not that I had a bad experience. We had a I had an awesome experience. I know, you hear a lot of the horror stories of PCSing overseas. And while I did have my challenges, especially when it comes to business, and I'm sure we'll talk about that a little later. My experience was great.

Amy Bushatz 2:47

Cool. All right. So we are here to talk about moving a business. That's what we're doing. So how many of those times that we just talked about have you move with the business in tow?

Lakesha Cole 2:58

I've moved with my business in tow three times. So from the Quantico, Virginia area Camp Pendleton in Okinawa, Japan. Well, I guess you can count to and from, so that would be six.

Amy Bushatz 3:13

So, yeah, so a lot of times, yeah. So you know, you're doing now with this. Okay. So with that in mind, give us some background, what is what in your military life journey led you to start your own business? How did you get to the point where you were trying to move stuff like that?

Lakesha Cole 3:32

I was frustrated. Like so many of spouses who are probably listening to this recording, I found myself in a situation of not being able to find the job that I desire. We PCSed from Virginia to California, I did everything that my parents told me to do go to college, get good grades, you'll get a great job, great salary, and all as well, right. And I did all of that. PCSed to California and just cannot land a job in my field that was of decent pay. And that was frustrating to me. Because I had never been in a situation of where I wasn't able to sort of nail a job anywhere where where we were stationed.

Amy Bushatz 4:21

And what was your field at that point?

Lakesha Cole 4:24

Marketing communications, that was my field. Yes. So we are in this so I'm on the west coast. It was actually my first time living in California visiting California being away from my friends and family. Had a great resume. I thought I had great referrals work experience at that point, and just couldn't land anything. And then when I finally got an interview, that was when it was actually my second interview is when the whole question of being a military spouse started to play into the the questions I was being asked on my interview and that was my first introduction of this whole conversation, okay, what is this? What is happening? Why did they ask me this? Why do they care who I'm married to? And what difference is that really going to make? Right? So that was that was my first introduction to that. So I couldn't find a job. I did end up finding some contract work that tide me over during the time that I was there. But prior to that, I already decided I was going to start my business because I never wanted to be in a position of where I had to rely on someone else to pay me to do a job, right. Well, my husband was deployed. This was actually one of the roughest duty stations for us because he was gone a lot. Six months home, six months gone. Kaylee was two at the time, again, no friends and family on the west coast.

Amy Bushatz 5:48

And she's, she's how old now?

Lakesha Cole 5:50

She's 15, she's 15. Yeah. So and no friends and family there. So it's really just me solo parenting it as best as I could. While he was deployed, I decided I was going to take $500 from our checking account, I drove myself to Los Angeles, the garment district, I taught myself how to be a buyer on the fly. I went and bought some merchandise wholesale and found someone on at the time, it was called Bookoo, which is like Craigslist, like Facebook marketplace, like way back in the day where you can just find people who can do random things. And I found that he wanted to build a website for like, $200, he set up my whole e-commerce site, and boom, that was my very first business. My first customer, actually, my first three orders were from my mom. And then I started to, you know, wear the garments to work and introduce these, what I was selling to my co-workers and they became customers and their friends became customers. And it just kind of snowballed into this brand that, you know, over the course of eight years has traveled to all 50 states, we've served clients in about seven different countries. And I was able to build something that not only contributed to the financial well being of my household, but I was able to hire other military spouses and help them gain employment and help them grow their business as well.

AB 7:09

Yeah. So we are focusing today on running a business and how to relocate with it. So you didn't stay in California, you then get PCSed somewhere else.

Lakesha Cole 7:19

Yeah.

Amy Bushatz 7:20

So when you set up your business, did you design it to be something that could move was that part of your initial planning,

Lakesha Cole 7:28

That was never part of my initial plan. And actually, longevity was never part of the initial planning. It was a job, I couldn't find work. I know how to make money. Let me go and figure out how to do that. And that was my initial plan. I didn't have a business plan. I didn't have any business experience, don't have a business degree. Never. I worked in retail for what maybe two weeks at a shoe store. And then I realized I really disliked feet. And that was not the job for me. So that was the extent of my retail experience. So here I am walking into this world, because I believe that much in myself and my ability to learn whatever I need to learn to be successful at it. And I just ran with it. So no, it was never part of my strategy to build something that was portable, that I could take to every duty station.

Amy Bushatz 8:20

So okay, like I'm envisioning myself in your shoes, but no without feet talk because now we know we don't like feet. I'm envisioning myself in your shoes. Okay, we get orders, I have a business and now I have to move it. What was that moment like that? You that you realize, okay, that's what's next. And we do what?

Lakesha Cole 8:44

Right? So I actually started doing a little bit of research and I couldn't find anything that was related to our community and being an entrepreneur and business owner and how to to relocate your business. All the research that I found was actually like these large corporations that were like opening multiple locations and maybe closing one and relocating to another area. But that information didn't apply to my business. I knew I was onto something. Because, you know, it's, it's, it's one thing when you create a product, and you're not sure who's going to buy it, but it's another thing where you create a product. And not only do people buy it, but they start to refer other people then they become repeat customers. That's a whole nother high for, like product based business owners. So I knew I was onto something when people kept coming back and asking for more. And I knew I didn't want to close it that I wanted to continue to explore that idea to figure out how far I could take this thing. So when I started to plan to move it was once we got to once we receive orders of where we were going, then I could actually sit down and kind of come up with a game plan. Okay, we're going to be near Washington, D.C. This is like the mecca of, you know, fashion and successful people and professional people in all industries are here. So there's so many different opportunities for me to tap into here. That was the first thing that came to mind, get to know where you're moving to and figure out what opportunities are available there for you to potentially tap into. And I didn't think past that it was really just me familiarizing myself with the new area. At that time. Yeah.

Amy Bushatz 10:22

Yeah. Okay, so what, so you, you end up moving it, um, and I want to talk about how to be successful in this first, but, but, or I want to talk about how to be successful in it. But first, rather, I'd like to talk about the biggest mistake maybe a mistake or two you made while exploring it because you really were in uncharted waters, as far as you knew. And, you know, when we go out on our own, and we try stuff, sometimes that involves some stumbles, and some making some some mistakes. So what is maybe the biggest mistake you made when trying to do that? Do that move.

Lakesha Cole 10:59

Um, I will probably say not doing enough homework and not preparing myself on the financial side of it. You know, most spouses in our space don't like to talk about the money, they don't want to have the money conversation. But it has to happen when you're talking about growing your business. Because, yes, we are entrepreneurs, we're natural problem solvers. And that's why so many of us start businesses, right. But if your business isn't profitable, is it really a business, like we're all in the business of, of making money and making a living? And I just felt like I needed to say that because there's so much harshness around, you know, spouses wanting to have a profitable business, and it's okay, to want to have a profitable business. So some of the mistakes that I made early on, was not looking close enough at the numbers, does this business financially make sense? Am I going to turn a profit? Is it going to be successful? And I didn't examine that information early on. Had I done that early on, I would have scaled to six figures much quicker than I did.

AB 12:08

It's interesting that you say that, because when you started, saying, had I done that early on, I'm like, my brain goes to and I, you know, I would have not wasted money or whatever. Right. But what you're saying is, had I done that early on, I would have been way more successful.

Lakesha Cole 12:23

Yes, I would have been way more successful. Had I looked at the financials early on the financials, meaning what the what, how much money do I really need to pour into this business to one, grow it into a recognizable household brand, right, you got to have your brand and intact gotta have your marketing in place, you want to make sure you're not paying too much for product want to make sure your profit margins are good. Like all of that, it was just me going buying some garments, and then me reselling it. And even the upcharge, and I was charging on the merchandise wasn't even enough to really sustain or grow the business, it was just what I thought I'd do, right. So learning more about your industry, learning more about your products, having the sales process in place, having marketing in place, like there is enough information. And this was way before Facebook way before you could go to YouTube University and figure out how to learn anything, right. So this was really back in the day of you really, when they say you started your business from scratch, you really did start from scratch. We, you don't have that now, right, you can go online and find any information that you need. And you don't have to have some of the same growing pains that a lot of us did 10, 15 years ago, learn your industry, learn what's working, learn what other people are doing, and take cues from them. Don't be out here unprepared for what that next step is going to be for you.

Amy Bushatz 13:54

So okay, so I want you to pair this with the moving aspect, because I suspect that when you look at the financials, right, you're in place a you're going to play speed, how does the that move impact that I mean, there's obviously there's getting to and from I don't mean that right I mean, in in a bigger picture way.

Lakesha Cole 14:16

So it can have a significant impact. Your customer base at Camp Pendleton is not going to be the same at Camp Lejeune. Right? You wont you don't make the same amount of money and the job opportunities are not the same at those two locations and three, your customer base if you're targeting a local customer base, you have you want to know what that household median income is and what type of disposable income that that they have to still be able to support your business. So yeah, you definitely want to determine the costs when you're relocating, and the cost includes more than just expenses. The expect expected expenses of physically moving your household goods and equipment. You want to find out what the tax advantages or disadvantages you might have in your new state or country. In most cases, your sales tax rate will change, which could lead to an increase in prices for your customers, you want to know all these things before you start selling them before you, you know, start taking in new customers, shipping costs will change as well, again, I was an hour away from the LA Garment District, so I could just drive up the road and restock. Well, now that I'm I moved from California to Virginia to North Carolina, now I have to factor in how much it's going to cost to get my goods shipped, right, which also will affect the price. And operating overseas may also require you to pay duty taxes on importing goods. So you want to make sure you learn the process and follow whatever the regulations are in your state or country accordingly.

Amy Bushatz 15:46

And for a digital business, right? So because so many of us are now the digital entrepreneurs, right word, we've got writing or we don't have a physical product, because we use drop shipping or whatever. Right? What How did you and I know you have a lot of experience in this too. So tell us how do you what are like, what's the financial considerations of the digital based business? Well, the same thing?

Lakesha Cole 16:12

And I would say yes, it's the same thing. But you don't have the burden of a lot of the overhead that those of us with product based businesses would have, right? You don't have to worry about the overhead of inventory. If you move into a physical space, you don't have to worry about that unless you choose to have an office outside of your home. So I would say yes, it's the same thing. Um, I would just say just be mindful of what those regulations are in the area that you're relocating to. particularly around taxes.

Amy Bushatz 16:41

Hmm, yeah, man. Things I don't like thinking about. Yeah. Taxes. I mean, I think everyone can agree with that. So not the controversial statement. Okay.

AB 18:50

So can you give us some steps that people can take to move their business um, and and you also have like a very unique experience of moving a brick and mortar business from overseas to stateside which I still sit here, like when I say that about you, I'm like how to do that. Even though you have called me a bunch of times. I did that very carefully. And by looking at the financials, but you know, maybe talk about some of these practical steps, you know, while keeping in mind that we're talking about both brick and mortar and a digital digital experience.

Lakesha Cole 19:28

Yeah. So first, you want to know your base. The rules and regulations differ from base to base, in our case, relocating overseas to open our change how we operate it, particularly with distribution right. Choosing to live on base it's important to follow your local housing authorities policies and guidance, as well as any state and local requirements. Just because we're military spouses does not mean we are exempt or have any type of privilege over any of those rules and regulations. So that should be your first step is knowing what your responsibility is as a business owner in that location. And if you're unsure, you can contact your housing office for assistance to ensure that you're in compliance with regulations and specific requirements for your installation. And if you're overseas, you want to check that Status of Forces Agreement that specifically talks about how you can and cannot conduct commercial activity, I was able to find a loophole, a working solution is what I like to call it. It I pushed it to the limit, but we were operating within regulations, right, and we were able to get done. So fine, figure out what that line is for you, and pursue it. And then, of course, I would say you want to determine the costs we talked about, you know, making sure that you have a separate budget from the expenses, you're going to require to move and then expenses that you're going to need to relocate your business, those should not be one of the same, you should have two separate budgets for the two, again, finding out what your tax advantages and disadvantages are in the different areas and stay on top of those tax requirements for yourself and for your business.

Amy Bushatz 21:13

I'm sorry, to interrupt -- why two separate considerations removing the physical act of moving your business and then the, you know, ramifications of doing so right?

Lakesha Cole 21:24

Well, you shouldn't be commingling your business funds with your personal funds anyway. Right. So one, keep that in mind. Also, when your PCS and and I don't know if this have changed, but when we were PCS, and TMO is not allowed to pack and move your business assets. Some of the things that you own, you may have to ship on your own. That's an expense that you may not be aware of that you have to take on. But you want to make sure that you know what that policy is before TMO pulls up to your house and get ready you know, for packout. And then there are things that they just can't take right and you want to be caught off guard. So I always say set up the budget for your household and then set the budget for your for your business to separate entities treat them as such.

Amy Bushatz 22:10

Okay, other considerations? Yeah, apologies.

Lakesha Cole 22:14

Currency is another factor to consider, especially when you're relocating overseas, that currency value fluctuates daily, I knew nothing about the end rate and exchange. And all of that became an expert, by the time we left, four years later, but anything can swing it, political and economic events, or even unexpected natural disasters can change that currency rate. And now your prices are all out of whack. And you have to figure out how to how to make the numbers make sense. We buy supplies and our local economy when we were there. And the currency rate determines how little or how much we could purchase. So you want to make sure that you're always in tune with what that rate is and how, and even picking up the trends on when it fluctuates. And when it and when it doesn't, so that you can prepare properly on your end, we also participate in events where we are required to conduct transactions in here and we will in open our so no one when you have to accept that currency ahead of time allows you to for better strategic planning on your in terms of your bottom line. So you just want to consider these factors. When you're determining price points to protect your bottom line against any fluctuations. Then you want to start networking, always like to say your business should arrive before you do. Whether you sell a product or service. networking with other business owners, is really the key to your success. Again, when I started this, we didn't have Facebook, any of this social media stuff. Now you can find a group or start a community in any location. So and I'm pretty sure that every single base there's there's a Facebook group or something that's specifically for military spouse entrepreneurs, you want to join those groups, you want to start asking questions, you want to start introducing yourself to know other people in the group. And then once you feel comfortable with where you are, then you start to introduce your business to that group. So you want to connect with other spouses on these different social media platforms reach out to a diverse group of professionals with various skills and experience to help you gain insight on the customer demographic, the demands of the community, as well as your competitors. So that could be your local Chamber of Commerce. That could be your local military, Hiring Our Heroes Military Spouse Network Group. There's so many different little organizational groups in these areas and on these installations that can help you figure out what this information should be for your business. So again, you can make your business plan makes sense for you at that new duty station.

Amy Bushatz 24:58

I love networking, as you know, but I think that people often discredit the idea of a network within a network that you can build a network of people who you can go to, and then leverage their networks for you. Yeah, um, and like, we didn't talk about this in the intro. I just want to give you a second though to talk about make her because that is such a good example of this very thing. And you as you know, I am a big fan of what you guys do with that. So talk to us about maker, what is it?

Lakesha Cole 25:35

We have our Make Her MilSpouse retreat that is coming up on April 29.

Amy Bushatz 25:42

And that will have passed by the time people hear this pod. But 2022 exists.

Lakesha Cole 25:48

Yeah, it does. But it's a three day, two night work in virtual wellness experience created for today's modern military spouse, entrepreneur. So the retreat is an extension of the influential military spouse, our friend, lifestyle blogger, Armywife101 and the mill spouse, influencer network house SoFluential Media where digital influence entrepreneurships are popular focal points. One of the things that people will love about MakeHeris that it's very diverse, is very inclusive is a very intimate, it's learning, impactful business experience. For those who are ready to level up in their business. If you're just starting out, this could be a great place for you as well. But if you're also looking to to scale, this is also a home for you. So we bring in top notch CEOs to come and teach you this this session, we're teaching you about money, we're teaching you about sales and marketing and social media, and just really giving you some actionable education, money making tools for you to grow in your business. And for those of you who are, you know, still active duty, and you know, you're still in a place where you're having to relocate your businesses, MakeHer gives you the tools that you need to be successful at that. So you should definitely look out for our retreat next year. And you can go to our website MilSpouseRetreat.com you'll be able to find any other opportunities for you to maybe go back and kind of listen at this retreat, since this is going to air afterwards. And stay on the lookout get on the email list to get details for the next event that we have. But it is it is truly a one of a kind experience. You just kind of have to experience it for yourself. You were at the lot you had our inaugural event Amy.

Amy Bushatz 27:43

And I'm emceeing the 2021 event. So everybody can just trust me that I think this is great, because I, because I wouldn't do that if I didn't love what you guys are doing. But yeah, what I said earlier that, that you don't do anything janky that's how I know for sure. Because there was no jankiness here. And it really does do you know, like what we were talking about here, like it did provide me even somebody who has been in this space for a really long time. And I know so many people, I met people I had never even you know, like, encountered at all before. Which is not my normal experience. I've just been in the space for so long. That doesn't happen very often.

Lakesha Cole 28:29

And that was intentional on our part, we wanted to make sure we were finding some really dope military spouse in this space. I don't want to say that no one's checking for, but that that flies under the radar enough to where, you know, their names arent splashed everywhere, but they are mega successful in their businesses in their industries, and just really kicking butt out there.

Amy Bushatz 28:53

And now these people are in my network, you know, and so when I need something, I can go to them and leverage their networks. And because we spent a couple of super I mean, you know, you and I are both introverts. So we would never, we would never do a retreat that was going to exhaust us. But like, because we spent some time building relationships with those people. Now I like I trust them, and I know that I can go to them, right. And that's the kind of thing that you have to have, if you are going to successfully PCS with your business because I don't I know a lot of people but I don't know everybody as evidenced right. And if I'm going to move from Alaska, to let's say, Georgia, or somewhere really sort of far afield from my normal network. I'm not probably going to know anyone who right actually there. But I might know somebody who knows somebody who's there. Mm hmm. And that's huge. Yes. So huge.

Lakesha Cole 29:48

I always say build your network before you need it, because you're going to need it. And whether you're on the East Coast, West Coast or overseas, you know, you need to get out -- I do say network in these Facebook groups, but also want you to come out of these Facebook groups and when we can and when it's safe again, to start network with people in person as well. You'll be surprised how how those paths will cross again, at some point. And you just and you don't know who they know, right? And they don't know, we know. And you guys can not only become great friends, but you can become great assets for each other as well. So build your network, you need it. And that's not to say, you meet someone, and then you go for the ask, right? I don't like that. That's annoying. And and that's the quickest way to get a no for me.

Amy Bushatz 30:37

It's a little janky.

Lakesha Cole 30:39

Yes, a little janky, a little suspect. But when you meet people just show some interest in people and get to know people get to know their families, their kids get to know about their business. And once you both feel like you've reached a level of comfort within your friendship or business ship or whatever ship you're on, then you can start to build in those assets to where it feels authentic. And it where it feels genuine, not opportunistic.

Amy Bushatz 31:07

Yeah, yeah. And so what I love about what we're talking about here is that when people hear, you know, what do you need to know about moving your business, they are probably thinking, you're gonna walk into this conversation, and we're going to talk about you know, how to file your LLC and transfer your LLC to a new space or whatever. But but this is like, that's the technical stuff. And that important, right? That depends on where you're going. But this is like the universal meat of the matter. This is the stuff that people don't automatically think of right does set you up for success. And I just I really appreciate these insights. Because I don't think that if you hadn't done this so many times, you would know this stuff. This is the stuff people don't think about

Lakesha Cole 31:49

This is the stuff that you learn the hard way. And then you make it your mission for no one else to have to learn it the hard way. There is no reason why anyone, and I just say this jokingly, but if your station OCONUS or going to OCONUS you can have a successful business, I don't care what that business is it, it can be successful in an OCONUS tour. You just have to find the right language and the regulation to be able to do that. But there's just so many factors that play into relocating and successfully relocating. Because, again, your bottom line is always should always be top of mind, how is this going to affect my bottom line? But one of the things that we have not talked about, Amy, is that we PCS when to when to know to let the business go?

Amy Bushatz 32:36

Yeah, and I'm glad you bring us up because I was just about to ask you. Yeah, like, sometimes you find yourself facing a pivot? Yes. What do you do? How do you know? And I know you're like, I have just always been so impressed with how you personally handled this subject. So I'm sitting here and waiting for your advice, give it to us.

Lakesha Cole 32:57

Yes. And to know when to let it go. For me it was the business was no longer one profitable and it did not bring me joy. And sometimes our ideas are outdated right? Are it's just like you can outgrow a business idea you can outgrow a business. And I got to a point in my life to where I felt like I had outgrew my business, it was no longer profitable in the way that I wanted it to be. And then you I had to do what financially made the most sense, which was to close the business. But when you're relocating to one location to the next, and that the local landscape matters, people think because I'm digital, and I, you know, serve people everywhere the local landscape still matters, you know, the saying, all politics is local. I believe all business is local. So you want to make sure you know what that local landscape is. And the reason why I say this is because when I relocated back from Okinawa to North Carolina, and I decided to open my first U.S. brick and mortar store, you know, I did my research, but what surprised me was how, what's the what's the right language I want to use it the town was not rooted in small business success as I thought it would be. And if you drive, if you just drive an hour and a half up the road to Fayetteville, their small business culture was a lot different. So not having a robust culture, for small businesses to thrive, will eventually impact your bottom line. And that's what I experienced there. And that's what so many other business owners experienced in that location. So you want to make sure that you're in a place that supports your growth as a small business owner. And that really factored into when to close and when to pivot and do something else.

Amy Bushatz 34:56

Yeah, yeah. But okay, so you talked, we've talked a lot About the financials here. But you said something really important a few minutes ago, which was about how it didn't give you joy anymore. And, and I so much of what we do as military spouses and with our businesses, our passion driven, and it's about, you know, giving yourself purpose. Yes, it's about helping your family financially. Yes, it's about, you know, all sorts of other things. But one of them is that it makes you happy it has to be. So can you just touch on that just just a little bit, and how that played in and how you advise other people to factor that in for themselves?

Lakesha Cole 35:33

Yes, when I started my business, my daughter was two, I had one kid, I now have three kids 15, six, and five. And the lifestyle that I had with that business and with one kid, it just no longer fits my world, I don't want to be sitting in a store running the store 40, 50 hours a week overseeing, you know, a dozen employees having to worry about inventory, having to figure it out through a pandemic having to, it was just, it just it, you want to see somebody who was just completely unhappy, I was literally under my desk, saying, I do not want to do this anymore. This is just not where I want to be, this is not what I want to do. And, you know, it was kind of the perfect storm for me in a sense to where I was able to pivot from one and into a very successful business that that are not actually aligned with each other at all. But it was all because I made the decision to choose me and my happiness and my family first and not worry about what was going to happen next. Because I knew that the lessons that I've learned over the past eight years with this retail business, there is not another business that I can start that won't be successful in my mind, they all would be successful, because I have the battle scars to prove it. I have the experience, I have the knowledge, I have the network, I have the resources. And I needed to experience that for me to be able to grow and flourish and do other things. That's the thing. We're all great at multiple things. And sometimes we get so married to ideas that we don't even recognize when they're no longer working. And I have to get up to a point where if it's no longer working, why are you holding on to it? Why are you keeping it there are so many other things that you're great at, you can just that you can be doing, go do those things. And that's what I decided to do. So you know, you want to make so how did I make that decision? One it wasn't profitable into it just did not bring me joy anymore. And there were just so many things that I wanted to do. And I couldn't do it because I was tied down to this one business that I felt like I had to keep going. Because so many other people believed in it. They were still shopping, they were still supporting it. And it just wasn't there for me anymore.

Amy Bushatz 37:56

And you had to make the decision to do something that was best for you. And, you know, we talk in this space a lot about self care. It's I mean, it's almost like this terribly overused phrase, right? resiliency and all of these things. But at the end of the day, what we mean by that is looking in the mirror and taking care of yourself. Yeah, and doing the things that are best for you. And that does not, I mean, I think it should include a spa day, sometimes it does not necessarily include a spa day, it includes asking yourself making tough questions, and making tough decisions that might hurt a little bit in that moment, like letting go of something that you are really dedicated to, and and you're worried about letting other people down or whatever. And instead of worrying about that just worrying about yourself for a hot second. Yeah. And that's okay.

Lakesha Cole 38:47

It is okay. It's a lot of saying no, which makes a lot of people uncomfortable. And it's saying no to sometimes people you care about, and you have a great deal of respect for. But saying no is for you is for your sanity its for your wellbeing its for your self care. And all you can do is hope that the other person understands that. And I experienced that several times over the past year of just, you know, just saying no and not feeling bad about and not having to apologize for it. And really just hoping that the person on the other ends can extend some grace and understand why I have to finally say no at this point, because it's what's best for me, its what's best for my family, its what's best for my business.

AB 39:32

Yeah, yeah. Oh, Lakesha, I am so so just loved it that you shared your expertise with us today. I'm so appreciative of that and of your time, and of your experience and that you're gifting that to us. Thank you so much. Thank you for being on PCS with Military.com.

Lakesha Cole 39:50

Thank you for having me.
Surviving your military Permanent Change of Station (PCS) move isnt magic or rocket science. By taking time to plan and keep your paperwork and move organized, you can get to the other side of your current or next PCS experience with at least your sanity safe and sound.

In this episode, Megan Harless, an Army veteran and spouse, and unintentional advocate and expert in military moves, shares her best advice for smoothly navigating your military move from start to finish, including building a great military PCS binder.

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The following is an edited transcript of this episode of PCS with Military.com.

Amy Bushatz 0:00

A military move is a challenge for even the most organized rule following receipt keeping record compiling person among us. As a military family member, I know that whether I like it or not, it's entirely on me to keep the details of our military move straight. In a perfect world, the systems would work flawlessly. Finance would take mere days to reimburse us for any qualified expenses, and would give us our per diem pay right away. The movers would not only simply avoid breaking and losing my stuff, but they would deliver it somehow better than it was when it was packed. And not only would I have some idea of where we are going to live when we got where we are going, but when we arrived, it would be sparkling clean and smell like freshly baked cookies. Well, that's lala land in real life, you have to be a military movie ninja. And it's for real life that we have people like Megan Harless, an Army veteran and Army spouse, Megan Harless is also so keyed in to the hacks around creating a smooth PCS, and pushing for fixes to a broken system that we named her Military.com 2020 Changemaker of the Year. But her work around reform is a different topic for a different day. That's because Megan is also the owner of PCSLikeaPro.org the author of the PCS Like a Pro book, and the creator of PCS Like a Pro binder system. Do you see a theme here? In short, she knows how to PCS like a pro. And today she's joining us to share her best tips and tricks. Megan, welcome to PCS with Military.com.

Megan Harless 1:34

Hi, thank you for having me.

Amy Bushatz 1:37

So I'm really excited to have you on because you are a pro as previously discussed. So but first, okay, start by telling us like, let's lay some street cred. How many times have you personally moved with the military or otherwise?

Megan Harless 1:51

So with the military, we have done 10 PCSes as a family.

We are inching up on 16 years now. And then within there, we have also done two local moves as well. So put together about 12 moves that we've done. And in the span of 16 years.

Amy Bushatz 2:11

Yeah, that's a lot. And let's not discredit those local moves, because they offer their own stresses and their own learnings. And gosh, they help you know what to do next time when you PCS without being local. Like I've learned so much by moving one string of duty station, right, like from one town to another so so much. So yes, that is totally a thing, man. Okay, street cred is I mean, that's a lot of moves. Yeah. Nice to see, you know, good job, okay.

Other than the street cred, give us a little background on how exactly one becomes a PCS ninja. How does that happen?

Megan Harless 2:54

So I kind of got I don't know what the best way to say it is involved in the whole PCS process into in a way. So back in 2018. As many of us remember, that was kind of like a horrible move year for a lot of people. I was fortunate enough that we moved in 2017. And then not again until 2019. So we kind of missed that, that chunk of time where a lot of people just had a horrible move. And so at a time I had wrote this open letter, turn into a petition on change.org is basically a military families grievance of the moving process, you know, we were tired of stuff breaking, we were tired of the answer to everything being you know, just file a claim on it, you know, some things money can't replace, you know, we have memories that are tied to the to our things. And so, in our ever changing world where you know, our constant is our household goods, like, we're just kind of fed up, we were kind of at rock bottom. So this petition that I posted on like a Friday, I completely thought it would kind of die off into internet land over the weekend didn't happen, kind of went the opposite direction. And over 100,000 service members and family members had to sign to this petition. So it got the attention of the media, obviously, it got attention of other military families, it got the attention of folks in Congress. I was, you know, working with several senator's offices, working on us dropping language to a letter that they sent to Transcom working with, got the attention of moving industry and of course, Transcom you know, and it kind of was an eye opener of, you know, like, hey, there really are some issues happening, and maybe it's time that we start addressing these things. So once that kind of all took place and took off, you know, it was one of those things where I didn't want to just take it for what it is, you know, like I did this petition and got their attention, like, okay, we're good, you know, somebody will do something. And, you know, part of me felt like this responsibility of, you know, like, we got this traction, we got this momentum, we got this visibility on this big issue. Let's see it through now to make sure that changes do happen and that it's not just lip service that we're given of, oh, we'll look into it. So from there, you know, since then, I've been working with Transcom kind of regularly, every month we meet on a spouse advisory panel, we discuss the issues that are going on, provide feedback from what families are experiencing, try and come up with, you know, reasonable solutions that can be implemented to kind of improve the process. And in there, it's also working with the moving industry as well, a lot of what I have found, you know, there aren't those conversations happening, they don't really know, what goes on in our home on the regular when we move. And so it's kind of educating, you know, it's not just moving down the street with those local moves, but our lives are starting all over adding new location. And so, you know, we do get a little upset when something shows up broken and damaged. Because we may not be able to just buy a new one from Ashley Furniture from Walmart or wherever, you know, these things mean something to us. And we just want you to take a little pride in your work and to make sure that you know, things go as they're supposed to do so, because of all of that, you know, I really have have dived into the regulations, I really dived into the process to the changes.

Amy Bushatz 5:57

Okay, you're like, totally just blowing by that. Like, why, Megan, I think, like the way people memorize the Bible, Megan has memorized the joint travel regulations, joint travel regulations, right? That's the JTR and DTR. Okay, so you memorize these things in a way that is just really nerdy and awesome. And that I mean, I don't know if our listeners are a bunch of nerds, but I am. So I'm just gonna go and say that I think that's amazing. So that I mean, don't don't blow by the hard work of memorization now. No, no.

Megan Harless 6:35

So yeah ... I mean, we hear about them occasionally with different briefs. You know, it was, you know, the, it's your move document, we're always told to go read, you know, what exactly is this thing type of deal? You know, the answer is always, you know, well, it's on move.mil, go check move.mil. You know, it's just, I don't know where to find it. And I don't exactly know what this means. So it was diving into all of that, figuring out what it is that families really need to know. And then working hard to educate families on. These are the regulations, this is where you can find it out. This is what it means. And this is how you can use it to make your your move better and smoother than what it's been in the back.

AB 7:11

Now like these are the things you're supposed to be getting. And here you know, not that make sure you get them. We're not going to like deep dive into the regulations today. Because it's like its own separate subject. And it's so important to understand that stuff. Even if you've moved 10, 12 times stuff is constantly changing. And maybe you don't like there's still things that I'm learning, even though I have moved multiple times not 12. But I have been reporting on this for a decade, there's still stuff that I'm uncovering things to you largely in these regulations. I'm like, Well, I'd memorize that, like Megan, maybe I would know that, but I didn't. So that's why we have you. And also one more thing is that the reason we made you Military.com Changemaker of the Year is because it is so easy just to slap something on the internet and call it good. It is a responsibility to words have meanings and when you stick stuff on the internet. You can walk away like you have a choice you can just like be like oh, peace out like had my impact and have a nice day. But you didn't do that you took it on and I just like that's just such a big deal. So you know Bravo again and thank you for doing that for us. Because really you are doing that for us as a military community. And that's a big deal. Okay, but what I love about your story is that you did not just like have you know, dive into the dive into the guy's we made her tear up. It's so true. Like, like, this is like real stuff guys. Like she's just a normal human. I'm looking at it right now.

Amy Bushatz 8:50

Um, but also a little bit of a ninja. I think she wears a PCS ninja costume sometimes. Yeah, cool. Okay, good talk.

Megan Harless 9:01

It's red and sparkly, you know? Okay,

AB 9:07

So here's, here's the deal. In addition to diving into the joint trip, travel regulation, and all all these like things that are not fully in English, okay, and memorizing them for the benefit of humanity. You also were like, whoa, hey, I've moved 10 times and I know things so now you leverage that for this like really helpful and guides to to help people move this PCS Like a Pro thing. And so today what we're going to talk about is how to PCS like a pro. And you're going to tell us stuff like just you know, very not even necessarily super deep dive just like stuff. Maybe we didn't think of stuff we need to know and so I'm really excited about that. So with that in mind, will you tell us what is your number one biggest key the biggest thing we need to know for creating a smooth pscs like We remember nothing else. What should we remember?

Megan Harless 10:03

So the biggest thing that I always tell people and we already touched on it a little bit is the regulations, just knowing the regulations, reading them, knowing what your responsibilities are, knowing what your movers responsibilities are. You know, I hear from a lot of failings, a lot of times when my transportation office didn't say that they said this instead, the regulations, they change a yearly. And so with that, you know, those folks in your office, they may not get the memo that things updated. The JTR is constantly updated throughout the year as things get passed and approved. The DTR usually gets updated once a year when the tender of service changes and goes into effect.

Amy Bushatz 10:41

And tender -- what does that mean?

Megan Harless 10:44

So that is the tender service, you'll find it the DTR part for Appendix B,

Amy Bushatz 10:49

Oh, my gosh, memorized, guys. Whoa.

Megan Harless 10:53

That is basically the contract between the government and your moving company, or you'll hear called TSP transportation service provider. That's what they're held to. That's what they are supposed to do. That's what they're supposed to provide. That's how they're paid off is based off of that document. You know, so that updates every year as new changes are implemented and put into place. And so those folks from the office, they may not realize that they may not know that they may not pay attention to that. And so I always say go back to the regulation, because they're in black and white, if you have an issue with your mood, or if you have an issue with something, you can easily pull that up, reference it show it and it's not just hearsay, when my office told me this, or this person who ...

Amy Bushatz 11:31

So lock that bad boy down.

Megan Harless 11:33

Yeah. So the biggest thing I would say is know the regulations, review them, if you don't read them, know where to find them, and how to reference them. So that way you can, you know, help yourself, protect yourself, and have them there to use.

AB 11:45

So what I hear you saying is you are your biggest advocate. But and the other thing you just said that I think is interesting. It's like we tend I think, to think about moving as a service provided, right? So when I walk into my doctor's office, My responsibility is to show up and his responsibilities to treat me, right. And then trainers facilities to hopefully pay for them. Okay? When I move, My responsibility is not to just be be alive, like and have stuff, right. There's more to it than that I have responsibilities for this move, as do the movers. And it's more than just being alive. I don't think we think about it that way. I think that we think of this as a third purely as a service provided and not something we have to take literal ownership have on our end to

Megan Harless 12:37

Yeah, I tell people to you know, you have to have a hand in it, you have to play an active role in your move, it is your stuff that's being moved. So if you want that crystal vase, packed a certain way, let them know. So that way they can pack it how you want it, whenever a moving crew shows up to your home, whether it's the crew to pack on day one, the crew to finish packing on day two, or the crew to load or unload whatever it may be, you know, you kind of set that tone for your move with how you greet them, don't treat them, like the enemy because that just starts off on the bad foot. You know, it's important that you kind of create that, that environment of We are a team, we're gonna do this together. This is how I want things done. This is what I need to have done. You know, for me, my bedroom and my kitchen are always the last things packed because I enjoy cooking to the last day because I hate eating out for three weeks straight. My bedroom is usually where we corral my cats to to keep them away because they have anxiety, they will attack people that they don't know. And so moving day is just as just a very chaotic and hectic for them.

Amy Bushatz 13:37

PCS ninja has attack cats.

Megan Harless 13:40

Yes, I do. So we keep them corralled into my room. So everything else is free game to pack but I always ask them to start with my kids rooms, because my kids need to stop adding stuff to the car pile. And if their stuff is in boxes, they can no longer do that. So I always ask them to start there. You know, so having that plan and telling them you what you need done. You know really makes it feel like they are helping you but they're doing what you want them to do. If that kind of makes sense. So you work together as a team and and you set that tone and you know if you have questions about something ask them be available don't just say here's my house pack my stuff and sit on your couch for the next three hours and then wonder why something bad is happening so yeah, be involved in your move.

Amy Bushatz 14:26

I have this like vision as you're saying that of me sitting on what was admittedly a ridiculously comfortable couch in our first apartment at our first duty station, right watching these people, I mean, not a big place right? So it's like chaos, and I'm just like, I don't know what to do with my hands. You know? And it was not a does that like that decision did not have big repercussions but like I just literally didn't know what I was doing.

Megan Harless 14:55

You know, some people are like that, they're not sure what to do. So I mean walk into the room, just check what's going on, see what else is going on. In me with my kids room, we always find socks and some candy wrappers underneath the bed, you know, so like, I'm in there, when I see that they've made it to that part, pulling that stuff out, I'm checking the boxes that our last name is spelled correctly, because we've had it spelled multiple ways. You know, I'm making sure that they're not just leaving the box, as you know, boys stuff, you know, like, what, what does boys stuff mean? Is it their books? Is it their Legos? Is it their action figures? You know, and when you see things like that saying, like, hey, can you write what's in the box, so that way I know, you know, if it's something that goes into the closet, or if my child can unpack, here's their clothes, you know, so be involved, just be present, just go, go check on on random little things and be a part of it.

Amy Bushatz 15:46

I'm a big fan of outsourcing, like, work smarter and letting experts do what they do best. So well, I could sit down and create things for myself and organizational systems. No, you have a PCS binder for us. Okay, so people can get a kit for that on your website PCSLikeaPro.org. But can you walk us through creating one? Like, if we look at your binder, what goes in the binder, and I do like envision this in all caps, "THE BINDER," the binder.

Megan Harless 16:15

Yes. So a lot of people so I'm old school, I like a three ring binder. A lot of people, you know, depending on your organization method techniques prefer an accordion style type of file thing. Some folks prefer a zip binder of some sort, but I use a three ring binder. So whatever it is that you have, just use that. So in this, I have multiple tabs that kind of help organize my life and the things that we need to get from point A to point B. So one tab will be like our orders, my husband's orders, and his le s and his leaf. So that way we can legally get from A to B, and he's not some a wall type of person. And that's how things go south real fast. Yes. And make multiple copies of your spouse's orders like you think they may not need it, you think like one is good, but when he goes to in process, like every office wants their own copy, and just having a picture of it on your phone doesn't really do well. So don't be afraid to make all those copies. Another tab has all of our, if we have hotel reservations, either on either end of our move, I put a copy of that in there. If we are driving someplace, I do old school, again, print out some Google, MapQuest directions, technology does fail at time, sometimes you hit a dead spot in cellular tower coverage. And, you know, so I always just like to be that extra planning person. So I have a copy of those directions there. A couple other tabs contain stuff like our current lease and our move out checklist that we need, and also save copies of any receipts we use for that move out. So if I need to hire a professional carpet cleaner, or I have somebody come in to professionally cleaned the home, because I'm just over it and don't want to do it myself. Yes, listen, we used to clean our home and everything such as like saving that money, like I can go wipe stuff down. And then I finally outsourced it once and had somebody come in and clean and it was the greatest thing in the world. So I now budget that into our our PCS expense.

Amy Bushatz 18:16

And then you're saving those receipts because those things are how to use those receipts later.

Megan Harless 18:23

Okay, so for like your carpet cleaning and house cleaning, you're not necessarily, like the military isn't going to pay you to reimburse you that. But whatever your expenses are, and what you get paid reimbursed from the military, for the different entitlements, whatever is not covered, whatever is not paid for, you can use that on your taxes. When you go to file your next taxes that helps reduce the cost or the taxable income that you have, or the percent of taxes that you have.

AB 18:47

So you're saving for that -- and you guys can hear an episode with a finance expert talking about money stuff for your PCS, move on to different PCS with Military.com episode. So yes, we have all the things we're very, very handy.

Megan Harless 19:01

Yeah, so save all of those receipts. I also have, you know, if we already have a lease signed at our next location, I've got a copy of that lease in there. So I can easily reference it when we go to do our moving walkthrough. If we don't have a lease, if we don't aren't buying a home, I have a couple of listings in there, or an idea of you know, where we want to live so we know where to go and look, I have a couple of tabs for what I call our medical and life documents. So one will be like your medical records, your shot records, your dental records, your eye exam, your whatever it is of your personal body medical file. And the other one is like your birth certificates, your marriage certificate, your Social Security cards, your passport, vehicle registrations, insurance policies.

Amy Bushatz 19:46

Stuff that would really suck if they lost it. And it you know, some people move a safe full of valuables like that's great. You know, maybe you keep those documents in the safe. You're saying all that that stuff is in the binder, the binder, I put it on the binder.

Megan Harless 20:03

And so some of the stuff, I mean, you may worry about it falling out. So they make these really great three ring. I don't know what to call them pocket file thingies where they have zippers on them or slides on them. I put all of that in there and I attach it wherever that tab is I flipped that tab and put that three ring pouch in there.

Amy Bushatz 20:23

I feel like you spent a lot of time at OfficeMax.

Megan Harless 20:26

I have Staples, Office Depot, you know, Target, Walmart, their office aisle -- I like, it's just me, because it does it feel like I've arrived at my place. You know, my Amazon wishlist contains like, post it notes and various colors and like highlighters and like, fancy pens and stuff. So like, it makes me happy. You know, and then like other tabs include, like, you know, school records, if you've got children or bat records, if you've got pets, and then a tab for like, miscellaneous stuff like, you know, you need to keep this you don't know where it goes like, stick it in that miscellaneous tab. And then the final one is your moving information. So your your move inventory, that they give you both inventory for your boxes and for your furniture, contact info for your moving company and your move coordinator, contact info for your local transportation offices, you know, or your QA Inspector, whoever that may be all that moving stuff. If you need to get ahold of somebody, or when you get to your location, your stuff gets delivered, you've got your inventory to check off your numbers that all goes in your binder and not just stashed somewhere else. And then we talked about the three ring pouch deal, I have another one of those where all of our receipts along the way our hotel receipts, our gas receipts, our food receipts, I shove all of those into that pouch as well. So it's all right there in the binder as well.

Amy Bushatz 21:54

This is so much better than my confessing my previous method of letting my husband -- I'm gonna blame him -- letting him the receipts into the glove box, right? Like, in short, due to a lack of system. This is the system right? Yes, we have no system. This is what this is. Yeah, you've done that up 10 times and you did not arrive at PCS ninjahood or ownership of the binder by happenstance, you probably learned the hard way. Am I right?

Megan Harless 22:23

Yes. I mean, I, when I think back, like our first couple of PCSes is like I had a two pocket folder that I was just like, tucking stuff in, there were a couple things, paper clips here and there. But there was no real system. And you know, with each PCS you know, the whole needs of necessity, you type a deal, you know, as the mother of creation thing. And so it's just like, there has to be something better, I've got to get this, you know, we were started having kids, we started having pets there started being a more need more stuff to can carry from A to B, it's just that there has to be a better way. And so just sitting down over time and learning with each move as to what the best method would be how to best organize it and it all evolved into the binder.

Amy Bushatz 23:59

Okay, so based off of your own experience, you've created this glorious piece of organizational perfection. And you've made mistakes, but you also spend quite a lot of time. I mean, we talked about the binder, we talked about your website, you also run a Facebook group on this subject remind us what it what that one is called.

Megan Harless 24:21

It's PCS Like a Pro: Your Smooth Move.

Amy Bushatz 24:25

Okay, so in that we have a whole world of people asking for advice were and then you I mean, I watched this happen all the time. So they are like, I don't know what to do about this like perfectly legitimate, terrible thing. Okay. And you dive in with citing the data which you've memorized, and you know, and give all the help everyone needs and it's, it's really fantastic. But in there, we can watch people sort of learn the hard way, for better or for worse sometimes, you know, that's just, we just don't know what you don't know. So what are the based on all of this experience? What are the biggest mistakes people make? Tell us three or four things that are the road to not having smooth PCS.

Megan Harless 25:08

Oh, goodness, I feel like there's so many I could share, picking out just a few. And so it's gonna be hard for me. And so to sound like a broken record, not knowing your regulations, just letting stuff happen to you is not how you should go about doing things. You know, if you feel like something is wrong, it's okay to stop them and ask a question and to, you know, verify what it is that they are doing, why they are trying to do something, you know, it could just be that maybe you don't understand something and what they're doing is the right way to do it. It could be that maybe they're trying to cut corners, and you just like, no, I feel like this is wrong, and it looks like wrong, you know, so you don't know that unless you know the rules, right. And so just, you know, knowing those regulations just goes a long way to helping you advocate for yourself and helping you to be involved in the process. And another big thing, I guess, would be not having your own inventory of what you're what's in your home, what you own.

Amy Bushatz 26:05

A huge amount. Like, every time I read that advice from you, I'm like woof, like, I like whoa, whoa, that is just such a huge, I don't even have that much stuff. Although my husband has a lot of outdoor gear. Let's not talk about that. But we don't have in the grand scheme of thing, things that much stuff. We moved here to Alaska with like 5,000 pounds. I mean, like almost nothing. Nonetheless, I feel like that, like even the concept of that is overwhelming.

Megan Harless 26:37

So it does have a lot of upfront time investment into it, where you sit down, and you can make it as detailed or as detailed as you want. It does require some good time investment upfront to create it if you don't have one already done, but then just updating it yearly, or every six months or so, you know, if you have a big birthday, holiday travel, whatever it may be, that doesn't take very much time. But the importance of having your own inventory is you know, should a box go missing? You're able to easily identify what was perhaps in that box? If that's what happens, right?

Amy Bushatz 27:16

Like you just don't like oh, well, I mean, this box is missing. No idea what's going on it. The other thing that comes to mind is I feel like if you were to create this inventory, you would suddenly have less stuff due to due to going through everything you own and realizing you didn't actually want this particular you know what I mean? Like a real good way to spend a lot of time going to Goodwill.

Megan Harless 27:34

Yes. So and the other big importance of having this inventory is that if you have a catastrophic loss, you have to itemize, I mean, if you want to really be paid value of what your stuff was, and not just buy the liability limit, you really need to itemize what you have. And so if you already have that inventory created, it's cheesy to say, here's a copy of what I had, you know, and then if you go and file with your private insurance, they're going to need a spreadsheet as well as to what did the moving company cover? What did they not cover? And again, you've already got spent the time and you've got the information. So it's one of those, build it so you have it and hope you never have to use it type of things. You know, but just having your inventory I hate seeing people say I have seven boxes missing. I don't know what was in um, you know, two of them said closet items, one of them said linens, one by printer. Who knows? Yeah. And movers are notorious for that, where they take things from other rooms, you know, because they have a box and they want to fill the space in the box. So your crystal vase might be in that box labeled closet items. But having your inventory goes a long way of you knowing what you have in case something should happen.

Amy Bushatz 28:46

What's another tip,

Megan Harless 28:47

Another one would be when you when your stuff arrives at your new home, checking off your inventory numbers, as you're still going through.

Amy Bushatz 28:59

This was a mistake like people just sit. I'm back on the comfortable couch that I'm super glad to see again, right?

Megan Harless 29:07

Like the truck shows up and you're excited to see your stuff. And so you're just directing traffic of you know, this is child's room. Number one, this is child's room number two master bedrooms back there, this is what we're calling the living room type of deal. And so a lot of folks don't check off their inventory numbers. And so they go to start unpacking and they realize, you know, there's just like, I feel like we're missing two boxes, but I don't know, you know what they are because we didn't do that. And it's very important because number one when your stuff is delivered, you have to sign the inventory form and anything that's missing needs to be identified that day. You know, if it's something that's in a box, like that's okay, but it has its own inventory number, it has to be identified that day. So if you sign inventory saying your stuff arrived, you're going to get a lot of pushback and probably denial of your claim for those missing items because you didn't identify it that day. You know, so Just checking off your inventory numbers lets you know have that peace of mind that yes, everything did arrive all the inventories numbers did arrive or not missing any of those line item things.

Amy Bushatz 30:11

What is what's a surprising mistake people make? And I'm wondering like, based on what we've talked about, I'm wondering if if it's not just like, people don't know, the rules. So am I smelling it outright? But maybe something that feels like, people? It should be obvious, but people just don't know it? Tell us we can avoid it.

Megan Harless 30:35

Besides, what are you talking about? I think a big one. I want to say private insurance and canceling your private insurance before your move. A lot of policies and this is where I want to tell you right now, go check your personal policy to see and double check that it covers your household bills, renters,

Amy Bushatz 30:54

Renters, or homeowners. Okay,

Megan Harless 30:57

Yeah. So make sure it covers your items in transit between locations and make sure it covers your items in storage. Some do. Some don't, you know, some make sure you have that policy. But a lot of people are just like, well, I rent my home and we're moving like, I can save a month of payment if I cancel my insurance, because we're not in a home for those 30 days, because we're in the process of moving and waiting for our next house type of deal. The issue is if something happens, you have that catastrophic loss, God forbid, you know, the the TSP, the moving company liability is only up to $75,000 based off a $6 per pound for your shipment. So if it costs $300,000 to replenish the stuff in your home, you're not getting that from the moving company. And if you cancelled your renter's insurance, you're not getting that from anybody

Amy Bushatz 31:43

That is surprising to a lot of people. And we also touched on this in the in the finance episode. So but this cannot be hammered home enough guys. Yeah. You have a like we've talked about you have a responsibility for your own PCS, and that this assumption, and I think you're right like it, I feel like I do assume that like if you break it, you buy it right? Well, that's not entirely true. And it's interesting that you mentioned this because just yesterday I saw a thread on a Facebook group here for at Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson, Alaska, where somebody has a shipment that was I believe, stolen, her key spouse is trying to help her out, you know, figure out what what do you need to know? And everybody's saying, Well, did you have renter's insurance? And, you know, I don't know the answer for them. But, you know, like, you'd be I was surprised how many people on this site did not know that their renters insurance may or may not, but might cover like it was before they concluded that it did not cover right, they just assumed and so we we talked about that in the finance episode. Listen to that, guys, for more intel on this. But it's a super, super, super important thing to remember. And I don't think that we can, we can talk about it enough. So with that in mind, give us a couple of pieces of advice just like some real solid takeaways that we can take like actionable, you're getting ready for PCS, go forth, do this.

Megan Harless 33:10

So the first things I tell folks is one as I've said before, read the regulations or at least know where to find them start take the little Notes app of your phone, copy the links there so you can go back and look at them later but but know the regulations. Another thing I always tell him that home inventory that we discussed and then being organized. You know that's that's everything with the PCS binder that we've discussed. But also with your home, take the time to walk through your home you know, take a room or two a day depending on how big your home is. And just go through it do do what's called the PCS purge. You know, my rule of thumb if it's not sentimental, if you didn't use it as at this duty station, and you know, you're not going to use it at your next duty station, it's time for it to go it's outlived its purpose, somebody else needs it. Go ahead and get rid of it. Um, you know, one that helps you have less stuff you have to put on your inventory, but also it helps you with your weight allotment You know, you're not gonna have to worry about going overweight because you've you know, you've cleaned out you've purged and when you unpack stuff you have to put away I mean, get rid of it on this end. And so go through do that and then I am a big fan of pre packing. So really quick with the rules anything that the company takes possession of into their moving truck they are liable for regardless of who packed it. The PBO - packed by owner - is no longer allowed to use be used on the inventory. So you can pack you can pre pack if you do like pack a box. They need to be able to look inside of it to verify for the contents for the inventory, but I do pre packing so like I will put trash bags over my hanging clothes and coats to protect them. I will put my folded stuff into Ziploc flex totes to help protect them. I don't want dirty hands and strangers hands touching my shirts and my pants and all that stuff. So I do things like that my office supplies like all of my millions of paperclips and pens that I have I put them into Ziploc bags. So that way, I'm not fishing out pens and pencils and crayons from the bottom of the box. like a crazy person, sometimes, you know that it's easy. It makes easy packing, and it makes it easier to unpack, I can pull that bag out, set it on my desk, I can organize it later, but I can get that box out of my house. I'm not fishing for pens in it.

Amy Bushatz 35:40

So it's like more taking responsibility. It is their own move. Which like, I feel like like my gut reaction to that is well gosh, darn it, why do I have to do that, like they're making me move, you know, but I guess like, this is just one of those things, that it's just a part of military life. And if you accept it, your move will be pardon the phrase smoother.

Megan Harless 36:03

And I feel like whatever I can do to help prep my home and to get it into a moving stage, the better, the easier the process will go. I don't have to have people here trying to pack my home at nine o'clock at night when my kids are trying to go to bed because we're in our last week of school. You know, I just stress.

Amy Bushatz 36:22

You know, like whether or not it's the rules, anything that I can do to reduce my stress around moving is really I think, yeah, I think really helpful you know, and and I always underestimate how stressful that move moment is, like, I'm so I'm super prepared. I know to check the inventory thing, I we're gonna follow these movers around my house and just make sure everything's going well. And then when push comes to shove it I'm almost like paralyzed on the couch in a way. Like, I just can't do this anymore.

Megan Harless 36:55

Eventually you do hit that PCS wall where you're just like, you know, so be it. If it happens, it happens. It is what it is. You know, everybody has has that PCS wall, they hit at some point. And so I feel like I know ahead of time, I'm going to hit it at some point. So it's, you know, what can I do? I still have the energy and the motivation to prep my home and to do something that I used to do. I know on the unpacking, and be like, just shove it into that closet for now. We'll deal with that later.

Amy Bushatz 37:26

One thing I want to come back to before we close that I did not I did not like I for those listening, I sort of shared with Megan, what I thought we've talked about today, I did not share with her this question. It just popped into my little brain while we were talking so my apologies. All right. But you mentioned earlier being nice to your movers and that made me think about this push and pull we have with that and the biggest I need to know what's coming the biggest discussion around this is feed the movers tip the movers slide alcohol to the movers like what do you do?

Megan Harless 38:06

So I'll tell you the regulation first is that it is at your discretion. And tipping and feeding is not required? It's that they should not be asking for it. They should not be asking you like you know how much is our tip like, you know, when are you getting us lunch like they should not be asking for it and it's totally at your discretion if you want to do it. As for what my family does, personally we do not tip but we do feed you know I'm part of my decision to feed our crews is one like my husband, for me are still here in the home, watching things happen getting things going, if one of us and we have to eat too. And usually when people are in my home, like I don't want to start cooking lunch. Like I'll cook dinner because I have kids and they're usually off at school or whatever. But I don't want to I'm not a big cook lunch myself type person. You know, so one of us will say hey, we're gonna go get chick fil a we're gonna go get Wendy's What do you want we offer you know, one or two places you know, but tell them we're only going to go to one we go pick up lunch and eat and I personally feel like if one of us can go pick up lunch, they can keep working. You know and then we bring lunch back they've got you know, 30 minutes that they'll take to eat it and I'll get back to working and they're out of my home at a reasonable hour. If they have to stop working and go get it you're looking at you know that that I don't know what you want to call it the labor lunch where you know, an hour hour and a half two hours you know when we feel like we've rested from our siesta like we'll come back and finish the job type deal. And then they're in your home longer or you're having stuff you know finished packing and loading on the same day which you always want to avoid. So I just feel like if we can make that process easier and provide them some chick fil a lunch 30 count and nuggets that they can all split or whatever. And so for us, it just makes one it makes it easier. They can keep working through out of my house sooner and then to it you know it shows a little like things For packing my home. Yeah.

Amy Bushatz 40:01

Well and also, I mean, personal opinion. I'm always happier when someone's feeding me. Hello? Yes. I mean like, human nature.

Megan Harless 40:11

I will say I mean, even if you don't feed if you don't tip, it's always appreciated that you have like some bottled water in your fridge, some Gatorade in your fridge, especially if you are moving the summer or you live in the hot climate areas like El Paso, Texas, Florida. You know where it is really hot. Being able to offer them like a cool bottle of water. Like it's just like offering a lot to them.

Amy Bushatz 40:32

Yeah, be nice to your movers, guys. Everyone likes to be fed and no one likes to faint from dehydration. We're all humans guys. Yeah. And sometimes I think we're humans who move more often than we would like to but man, we got a lot of good stories and a lot of good lessons. And Megan, you have moved so many times. Thank you for sharing your lessons and your Ninjaness -- ninja skills with us here at PCS with Military.com thank you so much for your time today. Thank you.

Megan Harless 41:03

Yes. Thank you for having me.
EAST LANSING, MI  Billionaire and philanthropist Eli Broad died Friday, April 30, after a long illness at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles at the age of 87.

A Detroit native, Broad graduated from Michigan State University. MSUs President Samuel L. Stanley shared his thoughts on Broads death Saturday.

I am deeply saddened by the passing of MSU alumnus, humanitarian and philanthropist Eli Broad and my heart is with Edythe and the entire Broad family, said Stanley Jr. Eli was a selfless, kindhearted man who dedicated much of his life to making the lives of others better. From the classroom to the board room, altruism was the backbone of his mission, and Eli embodied what it means to be a Spartan.

Broad was also a contemporary art collector and entrepreneur who co-founded homebuilding pioneer Kaufman and Broad Inc. and launched financial services giant SunAmerica Inc., The Associated Press reports.

Born in New York City to Lithuanian immigrants, Broad was raised in Detroit and earned his undergraduate degree from Michigan State University in 1954. In 1991, he endowed the universitys Eli Broad College of Business and Eli Broad Graduate School of Management.

London-based architect company Zaha Hadid Architects designed the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum on Michigan State University's campus. This is the second building by Zaha Hadid Architects. The other is the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.(Mike Mulholland | MLive.com)

When he was 20, Broad passed Michigans certified public accountant exam, becoming the youngest person at the time to do so. The following year, he married Edythe, with whom he had two sons, Jeffrey and Gary. His wife and sons survive him, according to The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation.

At age 23 in 1957, Broad went into business with developer Donald Kaufman, selling homes in the suburbs of Detroit. The first homes sold for about $12,000, about 10% less than competitors because they were built without customary basements and in about half the time, according to The AP.

Kaufman and Broad took their approach West, first to Arizona then California. They relocated the companys corporate headquarters to Los Angeles in 1963, two years after it became the first homebuilder to go public.

Broad later transformed the companys insurance arm into a retirement savings conglomerate that catered to the financial needs of aging baby boomers. He ended up becoming one of the countrys richest men. Forbes magazine on Saturday estimated his net worth at $6.9 billion.

Broads art collection had an estimated value of $500 million in 2003. In 1984, he established the Broad Art Foundation to lend works from his collection for public viewing. In 2008, with his money, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art opened the Broad Contemporary Art Museum featuring works from Broads collection.

Broad provided much of the money that reshaped Los Angeles downtown into a burgeoning area of expensive lofts, fancy dining establishments, and civic structures like the landmark Walt Disney Concert Hall, The AP reports. Broad in 2015 opened an eponymous contemporary art museum and art lending library next to Disney Hall.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti lauded Broad on Twitter.

Eli Broad, simply put, was L.A.s most influential private citizen of his generation, Garcetti tweeted. He loved this city as deeply as anyone I have ever known. He was a dreamer, often seeing things that others didnt or couldnt. He was a builder  of homes, the arts, educational opportunity, health breakthroughs that transformed dreams into reality. I feel his loss and our city feels his loss deeply.

Stanley agreed Broads influence is immeasurable.

His impact on Michigan State University and Spartans everywhere will be felt for decades to come, Stanley said. We are forever grateful for his service, generosity and his passion for his alma mater.

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MACKINAC ISLAND, MI - Northern Michigans craft spirits scene will step into the spotlight later this month when Grand Hotel hosts its first-ever Grand Distillers Weekend featuring specialty pours from Iron Fish Distillery in Thompsonville.

As Michigans first farm distillery, Iron Fishs growing collection of spirits and unique barrel-aged bourbon whiskeys have been creating a buzz in craft circles around the state and beyond. Grand Hotels bars have been among those pouring some of the distillerys most popular products, including its Michigan Woodland Gin and its Bourbon Whiskey finished in maple syrup barrels.

The Grand Distillers Weekend was created to combine craft spirit tastings, the history behind these flavor profiles, and a four-course dinner specially designed to pair with each drink being offered to guests. Grand Hotel Resident Historian Bob Tagatz will also be on hand, and participants might even get to hear some of the islands Prohibition-era secrets.

At Grand Hotel, we are always looking for ways to collaborate with Michigans finest purveyors, making our latest partnership with Iron Fish Distillery of Thompsonville a natural fit, said Norman Dillard, Grand Hotels vice president of food and beverage. This winter, we hand-selected a signature barrel of Iron Fish Bourbon Whiskey finished in Mezcal barrels, which we will offer guests several custom cocktails throughout the hotel and restaurants.

In a few weeks we are looking forward to Grand Hotels first-ever Grand Distillers Weekend featuring a four-course tasting dinner, specially curated by Grand Hotel Executive Chef Michael Cerrie. It will be a great time for all and we are thankful for this new partnership.

Iron Fish's Bourbon finished in local maple syrup barrels is a bestseller for the Thompsonville distillery. Photo provided by Iron Fish Distillery

As they planned the event, Dillards team worked with Iron Fish to hand-select a few of the barrel-finished bourbons from the more than 1,200 barrels that are aging in the distillerys spirit collection.

The Grand Distillers Weekend is planned for Friday, May 21 to Sunday, May 23. Heres a breakout of events:

Guests arriving Friday will be invited to a welcome reception featuring a specialty cocktail made from Iron Fishs Bourbon Whiskey finished in Mezcal barrels.

On Saturday, guests will be treated to an interactive presentation by Tagatz, the hotels historian, and Richard and Sarah Anderson, Iron Fish co-owners.

Saturday evening, guests will be invited to dress up and savor a four-course tasting dinner paired with four unique Iron Fish spirits. The meal will be served in Grand Hotels Main Dining Room.

For more details on pricing and reservations, check Grand Hotels website here.

Richard Anderson, one of the four owners behind Iron Fish, said even though the distillery has only been in business since 2016, its team already has built up a pretty significant library of bourbons that are barrel-finished. Iron Fish has not yet released whiskey made from its home-grown grain - thats coming soon, he says - but theyve garnered praise for seeking out high-quality mature whiskey and using it as a base for its bourbons, sealing the liquid inside different types of barrels from around the world to create its unique flavors.

We want to put our signature on it, before we put our label on it, Anderson said.

These barrel finishes have attracted attention from whiskey drinkers from across the state, he said, adding that introducing these pours at a place with Grand Hotels cachet is a good fit.

Grand Hotels customer base is kind of perfectly suited for being introduced to what really is typically done by a national or global distillery.

Anderson is looking forward to the weekends tastings and special dinner. Talking to spirit lovers about the flavor profiles and the history behind whats in the glass is right in his wheelhouse. Dont be surprised if he brings up George Washingtons farm distillery.

It should be a fun learning journey, and sampling some whiskey, bourbons and gin.

The Grand Distillers Weekend package includes:

Accommodations

Welcome amenity upon check-in

Friday evening Welcome Reception featuring a signature Iron Fish Distillery cocktail

Saturday afternoon special presentation by Resident Historian Bob Tagatz, and Richard Anderson, co-owner of Iron Fish Distillery

$40 per person credit for a picnic lunch from Grand Coffee & Provisions

Saturday evening four-course tasting dinner presented by Iron Fish Distillery and Grand Hotel Chef, Michael Cerrie

Complimentary admission to the Richard and Jane Manoogian Mackinac Art Museum

Special discount on ferry tickets

No tipping within Grand Hotel

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ANN ARBOR  Andrew Stevick had a humble start with a food cart in downtown Ann Arbor, but hes brought his principled approach to eclectic cuisines to Loomi Cafe - the counter-serve space he opened in Kerrytown Market and Shops in 2019.

Stevicks Palestinian heritage brought a Middle Eastern influence, and his experience working in South American restaurants on the East Coast lends a separate spicy flair that serves to complement the savory flavors associated with Middle Eastern dishes like lahm bi ajeen - a type of Lebanese meat pie.

He drew from the success of his Tandoori oven food cart to serve up affordable, hand-held dishes with international street food inspiration at a reasonable price.

Those quick and affordable meals make up the restaurants doughs menu, including Salvadorean-style pupusa, Indian paratha flatbread, manouche with imported Zaatar and the restaurants signature cheesy pockets, each stuffed or topped with a rotating ingredient. Customers can also choose from a list of straightforward lunch items including a burger, wings, fried lamb rib and fava beans, each around the $8 mark. That element of affordability was an important consideration for Stevick.

Weve tried to keep our price point pretty decent - Id much rather have someone able to come here three times a week, he said. You get a small fattoush and a pupusa for $9, you can do that three times a week.

For a bigger meal, customers can order from a menu of fully-composed entrees paired with a sauce, salad and their choice of rice, a fresh roll or potatoes. On any given week, the restaurant serves up some form of chicken, pork, beef, lamb, seafood and one or more vegetarian dishes. Many of his ingredients are sourced from local farmers at the market, and his Middle Eastern spices come from importers in nearby Dearborn.

When I was in Rhode island, youd go to a Dominican restaurant and the whole thing was in Spanish - you didnt know how to figure it out, he said. Then eventually over a couple of months you got over your fear and you figured it out, and it was a very special place for you, and thats what this is we kind of create this experience for people to be, like, a little bit more of a part of it as opposed to ordering online.

For the time being, Loomi will continue to be to-go only, with the dining space that once sat 35 serving as a waiting area for carryout orders, which customers are encouraged to place in-person to keep up with the rotating menu. Stevick says the restaurant closed voluntarily for five weeks in the early days of the pandemic to limit the staffs exposure to COVID-19 in the tight confines of Kerrytown markets hallways.

Although he says he could technically open for in-person dining if he seated customers in the waiting area, Stevick says he would rather not force customers to stand in line in the heavily-trafficked areas surrounding the restaurant. Hes even had to remove the diner-style seating that he purchased at auction and reupholstered himself.

Loomi Cafe, 407 N. Fifth Ave. inside Kerrytown Market and Shops, is open Tuesday to Friday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

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None of this is to discount Adams, who is formidable, and whos likely to be the choice of many on the moderate side of the party who are wary of such an untested, unknown quantity in Yang. Despite widespread concerns about his ability to lead the city voiced among the professional political class  they call him undisciplined and dont trust his flirtations with the GOP  Adams has run a strong campaign. He offers a series of smart, appealing ideas. He is connecting with many in the electorate, and it just might be that his support proves more durable in the end than Yangs.
FLINT, MI  A Michigan State Police trooper is facing criminal charges for allegedly causing a crash that resulted in a womans miscarriage.

The Genesee County Prosecutors Office has charged Trooper Rashaad Cormier with negligent operation of a motor vehicle causing miscarriage or stillbirth and moving violation causing serious impairment of a bodily function. The former charge is a two-year felony, while the latter is a 93-day misdemeanor.

The crash occurred about 5:20 p.m. on Sept. 14 on Linden Road near Lennon Road in Flint Township.

Cormier and another trooper from the MSP Flint Post had been traveling south on Linden Road in one patrol vehicle when they saw a vehicle heading north on Linden Road commit a traffic violation. Cormier, who was driving, began to turn around to conduct a traffic stop when they entered the path of a southbound 2018 Chevrolet Malibu.

The Malibu crashed into the patrol vehicles drivers side door.

The Malibu was occupied by three people. The driver, a 28-year-old Mount Morris woman, was taken to an area hospital where she was treated and released. The front seat passenger, a 38-year-old pregnant woman from Flint, was also taken to an area hospital for treatment.

The rear-seat passenger, an 18-year-old Mount Morris woman, did not require medical treatment.

Cormier was taken to a local area hospital for treatment and was released a short time later. The passenger of the patrol vehicle was not injured.

The pregnant woman lost one of two fetuses she was pregnant with, troopers said.

The Michigan State Police is deeply sorry for the role our trooper played in this traffic crash, which resulted in the tragic loss of a child, stated Col. Joe Gasper, director of the MSP. We offer our sincerest condolences to the family, friends and all those who have been impacted by this situation.

As required by his collective bargaining agreement, Cormier was placed on paid suspension after the crash occurred and while the investigation was underway. With the issuance of criminal charges, he will now be placed on unpaid suspension, pending the outcome of court proceedings.

Cormier joined the MSP in January 2020. Upon graduation, he was assigned to the Flint Post.

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COOPERSVILLE, MI  The idea for Coopersville Brewing Co. started with Jeremy Grossenbacher.

But the 37-year-old says the newly opened brewery wouldnt be a reality without the friends, neighbors and community members who supported his vision of bringing top-notch craft beer to northwest Ottawa County.

Brick by brick, as a village, we built a brewery, said Grossenbacher, whose family owns Fun-N-Sun RV in Coopersville. I really do feel thats kind of how it came together. The community came together to help us realize what we wanted to do.

That community support is on display inside the brewery, where bricks mark the name of investors who provided at least $500 to become villagers or lifetime mug club members.

The support wasnt just limited to cash investments. A small ownership stake was provided to the skilled laborers and designers who built the bar, designed the tables, and installed interior support beams.

We had the desire to do a brewery, but were not millionaires by any stretch of the imagination, Grossenbacher said. We got cash from a lot of community people is really what it was, and different businesses that could be part of our build out and trade swapping and things like that.

Coopersville Brewing Co., 1275 W. Randall St., is located just off the Coopersville exit on I-96 inside a building that formerly housed a small engine repair shop. It officially opened on April 20, and offers nine beers on draft, ranging from IPAs and wheats to porters and stouts.

It has total capacity for 192 people, but currently has seating for 86 customers.

The brewery places an emphasis on locally sourced ingredients, with much of its barley, wheat, rye and hops coming from Michigan farmers.

Theres also plans to open a restaurant next door in the next month or two. One Eyed Petes menu is expected to include salads, sandwiches, a full BBQ selection, appetizers and sides. The restaurant would offer take-out food service and seating at the brewery.

Grossenbacher, a Coopersville native who fell in love with craft beer and food after spending a decade in Chicago, says hes confident Coopersvilles first brewery will be a hit. He says hes been thinking about the idea for years, and that the success of breweries in other small towns such as Cedar Springs, Newaygo and Reed City prompted him to ask, Why not Coopersville?

Its not a novel fact that a small community can support a brewery these days, said Grossenbacher, whose family purchased the building that now houses the brewery in 1986. I said hey, I think we should turn that building into a brewery and restaurant.

Two-and-half years later, Coopersville Brewing Co. is a reality.

Grossenbacher said hes hopeful his brewery, which bills itself as a new fork on the ale trail between Grand Rapids and the Lakeshore, will draw more visitors to Coopersville. He wants to change the fact that for many non-residents, the biggest landmark associated with the town is a landfill off I-96.

I want people to come into our community now, and rather than being here for five minutes and only knowing it for some very surface level things, be able to kind of experience our community and what we have to offer, he said. I want to try to drive more people to go downtown and check out some of those businesses.

He says the brewery is well-positioned to do that.

Coopersville Brewing Co. is one of the only breweries along the I-96 corridor between metro Grand Rapids and the lakeshore, he said.

Grossenbacher says he remembers looking at a map where all the breweries in West Michigan were marked with yellow pins. It didnt take long to notice that, except for Trail Point Brewing Company in Allendale, there were no pins along the I-96 corridor between Grand Rapids and the lakeshore.

Anybody with half a business mind would look at this and see this huge gap, said Grossenbacher, who estimates it cost between $750,000 and $800,000 to open the brewery.

Craft beer and food became one of Grossenbachers passions while he was living in Chicago. He credits Revolution Brewing in the citys Logan Square neighborhood with elevating his interest and understanding of what good beer can be, and its place in the community.

Breweries allowed us a way to experience culture and community everywhere we go, he said. You can go to a place now and you can drink that towns beer. Its kind of like pre-prohibition when every town had their brewery, and it was your way to come through and experience the community and the town that way.

Coopersville Brewing Co. is open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday. Its closed Monday. The brewerys website can be accessed here, and its phone number is (616) 384-3364.

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JACKSON COUNTY, MI -- The line was already forming as Sam Durocher finished setting up the food truck outside 127 Brewing on Saturday afternoon, April 24.

Such is life these days for Tiki Sams Pizza.

The Hanover-based food truck featuring wood-fired pizza started five years ago as Durochers dream. He works the truck with his wife Julie and support from his children and friends.

I love what I do, Durocher said. This is my dream job.

Pepperoni pizza is the most popular, Durocher said. The Honey Love pizza with pepperoni, mozzarella cheese and Mikes Hot Honey drizzled on top is also super popular. Another pizza to try is the new Dilly Pie with garlic parmesan sauce, mozzarella cheese and dill pickles.

The wood-fired pizza oven on the truck can cook six pizzas at a time at a temperature of about 750 degrees. Durocher imported the 3,000 pound oven from Italy and assembled it in his garage with the help of his son. It takes about two minutes to cook a pizza in the oven.

A crash last year on Moscow Road totaled the trailer, but Durocher was able to repair the wood-fired pizza oven and move it in to a new one.

Expansion plans are in the works this year, Durocher said.

A second truck will have a deck oven that will allow Tiki Sams to offer Detroit and New York style pizza. Durocher took a class with the late Shawn Randazzo, founder of Detroit-style pizza, to help him dial in recipes.

Tiki Sams is a supporting food truck for Slice Out Hunger. In the last year, the food truck partnered with Kibby Cobb Deli to make 60 pizzas for the Jackson Interfaith Shelter, that were delivered to the shelter on National Pizza Day.

During the pandemic, Tikis Sams expanded operations into neighborhoods with great success, Durocher said. Neighborhoods can pick a night for the food truck to set up for a weeknight dinner.

We had our best year last year, Durocher said.

Tiki Sams also does catering for graduation parties, weddings, festivals, sporting events and other parties. The truck will travel around Michigan and even out of state, but Jackson is its home base. Tiki Sams plans to be at events like Food Truck Tuesdays in downtown Jackson this summer.

Hours vary for Tiki Sams Pizza. Call 517-258-1260. For more information or to find out where they will be, visit https://www.facebook.com/tikisamspizza or https://www.tikisamspizza.com/

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Local Eats: Jacksons Rocky Top Beer-BBQ & Grills innovative ownership provides something for everyone

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Local Eats: The Hunt Club struggles, but leans on family-like workplace during reopening phases

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Local eats: A pandemic, ghosts and 50 years of service, Roadhouse Grill and Bar has stood the test of time
Dr. Stacey Sensor says her 18-year-old son, a high school senior, is one of the healthiest people I know.

He works out every single day at five oclock in the morning, said Sensor, a Gaylord physician. He takes all these supplements. He only eats healthy. And he got COVID at the gym.

He was quite sick for about eight days, she said. So Im telling you that it doesnt matter what supplements you take, what your age is. ... Even in the healthiest individual, they still can get it and they can still become very sick and then the effects can be there for quite some time.

Its a cautionary tale, she said, for people who see COVID-19 as a serious health threat for the elderly but a much more benign illness for younger, healthier people.

In fact, Michigans current coronavirus surge has turned that assumption on its head: Last week, the state was averaging more hospital admissions for COVID patients under 40 than patients age 80 or older. The former was about 78 a day compared to 50 for the latter, according to data from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

The biggest reason for the demographic shift, experts say: The difference in vaccination rates.

About 74% of Michigan residents age 70 and older have gotten at least one dose of vaccine, and two-thirds are fully vaccinated. For those 16 to 49, the numbers are 36% who have gotten one dose and 23% fully immunized; there is no vaccine authorized for children under 16.

Also contributing to the surge of virus among young people is the spread of variants that are both more contagious and more lethal; the tendency of many younger adults to disregard COVID-19 guidelines, and the fact that schools have reopened.

Its definitely become more of a young person disease now, probably because they havent been vaccinated and theyve been more likely than older folks to go out and about, be in close contact with others and go to gatherings, said Dr. Mark Hamed, a physician who is medical director for Huron, Lapeer, Sanilac, Tuscola, Alcona, Iosco, Ogemaw, and Oscoda counties.

The numbers bear that out. In the first year of the pandemic, Michigan residents age 60 and older accounted for 23% of cases; its now 13%. Conversely, those under age 20 accounted for 13% of cases during the first 12 months of the pandemic; its now 25%.

The chart below shows the April case numbers by age group compared to the monthly average through March 2021, as well as compared to December 2020 during the fall surge.

Source: Michigan Department of Health and Human Services

In theory, thats actually a welcomed shift from the standpoint that old age is easily the biggest risk factor for being hospitalized or dying of COVID-19.

But experts have been taken aback by the spike in COVID-19 hospitalizations among younger adults and children.

Compared to the height of the fall surge in early December, Michigans average daily hospitalization admissions for COVID-19 are up 33% for those age 18 to 29, 58% for thirty-somethings and 64% for those in their 40s. Meanwhile, hospitalizations for those age 80 and older are down 60% compared to December.

A comparison of Michigan's average daily hospitalization admissions for COVID-19 in early December, which was the height of the fall surge, compared to the average for April 17-23. (Source: Michigan Health and Hospital Association and Michigan Department of Health and Human Services)

Its like, you take what we were seeing before and shift it down by one or two decades, said Dr. Joel Fishbain, an infectious disease specialist for Beaumont Hospital in Grosse Pointe. Weve got 20-year-olds who are getting admitted, and 30-year-olds requiring oxygen, which we never saw before, and needing as much treatment as we can give them. Weve got 40- and 50-year-olds ending up on ventilators.

Pediatric cases also are up. Last week, the state was averaging almost 10 hospital admissions a day among pediatric patients with COVID-19, triple the number in mid-February.

Deaths among children and younger adults have spiked, too.

In the first 13 months of the pandemic, there were six deaths among children ages 10 to 19. In the past month, four deaths were reported. Another 65 deaths were reported in April for 20- and 30-somethings, quadruple the monthly average.

The chart below compares April deaths to the monthly average through March 2021 as well as to confirmed COVID deaths in December. The numbers show how deaths among seniors plummeted in April compared to December as a result of vaccinations while coronavirus variants spiked deaths among unvaccinated people under age 50.

(Source: Michigan Department of Health and Human Services)

Deaths and hospitalizations arent the only concern.

While most COVID patients under age 50 dont get severely ill, there are a growing number of people who have long-haul COVID symptoms, said Dr. Liam Sullivan, an infectious disease specialists with Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids. They have problems with smelling, with taste, with concentration, with memory, with fatigue, with night sweats.

So even though they had a mild illness the first time around, theyre still dealing with these things month and months later, and thats not something you want to deal with when youre 25 or 35, he said. Of course, you dont want to deal with it at any age, but especially when youre in the prime of your life.

And for women, the research is growing on the dangers of COVID-19 during pregnancy. Dr. Kurt Wharton, an Oakland County obstetrician, currently has four pregnant patients in intensive care units battling COVID-19.

All four are fighting for their lives, said Wharton, who works at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak.

While COVID-19-related deaths among pregnant women remain very rare, Wharton and others say the evidence is growing that coronavirus during pregnancy can put a woman at a much higher risk of preterm birth, preeclampsia and admission to the ICU and/or intubation, especially if the woman has pre-existing conditions such as high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes or heart disease.

Evidence growing on COVID-19 vaccines during pregnancy: Virus is dangerous; the shots are not

Doctors offer several theories on why more younger people are getting significantly ill with COVID-19 in the current surge.

One is the spread of variants, which are both more contagious and more lethal. The variants are stickier, Hamed said, which means it takes less exposure to make someone severely ill or even symptomatic.

Wharton noted the same pattern happened during the 1918 influenza pandemic. The initial surge in the spring of 1918 primarily impacted the elderly and babies. But the virus mutated and came roaring back in the fall of 1918, and its primary victims during that surge were younger adults.

History is repeating itself, Wharton said.

Another issue, suggests Hamed and others: More unvaccinated people are gathering in groups without masks. That increases the risk of exposure to a higher viral load, which has been associated with more severe disease.

The best mask you wear, the less viral load you inhale, Wharton said.

On top that, many schools have reopened and children and younger adults in particular are resuming their pre-pandemic social lives.

You can see it, Wharton said. Younger people are all out in groups again, walking down sidewalks, shopping, going to restaurants and bars together. They just think theyre invulnerable.

The good news is that COVID-19 vaccinations have proven wildly successful in significantly reducing the chances of getting the virus and spreading to others, Sullivan said. And just as vaccinations have blunted spread of the virus among senior citizens, the spread of COVID among younger adults can be stymied through immunization shots.

Vaccination programs really need to target the younger people right now, Sensor said. Theyre the ones who are getting sick. Weve done a really good job of vaccinating our older population, but to really move forward and get out of this pandemic, we really need our younger people to step up to the plate and get the vaccine to protect themselves and protect their families.

More on MLive:

Cancer doesnt wait for COVID: Health experts urge Michigan residents not to delay routine care

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Michigan to resume use of Johnson & Johnson vaccine following federal review
Michigan residents are returning on time for their second dose of COVID-19 vaccine at a better rate than the national average.

The two most widely used vaccines in the U.S. -- developed by Pfizer and Moderna -- require a second dose spaced 21 and 28 days apart, respectively. The second shot is necessary for maximum effectiveness against severe cases of COVID-19.

As of April 17, more than 95% of Michigan residents who received a first dose of the Pfizer vaccine and were eligible for a second dose had shown up for their follow-up appointment and gotten one, according to vaccine data from the state health department.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services was unable to provide second-dose rates more recent than Feb. 14, when about 95.4% of first-dose recipients had received their second dose.

However, MLive used the states online vaccine dashboard to calculate estimates based on a more recent window of time. Of 1,297,666 residents who had gotten their first dose of Pfizer vaccine by March 27, there were 1,243,653 residents -- or 95.8% -- who had gotten their second dose by April 17, which was exactly three weeks later.

Similarly, of the 1,285,329 residents who received their first dose of Moderna vaccine by March 27, there were 1,203,003 -- or 93.6% -- who got their second dose by April 24, which was four weeks later.

Locally, most health departments surveyed by MLive said they didnt have specific no-show data for second-dose appointments, but noted anecdotally there havent been significant problems.

The city of Detroit, however, has consistently noted a 10% no-show rate, according to health department spokesperson Margaret Caroll. Thats slightly higher than the 8% nationwide average reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Health officials are happy to see the no-show rates are relatively low statewide, but they continue to stress the importance of getting a second shot to increase protection against COVID-19.

Recent data from the CDC suggests the two-dose regiment from Pfizer and Moderna is 94% effective at preventing hospitalization due to COVID-19 after 14 days post-vaccination. That rate is more like 60% after just one dose and without the two-week post-vaccination period.

A lot of times when your body is having a first ever exposure to a new protein, it needs that first exposure and a booster, said Dr. Emily Toth Martin, an epidemiologist for the University of Michigan. Its totally new the first time and starts to mount an immune response. The second time broadens that immune response.

In Washtenaw County, health department spokesperson Susan Ringler-Cerniglia said by and large, most people schedule their second shot during their first appointment and return as scheduled. In some cases, they have to reschedule, which they can do up to 42 days later.

Some reasons for missing appointments include scheduling conflicts, travel, coming down with COVID-19 in the interim or other health emergencies. Cerniglia said her health department and other providers around the state work with people individually to accommodate the best we can.

The other thing is weve gotten a ton of requests over the last month for second doses when someone has gotten a first dose somewhere else, she said. Delivering the second dose when we didnt deliver the first has been challenging, but that is becoming easier lately as weve gotten more supply.

The story is similar elsewhere in the state.

In Ingham County, Health Officer Linda Vail said she isnt seeing any significant trends involving people skipping their second-dose appointments.

Kerry Ott from the LMAS District Health Department in the Upper Peninsula agreed.

I had a case where someone got COVID-19 between the two shots and they had to wait 90 days because they were given monoclonal antibody treatment, Ott said. Beyond that, no, it hasnt been a huge problem for us.

The state health department is encouraging residents 16 and older to get two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, or one does of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, as a means to get past the pandemic.

Related: When will Michigan ditch its mask mandate? Whitmer officially ties reopening measures to vaccination rates

To ensure the best protection from COVID-19, it is very important to not skip the second dose if you received a COVID-19 vaccine that requires two doses, said Lynn Sutfin, a spokesperson for the department.

The second dose must be from the same vaccine manufacturer, so it will be important to ensure that where you receive your second dose has the right vaccine. If you can, it would be best to follow up with the same provider who gave you your first shot.

As of Thursday, April 29, Michigan had administered more than 6.9 million doses of vaccine, including more than 4 million first doses and almost 2.86 million second doses. That translates to about 50% of residents 16 and older having started vaccination, and about 35.5% being fully vaccinated.

Vaccine appointments, including walk-ins, are available through local health departments, pharmacies and health care providers across the state. For more information, visit the states COVID-19 vaccine website.

Read more on MLive:

When could Michigan reach the 70% vaccine threshold, relax mask mandate?

Michigan reports lowest daily positivity test rate since March

West Michigan Vaccine Clinic at DeVos Place to close May 21

Providers are required to report vaccinations into Michigans registry, but you can check to be sure
The Ministry of Energy has thrown back a tirade at the Minority NDC over the recent power outages in the country.

The sector ministry said President Akufo-Addos vision for the power sub-sector is to provide safe, dependable and affordable power to bring relief to Ghanaians and also to serve as a solid base for an industrialised economy.

In furtherance of this vision, the ministry has said it is working hard to bring it into fruition and remains focused on delivering this important mandate and will, thus, not be drawn into a needless war of words that tends to politicise the situation.

In a statement responding to the Minority in Parliaments recent press conference on the power supply challenges bedevilling parts of the country, the ministry said it nonetheless welcomes constructive feedback from all sections of our society.

The government, the statement said, appreciates the patience of affected Ghanaians and respectfully craves their forbearance as the necessary works are undertaken in order to achieve their objective.

Read the Ministry of Energys full statement below:

Accra, 29 April 2021

STATEMENT IN RESPONSE TO MINORITY IN PARLIAMENTS STATEMENT ON POWER SITUATION

The attention of the Ministry of Energy has been drawn to a statement yesterday 28th April 2021 by the Minority in Parliament over the current power outage situation in the country.

In the said statement a number of claims were made on a variety of issues in the power sector.

The Ministry wishes to put on record the following facts;

 Intermittent Power Outages

Since the beginning of the year, there have been some intermittent outages in parts of the country due to the following:

 Feeder outages in Kumasi arising from low water levels in the Bui Dam enclave. 1Bui is a peaking plant for transmissions services to Ashanti, Bono regions and the Northern parts of Ghana. Bui is crucial, in that it is able to energise the low voltages in power being supplied from the south into Ashanti and the north).

 Prestea-Obuasi Transmission line trips, leading to a total system shutdown (the line that tripped affected other adjacent lines. This curtailed supply and caused a system shutdown).

 Gas flow challenges upstream  arising from challenges in the WAPCo supply line.

 Gas Compressor faults reported by Ghana Gas.

 Localised outages within the distribution chain

Despite inherent challenges in the transmission and distribution aspects of the power sector, systematic plans have been put in place by the government and our developmental partners like MCC, Siemens and AFD, to support the overall stability and create consistency and reliability for the country.

For the record, there has been no nationwide load-shedding in the country, neither has there been an attempt to embark on one because there is no need to.

Some of the projects ongoing in Accra and Kasoa, for example, will require outages for some days. The Pokuase timetable is out, starting from May 10 to May 17th 2021.

That of Kasoa is yet to be published, and shall be released at the appropriate time when the necessary arrangements and consultations with the relevant stakeholders have taken place. The only reason these outages are being carried is to allow for the contractors to tie in their works into the existing transmission lines.

It is, therefore, false to claim, as the Minority in Parliament has, that political pressure has been brought to bear on the publishing of a load shedding timetable.

 Ongoing Key Projects to salvage situation  Transmission

 Pokuase substation (BSP) - The US$60m Pokuase BSP, the fourth Bulk Supply Point in Accra designated as A4BSP, and its associated 33kV and 11kV interconnecting lines will address power supply challenges, such as frequent outages and low voltages resulting from increased power demand in Accra and the surrounding towns. On completion, the quality of power supply and reliability in Pokuase, Kwabenya, Legon, Nsawam and its environs will improve significantly.

 Kasoa GIS BSP  A US$50m project to improve reliability and quality of supply to Kasoa and its environs, including Senya Bereku, Bawjiase and Nyanyanu and also increase power availability to meet growing demand in that area. There will also be significant reduction in transmission and distribution losses. Upon completion, the programme will benefit 241,508 ECG customers by vastly improving GRIDCos power transmission system.

 Kumasi-Kintampo transmission line project  funded by AFD at a cost of US$173m. It will ease the load on the Kumasi substations and become the instrument of power transmission to the north. The substations in Kumasi can then focus on transmissions to areas within the Ashanti and Bono regions.

 Purchasing of a US$15m Static VAR Compensator  it will help sustain high voltages in the transmission system.

 Transfer of AMERI Plant to Kumasi  To stabilise the power in Kumasi and also support the voltage in the northern part of the country which has become worse because of Buis outage.

 Work on the Tema to Accra transmission line upgrade project. Installation of new transmission lines is to increase power transfer capacity from 400 megawatts (MW) to 1,900MW to reduce redundancy of power in the transmission lines

It is obvious that these works cannot be carried out without the relevant financial arrangements in place, for which reason the Minority in Parliaments claim of financial limitations with respect to the current situation is wholly without merit and should be disregarded.

Project Timelines

The Ministry rejects the Minority in Parliaments assertion that different timelines have been given from different outfits in respect of the schedule of works. This is false. It is important to note the following;

Pokuase Bulk Supply Point  July 2021

The Bulk Power Supply Point (BPS) being constructed at Pokuase in the Greater Accra Region is 95 per cent complete and on schedule for handover to the government at the end of July 2021.

Kasoa Bulk Supply Point  August 2021

Sixty per cent of construction work has so far been done on the $50-million gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) substation, with engineers assuring the minister that the infrastructure will be ready by the end of August this year.

Tema to Achimota Line Rehabilitation  September 2021

The project, which is part of a nationwide rehabilitation of lines, started three years ago under the Agence de France de Development financing of $173 million and is expected to be completed by September 2021.

It is expected that by the end of 2021, all these and other projects would have come to fruition and the power situation would have been resolved. These different conclusion dates for the various projects cannot by any stretch of the imagination be construed to mean that different and contradictory dates have been issued on when the power situation would be resolved.

 Bui Dam

Bui remains a crucial stakeholder and client of Ghana Grid Company.

It is undeniable that Bui Dams role as a peaking plant remains a significant point in the transmission process. Once the water level drops, this hampers transmission to the Ashanti region and beyond, due to the low voltages that are the resultant effect.

 AFD Loan & Projects

The principal reason for the halt in loan disbursements by Agence Francaise de Development (AFD) was to pave the way for the agencys access to a government guarantee.

The projects have all resumed following the provision of the necessary requirements needed by the French Development Agency.

President Akufo-Addos vision for the power sub-sector is safe, dependable and affordable power to bring relief to Ghanaians and also to serve as a solid base for an industrialised economy.

The Ministry of Energy, in furtherance of this vision, is working hard to bring it into fruition and remains focused on delivering this important mandate. The Ministry shall not be drawn into a needless war of words that tends to politicise the situation. However, the Ministry welcomes constructive feedback from all sections of our society.

Government appreciates the patience of affected Ghanaians and respectfully craves their forbearance as these necessary works are undertaken in order to achieve their objective.

ISSUED BY THE COMMUNICATIONS & PUBLIC AFFAIRS UNIT

Ministry of Energy

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Recent events in Western Sahara have reignited hostilities in the region, and it is necessary to adequately understand and address the matter of the Polisario Front. The Polisario Front claims to represent the national liberation interests of the Sahrawi people. Since the United States acknowledged Moroccos sovereignty over Western Sahara, Polisario Front militants have grown increasingly violent, culminating in the suspension of their 1991 ceasefire with Morocco in November 2020.

I started working in the region in December of 1999 and spent seven years going in and out of the camps in Tindouf, Algeria. Over the years, I have come to know the disappointment, oppression, torture, abuse, and exploitation of the beautiful Sahrawi people, especially the women and children.

The Polisario Front has, for decades, engaged in systematic repression of the Sahrawi people while accumulating recognition and acknowledgments from many in the international community. The fact is, the Polisario Front, through their patrons in Algeria, have betrayed the Sahrawi through ongoing violence, the wholesale suppression of their civil and human rights, collaboration with criminal and terrorist networks, and the embezzlement of humanitarian aid to fund both arms purchases, and personal enrichment. The issue has been allowed to fester for far too long.

It is alleged that the Polisario Front recruits and oversees the training of child soldiers in Tindouf. In February 2020, the UN Human Rights Council received a written statement detailing the matter. On March 10, 2021, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva permitted several human rights organizations to speak on the violations committed against children in the camps and their forcible recruitment of children by Polisario Front militias. Matteo Dominici, speaking on the behalf of a Swiss NGO, testified that children in the Tindouf camps are used as cannon fodder. In fact, in November 2020, in a conflict between Moroccan soldiers and the Polisario Front, women and children were transported to the battleground for this very purpose: as protective shields for the Polisario Front.

Beyond that, the Polisario Front engages in the devastating repression of individual rights in the camps. Movement is tightly controlled. No meaningful census has ever been allowed to be taken in Tindouf, so even the precise number of people in need of aid cannot be adequately accounted for. Evidence of kidnappings, imprisonment, forced labor, torture, and rape have all come to light. The severity of the crimes being perpetrated cannot be understated but is made worse because none of it is new. I will never forget the terror in the eyes of a 22-year-old mother who managed to escape the hell she lived through at the hands of the Polisario Front. She had tried to escape several times. After her children were brutally taken from her, she fled in the middle of the night, forced to leave her two little ones behind.

Native Sahrawis who succeeded in escaping the camps to adoptive families in Spain have reported being forcibly detained upon visiting family in Tindouf, often resulting in extended periods of confinement and even forced marriage to compel their return to the camps. Even journalists have proven legitimate targets for Polisario Front militants. In July 2019, for example, three journalists and activists were picked up off the streets by Polisario Front militants and detained for five months in detention centers, where they underwent harassment, threats, and torture.

Since 1975, the European Union alone has granted Sahrawi refugees in Tindouf annual humanitarian aid of around 10 million euros. Between 2004-2007, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) released a report detailing the depths of the Polisario Fronts fraudulent theft and misuse of critical aid. The aid is used to buy arms but primarily is used to purchase lavish properties by Polisario Front leadership in the Canary Islands and Spain. It also found that foodstuffs and other essentials are also then resold for profit to the very refugees they were intended for in the first place

The Polisario Front is guilty of abusing every avenue of legitimacy, authority, and support they have received. They are functioning as a conduit for violence and terror from state sponsors like Algeria and Iran, holding the Sahrawi population hostage while withholding the aid intended for them. It is no longer acceptable that we merely condemn the situation and do nothing to effect change on the ground. The timing is critical, the evidence is overwhelming, and the Sahrawi people deserve real justice. Its time they got it.
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Beijing [China], March 11 (ANI): Despite fierce international condemnation, Chinas national legislature has approved a resolution to drastically overhaul Hong Kongs electoral system to ensure only patriots can rule the city, a move which is feared to further smother opposition voices in the city.

The National Peoples Congress (NPC) on Thursday passed the resolution by a near-unanimous vote, paving the way for the biggest shake-up to the citys electoral system since its return to China in 1997, reported South China Morning Post (SCMP).

A total of 2,895 delegates voted in favour of the proposal, which will authorise its standing committee to finalise the details of the electoral reform process and applauded for the longest period after the Hong Kong electoral proposal was passed.

Under the new electoral system, NPC members and the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference, the countrys top political advisory body, will be part of the Election Committee in the selection process of the citys leader next year, reported Xinhua news agency.

Less than a year after imposing the draconian National Security Law, China last week had launched a legislative process for drastic electoral system reform in Hong Kong, which could benefit the pro-establishment camp and further quash the political opposition in the city.

The Election Committee will be expanded to add these 300 Beijing loyalists and the Legislative Council will also be expanded to 90 seats from 70.

Although Chinese officials have insisted that the measures are necessary to establish a democratic electoral system with Hong Kong characteristics, critics have warned that it would limit the space for the opposition in the city and roll back years of effort to liberalise the system, reported SCMP.

Ahead of the NPCs vote on the electoral measures, Britain said the proposed changes to Hong Kongs electoral system would be another attack on the former British colonys rights and freedoms.

The changes also come amid widening enforcement of the draconian national security law that Beijing imposed on the city last summer.

Earlier, the European Union warned Beijing to carefully consider the political and economic implications of any decision to reform the electoral system of Hong Kong, saying that the bloc is ready to take additional steps in response to any further serious deterioration of political freedoms and human rights in the city.

Furthermore, the United States has also condemned the continued assaults on the citys democratic institutions.

Speaking at the regular press briefing, US Department of State spokesperson Ned Price last Friday (local time) said that bringing reforms to Hong Kongs electoral system is an attack on the regions autonomy and freedoms and the democratic processes.

The New York Times reported that the strategy would further concentrate power in the hands of the Communist Party in Hong Kong and decimate the political hopes of the territorys already beleaguered opposition for years to come.

---zee5.com
Continuous professional development of teachers plays an integral role in improving learning outcomes in schools. Teachers continuing professional development (CPD) has become a major focus within the school reform and school improvement literature because of the belief that student learning and success are due, in large part, to the effectiveness of teachers (OECD, 2009).

In 2005, MOE/GES with support from JICA set the pace to operationalize CPD at the basic education level with series of engagements leading to a nationwide INSET programme from 2009 through 2012 before the policy was eventually enacted.

Though, the impact haven't been phenomenal, the new wave of reforms, noticeably Teacher Education and Curriculum reforms have illuminated and solidified the significance of CPD among teachers with its solidification effectively evidenced by the on-going NTC registration and licensing as well as clause 16 of the collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA)

In furtherance, clause 24 of the CBA sanctions GES to "organize systematic in-service programmes as a

means of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of employees".

It also adds that the "Service shall award certificates free of charge to all attendees and be responsible for the provision of all logistics during

in-service programmes.

EFFORTS TO INSTITUTIONALIZE CPD

Knowledge is evolving continually thus, the need for teachers to upgrade and hone their skills. According to GES (2013) the aim of the national CPD is to establish an institutionalised

structure for continuous professional development of basic school teachers.

The released of GH354 million in November 2020 as CPDA to 279,546 professional and 22,071 non-professional teachers under Ghana Education clearly testifies to the commitment to prioritize CPD within GES.

Also, the granting of functional licenses to CPD service providers like GSET, EDMAT, Exams Ethics, Sabre Education etc , and the establishment of a National Teachers' Standard as well as Teacher portfolios etc settle as manifestation of the CPD institutionalization agenda.

As we journey towards the final stages of the registration and licensing process , there will be a new phase for teachers to new undergo CPD, build portfolio,

adhere to prescribed standards and professional ethics and to renew license.

EXPECTATIONS

Teachers are expected to acquire new skills, and reinforce existing skills to improve the quality of teaching..

The developed professional portfolio evaluation rubrics is indicative of the structure and competencies that will be used to evaluate the performance of teachers to justify their professional development.

The nature of assessment and expectations include.

~ CPD comprises

- mandatory programmes ( essential trainings that every teacher is expected to attend through Professional Learning Community (PLC) programmes such as SBI, CBI, DBI) ,

-Rank based programmes (training programmes expected to be attended by teachers in specific ranks, classes, subjects or positions to deal with specific issues in relation to their assigned roles.

-Recommended programmes( trainings which are recommended by NTC based on needs assessment

-Portfolio building (detailed record of training programmes and activities attended by a teacher within a specified period, that is, between the issuance of the license to its renewal)

~ The license is renewable every three

years on condition that

the teacher has lived within the

confines of the code of

ethics and professional

standards, met the required CPD

points at the current

rank within the 3year

TCPD cycle

and passed the portfolio assessment

~ At levels, where the academic calendar runs on three terms, a minimum of 9 supply driven trainings ( 3 per term) is required.

For a two term semester academic calendar, a minimum of 12 supply driven CPDs (6 per semester) is expected.

~Registered teachers have two

(2) years to earn the minimum credit points stipulated for their ranks.

Senior Supt II

(Rank 1) , Senior Supt I (Rank 2), Principal Supt

(Rank 3 ), Assistant Director II( Rank 4) Assistant Director I ( Rank 5 ) , and Deputy Director ( Rank 6) will be required to have a TCPD points of 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95, 100 respectively.

~ There are suggested activities and programmes labeled from A to G that each teacher ( based on the rank) is expected to undertake in order to earn TCPD points. Whereas activities under Categories A, B, C, D, E fetch TCPD points of 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 respectively, programmes relating to Category F reward a point of 10 and that of Category F generate 20 points.

~ The mandatory courses to enhance TCPD growth include

National Policy on Education, History of Education in Ghana, Teacher Education in Ghana: Past, Present and Future, Sociology of Education, Professionalisation of Teaching in Ghana

, Citizenship Education , Education Law (Act), Educational Psychology, Guidance and Counselling , Curriculum Development, Instructional Methods,. Information and Communication Technology,. Instructional Communication, Language and Communication Skills , Classroom Based Assessment, Action Research and Reflective Practice, Educational Leadership and Management,. Professional Ethics ,Education of Persons with Special Needs/inclusive education ,Subject Content and Methodology (e.g. challenging topics), Micro Teaching/Teaching Practicum/mentoring practices, and Social Dialog

~ Teachers who fail to obtain the minimum TCPD points on the third year of the current rank

shall not be recommended to renew the teacher license and would therefore not be recognised as a

teacher of good professional standing

In conclusion, the institutionalisation of continuous professional development and instruments to evaluate teacher quality for appraisals, promotions, placements, renewal of licence etc is on course and it's important teachers upgrade and

develop their skills to promote learning outcomes

Desmond Allotey-Pappoe

Edublogger

[email protected]
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Academic Prof. Audrey Gadzekpo has urged members of Kufuor Scholars Program (KSP) to be patriotic if they will be able to play a meaningful role in helping develop Ghana.

The Dean of the School of Information and Communication Studies at the University of Ghana told the young people during a virtual session that the subject of patriotism is an important one for young people in the country.

The webinar on Wednesday explored a number of topics including how to become relevant in your country, making your voice heard through constructive communication, and how to make your nation better for the next generation.

The Associate Professor at the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Ghana commended some measures taken by previous governments to inspire patriotism in Ghanaians.

Under President Kufuor, we experimented with Ministry of Information and National Orientation. The ministry was to formulate a culture that challenges Ghanaians to do the best for oneself and country. Then they laid out pillars of national orientation, she explained.

We dont have the ministry anymore, she observed.

Prof. Gadzekpo identified having a can-do attitude as one of the prime attributes of patriotism. Prioritising Ghana first, as well as being positive and productive, were the other identified attributes. She urged the young people to make their voices heard and demand accountability from the powers that be. She also urged them to be accountable to themselves. Find your purpose and relevance in life. It should aim at making the world a better place than you found it, she told the students.

Prof. Gadzekpo also encouraged the young people to value Ghanas democracy. Dont take democracy for granted. Take democracy seriously. Work to rid our political system of patronage, cynicism, and the footsoldierism that has dominated our political landscape, she said.

Seeing our own law makers fighting in the chamber of parliament should give us a sense that democracy is fragile. We must strengthen our parliaments oversight capacity and its independence, Prof. Gadzekpo added.

Abigail Yayra Asarfo who is one of the scholars thanked Prof. Gadzekpo for the knowledge shared, noting it will inspire them to work towards achieving more for themselves and Ghana as a whole.

Elizabeth Dansoa Osei, a political science student at the University of Ghana observed the

subject of patriotism is crucial because it speaks of our ability to be effective the love we have for the country falls within that.

Chief Executive Officer of the John A. Kufuor Foundation Prof. Baffour Agyemang - Duah said imbibing patriotism in young people is an important step in preparing them for a better future.

The Kufuor Scholars Program (KSP) is an initiative of the John A. Kufuor Foundation, an organization founded by former President John Agyekum Kufuor after he stepped down from office. The KSP seeks to imbibe effective leadership skills in tertiary level students so they can help develop the nation. The KSP recruits 25 to 30 students every year through a competitive application process to participate in a three-year long training and mentorship program.
According to her website, Jakub has written two books: You Look Like That Girl: A Child Actor Stops Pretending and Finally Grows Up and Not Just Me: Anxiety, Depression, and Learning to Embrace Your Weird.
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Political Activist, Emmanuel Abankwah Kesse is urging the government of Ghana to scrap MPs Ex-Gratia and use it to develop their constituencies.

According to him, since the District Assembly Common fund is not enough, he suggested that MPs Ex-Gratia should be scrapped so that those monies can be put into local government coffers which he thinks will facilitate rural development.

He described the payment of 275 MPs GHC600,000 each after their huge salaries and numerous allowances they enjoy as a total cheat

If ex-gratia is seen as a retirement benefit for government appointees then, I dont think it is necessary to even pay outgoing MPs and continuing MPs this money because even the outgoing MPs are constitutionally mandated to contest again in the subsequent parliamentary elections.

Olumanba said most MPs did not invest in their constituents education because they think the legislators primary duties are to make laws

He however said I dont think MPs deserve huge benefits with the claims of sponsoring students and attending functions in their constituencies

Where in our Constitution is it written that MPs are to attend functions and sponsor education? he quizzed.

The core duty of an MP is to make laws so if an MP absents himself from parliamentary meetings and attend functions, he can be impeached, he explained.
Accra, GHANA On April 30, 2021, U.S. Ambassador to Ghana Stephanie S. Sullivan joined the Ghanaian government and military officials to inaugurate the Joint Operational Vector-borne Disease Entomology Laboratory at 37 Military Hospital in Accra.

Funded by the U.S. government through the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) Africa Malaria Task Force (AMTF), the laboratory will establish a combined entomology research and control program, the first of its kind in Ghana. Along with Ambassador Sullivan, representatives of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), Ghana Police Service (GPS), National Malaria Control Program (NMCP), and Noguchi Memorial Institute of Medical Research also participated in the event.

The outdooring of the Joint Operational Vector-borne Disease Entomology Laboratory is the result of strong U.S.-Ghana military cooperation. In partnership with the GAF, GPS, NMCP, and Noguchi Institute, the laboratory will support the Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Health malaria control programs with mosquito surveillance, directing insecticide applications, insecticide resistance monitoring, and mapping of potential disease-causing mosquitoes. The lab will also be a regional entomology hub in West Africa for other AMTF partners to benefit from in the future.

During her remarks, Ambassador Sullivan highlighted the strong bilateral military cooperation between the United States and Ghana that underpinned the establishment of the new laboratory and noted: It is through programs such as AMTF that the U.S. government has been able to assist in reducing the number of malaria deaths in Ghana and around the globe. We look forward to seeing the continued progress of our joint efforts through this new laboratory. Together, we will end this mosquito-borne disease within this generation.

Since 2011, the aim of the U.S. AFRICOM Africa Military Taskforce is to advance the global fight against malaria through capacity-building programs and multi-country military collaboration in Africa. In Ghana, the AMTF has provided comprehensive skills in malaria microscopy and medical entomology and fostered collaboration between the GAF and the National Malaria Control Program.
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Next time when Haruna Atta allegedly writes a political propaganda speech for you against Akufo-Addo's Government, respectfully remember to do due diligence to go through the speech privately before you come out publicly. Due diligence is the essence of your KBE award by the British monarchy.

You are helping the South African economy to grow, creating jobs for the South African Citizens, majority of your investments are in South Africa plus other Countries, and paying taxes to the South African Government, and upon all these, you have the audacity to talk about Ghana's borrowing and the growth of the Ghanaian economy.

What are the contributions of the KBE awardee to the growth of the Ghanaian economy since he exited from the Ashanti Goldfields Corporation?

What was the state of Obuasi roads when the KBE awardee was a prominent CEO in Obuasi?

Obuasi and Johannesburg are mining cities. Both of them are known as "City of Gold". Obuasi roads and development, in general, were very poor when the KBE awardee was the CEO for Ashanti Goldfields Corporation. Meanwhile Johannesburg a similar mining community was fast developing around that same period.

The KBE awardee helped to collapse Obuasi and relocated to Johannesburg.
The scene is set for a bruising battle within South Africa's ruling African National Congress after its secretary general, Elias Magashule, ignored a party deadline to quit over graft allegations.

Magashule, nicknamed "Ace", was given a 30-day ultimatum on March 30 to resign, after he was charged with embezzling public funds at a time when he was premier of the Free State province. He denies the charges.

His fate tests the ANC's vow to cleanse itself of an image of corruption, revive confidence in South Africa's governance and restore party support at the ballot box.

This strategy, say analysts, may succeed or founder with Magashule, 61 -- a tough-as-old-boots political infighter with a permanent scowl and an equally entrenched following.

"For the first time, the ANC is about to fire its own secretary-general. That has never happened in history," said political sciences professor Mcebisi Ndletyana.

The Magashule affair touches on the history and heart of the ANC.

The party was the force that brought South Africa's apartheid system to an end and has governed the country ever since its first democratic elections in 1994.

Within this enclosed hierarchy, Magashule worked his way up through the ranks, starting in his home province of the central Free State and building a support network along the way.

Zuma era

A crucial moment came in the early 2000s, when Magashule became the chief political confidant of South Africa's scandal-tainted former president, Jacob Zuma.

"Zuma's rise opened the way for dropping the standard when it comes to the requirements for leadership in the party," said political analyst Ongama Mtimka.

Under his regime, said Ndletyana, a corrupt official would be allowed to "indulge on party resources, so long as he paid homage to the president, to the king."

Nelson Mandela (C) swept to power at the head of the ANC in South Africa's first free elections in 1994. By WALTER DHLADHLA (AFP/File)

A 2017 research report entitled "Betrayal of the Promise: How South Africa is being Stolen" labelled Magashule as one of several "elites" that built patronage networks, abetting the illegal distribution of benefits under Zuma.

The charges against Magashule relate to public funds that were set aside to vet government houses with asbestos roofs in 2014.

The hazardous roofs were never removed, and investigators believe that the equivalent of over $12 million was pocketed.

Magashule was briefly arrested in November and granted bail on graft charges. He is next expected to appear before a high court in August.

Saving the ANC's 'soul'

The ANC's avowed cleanup has a long and stuttering history.

In 2017, its decision-making body, the National Executive Committee (NEC), ruled that any member or leader who had been criminally charged should either voluntarily resign or face suspension.

But it took until 2020, and two years of frustrations for Zuma's anti-graft successor, Cyril Ramaphosa, before this rule was activated.

Public outrage erupted over a series of coronavirus-linked corruption scandals involving state officials.

Former president Jacob Zuma came to symbolise ANC corruption. By MIKE HUTCHINGS (POOL/AFP/File)

Presidential spokeswoman Khusela Diko and provincial health minister Bandile Masuku were among a handful of senior people who were charged and removed.

The step-aside strategy is a "battle to retain the soul of the ANC as an organisation of integrity and morality," said Mtimka.

He and others see a party riven by divisions between fervent supporters of Zuma -- whose prosecution for alleged corruption has been dragging on for years -- and members supporting Ramaphosa.

Magashule, a champion of Zuma, "has opposed the consolidation of power by the new president," said Mtimka.

Ramaphosa would be "vulnerable" as long as the secretary general remained in power, he warned.

"The party has no choice but to become sensitive to public perceptions about its integrity and as such needs to act in ways that reaffirm... its commitment to fight corruption and crime," Mtimka said.

Testifying before a judicial panel probing alleged state looting under Zuma, Ramaphosa on Wednesday assured the ANC was determined to end "the excesses that took place".

Incumbent President Cyril Ramaphosa is trying to clean up the ANC's image. By RAJESH JANTILAL (AFP/File)

But some commentators have doubts, and suspect Magashule's dismissal could be endlessly delayed.

ANC Treasurer-General Paul Mashatile said to local media last week that it would be "over-simplistic" to expect a forced resignation at the deadline.

Party spokesman Pule Mabe told AFP Magashule's fate would be discussed after the NEC received a list of "comrades" that "may be impacted" by the step-aside resolution.

"If they were to allow Magashule to remain in his position, it will be another nail in the coffin of the ANC's credibility," John Steenhuisen, head of the opposition Democratic Alliance party, warned this week.
The Democratic Republic of Congo has announced a "state of siege" in North Kivu and Ituri provinces in the east of the country following an unprecedented wave of protests against insecurity and civilian massacres by armed groups.

"Taking into account the gravity of the situation... the president informed the cabinet of his decision to proclaim a state of siege in the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri," government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya said late Friday.

He said details of what the measure would entail would be released publicly in the next few hours.

Under DRC's constitution, the president can declare either a state of emergency or a state of siege "if severe circumstances immediately threaten the independence or integrity of the national territory, or if they interrupt the regular functioning of institutions".

On Thursday, President Felix Tshisekedi said he was preparing "radical measures" to deal with the security situation in the east of the country.

It came after the prime minister suggested on Monday that a state of emergency might be declared in the east, "replacing the civil administration with a military administration".

Eradicating the ADF

An estimated 122 armed groups of varying sizes operate in mineral-rich eastern DRC, many of which are a legacy of regional wars in the 1990s.

Tshisekedi, currently head of the African Union, was in Paris on Tuesday to discuss the crisis in Chad. He took the opportunity to ask France for help in "eradicating" the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) armed group from the Beni region in North Kivu.

The ADF militia are Ugandan Islamist fighters who have made their base in eastern DRC since 1995.

Branded a jihadist organisation by Tshisekedi and the United States, the ADF has killed more than 1,200 civilians in the Beni area alone since 2017, according to a monitor called the Kivu Security Tracker (KST).

The army has conducted operations against them in the region since October 2019, but has not been able to put a stop to the massacres of civilians.

On Friday, police and soldiers in Beni used teargas and whips to disperse high-school students protesting that failure. The information was confirmed by RFI's correspondent Patient Ligodi, but police said teargas had been used only against members of pressure groups and motorcycle taxi drivers who attacked them.

We have been with these children for close to a week. We did not brutalise them and won't be doing so, said colonel Francois Makosa Kabeya, Beni's chief of police.

Several dozen students had been camping outside the town hall over the past week, demanding the departure of the UN peacekeeping force MONUSCO and for Tshisekedi to visit the troubled region.

In February the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO) warned that a worrying increase of violations carried out by army and security forces in the country, the majority in th east of the country, including North Kivu, could constitute crimes against humanity.
Ho, Volta Region  April 29, 2021  The Design and Technology Institute (DTI) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ho Technical University to support the training of thousands of Ghanaian youth in Technical and Vocational Training and Education (TVET).

The agreement will lead to the enhancement of the Universitys TVET curriculum with the inclusion of DTIs Precision Quality (PQ) training, the upskilling of instructors, and academic faculty to prepare students for the world of work.

The initiative is part of a three-year Transforming youth TVET livelihoods for sustainable jobs partnership between DTI and the Mastercard Foundation, as part of the Foundations Young Africa Works strategy in Ghana. The program will provide 40,000 direct and indirect work opportunities for young people in the country .

We are delighted to be partnering with the Ho Technical University to incorporate the PQ curriculum, which has been carefully designed with academia and industry professionals, to equip young people with the skills required to better transition into the world of work. The arrangement with the University is a major step to ensuring that we maintain the same level of standards in TVET education delivery across the country. We will continue to work with our stakeholders to develop programs that meet the needs of industry and open up opportunities for young people, said Constance Swaniker, CEO of DTI.

As part of the partnership, DTI provided two ultra-modern TVET workshops equipped with state-of-the-art precision hand tools to the University and the Kwanesco Engineering Company to ensure students and instructors received hands-on experience in Precision Quality training.

Ghana cannot go on with business as usual. We must unlearn the sub-standard industry habits, re-learn new skills, adopt Precision Quality as a movement, and implement it to reverse the unemployment issues of Ghana and Africa as a whole. This partnership with DTI enables us to deliver our mandate of training skilled and competent young people to boost the socio-economic development of our country, commented Prof. Ben Q. Honyenuga, Vice-Chancellor of Ho Technical University.

The Ho Technical University is the first TVET institution to roll out the implementation of the PQ curriculum following a Train the Trainer workshop organized in March and April of this year with 12 Academic and Business Scale Advisors from Ho, Kumasi, and Accra. The PQ curriculum consists of five training modules, including: Change to Grow, Process Integration, People and Team Development, Health and Safety in the Workplace, and Managing Quality and Customer Relations.

Creating sustainable pathways to employment starts with the right skills training and education. We are excited to see the adoption of PQ training into the curriculum of Technical Universities and institutions to better prepare young Ghanaians for the world outside of the classroom, said James McIntyre, Education and Skills Lead at the Mastercard Foundation.

President of the Master Craft Persons Association in Ho and CEO of Kwanesco Engineering Company, Nelson Kwame Attah, commended DTI for upgrading their workshop to support the training of Master Craft persons and SMEs in Ho.

About Design and Technology Institute

The Design and Technology Institute (DTI) is a state-of-the-art Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) for young people. It was officially launched in September 2019 to provide the platform for students from various Universities, Polytechnics, Technical and Vocational Institutions to gain industry experience by working closely with artisans on a factory floor, supported by experienced instructors. The mission of the Institute is to transform skills training for young people in Ghana and across West Africa.

The Institute offers scholarships to needy but brilliant students in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation under their Young Africa Works strategy in Ghana. The campus is located at Mempeasem, East Legon behind Ghana Meteorological Agency (Digital Address: GA-484-6124).

About the Mastercard Foundation

The Mastercard Foundation works with visionary organizations to enable young people in Africa and in Indigenous communities in Canada to access dignified and fulfilling work. It is one of the largest, private foundations in the world with a mission to advance learning and promote financial inclusion to create an inclusive and equitable world. The Foundation was created by Mastercard in 2006 as an independent organization with its own Board of Directors and management.

About the Young Africa Works Program

Young Africa Works is the Mastercard Foundations strategy to enable 30 million young people, particularly young women, to access dignified and fulfilling work by 2030. It is estimated that by 2030, Africa will be home to the worlds largest workforce, with 375 million young people entering the labour market. With the right skills, these young people will improve their lives and the lives of their communities, contributing to Africas overall competitiveness.

The Young Africa Works program is currently being implemented in seven African countries in collaboration with governments, the private sector, business leaders, educators, and young people. Countries involved in the first phase of the strategy include Rwanda, Kenya, Senegal, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, and Uganda.
The Ahafo Regional Minister, Hon. George Boakye together with a delegation paid a courtesy call on the Turkish Ambassador to Ghana, H.E. Ms. Ozlem Ergun Uluesen on Tuesday, April 27th, 2021.

Hon. Boakye congratulated H.E. Ms. Ozlem on her appointment as the new Ambassador to the Country. He commended the Turkish government for strengthened and sustained good relations between Ghana and Turkey over the years.

Hon. Boakye urged for the enhancement of new economic cooperation between Turkey and the Ahafo Region for mutual benefit.

The Ambassador of Turkey to Ghana in her remarks posited that her office and counterparts will collaborate with Ahafo Region to support Skills Training Programs, Education, and construction of Hospital Theaters and Doctors Bungalows.

She further added that Ghana has vast opportunities in areas of agriculture, health, education, and there is, therefore, the need to explore these potentials.

She also commended the Country for her political stability, strong democracy, and abundance of skilled young people, and that, these factors have made Ghana very attractive for investments from Turkey.

The Regional Minister was accompanied by the District Chief Executive of Asunafo South, Hon. Osei Bonsu Snr., NPP Asunafo South Constituency Chairman, Kwadwo Mensah, and a Special Aide to the Regional Minister, Mr. Antwi Moses.
Indian Ambassador to Ghana, H.E. Mr. Sugandh Rajaram on Wednesday 28th April 2021 hosted a dinner with the Ahafo Regional Minister, Hon. George Boakye and his family.

In an opening remark, the Indian Ambassador expressed the desire to visit Ahafo Region soon, stating; his recent stay in Ghana has made him realize the unbroken bond that has been nurtured over a long period between India and Ghana.

He further added that it would be great to collaborate with Ahafo Region on skills training in sectors such as Information Technology (IT) and medicine.

Hon. George Boakye, Ahafo Regional Minister in his remarks, referred to the strong and warm ties shared by the Indian government on skills training programs such as IT and health as some of the key areas bonding the two nations. He proceeded by congratulating H.E. Mr. Sugandh Rajaram's on his new role as Ambassador.

He continued that, he is looking forward to collaborating with the India Embassy on skills training programs and investment for the equipment of the development of Ahafo.

The Regional Minister was accompanied by his wife, Mrs. Theresa Boakye, three daughters, and a Special Aide to the Regional Minister, Mr. Antwi Moses.
A new short-course Tuberculosis (TB) Preventive Therapy (TPT) has been outdoored for the first time at Agormanya in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality of the Eastern Region.

The new fixed-dose combination (FDC) with rifapentine and isoniazid termed 3HP prevents people infected with TB from developing active TB and reduces the number of pills that people who need the treatment have to take every week from nine to three.

The launch in Ghana follows a recent global procurement agreement with Macleods made possible by the IMPAACT4TB project, funded by Unitaid and led by the Aurum Institute.

Ghana has become one of the African countries alongside Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe to start providing the FDC in the first quarter of 2021, while seven other countries will introduce it by the end of the year.

Other countries are expected to receive supplies with the support of PEPFAR and the Global Fund to Fight HIV, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.

Dr. Stephen Ayisi-Addo, the Programme Manager of National AIDS Control Programme (NACP), speaking at the launch said, Prevention of active TB disease by treatment of Latent TB Infection (LTBI) is a critical control objective of the NACP and National Tuberculosis Programme (NTP) to reduce the incidence of TB in Ghana.

According to him, the programme will continue to collaborate with Aurum Institute through the IMPAACT4TB project as they provide 3HP-FDC to 9,000 eligible persons, technical capacity to service providers and improve on TPT reporting in 12 facilities in four regions of Ghana and will work towards the nationwide scale-up of 3HP.

Dr. Kwame Essah, the Country Director of Aurum Institute Ghana, also emphasised that the availability of 3HP in Ghana is great news in the response to TB infection control. This convenient short course TPT complements the efforts of the government and should result in greater compliance to treatment.

On his part, Prof. Gavin Churchyard, founder and CEO of the Aurum Institute, lauded Ghana for its readiness to introduce the fixed-dose combination.

With the roll-out of this new FDC in at least 12 high TB burden countries this year, I'm feeling a renewed sense of optimism that we can get back on track to meet our ambitious global TB prevention goals, he said.

In Ghana, 44,000 people fell ill with TB in 2019 alone, which resulted in over 15,000 deaths, including 4,800 deaths among people living with HIV.

DGN online
Two young men have been apprehended by the police in Darkuman, Accra, for allegedly abducting a three-year-old girl, ostensibly for money rituals.

The suspects have been identified as Addo Quaye, 20, and Ramsey Abubakari, 18.

The police have indicated that their search on suspects revealed half bottle of olive oil, six pieces of stones, and some old human teeth.

It is alleged that suspects abducted the girl and were taking her to see a fetish priest for money rituals when a relative of the victim spotted them.

Witnesses claimed the grandmother of the victim sent her to buy food when the suspects intercepted her and tried taking her away.

The father of the girl spotted them in the course of taking the girl away, and when he questioned them as to where they were taking the victim to, they could not give any tangible answer and took to their heels, leaving the girl behind.

However, an alarm was raised and the youth in the area pursued and arrested the suspects and in an attempt to lynch them, the Darkuman Police rushed to the scene to contain the situation and brought the suspects to the station.

The Accra Regional Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Efia Tenge, when contacted said the incident occurred on Wednesday, April 28, 2021 around 2:10pm.

According to DSP Tenge, the father of the victim who has already given a statement to the police said the victim was sent together with her seven-year-old sister to buy fried yam at Darkuman Anigyekrom near Okoro Washing Bay.

After 30 minutes when his daughters were not arriving, he became alarmed, and followed up to see what was happening.

On his way, he said, he met the suspects holding his three-year-old girl and when he questioned them, they could not give him any tangible reason, DSP Tenge added.

DSP Tenge said, later when the police brought the suspects and searched their pockets at the charge office, they discovered half bottle of olive oil, six pieces of stones, and two old human teeth.

She said the two suspects are still in their custody assisting with investigations.

Daily Guide
And so, we grew up in an artists house in New York City, where if you made more than $10,000 a year you were kicked out of the building, he said. We were like, Were real artists. And so Im conflicted here, because this is not what I thought it would be. They hired David Ayer. That day, they asked him to come in, and we do a page-by-page critique/rewrite. And David Ayer goes off and writes this great script, and the rest is history.
Two men have been picked up by the Nungua Police in Accra for allegedly kidnapping a man from Ivory Coast on the Spintex Road and tried to demand ransom.

The suspects have been identified as Samson Abban, 31, excavator operator and Joshua Aidoo, also 31 a private security personnel but a third suspect yet to be named by the police, is at large.

The suspects, according to the police were demanding a ransom of GH30,000 from relatives of the victim after they had initially taken over GH1,000 from his mobile money account.

The commander in charge of the Kpeshie Divisional police command, ACP, Francis Kwame Tsidi, told Daily Guide the incident occurred on April 26, at KFC on the Spintex Road.

He said the three suspects introduced themselves to the victim as police personnel from Takoradi and created a scene that the victim was wanted in a case at Takoradi.

The hoodlums then arrested him to a house at Dansoman, Accra where they tortured him and took his two mobile phones, wrist watch, necklace, wedding ring, and his wallet containing GH450 .

ACP Tsidi said the suspects forced the victim to transfer GH1,000 from his mobile money account onto Abbans phone.

Not satisfied, the suspects sent the victim to another location at Weija, Accra where they called his family to pay a ransom of GH30,000 before they release the victim, the police officer said.

The officer said police intelligence led to the arrest of the two suspects at the house at Weija where the victim was being held hostage on April 27, 2021.

They were provisionally charged for conspiracy to commit crime to wit kidnapping, kidnapping, and robbery.

We have since remanded then into police custody while investigations are ongoing, ACP Tsidi said and urged the public to always demand the identity card of any police officer effecting an arrest before following that person to the police station.

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Vienna, May 1 -- Authoritarian and illiberal-minded regimes are becoming increasingly emboldened in their efforts to stifle independent media, the International Press Institute (IPI) warned ahead of World Press Freedom Day 2021.

Brutal crackdowns on the press are unfolding openly across the globe. After seizing power in a coup on February 1, Myanmars military junta has arrested more than 70 journalists, revoked licences of independent media outlets, and repeatedly blocked internet access.

In Belarus, the regime of President Alexander Lukashenko launched a campaign to criminalize reporting on protests against last years fraudulent election. Local watchdogs have recorded over 550 attacks on journalists, including hundreds of detentions, since the vote.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government has accelerated an unprecedented effort to eradicate fundamental freedoms, including press freedom, in Hong Kong. Beijing has targeted prominent critical journalists, like Apply Daily publisher Jimmy Lai, as it transforms the territory into an outpost of its centralized authoritarianism.

The coronavirus pandemic has aided the negative trend as governments use the public health crisis to restrict reporting. Authorities have blocked access to information, arrested journalists for their coverage of the virus, and passed sweeping fake news laws that can be used to silence criticism. IPIs COVID-19 Press Freedom Tracker has recorded 635 press freedom violations around the world. India, which is battling a major wave of infections, has seen 84 violations  more than any other country.

The rise in open attacks on press freedom and the targeting of journalists in dictatorial and illiberal-minded regimes around the world is an ominous sign for the future of democratic freedoms, IPI Executive Director Barbara Trionfi said.

Press freedom is under assault everywhere we look, with tactics and methods for doing so being shared and copied by governments. Anti-democratic regimes increasingly feel that they can silence the media with impunity. This has a domino effect, encouraging other states to follow suit.

She added: The coronavirus pandemic and the accompanying states of emergency have provided in some cases a cover for governments to usher in new systems and norms that invite censorship and self-censorship. There is a clear risk that many of these norms will outlast the virus and become permanent fixtures. Now is the time to ensure that any rights restrictions are strictly necessary, proportionate and time-limited.

The pandemic has also reminded us of how important independent journalism is precisely in moments of crisis. We need an urgent, collective response by the international community  both states and civil society  to robustly defend press freedom as a pillar of free and democratic societies, and to stop the domino effect knocking down the publics right to independent news and information.

Authoritarianism on the march

A rise in authoritarianism and so-called illiberal democracy is contributing to a global decline in press freedom. Myanmar, Belarus and China are far from alone in their blatant repression of journalism.

Elsewhere in Asia, pressure on media freedom has grown in the Philippines under President Rodrigo Duterte, with new charges brought against prominent journalist and IPI Board member Maria Ressa and the forced closure of critical broadcaster ABS-CBN. Meanwhile, Indias increasingly illiberal government, stung by widespread criticism in the media over its response to the pandemic and the large-scale farmers protest, has stepped up legal harassment of journalists, notably through its notorious sedition law. Indian media outlets are challenging new rules covering digital media, warning of government censorship. Journalists in Indian-administered Kashmir continue to face an agonizing clampdown aimed at controlling news related to the territory.

In Africa, the re-election in January of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, in office for nearly 35 years, was marred by accusations of fraud and more than 100 attacks on journalists in the run-up to the vote. Just hours before the vote, Ugandan authorities brazenly cut off access to the entire internet to stifle public access to information. While Egypt finally released Al Jazeera correspondent Mahmoud Hussein in February, dozens more reporters remain behind bars. Legal proceedings against them are a mockery of due process.

Europe is not immune from the authoritarian turn. Hungary, a European Union member state, continued its dismantling of media freedom by kicking the countrys last independent radio broadcaster, Klubradio, off the air. Its media capture methods are now being exported to other countries in the region, especially Poland, where a state-controlled oil company purchased the largest network of regional newspapers. Turkey, which remains a leading jailer of journalists, strong-armed online platforms into complying with a new law that facilitates digital censorship.

In Latin America, the regime of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua continues its war on the free press, shutting down access to information even as the COVID-19 pandemic spread. Journalists in the country face prosecution, surveillance, harassment and threats.

COVID-19 accelerates negative trends

The COVID-19 pandemic has delivered a debilitating blow to press freedom across the globe. Governments have tried to stifle independent media, while an alarming number of journalists have come under attacks for their coverage of the health crisis. So far, IPIs COVID-19 Press Freedom Tracker has recorded 635 press freedom violations around the world.

Overall, over 200 violations linked to the pandemic were reported in the Asia-Pacific region, of which about half were from four South Asian countries: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Nepal. Seventy-one journalists faced arrests and charges for their coverage of the pandemic and its consequences in those countries, while 32 cases of physical attacks and verbal threats were reported.

Africa ranks second in terms of arrests and charges against journalists and media outlets. Zimbabwe reported the greatest number of arrests in the region, including that of prominent investigative journalist Hopewell Chinono. He was first arrested in July last year for exposing COVID-related procurement fraud within the countrys health ministry.

An alarming number of physical and verbal attacks on journalists were recorded in Europe. A total of 112 cases of attacks have been registered, of which more than 80 percent were by members of the public. Journalists were targeted while covering public demonstrations against lockdowns and other pandemic-related measures.

Numerous states imposed restrictions on access to information, preventing journalists from speaking to health officials or medical workers, or blocking independent media from attending press conferences. Restrictions on access to information were particularly evident in Latin America, where Venezuela and Honduras topped IPIs Press Freedom Tracker in terms of numbers of violations.

New fake news laws were enacted in at least 18 jurisdictions. Sold as efforts to combat disinformation about the health crisis, these laws provide governments with new tools to control the flow of news and information. Most recently, the Malaysian government took advantage of emergency powers to bypass parliament and introduce a regressive new regulation providing up to three years in prison for fake news on the pandemic or the state of emergency itself. Russia introduced legislation that imposes a fine of up to 21,000 and a five-year prison term for spreading false information.

Almost 50 journalists killed in the past year

At least 49 journalists were killed over the last 12 months, according to IPIs Death Watch. Of those, as many as 43 were murdered in retaliation for their work. Three journalists were killed covering armed conflict and one died while reporting on civil unrest. Two journalists were killed on assignment.

With nine cases Afghanistan had the greatest number of targeted killings over the past year, including three women working for Enikass TV who were shot dead on March 2 as they were on their way home. In Mexico, six journalists were killed in targeted attacks, mostly for their reports on drug cartels and organized crime.

Impunity remains the norm for killings of journalists around the world. While triggermen are occasionally sentenced for their roles, the masterminds of journalist murders almost never face justice.

In February, U.S. intelligence released a report concluding that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman had approved the heinous assassination of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. Bin Salman and Saudi Arabia have faced no meaningful consequences for the murder  underscoring the lack of accountability for even the most brazen attacks on the press.
WHEN SPIRITUAL matters are discussed, some educated folks who think having knowledge and understanding through university education is all that there is to consider in this life would call you names. Prophet T. B. Joshua of The Synagogue Church of All Nation (SCOAN) was right when he said, What people do not understand they call it names

When men of God or Christians read spiritual meanings into suicides, accidents, diseases and other acts of wickedness that occur in the world, some educated folks call their action superstition or over-spiritualisation. What is over-spiritualisation in saying that spirit beings are sometimes responsible for bloodshed or behind certain conditions?

These critics say Christians should stop praying and fasting in seeking spiritual solutions to some of these challenges, and rather resort to critical thinking for antidotes. They speak as if exercising faith in God incapacitates a Christian's critical thinking ability. Who said Christians are not great thinkers?

Isaac Newton, who discovered the law of Gravity, was a man of faith  Christian. Robert Boyle, a Christian, is described as a great scientist who discovered the first gas law  Boyle's Law, Antoine Lavoisier, a Christian, is widely credited as being the founder of modern chemistry. He discovered oxygen's role in combustion and respiration; he also discovered that water is a compound of hydrogen and oxygen.

We can also talk about Michael Faraday who discovered electromagnetic induction; discovered the first experimental link between light and magnetism and a host of other respected scientists including Francis Collins, Galileo, Stanley Jaki, Francis Bacon and Maria Mitchel. Even Charles Darwin believed in God thereby exercised faith. There are many scientists and critical thinkers in Ghana today who are men and women of faith.

There is no doubt that Christianity believes in critical thinking, but critical thinking without the involvement of the only wise God in searching for solutions to life's problems leads to frustration and destruction. Many so-called developed nations were humbled to seek God and exercise faith in Him when they were overwhelmed with the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Greek philosopher, Plato, once said there were three valid sources of knowledge: first, the five senses- touch, taste, smell, sight and sound  which we share with animal kingdom. Second, reason  which sets man apart from the lower animals. The third he called divine madness  by which he referred to the spiritual world of supernatural communication.

Later his disciple, Aristotle, eliminated the third source  the entire intuitive faculty by which divine perception comes to man. Aristotle said knowledge comes only through the five senses and reason, (Jamie Buckingham, Power for Living, 1998).

Jamie further states that, Much of the Western world was affected by what Aristotle taught. But in Eastern and primitive cultures, references to the spirit world  the world of dreams and visions and supernatural communication  are common in all walks of life.

Clearly, most of today's so-called critical thinking apostles are obviously students of Aristotle. They measure the pleasantness of life with the inventions and wealth of the developed nations, but forget the moral corruption in these societies where prayer and Bible reading in schools have been replaced with the love for bestiality and homosexuality.

Life is a mystery; and mystery seems to be spiritual than physical. Man is not just a physical being; he is actually a spirit being with a soul and living in a body. Thus, he is supposed to be spiritually enlightened in order to meaningfully manage his physical and spiritual life well. Life is not all about the possession of the things of the world to enjoy 'smooth' beverages and sumptuous meals, but more importantly it is an opportunity for man to have an intimate relationship with God, his Creator.

Believers need God to protect, defend, save and deliver them from the wickedness of their enemy, Satan. You may not believe it because of your Aristotelian education, but there exists in the unseen realm, spiritual forces wreaking havoc on humanity, particularly Christians. Murders, rapes, incest, bestiality, fires, accidents, diseases and other destructions are caused by them.

The Bible says, The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly, (John 10: 10). Unbelievers cannot accept this because of the blindness of their minds as it is written, And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god (Satan) of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:3-4).

Satan steals, kills, and destroys unjustly because there is no justice in him. I do not care about your unbelief resulting from your ignorance of spiritual knowledge. The devil is the god of the world (2 Corinthians 4:4); the whole world lies in his power (1 John 5: 19). When you read about Adolf Hitler, one of history's most notorious dictators, you learn how wicked and heartless Satan and his minions can be.

They can operate through human beings as they possess them. Such people often behave violently and abnormally. This is where social scientists and other professionals with great critical thinking abilities come in to investigate their behaviours in the hope of finding solutions.

Certainly, some breakthroughs are achieved, but there is no doubt that after decades of research works, wickedness continue to increase. Best medical practitioners, security apparatuses, thinkers and wealth abound, yet there is no solution to wicked killings, accidents, rapes and other violent crimes against humanity. The reason is that the underlying cause of violence and bloodshed is spiritual, which is beyond mere critical thinking.

FROM James Quansah, Kumasi

[email protected]
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China is a sleeping giant. Let her lie and sleep, for when she awakens she will astonish the world." - Napoleon Bonaparte

The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion [] but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do. - Samuel P. Huntington.

Apart from their pervasive ignorance-engendered arrogance, the main problem I had with relating to Europeans when I sojourned among them is their peculiar insularity. They lack curiosity in anything non-European.

A lot of them strike me as self-indulgent and narcissistic bunch, thoroughly overfed by the make-me-feel-important ideas planted in their heads by the ideological institutions they call universities.

To their feeble minds, the world revolves around Europe, and nothing will shake that belief.

They know little but, alas, they dont seek to know better.

Their acute ignorance of the world is matched only by their arrogant belief that their wretched political, social and economic systems are the best in the world.

Europeans measure everything by their narrow and very shallow standards.

What is worse is the haughty manners they display towards things that their one-dimensional minds cannot comprehend.

Modesty certainly wasnt/isnt their forte.

It will not be a problem if Europeans proclaim their supposed superiority after they made some efforts to look beyond their noses.

No, they feel too superior to make attempt to study or understand other cultures, yet they believe that the ideas generated in their small patch of mother earth are the best in the world. Like that were not egregious enough, Europeans also assign themselves the divine right to impose them on the rest of humanity.

Like immature children, Europeans felt inadequate unless they constantly dance to their self-generated lullabies, and constantly tell themselves how superior to the rest of humanity they are.

They claimed to have invented psychology, yet they appear incapable of understanding the simple fact that one must feel totally inadequate if it becomes necessary to constantly remind everyone about ones superiority.

It will not be a problem if Europeans are contended with restricting their arrogant beliefs to the tiny enclave they called a continent, alas, no, they must travel far and wide to evangelize and to impose them.

Not only that, they will crush any and all oppositions either through economic sanctions, assassinations or unprovoked war of aggression.

The Crusade never ends with them.

It is this incredible narcissism that makes it possible for Europeans to build a Fortress Europe, where foreigners are welcomed only after they have committed cultural harakiri, stripped themselves of every vestige of their native cultural identity, while simultaneously going to great length to force European values on an unwilling world.

Again, it will not be a problem if Europeans attempt to win people over with superior arguments or philosophies, unfortunately, that has never been the case. Since they cannot logically defend their beliefs by force of superior reasoning, Europeans attempt to impose their wretched values by force of arms.

That explains why without any hint of irony they can invade countries, destroy lives, while they claim to be spreading democracy and human rights.

That the rest of humanity are fed up with listening to sanctimonious lecturing and hectoring from Europeans have done little to dampen their enthusiasm to dance (robotically, one might add) to their self-generated silly dances.

Europeans, a people totally bereft of humility, exported their arrogant dispositions to all part of the world they successfully colonized, after they committed unspeakable genocide on the native populations.

Frantz Fanon brilliantly captured it when he observed: Two centuries ago, a former European colony decided to catch up with Europe. It succeeded so well that the United States of America became a monster, in which the taints, the sickness and the inhumanity of Europe have grown to appalling dimensions.

It is difficult to understand why Europeans think that the rest of us have forgotten the well-documented atrocities they perpetrated against us.

Their unbridled and boundless arrogance probably made them think that the rest of humanity suffer from general amnesia.

How else do we explain the noises the West constantly makes about China and Russia and Iran, the three countries that have successfully weaned themselves away from Western domination, and are determined to chart independent paths to national development?

Luckily for the rest of us, the sun no longer revolves around a European orbit. Europe no longer holds any special appeal to anyone apart from the brainless and mindless vassals they imposed in the colonies, mostly in Africa.

Thanks to China and Russia, the Western Hegemon has been stripped bare. The West no longer possess the wherewithal to impose its diktats on the world without challenge.

Iran, Russia and China no longer pay any heed to the noises emanating from Brussels and Washington, they actually not only dismiss them derisively, in many instances they are hitting back hard.

A case in point was the recent incident when the chief of Chinas foreign affairs commission, Yang Jiechi, angrily took 16 minutes to lambast the new uppity American Secretary of State, Blinken.

Mr. Yang spoke with the confidence of a man who recognized his countrys new immense powers when he told the arrogant American: So was this carefully all planned and was it carefully orchestrated with all the preparations in place? Is that the way that you had hoped to conduct this dialogue? Well, I think we thought too highly of the United States. We thought that the US side would follow the necessary diplomatic protocols. So for China, it was necessary that we made our position clear. So let me say here that... the United States does not have the qualification to say that it wants to speak to China from a position of strength.

The senior Chinese official was correct to dig into Blinken. Mr. Jiechi was stating a fact when he affirmed that the United States lack the qualifications to lecture his country.

The Russians also appeared to have had enough of Deep State provocations!

Addressing lawmakers and senior officials in his annual state of the nation address, the no-nonsense Russian strongman, Putin said His country would respond swiftly and harshly to moves against its interests.

This is what he said: The organisers of any provocations threatening the fundamental interests of our security will regret their deeds, more than they have regretted anything in a long time.

Until arrogant Westerners decided to unilaterally changed the rules, the essence of diplomacy was to meet and politely exchange views with the expectation of reaching accords both parties find acceptable.

Again, until very recently, diplomats were among the most decorous and polite operators, at least in public.

We were not told why westerners invested themselves with the powers to dictate fiats to people and impose sanctions on those who refuse to abide their imperial diktats.

Whichever way we consider it, the Chinese deserve our salutations. Here is the reason: until Chairman Mao liberated his country from the clutches of foreign plunderers, China was a beaten, confused, underdeveloped, and backward country foreign colonialists considered a fair game for exploitation.

Since they liberated their country from foreign domination the Chinese have worked assiduously to ensure that the calamity of foreign conquest, domination and oppression never befall them. They will do anything to safeguard their hard earned sovereignty.

The ordinary meaning of sovereignty is the power of a nation (big or small) to manage its affairs on its own terms.

Again, it is the arrogant Westerners who refuse to accord other people the elementary courtesy of conducting their affairs as they see fit.

To put things into context, modern China gained its independence in 1949 while Ghana and Nigeria gained theirs in 1957 and 1960 respectively.

Whereas the Chinese have picked themselves up and dusted themselves up to master all that they surveyed in practically every aspect of human endeavors we care to examine, Ghana and Nigeria are still struggling to get the basics right.

Unfortunately, rather than make use of their independence to build themselves up, both countries led by a succession of clueless, visionless, inept and otiose elite continue to be besotted by a fixation on their colonial masters. I exclude the immortal Kwame Nkrumah.

Rather than to forge ahead by charting independent path to development, both Nigeria and Ghana continue to grovel at the altar of the historic oppressors of their people.

Sadly, unlike the Chinese, the Russians, and the Iranians who have elected to chart independent avenues to national development, the misrulers we have in Africa continue to be enamored with their colonial masters. They continue to play enthusiastic vassals and quislings to their Euro-American masters.

After over sixty years of ostensible independence the Fossil who is supposed to be leading Nigeria still play medical tourist in London hospitals. Meanwhile in Ghana, four months after our people danced themselves into stupor because their candidates won elections, citizens are roaming around with jerrycans in search of water, while electricity remains a major production!

Femi Akomolafe

Femi Akomolafe is a writer and author
April 29, 2021  The Committee to Protect Journalists today expressed alarm at recent actions by Somali security forces who detained and beat journalists and raided a private news outlet, and called on regional and federal authorities to ensure that members of the media can do their jobs without fearing for their safety.

Over the last week, security forces in Somalia detained Ali Nour Ayn, a contributor to Facebook news page Mudug Journalist and YouTube news channel Galka TV; shot at and briefly detained Bashir Ali Shire, deputy director of the private Radio Hubal; and raided the privately-owned radio broadcaster and online news outlet Mustaqbal Media, where officers confiscated equipment and hit shift editor Bashir Mohamud Yusuf with a gun, according to statements by local rights groups and the three journalists who spoke to CPJ via messaging app.

Somalia has long been a hostile environment for journalists, and security forces should be protecting the media rather than adding to these risks, said CPJ Sub-Saharan Africa Representative Muthoki Mumo. Authorities need to hold those who have attacked the press accountable, ensure that equipment confiscated from journalists is returned or replaced, and refrain from any further attacks on the media.

Ali Nour Ayn, who uses a pen name, told CPJ that a group of soldiers and police officers arrested him on April 21 while he was at a tea shop with friends and detained him overnight at the central police station in the city of Galkayo in the regional state of Galmudug in central Somalia. Ali told CPJ that the officers told him he was arrested because of his Facebook post alleging that police officers were arbitrarily detaining civilians. He told CPJ that the police used his phone to delete the Facebook post and released him on April 22 without charge after warning him not to write critically about security forces.

CPJ contacted the Galmudug state house, the office of the Galmudug regional president, as well as the Galmudug states ministry of internal security via email and messaging app about the incident but did not receive responses. CPJ tried to call a phone number listed on the Galmudug state houses Facebook page but was answered with an automatic message saying the number had been switched off.

In a separate incident, Bashir Ali told CPJ that on April 25 he approached two security officers at an intersection in the Somali capital Mogadishu and requested permission to film there for a report about clashes between opposition and government forces in the city. Bashir told CPJ that the officers initially granted him permission but once he started recording they hit him with their guns; forced him to lie face-down while they stepped on his back; and fired a weapon near his ear, damaging his hearing. The officers questioned him about his clan identity before blindfolding him and detaining him in a vehicle for about two hours, the journalist said. They also broke his mobile phone, his camera, and a watch, and forced him to erase his footage, he said.

In another incident, on April 27 at about 6:00 a.m., armed police officers raided the Mogadishu offices of Mustaqbal Media and confiscated equipment including at least five computers, three cameras, and a telephone, according to shift editor Bashir Mohamud. Bashir Mohamud told CPJ that one of the officers hit him on the chest with a gun and threatened to kill him. He said he suffered pain in his chest for several hours but did not seek medical care.

Both Bashir Mohamud and Mustaqbal Media director Ahmed Isse Gutale who also spoke to CPJ via messaging app, said that the police officers who raided the office belonged to the elite Haramcad force which, according to news reports, trained in Turkey. The soldiers prevented five staff members who were in the Mustaqbal offices from leaving for five hours, according to Bashir Mohamud and Ahmed.

Later that day, Farhan Mohamud Adan, Banadir region police commander who oversees Mogadishu, ordered the officers to leave the station; apologized privately to Ahmed; and said that all equipment taken from the station would be returned, according to a Mustaqbal Media Facebook post and Ahmed. However, only one laptop had been returned as of today, according to Ahmed. CPJ was unable to locate contact information for Farhan.

Mustaqbal Media continued to publish content on its website and on its Facebook channel, but was unable to resume broadcasting until yesterday morning, following the departure of the police officers, according to Ahmed and CPJs review of the news outlets online content.

CPJ attempted to call Somali Information Minister Osman Abukar Dubbe but received an automated message that the line was busy; CPJ also attempted to call presidential spokesperson Abdirashid Mohamed Hashi but he did not answer. The two officials also did not respond to requests for comment sent via messaging app. Deputy Police Commissioner Zakia Hussein did not answer calls from CPJ or respond to a request for comment sent via messaging app.

Reached via phone, Somali Deputy Information Minister Abdirahman Yusuf Omar, also known as Adala, said he would return comment on the Mustaqbal Media raid but did not get back to CPJ by publication. He said he was unaware of the other incident in Mogadishu regarding journalist Bashir Ali.

CPJ documented the arrests of at least two reporters and the harassment of at least four other journalists by federal and regional authorities between February 19 and April 9.

Most of the journalists harassed, assaulted, or detained since February were targeted in connection to their reporting on Somalias ongoing political crisis following delayed elections in February or on alleged misconduct by security personnel, as CPJ has documented.
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OF course, we must congratulate the Government on the quick action it has taken to implement come of the recommendations made by the National Dialogue of April 14-15 2021.

One report on the renewed attack by the Government on galamsey stated that: Two Chinese nationals were arrested in the past week for illegally mining at a site in Patatwumso, in the Western Region. The Wassa East District Security Council arrested them at their rented residence at Ateiku. They were being protected by armed guards when they were captured.

Attention was drawn to their operations about five weeks ago. Based on information, Operation Vanguard stormed the location. The galamseyers were preparing to leave the site and had begun disassembling their machines when they were apprehended.

The arrests followed recent reports that illegal mining activities are still ongoing in many parts of the country. Meanwhile, the Lands and Natural Resources Minister, Mr Samuel Abu Jinapor, has directed the Forestry Commission to stop issuing permits for mining in the country's forests. He said no company or individual would be allowed to go near the forests or river bodies to mine.

Announcing a "new" initiative, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had "ordered the deployment of 200 military men" to guard some river bodies across the country. This has been

largely hailed as a game-changer in the combat against galamsey.

But one does not need to be a cynic to ask: How often have such "initiatives" been reported upon in the media, in the past, only to "fizzle out" unaccountably for galamsey to continue?

What happens to the many arrested persons who are paraded before the cameras during anti-galamsey operations?

Our Governments -- and I emphasize Governments -- have been playing mind games with the populace over galamsey. For so horrendous have been the result of galamsey on our rivers and water-bodies that the arrests of galamseyers were started by the administration of ex-President John Mahama!

However, Mahama then succumbed to pressure within his party and shot down his own

programme by complaining PUBLICLY that the military units sent to carry out the arrest of galamseyers were using undue brutality against them! For good measure, he sanitized galamsey

by claiming that the galamseyers only wanted to earn a living. (!) Imagine a head of state excusing crime because its perpetrators "only wanted to make a living!"

Taking the cue from the ex-President, the military then relaxed their operational methods, and eventually, the campaign against galamsey during the Mahama administration died a natural death.

Within six months of coming to power in 2017, the Government of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had renewed the campaign against galamsey. Amidst a media fanfare, the Minister of Defence Dominic Nitiwul, and the Minister of the Interior, launched Operation Vanguard in July 2017.

As many as 1000 galamseyers were arrested. 340 makeshift accommodations were destroyed in January 2018 alone. 3,002 Changfan machines (floating devices in which mechanised "gold-panning" ios carried out) were destroyed.

But the galamseyers did not stop their operations and periodic seizures of excavators and chanfangs continued to occur. Meanwhile, the galamseyers began to actively corrupt Operation Vanguard personnel, and eventually, that Operation also fizzled out.

Meanwhile, the level of pollution of water bodies was causing an increase in water purification costs for the Ghana Water Company. President Akufo-Addo again responded by bravely promising to end the galamsey menace, even if it would cost him his presidency.

How serious the galamsey problem had become was revealed by Operation Vanguard" when it disclosed that 58 different types of assault weapons had been retrieved from galamseyers! The weapons included pistols, single and double-barrelled guns and pump-action guns and AK-47s! Some of the guns were taken from Chinese nationals. But no emphasis was placed on the fact that they, being armed foreigners, were, in effect, waging war against Ghana with the weapons they had been arrested with! In fact, they could be classified as "mercenaries" collaborating in "genocidal" activities against the population of Ghana.

"Genocidal? Yes -- because they were destroying the water-sources of Ghana, and it is not rocket science to understand that if you kill a nation's water-sources, you kill its people. Just as you would do, if you scooped all the oxygen out of its air-supply system!

That aside, it was reported by the commander in charge of Operation Vanguard punishments meted out to galamseyers was not strong enough to be a deterrent. enough. Most Ghanaian offenders were given a fine of between 1000 and 6000 cedis (between US$200 and US$1,000.) Jail terms ranged from four to eighteen months.

Some of the Chinese offenders were scandalously deported without being imprisoned in Ghana first. Many came back as a result -- aided by unpatriotic Ghanaian financiers and visa-granting plus corrupt immigration officials In fact, the then Public Relations Officer for Operation Vanguard stated that only 22 out of 172 Chinese nationals arrested had been jailed since the beginning of the operations. What happened to the rest? Therefore, no one was surprised when, earlier this year, Operation Vanguard ground to a halt. How long will the new operation against galamsey last?

Are we going to be subjected to another comical scenario of STOP-GO?

The Government ought to realise that the human condition does not allow for a change of attitude amongst criminals without a severe punishment being IMPOSED ON THEM!

Now, an interesting phenomenon is that almost everyone in the country hypocritically agrees -- with their lips -- that the destruction of our rivers and water-bodies cannot continue to be be tolerated. Chiefs; intellectuals; covoc bodies; local citizens' groups!

Yet although our Government has enacted a tough law against galamsey operators, called Act 995, there have been no protests over the fact that NOT A SINGLE PERSON HAS BEEN SO FAR PROSECUTED UNDER THAT ACT!

However, it's not as if the galamsey activities that caused the enactment of the Act have ceased!

Therefore, the hard questions the Government must answer are these: (1) will the Government now charge the 2 Chinese and their Ghanaian patrons who were arrested at Patatwumso, in mid-April 2021, to court under Act 995?

How many other galamseyers (both Ghanaian and Chinese) have either been charged and are on bail, or are awaiting charges, after being arrested during galamsey activities? Why has their prosecution not been brought to an successful end for such a long time? Why do the police and the prosecution authorities remain so silent over these issues, desapite the fact that it is no secret that the leader of the Governmewnt has publicly decreed that galamsey cannot be tolerated by his Government? Does he speak for everyone in the Government? In particfular, does he speak for the Minister of the Interior? Does he speak for the Attorney-General? If they do not accept his leadership, what ARE they doing in his Government? Do they want to expose him to the world as "a toothless bulldog"? Is that the thanks he gets from them for appointing them to high office? Why do the police fail to tell Ghanaian public anything at all whatsoever about the discoveries they make, during their investigations, regarding the sponsors of the galamseyers who are arrested? Isn't one of the cardinal principles in successful crime detection the ability to follow the money and thereby cut "the snake's head" in the crime syndicate apparatus? Whom are the police protecting and why? How do the police expect to receive useful information from the public -- a plea they are not shy of making! -- if the public believes, with reason, that generally-speaking, the police seem to be protecting galamsey criminals?

We await the answers. Meanwhile, we warn the Government that CREDIBILITY, once sacrificed for any political or social reasons, can never be regained. And a Government without credibility had better watch out, as the vacuum thus created in the body-politic, can result in unexpected consequences.

By CAMERON DUODU
More than 14.7 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered across the continent, but rollout campaigns have stalled in many countries.

As of April 28, only Seychelles, an island nation with a population of almost 123,831 people, has vaccinated about 68 per cent of its population.

Morocco followed up with 12.4 per cent administering 8.86 million doses of vaccines to its population with Rwanda and Ghana administering 1.4 per cent and 1.3 per cent of their population with doses of 349,702 and 755,686, respectively, as of April 11, this year.

Sadly, Cape Verde, Zambia, and Cameroon, which occupy the bottom lap of the vaccination table, had administered only six doses, 2,114, and 2,790 doses compared to their population.

Accordingly, as of April 20, Ghana had reached 842, 521, making a 2.77 per cent vaccination dose of its population.

More than 1.08 Billion vaccine doses have been administered worldwide, equal to 14 doses for every 100 people, according to the World COVID Vaccinations Tracker.

Africa Is Losing the Vaccine Race

Africa has lagged behind in the race to acquire coronavirus vaccines since it began. It was clear individual governments would not be able to compete against wealthier nations purchasing limited stocks, so a collective effort quickly got underway.

When the first doses arrived in Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Kenya, and Rwanda in late February and early March, it seemed like the continents rollout had finally gotten off the ground.

However, efforts are stumbling in the face of systemic obstacles to distribution. Now, Indias surging third wave could also directly affect the continents access to vaccines.

Indian active cases crossed the three million mark a day for the first since the beginning of the pandemic, with fresh cases rising to 379,000 and death rate of 3,596, the reason for the shortage of the AstraZeneca vaccines for Africa under the COVAX facility.

Africa has gotten most of its vaccine doses through the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) initiative, backed by the World Health Organisation, the European Commission, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which pools donor funding to allow developing countries to acquire shotsprimarily AstraZeneca, which doesnt require below-freezing storage. COVAX now needs an additional $2 billion to continue its work.

But even that might not be enough if there are no shots to be found. The initiative has depended on the private Serum Institute of India, the worlds largest vaccine producer, for its supply. But grappling with soaring cases, India has halted vaccine exports and disrupted COVAXs efforts in 36 African countries .

Last week, John Nkengasong, the Director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, called on India to lift its export restrictions.

If you finish vaccinating your people before Africa or other parts of the world, you have not done yourself any justice because variants will emerge and undermine your own vaccination efforts, he cautioned.

Stalled rollouts. With COVAXs efforts undermined, its now unclear when the next batch of vaccines will arrive on the continent. The COVID-19 African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team, created by African Union heads of state, has raised money to acquire purchases of doses separately, but its efforts are also stalled by global shortages.

In the meantime, Ghana and Rwanda have nearly exhausted their vaccine supplies, their otherwise efficient rollout strategies hampered by shortages. Many people who received their first shot through COVAX have no idea, when the second will arrive, and there are fears the wait could weaken the vaccines efficacy. In Malawi and South Sudan, where rollouts were already challenged by weak public health infrastructure, AstraZeneca doses have expired and will have to be destroyed.

Scaling up local vaccine production could help solve distribution issues, but U.S. and European pharmaceutical companies are still closely guarding patent rights to the COVID-19 vaccines. Even as Nkengasong made the case for urgently setting up local manufacturing at a conference on April 12, he conceded that some African states may have to wait until 2023, until they are able to access the vaccine.

Going it alone. South Africawhich has seen the highest number of infections in Africa, at more than 1.5 million caseshas also had its vaccine rollout disrupted by forces beyond its control. As a middle-income country, it cant make full use of COVAXs tiered distribution system and is now trying to punch above its weight in the fight for shots.

South Africa paid for more than 1 million AstraZeneca doses, but they proved less effective against the variant first identified in the country. In February, it pivoted to Johnson & Johnsons single-shot vaccine instead, planning to rely on a local production facility contracted to make it.

After vaccinating nearly 290,000 health care workers, South Africa halted the rollout after six people in the United States developed rare blood clots after receiving Johnson & Johnson shots.

South African Health Minister Zwelini Mkhize revealed big pharmaceutical companies were subjecting the country to unreasonable demands. We have found ourselves in the precarious position of having to choose between saving our citizens lives and risking putting the countrys assets into private hands, he told parliament last week.

Compared to other regions, Africa seems to have been spared the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, but the emergence of new variants shows no one is protected until everyone is. Scientists warn the longer it takes to inoculate a population, the more resistant COVID-19 could be to vaccines when they eventually arrived.

Marie-Pierre Poirier, UNICEF Regional Director of West and Central Africa promised to redistribute about 1.3 Million COVAX vaccine doses meant for DRC to Ghana, Togo, Sierra Leone, Angola and Madagascar.

She said global advocacy is needed to exert pressure on activities of some countries in the process of hoarding to bring justice to bear on vaccine distribution.

Madam Harriet N. Agyemang, Senior Programme Officer, SEND Ghana, African Union should support some companies and research institutions to develop covid-19 vaccines for continental use.

She wondered if new vaccines could be administered or maintain the Astrazeneca doses for the second jab.

Only 26 per cent of vaccines delivered to Western and Southern African have been administered.

Prof Fred Newton Binka, specialist clinical epidemiologist said the county must get at least 600,000 doses immediately to assuage the fears of the population who took the jab earlier.

He said the time for the second dose is limited to 8-12 weeks but the government must get off its back and start working the phones to friendly producers and manufacturers to strike an urgent deal to sort out the delays by the end of May, otherwise it points to a disaster.

The Public Health Physician said it is so strange the government is dependent on free donations of vaccines when it could have committed funds to procure vaccines or empower local production.
MOGADISHU, Somalia, 1 May 2021  On the International Labor Day 2021, the Somali Journalist Syndicate (SJS) calls for better working conditions for Somali journalists, as a new SJS survey shows precarious working conditions, low wages, a lack of employment contracts, while almost all respondents lacked occupational safety and health.

Over the past three months, SJS has spoken to 112 journalists across Somalia who have expressed how, like other professions, the COVID-19 pandemic is having a negative impact on their earnings. From the onset of the outbreak in the country, media workers have been particularly vulnerable and many journalists have been infected by the infection, despite no deaths have been reported.

Some employers carried staff lay-offs and informed their media workers, including journalists, that they could not pay, while others were told to work without pay because media houses face unstable economic conditions resulting from the restrictions and the shrinking advertising market.

Most journalists interviewed, aged between 20 and 36, confirm that they are ready to stay in the profession, no matter how much they suffer, but expect their living conditions to improve.

About 75 percent of the journalists surveyed identified insecurity, low pay, dangerous assignments and a lack of health insurance as the main challenges they face. Another major problem is the absence of permanent contracts that could provide significant legal protection against spontaneous dismissals, said Fathi Mohamed Ahmed, SJS Secretary of Labour.

SJS survey found that journalists working in the regional states have poorer working conditions and receive lower salaries than those in the capital Mogadishu. Journalists in the capital have access to more than one job opportunity and the media stations are able to receive advertising opportunities while all those circumstances are limited in the regional states, said one female respondent in the South West State.

Female Reporters

Female journalists have reported specific challenges. They are the lowest paid staffers in the media even if they have years of experience. Training opportunities are not many. Women reporters say they face some sort of discrimination from the general public who favor male reporters over female reporters when carrying out journalistic duties, Fathi added.

Nearly 86 percent of journalists surveyed said they had moved from one media house to another several time in the past 12 months to seek better pay and more rights. Journalists are not entitled to any type of insurance and are not anticipating getting compensation if they are injured or killed in the performance of their duties.

As stated by more than half of the journalists we spoke to, the low-paid and unpaid journalists have witnessed stressful conditions because they were unable to support their own households.

Somalia does not have a statutory minimum wage and a new federal labour law, which could specify labour rights and employment conditions, is still in the draft stage.

Somali Journalists Syndicate is negotiating with major media stations across Somalia to enable a collective agreement for media workers to ensure that journalists obtain proper employment contracts and end the precarious working conditions once and for all. Similarly, SJS also calls for the Somali Federal Ministry of Labor to accelerate the Labour Bill and include minimum wage legislation to ensure the protection of Somali journalists and other media workers in Somalia.

Without the labour law protecting Somali journalists, the effects of the pandemic, lack additional resources or emergency support for journalists to help them cope with during crisis, make the livelihood of journalists almost impossible, Abdalle Ahmed Mumin, Secretary-General of the Somali Journalist Syndicate (SJS) said, We call for the Ministry of Labour to speed up the draft labour law, and at the same time we urge Somali media institutions to put in place a mechanism that protects the rights of the working journalists.

Simple contracts are the key to preserving the rights of working journalists and end the current unstable employment conditions that exist in the media houses, Mr Mumin added.
The EU has condemned a move by Russia to bar eight high-ranking officials from entering the country and warned it could respond in kind. It is the latest row in connection to the jailing of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who the EU says must be released.

"This action is unacceptable, lacks any legal justification and is entirely groundless. It targets the European Union directly, not only the individuals concerned," a joint statement from the heads of the European Council, Commission and Parliament said on Friday, adding "the EU reserves the right to take appropriate measures in response".

Moscow said its move was a response to sanctions imposed by the European Council against four top Russian security officials over the jailing of Alexei Navalny and the violent police response to protests in his support.

"Such actions by the European Union leave no doubt that their true goal is to restrain the development of our country at any cost," Russia's foreign ministry said.

Political attack

In March the EU barred high-ranking officials from entering the bloc and froze their assets, including head of the Investigative Committee of Russia Alexander Bastrykin and Russia's general prosecutor Igor Krasnov.

On the list of barred officials; European Parliament President David Sassoli of Italy and Vice President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency Vera Jourova of the Czech Republic.

"This means that the European Parliament has done its duty in defending fundamental freedoms in denouncing violations of the rule of law in Russia and in many countries around the world," Sassoli told Italian television on Friday, adding that the ban amounted to a "political attack".

"But we will not be intimidated: we will continue to say that Alexei Navalny must be released," he added, promising an "adequate response" from Europe.

Navalny, 44, is serving a two-and-a-half year sentence in a penal colony outside Moscow for violating parole terms on old fraud charges that he says are politically motivated.

Sweden, Germany targeted by ban

Officials from France and Germany, as well as Baltic states Estonia and Latvia were also barred.

Germany said the measures taken by the Russian Federation were "unfounded" and would not help ties.

One Latvian official, Ivars Abolins, supported his country's decision to drop several Russian television channels in February.

Another official on the list, Asa Scott of the Swedish Defence Research Agency, helped confirm last year that Navalny was poisoned by the Soviet-era Novichok nerve toxin in August.

The opposition figure says the poisoning was orchestrated by Russian President Vladimir Putin, a claim the Kremlin denies.

French special rapporteur on list

Berlin prosecutor Joerg Raupach was also on the list, as well as French MP Jacques Maire, a special rapporteur on Navalny's poisoning for the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly.

"It has no effect on my mission concerning the poisoning and imprisonment of Alexei Navalny," Maire told AFP, adding: "On the other hand, the Russians are now in a more difficult position to be able to cooperate."

Navalny's arrest on his return to Russia in January from Germany, where he had spent months recovering the poisoning, has helped plunge Moscow's relations with the West to near Cold War levels.

The European Union and the United States have imposed a series of sanctions on Russia over the poisoning and jailing of the critic.

These latest sanctions come as several Western capitals have expelled Russian diplomats -- moves Russia has almost systematically answered with their own expulsions.

(with newswires)
The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has begun investigations into the recent surge in COVID-19 positive cases at the Kotoka International Airport.

Ghana recorded 75 positive cases on April 24 this year at the KIA, which is the highest number recorded in a day at the airport.

Though the number of daily cases continues to reduce, authorities say they are committed to finding the cause of the surge.

The Director of Port Health at the Kotoka International Airport, Dr. Lawrence Lartey, told Citi News the findings of the investigations will soon be made available.

Investigations are still ongoing. There are various theories that have been postulated but investigations are ongoing and we are hoping that in the near future, the findings will be made available

The Frontier Healthcare Services recently alerted the country's health officials of a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases recorded at the airport.

The company said it recorded the highest daily number of positive COVID-19 cases at the airport on Saturday, April 24, 2021.

Prior to that, the highest number was on Wednesday, April 21, 2021.

The Minority subsequently asked health officials to immediately consider the imposition of restrictions on arrivals from countries with high infection rates.

The government should also consider a careful examination of the data and, where necessary, impose travel restrictions from regions that have travellers presenting fake or poor test results.

Government should also consider travel restrictions on countries currently experiencing high COVID-19 infection rates to reduce the possibility of importing COVID-19 infections into the country. Some countries have already implemented these measures and Ghana should also consider doing the same, it said in a statement.

The African Centre for Health Policy Research and Analysis also called on the government to institute an investigation into the recent spike in the recorded cases at the airport.

---citinewsroom
A private legal practitioner Mr Bobby Banson has said, it will be illegal for the government to set ablaze the excavators that are seized from illegal small scale miners (galamsey) in the country.

He said this on the Key Points programme hosted by Abena Tabi on TV3 Saturday May 1.

Defence Minister, Dominic Nitiwul has stated that all the seized galamsey equipment including excavators will be destroyed on site by the military officers deployed to the galamsey areas.

He said no gadget will be returned to Accra.

We are not seizing any equipment, no equipment will be returned home, they will all be destroyed on site. No excavator, nothing will come back home, he said at a press conference in Accra on Friday April 30.

But Mr Banson said this will be illegal.

He further suggested that The owners of these excavators arrest them and give them to the Attorney General for prosecution.

About 200 officers of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) on Wednesday morning began an operation to forcefully remove all persons and logistics involved in illegal mining on the countrys river bodies.

The exercise began on River Pra in the Western and Central regions.

This, according to the Minister of Information, is in furtherance of the resolutions of the final communique issued after the two-day Stakeholder Dialogue on Small Scale Mining.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, April 28, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said the move is to ensure that mining within water bodies is immediately stopped.

He further indicated that the Ministry of Defence and GAF will provide a detailed brief on the developments and the sustainability efforts on Friday, April 30.

Mr Dominic Nitiwul who is also lawmaker for Bimbila said nobody should attempt to go back to the galamsey areas after the swoop by the men in uniform.

When they swoop pass the place there will be constant monitoring of what has been done by Ghana Armed Forces and so dont think you will go back, he said.

---3news.com
President Akufo-Addo has placed an embargo on salary increment for himself, his Vice and all the appointees of the executive for this year.

The President said it is a way of contributing to the reduction of the effect of the virus on the local economy.

Speaking at this years May Day celebration on Saturday May 1, Mr Akufo-Addo said In addition the first unemployment insurance scheme ceded by government is being championed by the social partnership council and it is to be established by year end.

We also use this year to ensure that all workers are vaccinated to protect their lives and enhance their productivity. I have taken the decision to freeze salary increment for this year, 2021 for myself as president, the vice president, ministers, deputy ministers and all appointees of the executive.

It is our modest contribution to reduce the damage to our public revenue and to help hasten our nations recovery from the ravages of the pandemic.

The Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) Mr Yaw Baah revealed that 800,000 workers in Ghana suffered from pay cut as a result of the effect of the coronavirus on the local economy.

He recounted the impact of the virus on workers during the May Day celebration on Saturday May 1 in Accra.

Mr Baah said at the event that workers had had to endure enormous economic pressure following the pandemic.

He said among other things that 800,000 workers were affected by pay reduction.

He further revealed that poor housing for workers and delay in negotiation of national minimum wage are among some of the concerns of workers that the president must deal with.

Mr Baah assured the president that organized labour is willing and ready to assist the government tackle the ravages of the virus on the economy.

---3news.com
The National Tenants' Union of Ghana has petitioned government to convert the Saglemi Affordable Housing project to a social housing project for rental accommodation.

The Union, in an open letter to the Works and Housing Ministry, and copied to the Ghana News Agency, signed by its Secretary-General, Mr Frederick Opoku, said the housing deficit of the Country had rocketed in excess of two million housing units and was still rising at alarming rates.

Experts project that our country needs a little above 5.7 million rooms by 2025 and the current housing stock delivery by both private and public sectors stand a little over 40,000 housing units annually which is in deficit of 140,000 housing units considering the required stock of 200,000 housing units annually, it said.

To bridge the gap, the Union said it was expected that the annual stock provided by both the private and public entities of 40,000 housing units had to increase four folds in other words, 160,000 units annually for a continuous period of 10 years from now.

The letter said the current state of the housing deficits had plunged the country into the landlords' market, where the few who plied trade in residential and commercial rental housing took undue advantage in the housing rental market to charge rent and take rent advance exceeding the duration required in law.

The Union said Section 25(5) of the Rent Control laws of 1963, Act 220 was clear on that, however due to the limited supply of housing units, and demand outrunning supply, government was unable to enforce that portion of the law, rendering tenants hopeless and impoverished resulting in the rise and spread of slums in the cities of the country.

We have also observed that, past governments' housing policies and directives have been one for only the public sector without giving any serious consideration to the private sector, though they constitute more than 75 per cent of the population in need of a place to lay their heads.

In your pledge to the nation in your manifesto 2020, you were categorical that in your second term, low income and social housing to provide affordable housing to the poor would be your priority, and appealed to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to direct that the 1500 houses built by the previous government at Seglemi be made available to the poor to rent and subsequently own it.

We are of the view that converting that affordable housing at Saglemi would prove to the good people of Ghana that you and your government are committed to promoting social housing as promised.

The Union pledged to assist government to succeed when a decision was taken to use the Seglemi Housing Project for rent purposes.

The Union will put in maximum efforts to help governments recoup investment into the project and build more social housing for the poor to benefit. We are hopeful that such a gesture would help improve the messy conditions that the housing sector finds itself to today.

---GNA
President Akufo-Addo says negotiations within the National Tripartite Committee working to establish the minimum wage for 2021, has begun in earnest.

He made the announcement when he joined organised labour to mark the National May Day celebration at the forecourts of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in Accra.

This year's celebration was marked on the theme: Economic Recovery in an Era of Covid-19; The Role of Social Partners. Last year, the celebration was held in a virtual form in the studios of Ghana Broadcasting Corporation in Accra with no Regional parades as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The President, who used the occasion to pay homage to the resilience of workers during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, said the Government would ensure that no worker lost his or her job as a result of the economic meltdown occasioned by COVID-19.

He said the government was working to ensure that no worker was worse off as it took measures to sustain the growth and fiscal stability that the country witnessed in the three years before the pandemic struck.

President Akufo-Addo urged organised labour to work with the government and embrace the many changes that would be adopted in the effort to rebuild and develop the economy post COVID-19.

He revealed that he had taken the decision to freeze salary increments for 2021 for himself, the vice-president, ministers, Deputy ministers and all his appointees to reduce the stress on the public revenues to help hasten our nation's recovery.

On the theme of the celebration, the President implored general organized labour to be at the forefront of championing the wearing of face mask wearing, as it was, for now, the most effective protection to help keep the economy open.

He said for the moment, the workplace should be the safest place, because a further shut down of businesses would spell doom for the economic recovery efforts of the government.

The mask gives us protection that we need to be able to go about daily life and go into our offices and factories and keep the economy open. The workplace should be a safe place, and for the moment, we all have to wear the face mask to make sure that the workplace is safe.

One careless person is a danger to all. Some small businesses cannot survive and recover from a shutdown, he said, adding that it was up to workers, and the general citizenry to keep each other on the straight path and not look to the enforcement officials to prod them to do the right thing.

Nothing that the best prospect to return the economy on track was to vaccinate the adult population, President Akufo-Addo assured that the Government was working hard to secure vaccines. So we can hope to return our country, our economy and our lives to normalcy.

He announced that the Government would take delivery of 350,000 more doses of the Astrazeneca vaccines from the WHO COVAC Facility on Tuesday, May 4, 2021 to continue the inoculation process which began earlier.

The President also disclosed that by May 15, 2021, the government would have procured some 1.3 million Sputnik vaccines from Russia to help in the determination to vaccinate 20 million Ghanaians by the end of the year.

He said the government remained hopeful to achieve the goal of vaccinating every Ghanaian in due course.

The President urged workers to embrace the dramatic changes in the work environment necessitated by the pandemic

We are going to redefine our understanding of the workplace. Production methods are going to have to change and be adapted, business owner management and workers will all have to work together to adjust to these new ways of doing things.

This is the time for organized labour to be asking the hard questions and making sure it can cope with the new way of doing things, he stressed

There must be an acceptance that the world has changed significantly and the right changes and skills required to survive must be adopted, the President said.

---GNA
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Labour consultant, Yiadom Boakye Amponsah has chided managers of private companies who hastily laid off workers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

His comments come as Ghana joins the rest of the world to commemorate Workers Day today, Saturday, May 1, 2021.

The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), in a survey it conducted, revealed that about 770,000 workers, representing over 25% of the nation's total workforce, had their wages reduced due to the pandemic.

The research findings also showed that some 42,000 employees were laid off during the country's lockdown.

In a Citi News interview, the Labour Consultant noted that dialogue between managers and employees could have resulted in the situation being handled better.

Some inexperienced managers took very on-the-spur-of-the-moment decisions which affected the work. It could have been managed better. I think what should have happened would have been a better engagement between the role players, workers, and their employers for the way forward. If that had happened, a lot of companies would have performed better, Yiadom Boakye Amponsah said.

He added that: some organizations did very well by keeping their calm. Some of the areas that were badly hit were the transport, hospitality and domestic sectors. They panicked and committed errors here and there. Some decided that the employers should just go home; some unilaterally decided that we will pay you half salary. 

We'll give workers their due remuneration if elected  NDC

The COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in a lockdown of some parts of the country in 2020, led to a number of job losses.

However, the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has promised to offer better conditions of service to workers if voted into power.

The party gave the assurance in a statement issued to workers, to mark May Day.

We in the NDC are proud of our relationship with workers and we do hereby encourage them to stand tall in their unflinching loyalty to the cause of Ghana. The NDC further assures all workers that a future NDC government will commit to much better handling of the economy and award them their due remuneration in recognition of their sterling role in lifting high the flag of Ghana, the statement said.

This is a non-negotiable assurance that we owe to workers in order to maintain their faith in the choice they have made to serve this nation for both the present and future generations.

The party thus urged workers to give off their best in the wake of the challenges caused by the pandemic .

In the face of the abject hopelessness generated by the appalling incompetence of the Akufo-Addo government, and compounded by the devastating onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NDC urges workers to continue to commit themselves to their work and the nation in order to lubricate the wheels of progress and development.

---citinewsroom
President Akufo-Addo has stated that his governments flagship Free Senior High School (SHS) policy will become a permanent feature in the countrys educational set-up.

The president says government will continue to invest heavily in the policy to give every child an opportunity to acquire secondary education.

The investments in Free SHS have been worthwhile, and we are going to continue with it. We are going to make it a permanent feature of our educational system to make it possible for every young person who wants to study and grow to be able to do so, President Akufo-Addo mentioned.

The President was speaking at a meeting with students and parents of the best eight graduates of the 2020 West African Senior High School Examination (WASSCE) at the Jubilee House last Friday.

The eight students are among 411 Ghanaians who obtained 8As in the 2020 WASSCE, written by the first batch of Free SHS students.

The 411 students are part of the 465 students who scored 8As in the exams across the West African Examination Council (WAEC) member countries.

In addition, the 2020 Free SHS batch are said to be record-holders for being the only year group to have obtained a 50 percent pass rate [Grade A1-C6] in all the four core subjects  English Language, Mathematics, Integrated Science, and Social Studies.

When I was told what the achievements in the WASSCE were, I was beside myself [with joy], the President noted.

---citinewsroom
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BOZEMAN, Mont.  Montana State Universitys 134th commencement will be held at Bobcat Stadium rather than Brick Breeden Fieldhouse in an effort to minimize the risk from COVID-19 to students, faculty, staff and guests.

Two ceremonies will take place on May 1 starting with the first ceremony starts at 9 a.m. featuring graduates from MSU Agriculture, Arts & Architecture, Letters & Science and the Gallatin College.

The second ceremony starts at 1:30 p.m. featuring graduates from the Jake Jabs College of Business and Entrepreneurship, College of Education, Health and Human Development, the Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering and the College of Nursing.

The total number of candidates for graduation is just over 2,400, including bachelors, masters, doctoral and associate degrees and certificates and they expect around 1,650 students to take part in the ceremonies.

The university will also award honorary doctorates to the late William Tietz, the universitys ninth president and to Todd Garrison, a noted expert on childhood trauma.

Students are limited to four guests each for the in-person event with face masks and social distancing required in the stadium.

A tradition of commencement day festivities will feature the sounding of the steam whistle atop MSUs heating plant at 8 a.m., noon and 5 p.m.

A livestream of the event will be available for those who cannot attend here.
CASCADE COUNTY, Mont. - After 16 years of poem competitions through Poetry Out Loud, Montana got its first ever national win in any category thanks to a student from Belt. With that under her belt, she plans on continuing her competitive streak in the art form.

11th Grader Brady Drummond, who goes to Belt High School, says she expresses her love for writing and the outdoors through poetry, bringing both to the national scene.

After growing up around books, Brady got into poetry as a freshman, writing whatever came to mind. It kinda sounds cheesy but its really free and open, and you can write about anything you want, she said.

For her, competing in Poetry Ourselves was a chance to highlight her rodeo roots through Wheatgrass, an original poem on horses and their sense of community

Its full of details like... tranquility that you can find with all those horses and how they live amongst each other, said Brady.

Her piece won her the spot for best written work, something Bradys Teacher Jeff Ross said hes excited about.

Im thrilled that her voice is recognized. Brady is a very good writer, she has an excellent ear for music and poetry.

Following her win, the 11th grader then practiced constantly for POLs upcoming semi-finals on May 2, recording different takes as she memorized three entire poems.

It was definitely stressful, but it was nice knowing that I was able to make mistakes if I had to and fix it and just do the best I could in that competition, she said.

Ross tells Montana Right Now he didnt agree with POLs competitive approach at first, worried itd create an unproductive atmosphere. However, that changed after he saw more enthusiasm for it from his students when they started three years ago.

Students love it, they love the competition. It became more of a celebration [of poetry] than a competition, thats how I like to look at it, he said.

As Brady waits eagerly for the announcement this weekend, her teacher encourages poetry as a platform for growth, even if it can feel intimidating early on.

When they see their work on the whiteboard and receive that positive reinforcement from that, [their perception] absolutely changes for them, said Ross. Its, Wow, did I mean to do that? Of course they did.

You can join the Belt community at their local theater (58 Castner St.) as they stream Bradys recital Sunday around 4:00 pm. If you cant make it, you can also stream it online.

If she wins in the semi-finals, Brady gets a chance at winning $20,000 as a national finalist, competing against two others with more recordings before a winners announced in the final round on May 27.

Brady tells MRN shed use the prize money towards college if she makes it out on top, with her eyes set on studying business down the road.

Its always been something I enjoyed, working with numbers and other people and creating plans and everything, she said. Its just something that really intrigues me, and I think I could enjoy doing it for the rest of my life.

With that said, she doesnt plan on stopping her writing anytime soon, as she continues pursuing it as a hobby and seeing where it takes her.
GREAT FALLS, Mont. - April 30 is the last date that COVID-19 vaccinations will be given at the Montana ExpoPark community clinics that have been conducted since January through collaboration of Cascade County, Benefis Health Systems, the Great Falls Clinic and Alluvion Health.

In a release, the Cascade City-County Health Department (CCHD) says those community clinics were essential to meeting the enormous initial demand for vaccines in the county. CCHD is grateful to healthcare partners in the community who made that possible.

Now that many residents have been vaccinated, the community vaccination clinics are no longer needed to meet the current demand for vaccines.

If you still wish to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, CCHD is giving Johnson & Johnson vaccinations on Wednesdays, and Moderna vaccinations on Thursdays and Fridays. To schedule an appointment, call 406-791-9250 or email vaccine@cascadecountymt.gov.

Various other local providers are also offering vaccinations, including Walgreens, Sams Club, Osco Pharmacy (Albertsons), Alluvion Health, Big Sky Managed Care, Smiths Pharmacy, CVS Pharmacy and Walmart.

You can visit https://www.vaccines.gov to view up-to-date availability of COVID-19 vaccines.
In France, thousands took to the streets with union banners and flags, hemmed in by and sometimes scuffling with riot police. The face masks worn by many marchers were a reminder of how much life has changed since the last traditional May Day celebrations  in 2019, before the spreading coronavirus wrecked lives and livelihoods and eroded civil liberties, often including the right to demonstrate.
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As of March 15, Monterey County had received more than 121,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine, with more than 87,000 doses administered. Twenty-two percent of residents age 16 or older have received at least one dose, according to the Health Department.
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Troy, NC (27371)

Today

Cloudy skies during the morning hours followed by scattered showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. High 88F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

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Jeremy was impaired to the point where he could not stop his vehicle, exit the vehicle and produce documentation, Officer Devin Dunn wrote in the report. Once Jeremy was out of the vehicle, he could not stand on his own.
DALLAS, April 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) announced a return of daily service to both international airports in Costa Rica: Liberia, Guanacaste (LIR), and the capital region, San Jose (SJO), beginning in June 2021, bringing back legendary Southwest Hospitality, low fares, and bags fly free*.

"We're excited to continue reestablishing previously served international service by reuniting the warm Hospitality of Costa Rica with the Heart and value of Southwest," said Andrew Watterson, Southwest Airlines Executive Vice President & Chief Commercial Officer. "We're seeing more demand for our international routes that already take our Customers to Aruba, Cancun, Cozumel, Havana, Los Cabos, Montego Bay, Puerto Vallarta, and Punta Cana."

DAILY SERVICE FROM HOUSTON (HOBBY) BEGINS JUNE 6, 2021

Southwest will resume daily nonstop service to Liberia, Guanacaste, Costa Rica (LIR), and San Jose, Costa Rica (SJO), on June 6, 2021, with additional connecting service to cities in the U.S., offering fares as low as $129 one-way from Houston (HOU) to Liberia, Guanacaste, Costa Rica (LIR), and San Jose, Costa Rica, available now for purchase on Southwest.com.

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 on Southwest.com.

SEASONAL SERVICE FROM BALTIMORE/WASHINGTON (BWI) BEGINS JUNE 12, 2021

The carrier will operate additional nonstop service for the summer season on Saturdays between Baltimore/Washington (BWI), and Liberia, Guanacaste, Costa Rica (LIR), beginning June 12, 2021, with one-way fares as low as $169 from Baltimore/Washington (BWI) to Liberia, Costa Rica (LIR), and available now for purchase on Southwest.com.

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 on Southwest.com.

Southwest Airlines is closely monitoring ongoing government restrictions for travel. Each state or country may require varying levels of documentation, testing, and potential verification of test results. For more information on the latest restrictions and requirements for all international destinations, visit the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Travel Information page on Southwest.com.

ADDITIONAL SERVICE IN DENVER, CHICAGO, ST. LOUIS, KANSAS CITY, AND ORANGE COUNTY/SANTA ANA

"New flights in our summer flight schedule also bring more Mile High Heart with additional nonstop service between Denver and the coastswith new or returning links to Savannah/Hilton Head, Sarasota/Bradenton, Norfolk/Virginia Beach, and additional flights to Long Beach, Calif., and Seattle," Watterson added. "We're bringing more flights in both Chicago airports, and we continue to spread our love across the Midwest with new flights in St. Louis and Kansas City, both of which are now linked nonstop to Orange County/Santa Ana."

Read more about new routes across the Southwest map on The Southwest Community blog.

OUR SOUTHWEST HEART CONTINUES TO GROW

In 2020, Southwest added new service to Hilo, Hawaii; Cozumel, Mexico; Miami; Palm Springs, Calif.; Steamboat Springs Colo.; and Montrose (Telluride/Crested Butte), Colo., continuing five decades of connecting Customers to the places and people they love. In 2021, Southwest began service to Chicago (O'Hare) and Sarasota/Bradenton, both on Feb. 14; Savannah/Hilton Head and Colorado Springs, both on March 11; Houston (Bush) and Santa Barbara, Calif., both on April 12; and Fresno, Calif., on April 25. Southwest will begin service to Destin/Fort Walton Beach on May 6; Myrtle Beach, S.C., on May 23; Bozeman, Mont., on May 27; Jackson, Miss., on June 6; and Eugene, Ore., on Aug. 29. The Company also has announced its intention to serve Bellingham, Wash., later this year.

SOUTHWEST AIRLINES COSTA RICA SALE FARE RULES

Purchase from April 30, 2021, through May 1, 2021, 11:59 p.m. Central Daylight Time. International travel from Houston (Hobby) is valid June 8, 2021, through July 3, 2021. International travel from Baltimore/Washington (BWI) is valid June 12, 2021, through July 3, 2021. Except as otherwise specified, travel Houston (Hobby) to/from San Jose, Costa Rica, and Liberia, Guanacaste, Costa Rica is valid Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Travel Baltimore-Washington (BWI) to/from Liberia, Guanacaste, Costa Rica valid Saturdays only. Fares are valid on nonstop service where indicated; if not indicated, fares are valid on a single connecting service. Displayed prices include all U.S. and international government taxes and fees. Rapid Rewards points bookings do not include taxes, fees, and other government/airport charges of at least $5.60 per one-way flight. These fares are not available between the continental U.S. and 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 Airlines 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 Airlines, 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.

*At Southwest Airlines, bags fly free (first and second checked bags, weight and size limits apply).

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/Crested Butte), Colo. Thus far in 2021, Southwest has initiated service to Chicago (O'Hare) and Sarasota/ Bradenton, both on Feb. 14; Savannah/Hilton Head and Colorado Springs, Colo., both on March 11; Houston (Bush) and Santa Barbara, Calif., both on April 12; as well as Fresno, Calif., on April 25; and will begin service to Destin/Fort Walton Beach on May 6; Myrtle Beach S.C., on May 23; Bozeman, Mont., on May 27; Jackson, Miss., on June 6; and Eugene, Ore., on Aug. 29. The Company also has announced an intention to initiate new service to Bellingham, Wash., later this year.

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.

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/southwest-airlines-returns-to-costa-rica-in-june-with-fares-as-low-as-129-one-way-301281285.html

SOURCE Southwest Airlines Co.
U.S. Army

James Spoerl from Avon Lake earns Best Warrior and Soldier of the Year at Fort Knox
The City of Lorain welcomed prospective buyers on May 1 as they auctioned old and obsolete equipment.
New sidewalks will become part of the entrance to Lorains Lakeview Park and new steps will lead to the Sunset Cafe there.
Tasked with carrying out the states well-plugging program, the Railroad Commission is again exceeding expectations.

The agency says it is on track to exceed the target of plugging 1,400 wells this fiscal year, set by the Texas Legislature. This would make the fifth consecutive year the agency has exceeded the target set by the legislature.

Already the agency has plugged 1,083 wells with four months to go. While agency managers couldnt pinpoint a specific date for meeting the goal, they tell the Reporter-Telegram by email that, with more than 75 percent of the goal already being met, the target should be met before the Aug. 31 end of the fiscal year.

With the current well-plugging rate set to exceed our legislative goal for this fiscal year, I am proud of the Railroad Commissions commitment to health and safety standards in Texas, Christi Craddick, commission chair, told the Reporter-Telegram by email. Ensuring that wells are plugged in a timely, safe, and responsible manner has always been a priority for me and the agency and will continue to be important as we move forward. I appreciate our staff who work hard to identify, assess, and plug abandoned wells, and the legislature for continuing to fund this critical program.

Railroad Commission Director of Field Operations Clay Woodul said in a statement announcing the achievement, Weve picked up our pace plugging wells in recent months. During the last fiscal year, the pandemic posed special challenges to ensure the safety of contractors plugging wells and RRC field staff overseeing those operations, but we have clear protocols in place to ensure the work can proceed in a timely manner.

In addition, Andrew Keese, spokesman for the agency, told the Reporter-Telegram, the achievement has roots in improvements to the State Managed Plugging Program made several years ago when staff took a close look at the program and streamlined internal processes. That, Keese said, along with improved employee retention, has contributed to its success in exceeding legislative goals.

This fiscal year, the Railroad Commission has collaborated with the National Park Service to help plug 11 wells at the Padre Island National Seashore near Corpus Christi. The work was performed between January and March. Funding for the Padre Island National Seashore project came from the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council.

This is a win for our state and all Texans, said Wei Wang, RRC executive director, in a statement. These wells on federal land were not part of the states well-plugging program, but Padre Island National Seashore sought out the RRC because of our expertise in overseeing plugging projects. Our collaborative work with the park not only helps protect a natural treasure for future generations to enjoy, but it also helped provide jobs for some of our states oil and gas workers.

The State Managed Plugging Program is funded through oil and gas industry revenue, including, but not limited to, well-plugging reimbursements, fees and financial securities paid by the industry.
Carolyn Van Houten

Recovery is flowing through the economy  which grew at a 6.4 percent rate in the first quarter, the government says  and that is being seen in the energy economy.

The Texas Oil and Gas Association reported that the upstream sector of the states oil and gas industry added jobs for the third consecutive month in March. Citing data from the Texas Workforce Commission, TXOGA said the sector added 4,300 jobs in March, the largest single month-over-month gain since the summer of 2011.
Once I served my time, I thought I would get my life back and that I could learn from and grow beyond my bad decisions. But our current system of post-imprisonment punishment left me with a scarlet F  for felony  on my chest. For people like me who return home with a felony conviction, nearly every door to becoming a productive, contributing member of society is nailed shut.
Mercedes Cordero/Midland Reporter-Telegram

U.S. Congressman August Pfluger, R-San Angelo, took issue with the Biden administration after learning that 33 Guatemalan citizens were found inside a home in Midland by the Department of Homeland Security.

I am absolutely infuriated, Pfluger stated in a press release. Make no mistake; this is no longer a crisis at the border. This is an infiltration of our communities and our country. More than 2 million illegal immigrants are expected to cross the U.S.-Mexico border and be released into the interior of the country unvetted by the end of this fiscal year. Communities like ours are already paying the price.
There has been a lot for Midlanders to celebrate recently.

Things that come to mind include:

the 2-plus inches of rain that fell at Midland International Airport;

the tens of millions headed to Midland ISD to help with the educational slide caused by COVID;

a superintendent making the rounds to connect with groups and individuals wanting to know more and ask questions about its school district;

oil hitting $65 this week.

Theres obviously more. This week, you read about ConocoPhillips remarkable investment-commitment in the city.

This week, I also learned about two people that will be taking top leadership positions in local government. And in my opinion, these good people are deserving of their recent or expected promotions.

I had the pleasure of reaching out to Robert Patrick this week to congratulate him on becoming the next city manager for the city of Midland. Having covered city politics, I always considered Patrick to be competent, forthcoming with information and a remarkable lieutenant to former city manager Courtney Sharp. And while we are on the subject, there are plenty of people in city hall that make me believe that Sharps legacy as city manager will be the people he hired or promoted in his years at the helm. He left city hall in better shape than he found it. My expectation is Patrick will do the same.

The other person is Sara Harris with the Midland Development Corp. On Monday, it is expected that the MDC board will make Harris the new executive director. Lets be clear here. There isnt a more competent person for the position. The MDC thrived with Harris executing the plan of former Executive Director Brent Hilliard that resulted in needed improvements to roads, health care, education and job creation. That plan brought tens of millions from the state of Texas and other entities for road and other development projects.

Both Patrick and Harris are examples of what is good about government in Midland right now. They are faithful to the boards they serve and the residents who pay their salaries. Neither run from accountability. Instead, they are detail-oriented and make sure all bases are covered.

In an opinion article this week, I wrote about the marvel that was the mass vaccination site at the Horseshoe. It was government work in Midland at its best. Should we expect more of that execution with these recent hirings? I believe so. City, development corporation, hospital district, school district, county and college  we know that there is plenty of talent among the appointed leaders in local government right now.

In fact, it is my view Midlanders raise the bar of expectations across the community, because the people in place are capable of producing the results the community deserves.
The following is a League of Women Voters question-and-answer with state Rep. Tom Craddick and state Sen. Kel Seliger about redistricting.

LWV: Why should Midland County care about redistricting?

Tom Craddick: Redistricting is a once-in-a-decade process. After all, United States residents are counted during the census the data is given to each state. This data is then used by the legislature to use in the process of redrawing the lines of representation for the United States Congress, Texas Senate and Texas House of Representatives districts. Redistricting is an important process in every county in the state, but especially for Midland. West Texans needs their voice to be heard in Congress and the Texas Legislature. This is an important part of their representation at both levels.

Kel Seliger: Everyone should care about apportionment and redistricting. It has a lot to do with who runs and serves in office. It ensures that everyone is represented. It creates communities of common interest which is particularly important in West Texas while the state becomes more urban.

LWV: Why are we, and what is the importance of, redistricting Texas in 2021?

Tom Craddick: The Texas Legislature is redistricting in 2021, because this process is completed every 10 years. The census was completed in 2020. Thus, now it is time for redistricting.

Kel Seliger: It is important every 10 years for the reasons above.



LWV: If your district changes, how will you move forward? If your district stays the same?

Tom Craddick: I have reviewed the preliminary numbers, and there is a chance House District 82 will change. Midland and the surrounding areas have grown in population. The size of each district is determined by the total census number in the state of Texas. For example, there are always 150 members of the Texas House of Representatives. The number of citizens represented in each district increases or decreases based upon the census count. Once the census numbers are received from the federal government, we will all know more about how the districts could change.

Kel Seliger: Districts today are built of populations that approximate 811,000 people. In 2021, the target end number is 960,000. That means that rural suburban districts will have to grow. District 31 now has 37 counties and is slightly larger than the state of Indiana. Should the Texas Senate be expanded to 35 or 37 seats?



LWV: How are you supporting the redistricting process at the state and local level?

Tom Craddick: The redistricting process is a series of hearings focused on different areas of the state. In March 2021, the Texas House Committee held a hearing on the West Texas region. I monitored this hearing and will continue to weigh in as the maps are drawn.

Kel Seliger: Every member can design district lines and submit them to the committee. Since I have chaired the committee, I have some experience and some ideas. I will also get some from people in the district and around the state.



LWV: How can the public get involved in Texas redistricting process?

Tom Craddick: This is a great question. The most important part of the process is you and your voice. Participate in the hearing process and contact my office to let them know your positions on proposed district maps.

Kel Seliger: We have been having virtual hearings around the state including in the Permian Basin. If someone has some ideas, please call me or your state representative, and we will discuss them.

League of Women Voters stance on redistricting  The League of Women Voters of Midland strongly urges everyone to research the discussions currently happening in regards to redistricting. We believe that our political maps should represent the people who live within them. We believe that a government should promote the interests of its people  and with the redistricting process occurring this year, we have a chance to make sure it is a fair process. There is a chance Midland County will be part of the change, the next question is  what are you doing to stay informed?
Muskogee, OK (74401)

Today

Showers early then scattered thunderstorms developing later in the day. High near 90F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Variable clouds with scattered thunderstorms. Low near 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.
This is a big government bill. This is a bill you would see in countries that we dont want to talk about. Some that are 90 miles south of here. Some that are a little farther south, he said during the Senate debate, referring to Cuba and Venezuela. This is not the party that we are. We should be for speech. We should be for allowing for a private business to conduct its business without governmental interference.
This page contains all of The Herald/Reviews' coverage of the novel coronavirus outbreak, and the illness it causes, called COVID-19.

Because this outbreak impacts public health, our coverage of the coronavirus is available to all readers. Our journalists are working hard to bring you the verified information below. Please consider supporting important local journalism with a subscription. (Click Here)

Are you a Sierra Vista resident whos been affected by the illness? Send us an email: andrew.paxton@myheraldreview.com.
With tourism rebounding and vaccinations rising, revenue in several local restaurants has exceeded pre-pandemic levels.

In March, we blew our 2019 sales record completely out of the water, said Megan Senwick, general manager of Croissants Bistro and Bakery. Were finally starting to see our local clientele coming back.

The local comeback tracks with trends nationwide.

According to a recent poll from the Morning Consult, more than half of Americans feel comfortable dining indoors, while two-thirds said they would eat outdoors. And with 73% predicting theyll eat out in six months, restaurant service should continue to climb.

The restaurant industry was hit hard last year as pandemic-related restrictions went into effect statewide on March 13, 2020.

Landrys Seafood House, for example, took a while to pick back up after shutting down in mid-March to early May last year.

The first week-and-a-half or two weeks back it was busy but then it died down again, said Ronnell, attributing the dip to a lack of tourism during summer 2020.

Croissants Bistro and Bakery briefly closed last March then relied on takeout options to carry it into the fall.

We did close on March 18 for two weeks and then we ran takeout only and brought back me and kitchen manager, said Senwick, adding that the bistro opened limiting dining in April 2020. For a while our to-go sales outpaced our in-store service. We saw more people join us in the fall months when the weather cooled for outside dining.

Slowly, restaurants started to fully reopen, as Gov. Henry McMaster lifted restaurant capacity restrictions in October and mask requirements in March.

But many have struggled to hire staff. According to the U.S. Dept. of Labor, staffing at restaurants and bars is 15% below pre-pandemic levels nationwide, making it difficult for many to accommodate the increase in demand.

We are hiring for every possible position in this building and we cant get any staff, said Stilwell. Were supposed to have 40 servers, but we have 18. We have only four kitchen staff. Normally we have about 10 to 14.

Senwick and Kimberly Williams, manager of Capriccio, have encountered similar problems.

Our traffic is busier since people have been getting their vaccinations and since spring break, she said. Now I am just a little short-staffed. We have had trouble hiring.

Proprietors are asking customers for patience.

If you go into any restaurant, just be patient with ticket times and service, said Stilwell. Bear with people who are understaffed.
President Joe Biden announced earlier this year that he would be tasking Vice President Kamala Harris with diplomatic efforts to stem illegal migration. At a White House immigration meeting on March 24, Biden said Harris would lead the administration's efforts with Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to both curb the current flow of migrants. But Harris has yet to make a trip down to the border where Border Patrol facilities are being overwhelmed by an unprecedented number of unaccompanied children. Should Harris visit the southern border with Mexico? Choices are:

You voted:
The foundation that oversees Woodlawn Farm is looking to the future to preserve the past.

The farm at 1453 Gierke Lane, which is believed to have had ties to the Underground Railroad, closed its doors in March 2020. The small spaces and small rooms common to an 1800s home  and the cost of cleaning them  proved to be big problems amid a pandemic.

Barbara Suelter, the foundations treasurer, was dressed in period attire Thursday as she sat at the farms kitchen table, surrounded by memorabilia from the 1800s. She recalled a German family that requested a private tour last year, noting that she didnt realize at the time that it would the last tour at the farm in 2020.

That was the last tour before everything shut down, Suelter said.

Funding to keep the doors open from year to year comes in part from donations given during regular summer tours and from an annual bus tour showcasing Jacksonvilles historical sites. With no visitors, times got tough overnight.

We were losing all sorts of revenue, she said. We never felt we could come up with a solution, so we decided to close.

Leaning on the community, Suelter and other board members came together to see what they could do to help the farm survive and ensure that tours eventually would resume.

A lot of people came through for us, she said. People donated time and skills.

Although the light at the end of the tunnel may still be faint, Suelter was excited as she talked about plans for the farms June 1 reopening.

Tours will be limited to six people and anyone over the age of 2 must be wearing a mask. Whether this years bus tour happens hasnt been decided.

I am very excited about it, Suelter said of the reopening. Weve already had calls inquiring when well be open.

Suelter is passionate about the farm and the story it has to tell of helping slaves escape slavery in the South.

My family laughs at me now, she said, acknowledging being uninterested in history as a child.

Shes no long uninterested.

I feel like I know the people that were here, she said, mentioning Michael Huffaker, who settled the farm in 1824.

A Healing Illinois Grant the foundation received is expected to help others feel as of they, too, knew Huffaker.

The money allowed the foundation to make a short video showcasing the farms history.

It will help teachers teach kids to know what theyre coming to, she said of the video.

The story of Woodlawn Farm is one that needs to be told, Suelter said.

The people that come here are usually history buffs, she said. So many people dont know what it is.
GRAFTON  The Grafton Ferry has resumed operations for the season.

Use of the ferry  which can accommodate personal vehicles, buses and vans  cuts travel time between Missouri and Illinois by about 30 minutes. People are allowed to get out of their vehicles during the river crossing.

Everything is ready to go, said Denise Knight of Calhoun Ferry Co., which operates the Grafton Ferry.

The ferry will run from 2 to 10 p.m. Thursdays, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays, from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturdays and from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sundays.

When the Grafton Ferry opens for the year, it is a signal that the tourism season is in full swing, said Cory Jobe, CEO of Great Rivers & Routes Tourism Bureau.

Travelers can access the ferry on the Illinois side near the Grafton lighthouse and the public boat ramp off Market Street. On the Missouri side, the landing is at the end of Grafton Ferry Road off Missouri 94.

One-way ferry fees are $8 for passenger cars and small trucks, $4 for bicycles, $5 for motorcycles and $3 for pedestrians. Prices for large trucks range from $9 to $13. Cash and checks are accepted, but credit cards cannot be used.

Golden Eagle Ferry, also operated by Calhoun Ferry Co., is open year-round, seven days a week. It connects Calhoun County with St. Charles, Missouri.
As vaccination rates inch upward, Americans are beginning to travel again. More than 10 times as many passengers passed through Transportation Security Administration screenings in the first week of April compared with the same period last year, a sign that some degree of normalcy is returning.

And travel this summer could get far busier.

Right now, were still awash in cheap summer flights, says Scott Keyes , founder of travel deals newsletter Scotts Cheap Flights. But with vaccinations accelerating quickly and interest in travel spiking, cheap summer flights may not be available much longer.

Yet the question of whether its safe to travel remains. Infection rates remain high , despite accelerating vaccination efforts. Even vaccinated individuals are realizing that they may not be in the clear to return to life  and travel  as normal.

Getting fully vaccinated is the first step toward travel safety, but its not the last. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued updated guidelines for vaccinated travelers, giving the go-ahead to domestic travel. Yet it still recommends following the familiar protective protocols: wearing a mask, maintaining social distance and avoiding crowds.

Even with a vaccine, the fundamentals of COVID-19 still apply, Dr. Jessica Shepherd, chief medical officer of Verywell, an online health website, said in an email. With travel, only the scenery changes, not the reality. As we move towards more of a normal life, it is important to approach it carefully rather than abruptly in lifestyle changes.

If the CDC recommends maintaining social distance, is it safe to fly at all?

This risk of transmission in airplanes is relatively low as the airflow in current jet airliners is much faster than normal indoor buildings and half of it is fresh air from outside, she said.

Although many factors will affect the cost of your potential vacation, one looms especially large: timing.

Id start booking as soon as possible, says Matthew Kepnes, founder of Nomadic Matt, a budget travel website . Theres a lot of deals out there right now, but they wont last long  so my advice is to book soon.

This strategy also takes advantage of a seismic shift in airline policies.

Many travelers may have missed the fact that all full-service U.S. airlines have permanently gotten rid of change fees if you book a ticket in main economy, premium economy or business/first class, Keyes says.

Aside from basic economy, most fares are now far more flexible than before the pandemic. This creates an incentive to book sooner, then rebook if plans fall through.

Experts also recommend looking for deals, rather than trying to travel to popular (and expensive) destinations. Average airfares might rise, but deals will remain if you hunt for them.

Then, there are always travel rewards, which have been piling up in many accounts throughout the pandemic and can offset the costs of travel  but only if you use them.

Before you book a flight overseas, know that most countries are still enforcing restrictions on U.S. travelers and that the CDC and State Department have issued blanket do not travel advisories for most countries worldwide, even for vaccinated travelers. That doesnt mean international travel is off the table, but it does limit the options.

There are countries like Mexico and Costa Rica where Americans can visit today without any COVID prerequisites like testing or quarantine, Keyes says. (And) there are a growing number of countries like Iceland and Belize that allow fully vaccinated Americans to bypass any testing or quarantine requirements that are mandatory for unvaccinated visitors.

And many countries remain fully off-limits to U.S. travelers for the foreseeable future. Even countries that are allowing tourists, visitors are still subject to local restrictions and curfews. Do your research beforehand to make sure you can enjoy your destination once you get there.

The U.S. will still require a negative COVID-19 test three days or less before your return flight . So even if you are vaccinated, you will need to spend time at the end of your trip obtaining a negative test.

Some of these restrictions are bound to change this summer, but its impossible to know which ones, or when. So many travelers, including the experts, are again opting to travel domestically this year.

Im about to embark on a seven-week road trip around the U.S. Kepnes says. Ill be focusing on national parks and outdoor adventures.

Sound familiar?
Lincoln Land Community College has recognized students with academic, leadership and special awards in a series of ceremony videos that premiered this week. The videos can be viewed at bit.ly/LLCCYouTube.

Julia Kienzler of Williamsville was named 2021 LLCC Outstanding Graduate of the Year. During her time at LLCC, she served as Illinois regional central vice president and chapter president of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society and president of the LLCC Honors Program Club.
The Illinois Department of Public Health is working on a plan to allow people to prove theyve been vaccinated, but few details have been released.

A spokesman for the department said vaccinated individuals may want to be able to prove they have been vaccinated, especially if they misplace their CDC vaccination card.

The department said it is working to provide that service to people, but it did not disclose if theyre working with a third party vendor or provide any timeline for such a service.

Last month, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said vaccination passports could be useful as more Illinoisans get vaccinated for COVID-19.

As long as it is your choice, Pritzker said. If people ask you to show that for a particular venue or private venue, they have the ability and right to do that. You dont have to show that to them. You dont have to go to that venue or be engaged in that activity.

Media reports earlier this week indicate groups in Chicago are working to offer electronic COVID-19 vaccine passports.

The NAACP Illinois Conference president said mandating such proof to do normal things in society would violate rights.

We believe next year if the vaccine becomes more available, and it should, these systems dont need to be put in place, said Alexis Hancock, director of engineering with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. We are afraid that these permanent systems will evolve into something else in the future if they mandate such a thing now. Its creating a divide of whos been vaccinated and whos not.

.

Total cases in west-central Illinois counties as of Friday, according to individual county health departments, and vaccination rates, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health, were:

Brown County

695 total, 681 recovered, seven deaths

Four new cases.

Fully vaccinated: 20.49%; 65 or older: 69.11%

Cass County

1,979 total, 1,929 recovered, 33 deaths

Seven new cases.

Fully vaccinated: 33.24%; 65 or older: 71.62%

Greene County

1,417 total, 1,363 recovered, 48 deaths

Fully vaccinated: 24.1%; 65 or older: 56.76%

Jersey County

2,662 total, 2,582 recovered, 49 deaths

Fully vaccinated: 32.02%; 65 or older: 76.69%

Macoupin County

4,804 total, 4,486 recovered, 110 deaths

Five new cases.

Fully vaccinated: 30.69%; 65 or older: 75.24%

Morgan County

3,921 total, 3,756 released from restrictions, 101 deaths

Eight new cases.

Fully vaccinated: 32.05%; 65 or older: 74.73%

Pike County

1,752 total, 1,695 recovered, 47 deaths

Fully vaccinated: 24.74%; 65 or older: 63.38%

Sangamon County

18,303 total, 233 deaths

72 new cases.

Fully vaccinated: 36.86%; 65 or older: 82.39%

Schuyler County

695 total, 664 recovered, 16 deaths

Fully vaccinated: 30.79%; 65 or older: 66.84%

Scott County

471 total, 467 recovered, one death

Fully vaccinated: 25.23%; 65 or older: 62.72%

Statewide, 3,207 new cases of coronavirus disease and 33 deaths were reported Friday, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

There have been 1,335,055 cases and 21,960 deaths in Illinois.
Olympia Dukakis, Oscar-winning Moonstruck star, dies at 89 View Photo

MAPLEWOOD, N.J. (AP)  Olympia Dukakis, the veteran stage and screen actor whose flair for maternal roles helped her win an Oscar as Chers mother in the romantic comedy Moonstruck, has died. She was 89.

Dukakis died Saturday morning in her home in New York City, according to Allison Levy, her agent at Innovative Artists. A cause of death was not immediately released, but her family said in a statement that she had been in failing health for months.

Dukakis won her Oscar through a surprising chain of circumstances, beginning with author Nora Ephrons recommendation that she play Meryl Streeps mother in the film version of Ephrons book Heartburn. Dukakis got the role, but her scenes were cut from the film. To make it up to her, director Mike Nichols cast her in his hit play Social Security. Director Norman Jewison saw her in that role and cast her in Moonstruck.

Dukakis won the Oscar for best supporting actress and Cher took home the trophy for best actress.

She referred to her 1988 win as the year of the Dukakii because it was also the year Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, her cousin, was the Democratic Partys presidential nominee. At the ceremony, she held her Oscar high over her head and called out: OK, Michael, lets go!

In 1989, her Oscar statuette was stolen from Dukakis New Jersey home.

Were not pretentious, her husband, actor Louis Zorich, said at the time. We kept the Oscar in the kitchen.

Dukakis, who was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, had yearned to be an actor from an early age and had hoped to study drama in college. Her Greek immigrant parents insisted she pursue a more practical education, so she studied physical therapy at Boston University on a scholarship from the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis.

After earning her bachelors degree, she worked at an understaffed hospital in Marmet, West Virginia, and at the Hospital for Contagious Diseases in Boston.

But the lure of the theater eventually led her to study drama at Boston University.

It was a shocking change, she told an interviewer in 1988, noting that she had gone from the calm world of science to one where students routinely screamed at the teachers.

I thought they were all nuts, she said. It was wonderful.

Her first graduate school performance was a disaster, however, as she sat wordless on the stage.

After a teacher helped cure her stage fright, she began working in summer stock theaters. In 1960, she made her off-Broadway debut and two years later had a small part in The Aspern Papers on Broadway.

After three years with a Boston regional theater, Dukakis moved to New York and married Zorich.

During their first years of marriage, acting jobs were scarce, and Dukakis worked as a bartender, waitress and other jobs.

She and Zorich had three children  Christina, Peter and Stefan. They decided it was too hard to raise children in New York with limited income, so they moved the family to a century-old house in Montclair, a New Jersey suburb of New York.

Her Oscar victory kept the motherly film roles coming. She was Kirstie Alleys mom in Look Whos Talking and its sequel Look Whos Talking Too, the sardonic widow in Steel Magnolias and the overbearing wife of Jack Lemmon (and mother of Ted Danson) in Dad.

Her recent projects included the 2019 TV miniseries Tales of the City and the upcoming film Not to Forgot.

But the stage was her first love.

My ambition wasnt to win the Oscar, she commented after her Moonstruck win. It was to play the great parts.

She accomplished that in such New York productions as Bertolt Brechts Mother Courage and Her Children, Eugene ONeills Long Days Journey into Night and Tennessee Williams The Rose Tattoo.

In 2000, she was on Broadway in Martin Shermans one-actor play Rose, and received a Drama Desk Award nomination for the role of an 80-year-old survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto during WWII.

For two decades she ran the Whole Theater Company in Montclair, New Jersey, specializing in classic dramas.

Zorich died in January 2018 at age 93.

Dukakis is survived by her children Christina, Stefan and Peter; her brother Apollo Dukakis; and four grandchildren.

___

The late Associated Press writer Bob Thomas in Los Angeles was the primary writer of this obituary.

By BROOKE LEFFERTS

Associated Press
Mapping the Afghan war, while murky, points to Taliban gains View Photo

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)  Trying to map the long war in Afghanistan has become an increasingly challenging task ahead of the planned withdrawal of all U.S. forces.

Since the U.S.-led invasion of 2001 and subsequent overthrow of Afghanistans Taliban government, insurgent activity shrank, then began to grow again as the conflict stretched on for two decades. Now, as the withdrawal with a summer completion date looms, even American officials acknowledge being publicly in the dark about the Talibans strength.

By many measures, the Taliban are in a stronger military position now than at any point since 2001, though many once-public metrics related to the conduct of the war have been classified or are no longer produced, a March report by the U.S. Congressional Research Service warned.

That included data offered on the roughly 400 local districts across Afghanistans 34 provinces. Control of those districts had been a key metric to judge overall control in the country.

In its last published report to include that level of detail, the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said the Afghan government controlled just 54% of those districts as of October 2018, the lowest number recorded since public tracking began in November 2015. Of the remaining districts, the U.S. government described 34% as contested and 12% as being under insurgent control.

In April 2019, the inspector general said the U.S.-commanded NATO Resolute Support mission no longer assessed district-level control, describing them as offering limited decision-making value to the commander. But that decision came amid the Trump administrations push for negotiations with the Taliban in Qatar, suggesting military officials shut down the effort to avoid showing how bad things had become, said Bill Roggio, who has been tracking the war for years.

Roggio, whose Long War Journal now operates in the Washington-based hawkish think tank called the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, has tracked the conflict for years based on press reports and data hes gathered. He believes half of the countrys districts are now contested between the government and the Taliban, with over 120 fully government controlled and more than 70 fully held by the Taliban.

But even he acknowledges those numbers represent his best guess. Some districts held by the government swing back and forth depending on Taliban offensives. Others see the government hole up in central headquarters or barracks  and then the police commander is getting killed in an IED attack when he pulls out of the base, Roggio said, using an acronym for a homemade bomb.

A lot of cases in these districts that I have contested, the government really only controls the district centers, Roggio said. I think that that map actually should look worse than it really is.

Fawad Aman, a deputy spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry, disputed Roggios figures as not correct and far from reality. However, he claimed without offering evidence that the Taliban controlled just more than 10 districts in Afghanistan in very remote parts of the country.

Amans claim is roughly half the lowest estimate of Taliban district control ever offered publicly by the U.S., which came in January 2016.

A recent report from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported fighting across the country, with some 90,000 people internally displaced since the start of this year alone. Since 2012, some 4.8 million people have been displaced from their homes and not returned in a country of 38 million.

Even Kabul, the countrys heavily guarded capital, isnt safe. The U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan showed the most civilian casualties in 2020 from any province came in Kabul, with 255 people killed and 562 wounded.

The worst violence came from targeted killings  which are targeting activists, journalists, judges and lawyers since Washington struck its deal with the Taliban. While the Islamic State groups Afghanistan affiliate has claimed some of the slayings, most arent acknowledged by any group  only adding to the growing sense of unease there.

Aman also disputed that Kabul is insecure, citing what he described as regular security force patrols, checkpoints and raids.

The Taliban presence around the capital, Kabul, is less than any time before, he claimed. There is no concern for the Kabul people.

The U.S. withdrawal, beginning in May, is slated to see all combat troops depart the country after Americas longest war. That likely will include the personnel responsible for calling in and guiding airstrikes. Without the strikes, Roggio said the Afghan military likely will face a major offensive it now is too stretched to defend nationwide.

And the map will change again.

Theyre going to have to consolidate their lines. Theyre going to have to abandon the south, Roggio said. I just dont see how they survive otherwise. Theyll just be picked apart piecemeal.

___

Associated Press writer Rahim Faiez in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.

___

Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.

By JON GAMBRELL

Associated Press
How the Gaetz probe grew from sex trafficking to medical pot View Photo

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP)  When Rep. Matt Gaetz vacationed in the Bahamas in 2018, he was joined by a doctor who donated to his campaign and a former colleague in the Florida Legislature.

The Republican congressman, Dr. Jason Pirozzolo and Halsey Beshears were united in their enjoyment of politics, fancy travel and the company of beautiful women. They also had another mutual interest: Floridas $1.2 billion medical marijuana industry.

The Bahamas trip is a central element of a federal investigation surrounding Gaetz that has suddenly endangered his political career. What began as an inquiry into sex trafficking and whether Gaetz paid women and an underage girl in exchange for sex has grown into a larger review of public corruption, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Investigators are looking at whether Gaetz and his associates tried to secure government jobs for some of the women, the people said. They are also scrutinizing Gaetzs connections to the medical marijuana sector, including whether Pirozzolo and others sought to influence legislation Gaetz sponsored. The investigation includes legislation from 2018, when Gaetz was in Congress, and earlier work in the Legislature, according to one of the people.

Pressure on the congressman could build in the coming weeks as Joel Greenberg, a Gaetz associate who has been accused of trafficking a minor for sex, faces a May 15 deadline to strike a plea deal with prosecutors. If he does, Greenberg may be pressed to cooperate with federal investigators and deliver damaging information against Gaetz.

None of the people on the trip to the Bahamas has been charged with a crime. Gaetz has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and has retained high-powered lawyers.

A spokesman for Gaetz said Saturday that Gaetz is a long-time policy expert on marijuana liberalization and passed legislation on the matter as far back as 2013. Rep. Gaetz has never been influenced by outside groups to take a stance on any given position.

Beshears and a lawyer for Pirozzolo declined to comment for this story.

The Associated Press spoke with more than 10 people familiar with the dynamic among Gaetz, Pirozzolo and Beshears. Three of the people had knowledge of the investigation. They all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to publicly discuss the ongoing investigation.

Gaetzs interest in medical marijuana dates back nearly a decade, when he was a member of the Florida House of Representatives. Well before he would gain national attention for his steadfast support of Donald Trump, Gaetz would carve out an unusual reputation in Tallahassee as a Republican who wanted to liberalize marijuana laws.

In February 2014, Gaetz co-sponsored the first state effort to allow marijuana for medical use. His proposal allowing the use of a nonhallucinogenic marijuana extract was limited to patients with cancer or a severe form of epilepsy and slowly earned the support of his father, Don Gaetz, who was then serving as president of the Florida Senate and said he was being pummeled by his son about supporting it.

Gaetz cast his proposal as a pared-down alternative to a statewide ballot measure that would have broadly legalized medical marijuana. Gaetzs law was approved with broad bipartisan support and signed into law by Republican Gov. Rick Scott in June 2014, while the statewide measure narrowly failed at the ballot box that November.

The day Gaetzs measure was up for a final debate and vote in the Florida House, both Pirozzolo and Beshears were on the floor.

Beshears was a fellow Republican member of the Legislature who joined Gaetz to support the legislation. Pirozzolo, an Orlando hand doctor and pilot, was there serving as the physician of the day for the lawmakers  a role he would frequently take on by flying his own plane to Tallahassee.

Once the legislation passed, it created lucrative new opportunities for Beshears family and Pirozzolo.

The long-standing nursery owned by Beshears family was awarded one of five highly coveted licenses to cultivate and dispense medical marijuana.

The legislation was written to specify  and restrict  who could win such a license. An amendment added by another lawmaker in the state House limited the pool of applicants to nurseries that had been in continuous business for 30 years and had an inventory of 400,000 or more plants.

The Beshears family nursery, joining with two other growers, met that standard.

The Tampa Bay Times reported in 2014 that Beshears had failed to file a conflict of interest report when he voted on the bill, and the lawmaker who sponsored the amendment wanted to err on the side of limiting who could qualify now when embarking on such a new industry. More licenses have since been awarded, but the industry is still tightly controlled.

Another amendment added to the 2014 legislation the day Pirozzolo watched in the state House required dispensary applicants to employ a doctor as a medical director.

Eight days later, Pirozzolo started a consulting firm connecting marijuana businesses with medical directors, the Orlando Sentinel reported. He later co-founded a group called the American Medical Marijuana Physicians Association, which advocates for doctors who recommend medical cannabis.

Gaetz has spoken at least twice at the associations annual conferences, including an appearance with longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone, according to the groups social media posts and the recollections of a member.

With recommendations from Gaetz and Beshears in 2018, Pirozzolo was appointed by the current governor, Republican Ron DeSantis, to serve on a board that runs Orlando International Airport. In 2019, he stood next to DeSantis on an airport tarmac and greeted Trump as he arrived in Orlando to kick off his reelection campaign, according to video posted online by a Sentinel reporter.

Two years after Gaetzs first medical marijuana law, he sponsored another measure in the Legislature to expand on it, allowing near-death patients to use nonsmokable marijuana of all strengths and doses.

The day it came up for a vote in the state House, Beshears voted for it, and Pirozzolo witnessed it, again serving as the doctor of the day.

By the time Gaetz was in Congress in 2018, he introduced legislation that would increase the number of entities that would conduct cannabis research. The legislation included provisions similar to what Pirozzolos group was pushing to also expand research.

Nearly five months later, the men would meet in the Bahamas.

___

Balsamo reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee, Florida, and Terry Spencer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, contributed to this report.

___

Follow Price on Twitter at twitter.com/michellelprice and Balsamo at https://twitter.com/MikeBalsamo1.

By MICHELLE L. PRICE and MICHAEL BALSAMO

Associated Press
The Texas Workforce Commission is urging Texans to use caution when posting on social media platforms to help combat identity theft.

Full names, addresses, birthdates and other private information are often found on social networking sites that can lead to identities being stolen.
Phill Magakoe/AFP via Getty Images

The Plainview-Hale County Health Department will host Moderna COVID-19 vaccine clinics on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 9 a.m.  noon and 1-4 p.m. at the Plainview  Hale County Health Department, located at 111 E. 10th Street.

Appointments are recommended and can be made by calling 806.291.1201 or visiting www.plainviewtx.org. Clinics will continue as long as vaccines are available and everyone age 18 and up is eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine in Texas.
MERIDEN  A donation from NASCAR racing star Joey Logano is helping fund improvements to the South Meriden race track where Logano, a Middletown native, competed in his formative years.

The 2018 NASCAR Cup champion has pledged to pay for the re-grading and asphalt resurfacing of the Silver City Quarter Midget Club racetrack. Its the first such work done on the track since 1975, said Mary Trapp, the clubs secretary.

Logano, NASCAR driver Ryan Preece and World of Outlaws racer David Gravel are alumni of the clubs quarter-mile track on Hanover Avenue, making the big time after racing in Meriden for a few years in the 1990s. The donation occurred after Loganos father, Tom Logano, was approached to see if the Joey Logano Foundation would donate to the facility upgrade, which is ongoing.

It feels very surreal that this is actually happening. Weve been trying to get this done for years, Trapp said Thursday. This isn't something we could ever have done on our own. We have been saving and doing as many fundraisers as we can, so this is huge. They are saving the day. This track will be here for a long time now.

Trapp called Loganos generosity monumental. A detailed accounting of all the donations to the project isnt available, but it will cost at least $85,000, Trapp said.

Logano funded the work done on the track by LaRosa Construction Co. Inc., of Meriden, which charged a reduced rate. An array of donations of time or money is totally revitalizing the facility. Tilcon-Connecticut of New Britain and L. Suzio York Hill donated tons of asphalt. LaRosa also installed an underground conduit for the sites utility lines. Manafort Brothers Inc., of Plainville, donated the re-milling of the tracks asphalt, Trapp said.

The donation isnt Loganos first act of generosity with Silver City. Logano mentioned his and Preeces racing at Silver City when they were kids in a post-race interview at the Daytona 500 in 2019. Logano finished fourth; Preece was eighth that year.

The track was in dire need of a repaving. Arute Brothers Inc. last laid a layer of asphalt on the track in 1975, when Trapps father, Joe Nowakowski, was the clubs president. The club had used quick-fix asphalt kits to patch the track surface, but still had to pull weeds from its cracks prior to races, said Wendi Cordova, the clubs president.

The work might have been done last year but for coronavirus, Trapp said. The track, which was built in 1959, gets a lot of use during the clubs racing season, which typically runs from April to October.

A quarter midget car is a one-fourth scale version of an actual midget racer. The cars are built around a tubular frame and unlike go karts have a full suspension, according to www.quartermidgets.org. The cars can reach speeds of around 45 mph.

Frontline Electric of Monroe is donating its time finishing the wiring work at the track. The club needs to re-install the fencing around the track. Anyone interested in helping the club finish that job can contact Trapp at silvercitysecretary@gmail.com.

nsambides@record-journal.com203-317-2279Twitter: @JrSambides
Neighbor Zeb Johnston said he was concerned about the density, particularly of the townhomes, and said he wouldnt want the neighborhood to be a target for crime. He also asked how the project would affect the ability to get an overpass over the train tracks at Harpersville Road in the future.
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Eli Broad, the successful business leader who later help transform the arts, culture and architecture of Los Angeles, died Friday afternoon at 87.

The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, where Broad and his wife Edye have served as full-time philanthropists since 1999, announced Broads death.

Broad amassed his wealth by creating two successful businesses: Kaufman and Broad Home Corporation, which Broad founded in 1957 at age 23 in Detroit, and later turned a life insurance company that he bought into SunAmerica. He bought the company for $52 million in the 1970s and sold it to AIG for $18 billion in 1999.

Since 1999, Broad and his wife Edye served as full-time philanthropists, committing more than $5 billion with their foundations to support K-12 public education, scientific and medical research, and the visual and performing arts. Much of that work was focused on Los Angeles.

Eli Broad, simply put, was L.A.s most influential private citizen of his generation, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti wrote on Twitter. He loved this city as deeply as anyone I have ever known. He was a dreamer, often seeing things that others didnt or couldnt. He was a builder  of homes, the arts, educational opportunity, health breakthroughs that transformed dreams into reality.

The Broads have given nearly $1 billion to arts and culture institutions in Los Angeles, their adopted home since 1963. Broad was co-founder of The Broad, founding chairman and life trustee of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), a major donor to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (where his $60 million gift helped create the Broad Contemporary Art Museum in 2008), the LA Opera and The Broad Stage.

Broad helped create and fund the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in 1979 and served as the founding chairman of MOCA until 1984. In 2015, the Broad museum, home to Eli and Edye Broads 2,000-plus-work art collection, opened on Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, revitalizing and driving the areas transformation into a cultural center along Grand Avenue. Broad was also a supporter of the LA Opera (also located on Grand Avenue) with Edye.

Other institutions Broad helped found include The Broad Center at Yale School of Management, a professional development program for public school system leaders, and the Broad Institute, a interdisciplinary genomic medicine research center created in partnership with Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Broad was also a major donor to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (where his $60 million gift helped create the Broad Contemporary Art Museum in 2008)

As a businessman Eli saw around corners, as a philanthropist he saw the problems in the world and tried to fix them, as a citizen he saw the possibility in our shared community, and as a husband, father and friend he saw the potential in each of us, said Gerun Riley, president of The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation.

Broad was born on June 6, 1933 in the Bronx, New York, the only child of Leon and Rebecca Broad, both immigrants from Lithuania. He attended public schools in New York and, after the age of six, in Detroit, where he moved with his parents. He founded his first business at age 13, earning several hundred dollars from dealing postage stamps, and later attended Michigan State University. He studied accounting, eventually becoming Michigans youngest certified public accountant. He and Edye Lawson married in 1954.

Kaufman and Broad, headquartered in Los Angeles since 1963, expanded across the country and to Europe, eventually building more than half a million homes to date.

Broad helped bring the Democratic National Convention to Los Angeles in 2000 and made unsuccessful attempts to purchase the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Los Angeles Times. In 2003, after California voters passed a bond measure supporting stem cell research, Broad established three stem cell research centers, with donations totaling more than $100 million, at UCLA, UC San Francisco and the University of Southern California. Broad donated more than $50 million to Michigan State, to establish college and graduate schools of business and to create a contemporary art museum. And the Foundation invested more than $600 million in improving public education.

Most recently, Broad wrote an op-ed published in The New York Times:

Two decades ago I turned full-time to philanthropy and threw myself into supporting public education, scientific and medical research, and visual and performing arts, believing it was my responsibility to give back some of what had so generously been given to me. But Ive come to realize that no amount of philanthropic commitment will compensate for the deep inequities preventing most Americans  the factory workers and farmers, entrepreneurs and electricians, teachers, nurses and small-business owners  from the basic prosperity we call the American dreamOur country must do something bigger and more radical, starting with the most unfair area of federal policy: our tax code The enormous challenges we face as a nation  the climate crisis, the shrinking middle class, skyrocketing housing and health care costs, and many more  are a stark call to action. The old ways arent working, and we cant waste any more time tinkering around the edges.

Broad is survived by his wife Edye and his two sons, Jeffrey and Gary.

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Yves here. Even though the regular news of black deaths and the hands of police continues, its a mistake to think that Black Lives Matter failed. Police violence has fallen. From Scientific American in March:

Since Black Lives Matter protests gained national prominence following the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., the movement has spread to hundreds of cities and towns across the U.S. Now a new study shows police homicides have significantly decreased in most cities where such protests occurred Black Lives Matter represents a trend that goes beyond the decentralization that existed within the Civil Rights Movement, says Aldon Morris, a sociologist at Northwestern University, who was not involved in the new study. The question becomes, Are Black Lives Matter protests having any real effect in terms of generating change? The data show very clearly that where you had Black Lives Matter protests, killing of people by the police decreased. Its inescapable from this study that protest mattersthat it can generate change.

However, this change is still from a bad baseline. And the question of what sort of reforms might work is still a very much debated question.

You might also be interested in an earlier piece on this topic: Five Days Without Cops: Could Brooklyn Policing Experiment be a Model for the Future? From our overview:

THE CITY has mentioned trained violence interruptors before in its articles; here, they appear as a key element in a police reform experiment. Notice that the intent was to remove cops as the primary means for monitoring and enforcing neighborhood safety; people who were closer to the community served as the main eyes and ears, with the police at a remove but ready to step in. Although five days in one district is too limited a trial to declare victory, this test went well and strongly suggests that this approach merits more implementations and refinements.

As youll see from the article, some of the elements for success were situation-specific. The Brownsville area had a tense relationship with the police. NYPD moved one cop whod roughed up some locals off the street and also replaced the precinct head with a an officer from the neighborhood. That commanding officer, Terrell Anderson, set out to rebuild relations with the community.

By Thaddeus L. Johnson, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Georgia State University and Natasha N. Johnson, Clinical Instructor of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Georgia State University. Originally published at The Conversation

The guilty verdicts delivered against Derek Chauvin on April 20, 2021, represented a landmark moment  but courtroom justice cannot deliver the sweeping changes most Americans feel are needed to improve policing in the U.S.

As America continues to grapple with racism and police killings, federal action over police reform has stalled in Congress. But at the state level there is movement and steps toward reform are underway in many U.S. cities, including Philadelphia; Oakland, California; and Portland, Oregon.

Many of these efforts are geared toward ending specific practices, such as the granting of qualified immunity, through which officers are shielded from civil lawsuits, and the use of certain police neck holds and no-knock warrants. Mayors and city councils nationwide have also pushed reforms emphasizing accountability and transparency, with many working to create independent oversight commissions.

Its too soon to expect substantial improvement from these recently proposed remedies.

But as scholars of criminal justice  one a former police officer of 10 years  we know America has been here before. From Ferguson to Baltimore and Oakland to Chicago, numerous city police departments have undergone transformation efforts following controversial police killings. But these and other reform movements havent lived up to their promises.

Resisting Change

After the shooting death in Missouri of unarmed teen Michael Brown in 2014, police in Ferguson agreed to a reform programthat included anti-bias training and an agreement to end stop, search and arrest practices that discriminate on the basis of race.

But five years into the process, a report by the nonprofit Forward Through Ferguson found the reforms had done little to change policing culture or practice. This was backed up by a Ferguson Civilian Review Board report in July 2020 that found the disparity in traffic stops between black and white residents appears to be growing.

Similarly, concerns over the quality of Baltimores police services persist despite federal oversight and reforms brought in after the death of Freddie Gray in police custody in 2015.

Commentators have pointed to a resistance to change among officers and an inability to garner community buy-in as reasons for the slowdown in progress in Baltimore.

Part of the problem, as seen with Baltimore, is that federal intervention does not appear to guarantee lasting change. Research shows that Department of Justice regulations aimed at reform only slightly reduce police misconduct. There is also no evidence that national efforts targeting the use of force alone mitigate police killings.

Community-Led Reform

One beacon of hope is the Cincinnati Police Department. Twenty years ago, residents in Cincinnati experienced events similar to what many cities have faced in more recent years. An unarmed Black man, Timothy Thomas, was shot dead by officers in 2001, sparking widespread unrest. It led Cincinnati to enter into a different model of reform: a collaborative agreement.

Touted by former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch as a national model for community-led police reform, the collaborative agreement saw the police department, civic government, police unions and local civil rights groups act in partnership for a reform program backed by court supervision.

The resulting changes to use-of-force policies, a focus on community-based solutions to crime, and robust oversight brought about improved policing. A 2009 Rand evaluation of the collaborative agreement found it resulted in a reduction in crime, positive changes in citizens attitudes toward police and fewer racially biased traffic stops. There were also fewer use-of-force incidents and officer and arrestee injuries under the collaborative agreement.

But it isnt perfect. Cincinnatis Black residents continue to be disproportionately arrested  likely owing to the concentration of crime, service calls and police deployments in predominantly Black neighborhoods. Figures from 2018 show Black Cincinnati residents were roughly three times as likely to be arrested as their white counterparts.

Cincinnatis collaborative agreement contained a number of elements that experts say are needed if police reforms are to be successful: strong leadership, flexible, goal-oriented approaches, effective oversight and externally regulated transparency.

Moreover, it depended on police officials ability to cultivate community investment and overcome resistance from police officers and police unions.

Community confidence is critical to police reform and community safety. When citizens view police as legitimate and trustworthy, they are more likely to report crimes, cooperate during police investigations, comply with directives and work with police to find solutions to crime.

Beyond Collaboration

Efforts like that in Cincinnati that put community engagement at the heart of police reforms undoubtedly are strides in the right direction. But they can go only so far. A noticeable shortcoming in most police reform programs is a focus on what is the right thing to do during confrontations with the public, rather than on trying to avert those situations in the first place.

Fatal police shootings often happen during police stops and arrests  situations that carry increased risks of citizen resistance and violent police response.

Scaling back low-level enforcement, such as arrests for vagrancy and loitering  much of which has little public safety advantage and having police partner with civilian responders for mental health, homelessness and drug-related calls, could mean fewer opportunities for violent police encounters.

Some departments have begun to change their enforcement policies along these lines. The Gwinnett County Police Department in Georgia, for example, stopped making arrests and issuing citations for misdemeanor marijuana possession.

A 2018 study of traffic stops in Fayetteville, North Carolina, found that redirecting enforcement away from minor infractions  such as broken taillights and expired tags  toward the more serious violations of speeding and running traffic lights resulted in reduced crime and a narrowed racial gap in stops and searches.

Removing the Trigger

Low-level infractions have often been the triggers for police interventions that end in citizen deaths. Eric Garner  who died in 2014 after a New York police officer put him in a banned chokehold  was stopped for selling loose cigarettes.

Devoting less time to policing such activity would also free up officers time to devote to such endeavors as analyzing crime trends, conducting wellness checks on elderly residents and mentoring community youth. I (Thaddeus Johnson) felt this as a police officer on the street, and I see it as a criminal justice scholar now.

The examples of Cincinnati, Ferguson and Baltimore show that getting community buy-in is crucial if attempts to improve policing are to be successful. We believe that evaluating officers performance and rewarding them based on community-oriented activities  rather than just the number of stops and arrests  could foster the support necessary for lasting reform.
Happy May Day! Kiss a socialist for me!

American Horse Racing Still at a Crossroads on Derby Day Patch

Billion-Year-Old Scottish Fossil Could Be The Oldest Proto-Animal Ever Found IFLScience (BC)

Firefighters Out There in the Snow: Wildfires Rage Early in Parched West New York Times (David L)

So I finally sorted out what happened to my brain. I, quite literally, hacked so much, for so long, and without enough breaks that I burned all the glucose out of my brain & gave myself seizures. ___

 A thread on a very real & physical occupational hazard for infosec.  Tinker (@TinkerSec) April 30, 2021

#COVID-19

Man Banned From Carrying Loose QR Codes After Altering Covid Check-In Signs Gizmodo (dk)

Brazilian senate votes to suspend patents in bid to widen access to Covid-19 vaccines STAT

Lots of old canards re: patents, capacity & global South. Will kill innovation, IP not problem, South cant manufacture. Strange thing about @ddiamonds piece is that these excuses being made by those w/ huge conflicts of interest, but taken @ face value. https://t.co/wWVpbkXX5o  Gregg Gonsalves (@gregggonsalves) April 30, 2021

Myanmar

Brexit

UK fishing industry furious over failure to strike Norway deal Financial Times This story demonstrates that the UK just isnt yet set up to negotiate properly. Beyond failing to reach a deal and damaging a UK industry we know nothing  such as what the government was aiming for and why it couldnt reach a deal. Or what happens next. https://t.co/UI5kpWtEUd  David Henig (@DavidHenigUK) April 30, 2021 Yes. I have plenty of evidence for that. One of the things that have been raised a lot since Jan in various calls and hearings.

But its even worse than that. The general lack of compliance at the moment is scary. No idea how HMRC plans on dealing with it https://t.co/vo7ndFov8P  Dr Anna Jerzewska (@AnnaJerzewska) April 29, 2021 The Brexit roots of the scandals Chris Grey (guurst) As I said to Anthony L via e-mail, I thought one of the points of having gone to Eton was to know to avoid stuff like this. This looks like what happens at the start when you walk into a British club and drop acid. Lets put it this way. If you saw this on RightMove youd wet yourself laughing. pic.twitter.com/pDPedGu9bR  Jamie Glackin (@JamieGlackin1) April 28, 2021

SNP in Disarray

New Cold War

An example of why vlade has doubts about Russian hypersonic weapons: They lost a very much of the actual manufacturing know-how. MOHAMMAD JAVAD ZARIFS ALLEGATION AGAINST RUSSIA IS FALSE John Helmer

Syraqistan

Internet of Shit

I am not cut out for this modern world, especially one where touchscreens have replaced the reliable technology of a handle in bathroomsand where you cant wash your hands because internal storage running out means applications & system functions may not work well pic.twitter.com/WjsbyJV9O7  Dr. Steven W. Thrasher (@thrasherxy) April 29, 2021

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

The credit bureaux bill themselves as arbiters of the publics ability to take responsibility for their choices, but after the breach, the CEO blamed the entire affair on a single forgetful flunky:https://t.co/JUYOm2Y0l3 23/  Cory Doctorow (@doctorow) April 30, 2021

Trump Transition

Justice ramps up Giuliani probe The Hill

Biden

Health Care

With Florida Bill, Republicans Continue Unrelenting Push to Restrict Voting New York Times

Black Injustice Tipping Point

The Toxicity of the Permanent Outrage Mentality Newsweek (furzy)

Our Famously Free Press

An Example of the Importance of Signage: When U.S. Drivers Dont Know How to Use a Roundabout Core77 (resilc). Ahem, traffic circle or rotary.

The Dangerous Myth of Taxpayer Money Splinter (furzy)

The Lumber and Chip Shortages Have the Same Root Cause: Underinvestment Barrons (resilc)

Ruthless and Truthless London Review of Books (Anthony L). On modern politics.

Class Warfare

Antidote du jour (CV):

And a bonus (Chuck L):

so baby swordfish are born with a TINY sword, have a good day pic.twitter.com/DlBjv4cxuR  Rob N Roll (@thegallowboob) April 30, 2021

Another bonus (guurst):

See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here.
(Natural News) A professor at the University of San Diego (USD) is on the verge of being fired for writing a blog post that is critical of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Professor Tom Smith, on his blog The Right Coast, chastised people who believe that the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) came from somewhere other than a CCP lab, which is where it appears to have originated.

If you believe that the coronavirus did not escape from the lab in Wuhan, you have to at least consider that you are an idiot who is swallowing whole a lot of Chinese cock swaddle, Smith wrote bluntly.

Controversy quickly arose and Smith had to make it clear that he was talking about the CCP and not ordinary Chinese people, some of whom disagree with their governments communist tactics.

Once USD caught wind of Smiths words, however, it placed him under investigation citing complaints of bias. Since that time, the law school in which he teaches has sent Smiths case to the schools administration for a formal review.

The investigation is hinged upon a circulating petition demanding that Smith either resign or be fired. He apparently has a history of saying and writing things that some students find upsetting, and seeing as how the First Amendment does not apply on American college campuses, Smith is now being burned at the proverbial stake.

Signed by the USD Law Student Bar Association presidents for this school year and the next, they claim in the petition Smiths alleged comments have left some in the USD law community feeling vulnerable and helpless so that students cannot balance their studies or prepare for our futures in the legal profession,' the schools whiny babies are reported to be saying.

Smith defends himself, says he has not even been told why he is being investigated

In an email to The College Fix, Smith indicated that USD has been sparse in its communications with him. Very little has been said as to what, exactly, he did wrong other than to express a viewpoint that some people might not like.

No word on what exactly I was being investigated for, who was charging me, when the investigation would take place or any of the other things required for minimal due process, Smiths email reportedly reads.

Because the investigation is still ongoing, USD refused to comment on the matter when pressed by The College Fix for answers or at least some kind of clarity concerning the situation.

Fortunately, Smith has the Foundation of Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) on his side. This group has been defending Smith ever since he first came under fire for expressing controversial viewpoints concerning the origin of the Chinese virus.

The University of San Diego has not explained how its investigation into Smiths personal blog post is consistent with its strong promises of freedom of expression, FIRE attorney Adam Steinbaugh indicated. Thats because it cant reconcile its words with its actions.

Though USD is a private institution that is technically not required to abide by the First Amendment, it has signed on to the guidelines put out by the American University of Professors (AUP), which specifically protects professors for the comments they make outside the classroom.

When [professors] speak or write as citizens, they should be free from institutional censorship or discipline, but their special position in the community imposes special obligations, the AUP guidelines read.

Steinbaugh agrees, noting that sharing ones views on a personal blog outside the classroom, which no student is required to read, represents speech as a citizen, and instituting a lengthy investigation suggests that the university believes it can censor that speech. It cannot.

More related news can be found at Censorship.news.

Sources for this article include:

GeorgiaStarNews.com

RightCoast.TypePad.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Passengers on a flight bound to Hong Kong from Delhi in India tested positive for the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19). The positive test results came as a surprise since the 52 travelers all presented negative test results prior to boarding. Because of these new infections, Hong Kongs strategy to keep the Wuhan coronavirus at bay  in place since January 2021  has taken a hit.

The passengers were on board an aircraft operated by Indian carrier Vistara. From the Indian capital, the plane flew into Hong Kong on April 4. The citys authorities did not disclose the total number of passengers, but reports surmised that there could have been as much as 188 passengers on the flight.

Hong Kong has one of the strictest entry and quarantine measures in the world. All passengers flying in must submit a negative COVID-19 test 72 hours before departure. They are also required to take another COVID-19 test upon arrival and are mandated to quarantine themselves for a three-week period.

The passengers on board the Vistara flight fulfilled all these requirements. They submitted negative COVID-19 test results prior to boarding, undertook the mandatory COVID-19 test upon arrival and isolated themselves in hotels. It was only during the three-week quarantine period that the positive results emerged.

University of Hong Kong (HKU) scientists are now working with the Hong Kong Department of Health to sequence genomes from the 52 coronavirus-positive passengers. The Hong Kong government said several cases have also been detected on flights departing from Mumbai. As such, it banned all flights from India as well as neighboring Pakistan from April 20 to May 3. Meanwhile, Vistara said it did everything it could to minimize the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus onboard its aircraft.

The Wall Street Journal talked to a number of passengers who contracted the pathogen aboard the Vistara flight, among them Rashida Fathima. The 52-year-old said she believes that she was infected on board  despite her family wearing masks while onboard and avoiding the planes toilet. Fathima told WSJ that some passengers were coughing repeatedly during the flight, and families walked their crying children through the airplane isles.

Scientists weigh in on how the previously uninfected passengers contracted the pathogen

A number of experts have put forward four main theories as to why the 52 passengers ended up being infected.

One theory is that the passengers could have been infected in India after their pre-flight COVID-19 test. American epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding said some infections may have occurred after the initial 72-hour pre-departure time window following the first COVID-19 test. He added: India cases increased 60 percent each week for the last two weeks. The south Asian country recently reported record highs in new daily infections  with 352,991 new cases reported on April 26. It previously chalked up 346,786 new cases on April 24. (Related: Airlines looking to implement broad coronavirus testing for passengers to keep industry alive.)

A second theory posited that potential cases may have fallen through the cracks due to either Indias overloaded health system or passengers turning in fraudulent test results. The second wave of infections that hit the Hindu-majority nation brought its health care system to its knees. Shortages of oxygen cylinders and antiviral medications became rife, and outdoor cremations were conducted as crematoriums were unable to keep up with the number of victims.

Another theory said that the passengers may have contracted the Wuhan coronavirus in one of the hotels they stayed in for the three-week quarantine period. Feigl-Ding said in a tweet that Hong Kong authorities identified only eight cases prior to hotel quarantine, with the later cases emerging during the isolation period. It could also be hotel transmission to some degree too. Hotel room cross-infections have been observed in Australias hotel quarantine system too, he elaborated. (Related: Aussie authorities trace Perth coronavirus infections to hotel security officer.)

Nevertheless, the epidemiologist lauded the citys vigilance in addressing potential cases. If it werent for hotel quarantine  Hong Kong would have completely allowed these [positive cases] to begin spreading in the community. This is why border quarantines are critical, he commented.

Yet one other theory stated some passengers aboard the flight may have been infected with a particularly severe strain of the Wuhan coronavirus. The cabins compact space and people removing their masks to eat would have contributed to its transmission. However, health experts have insisted that contracting the pathogen from a fellow passenger is extremely low  thanks to advanced plane ventilation systems. HKU assistant professor and clinical virologist Dr. Siddharth Sridhar commented: The risks of air travel are generally quite manageable with staggered seating and consistent mask usage, especially when using toilet facilities.

Hong Kong was one of the first territories impacted by the pandemic in March 2020. But strict border controls and authorities vigilance kept the spread of the virus at bay. According to data from Reuters, the city has a COVID-19 caseload of 11,749 with 209 deaths.

Visit Pandemic.news to read more articles about COVID-19 transmission aboard aircraft.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

WSJ.com

CNBC.com

Twitter.com

Graphics.Reuters.com
(Natural News) As President Biden wrapped up a 65-minute joint address to Congress to mark his administrations first 100 days, what was shared in the lead-up to his speech sowed discord over the entire affair:

(Article by Siraj Hashmi republished from OutsideVoices.Substack.com)

Sure enough, the President delivered on this. Opening his address, Biden stated, I took the oath of office  lifted my hand off our family Bible  and inherited a nation in crisis. The worst pandemic in a century. The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.

Biden to refer to Jan 6 insurrection as the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War in speech tonight. pic.twitter.com/rW6L2ybDRQ  Jim Acosta (@Acosta) April 28, 2021

Yes, the January 6th siege on the U.S. Capitol building, often alluded to as an insurrection, was an embarrassing day for our country. But to suggest that it was the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War is disingenuous at best. At worst, its a malicious attempt to whitewash the history of attacks carried out both by and on the government that have had much more catastrophic results.

Apart from the September 11th terrorist attacks that targeted the countrys financial system, Al Qaeda terrorists attacked the defenders of our democracy when a hijacked American Airlines flight 77 flew into the Pentagon. Were it not for the heroes who resisted against the hijackers of United flight 93, Al Qaedas attempt to fly a commercial airline into the White House or U.S. Capitol building would have come to fruition. Despite being a horrific tragedy, 9/11 has been dismissed by some as being explicitly a foreign attack, not one from within.

So, lets explore attacks on our democracy from within.

Following 9/11, the Bush administration, in conjunction with Congress, expedited the passage of the Patriot Act, a wide-sweeping national security law that infringed on the civil liberties of every American in the name of fighting terror. The Fourth Amendment became a relic of the past as the governments power to surveil and spy on its own citizens reached its peak. Individuals who shared names with persons of interest or suspected terrorists, including U.S. citizens, landed on government no-fly lists, restricting their right to freely move about the country for dubious reasons and with no due process or recourse. And even worse, many had their right to due process eviscerated when they were detained by the newly-created Department of Homeland Security and found themselves at Guantanamo Bay without even being charged with a crime.

Yet this is not the first time that American citizens, or even permanent residents for that matter, had their rights infringed upon by the government.

As the FBI was formed in the early 20th century, Americans whose ideologies were at odds with the governments interests were often targeted by the agencys longest-serving director, J. Edgar Hoover. In the eyes of the FBI Director, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a suspected communist given his ties to Stanley Levison, whose suspected pro-communist activities were monitored by the FBI in the 1950s. Although Dr. King has been viewed as one of the most consequential leaders in American history due to his role in the civil rights movement, at the time, Hoover and many in the FBI viewed him as a threat to our democracy, ushering in communism under the guise of civil rights. The FBI infamously blackmailed Dr. King by sending him a letter advocating he commit suicide.

J Edgar Hoover (1895 -1972) points his finger while testifying before the House on Un-American Activities Committee, Washington, DC. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The Red Scare was so severe in the United States that the government actively sought to chip away at Americans First Amendment rights to prevent the spread of such ideas. And through the Lavender Scare in the early 1950s, thousands of people were forced out of government service for simply for being suspected of being homosexual.

Read more at: OutsideVoices.Substack.com
(Natural News) Crude oil production in Alaska has fallen to its lowest level of production in 44 years.

According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), a statistical office that collects, analyzes and disseminates data for the government regarding the countrys energy sector, crude oil production in Alaska averaged around 448,000 barrels per day in 2020. This is the lowest level of production in the state since 1976.

Alaskan oil production peaked at more than two million barrels per day in 1988. Last years production represented less than 75 percent of what the state made during its peak.

The EIA says production in Alaska has been declining almost every year since the 1988 peak as the oil fields in the state have matured. In addition, the annual decrease of four percent in 2020 was part of a larger decline in oil production not just in Alaska but in the rest of the United States.

Despite its continued downturn in production, the oil industry is still the largest contributor to Alaskas economy. The state relies on the revenue generated from sales in the oil and natural gas industries, and oil revenues provided more than two-thirds of the states budget in 2020.

Alaskan oil industry still recovering from pandemic

The Alaskan oil industry took an unprecedented hit during the height of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic last year. Today, while the price of crude oil from the states North Slope region has largely recovered, the workforce has yet to bounce back from the pandemic.

The number of people working in Alaskas oil and gas industry has been falling steadily since the start of the pandemic. In Feb. 2020, right before the U.S. went into its lockdown, there were around 10,200 oil and gas jobs in Alaska. Since then, the industry has shed nearly 40 percent of their workforces.

According to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development (DOLWD), as of March 2021, approximately 6,300 people were employed in the states oil and gas sectors. This is in line with the numbers from February, but there is no indication that the declining trend that has persisted since the start of the pandemic is reversing. (Related: Coronavirus sinks global oil markets with no bottom in sight.)

Alaska Oil and Gas Association President and CEO Kara Moriarty said that the oil companies in the association would love to expand their workforce to pre-pandemic levels, but she pointed out that the trend in Alaska is occurring all across the country.

The national oil and gas industry peaked at nearly 199,000 direct jobs in 2015. For the first quarter of 2021, only around 133,000 jobs remain, representing a one-third drop in employment.

When you have a price fall like we have from 2014 to today, the companies just dont have as much money to spend and it does force efficiencies and you just cant drill as many wells when prices are where theyre at today compared to 2014, said Moriarty.

Neal Fried, a labor economist and analyst for the DOLWD, explained that the price of oil was the best indicator for whether the industry was going to expand or contract even further.

The price of Alaskan crude oil stood at $66.62 per barrel on April 19. It has remained steady at over $60 per barrel since early February  what it used to cost before the pandemic. But this is still far from the $100 per barrel it used to cost early in the 2010s.

This means that, unless the price of Alaskan crude oil suddenly surges, it is unlikely the industry will take back much of the workforce it lost last year.

The loss of jobs in the oil industry is also affecting other sectors of Alaskas economy. CEO Rebecca Logan of the Alaska Support Industry Alliance said the support industry in the state is also contracting due to the lack of work from the oil and gas industry.

It impacts everyone in one way or another, said Logan. The support industry employs thousands of electricians, engineers, caterers, communication workers, construction workers, bankers, teachers and more to support the oil and gas workers and their families.

You had work stop when oil just hit rock bottom and went below zero [last April]. That was the death knell and we havent recovered from that.

Learn more about how the coronavirus pandemic has affected state economies at MarketCrash.news.

Sources include:

EIA.gov

ADN.com
"They are going to be in there with a mix of society," Levine said. "They'll be with other white collar people. They'll be there with drug dealers. They'll be in there with people who are bank robbers. Maybe at one time they were violent people, but they worked their way down [to lower security]. They are going to be around a lot of people who are locked up for child pornography."
A couple from Homer, Alaska  Marilyn and Paul Hueper  have told The National Pulse that their home and business was raided by federal agents in connection with January 6th riots in Washington, D.C.

(Natural News) (Article by Raheem Kassam and Natalie Winters republished from TheNationalPulse.com)

The Huepers joined Editor-In-Chief Raheem Kassam on The National Pulse podcast to discuss the early morning raid, which, as Paul Hueper recalls, didnt include Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) authorities even present[ing] a search warrant.

They dont even imply a search warrant for the first hour while were sitting there with handcuffs on, he reiterated.

Listen:



Among the items seized were the familys personal electronics and a handheld copy of the Declaration of Independence.

While an FBI spokesperson confirmed that a court-authorized law-enforcement activity was carried out at the Hueper residence, the agency would not comment on its potential relation to events that unfolded in the U.S. Capitol earlier this year. The FBI agents were, however, joined by at least one officer from the U.S. Capitols police department according to Hueper.

The Huepers account of their interactions with federal authorities  which Marilyn insists the agents didnt even let me look at their [badges] long enough to verify  tells a different story.

THE FBI BROKE INTO MY HOUSE TODAY 12 AGENTS! Handcuffed me and Paul. Interrogated us, searched the house, and left with my phones and laptops, she wrote in an April 29th post. The FBI said they were looking for Nancy Pelosis laptop!! So I guess that answers one question It really did get stolen and is still at large. [] They tried to get me to admit that I had been in the Capital building on Jan 6th which I hadnt and threatened to arrest me for obstruction of justice if I didnt give them the answers they wanted, she added.

Marilyn Hueper attributed the raid to a case of mistaken identity, pointing out several distinctions between her physical appearance and the lady believed to have stolen Nancy Pelosis laptop:

Apparently, I have a doppelganger who was part of the Capitol breach, but that was IDd as me! What the heck?!! They could have done a face recognition with my state drivers license and noticed that I have attached ear lobes and she doesnt. She has heavily arched eyebrows and I dont. Not to mention she was wearing an ugly black sweater with white snowflakes on it!! Youd have to pay me lots of money to get me to wear a sweater, let alone an ugly one and shiny black knee high boots.

The post was accompanied by the following graphic, which draws several distinctions in physical appearance between herself and the FBIs person of interest:

Hueper has shared the same account of the raid with outlets including Anchorage Daily News and during a radio interview with an interview with KSRM-AM.

The couple  which has donated to several Republican candidates including Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Kelly Loeffler  has never denied attending the January 6th Stop The Steal rally in Washington D.C. Paul Huepers Instagram page contains an image of his wife at the Capitol Complex.

But the pair never entered the building, indeed only attending for part of the day before leaving the city to return home. The closest they got was outside the Capitol, hours after the original breach, where they say they stayed for around 30 minutes before leaving.

Paul Huepers Instagram also contains a video of Donald Trumps speech. The video, which includes an excerpt of the speech from 12:08 pm, places the Huepers at the ellipse roughly 30 minutes before the Capitol breach began.

According to official reports, when the mob reached the Capitol complex at about 12:40 p.m. ET on Wednesday, it took about 15 minutes for the west side perimeter of the building to be breached. And the walk to the Capitol grounds from the Ellipse is at least a 45-minute walk  excluding the massive crowd-induced delays.

Read more at: TheNationalPulse.com
(Natural News) One mantra that emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic is follow the science, which suggests that health and social policy should be guided by scientific research. If this principle applies to a virus threat, why doesnt it guide policy on gender identity disorder (GID)?

(Article by Denise Shick republished from LifeSiteNews.com)

On March 24, the Senate confirmed President Bidens choice for assistant secretary of health  a male pediatrician who claims to be a woman: Rachel Levine. Lambda Legal, which promotes LGBTQ civil rights, praised Levines confirmation as marking the return of science, competence, and empathy to one of the most important institutions in our government.

Touting Levines confirmation as the return to science [and] competence, however, is a questionable assertion. Yes, an article posted by American Family Physician claims that gender-affirming hormone therapy  is generally safe and that those who receive treatment generally report improved quality of life and self-esteem. But the same article admits that transgender patients typically have high rates of mental health diagnoses and that primary care physicians should consider routine screening for a number of mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and suicidal proclivity. Physicians should also look for signs and symptoms of metabolic disease and osteoporosis because hormone therapy may increase the risk of these conditions. Other risks listed include breast cancer and cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease.

Likewise, the American College of Pediatrics (ACP) says that puberty-blocking hormones induce a state of disease  the absence of puberty  and inhibit growth and fertility in a previously biologically healthy child. Also, for both children and adults, cross-sex hormones (testosterone and estrogen) are associated with dangerous health risks including cardiac disease, high blood pressure, blood clots, stroke, diabetes, and cancer.

Despite this research, medical professionals (such as Levine), politicians, and educators advocate that children should be encouraged not only to question their gender but also to pursue irreversible hormonal treatments to alter their bodies.

After Levines confirmation, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said, As transgender Americans suffer higher rates of abuse, homelessness, and depression than almost every other group, its important to have national figures like Dr. Levine, who by virtue of being in the public spotlight, will help break down barriers of ignorance and fear.

What Schumer and many other politicians fail to say as they spout LGBTQ talking points is that the higher rates of mental as well as physical conditions may be caused by the hormonal treatments transgenders take to alter their gender.

Educators also use LGBTQ talking points as a basis for policy. According to the Schools in Transition guide published by the Human Rights Campaign, the expression of transgender identity, or any other form of gender-expansive behavior is a healthy, appropriate and typical aspect of human development, and no student should be asked, encouraged or required to affirm a gender identity or to express their gender in a manner that is not consistent with their self-identification or expression. Any such attempts or requests are unethical and will likely cause significant emotional harm.

Yet the guide fails to mention scientific research that indicates hormonal therapies and sex-reassignment surgery may also cause significant emotional harm in children and teens. And not one of the guides authors is a medical professional.

For over 18 years, I have provided pastoral care for people whose lives have been torn apart because they believed that transitioning to the opposite gender would alleviate their pain and make them whole. Heres a sampling of what theyve told me:

Six weeks after my sex assignment surgery, I knew I made a mistake. No one can put my body back together again.

I thought transition to a female was the answer for me, but today I struggle to forgive myself for what Ive done to my own body.

Everyone thought transitioning was the answer for me, but now I wish somebody would have tried to stop me from transitioning.

Im unable to ever have my own children due to my transitioning. I will live in regret.

At Help 4 Families, where I serve as director, we acknowledge that the struggles gender-confused people endure are more than psychosomatic. They are real, and they need to be addressed seriously, with compassion. But hormonal treatments and invasive surgical procedures are not the answer. Our goal is mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual restoration. And we create opportunities for individuals and families impacted by gender brokenness to know God and thrive as the people he created them to be.

We need to follow all the science, not just studies that support the LGBTQ agenda. Lets hold medical professionals, politicians, and educators to the standard of truth  the whole truth. As the ACP website notes, For children experiencing gender dysphoria before the age of puberty, the confusion resolves over 80 percent of the time by late adolescence.

If your child is questioning their birth gender or has displayed GID symptoms, you can make a difference. Provide a safe, open environment for them to discuss their feelings and ask questions. Invest more time in strengthening the parent-child relationship. Affirm their unique personality, praise their talents, and be engaged in their interests. Promote a healthy appreciation of their birth gender and help them cultivate healthy same-sex friendships.

Guide your child toward the truth about gender and a healthy understanding of their identity.

Read more at: LifeSiteNews.com
(Natural News) Liberal institutions straightway cease being liberal the moment they are soundly established: Once this is attained, no more grievous and more thorough enemies of freedom exist than liberal institutions.

(Article by Melissa Lane republished from SurvivalDan101.com)

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (2007). Twilight of the Idols with the Antichrist and Ecce Homo, p.71, Wordsworth Editions

What we face today, and what is coming in the near future is pure, unadulterated, totalitarian madness, and so long as the people of this country remain indifferent to this tyranny, it will worsen and escalate every single day until nothing of value remains.

It cannot be stressed enough that the end of America is just around the corner. The controlling scum in power seeks the end of this economy, the end of all freedom, the end of joy, the end of travel, the end of independent thought, the end of any realistic intellect, and the end of sanity. This is where we are headed, and only the masses that are in most respects to blame for this takeover can stop it. That does not bode well for those of us willing to fight for our freedom, as we are now in the extreme minority. The risk to the actual freedom fighters is absolute, but little hope of a return to liberty is possible without those willing to risk all for their freedom.

All of us that will actively dissent, disobey all state orders, and call out the criminal government, are now targets of this heinous governing system, and every tactic necessary to eliminate resistance will be used against us. This is already beginning, as Biden declared war on domestic terrorism. Ex-CIA Director, John Brennan, said:

Bidens intel community are moving in laser-like fashion to try to uncover as much as they can about the pro-Trump insurgency that harbors religious extremists, authoritarians, fascists, bigots, racists, nativists, even libertarians.

All of these are according to Brennan, insurgents, and he and the so-called intelligence community seem to be salivating at the prospect of war against the American people. This is a dire threat to anyone that disagrees with or stands against the state. I have detailed this in two articles I wrote earlier this month, visit:

The US Patriots Tagged As Domestic Violent Extremists By The U.S. Intelligence Community

Deadly Serious DHS List: You Might Be A Domestic Terrorist If

Criminalizing opposition to the political class is so insanely dangerous to the people that it can only be described as a policy contrived by psychopathic and evil dictatorial monsters as a way to gain total control over society through force.

DOMESTIC TERRORISM

This is not an exaggeration; as what is called domestic terrorism is being openly discussed, and new legislation is not only being considered but is already being implemented in some states. Biden and some members of Congress are calling for new domestic terrorism legislation that would vastly expand the powers of the police state.

This is atrocious, as it will of course be misused to stifle all forms of dissent while labeling any that disagree with the government as terrorists. This could of course lead to complete censorship of all protest activity, as well as most all speech. The ramifications of such draconian policies are beyond reason, and could literally destroy our ability to peacefully fight back against extreme tyranny.

The danger of this could easily lead to more violence by not only the justified victims of state tyranny but also massive violent abuse of the citizenry by government enforcement goons in the police and military. Lunacy does not begin to describe the treacherous nature of such authoritarian measures.

Recommended article:

Life After Doomsday: An Accurate Expectation Of What Is To Come

STASI STATE

We are now on the verge of becoming a police state the likes of which have never before been seen or imagined by any American. Secret police operating as agents for the state will be commissioned to quell any discontent, any disobedience, and any non-compliance as described by the political class in power. The people themselves will be expected to monitor their friends, family, and neighbors, and report what will be labeled as any seditious behavior.

This reality is nearly upon us. Attempts to control all thought and action are desired, so we will be told to carry state-approved identification papers, we will be told when and where we may go, and we will be told what we are allowed to say or write. Additional severe mandates will be forthcoming, and more fines, force, and incarceration will be threatened and will be implemented as deemed necessary by the controlling few. As scary as it sounds, this country could easily look more like Hitlers Germany or Stalins Russia in the near future than the United States of old. This is not some wild or fantastic conspiracy theory; just look around at all the signs in front of you.

Read more at: SurvivalDan101.com
The city of Barcelona has built Spain's first photovoltaic pavement as part of its goal to become carbon-free by 2050.

About 50 square meters of non-slip solar panels installed in a small park in the city's Glries neighborhood would produce 7,560 kilowatt-hours per year, enough to power three households.

Project Cost

The city has paid more than $36,000 towards the cost, with the manufacturer covering the rest. Within six months, the scheme's feasibility will be evaluated. "We'll have to measure the wear and tear because it's clearly not the same as placing panels on a roof, even though they're highly resistant," says Eloi Badia, the Barcelona city councilor in charge of climate emergency and ecological change.

"In terms of cost savings, it's impossible to say how much better it would be if it were scaled up for a pilot scheme like this. We want to put more solar panels on roofs and, if this project succeeds, on the ground to power lights and other public facilities."

He does, however, point out that due to Barcelona's high population density, generating enough power inside the city limits to become self-sufficient will be impossible.

Related Article: Anti-Solar Panel: Scientists Able to Produce Electricity at Night



Providing Power to Bigger Establishments

"We'll have to think about providing power to blocks of apartments, but we'll also have to think of using wind and solar parks outside the city if we're going to meet a zero-emissions target," Badia says. "However, ground-level installations like this open up new opportunities, and not just for Barcelona."

The Barcelona project follows a 25-meter solar cycle lane in Utrecht, the Netherlands, last year. The provided energy is used to power lighting and, in the winter, to heat the path to keep it from freezing over.

The majority of Spain's solar energy comes from vast farms in rural areas where land is inexpensive, but urban centers are far away. The current trend is to expand power in cities, where it is most needed.

Creating Green Policies

According to Fernando Prieto, executive director of the independent think tank Sustainability Observatory, "what we need to concentrate on is green policies to generate jobs, primarily to put solar panels on 1 million rooftops." "It will take five years to produce enough energy to power 7.5 million households, build over 15,000 jobs, and reduce CO2 emissions by 4.2 million tons."

He says that it will reduce energy prices and assist people in being independent of the industry's few power providers.

"Instead of this basic initiative, we are constructing installations covering over 1,000 hectares on farmland and forests, sometimes with detrimental environmental consequences," Prieto says.

Minor Bumps Along the Way

The solar installation came to an immediate end under the former conservative government after punitive taxes were imposed. Spain is currently ranked 11th in the world for solar power and eighth for renewables combined, thanks to the repeal of the tariff by the incoming socialist government in 2018.

Major retailers have jumped on board, with companies including Ikea, Media Markt, and El Corte Ingles currently selling domestic solar installations for as little as 5,000 for a three-bedroom home.

Meanwhile, the government has announced plans to spend $2 billion in EU Covid-recovery funds in the manufacture of "green" hydrogen, which is generated by breaking up water molecules and releasing hydrogen using renewable energy. Spain's energy firms have stated that by 2030, this figure would have risen to $11 billion.

Also Read: Carbon Cutting: 3 Innovative Ideas To Reduce Harmful Emission

For more Environmental news, don't forget to follow Nature World News!
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BENTON COUNTY, WA - The Benton County Coroners Office and the Benton County Sheriffs Office have been attempting to identify the remains fou
Brian A. Pounds / Hearst Connecticut Media

As Connecticuts Senate votes on whether to repeal Connecticuts religious exemption from school immunization mandates, anti-vaccine activists have mobilized to bring out-of-state activists to threaten and intimidate legislators to vote against the bill. The state must not let bullies and loudmouths stop them from acting to make Connecticuts children safer, and show the out-of-state anti-vaccine movement that intimidation doesnt work here.

On April 20, the Connecticut House of Representatives voted to remove the religious exemption to its school immunization mandates. The bill was not perfect; for example, it would allow children in school from kindergarten on that already had exemptions to remain unvaccinated and unprotected. Still, it is an important step towards making Connecticuts school safer. Extensive evidence shows that stronger school mandates reduce not just the rates of vaccine exemptions in a state, but the rates of diseases outbreaks. And the converse is also true: more exemptions mean more outbreak of preventable diseases. The last polio outbreak in the United States  polio!  was in a Connecticut school, a Christian Science school whose children used religious exemptions. Children were left paralyzed.
Sailors and DOD civilians are all doing their part by voluntarily getting vaccinated. Its now easier than ever to get a vaccine, and the faster that people get vaccinated the faster well be able to finally sink COVID-19 once and for all.
New Castle, PA (16103)

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Rain showers in the morning with scattered thunderstorms arriving in the afternoon. High 81F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%..

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Variable clouds with showers and scattered thunderstorms. Storms more numerous during the evening. Low around 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
Newburyport, MA (01950)

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Cloudy skies with a few showers later in the day. High 84F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

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MG Chetan By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: A city court has convicted a Karachi-based chemical engineer, an alleged operative of banned terror outfit Al-Badr, who was arrested in Mysuru in 2006, for waging war against India. Fahad alias Nadutani alias Mohammed Koya, a native of North Nazimabad of Karachi and an MSc graduate in Analytical Chemistry, was 24-years-old when he was arrested, along with another suspect, Mohammed Ali Hussain, also a Pakistani. They were nabbed by the Mysuru City Police on the night of October 26, 2006, on the ring road between Hunsur and KRS after an exchange of fire.

During the search of Fahads house in Rajiv Nagar later, the police had recovered a Pakistani passport, six packets of different chemicals, blasting capes, 90 live cartridges and an empty AK-47 magazine, seven live cartridges of 9-mm pistol, explosive substances, and 30 CDs on which the label Making of chemical explosives details was pasted, apart from books on Osama bin Laden and guerilla warfare.

The prosecution had charged Fahad under various sections of the IPC, UAPA, Indian Arms Act, Foreigners Act, Foreigners Registration Act, Explosive Substances Act, and Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The case was transferred to the special court constituted under the PMLA. The illegal possession of prohibited weapon AK-47 and the live cartridges, and explosives found in the house of the accused would itself be sufficient to hold that he has hatched a conspiracy on gaining entry into India from Pakistan to carry out illegal activities with an intention to wage war against India, and to destroy public property. It is not only the mere possession of the prohibited weapon, but also use of the same for firing on the police team, who attempted to nab the accused, Principal City Civil and Sessions Judge Justice Anil B Katti said, while pronouncing the judgement.

Meanwhile, he has been acquitted for charges under the UAPA, wherein the court observed that an officer not below the rank of Secretary to the Government is the authority to accord sanction, but in the case, sanction was accorded by an undersecretary. Fahad was also acquitted for offences under the provisions of the Explosive Substances Act and PMLA.

Charges & Punishment

Waging war against the country - 10 years RI and fine of Rs 10,000

Causing hurt- 2 years SI and fine of Rs 2,000

Deterring public servant from discharging duty - 1 year SI and fine of Rs 1,000

Indian Arms Act - 7 years SI and fine of Rs 22,000

Foreigners Act - 2 years SI and fine of Rs 11,000
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: 26 days after polling, votes of the sixteenth State Assembly elections will be counted on Sunday. It will begin at 8 am in 75 centres spread across the State, and round-wise results are likely to be declared every 30 minutes.

Safety measure in place

Stringent Covid-19 safety protocols have been put in place ahead of the counting. According to the Election Commission, only those who have received two doses of Covid-19 vaccines or having Covid-19 negative reports would be allowed into the centre. All arrangements have been made. Surveillance cameras will be installed at each table to monitor the counting process, said Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo.

Security measures in place

Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines, which allow voters to verify whether their votes have been recorded correctly, will be used in all the polling booths. Such widespread use of the machine is a first in the State, sources said. Meanwhile, some opposition parties complained that unauthorised vehicles entered counting centres at a few places in the State.

Absence present

This is the first election in a long time held in the absence of M Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa, two of the most influential political leaders in Tamil Nadus history. And political pundits opine that its outcome will set the tone for the state politics in the coming decades.

Incumbent Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, who has been leading the government since February 2017, is seeking peoples mandate for a third term of AIADMK governance. Giving him a tough fight is DMK President M K Stalin, who is facing the election as the partys chief ministerial candidate for the first time.

Dont believe in exit-poll

The AIADMK on Friday asked its cadre to not believe the exit-poll results. In a joint statement, AIADMK joint coordinator Edappadi K Palaniswami and coordinator O Panneerselvam said the exit-poll results were planted by the DMK to demoralise AIADMK cadre and to weaken their commitment towards their democratic responsibilities on the counting day.

Urging party functionaries and cadre to be vigilant on May 2, the AIADMK leaders asked chief agents and counting agents to leave the counting centres only after the declaration of final results of respective constituencies.

In 2016 election also, exit-poll results were against the incumbent government. Within a few hours of counting, however, the AIADMK emerged victorious with a majority and formed government under the leadership of the late chief minister J Jayalalithaa, said the statement.

Similarly, in a statement, DMK President MK Stalin urged party cadre to stay home and not gather at public places to celebrate the party victory on Sunday. For me, the health of the cadre is more important than victory celebrations, said the DMK president.

Skyview of poll

16,387 staff on counting duty

88,937 booths across the State

234 observers appointed by EC

6.29 crore voters in the State

4.58 crore exercised franchise

72.78% is voter turnout recorded

911 individuals on poll duty test positive

Chennai: The Chennai Corporation tested 911 people, including election officials and media persons on election duty. The tests were done after the Election Commissioner of India made it mandatory for anyone engaged in election duty to have either a negative Covid-19 report or to have received both the doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.

Adhere to norms

Expressing satisfaction over the arrangements made by the ECI for vote counting on May 2, the Madras High Court directed party leaders in the State to adhere to the Covid-19 norms and also set an example for their cadres. The court adjourned the plea to May 5 for the Centre to file a report on the supply of drugs the State.


By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Shortage of oxygen resulted in the death of 12 COVID-19 patients at Batra Hospital on Saturday. One of the victims was RK Himthani, head of the gastroenterology department of the hospital.

Dr SCL Gupta, medical director of the hospital, said six of the deceased were in ICU on high flow of oxygen, including the doctor.

He was admitted for the last 15-20 days. "There were patients who could have survived, beat the virus but they could not because of oxygen shortage. If you are providing oxygen, provide regularly. The government should take some decision, either close the hospital or admission. What was the fault of those patients who died due to shortage of oxygen?" he said.

Hospital authorities had raised an alarm over depleting stocks of oxygen at around noon, after which AAP MLA Raghav Chadha, who is monitoring oxygen supply to several hospitals in the city, said supply was reaching the hospital.

"Our SOS cryogenic tanker carrying Liquid Medical Oxygen is reaching Batra Hospital within 5 minutes. Their regular supplier of oxygen has defaulted yet again due to alleged lack of oxygen supplies and is being pulled up," he tweeted.

Gupta said they had informed authorities about lack of oxygen in the morning when they had 2,500 litres left. At around 12.30 pm, hospital authorities claimed they had run out of oxygen. The oxygen tanker arrived at 1.35 pm, he added.

Expressing grief, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal once again flagged the issue of short supply of oxygen to Delhi. "This is very painful. Their lives could have been saved by giving them oxygen on time. Delhi should get its quota of oxygen. Cant see our people dying like this. Delhi needs 976 tonnes of oxygen, but it received only 312 tonnes yesterday. How will Delhi breathe in such a less amount of oxygen?" his tweet in Hindi said.

            -   



                      976       312            ? https://t.co/h7C5bcFtD6  Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) May 1, 2021

Other hospitals in the city also sent out messages about oxygen shortage on Saturday. Sir Ganga Ram Hospital had last week reported the death of 25 critically ill patients, as the administration struggled with oxygen supplies.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police has arrested an ambulance driver for allegedly demanding Rs 8,500 to shift a COVID-19 patient, officials said on Saturday.

Police said 30-year-old Pramod Kumar, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad, was arrested after a complaint was lodged by a man named Irshad alleged where he alleged that he was charged Rs 8,500 for shifting a patient for a distance of five kilometres, they said.

The complainant alleged that he had to shift his COVID positive relative from Apollo hospital in Jasola to Holy family hospital.

The ambulance driver demanded Rs 8,500 to shift the patient for a distance of five kilometers, a senior police officer said.

The police sent a decoy client who asked Kumar to shift a patient from the Apollo hospital to Holy Family hospital, officials said.

This time, the ambulance driver demanded Rs 9,500, the officer said.

"After some bargaining, he agreed to take the patient for Rs 8,500. The decoy customer gave him Rs 8,500 cash. The accused was then apprehended," Deputy Commissioner of Police (southeast) R P Meena said.

In a similar case in northeast Delhi, a man named Satish, a resident of Sonia Vihar, made a PCR call on Friday, complaining that D K Ambulance Service was charging a high price to shift a patient.

"The complainant said through Twitter, he came across a tweet where D K Ambulance Service was charging Rs 10,000 for a short distance of four kilometres.

"To verify the facts, he called the office of the ambulance service. He asked them to provide an ambulance to shift a patient from Sonia Vihar to Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital. He was asked to pay Rs 15,000," Deputy Commissioner of Police (northeast) Sanjay Kumar Sain said.

Thereafter, he made a PCR call and provided the printout of the receipt, they said.

During investigation, the accused was identified as Devendra.

He was the owner of D K Ambulance Services and runs it from his residence.

He was providing services to shift patients through hospitals and social media, police said.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court Saturday directed all hospitals in the national capital to provide information on daily admissions and discharge of COVID-19 patients and of those admitted for over 10 days, since April 1.

A concern was raised in the court regarding optimal utilisation of ICU and oxygenated beds and ICU beds in hospitals and nursing homes across Delhi.

A bench of justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli, which held a four-hour-long special hearing on a holiday on various issues relating to the COVID-19 situation, said it appears there is choking of beds taking place in hospitals and nursing homes.

"Looking into the dearth and shortage of beds, particularly oxygen beds and beds in ICU, we consider it necessary to have this aspect looked into as there are allegations of malpractice of patients not being discharged despite having recovered from the COVID-19 disease," the bench said.

It said, "We direct the medical superintendents/ owners/ doctors of all hospitals and nursing homes, including those of Delhi government, Centre and private, to place details of the number of COVID-19 patients admitted and discharged each day from April 1.

" They shall also give details of the number of patients who have remained hospitalised for 10 days or more and the type of bed occupied by them from April 1.

The bench said the details shall be emailed by May 4 to amicus curiae and senior advocate Raj Shekhar Rao who shall combine the information and place it before the court on May 5.

It also directed the Delhi government to forthwith update its portal about admission and discharge of COVID-19 patients from hospitals and to also keep it updated daily without fail.

It said the number of hospital beds available on the portal shall separately show how many of them are oxygenated and non-oxygenated.

"From what has emerged, it is well known that one who contracts COVID-19, takes about 10-14 days to recover in normal course about 10 per cent of them require hospitalisation and 1 per cent of the total affected persons are likely to require greater medical intervention and admission to ICU," the court noted.

Delhi government counsel Satyakam submitted that in Delhi, there are a total of 20,938 beds for COVID-19 patients as on date in all hospitals here and the data include non-oxygenated, oxygenated, ICU beds.

To this, the bench said looking to this number, every day a substantial number of beds should become available for the patients, but that does not appear to be happening.

The patients who require hospitalisation with oxygen support should normally be in a position to leave the hospital within 8-10 days subject to the condition, unless it worsens and requires ICU, the court said, adding that in most cases, COVID-19 resolves itself in 10 days to two weeks with medicines.

"However it appears that there is choking of beds taking place in hospitals and nursing homes," the bench said.

Senior advocate Rahul Mehra, representing the Delhi government, showed an office order by Directorate General of Health Services on the new discharge policy and also a document of the medical director of LNJP Hospital which stated that patients are staying in hospitals beyond seven days.

"Therefore, all unit heads and consultants are requested to discharge patients as per the revised discharge policy of the government so that more lives can be saved. Stable patients whose oxygen saturation is more than 91 per cent may be shifted to GNEC, Shehnai banquet and Rouse Avenue School," the hospital order said.

Meanwhile, the court also said hospitals should learn from their experiences regarding oxygen scarcity during the prevailing pandemic and set up plants for generating the life-saving gas.

It said for commercial considerations, some hospitals reduce capital expenditures on things like oxygen plants which are essential in a hospital, especially the big ones, and it is irresponsible not to have such plants.

Mehra also informed the court that a hospital in the name of Gandhi Hospital on Friday made a false statement that it has not received a single oxygen cylinder for the last 48 hours, despite getting various.

The hospital's owner submitted that there was some mis-communication between the management and their lawyer and there was no intention to make a false statement.

The court warned that such false claims shall not be made in future, particularly at this time as it wastes time and takes away time of the administration which is dealing with the situation on war footing.

Regarding a plea by a group of lawyers including Bar Council of Delhi chairman Ramesh Gupta seeking arrangement for treatment of lawyers contracting COVID-19, Mehra said they were working on it and something positive will come up by Monday.

Another plea was mentioned by Dwarka Court Bar Association President Y P Singh seeking to make operation Indira Gandhi Hospital in Dwarka, which has been under construction for the last 8 years and near completion now, which could accommodate 1700 beds.

The court asked the government to take instruction on this and apprise it with the development.
Gayathri Mani By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: In the time of despair, the Delhi Police is not only helping the needy with food, transporting oxygen cylinders and performing the last rites of victims, but has also reached out to several children who have slipped into depression after losing one or both of their parents or friends to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In one such incident, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) South Atul Kumar Thakur said the police had been keeping an eye on two youngsters, residents of CR Park, who lost their parents to the deadly infection within a gap of one day.

Recently, the police received information that the siblings may try to commit suicide. The DCP added that the police also received calls from their friends informing them that the brother-sister duo was depressed since there was no one left to take care of them. Soon after, a team comprising sub-inspectors Jitender, Annu and Jagdish, under the supervision of inspector Ved Prakash, reached their residence.

According to the police, Sanjeev Phuken, 53, had died on April 28 at Kant Hospital in Faridabad, Haryana, while his wife Momi Phukan, 45, succumbed to COVID-19 at Vimhans Hospital in Lajpat Nagar.

"Stranded in their house Sunmita (20) and Arunab (18) were in a state of shock and depression. When the police team reached their south Delhi residence, they were in very poor condition as they did not have any food in the last three-four days. They were rescued and sent for counselling," said the DCP.

As an initial, response, the police team immediately gave them food, water and juice. "Meanwhile, their relatives in Gurugram were informed and they are being sent to their native place at Narikal Basti in Guwahati," added the police.

The police said that the Sanjeev was cremated in Faridabad, while Momi's funeral was conducted under the supervision of the hospital and local administrative authorities as per COVID protocols.

Those who want to help can also call 1098  the Childline number, which also alerts Child Welfare Committees. The 24-hour toll-free helpline of the Women & Child Development Ministry has seen a 50% increase in distress calls from regular call volumes in 2020.

Distress dials

Those who want to help can also call 1098  the Childline number, which also alerts Child Welfare Committees. It has seen a 50 per cent increase in distress calls from regular volumes in 2020
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The national capital recorded its highest 412 COVID-19 fatalities in a day and 25,219 new instances of the infection with a case positivity rate of 31.61 per cent on Saturday, according to a bulletin issued by the Delhi health department.

It had reported 375 fatalities on Friday, 395 on Thursday, 368 on Wednesday; 381 on Tuesday, 380 on Monday, 350 on Sunday, 357 on Saturday last week, and 348 on last Friday, according to government data.

Delhi had recorded 27,047 cases on Friday, 24,235 on Thursday, 25,986 on Wednesday, 24,149 on Tuesday, 20,201 on Monday, 22,933 on Sunday, 24,103 last Saturday and 24,331 last Friday.

The city has so far recorded 11,74,553 cases, of which over 10.61 lakh have recovered.

The death toll due to the viral disease stands at 16,559, the bulletin said.

A total of 79,780 tests, including 16,509 rapid-antigen tests, were conducted in a day.

The city currently has 96,747 active cases, it added.

Out of the 21,227 COVID beds in various hospitals of the city, only 1,295 are vacant.

A total of 50,554 patients are recovering in home isolation, the bulletin said.

According to it, 45,353 vaccine doses were administered in a day and included 21,828 who received the first dose and 23,525 who got the second dose.

The number of containment zones in the city has jumped to 39,556 from 37,223 the previous day.

Meanwhile, several hospitals in the national capital reported precipitous drop in their oxygen stocks on Saturday and sent out desperate messages of help on a day 12 COVID-19 patients died at the Batra Hospital here due to lack of the life-saving gas.

Delhi government-run GTB Hospital said it has stock till 8 pm while Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital maintained that their oxygen stock will last for four hours.

Sources at the Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital said their facility has put admissions on hold due to the depleting oxygen supplies.

The hospital has nearly 350 patients and all of them are on oxygen support.

AAP MLA Raghav Chadha said a cryogenic tanker carrying two metric tonnes of Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) for Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital will reach the facility within minutes.

"Hate to say this - but oxygen suppliers have abdicated, and we are using every muscle we've got," he said on Twitter.

Similarly, a tanker carrying two metric tonnes of LMO for GTB Hospital will also be reaching the facility, Chadha said on Twitter.

"We will spare no effort to secure lives of Delhiites, despite deprivation of oxygen to the NCT of Delhi," Chadha said.

At 7.35 pm on Saturday, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital also pressed the SOS button as it said it has only 2,500 cubic metres of oxygen left for five hours.

The hospital requires a minimum of 11,000 cubic metre of oxygen per day and has a consumption of 10,000 cubic metres on a daily basis.

The hospital has 560 COVID patients.

Fortis Hospital in Vasant Kunj also stopped taking admissions due to oxygen shortage and had only four hours of oxygen left, sources had said in the afternoon.

Later, the issue was resolved after the hospital received an oxygen tanker around 4 pm.

According to the Delhi Corona mobile application, the hospital has 106 coronavirus patients.

Sehgal Neo hospital in Meera Bagh too sent out an SOS message on Twitter about its dwindling oxygen.

"We request urgent assistance in getting #SOSoxygen. We are running out of our backup supply, and have been waiting for a supply since early morning. We have 90 patients on O2 & 13 in ICU," the hospital tweeted around 12.40 pm.

"78 Patients battling for their life at Sant Parmanand Hospital. We have less than 1 hour of oxygen left!! PLEASE HELP", the facility tweeted 4.20 pm.

In response, Raghav Chadha had tweeted, "We have arranged two D Type oxygen cylinders to avert any crisis at Sant Parmanand Hospital, from our Rajghat Response Point. The Govt's oxygen reserves are extremely limited due to reduced supply of oxygen to Delhi, however we are trying out best."

Bhagat Chandra Hospital in west Delhi was also in a crisis with its dwindling oxygen supply.

However, Chadha said they have "assigned 3 D-type cylinders from Mayapuri Response Point to the hospital".

"The officials of Bhagat Chandra Hospital are rushing there to collect it. We are literally hand to mouth today as oxygen supplies to Delhi have further dipped. Not even 1/3rd of allocation is rcvd," he tweeted.

At 10.30 am, MD City Hospital situated at Model Town had also said that it has two hours of oxygen left.

The hospital has 140 patients and had not received oxygen supplies from 3 am on April 30.

Chadha said a cryogenic tanker was rushed to the hospital to avert any crisis.

Hospitals across the national capital and its suburbs have been sending out desperate messages of help on social media and other platforms, flagging their dwindling stocks of oxygen.

Sir Ganga Ram Hospital had last week reported the death of 25 of its sickest patients as the administration struggled with depleting oxygen supplies.

Twenty people died at the Jaipur Golden Hospital last week amid shortage of oxygen.
On July 29, John Wayne Mackay, 42, and Nicole Michelle Houchin, 35, were each charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, police said. John Mackay is an Army staff sergeant stationed at Joint Base Eustis, and Houchin's address is listed as Eustis. The two suspects admitted to having an affair and conspired with Houchin's husband to kill Dana Mackay for $20,000, according to a news release.
Kanu Sarda By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: In a stern warning to the Centre, Delhi High Court on Saturday asked it to give Delhi their full quota of medical oxygen by whatever means.

"Water has gone above the head. You have to arrange everything now. You have made the allocations. You have to fulfil it. Eight lives have been lost. We cant shut our eyes to it," a bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli said, while referring to loss of lives at Batra Hospital after oxygen supply stopped for 80 minutes.

"We direct the Centre to ensure that Delhi receives its 490 tonnes (of medical oxygen) today by whatever means. It falls on the Centre to arrange tankers as well. The allocation was made on April 20 and not even one day Delhi has received its allocated supply. If this is not implemented, we may even consider initiating contempt proceedings," the court said.

Water has gone above the head. You have to arrange everything now. You have made the oxygen allocation. You have to fulfil it. Eight lives have lost. We cant shut our eyes to it: Delhi HC to Centre.



More @ndtv  Arvind Gunasekar (@arvindgunasekar) May 1, 2021

Senior advocate Rahul Mehra, appearing for the Delhi government, stated that while Delhis demand was 700MT, allocated oxygen was 490MT, out of which the suppliers had made a voluntary commitment of supply of 445MT.

The quantity on Delhi border, for Saturday, was 312 MT only, Mehra informed the court as he submitted that this was a deficit of over 100 MT.

"Enough is enough. No one is asking for more than allocated. If you cant supply the allocation today, we will see your explanation on Monday," the court said while refusing to give Centre time to explain the crisis.

BIG BREAKING: Delhi HC says it may consider initiating contempt proceedings against the Centre if 480 MT of oxygen is not supplied to Delhi today. HC says Now the water has gone above our head. Now we mean business. Enough is enough!  Nalini (@nalinisharma_) May 1, 2021

The court also directed data with respect to daily COVID19 admissions and discharges from all hospitals in Delhi, whether government or private, starting April 1.

ALSO WATCH:
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Amid an acute shortage of oxygen in Delhi hospitals, the Centre on Saturday raised the national capital's daily quota of the life-saving gas to 590 metric tonne from 490 MT.

According to the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry, Delhi will get an additional 75 metric tonne of oxygen from LINDE Kalinganagar and 25 MT from JSW BPSL Jharsuguda (Odisha).

With new allocation, Delhi will get 590 metric tonne of medical oxygen every day.

However, the Delhi government is demanding 976 MT of oxygen from the Centre due to spiralling cases of the coronavirus in the city.

Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said Delhi's demand is 976 MT oxygen per day.

According to official record, Delhi had got 305 metric tonne of oxygen on April 25, followed by 408 MT on April 26; 398 MT on April 27; 431 MT on April 28 and 409 MT on April 29.

He said if the requirement is fulfilled, his government can increase 9,000 beds in the next 24 hours.

On Saturday, the Delhi High Court directed the Centre to ensure that the national capital receives its allocated share of the life-saving gas during the day and said "enough is enough", "much water has gone above the head".

A bench of justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli said the Centre has to ensure that Delhi receives its allocated amount of oxygen "by whatever means" and warned that a failure to do so could lead to contempt action.
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: The cops with Cyberabad police investigating the daylight robbery in which a staffer of a CMS agency was shot dead at Patelkunta, Kukatpally on Thursday, suspect that the duo, who worked as migrant workers, belong to the same gang which had robbed a money transfer agent gunpoint in Jeedimetla a week ago. The helmet used by the suspects in both the offences has reportedly given the cops a breakthrough.

The police clarified that the suspects are migrant workers and had been in the city for quite some time. They had used a friends scooter at Jeedimetla on April 17 night, while the Pulsar without a number plate used in the robbery at Kukatpally is a stolen bike. Police also found that the suspects had carried the weapon to use it and rob the cash at the gunpoint. However, when the security officer and the ATM officer resisted the attempt, they were forced to open fire.

At Jeedimetla police limits on April 17, the suspects robbed Rs 1.95 lakh cash from Ravi Kumar, who runs Laxmi Money Transfer Agency at Quthbullapur X Roads. The entire episode was caught on CCTV cameras. When Ravi was working, the suspects entered the office. One of them was wearing a helmet and the other wore a face mask. The police had registered a case.
Rajesh Abraham By

Express News Service

KOCHI: Life was slowly getting back to normal for the 75 inmates at Bless Homes, a retirement home for the well-heeled, at Vazhakulam, near Aluva as Covid cases were coming down after the initial spike early this year. Then the second wave, deadlier as indicated by the higher infection and mortality rates, came as a sudden wake-up call.

Unlike the first wave, we didnt get the time to prepare and explain the situation to the residents. We had to impose new restrictions overnight. We stopped common dining facilities and food was served in their respective rooms in trolleys, said Babu Joseph, chairman, Bless Homes.All the residents realised the gravity of the issue when we told them about the Covid second wave and they have responded well, said Joseph.

While guests were asked to meet inmates in a separate room during the first wave, this time visitors have been completely prohibited. Food at the common dining hall was avoided, and the staff were asked to provide it to residents in their respective rooms, he said.Many of the staff members were asked to stay back at the care home while a couple of others who were using public transport were provided with two-wheelers, said Gijo Antony, the managing director.

A staffer checks an item before handing

it over to another (wearing PPE kit),

to be given to a resident

The situation at Signature Aged Care  which runs two care homes in Ernakulam, one at Chalikkavattom, Vennala and the other at Padamugal, Kakkanad  demanded even more vigil as most of its residents have comorbidities and are under treatment for other age-related ailments. Many of our inmates need intense personalised nursing and healthcare assistance, said Joseph Alex, managing trustee of Signature Aged Care that has 140 residents at the two facilities combined.

We are aware of the threats posed by Covid and have been giving the inmates vitamins, minerals and other supplements to boost their immunity levels, he said. Alex said all 220 inmates at Signature Aged Care, which includes 80 staff members, have taken the first dose of the Covid vaccine, and so far no one has been infected with the disease in the second wave. We had a Covid patient in October. No one has been infected in this wave as we have completely prohibited visits from outside, he said.

At Signature too, staff members were asked to stay within its units to ensure that they do not contract the disease from outside and transmit it to the inmates. Antony said 40 Bless Homes residents have received the first dose of the Covid vaccine but the reported shortage of vaccines has made the availability of the first dose to the remaining inmates uncertain.

George Paul, clinical associate professor and head of geriatrics, Amrita Hospital, said it is a big challenge for care homes to handle the Covid spread as many elderly persons have comorbidity issues. However, with proper care and vigil, this can be managed well, Paul said. Amrita Hospital, he said, was in the final stages of signing an MoU with Bless Homes for providing medical assistance to its inmates.
phanindra papasani By

Express News Service

VIJAYAWADA: Are you in home quarantine, living alone and finding it difficult to meet your food requirements. Dont worry, Satish Savitri Sarella and his team have been helping Covid-19 patients in home isolation recover from Covid-19 by providing hot and delicious meals to their doorsteps. 38-year-old Satish Savitri Sarella started Future-India Foundation with his close friends to help those in distress and in need of food during home quarantine. Sarella understands because he faced a similar situation.

Satish found it difficult to cook food when he was under home isolation in April. It all began when I tested positive for the virus in the first week of April. After sending my wife and daughter to my in-laws house, I started cooking food. I am such a bad cook. Its difficult for single or elderly people to get good food when you lock yourself in a room, fighting with the virus. Thats the time when I decided to help those in home quarantine and started Future-India Foundation, Satish explained.

Currently, his team is active in Vijayawada, Eluru and Jangareddigudem of West Godavari district. We are providing food to Covid-19 at their doorsteps, he said. Satish works as a superintendent (Vigilance) in the Animal Husbandry department. Initially, I was the only person delivering food packets to those who requested them through Twitter, WhatsApp and Facebook. Later, a few of my friends joined in. People from different walks of life have also joined in now. Everyone takes an active part in delivering the food packets breakfast, lunch and dinnerto those in home isolation. We do not accept donations; we spend from our salaries, he said.

Satish said they are here to help the Covid-19 patients in home isolation and do not have means to proper meal. This service is only for Covid-19 patients. If you need food, please contact us on 8317553253, Satish said, signing off.
By Express News Service

Little Women fame Florence Pugh is all set to star in a new adaptation of Emma Donoghues novel, The Wonder.

The Wonder revolves around a young girl in 1859 Ireland, who stops eating and drinking but still lives without ailments. A nurse named Lib Wright travels to the small village in the Irish Midlands to witness the strange phenomena.

What ensues is a biting psychological thriller, and a meditation on good and evil, the books synopsis reads. A Fantastic Woman director Sebastin Lelio will direct from a script by Alice Birch. Birch previously wrote the screenplay of the 2016 drama Lady Macbeth.
By PTI

MUMBAI: TV actor Rubina Dilaik on Saturday said she has tested positive for the novel coronavirus and is under home quarantine.

The "Bigg Boss 14" winner shared her diagnosis in an Instagram post.

"I always look out for silver lining!! I will be now eligible for donating plasma after a month. Tested positive! Home quarantined for next 17 days!," she wrote.

The 33-year-old actor urged everyone who came in contact with her to get themselves tested.

"Whosoever has come in contact with me past 5/7 days, please get yourself tested!," she added.

On Friday, Mumbai recorded 3,888 new cases and 89 deaths, raising the overall tally of the city to 6,48,471 and the death toll to 13,125, the state health department said.
Bhuvanesh Chandar By

Express News Service

If there's one thing that Netflix's Things Heard & Seen shows, it is that the exploration in the horror genre is far from over.

Based on the Elizabeth Brundage novel 'All Things Cease to Appear', the film follows George Claire (James Norton), Catherina Claire (Amanda Seyfried) and their little girl Franny Claire (Ana Sophia Heger), who live a comfortable life in New York.

Soon, George announces that he's landed a job as a professor in Saginaw University, a small private college at an upstate place called Chosen. They move into a big house at Chosen that looks extremely creepy and is a hundred years old at least.

It's the classic horror movie set-up. Cathy and Franny begin to experience an unnatural presence, and George is the typical guy in the horror movie who says, "You are crazy. The house is perfect." Despite such a tried-and-tested setting, Things Heard & Seen slowly shows signs that it may not be as cliched as it seems.

Cathy realises that the house has seen some very disturbing things and that a kind spirit is trying to protect her. A horror movie with a good ghost? The movie also drops hints to show that George may not be the person we think he is.

Eventually, his darker sides unravel and in quite a brilliant fashion (all credits to the good writing). Cathy, being the interesting character she is (she calls herself "a conflicted Catholic girl at heart who is dutifully going through the motions") knows that somethings not right with George. But that the priority is the haunted house.

She gets much-needed support for her theories from Floyd DeBeers (F Murray Abraham), her husband's boss. We eventually realise that the house is haunted by an evil spirit as well.

From here, things get quite interesting. The film leans on the philosophy of Emanuel Swedenborg  a name that is dropped quite often. In fact, the film starts with a quote of his that goes, "This I can declare: things that are in heaven are more real than things that are in the world." The movie states that theres a portal between the human world and the worlds beyond death.

A guardian angel will use the goodness within a human as a portal, while an evil spirit will use the lack of it. The movie also substantiates the quote by portraying an angelic spirit as real, and a character of the real world as an evil fraudster.

The film depicts this theme quite beautifully, and quite artistically. When DeBeers welcomes George at Saginaw, he gifts him a book of Swedenborg, Heaven and the World of Spirits and Hell. The cover art of which is a painting by 19th century painter George Inness called 'The Valley of Shadow of Death', which, as per DeBeers, shows the departure of a soul to heaven.

Macroscopically, the film is a twisted depiction of two painters in their extremes - Thomas Cole and George Inness.

Cole and Inness were both landscape painters and the founders of the Hudson River School art movement. In particular, Cole's The Voyage of Life (the last in his The Voyage of Life series) and Inness' The Valley of Shadow of Death.

These are not just names of paintings dropped, but the climax of the film brings these two paintings  which are similar in their subject and theme  together. George rows his boat on the Hudson, desperate for 'escape'.

However, instead of the cross in Inness painting, an upsidedown cross appears in the sky  a symbol of evil. The sky is blood red, like in Coles painting, which very much mirrors his quote, "Sky is the soul of all scenery."

In a way, it is the spirit of art itself that haunts George, for his treachery to the subject he claims to hold so dearly. A look at Elizabeth Brundages novel and into the lives of Thomas Cole and George Inness might reveal why two characters in the film are also named Cole and George.

Things Heard & Seen might at first look like The Shining meeting The Conjuring, however, it does have depth. Moreover, the performances and music are excellent.

Given that it is based on a book, the writers may have been creatively restrained to an extent, but the problem lies with the screenplay itself. It builds up to extremely obvious reveals and is filled with cliche horror tropes.

Things Heard & Seen may not fulfil the scary expectations of a horror film, but on closer look, it seems like it wasnt supposed to. Why should all horror films have jump scares, gnarly demons and eerie VFX ghosts?

Director: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini

Cast: Amanda Seyfried, James Norton, Natalia Dyer, F Murray Abraham

Streaming on: Netflix

Rating: 2.5/5
By PTI

NAGPUR: A Sikh man has been criss-crossing the streets of Nagpur city of Maharashtra on his two-wheeler to provide free food to the needy everyday, a practice he has been following for the last few years, which continues even during the distressing times of coronavirus pandemic.

Jamshed Singh Kapoor, 41, who is an astrologer, has been running this mobile 'Langar Seva', under which he provides 'dal khichdi' to hundreds of people for five hours starting 3 pm.

Wearing a white T-shirt with 'Langar Seva' printed on it, Kapoor can be easily be spotted serving dal khichdi to people at various locations in the city, with a container filled with the eatable item tied to his two-wheeler.

ALSO READ | Ray of hope: Oxygen langars come for the ailing at four places in Delhi amid COVID crisis

Langar literally means community kitchen, as part of which free vegetarian food is served at Gurdwaras every day.

Talking to PTI about his initiative, Kapoor said that he has been running the 'Langar Seva' in Nagpur since 2013.

"Earlier, only the underprivileged and poor used to come to get food. But with small eateries remaining shut due to the pandemic and the restrictions, people from all walks of life avail this service," he said.

He said people also support him in his endeavour and donate rice and pulses so that he continues to serve the needy.

Recalling an incident, Kapoor said a beggar, who used to get food from him, had given him a bag containing some clothes saying that they should be given to some needy people after his death.

"I took the bag home. After his death, when I opened it, I found that he had kept Rs 25,000 cash inside along with the clothes, which he had not mentioned earlier," he said.

Kapoor says he has been running this service in memory of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, who he says had visited Nagpur in 1512 and provided Langar service to the local tribals.

He says that he dreams to run the 'Langar Seva' for the needy 24x7.
The officer has been under home confinement since his November arrest, with prior approval granted to go to doctors appointments, as well as attend work at Olivet Christian Church and church services there.
By PTI

BHARUCH (GUJARAT): At least 18 coronavirus patients died after a fire broke out at a hospital in Gujarat's Bharuch in the early hours on Saturday. Gut-wrenching visuals of the tragedy showed remains of some patients roasted alive on stretchers and beds.

There were around 50 other patients at the four-storeyed Welfare Hospital when the fire broke out in the COVID-19 ward at 1 am. An official said that they were rescued by locals and firefighters. "As per information at 6.30 am, the death toll in the tragedy stood at 18. Immediately after the fire, we had confirmation of 12 deaths," a police official told PTI.

Gujarat| Fire breaks out at a COVID-19 care centre in Bharuch. Affected patients are being shifted to nearby hospitals. Details awaited. pic.twitter.com/pq88J0eRXY  ANI (@ANI) April 30, 2021

Bharuch SP Rajendrasinh Chudasama said that the 12 patients in the COVID-19 ward died due to the fire and resultant smoke. It is not clear if the remaining six also died in the Welfare hospital or while being shifted to other hospitals.

The COVID-19 designated hospital is situated on the Bharuch-Jambusar highway, around 190 km from the state capital Ahmedabad and is being run by a trust. The official said that the cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained.

He added that the fire was controlled within an hour and around 50 patients were rescued by locals as well as firefighters, a fire official said. They were shifted to nearby hospitals. Several vehicles of the district police also reached the spot to ensure that law and order remain under control.

A relative of a patient who was shifted to the civil hospital here was seen searching for the case file in a heap of waste dumped after the fire. She said that she was looking for the case file so that doctors at the hospital where he was taken could begin his treatment immediately.

       ,          .          4   .  Vijay Rupani (@vijayrupanibjp) May 1, 2021

Meanwhile, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has expressed his condolences and has announced to provide financial assistance of Rs 4 lakh to the families of each of the deceased. "I express my condolences to the patients, doctors and hospital staff who lost their lives in the fire accident at Bharuch Hospital. The state government will provide assistance of Rs 4 lakh to the families of each of the victims of the accident," tweeted Rupani.

The Chief Minister has also directed two senior IAS officers of the state, Additional Chief Secretary for Labour and Employment Vipul Mitra and Commissioner Municipalities Rajkumar Beniwal, to immediately reach Bharuch and investigate the incident. He has also said that the state government is also taking action to hand over a judicial inquiry into the tragedy.

Pained by the loss of lives due to a fire at a hospital in Bharuch. Condolences to the bereaved families.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 1, 2021

Meanwhile , Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday expressed his anguish at the loss of lives in a fire tragedy at a hospital in Gujarat. "Pained by the loss of lives due to a fire at a hospital in Bharuch. Condolences to the bereaved families," Modi tweeted.

(With inputs from ANI)
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The Centre has released the first instalment, Rs 8,873.6 crore, of State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) in advance to the states in view of the continuing COVID-19 surge. Half of the amount, i.e. Rs 4,436 crore can be used for COVID-19 containment measures, including setting up of hospitals and oxygen generation units.

The Union Home Ministry said as a special dispensation, the Department of Expenditure, under the Ministry of Finance, has released the amount in advance of the normal schedule at its recommendation. An amount of Rs 8,873.6 crore has been released to the states, an official statement said.

Normally, the first instalment of the SDRF is released in June according to the recommendations of the Finance Commission, the ministry said, in a statement. However, in relaxation of the normal procedure, not only has the release of the SDRF been advanced but the amount has also been released without waiting for the utilisation certificate of the amount provided to the states in the last financial year.

Of the total amount released by the Centre, the worst affected states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka and Kerala will get Rs 1,288.80 crore, Rs 728 crore, 773.20 crore, 529.60 crore, 316.40 crore and Rs 125.60 crore respectively.

Of the total amount, following sums would be released to Haryana (Rs 196.40 crore), Himachal Pradesh (Rs 163.60 crore), Jharkhand (Rs 227.20 crore), Odisha (Rs 641.60 crore), Punjab (Rs 198 crore), Rajasthan (Rs 592.40 crore), Telangana (Rs 179. 60), Tamil Nadu (Rs 408 crore), Uttarakhand (Rs 374.80 crore) and West Bengal (Rs 404.40 crore).

The funds from the SDRF may be used by the states for meeting the cost of oxygen generation and storage plants in hospitals, ventilators, air purifiers, strengthening ambulance services, COVID-19 hospitals, COVID care centres, etc.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Saturday decided that it will not participate in election debates on television on Sunday when the results for assembly polls for five states are out.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said in view of the serious coronavirus situation in the country, the party's spokespersons will not participate on the TV debates after poll results are out.

The results for assembly elections in states of Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Kerala would be declared on May 2.

"At a time when Nation is facing an unprecedented crisis, when Govt under PM Modi has collapsed, we find it unacceptable to not hold them accountable and instead discuss election wins and losses. We @INCIndia have decided to withdraw our spokespersons from election debates," he said on Twitter.

"We shall remain available for any comment that media friends want. We may win, we may lose, but at a time when people are looking for oxygen, beds, medicines, ventilators; our duty tells us to stand by them, work with them to heal and help. In solidarity with India," he said in another tweet.

Exit polls have predicted a not so bright picture for the Congress in these elections, where they predict that except in Tamil Nadu, where its ally DMK will romp home to power, the Congress will not fare good in other states.
By PTI

LUCKNOW: Counting of votes for the panchayat polls in Uttar Pradesh will be held on Sunday with the Supreme Court on Saturday refusing to stay the process and the State Election Commission (SEC) saying the candidates and their agents will be allowed to enter the counting centres only if they have tested negative for COVID-19 in the 48 hours prior to the commencement of the counting process or taken both doses of the vaccine.

In a special urgent hearing on a holiday, a bench of justices AM Khanwilkar and Hrishikesh Roy passed the order after taking note of several notifications and assurances of the SEC that the COVID-19 protocols will be followed at all the 829 counting centres.

The court directed that there will be a strict curfew in the entire state till Tuesday morning and no victory rallies will be permitted.

It also asked the SEC to fix the responsibility for observance of COVID-19 protocols at the counting centres on gazetted officers.

The bench directed the poll panel to preserve the CCTV footage of the counting centres till the Allahabad High Court concludes its hearings on the related petitions before it.

It also ordered that the government officials, candidates and their agents will have to produce RT-PCR test reports to show that they are COVID-19 negative before entering the counting centres.

The top court's direction came on a plea seeking a direction for observance of COVID-19 protocols during counting of votes.

The Uttar Pradesh Prathmik Shikshak Sangh (UPPSS), in a letter dated April 29 and addressed to the chief minister and the state election commissioner, had said if the counting of votes on May 2 was not cancelled, the teachers will boycott poll duty.

Meanwhile, UPMSS (Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shikshak Sangh) spokesperson RP Mishra said the election officials have been informed that the circumstances in which the polling was held and non-compliance of COVID norms led to the infection spreading to a large number of poll staff and also deaths.

In this horrific situation, going ahead with the counting of votes is not appropriate.

It also said the kin of the teachers who succumbed to COVID-19 during poll duty be given a compensation of Rs 50 lakh each.

A spokesperson of the Rashtriya Shaikshik Mahasangh Virendra Mishra told PTI that the organisation has given a call to boycott the counting of votes.

When he was informed that the Supreme Court has refused to grant a stay on the counting of votes on May 2, he said the court is doing its job, but "we have to protect our own lives".

"We are not commenting on the court, but seeing the rigid approach of the government, the teachers will not go for the counting of votes," he said.

On April 27, taking note of reports about the death of government employees due to COVID during panchayat poll duty, the Allahabad High Court had asked the SEC why action may not be taken against it and its officials for the same.

A two-judge bench of Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Ajit Kumar passed the order on a suo motu public interest litigation matter on the spread of the coronavirus and the condition of the state's quarantine centres.

When contacted, BJP MLC Hari Singh Dhillon, who had urged the chief minister to postpone the poll results until the COVID situation improves, said some teachers came to him highlighting their plight.

Asked to comment on the teachers' call to boycott the counting of votes, SK Singh, Officer on Special Duty at the SEC, said, "The respective district magistrates will have to take a decision."

On whether the boycott call would delay the counting process, he evaded a direct reply and said all preparations have been made to ensure a smooth counting.

Singh said the SEC does not have a centralised database of the number of teachers involved in the counting process.

"The counting of votes will begin at 8 am and continue till all the ballots are counted. The entire process may take two days," a senior SEC official told PTI.

Generally, counting of votes takes place in eight-hour shifts, he said.

The SEC said at every counting centre, a health desk will be established, where a doctor will be present with medicines.

Those showing symptoms of COVID-19 such as fever, cold and cough will not be allowed at the counting centres.

Everyone entering the counting centre has to undergo thermal scanning, the SEC said.

It categorically stated that there will be a complete ban on victory processions.

Directions have been issued to make arrangements for sanitiser, soap and water at the counting centres, and everyone visiting the centres will have to compulsorily wear a mask and maintain social distancing.

Voting for the panchayat polls in Uttar Pradesh ended on April 29 with a 75-per cent voter turnout in the final phase.

Lakhs of candidates were in the fray for over 7.32 lakh seats in the gram panchayat wards, 58,176 in the gram panchayats, 75,852 in the kshetra panchayats and 3,050 in the zila panchayats in the statewide elections held over four phases.

A total of 3.19 lakh candidates have been elected unopposed, the SEC informed.

The high court had asked the state government to conclude the panchayat poll process by May 25.
Mayank Singh By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Indian Navy has surged its operational commitments towards the country's fight against the COVID pandemic. While seven Indian Navy Ships were deployed by Saturday for Operation Samudra Setu II more are being prepared to join soon.

Giving details of deployment Commander Vivek Madhwal said, "In support of the nation's fight against Covid-19 and as part of operation 'Samudra Setu II, seven Indian Naval ships viz. Kolkata, Kochi, Talwar, Tabar, Trikand, Jalashwa, and Airavat have been deployed for shipment of liquid medical oxygen-filled cryogenic containers and associated medical equipment from various countries."

Also, the Navy has kept enough room to add to the operations as per the future needs said Madhwal. "Indian Navy also has the surge capability, to deploy more ships when the need arises to further nation's fight against COVID-19," he said.

From the Southern Naval Command, the Landing Ship Tank INS Shardul is being readied to join the Operation within 48 hours, added the Navy. Similarly, on the Eastern seaboard, INS Airavat too has been diverted for the task, while INS Jalashwa, the LPD which played a key role during op Samudra Setu last year was pulled out of maintenance, readied, and sailed out to augment the effort.

INS Kolkata, Kochi, Talwar, Tabar, and Trikand are part of the Western Naval Command. INS Kolkata and INS Talwar, mission deployed in the Persian Gulf, were the first batch of ships that were immediately diverted for the task and entered the port of Manama, Bahrain on 30 April 2021.

As for the details of the task, INS Talwar, with 40 MT Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO), is headed back home. INS Kolkata has proceeded to Doha, Qatar for embarking on medical supplies and will subsequently head to Kuwait for embarking on Liquid Oxygen tanks.

INS Airavat is scheduled to enter Singapore for embarking on Liquid oxygen tanks and INS Jalashwa is standing by in the region to embark on medical stores at short notice. The second batch of ships comprising Kochi, Trikand, and Tabar mission deployed in the Arabian sea has also been diverted to join the national effort.

But, the diversion of such a large number of mission deployed ships has not taken place at the cost of operational preparedness.

Commander Madhwal said, "Indian Naval ships continue to maintain the combat readiness and operational deployment. the flexibility and capability of a role change of a 'mission deployed' ship enables Indian Navy to react to any situation which is being built up and therefore is able to rapidly re-deploy to meet any contingencies such as the present requirement."

Indian Air Force has committed its 50 aircraft and 20 helicopters for the same task.

It may be recalled that Operation Samudra Setu was launched last year by the Navy and around 4000 Indian citizens stranded in neighboring countries, amidst COVID 19 outbreak, were successfully repatriated back to India.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: A PIL demanding an FIR and CBI probe into claims of politicians being able to procure and distribute Remdesivir, used for treating COVID-19 patients, even as others run pillar to post to get the medicine, was mentioned before the Delhi High Court on Saturday.

The plea was mentioned before a bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli by advocate Virag Gupta who was asked by the court to bring the petition on record during the day. The plea questions how politicians are able to procure large stocks of the medicine without having the requisite permission under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, when the general public was not getting it.

ALSO READ| Three nabbed in Hyderabad for selling Remdesivir in black market

Petitioner Deepak Singh, the chairperson of Hruduya Foundation and a national-level shooter, has contended that "denying access to medicines for one's own political gain is a crime of very serious nature, and affects coronavirus patients all over India".

Singh has alleged in his plea, filed through advocate Gaurav Pathak, that politicians have been involved in large-scale hoarding, transfer and distribution of crucial medicines like Remdesivir. "Political parties, most of which are invariably headquartered in Delhi, are taking advantage of their political powers and giving patronage to the medical mafia," the plea claimed.

Besides lodging of FIR and CBI invetsigation, the plea also seeks "detention of persons indulging in black-marketing of COVID-19 medicines as per the National Security Act, 1980" and "disqualification of MPs and MLAs found to be hoarding and illegally distributing COVID-19 medicines".
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Top US epidemiologist Anthony Fauci has suggested a lockdown for a few weeks in India as an immediate step to contain the spread of the coronavirus as its deadly second wave shows no signs of ebbing.

Fauci, in an interview, said that another most important thing in the immediate is to get supplies of oxygen, medication, PPEs. He said that looking at the magnitude of the crisis, India should look at putting together a crisis group that would meet and start getting things organised.

Without naming any government, he said one of the things that should have been recognised that "victory was declared maybe too prematurely".

"Well, one of the things you really need to do, to the extent that you can, is shut down temporarily the country, I think is important. If we want to time out and go back to what I said: there is the immediate, the intermediate, and the long range (measures to contain the virus)," said Fauci, who is the chief medical adviser to the Biden administration.

ALSO READ| COVID vaccination for people in 18-44 age group begins at some private hospitals in Delhi

"I think the most important thing in the immediate is to get oxygen, get supplies, get medication, get PPE, those kinds of things but also, one of the immediate things to do is to essentially call a shutdown of the country," he added.

He said that when China had a big explosion of coronavirus cases a year ago, they completely shut down. Fauci said that it is not necessary to shut down for six months, but it can be a temporary one to put an end to the cycle of transmission.

"So one of the things to be considered is to temporarily shut down. Literally, lock down so that you wind up having less spread. No one likes to lock down the country. Well, that's a problem when you do it for six months," he said.

But just for a few weeks of lockdown could have a significant impact on the dynamics of the outbreak. Some states have imposed a lockdown.

Last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said lockdown should be the "last resort" to deal with the raging pandemic and asked states to convince migrant workers to stay put at their places of work with a guarantee for their lives and livelihood.

Breaching its all previous records, India on Saturday hit a record daily high with over 4 lakh new infections, while the active cases crossed the 32-lakh mark. The second wave of the coronavirus has been wreaking havoc, infecting lakhs and killing thousands every day for the past few days.

There have been cases where people have died due to lack of medical facilities, including oxygen. In many cases, families have to arrange oxygen for their patients as they are not able to get admission in hospitals.

ALSO READ| People start panic-buying over fear of likely lockdown in Kerala

"I heard from some of the people in the street bringing their mothers and their fathers and their sisters and their brothers searching for oxygen. They seem to think there really was not any organisation, any central organisation," Fauci said.

Underlining that vaccination plays a crucial role in handling the coronavirus situation, Fauci said if India, a country of 1.4 billion people, has fully vaccinated only two per cent of its total population, then it has a very long way to go.

"You've got to get supplies. You've got to make contractual arrangements with the various companies that are out there in the world. There are many companies that now have vaccines. I think you have to negotiate with them to try and get a commitment. And also, India is the largest vaccine-producing country in the world. That's the thing - you should rev up your own capabilities to make vaccines," he said.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The Indian Air Force airlifted from abroad 47 oxygen containers with a total capacity of 830 metric tonnes while defence public sector undertakings (DPSUs) are procuring 28 oxygen plants and other medical equipment worth Rs 40 crore to help the civilian authorities in the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

These details emerged at a video conference chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday where he reviewed efforts of the armed forces, DPSUs and Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in India's fight against the pandemic.

In the meeting, DRDO Chairman G Satheesh Reddy said the first four out of 380 oxygen PSA (Pressure Swing Adsorption) plants being manufactured under the PM-CARES fund will be deployed in hospitals in Delhi by next week.

Hospitals in Delhi and various other parts of the country are reeling under a severe shortage of medical oxygen, critical medicines and beds in the wake of surging COVID-19 cases.

The defence ministry said Singh was briefed that approximately 600 additional doctors including retired ones are being mobilised through special measures.

It said the Indian Navy has deployed 200 battlefield nursing assistants to assist in various hospitals.

Similarly, the National Cadet Corps (NCC) has deployed 300 cadets and staff at various locations in Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and Haryana.

The Indian Army has made available more than 720 beds for civilians in various states.

The meeting was attended by Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat, Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Karambir Singh, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal R K S Bhadauria, Chief of Army Staff General M M Naravane and DRDO Chairman Reddy among others.

The defence minister directed the Army to share the details with local administration at the state and district levels, the ministry said, adding Gen Rawat suggested that local military commands have to be actively engaged in assisting the civil administration.

In his remarks, Singh asked the armed forces to provide all necessary assistance to the civilian administration and asked the officials of his ministry and the three services to closely monitor the progress of various initiatives.

The defence ministry said Singh was briefed that a 500-bed hospital being set up by DRDO in Lucknow will start functioning in the next two-three days.

Another hospital is also being set up in Varanasi and the work on it is scheduled to be completed by May 5.

The ministry said transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) carried out several sorties from Singapore, Bangkok, Dubai and within the country, while the Indian Navy dispatched four ships, two to Middle-East and two to South East Asia, to bring filled oxygen containers to India.

"As on May 1, IAF carried out 28 sorties from abroad, airlifting 47 oxygen containers with 830 MT of capacity, while from within the country, it carried out 158 sorties, airlifting 109 containers with 2,271 MT capacity," the ministry said in a statement.

The Navy and the IAF have also supplied nearly 500 portable oxygen cylinders from their stores to various civilian hospitals.

"DPSUs are procuring 28 oxygen plants and other medical equipment worth Rs 40 crore under CSR (corporate social responsibility) for supplying to various hospitals in states," the ministry said.

It said Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has set up a 250-bed hospital in Bengaluru and another 250-bed hospital is being set up in Lucknow.

On Friday, Singh granted emergency financial powers to the three services to allow formation commanders to establish and operate hospitals as well as quarantine facilities for COVID-19 patients.

The emergency powers have been granted initially for a period of three months from May 1 to July 31 and are in addition to the similar powers delegated to the medical officers of the armed forces last week.
By PTI

SITAPUR: Senior Samajwadi leader Mohammad Azam Khan tested positive for COVID-19 along with 13 other prisoners in Sitapur jail, officials said on Saturday.

The Rampur MP and the other prisoners tested positive for the infection in both rapid antigen and RT-PCR tests, said R S Yadav, jailer, Sitapur Jail.

He said the tests were conducted after complaints of fever and cough.

Initially, the rapid antigen was done and later the samples were sent for the RT-PCR test, the reports of which came positive late Friday night, he said.

The jailer said the treatment of the Samajwadi Party (SP) leader is going on as per COVID-19 protocol and he has been isolated.

"Azam Khan is under the observation of doctors and his condition is stable," Yadav said, adding that the other COVID-19 positive prisoners have also been isolated and are under treatment.

Khan, along with his son and wife, has been in jail since February last year in connection with various cases of land grabbing, encroachment and others.
By PTI

MUMBAI: Maharashtra on Saturday reported 63,282 fresh COVID-19 cases and 802 fatalities, taking the tally of infections to 46,65,472 and the toll to 69,615, the state health department said.

The state had on Friday added 62,919 cases and 828 fatalities.

Mumbai recorded 3,897 new cases and 90 deaths, raising the overall tally to 6,52,368 and the toll to 13,215.

A total of 61,326 patients were discharged from hospitals in Maharashtra during the day, taking the number of recoveries to 39,30,302, a health official said.

Of the 802 fatalities, 438 occurred in the last 48 hours, 178 in the last week, while the rest 186 had occurred in the period before the last week, the official explained.

Maharashtra is now left with 6,63,758 active cases.

With 2,89,006 new tests, the number of samples examined so far in Maharashtra has gone up to 2,73,95,288, the official said.

The number of people in home quarantine came down by 1.49 lakh on Saturday to 40,43,899 from 41,93,686 on Friday.

The number of people in institutional quarantine is 26,420, the health department said.

Maharashtra's COVID-19 recovery rate stood at 84.24 per cent, while the fatality rate is 1.49 per cent, it said, ading that the case positivity rate is 17.03 per cent.

The Mumbai division, including Mumbai city and satellite towns, recorded 10,581 fresh cases and 160 deaths, taking the caseload to 13,81,460 and the toll to 23,466, the department said.

After Mumbai, 17 people died in Thane and 12 in Navi Mumbai, the department said.

The Nashik division reported 11,291 new cases including 3,192 in Ahmednagar district and 3,115 in Nashik city.

Nashik district added 2,299 infections and Jalgaon district 726, the department said.

Of the 90 fresh fatalities in the Nashik division, 31 occurred in Nashik district, 17 in Ahmednagar city, 15 in Ahmednagar district and 10 in Nashik city.

The Pune division saw 14,551 fresh infections, including 4,268 in Pune city, 3,739 in rural parts of Pune district, 2,291 in Satara district and 2,028 from Solapur district, as per the department.

Of the 145 new fatalities in the Pune division, 49 occurred in Solapur city followed by 39 in Pune city and 25 in Satara district.

The Kolhapur division added 4,052 new cases and 38 deaths, including 14 in Sangli district.

Aurangabad division reported 3,413 fresh infections and 54 fatalities of which 25 occurred in Aurangabad city.

The Latur division added 4,254 infections with 112 fatalities, of which 37 occurred in Osmanabad district, 29 in Beed, 17 in Latur district and 14 in Nanded district, the department said.

The caseload in the Akola division went up by 4,189 cases of which 1,199 and 1,251 cases were reported from Yavatmal and Buldana districts, respectively.

Of the total 69 fatalities in the Akola division, 31 occurred in Yavatmal district and 14 in Amravati district.

The Nagpur division registered 10,951 fresh cases, including 4,787 in Nagpur city and 2,463 in Nagpur district.

This division reported 134 deaths of which 41 occurred in Nagpur city and 24 in Bhandara district.

18 patients died in Wardha district, the official said.

Maharashtra's coronavirus figures as follows: Total cases 46,65,754, new cases 63,282, deaths 69,615, recoveries 39,30,302, active cases 6,63,758, people tested so far 2,73,95,288.

The state government has decided to set up a separate control room to be manned by senior and retired doctors who will take a call on when to shift the patients in home isolation to hospitals so that their lives can be saved in time.

Directions in this regard were given by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray during his interaction with municipal commissioners from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad on Saturday, as per a statement issued by the Chief Minister's Office (CMO).

The CM observed the number of cases has stabilised in the state but the threat is not yet over.

Citing experts, the CM expressed apprehension that the impending third wave of the pandemic may impact children and called for the need to take appropriate measures in advance.

The CM said each municipal limit should ensure independent medical oxygen supply in the next few days.

He also said steps should be taken to prevent the outbreak of monsoon-related ailments while tackling the pandemic.

The CM's directions to set up a separate control room came when the state task force member Shashank Joshi pointed out that the condition of patients who are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms is deteriorating fast while in home isolation, resulting in a high mortality rate in the state.

He also said the condition of patients in hospitals should be monitored more carefully during the night, and the use of Remdesivir, steroids etc should also be taken care of.

As many as 11,492 people in the 18-44 years age group were vaccinated against COVID-19 in Maharashtra on Saturday, the state public health department said.

Vaccination for those above 18 began on Saturday after the Union government last month decided to open the drive for wider population.

Vaccination for those above 45 was already underway.

Inoculation drive for the new category was carried out in 26 districts of the state and it will begin in all 36 districts from Sunday, said an official release.

People should not visit vaccination centres without registering themselves through Co-WIN app or portal first, the government has said.

On Saturday, Pune topped among 26 districts with 1,316 receiving the jab in the above-18 group, followed by 1,004 in Mumbai.

Gadchiroli (83) and Yavatmal (90) were at the bottom of the chart, data showed.
In a lot of ways, I see what is happening on our streets today as a part of a longer history of Black freedom struggles in the region and in the United States, Stuckey said. And its a difficult moment. But its a moment that we can draw from the past to kind of take heart in what it is that people are doing right now on the streets.
SV Krishna Chaitanya By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: The prestigious Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota has become the latest casualty of the second Covid wave that has wreaked havoc across the country.

As per the conservative estimate, a whopping 350 fresh cases are reported in Sriharikota and at least two people have succumbed to the infection.

Officials sources in SDSC told The New Indian Express that the numbers started swirling from mid-April, which coincided with the Tirupati Lok Sabha constituency byelection. The SDSC employees were also given poll duties as observers.

On average, 30-40 Covid positive cases are being reported daily forcing the authorities to restrict the operations in the space centre. Sources said a rotation system was introduced to carry out works with 50% of staff and the contract employees were stopped from attending duties.

When contacted, Nellore district collector KVN Chakradhar Badu confirmed to Express that Covid cases were on the rise inside Sriharikota township, but said the situation was under control.

"We are providing all the support needed. We have supplied 1,100 doses of vaccine for SDSC employees and are administered by our doctors' team. There is a requirement for another 900 doses which will also be arranged shortly. The district administration is fully geared up to meet any requirement that arises," Babu said.

ALSO READ | India records highest-ever spike of 4,01,993 new COVID-19 cases and 3,523 deaths

On a personal note, SDSC director A Rajarajan has appealed to all employees and their family members to strictly follow the Covid protocol. "SDSC is well prepared. The analysis of the recent cases brought clear insights that the persons with travel history had greater susceptibility to infection and this coupled with our tiredness in following Covid appropriate behavior at all times."

Hospital infrastructure augmented

Rajarajan said SDSC was well equipped with organised tracing strategies, testing laboratories, and treatment with critical lifesaving drugs. "Our clinical labs are equipped to test and declare the results of samples on the same day.

This will enable the isolation of contacted personnel and restrain the spread of the virus. The hospital infrastructure is augmented both at SDSC and Satish Dhawan Memorial Hospital in Sullurpet to treat the mild to moderate Covid patients. Isolation wards and critical care ventilator beds are identified. We have increased the beds after reviewing the situation."

The director said Narmada guest house is declared as Covid care centre and necessary measures are taken to have adequate oxygen. "Vaccination is the only course available today to reduce the impact of the pandemic. This is very much evident from the fact that most of our frontline workers like hospital staff, safai karmacharis and CISF personnel who have completed the two doses of vaccine are not affected so far. SDSC management is closely working with State authorities and vaccine manufacturers to inoculate all the eligible employees and residents on a priority basis."
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Saturday refused to stay the counting of votes for panchayat polls in Uttar Pradesh and said no victory rallies will be permitted during the counting or after the process is over.

At a special urgent hearing, which took place on a court holiday ahead of the counting beginning on Sunday, a bench comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and Hrishikesh Roy also asked the State Election Commission to fasten responsibility on gazetted officers for observing COVID-19 protocols at counting centres across the state.

The top court's directions came on a plea seeking directions for the observance of COVID-19 protocols during the counting of votes in view of the second wave of the pandemic sweeping through the country.

The bench said government officials, candidates and their agents will have to produce RT-PCR tests to show they are COVID-19 negative before entering the counting centres.

ALSO READ | 'Crime against humanity': Priyanka slams UP govt, SEC for conducting panchayat polls amid COVID crisis

The top court also directed the state government to ensure there will be strict curfew in and around the counting centres till the process goes on and that no victory rallies are carried out after the announcement of results.

The court passed the order after taking note of several notifications and assurances from the UP SEC that COVID-19 protocols would be followed at the 829 counting centres.

It said the poll panel should preserve CCTV footage of counting centres in the state till the Allahabad High Court concludes its hearing on related petitions before it.

During the hearing, advocate Shoeb Alam, appearing for the petitioner Sachin Yadav, said there are lakhs of candidates in the fray.

The congregation of a huge number of poll officials and counting agents at the counting centres should be avoided in view of the surge of Covid infections, he said.

Yadav had challenged an Allahabad High Court order allowing panchayat elections to continue in the state.

His lawyer Alam said there should be adequate safeguards as the counting process will go on for a couple of days.

Over 60 crore ballot papers were printed and have to be counted, he pointed out.

He also referred to a note from the UP primary teachers association saying more than 700 people had lost their lives during the polls.

Appearing for the UP SEC, Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati said directions have been issued from time to time and senior officials have been given the responsibility for maintaining Covid appropriate behaviour.

She gave an assurance that there would be strict compliance of Covid appropriate behaviour at the counting centres and the counting would be done in shifts so there are no congregations at any particular time.

She said they had to make a choice between the "devil and the deep sea", and added that panchayat bodies have also been effective in containing the surge of COVID-19 during the first wave last year.

On Friday, the top court had sought a response from the Uttar Pradesh government and the SEC on Yadav's plea.

Uttar Pradesh has been reporting a massive surge in fresh COVID-19 cases.

Polling for the four-phased panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh ended on April 29.

The first phase on April 15 and the second round on April 19 recorded a turnout of 71 per cent.

In the third phase on April 26, 73.5 per cent of registered voters turned out to exercise their franchise, officials said.
By PTI

JABALPUR: The Madhya Pradesh High Court expressed unhappiness with the state government's submission on efforts to procure medical oxygen amid a surge in COVID-19 cases and asked the Centre to raise the supply quota for the state by 100 metric tons.

The detailed order of Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq and Justice Atul Sreedharan of Friday was made available on the HC website on Saturday.

"There have been several incidents in the past two weeks in which people have lost their lives only because of sudden disruption or low-pressure in supply of oxygen or due to non-availability of oxygen, as per newspaper reports," the HC said, adding that "oxygen and Remdesivir continue to be two major problems" for the state government.

The state government had filed an action taken report (ATR) with respect to various directives issued on April 19 by HC.

"We are constrained to record that most of the significant directions issued by this court in its order of April 19, mainly in respect of continuous and regular supply of oxygen and Remdesivir to the government as well as private hospitals, nursing homes have have not been fully complied," the HC observed.

It directed the MP government to consider increasing the RT-PCR test sample collection in four slots from two in a day.

"What has been contended before us is that most of the private hospitals are refusing to admit corona patients for the reason of non-availability of oxygen, and now with every passing day, it is becoming difficult for COVID patients to get admission in either government or private hospitals," it said.

The HC asked the state government to have a re-look at its distribution policy of Remdesivir so that the medicine becomes available to the common man at a reasonable price.

In response to a court's query regarding 100 MT more oxygen for MP, Assistant Solicitor General JK Jain sought time to seek instructions from the government.

The court is hearing a bunch of petitions, including a suo motu one, with respect to treatment of COVID-19 patients.

Amicus curiae and senior advocate Naman Nagrath told court the state government had failed to manage continuous and regular supply of oxygen and Remdesivir injection, adding that the action plan submitted by it on availability of oxygen was far from reality.

He said there is accumulation of medical waste like PPE kits, masks and other items in all major cities, including Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior and Jabalpur, and showed clippings of newspaper reports.

The amicus curiae as well as counsels appearing for interveners said, despite specific direction by HC, private hospitals were refusing to admit and treat patients who are entitled to cashless treatment facility.

The HC said hospitals approved for treatment of patients covered by cashless schemes of the government shall not refuse to provide treatment, and action must be taken in case complaints come in on this front.

It also asked the state government and the MP State Pollution Control Board to undertake a special drive for disposal of bio-medical waste in accordance with provisions of the Bio-Medical Waste (Management & Handling) Rules, 1998 and submit a compliance report on it.

The state on Saturday reported 12,379 fresh COVID-19 cases and 102 fatalities, taking the tally of infections to 5,75,706 and the toll to 5,718, the state health department said.

The state is now left with 88,511 active cases.

A total of 14,562 patients were discharged from hospitals in the last 24 hours, taking the count of recoveries in Madhya Pradesh to 4,81,477, the department said.

With 1,832 new cases, Indore's caseload went up to 1,12,672 while that of Bhopal rose to 91,456 with the addition of 1,683 cases.

Indore reported eight deaths, taking the toll in the district to 1,147 while the count of fatalities in Bhopal rose to 742 with six more patients succumbing to the infection, officials said.

Indore is now left with 11,992 active cases while Bhopal has 12,043 such cases.

With 60,835 new tests, the total number of samples tested for coronavirus in Madhya Pradesh has crossed 78.08 lakh.

In the month of April, Madhya Pradesh recorded 2,67,826 fresh cases including 1,630 fatalities, as per the data.

Coronavirus figures in MP are as follows: Total cases 5,75,706, new cases 12,379, death toll 5,718, recovered 4,81,477, active cases 88,511, number of tests so far 78,08,547.

State home minister Narottam Mishra said the cycle of oxygen tankers arriving from different places had set in properly and this would ensure availability of the vital gas in the coming days as well.

"There was a huge oxygen crisis in the state eight days back. As of today, we are on the surplus side as far as availability of oxygen is concerned," Mishra, also the state government spokesperson, told reporters.

Earlier, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had tweeted that the state was getting a quota of 586 metric tons of oxygen.

"On April30, there was supply of 465 MT oxygen, 489 MT on May 1 and supply of 503 MT is expected on May 2," the CM had tweeted.

He had informed that 58 oxygen plants were being set up at the district-level.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: France on Sunday will send to India 28 tonnes of medical supplies, including eight large oxygen generation plants, as part of its "solidarity mission" to help the country in its fight against a devastating second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

French Ambassador to India Emmanuel Lenain said the plants will be able to make eight hospitals "oxygen autonomous" for over 10 years.

"First phase of French solidarity mission is underway. Twenty-eight tons of medical equipment will be flown in tomorrow, including eight world-class oxygen plants that will make eight Indian hospitals oxygen autonomous for 10+ years," he tweeted.

The French shipment is also expected to comprise liquid oxygen containers, ventilators and other medical supplies.

On Tuesday, the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs had said it was carrying out an "exceptional solidarity mission" to assist Indian people following a call for support by French President Emmanuel Macron.

On Saturday, Germany delivered to India 120 ventilators.

Sources said Germany is set to send a mobile oxygen production and filling plant next week and 13 German technical personnel have come to India for installation and training of the equipment.

They said Germany is also sending a consignment of Remdesivir and other medicines.

The sources said a German agency looking after COVID-19 related issues would organise a webinar on virus sequencing with the Indian technical team.

They said procurement of medical supplies is also being made from private German companies.

"For example, 24 oxygen transport tanks were procured from German company Linde by Tata. Oil India Corporation Limited is procuring four oxygen tanks from German company Albatross," said a source.

Russia on Saturday delivered the first batch of 1,50,000 doses of Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine to India.

Russian Ambassador to India Nikolay Kudashev said the efficacy of the Sputnik V is among the highest in the world, and the vaccine will also be effective against new strains of COVID-19.

As India battles a devastating second wave of coronavirus pandemic, several countries around the world are sending medical supplies to help it tide over the situation.

The leading countries that have announced assistance to India include the US, Russia, France, Germany, Australia, Ireland, Belgium, Romania, Luxembourg, Singapore, Portugal, Sweden, New Zealand, Kuwait and Mauritius.

Some of the countries have already delivered the supplies.
By PTI

BHOPAL: A truck carrying 2.40 lakh doses of Covaxin worth Rs 8 crore was left parked for nearly 12 hours after its driver went missing under mysterious circumstances in Madhya Pradesh's Narsinghpur district, police said on Saturday.

The Tamil Nadu-registered vehicle, which was transporting the vaccine from Hyderabad to Karnal in Haryana, was left abandoned for nearly 12 hours in Kareli area, Narsinghpur superintendent of police Vipul Shrivastava said.

The matter came to light on Friday afternoon when the police were informed that a truck, with a mention of vaccine- manufacturer Bharat Biotech on it, was parked near Kareli bus stand, around 16 km from the district headquarters, the official said.

According to the police, the truck contained 2.40 lakh doses of Covaxin worth Rs 8 crore.

"We contacted the transport company TCI of Gurgaon and informed them about the driverless truck. The company also got worried when they couldn't contact the driver after finding out the GPS system that the vehicle remained stationary at Kareli," Shrivastava said.

The company then arranged for another driver and the truck set off for Karnal at 8 pm, he said, adding that the driver Vikas Mishra is still missing.

"We tracked down his phone at a place 16 km from the spot. As the engine of the vehicle was on, its refrigerator with vaccine doses was functioning. So, I feel that vaccines were safe," he added.

When asked if incidents of truck loots had been reported on the route in the past, Shrivastava said road robberies are almost naught in the region.

"Circumstantial evidence suggests that the driver was not robbed. Efforts are on to trace the driver, who is in his early to mid-20s and hails from Amethi, Uttar Pradesh," the official added.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Slamming the Uttar Pradesh government for conducting panchayat elections amid the raging COVID-19 pandemic, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday said what is happening in the state is nothing less than a "crime against humanity" and the state election commission (SEC) is "playing along".

The Congress general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh claimed that 700 teachers, including one who was pregnant and forced to attend poll duty, have died in the state.

Polling for the four-phase panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh ended on Thursday.

A voter turnout of 75 per cent was recorded in the final phase.

"These elections have been conducted in almost 60,000 gram sabhas of UP without any thought of the catastrophic onslaught of the second wave," Priyanka Gandhi said in a series of tweets.

Meetings were conducted, campaigning continued and the spread of COVID-19 in UP's villages is now "unstoppable", she said.

"People are dying in numbers far, far above the deceitful official figures. People are dying in homes across rural UP, and these deaths are not being counted as COVID (deaths) because people aren't being tested," she claimed.

Priyanka Gandhi further alleged that the state government's actions are designed to cover up the truth and terrorise both the public and the medical community, which is working tirelessly to save lives.

"What is happening in UP is nothing less than a crime against humanity and the SEC, UP is playing along," she said.

Earlier this week, Priyanka Gandhi had demanded compensation of Rs 50 lakh for the families of government employees who allegedly died due to COVID-19 while performing their duty in the Uttar Pradesh panchayat polls.

Meanwhile, the BJP came down hard on Priyanka Gandhi, accusing her of unleashing a misinformation campaign against the UP government on panchayat polls.

UP minister Sidharth Nath Singh lashed out at the Congress and held Priyanka Gandhi responsible for spreading lies and the scare.

He further added that the government of Uttar Pradesh had maintained all the protocols relating to COVID-19 issued by the state poll panel but the Congress leader has been "spreading false information".

He slammed the Congress general secretary saying that she had been a "habitual liar" and a "habitual scare monger".

"Congress leader has become a habitual scare monger and spreading disinformation without checking SC's orders. This time on panchayat elections counting. Blaming UP govt is her favourite past time on tweeter," said Sidharth Nath Singh in a tweet.
By PTI

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab government on Saturday said it will set up two makeshift hospitals equipped with ICU facilities for coronavirus patients in Mohali and Bathinda.

Besides, nine new small hospitals at various district hospitals were also coming up in the state.

Punjab Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan stated this after chairing a meeting here on Saturday, according to a government release.

She directed the Medical Education and Research department to make functional both the new hospitals by the end of this month to ensure the best possible healthcare to coronavirus patients in the state.

Principal Secretary Medical Education and Research D K Tiwari apprised the CS that 2.66-acre land near refinery in Bathinda and 23,000 sq ft land in Mohali has been identified for this purpose.

Both the hospitals will have the capacity of 104 beds each, he said.

The chief secretary stressed that all beds must have oxygen support to enhance Level-2 (critical) and Level-3 (very critical) beds.

"The number of beds needs to be increased with the support of the Western Command and permissions for movement of products will be coordinated by the Medical Education department," she added.

Col.Jasdeep Sandhu, Director, Civil Military Affairs, Western Command, informed that he has visited Mohali site and felt the need for utilising existing beds promptly as the field hospital unit can move in three days.

Principal Secretary Health and Family Welfare, Hussan Lal, said he has selected the sites in Mansa, Muktsar and Fazilka for strengthening the existing health facilities.

Punjab Health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu on Saturday directed all civil surgeons to intensify screening of symptomatic people in rural areas which have a higher mortality rate.

Sidhu said 58 per cent deaths have been recorded in rural areas which accounted for 27 per cent of total COVID-19 cases.

He instructed the civil surgeons to intensify a screening drive in villages, according to an official release.

The minister said considering the high case fatality rate of the state, there is also need to keep a close watch on the functioning of private clinics/registered medical practitioners in villages.

He said senior medical officers must ensure COVID testing of every single symptomatic person who is getting the treatment from such clinics.

If any private health facility has not shared the information concerning the symptomatic persons on a routine basis, they must be booked under the Epidemic Diseases Act for violating the government's guidelines, he added.

Punjab on Saturday registered 7,041 fresh COVID-19 cases, highest in a day, bringing the infection count to 3,77,990, while 138 more fatalities raised the toll to 9,160, according to a medical bulletin.

The number of active cases rose from 55,798 on Friday to 58,229.

Of the new fatalities, 22 were registered in Bathinda, 18 in Ludhiana, 12 in Gurdaspur and 10 in Sangrur.

Ludhiana recorded a maximum of 1,600 fresh COVID-19 cases, followed by 936 in Mohali, 653 in Bathinda and 566 in Jalandhar.

The recovery count rose to 3,10,601 after 4,448 more patients recovered from the infection, the bulletin said.

There are 114 critical COVID-19 patients who are on ventilator support while 644 are on oxygen support, it said.

A total of 72,81,978 samples have been collected for COVID-19 testing so far in the state, it said.

The Union Territory of Chandigarh recorded 799 fresh infections on Saturday, taking the tally to 43,446.

Eleven more people succumbed to the infection, bringing the toll to 489 in the city, according to a medical bulletin.

The number of active cases stands at 7,222, it said.

The number of recoveries rose to 35,735 with 472 more patients getting discharged after recovering from COVID-19.

A total of 4,08,487 samples have been taken for COVID-19 testing so far and 3,63,939 of them tested negative while reports of 153 are awaited, according to the bulletin.
Vineet Upadhyay By

Express News Service

DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand with just 0.8% population of India, accounted for 2.73% of deaths in the country in the last seven days.

In the last seven days of April 2021, a total of 22,121 deaths were recorded in India out of which 603 were from Uttarakhand.

Anoop Nautiyal, an analyst based in Dehradun whose Social Development for Communities has been analysing data since March 2020 when the first-ever case was detected in Uttarakhand said, "Our population is just 0.8% of this country but in last 7 days in April we had 2.73% of deaths in India. This is a very high share. We should be careful and take more stringent measures to curb the spread."

The second wave of Covid has hit the state hard, witnessing an unprecedented rise in Covid cases almost every day.

The state has climbed up to the 4th position in the country in terms of Covid-19 cases per lakh. With 48,319 active cases, the hill state has 460 cases per lakh.

Only Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Kerela happen to be ahead of Uttarakhand with 822, 589, and 502 cases per lakh, respectively.

ALSO READ | Uttarakhand septuagenarian shoulders responsibility of Covid cremations

The state government on Saturday curbed the number of people allowed to attend marriages and other public gatherings to 25 which was 59 earlier.

Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat attended a meeting with key officials of the state including the additional chief secretary, health secretary, director-general of police, and others to review the Covid situation.

Decisions that were taken in the meeting included providing Rs 1000 to ASHA workers of the state from the CM's discretionary funds, ensuring supplies of oxygen and other essential medicines, checking the black marketing to tackle the situation.

The month of April has been worst for Uttarakhand with 80,110 new cases and 907 deaths, the highest ever in any month since March 2020 when the first of Covid 19 cases was detected in the hill state.

April 2021 has also been a month of many firsts in terms of Covid 19 data such as the highest single-day spike on April 29, 2021, with 6251 new cases, highest single day recoveries on April 30, 2021, with 4215 recoveries in one single day, highest single day deaths on April 30 with 122 deaths and highest number of tests conducted in one day- 63,120 tests on April 26, 2021.

Meanwhile, the total number of active cases reached 51,127 with 5493 new cases on Saturday.

Uttarakhand has lost 2731 lives since the first case was detected in March 2020 in the state. Nainital district ranks second with 408 deaths while Dehradun tops the list with 1549 and Haridwar holds the third rank with 258 deaths.
G S Vasu By

There was an interesting conversation with a senior political leader early this week, which began with the possible outcome of state elections and then moved on to the pandemic raging across the country with people dropping dead like birds in the scorching summer. In the seven years that this government has been in power, it weathered many crises, most of them inflicted on people by way of unsound decisions. But this time, as the politician put it, the government/party is neither able to create a narrative nor build optics to counter the backlash.

There is, however, a fundamental problem in the way the Narendra Modi government is being hauled over the coals for its disastrous handling of the Covid second wave and that flows out of the expectations from this regime. Even assuming that this is a direct offshoot of the cult culture assiduously built over the years, to ignore the collective responsibility of such sections that have chosen to back the government without a whimper reflects only a partial understanding of the issue.

Not long ago, in January 2021, this government bragged to world leaders that India had set a shining example on how to beat the virus. People believed it. A month later, the BJP was effusive in its praise of Modis leadership in dealing with the pandemics first wave. We kept our faith in the resolution passed at the BJP meeting than on reality. A couple of weeks later, the health minister, who should have resigned a dozen times in the last one year, declared, We are at the endgame of the corona crisis.

There were counter-warnings during the same period but none paid attention. As early as in February, Mr Rahul Gandhi (lampooned by rival BJP as Pappu) cautioned that the threat from the virus was very much alive and urged the government to devise an action plan. But why should anyone listen to him? He knows nothing, was the collective disdain. Virologists and other experts, too, sounded alarm bells. Every country in the world faced second, third and even fourth waves and India cannot escape, they said. But we went ahead with the Kumbh Mela and elections. On a day when the country recorded over 2.5 lakh cases, we gloated over the biggest ever rallies in Bengal.

The narrative was pushed  cases are not going up in Bengal or Uttarakhand despite rallies and the Kumbh. Once both states started witnessing a rapid rise in cases, that spin was dropped. Instead, what are we told now? The second wave was expected, not the tsunami. Who converted what could have been a second wave but a manageable one into an unmanageable tsunami leading to mass cremations? If only we were cautious instead of getting busy with just the Didi hatao campaign in Bengal; if only the Centre and the states had worked as a team and marshalled all possible resources learning from last years experiences; if only we had placed orders for vaccines when other countries did. If only.the list is endless.

As for optics, all one gets to see are pictures of long queues of ambulances, burning pyres at crematoria and patients with oxygen kits waiting outside hospitals for admission endlessly. Valiant attempts are still being made to protect the carefully crafted image, but the facade is peeling off, layer by layer. The Centre sanctioned 162 oxygen plants last year itself but the states/hospitals blocked them was one excuse. The best managed state in the country  Uttar Pradesh  had been granted 14 such plants but only one was installed. Who is to blame? All we are doing now is file FIRs against people who complain or plead on social media for oxygen. Yes, corporate hospitals should have built their own captive oxygen plants. Having taken over the health sector since the pandemic struck, who and what stopped the Centre from issuing such a directive or insisting that states do it? For a government that digs archaic Acts to slap cases against dissenters, this would have been an easy task.

All these questions would have still meant nothing if the rants came from usual suspects who could have been branded anti-nationals. But they are now coming from the middle and upper middle classes, the core constituency of the BJP. They believed demonetisation was indeed meant to rob the rich (we no longer read about how cash in circulation continues to go up) even as we ridiculed the best brains who bemoaned that it is the poor who get hurt by such measures. They believed that for all the ills plaguing this country, the one and only reason is the existence of minorities  recall the onslaught against the Tablighi Jamaat last year.

For a section that always expects and received thus far all the privileges that a state accords (irrespective of the party) and perennially rues that but for reservations, they would have been somewhere else in the social and economic order, this wave has come as a rude shock. Gated communities are engulfed, the high and mighty  judges, bureaucrats, journalists and MPs  are unable to access beds or oxygen. The middle class suddenly has this sense of hurt, a feeling of being left orphaned/abandoned even as their savings are getting exhausted rapidly with hospitals jacking up the prices and every medicine/instrument sold two-three times the MRP.

We didnt care when thousands of migrants walked hundreds of kilometres last year to reach their homes in the face of an instant lockdown, nor were we shocked when the governments legal luminaries told the Supreme Court there was no evidence of such a situation. But when the same legal eagles tell the courts now dont be a crybaby, we are horrified. Because the virus has now reached our doorstep, the cool confines from which we have been operating for a year. We are not used to begging for beds, oxygen or medicines.

Our Atmanirbharta is no longer strong. Offensive as it may sound, it took a crisis of this magnitude to shake everyone out of the slumber and realise we are basically living in an unequal society and successive governments have abandoned the two most important duties assigned to them  health and education. As long as only the poor were denied health and education, we didnt care. Now, it is being denied to us as well, which is why we are no longer amused by tweets by BJP supporters that 3,000-plus deaths a day is negligible for a country of our size. This is what happens when citizens are reduced to mere statistics, when everyone knows for a fact that the deaths are at least 3-5X the official records, going by the sheer load at crematoria and long waiting periods.

Democracy is not just about winning elections. If only the mainstream media (which I am a part of), the judiciary and other institutions accountable to people (not government) did their duty by holding up the mirror, we may not have come to this situation and the ruling dispensations, too, would have done a better job, correcting course whenever they went wrong. As a colleague said, we have come to a stage where we cast our votes and count the dead. There are too many nights when you go to bed with a feeling that there is blood on our hands.

GS Vasu

Editor, The New Indian Express

(vasu@newindianexpress.com)

ALSO READ | Covid and the administration of a tragedy: How India lost the plot
Kunal Tilak and Vaibhavi Pingale By

Since February 1, the attention of the world is drawn particularly to two countries, firstly to Myanmar due to the coup detat and then to its ally China because of its close involvement in that nation through non-war military activities for a long period of time. It comes after months of increasing friction between the civilian government and the powerful military, the Tatmadaw, over alleged election irregularities. The overthrowing of the democratically elected government has led to mass protests.

Chinas intentions: Beijing has been suspected as a supporter of the coup. It established diplomatic relations in 1950 and supported Myanmar through thick and thin. Since the late 1980s, China has been the major source of military equipment and training for Myanmar (then Burma). In the past, it has supported Myanmar when it was facing full-throated criticism from other countries over its treatment of the Rohingya minority in Rakhine state.

The reason for this support can be traced in a translated document of Peoples Liberation Armys (PLA) prepared in 2013 and titled Science of Military Strategy by China Aerospace Studies Institute with the US Department of Defense. Here, we can see that China identified the growing importance of non-war military activities (NWMA). Though intended for overseas military expansion, they are now however undertaken through increasing economic and political influence and include a number of non-war or civil activities.

Chinas engagements with Myanmar have been consistent and supportive in various spheres such as politics, economy and cultural tie-ups. China has supported Myanmar from the time of the Communist Party to rule by the military and then the National League for Democracy (NLD). It is a major investor and an exporter of Myanmars wealth of natural resources. Through an exchange of tourists, writers, culture, art and Buddhism, China has been expanding its influence over the citizens of Myanmar.

Rationale for Chinas support: Beijing had started sowing the seeds of NWMA in Myanmar since the beginning of the last decade by emerging as the largest trading partner and lender and the biggest Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) player. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Myanmars Suu Kyi signed a bilateral agreement for their flagship project, the China Myanmar Economic Corridor. It stretches from Chinas Yunnan province to the Bay of Bengal coast of Myanmar as a part of Beijings Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) . It includes 38 large infrastructure projects, out of which Myanmar has made only three public.

Since the coup, there have been concerns about the safety of the pipelines, including that of a major one from Rakhine to Yunnan. During the ongoing demonstrations, to condemn Beijings support to the coup, protestors are threatening to attack Chinese oil and gas pipeline projects. The people of Myanmar have mockingly called out Chinese officials on social media. Therefore, if using its economic and political influence in Myanmar, China encourages the establishment of democracy in that nation again, it can leverage its position to gain momentum for the remaining 35 infrastructure projects signed in the MoU.

Chinas so-called non-interference principle is being highly criticised by locals in Myanmar as well as other nations as Beijing has been against passing a resolution for restoration of democracy in the UN Security Council. With the US freezing $1 billion in assets belonging to the Myanmar government and several other countries officially condemning the coup or imposing sanctions against the perpetrators, China will have to do a balancing act in order to continue with the economic activities in Myanmar carried out by them in the past decade.

Future of the ties: The Chinese ambassador to the UN has suggested that the time has come to de-escalate the crisis through dialogue and showed the nations readiness to engage with parties in Myanmar for the same. Chinese analysts do not agree with the accusations of their countrys support for the coup and suggest that Beijing has no intention to do so as its economic interests are at risk.

The case for Myanmar is different due to fierce social opposition. Public pressure that Beijing faced led to suspension of projects such as the Myitsone hydropower dam and the Letpadaung copper mine. Since then, Beijing has understood the need for cooperation from the local people to complete its ambitious projects. Hence, learning from past experience, China should help in resolving the coup that is against the will of the people of Myanmar. Otherwise, it should be ready to face a similar kind of social opposition to BRI projects in the future.

Having a stable democracy in Myanmar is beneficial to China than a military-backed government. The latter poses security concerns and cannot provide a conducive business environment that the NLD can. In fact, it is only going to benefit China in the long run if there are democratic and fair elections in Myanmar. Further, this is an opportunity for China to gain a diplomatic achievement in a post-Covid world.

Kunal Tilak

Founder of TTC Media Pvt Ltd

Vaibhavi Pingale

Assistant Professor of Economics, Savitribai Phule Pune University

(vaipy2702@gmail.com, kunaltilak79@gmail.com)
We live in the age of the video camera and soon enough millions were watching all of this and it was a horrid scene as Floyd stared back at the cameras with vapid eyes. The issue was a major one at a time of deep concern about racism and Black Americans being shot and killed by police many more times than white people on a per capita basis. We soon had what has been described as likely the most colossal protest in U.S. history with 15 million to 26 million people taking part in thousands of dramatic episodes, most of them thankfully peaceful.
By Express News Service

VISAKHAPATNAM: Amid the surge of Covid second wave, RINL, the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, said it has been pulling up all its resources to set up a massive 1,000-bed Covid care facility at Ukkunagaram township in Visakhapatnam.

RINL-VSP is using all its internal resources and available facilities for the 1000-bed Covid care hospital facility on its premises. It plans to convert all community halls and public halls in the township into hospital wards for the treatment of Covid patients in a phased manner, it said.

Fabrication work for cots for the hospital is going on in a full swing at Utility Equipment Repair Shop (UERS) inside the plant premises. All necessary material procurement and arrangements to facilitate clinical delivery of medical oxygen near the beds are being expedited.

As a part of the first step towards arranging a 1000 bed facility, the Gurajada Kalakshetram, a popular function hall, is being turned into a Covid Care Centre. All the wards of 110-bed Visakha Steel General Hospital have been converted to Covid wards except for the emergency ward for non-Covid cases, according to an RINL release said.

Meanwhile, RINL has supplied about 1,200 tons of liquid oxygen since April 13 and most of the LMO was supplied to AP. It also supplied 100 tons in the first Oxygen Express to Maharashtra on April 22. As per government allocation plan, RINL is also extending support to Karnataka.

Since the onset of the pandemic RINL has dispatched 11,000 tons of LMO to various destinations. The distribution and dispatches of LMO is being done as per the guideline of Drug Controller Authority of India. RINL is committed to stand by the nation during the crisis and will extend all the support to meet the Oxygen requirement, the release said.
Ajith MS By

Express News Service

MYSURU: While there are stories about people refusing to attend to their own kin over fear of catching infection, a 70-year-old retired teacher, who was left starving and covered in filth for weeks at her home in Mysuru, was rescued and put under care by caring citizens.

The unmarried woman was staying with her sister in Bengaluru, and had come to her home in Mysuru three months ago. With her health deteriorating and pandemic restrictions in place, she was confined to the house, and was found to be severely malnourished and dehydrated, and appeared to have gone without food for days.

When we went into her home after a message from some neighbours, we found her lying in bed, covered in her own faeces. She was extremely malnourished and dehydrated. It was a horrible sight. Regardless of whether she is infected or not, we had to save her, said Kiran Robert, secretary of Rotary Panchsheel, Mysuru.

According to him, with the pandemic, it was tough to find a place to put her in care, since such centres have stopped admissions. She only has a sister and brother-in-law who are themselves old and afraid to even step out. They asked us to shift her to a home, and luckily, Vimala Terminal Care Home in Hinkal agreed to take her in, said Robert.

He added that with the fear of Covid-19, he first rang up Lokayukta SP PV Sneha, who spoke to Mysuru City Corporation. MCC health officer D G Nagaraj sent a team to collect her swab for Covid-19 test, and as her health was poor, a blood test was also done free of cost at the private diagnostic centre of Dr Zia-ur-Rahman, a city-based microbiologist, added Robert.

Despite the scarcity of ambulances due to the pandemic, city-based DRM Hospital lent its ambulance and staff to shift the senior citizen to the terminal care centre, where she is now recuperating.
By Express News Service

BHUBANESWAR: In yet another massive spike, the new Covid cases breached the 10,000 mark in Odisha with 10,431 people testing positive for the virus in the last 24 hours. Eleven people succumbed to the disease during the period.

This was for the first time that the State recorded over 10,000 fresh cases on a day since the beginning of the pandemic in March last year.

With a test positivity rate of 21.9%, the infections were up by nearly 20% from the previous day's count of 8,681 cases. The high TPR, notwithstanding, the testing was low as only 47,462 tests, including nearly 40% through RT-PCR, were conducted.

Of the new cases, 5,887 were in quarantine and 4526 were detected during contact tracing. Khurda and Sundargarh continued to be the worst-hit districts with 1796 and 1100 cases respectively.

Three more districts -- Cuttack (828), Puri (533), and Bargarh (511) -- registered more than 500 cases each and 13 more districts had over 200 infections each while six districts reported above 100 cases each. The number of new infections was below 100 in only six districts.

The situation remained grim in western Odisha districts bordering Chhatisgarh as eight of the 10 districts reported 3811 cases accounting for 36.6% Of the daily caseload. The transmission is equally spreading in the coastal districts and areas bordering West Bengal with a bulk of cases coming from Cuttack, Ganjam, Jagatsinghpur, Balasore, and Bhadrak districts.

With this, the total number of confirmed cases soared to 4,54,607 of which 3,85,414 people have recovered. The disease claimed 11 more patients, including four from Bhubaneswar, two from Sundargarh and one each from Puri, Kalahandi, Koraput, Boudh and Rayagada, taking the cumulative death toll to 2054.

ALSO READ | India records highest-ever spike of 4,01,993 new Covid cases and 3,523 deaths

Odisha has recorded a whopping 1,13,296 cases and 113 fatalities in April. The highest 1.16 lakh cases were registered in September last year when the infection was at its peak. The active cases have gone up 28 times from 2246 cases on April 1 to 67,086 on Saturday. Only 48,323 patients had recovered last

month.

Meanwhile, the State government has constituted a committee of experts from government medical colleges for taking decisions on the use of Tocilizumab and other new drugs for Covid patients in Odisha.

The committee headed by Professor of Rheumatology Department of SCB MCH at Cuttack Dr Bidyut Das will examine and assess the proposal of use of such drugs on a case to case basis under the supervision of Director of Medical Education and Training (DMET) Prof CBK Mohanty.

Other members of the state-level panel included Professor of Pulmonary Medicine department of SCB MCH Dr Jyoti Pattanaik and Associate Professor of Medicine department Dr PK Thatoi.

According to a notification issued by the Health and Family Welfare department, treating doctors will send a proposal to the panel on WhatsApp number of the Chairman with an intimation to DMET seeking opinion on judicious use of the drugs on Covid patients.

The committee will examine the records and certify the efficacy of the drug as well as the necessity of the use of the drugs. If considered for use, the panel will recommend the Managing Director of Odisha State Medical Corporation for the issue of the drugs with intimation to the DMET via WhatsApp or e-mail following which the drugs will be issued as per the availability.


By Express News Service

BHUBANESWAR: Indian Liver Patient Foundation (ILPF), a charitable organisation in association with CRAPTS, organised a virtual seminar to deflate myths on Covid-19 vaccination on Friday.

Stakeholders, policy makers and experts who participated in the webinar urged all eligible citizens to get themselves vaccinated without hesitation. Former health secretary PK Hota, currently working as consulate general to Vietnam, Dr Madan Mohan Sethy and senior journalist Deepak Rath called for use of vaccine without hesitation while Prof NK Arora, a public health expert, Dr Archisman Mohapatra, epidemiologist and Nalini Pati, a pediatrician from Australia, highlighted that vaccine is safe. The experts opined that vaccination on a large scale is needed to achieve herd immunity.
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: Putting the cart ahead of the horse, one might say, considering the governments announcement of opening the vaccination drive for people in the age group of 18 to 44, but falling short of vaccine stock to go ahead with the initiative.

Despite the delayed-yet-ambitious move to cover the younger population, the low stock of Covid-19 vaccines is hampering the drive across the country. Ergo, like many other States, Tamil Nadu might also not begin vaccinating people in the age bracket from May 1. Reason, the Union government is yet to give any information on the supply of vaccines to the State, said Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan, on Friday.

Speaking to the press after inspecting Unified Command Centre (UCC) at the DMS campus, Radhakrishnan said, The State is yet to receive any information from the Centre on things like how much supply the State would receive from the Serum Institute of India (SII) (Pune) and Bharat Biotech (Hyderabad).

Chennai city corporation commissioner Prakash said the city is not yet ready to vaccinate this group. Chennai is one of the Covid hotspots in the south. The Health Secretary said, Instead of waiting till tomorrow (and disappoint people), I wish to clarify (now) that we are unsure when and how much out of the 1.5 crore doses of vaccine sought by the State will arrive.

We have vax stock only for those above 45 years

Radhakrishnan added that the State has begun the process to place orders for 1.5 crore doses of vaccine, but the Centre has set a limit for that order too. We are also doubtful whether this limited order will be received tomorrow (May 1) itself. There is still a question mark on these things. We are in touch with SII and Bharat Biotech, he said.

We can begin the drive for those above 18 to 44 years only if we receive doses from these companies. Till today, we have not received any information when the supply will be received, said the secretary. However, the State has made arrangements for vaccine camps and said it will offer free vaccines for those in 18-44 age bracket. The government has listed a set of sectors which will be get priority for free vaccines.

Though we have made all arrangements, we have stock only for those above 45 years. The State has so far received 68 lakh vaccines, of which, around 56-57 lakhs were used. So,the vaccination drive for this age group (above 45) will continue (with the existing stock), Radhakrishnan said.
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: The Revenue and Vigilance probes into the alleged grabbing of assigned lands by Telangana Health Minister Eatala Rajender commenced this morning in some villages in Masaipet mandal in Medak district.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao ordered the Revenue probe into the allegations on Friday night. The probe started at 8 am on Saturday.

A team of five officials along with Masaipeta Tahsildar has been interacting with farmers on the land grabbing allegations against the Health Minister. Police forces were deployed in the villages to avoid any untoward incidents.

Enquiry officers including vigilance DP Manohar, DSP Anand and CI Satish Reddy and Tahsildars Malathi (Masaipeta) and Suresh (Veldurthy) are conducting the enquiry.
By PTI

MELBOURNE: Australian citizens could face five-year jail term or hefty fines up to 66,000 dollars if they try to return home from India after Canberra made the journey temporarily illegal in an effort to curb the spread of the deadly viral infection in this country.

The temporary ban begins on Monday and applies to any travellers who have visited India within 14 days of their intended arrival date in Australia.

India is struggling with a second wave of the pandemic with more than 3,00,000 daily new coronavirus cases being reported in the past few days, and hospitals are reeling under a shortage of medical oxygen and beds.

There are an estimated 9,000 Australians in India and over 600 of them are classified as vulnerable, according to The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.

The decision was announced by the health ministry on Friday after a meeting of the National Cabinet.

The move aims at keeping the coronavirus spread in check in Australia as India is facing a surge in infections cases.

The decision was based on the proportion of overseas travellers in quarantine in Australia, who have contracted the infection in India, Health Minister Greg Hunt said.

The move was due to an "unmanageable" number of arrivals from the country who have tested positive to COVID-19, he was quoted as saying by the state-run Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

Breaches of the travel ban could lead to five years' imprisonment, a 66,000-Australian dollar (USD 50,876) fine or both, the report said.

"Failure to comply with an emergency determination under the Biosecurity Act, 2015 may incur a civil penalty of 300 penalty units, five years' imprisonment or both," the health ministry said in a statement.

Australia's borders have been closed since March last year and, this week, the government clamped down even further, banning all flights, including repatriation dashes, from India.

According to the ABC, it is for the first time that Australia has made it a criminal offence for its own citizens to enter the country.

The ministry said the decision will be revised on May 15 following advice from the chief medical officer (CMO).

"The CMO will consider the epidemiology in India and likely impacts on Australia's quarantine capacity, and provide a further expert assessment of the public health risk to Australia to inform a proportionate response," it said.

The ministry statement said it is important that the integrity of the Australian public health and quarantine system are protected and the number of COVID-19 cases in isolation facilities is reduced to a manageable level.

The statement also expressed solidarity with India, saying, "Our hearts go out to the people of India and our Indian-Australian community. The friends and family of those in Australia are in extreme risk."

India's daily coronavirus tally crossed the grim milestone of four lakh on Saturday, while the death toll rose to 2,11,853 with 3,523 fresh fatalities.

Meanwhile, the government's decision has also been criticised by several people.

Epidemiologist Michael Toole, from the Burnet Institute, says the decision to ban travel from India reflects the level of confidence the government has in the quarantine system.

"To me it reflects a lack of confidence in the system, and I think that is a shame," Toole was quoted as saying by the ABC.

By his count, there have been 16 separate leaks in hotel quarantine in five capital cities since November last year.

Opposition MP Jason Clare said making it a crime for Australians to return home goes too far.

"I think what we should be doing is trying to make it easier for people to get home," he said, while suggesting that quarantining travellers on Christmas Island could be a solution.

Melbourne General Practitioner and health commentator Vyom Sharma said the move by the federal government was disproportionate to the threat posed by returning travellers.

"It is incredibly disproportionate to the threat that is posed....my concern is that the government is so sensitive to the risk that they can't take in this increased load of people coming in," he said.

Sharma said the move appears to be inconsistent with responses to earlier outbreaks in Europe and the US.

"What strikes me as also bizarre is that USA back in January was returning to us Australians, in much higher quantities of people, who were testing positive and yet there was no talk of plan banning those flights then," he said.

"Our families are quite literally dying in India overseas. Many people are trying to come back. We know that hundreds of people in this situation are classified as medically and financially vulnerable, to have absolutely no way of getting them out - this is abandonment," Sharma was quoted as saying by the ABC news report.

Australia has offered to provide India emergency medical supplies, including over 1,000 non-invasive ventilators.

Apart from that, it has offered to supply a significant number of personal protective equipment (PPE), one million surgical masks, 100,000 surgical gowns, 100,000 goggles, 100,000 pairs of gloves and 20,000 face shields.
By PTI

TORONTO: Canada is all set to suspend entry of international students, including from India, to Ontario, the worst-hit province which is battling the third wave of the coronavirus.

According to the Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE), an education service provider based in Ottawa, there were 530,540 international students in Canada in 2020, of which the maximum were from India (34 per cent) followed by China (22 per cent).

Ontario has the maximum number of foreign students at 242,825 or 46 per cent, it said.

During a press conference on Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the government is considering halting the arrival of international students in Ontario, following a request from the province's premier Doug Ford to combat the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, the globalnews.ca reported.

"Because currently Ontario is the only province to request it, we are happy to work more closely with them," he said. Trudeau said they will be reaching out to their officials" to formalise the request.

However, there is no clarity as yet on when the change will take effect or how long it will last.

International students are currently exempt from Canada's COVID-19 travel rules.

ALSO WATCH:

All students must be able to provide a valid study permit or a letter of introduction that shows they were approved for a permit, according to CTV news.

Ford also called on the federal government to ban non-essential travel after 36 cases of the B.1.617 variant, originally found in India, were identified in the province, the report said.

Trudeau reiterated his intentions of working closely with the provinces to quell the spread of the coronavirus and cautioned against any kind of non-essential travel.

"We're engaging with other provinces that are hit hard by this third wave to see how we can help," he said.

Canada has so far reported 1.22 million coronavirus cases, including 463,000 in Ontario.

Of the total 24,219 fatalities, 8,050 were reported from Ontario.
By PTI

LONDON: India is among the five countries that will be added to Ireland's mandatory hotel quarantine list from Tuesday, the Irish government has announced.

Besides India, the other countries that have been added to the list for mandatory quarantine from May 4 are Georgia, Iran, Mongolia and Costa Rica.

"Travel to Ireland from specific designated states is now subject to mandatory hotel quarantine. This must be pre-booked in advance of travel," according to an official statement on Friday.

The passengers are required to pre-pay for their stay during the quarantine period.

ALSO READ | US to restrict travel from India over COVID starting May 4

According to the Department of Health, it is an offence to travel to Ireland without making the booking in advance, without reasonable excuse.

The arrangements will apply to any passenger who has been in any of these countries in the previous 14 days, even if only transiting through one of these countries and even if remaining airside.

These arrangements also apply to any passenger who is travelling on to Northern Ireland, the statement said.

"It is important to note that the list of designated states will be subject to change at short notice and passengers are required to check the list before travelling to Ireland, to be sure of their obligations," it said.

Coronavirus cases in India hit a record daily high with over 4 lakh new infections being reported in the last 24 hours, while the active cases crossed the 32-lakh mark, according to date updated by the Union Health Ministry on Saturday.

ALSO WATCH:
By Associated Press

GENEVA: The World Health Organisation has given the go-ahead for emergency use of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine.

The mRNA vaccine from the US manufacturer joins vaccines from AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson in receiving the WHO's emergency use listing.

Similar approvals for China's Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines are expected in the coming days and weeks, WHO has said.

The greenlight for Moderna's vaccine, announced late Friday, took many months because of delays that WHO faced in getting data from the manufacturer.

Many countries without their own advanced medical regulatory and assessment offices rely on the WHO listing to decide whether to use vaccines.

UN children's agency UNICEF also uses the listing to deploy vaccines in an emergency like the pandemic.

The announcement, however, wasn't likely to have an immediate impact on supplies of Moderna's vaccine for the developing world.

The company struck supply agreements with many rich countries, which will have already received millions of doses.

In a statement Friday, CEO Stephane Bancel said Moderna was "actively participating in discussions with multilateral organisations, such as COVAX, to help protect populations around the world."

He was referring to a UN-backed programme to ship COVID-19 vaccines to many low- and middle-income countries, based on need.

ALSO WATCH:
Which is to say that getting the door open to voting is one thing, getting enough people to walk through that door it is a second thing and the constant dogged effort to hold them together once there is the vital, essential third thing.
Whippany, NJ (07981)

Today

Partly to mostly cloudy with scattered showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. High 89F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to occasional showers later during the night. Low 66F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
Help support your local hometown newspaper/website. Independent local news reporting matters. Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription, for as little as $3, so we can continue to provide independent local reporting on our communities.
Will Waldron / Albany Times Union

A Stamford man has died after a three-car crash in the Hudson Valley, according to police.

Christopher Hammill, 47, died Thursday - four days after his car was struck by a vehicle trying to pass other vehicles by driving in the emergency breakdown lane, said Capt. John Ryan of the New York State Police in a press release.
BRIDGEPORT  Bridgeport is inviting graduating seniors to celebrate their accomplishments at staggered commencement ceremonies this June.

Bridgeport schools have selected a June 16 district-wide graduation date and are finalizing end-of-year plans for 12th graders, whose high school experiences were upended by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Superintendent Michael Testani told the Board of Education this week, We are just finalizing the logistics of it.

The districts high schools will graduate on the same day at a central location, likely the Bridgeport Amphitheater, according to a Twitter post.

We have a great location, said Testani. Were finalizing the details on that before it gets released to the public, but its an exciting day.

Everyone can mark their calendars, he said. Its going to be a great event.

Each school will host a ceremony at a designated time: 9 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 pm. and 5 p.m. on that Wednesday. Harding High School will graduate at 1 p.m., according to social media, while Central High School, Bassick High School, Fairchild Wheeler and Bridgeport Military Academy have yet to announce their time slots online.

The event, which district officials say will still adhere to COVID-19 mitigation strategies, is positioned to look more like typical graduations than last years drive-up diploma hand-offs.

Im happy that were able to provide them with a more normal experience, given the fact that the governor is lifting restrictions beginning May 1st and even more on May 19th due to how well vaccinations are going here in the state of Connecticut and the responsible folks that are maintaining health and safety protocols, said Testani.

Gov. Ned Lamont assured Connecticut families earlier this month that outdoor commencements and parades could take place this school year, and the state Department of Public Health recently released guidance on mitigating the spread of COVID-19 at proms and graduations.

The district is also urging schools to host other safe events to celebrate Bridgeport students and reconnect them with their schools and each other. Harding High School has already announced a campus-based Senior Celebration on May 27, and Bridgeport Military Academy will host a Maskerade Carnival-themed prom on May 13 at Seaside Park.

The big push to end the school year really is to make sure kids have good experiences finishing out the school year, Testani said. Were encouraging all our schools to plan end of the year activities, get outdoors, field days, picnics  whatever they need to do just to get kids re-engaged (and) interacting with each other in a positive manner.
Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Showers early then scattered thunderstorms developing later in the day. High 81F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy in the evening then periods of showers after midnight. Low 68F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
Jim Bohon a music instructor with Bridge Kaldro Music got his sign back and is having fun, poking fun, at the store's retail neighborhood in Christiansburg on Thursday, April 22, 2021. It was Bridge Kaldro Music that touched off this battle royale, challenging businesses to poke silly fun at one another. It has quickly spread across town and gone viral online. (MATT GENTRY, The Roanoke Times/AP)
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).
Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Partly to mostly cloudy with isolated thunderstorms developing during the afternoon. High around 85F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies. Low 68F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph.
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).
Cleveland Metroparks has announced the launch of "Find Your Path," a new campaign to encourage exploration and inclusivity across the park dis
North Perry Village Councilman Larry Klco addresses the audience during a recent Eastern Lake County Chamber of Commerce meeting. The gathering featured presentations from elected officials or administrators from nine eastern Lake County communities who provided updates on their local governments' recent accomplishments and future goals.
It was another active week in the junior oil and gas sector.

( ) acquired a package of assets in Louisiana, marking its first deal in a newly identified central regional focus area (RFA). The company is paying US$135mln for upstream assets and related facilities from Indigo Minerals LLC. The package, referred to as Cotton Valley, includes some 16,000 barrels oil equivalent per day (boepd) of production across 780 net operated wells.

It is host to around 50mln barrels of proved-developed-producing (PDP) reserves. And the company highlighted that the operations benefit from Gulf Coast pricing, which the company noted means higher realisations.

Significantly, the company believes that in the new RFA it can replicate its proven business model, which in the Appalachian region was driven by acquisitions.

Earlier this week, ( ) told investors the findings of the analysis of sidewall cores, cuttings, mud gas and fluid samples from the Merlin-1 well are expected in the next two to ten weeks.

The company detailed a series of results scheduled over the period including core photography and geological descriptions in two to three weeks, along with isotope analysis of mud gas in up to four weeks and similarly VAS for cuttings in up to four weeks. Analysis results from oil samples are due in three to four weeks, core analysis in up to eight weeks and fluid analysis in up to ten weeks.

( ) moved closer to a debt reset as it announced it is launching a US$1.8mln bond offer and has been given commitments for a US$600mln super senior revolving credit facility.

The aim is to extend out maturities in its borrowing, using proceeds of the bond issue to repay reserves based lending and debt coming due later this year and in 2022. Presently, Tullow has US$300mln of bonds with a 6.625% coupon due in July 2021, and, US$650mln of senior notes with a 6.25% coupon due in 2022.

The new bonds will mature in 2026 whilst the revolving credit facility would expire in 2024.

( ) said it has started the third quarter with renewed vigour.

The US focused oil junior, in its half year statement, said it is to focus on drilling activity and its position is boosted by its increased interest in the Greater Stanley project. Gross production amounted to 34,569 barrels of oil over the first half, which is 9,871 barrels net to Mosman.

In the six months ended December 31 the company generated some A$380,000 of revenue and made a gross profit of A$56,828. The company reported a A$700,000 net loss amid production challenges and the volatile oil prices.

( ) completed the acquisition of a controlling interest in a Risk Sharing Agreement for the development of the large-scale Barracuda Field, in OML 141 located in swamp and shallow water offshore Nigeria.

The company now owns a 51% interest in the K.O.N.H. UK Limited vehicle which in turn owns 70% of Barracuda. It will provide technical and financial support to the consortium and will receive favourable accelerated economic terms plus a 15% net profit interest in the field.

Canadian Overseas Petroleum Ltd (LON:COPL, TSE:XOP) described a remarkable year as it filed its full-year results. The first half of the year was difficult, but was truly outstanding at year-end, chief executive Arthur Millholland said in a statement. The acquisition of Atomic Oil and Gas LLC which closed in March of this year was transformative for COPL.

In 2020 we managed to recapitalize the company which allowed for the acquisition of Atomic and the associated equity and debt financings.

Millholland added: We look forward to the Q1 2021 reporting as it will be the first one to include the operating results of our Atomic group as well as an update on their operations."

( ) introduced a Carbon Policy that sets out its commitments relating to the management of carbon emissions, low-carbon targets and initiatives. The policy confirms the companys commitment to risk-managed growth, which will involve reducing its carbon footprint to the lowest possible levels, it said in a statement.

JOG said it aims to position itself as an oil and gas company thats leading in the energy transition on the UK continental shelf. We understand that responsibly sourced hydrocarbons will be fundamental to a successful global energy transition ensuring vital energy supply during the period," said Andrew Benitz, Jersey Oil chief executive.

JOG is committed to differentiating itself as a sustainable and responsible 21st-century energy company. This Carbon Policy is central to the delivery of that ambition."

( ) branded the twelve months ended 31 December 2020 a landmark year.

Chief executive Brian Larkin said United had positioned itself as a full-cycle oil and gas company with strong production, diverse assets, and clearly defined avenues to deliver further material growth.

These were significant achievements despite one of the toughest years for our sector and wider markets caused by the COVID-19 pandemic," he said. "Building on this success is key for all at United Oil and Gas and we look forward to driving further activity and material growth in 2021 and beyond."
Changi General Hospital (CGH) and the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) have developed the Blood WArning Technology with Continuous Haemoglobin (BWATCH) sensor, a lightweight monitoring device placed over a patient's bandage that detects real-time bleeding from wound sites following invasive medical procedures.

BWATCH was tested and validated in an observational clinical trial involving 250 patients at CGH with a dialysis catheter inserted or removed. The device was securely placed over their dressing for at least six hours. During the trial, 36 episodes of bleeding occurred and the sensor detected all instances of early bleeding. The blood loss detected in the bleeding episodes was minimal and the bandages were only partially stained.

The nursing staff were alerted to the bleeding when the alarm was triggered and took the necessary actions to prevent an escalation of the bleeding. The findings from the clinical trial have been published in Scientific Reports, A device for surveillance of vascular access sites for bleeding: results from a clinical evaluation trial by Chionh, C.Y., Soh, D.Y., Tan, C.H. et al.

CGH and SUTD have patented BWATCH in Singapore and the United States (US), with future plans of commercialisation with suitable industry partners. BWATCH is the first joint patent between CGH and SUTD under a partnership to develop innovative patient care solutions to address evolving healthcare challenges.

Enhancing patient safety with continuous real-time monitoring

In developed countries like Singapore, the incidence of acute dialysis is estimated to be at 200-300 per million population each year. Patients with acute dialysis have acute illnesses, which can lead to a sudden deterioration of their kidney functions, such that the kidney is not able to sustain life. When this occurs, the patient will require haemodialysis, a life-saving therapy to filter out waste products from the blood.

BWATCH is developed with haemodialysis patients in mind to meet a clinical need, as there is a risk of bleeding occurring after a catheter is inserted during vascular access procedures. The wound sites for these patients are usually heavily bandaged and covered under blankets as they rest. To ensure that patients are recovering well, the care team conducts regular inspections, as many as four times in an hour, to check for any potential bleeding.

Designed to complement patient care and enhance patient safety, BWATCH's ability to detect bleeding early will reduce the risk of a potential major bleeding episode. The device is also useful in the care of patients who are incapacitated and unable to call for assistance. As more confidence is gained from wider use of this device, the frequency of inspections and resource requirements may be reduced with no compromise to safety.

"Heavy bleeding following medical procedures is rare but when it occurs, it can be life-threatening. Monitoring at short intervals is highly manpower intensive but necessary. However, despite close monitoring, bleeding may still occur between these inspections. BWATCH offers continuous monitoring, allowing the care team to focus on other patient-centric tasks," said Associate Professor Chionh Chang Yin, Chief and Senior Consultant, Department of Renal Medicine at CGH.

Using light absorption properties to detect blood

Unlike other blood-detection devices, BWATCH's main underlying detection principle is based on the light absorption properties of haemoglobin. The innovation also includes a moisture-detecting sensor that does not require direct contact with the liquid. With these two properties, the device is able to differentiate blood from other types of fluids such as sweat and urine, accurately detecting the bleeding episode and triggering the alarm without requiring direct contact with the patient or patient's bodily fluids. (refer to Annex for more details) "While there are other commercial systems and products that are available for fluid detection, they are only able to detect the presence of fluids by changes in physical properties such as electrical resistance, capacitance or opacity to light. None of the detection methods were specific for blood, making BWATCH a precise non-invasive sterile monitoring device for early detection of bleeding," said Associate Professor Foong Shaohui, Department of Engineering Product Development at SUTD.

Potential future applications

Besides haemodialysis patients, BWATCH is applicable to other patient types within the hospital. It can be used on other wound types or locations that are prone to external bleeding, for example in post-cardiac catheterisation. Cardiac catheterisation is a procedure used to diagnose and treat certain cardiovascular conditions. During the procedure, a catheter is inserted into an artery and threaded through the blood vessels, which leads to the heart. The wound site is a potential area of bleeding. The device can also be tested in other clinical situations beyond the hospital setting, such as on-site monitoring of traumatic wounds. The shape of the device would have to be adapted for different wound types.

In addition, there is potential for the device to be integrated into hospital systems, such as linking it directly to the nurses' call system. "Bringing BWATCH to market will offer many possibilities in the early detection of bleeding," said A/Prof Chionh.
Cleveland Clinic, Lifebanc and Transplant Connect have designed and launched a fully automated donor referral system to streamline the process for hospital staff identifying and evaluating potential organ, tissue and eye donors.

The new process was launched successfully throughout the Cleveland Clinic health system in northeast Ohio in February 2021, following a successful pilot at Cleveland Clinic main campus and Cleveland Clinic Fairview Hospital in 2020. To implement a donor referral process that would work with each of the organization's platforms, Cleveland Clinic collaborated with Lifebanc, the non-profit organ procurement organization (OPO) for northeast Ohio, and Transplant Connect, a medical software company specializing in donation-transplant software.

One person's donation can save the lives of up to eight people and enhance the lives of 50 more. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services mandates that every U.S. hospital refer all deaths and imminent deaths to its designated OPO in a timely manner. When using the existing manual process, which is labor-intensive and time-consuming, hospital staff must identify each potential donor, place a call to notify the OPO and communicate relevant information to allow the donation evaluation to proceed.

Our clinical and technical caregivers at Cleveland Clinic are continuously working to make improvements to identify candidates for organ donation. This resulted in significant workflow and time-saving improvements but still required a lengthy phone call to the OPO. With the new process, a phone call is no longer required. The entire donor referral process is now automated and in use in all of our northeast Ohio locations." Brent Hicks, senior director of digital and clinical health at Cleveland Clinic

A Cleveland Clinic team of nurses, end-of-life care professionals, and technology experts worked together to automate the internal process while maintaining quality, privacy, and patient safety. The project came to fruition with support from a Cleveland Clinic Caregiver Catalyst Grant that rewards with funds the innovation and initiative of Cleveland Clinic caregivers.

"We pride ourselves on providing high-quality, safe care, and keep looking for ways to innovate," said Meredith Foxx, executive chief nursing officer at Cleveland Clinic. "Working closely with Lifebanc and Transplant Connect, we made improvements to our organ-donation process to benefit patient care, which translates into our nurses spending more time at the bedside with the patient and their family."

Transplant Connect's electronic medical record software, known as iTransplant, is used by Lifebanc and most other OPOs in the United States. It facilitates nearly 75% of U.S. organ transplants from deceased donation. Its automated donor referral interface, known as iReferral, is currently in nationwide rollout with many hospitals and OPOs. The iReferral interface allows for donor referrals to be sent immediately and securely from the hospital's electronic medical records system to the OPO's iTransplant system.

"This iReferral launch with Cleveland Clinic and Lifebanc is the largest deployment of automated donor referral technology to date," said John Piano, founder and chief executive officer at Transplant Connect and inventor of the automated donor referral.

"We are honored to have worked through this process with Transplant Connect and Cleveland Clinic," said Lifebanc's Chief Executive Officer Gordon Bowen. "By streamlining the organ donation referral process, the results will lead to more donors and more organs for those waiting for a life-saving gift."
Doctors treating babies born with Turner syndrome need to look for heart rhythm abnormalities, in addition to the usual heart problems of high blood pressure or left-sided structural heart defects, according to Meena Bolourchi, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine.

Turner syndrome occurs in one out of 2,500 live female births and is caused by the complete or partial absence of one X chromosome. Compared to the general population, females with Turner syndrome have a three times higher risk of early death from cardiovascular disease.

In the general newborn population, cardiac arrhythmias occur in approximately 24.4 per 100,000 live births and may occur with or without congenital heart disease. The most common arrhythmia is supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) (abnormally fast heart rate coming from the top chambers of the heart) with an incidence of one per 250 to one per 1,000 pediatric patients depending on the source. Atrial flutter occurs less often, with an incidence of 2.1 per 100,000 live births and typically does not reoccur after treatment. While one study of newborns with atrial flutter showed that 25 percent had a second atrial arrhythmia, none of them had an underlying genetic syndrome.

Now for the first time, researchers report on a newborn with Turner syndrome having atrial flutter followed by SVT. "This is the first case of a baby with Turner's syndrome who was found to have more than one type of arrhythmia. This case illustrates that arrhythmias from the top chambers of the heart (atrial arrhythmias) can be found in babies with Turner's syndrome," explains corresponding author Bolourchi.

To date, there had been no known associations between Turner syndrome and the development of atrial flutter with or without SVT. Bolourchi stresses that if a baby or child has been diagnosed with Turner syndrome, it would be important to look for heart rhythm abnormalities, in addition to the usual heart problems of high blood pressure or left-sided structural heart defects.

"This case illustrates that infants and children with Turner syndrome may be at risk for cardiovascular rhythm disorders, such as atrial flutter or supraventricular tachycardia. Early and precise investigation of such cardiac abnormalities is important to reduce morbidity and mortality of these patients." Meena Bolourchi, Pediatric Cardiologist, Boston Medical Center.
Jeffersonville, IN (47130)

Today

Rain showers in the morning with numerous thunderstorms developing in the afternoon. High 81F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%. Locally heavy rainfall possible..

Tonight

Thunderstorms in the evening, then variable clouds overnight with still a chance of showers. Low near 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%.
Jeffersonville, IN (47130)

Today

Rain showers in the morning with thunderstorms developing in the afternoon. High 81F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%. Locally heavy rainfall possible..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy with showers and a few thunderstorms. Low near 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.
A snapshot of some of the week's mining news and announcements

( ), the precious and base metals exploration and development company, has announced excellent results from the drilling campaign at the Havieron deposit.

The latest results from the project, located in the Paterson region of Western Australia, further highlight the potential for extensions to the initial resource published last December, Greatland said in its stock market release.

IronRidge Resources Limited ( ) said it raised 12mln in an oversubscribed fundraising to help bankroll the development of its lithium and gold projects in the African nations of Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire and Chad. The company raised the funds through the subscription and placing of 60mln new shares at a price of 20p each, a 6.3% discount to its closing price on Monday.

( ) announced ( ) is acquiring an indirect interest of 11.05% in Enerox GmbH. Enerox is a vanadium redox flow battery manufacturer providing grid scale and micro-grid energy storage solutions. Bushveld holds an indirect 25.25% stake in Enerox.

( ) produced 16,174 ounces of gold equivalent from its mine in Armenia during the quarter to 31 March 2021, an increase of 21% on first quarter of the previous year. All-in-sustaining costs rang in at US$1,024, a comfortable margin on the current gold price of over US$1,750.

SDG The  (PRIVATE:SKTON), the company behind the first zero-calorie, zero sugar, and 100% natural mixer to launch nationwide in the UK, has been included in the list of InnoBev Awards Finalists for 2021. The company, which changed its name from Skinny Tonic earlier this month, noted that the winners will be announced on Tuesday, May 11, in a virtual awards ceremony during the 2021 UK Soft Drinks Conference. In other news, SDG also announced the introduction of a new brand flavour  Blueberry.

( ) commenced the next phase of its exploration work at its Eclipse gold project, located 55km north-east of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. The programme includes resource drilling at the Eclipse Mine target, where 200 metres of diamond drilling in three holes will be undertaken to duplicate selected recent reverse circulation drillholes for resource estimation purposes.

( ) highlighted positive initial indications from four holes recently drilled at the Trafalgar Hill prospect area, which is part of the Olympic Gold project in Nevada. Executive chairman Brian Hall described an excellent start to a busy 2021 work season.

( ) confirmed the admission of its shares to trading on AIM after moving from London's main market. Following the retirement of non-executive chairman Mark Connelly, director James Kelly has taken up the role.

PLC ( ) is to acquire a 75% strategic interest in a UK special acquisition vehicle which will in turn acquire outright First Development Resources Ltd, an Australian private company. FDR Australia holds a portfolio of copper-gold focused exploration interests in the Paterson Province in the eastern Pilbara Region of Western Australia.

Inc ( ) ( ) said it is working towards de-risking the Nalunaq Project as much as possible and increase the scale and value of the resource. Once it will complete the feasibility level engineering study and incorporated the updated resource model, the miner will proceed directly with the revised development plan for Nalunaq.

( ) said drilling at the Arzu North prospect in Turkey has indicated resources sufficient to extend the Kiziltepe mine by a year.n Multiple intersections were reported that could be used to extend the existing Arzu North open pit at the Kiziltepe mine, said the statement.

( ) highlighted an upgrade to its 2021 production guidance for the Kwale operations in Kenya as it this morning issued its quarterly activities update. The company said it expects higher volumes of both ilmenite and zircon.
(Newser)  "Red Flag!!" wrote a steel company executive in a 2017 email. Unfortunately for him, it was one he spotted but then seems to have ignored. In a lengthy piece for the Los Angeles Times, Michael Finnegan delves into the events that proceeded the arrest of Zachary Horwitz, a D-list actor who was arrested earlier this month and accused of running a $690 million Ponzi scheme that ensnared the aforementioned exec and many others. Horwitz's company 1inMM Capital claimed it would buy the distribution rights to cheap movies and then resell them to Netflix, Sony, and HBO, which would then distribute the movies in Latin Americaand get 1inMM Capital's investors major returns. The FBI says it was all a fraud, and Finnegan traces the 34-year-old's path to Hollywood and the evolution of his alleged scheme. Three major unwitting players: his college buddies.

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While studying psychology at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind., Horwitz developed friendships with Jacob Wunderlin and Joseph deAlteriswho took jobs with JP Morgan after their 2009 graduationand Matthew Schweinzger, who got a job with Morgan Stanley. Horwitz headed to LA to focus on acting in 2012, and started 1inMM Productions shortly thereafter. In 2014, Wunderlin loaned the company $37,000; it was repaid with interest. The college friends then banded with relatives and others to lend more than $1 million to 1inMM Productions, supposedly to purchase the rights to seven films. That money was repaid, too, and the success led the friends to form a company that could invest in Horwitz's deals, one that kept growing as more "downstream investors" joined. They ponied up $490 million. (Read the full story.)
(Newser)  In February, Esme Bianco accused musician Marilyn Manson of physical and emotional abuse, including assault, telling the Cut he was a "monster who almost destroyed me." Now, the next move by the 38-year-old Game of Thrones actor: a civil lawsuit against Manson that alleges he sexually assaulted her over a four-year period. The complaint filed Friday in a California court accuses Manson (real name Brian Warner) of raping Bianco, as well as perpetrating other instances of violent sexual assault and abuse between 2009 and 2013, reports NBC News. The suit says the incidents took place after Manson initially lured Bianco to Los Angeles with "fraudulent offers of movie and music video roles," starting with a video shoot in which she was whipped and subjected to electric shocks, per the New York Times.

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After the two began a consensual relationship, she endured "constant abuse" at Manson's hands, including rape, as well as cutting, biting, spanking, and whipping her during sex acts without her OK, the complaint alleges, per Variety. Tony Ciulla, Manson's ex-manager, and Ciulla's management company are also named in Bianco's complaint, accused of breaching human trafficking laws. "For far too long my abuser has been left unchecked, enabled by money, fame, and an industry that turned a blind eye," Bianco says in a statement, per NBC. Manson lawyer Howard King is pushing back on the lawsuit, calling her claims "provably false" and suggesting they're an attempt at extortion on the part of Bianco and her legal team, per a statement to the Times. Meanwhile, Manson is also currently under criminal investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. (Read more Marilyn Manson stories.)
(Newser)  In November, six American oil executives were found guilty of corruption and given lengthy prison sentences in Venezuela, following a detention that had already stretched out for three years. Now, a bit of a reprieve for the "Citgo 6," in what the AP reports is a "gesture of goodwill" toward the Biden administration. The family members of Tomeu Vadell, Jose Luis Zambrano, Alirio Zambrano, Jorge Toledo, Gustavo Cardenas, and Jose Pereira confirm to the news agency that the men have been released on house arrest, with a source telling the Wall Street Journal they're being held in Caracas. The families of the menfive naturalized US citizens and a US residentsay their prison conditions have been unbearable, with the men suffering from severe weight loss. In November 2017, the executives were lured to Caracas for a business meeting at the headquarters of PDVSA, the parent company of the Houston-based Citgo, then taken away by masked security agents.

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The men were charged with embezzlement, money laundering, and conspiracy, and after their convictions last year, they received prison sentences ranging from eight to 13 years, per Reuters. The men continue to profess their innocence. Their detention has been a bone of contention between Venezuela and DC: The Trump administration called President Nicolas Maduro a dictator, imposed tough oil sanctions against the country, and demanded the men be released from prison, citing COVID-19. Maduro seems to want to improve ties with the Biden administration. The men had been placed on house arrest once before, in December 2019, but were returned to prison two months later after then-President Trump met with Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido. "I'm happy my brothers will sleep in a better place tonight, but the job is not finished until they are back home in the USA," Alirio Rafael Zambrano, brother of two of the executives, posted on Twitter. (Read more Venezuela stories.)
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Pukaha extends from just north of Masterton to the southern fringe of the Takapau Plains.

It's now home to a wildlife centre, a large environmental education facility, three full-time Rangitane carvers and a nocturnal boardwalk.

This is the land Rangitane's ancestors lived, full of kauri and totara, and many native species. It is the taonga, or treasure, of the iwi who fought long and hard to get it back in a Treaty settlement.

As part of the Treaty settlement which was finalised in 2017, Rangitane made the significant gesture to give the reserve back to the people of New Zealand.

Today's handover was an emotional one: "A very emotional day, there's going to be lots of crying, there's going to be lots of crying for the sadness for the memories for those that have fought for this in the Treaty claims that are not with us today," says Rangitane representative Tina Te Tau-Brightwell.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the handover is generous and significant, but also important to protect the area from the growing number of pests.

"By gifting the forest to the people of Aotearoa you are providing an opportunity for all New Zealanders and the government to join you in the protection of Pukaha."

May 1 was chosen for the handover for a reason.

"Today represents the 10th birthday of Manukura, our white Kiwi, hence that is why we had this date set but unfortunately Manukura passed away in January this year," says Te Tau-Brightwell.

The ceremony is a milestone in a long journey, but one that brought many communities together.
"Our posture's gonna be that we're posted outside of DC, awaiting the president's orders. We hope he will give us the orders. We want him to declare an insurrection, and to call us up as the militia."

Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, in November, looking ahead to Jan. 6
It was a far cry from the National of election night on Saturday. A re-invigorated party, and a leader doubling-down on 'one-rule-for-all'.

Collins has spent the week attacking the proposed Maori Health Authority, and on Saturday, she went further.

"If two separate systems are needed in health, does that mean two systems are also required in education, justice and resource management?" she said.

And she's claiming the Government has plans for exactly that, referring to a document called He Puapua.

"The Labour Government document, He Puapua, contemplates a separate Maori Parliament or Upper House, able to veto any decision of the NZ Parliament," Collins said.

The report, which hasn't been signed off by Cabinet yet, is a plan to realise the United Nations's declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples - which New Zealand signed up to in 2010 - under a National Government.

It suggests making changes over time, so by 2040, Maori have as much governance over their spaces, as the Crown does on its spaces.

But for Collins, it's the culmination of her cries at separatism.

"The Government cannot and will not accept the implementation of two systems by stealth."

Maori-Crown relations minister Kelvin Davis said he was disappointed but not surprised, calling it a "desperate speech from an increasingly desperate leader". He says the speech is at odds with the recommendations in National's election review.

The Northern Convention's members and local MPs had met to discuss that review.

"It's really positive, everyone's just engaging around the recommendations," said National MP Mark Mitchell.

"I think it's a great opportunity for our members to reflect on the election and have their voices heard," said Simeon Brown.

Just apparently, as long as the voices aren't heard by the media. As Newshub tried to take the pulse of the punters, we were quickly shut down. After we finished a different interview, we were approached by another party member and told to delete the footage.

One of the things members will decide is how party leaders will be elected.

"I choose not to have a view on that, and I think it's right I choose not to have a view on that," said Collins.

But she's more than happy to share her views on race.
Shamokin, PA (17872)

Today

Partly cloudy in the morning followed by scattered thunderstorms in the afternoon. High around 85F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Overcast with rain showers at times. Low 64F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Shura Council yesterday thanked the workers in the Kingdom for their dedicated efforts and vital role in serving the nation on the occasion of International Labour day observed worldwide on May 1.

The Council paid tribute to His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, lauding royal care and workers rights under Bahrains advanced laws and regulations.

The statement also commended the support of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister.

The day celebrates the achievements of the workers and spreads awareness about the exploitation that the workers face. The theme of International Labour Day 2020 was maintaining safety and security at the workplace to raise awareness about the Coronavirus pandemic.

Shura Council expressed pride in the role the government plays in introducing economic policies and labour market reforms, which are successful in generating jobs opportunities and ensuring the rights of the workers in the Kingdom. This is a major achievement both at the regional and international level and developing our investment and economic opportunities, the statement said.

In this regard, the Council also hailed the strength of the Bahraini cadres and termed them as the nucleus of the nation building process. They play a pivotal role in supporting the national economy and realising development initiatives and plans, the statement said, adding, the development process is ongoing despite the challenges posed by the global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Council also commended the efforts exerted by the frontline health workers in battling the deadly outbreak. They have set shining examples of loyalty and sacrifice to protect the homeland, members of the Shura Council said.

Shura council members said they would continue to ensure rights by further strengthening the legislative process.

Speaker hails workers

Parliament Speaker Fawzia bint Abdulla Zainal congratulated the leadership of Bahrain and Bahraini workers on the occasion of International Workers Day.

She lauded the Governments keenness to support workers, affirm their rights and professional stability, wishing further development, progress and prosperity, under the leadership of HM the King.

Labour minister hails workers

Labour and Social Development Minister, Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) Chairman, Jameel Humaidan, congratulated the leadership of Bahrain, all Bahraini workers, particularly frontline medical workers, health professionals, security and administrative teams and others. He said that the annual event is celebrated this time remotely in compliance with health protocols and mandatory measures for combating the pandemic.

He also highlighted the role of labour unions in defending just labour issues, affirming Bahrains keenness on continued cooperation and coordination with representatives of workers and employers.

Ensuring safety: Khalaf

Essam Khalaf, the Minister of Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning, said the first of May is a day to renew the celebration of human capabilities despite the exceptional circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Khalaf said the ministry is taking all preventive measures in its worksites. The ministry, he said, attained 2.5 million hours of work in the Sheikh Zayed street expansion project without any work injuries.

Work Ministry also recorded 3.5 million hours of work in the new Bahrain International Exhibition and Convention Centre project, and 2.5 million hours of work in the fourth expansion project of the sewage treatment plant in Tubli, without any work injuries.

Integral part of development: Electricity Minister

Wael bin Nasser Al-Mubarak, the Minister of Electricity and Water Affairs, hailed workers as an integral part of the urban and infrastructure development process of the Kingdom.

We especially thank workers in the electricity and water sector for their contributions over the past several decades. He said that the celebration of this occasion confirms the interest and appreciation of the wise leadership of workers in all sectors.

The minister congratulated all workers for their efforts in building the homeland and its advancement.

Quality work environment: Al-Dossary

Issa Al-Dossary, Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and National Security, said Bahrain had raised the quality of its work environment by stimulating production and ensuring rights without discrimination, especially amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

Bahrain, he said, had demonstrated its ability to adapt to various circumstances by creating exceptional initiatives ensuring labour market stability.

The 4.3 billion dinars stimulus package ensured wages in the private sector and supported enterprises hurt by the pandemic. Bahrain succeeded remarkably in localising jobs, accelerating the pace of workforce integration in private establishments, and enhancing the ability of the local market to generate employment opportunities, Al-Dossary added.

He also praised the efforts of all workers on the front lines of medical, security and administrative teams.

Fundamental pillars: Al Zayed

President of the Civil Service Authority, Ahmed bin Zayed Al-Zayed, said the Kingdom is proud of the national competencies - the fundamental pillars of Bahraini society.

The Civil Service Authority, he said, is working to empower, develop young Bahraini citizens and improve job opportunities. He said, The Labour Day is an opportunity to celebrate our national cadres and their sacrifices for the advancement and prosperity of the homeland, which was evident in recent times through their efforts to address the Coronavirus pandemic.

Al-Zayed also stressed the importance of continuing cooperation between government agencies for implementing comprehensive development strategies.

Determined to protect: Al Saleh

Ali bin Saleh Al Saleh, the Chairman of the Shura Council, affirmed that Bahrain is determined to protecting and preserving the rights of all employees and workers in the public and private sectors.

The chairman praised the care and support accorded by the government to the workers in the public and private sectors, citing the initiatives aimed at fostering partnership and responsibility in achieving sustainable growth Al Saleh affirmed that the Council would spare no effort in supporting legislation that promotes workers rights, defines their duties, and opens multiple horizons for them to develop at all levels.

He described Labour Day as an occasion to recall the sacrifices of the fathers and forefathers in serving Bahrain and its people.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Yearly maintenance works of the veterinary quarantine facilities in the Kingdom are continuing with the highest standards, said a top Works Ministry official.

The facilities are instrumental in containing, and preventing the spread of transmissible and highly contagious Transboundary Animal Diseases, Dr Khaled Ahmed Hassan, the Undersecretary for Livestock, Ministry of Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning, said.

He was reviewing the progress of the maintenance works at the veterinary quarantine facility in the Buri area. Works are nearing completion, said Dr Hassan.

The facility, he said, is also fast processing the shipments of livestock for slaughter during the blessed month of Ramadan and Eid Al Fitr. The undersecretary also reviewed the expansion project of the facility, which will start soon.

Works Ministry is in the final stages of awarding the tender to one of the contractors approved by the board. The project, upon completion, will raise the capacity of the veterinary quarantine facility to process 15,000 heads of sheep and 1500 head of cows.

The agency is continuing to implement development projects to advance the livestock sector, which is also essential for achieving food security in the field of poultry meat and eggs, said Dr Hassan.

He also praised the cooperation between livestock dealers and breeders in implementing the government directives during Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr, Dhu al-Hijjah and Muharram. The undersecretary called on citizens and residents to buy meat only through licensed slaughterhouses to ensure their safety
Bahrain and Hungary reach agreement on mutual recognition of vaccination against COVID-19

Bahrain and Hungary reach agreement on mutual recognition of vaccination against COVID-19

TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com The governments of the Kingdom of Bahrain and Hungary have reached an agreement regarding mutual recognition of vaccination, effective from 3 May 2021. The governments of the Kingdom of Bahrain and Hungary have reached an agreement regarding mutual recognition of vaccination, effective from 3 May 2021.

This agreement follows recent talks between Bahrain and Hungary, including communication between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Health in both countries.

Under the agreement, individuals fully vaccinated with a vaccination certificate will be exempted from quarantine and will be granted access to locations restricted to fully vaccinated individuals.

The identification of travellers and verification of their right to travel will be carried out digitally, streamlining entry into both countries while strengthening tourism, trade and economic links between Bahrain and Hungary.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

The Police Media Centre at the Interior Ministry has, over the past days, noticed some inciting news reports broadcast by the Qatari government-sponsored Al Jazeera Channel. The statements quote European Parliamentarians alleging their concern over the human rights situation at the Reformation and Rehabilitation Centre in "Jau" and demanding the release of specific names, claiming they are "prisoners of opinion".

The Interior Ministry affirmed that the incitement campaign of the Qatari channel through the support of their owners is an aggressive campaign against Bahrain and has nothing to do with slogans the channel uses for "media consumption".

Following these campaigns, the Interior Ministry issued a statement in which it clarified the following:

First: The Police Media, through its observation, has almost confirmed the systematic approach of the Qatari government-owned Al Jazeera Channel as the main party. Another party is individuals who run alleged human rights organisations while they are convicts and escaping from justice, and some of them involved in terrorist cases.

Second: The organised approach includes some parliamentarians from European countries announcing wrong human rights information about Bahrain. Al Jazeera airs the statements immediately to target the accomplishments of Bahrain, without consideration to the extraordinary global situation because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Third: The initial analysis affirms that the released statements of individuals who lack information about the human rights situation in Bahrain. They are also unaware of the professional precautionary measures and procedures at the Reformation and Rehabilitation Centre to protect the health and safety of all inmates regardless of the length of their sentences. They are, first and foremost, a trust that must be protected.

Fourth: Some European parliamentarians who release statements about human rights in Bahrain ignore the situations of thousands of inmates in their countries that are supposed to have achieved a decent level of human rights protection development. At the same time, most of their prisons witness alarming COVID-19 outbreaks.

Fifth: The Kingdom of Bahrain has provided COVID-19 vaccinations for all citizens and residents, and it almost succeeded in vaccinating half the population is a remarkable health milestone. The optional vaccine was offered for free for inmates, and 100% of those registered have been vaccinated.

Sixth: There are no COVID-19 active cases at the Reformation and Rehabilitation Centre. There are pre-arranged protocol and procedures to deal with future infections.

Seventh: The Reformation and Rehabilitation Centre is open for human rights organisations, including the National Institute for Human Rights, the independent Office of the Ombudsman and Prisoners and Detainees Rights Commission. These institutions organise announced and unannounced visits to ensure that inmates receive services stated in the Reformation and Rehabilitation Organisations Law and its rules.

Eighth: Facts deny the alleged media neutrality of the Qatari Al Jazeera Channel. Its media policy targets others and their accomplishments while it does not discuss anything related to Qatari Affairs.

Finally: The coordinated inciting campaign between Al Jazeera and its supporters won't affect Bahrain and its people and leadership. May God protect Bahrain from Sedition promoters.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain yesterday announced that it is sending medical equipment and oxygen to support Indias efforts to combat the COVID-19 outbreak.

The decision by Bahrains Cabinet reflects the kingdoms commitment to supporting its allies, a statement released late night yesterday said.

The government expressed its solidarity with India and stressed its readiness to support international efforts to combat COVID-19.
NAIROBI, Kenya | Ethiopia has swept up thousands of ethnic Tigrayans into detention centers across the country on accusations that they are traitors, often holding them for months and without charges, the AP has found.

The detentions, mainly but not exclusively of military personnel, are an apparent attempt to purge state institutions of the Tigrayans who once dominated them, as the government enters its sixth month of fighting in the Tigray region. Detainees, families and visitors spoke of hundreds or even more than 1,000 people in at least nine individual locations, including military bases and an agricultural college.

The government of Nobel Peace Prize winner Abiy Ahmed acknowledges that it has locked up a small number of high-level military officials from the Tigrayan minority. But the AP is reporting for the first time that the detentions are far more sweeping in scope and more arbitrary, extending even to priests and office workers, sometimes with ethnic profiling as the sole reason.

A military detainee told the AP he is being held with more than 400 other Tigrayans, and lawyers are not allowed to contact them. Even families cant visit. The AP is not using his name for his safety but has seen his military ID.

They can do what they want, he said on a smuggled phone. They might kill us.We are in their hands, and we have no choice but to pray.

Many of the military personnel were not combatants but held jobs such as teachers and nurses, according to interviews with 15 detainees and relatives, along with a lawyer and a camp visitor. Civilian employees of state-owned companies also have been held. The arbitrary locking up of non-combatants is against international law, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has met with family members of detainees but declined to answer questions.

Conditions vary, but some detainees are given just one meal a day and crowded dozens to a room in sweltering metal shelters, at a time when COVID-19 infections are rapidly rising in Ethiopia. Families worry that needed medications are withheld. Detainees and families the AP tracked down did not directly witness beatings or other such physical abuse, but almost all asked not to be identified out of fear for their lives.

Once detained, the Tigrayans often end up in Ethiopias opaque military justice system. That means they can lose the right to private lawyers and face judges who one lawyer said tend to hand out the maximum penalty. With fewer means to challenge their detention, detainees say they feel helpless, their fate in the hands of the people who accuse them of treason.

One Tigrayan living in the United States said she could understand war between soldiers but objected to the detention of two cousins with non-combat roles in communications and peacekeeping. One hasnt been seen or heard from since November.

Is the danger in their blood? In their DNA? she asked. I thought they were Ethiopians.

The mass detentions and house arrests are an extension of the war in the Tigray region marked by massacres, gang rapes, expulsions and forced starvation, which witnesses call a systematic effort to destroy the Tigrayan minority of more than 6 million. The detentions are all the more striking because Abiy was once praised for releasing thousands of political prisoners in a country long known for locking up people deemed a threat.

Tigrayans are further targeted by state media reports amplifying the government narrative of pursuing Tigray criminals and their supporters. Family members of detainees are sometimes stripped of their jobs, kicked out of military housing and subjected to frozen bank accounts.

Tigray leaders were prominent in Ethiopias repressive government for nearly three decades and are blamed by Abiy and others for fostering sometimes deadly ethnic politics, but they were sidelined when he took office in 2018. After national elections were delayed last year, they held their own vote in Tigray and called Abiys government illegitimate. Ethiopia then accused Tigray fighters of attacking a military base and launched an offensive, unleashing a war that has killed thousands.

Ethiopias government is only after the top leadership of Tigrays former rulers, the minister for public diplomacy at the countrys embassy in Britain, Mekonnen Amare, told the AP. So there is no such thing as mass detention or mass abuse of rights.

But in a leaked video posted online earlier in the war and verified by the AP, a senior military official said of Tigrayans, We had to clean out our insides.  Even if there may be good people among them, we cant differentiate the good from the bad. To save the country, we made it so they were excluded from doing work. Now the security forces were completely Ethiopian, Brig. Gen. Tesfaye Ayalew said in what appeared to be an internal briefing.

Ethiopias attorney generals office, which has said it would set up a hotline to report ethnic profiling, did not respond to questions from the AP, and neither did a military spokesman. The U.S. State Department said it could not confirm reports of people detained in camps, but noted that it has paused most security assistance to Ethiopia because of concerns over the Tigray crisis.

Another Tigrayan who spoke to the AP from custody, his voice hushed on a borrowed phone, said he is being held without charges along with more than 30 pilots, technicians and other military personnel. He said families at times have no idea where relatives are, and his own mother still thinks hes working, just far away. He despairs of justice in military court.

If peace comes, maybe theyll release us, he said. If not, we dont have any future. I fear even they may kill us. Then he hurriedly ended the call.

Estimates of the number of detainees and camps vary. More than 17,000 Tigrayans were in the military alone when the war began and have been detained, according to an estimate given to a researcher by Mulugeta Gebrehiwot Berhe, a former senior Ethiopian official and Tigrayan who founded the Institute for Peace and Security Studies at Addis Ababa University.

Along with the at least nine centers cited by detainees, families and visitors, the AP obtained three separate lists that allege several others across the country. One detainee who escaped a center in Mirab Abaya in southern Ethiopia estimated that more than 1,500 people were held there alone.

A man who visited two other centers said detainees had counted 110 people in one, mostly military commanders, and 270 in the other, many of them commandos and air force officers. Some had served in the military for more than 30 years with no history of misconduct, he said.

The visitor described 40 to 50 people living in a room made of metal sheets. The detainees told him they were not allowed to speak in groups or have family visits or phone calls, and they didnt get enough food.

The area is very hot, extremely hot..they dont look good, said the visitor, whom the AP is not identifying further to preserve his access to the centers. He said detainees alleged that people are held in at least 20 places across the country.

Its scary, you know? he said. These people were serving their country as military personnel but were attacked by their own government.They have been identified as treasonous by the community, so theyre seriously worried about their families.

Their families also are worried about them. A man in the capital, Addis Ababa, wept as he described not seeing or speaking to his brother, a human resources staffer with the military, for three months. His brothers family has been evicted from military housing, he said, sharing photos of their items strewn outdoors.

He was serving his country honestly, the man said. The situation is not good, not only for me but for all the Tigrayan people.

Another detainee had been serving in a neighboring country on a peacekeeping mission when he was called home to Ethiopia and seized, his son said. He was freed on bail, and the AP has seen the federal court document for his release. But then he was sent to a military camp, accused of creating instability although he wasnt in the country.

I spoke with him yesterday. He sounded stressed, his son said. People with the military gave him the phone in secret. Hes a proud person. Its unsettling to hear him like that.

His father has lost about 10 kilograms (22 pounds) because of the lack of proper food, he said.

The transfer of people into the military system after being released on bail in the federal courts is illegal, said a lawyer in the capital, Tadele Gebremedhin, who has worked on more than 75 cases involving detained Tigrayans from the military and federal police. He said detainees at one center he visited on the outskirts of the capital sleep about 25 to a room, get food once a day and are denied family visits.

They are innocent, the lawyer said. The only thing is, theyre Tigrayans.

Civilians have been held, too. One employee with state-owned Ethiopian Airlines said he fled the country after being released on bail.

We need you very badly today, he recalled federal police saying as they took him from his home without explanation. He said he saw almost 100 high-ranking military officials during his two months in detention, from late November to late January.

Dozens of Tigrayan priests and deacons were detained in the capital, most for a month, according to Lisanewerk Desta, who leads the library and museum department of the Ethiopia Orthodox Church. He also said he has spoken with a detainee at a center near Harar who estimated that more than 2,000 military personnel were held there.

I dont have words. How to explain this kind of hatred? he asked.

Beyond the camps, an unknown number of Tigrayans are under house arrest. A man described how one parent, a nurse in the military, has been barred from work since the war began and is under a curfew.

The United Nations human rights office said it was aware of reports of arbitrary detention of Tigrayans but did not have reliable estimates given the lack of transparency.

The government-created Ethiopian Human Rights Commission did not answer questions, instead sharing recent statements on Tigrayan detainees and ethnic profiling. In a statement this week, the commission said the denial of fair trials, family visits and medical treatment is still rife at several detention centers, and detainees are often unable to tell families where they are.

The commission spoke earlier this year with 21 detainees at a federal police center in the capital, with some describing lengthy pre-trial detention periods and being subjected to insults, threats, beatings and to physical injuries from shots fired at the time of their capture. However, the commission said detainees were in good health and the conditions of detention met acceptable standards.

Tigrayans dispute that. In neighboring South Sudan, more than a dozen members of the United Nations peacekeeping mission refused to board a flight home in February when their stay ended.

On Thursday, United Nations spokesman Farhan Haq told the AP a number of Ethiopians in the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Sudans Darfur region are seeking international protection as several hundred troops are being repatriated.

For detainees, it is unclear what happens next. Two people told the AP that a campaign to re-educate them has begun, including lectures promoting Abiys political party. One person said their cousin had gone through the training, and another said their relative had been told it would start soon.

The risk for the government is that the detentions could turn Tigrayans who once swore their loyalty into active opponents.

Teklebrhan Weldeselassie, an air force pilot, said he and colleagues were accused of being in contact with Tigrays now-fugitive leaders. He escaped house arrest and fled Ethiopia, but he said colleagues have told him they are among an estimated 1,000 Tigrayans detained near the air force headquarters in Debre Zeit.

Once shocked by being suspected as a traitor, he is so horrified by Ethiopias treatment of Tigrayans that he now says he would consider taking up arms.

Before, I didnt plan to fight on the side of Tigray, Teklebrhan said. At this time, if I get a chance, yeah, of course I would defend my people.
Joe Kalin has fond memories of growing up in the Buchanan County countryside.

His father came from Switzerland and turned 87 acres near Faucett, Missouri, into a successful dairy farm, where Kalin lived and worked with four brothers and a sister. Before passing it to the next generation, Kalins father instilled a deep appreciation for the land and its productive capacity.

My parents both come from the old country, said Kalin, now 84. My father, he loved to farm. It was given to us boys as an inheritance. We were always told to take care of it, that it would care of us.

Now, Kalin has his doubts. After surviving an up-and-down farm economy and switching to row crops, he warily anticipates a new threat on the horizon. Its not the weather.

Its a 780-mile, high-voltage transmission line that threatens to cut through the land that brought John Kalin to America in the 1920s. The project, known as the Grain Belt Express, seeks to transfer wind power from western Kansas to population centers east of the Mississippi River.

Its been talked about so much its hard to believe the Grain Belt Express has been neither constructed nor completely eliminated as a viable project. Since 2014, counties have granted and then rescinded support and state regulators denied and then approved an application to build the line across northern Missouri.

The company that started the project is no longer in the picture. Invenergy, a Chicago-based business, purchased the Grain Belt Express in 2019.

Now, landowners like Kalin are watching as Missouri lawmakers make another attempt to kill the project. A bill to deny eminent domain rights failed to pass in 2019, but a similar measure, House Bill 527, passed in the House and awaits a Senate hearing in the final weeks of the session.

Property rights are a foundational right of who we are as the state of Missouri, said state Rep. Mike Haffner, the bills sponsor.

Critics like Haffner and the Missouri Farm Bureau said Grain Belt is not entitled to eminent domain because it is not providing a public benefit but is instead a merchant line that buys power in one place and sells it someplace else at a profit. Thats especially true of the Grain Belt Express, according to Haffner, because its a direct-current project that would need a costly converter station to provide power in Missouri.

To him, its more of a highway with few off-ramps until it exits Missouri.

There is nothing associated with this line that is increasing the base amount of energy available to the state of Missouri, said Haffner, a Republican from Cass County. It is an energy highway. Its just transporting energy. The intent was to bring it all the way to the East Coast.

One new wrinkle in this debate came in February when extreme cold weather caused rolling blackouts in Missouri and a near-collapse of the electrical grid in Texas as supply was not able to meet demand. Supporters of the Grain Belt Express, including manufacturing organizations like Associated Industries of Missouri, said the $2.3 billion project will increase the capacity to transport bulk power, which could help meet future spikes in energy demand.

The bipartisan Missouri Public Service Commission unanimously approved the Grain Belt Express as a public utility project because of the tremendous public benefit it will bring to the Show-Me State, said Beth Conley, an Invenergy spokeswoman, in a prepared statement. Missouris largest energy infrastructure project will provide payments to landowners and local communities, support 1,500 construction jobs over three years, deliver millions in annual energy savings for 39 Missouri communities and bolster electric reliability to help avoid future emergency outages.

For his part, Kalin said he isnt against green energy but opposes being forced to pay the price while others reap the benefits. He doesnt want to look out the window and see 150-foot power poles where his father once saw a landscape reminiscent of an alpine meadow.

I dont like the government telling people what they can do and cant do with their land, he said.
A new bill is in review with the Missouri General Assembly that could modify parts of the law regarding child custody arrangements.

House Bill 299 and Senate Bill 531 add a rebuttable presumption when determining child custody arrangements that award equal or approximately equal time to each parent, according to the summaries provided for each bill.

The bills would create a presumption in favor of 50/50 child custody in all cases. Considering the childs best interests currently is required by the law when determining custody.

Allison Tschannen, a partner at Kranitz, Sadoun and Carpenter, said the House bill that has made its way to the Senate would change the structure of the factors considered and create a new baseline.

The starting point, according to this bill, would be that the court has to look at it in the best interest of the child for each parent to have equal time or near equal time with the child, Tschannen said.

Currently, there is no presumption of what parenting time or a visitation arrangement should look like.

Its solely up to the discretion of the court based on the courts consideration of a number of specific factors, Tschannen said.

The factors could include the parents wishes and the childs adjustment to a new living situation, school or community, according to the bills documents.

David Bolander, a circuit court judge for Buchanan and Andrew counties, oversees child custody cases and said that each one is different.

Everybodys cases are a little bit different; everybodys circumstances are different. Were required to look at the best interests of the child and the things that go into that, Bolander said. Which parents most likely to allow frequent, meaningful contact with the other parent? Has there been any kind of abuse or neglect? What is the connection that the child has or the children have with their community, other relatives?

Bolander said another of several factors considered is the preference of the child.

There also are different types of custody to be determined, including joint legal custody and joint physical custody.

Theres legal custody, which is decision-making, and theres physical custody, which is basically parenting time. Thats what people probably think of most of the time, Bolander said.

The parents must also submit a proposed parenting plan to the court on what they want the childs arrangements to be.

The decision-making, child support, those types of things are all included in that in that parenting plan, Bolander said. As a judge, if theres a contested case, I weigh those. I look at the best interests of the child and determine based on what I see as the best interest and the facts that are presented to me.

Supporters of the bill shared in a committee document on HB 299 that children who have time with both parents are generally happier and healthier.

This is not the first time a bill with a similar goal has been proposed. Previous bills include HB 724 in 2017, SB 645 HB 1667 in 2018 and SB 14 and HB 229 in 2019.
WINDSOR-ESSEX, ON, April 30, 2021 /CNW/ - Budget 2021 is the Government of Canada's plan to finish the fight against COVID-19 and ensure a robust economic recovery that is sustainable and inclusive of all Canadians.

Today, the Honourable Mary Ng, Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade, joined Irek Kusmierczyk, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion, and Member of Parliament for WindsorTecumseh, for a round table with small and medium-sized enterprises in the Windsor-Essex region on Budget 2021: A Recovery Plan for Jobs, Growth, and Resilience.

The COVID-19 recession has disproportionately affected low-wage workers, young people, women and racialized Canadians. For businesses, it has been a two-speed recession, with some finding ways to pivot and succeed but manyespecially small businessesfighting to survive. Budget 2021 is a historic investment to address the specific impacts of the COVID-19 recession, put people first, create jobs, grow the middle class and set businesses on a track for long-term growth. Budget 2021 will ensure that Canada's future will be healthier, more equitable, greener and more prosperous.

Minister Ng focused on the measures to increase women's participation in the economy, to support diverse entrepreneurship and participation in recovery, and to support Canadian businesses as they pivot to compete in the new digital economy.

The Minister also highlighted that this is the most small business-friendly budget in Canadian history. From extending emergency measures like the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy and Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy to incentivizing rehiring in recovery through a new Canada Recovery Hiring Program, Budget 2021 includes significant investments to support businesses in getting online and hiring back workers, commits to decisive action on lowering credit card fees, and improves support for exporters.

The Government of Canada's top priority remains protecting Canadians' health and safety, particularly given the more aggressive variants of the virus during this third wave of the pandemic. Vaccine rollout is under way across Canada, with federal government support in every province and territory.

Budget 2021 is a plan to bridge Canadians and Canadian businesses through the crisis and towards a robust recovery. It will support almost 500,000 new training and work opportunities, including 215,000 opportunities for youth; support businesses in our most affected sectors, such as tourism and arts and culture; and accelerate investment and digital transformation in small and medium-sized businesses. Budget 2021 is a plan that puts Canada on track to meet its commitment to create 1 million jobs by the end of the year.

Canada entered the pandemic in a strong fiscal position. This allowed the government to take quick, decisive and responsible action, supporting people and businesses, and put Canada where it needs to be for a successful and strong recovery.

Quote

"This is the time to lean in and build back a more innovative, inclusive and sustainable future. While providing Canadians with the support they need to get through the pandemic, we need to invest now to ensure Canada has a strong recovery and is set up for long-term, sustainable and inclusive growth. By throwing our full weight behind Canadians and Canadian businessesincluding the businesses of Windsor-Essexwith this budget, we are doing the most responsible thing for our economy and our future."

 The Honourable Mary Ng, Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade

"Local businesses, their owners and their employees are the beating heart of our community, and I continue to be amazed by the resilience and ingenuity they have demonstrated in the face of this global pandemic. Budget 2021 is our government's commitment to continue supporting workers and small businesses in Windsor-Essex during this aggressive third wave, and to ensure a strong, inclusive recovery that works for everyone."

 Irek Kusmierczyk, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion, and Member of Parliament for WindsorTecumseh

Quick facts

Budget 2021 includes $101.4 billion over three years in proposed investments as part of the Government of Canada's growth plan that will create good jobs and support a resilient and inclusive recovery. Key measures include:

over three years in proposed investments as part of the Government of growth plan that will create good jobs and support a resilient and inclusive recovery. Key measures include: Extending emergency supports to bridge Canadians and Canadian businesses through to recovery, including:



Extending the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy, the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy and Lockdown Support until September 25, 2021 .

Emergency Wage Subsidy, the Emergency Rent Subsidy and Lockdown Support until .



Introducing the new Canada Recovery Hiring Program for eligible employers that continue to experience qualifying declines in revenues relative to before the pandemic.





Extending the number of weeks for important income support for Canadians, such as the Canada Recovery Benefit and the Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit.



Supporting small and medium-sized businesses through transformative initiatives, such as:



Launching the new Canada Digital Adoption Program that will directly help over 160,000 businesses adopt new technology and get online. It will provide them with the advice they need to get the most of new technology with the help of nearly 28,000 young Canadians who will be trained to work with them.





Allowing Canadian small businesses to fully expense up to $1.5 million in capital investments in a broad range of assets, including digital technology and intellectual property. This represents an additional $2.2 billion investment in the growth of Canada's entrepreneurs over the next five years.

in capital investments in a broad range of assets, including digital technology and intellectual property. This represents an additional investment in the growth of entrepreneurs over the next five years.



Enhancing the Canada Small Business Financing Program:





Increasing annual financing by $560 million , supporting approximately 2,900 additional small businesses.

, supporting approximately 2,900 additional small businesses.





Amending the Canada Small Business Financing Act and its regulations by:

and its regulations by:





Expanding loan class eligibility to include lending against intellectual property and start-up assets and expenses.









Increasing the maximum loan amount from $350,000 to $500,000 and extending the loan coverage period from 10 to 15 years for equipment and leasehold improvements.

to and extending the loan coverage period from 10 to 15 years for equipment and leasehold improvements.







Expanding borrower eligibility to include non-profit and charitable social enterprises.









Introducing a new line of credit product to help with liquidity and cover short-term working capital needs.



Providing the Strategic Innovation Fund with an incremental $7.2 billion over seven years on a cash basis, starting in 202122, and $511.4 million ongoing. $511.4 million of this funding will support innovative projects in the life sciences, automotive, aerospace and agriculture sectors.

over seven years on a cash basis, starting in 202122, and ongoing. of this funding will support innovative projects in the life sciences, automotive, aerospace and agriculture sectors.

Providing $60 million over two years, starting in 202122, to the Innovation Superclusters Initiative, to help ensure the superclusters that made emergency investments to support Canada's COVID-19 response and others can continue supporting innovative Canadian projects.

over two years, starting in 202122, to the Innovation Superclusters Initiative, to help ensure the superclusters that made emergency investments to support COVID-19 response and others can continue supporting innovative Canadian projects.

Supporting diverse entrepreneurs through additional investments to make our economy more inclusive, including further investments in the Women Entrepreneurship Strategy and the Black Entrepreneurship Program, and investments to support Indigenous entrepreneurs.



Investing $30 billion over the next five years to establish a Canada -wide early learning and child care system, in partnership with provincial, territorial and Indigenous partners, which will help all families access affordable, high-quality and flexible child care, no matter where they live.

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SOURCE Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

For further information: Youmy Han, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade, 343-551-0246, [email protected]; Media Relations, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, [email protected]

Related Links

http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/icgc.nsf/eng/home


STABLEVIEW ASSET MANAGEMENT INC. and COLIN FISHER, File No. 2020-40

TORONTO, April 30, 2021 /CNW/ - The Commission issued an Order in the above named matter.

A copy of the Order dated April 30, 2021 is available at www.osc.gov.on.ca.

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY

GRACE KNAKOWSKI

SECRETARY TO THE COMMISSION

SOURCE Ontario Securities Commission

For further information: For Media Inquiries: [email protected]; For General Inquiries: 1-877-785-1555 (Toll Free), [email protected]

Related Links

http://www.osc.gov.on.ca


In May, Canadians mark Canadian Jewish Heritage Month

OTTAWA, ON, May 1, 2021 /CNW/ - Today marks the beginning of Jewish Heritage Month, a time to celebrate the richness of Jewish culture, heritage, and history in Canada.

Canada is home to the fourth largest Jewish community in the world. Jewish Canadian leaders are active in all parts of society and have helped shape the diversity found within it. Canadian Jewish Heritage Month provides an opportunity to celebrate Jewish communities from coast to coast to coast for their valuable contributions in building a more open, diverse, and consciously more inclusive Canada for all.

Unfortunately, Canada is not immune to xenophobia and antisemitism. Our government is committed to fighting hate, prejudice, and discrimination in all their forms through important measures such as Canada's Anti-Racism Strategy 20192022 in which the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism was formally adopted.

As Minister of Diversity and Inclusion and Youth, and on behalf of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Government of Canada, I encourage all Canadians to learn more about the Jewish community's history of courage and resilience through the centuries. Keep well and safe.

SOURCE Canadian Heritage

For further information: (media only), please contact: Emelyana Titarenko, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Diversity and Inclusion and Youth, [email protected]

Related Links

www.pch.gc.ca


WILTON  We want to influence people to make healthy decisions, and not out of fear.

Those words, stated by Nikkia Ellis of the Domestic Violence Crisis Center, echoed the sentiments of numerous speakers to follow who gave viewers insight on domestic violence tendencies, solutions and preventions during a virtual conversation hosted by the Wilton Domestic Task Force on Wednesday.

Community members were invited to the conversation  some of whom stayed anonymous due to the triggering nature of the topic  and town leaders advised listeners how to separate oneself from an abusive situation.

Our role as police officers is unique, said Wilton Police Departments Robert Cipolla, who has been in the force for 15 years and a member of the domestic violence task force since 2013. Our paramount concern is victim safety.

Cipolla explained how police officers play an important role in determining the risks of abusive situations and establishing probable cause in circumstances of outward violence or other predatory behaviors such as stalking.

He stated that, at times, assessing a situation where a victim requires immediate intervention in an abusive situation is difficult, when that same victim does not wish to press charges.

We are confronted at times where we get called and the person who called wants us to intervene but not to arrest the individual, he said, adding that the departments primary goal is to prevent victims from getting hurt.

That situation is complicated when victims begin to believe their abuser, said Ann Rodwell-Lawton, director of program development and quality assurance at DVCC.

Why it is complex is that victims can love their abusers, Rodwell-Lawton said. We can love the people that hurt us.

Rodwell-Lawton and Ellis stressed that abuse does not fit into one simple category, but can be diagnosed and treated differently. The DVCC works with victims of abuse to recognize the patterns of behavior and begin the process of separation. Unfortunately, Ellis pointed out that the most dangerous time is when (victims) are trying to leave the situation.

According to statistics presented by Ellis and researched by the DVCC, one in four women and one in seven men have experienced physical violence by their partner in their lifetime. On average, that victim of abuse will attempt to leave seven times before finally freeing themselves of the situation.

While those suffering from domestic violence can go to the DVCC, and also the police in extreme situations, the conversation informed Wilton residents that there are other community members who play a role in lending an ear and a hand.

We want to make our families and individuals as strong as possible and people need that support, said the Rev. Reggie Norman, pastor of Our Lady of Fatima Church in Wilton.

Norman said his parish, as well as others in town, aim to help victims in any way possible. He said that includes paying for hotel stays for individuals who need to remove themselves from a situation and providing food.

He added that he understands there may be a gender barrier that women in town may feel more comfortable going to another woman.

We have a lot of female clergy, he said. So if they dont want to talk to me, they can go talk to almost anyone in the Wilton clergy.

For more information on addressing domestic violence issues, visit www.dvccct.org or call (203) 588-9100.
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A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Hon Alhassan Ado-Doguwa has dismissed claim of planned defection of some members of the H...





A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Hon Alhassan Ado-Doguwa has dismissed claim of planned defection of some members of the House of Representatives to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Doguwa, who is the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, maintained no member of the ruling APC was nursing such vain ambition.

The lawmaker, in a statement personally signed by him and made available to journalists, faulted the minority leader, Hon Ndidu Elumelus claim on the matter.

He argued that It is a fact that there was an executive session of the House, which was indeed convened by the leadership for the sole purpose of further discussions about the ways out of the insecurity situation in the country.

It must be noted that members across the partisan divide were too busy and occupied with the sence of duty and obligation to our nations well being to have time for parochial and narrow prism thought of thinking about partisan politics and membership recruitment.

My attention has just been drawn to a spurious and specious claim of Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, the Minority leader, House of Representatives that some imaginary members of the ruling party have met with him to discuss their desire to join the sinking opposition party.

My immediate reaction was to ignore this delusion, but because of the consideration for unsuspecting and innocent members of our great party and constituents who we represent at the House of Representatives, we owe them this clarification.

It, therefore, remains a curious slant that Hon Ndudi Elumelu in the heat of the current situation does not have the presence of mind to face squarely the matter that affects every Nigerian rather opting to embark on a voyage of political philandering of looking for new Members for an opposition party that is like a sinking ship beyond salvage.

It clearly shows the kind of opposition we unfortunately have, if the minority leader will want to use the meeting of their party to announce q non-existent news of phantom members of the ruling party that wants to decamp to a party in dire straits bereft of solutions to a national, non-partisan problem, that is traceable to their abdication of responsibility when the issue should have been nipped at the bud at its infancy when the opposition party held sway.

I wish to affirm without any doubt that the infantile claim of the minority leader that some members of the All Progressives Congress in the House of Representatives are thinking of joining the Peoples Democratic Party remain a figment of his warped imagination and that of his co-travellers on that infamous wishful thinking journey.

I say with all emphasis that members of the All Progressives Congress are focused, too united, determined and fully committed to working with the President, Commander in Chief, President Mohammadu Buhari GCFR, and standing in one accord with all Nigerians at this time to find a lasting solution to the challenge of insecurity that does not recognise partisan tendencies.

We believe that working together with the leadership of the House of Representatives, under the leadership of Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, who only recently in his unprecedented but pragmatic manner had pushed concrete legislative support actions to stem the tide of the insecurity challenge, ranging from appreciation and acknowledgement of our compatriots in uniform on the battle field, to fastracking appropriation, among others.

The most recent of such interventions of Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila is the setting up of a non-partisan broad spectrumspecial adhoc committee on security.

The committee is currently working out the modalities to hold a week long crucial security Summit, where statesmen, security chiefs, and other relevant stakeholders will converge to proffer solutions to the rather unfortunate lingering security problems bedevelling our Country.

Without doubts we shall be counted as an integral and veritable partner and component that worked to defeat this national challenge, and when we do, which will be soon with all reasonable hands on deck.

This is our sacred commitment as Members of the All Progressives Congress in the 9th House of Representatives beyond the lousy tendencies of a sinking opposition party, he added.
You can bet on the Kentucky Derby from home with our recommended horse betting sites. Mandatory Credit Pat McDonogh / Courier Journal

You can bet on the 2021 Kentucky Derby at home legally when you sign up for one of our recommended legal online Kentucky Derby betting sites.

Whether youre watching this years run for the roses at your place in New Jersey, your 'old Kentucky home' or at home in any other US state, these sites are ideal for betting on the Kentucky Derby without leaving the house.



Bet on the Kentucky Derby at home in NJ

Get a $300 Risk-Free Win Bet Go to 4NJBets The $300 Risk Free Bet is only open to new TVG account holders in TVG Participating States, age 21+ and 4NJBets account holders who are residents of New Jersey. Void where prohibited by law. To qualify for the Promotion, sign up for a new TVG account using any of the following promo codes: RISKFREE300 between 4/19/21 and 12/31/21. Full T&C Apply. Full T&Cs



Bet on the Kentucky Derby at home in other US States

Claim Your $300 Risk-Free Win Bet Go to TVG The $300 Risk Free Bet is only open to new TVG account holders in TVG Participating States, age 21+ and 4NJBets account holders who are residents of New Jersey. Void where prohibited by law. To qualify for the Promotion, sign up for a new TVG account using any of the following promo codes: RISKFREE300 between 4/19/21 and 12/31/21. Full T&C Apply. Full T&Cs

Outside of New Jersey TVG also offer a legal way to bet on the Kentucky Derby at home in the following states: AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, ID, IL, IN, IA, KY, LA, MD, MA, MI, MN, MT, NH, NM, NY, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SD, VT, VI, WA, WV, WY.

$250 First Deposit Bonus Go to AmWager 21+. Promo Code TRIPLECROWN. The Deposit Match Bonus promotion only applies to the first deposit made and any subsequent deposits will not apply. The amount of the first deposit will determine the amount of the bonus and bets that must be placed to earn the bonus. If you would like to receive the maximum bonus of $250 please ensure your initial deposit is $250 and you bet a minimum of $250 in the first 30 days. Returned deposits, cancelled wagers and refunded wagers are not eligible and will not be counted toward the deposit match. T&C apply. Full T&Cs

AmWager have yet to arrive in New Jersey TVG but they offer a legal way to bet on the Kentucky Derby at home in the following states: AL, AZ, CT, DE, FL, ID, IN, IA, KA, KY, LA, MD, MA, MT, NH, NM, NY, ND, OH, OK, OR, RI, SD, VT, VI, WA, WV, WY.

Up to $200 Sign Up Bonus Go to Twinspires Create your new wagering account with TwinSpires.com and earn a $200 sign up bonus! Must use promo code on registration to be eligible. Valid for one use per household. $200 bonus cash will be credited in increments of $100 for every $400 wagered. To earn the full $200 bonus players must wager $800 within 30 days of creating a TwinSpires account. Completed wagers mean that the race has run and the results are official. This sign up offer cannot be combined with any other registration bonus offer. Certain exclusions apply. All management decisions final. Full T&Cs

TwinSpires have yet to open in New Jersey TVG but they offer a legal way to bet on the Kentucky Derby at home in the following states: AL, AR, CA, CT, DE, FL, IL, IA, KS, KY, LA, MD, MA, MT, NH, NY, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SD, TN, VT, VI, WA, WV, WI, WY.



The best sites to bet on the Kentucky Derby at home





TVG AmWager TwinSpires

Youve secured your hat, picked your horses, perhaps even poured yourself a mint julep. Now its time to find out why our top three sites for at home Kentucky Derby betting are so great.



4NJBets/TVG



TVG (or 4NBets  the name it operates under in New Jersey) is one of the premier horse betting sites in the nation. What makes this site a step above the rest is its own horse racing network to stream live events. This makes it incredibly easy to bet on Churchill Downs or any other track from the comfort of a desktop or laptop computer.

The sites advanced mobile platform also lets you place your wagers from the convenience of any handheld device connected to the internet. TVG gives you direct access to the daily card at more than 150 race tracks on a global scale. The TVG blog provides an insiders look at the biggest stakes races on the board each day. If you are new to horse racing, there is a complete horse betting guide with everything you need to know.



AmWager



Another great online racebook for betting on the Kentucky Derby is AmWager. Much like TVG, this site is also strictly dedicated to horse racing. Behind a highly sophisticated online betting platform, you can receive real-time updates from Churchill Downs and other tracks running a live daily card.

One of the great aspects of the AmWager site is its how to bet section, which features some really helpful guides to betting that are perfect for those of us who arent experienced horse bettors but like their annual wager on the Kentucky Derby.



TwinSpires



No list of the best sites to bet on the Kentucky Derby from home would be complete without the official betting partner of the race, but TwinSpires has far more to offer than its official tie-in.



They have some brilliant resources to help you with your Churchill Downs picks, from PPs (past performances, also known as form) to expert tips from some of the best handicappers around. Another standout aspect of this site is the amount of offers and promotions they have for existing customers.



Bet on the Kentucky Derby at home: Signing up with a site



To bet on the Kentucky Derby at home with one of the sites above you will need to go through a sign up process to create an account and then deposit money in order to place your bets on the race.

Sign up processes for horse betting sites will differ to some degree but most will have the following steps in common.

You can take advantage of a sign up offer as a reward for registering. If you want to sign up with one of the sites above, make sure to click on the offer youd like to ensure you get it when signing up.



Fill in your personal details including your name, home address, email address and telephone number. You may have to create a username for your account.



You may be asked to provide some additional details to verify your identity, this is often your social security number, but you may be asked to send a picture of your driving licence or other ID document.



You will be prompted to make a deposit via one of the methods supported on the site. Once this is done you will be ready to bet on the Kentucky Derby from home.





Bet on Kentucky Derby at home: New customer offers



One of the benefits of using an online racebook to bet on the Kentucky Derby at home is that these betting sites tend to have new customer offers to take advantage of when you join. These can include offers like you will have seen above.





Kentucky Derby Risk-Free Bets



If youre at home and youre weighing up your Kentucky Derby bets a risk-free first bet is hard to turn down. We know what youre thinking how can a bet be risk-free? Betting always comes with a risk.

Risk-Free bets allow you to have a bet up to a specified amount safe in the knowledge that if it loses you will get your money back. Sometimes you get your money in cash (that you can withdraw), but more often you get it back in bonus funds to use on the site within a limited time period.

This type of offer is great for at home Kentucky Derby betting whether youre all in on the favorite Essential Quality or fancy an outsider like Mark Casses unbeaten Helium.

Favorites have the shortest odds so you have to bet more on them to win a certain amount. A risk-free bet means you can bet a certain amount of money knowing you will get it back to bet with again if the favorite disappoints.

Risk-free Kentucky Derby bets are also great for backing longshots in the big one at Churchill Downs. If your hunch about the outsider is correct you look like a horse betting genius and if the pari mutuel odds of 50/1 proved about fair, you get your bonus funds back to bet on another race.



Kentucky Derby Deposit Bonuses and Staking Bonuses



Deposit bonuses and staking bonuses are another brilliant type of sign up bonus. They reward you with bonus funds based on how much you deposit or bet in a specified time after joining the site.

This makes them flexible. You can earn bonus funds whether you deposit or bet the minimum amount or the maximum amount outlined in the offers terms and conditions.

If your annual day of online betting on the Kentucky Derby at home sees you sat down for every race at Churchill Downs these offers are ideal.

Maybe youd like to deposit all your stake money into an account at the beginning of the day so you know how much you have to bet with. That could see you trigger the whole bonus in one go.

Or perhaps you just prefer to turn on the TV with five minutes until post time to have a big bet on the most exciting two minutes in sports. Then you can earn yourself bonus funds to follow the winner in their pursuit of the Triple Crown in the Preakness on May 15.





More great Kentucky Derby content



There's loads more great Kentucky Derby day content on nj.com/betting.





Note to readers: we may earn a commission from the offers and links on this page.
A shooting Friday in Burlington City left a man dead and a 10-year-old boy wounded, police said.

The man was walking in the 400 block of Saint Mary Street when he was shot around 5:30 p.m., according to the Burlington County Prosecutors Office. The shooter fled on foot toward Route 130, authorities said.

Authorities said the man died at a local hospital. His name was being withheld.

A 10-year-old male who was in the area was struck once in the foot by errant gunfire and is being treated at a local hospital, Prosecutor Scott Coffina and City of Burlington Police Chief John Fine said in a statement. The young mans injuries are not life threatening.

There were no immediate arrests, the prosecutors office said. Anyone with information was asked to call the Burlington police tip line at 609-386-0262, ext. 211, Burlington County Central Communications at 609-265-7113 or email tips@co.burlington.nj.us.

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Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com.
A fire that destroyed a boat docked in a Wildwood harbor Saturday morning seriously injured a 57-year-old man on board, authorities said.

Edward Tinsman, 57, of Wildwood was air-lifted from Ottens Harbor to Jefferson University Hospital Burn Center in Philadelphia. He is currently in serious condition, according to Daniel M. Dunn, Deputy Fire Chief of the Wildwood City Fire Department.

Authorities still dont know what caused the fire to break out on the 40-foot boat at 10:30 a.m. Videos shot by onlookers including Marty Bouchard showed flames completely engulfing the boat and sending a massive plume of dark smoke into the sky.

Posted by Marty Bouchard on Saturday, May 1, 2021

Firefighters were able to place the fire under control in 30 minutes, according to a release from the fire department. Wildwood, North Wildwood, Wildwood Crest, Rio Grande and Stone Harbor firefighters all helped put out the blaze.

When firefighters first reached the scene, they found Tinsman, who had been brought to a nearby business, according to the fire department.

Wildwood Crest EMS and AtlantiCare Paramedics treated him and then brought him to the Cape May County Armory where he was transferred to a MedEvac helicopter and flown to Philadelphia, the department said.

As firefighters started trying to put the fire out, the boat broke from its moorings and drifted in the harbor, slightly damaging two other docked boats. In the end, fire department units were on the scene for three and a half hours, Dunn said in a press release.

The remains of a boat fire at Ottens Harbor Lagoon in Wildwood, Saturday, May 1, 2021. Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

The fire elicited a multi-agency response, with officials also responding from the Wildwood Police Department, New Jersey State Police, Marine Services Bureau, United States Coast Guard and Sea Tow Cape May.

In addition to Tinsman, one Wildwood City firefighter suffered a minor injury.

The fire is under investigation by the Cape May County Fire Marshals Office and the New Jersey Division of Fire Safety.

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Josh Axelrod may be reached at jaxelrod@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.
Visitors of the Jersey Shore love their ice cream and when a new shop opened in Stone Harbor last month it was the bark of the town.

Unique toppings such as dehydrated chicken, dehydrated liver and steak n sweet potato flavored bones are the paw-fect combinations to a wide variety of ice cream flavors that had all the customers drooling for more.

Welcome to Salty Paws, a doggie ice cream bar and bakery that claims to be the first of its kind in New Jersey.

Annie, a beagle-bull dog mix, looks on before indulging in a scoop of ice cream at Salty Paws Doggie Ice Cream Shop in Stone Harbor, Saturday, April 24, 2021.Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

On a recent Saturday, the shop on 96th street was bustling with all breeds of dogs, accompanied by their humans, who stopped in to see what all the tail wagging was about and sample a taste of the lactose-free frozen treat. Prices range from $4.99 for one scoop to $6.99 for three scoops with $1 per topping.

No dog leaves unhappy, said owner Donna Kokol as she watched dogs patiently wait  well some patiently wait  for their ice cream to be served.

Banana, bacon, and peanut butter are just some of the eight flavors of ice cream to choose from. And seven different types of toppings, like dehydrated sweet potato or peanut butter yogurt chips  a dogs version of sprinkles or jimmies  complete the treat.

Donna Kokol, owner of Salty Paws Doggie Ice Cream Shop in Stone Harbor, holds a cup of freshly scooped ice cream, Saturday, April 24, 2021.Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Kokol, of Avalon, visited the first Salty Paws shop, which is located in Delaware, approximately three years ago and eventually bought into the franchise.

I walked in one day and fell in love with the concept, she said about her first visit.

A doggie ice cream shop was the vision of Pennsylvania resident Suzanne Tretowicz who founded her first store in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, after she noticed people feeding their dogs the frozen treat on the boardwalk.

I thought to myself how creative it would be to open an ice cream shop thats just for dogs, said Tretowicz. Her ice cream would be healthier for the dogs rather than the lactose-based version meant for their owners.

Cheddar cheese ice cream at Salty Paws Doggie Ice Cream Shop in Stone Harbor, Saturday, April 24, 2021.Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Her idea was so popular that people started asking about franchise opportunities. About a year ago the ball started rolling and now Stone Harbor is the third franchise to open.

Were still fairly new but its moving really quick and people absolutely love it, Tretowicz said.

Kokol decided to open her shop in Stone Harbor because it is such a dog-friendly town, and in January found a store on the main street into the city.

If youre in Stone Harbor you want to be on 96th Street, she said.

Salty Paws Doggie Ice Cream Shop in Stone Harbor, Saturday, April 24, 2021.Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

By late afternoon, Salty Paws had a steady flow of customers. The sound of the dogs nails trying to get traction on the smooth floor while attempting to greet a new friend echoed throughout the shop.

Paul and Kate Corey, of Sea Isle City, were two of the few customers that walked into the shop without a dog.

Im not a dog lover, said Paul, a former paperboy who had his fair share of close encounters with mans best friend while on the job. Especially a couple German shepherds, he said with a laugh.

But that didnt stop them from supporting the new business in town, and buying a few bones for the dogs they know.

Annie, a beagle-bull dog mix, licks a scoop of ice cream from Salty Paws Doggie Ice Cream Shop in Stone Harbor, Saturday, April 24, 2021.Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

The first stop on the dogs journey to the ice cream bar is the bone section. Stuffed bones filled with flavors such as beef, liver, chicken, and peanut butter and jelly are just a quick sniff from the front door.

Then its on to the main course, the ice cream.

Kylo, a 1-year-old super mutt  a mix of husky, American Eskimo and German shepherd  was eager to try his ice cream as he waited with both paws on the counter.

Kylo, a 1-year-old husky, American Eskimo and German shepherd mix owned by Alison and Paul Napoleon of Wildwood, enthusiastically licks his scoop of banana ice cream on the counter at Salty Paws Doggie Ice Cream Shop in Stone Harbor, Saturday, April 24, 2021.Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

His owners, Andrew Napoleon and his wife Alison, of Wildwood, chose the banana ice cream and placed the cup on the floor as they ordered a cup of bacon-flavored for Rey, their 1-year-old German shepherd.

It didnt take long for Kylo to spill his ice cream all over the floor and it took only seconds for him to lick it up.

In this bar, eating off the floor is encouraged.

It looks so good Id like to try it myself, said Andrew.

There are eight flavors of lactose-free ice cream made especially for dogs, with several toppings available, at Salty Paws Doggie Ice Cream Shop in Stone Harbor, Saturday, April 24, 2021.Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Macklin, a 1-year-old super mutt, who happens to be Kylos brother, had the blueberry ice cream. He seemed pretty happy with the flavor that his owner Emily Gannon picked out.

I think its like our equivalent to a coffee shop, said Gannon, a Cape May resident. She is thrilled to have a shop like this to bring her dog to because Cape Mays choices are limited.

Of course, Gannon couldnt leave the store without extra treats for her dog. I got some of the filled bones, bacon and cheddar and the peanut butter and jelly.

Dogs eat lactose-free ice cream at Salty Paws Doggie Ice Cream Shop in Stone Harbor, Saturday, April 24, 2021.Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

The bakery section, filled with cookies and donuts  all made with human-grade ingredients  contain no sugar and are primarily a peanut butter and chicken base with a yogurt coating. And what looks like chocolate is carob, a chocolate alternative that is safe for dogs.

I have to say the drink cookies have been a big hit, said Kokol. The drink-shaped cookies  Grrrona Extra, Quarantini, and Pawtron  are just a few of the popular cookies the shop has available.

"Drink" cookies for dogs at Salty Paws Doggie Ice Cream Shop in Stone Harbor, Saturday, April 24, 2021.Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

According to Tretowicz, the shop  which also hosts fundraisers, birthday parties and Ice cream socials  will soon have collars, leashes, beds, toys, and new ice cream flavors. And an antler bar.

Natures perfect chew, said Tretowicz.

Outside the shop, a crowd gathered to watch the many dogs happily eat their cup of ice cream that their owners held for them.

Callie, a 4-year-old mixed breed from Stone Harbor, licks a scoop of ice cream at Salty Paws Doggie Ice Cream Shop in Stone Harbor, Saturday, April 24, 2021.Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

For Callie, 4-year-old mixed breed rescue, the peanut butter had all her attention.

Callie seems like a happy customer doesnt she? said Christine Krynock, of Stone Harbor, as she watched her dog woof down her ice cream.

Bone appetite!

Donna Kokol, owner of Salty Paws Doggie Ice Cream Shop in Stone Harbor, scoops a cup of ice cream, Saturday, April 24, 2021.Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Bennett, a yellow Labrador retriever owned by Paul and Janet Nolan of Potomac, Md., enjoys a scoop of ice cream at Salty Paws Doggie Ice Cream Shop in Stone Harbor, Saturday, April 24, 2021.Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Macklin, a 1-year-old husky, American Eskimo and German shepherd mix owned by Emily Gannon of Cape May, left, eyes up his blueberry ice cream as his brother Kylo, owned by Alison Napoleon of Wildwood, looks on at Salty Paws Doggie Ice Cream Shop in Stone Harbor, Saturday, April 24, 2021.Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Bella, a 10-month-old Dalmatian mix owned by Sarah Jewett of Wilmington, Del., enjoys a scoop of ice cream at Salty Paws Doggie Ice Cream Shop in Stone Harbor, Saturday, April 24, 2021.Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Annie, a beagle-bull dog mix, licks a scoop of ice cream from Salty Paws Doggie Ice Cream Shop in Stone Harbor, Saturday, April 24, 2021.Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Donuts for dogs at Salty Paws Doggie Ice Cream Shop in Stone Harbor, Saturday, April 24, 2021.Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Alex Hudome, of Avalon, scoops ice cream at Salty Paws Doggie Ice Cream Shop in Stone Harbor, Saturday, April 24, 2021.Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Scout, an 8-year-old red fox Labrador retriever owned by Tia Cavallaro of Pipersville, Pa., enjoys a scoop of cheddar ice cream topped with cheddar and bacon-flavored biscuits at Salty Paws Doggie Ice Cream Shop in Stone Harbor, Saturday, April 24, 2021.Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

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Tim Hawk may be reached at thawk@njadvancemedia.com. Follow Tim on Instagram @photog_hawk.

Lori M. Nichols may be reached at lnichols@njadvancemedia.com. Follow Lori on Instagram at @photog_lori.
Ocean City officials on Friday said they have hired a labor attorney to investigate allegations of sexual abuse within the Ocean City Beach Patrol that were posted anonymously on social media.

In a statement, a city spokesman said Vanessa E. James of the law firm Barker, Gelfand, James and Sarvas, would conduct a confidential internal investigation of allegations against Ocean City Beach Patrol employees.

The allegations - which were shared earlier this month on an Instagram account ocbp_predators, - include claims of rampant sexual abuse often committed by older members against younger members of the OCBP. The posts include stories of sexual assault against underage girls along with heavy drug and alcohol use.

For the citys internal probe, James would interview beach patrol members and individuals who posted anonymously to an Instagram page alleging a variety of sexual harassment offenses, according to city spokesman Doug Bergen. The Cape May County Prosecutors Office, which handles criminal cases, was also investigating, officials previously announced.

James will work in consultation with the Cape May County Prosecutors Office to identify those willing to share information, the spokesman said in an email. She also will review OCBP and city policies, procedures and training and make recommendations for changes, if required.

The attorney is trained as an external workplace investigator and is a member of the Association of Workplace Investigators, Bergen said.

Her areas of practice include workplace investigations, employment law, employment discrimination, sexual harassment, wrongful discharge, civil rights, police misconduct and professional liability. She comes recommended by the Joint Insurance Fund in which Ocean City participates, the city spokesman said.

The creator of the Instagram account previously told NJ Advance Media she has received more than 500 personal messages since the first post went live on April 14, though not all messages are shared publicly. The account manager, who did not want to be identified, said she vets the messages and removes identifying information.

Thank you for all the support and the people who have bravely come forward and reported their stories to the [prosecutors office], a post this week on the Instagram account said.

Authorities have released few details on the investigation. The prosecutors office did not immediately return a message Friday night. James, the labor attorney, could not be reached. OCBP officials have not returned messages.

Ocean City remains committed to providing all of the resources necessary to complete a thorough investigation and to ensuring a safe workplace for all employees, Mayor Jay A. Gillian said in a statement.

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Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com.
The nurse who handed me my vaccine card after my second COVID-19 vaccination shot offered some pretty sage, and now quite prescient, advice.

Make sure to keep this in a safe place, she said. Youll probably need this in the future.

I thought putting it in an organizer on my desk at home was sufficient safekeeping. My rambunctious, yet adorable puppy Ollie had other thoughts.

Less than a week after my second dose, I found my 10-month-old pandemic puppy, with half of the card in his mouth, and half of it scattered around the floor of my room. In a fit of boredom, Ollie had climbed on my desk, grabbed the card, and went to town as puppies sometimes do.

With most of the pieces still there, I cobbled together a franken-card with tape, something good enough to prove Id been vaccinated, but still wonky enough that you could tell it had been a dog toy for a hot minute.

This wasnt the first time Ollie, a lovable lab mix I adopted from St. Huberts animal rescue in Madison, had eaten something important. My glasses, a credit card, a MacBook charger have all been teething toys. But it was the first time hed eaten something I wasnt sure how to replace.

The CDC recommends you take a photo of the front and back of the card as soon as you receive it. Gov. Phil Murphy has said you should laminate the card (experts are divided on if thats a smart move or not), and you can buy plastic sleeves online. Id done none of those things.

Individuals can reach out to their vaccination provider, and depending on the site, may be able to get a replacement card, Nancy Kearney, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health, told me. Its unclear if the mega-sites will issue new cards.

A CVS spokeswoman previously told NJ Advance Media the store where you were vaccinated can pull up your records after confirming your photo ID and reissue the card in the store.

Id been vaccinated at a community center about a half hour away, a site that didnt have a website with hours and calling the number listed led to an automatic message directing you to the state registration portal.

No problem, I thought I would already be in the area on my next day off, Ill just swing by. But the site was closed and there was no one around to ask when it might open.

I about gave up, and for a few weeks, I figured a taped-up, slightly mangled card was, well, good enough. And then the day came I actually needed to use it.

Is this your card? the gate agent at my first Mets game since the pandemic began asked me, squinting at a photo of the taped-together square on my phone screen. What... what happened to it?

I have a puppy, I said sheepishly, pointing to Ollies nose in the background of the photo. (He had tried to eat the card a second time while I was snapping the pic).

The gate agent laughed at me. Well, thats not something I thought Id see, might want to get it replaced though!

there are a lot of very good reasons to keep your vaccine card safe, but consider this one: the gate agent at the Mets game WILL make fun of you if you roll up with a card like this pic.twitter.com/4ipzuLeBgF  katie kausch (@KatieKausch) April 26, 2021

Fair enough. The next week I headed back to the site, the same day of the week Id been vaccinated on. This time, it was open.

Well this is the first time weve seen this, a security guard at the vaccine center told me, laughing as I handed over the chewed up card. We can get it replaced, I just need to see your ID.

The card got passed through several nurses and administrators, each one laughing at the absurdity of a puppy eating one of the most important documents Ill handle this year.

A 10-minute wait later, I had a brand-new, bite-mark free card in hand. A bold-lettered sign at check-out warned patients to not laminate their vaccine cards, something that wasnt there when I was first vaccinated.

A sign warning patients not to laminate their CDC vaccine cards at the sign-out desk of a vaccine clinic.Katie Kausch

Although I was lucky enough to get mine replaced in a quick trip to a community center, those who were vaccinated at a pop-up site or live too far away to make the trip will have to request their immunization records directly from the Department of Health.

If an individual lost their COVID-19 vaccination card, they will need to request a copy of their immunization record by visiting the New Jersey Immunization Information System (NJIIS), said Health Department spokeswoman Dawn Thomas previously told NJ Advance Media. All COVID-19 doses should be entered into NJIIS within 24 hours, but it may take up until 72 hours depending upon how the data is submitted into NJIIS.

At the link, requests can be made by clicking Submit a Request on the blue ribbon, and then choosing I want to request a copy of my immunization record from NJIIS.

Only complete the required fields, and type either n/a or your name under Facility/Organization Name. A valid photo ID, like a drivers license or other state or federally issued ID card, must be attached. If you want the lot number for your dose, specifically ask for that in the description section.

Requests take 24 to 48 hours to be answered, and records will be mailed to you.

Leaving the vaccine clinic this time, the nurse who handed me my card was more specific.

Make sure to keep this safe from your dog, she said.

Ollie gave the new vaccine card a lick for luck before it was placed inside a protective sleeve.Katie Kausch

NJ Advance Media staff writer Karin Price Mueller contributed to this report.

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Katie Kausch may be reached at kkausch@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.
Piyush Pittawala keeps in close touch with his parents in India as that country experiences the worlds worst coronavirus outbreak. But he has good reason to believe his parents will stay safe.

My parents got a vaccination so Im happy that they did that, he said, sitting in a chair six feet away from his wife, Vibhutti, in the gymnasium at the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Robbinsville, a Hindu place of worship.

Pittawala, a Monroe resident, and his wife were at the Mandir on Friday to match his parents, and get their first doses of the Moderna vaccine.

Friday, April 30, 2021 - Piyush Pittawala, of Monroe, get vaccinated by Dr. Seth Rosenbaum, Chief Medical Officer at RWJ Hamilton, during a COVID-19 Vaccination Drive held inside BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Robbinsville, NJ, (a Hindu place of worship). Pittawala's wife Vibhutti Pittawala, watches at right. Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

BAPS Charities on Friday held a COVID-19 Vaccination Drive in collaboration with Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJ), Hamilton. The clinic was open to the public age 18 or older by appointment, regardless of immigration status, with Gujarati, Hindi, and Spanish translation services available.

One participant, 70-year-old Sushila Makawana of East Windsor had been eligible for a vaccine for months. The New Jersey vaccine rollout began in December 2020, but it was difficult for her to make an appointment due to an English language barrier. She said through an interpreter that when she heard of the BAPS Charities vaccination drive and the translation services in Gujarati, she was overjoyed.

In a setting unlike any other vaccination location, participants entered the temple doors and walked past the Mandir, which is a building within a building, made of 68,000 cubic feet of Italian Carrara marble featuring lavish and intricate designs of 13,499 individual pieces hand-carved by artisans.

Volunteers helped get people registered in hallways and participants then made their way into a gymnasium.

Friday, April 30, 2021 - BAPS Charities holds a COVID-19 Vaccination Drive inside BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Robbinsville, NJ, (a Hindu place of worship) in collaboration with Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJ), Hamilton. Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Friday, April 30, 2021 - BAPS Charities holds a COVID-19 Vaccination Drive inside BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Robbinsville, NJ, (a Hindu place of worship) in collaboration with Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJ), Hamilton.Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Friday, April 30, 2021 - BAPS Charities holds a COVID-19 Vaccination Drive inside BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Robbinsville, NJ, (a Hindu place of worship) in collaboration with Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJ), Hamilton. Avi Patel, 19, of South Brunswick is getting vaccinated so he will be permitted to attend in-person classes at Rutgers University this fall.Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Avi Patel, 19, of South Brunswick, is a sophomore at the Business School at Rutgers University, where vaccines are required for in-person student learning. The vaccine procedure is actually very easy and I know theres a lot of myths online but its a safe procedure. he said after getting his first dose. Patel, who is pursuing a double-major in Finance and Business Analytics Information Technology (BAIT), encouraged everyone to get vaccinated, adding In these type of scenarios it is better to look past yourself, for the betterment of the community and everyone around you.

After being closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mandir reopened to the public for the first time in over a year to host the vaccination drive, which benefited 68 community members.

BAPS Charities is also actively providing COVID-19 relief in India, actively providing assistance to hospitals and patients in isolated areas.

Friday, April 30, 2021 - Sushila Makawana, of East Windsor, covers her eyes while getting vaccinated by Dr. Seth Rosenbaum, Chief Medical Officer at RWJ Hamilton, during a COVID-19 Vaccination Drive held inside BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Robbinsville, NJ, (a Hindu place of worship). Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Friday, April 30, 2021 - BAPS Media Relations Coordinator Darshan Patel, center, talks with a couple in the post-vaccine waiting area.Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

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Michael Mancuso may be reached at mmancuso@njadvancemedia.com
Kean University has joined a growing number of higher education institutions requiring coronavirus vaccinations for students.

All Kean students must submit a vaccination record to the university that shows they are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus by Aug. 31 to attend in-person classes in the fall. Most fall Kean courses will be held in-person, so students who remain unvaccinated will not have access to campus facilities and should consider transitioning to online courses, the university president said.

Your decision to receive a vaccine protects your health and the health of those around you, and it brings all of us closer to safely returning to the University we love, said Kean University President Lamont Repollet. Its time for each of us to step up.

As vaccines become more widely accessible, Kean is joining many of our peer institutions in New Jersey and across the nation in announcing that all students must receive the COVID-19 vaccine before the beginning of the Fall 2021 semester. Read more: https://t.co/ksC5GBu8hC pic.twitter.com/w9GbYKEQ7I  Kean University (@KeanUniversity) April 30, 2021

Students will be allowed to request an exemption to the vaccine requirement for health or religious reasons.

Free vaccines will be available to students on campus beginning May 5 from 10 a.m. to noon after the university worked with Union County officials. Appointments will be available through the summer and students may sign up online to receive a vaccine on campus.

Repollets statement said faculty and staff are strongly encouraged to get the vaccine, although his statement did not indicate they are required to do so.

Stevens Institute of Technology and the New Jersey Institue of Technology have required the vaccine for both staff and students.

Rutgers University, Fairleigh Dickinson University, New Jersey City University, Montclair State University, Drew University and Princeton University are also requiring vaccines.

I understand that some of you are still hesitant to receive a vaccine, Repollet said. It is natural to have questions and maybe even some skepticism. However, I encourage you to do your research. Youll find that the vaccines are overwhelmingly effective and safe.

Everyone in New Jersey age 16 and older became eligible for a vaccine on April 19. Appointments may be found online at covid19.nj.gov/pages/finder or by calling 1-855-568-0545.

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Rebecca Panico may be reached at rpanico@njadvancemedia.com.
Shes a school nurse who claims face masks are dangerous to kids and do nothing to stop the spread of COVID.

After refusing to wear a mask herself, Erin Pein said she was suspended from her job in the Stafford Township school district.

Now her supporters are planning a rally and her cause has become an issue in the upcoming Republican primary for Hirsh Singh, who arranged and posted a widely shared video interview with her and argues that no one should be forced to wear masks  calling it a matter of personal freedom.

But epidemiologists say such claims are little more than inflammatory rhetoric and at odds with the science that has repeatedly shown that face masks are highly effective in reducing the spread of the coronavirus. At the same time, they said as new variants of the virus develop, the wearing of masks has become more important than ever.

Gov. Phil Murphy issued an order last year calling for people in New Jersey to wear face masks both indoors as well as outdoors in public if they cant practice social distancing. That has not changed, despite new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, released earlier this week, that said fully vaccinated people can safely go maskless outdoors when they walk, bike, or run alone or while with members of their household.

Under state Department of Education guidelines for the reopening schools, students are required to wear masks at all times except when eating. Exceptions are allowed for medical reasons. Parents who do not want they children to wear masks they can also opt to continue remote learning and keep them at home.

New Jersey schools have documented 240 COVID-19 outbreaks and 1,070 cases this academic year despite precautions.

Pein, who did respond to calls or emails seeking comment, claimed in the video made by Singhs campaign that masks did not prevent children from being exposed to COVID.

The masks unfortunately dont prevent them from getting COVID. Because the viruses are so small, it cant be stopped with a mask, she said.

She also argued that masks harbor bacteria, creating a health hazard.

Pein, a mother of three, added that students were suffering from anxiety and depression because of mask mandates and that they learn how to be adults by recognizing faces and facial expressions.

Making these kids wear them for 6 or 7 hours a day is awful, she said, labeling it child abuse. And she maintained that few children get sick with COVID.

But epidemiologists said none of Peins claims hold true.

Im honestly not sure why this type of misinformation is still circulating more than a year later, remarked Stephanie Silvera, an expert on epidemiology and professor of public health at Montclair State University.

She noted that in a recent scientific review of the efficacy of face masks and respirators, masks appeared to be effective in the general population. Studies across 16 countries and six continents found that face mask use was associated with a dramatic reduction in risk and that the association was even stronger when looking at N95 respirators, she said.

In fact, Silvera said some mask types, such as the 3-layer cotton face coverings that are becoming more and more common, approach the performance of standard surgical masks in laboratory settings, although some mask alternatives, such as neck fleece and bandanas offer very little protection and may actually be worse than no mask at all.

I have yet to see a study that substantiates the claim that mask wearing increases risk to the wearer of bacterial infections, she added. As for the claim that this is child abuse, that seems to be inflammatory rhetoric and opinion rather than a scientifically supported position.

Stanley H. Weiss, an epidemiologist in infectious and chronic diseases and a professor at the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and the Rutgers School of Public Health, said Pein claims were simply wrong.

Maybe we can educate her, he said.

He said research has shown that viral spread is mostly airborne and travel further with the sneeze of a cough, singing in a choir or in places without much ventilation. At the same time, the virus nuclei travels in droplets of saliva and other moisture, which are captured by a mask.

You dont have to trap the virus, he said. Its the saliva and moisture.

Weiss said masks, especially those with three layers of material are highly effective from preventing infectious viruses from spreading, both from breathing in or protecting others when those who are infected breathe out.

But he said a mask has to be fit well. If its falling off your nose, its not protecting them or anyone else, he said. That is why many health experts recommend two masks, which improves the fit and seal.

Still, he said those worried about fitting kids with masks are correct. Adult masks are too big for young faces.

As for kids not getting COVID, Weiss said while the initial strain of the virus seemed to be less infectious among young kids and the rates of illness appeared to be low, that has changed recently with some of the new virus variants that have spread more quickly among kids.

What is happening now in India is an example of what could happen here. In India, Weiss said, the country though it had the problem licked after its infection rates went down.

They relaxed their guard. And what happened is the new strains spread like wildfire there, he said. Its really important to do everything we can to damp down this pandemic so we can move toward normalizing society.

Stafford Township school district officials confirmed that Pein worked there as a nurse, but would not comment on the allegations.

Unfortunately, it is a personnel matter and I do not have the ability to comment or discuss the matter, nor can I discuss any of the information that Ms. Pein has already chosen to make public, said school board attorney Martin Buckley of Toms River.

Her supporters plan to be at the May 10 school board meeting to protest her suspension.



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Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL.
Metered parking goes into effect on Saturday in Belmar for the coming summer season, when parking near the beach will cost $1 an hour on some blocks and $2 an hour on others, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m, payable through the ParkMobile phone app or automated phone line.

Paid parking is not new this year in Belmar. The borough began using the ParkMobile app in May 2020, a technology that has allowed Belmar and other municipalities to monetize increased demand for fresh air and wide open space afforded by beaches during the coronavirus, while avoiding any physical contact involved in collecting parking fees.

But paid parking has been expanded this year to include various blocks inland of Ocean Avenue, and without the availability of residential parking permits, some residents who have relied on free on-street parking say they will now have to pay to park outside their homes or hunt for a free parking spot somewhere farther from the beach and their front doors.

Were not opposed to them raising funds for the town through tourism, but for the working class people who live in town, I dont think its fair to them, said Michael Boyce, who lives on a block of 5th Avenue  a block west of the beach where paid parking will be in effect for the first time this year.

Boyce lives in one of 30 apartments in a building with just 23 on-site parking spaces, and relies on on-street parking. He works from home as the events manager for Grand Center Terminal, so his car is typically parked on the block all day. At $2-an-hour for the 15-hour metered period, the new fees would cost him $30 a day, seven days a week.

He rents his apartment and does not pay property taxes to the borough. But he assumes that his landlord does. So, to Boyce, having to pay for parking while contributing to borough coffers indirectly through his rent seems unfair. He said neighbors who do pay property taxes feel the same way.

One homeowner on 6th Avenue, hes not a big fan of it, because hes only got one spot in his driveway, Boyce said.

Parking in some areas, including on the boroughs Shark River waterfront, near the Marina Grill along Route 35, will also cost $2 an hour, though during different hours, from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Parking in any of the mostly diagonal spots on the east side of Ocean Avenue, the beachfront boulevard that runs the full 1.5-mile length of borough, will cost $1 an hour from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. That said, the parallel parking spots on west side of Ocean Avenue will remain free  a steep discount for residents of the mostly single family homes that line the street or the visitors who have to cross it to spread their towels on the sand.

Green ParkMobile street signs advising motorists of the parking restricts went up on the new blocks this week. And the parking page on the borough website, along with the boroughs Instagram page, specify which streets are subject to paid parking, the hours its in effect, and the hourly rates.

There is no mention of residential parking permits or any other program that might offer exemptions or discounts from the parking fees. Boyce said he has never been notified of any such permits  nor, for that matter, that the paid parking requirement was coming to his block  and he said borough officials have failed to respond to his messages asking the subject.

Belmar's metered parking through the ParkMobile app expanded from Ocean Avenue inland this year, to this block of Sixth Avenue and other streets.Photo by Michael Boyce

Likewise, Belmars mayor and borough administrator did not return calls and emails from NJ Advance Media.

While it was unclear just why residents do not appear to be exempt from Belmars parking fees, there is a body of case law and an ancient legal principal known as the Public Trust Doctrine that support universal access to the shoreline, which have been invoked in New Jersey and elsewhere to oppose local laws or regulations favoring residents over visitors when it comes to beach access.

Andew Chambarry, an attorney who is a member of the Surfrider Foundation and the American Littoral Society, said that, depending on the particulars, residential parking permits on streets near beaches where visitors have to pay could be interpreted as violating public access doctrine.

Along similar lines, last year Gov. Phil Murphy issued an executive order under the coronavirus health state of emergency barring municipalities from giving preference to residents over visitors in terms of beach access.

But Chambarry expressed sympathy for residents that could be hurt by Belmars situation, and he preferred there were no parking fees at all, especially since Belmar charges for beach badges, as most Jersey Shore towns do.

The beach fee statute should not allow municipalities to charge for parking if they are making people pay for beach badges, Chambarry said. Its not reasonable to force people to pay for both.

This apartment complex on Sixth Avenue has 30 units but only 23 on-site parking spaces, meaning residents will have to pay to park on their block, or find a space somewhere else.Photo by Michael Boyce

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Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com.
Charles Carroll was 8 and his brother Robert was 9 when they were delivered to a state institution for children with developmental disabilities in rural Burlington County more than 70 years ago.

Neither boy was disabled. But their parents had abandoned them, and foster families had returned them.
A history of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey by Professor Jameson W. Doig written in 2001 called the now 100-year-old bi-state agency the Empire on the Hudson.

Great infrastructure projects  bridges and tunnels, airports, the PATH and the nations first container port  characterized that empire that unified the bi-state economy, but it wasnt without political strife.
A 19-year-old Bergen County man was among multiple Americans killed in a stampede at a religious celebration in Israel, according to officials.

Donny Morris, of Bergenfield, died in the stampede that broke out late Thursday during festivities for Lag BOmer held at Mount Meron in northern Israel, reports said. At least 45 people were killed and more than 150 left injured in the catastrophe.

Along with so many in our community, we are heartbroken by the terrible tragedy at a Lag BOmer celebration at Mt. Meron in Israel, which reportedly took the lives of at least 45 people, including one of my constituents, Donny Morris from Bergenfield, NJ, of blessed memory, Rep. Josh Gottheimer said on Twitter.

May God comfort these families together with all the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem, the congressman added.

Morris was studying in Israel during a gap year after graduating from Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy in New York City, according to the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey.

It is with a heavy heart that we share the news that Donny Morris, son of Mirlana and Aryeh Morris of Bergenfield, was one of the victims of the tragic event that occurred yesterday in Meron, Israel. Donny was a graduate of the Marsha Stern Talmudic Academy (MTA) and studying in pic.twitter.com/KX0kdGRoCb  JFNNJ (@JFNNJ) April 30, 2021

Our deepest condolences go to the Morris family. May Donnys memory only be for a blessing, the organization said.

Tammy and I are devastated by the terrible tragedy at Mount Meron during the celebrations of Lag Baomer. We are praying for the victims and their families, the injured, and the people of Israel, Gov. Phil Murphy said in a Twitter post.

Tammy and I are devastated by the terrible tragedy at Mount Meron during the celebrations of Lag Ba'omer. We are praying for the victims and their families, the injured, and the people of Israel.  Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) April 30, 2021

Multiple U.S. citizens were among the casualties, a State Department spokesperson confirmed Friday. The U.S. Embassy was working with local authorities and providing support to affected U.S. citizens and their loved ones, the spokesperson said.

President Joe Biden said he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to offer condolences and support.

The loss of life among worshipers practicing their faith is heartbreaking, Biden said in a statement. We are also working to confirm reports that American citizens may have lost their lives or been wounded during the religious observance of Lag BOmer.

The people of the United States and Israel are bound together by our families, our faiths, and our histories, and we will stand with our friends, the president said. Our prayers are with those who were injured and all those who lost loved ones. May their memories be a blessing.

Lag BOmer marks the death of a second-century rabbi and is a normally celebratory event for Israels Orthodox community. The event attracted about 100,000 people to Mount Meron, the largest religious gathering in Israel since the coronavirus pandemic began.

Netanyahu, who visited the scene, announced a day of mourning Sunday and said authorities would conduct a thorough, serious and in-depth investigation, into the tragedy.

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Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com.
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COCODRIE, La. (AP)  The volunteers gather around a map, suntanned fingers tracing over the bayous, lakes and islands where they'll search. They talk about where they've already been and where they'll go today. They make sure everyone has food and water, and knows the radio channel to use. They gather in prayer and then set off for another day searching for those still missing from the capsized Seacor Power.

"Lord, we got some families that are hurting," says one of the men as nearly 30 people bow their heads in prayer. "Please give us the ability to find something today."

+4 Seacor Power captain's widow says doomed crew was told to sail into storm, contradicts boat's owner The widow of Seacor Power's captain is accusing the lift boat's owner of ordering her husband and his crew to sail into stormy conditions befo

On April 19, after a search covering more than 9,200 square miles (23,000 square kilometers) and using planes, helicopters and cutters, the Coast Guard officially ended the search for survivors of the lift boat that flipped over in hurricane-force winds about eight miles (13 kilometers) off the Louisiana coast on April 13. In a statement April 27, the ship's owner, Houston, Texas-based Seacor Marine, said it was focusing on salvage operations and recovering the ship.

But from a dock in southern Louisiana, volunteers aren't giving up. They've been setting out in planes, boats and hip-high waders in hopes of finding anyone still alive from the lift boat, a platform ship with retractable legs that services offshore oil and gas facilities.

Nineteen people were aboard the Seacor Power when it failed to weather the storm. Six men were rescued. Six bodies have been recovered from the sea or from divers inside the vessel; seven are still missing.

Scott Daspit still holds onto hope that his son Dylan is alive. Speaking to the people heading out to search, he said any survivors would likely be covered in mud to ward off mosquitos. He urged them to concentrate on the few trees that would provide the only shade in the hot, flat landscape.

In a quieter moment, Daspit said he'd taken hope from a volunteer who told a story of how he'd survived for days floating out at sea.

+8 As Seacor Power search continues, volunteers frustrated with lack of resources, fishing executive Two weeks after the Seacor Power lift boat capsized eight miles off the Louisiana coast, its owner, Seacor Marine, and the U.S. Coast Guard to

"It gave me a renewed spirit," Daspit said. "But I have to assume that ... if we do find anybody alive, they're going to be very hurt because nobody's standing up and waving us down."

Later, as he began to choke up, he said: "If we can find one soul it'll be worth it."

Like other family members, Daspit has been frustrated from the start with the rescue efforts. In the immediate days after the ship capsized, a ship owner took Daspit, who's worked in the oil industry for decades, near the Seacor Power so he could see for himself what was going on.

The whole country benefits from oil and gas extracted in the Gulf and the tax revenue it generates, Daspit said, but few appreciate how risky the work can be.

"From the roustabout, to the company man, to the engineer on these jobs, everybody puts their lives in danger," he said.

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'Swamp People' star gets emotional about Seacor Power search as families' frustration grows With hope diminishing with each passing day, the loved ones of the still missing Seacor Power crew members have taken to social media to expre

It could take as long as two years for a National Transportation Safety Board investigation to determine what happened.

The Coast Guard said Friday that suspending a search is often the most difficult decision the organization makes but such operations cannot go on indefinitely because they impact its ability to carry out other jobs. Petty Officer Jonathan Lally said when the Guard suspended the search on April 19, it was already 48 hours longer than survivability models indicated.

"Many factors are considered in the decision to suspend a search, including whether or not we believe those we are searching for could survive given certain physical and environmental factors," said Lally. "We understand the loss these families feel and our most sincere condolences go out to them."

The United Cajun Navy, a non-profit that helps out during disasters, has been helping organize the volunteer search effort. Todd Terrell, who heads the organization, said they have found life vests, life rings and items from the interior of the boat such as doors or cabinets and clothes. He knows at some point they will have exhausted all their efforts but, he said, they're not there yet.

+3 Remembering the victims of the Seacor Power lift boat disaster in the Gulf of Mexico Five people were killed and eight others are missing and presumed dead after the lift boat Seacor Power capsized April 13 during a storm in th

Many of the volunteers have come from the surrounding area, others from farther afield. Mike Asher, a longtime fisherman, drove out from Lake Charles in western Louisiana after a friend who knew someone on the capsized boat asked if he could help. As Asher guided a small watercraft, he recalled how people had come to help his hometown after Hurricane Laura ripped through the city last August.

"People came from all over and helped us. I definitely felt like I should give something back to people," he said. "It's searching for a needle in a haystack. But if you don't look, you don't find."

Others have been searching from seaplanes overhead. A team with dogs trained to search for cadavers also arrived. Groups on ATVs have combed beaches as far away as the Texas border.

On Thursday, an air boat, which can travel over marsh or land to access harder to reach areas, combed through the grasses while others rode flat-bottom boats looking for clues. Well-wishers have brought in food and drink, assembled underneath a raised building at the dock. Volunteer Ronnie Adams, who appeared on the History Channel's "Swamp People," has posted online updates viewed by thousands of people.

How might the Seacor Power tragedy play out in court? Look to Deepwater Horizon's legal battle Seacor Marine Holdings Inc., the corporate owner of the Seacor Power lift boat, faces potential legal risks on several fronts following the ve

Mark Theriot, a 63-year-old shrimper, said he's been coming out every day simply because Scott Daspit and the other families need help.

"I really don't have much confidence that we're going to find anybody, but the man wants to go and I'm going to go," Theriot said. "I'm coming for the family, to give them support. They got help. They're not by themselves."
St. Tammany officials recently began distributing almost 2,000 kits of the opioid antagonist Narcan to help reduce the escalating death rate of opioid users in St. Tammany Parish, which experienced the state's second highest number of opioid-involved deaths in 2019.

The opioid epidemic is real, and it is crippling to the families who face it every single day. We are committed to our fight against this dreaded addiction, St. Tammany President Mike Cooper said when he and a phalanx of local leaders gathered to announce the new program.

While Narcan is not a solution to addiction, it does offer citizens a second chance to save their loved ones life, to start them on the path to recovery through treatment.

The Narcan giveaway is sponsored by a collection of government agencies working in collaboration with St. Tammany Parish Coroner Dr. Charles Preston, who secured the 1,980 kits. Each contains two 4 mg doses of Narcan with instructions on how to use it and are being distributed cost-free from fire stations throughout the parish. Each kit has a shelf life of three years.

Narcan successfully reduces most reported opioid overdoses by blocking the effects of opiates on the brain and restoring breathing; it works only for opioid overdoses, according to multiple medical sources.

The distribution, which began at firehouses on April 29, is the first phase of an initiative tackling the crisis locally. It was paid for through a Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Program grant from the Bureau of Justice Administration. The total cost of Phase I was $169,500, officials said. Distribution will continue until all kits are gone.

There are often times when our deputies arrive on a scene, prior to EMS. When someone is overdosing, and time is of the essence, this tool (Narcan) gives our deputies the ability to immediately render aid and potentially save lives, said St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Randy Smith.

Narcan will not prevent a person from using drugs in the future, but it gives them a fighting chance to have a future where they can make better decisions and ultimately get the help they need to fight their addiction.

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Plans for a treatment-focused Phase II will be announced later this year.

Narcan may give you a chance at life, but a recovery program can save your life, said Chief Chris Kaufmann of St. Tammany Fire District No. 1.

Anyone getting a kit can use the drug to save the life of an overdose victim, but they are asked to immediately call 911 for follow up medical care. The Good Samaritan Law protects individuals who seek emergency help during an overdose, even if they, too, are involved in illegal drug use at the time 911 was called.

Narcan can transform a tragic death into the chance for a new life, Preston said.

No questions are asked when the kits are requested and distributed, officials said, but citizens who get them are asked to sign waiver confirming they were given written instructions on how to properly administer the drug.

Other proponents present for the April 29 announcement were St. Tammany Parish 22nd Judicial District Attorney Warren Montgomery 22nd Judicial Specialty Court Judges; Florida Parishes Human Services Executive Director Richard Kramer; and Dan Schneider of The Pharmicist.

Treat every overdose person as if it was your child, Schneider said. NARCAN can give them a chance at recovery and a future.

For a map of pickup locations, visit www.stpgov.org/NARCAN. Please note the new address for First District Fire is 522 Robert Blvd. in Slidell, not the old Corporate Square address listed.
A pair of sisters from Harvey who had been accused of helping their lovers physically and sexually abuse a young girl over the course of several years have pleaded guilty in the case.

Tina Tregre, 49, and Terri Tregre, 42, entered guilty pleas to one count each of cruelty to a juvenile on April 22, according to Jefferson Parish court records.

The Jefferson Parish District Attorney's Office dismissed a second count of juvenile cruelty for the women as part of a negotiated plea, court records said.

The victim in the case has recanted some of the allegations against the defendants, according to court records.

Judge Shayna Beevers Morvant of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced the Tregre sisters to time served. Both had been held at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna since their arrests on April 4, 2019.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office detectives had accused the women of in connection with an investigation into the alleged years-long rape, beating and torture of a now-15-year-old girl who said the abuse began when she was about 4, according to authorities.

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Tina Tregre's boyfriend, Tilman Carolise, 55, is charged with first-degree rape, indecent behavior with a juvenile, sexual battery, two counts of cruelty to a juvenile and aggravated assault with a firearm.

Terri Tregre's ex-husband, Harrington Matherne, 67, is charged with first-degree rape. Both men have pleaded not guilty and their trials are pending.

The victim told investigators Carolise repeatedly raped and beat her over the course of eight years at his Fairmont Street home in Harvey. Carolise allegedly bound the girl and sometimes forced her to sleep in a dog kennel, authorities said. He's also accused of sometimes denying her food and water.

After arrests in girls shocking rape and abuse, 2nd victim comes forward: JPSO A Harvey man accused of repeatedly beating, raping and terrorizing a 12-year-old girl for more than eight years is now facing new charges afte

Tina and Terri Tregre had been accused of acting as lookouts during the abuse while it was carried out by Carolise and Matherne, according to authorities.

Tina and Terri Tregre faced a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Beevers also issued protective orders barring them from contact with the victim for two years, court records said.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was updated Friday, April 30, 2021, based on court records.
A pair of bounty hunters let a fugitive with a history of fleeing authority escape with their vehicle and an AR-15 rifle Thursday in Washington Parish, setting off a search through the country that ended Friday night with the arrest of Rodney Wayne Hot Rod Smith in an abandoned house in Mississippi, officials said.

Smith, 45, had been wanted out of Pearl River County, Mississippi, where in 2015 he removed an ankle bracelet and fled from officers into the woods while on house arrest in Poplarville, court records show. A state jury convicted him of felony escape and a Mississippi judge sentenced him to five years in prison. Hed pleaded guilty a year earlier to a state racketeering charge, receiving a 20-year sentence with all but two years of prison time suspended.

Two bounty hunters showed up Thursday and detained Smith without incident at an address on La. 436 north of Bogalusa. They handcuffed him, shackled his legs and placed him in the backseat of their Toyota 4Runner, said Chief Deputy Mike Haley of the Washington Parish Sheriffs Office.

The bounty hunters were dealing with a woman on the property, Heather Jones, who as it happens was wanted for contempt of court in the parish. The Anderson Arms AR-15 sat on the front seat of the 4Runner, Haley said, with no screen between the front and back seats.

Either they left their keys in the vehicle or else they left it running. He took control of the vehicle, Haley said.

Wanted man accused of shooting bounty hunter in Lake Oaks Police arrested a wanted man after he allegedly opened fire at a bounty hunter in a coffee shop parking lot in the Lake Oaks area Thursday aft

Deputies were in the area and pursued Smith, who sped north on La. 62 and then La. 424. He disappeared, then the deputies circled back and found the 4Runner 30 yards down an embankment. Smith was gone, along with the weapon.

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Haley said as many as 10 detectives, as well as search beagles from nearby Rayburn Correctional Center in Angie, tracked Smith until it got dark Thursday. The dogs picked up the scent again Friday morning, he said, and followed it to a barn at the edge of Walthall County, Miss.

Authorities found the AR-15 but not Smith. The search went on all day Friday until Walthall County sheriffs deputies tracked Smith to an abandoned house about 10 p.m.

Authorities were not certain how Smith was able to remove his handcuffs and shackles. He was booked into the Walthall County jail.

Asked about repercussions for the bounty hunters, Haley said, Their mother needs to take a switch to them, I imagine.

Sheriff Randy Seals office said Smith awaits a warrant in Washington Parish for vehicle theft, aggravated flight from an officer, theft of a firearm and being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.

Jones, of Bogalusa, was arrested at the residence on La. 436 and booked into the Washington Parish jail. Seals office said she has a previous arrest last year for possession with intent to distribute illegal drugs.
Jefferson Parish will get about $7.5 million from the settlement of the East Jefferson General Hospital sale to LCMC Health, according to a report given to the Jefferson Parish Council this past week.

The money is essentially what is left over after all the hospital's current obligations have been paid, including debt service and pension. Some outstanding obligations may yet arise, such as potential lawsuits, and funds are being set aside for those, council members said this week.

By law, the money must be spent for health-related projects within the hospital service district that was formed to create the hospital more than a half century ago. That district covers the parish's east bank.

"There are so many possibilities," said Jefferson Parish Council member Jennifer Van Vrancken, in whose district the hospital lies.

At least one idea has been floated by council member Dominick Impastato who suggested that the money be used to upgrade a walking track at Lafreniere Park. The original track was built by the hospital service district, he said.

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The payment is the final significant act of the sale, which was years in the making. LCMC Health, the New Orleans-based hospital nonprofit that also operates West Jefferson Medical Center, Children's Hospital, University Medical Center and others around the city, offered $90 million for the 420-bed Metairie landmark.

LCMC's money, when combined with the hospital's funding reserves, was used to retire the hospital's exiting $135 million in bonds and pay off other debts. LCMC has also agreed to devote $100 million to capital improvements at the hospital over the next five years.

Jefferson Parish leaders had been talking of finding an operator for the foundering hospital, which was praised for the quality of its care, but dinged by bondholders for shaky financials as it struggled to compete in the market with larger operations like LCMC and Ochsner.

The EJ Hospital sale required the approval of voters, who in a pandemic-delayed August election gave the proposal an unprecedented 95% approval.
Conservatives around the country are blasting the news that Hunter Biden will be a guest speaker at a Tulane class this fall, but not all conservatives.

Some have been more muted in their comments about the presidents son, in what has become the latest flash point in the culture and political wars raging at university campuses.

Fox News, predictably, gave plenty of coverage to the story this week. Hunter Biden has become notorious on the right for his work for a Ukranian energy company while his father was vice president, for his past addiction to crack cocaine and for being under investigation by the Justice Department for possible tax violations.

In case you needed more proof that college is a waste of time & money, here it is: Hunter Biden is joining the faculty at Tulane to teach a class on fake news,' tweeted Charlie Kirk, a prominent conservative. Hunter Biden should be in jail, not teaching or influencing the future of America.

Biden is not joining the faculty. Rather he has agreed to be a virtual guest speaker -- without compensation -- at a class this fall called Media Polarization and Public Policy Impacts, taught online by Andrew Schwartz, whose biography identifies him as the chief communications officer at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, a bipartisan think tank in Washington. The syllabus says the class will explore the current state of the media landscape in the United States and how media polarization, fake news, and the economics of the news business impact public policymaking in Washington, D.C.

Biden, who has just published a memoir, is one of the 10 guest speakers for the course.

Schwartz, a Tulane grad who was a producer for Fox News, did not respond to requests for comment on Friday. But Tulane spokesman Michael Strecker said decisions regarding guest speakers "are made by individual instructors," not anyone in senior leadership.

Watch: U.S. Sen. John Kennedy criticizes Hunter Biden's guest speaker role at Tulane The news earlier this week that Hunter Biden will be one of several guest speakers in an online Tulane University course this fall has been me

Since Mr. Biden is someone who has received much media coverage, the instructor hopes that he will offer thoughts for classroom discussion, Strecker said in an email.

Among the many conservatives who voiced displeasure over Biden's pending talk is Quin Hillyer, who grew up four blocks from Tulane and whose parents and grandparents graduated from the university. Hillyer unloaded on Tulane in a column he wrote for the Washington Examiner.

At first glance, one would think this report surely is satire, perhaps something out of the Onion or the Babylon Bee. Alas, though, it is all too real, Hillyer wrote. One wonders what Biden knows about policymaking, since he has never been in a public policy position. Yes, he openly traded his name for pay from foreigners wanting to influence policy, but that is not the same thing.

U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, in a video he posted Wednesday, said he hopes the students in the class ask President Biden's son what he did to obtain "millions of dollars in contracts" while doing business in China.

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U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, whose district includes Tulane, hopes students ask similar questions and referred to an October article by the New York Post that Twitter initially blocked from appearing on its platform. The conservative newspaper reported that Hunter Biden introduced his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, to a top executive at a Ukrainian energy firm less than a year before the elder Biden pressured government officials in Ukraine into firing a prosecutor who was investigating the company.

I would be curious to see if Hunter Biden will talk about that story and business dealings in foreign country, Scalise said. He called the decision to invite Biden an interesting choice and said, Theyre free to invite whoever they want to speak.

Thats also the view of Tulane graduate Newt Gingrich, who was the Republican Speaker of the House during the 1990s and a presidential candidate in 2012.

I dont believe in cancel culture, so having Hunter Biden as a guest lecturer is what a university should do, Gingrich, who has a masters and a doctorate in history from Tulane, said in an email. However, they should provide balance by having a conservative reporter or blogger respond to Hunter Bidens version of reality.

Published reports have identified other speakers. Strecker, however, said the list hasn't been finalized but will include "high profile speakers from across the political and policy spectrum."

Biden does have a Tulane connection. His sister Ashley graduated from the university in 2004 with a B.A. in anthropology.

Another well-known Tulane grad who has been a major player in Republican politics is Bob Livingston, who represented suburban New Orleans in the House from 1977 to 1999.

Im usually happy to express my pride in my alma mater, Livingston said in an email. But this one is hard to absorb.

Strecker, the Tulane spokesman, said many outlets have wrongly reported that Mr. Biden has been hired by Tulane when, in fact, "he will appear online in one segment of one class as an unpaid guest speaker.

Strecker added, We have received little, to no, complaints from students regarding this decision.

But at least one former Tulane student is furious.

Micki Lewis, a proofreader and editor who lives in Miami, fired off an email to the university Thursday.

As of now, I am asking to be completely disassociated with Tulane due to your incredibly STUPID invitation to Hunter Biden to TEACH A COURSE to your students, wrote Lewis, who studied at Tulanes Newcomb College for two years in the early 1960s. I DO NOT WANT TO BE AFFILIATED IN ANY WAY WITH A UNIVERSITY THAT IS SO OBVIOUSLY BEING RUN BY FOOLS. Take my name off of your mailing list and I will take the Newcomb Institute bequest out of my will.
President Joe Biden spoke for more than an hour to a limited Joint Session of Congress for his first major speech since his inauguration. It was during a three-minute stretch near the end, though, that the president got plenty wrong about firearms, the Second Amendment and the record number of diverse Americans who purchased guns during the last 15 months.

No Matter How Many Times You Say It ...

President Biden talks big about "taking on the NRA."

"I've done before and I'll do it again," he repeats again and again. "In the 90s we passed universal background checks. A ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines that hold a hundred roundsthat can be fired off in seconds. We beat the NRA. Mass shootings and gun violence declined. Check out the report over ten years."

The NSSF did, and that's not what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report tells at all. In fact, it says the opposite. Others caught the president in his lie too.

According to the CDC report, the "Assault Weapons Ban (AWB), which also restricted magazine capacity, did not reduce crime rates." The kicker is that since the 10-year-ban expired in 2004, the violent crime rate in America dropped steadily while ownership of modern sporting rifles (MSRs) rose dramatically. Today there are more than 20 million MSRs in circulation. .....
BBC, April 30, 2021

The bomb went off late on Friday close to a guesthouse where the students were reportedly staying in Pul-e-Alam, the capital of eastern Logar province.

Dozens of people were hurt. Witnesses described roofs collapsing and victims being trapped under the debris.

No group has said it was behind the blast as people broke their fast in the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Afghanistan has seen a surge in violence since US President Joe Biden announced US troops would withdraw by 11 September.

A number of buildings were damaged in the explosion at about 19:00 local time (15:30 GMT) including the civilian guesthouse.

Some of those killed were high school students preparing to sit university entrance exams, said Hasibullah Stanekzai, head of Logar's provincial council.

As many as 90 people were injured, interior ministry spokesman Tariq Arian said.

He said the explosion caused widespread damage in the area, including to a hospital and residential houses.

"The roofs of houses have collapsed and people are trapped under the debris," he said.

"The security forces are trying to rescue those trapped."

Footage circulating online showed victims being pulled from the rubble. A ward in a nearby hospital appeared to have suffered blast damage.

The car detonated near the home of the former head of the provincial council and not far from a hospital, Didar Lawang, the spokesperson for Logar's governor, told Reuters news agency.

The British embassy in Kabul condemned the attack, saying "this senseless violence against civilians must stop".

The blast came a day before the US military formally begins to withdraw its remaining troops from Afghanistan.President Biden announced earlier this month that all American troops would leave Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US.

That decision angered the Taliban who had signed a deal with previous US President Donald Trump agreeing all troops would leave the country by 1 May if the militants upheld the deal

The country has seen a rise in militant violence in recent months, including an increase in civilian casualties.
Restaurants that had their finances pummeled by pandemic restrictions are eligible for up to $10 million in federal relief starting next week. And on Friday, Mayor LaToya Cantrell offered advice to New Orleans restaurant owners: they all need to apply.

At a press conference to promote the $28.6 billion federal Restaurant Revitalization Fund and provide information on how it works, Cantrell said that the program is a massive opportunity for the city's hospitality sector to help repair the damage wrought by the coronavirus.

"Nothing to shake a stick at at all," Cantrell said. "When you think about the businesses in our community, the restaurant industry and hospitality industry... this is where the largest resource will be available to our people."

The fund, one of several forms of relief authorized by the Biden administration's $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, will offer up to $5 million per restaurant location  and up to $10 million for multi-location restaurants  to make up for lost revenue due to the pandemic.

Restaurants will not have to pay the money back as long as it is used by March, 2023, and it won't be taxed. The funds can be used towards payroll, mortgage or rent payments, supplies, general food and beverage costs and paid sick leave, according to the rules.

+3 Latest federal relief aimed at small minority-owned firms and others that missed out The $1.9 trillion federal stimulus package passed earlier this month has less money for businesses than in previous rounds of relief. But the 

Registration for the relief opened Friday, though applications will be available on Monday. Restaurants and other businesses can apply at http://restaurants.sba.gov/.

The full list of eligible businesses include:

Restaurants

Bars

Food trucks

Brewpubs

Saloons

Inns

Taverns

Tasting rooms

Food carts

Caterers

For a three-week period starting Monday, the government will prioritize applications from businesses owned by women, minorities, veterans and other select groups. After that, all applications will be processed on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Restaurants and bars have struggled over the past year as restrictions meant to curb the spread of the coronavirus first shut them down and then forced them to rope off tables and turn away customers to comply with capacity restrictions. Other would-be diners, fearful of becoming infected, avoided going out entirely.

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That has begun to change recently as coronavirus cases have waned and vaccinations have risen. After more than 13 months of capacity caps and other restrictions, the city lifted limits on restaurants, bars and most other establishments this week. The city's mask mandate remains in place.

The grants can be used to recover losses businesses saw last year when the most stringent COVID-19 rules were in place.

"It's no secret that it's been a hard year for everybody, businesswise and personally," said Lance Flemings, the district manager for We Dat Chicken & Shrimp on Canal Street.

Flemings said We Dat was hit by a double whammy. The Hard Rock Hotel's collapse nearby kept customers away before the pandemic, and during COVID, tourists and residents who would otherwise frequent Canal Street stayed away.

"It's been a long process getting back on our feet," he said.

Even as they've seen more customers lately, We Dat and other restaurants have struggled to hire employees, given the draw of increased jobless benefits. Workers can earn up to $547 a week in benefits thanks to a federal boost, which is often more than they made when employed.

Cantrell said businesses could use the new revitalization grants to pay higher wages.

"Now is the time for people to be paid what they are worth, and dignify our people who are the backbone of this industry," she said.

Though previous aid through the Paycheck Protection Program and the Small Business Administration's Economic Injury Disaster Loans provided money for payroll and other needs, some of those loans must be repaid.

The new grants do not need to be, though a business that received a PPP or EIDL loan already may see their grant award reduced.
Taking their lead from the National Hurricane Center, which is moving up the date when it starts issuing routine alerts for tropical weather in the Atlantic Ocean, New Orleans area officials have started running through the plans and logistics they'll put in place in coming months should a hurricane evacuation become necessary.

Mayor LaToya Cantrell and New Orleans emergency officials conducted an exercise Friday to test its City-Assisted Evacuation Plan, days after a similar drill was performed in Jefferson Parish and a month before the official start of hurricane season.

The exercise comes as the city has centralized its evacuation efforts at the Smoothie King Center, a process that began during the last hurricane season.

Under a hurricane evacuation order, people will be able to be picked up at the Evacuspot beacons that dot the city. From there, they'll be taken by the Regional Transit Authority to the arena for a lift out of harm's way. They can also come to the arena using their own transportation to join the evacuation process.

"We are preparing and working together with our partners to make sure we can move our people quickly out of harm's way," Cantrell said at the event.

On Friday, buses ran by the Smoothie King Center as volunteers worked beneath tents set up in the parking lot, simulating the process of taking in and registering residents as they would during a real evacuation.

Officials stressed that the City-Assisted Evacuation should be seen as a "last resort" for residents who cannot leave New Orleans on their own in the event of a hurricane. Those who have the means and transportation should begin preparing themselves for storms and be prepared to evacuate should the need arise, Cantrell said.

Between 35,000 and 40,000 people, roughly 10% of the city's population, may need assistance in the event of an evacuation, according to Collin Arnold, the city's head of homeland security and emergency preparedness.

+2 More active hurricane season again in 2021: Colorado State forecasters Expect another more active hurricane season in 2021, with 17 named storms, including eight hurricanes, with four of those being major, Categor

New Orleans Police Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said residents need to prepare, having multiple options in place for evacuation to account for where the storm is likely to hit.

"If the storm travels to New Orleans and perhaps goes east, which direction will you go. If the storm goes west what direction will you go?" Ferguson asked. "Think about a plan A, B and possibly even C."

The local government's drills come a year after the busiest Atlantic hurricane season on record, with a total of 30 named storms. Southeast Louisiana was in the National Hurricane Center's forecast cone eight times and five storms made landfall in the state, including Hurricane Zeta which struck the New Orleans area.

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Typically, the city holds its evacuation test closer to the start of hurricane season. But this year's earlier preparations were prompted by a change in how early in the year the Hurricane Center will issue routine messages about tropical weather.

+2 How busier hurricane seasons are changing tropical weather forecasting this year Plus, forecasters are discussing whether to change the dates of the Atlantic hurricane season.

While hurricane season will still run from June 1 to Nov. 30, the National Hurricane Center announced in March that it would begin issuing tropical weather forecasts a month and a half earlier in 2021.

The move was an acknowledgement that storms are forming earlier and that forecasters can now detect and track them earlier.

If an evacuation is called by City Hall, there will be several options to get residents to the Smoothie King Center, where they will be registered and processed before being evacuated. Transportation will be provided from the Evacuspots and the RTA will increase bus service and extend all the routes the currently go to Duncan Plaza to the arena.

People will also be able to be dropped off at the center, including by ride-sharing services.

New Orleans officials also encouraged residents to sign up for alerts from the city's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. The city recently changed the vendor for that service, which means residents will need to send a new text message to ensure they remain on the list.

Residents can sign up by texting NOLAREADY to 77295. A NOLA Ready app that allows people to input specific information about themselves and their households is also available.

Residents with special needs, particularly medical conditions that require powered equipment, were urged to call 3-1-1 to sign up for the city's registry or to update the information that is already on file. About 3,500 people are currently on that list, Arnold said.

Local and state emergency preparedness officials are still working to determine how evacuated residents would be sheltered. Last year, the state put many of those displaced by the hurricanes in southwest Louisiana in hotels because of concerns that the coronavirus could spread in large shelters, with 12,000 eventually housed in New Orleans.

Arnold said its likely that more of a hybrid model will be used this year that will involve both hotel rooms and traditional shelters.

"Depending where we are with COVID itll be a very fluid situation," Arnold said.
Emma Keith is the editor of The Transcript, where she covers Norman Public Schools and the University of Oklahoma. Reach her at ekeith@normantranscript.com or at @emma_ckeith.

Reese Gorman covers COVID-19, local politics and elections for The Transcript; reach him at rgorman@normantranscript.com or @reeseg_3.
Amanda Bryant works at her desk at the Cleveland County Election Board. After the county commissioners made a move to purchase all stories of the Financial Center, the question now moves to which offices will occupy the spaces.
Press release shared with permission from First News Now



Harrisburg, Pa.  The Wolf Administration has received approval from the Food and Nutrition Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to extend Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) benefit eligibility to families of Pennsylvania SNAP eligible children who are child care aged. This federally-funded program helps families cover the cost of breakfasts and lunches for their children and is designed to bridge the gap left by child care centers closing and to help families who may have strained resources due to the COVID-19 pandemic.





The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic downturn has stretched thousands of families to a breaking point, so we are incredibly grateful that the USDA will allow us to provide some relief and offer more food security to SNAP families with children who are child care aged, said DHS Acting Secretary Meg Snead. Going without essential needs like food can jeopardize childrens health and development in both the short and long-term, so P-EBT will help families make ends meet. We are committed to rolling out this P-EBT program as quickly as possible.





Children are eligible for benefits under P-EBTs child care component if:





* The child is a member of a household that received SNAP benefits at any time since October 1, 2020, * The child is age 5 or younger, and * At least one school in the county where the family resides or any contiguous county is determined to be operating on either a virtual schedule, where children complete all learning through online learning, or a blended schedule, where the students attend some days in person and some days virtually.





Benefits will be available to cover eligible children in SNAP during the period of October 1, 2020, through May 31, 2021. Pennsylvania will distribute more than $30 million per month to the families of about 223,000 children  for a total distribution of about $224 million. The benefit level will vary depending upon county of residence. Children residing in counties or neighboring a county where schools are operating 100 percent virtually will receive 100 percent of the benefit, while children in counties that are operating in a hybrid format will receive 65 percent of the benefit level. These levels will be re-evaluated throughout the summer. Full P-EBT benefits are equal to $6.82 per day that the child is eligible for P-EBT -- $2.26 for breakfast, $0.96 for a snack and $3.60 for lunch.





Pennsylvania will distribute benefits to eligible families in three phases, as follows:

The first round of benefits will be distributed two weeks following the distribution of P-EBT for K-12 students, in late May. The second round of benefits will be distributed in late June. The third round of benefits will be distributed in early August.

No application is necessary to receive the benefit, and the benefit will be received on the households regular EBT card. All eligible families will also receive a letter directly from DHS. If a child qualifies under both the P-EBT for School Children process and the P-EBT for Child Care Age Children process, the child will only receive the benefit determined under the P-EBT for School Children.





www.compass.state.pa.us



Applications for SNAP and other public assistance programs can be requested and submitted online ator over the phone by calling 1-866-550-4355. Those who prefer to submit a paper application can print from the website, pick one up at a County Assistance Office (CAO), or request an application by phone at 1-800-692-7462 and mail it to their local CAO or place it in a CAOs secure drop box, if available. You do not need to know your own eligibility in order to apply. While CAOs remain closed, work processing applications, determining eligibility, and issuing benefits continues. Clients should use COMPASS or the MyCOMPASS PA mobile app to submit necessary updates to their case files while CAOs are closed to the public.

For more information about food assistance resources for people around Pennsylvania impacted by COVID-19 and the accompanying economic insecurity, visit the Department of Agricultures food security guide.





www.dhs.pa.gov. For more information on public assistance programs, visit
As April wraps up, we look ahead toward a new month. Veniese Lawrence, C.N.M, C.R.N.P, obstetrician-gynecologist at UPMC in Williamsport, hopes a message that she helped to spread in April stays with the community as time moves on.

April is National Minority Health month, marking an opportunity to bring awarness to health equity issues in our community. "There are a lot of disparities in communities of color, whether someone is biracial, brown, black," said Lawrence. "There are problems such as food deserts, access to care, implicit bias in healthcare. All those things affect equality and healthcare and, at the moment, are getting a lot of light right now."

According to Lawrence, the U.S. has one of the highest mortality rates regardless of race, ethnicity, or religion. But it's particularly higher--two to three times higher--in the communities with women of color or in non-black Hispanic women.

Maternal mortality rates in the U.S. According to the CDC The maternal mortality rate in the U.S. for 2018 was 17.4 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.

Wide racial/ethnic gaps exist between non-Hispanic black (37.1 per 100,000 live births), non-Hispanic white (14.7), and Hispanic (11.8) women.

"It doesn't matter your educational background or your socio economical background, Black women are significantly, significantly affected negatively as opposed to Caucasian women," said Lawrence.

Studies indicate that food deserts, lack of access to healthier or organic foods, and education about healthy eating contribute to higher morbidities--affecting pregnancy and babies. "So you have Black babies dying at a higher rate than non Black babies."

To address the issue in our local communities, UPMC is working with the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and an organization called Black Mamas Mattter Alliance to help women of color and babies of color, to decrease the number of deaths and improve access to care.

Related reading: We can make it better!

We all know someone

"We're diverse here. It could be a friend, it could even be a family member who is affected by this," said Lawrence. "It affects the community, it affects helathcare in general."

Spreading the word about proper prenatal care, access to healthy foods, and available programs is a step in the right direction.

UPMC has licenced social workers who work with women of color. A program called Expectations reaches out to women to offer a variety of resources. Women Infants and Children (WIC) provides access to formula and offer educational classes.

Postpartum care

UPMC recently started a postpartum depression program that connects resources in the community "sooner than later," said Lawrence.

"If a woman is one week postpartum or two weeks postpartum and they feel as if they're off, they could call the office and we would connect them to community mental health providers."

In a National Institute of Health study on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Postpartum Depression Care Among Low-Income Women, researchers found that 9% of white women surveyed initiated postpartum mental health care, compared with 4% of Black women and 5% of Latinas.

The study went on to find that among those who initiated treatment, Blacks and Latinas were less likely than whites to receive follow-up treatment or continued care. And among those who initiated antidepressant treatment, Black women and Latinas were less likely than whites to refill a prescription.

Researchers concluded that there were significant racial-ethnic differences in depression-related mental health care after delivery and that suboptimal treatment was prevalent among all low-income women in the study.

Postpartum depression that goes untreated, according to the study, can have severe impacts on the health and well-being of the affected woman and her family, "including long-term consequences for the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral development of her child."

Overlooked based on race

"In the African American community, women are looked upon as strong," said Lawrence. "But one of the biggest things that stood out in the community of color was regardless of your socio economic status, you are overlooked based on race."

To address that, UPMC is training staff on cultural competencies. "When someone says something that is their complaint, it's their subjective statement, but it should never be overlooked," said Lawrence. "We have to look within ourselves and say, how would I like to be treated? How would I like my sister or my brother or my family members to be treated."

The health system spent the month of April, and particularly April 11-17, Black Maternal Health Week, bringing awareness to the issues of health equity, using the opportunity to talk openly about disparities and stereotypes, and to make positive change for the community as a whole.

But as the calendar flips to a new month, the challenges remain, as does Lawrence's focus on equality in healthcare.
This letter currently has 36 signatories from 11 zipcodes in PA-12. It will be delivered to Rep. Fred Keller on May 7. To sign-on, visit tinyurl.com/KellerTownHall

Dear Rep. Keller,

We, the undersigned concerned residents of the PA-12th district, call on you to hold at least one Town Hall meeting during your scheduled District Work, June 1-4, 2021.

We expect this event to follow state COVID-19 safety guidelines, while employing best practices for meaningful, two-way exchange between elected officials and constituents.

At a minimum, we expect you to:

Keep any opening remarks to less than 10 minutes, reserving at least an hour for Q&A;

Use impartial screeners or moderators for selecting questions, and publicize who these screeners are. We suggest members of the news media who have a commitment to journalistic ethics and standards;

Come to listen to constituent concerns, rather than rehearse existing talking points available in your newsletter and social media posts;

Encourage unscripted exchanges with constituents, so long as they are carried out with respect and professionalism; and

Make the event open and accessible to as many constituents as possible, promoting it well in advance and circulating a copy of any recording as widely as possible.

In addition, we point out these concerns with your "Town Hall" event on Mar. 30, 2021, which ought to be addressed and corrected:

Ineffective and biased screening: Your staff screeners allowed through multiple questions that included unsubstantiated claims (eg. gangs at the U.S. - Mexico border). Recognizing that this was a live event, and some comments cannot be controlled, screeners ought to have disallowed any questions that promoted misinformation - and Rep. Keller should have corrected or otherwise addressed misinformation. Screeners also allowed multiple questions on the same topic. Further, they prevented questions from Union County residents.

Ignoring questions: in response to some constituent phone calls to his office, Rep Keller invited several members of the group Fridays with Fred to submit questions by email ahead of the "tele Town Hall." A list of twenty questions was submitted, which were compiled thru the Facebook group for Fridays with Fred and reflected constituent concerns in at least four counties (Centre, Lycoming, Union, Snyder). None of these questions were raised during the event.

Yours in representative democracy,

Signatories

This letter campaign is managed by Fridays with Fred, a grassroots movement demanding better from Rep. Fred Keller

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The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed in this letter to the editor do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of NorthcentralPa.com.
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Former vet clinic manager sentenced to 5 years in prison, to pay $440K in restitution

Meleah Beth Landers

For the two decades shed been working at the West Rome Animal Clinic, first as a receptionist and later as a practice manager, Meleah Landers was falsifying financial records for her own gain to the eventual tune of nearly half a million dollars.

As she stood up prior to sentencing, she told Floyd County Superior Court Chief Judge Jack Niedrach that she tried to keep a log of her thefts, so she could one day pay them back.

Im ashamed to be here. This has been eating me alive for a long time, she said.

She said shed been taken in by the clinics owner Dan Pate and treated like family. The clinic had paid for the education needed so she could take on her, now former, role of practice manager.

During the entire time, she was stealing massive amounts of funds from the clinic and cooking the books to cover it up.

A Georgia Bureau of Investigation audit determined that at some point she began to put small amounts of money back on the books. She said it was to pay back some of the debt.

But at that same time she kept stealing larger amounts of the clinics funds. She then covered the thefts up, leading the clinic and those she likened to family into massive debt.

Prosecutors said in the past seven years she stole a quarter of a million dollars;.all told the loss to the clinic was likely much, much larger.

Evidence has come to light that this crime has gone on for over two decades, Rome Circuit Assistant District Attorney Leah Mayo said. Ms. Landers said she treated (Pate) like a father; she treated him like an ATM.

Estimating the amount of money she was stealing on top of her salary, she was bringing more money home than the doctors at the clinic.

For 20 years my staff was under the impression that Ms. Landers was a hardworking employee that loved the West Rome Animal Clinic, Pate told the court. It turns out Ms. Landers stole so much the clinic couldnt pay its bills.

Describing Landers as a narcissist, a chameleon, liar and a thief, Pate said the amount she stole will continue to affect him and his family for the rest of their lives. His retirement plans have been delayed, if not destroyed, and the veterinary business  which should have been profitable  is continuing to have difficulty.

People will rarely buy a business that is losing and in debt, he said. Even though Ms. Landers found the money to hire four lawyers, I have yet to see a cent.

Once he began to realize the depth and breadth of the thefts, she approached her former boss and offered to pay $20,000 for him not file criminal charges. On top of that, she also asked Pate for a job recommendation.

Asking for the judge to sentence her to serve a maximum sentence, Pate said Ms. Landers failed to take responsibility.

Niedrach sentenced Landers to five years in prison and another 15 on probation. As part of that sentence she is ordered to repay $440,469.38 in restitution.

As part of that restitution, Niedrach ordered that $123,699.42 from her fathers estate held in a separate civil case concerning the thefts be paid to Pate within 30 days.

Pates attorney in that civil case, Chris Twyman, said it is still in the exploratory stages but expects a resolution will come more quickly with the criminal conviction and restitution determination.

Landers will also have to begin paying $500 a month restitution 60 days after her release from prison. The judge conceded that the amount may not reach the full amount of restitution, but said the sentence does not bar seeking the remainder as part of a civil action.

The judge also denied a request for Landers to be sentenced under the First Offenders Act, which would wipe away her criminal conviction after the completion of her sentence.

Any future employers should be aware of the circumstances of this case, Niedrach said.
Rome, GA (30161)

Today

Rain showers in the morning with scattered thunderstorms arriving in the afternoon. High 86F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Locally heavy rainfall possible..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms during the evening followed by occasional showers overnight. Low near 70F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.


Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday morning visited Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib in the national capital and offered prayers on the 400th Prakash Purab of Guru Teg Bahadur. According to sources, Prime Minister Modi visited the Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib in Chandni Chowk area without security route or special security arrangements at the Gurudwara.



"On the special occasion of his 400th Parkash Purab, I bow to Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Ji. He is widely respected globally for his courage and his efforts to serve the downtrodden. He refused to bow to tyranny and injustice. His supreme sacrifice gives strength and motivation to many," Prime Minister Modi tweeted. On the special occasion of his 400th Parkash Purab, I bow to Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Ji.

He is widely respected globally for his courage and his efforts to serve the downtrodden. He refused to bow to tyranny and injustice. His supreme sacrifice gives strength and motivation to many.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 1, 2021




Napoleon, OH (43545)

Today

Showers early then scattered thunderstorms developing later in the day. High 84F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

A few clouds. Low 67F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph.
Skylar Knox is a seventh grader at Fremont Middle School in Roseburg and a contributing reporter to The News-Review. Her work can be found on skylarknox.com.
Andy Schmookler is a prize-winning author. Many of his works can be found at www.ABetterHumanStory.org
Its absolutely unacceptable that any politician or business or community leader who claims to be supportive of union jobs and a strong middle class can allow this project to be lost," Melcher said in a statement.

U.S. Steel said it is still committed to steelmaking in western Pennsylvania.

Last spring, as the pandemic prompted shutdowns of large sectors of the economy, U.S. Steel acknowledged it had to delay groundbreaking until conditions improved.

That delay came after the Allegheny County Health Department halted the permitting process because of the challenges the coronavirus posed to the public comment process.

U.S. Steel never secured those permits, and it pointed out that, over the same time period, a competing steelmaker in another state announced a new steel mill and will be ready to make steel this year.

In the meantime, U.S. Steel commissioned the manufacturing of the equipment and began site preparations, but it remains in the beginning stages of the project with over $170 million spent and equipment in storage in Pittsburgh-area warehouses.

The county health department said it was "disappointed" by suggestions that its permitting process helped lead to U.S. Steel's decision to scrap the plan. In a statement, its deputy director of environmental health, Jim Kelly, said the agency had worked proactively and closely with US Steel on the project, starting in May 2019.

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The man said he saw the owner of the dog present outside and she saw what happened. The man told her he would call 911, after which the dog owner told him to leave.

Police met with the dog owner, who said her dog was in her yard when she began to run toward the man barking. She said she called the dog, who stopped in her yard about 20 feet away from the road, police reported.

She said her dog, Charlie, died from the gunshot wound. Police found a 40-caliber shell casing directly across from the woman's home.

Marsha Essary, whose daughter was the owner of Charlie, said the family is shaken by the shooting at their home. She said her young grandchildren, who were very close to Charlie, have been crying and upset since the loss.

She said that Charlie was not an aggressive dog and she was just acting as any typical dog would while in its yard. Essary said the man could have accidentally shot her daughter who was outside with the dog at the time.

"After he shot the dog, my daughter said she couldn't believe what she was seeing," Essary said. "She could not believe someone would shoot a dog like that."


16 killed in fire at Bharuch Covid hospital, probe ordered At least 16 Covid-19 patients died due a fire at a Covid designated hospital in Bharuch district on Saturday morning. Over 50-60 patients were admitted in the Patel Welfare Hospital when the fire broke out in the ICU ward at midnight. The fire officers have said that the hospital did not have an NOC for fire.



The fire erupted in the middle of the night in the designated Covid hospital on the Bharuch-Jambusar highway, around 190 km from the state capital Ahmedabad. The exact cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, according to the officials.



It is believed that around 16, including 14 Covid critical patients admitted in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) were charred to death in the fire caused most probably by a leaking oxygen cylinder. But there has been no confirmation on that.



The fire was controlled within an hour and around 50 patients were rescued and shifted to nearby hospitals, according to sources.



It is learnt that the hospital building did not have a No Objection Certificate (NOC) mandatory to be obtained from the fire department. "The hospital's another building has got the NOC from the fire department, but this building did not have an NOC," said Deepak Makhija, the Bharuch regional fire officer.



Meanwhile, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has expressed condolences and announced Rs 4 lakh ex-gratia to the kin of the deceased. The CM has also ordered an inquiry into the incident.



"I express my condolences to those who lost their lives in the fire at Bharuch Hospital. The state government will provide assistance of Rs 4 lakh to the families of each of the victims of the accident," Rupani said.



The CM has appointed two IAS officials, the labour and employment department, Additional Chief Secretary ACS Vipul Mitra and Commissioner Municipalities Administration, RajKumar Beniwal to probe the incident. Both the officials have been immediately sent to the place.



The CM said that the government is also thinking of appointing a judicial probe into the incident.






"The purported lawsuit is a nullity if the court follows controlling legal precedents and strikes the unauthorized appearances and pleadings. But if it does not, this lawsuit cannot continue any further (even for consideration of additional defenses) for yet another reason: All of the defendants are legislators, and the legislature is still in session," Rokita said.

The governor's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Rokita's filing. It previously said outside counsel was retained to avoid a conflict of interest for Rokita, since he cannot represent the governor and General Assembly simultaneously.

Rokita said the governor ignoring the attorney general's statutory role in resolving legal policy disagreements is a "threat to the stability and proper functioning of our divided and limited government as it would establish a precedent for governmental branches or officials to sue one another, at taxpayer expense, over abstract disagreements in governing principles."

In any case, Rokita said he believes the emergency session law is constitutional because the General Assembly is entitled to appoint by law the day for commencing its sessions and to fix by law the length and frequency of its sessions.
"It's been in the works for a couple years now. As you know, it's been held up, and it feels great to finally have progress and finally be out here on site," McLead said Thursday after the groundbreaking, which was held despite early rains.

The town approached the Allens looking to buy the land around 2018, and they agreed to sell it, knowing it would become a park.

"It's a park where this people of St. John can enjoy in the future generations that will never be built on. I like that," Tom Allen said. "I can even come and walk around."

Before being razed in 2019, a "modest" three-bedroom home with a gray-shingled roof occupied the land.

"I grew up on this property. My father had pigs, chickens  it was a hobby farm back then," Tom Allen said, noting he knew all the farmers in the area. "All farms all the way around. It's all changed now."

Until a few years ago, there were cows in the area, Judy said. Homes now occupy most of the land along the stretch of Parrish Avenue near the park site.

As a kid, Tom remembers looking out the front door one summer to what once was a gravel road and saw a group of men eating on the ground.
I think its crazy to drive five hours here and five hours back for this, Cantrell said. There are just so many better things to do with your time then spend 10 hours on that.

North Township Trustee Adrian Santos was among those at McDermotts house.

We welcomed them into the city and waved hello, Santos said.

Santos said that he sees the issue regarding the Hammond residents Biden flag as being one of abiding by local ordinances rather than one of free speech. He said that he believes those in the Trump caravan would take issue if a sign or flag was put in their community by a church or park that had expletives or vulgarity on it.

I respect the fact that if that is what they want to do, they can do it; but I think its all uncalled for, said Santos. I think they are not seeing how the words on the flag has an effect on kids, who play at the park across the street. Theres an ordinance against the displaying of obscene or vulgar material. If they are supposedly law-abiding citizens supporting Donald Trump, they think the rules dont apply to them. We have the right to care about what kids see in our community.

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MAPLEWOOD, N.J. (AP)  Olympia Dukakis, the veteran stage and screen actress whose flair for maternal roles helped her win an Oscar as Chers mother in the romantic comedy Moonstruck, has died. She was 89.

Allison Levy her agent at Innovative Artists said Saturday that Dukakis died Saturday morning in her home in New York City. A cause of death was not immediately released.

Dukakis won her Oscar through a surprising chain of circumstances, beginning with author Nora Ephrons recommendation that she play Meryl Streeps mother in the film version of Ephrons book Heartburn. Dukakis got the role, but her scenes were cut from the film. To make it up to her, director Mike Nichols cast her in his hit play Social Security. Director Norman Jewison saw her in that role and cast her in Moonstruck.

Dukakis won the Oscar for best supporting actress and Cher took home the trophy for best actress.

She referred to her 1988 win as the year of the Dukakii because it was also the year Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, her cousin, was the Democratic Partys presidential nominee. At the ceremony, she held her Oscar high over her head and called out: OK, Michael, lets go!
Surveillance video from the McDonalds showed Goudy in the Audi, wearing the same clothing shown in the social media post, Deboni said Friday.

In video surveillance from the restaurants, Goudy is seen wearing a pink hoodie pulled over his head, holding a .40-caliber handgun, as the other gunman brandished an AK-47 type of gun with a banana clip while wearing a black hoodie and stone washed jeans, Deboni said.

They began to fire the guns at the back of the victims car, Deboni said.

They got back in the Audi, but got out again as the Infiniti pulled forward. They began firing again, before fleeing west on the Eisenhower Expressway.

Jaslyn, shot multiple times, died shortly after and her father was also shot and taken to a hospital.

Police found and took into evidence a total of 47 casings from two guns, casings that eventually matched guns they found during Lewis arrest, Deboni said. Deboni said hours before the shooting, Lewis posted a video on social media that shows him with Goudy and the other gunman driving around in an Audi. Goudy could be seen in a pink hoodie similar to that seen in the McDonalds video. Jaslyns father told detectives Lewis had threatened him over social media before.
LOS ANGELES  Traditional art museums are some of the most conservative and controlling institutions on earth. They are built as vaults to preserve the past, and as monuments to edited histories. In the Gilded Age America of a century or so ago, many new museums were also monuments to private collectors  Henry Clay Frick, J. P. Morgan, Isabella Stewart Gardner  who strove to shape and fix an image that history would have of them, as enlightened power brokers of their day and benefactors to the future.

In our present Gilded Age, private collection museums are again proliferating, but with a difference. Most are devoted to new art, art without a past. The stories they tell are not yet history, but exist in a state of flux. The very definition of collecting, in a time of speculative buying, is now up for grabs. Shouldnt these changes radically alter the old museum model, loosen it up, make it more experimental, shift its identity from locked treasure house to clearinghouse for fresh ideas?

These questions arise as one of the most eagerly anticipated private museums of contemporary art in the country approaches its opening here on Sept. 20.
MANILA  The Philippines surpassed the one million mark on Monday in the total number of coronavirus cases it has reported, as the country struggles with newer, deadlier forms of the virus.

Average daily case reports in the country are not high by international standards, at about 8 per 100,000 population, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University; the U.S. rate is about 18, and much of Europe is in the 30s and 40s or worse. But the Philippines reported very few cases last year, and did not see a significant surge until recently.

In response, Manila and four other suburbs went into lockdown earlier this month. President Rodrigo Duterte is expected to speak about quarantine measures on Wednesday.

Harry Roque, spokesman for President Duterte, said new variants and not the governments pandemic policies were to blame for the surge. He noted that the Philippines was far down in the global rankings for the total number of cases.
ARRL Executive Committee nominates Joel Harrison, W5ZN, to be next IARU Secretary

At its April 5 meeting via Zoom, the ARRL Executive Committee (EC) nominated past ARRL President Joel Harrison, W5ZN, to become the next Secretary of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU).

The incumbent Secretary, David Sumner, K1ZZ, has announced his intention to step down on July 1.

ARRL International Affairs Vice President Rod Stafford, W6ROD, explained that ARRL, as IARU Secretariat, has the right and obligation to appoint a successor. Harrison currently serves as IARU Assistant Secretary.

The ARRL Board of Directors ratified his nomination on April 16.

The EC also agreed to hold an in-person Board of Directors meeting in July, in accordance with Connecticut COVID-19 regulations. ARRL CEO David Minster, NA2AA, told the EC that a new procedure was being put into place to recognize centenarian members  those who are 100 years of age or older. The membership team will now identify members who qualify for ARRLs Centurion Award, and the corresponding Director will determine how to proceed with the award presentation.

The EC agreed to include a $100 ARRL gift certificate to accompany the award. In addition, with the changes pending in the 9-centimeter band, the EC adopted a new calling frequency for that band of 3400.1 MHz.

Minutes of the EC meeting have been posted.

ARRL
The Museum of Modern Art blocked protesters from entering the museum Friday afternoon at the conclusion of a march designed to focus attention on what the demonstrators say is the undue influence of wealthy patrons on the cultural institutions values and programming.

The museum said it was forced to shut the doors when the protesters attempted to force their way into the museum. In response, Museum security personnel closed the entrance in accordance with established safety protocols, the museum said in a statement.

The museum statement said two guards were injured by protesters in the fracas. One of the protesters said she was punched by a guard.

Last week, organizers of the protest had addressed a letter to MoMAs director, Glenn Lowry, calling the museum a system of power and wealth that harms people while criticizing several board members for their financial investments. Chief among those named was the billionaire Leon Black, who announced in March that he would leave his position as the museums chairman after widespread pressure from artists and activists over his ties to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Its been one blow after another. Its something we dont know how to pick ourselves up from.

AVRAHAM NIVIN, 21, who was injured in a stampede that killed dozens at a religious festival in Israel, on the Haredi community having also been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
Three members of a Colorado police department have resigned after they arrested and booked a 73-year-old woman with dementia who was thrown to the ground and handcuffed after she was suspected of shoplifting, officials said on Friday.

The woman, Karen Garner, was pinned against a squad car, and her arm was twisted behind her back, breaking a bone and dislocating her shoulder during the roadside arrest in Loveland, Colo., last June, a lawsuit says.

Body-camera footage of the arrest and footage from Walmart security cameras that was released by Ms. Garners lawyer this month prompted widespread outrage, as did another video that showed three police officers laughing at a station as they watched the footage.

The district attorney for Larimer County, Gordon P. McLaughlin, has said that, after seeing the body-camera footage, he requested a criminal investigation, to be assisted by the United States Attorneys Office for the District of Colorado and the F.B.I.
That effort has seen some modest improvement over the past month, with 413 children discharged from government custody on Thursday compared with 248 who were discharged a month earlier.

The situation at the border has complicated Mr. Bidens ability to follow through on a campaign pledge to make America a more compassionate place for migrants, in contrast with the tough, restrictive policies of the Trump administration. The Biden administration has taken steps to unwind former President Donald J. Trumps restrictive agenda, including on Friday when it announced that it had canceled border wall projects paid for with Defense Department funds. The move was widely expected after Mr. Biden suspended wall construction earlier this year.

But reports of migrant children forced to sleep on gym mats with foil sheets in overcrowded Border Patrol holding cells  often going days without bathing  did not present the America Mr. Biden promised. And Republicans have latched onto what they call the crisis at the border as their main talking point against the president.

Immigration groups have criticized the Biden administration for continuing to use a public health emergency rule put in place by the Trump administration that empowers agents to rapidly turn migrants back to Mexico without providing them the opportunity to ask for asylum. The groups have said the policy exposes asylum seekers to violence in Mexican areas like Juarez and Reynosa.

Avril Benoit, the executive director of Doctors Without Borders, said in an open letter to the administration that the policy is driving a humanitarian crisis across the border and stands in stark contrast with your declared values and your objective of expanding pathways for protection in the U.S.

Administration officials have said they are still determined to use the rule to turn away families crossing the border. Because of a new law in Mexico and a lack of space in shelters there for children, the United States can no longer send many families with a child under 7 back across the border. An increasing number of families have also approached entry ports at the border and received a humanitarian exemption from the rule.

In allowing migrant children who arrive at the border alone to enter the country, Mr. Biden has broken with part of the Trump administration policy. But officials have had to scramble to find appropriate shelter for the children, who have been arriving in record numbers. More than 18,700 unaccompanied children and teenagers were taken into custody in March after crossing the border, including at port entries, nearly double the roughly 9,450 minors detained in February. Mr. Mayorkas has said border officials are expected to make more apprehensions this year at the border than in the last two decades.
But Mr. Biden has advantages over his predecessor, including widespread testing and vaccines. People who are exempt from the ban must still abide by the guidance the United States has already put in place for international travelers, including a negative test for the virus before traveling and again upon entering the country from India, and they must quarantine if they are not vaccinated.

Other countries, including Britain, Germany and Italy, have instituted similar restrictions on travel from India. Early in his presidency, Mr. Biden barred travel by noncitizens into the United States from South Africa because of concerns about a coronavirus variant spreading in that country, and he extended similar bans imposed by Mr. Trump on travel from Brazil and some European countries.

One senior Biden administration official said Friday that representatives from the National Security Council as well as public health officials in the administration had debated the India move in recent days, though not contentiously. It was recommended by Mr. Bidens Covid-19 response team, medical experts and national security aides across the federal government.

Another senior official familiar with the decision said that it rested heavily on uncertainty over a homegrown variant spreading in India known as B.1.617. Doctors and news reports have cited anecdotal  but inconclusive  evidence to suggest that it is driving the countrys outbreak.

As federal health officials, including Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the C.D.C. director, and Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the governments top infectious disease expert, discussed the possible move in recent days with White House officials, they emphasized that there was little known about how coronavirus vaccines respond to that variant.

One official said the travel restrictions could be modified once there was more data on vaccine response.

The move comes amid a deceleration in American vaccination rates that has complicated the nations quest to protect itself. Even with significant momentum in the governments vaccination campaign  the White House announced on Friday that 100 million people in the United States had been fully vaccinated  a majority of American adults are still not considered fully protected against the virus.
Investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the blaze that started near the campground in the Lincoln National Forest on Monday and spread quickly to the boundaries of a ski resort owned by the Mescalero Apache Tribe. Despite rain and light snowfall this week, the Three Rivers Fire, as it is known, continued to burn on Friday  a grim forewarning of what may lie ahead in drought-stricken southern New Mexico.

Its scary when you can see the smoke rising over the mountains, said Anthony Torres, a pastor from a church in Alamogordo who organized a relief effort, feeding brisket and other hot meals to fire crews and evacuees. People are understandably afraid.

Parts of the towns of Ruidoso and Capitan, N.M., took on the feel of a staging area for a disaster zone as firefighting crews from around the country descended to coordinate efforts aimed at controlling the blaze.

Based at Ruidosos convention center, they fanned into the surrounding forest to build fire lines that could protect the Mescalero Apache Reservation, and made plans to protect neighborhoods in case the fire surges or changes direction. No lives had been lost or structures burned by Friday afternoon.

In Mohave County, Ariz., about 50 miles from the California border, the Flag Fire forced the evacuation of about 200 homes this week as it consumed nearly 1,300 acres of the pine-covered Hualapai Mountains. The blaze was 34 percent contained by Friday afternoon.

Arizona has already had 311 fires this year, compared with 127 through the first four months of 2020, Ms. Davila with the forestry department said; 15,555 acres have burned, compared with 1,290 acres in the same period last year.

We dont normally see a lot of fire activity in Mohave County until May or June, she said. Were pretty much in extreme drought across nearly the entire state.
A deadly hospital fire in western India early Saturday added to the countrys misery as it battles new global records in a staggering second wave of coronavirus cases that has left millions infected and put more stress on Indias already overtaxed health care system.

The blaze ripped through a Covid-19 ward in the city of Bharuch, killing at least 18 people  16 of them patients, two of them health care workers  officials told local news outlets. Efforts were underway to determine the fires cause, and fire department officials said a short circuit might have led to the blaze.

The episode came as the United States announced that it would begin restricting travel from India next week as a surge of cases and deaths overwhelms the South Asian country, which continued its catastrophic run of record coronavirus transmissions on Saturday with more than 400,000 new reported cases and 3,500 deaths. No other country has surpassed 400,000 reported cases in a single day.

The second wave has crammed hospitals and left people dying as they wait to see doctors. Relatives of the sick are sharing pleas on social media for oxygen, medicine and other scarce supplies. There have been more than 19 million confirmed cases in India and more than 211,000 deaths, according to a New York Times database. Experts say the true numbers are probably much higher.
I think its a giveaway to the rich, she told reporters last month. So, I do not believe in holding the entire infrastructure package hostage for a full repeal and abolishing the cap. I think we can have a conversation about the policy, but its a bit of an extreme position, to be frank.

Theres no debate that the SALT deduction goes mostly to wealthier taxpayers. About 85 percent of its benefits accrue to the richest 5 percent of households, according to an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in Washington. Were the cap to be repealed, about two-thirds of the benefits  about $67 billion  would go to families making over $200,000 a year.

Exactly how that is distributed is subject to an overlapping crosscurrent of tax policies whose effects vary from place to place. Since the 2017 tax cut broadly lowered taxes, even for residents of high-tax states, the $10,000 cap meant that affluent people in blue states ended up with smaller tax cuts than those in lower-cost red states.

But the political bottom line is that capping a very visible benefit angered the sorts of voters on whom high-tax states rely  families in a place like Long Island or Orange County, Calif., who might make a six-figure income, own a home and pay tens of thousands a year in state income and local property taxes. In the psychology of paying taxes, a slightly smaller savings might seem worse than no savings at all, particularly if you feel singled out, as blue state taxpayers clearly were.

Giveaway or not, there is political logic in trying to restore the unlimited benefit. Affluent suburban voters helped Mr. Biden win the White House, and there is even some evidence to suggest that anger over the lost deduction helped Democrats flip a handful of Republican seats during the 2018 election.

Though the debate affects Democratic districts disproportionately, SALT is less about rote partisanship than about representing voters from wealthy areas with high housing costs. The handful of Republicans who voted against the 2017 tax cuts mostly did so because of the loss of tax breaks like SALT, and today Representative Young Kim, a California Republican from Orange County, supports a repeal of the cap.

Theres also little doubt that the cap falls much harder on blue states. Before the 2017 tax cuts, the average SALT deduction in New York was $22,169  twice the national average of $10,233  according to data compiled by the Government Finance Officers Association. It was $19,664 in Connecticut, $18,437 in California and $17,850 in New Jersey.
The besties, both queer and open to dating anyone but each other, met in 2011, and decided to get married in September. They sleep in the same bed but their relationship remains platonic.

Ms. Guercio and Ms. Purificato wanted to get married because they wanted to be legally and socially recognized as a family.

We wanted the world to know we are each others go-to person in the world, and to be able to handle legal matters with the other appropriately, Ms. Guercio said. We are a couple, a unit and partners for life.

Ms. Guercio said their marriage is stable, its long-lasting and it has no conditions.

There are no statistics about the number of platonic, best-friend marriages, and many people who are in them arent open about their situation. But chat boards on Reddit and within smaller asexual and aromantic communities have popped up recently, suggesting this could be a larger portion of the marriage population than numbers portray. (Asexual is defined as having little or no sexual attraction toward others; aromantic means having little or no desire for a romantic relationship. Hetero-monogamous is a sexual relationship between a man and a woman.)

It should be acknowledged that weve really normalized heterosexual monogamous romantic relationships to the point of stigmatizing other kinds of relationships, said Nick Bognar, a marriage and family therapist in Pasadena, Calif. All of this is to say, I think this probably happens a lot, but people dont talk about it much because their relationships are invalidated by others when theyre seen as not being part of the norm.
I always played older, she told The New York Times in 2004. I think it was the voice.

She played various ages onstage, where her career began. And in a way, she owed it all to Nora Ephron.

Ms. Ephron saw Ms. Dukakis in Christopher Durangs Off Broadway play The Marriage of Bette and Boo and decided she wanted Ms. Dukakis in Mike Nicholss 1986 film Heartburn, based on Ms. Ephrons roman a clef. Mr. Nichols then cast Ms. Dukakis in his next Broadway project, Social Security. Norman Jewison saw Social Security and cast Ms. Dukakis in a film he was about to direct: Moonstruck.

Despite the awards and her other screen successes, Ms. Dukakis never gave up theater work. In 2011 she starred in an Off Broadway production of Tennessee Williamss The Milk Train Doesnt Stop Here Anymore. Charles Isherwood, reviewing her performance in The Times, called her macabre, hilarious and weirdly touching, with a bullying bravado that commands attention. The next year she played Prospero (Prospera, actually) in The Tempest for Shakespeare & Company in Massachusetts.

Olympia Dukakis was born on June 20, 1931, in Lowell, Mass., the older of two children of Constantine and Alexandra (Christos) Dukakis, both Greek immigrants. Her father worked in various settings, including a munitions factory, a printing business and the quality control department of Lever Brothers. He also founded an amateur theater company.

Olympia graduated from Boston University with a degree in physical therapy and practiced that occupation, traveling to West Virginia, Minnesota and Texas during the worst days of the midcentury polio epidemic. Eventually she earned enough money to return to B.U. to study theater.
This uneven record threatens to undermine Mr. Yangs main campaign pitch: that he is an enterprising problem-solver who can lead the largest city in the United States into its recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

Andrew comes up with these grand ideas, and he loves to obsess about them and talk about how great they are, but he doesnt think through all the details, said Cris Landa, a Venture for America employee between 2016 and last year. She said the nonprofit had an important mission and a talented staff, but Mr. Yang did not lead successfully. He couldnt be bothered to actually focus on the details.

For this article, The Times interviewed more than 50 Venture for America alumni and former employees. Many praised the organization for creating opportunities for aspiring entrepreneurs. But nearly two dozen said that despite noble intentions, the program was misguided and ineffective.

In a statement, a campaign spokeswoman defended Venture for America and also emphasized that Mr. Yang had experience running a company  managing a small but successful test-prep firm he had joined as an instructor.

Andrew was the C.E.O. of a successful private company that became #1 in the country in its category and was acquired by a public company in 2009, said the spokeswoman, Alyssa Cass. He then started a nonprofit that helped create jobs around the country and a presidential campaign that grew from nothing to a national movement. He also wrote a New York Times best seller on the impact of technology on the economy.

Venture for America, which is still in operation without Mr. Yang, declined to comment.

Mr. Yang has said he would be eager to delegate some of the gritty details of managing City Hall. He told The New York Post editorial board recently that he saw the mayors role as one that was, in part, about team-building, culture-setting.

Questions of managerial competence and the ability to implement a vision are of vital importance in the race. New York City has a $90 billion budget and a convoluted government bureaucracy with about 300,000 employees; a thicket of political interests compete for attention and money. The election is poised to be the most consequential in at least a generation, unfolding against the backdrop of a pandemic, economic uncertainty, gun violence and racial and socioeconomic inequality.
More than any other candidate, Mr. Yang expects that New Yorkers, after a desperately challenging year, want a hopeful mayor with a simple message about reopening the city quickly.

Part of Mr. Yangs lead in the sparse public polling available can be attributed to name recognition from his presidential campaign, but a number of veteran Democratic strategists say he has also settled on a tone that resonates with many voters eager to move on from the pandemic.

Its the spring of 2021, not the spring of 2020, and New Yorkers are increasingly optimistic and hopeful about the future, said Howard Wolfson, a longtime adviser to former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who is neutral in the race. So far, Andrew Yang is the person who has best captured that sentiment.

He and his competitors agree that New York must be reopened as a more vibrant and equitable place than it was when it closed, and they are putting forth a wide range of policy prescriptions and arguments around leadership skills to illustrate how they would do just that.

Mr. Yang, who says he wants to be the anti-poverty mayor, has unveiled a range of policy proposals around vital city issues, many of which begin with a simple prescription: accelerate the opening of the city and cheer on New Yorks promise. On Tuesday, for instance, he urged the state to loosen restrictions on bars and restaurants, saying that reopening those establishments was mission critical. He has also proposed a basic income program for the poorest New Yorkers, a less expansive version of the universal basic income he promoted as a presidential candidate.

But a big part of his strategy also involves attending reopening events  like Opening Day at Yankee Stadium  and declaring that New York must be open for business. He has promised to host the biggest post-Covid celebration in the world.

The test for Mr. Yang will be whether voters believe he has sufficient managerial experience and knowledge of the city to execute the complicated rebuilding efforts that he likes to applaud. And his efforts to cheer on city businesses do not always land: He recently had a disastrous appearance before a prominent L.G.B.T.Q. Democratic organization, where participants felt that he was more focused on discussing gay bars than matters of policy.
On Wednesday morning, the students submitted short research papers, Ms. Williams said. After she turned hers in, the teacher asked her about how humans are involved in climate change. Eventually, he brought up his disagreement with Black Lives Matter, she said.

As four students, including Ms. Williams, who is Black, challenged his position on the issue, he grew more irate. He cursed at one of them who told him he had white privilege. He then gave the four students, all girls, an assignment to write an essay on why Black lives should matter, Ms. Williams said. No other students were told to do the assignment.

The student population at Dickinson High School is 47 percent Hispanic and 15 percent Black, according to U.S. News and World Report. Eighty-five percent of students are minorities.

Ms. Williams told her mother about what happened. She said she was too shaken to celebrate getting accepted into college that day.

This is the first time I ever felt somebody telling me that my opinion doesnt matter because Im young and because Im Black and stuff, Ms. Williams said. It just threw me off. I just started crying.

The next day in class, after she had refused to do the assignment, Mr. Zlotkin appeared upset.

Why? You cant make a case for yourself? he told Ms. Williams, according to a video of the interaction. No, you cant, Timmia, thats why.

When Ms. Williams started to defend herself, Mr. Zlotkin cursed at her and later told her to talk to the hand. He chastised another student who refused to do the essay and kicked a third off the remote class meeting after he defended his classmates, she said.
This approach doesnt fully solve the problem of being seen as an urban, coastal, arrogant party, in Carvilles formulation, but it mitigates it  which is how the Democrats won both Congress and the White House in 2020 even as elite institutions were being pulled leftward by the Great Awokening. Maybe Bidens successors wont be able to pull it off, but his model is clear enough: If you dont sound like a very-online liberal, voters wont punish your party nationally just because the Poetry Foundation is self-immolating or New York prep schools are re-enacting scenes from St. Petersburg in 1917.

If the new progressivism becomes truly politically disastrous for Democrats, on the other hand, it will probably involve not just off-putting or elitist rhetoric, but a dramatic policy failure linked to social justice politics.

The two places where that seems most likely to happen are crime and education. Crime is the more urgent case: 2020 saw a major spike in the homicide rate, back to late-1990s levels, which so far is carrying over into 2021. Bidens speech to Congress last Wednesday made a vague connection between ongoing bloodshed and the liberal-friendly debate over an assault weapons ban, but it isnt AR-15s doing most of the damage in the current murder wave. Instead, police demoralization and withdrawal in the aftermath of protests and riots seem like a crucial factor  along with (more speculatively) coronavirus school closures, widespread masking, and the general Covid-era suspension of normality.

Maybe well revert to pre-2020 trends as normality returns. If we dont, though, the Democrats problem wont be the off-putting rhetoric of police abolition; it will be the reality of a rising body count as liberal politicians struggle to negotiate between activists, protesters, progressive prosecutors and cops. And that kind of failure could take what is, for now, the modest trend of some conservative-leaning Asian, Hispanic and African-American voters drifting rightward and make it an existential problem like the white-ethnic abandonment of the Democrats under Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.

In education the stakes arent as mortal, but the dynamics could be similar. In the best case scenario for Democrats, blue-state public schools reopen without incident this fall, and the anti-racist curriculums being promulgated by progressives become like religion class in a worldly parochial school: a pinch of incense for a faith that doesnt make much difference in the educational day-to-day.
WASHINGTON  Joe Biden has respect for his elders. And there arent that many of them.

Before the presidents rally near Atlanta on Thursday, he and Jill went out of their way to pay respects to the 96-year-old Jimmy Carter.

This made Biden the first president to make a pilgrimage to Plains since Carter left office, unless you count Yasir Arafat.

If theres a pol who knows what it feels like to be underappreciated by his own party, its Biden. And he wasnt going to continue to let Carter, at the end of his life, be treated like a pariah in peanutville.

Pretty much every Democratic convention from 1984 until 2020, there was some kind of an issue over, How do we deal with Jimmy Carter? said Jonathan Alter, the author of His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life. He was still in bad odor not just in the country, but in parts of the Democratic Party.
Even fuzzy guinea pigs become stony toward their young once pregnant anew. Mother Is Not Like Mother, reads the dire title of one paper about pregnant guinea pig mothers nonresponsiveness to the calls of their prior crop of pups.

Human females are joined by only a handful of other animals, including a few long-lived whale species, that have a lengthy life phase when reproduction ends and the time arrives to pitch in with the grandkids. This all-hands (or all flippers) approach to ensuring your genetic legacy apparently pays dividends. A 2019 parsing of preindustrial Finland records suggested that the presence of a maternal grandma between the ages of 50 and 75 made a given grandchild 30 percent more likely to survive early childhood than a kid whose maternal grandmother was deceased. An analysis of 45 historical and contemporary populations showed that the presence of maternal grandmothers can increase child survival rates more even than the presence of biological dads. Orca grannies are similarly clutch, scientists reported recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, with postmenopausal females significantly increasing the chances of their grandcalves survival.

Perhaps these big grizzled gals are wise in the ways of great white shark attacks and other deep-sea child care hacks. In the human case, grandmas most likely also protect their daughters physical and mental health, which may in turn help buoy a babys survival chances. (Orcas, on the other hand, seem more essential to their 30-something sons, a 2012 report in the journal Science found.)

Human maternal behavior is not just genetically predestined, but also highly responsive to a womans social environment. And while new human mothers around the world are renowned for our pluck and adaptability, maternal grandmothers are the rare global constant in our lives, two anthropologists, Brooke Scelza and Katie Hinde, argued in a fascinating 2019 paper in the journal Human Nature.

Indeed, in the United States, where single moms are heading up households in record numbers, Grandma  or Mamie, Yaya, Nanny, Me-maw or Foxy  may be a bigger deal than ever. That innocent-looking older lady, Drs. Scelza and Hinde contend, is a new mothers secret weapon and often her most crucial source of social support  an emotional buffer with physiological heft.

Regardless of their socioeconomic position, women who feel socially supported are less stressed during pregnancies, according to a small but striking 2019 study by researchers at Columbia University and NewYork-Presbyterian, and severe psychological stress is linked to birth complications. Women with support from their own kin have lower rates of postpartum depression, possibly mediated by a more gradual late-pregnancy increase in a chemical called placental corticotropin-releasing hormone, a U.C.L.A. team found.

Mamas girls may also go on to have easier births, fewer C-sections and more robust newborns who settle more readily into daily routines. Supported moms also report being less tired postpartum and have better success breastfeeding.
Remind you of anyone now clomping through the sand traps near Mar-a-Loco?

The amount of real estate that Carlson occupies in political newsletters that I subscribe to seems to have grown in proportion to the amount that Trump has lost. (Thats my own replacement theory.) And it proves that we need not just villains but also certain kinds of villains: ones whose unabashed smugness, unfettered cruelty and undisguised sense of superiority allow us to return fire unsparingly and work out our own rage. Carlson, again like Trump, is cathartic.

Trumps dominance was so profound from early 2016 through early 2021 that theres now something of an obsession with naming his successor, even though its not at all clear that hes willing to be succeeded. All the men I mentioned earlier covet that crown. But not all of them fully understand that Trumps metier wasnt politics. It was performance.

Carlson gets that. If advancing arguments was his exclusive or primary goal, he wouldnt allow for so much confusion regarding the flavor of his invective. But debates about whether hes genuinely making points or disingenuously pressing buttons might well be a ratings boon. To keep people guessing is to keep people tuned in.

Im not saying that hes Trumps doppelganger. Hes neither orange nor ostentatious enough. He can be as verbally dexterous as Trump is oratorically incontinent, as brimming with information as Trump is barren of it. Carlson reminds you of a prep school debate team captain all puffed up at his lectern. Trump reminds you of a puffy reality-show ham  what he was before he rode that escalator downward, a harbinger of the countrys trajectory under him.

But both barge through the contradictions of being both populists and plutocrats. Both pretend to be bad boys while living like good old boys. Both market bullying as bravery.

Part of the appeal of Carlsons show is its tendency to generate knockouts rather than split decisions, Kelefa Sanneh wrote in an excellent profile of Carlson in The New Yorker in 2017. His unofficial Reddit page features pictures of guests judged to have performed especially poorly; over each face is written wasted.

That wasted reminds me of Trumps loser. Its the vocabulary of mockery, a sport in which Carlson is a champion. But its stranger when played by him than when played by Trump, who never pretended to be thoughtful. Carlson was thoughtful, back in the days when he was writing long articles for ambitious magazines.
There are four astronauts on Crew-1:

Victor Glover, 45, selected by NASA in 2013 to be an astronaut, was on his first spaceflight. He is also the first Black NASA astronaut to be a member of a space station crew.

Michael S. Hopkins, 52, a colonel in the United States Space Force, was the commander for the flight. (Colonel Hopkins is also the first member of the newly created U.S. Space Force to go to space.) He was one of nine astronauts selected by NASA in 2009. He had made one previous trip to the International Space Station, in 2013-14, spending 166 days in orbit.

Soichi Noguchi, 56, an astronaut with JAXA, the Japanese space agency, is completing his third trip to space. He was a member of the crew of the space shuttle Discovery in 2005, on the first shuttle launch after the loss of Columbia and its seven astronauts more than two years earlier.

During that visit to the International Space Station, Mr. Noguchi made three spacewalks. That included one to test techniques developed to repair damage to the heat tiles on the shuttle similar to what had doomed Columbia when it re-entered Earths atmosphere. In 2009-10, he spent five months in orbit as a member of the space station crew.

Shannon Walker, 55, has had one previous stint on the space station, in 2010. Dr. Walker has a doctoral degree in space physics from Rice University, where she studied how the solar wind interacted with the atmosphere of Venus.

A birthday party and other hard work on the space station.

The space station has been a bit more crowded than usual since another SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, Endeavour, docked on Saturday, April 24. That brought the stations crew tally to 11, the largest number of astronauts on board since the space shuttles stopped flying (the record for most on board is 13). The four astronauts are leaving seven astronauts behind  three from NASA, two from the Russian space agency Roscosmos, one from the European Space Agency and one from JAXA.

But while they were there, they conducted science experiments including tissue chips that mimic human organs and grew radishes and other vegetables. They also performed spacewalks to install equipment on the outside of the space station, including to prepare it for new solar panels.
Adam Layne delivers remarks after being appointed treasurer by then Mayor-elect Tishaura Jones. The dignitaries standing behind him are retired Police Sergeant Heather Taylor (left) appointed senior advisor to the interim Director of Public Safety Dan Isom (center) and Mayor-elect Jones (right) on Thu. April 15, 2021 in St. Louis City Hall.
Its so exhausting to spend so much time nit-picking within your own head every detail of what youre going to say, she said. I needed to know that it was OK for me to do something that was silly or simple and it wouldnt blow everything up, which sounds really absurd almost a year later.

She treated vlogging like studying for a new project. When Im prepping for a role, its like getting a crush, she said. You want to think about them, you want to talk about them, and everywhere you go, its almost like you get magical signs because your whole world is this love.

Part of her research involved video calling successful YouTubers to learn their secrets. In that first announcement video, there are moments where Ms. Larson matches each vloggers emotional temperature.

People love living vicariously through YouTubers, they love it, its weird, Kelly Stamps, a vlogger, says in the video. Like if you just go through my comments, people are just saying, I love just seeing you be yourself on camera. Be relatable by just being honest.

On a Zoom call in April, Ms. Larson tied up her damp hair and fixed the collar of her tartan Batsheva smock dress. She had just emerged from the sauna and ice bath, recovering from a training session for Captain Marvel 2. Sometimes, she vlogs her workouts with her trainer, Jason Walsh. I just wanted to feel like in the human realm I could accomplish what she was doing in this superhero realm, she said. And it helped me inform the character. It didnt make sense to just stand there and be like, The C.G.I. will take care of this.

Over the years, Ms. Larson has learned how plastic her mind and body can be. They can change for good and bad depending on what it is Im doing, she said. She has struggled mentally by playing characters like Joy Newsome in Room and Grace Howard in Short Term 12, but with Captain Marvel and Kit from Unicorn Store, her directorial debut, she felt herself embracing some character traits and taking them home with her.
AUSTIN, Texas  Not long ago, Texas Sixth Congressional District seemed to be securely in Republican hands. Ron Wright, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, was poised to advance the G.O.P.s agenda after he was elected in 2018.

But this year Mr. Wright, who had lung cancer, contracted the coronavirus and became the first member of Congress to die from Covid-19. His unexpected death led his wife, Susan Wright, to run for his seat, and she was expected to take her husbands place in Washington with little pushback.

Instead, a field of 23 candidates crowded into Saturdays special election, all competing for a spot in a likely runoff if no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote.

Mrs. Wright, long considered the front-runner, is seeking to capitalize on a recent endorsement from former President Donald J. Trump to establish herself as the undisputed favorite among 11 Republicans, some of whom were also hoping to be anointed by the former president.
A Republican state legislator from Oregon who was captured on surveillance video allowing demonstrators to enter the State Capitol in December was charged on Friday in connection with the breach of the building, which led to a conflict between officers and protesters.

The lawmaker, Representative Mike Nearman, 57, was charged with official misconduct in the first degree and trespassing in the second degree, according to court documents.

Marion County prosecutors said in court documents that Mr. Nearman, being a public servant, did unlawfully and knowingly perform an act which constituted an unauthorized exercise of his official duties, with intent to obtain a benefit or to harm another.

On Dec. 21, while legislators were in session, Mr. Nearman calmly walked out a side door, allowing several demonstrators, many of them unmasked and holding American flags or pro-Trump signs, inside the State Capitol, in Salem. The moment was captured by widely circulated video surveillance of the breach.
At some point last summer, there were just too many reports of protesters who had experienced abnormal menstrual cycles after being exposed to tear gas for Britta Torgrimson-Ojerio, a nurse researcher at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, to dismiss them as coincidence.

A preschool teacher told Oregon Public Broadasting that if she inhaled a significant amount of gas at night, shed get her period the next morning. Other Portland residents shared stories of periods that lasted for weeks and of unusual spotting. Transgender men described sudden periods that defied hormones that had kept menstruation at bay for months or years.

Dr. Torgrimson-Ojerio decided she would try to figure out whether these anecdotes were outliers or representative of a more common phenomenon. She surveyed around 2,200 adults who said they had been exposed to tear gas in Portland last summer. In a study published this week in the journal BMC Public Health, she reported that 899 of them  more than 54 percent of the respondents who potentially menstruate  said they had experienced abnormal menstrual cycles.

Even though we cannot say anything scientifically definitive about these chemical agents and a causal relationship to menstrual irregularities, Dr. Torgrimson-Ojerio said, we can definitively say that in our study most people who had menstrual cycles or a uterus reported menstrual irregularities after reporting exposure to tear gas.
WASHINGTON  A breakdown in the oversight of trillions of dollars of economic relief money spilled into public view on Friday night when the Treasury Departments special inspector general for pandemic recovery said in a report that his powers to scrutinize funds had been curtailed this week after a decision by the Justice Departments Office of Legal Counsel.

The inspector general, Brian D. Miller, said in his quarterly report to Congress that he had been engaged in a monthslong dispute with another inspector general in the Treasury Department over who had access to information about and oversight of the Payroll Support Program and the Coronavirus Relief Fund. The programs were created in the $2.2 trillion stimulus legislation that passed in 2020 and provided money to airline employees and states and cities.

The clash comes as the Biden administration is overseeing another $1.9 trillion in relief money and calling for $4 trillion in new spending on jobs and infrastructure programs. The vast array of government outlays is currently being tracked by a patchwork of oversight bodies and committees.

Mr. Millers office has been tracking fraud and double dipping in the relief programs, but his access to certain databases started to be curtailed last year in the final months of the Trump administration as the turf war between the inspectors general ensued. Mr. Miller, who was appointed by President Donald J. Trump, referred the matter to the Justice Department in early January, before President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. took office, to get a final ruling on the scope of his powers.
The question came at a campaign cattle call in April 2019, just a few months after Elizabeth Warren announced her presidential bid: How would she address the urge to flee to the safety of a white male candidate?

After a question-and-answer session spent presenting her plans to address maternal mortality, criminal justice, housing, redlining and tribal sovereignty, that remark came as a big bucket of cold water, Ms. Warren, the Massachusetts senator, writes in a new memoir about her failed campaign.

We all knew the fear she was talking about, she writes. Could we  should we  support a woman?

Her book, Persist, addresses Ms. Warrens effort to grapple with that question. Obtained by The New York Times before its release next week, it offers a peek into Ms. Warrens personal view of her loss  a defeat she largely blames on a failure to explain how she would pay for her health care plan, the established following of Senator Bernie Sanders, the name recognition of Joseph R. Biden Jr.  and her own shortcomings.

Theres always another possibility, a much more painful one, she writes. In this moment, against this president, in this field of candidates, maybe I just wasnt good enough to reassure the voters, to bring along the doubters, to embolden the hopeful.
President Bill Clintons strategy of triangulation was essentially an effort to lift pieces of Reaganism for Democratic gains. The era of big government is over, he famously declared in his 1996 State of the Union address.

Deeply aware of the role Mr. Reagan played in shifting American views on spending, President Barack Obama took office in 2009 believing that his administration could help end the countrys adherence to conservative economic policy.

Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that, you know, Richard Nixon did not, and in a way that Bill Clinton did not, Mr. Obama said during his 2008 campaign. He put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it. I think they felt like, you know, with all the excesses of the 60s and the 70s, and government had grown and grown, but there wasnt much sense of accountability in terms of how it was operating.

Yet Mr. Obama also struggled to escape that path, eventually moderating his agenda and spending months making fruitless efforts to get bipartisan support for his ideas. Even the health care law that would come to be named after him was a compromise between liberals, who wanted a single-payer system, and moderates, who feared the size of such a huge new program.

Theres some evidence that Mr. Biden may be able to accomplish what Mr. Obama could not. Since the start of the pandemic, polling has found Americans expressing more positive sentiments about their government over all. Nearly two-thirds of Americans supported Mr. Bidens relief bill, with similar numbers backing his infrastructure plans. The most recent NBC News polling found that 55 percent of Americans said government should do more, compared with 47 percent who said the same a dozen years ago.

Unlike in 2009, when the government response to the Great Recession helped ignite the Tea Party movement, theres been no backlash so far to the big spending in Washington. After Congress passed the $1.9 trillion relief bill, many Republican voters told me that they were supportive of the legislation. Republicans in Washington have struggled to find a cohesive line of attack against the policy. And some who voted against the bill now highlight its benefits, an implicit acknowledgment of public support.

Former President Donald Trump, too, helped hasten the death of limited government, undercutting Republican credibility for making the case against federal spending. He drove the national debt to the highest level since World War II, pushing through a $2 trillion tax cut that did little for middle-class families.
In Texas, the Republican-controlled Legislature is advancing legislation that would allow them to photograph and video-record voters receiving assistance, as well as make it extremely difficult for election officials to order the removal of poll watchers.

The video-recording measure has particularly alarmed voting rights groups, which argue that it could result in the unwanted identification of a voter in a video posted on social media, or allow isolated incidents to be used by partisan news outlets to craft a widespread narrative.

If you have a situation, for example, where people who are poll workers do not have the ability to throw out anybody at the polls who is being disruptive or anyone at the polls who is intimidating voters, thats essentially authorizing voter intimidation, said Jon Greenbaum, chief counsel for the nonpartisan Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

Republicans have been increasingly open in recent years about their intent to line up legions of supporters to monitor the polls. Following the lead of Mr. Trump, they have often framed the observational role in militaristic tones, amplifying their arguments of its necessity with false claims of widespread fraud. Just three years ago, the courts lifted a consent decree that for more than three decades had barred the Republican National Committee from taking an active role in poll watching; in 2020, the committee jumped back into the practice.

In Florida, Republicans in the State Legislature passed a new election bill on Thursday that includes a provision allowing one partisan poll watcher per candidate on the ballot during the inspection of votes. The measure carries the potential to significantly overcrowd election officials. The bill also does not stipulate any distance that poll watchers must keep from election workers.

In Michigan, a G.O.P. bill would allow challengers to sit close enough to read poll books, tabulators and other election records, and would let them challenge a voters eligibility if they had a good reason.
Covid-19: India Again Breaks World Record With Over 400,000 Cases Indias vaccination drive has stalled and Prime Minister Narendra Modis image has been shaken by the countrys health crisis. Indians around the world seek to send aid back home.

Adar Poonawalla, head of Indias vaccine giant, speaks from London of the enormous pressure he is under. Adar Poonawalla, chief executive of the Serum Institute of India last year. He is in London and discussing manufacturing vaccines outside of India, which has led to backlash on social media. Credit... Atul Loke for The New York Times In recent months, the chief executive of Serum Institute of India, the worlds largest vaccine manufacturer, has come under increasingly intense pressure as both pro-government voices and leaders of the state governments headed by opposition politicians criticized him. Some accused him for delays in supplying vaccines; some called him a profiteer for not offering Covid-19 vaccines to state governments at cost. There were calls for his company to be nationalized. In an interview with The Times of London published on Saturday, the executive, Adar Poonawalla, described menacing calls from some of the most powerful men in India, creating an environment so ugly that he anticipated being out of the country for an extended period while he made plans to start producing vaccines elsewhere. Threats is an understatement, Mr. Poonawalla said. The level of expectation and aggression is really unprecedented. The interview reported that he had flown into London to join his wife and children hours before Britain barred travelers from India on April 23. Im staying here an extended time, because I dont want to go back to that situation, he added. Everything falls on my shoulders, but I cant do it alone. The interview set off a storm on social media, with some interpreting his interest in manufacturing outside India as a threat to move his business and others seeing him as having been driven out of the country by the viciousness of his critics. Within hours, Mr. Poonawalla wrote on Twitter that he would be returning to India in a few days. Had an excellent meeting with all our partners & stakeholders in the U.K. Meanwhile, pleased to state that COVISHIELDs production is in full swing in Pune. I look forward to reviewing operations upon my return in a few days.  Adar Poonawalla (@adarpoonawalla) May 1, 2021 The New York Times was unable to reach Mr. Poonawalla directly on Saturday, and a request for comment from his company was not immediately returned. India, the worlds leading producer of vaccines, is struggling to vaccinate itself out of a crisis as a voracious second wave leaves a tableau of death and despair. When cases were relatively low, the country exported more than 60 million shots. On Saturday, India expanded vaccination eligibility to all people over age 18, but many states said that they would not be able to meet the demand because of a shortage of doses. Less than 2 percent of Indias 940 million adults have been fully vaccinated, according to data compiled from government sources by the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford. Several states have reported vaccine shortages, enough to derail plans in some to expand access to everyone 18 and over on Saturday. All that has made Mr. Poonawalla, a 40-year-old billionaire, a focus for public anger. Last month, Serum Institute wrote a letter to Indias federal home minister asking for security, citing the threats to Mr. Poonawalla. Just a few days ago, the federal government said it had completed a threat assessment and would have the Central Reserve Police Force protect him. On the same day, Mr. Poonawalla announced on Twitter that he was unilaterally lowering the cost of a Covid vaccine to make it more affordable for government purchase.

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A global community scrambles to aid loved ones in India. Members of the Indian diaspora community prepared food in the Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha in Southall, West London, this week. Credit... Mary Turner for The New York Times As the coronavirus has surged in India, so has the collective grief and anxiety among the huge Indian diaspora, over loved ones lost or fighting for their lives amid a health care system pushed past the brink. In WhatsApp chats, video calls, Facebook groups and forums, a global community has worried, mourned and organized. Some 17 million people from India were living outside their homeland in 2020, according to figures from the United Nations, and millions more have Indian heritage, making the diaspora the largest in the world. In the United States, some 4.8 million people were either born in India or reported Indian ancestry on the last census. They have looked on in horror as the country records more infections per day than any other since the pandemic began. For many, the pain has been accompanied by a realization of their worst fear: That when the people they love need them the most, they cant be there to help. In London, many are organizing in the face of a seemingly impossible situation: pooling money to buy oxygen concentrators, connecting the sick with doctors and using community networks to share resources.

Nepal runs out of hospital beds as Indias outbreak spills across the border. A woman awaiting a coronavirus test result received oxygen outside the emergency ward of a hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Friday. Credit... Niranjan Shrestha/Associated Press The coronavirus outbreak in India has spilled across the border into Nepal, where health officials have warned that hospital beds are unavailable, vaccines are running short and the number of new infections is rising faster than overwhelmed clinics can record them. The situation is so dire in Nepal that the Health Ministry in the Himalayan nation issued a statement on Friday in which, in effect, it threw up its hands. Since coronavirus cases have spiked beyond the capacity of the health system and hospitals have run out of beds, the situation is unmanageable, the ministry said after the government recorded 5,657 new infections on Friday, the highest daily total since October. And with more than one-third of tests returning a positive result, officials worry that the actual number of cases is much higher. Nepalis who are infected but have only minor symptoms have been told to stay home to keep hospitalizations down. Experts believe the outbreak is being fueled by Nepali migrant workers who returned home in recent weeks from India as lockdowns were imposed there. The 1,100-mile border between the countries is porous, and hardly any of the returnees were tested for the coronavirus or placed into quarantine. Within weeks, many of them began falling ill. Just a few days after returning from India, one of my relatives died in an ambulance, said Narendra Singh, a local leader from Bajhang, a western district near the Indian border. More and more people returning from India are getting sick. And the virus is spreading here. We dont have any quarantine or isolation facilities in the villages. Nepal has since closed its border crossings with India, but the virus is already spreading. In early March, Nepal was recording fewer than 100 cases a day. Now, the daily average exceeds 4,000 reported cases, according to a New York Times database. At the same time, Nepals vaccination drive has slowed. India donated one million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, and Nepal signed an agreement to purchase two million more from an Indian manufacturer, the Serum Institute of India. But India curtailed vaccine exports last month after its outbreak worsened, and Nepali officials say that the company has shipped only half the amount. As a result, after 1.7 million people out of a population of nearly 30 million received the first dose of the vaccine, only 380,000 have received a second shot. In late March, China donated 800,000 doses of its Sinopharm vaccine. Nepalis flocked to vaccination centers, prompting some officials to worry that the crowds could spread the virus. This week, the government imposed a new two-week lockdown, bringing vaccinations to a halt. We were vaccinating people even as vaccination centers became overcrowded, said Dr. Jhalak Sharma Gautam, head of the national immunization program. But we stopped when the government announced lockdown. Many Nepalis now wonder if they will ever be inoculated. Ram Kumar Nepali, a sanitation worker in the capital, Kathmandu, has continued his early-morning shifts collecting garbage during the lockdown, usually without any protective equipment. I often think I will never get the chance to be vaccinated, said Nepali, 43. We have to go around the capital to collect waste even during this terrific pandemic. Its risky.

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In Indonesia, lab workers are arrested and accused of reusing nasal swabs in thousands of coronavirus tests. Health workers collecting specimen samples at a testing center in Medan, Indonesia, this week. The police raided a lab in the country and are investigating the reuse of swabs at an airport site. Credit... Dedi Sinuhaji/EPA, via Shutterstock The idea was simple: Why throw away used rapid antigen test kits for the coronavirus when they could be used again and again? All it took was washing the cotton swabs used to take nasal samples, repackaging them as if they were new and reusing them on other people. The fraud unraveled this week when five laboratory workers were arrested in the Indonesian city of Medan and accused of reusing nasal swabs in administering as many as 20,000 tests. They face up to six years in prison for violating consumer protection, medical waste and contagious disease laws. The authorities said they were investigating whether any people were infected with the coronavirus as a result of the contaminated tests given at an airport testing site operated by Kimia Farma, a giant state-owned company. They were also investigating how many people received tainted test results as they prepared to board flights at Kualanamu International Airport, one of the nations busiest. A negative test result is required in Indonesia before a passenger can board a flight. The police announced that they would conduct random checks of labs around the country to ensure that others were not conducting similar frauds. Erick Thohir, the minister who oversees state-owned enterprises, said on Friday that such practices by unscrupulous company employees would not be tolerated. Such action must be subject to very strict punishment, he tweeted. The five workers were believed to have pocketed about $2,000 a day since mid-December by charging people for the tainted tests. The lab employees administered legitimate tests using sterile cotton swabs to about 100 people a day and reused swabs for tests on about 150 others, which would amount to thousands of tests over the period. After the police received tips about the operation, an undercover officer went to the airport lab for a test and submitted to a nasal swab. He received a false positive result, said Hadi Wahyudi, a spokesman for the North Sumatra police. Back at the police station, the undercover officer received another test that came back negative. The police raided the laboratory on Tuesday, arrested the five employees and confiscated hundreds of recycled cotton swabs. They also seized more than $10,000 in cash and a laptop used to produce the documents given to people to certify their test results. Indonesia, the worlds fourth most populous country, has reported nearly 1.7 million coronavirus cases and more than 45,000 deaths, the most in Southeast Asia, according to a New York Times database. Health experts have estimated that the totals are actually many times higher because of limited testing. The country has recovered somewhat from a surge that peaked in late January but is still averaging more than 5,000 new cases a day. A nationwide vaccination campaign is underway and more than 19 million doses have been administered. Richard C. Paddock and

Kenyas president lifts restrictions as caseloads fall. Waiting to receive the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine earlier this week in Nairobi. As of Saturday, over 884,000 people had been vaccinated, according to the ministry of health. Credit... Monicah Mwangi/Reuters President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, who is under pressure to reopen the economy, lifted coronavirus restrictions on Saturday that he had imposed more than a month ago. He cited the sharp decrease in the countrys caseload from its third wave. During a speech delivered during May Day celebrations honoring the nations workers, Mr. Kenyatta said that schools, bars and restaurants could reopen. Sports activities will resume nationwide, while places of worship will be allowed to host only a third of their capacity. Mr. Kenyatta also lifted the lockdown in five counties, including the capital, Nairobi, and revised the overnight curfew hours from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Hospitals were directed to limit visitors to one person per hospitalized patient a day. Political gatherings remained prohibited nationwide; large rallies had been blamed for contributing to the third wave. The announcement came after citizens protested in downtown Nairobi and used the hashtag #UnlockOurCountry to push for restrictions to be lifted. The police set up roadblocks with spikes on major highways in Nairobi to catch and punish those flouting curfew rules, leading to gridlocked traffic that impeded trips home or to hospitals. The roadblocks were criticized by human rights groups. Kenya has so far recorded over 160,000 cases and 2,744 fatalities from the virus, according to Kenyas Ministry of Health. While the overall number of cases has decreased from a peak last month, the East African country is still among the top five nations in reported case numbers continentwide, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number of deaths in Kenya has increased by an average of 8 percent, the Africa C.D.C. said on Thursday. But in a continent where most nations are seeing slow rollouts of Covid-19 vaccines, Kenya is a leader in inoculations, thanks to being one of the first countries to receive vaccine shipments from the Covax global initiative, as well as to a relatively strong health care system and support from international donors, including the United States. As of Saturday, over 884,000 people had been vaccinated, according to the Ministry of Health. That is less than 2 percent of the population of more than 52 million. The United Kingdom banned travelers from Kenya in early April, while the United States warned its citizens from visiting the country, citing Covid-19 and security concerns. This week, Kenya issued its own travel restrictions, suspending flights for a period of 14 days to and from India, which is suffering the worlds worst outbreak. In his speech, Mr. Kenyatta warned that reopening the country did not mean that the authorities would not lock down again if people did not adhere strictly to precautions like mask wearing, social distancing, hand sanitizing and temperature checks. Our staying power in the fight against this pandemic is our greatest arsenal, he said, adding that if public responsiveness to the health protocols goes up, then the possibility of further de-escalating the containment measures is within reach. And he cautioned that a surge of infections will necessitate an escalation of the containment measures, a possibility we all dread.

Thailand imposes new restrictions as it tries to control its worst outbreak. Adam Dean for The New York Times Adam Dean for The New York Times Adam Dean for The New York Times Adam Dean for The New York Times Adam Dean for The New York Times Adam Dean for The New York Times Adam Dean for The New York Times slide 1 slide 2 slide 3 slide 4 slide 5 slide 6 slide 7 A nationwide mask mandate and other new restrictions took effect in Thailand on Saturday as the country attempts to bring its worst coronavirus outbreak under control. The government declared Bangkok, Chiang Mai and four other provinces as zones with the highest level of restrictions, including a ban on dining in restaurants, private parties and gatherings of more than 20 people. Nationwide, schools, bars and entertainment venues are closed and employers are asked to reduce the number of employees coming to work. Vaccinated people arriving from abroad will be required to quarantine for 14 days. Going out in public without a mask can bring a maximum fine of about $635. One of the first to violate the mask mandate was Thailands prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, who paid a fine of about $190 on Monday, the day the rule took effect in Bangkok. Mr. Prayuth decided against imposing travel restrictions in early April for the Songkran holiday and, as some health experts feared, the number of cases has soared. According to government statistics, Thailand has recorded more than 67,000 infections, with more than half coming in the last three weeks, after reporting fewer than 7,000 cases in all of 2020.

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Pandemic restrictions on foreign seasonal workers could crimp the U.S. summer. An amusement park attraction at a pier in Wildwood, N.J., last July. Employers who hire foreign seasonal workers are having difficulty filling positions. Credit... Mark Makela/Getty Images With the U.S. summer tourist season looming and vaccinations gathering steam, summer camps, amusement parks, beachside hotels and restaurants  anticipating an influx of visitors  are confronting a dramatic shortage of seasonal workers. It is threatening to sabotage their best efforts to stay financially afloat after more than a year of pandemic-fueled economic hardship. Now small business and industry groups are pressuring the Biden administration to relax international travel restrictions and visa application protocols that would allow for more foreign workers to do the jobs that they say American citizens are unwilling to take. Moreys Piers, a seaside amusement park in Wildwood, N.J., needs to fill 1,500 jobs, including roller coaster operators, lifeguards and ticket sellers by the middle of June. To recruit, the company has advertised openings on 12 billboards in the region, joined virtual jobs fairs at high schools and tapped its network of former employees. But so far, it has managed to fill less than a quarter of the positions, and a key source of its seasonal work force in previous years  foreign students from more than 30 countries  is unavailable because of pandemic restrictions. Now executives worry they may have to limit hours or keep certain rides closed for the entire season. We have about 350 filled right now so Im not sleeping at night, said Denise Beckson, the companys vice president of human resources. Were really optimistic about visitor demand this summer, but were very concerned about staffing. In March, President Biden allowed a ban on foreign worker programs imposed by former President Donald J. Trump to expire, and approved an additional 22,000 HB-2 seasonal, nonagricultural worker visas. In late April, over 500 companies and industry groups that depend on the J-1 foreign student work visa program, urged in a letter to the State Department to relax travel restrictions and waive certain requirements like applicant interviews in an effort to supplement their American work force. But even as vaccinations increase in the United States, the push for more foreign workers is colliding with public health concerns over a global coronavirus surge fueled by the rapid spread of more contagious variants. Last month, the State Department announced it will expand its do not travel guidance to about 80 percent of countries worldwide, including many that are sources of seasonal foreign workers, citing unprecedented risk to travelers from the Covid-19 pandemic. What were hearing universally from employers and sponsors is that there are not enough Americans interested in what theyre able to employ for the summer, said Ilir Zherka, the executive director of the Alliance for International Exchange, a lobbying group which sent the letter. Theyre trying to look for ways to incentivize more American employees, but also for support from the State Department.

The T.S.A. extends its mask mandate on U.S. transportation through mid-September. A Transportation Security Administration officer directs travelers to a security checkpoint at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in SeaTac, Wash., this month. Credit... Lindsey Wasson/Reuters The Transportation Security Administration extended a mandate Friday that requires travelers to wear masks at airports, on airplanes and on commuter bus and rail systems, through Sept. 13. The mandate was set to expire on May 11. Right now, about half of all adults have at least one vaccination shot and masks remain an important tool in defeating this pandemic, Darby LaJoye, a T.S.A. spokesperson, said in a statement. The original order took effect in February and was part of the Biden administrations goal to require masks for 100 days. Exceptions to the mandate are travelers under the age of 2 and those with certain disabilities that dont allow them to wear a mask safely. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention relaxed mask rules earlier this week, saying that fully vaccinated Americans no longer need to wear a mask outdoors while doing activities alone or in small gatherings. But the C.D.C. stopped short of not recommending masks outside altogether and still recommends wearing a mask indoors. Airlines started requiring passengers to wear masks nearly a year ago, but they had no federal mandate to back up their rules. As the orders expiration date got closer, leaders in the airline industry began to push for an extension. The Association of Flight Attendants applauded the extension in a statement. Earlier this month, it called for the directive to be extended to make it easier to deal with passengers who were not complying with mask rules set by airlines and airports.

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In-person? Virtual? Do-it-yourself? Covid complicates college commencements. Jacie Steele, Emma Stange and Allison Clark raised money to host a graduation ceremony at the Tampa Convention Center after the University of Tampa said it would not hold an in-person event. Credit... Zack Wittman for The New York Times Across the United States, parents and graduates will confront commencements in May that are as atypical, modified and sometimes contentious as the past school year has been. Each institution is making its own decision, and the result is an uneven landscape. Harvard University announced that its seniors would graduate virtually and that their diplomas would be mailed to them. Just two miles away, Boston University will be hosting an in-person graduation. With millions vaccinated, experts say that an increasing number of campuses are choosing to do in-person events. Campuses that are sticking to virtual-only ceremonies have become outliers, sometimes breeding frustration  and creativity. When the University of Tampa decided to hold a virtual ceremony, Allison Clark, a senior, and two classmates started a GoFundMe drive and raised enough money to rent out a convention center for a do-it-yourself graduation. To be with my classmates, to walk across the stage, to receive the diploma that we all worked so hard for, it means absolutely everything, she said.

Real estate brokers are back in the office  and trying to get corporate America there, too. Alice Fair, a commercial real estate broker, has been seeking subletters at 3 World Trade Center in Manhattan. Credit... John Muggenborg for The New York Times The people who profit off corporate Americas use of offices are trying to coax corporate America back to the office. Commercial real estate brokers are back in their own workplaces in force. Having refined their sales pitches to emphasize air filtration systems, flexible lease terms and swing space, they are out to prove the office will soon return to something close to what it was. After years of continuous growth, the industry has seen commissions fall as vacancy rates climb to the highest levels in decades. Across Americas top markets, 1.3 billion square feet of office space is now available. More than a year of forced work-from-home has upended the truism that a company needs to have an office  leaving some chief financial officers running the numbers on potential savings in rent and some employees loath to return to life as it was. Real estate executives  chest-thumping optimists who are usually bullish on their prospects  are facing existential questions.

N.Y. mayoral candidates are making radically different bets about the citys mood as it moves toward reopening. A restaurant in Lower Manhattan last month. A recent poll showed 34 percent of likely Democratic primary voters surveyed believed reopening businesses would be a top priority for the citys next mayor. Credit... Benjamin Norman for The New York Times The signs of New York Citys recovery are everywhere: Vaccinations are on the rise; restaurant and bar curfews are ending; occupancy restrictions are easing in offices, ballparks and gyms. By July 1, Mayor Bill de Blasio says the city should be fully reopened. In this new and uncertain phase, the candidates vying to be the citys next mayor are making radically different bets about the mood and priorities of New Yorkers, and how best to coax the city back to life. As the mayoral candidates barrel toward the June 22 Democratic primary, sharp distinctions are emerging around how to handle the citys recovery. A recent Spectrum News NY1/Ipsos poll found that 34 percent of likely Democratic primary voters viewed reopening businesses and the economy as the top priority for the next mayor, second only to stopping the spread of Covid-19 and closely followed by crime and public safety. The challenge for all the candidates is to offer the right mix of experience and empathy, energy and vision, to engage a diverse electorate that experienced the coronavirus crisis and its fallout in very different ways.

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Fans returned to Churchill Downs, but attendance was limited. The crowd in the infield on Saturday. The announced attendance was 51,838. Credit... Christian Hansen for The New York Times The pandemic wreaked havoc on the Triple Crown schedule in 2020. The Belmont Stakes, normally the final leg of the Triple Crown, was held in June, the Derby in September and the Preakness, usually the second of the three races, came last, with a new date in October. All return to their regular spots on the calendar this year and will allow a limited number of fans. The Derby regularly brings a crowd of more than 150,000 to Churchill Downs. Organizers, while declining to give a set limit before the event, said reserved seating, which normally accounts for about 60,000 people, would be limited to between 40 percent and 60 percent, depending on the seating area, and infield-only general admission would be kept to about 25 percent to 30 percent. The announced crowd for the Kentucky Oaks on Friday was 41,472, and on Saturday it was 51,838. Fans are required to wear masks when not eating and drinking, although many were flouting that guideline. Perhaps the most welcome change was that all reserved seats included unlimited food and drinks, a move to reduce lines and the exchange of money. After a recent stretch of bad weather on Derby weekend, racegoers on Friday and Saturday basked in the sunshine and mid-70s temperatures. Vendors wandered the aisles freely passing out pink lily drinks and mint juleps, normally $12 each. Betting windows were open, although organizers were promoting the use of mobile apps to place bets, and there were no lines, even for the bathrooms. Longtime Derby weekend patrons praised the newfound elbow room under the famed Twin Spires and asked why it couldnt always be this way. Isnt this great? was a common phrase. Jessica Kessinger, a Louisville native, was sitting in a box on the rail that overlooked the finish line; every other box was blocked off with a green tarp. Her group has been coming to Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May for several years. Besides last years, they all could count on one hand the ones they missed since their first. Im fully vaccinated, and I wouldnt be here if I wasnt, she said. After a very long year of distress and despair and loneliness, its just so nice to be among friends again and celebrate the Derby.

An inspector general appointed by Trump warned that oversight of economic relief programs had been diminished. Brian D. Miller, here in May 2020, said in his quarterly report to Congress that his powers to scrutinize funds had been curtailed this week. Credit... Pool photo by Salwan Georges A breakdown in the oversight of trillions of dollars of economic relief money spilled into public view when the Treasury Departments special inspector general for pandemic recovery said in a report that his powers to scrutinize funds had been curtailed this week after a decision by the Justice Departments Office of Legal Counsel. The inspector general, Brian D. Miller, said in his quarterly report to Congress that he had been engaged in a monthslong dispute with another inspector general in the Treasury Department over who had access to information about and oversight of the Payroll Support Program and the Coronavirus Relief Fund. The programs were created in the $2.2 trillion stimulus legislation that passed in 2020 and provided money to airline employees as well as to states and cities. The clash comes as the Biden administration is overseeing another $1.9 trillion in relief money and calling for $4 trillion in new spending on jobs and infrastructure programs. The vast array of government outlays is currently being tracked by a patchwork of oversight bodies and committees. In the report released on Friday, Mr. Miller lamented that oversight of major relief programs had been diminished and called on Congress to give his office greater authority.
Her defenders say that as an accomplished political player in her own right, Ms. Symonds has no less right to offer advice to the prime minister than any other unpaid adviser  and he would be wise to take it.

And yet, others say, there are legitimate questions to ask about Ms. Symondss influence, which goes beyond the news medias obsessive focus on home improvements at Downing Street. Her ardent defense of animal rights was reported to have contributed to the governments decision to halt a cull of badgers in Derbyshire, which contradicted the advice of scientists and veterinarians.

Friends of Ms. Symonds have been installed in key positions in Downing Street and, in the telling of Mr. Cummings, protected by her even after evidence of wrongdoing. On his blog, he claimed that Mr. Johnson wanted to shut down a leak investigation after it became clear that the culprit was Henry Newman, a close adviser to Ms. Symonds.

Mr. Cummings quoted Mr. Johnson as saying to him, If Newman is confirmed as the leaker, then I will have to fire him, and this will cause me very serious problems with Carrie, as theyre best friends.

Downing Street has denied that Mr. Johnson tried to shut down the investigation, but it did not comment about Ms. Symondss role.

Her defenders say she has a savvy political sense and could well have aspired to a seat in Parliament if she hadnt begun a relationship with Mr. Johnson. To the extent that she is giving him advice, some say, it is helpful: cutting loose Mr. Cummings and other hard-core Brexiteers softened the prime ministers image and improved his popularity before the recent ethics issues pulled him back to his more familiar role as a political scalawag.

She was fantastic  she is very loyal and was hugely supportive, said John Whittingdale, a former culture secretary for whom Ms. Symonds served as a special adviser. He described her as a strongly committed Conservative and a very strong Brexit supporter at a time when that was a less popular position.
The idea was simple: Why throw away used rapid antigen test kits for the coronavirus when they could be used again and again?

All it took was washing the cotton swabs used to take nasal samples, repackaging them as if they were new and reusing them on other people.

The fraud unraveled this week when five laboratory workers were arrested in the Indonesian city of Medan and accused of reusing nasal swabs in administering as many as 20,000 tests. They face up to six years in prison for violating consumer protection, medical waste and contagious disease laws.

The authorities said they were investigating whether any people were infected with the coronavirus as a result of the contaminated tests given at an airport testing site operated by Kimia Farma, a giant state-owned company.
MOUNT MERON, Israel  Demands for accountability after a disaster that left 45 people dead at a holy site in northern Israel mounted on Saturday as questions swirled about the culpability of the government, religious leaders and the police.

The stampede on Mount Meron early Friday during an annual pilgrimage, one of Israels worst civil disasters, was foreshadowed for years in warnings by local politicians, journalists and ombudsmen that the site had become a death trap.

On Saturday, the Israeli news media reported that senior police officials had blamed the Ministry of Religious Services because it had signed off earlier in the week on safety procedures for the event.

But a police spokesman said that no additional precautions had been taken to secure the site since the stampede and three police officers at the scene said they had received no instructions to limit crowds since the deaths on Friday.
The coronavirus outbreak in India has spilled across the border into Nepal, where health officials have warned that hospital beds are unavailable, vaccines are running short and the number of new infections is rising faster than overwhelmed clinics can record them.

The situation is so dire in Nepal that the Health Ministry in the Himalayan nation issued a statement on Friday in which, in effect, it threw up its hands.

Since coronavirus cases have spiked beyond the capacity of the health system and hospitals have run out of beds, the situation is unmanageable, the ministry said after the government recorded 5,657 new infections on Friday, the highest daily total since October.

And with more than one-third of tests returning a positive result, officials worry that the actual number of cases is much higher. Nepalis who are infected but have only minor symptoms have been told to stay home to keep hospitalizations down.
Worldwide, the number of new coronavirus cases has shot upward since the beginning of March, more than doubling in two months. For the past two weeks, new global cases have exceeded their previous high point in early January. The average daily rate of new cases has now been above 800,000 for more than a week.

Global coronavirus cases

250,000 500,000 750,000 1,000,000 1,000,000 cases Jan. May Sept. Jan. Jan. 11 740,180 April 29 824,304 7-day average New cases

The increase in cases is largely being driven by the uncontrolled outbreak in India, where new cases have risen sharply for the past month and show no signs of abating. A seven-day rolling average of new daily cases in the nation exceeded 357,000 on Thursday, a more than fivefold increase since April 1.

India now accounts for more than 40 percent of the worlds new cases. The countrys death rate has followed the same dramatic curve, with more than 3,000 people now dying every day. Analysts say even those grim numbers may be undercounted.

Share of new cases by country or region Based on 7-day rolling average U.S. 33% Europe 30% Africa 9.1% Rest of Asia 9.8% S. America 11% U.S. 6.2% Europe 15% Rest of Asia 15% S. America 15% India 43% Jan. Feb. March April

The second wave of the virus in India has been devastating. In hospitals in New Delhi, the capital, a shortage of medical oxygen has reached crisis levels, and cremation grounds are working around the clock as relatives and friends continue to bring more bodies to be burned.

After enacting one of the worlds strictest lockdowns last March, which kept deaths relatively low, Indian officials relaxed restrictions. Some politicians even held crowded rallies in recent weeks as the countrys infection rate picked up. The surge has left hospitals overwhelmed.

People are angry because they are not getting ventilators and oxygen, said Dr. Rakesh Kumar, a physician in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. They are saying, We are paying for the facilities; then why are our patients dying?

Medical professionals in India face crushing conditions. No hospital has shut down and no doctor has retreated from the front lines, one doctor wrote in a Facebook post. We are fighting missiles with sticks but we are not leaving the fort.

The vaccine rollout in India has been too slow to stem the wave of cases, despite the countrys status as one of the worlds leading vaccine producers. Less than 2 percent of its residents are fully vaccinated, and less than 10 percent have received at least one dose.

Other countries and regions are also seeing worrisome trends. Uruguay, currently experiencing the worlds highest cases per capita, is adding almost 3,000 cases per day  a staggering number in a country of just 3.5 million people. Indeed, much of South America is faring poorly: In addition to Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Peru, Argentina and Colombia all rank among the top 20 nations in the world for Covid deaths per capita as of Thursday.

Highest recent deaths per capita worldwide Countries in South America Country Daily avg.

deaths in

last 7 days Per

100,000 Daily avg.

cases in

last 7 days Per

100,000 Hungary 194 1.98 2,288 23 Uruguay 59 1.71 2,918 84 Bulgaria 107 1.54 1,545 22 North Macedonia 32 1.53 397 19 Bosnia and Herzegovina 50 1.51 499 15 Paraguay 91 1.29 2,352 33 Brazil 2,526 1.2 60,386 29 Curacao 1.86 1.18 26 16 Peru 354 1.09 8,076 25 Poland 415 1.09 7,728 20 Croatia 43 1.06 1,981 49 Montenegro 6 0.94 153 25 Argentina 409 0.91 22,763 51 Colombia 447 0.89 17,616 35 San Marino 0.29 0.84 2.14 6 Ukraine 367 0.83 9,997 23 Romania 147 0.76 1,947 10 Slovakia 41 0.76 513 9 Tunisia 83 0.71 1,868 16 Greece 75 0.7 2,359 22

Several factors have combined to fuel the outbreak in South America. In Brazil, the continents largest country, President Jair Bolsonaros dismissive attitude toward the threat posed by the virus has led to a monthslong crisis that has spilled over into neighboring nations. And early research has indicated that the P.1 variant, first identified in the Brazilian city of Manaus late last year, might be more transmissible and more deadly than earlier forms of the virus.

Colombias second largest city, Medellin, is also among the places seeing severe outbreaks. Officials there largely managed to control the virus last year. But a second and third wave, in January and April, have devastated the city. Though officials added a thousand new intensive care units in the region in 2020, that preparation has not been enough.

On a recent day, Dr. Andres Aguirre, who leads Hospital Pablo Tobon Uribe, said that about 300 patients in Medellin and the surrounding area were waiting for space in an intensive care unit. And with vaccination moving slowly across the region, he said, he expected the situation to worsen: The fourth peak and fifth peak will come.

Central and Eastern Europe account for half of the 20 nations with the highest Covid deaths per capita. Further east, a surge of cases in Turkey has led to a new lockdown that began on Thursday evening and is set to last three weeks.

And in parts of western Europe, elevated case rates have reached a plateau or only very slowly begun to decline. New cases remain especially high in France, the Netherlands and Sweden. The region has been battered by a wave of new cases this spring amid the rise of the B.1.1.7 variant.

In a news conference on Thursday, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization, expressed appreciation for the outpouring of international support India has received during its crisis, which has included cash and medical supplies from all over the world.

At the same time, we must remember that many other countries all over the world are still experiencing intense transmission, Dr. Tedros said.

After briefly discussing the state of the virus in Brazil, which has begun to see a decline in deaths from its worst days earlier this month, Dr. Tedros added: The pandemic has taught us that no country can ever let down its guard.
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  Finlands educational context Students: Finland remains among the top performers in PISA 2012, with decreasing performance in mathematics, reading and science across PISA cycles. Students socio- economic background has low impact on Finnish educational performance. Finland has nine years of basic education (comprehensive school) with focus on equity and on preventing low achievement, and offers flexibility at upper secondary level between general and vocational education and training options that both lead to tertiary education. Education is currently compulsory from ages 7 to 16 and will be extended to age 6 to 17 in 2015. Attainment rates in upper secondary and tertiary education are higher than the OECD average, with one of the highest enrolment rates in upper secondary vocational education and training (VET) in OECD countries. School dropout is lower in Finland than in other EU countries, and is higher among people with an immigrant background. Adults (16-65 year-olds) in Finland scored among the top skilled across participating countries in the Survey of Adult Skills, with younger adults (16-24 year-olds) scoring higher than all adults in Finland and young adults in other countries. In the context of the economic crisis, unemployment remains below OECD average. Institutions: Schools in Finland have average autonomy over the use of curriculum and assessment compared to other OECD countries and a below-average level of autonomy over resource allocation. Teachers are trusted professionals required to have a masters degree that includes research and practice-based studies. In primary and secondary education, their salaries are slightly above the OECD average, and their teaching time is below average. A much higher proportion of teachers in Finland than the TALIS average consider that the teaching profession is valued in society and would choose to work as teachers if they could decide again. Finnish society and its education system place great importance on their schools and day-care facilities and trust the proficiency of their school leaders, teachers and educational staff, with no national standardised tests or high-stakes evaluations. System: Governance of the education system is shared between central and local authorities. The Finnish Government defines and sets educational priorities, while municipalities (local authorities) maintain and support schools and day-care centres and also have significant responsibility for organising education, funding and curriculum and for hiring personnel. A national Education and Research Development Plan outlines education policy priorities every four years, and guides the government when preparing and implementing education policies. Social and political agreement on the value of education has provided stability on the structure and key features of the education system. Decisions in schools are made by either the local government or the school, depending on how decision-making is organised in the municipality. Finlands expenditure on educational institutions as a percentage of GDP (for all education levels combined) is above the OECD average, with one of the highest shares of public funding among OECD countries.  Selected indicators compared with the average  Click here to access the underlying data Note: For each indicator, the absolute performance is standardised (normalised) using a normative score ranging from 0 to 180, where 100 was set at the average, taking into account all OECD countries with available data in each case. See www.oecd.org/edu/policyoutlook.htm for maximum and minimum value countries. Source: The Finland Snapshot was produced combining information from Education Policy Outlook: Australia, (OECD, 2013) with OECD data and the countrys response to the Education Policy Outlook Snapshot Survey (2013). More information on the spider chart and sources is available at www.oecd.org/edu/policyoutlook.htm.  Key issues and goals Students: Finlands high education performance is supported by system-level policies that encourage quality and equity. These can be continued and complemented with further focus on reducing recent inequities in specific groups, as large performance gaps are seen between boys and girls and between native students and students with immigrant background. Demographic changes imply a smaller proportion of younger people in Finland, and there have been some mismatches between supply and demand of study places and labour market needs. Institutions: Finland aims to strengthen the capacity of school leaders and teachers to deliver quality education in all schools and to ensure that all players in the education system have the capacity to use evaluation and assessment to improve student outcomes. System: Ensuring capacity to deliver high-quality education across all municipalities and improving efficiency of funding in tertiary education are key system-level goals for Finland.  Selected policy responses A shift in perspective is the transference of early childhood education and care services from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health to the Ministry of Education and Culture (2013). Education and Research 2011-2016: A development plan aims to increase participation of students with immigrant background in preparatory education to improve their opportunity to participate in upper secondary education. A curriculum reform is being developed from pre-primary through upper secondary education, to be implemented from 2016. The reform aims to adapt the curriculum to the new needs for skills and competences, strengthen the inter-disciplinary approach and provide educators with digital resources. Efforts are being made to ensure post-basic qualification completion and employment for youth, including the introduction of the Youth Guarantee (2013). The Ministry of Education appointed an Advisory Board for Professional Development of Education Personnel (2008) to examine and improve professional development and the changing needs of teachers. The Osaava Programme (2010-16), a national fixed-term programme for continuing professional development (CPD), aims to ensure systematic CPD of staff in schools. The programme supports education providers to systematically and continually develop the skills and knowledge of their staff according to locally identified needs. Participants in Osaava and other government-funded CPD increased from 30 000 in 2009 to almost 70 000 in 2013. Quality Criteria for Basic Education (2009), were developed to provide clear criteria, raise quality and facilitate evaluation. Starting in 2014, evaluation activities will be merged into the Finnish Education Evaluation Centre. Since 2013, a general reform of the Finnish municipality structure has been prepared to secure high-quality and equitable education services and consolidate local self- government. In 2013, a structural policy programme was introduced to optimise expenditure, which will have implications, among others, on the provision of local governments obligations and services, such as secondary education. Spotlight: Nurturing excellence in teachers One of the factors adduced to explain Finnish success in education is the quality of its teachers. A reform at the end of the 1970s strengthened teacher education and made it highly selective. Teacher education moved from teachers colleges into universities, and primary school teachers were required to have a masters degree. At present, teacher education is provided by nine universities, of which eight have teacher training schools. According to selected evidence, only about 10% of candidates who apply to primary teacher studies are accepted. Applicants for teacher education must have passed the Finnish matriculation examination (or a foreign equivalent) or completed a three-year vocational education programme. The student selection process for primary teacher education involves two stages: an examination to assess applicants academic learning skills; and a combination of written questions and aptitude tests to assess applicants skills, motivation and commitment. Primary school teachers major in education, and they may specialise in teaching one or several subjects in their minor subject studies. Upper grade teachers major in specific subjects and do their pedagogical studies over a five-year programme or as a separate module after graduation. With strong theoretical and practical content, teacher education is research-based, with emphasis on developing pedagogical knowledge. Teachers are trained to adapt their teaching to different learning needs and styles of students. There is also emphasis on teaching practicum which includes a minor portion of basic teaching skill practice in front of peers in student groups, and a more significant portion of required teaching practice at teacher-training schools run by the university or at affiliated schools. In addition, other teacher groups, such as pre-primary teachers and vocational teachers, are required to have a tertiary education degree.
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May 1, 2021 De Lima files bill to protect BPO workers Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima has filed a measure seeking to ensure the welfare and protection of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) workers in the Philippines. De Lima filed Senate Bill (SB) No. 2149 seeking to address the working struggles of BPO workers that are not fully addressed by existing laws, as well as pressing issues hounding the industry that have worsened because of the COVID-19 pandemic. "BPO workers continue to face overly stressful workload due to impossibly high performance standards, inadequate restroom breaks and sudden changes in shift schedules that take a serious toll on their health," said De Lima, Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Social Justice, Welfare and Rural Development. "These struggles have been further exacerbated when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country. It resulted in temporary closures of businesses, and have pushed even the BPO industry to recalibrate in order to adapt to the changes that the 'new normal' entailed," she added. The BPO is one of the fastest growing industries in the Philippines with the country being dubbed as the BPO capital of the world with over 850 registered BPO companies. As one of the country's main economic growth drivers, the industry have dramatically grown and became more complex as the labor landscape evolved, and some transgressions have been made possible by the loopholes in the laws which, at the time of enactment, did not contemplate the growing demands of this dynamic industry. In filing the measure, De Lima stressed that the heaviest burden that has hounded the BPO workers is the lack of protection and support coming from the government. De Lima recalled that when the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) was first implemented in 2020, many of those employed by the BPO industry which remained operational had to endure long walks under the scorching heat of the summer sun due to the failure of the government to provide for adequate transportation. She likewise called to mind reports of employees being put on a "floating status," where there is a temporary suspension of work of employees leaving them to still be considered as "hired" without the benefit of compensation until said suspension is lifted. It has been legitimized by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). With all the challenges being faced by BPO workers, the lady Senator from Bicol stressed that it now rests on the legislature to finally hear the pleas of employees who have since called for improved work conditions. "The significance and power of legislation allows us to craft meaningful measures to cure the gaps in the law that permit its circumvention to the detriment of the very people it ought to protect," she said. "This decades-old industry, though still fairly new, demands a proactive action on the part of the State to understand that its setup and needs unique to it require the enactment of a law that will cover all bases in order to prevent the exploitation of the void in existing laws against the members of the industry," she added. Under SB No. 2149, De Lima said the welfare of the country's BPO workers will be protected by addressing the legislative gaps in existing labor laws, such as access to relevant information, protection from understaffing or overloading, additional benefits to promote safety, health and overall wellbeing of employees. Likewise, De Lima said the protection of BPO workers' security of tenure and prohibition of floating while hiring and pro-worker safety policy during natural disasters or dangers, among others, are addressed by her measure. "This bill aims to institutionalize more equitable arrangements in order to provide protection to both labor and capital, so that this industry will continue to thrive - this time in a robust environment that balances both the interests and welfare of employers and employees," De Lima said. Last year, De Lima filed Senate Resolution (SR) No. 462 urging the Senate Committee on Labor, Employment and Human Resources Development to look into the reported cases of regular employees in BPO companies who are being placed on floating status amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Clackamas County sheriffs deputies are searching for a man who they say has repeatedly burglarized businesses late at night and fled on his motorcycle.

The man, dubbed the Moto Bandit for his mode of transportation, has been seen on surveillance footage smashing the windows of businesses and trying to break into their ATMs several times this month, according to the Clackamas County Sheriffs Office.

Deputies said they are also searching for a woman who accompanied him during one of the burglaries.

The Moto Bandit was first spotted April 4 at Philadelphias Steaks and Hoagies, where he was captured on video trying to disable the West Linn restaurants security systems, leaving the business and returning early the next morning to smash the front door.

A few hours later, a man wearing the same motorcycle helmet was spotted at an Elmers restaurant in Clackamas. That man broke a window, used a small electric saw to cut open an ATM and left the restaurant. Deputies said the man caused about $1,000 in damage but did not get any cash from the ATM.

The man was also spotted twice more: once on April 13 at Chesters Pub in Boring, and a second time at the Elmers in Clackamas on April 29.

In both incidents, he used a small saw and unsuccessfully tried to cut open the businesses ATMs before fleeing the scene.

A deputy pursued the man after the April 29 burglary but eventually abandoned the chase. The deputy said a woman was with him during the incident, according to the sheriffs office.

Deputies think the suspect is between 30 and 42 years old, stands between 5-foot-10 and 6 feet tall and weighs 185 to 240 pounds.

Footage from several incidents shows that he was wearing blue jeans, a heavy red flannel shirt or jacket under a black leather vest, and a distinctive bucket-style helmet and goggles. He was riding a 2017 Harley-Davidson Street Glide motorcycle.

The woman is in her 20s or 30s, deputies said. She has light brown hair.

The sheriffs office asked anyone with information about the Moto Bandit to call at 503-723-4949.

Jayati Ramakrishnan; 503-221-4320; jramakrishnan@oregonian.com
Two men were struck and killed while walking across the same stretch of Northeast 82nd Avenue in April, a sobering reminder that the east Portland arterial remains one of the most dangerous roads in the Portland metro area.

Fatal crashes, regardless of whether those killed by drivers were walking, in a vehicle or riding a bike, are nothing new on the five-lane state highway that carves through some of the most racially diverse neighborhoods in the city and state and on into Clackamas County. But in the past two years, each marking the deadliest in Portland history since 1996, no one died on 82nd Avenue. In the decade preceding, 16 people were killed along its roughly seven miles inside Portland city limits.

Then within less than two weeks, drivers traveling along 82nd killed first a 66-year-old man, then a 30-year-old. Both men were killed at night at or near the same intersection with Alberta Street, police confirmed. The younger man, Anthony Tolliver, was struck by a hit and run driver. Tolliver was Black. According to a report from the nonprofit Oregon Walks, Black pedestrians were killed at a rate three times greater than whites in Portland in fatal crashes in the past three years.

The recent deaths put renewed urgency behind a decades-old call, so far still a work-in-progress, to try and tame 82nd, which is also home to TriMets busiest bus route and forms the spine of Portlands Jade District, with its concentration of Asian American businesses.

Its a monumental task. Smaller efforts have included installing accessible curbs and revamping traffic signals or adding pedestrian crossing beacons in some places. Ultimately, theres a growing effort to turn the state-owned road over to Portland control.

Arlene Kimura, a longtime resident of the Hazelwood neighborhood that lies east of 82nd who has advocated for east Portland transportation investments extensively since 1996, said despite all the advocacy, 82nd remains a totally unsafe street.

Kimura believes her work and the heightened attention to safety issues in east Portland have helped, but action has been around the edges. More seismic moves are needed, she said.

Were not going to be making a breakthrough, she said of currently planned safety improvements.

When in addition to freeways like Interstates 5, 405 and 84, Portland has about a dozen state highways within city limits, roads so designated because the state built them. They once ferried commuters across scarcely populated areas. Now they function largely as main streets but still look like highways: four or five wide lanes in many places, with speed limits at or above 35 miles per hour and long stretches without traffic lights or safe places to cross. Even when there is a pedestrian refuge island, its still hair-raising to stand in the middle of a river of traffic.

Those roads -- including 82nd, Barbur Boulevard, Powell Boulevard, Lombard Street and others  have long since transformed into busy urban streets that are, in many cases, lined with housing, businesses and people coming and going all about town. All are some of the deadliest streets within the city.

City leaders and advocates like Kimura accuse the state of letting those roads fall into disrepair. Transferring ownership, they argue, isnt possible until the state forks over cash to bring those streets into better shape.

According to city figures, 13 people have died on state highways or freeways in Portland so far this year, twice the death toll at the same time last year.

82nd Avenue near NE Killingsworth April 29, 2021. Mark Graves/The Oregonian

The continued crashes and resulting deaths occurring on 82nd Avenue are preventable tragedies that show just how urgently the ODOT-owned 82nd Avenue needs safety infrastructure improvements after decades of neglect, said Jo Ann Hardesty, who oversees the city transportation bureau. She is the lone member of the Portland City Council who lives east of 82nd.

Rep. Khanh Pham, D-Portland, one of the chief sponsors of the most expansive bill that would set in motion plans to transfer so-called orphan highways to city control across the state, said the decades of piecemeal changes and inability to make 82nd Avenue safer was one of the reasons she ran for office.

The government isnt doing anything, Pham, who was elected in 2020, said of addressing dangerous highways like 82nd. Im feeling really fired up to be honest. We cant let another summer go by, she added.

Pham wants to tap COVID-19 relief dollars to address 82nd Avenues safety as soon as possible. Oregon received $2.6 billion in federal support it can spend as it chooses from the American Rescue Plan Act, and budget writers earmarked $780 million in the next biennium for urgent investments to revitalize Oregons economy and provide worker and families the resources they need to recover from the impacts of the pandemic, according to House Speaker Tina Koteks office.

Legislative leaders in March asked each member of the House and Senate to submit a written list of suggestions on how to spend the windfall.

Pham requested $100 million to bolster jurisdictional transfers for state highways like 82nd Avenue. She envisions the money going into a pot to be created if her bill, House Bill 2744, passes. The money would ensure urban highways are brought up to a state of good repair before passing ownership and maintenance duties to cities.

In an interview, Pham said she had 82nd in mind when she made the $100 million request.

Rep. Khanh Pham (Democrat - District 46) being sworn in as a state legislator in January. Pham said the safety issues on 82nd Avenue were a major reason she ran for office.The Oregonian

Lindsey OBrien, Koteks chief of staff, said the speaker is working with Pham to make 82nd safer. She believes safety upgrades and overall livability improvements to this state highway are long overdue, OBrien said in an email.

Pham said $100 million is just a down payment. These deaths are also a public health crisis, she added.

Lawmakers also are scheduled to get a guaranteed dose of money for their districts to focus on community priorities. Representatives will get $2 million, and senators $4 million. Pham said 82nd is clearly a priority for her district.

This is the time to seize the moment, she said.

Portlands Vision Zero program, which aims to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2025, has focused on lowering speed limits as one way to make streets safer because speeding and impaired driving are principal factors in fatal and serious injury crashes.

The city must get state approval to reduce speed limits on its own arterials, let alone those like 82nd that are owned by the state. The city in May 2020 requested a speed limit reduction on 82nd.

Don Hamilton, a state transportation spokesman said a year later, its still being reviewed.

We expect to have a decision in the next few weeks, he added.

Portland police are still investigating both of Aprils pedestrian deaths but said that speed wasnt believed to be a factor in either.

The first crash, which killed Brookings resident Steve Looser, could be light and visibility related, Sgt. Kevin Allen said in an email. The driver cooperated and remained on scene, police said.

The Oregon Walks fatality report determined lighting is a significant factor in pedestrian injuries and deaths and that 79% of crashes from 2017-2019 occurred in the dark with potential lighting inadequacies identified at a majority of these locations.

Hamilton said the state is saddened by the loss of any life or any person seriously injured and said the department and its staff work every day to make the system safer.

Lets acknowledge as well that the neighborhoods around 82nd Avenue have grown substantially in recent years, and were working to make sure the corridor can meet community needs and sufficiently respond to the safety demands of the area, he said in a statement. Safe lighting and safe roadway crossings have been and will continue to be among our top priorities.

But many of those projects are years away. The state is starting to plan a round of projects to be carried out from 2024 to 2027, Hamilton said, that will be backed by a historic level of funding approved by the transportation commission in December.

We are looking forward to working with our partners and the community to identify opportunities for improving safety and better connecting our communities with these additional funds, he said.

SE 82nd Avenue near Hawthorne Blvd. April 29, 2021. Mark Graves/The Oregonian

He shared a document dated January 2020 that referenced $27 million in projects completed in the past decade. Those include $14,000 for a pedestrian island at Northeast Wygant, near where the two men were killed. Another $26 million in projects would break ground in the next five years, according to the document, including a $700,000 rapid flashing beacon at Southeast Mitchell Street expected to begin this year.

When asked for specifics about lighting improvements, Hamilton didnt provide any.

But as with much on 82nd, the issue of street lighting is a complicated one. On some portions of the road, the state is responsible from curb to curb. In the area where the two men were killed, the state is also responsible for the sidewalks, which includes streetlights. A city transportation spokesperson said crews noticed this week theres only lighting on the west side of the road where the men were killed. If Portland wanted to install a light on the east side, it would have to request permission from the state. Its not yet done that.

In 2019, the city estimated it would cost $12 million to address the vast street lighting shortage east of 82nd. Mayor Ted Wheelers proposed budget released this week includes $3 million for or ADA compliant curb ramps, accessible open spaces and new streetlights in east Portland.

Kimura said she didnt need the reminder of 82nd Avenues perilous nature.

How many more people have to die, Kimura asked, saying shes tired of hearing local, federal and state leaders talk about their financial issues and what they cant make happen on 82nd and other state highways.

Kimura is tired of the financial finger pointing between the city, the federal government and the state, about who has the money and who is responsible for the road. She wants collective action.

Its a we problem, she said.

Portland-area voters in November overwhelmingly rejected a payroll tax on employers that would have funded pedestrian safety measures on 82nd and elsewhere in the metro area as well as the regions share of a light rail line to Bridgeport Village.

The light rail project overshadowed other big-ticket items that were focused on transportation safety on state highways. The project included $330 million for McLoughlin Boulevard, $800 million for Tualatin Valley Highway and $790 million for 82nd Avenue.

Massive portions of those figures included new bus-rapid transit projects, but hundreds of millions of dollars wouldve funded critical and long-planned safety projects.

Some $295 million wouldve funded new or improved sidewalks, pedestrian crossings, street lighting and pavement maintenance issues on a nine-mile stretch of 82nd The project also wouldve helped facilitate the ownership transfer to Portland.

Metro documents note 196 people died or were seriously injured on the highway from 2007 to 2017.

Aprils two deaths occurred in areas that werent included in the Metro package, which called for work starting just to the south, at Killingsworth.

As of April 26, 22 people have died on Portland-area streets so far in 2021, according to the city. That was ten more than at the same time last year.

But two more people died this week, one a 47-year-old man who was seriously injured while walking across Northeast 122nd Avenue earlier this month in Kimuras neighborhood. The man, who is believed to have been operating a mobility scooter, passed away this week.

He, too, was killed by a hit-and-run driver.

Pham, the freshman lawmaker, said shes not deterred by the lack of progress.

She said the diverse businesses and populace in her district and elsewhere on 82nd may not have clamored publicly for improvements, but as a former community organizer, she heard from them directly. Transportation and road safety issues were always a top concern, Pham said, but people felt powerless to see real changes. Thats one reason Pham said she ran for office.

I do think we have a lot of work to do in terms of reminding people that we can actually demand more, Pham said. We can raise expectations of what we can do collectively.

Some members of the communities lining 82nd are now stepping forward. Leaders on Saturday announced a rally May 7 to raise awareness about the streets dangers.

-- Andrew Theen; atheen@oregonian.com; 503-294-4026; @andrewtheen

UPDATE: This story was updated with news of a May 7 rally regarding safety on 82nd Avenue at 4 p.m at the corner of Alberta and 82nd.
For them, the holiday comes at the end of a 55-day fast where no meat, fish or dairy is eaten. This year it partially overlapped with Ramadan, the month-long Muslim fast that lasts from sunup to sundown. The communal rituals and family gatherings around the holy days have sparked worries with some experts that they could lead to wider transmission of the virus.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C.  Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times investigative journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones will join the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hills journalism school in July as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism.

Hannah-Jones, who covers civil rights and racial justice for The New York Times Magazine, won the 2020 Pulitzer for commentary for an essay she wrote as part of The 1619 Project, which highlights the long-term consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans.

The appointment marks a return to the university for Hannah-Jones, who earned a masters degree at its Hussman School of Journalism and Media in 2003.

This is the story of a leader returning to a place that transformed her life and career trajectory, Susan King, dean of the journalism school, said in a statement posted on UNCs website Monday.

Giving back is part of Nikoles DNA, and now one of the most respected investigative journalists in America will be working with our students on projects that will move their careers forward and ignite critically important conversations.

The 1619 Project marked the 400th anniversary of the first enslaved Africans being brought to what became the United States. The project has been among the most widely read and debated works of journalism in recent years. While many praised it as a needed reassessment of American history, some scholars disputed it as excessively harsh in places.

Then-President Donald Trump and other conservatives rejected it entirely.

Before leaving office, Trump established a 1776 Commission that issued a report meant to counter The 1619 Project and support what Trump called patriotic education. The American Historical Association denounced the 1776 report as hasty, simplistic and reliant at times on falsehoods, inaccuracies, omissions, and misleading statements. President Joe Biden revoked the report on his first day in office.

Hannah-Jones began her career as an education reporter in North Carolina. She then worked at The Oregonian and at ProPublica before joining The New York Times in 2015. She tweeted Monday that she will continue to work for The Times.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation endows the Knight Chair professorships, which allow top professionals to teach journalism students. Hannah-Jones will join Knight Chairs at 21 other colleges and universities, the statement said.

The University has given me a lot, Hannah-Jones said, and Im grateful for the opportunity to give back by helping students pursue their dreams and learn how to practice the type of journalism that is truly reflective of our multiracial nation.
NEW DELHI  In hopes of taming a monstrous spike in COVID-19 infections, India opened vaccinations to all adults Saturday, launching a huge inoculation effort that was sure to tax the limits of the federal government, the countrys vaccine factories and the patience of its 1.4 billion people.

The worlds largest maker of vaccines was still short of critical supplies  the result of lagging manufacturing and raw material shortages that delayed the rollout in several states. And even in places where the shots were in stock, the countrys wide economic disparities made access to the vaccine inconsistent.

The countrys ambitious effort was also partly overshadowed Saturday by a fire in a COVID-19 ward in western India that killed 18 patients, and the reported deaths of eight patients at a New Delhi hospital after it ran short of oxygen supplies. That report, from the Press Trust of India news agency, could not be immediately confirmed with hospital authorities.

Also Saturday, the country received its first batch of Sputnik V vaccines, which it is importing from Russia. Moscow has signed a deal with an Indian pharmaceutical company to distribute 125 million doses.

Only a fraction of Indias population will be able to afford the prices charged by private hospitals for vaccines, experts said, meaning that states will be saddled with immunizing the 600 million Indian adults younger than 45, while the federal government gives shots to 300 million health care and front-line workers and people older than 45.

So far, government vaccines have been free, and private hospitals have been permitted to sell shots at a price capped at 250 rupees, or around $3. That practice will now change: Prices for state governments and private hospitals will be determined by vaccine companies. Some states might not be able to provide vaccines for free since they are paying twice as much as the federal government for the same shot, and prices at private hospitals could rise.

Since state governments and private players compete for shots in the same marketplace, and states pay less for the doses, vaccine makers can reap more profit by selling to the private sector, said Chandrakant Lahariya, a health policy expert. That cost can then be passed on to people receiving the shots, increasing inequity.

There is no logic that two different governments should be paying two prices, he said.

Concerns that pricing issues could deepen inequities are only the most recent hitch in Indias sluggish immunization efforts. Less than 2% of the population has been fully immunized against COVID-19 and around 10% has received a single dose. Immunization rates have also fallen. The average number of shots per day dipped from over 3.6 million in early April to less than 2.5 million right now.

In the worst-hit state of Maharashtra, the health minister promised free vaccines for those ages 18 to 44, but he also acknowledged that the shortage of doses meant immunization would not start as planned on Saturday. States say the paucity of shots is one reason why immunizations have declined.

India thought the worst was over when cases ebbed in September. But mass gatherings such as political rallies and religious events were allowed to continue, and relaxed attitudes on the risks fueled a major humanitarian crisis, according to health experts. New variants of the coronavirus have partly led the surge.

The countrys shortage of shots has global implications because, in addition to its own inoculation efforts, India has promised to ship vaccines abroad as part of a United Nations vaccine-sharing program that is dependent on its supply.

Indian vaccine makers produce an estimated 70 million doses each month of the two approved shots  the AstraZeneca vaccine made by the Serum Institute of India and another one made by Bharat Biotech.

The federal government is buying half of those vaccines to give to states. The remaining half can then be bought by states and private hospitals to be given to anyone over 18, but at prices set by the companies.

The federal government is buying shots at 150 rupees each, or $2. The Serum Institute will sell the shots to states at 300 rupees each, or $4, and to private players at 600 rupees each, or $8. Bharat Biotech said it will charge states 400 rupees, or less than $5.50 for a shot, and private players 1,200 rupees, or more than $16.

By comparison, the European Union paid $2.15 per dose for the AstraZeneca vaccine. The company says that price is discounted because the EU contributed to the vaccines development.

The strain is mounting on the Serum Institute, which in addition to being Indias main supplier is also a critical supplier of the U.N.-backed initiative known as COVAX, which more than 90 countries are depending on. The institute paused exports in March.

The urgent demand for vaccines in India is bad for the rest of the world, said Ravi Gupta, a professor of clinical microbiology at Cambridge University.

Some experts warned that conducting a massive inoculation effort now could worsen the surge in a country that is second only to the United States in its number of infections  more than 19.1 million.

Theres ample evidence that having people wait in a long, crowded, disorderly queue could itself be a source of infection, said Dr. Bharat Pankhania, a senior clinical lecturer specializing in infectious diseases at Britains University of Exeter. He urged India to first stop the circulation of the virus by imposing a long, sustained, strictly enforced lockdown.

Pankhania cautioned that immunization efforts alone would not help immediately stem the current spike of COVID-19, since shots only start to bear fruit in about three months time. Vaccination would help prevent future waves of infection, he said.

Given the urgent need for vaccines, some experts said rationing available doses is critical.

Vaccines need to be delivered to the areas with the most intense transmission, Gupta said, explaining that vaccines should be used as emergency control measures in specific regions of India rather than offering doses to all adults across the subcontinent.

Pankhania said the widely seen images of Indian virus patients gasping for air and smoke billowing from makeshift funeral pyres should spur rich countries to share their vaccines more freely. He criticized the approach taken by many Western countries that are attempting to vaccinate all citizens, including younger people at low risk, before sharing any doses.

It is better globally to immunize all the (vulnerable) people that need to be protected rather than to immunize entire populations in only some countries, Pankhania said.

 The Associated Press
Homer Williams, the founder of Oregon Harbor of Hope, has long preached a simple and tenacious sermon on the homeless.

In a disaster zone, the Portland developer argues, The first step is always providing a safe place. Thats what wed do after an earthquake. A place where you can lock your door and get a good nights sleep. No one gets a good nights sleep on the streets, and over time, youre degraded both mentally and physically.

At LIT Workshop in Northwest Portland, Wayne Watson has built such a place.

His simple and elegant modular housing units are waterproof, lightweight, mobile, durable and secure. Equipped with heating and LED lighting, two beds, and a lock on the door. Designed to be part of a compact community  or dozens of such villages  with separate kitchens, showers, toilets, washing machines and garbage collection.

Ive harped on simple for a reason. Because now things get complicated.

For the counties. For the neighborhoods. For you.

Whatever Multnomah County is doing right in seeking permanent shelter for the homeless, the optics in this city remain dreadfully wrong.

Thousands are still rooted on the street. Tents and tarps dominate freeway shoulders and city sidewalks. Parts of Delta Park look like Calcutta.

Williams believes the crisis is worsening, given the economic disparity in this country. The Portland developer helped open a 100-bed shelter at the west end of the Broadway Bridge in 2019 with financial backing from Tim Boyle at Columbia Sportswear.

He has long promoted repurposed motels, mobile shower trucks, and Home Share, a program that encourages homeowners to make better use of their spare bedroom or granny flat.

And he asked Watson to design (a) a better housing pod, and a more durable community, than the C3PO camp on the inner eastside; and (b) a complete kitchen unit that could be installed in less than an hour in those renovated motel rooms.

Watson has a nondescript warehouse on Northwest Luzon Street, and a stunning, publicity-averse client list. He specializes in compact, innovative designs that are easy to assemble and just as easy to take apart and reassemble elsewhere.

Its a highly engineered, re-usable system, Watson says. In theory, all our parts snap together like a Lego system.

In recent months, and at Homers expense, LIT designed a $25,000 twin-bed housing pod and a $7,000 plug-and-play kitchen unit. Elected officials who tour the workshop  including Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Deborah Kafoury, the Multnomah County chair  are captivated.

Hopefully, were going to use the kitchens, Kafoury says. I love those. She is more guarded, however, on the housing pods and the plan Williams and Watson describe as a community in a box.

Kafoury has long been impressed by Williams ability to bring inspired, talented people like Watson to the table.

And money, for once, isnt an issue, thanks to Metros Supportive Housing Services measure.

The money from the Metro measure is a game-changer. Im thinking bigger than a 50-person village, Kafoury says. I can get 1,300 households into an apartment with the Metro services money, and I dont think you can build that many villages.

People want to see people housed. They need more than the keys to an apartment. They need the support services that go along with a place to live.

The C3PO camp: Guantanamo Bay on the Willamette

The Metro money is just part of the funds available. The Oregon Legislature is also proposing a $240 million allocation from the American Rescue Plan, which would give each legislator at least $2 million to spend on their district.

Williams, clearly, is showcasing this plan at an opportune time. The Harbor of Hope villages will be built by a Portland company. The private sector, once again, is pushing the envelope.

What, then, gives Kafoury  the pivotal player in town on the homeless issue  pause?

She is unsure how many city neighborhoods will gracefully make room  about 20,000 square feet, or half an acre  for one of these 50-pod villages. She wonders about the buy-in from the homeless.

And she worries about expectations. Yours and mine.

Because if and when the small pod communities are sited, they will ramp up the expectations of Oregonians who have lost patience with the downtown camps.

If Portlanders see these villages as an alternative to living on the street, how much empathy will remain for the homeless who dont? If these sanctioned communities succeed, are they reason to restore the ban on downtown camping?

Williams believes its a risk worth taking. Most elected officials are risk averse. And you, discerning readers, have more influence than you know in determining where we go from here.

-- Steve Duin

stephen.b.duin@gmail.com
Video shot from multiple angles reveals more of how Rep. Mike Nearman enabled demonstrators to illegally enter the Oregon Capitol.

An Oregon lawmaker who let violent far-right demonstrators into the state Capitol during a Dec. 21 special session was criminally charged on Friday with first-degree official misconduct and second-degree criminal trespass.

Rep. Mike Nearman, R-Independence, was caught on security videos opening a door and allowing demonstrators to enter the building. He had been under investigation since at least January for enabling the breach.

Nearman is scheduled to appear in court to face the charges on May 11. His attorney, Jason Short, could not immediately be reached for comment.

The first-degree official misconduct charge is for allegedly knowingly taking action that constituted an unauthorized exercise of his official duties to benefit someone else, according to court filings. The second charge is for allegedly abetting another person to enter and remain in the Capitol.

The charging document was signed and filed in Marion County Circuit Court on Friday.

Oregons Capitol has been closed to the public for the last year due to the pandemic. On Dec. 21, lawmakers were in the building for the third special session of 2020, which Gov. Kate Brown called to extend the states eviction moratorium, create a relief fund for landlords and pass wildfire and COVID-19 related funding.

As House lawmakers debated rules for the one-day proceeding around 8:30 a.m., Nearman left the chamber and exited a door near where right-wing demonstrators had gathered to protest the states coronavirus restrictions. Demonstrators, including some carrying rifles, were circulating outside the north face of the Capitol and one man carrying a large flag waited just outside the door that Nearman opened, according to security footage obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive through a public records request. Nearman exited and walked around the man with the flag, making no effort to keep him from entering the Capitol.

Surveillance video showed that once Nearman allowed demonstrators into the northwest Capitol vestibule, the group clashed with Oregon State Police and Salem police who tried to keep them out of the building. Demonstrators attempted to push past police, who rushed to eject the initial insurgents and physically block the doorway Nearman had just opened.

But after demonstrators sprayed police with a substance that was reportedly pepper spray, the largely white crowd, including a number of older people and a dog, succeeded in pushing its way into the vestibule. Oregon State Police and Salem police contained the raucous crowd, some of whom were armed with guns, to a vestibule of the Capitol and ultimately removed them from the building. At least two men alleged to be part of that breach have since been arrested on related charges, and additional demonstrators were arrested in connection to other actions later that day.

Earlier this year, House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, called for Nearman to resign because his actions put every person in the Capitol in serious danger, and Kotek joined multiple other lawmakers to file a formal conduct complaint with the Legislative Equity Office alleging Nearmans actions created a hostile work environment. And on Friday, following the announcement that Nearman would face criminal charges, Oregon House Majority Leader Barbara Smith Warner also called for Nearmans resignaton.

Nearman should have resigned in January, the moment that security footage confirmed his involvement and assistance in the attack, Smith Warner said in a statement. Given todays charges, its clear that hes got to go. I urge every one of my colleagues, in every caucus, to call this out for what it is and join me in demanding that Nearman resign immediately.

Republicans said at the time they were withholding judgment as they waited to learn the findings of the Oregon State Police investigation and the investigation conducted for the Legislative Equity Office, which appears to be ongoing.

--Hillary Borrud
Demonstrators gathered for a series of May Day events Saturday in Portland, setting out on marches and distributing literature in Peninsula Park.

The largest event began near the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, where about 100 people gathered for a march and car caravan demanding justice for migrant workers. Dozens attended other events, and none of the gatherings turned destructive.

Additional events  including a pair of nighttime autonomous demonstrations  were scheduled for later Saturday.

Speakers at the event near OMSI rallied the crowd around themes of the exploitation of migrant workers, anti-U.S. imperialism and standing in solidarity with the working class.

Then many in the crowd set off on a march, chanting in English and Spanish as they moved along the waterfront and over the Tilikum Crossing Bridge to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in South Portland.

While there, some in the crowd, which had grown to more than 150 people, were confronted by federal officers. The standoff simmered without incident, however.

The event was organized by the International Migrants Alliance along with several progressive groups in the Portland area. Speakers from various organizations rallied the crowd around similar themes.

LyLy Dinh, 34, is part of the Portland Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines and was on the planning committee for the event.

Dinh, a descendant of war refugees from Vietnam, wanted to call attention to the migrant workers in the community that are largely invisible. In Portland, people dont really know whats happening down at the ports, where a majority of the port workers are of Filipino descent.

Her organization works to provide basic necessities to those workers, like fresh water and food as well as SIM cards to communicate with families back home. These often face dangerous working conditions, wage theft, and violence without protection from the government due to their undocumented status.

Tad OConnell, 24, spoke as an organizer from the environment group Sunrise Movement, as well as the Freedom Road Socialist organization. As a registered citizen of the Jamestown SKlallam tribe, OConnell said it was important to organize in solitary with other oppressed groups.

Capitalism stole land from my people, OConnell said. Only these communities allow us to keep our sovereignty.

The march arrived at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building around 4 p.m., growing steadily throughout the afternoon to more than 150 people. Speakers from the International Migrants Alliance rallied the crowd in front of a boarded-up building.

Johnny Olson, an organizer with Filipino migrant workers organization Migrante Portland, said it was important to mobilize at the detention center to raise awareness around the deportation of undocumented Filipino immigrants such as Larry Nicolas, who was arrested in 2018 in Washington County and detained at an ICE facility.

Jennelle Barajas, a coordinator for Bayan, an alliance of progressive Filipino organizations that supports the national democratic movement of the Philippines, said she wanted to honor the long history of May Day by marching alongside workers and other progressive organizations.

Workers rights matter, migrant rights should be at the forefront of our minds, Barajas said. We should take better care of migrant workers, our Filipino workers, our Mexican workers.

Lani Felicitas said she joined the march to show her support for migrant workers who have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

We need to show our support for workers because they make the world go round, Felicitas said. Theyve been at the forefront of the pandemic. Theyve been sacrificing their lives for us.

Earlier Saturday, several dozen people marched from Northeast Portlands Holladay Park to the nearby offices of U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-OR, to call on the senator to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize Act and end the filibuster  something Wyden is unable to do on his own.

The legislation, which would provide protections to workers who try to organize and is a top priority for labor unions, passed the House in March but remains stalled in the Senate.

When workers are under attack, what do we do? Luisa Martinez, co-chair of Portland Democratic Socialists of America, asked the crowd as they stood outside Wydens office.

Stand up. Fight back, the crowd responded.

Martinez, a full-time union organizer, said she thinks the passage of the Protecting the Right to Organize Act would help bring more equality to the workplace and level the playing field for women and people of color.

We are hoping to pressure Ron Wyden to end the filibuster, Martinez said. That will help us pass the PRO Act at the Congressional level.

A group of about 75 people also gathered at North Portlands Peninsula Park, where roughly a dozen groups handed out literature, stickers and other gear. Among the groups present were the Portland Socialist Rifle Association, Oregon DA for the People, Corvallis Antifa and Cascades Abortion Support Collective.

Portland has a long history of May Day events that draw attention to worker rights. They typically feature marches and rallies that have run the gamut in recent years from hundreds turning out for peaceful gatherings downtown along the waterfront and in city parks to a protest that erupted into a riot and 25 arrests in 2017.

Last years events were somewhat muted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Car caravans wound through the city and some demonstrations moved online.

May 1 is International Workers Day, which traditionally celebrates laborers rights but has expanded its focus in the U.S. to support immigrants.

Portlands events were a sliver of those taking place worldwide, as crowds gathered in Turkey, South Korea, France and elsewhere.

 The Oregonian/OregonLive
Buoyed by the success of its previous events, Bay Future, Inc. and its regional economic development partners, including Midland Business Alliance, are hosting the fourth annual Coming Home Hiring Event on Tuesday.

The event will be held virtually from 3-5 p.m. and will have chat and video options for job seekers to interact with hiring employers.

To register for the event, and for a list of participating employers, click here.

Local leaders involved in bolstering the regions workforce said retaining and attracting talent is the top issue for employers, many of whom have difficulty filling quality positions.

The Coming Home Hiring Event is part of Bay Futures five-year economic growth plan for Bay County. Enticing young professionals into returning home by showcasing the career opportunities that exist here is a key part of the strategy.

The first two Coming Home Events were held in person, and we saw great success from the relaxed atmosphere it provided to both job seekers and employers, said Trevor Keyes, President & CEO of Bay Future, Inc.

Last years event was virtual due to the pandemic, but it still made inroads.

We saw great benefits and increased engagement from individuals across the country who were looking to locate, or relocate back to our community, Keyes said.

The event features nearly 30 world-class employers with specific positions to fill, including SC Johnson, one of Bay Countys largest employers. The manufacturer of household cleaning supplies recently provided a $10,000 grant to support regional economic development efforts.

Said Keyes, It is only through the support of SC Johnson and other investors in our economic growth plan for Bay County, that Bay Future can work to carry out its mission to attract jobs and investment to Bay County, Michigan.

Keyes said this event will provide job seekers with a fresh look at opportunities in this region they may not be aware of.

Bay Future, Inc. is joined by Midland Business Alliance as well as economic development agencies from Arenac, Bay, Clare, Isabella, Gladwin, Gratiot and Saginaw counties to stage this event.

For additional information, contact Bay Futures Megan Manning at (989) 892-1400 or mmanning@bayfuture.com
We would like to apologize for any harm that our reporting of the allegations against Dr. Coomer may have caused to Dr. Coomer and his family, the network said. He said in his lawsuit that he had gone into hiding because of death threats.
As the daily COVID-19 case numbers fluctuate from day to day, the Midland County Health Department is keeping an eye on weekly trends to assess the local situation.

Midland County Department of Public Health Director/Health Officer Fred Yanoski says the department looks at the MI Safe Start Map which tracks positive test results, case numbers and deaths both daily and on a seven-day basis. Looking at a seven-day trend gives a more accurate depiction of what is happening in the area, as the daily reported cases may not always be exactly accurate.
The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriffs Office and the Midland Police Department. Compiled by reporter Mitchell Kukulka.

Thursday, April 29

11 p.m.  A 64-year-old Midland woman was arrested for operating while intoxicated following a traffic stop in Jerome Township.

10:04 p.m.  Officers responded to a car-deer crash in the area of West U.S.-10 and Ashman Street.

8:27 p.m.  Deputies were dispatched to a Lincoln Township residence for reports of "No Trespassing" signs being taken down. Deputies made contact with a 45-year-old woman, who advised her signs were taken down and suspected that her neighbor took them down. The woman did not want to press charges, but wanted police to talk to her neighbor.

8:52 p.m.  Deputies assisted the Michigan State Police with a trespassing complaint at a Lee Township residence.

8:40 p.m.  Deputies were dispatched to a Jerome Township location for reports of a vehicle driving at a high rate of speed, and a man yelling out the window. Deputies patrolled the area, but were unable to locate the vehicle.

2:54 p.m.  An Animal Control deputy received a complaint of a woman being bitten by her own cat. She was treated at the Midland Hospital ER for minor injuries.

1:06 p.m.  Deputies were dispatched to a Hope Township residence for a 17-year-old female teen having suicidal thoughts. While en route, the teen ingested prescription medications. She was later transported by EMS to the MidMichigan Medical Center-Midland ER for evaluation. While at the ER, the teen's mother completed a petition for a mental health evaluation.

12:03 p.m.  A deputy was dispatched to the area of North Waldo Road near East Wheeler Road in reference to a two-car crash. The at-fault driver was issued a citation for failure to yield.

10:07 a.m.  Officers responded to a vehicle crash in the area of Greenway Drive and East Ashman Street.

5:15 a.m.  Deputies responded to a car-deer crash in Porter Township.

2:49 a.m.  Deputies were dispatched to a Lee Township residence in reference to a domestic assault. A 27-year-old Lee Township man said he was assaulted by his 30-year-old wife. The woman was later arrested for domestic assault and lodged at the Midland County Jail.
After a tense year, the goals of Michigan's governor and her Republican peers might be slowly aligning, at least when it comes to COVID-19 prevention.

On Thursday, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced a plan to tie the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions to the state's vaccination rate, setting specific benchmarks that must be reached before restrictions could be drawn back.

As more people get shots, Whitmer said, the state will allow office work, relax and ultimately end indoor capacity limits, and lift a health order designed to curb COVID-19. About half of residents ages 16 and older have received at least one dose.

This announcement was a welcome one for many local Republicans.

I am pleased that the governor has taken some advice from the Legislature and incorporated metrics into decisions for reopening the state  its long, long overdue," said Rep. Annette Glenn, R-Midland. "While this plan may not be perfect, its a start, and the people of Michigan finally have some clear goals that may give them hope of recovery coming their way.

Roger Hauck, who represents the 99th District, echoed Glenn's approval of the governor's apparent change of course.

For months, House Republicans have been listening to people throughout the state who have faced immense hardship," Hauck said. "Weve been fighting for their calls to see more reasoning behind decisions that are being made and clear benchmarks as we combat COVID-19. It appears this has finally gotten through to the governor with this latest announcement."

Still, Hauck said the state has a long way to go to get back on track with a healthy population and a healthy economy.
To the editor:

I have been an earnest voter since age 18. After retiring, I received training, was certified, and then worked several years ago as a poll worker and election inspector. These experiences contributed to my eager support for our democratic republic and our sacred right to vote. Hats off to our dedicated poll workers who begin Election Day at 6 or 6:30 a.m. and usually work until well past 8 p.m.

Currently, our Michigan Republican legislators are following a national trend to establish new election regulations and restrictions by filing 39 election reform bills for consideration that could vastly alter our current election format! (SB276) is just one bill I will review. It would authorize election inspectors, challengers, and poll watchers to photograph and film the tabulation of votes.

It is concerning that (SB276) would allow cameras and filming while poll workers tabulate the votes. The use of cameras and filming increase possible distractions and even feelings of intimidation that spill into the overall process. This impacts the amount of time, accuracy, and the final outcomes of elections.

Do you suppose that poll workers will eagerly return with all these new intrusions? Poll workers are an integral part of our election process.

There was a lot of confusion and accusations during this last election, but there was not proof of wide spread election fraud. As any good lawyer would say "Prove it." It was not proven and now our poll workers will be subject to legislation based on "the big lie."

It is because of all these concerns that I would not support (SB276).

MARSHA GOTTESMAN

Midland
If elected to fill the vacancy created by the April 6 death of Congressman Alcee Hastings, Thurston promised to advocate for Democratic goals in Washington, D.C. We can fight against voter suppression. We can fight against individuals trying to chill our First Amendment rights. We can fight for health care for all our citizens. We can fight for quality education.
Dirt track racer Dylan Beasley, and his #66 limited modified race car, along with other members of the 903 Mafia race team will be handing out candy, taking pictures and signing autographs outside of In the Cut Barber and Tanning from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - Nearly 70,000 people have already been vaccinated against the coronavirus (COVID-19) in Libya, 14 days after the launch of the national vaccination campaign against the pandemic, an official source said here Saturday
Bamako, Mali (PANA) - The president of the Transition in Mali, Bah N'Daw, in his message to Malian workers on Labor Day, expressed his respect for their commitment to work for the development of Mali, especially in this particular period of the transition
Bamako, Mali (PANA) - Two police officers of the Special Antiterrorist Force (FORSAT), an elite Malian unit engaged in the fight against terrorism, were killed Friday in a road crash, security sources told PANA here Saturday
BLOOMINGTON  An Illinois man accused Mars Inc. of placing a needle in his M&Ms, causing a mouth injury. The FBI called in Mark Cheviron, a polygraph examiner from Decatur, to administer a lie detector test to find the truth.

It went all the way to federal court. I testified about that where he finally made admissions that he did it himself, said Cheviron, a former security director at Archer Daniels Midland who also worked with the Macon County Sheriffs Department.

Cheviron is retired, but still holds a license and issues some tests.

He's one of the few.

The number of polygraph examiners entering the industry across the United States has plummeted since the 1990s. There are just 63 registered in Illinois, according to the state Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, which issues licenses.

Today, the tests are most often given to law enforcement officers applying for jobs, as well as those seeking federal security clearances. Some police agencies also use polygraphs when interrogating suspects, although that too has changed.

While most polygraph jobs are full-time careers with a median yearly salary of around $58,000, it's a challenging line of work to get into, said Steve Woody, of All Purpose Polygraph in Normal.

There really arent a lot of polygraph examiners left in Illinois because were a difficult state to license in, he said.

Still, there is a client base out there hungry for the truth, he said.

Detection of Deception license

William M. Marston invented the lie detector in 1917, based on the premise that a rise in blood pressure could determine if someone was telling the truth.

Along the way, they've become mainstays of crime dramas, as well as devices in movie plots from "Dead Man Walking" to "Meet the Parents." In fact, Woody administered a polygraph test on Matt Damon in "The Informant!" filmed in Decatur.

Vice President Mike Pence volunteered to take a lie detector test to prove he didn't write an anti-Trump op-ed in The New York Times in 2018. Former U.S. House Rep. Gary A. Condit took one in connection with the disappearance of Chandra Ann Levy in 2001. The devices were a topic in the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Modern tests today measure heart rate, breathing and galvanic skin response, but the setup has also been challenged for its legitimacy and accuracy. The Supreme Court has ruled that lower courts can ban tests as evidence.

Arthur Beier, a retired examiner from Mattoon, said the accuracy of the results depends heavily on the questions asked, and that depends on the examiner.

An important part of polygraph is using the language that the individual uses. You need to be able to formulate your questions on his or her level, said Beier.

Before beginning a polygraph, the examiner will come up with specific questions to the topic, called relevant questions, which will be asked at least three times, among other questions. After that, the person sits in the polygraph chair with a blood pressure cuff wrapped around an arm.

If I see anything that would indicate to me that there was deception, that you were not telling me the truth on a question, then I would start  its called the interrogation phase, Woody said. I would start asking you questions about, Hey, youre having a reaction here, is there something that youre not telling me? Is there something thats holding you back? So, Im going to try to find out why youre having that reaction on that particular question.

Then, the polygraph examiner grades the test using a numbering system that eventually results in NDI, no deception indicated; DI, deception indicated; or no opinion, which means there was not enough data to determine a score.

Questions need to be one-pointed and produce a yes or no answer.

You cant have any questions like, Did you go to the back door and break the window and enter the house? Thats three separate questions, Cheviron said.

That distinction is one of the factors gauged when the state issues a polygraph examiner license, technically known as a Detection of Deception license.

Eleven to 13 weeks of school is required and there 13 programs accredited through the American Polygraph Association offering courses. The closest are the Michigan State Police Polygraph Program in Lansing and the National Polygraph Academy in Lexington, Kentucky.

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Then applicants have to intern with a licensed examiner and conduct 25 tests, followed by taking an eight-hour, eight-subject test, which allows two re-takes of any subjects failed before having to re-take all of the tests together.

Licenses then have to be renewed every two years.

Beier, the Mattoon examiner, said his message is to think of polygraphs as a instrument that leads to answers.

Its a tool and if you use it the way its supposed to be, its a very good tool, Beier said. Its not brain surgery. Keep it simple, keep it straight to the point, and either youre going to find out something or youre not.

Still, the use of the polygraphs has fallen off in recent years, especially of employees and those accused of crimes. Test results are sometimes not allowed in court, subject to numerous factors.

It just depends on the prosecutor, the defendant, the judge. ... They are admissible, but you just got to get the court to allow them in, Woody said.

Cheviron has testified many times, but said youre not allowed to say the word "polygraph" while on the witness stand.

Like Beier, he said theyre a tool.

Theres really a lot of uses for polygraph, but I dont think people can just rely on them, Cheviron said. I think youve got to have really good police work first. Its an investigative technique and thats all it is.

The exams are used more often in some areas for sex offenders, which was who Beier mostly tested for about 15 of his roughly 20-year career as an examiner.

Beier said polygraphs play a good role in those cases because it elicits more information from the offenders. It helps the therapist get a better idea of what the offender is thinking and doing. Beier added that he would often collaborate with sex offender therapists.

One of the therapists I used was a good friend of mine and he used to get irritated at me because I would be able to get more information from these guys than he did after six months, Beier said. Thats kind of what polygraph will do.

Testing the authorities

Normal Police Chief Rick Bleichner said his agency hasnt used a polygraph for a criminal case in at least four years.

Today, the department is more likely to hire one to test job applicants and a frequent customer of All Purpose Polygraph for pre-employment tests. Bleichner said polygraphs help guide interview questions.

"It helps our background investigators when theyre looking at things really to help verify information and to make certain theyre being truthful and accurate in all parts of their application and background, Bleichner said, adding that not-so-truthful results don't automatically eliminate job candidates.

The federal Employee Polygraph Protection Act has banned most private employers from doing lie detectors since 1989. Woody said the plan dramatically changed the business.

Thats probably the biggest thing that put kind of a downward trend on them, but its been a good thing, too, because they were abused, and once you get the abuse in there, you got to do something to take care of that, Woody said.

Woody and other retired examiners also pointed to COVID-19-related shutdowns, which decimated local governments tax revenues and budgets, have been a large factor in the drop off.

Whats the future for polygraph examiners?

The criminal justice reform bill that Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law in February includes strengthening the certification process for police officers. Bleichner said it's possible that some part of those new certification requirements "could help, and through time, might alleviate some of the need for those (polygraphs)."

Possibly the most substantial issue that comes with having only one polygrapher in Central Illinois is scheduling times for each job applicant to be tested, Bleichner said. He said there would be risks if suddenly there were no polygraph examiners nearby.

The risk of not doing it would be there may be some things that werent disclosed either in the interview process or through the application process that might not come to light that could come to light later on," Bleichner said.

Woody said the truth is, polygraphs remain valuable, even if the business has changed so much.

You can hang a shingle out tomorrow and you might not be busy for a while, Woody said. Unless youve got some pretty good savings or financial backing, its kind of hard."

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MANSFIELD, Texas  Adam Kinzinger came to Texas this week to hunt unicorns.

The Illinois congressman was looking for Republicans who, like him, see former President Donald Trump as a scourge on their party and a threat to democracy. Kinzinger met privately with one sympathetic Republican, former President George W. Bush, on his first day in the state. And on the second, he had lunch with Michael Wood, the only openly anti-Trump Republican competing on Saturday in a crowded special election for a seat in Congress.

Watch now: Pritzker says he fell short in hiring of former Veterans Affairs Department leader "If I knew then what I know now, I would not have hired her," Gov. J.B. Pritzker said of the former lawmaker who led the states Veterans Affairs Department during a deadly COVID-19 outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans Home.

Kinzinger, a 43-year-old Air Force pilot who flew missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, is positioning himself as a leading antagonist to Trump in a party that is largely refusing to move on from the former president. The congressman's nascent political organization, Country First, has endorsed every House Republican who voted to impeach Trump for inciting the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. And as Kinzinger eyes a potential run for higher office himself, he came to Texas to test how many other Republicans share his outlook.

Kinzingers hope lies in Wood, another fresh-faced combat veteran, who is fighting to stand out in a field of 23. If none of the candidates on Saturdays ballot earns 50% of the vote, the top two will compete in a runoff election later in the spring.

The Trump thing, its got nowhere to go but down. Its not growing, Kinzinger said during his lunch with Wood at the Fork in the Road cafe in the Dallas suburbs. But it took a lot of time for the Republican Party to be what it is today. It may take a lot of time to bring it back.

The contest to replace Republican Rep. Ron Wright, who died of COVID-19 in February, has gone virtually unnoticed outside this north Texas district. But it offers a window into the forces tearing at the fabric of today's GOP. There are 10 Republicans among 23 candidates on the ballot, and with the exception of Wood, they are all desperate to win over Trump and his supporters.

Republican Brian Harrison, former chief of staff of the Department of Health and Human Services, has played up his role in the Trump administration. So, too, has Sery Kim, who worked in the Small Business Administration and directly implored Trump for his endorsement during an appearance on Newsmax, where she gave out her phone number. Dan Rodimer, a former professional wrestler, has flashed the endorsement Trump gave him last year during a failed run for a congressional seat in Nevada. His new slogan: Make America Texas Again.

Trump waited until five days before Election Day to give his formal endorsement to the congressman's widow, Susan Wright, who is widely seen as a favorite.

Trumps team scoffed at Woods chances and Kinzingers broader ambitions.

In his campaign to reject Trumpism, the Illinois congressman is outmatched by every measurable metric. Polls suggest that as many as 8 in 10 Republicans continue to support Trump. And while Kinzingers political team celebrated raising $2.2 million last quarter, Trumps political operation is sitting on at least $85 million.

When asked about Kinzinger, Trump spokesperson Jason Miller dismissed him as a future MSNBC contributor.

Yet Wood has also drawn financial and moral support from a handful of other Trump critics in Congress, including Reps. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.; David Valadao, R-Calif.; and Peter Meijer, R-Mich. Like Kinzinger, all three voted to impeach Trump.

Kinzinger said he was drawn to Wood by the 34-year-old former Marine infantry officer's political courage. Wood has been booed at Republican campaign events for saying that the GOP has devolved into a cult of personality. The first line of campaign literature he hands to voters declares, The Republican Party has lost its way..."

In an interview, Wood, who earned two Purple Hearts for his service in Afghanistan and now runs a small business, compared Trump to a less intelligent, lazy and disorganized autocrat like Roman emperor Julius Caesar. He warned that freedom itself is at risk if Trump and what he stands for aren't soundly rejected.

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I dont want to go to Congress if I have to lick Donald Trumps boots to get there," he said.

Still, Kinzinger knows more than most just how difficult it will be to persuade Republican voters anywhere  never mind Texas  to turn against Trump. The congressmans political operation recently commissioned polling that found the most sympathetic voters are what one aide called unicorns  Republicans who are moderate politically, dont regularly watch Fox News, reject conspiracy theories and are highly educated.

It's a pool of voters Kinzinger needs to grow if his effort will be successful in Texas and beyond as he eyes an aggressive role in the 2022 midterms.

Wood estimated that such voters may represent as many as 35% of those who decide Saturday's special election. Sympathetic strategists suggest the number is probably much lower.

That's not to say there aren't warning signs for Trump and his supporters.

Trump won the north Texas district by double digits in 2016, but by just 3 points last fall, reflecting the trend of Texas booming suburbs shifting to purple and, in some places, outright blue.

But outside the Mansfield Municipal Courthouse this week, there was little sign of support for Wood among the Republicans waiting in line to cast early ballots. One said Wood was betraying his country; another called him an embarrassment.

Theres no such thing as an anti-Trump Republican. He should find another party, said 71-year-old white retiree Gordon Powell of Mansfield. I doubt that he could run for dog catcher as a Republican and get elected around here.

Yvette Williams, a 54-year-old African American transplant from California, said shed consider Wood if she didn't vote for a Democrat. She applauded his effort regardless.

Im like, Who in the Republican Party can stand up to Trump? It takes one person to make a difference, she said.

For their part, there are 10 Democrats running in the special election. But after high expectations and heavy spending failed to produce a single significant victory last year, the national party is largely steering clear of the race.

And while many rank-and-file Texas Republicans remain loyal to Trump, Kinzinger has won the respect of one of Texas' most prominent Republican officials.

Kinzinger and his wife met privately with former President Bush and former first lady Laura Bush for roughly an hour Monday evening at Bushs office at Southern Methodist University. Kinzinger said they discussed foreign policy, the support among evangelical Christians for Trump and shared concerns about the direction of the party.

Hes obviously, as hes expressed, concerned with where were at and knows its a slog to kind of bring it back, Kinzinger said of Bush. But its like, if you dont fight, its done.

A Bush spokesperson declined to comment on the meeting.

Meanwhile, Wood said it's past time for more people in his party's leadership to stand up to Trump publicly.

I hope that, win or lose, I at least show the rest of the country there are people willing to stand up and say these things. Frankly, Im a little upset it's someone like me who's saying them. It should be shouted from the rooftop by leaders in the House, Republicans in Senate, Republicans across the country.

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BLOOMINGTON  A decade after he took his first oath of office as a Bloomington City Council alderman, Mboka Mwilambwe on Saturday took another oath.

But this time, the vow was not like the other three before it  Mwilambwe, 50, pledged to "faithfully discharge the duties" of Bloomington mayor.

In doing so, he became the first person of color to take the mayoral oath in Bloomington.

"My parents ... taught me to lead my life with integrity, to respect others and to be inclusive," Mwilambwe said during a 20-minute speech delivered on the south side of the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts. "This is exactly how we ran our campaign, and this is exactly what you can expect from me as mayor."

Mwilambwe and the five city council member-elects  Ward 1 Ald. Jamie Mathy, Ward 3 Ald. Sheila Montney, Ward 5 Ald. Nick Becker, Ward 7 Ald. Mary "Mollie" Ward and Ward 9 Ald. Tom Crumpler  swore their oaths of office in front of friends, family and community members, city staff, current and former city leaders and local state legislators.

The occasion marked a formal changing of the municipal guard, with outgoing Mayor Tari Renner acknowledging the transition.

"I spent eight years of my life as mayor, certainly the honor of a lifetime, and certainly while making mistakes and certainly something that moving forward we've made progress and will continue to make progress with the great team we have," said Renner, who was first elected in 2013 and did not seek a third term.

Renner emphasized how critical "peaceful, productive transitions" between one group of elected officials and the next is to American democracy, as well as having faith in elections.

"And we have to have faith in that because we also have to recognize that we are all Americans," Renner said. "There is a time for competing in the election process and there is also a time for governing. The time for competing is over; the time for governing begins today."

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Mwilambwe, taking that message seriously, used his first remarks as mayor  at times his voice breaking with emotion  to thank his campaign staff, introduce his family and recognize the council he will lead.

He also outlined his goals  improving infrastructure, growing the local economy and building community  for his first term, which will end in 2025.

But the "most important element of my tenure to tackle as mayor," Mwilambwe said, is addressing negativity in the community.

"We must present a united front and a positive view of our community if we are going to attract or retain businesses and residents," Mwilambwe said. "Our future prosperity depends on it, and I commit to you that I will work tirelessly to bring us together more as a community."

Mwilambwe said "it is everybody's job" to "bring everybody together."

He further said that "pulling together in same direction" does not preclude community members from disagreeing.

"It is perfectly OK to disagree," Mwilambwe said. "It simply means that we all come to the table seeking to understand each other, not demonize each other, because we are all part of the same community."

That model and an "incredible promise," Mwilambwe said, was presented to him three decades ago, when he first came to Bloomington.

"Thirty years later, I'm here to tell you that the promise held true," Mwilambwe said. "This wonderful community has now elevated an immigrant to the rank of mayor. Think about what that says to the rest of the world about the goodness of our community and the hope that it represents for many."

Contact Timothy Eggert at (309) 820-3276. Follow him on Twitter: @TimothyMEggert

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Meanwhile, legislators in red states have been undoing gun laws that had limited who can carry a concealed weapon and where. Last week, the Florida Legislature passed a bill that would do away with the prohibition against concealed weapons on school grounds if the schools happen to be affiliated with a church. Another bill approved last week would expand the prohibition against local governments restricting the purchase, sale, transfer, taxation, manufacture, ownership, possession, storage and transportation of guns. The new legislation would also ban unwritten local policies that might inconvenience Floridas gun owners. Judges, I suppose, will tasked with divining what the hell that means.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Friday acknowledged a failure of leadership in hiring a former legislator as director of the states Veterans Affairs Department following this weeks blistering report that found widespread mismanagement of last falls COVID-19 outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans Home where 36 veterans died.

Pritzker said he believed Linda Chapa LaVia, a veteran and former state lawmaker from Aurora, was an ideal person to root out the problems in our veterans homes following her role on legislative panels investigating outbreaks of Legionnaires disease at the Quincy VA home where 14 veterans died.

But, Pritzker said, I have to admit that if I knew then what I know now, I would not have hired her.

The independent report from the Illinois Department of Human Services Office of the Inspector General and the law firm of Armstrong Teasdale detailed systemic mismanagement from top VA officials down to administrators at the LaSalle home, creating an inefficient, reactive and chaotic response to controlling the outbreak that began Nov. 1.

Continue to the bottom of the story to read the full report.

Chapa LaVia, who resigned in January and did not agree to be interviewed for the report, was cited in the report for her hands-off management style. The report found that she left her responsibilities to a nonmedical chief of staff who allowed local administrators to run their own homes, gave inaccurate guidance on the pandemic and refused to enlist outside help in the early stages of the outbreak.

The governors stark admission of failure in hiring Chapa LaVia comes in the lead-up to an expected bid for a second term. In winning the office in 2018, he accused Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner of fatal mismanagement for the Legionnaires deaths at the Quincy VA home that began in 2015.

Pritzker said amid the 22,000 pandemic deaths in Illinois, nothing is more devastating to me than knowing 36 of our veterans, our heroes, died of COVID in a single veterans home.

We all needed to know what went wrong here and I asked for this investigation so that we would all know what happened, and we would all know how to fix it, he said.

He said the state VA began changes months ago, prior to his appointment of new director Terry Prince earlier this month. Prince, a 31-year Navy veteran with a medical background, previously oversaw veterans homes in Ohio.

The report on LaSalle noted that in the months before the outbreak, when no cases had been reported at the home, there was a lack of planning, training and communications between the agency, home administrators and staff  despite the knowledge of the deadly dangers COVID-19 presented for older people living in congregate settings.

The report said there was a failure to conduct contact tracing among COVID-19-positive employees, improper use of protective gear, employees gathering for work who were not required to wear a mask until inside the facility and a screening desk that was frequently left vacated.

It also found veterans who tested positive shared space with those who tested negative and sporadic temperature checks of workers. It said some employees treated the virus like the flu and some learned of the outbreak from the local news.

Democratic and Republican lawmakers on Friday used terms such as horrible and beyond disgusting to describe the events that took place at the home  and questioned whether nothing had been learned from the Quincy Legionnaires outbreak.

House Republican Leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs, a former prosecutor, went further, saying that beyond the damning and heartbreaking report, an investigation into whether anyone should face criminal negligence charges in connection with the deaths needs to be launched.

The administration just cant say that were going to do a better job next time, Durkin said. There has to be accountability for the loss of 36 of our valued heroes.

In 2018, then-Attorney General Lisa Madigan launched a criminal investigation into the Quincy Legionnaires deaths. Her successor, Attorney General Kwame Raoul, closed the investigation last year, saying there was not sufficient evidence to bring charges.

Republicans also blasted Pritzker for appointing a former legislator to run the state VA, and for leaving another key agency position, senior homes administrator, unfilled.

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The governor likes to say hes following the science, but what actually happened is he put a political person with no experience in charge of this critical agency, GOP Rep. Deanne Mazzochi of Elmhurst said.

House lawmakers previously approved a resolution requiring the auditor general to conduct a review of the LaSalle outbreak, as was done for Quincy.

Republican State Sen. Sue Rezin of Morris, whose district includes the LaSalle home, said the veterans who died were my constituents, and Im incredibly disappointed.

Rezin faulted the Pritzker administration and the VA for not following the recommendations of the auditor general following a review of the handling of the Quincy Legionnaires outbreak., Those recommendations included an immediate on-site review by state public health officials when an outbreak occurs.

Instead, public health officials didnt show up at the LaSalle home for 10 days, after two residents and two staff members tested positive for COVID-19 on Nov. 1. Within a week of the first positive tests, 60 veterans and 43 staff members tested positive.

This would have prevented the tragedy at the LaSalle Veterans Home, period. So thats my frustration, you know, just the lack of action by the department, Rezin said.

This report just shows a complete and utter breakdown from the governors administration to the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Public Health and then the executive administration of the LaSalle veterans home, Rezin said.

State Sen. Tom Cullerton, the Villa Park Democrat who chairs the Senates Veterans Affairs panel, said he expected to call hearings within two weeks on the report.

There was constant lack of communication, lack of urgency, lack of direction. I mean, just everything was lacking in the way this response occurred and that ended up being horrific for these veterans and horrific for these families, said Cullerton, himself a veteran.

Cullerton gave Pritzker credit for initiating the report and seeking to be more transparent than the Rauner administration was with Quincy.

But, he said the LaSalle outbreak provides a painful reminder that when we start trying to save pennies, then were not doing a service to our veterans, to our seniors.

State Rep. Stephanie Kifowit, an Oswego Democrat and Marine Corps veteran who chairs the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said the report confirms the suspicions of not only myself but other members of the committee of the failure in leadership at the agency that arose during a series of legislative hearings last fall and winter.

Throughout the outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans Home, dedicated staff were reaching out to me directly with serious concerns and fear for the safety of our decorated veterans who trust Illinois with their welfare, said Kifowit, pinning the blame on a lack of protocols, leadership and structure on the department level.

She said her committee plans to hold hearings on the report and will put together comprehensive legislation to address issues at the Department of Veterans Affairs, to be introduced next year.

As a first step, Kifowit sponsored a bill, approved in the House without opposition, that would create an independent Veterans Accountability Unit to receive complaints and recommendations from veterans, including residents of the state homes, and others and refer problems to the inspector general.

Another area for improvement would be developing minimum qualifications for the agencys director, a professionalizing of the position, Kifowit said.

READ THE REPORT

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CARBONDALE  Dwight J. Violettes life is a lot quieter now  it has been for the last 16 years.

The 71-year-old Carbondale man often finds himself seated next to the lazily-flowing Big Muddy River off of Route 51 near Carbondale.

On Wednesday, his folding chair was planted between a system of fishing polls dug into the ground, affixed with bells. At the end of each line was a hook baited with a knot of chicken liver  an enticing snack for any unsuspecting or overly-curious catfish.

Violette fidgeted with a small campfire that he said was used to keep the bugs at bay  he hates gnats. As he waits for the bells to ring he rolls cannabis into tobacco blunt wraps. He prefers blunts to more traditional paper-rolled joints because he said they burn slower.

Behind him, a good-sized catch gulps for air in the mud. Violette said he planned to throw it back if he didnt catch at least one more fish.

Violette said he doesnt fish the way most do. He doesnt try to set the hook the moment a fish jingles his alarm bell. He said thats how people lose big fish. Instead, he waits until the catfish cant help but to take a real bite out of the livers as well as the hook.

I got you fat boy, Violette said, imitating bringing in a big one. He said you know its time to set the hook when the fishing rod looks like a question mark.

This is quite the about-face from his life 50 years ago. Violette spent 26 years, eight months in prison for 1977 charges of attempted murder and armed robbery.

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I got shot. He got shot, Violette said of his crime.

A Chicago Tribune report from the time said Violette, with two other men, beat a man inside a Waukeegan restaurant during a $100 robbery. They also got into a gunfight with police that left two of the men, Violette included, wounded.

In the firefight, Violette shot a cop in the face and was eventually sentenced to 60-to-100 years in prison. He was released after nearly 27 years.

I was a fool, Violette said Wednesday, his fishing lines still.

Violette said drugs and hard living are what led to his incarceration  he started shooting up heroin at 18 he remembered. He often thinks he came out of the womb a wanted man. He also took a moment to denounce powdered drugs  things like heroin and cocaine. He said these just steal a mans soul.

Since getting out of prison in 2004, Violette has bounced between odd jobs. He said he started working in his 50s, doing jobs meant for people in their 20s  hopping in and out of garbage trucks or carrying slabs of granite is work for younger men, Violette said.

He has tried to live a quieter life since getting out. Talking with The Southern on Wednesday, Violette said he doesnt understand why formerly incarcerated persons dont get more notice for staying out of trouble.

The focus, he said, is always on repeat offenders. But people like him who spent most of their adult lives in prison should get more credit, Violette said.

As his day of fishing drew to a close on Wednesday, a light mist turned into a gentle rain. The lone catfish still laid on its side caked in mud, waiting for a mate.

Reflecting on the hurt he caused in his younger years, Violette said he has shame for what he did. But what makes this shame sting more is that he didnt get a chance to apologize to the people, some of whom have died, he hurt.

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The inspector generals report on the deadly COVID-19 outbreak at the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs LaSalle Veterans Home is a maddening story of incompetence and chaos at every level.

The IG report tells the story of an allegedly AWOL agency director; an in-over-his-head chief of staff; a crucial failure to fill an important upper management position; an unconscionably delayed IDVA management response at all levels to a clearly and rapidly deteriorating situation both in the surrounding communities outside the home and when the virus inevitably spread inside the facility; an unprepared and woefully uninformed management on multiple issues, including basics about personal protection equipment; an abject failure to properly train and equip staff; multiple failures to ask for outside help and accept it when offered; and staff infighting and managerial timidity.

36 veterans died during the LaSalle catastrophe last year, a quarter of the facilitys population. Frankly, after reading the report, I was surprised more people didnt die. Its that bad.

The trouble started with Gov. J.B. Pritzkers hasty appointment of a state legislator to fill the IDVA director job after his initial appointee abruptly dropped out  a mystery that he has not explained to this day.

According to the report, after state Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia became IDVA director, she apparently abdicated her responsibilities to her chief of staff, Tony Kolbeck. Kolbecks heart was in the right place but he should not have been given that job, partly because he didnt have the requisite knowledge and experience, but also because the administration never appointed a Senior Homes Administrator for the agency. That administrator wouldve had the medical understanding to provide meaningful leadership, according to the IG report. Kolbeck essentially served as the director, the chief of staff and the Senior Homes Administrator all at once, a near impossibility during normal times, let alone during a deadly crisis.

After Director Chapa LaVia finally quit under pressure, Gov. Pritzker brought in a new acting director.

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Terry Prince is a buttoned-down 31-year Navy man with an abundance of healthcare management experience in the Navy and in his last job running Ohios veterans homes. One of those homes, the fifth largest in the country, had an outbreak last year, but it was contained and the fatality rate was a fraction of what it was at LaSalle and at many private nursing homes in the country. Like everyone in that sector, hes not unblemished, but hes never been accused of incompetence that I could find.

Princes extensive management experience is something the IDVA has lacked for years. But he is also a student of management theory and mentioned several management training models he admires.

I asked Prince about an item in the IG report that the LaSalle home managers refrained from disciplining workers out of fear of retaliation. I pointed out that this is prevalent in state government here because upper management too often wont back up lower management in personnel disputes. Prince said he created a program in Ohio called I got your six to address that very issue. The management team has to know that their director, assistant director has their backs, he rightly said.

Prince wants to subject the veterans homes to accreditation and the federal governments Medicaid rating system. I want evaluations from anybody who will come and evaluate our buildings because I believe that the more inspections we have, the better, he said.

Hes a military veteran and these are veterans homes, and Prince says he intends to put employees through regular training drills to make sure they are up to dealing with emergencies.

But he also talked about trying to work more cooperatively with AFSCME, something he claimed to have had success with in Ohio. Prince said Illinois Department of Human Services Secretary Grace Hou recommended that he make himself crazy available to union personnel, which he says hes doing. Hou has had significant success in dealing with AFSCME. The IDVA, on the other hand, has been notable for its hostility toward the union.

I want our veterans in our veterans homes to live their best possible life, Prince said. I want their star to shine bright in our facilities. I know we have the teams to do it. We just have to make sure that we're training them and holding them accountable and saying, Here's our expectations.

Prince is no doubt an impressive person, but there is no longer any room for failure at that agency. He gets zero slack. To put it bluntly, if we cant stop killing our veterans, then we as a state need to get out of this business.

Rich Miller publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and CapitolFax.com.

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 'I deserve a glass of wine.' " Drinking wine can feel like self-care, but it isnt. You dont deserve a toxic, cancer-causing glass of rotting fruit juice. You just dont. What is it you really want? Is it a treat, reward, relief, happiness, distraction, relaxation, pleasure, or something else? There are many ways to meet that need without alcohol. (Sober School, Feb. 15, 2021)

Wine has as much alcohol in just five ounces, as 12 ounces of beer. Women, alcohol, and COVID-19," Harvard Health Publishing (April 6) reports excessive alcohol use is a common response to coping with stress. You only need to glance at social media to get the message that there is a cure for pandemic-related stress: alcohol. Social media sites are rife with memes of moms drinking to relieve their stress. It is not surprising that we are seeing a disproportionate effect of the pandemic on womens alcohol use. According to a RAND Corporation study, during the pandemic women have increased their heavy drinking days by 41% to before the pandemic.

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This is concerning for the health of women, and for unborn babies. Some of the worst damage can happen to the fetus when the mother may not even know she is pregnant. The leading cause of intellectual disabilities in young children is 100% preventable. Each year more than 50,000 babies are born with alcohol-related damage caused by even light drinking during pregnancy. www.drugabuse.gov.

During Aprils Alcohol Awareness Month, the Womans Christian Temperance Union urges everyone, not just women, to eliminate alcohol and find other ways to cope with stress.

Loreta Jent, President

Normal WCTU

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New Delhi: Notorious gangster Mohammed Shahabuddin who was serving life term in connection with a number of criminal cases in Bihar died at a Delhi hospital on Saturday where he was moved to get treatment for Coronavirus.

The former Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP from Siwan was shifted from Delhis Tihar Jail to the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Hospital a few days ago after he was reported to have contracted the virus.

He died of complications related to the Covid-19, hospital officials confirmed.

Despite his lifelong history of violent crime including murder, abduction, violation of Arms Acts etc., Bihar leaders condoled his death with words usually reserved for giant leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee or Sardar Patel.

This is a tragic news and we are all pained by the sudden demise of the former Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader. May God give him place in the heaven and help the family members strength to cope with this loss. Mr. Shahabuddins death is a huge loss for the party and the entire RJD family mourns his death with his family members and loved ones, tweeted RJD de facto leader Tejaswi Yadav.

Another criminal-turned-politician and former RJD MP Pappu Yadav also expressed his condolence on the death of Shahabuddin.

Corona, in the end, took the life of Shahabuddin Ji but he was more a victim of the system that used him, abused him, and when he served no purpose, abandoned him to deal with his troubles all by himself. My thoughts and prayers are with his family, Yadav wrote in a tweet.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar also expressed his condolence on the passing away of Shahabuddin.

Mr. Shahabuddin was an MP from Siwan for a long time. May he rest in peace, Kumar said while urging his family to have strength to deal with the loss.
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Customers expectations in terms of high-quality bathroom solutions and state-of-the-art design are increasing. But in the end, the decision for a product is often a matter of budget.



GROHE, a leading global brand for complete bathroom solutions and kitchen fittings, is treading new paths.



The GROHE Baulines faucet portfolio is a real all-rounder at an entry-level, offering a modern design with smart features at an affordable price.



Furthermore, Baulines enables installers and planners to answer increasing customer demands with a convenient complete bathroom portfolio  everything from one single source and without compromises in design and function.



GROHE Baulines  simplifying bathroom planning



No matter if space or budget are limited: GROHE Baulines makes bathroom planning much more convenient as installers and planners can create a modern bathroom ambience in just a few simple steps.



The Baulines faucet, Bau Ceramic and Bau Accessories match in design and function to easily create a fully coordinated design concept. The latest addition to GROHEs Bau Ceramic line is the new Slim Seat with SoftClose. With its less than 45 mm hight the seat makes an easy upgrade for the customer. Thanks to the QuickRelease feature the seat, additionally, is easy to disassembly for cleaning.



Thanks to the relaunched design of Baulines bathroom faucets, customers benefit from an enhanced comfort zone: the extended angle with the tapered spout ensures a more convenient water flow, thereby preventing water from splashing when washing hands.



Moreover, the product offers advantages in terms of safety and health: Thanks to its innovative zinc die casting process at the LIXIL plant in Klaeng, Thailand, one of the most sustainable plants in South East Asia, the faucet offers safe water enjoyment.



Not only is the surface of the faucet seamlessly closed so that impurities cannot enter, there are also dedicated inner waterways to make sure that the water has no contact with lead- and nickel. Above that these inner waterways have no contact to the body material which result in a barrier between hot water and the external surface to avoid scalding on hot surfaces. Thus, extra safe, especially for households with children.



The demand for sustainable product solutions is increasing. Therefore, another important reason for choosing GROHE Baulines is that all faucets are equipped with water-saving GROHE EcoJoy technology. A flow restrictor reduces water consumption from ten liters per minute to just over five liters. Moreover, an aerator enriches the water with air, ensuring the same voluminous experience as with conventional faucets. This way, everyone can easily make their contribution to save water in everyday life without compromising on comfort.



Simplicity for the modern kitchen  GROHE Bau Kitchen



In addition to these bathroom products, GROHEs Baulines kitchen range helps to plan a modern, stylish kitchen that is equally functional and affordable. A selection of different faucet designs and heights allows even the largest pots to be comfortably filled  offering the customer versatile options for their kitchen.



Like their bathroom counterparts, all Baulines kitchen faucets are available with the GROHE Zero technology. Thanks to dedicated inner water ways the water has no contact with lead and nickel. Additionally, for a coordinated design, GROHE also offers stainless steel and composite sinks to match the faucets.



Discover whats next on our new digital experience platform GROHE X and follow us on social media via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.



About GROHE



GROHE is a leading global brand for complete bathroom solutions and kitchen fittings and has a total of over 7,000 employees in 150 countries  2,600 of them are based in Germany. Since 2014 GROHE has been part of the strong brand portfolio of the Japanese manufacturer of pioneering water and housing products LIXIL. In order to offer "Pure Freude and Wasser", every GROHE product is based on the brand values of quality, technology, design and sustainability.



Renowned highlights such as GROHE Eurosmart or the GROHE thermostat series as well as groundbreaking innovations such as the GROHE Blue water system underline the brand's profound expertise. Focused on customer needs, GROHE thus creates intelligent, life-enhancing and sustainable product solutions that offer relevant added value  and bear the "Made in Germany" seal of quality: R&D and design are firmly anchored as an integrated process in Germany.



GROHE takes its corporate responsibility very seriously and focuses on a resource-saving value chain. Since April 2020, the sanitary brand has been producing CO2-neutral worldwide. GROHE has also set itself the goal of using plastic-free product packaging by 2021.



In the past ten years alone, more than 490 design and innovation awards as well as several sustainability awards confirmed GROHE's success. GROHE was the first in its industry to win the CSR Award of the German Federal Government and the German Sustainability Award 2021 in the categories Resources and Design. As part of the sustainability and climate campaign 50 Sustainability & Climate Leaders GROHE is also driving sustainable transformation.



About LIXIL



LIXIL makes pioneering water and housing products that solve every day, real-life challenges, making better homes a reality for everyone, everywhere. Drawing on our Japanese heritage, we create world-leading technology and innovate to make high quality products that transform homes.



But the LIXIL difference is how we do this; through meaningful design, an entrepreneurial spirit, a dedication to improving accessibility for all and responsible business growth. Our approach comes to life through industry leading brands, including INAX, GROHE, American Standard and TOSTEM. Over 60,000 colleagues operating in more than 150 countries are proud to make products that touch the lives of more than a billion people every day. Learn more at www.lixil.com

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.

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Unlike previous attempts to flush out illegal miners from Ghanas water bodies and forest reserves, the government has announced that all equipment that will be seized under a new effort to end galamsey will be destroyed on-site.



The operation which involves the deployment of 200 military personnel started last Wednesday and already nine excavators, 127 change fans, and one fuel pump which were being used for illegal mining in the river Pra



The exercise on the Pra dubbed Operation Halt ended yesterday and it also resulted in the arrest of two Chinese nationals at Attieku near Twifo Praso in the Central Region for illegally mining in a forest reserve.



Addressing a press briefing on the military operation which was sanctioned by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the Minister of Defence, Mr Dominic Nitiwul said the Chinese had been handed to the national security for further interrogation and would be prosecuted.



He said: It is noted that since the commencement of the operation, the troops have destroyed a good deal of equipment including nine excavators, 127 change fans-machine platforms associated with mining equipment and one fuel pump," Mr Nitiwul said.



"Furthermore, the following items have been seized and would be destroyed except items that will be used as exhibits in court. The items include 824 plate batteries, one pump action gun case, a generator, Huawei phone, a chainsaw machine, eight raincoats, fuel filters, non-citizen Ghana ID cards, two drilling equipment, and two boots. These items will be destroyed except what the police deem necessary for their work for the prosecution.



He continued: "The law already outlaws mining within the river bodies and 100 metres to each of the flanks of the river, if you do any activity there it is an illegal activity. The President has directed that we clean up the river bodies and like I said, we are not taking any equipment home, we are not seizing any equipment, no equipment will be returned home. It's not like before where you will seize equipment, they will all be destroyed on-site, it is as simple as that. "So, there is nothing like we are taking excavators, nothing will come home, everything will be destroyed at sight".



Judgment debts



Addressing concerns that the state may face judgment debts from destroying equipment belonging to illegal miners, the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said the government "convinced that no court will give judgment debt to an illegal miner on a waterbody... whose machines have been destroyed. We are fortified in our view that no court will grant such a person a judgment debt".



Breakdown of military personnel



He added that the 200 military personnel which were drawn from the Ghana Army, the Ghana Navy, and the Ghana Air Force were being supported by their Commanding Officers with support from the Ghana Police and other national security agencies.



He said the 200 military personnel comprise 154 officers and men from the Army, 40 officers, and men from the Navy and six officers and men from the Air Force.



"64 ( 64 Infantry Regiment ) is leading the Eastern flank of river Pra and 2BN (Takoradi (2nd Infantry Battalion) is leading the Western flank of river Pra and the Navy is using their boats within the river itself and they are sweeping from the beginning of the river towards Twifo Praso".



He said because of the terrain that was being covered by the troops they used equipment including Troop Carrying Vehicles (TVCs), assault boats as well as helicopters and drones.



Background



In 2017, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo made a promise to fight galamsey head-on, even if it would cost him the next election.



Subsequently, a ban was placed on all forms of small-scale mining in the country as a measure to sanitize the sector.



That was followed by the deployment of Operation Vanguard, a joint military and police team to mining communities to crack down on the activities of illegal miners.



Other measures included the setting up of the IMCIM to oversee the galamsey fight.



In the course of the fight against galamsey activities, the Operation Vanguard taskforce seized some excavators and mining equipment.



The Chairman of the IMCIM and Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation at the time, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, said 500 of the seized excavators had gone missing.



However, when the then Minister-designate for Lands and Natural Resources, Mr. Samuel Abu Jinapor appeared before the vetting committee of Parliament he assured that a new committee would take steps to unravel the mystery behind the missing excavators.



Committee



The five-member committee is to take inventory of the excavators and other equipment that were seized over the past four years in the fight against illegal mining.



It is chaired by the Advisor on Mines to the Minister at the Lands and Natural Resources Ministry, Mr Ben Aryee.



Other members are from the Minerals Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).















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.

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Father Dimitry Osipenko has been serving at the Russian Orthodox Church on the Costa del Sol since 2009. The congregation is currently based in the Ascension church in San Pedro Alcantara, where Dimitry is preparing to celebrate Orthodox Easter, or Paskha, this weekend.

The Marbella priest told SUR in English that the presence of the Russian Orthodox Church in Spain dates back to 1761, when in Madrid, under the Russian envoy to Spain, Peter Repnin, the first church was established in the name of St Mary Magdalene. So-called 'house church' was attached to the embassy, hence moved several times with it.

In 1882, the church was abolished due to a reduction in government spending. In December 2011, the foundation stone of the Russian Orthodox Church was consecrated in Madrid. Additionally, over recent years, Russian Orthodox churches have also been constructed in Barcelona, in Altea (Valencia), and in Adeje (Canary Islands).

The church in Marbella is now preparing to move to new premises in Estepona. In 2017, it was announced that the new building would be the biggest Russian Orthodox church in Spain, and the first in Andalucia. The project includes the church and a social-cultural centre spread over nearly 6,000 square metres of land in Arroyo Las Canas, on the way up to the Selwo park.

The Spanish architects planned this to be an iconic building, with a separate bell tower, constructed with Mediterranean materials.

Father Dimitry said that the church in Estepona is really unique and different from other Russian Orthodox churches in the country. It is almost finished but construction has stopped due to the pandemic because it's difficult to invite specialists from abroad for interior painting and decorating. The planned inauguration in 2021 will be postponed but the next Easter celebrations could be held in the new church.

Easter

In the meantime, Father Dimitry will hold Paskha, the main holiday of the Russian Orthodox Church, this weekend in the church in San Pedro.

Orthodox Easter is usually celebrated later than Catholic Easter, because the church follows the old Julian calendar, unlike the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches, which have been using the Gregorian calendar since the 16th century. Besides Russia and Ukraine, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Lebanon, Republic of Macedonia and Romania are among countries that officially celebrate Orthodox Easter.

Easter is preceded by 40 days of Great Lent. Those who observe it are not supposed to eat meat and, on some days, even vegetable oils. On the last Friday before Easter, no food or drink should be consumed until the evening. Instead of chocolate eggs, hen's eggs are dyed red using onion skins, while spinach and beetroot make them green and purple, respectively.

Traditionally on the evening of the Orthodox Easter Saturday, people go to church with traditional food - a special kind of yeast bread, and a pyramid-shaped cake made of cottage cheese and raisins. The foods are blessed during the church service.

Father Dimitry said, however, that this year the service will have to be different due to the pandemic.

Events usually start around 11pm and before midnight the church lights are extinguished. After midnight, the church is illuminated with candlelight and the congregation forms a procession around the church.

The priest said: "This time this part of the celebration will not take place but we invite people for customary services in the morning and evening. The Sunday Easter service starts at 8.30am on 2 May."

Father Dimitry added that anyone who has questions about Orthodoxy and its peculiarities, is welcome to visit the church in Marbella and its website (www.rpc-marbella.es).

Western Europe

The Russian Orthodox Church in Western Europe was founded exactly one hundred years ago this month. After the onset of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, the Church opposed the Soviet government that had banned the religion and was destroying temples around the country. On 8 April 1921, Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow and Metropolitan Benjamin of Petersburg issued a decree creating the Provisional Administration of Russian Parishes in Western Europe, centred in Paris.

In December 2018, the Holy Synod decided to dissolve the Archdiocese of Russian Orthodox churches in Western Europe, leading to the creation of the Diocese of Madrid and Lisbon. Nestor Sirotenko is Archbishop of the diocese. At the time of segregation, there were 11 parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church and communities in Portugal and 25 parishes with 17 priests in Spain.
The ECOWAS Commissioner for Agriculture, Environment and Water Resources, Mr Sekou Sangare, has urged West African countries to prioritise the purchase and consumption of locally produced foods to empower local farmers to become economically viable.



He expressed concern over what he described as the excessive importation of foreign foods onto the West African market, a situation he said undermined the capacity of local farmers to mobilise the needed revenue to expand their operations.



It is important for us to prioritise the purchase and consumption of locally produced foods as it is the surest way we can boost our gains and empower our farmers economically, he said.



Occasion



Mr Sangare was addressing journalists at a joint press conference organised by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) and the ECOWAS Commission in Accra last Tuesday.



The press briefing heralded an international conference on the West African Food Security Storage System, which is being held virtually from April 28 to May 10, 2021.



The objective of the conference is to rally African governments and development partners to forge strong partnerships towards the effective implementation of the West African Food Security Storage System  a project which was rolled out in 2015 to ensure food security in the region.



Value addition



Mr Sangare said the ECOWAS Commission would use the platform to engage policy makers and stakeholders on the need to add value to the various food crops produced in the region to meet demand and create jobs.



He revealed that the commission had secured an amount of 56 million from the European Union to support the implementation of the West African Food Security Storage System.



He said although countries in the sub-region had in their personal capacities rolled out programmes to ensure food security, there was the need for a concerted effort at the regional level to ensure total food security.



Ghanas situation



For his part, the Chief Director at the MoFA, Mr Robert Patrick Ankobiah, indicated that in spite of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) affecting the activities of farmers in the country last year, the pandemic did not have any negative impact on Ghanas food security.



According to him, the implementation of governments flagship programme  Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ)  contributed to building enough food surpluses which averted food shortages at the height of the pandemic.



No country is insulated from the effects of COVID-19. There were restrictions and, therefore, people were unable to attend to their farms the way they should and definitely that would have affected production in a way. But in Ghana Agriculture stood out as one of the sectors that was very resilient in terms of production and, therefore, accounted largely to our GDP, Mr Ankobiah said.



He added that because of the PFJ programme, we had lots of food surpluses and we have been having that over the past four years and that helped us to be able to build some food stocks such that we did not feel very much the impact of COVID-19.



Agirc sector



Figures released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) last week indicated that agricultural activity expanded significantly to 8.2 per cent for the last quarter of 2020, up from 4.9 per cent in the third quarter.



According to the GSS, the growth was mainly driven by output increases in crops and cocoa whose growth rose to 10.6 per cent from 5.2 per cent in the previous quarter.















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.

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The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources is decentralizing plans to deal comprehensively with the menace of illegal mining.



In line with that, it has urged all regional ministers to lead the crusade and play visible key roles in the fight against the canker.



Although the fight is coordinated nationally, regional ministers are expected to lead the charge in the regions as heads of regional security councils (REGSECs) to implement the plans, the sector Minister, Mr Samuel Abu Jinapor, has stated.



Consequently, the ministry has handed over a list of all the companies holding prospecting and / or recognisance licences and mineral rights in forest reserves to the regional ministers.



The list, according to Mr Jinapor, was to arm the representatives of the President at the regional level with adequate information on the fight against illegal mining.



Mr Jinapor stated this in his opening comments during a closed-door meeting among the 16 regional ministers, selected key ministers and President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at the Jubilee House to discuss the plans being rolled out to deal with the challenge.



We are now at the crossroads. We have had a successful consultative dialogue and put in arrangements to regulate small-scale mining, and the President thought it important to invite regional ministers and key sector ministers for a discussion on how we move forward from here, he said.



Read also: Military moves to flush out illegal miners from rivers

Decentralised plan



Mr Jinapor said his ministry was decentralising the security component of the galamsey fight, for which reason it was important to re-emphasise the role and involvement of the REGSEC.



"What this means, in effect, is that unlike previously when the Lands Ministry controlled everything from Accra, the regional ministers, who are the heads of the REGSECs, will take charge of the security operations to weed out galamsey operators," he said.



He added that the decentralised galamsey fight called for all stakeholders, including chiefs, municipal and district chief executives (MDCEs) and residents of mining communities, to play their part to safeguard the environment from further destruction.



Clarity



Mr Jinapor noted that under the instructions of the President, the ministry issued policy directives in respect of forest reserves and there had been a bit of confusion about them.



He said the first directive was that moving forward, the Forestry Commission (FC) should not issue forest entry permits for purposes of mining in forest reserves, and explained that the process was such that the final permit one required in order to be able to mine in a forest reserve was an entry permit.



The President got us to issue that instruction, which says that no more issuance of forest entry permits, and so from two weeks ago there cannot be fresh mining in forest reserves. If you had a mining lease and a forest entry permit before this instruction was given, you are not affected, he noted.



The minister explained that although the directive did not take retrospective effect, there was no longer the opportunity to undertake that exercise, saying:



From now onwards, if one gets a mining lease and goes to the Forestry Commission, the door is shut.



He stated that under the second directive, the President took the view that people come for prospecting, recognisance and / or exploration licences under the pretext that they want to go and explore for gold and yet proceed to mine.



Therefore, he got us to issue instructions which say from Friday, April 30, 2021, no prospecting, recognisance and / or exploration can take place in a forest reserve. So you cannot engage in prospecting, exploration and recognisance. Whether you have a licence or not, you are to cease, he explained.



Read also: Galamsey threatens water supply in Western region  GWCL

Restoring water bodies



Meanwhile, the Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), Dr Kwaku Afriyie, has hinted of plans to de-silt and restore the water bodies destroyed by illegal mining to their original forms.



He said the plans would be rolled out after the government had exhaustively dealt with the political and social menace of galamsey.



In an interview with the Daily Graphic, Dr Afriyie explained that the recent national dialogue on illegal mining was one of the ways in which the government was dealing with the political and social consequences of illegal mining.



He said once that aspect had been well established, MESTI would then task the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to de-silt and restore the polluted water bodies.



Although the minister did not say when the de-silting would begin, he was confident that his outfit would partner the Lands and Natural Resources Ministry to restore destroyed water bodies to their natural forms.



We will conserve the flora and fauna of our water bodies, he said.



Execute mandate with confidence



Dr Afriyie said he had tasked the EPA and all agencies under his ministry to ensure that they executed their mandate without fear or favour.



He said it was due to the lack of enforcement of the relevant laws that the country was faced with the challenges of galamsey and its social and political consequences.



We have all the laws, but enforcement is the problem, so I have asked the EPA and all agencies to enforce the laws, irrespective of the persons involved, he said.





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.

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The Ministry of Energy has stated that there is no nationwide load shedding neither has there been an attempt to embark on one.



It said outages being carried out in some areas were to allow for the contractors to tie in their works into the existing transmission lines.



It is, therefore, false to claim, as the Minority in Parliament has, that political pressure has been brought to bear on the publishing of a load shedding timetable, the ministry said in a statement in reaction to a press conference by the Minority in Parliament last Wednesday.



Context



At its press conference last Wednesday, the Ranking Member on the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament, Mr John Jinapor, alleged that the Ghana Grid Company had plans to publish a load shedding timetable for the country but was stopped by the government.



Read also: Utilise $1 billion sovereign bond to resolve energy crisis  John Jinapor

What is even more disturbing is despite confirmation from GRIDCo a couple of weeks ago that the country will continue to experience these power outages into the foreseeable future for which reason they promised to publish a load management schedule,the anticipated schedule has since been put on hold due to political pressure from the Executive.



He further urged the government to come clean on the real cause of the power challenges.



Response



But the Energy Ministry, in its response in a statement, explained that some of the projects ongoing in Accra and Kasoa, for example, required outages for some days.



The Pokuase timetable is out, starting from May 10 to May 17th, 2021. That of Kasoa is yet to be published and shall be released at the appropriate time when the necessary arrangements and consultations with the relevant stakeholders have taken place, it stated.



It explained that some of the intermittent outages were due to feeder outages in Kumasi arising from low water levels in the Bui Dam enclave.



Bui is a peaking plant for transmission services to Ashanti, Bono regions and the northern parts of Ghana. Bui is crucial in that it is able to energise the low voltages in power being supplied from the south into Ashanti and the north, it added.



Trips



The statement further explained that the Prestea-Obuasi Transmission line trips, leading to a total system shutdown, affected other adjacent lines that curtailed supply and caused a system shutdown.



It said there was also gas flow challenges upstream arising from challenges in the WAPCo supply line and gas compressor faults reported by the Ghana Gas Company Limited, while there were also localised outages within the distribution chain.



It gave the assurance that despite the inherent challenges in the transmission and distribution aspects of the power sector, systematic plans had been put in place by the government and its developmental partners such as the MCC, Siemens and the AFD to create stable power supply for the country.













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.

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The Coalition of La Associations (COLA) has asked the government to have confidence in their ability to manage resources and release their lands to them.



Addressing a press conference at La, the spokesperson of COLA, Mr Jeffrey Tetteh, reaffirmed that the consensus reached during their previous meeting with the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources still binds on the current Minister.



He stressed that any attempt to alter the earlier decisions or re-open negotiations on the matter will not only be a sign of disrespect to the Chiefs and people of La but also a mockery of the time-consuming two-year-long consensus-building process engaged in by all interested parties.



"We will not accept any attempt to renegotiate or alter the earlier decisions reached on the subject matter," he said.



Probe



The association is also calling on the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Alban Bagbin to institute a bi-partisan probe into the events on Thursday, April 15, 2021, in which the Ghana Armed Forces assaulted some civilians.



They also want the perpetrators especially those who issued the orders for the acts to face the laws of the state.



According to them, the people of La shall not relent on their efforts to gain control of lands fought for and gained through the toils and blood of their forefathers.



"We remain resolute and nothing will stop us," Mr Tetteh stressed.



They further indicated that the people of La have never given lands directly to the Ghana Armed Forces indicating that it is the government of Ghana they have over the years dealt with and that shall continue to deal with.



Speaking to Graphic Online after the press conference, the President of COLA, Mr Oscar Nii Odoi Glover, said the government must have confidence in the people of La and give back to them what is due them. He emphasised that the land when released to them will be used judiciously to the benefit of the entire La.



COLA also commiserated with all persons who were injured when the Ghana Armed Forces quelled a protest on Thursday (April 15, 2021) at La in Accra.























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.

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A High Court in Accra has placed an interlocutory injunction restraining the management of Stanbic Bank Ghana Limited from holding its 22nd Annual General Meeting (AGM).



According to the court order, the defendant is barred from holding the said meeting which is scheduled for May 5, 2021 on the 4th floor, Stanbic Heights, Airport, Accra or any venue in Ghana or beyond.



The order is to last for 10 days after which another application is to be repeated on notice.



The injunction follows a suit filed by Union Mortgage Bank Limited and a Real Property Consultant, Kwame Charles Serbeh-Yiadom, challenging the incorporation of Stanbic Bank Ghana Limited in accordance with the Companies Act, 1963 (Act 179).



The suit, filed by the plaintiffs lawyer, Kwaku Ansah Asare, against Stanbic Bank Ghana Limited and 15 other defendants, is challenging the manner in which Standard Bank Investment Corporation purportedly executed a share transfer agreement on March 3, 1999, in South Africa with persons who held themselves out as the original subscribers/shareholders of Union Mortgage Bank Limited (UMB).



Mr Serbeh-Yiadom, who was one of the two (2) original subscribers/shareholders of UMB, is contending that he was not privy to the transaction in South Africa between UMB and Standard Bank Investment Corporation even though he and Alhaji Fatawu El-Aziz, the first defendant, incorporated UMB Ltd.



He further argues that pursuant to the agreement between SBIC Africa Holdings Limited (SAHL), and UMB, the latter was required to acquire 3,257,350 ordinary shares at no par value representing 75.1% of the share capital of UMB Limited as a condition precedent to the changing of the name of Union Mortgage Bank Limited to Stanbic Bank Ghana Ltd.



He averred that SBIC Africa Holdings Limited has to date failed, refused or neglected to acquire 75.1% of the share capital of UMB Limited as stipulated in the agreement aforementioned.



The plaintiffs averred further that despite breaching the terms and conditions of the agreement, Alhaji Fatawu El-Aziz and one Edward Afriye purportedly changed the name of Union Mortgage Bank Limited into Stanbic Bank Ghana Limited by a special resolution dated July 27, 1999.



It is the case of the plaintiffs that the change of name UMB Limited to Stanbic Bank Ghana Limited on July 27, 1999, was procured by fraud because not only was Stanbic Bank Ghana Limited not in existence at that date but also, Edward Afriye with whom 1st defendant (Alhaji Fatawu El-Aziz) signed the Written Special Resolution was not an original subscriber/shareholder.



The plaintiff is alleging that the original subscribers/shareholders at incorporation were falsified from two to seven thereby making it fictitious.



Again, the plaintiffs alleged that the stated capital of UMB Limited on March 8, 1994, to wit the date of incorporation, was fraudulently altered to be GH1,080,000,000 as captured in the purported annual report returns filed by the defendants on August 20, 1999, and claimed the share transfer which was used to support the change of name did not exist as substantiated by a report of the Registrar of Companies dated May 7, 2020.



The plaintiff is insisting that he retains 500,000 shares in the company and 10,000 shares allotted to him by the bank is false and is part of the fraud complained of.



He wants a declaration that Union Mortgage Bank Limited was originally registered with the said name on March 8, 1994, with 10,000,000 ordinary shares of no par value with Prof. Serbeh-Yiadom and Alhaji Fatawu El-Aziz being its promoters and original subscribers/shareholders.



They also want a declaration that 10,000,000 shares were issued at incorporation and the same subscribed equally by Kwame Charles Serbeh-Yiadom with 500,000 shares worth GH500,000,000 and Alhaji Fatawu El-Aziz with 500,000 worth GH500,000,000.



They further want a declaration that Stanbic Bank Ghana Limited was originally registered as Union Mortgage Bank Limited on March 8, 1994, and that the change of name into Stanbic Bank Ghana Limited was procured by fraud.



In the substantive case, the bank has reportedly entered a conditional appearance and when the plaintiff received an invitation to the AGM, he went to court ex parte to stop the move.



It is unclear if the bank has been served with the processes stopping them from holding the AGM.









Source: Gibril Abdul Razak - Contributor / dailyguidenetwork.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.

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What started as a usual brotherly quarrel turned bloody when a 25-year old Benya Akromah stabbed his younger brother, Emmanuel Akromah, aged 18, to death at Essaman near Nkotompo, a suburb of Sekondi in the Western Region.



The Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Olivia Ewurabena Adiku, Head of Public Affairs Unit of the Western Regional Police Command told the Ghana News Agency that at about eleven fifty Thursday evening, the Sekondi Police received a complaint from Esi Kakraba, mother to the deceased about the incident.



She reported that her two sons engaged in a fight around 1900 hours at Essaman, with the elder brother allegedly slashing a sharp object around the throat of the younger.



She said, the deceased was subsequently rushed to the Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital (ENRH) and was admitted for treatment, but died few hours later.



The body of the deceased is currently deposited at the Takoradi Hospital Mortuary for preservation and autopsy, whilst Police investigations continued, the PRO added.

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.

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Former President John Mahama has disclosed one of the reasons that might have accounted for the National Democratic Congress (NDC's) inability to win the 2020 election.



The 2020 Presidential candidate of the NDC who challenged the results of the election in court made the disclosure at an annual conference of the party's Professionals Forum on Thursday.



According to him, every region was asked to account for its performance in the 2020 elections. They came with reports and there was one region who stated that some of our party agents were illiterate, they could not read or write...and the chairman asked, but who made them party agents?".



Adding so it is obvious that they themselves have started doing a review of what went right or what went wrong. What they did well, leading to a positive outcome and what they could have done better.



Two retreats



The former President further indicated that so far the main opposition party has held two retreats to analyse the party's performance in the 2020 election.



In this effort to look forward, we held two retreats. One for the Members of Parliament and I was privileged to attend that retreat with them. It was very interesting. They did a lot of soul-searching and discussed very openly the issues that had confronted them in the early days in Parliament.



Mr. speaker was there to give a very good speech to the Members of Parliament. We held another one for the party and party executives came from all around the regions and that was also a very positive retreat. Every region was asked to account for its performance in the 2020 elections and they came with reports.



It was obvious that they had all began to do their own reviews of what went right or wrong in their regions. You should have listened to some of the regional reports, they were very interesting. There was one region that said some of our party agents were illiterate, they couldnt read or write and the chairman asked, but who made them party agents?



IT Professionals



Mr. Mahama, has meanwhile, urged IT professionals in the party to "use information Technology and now IT is becoming very important in terms of transmitting results and getting results in good time to be able to undertake the political decision making that is needed. And so we will expect that you will offer your services more to the party in these critical areas".

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.

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Remember when people were frantically searching for COVID-19 vaccines, with some waiting weeks to get an appointment?

Those days are gone.

On the upside, vaccine supplies have dramatically improved in Pennsylvania. But now demand is diminishing, vaccine providers said.

Lebanon Countys mass vaccination site will close earlier than expected. The site finished giving first doses Thursday and expects to shut down by May 27, said Robert Dowd, Lebanon Countys director of emergency services.

The demand here has really fallen off a cliff, Dowd said.

The county set up the clinic in a former Kmart store and the first 3,000 appointments were filled in 24 hours, Dowd said. Fewer people have made appointments in recent weeks.

When we turned this site on, we anticipated running through the summer, at least through the middle of the summer, he said. To say it was unexpected is a fair statement. Nobody would have seen this steep a drop coming.

Other providers have seen similar drops in demand. UPMC and other providers say people can get an appointment within a day or two. Some providers are offering times where people can walk in without an appointment.

We definitely have seen the demand diminish, said John Goldman, UPMCs vice president of medical affairs.

The Vaccinate Lancaster clinic at Park City Center is seeing fewer people. On Thursday afternoon, visitors could walk in and have shots in their arms within minutes. Just a few weeks earlier, lines stretched outside the doors of the former Bon-Ton department store.

The clinic is giving out 650-800 first doses and 3,000 second doses per day, said Dr. Michael Ripchinski, site director for the Lancaster County Community Vaccination Center and chief clinical officer with Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health.

The Lancaster clinic will operate at least until early June and could stay open throughout June if people are still coming in for first doses in mid-May, Ripchinski said. Its not clear when the clinic will close up operations.

It will be open as long as I can make sure first doses get into arms, he said. We have to deliver second doses into May and into early June. Well determine a final date based on our interest for first doses.

Plenty of people are still getting vaccines. Over the past 7-day period, about 92,100 people have been vaccinated each day, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. But thats a drop of about 9-percent from the previous week, when 101,000 people were getting COVID-19 shots each day.

About half of all Pennsylvanians have had at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

We know thats not the finish line, said Dr. Denise Johnson, Pennsylvania Acting Physician General. Were looking at the reasons people are not coming in for vaccines.

With demand at clinics dropping, healthcare leaders face the challenge of reaching those who are reluctant or refusing to get the vaccine. A Muhlenberg College poll in April found 31% of those who havent had a COVID-19 vaccine said they dont plan on getting vaccinated. However, vaccine providers also must address issues of access, Johnson and others said.

The numbers may be dropping simply because a lot of people cant get to mass clinics, said Dr. Bernice Hausman, chair of the humanities department at Penn State College of Medicine.

We dont know if its soft demand or if its problems with access, said Hausman, who has studied vaccine hesitancy. We tend to downplay logistics. Logistical problems with access remain extremely significant.

Health officials are concerned about the drop as more young people are getting infected, including some with the UK variant. Across Pennsylvania, nearly 2,300 people are being treated for COVID-19 in hospitals.

Theres a lot of disease activity in our area, Goldman said. Right now its a race between the vaccine and the variants.

The UK variant is the most common type of COVID-19 infection in central Pennsylvania and around the country. Goldman offered a stark warning for those unsure about getting vaccinated.

If you choose not to get the vaccine, you are in fact choosing to get the virus, Goldman said.

Nurse Marilou Espiritu-Cockroft administers the Moderna vaccine to Minh Dam of Harrisburg at the clinic. The Latino Connection COVID-19 mobile unit stopped at Hadee Mosque in Harrisburg for a vaccination clinic on Monday, April 26. Providers are launching more mobile clinics to vaccinate people in under-served areas. | Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com

A shift in the rollout

Stephanie Andreozzi, co-lead of WellSpan Healths vaccination team, said she hoped the high demand for the vaccine would last longer.

I think every health care provider was hoping to see that same level of interest and urgency in the January, February, March timeframe, she said. I think were seeing that interest drop off.

Now, the rollout is entering a new phase, Andreozzi and other providers said.

Providers are taking vaccines to underserved communities in inner cities and rural areas where people cant get to mass clinics. Officials say they have to get shots to those who are largely homebound, due to age or disabilities.

Were really starting to see our work shift away from the large vaccination sites to efforts to take our vaccines to our communities, said Andreozzi.

Health care providers are setting up mobile clinics in Black and Latino neighborhoods. Black and Latino residents are far more likely to be hospitalized if they are infected with COVID-19, studies have shown.

Vaccine providers said they are working with community leaders in the Black community, who have a historic and well-earned mistrust of the medical establishment. Johnson said the state is engaging trusted messengers to reach minority communities, such as physicians and faith leaders.

We know that many people will trust the information coming from someone they know, Johnson said.

The state is also going to be giving vaccines to a wider number of providers, Johnson said.

The state had reserved vaccine supplies to a few hundred large providers that could distribute vaccines quickly. Now, Johnson said its time to get vaccines into more outlets, including local pharmacists.

Some people are waiting to get vaccinated at their employers, Andreozzi said, underscoring that some people cant easily leave their jobs to go get a shot.

Vaccine providers are also aiming to vaccinate college students. WellSpan has organized or scheduled clinics at York College of Pennsylvania, Gettysburg College and Wilson College. Vaccinate Lancaster held a College Day Friday.

The state is urging college students to get their first shot before they go home for the summer. Johnson said the state is advising providers to have second doses available for college students who got their first shots on campus.

Nurse Marilou Espiritu-Cockroft administers the Moderna vaccine at the clinic. The Latino Connection COVID-19 mobile unit stops at Hadee Mosque in Harrisburg for a vaccination clinic on Monday, April 26. Providers say they are setting up more mobile or pop-up clinics to get vaccines out to those who can't easily get to mass clinics. | Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com

Dealing with hesitancy

While providers say they are working to make vaccines more accessible, health care officials recognize a significant bloc of people dont want the vaccines or are at least hesitant.

Vaccine providers urge those who are on the fence to talk to their doctors about their concerns. Health care officials urge people to consult healthcare professionals rather than relying on their own online research.

A lot of people are relying on Dr. Google, Goldman said.

Health care officials say a persistent challenge in the vaccination effort is the lingering concern among some that the vaccines arent safe. Doctors stress that the COVID-19 vaccines were heavily researched and side effects have been extraordinarily rare.

Some providers said the pause on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine hurt efforts to get people vaccinated.

The Johnson & Johnson pause was absolutely damaging to the vaccination initiative, said Dowd, the Lebanon County emergency services director.

If you were on the fence and saw that on the news, that steered you to no, he said.

The federal government recommended a pause earlier this month in the Johnson & Johnson vaccine after reports of rare but serious blood clots. Among the 7 million Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses administered, the clots were identified in 15 people, including one woman who died, officials said.

Regulators have lifted the pause and Pennsylvania has given providers the approval to resume giving the Johnson & Johnson vaccines. (Federal regulators stress women under 50 should be aware of the rare risk of blood clots with the J&J vaccine, a risk not found in the other COVID-19 vaccines.)

Doctors stress the odds of getting COVID-19 - and getting seriously ill - are far greater than the rare side effects.

Some providers say health care leaders must convince more of their own employees to get vaccinated. Nearly half of all nursing home employees declined to get vaccinated, according to a Pennsylvania Health Department study released earlier this month.

Theres still an alarming number of health care workers who are reluctant to get vaccinated, Dowd said.

Health care providers are also seeing resistance to the vaccine from those who have already had COVID-19.

Doctors say even those who have been infected may not be protected from other variants. Healthcare experts stress those who have had COVID-19 will get more protection from vaccination.

Weve seen a fair amount of hesitancy from individuals who have already been infected, Andreozzi said. You think youll be OK. But the natural immunity is not as strong or effective.

Doctors and other healthcare officials need to listen to why people are wary of the vaccine, said Hausman of Penn State. Its not effective to label someone who is hesitant as anti-science or apathetic to others. Thats a really bad approach, she said.

The way you overcome it is by listening seriously to peoples concerns and taking them seriously and understanding why they dont want to be vaccinated, Hausman said.
By ASHOK SHARMA, The Associated Press

NEW DELHI (AP)  A fire in a COVID-19 hospital ward in western India killed 18 patients early Saturday, as the country grappling with the worst outbreak yet steps up a vaccination drive for all its adults even though some states say dont have enough shots.

India on Saturday set yet another daily global record with 401,993 new cases, taking its tally to more than 19.1 million. Another 3,523 people died in the past 24 hours, raising the overall fatalities to 211,853, according to the Health Ministry. Experts believe both figures are an undercount.

The fire broke out in a COVID-19 ward on the ground floor and was extinguished within an hour, police said. The cause is being investigated.

Thirty-one other patients at the Welfare Hospital in Bharuch, a town in Gujarat state, were rescued by hospital workers and firefighters and their condition was stable, said police officer B.M Parmar. Eighteen others died in the blaze and smoke before rescuers could reach them, Parmar said.

On April 23, a fire in an intensive care unit killed 13 COVID-19 patients in the Virar area on the outskirts of Mumbai.

Eight COVID-19 patients, including a doctor, died at a New Delhi hospital after it ran short of oxygen supplies, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. There was no confirmation by hospital officials.

The New Delhi television news channel also said an attorney for the Batra hospital told a New Delhi court that the hospital ran out of oxygen supply for 80 minutes on Saturday before the tank was replenished.

A wreath lies on the coffin of a COVID-19 victim before his cremation in Jammu, India, Friday, April 30, 2021. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)AP

Hospitals in the Indian capital have been complaining of emergencies caused by irregular oxygen supplies by manufacturers due to the sudden rise in demand.

Faced with an unprecedented surge in cases that has filled hospitals and crematoriums, Prime Minister Narendra Modis government described the pandemic as a once-in-a-century crisis. Modi held a Cabinet meeting Friday that discussed steps to save the countrys crumbling health system by adding hospital beds, resolving issues in production, storage and transport of oxygen and tackling the shortage of essential medicines.

Television images showed a woman gasping for breath in her car while her family looked for a hospital bed on the outskirts of New Delhi.

The 33-year-old woman couldnt find room at three hospitals and died in the car on Friday, The Times of India newspaper reported.

Hospitals in the Indian capital have been complaining of disruption in oxygen supplies by manufacturers due to sudden rise in demand caused by the massive spike in coronavirus infections.

The government on Saturday shifted its faltering vaccination campaign into high gear by saying all adults 18 and over were getting their shots.

Since January, nearly 10% of Indians have received one dose, but only around 1.5% have received both, although India is one of the worlds biggest producers of vaccines.

A woman receives the AstraZeneca vaccine for COVID-19 at a hospital in Prayagraj, India, Saturday, May 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)AP

Some states already said they dont have enough doses for everyone. Even the ongoing effort to inoculate people above 45 is stuttering.

The state of Maharashtra has said it wont be able to start on Saturday. Satyender Jain, the health minister in the capital, New Delhi, said earlier this week that the city doesnt have enough doses to vaccinate people between 18 and 44.

The U.S. meanwhile joined a growing list of countries restricting travel from India, the White House said, citing the devastating rise in COVID-19 cases and the emergence of potentially dangerous variants of the coronavirus.

President Joe Biden spoke Monday with Modi about the growing health crisis and pledged to immediately send assistance. This week, the U.S. began delivering therapeutics, rapid virus tests and oxygen to India, along with some materials needed for India to boost its domestic production of COVID-19 vaccines.

Additionally, a CDC team of public health experts was expected to be on the ground soon to help Indian health officials move to slow the spread of the virus.

Other nations have also sent assistance, and the Indian air force airlifted oxygen containers from Singapore, Dubai and Bangkok.

More:

22 patients die at hospital in India after oxygen supply was cut off by leak

Indias crematoriums overwhelmed as variant leads to surge: It is as if we are in the middle of a war
A new office in the Harrisburg area has huddle rooms, phones booths and a cafe.

Windward Engineers and Consultants will move into the new 7,148-square-foot office at 777 E. Park Drive in Lower Paxton Township. Windward is moving from its office on North Second Street in Harrisburg. And the new location isnt just another old school office.

Nelson Worldwide provided interior design services while Windward was a security consultant, and lighting designer for the project, which was completed last month.

When conceptualizing the new space, Windward expressed the importance of catering to its employees different work styles, Winward and Nelson said in a press release. The Nelson team prioritized the introduction of huddle rooms and phone booths that can also serve as personal office space. The large outdoor patio accessible through the multifunctional cafe provides opportunities for collaboration and socialization. It is also equipped with WiFi and the appropriate electrical connections for outdoor working.

Windward has completed construction on its new office in Lower Paxton Township. (Provided)

The new office includes a cafe, huddle rooms, a conference room, a wellness room, a lighting lab, print/copy space, flexible furniture and an outdoor patio.

The wellness lab offers a private place of respite for employees to step away from their desks during the day.

The design team used Nelsons Philadelphia office as inspiration for the sleek finishes to the flexible furniture, while embracing the Windward brand colors of white, grey, and blue throughout, Winward said in a press release. Subtle nods to the Harrisburg area are incorporated by naming the conference rooms after local neighborhoods and landmarks, such as Spring Creek and [the] Farm Show. Additionally, Windward named one of the huddle rooms 114  paying homage to its previous office location at 114 North 2nd Street.

Windward provides a variety of engineering and consulting services and has eight offices in six states.

--Business Buzz

You can follow Daniel Urie on twitter @DanielUrie2018 and you can like him on Facebook.
The Junta de Andalucia is working on a package of measures with the aim of making Andalucia the region with the lowest fiscal pressure in Spain. On Tuesday the Andalusian parliament voted to introduce some of these changes by decree this year, without waiting for a new law, the Ley de Tributos Cedidos, to come into force next year.

The term 'Tributos Cedidos' refers to taxes which are established and regulated by the State, but which are collected and sometimes managed by regional governments.

The package of new measures will apply to six sections: personal income tax, wealth tax, inheritance and gift tax, tax on property transfers and documented legal acts, a special tax on certain means of transport and taxes on gaming.

The changes which will come into force this year are the reduction of the tax on property transfers and documented legal acts, and this is expected to benefit 275,000 people.

According to the Junta, this has been done to avoid a situation where a reduction which will benefit property buyers paralyses the market in the months until the new law comes into force.

The decree reduces the amount of tax which is applicable to property transfers and the tax which applies to notarised documents. For example, if one individual sells a property valued at 180,000 euros to another individual, there will be a saving of 1,800 euros in tax.

As the measure means the overall price of new-builds will be lower, it is also expected to encourage more people to consider buying these.

The Junta believes that as well as boosting the property market, it will attract new investors and increase consumption in general. It says the increased economic activity will benefit the tax authorities through increased revenue from income tax and IVA.

It is calculated that this fiscal reduction will mean a loss of 24 million euros to the tax authorities, but they are confident not only that this sum can be recovered but that the measures will result in more revenue. The vice-president of the Junta, Juan Marin, says the experience of previous tax reductions has shown that every euro of reduction generates between two and three euros of economic growth.
By MENSAH M. DEAN, JULIE SHAW and VINNY VELLA, The Philadelphia Inquirer

PHILADELPHIA (AP)  Amid growing calls for police reform and national debate over the deadly use of force, police departments in Philadelphia and beyond are struggling to retain and attract officers, law enforcement officials say.

Across the region and the nation, police officials and union leaders described the state of recruiting as in crisis mode.

Its the perfect storm. We are anticipating that the department is going to be understaffed by several hundred members, because hundreds of guys are either retiring or taking other jobs and leaving the department, said Mike Neilon, spokesperson for the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge #5, the union that represents city police officers.

The pandemic has also hampered recruiting efforts, as has the relatively new requirement that police applicants live in the city, Neilon said.

All of that coming together is creating some issues with finding the best and brightest to sign up to be Philadelphia police officers, he said.

From Jan. 1 through Thursday, 79 Philadelphia officers have been accepted into the citys Deferred Retirement Option Program, meaning they intend to retire within four years, according to Mayor Jim Kenneys office. During the same time period last year, just 13 officers had been accepted into the program, the office said.

The Philadelphia Police Department is budgeted to have 6,380 officers, but currently has 6,112, leaving 268 vacancies, officials said.

Law enforcement officials attributed the decline in interest in police jobs to a confluence of events, from the national outcry over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the murder trial of his convicted killer, former Officer Derek Chauvin, to the fatal shooting of Walter Wallace Jr. at the hands of Philadelphia police to general mistrust of police authority.

Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura, far right, speaks during a rally in Newark, NJ. The Peoples Organization for Progress (POP) held the rally the day after the verdict in the Derek Chauvin case, April 21, 2021. Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media, filePatti Sapone | NJ Advance Media

Every action has a reaction. When you vilify every police officer for every bad police officers decision, (people) dont want to take this job anymore, said Pat Colligan, president of the New Jersey State Policemens Benevolent Association, the states largest police union

Its been a very trying and difficult time to put on the badge every day, he added. Theres a recruiting crisis.

Departments across the country are grappling with the fallout of Floyds murder, said Jack Rinchich, president of the 4,000-member National Association of Chiefs of Police.

Theres no doubt in my mind that whats transpiring in our nation today is contributing to the lack of retention and the difficulty in hiring new officers. A lot of cops right now in view of the environment are saying, Hey, Ive gone 20, 30 years without being sued, shot, or divorced. Im going to get out while I have an opportunity, " Rinchich said.

Officers are demoralized, he said, by some departments decisions to eliminate specialized units, such as SWAT and K-9 teams, and from local officials freezing and cutting police budgets and debating whether to strip officers of qualified immunity, which shields them from being sued in most cases.

Haverford Township Police Chief John Viola, who also serves as president of the Delaware County Police Chiefs Association, said larger departments that regularly fill recruit classes are trying to pump up falling numbers by making the application process more accessible.

Some departments are footing the bill for the police academy, an expense previously shouldered by prospective recruits. Others are waiving application fees as well, essentially eliminating the cost of entry to the department.

Its something that all departments have recognized as something thats getting harder and harder, Viola said. People dont want to be police anymore. Its a good job, and good-paying job, but when you look at national news every day, people just dont want to be officers.

His own department, in previous years, would get applicant pools of 200 or 300. So far during the current open call for applicants, which ended April 30, only 72 people applied, he said.

While outside the Prudential Center Serafina Farina, of Howell, greets a member of the State Police Mounted Patrol as she poses. She was there to see her son Peter, who was graduating with the 161st class, March 17, 2021, in Newark, N.J. Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media, file Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media

In New Jersey, Col. Patrick Callahan, the acting superintendent of the New Jersey State Police, said the states largest police agency is facing a historically low applicant pool this year.

As of Thursday morning, the agency had received 2,670 qualified applicants in its current recruitment drive.

The last time the agency had an online application process, he said, was two years ago, when 5,000 qualified applicants applied. And in 1993, when he applied to the force, there were about 15,000 applicants at a time when the police force had about the same size as today, he said.

Callahan agreed that, what we are seeing around the country with the killing of Floyd and others is contributing to the lower recruitment numbers.

Newly sworn in Pennsylvania State Troopers graduate from the State Police Academy as the 157th cadet class, Dec. 13, 2019, at the Scottish Rite Cathedral in Harrisburg, Pa. Mark Pynes | mpynes@pennlive.com/file

But there are some departments that have yet to experience recruitment declines.

From our perspective, the Pennsylvania State Police have never had a problem attracting applicants. Part of that has to do with the very attractive pay and benefits we offer our recruits, and the breadth and depth of opportunity that the department provides people to take on many roles and advance their career, said Ryan Tarkowski, state police spokesperson.

The starting salary, he said, is $63,364. We have far more applications coming in than we have spots available, he said.

Barnegat Police Chief Keith Germain said his Ocean County, N.J., department has seen an increase in applicants. Last year, about 400 people signed up for an application test compared to about 200 a decade ago, he said.

He credited the rise in applicants to increasing salaries in the department, where officers can now make as much as $130,000 within five years, and to department recruiting advertisements on Facebook.

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AUSTIN, Texas  The U.S. Army on Friday confirmed for the first time that slain Spc. Vanessa Guillen was sexually harassed and further retaliated against at Fort Hood, as her family in Houston has consistently alleged in their fight for criminal justice reform in the military.

In late summer 2019, Guillen, who was then a private first class, was the victim of sexual harassment after her superior in a troop orderly room tried to solicit her in Spanish to participate in a threesome, according to a report released Friday from an investigation led by Gen. John Murray, the commander of the Army Futures Command based in Austin.

Guillens superior would then go on to target her, calling her out in front of her peers and consistently making an example out of her, the report said.

During a field training exercise, this same supervisor encountered Spc. Guillen while she performed personal hygiene in the wood line and Spc. Guillen reported that this made her uncomfortable, the report said, adding that Guillen was adamant about not wanting to get in trouble by telling what happened.

Guillen first reported the incident to another supervisor and fellow soldier, before confiding in two more of her peers after that supervisor had noticed she was acting differently and asked if she was OK, according to the report. However, the investigation summary says Guillen did not want to make a formal complaint.

The report indicates that Guillen informally reported that she was sexually harassed on two occasions, and in both instances her supervisor failed to report the harassment, and other leaders failed to take appropriate action, the report said.

From Sept. 16, 2019, until Oct. 9, 2019, two soldiers did report the incident to Guillens unit leadership, who failed to initiate an investigation, the report said.

Guillens fellow soldiers, during the course of Murrays investigation, said the supervisor pulled Guillen and another soldier out of formation after the second incident, saying he wanted to apologize face to face for accidentally walking up on her in the field. The soldier who was present during the conversation said the superior assured Guillen during the exchange that she wasnt in trouble.

Guillen, who told Fort Hood soldiers that the supervisor during the second incident knew she was there but did nothing to avoid her and even shined his flashlight toward her body as she washed up in the woods, said to the supervisor, Of course Im not in trouble  maybe you are.

Maj. Gen. Gene LeBoeuf, chief of staff for the U.S. Army Forces Command, said Friday that privacy concerns kept him from releasing the name of the superior accused of sexually harassing Guillen. However, he did say the person was one among 14 Fort Hood leaders who were either fired or suspended for their actions related to Guillens disappearance and death.

LeBoeuf on Friday said, so far, 21 people in the U.S. Army at Fort Hood have received punitive actions for their involvement in Guillens case, those actions including firings, suspensions and reprimands.

Attorney Natalie Khawam, who represents the Guillen family, released a statement on the findings of the investigation Friday, saying soldiers would continue to go unprotected from sexual assault and sexual harassment in the military until laws were passed to further protect them from abuse.

We, the Guillen family and I, have found many inconsistencies in this report, Khawam said. Vanessas case was severely mishandled. We are upset that theres a lot of redactions and arent being provided the names, especially the soldiers that were sexually harassing her. Its heartbreaking and frustrating for all of us. So many errors from commanders down.

Authorities suspect a fellow Fort Hood soldier, Spc. Aaron Robinson, beat Guillen to death with a hammer in an armory room on post the morning of April 22, 2020. Robinson fatally shot himself July 1 as authorities tried to question him, according to Killeen police.

Before Guillens remains were discovered at the end of June, her family led protests outside Fort Hood demanding more answers about the search for their then-missing sister. Guillens mother, Gloria, revealed that her daughter had confided to her that multiple soldiers had been sexually harassing her on post. One of the soldiers Guillen said was harassing her was Robinson, according to the family.

Army officials at the time had maintained that no evidence substantiated any allegations of sexual harassment that were connected to Guillens death.

Nevertheless, the public rallied behind the Guillen family, triggering a viral social media hashtag, #IAmVanessaGuillen, that hundreds of service members used to share their own experiences with sexual misconduct in the military.

Many of their stories were similar, often saying the military did little or nothing to investigate the incidents or prosecute the offenders. In many of the social media posts, soldiers said they never reported their experiences out of fear of retaliation.

The #IAmVanessaGuillen movement would eventually morph into the I Am Vanessa Guillen Act, a bill that, if signed into law, would allow investigators outside a soldiers direct chain of command to investigate instances of sexual abuse in the military.

Lawmakers in support of the I Am Vanessa Guillen Act say current Army protocols are flawed and problematic because the investigators are often those in a victims direct chain of command and frequently have personal relationships with those accused of a crime and the victim who is reporting it. As a result, victims fear retaliation if those investigators fail to properly investigate without bias.

LeBoeuf said Friday that Murrays investigation found no evidence that Robinson had sexually harassed Guillen, although evidence showed he did sexually harass another soldier. However, the report did unveil new details about how, as a possible homicide suspect, Robinson managed to escape Fort Hood.

Fridays report confirmed it was poor communication by Fort Hood leaders that contributed to Robinson being able to slip away from custody after being told he had broken coronavirus pandemic protocols, The Washington Post first reported early Friday.

Agents with the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command requested Robinson be held in a conference room by an unarmed guard so they could question him about Guillens death. However, Fort Hood leaders failed to let the soldier who was watching him know that Robinson was suspected of killing Guillen.

During that time, Robinson, who had his cellphone, called his mother to say, Dont believe what you hear about me.

Robinson ran out of the conference room and left Fort Hood. Details about how he got past gate security and gained access to the gun that he used to kill himself is still being withheld pending the results of a criminal investigation.

Murrays investigation did not include criminal misconduct connected to Guillens disappearance and death. The FBI, the Army Criminal Investigation Command and other law enforcement agencies under the supervision of the U.S. attorneys office are still actively investigating those matters, according to the report.

The investigation was also separate from the Fort Hood Independent Review Committee, a group of former military and law enforcement agents who found, according to a report released in December, that Fort Hood leaders created a permissive environment that led to a culture of crimes involving sexual assault and sexual harassment.

Murrays investigation was tasked with looking into how unit leaders at various levels responded to Guillens disappearance and death. It also investigated the allegations of sexual harassment against Guillen, the allegations of sexual harassment committed by Robinson, and problems within the 3rd Cavalry Regiments Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention program.

The report from Murrays investigation also said the acting senior commander of Fort Hood at the time failed to effectively engage the media and the public after Guillens disappearance.

This failure contributed to an inability to inform and educate the public in a timely manner, as well as a failure to maintain transparency with the Guillen family.

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A Jersey City High School teacher has been suspended after going on two profanity-laced rants aimed at students in his class, the superintendent said.

Howard Zlotkin, a science teacher at Dickinson High School, turned a Zoom class discussion on climate change into a vulgar verbal attack toward his students, according to a video clip that aired on NBC New York Friday.

In the recording of the Zoom class taken by one of the students, Zlotkin appears highly agitated and is heard making remarks about Black Lives Matter, George Floyd, white privilege and a student. Zlotkin is white, while Dickinson boasts a diverse student body population.

Timmia Williams, a 17-year-old senior who was cursed at by the teacher, told NBC New York the tirade focused on four Black students.

I hear people whining and crying about Black Lives Matter, but George Floyd was a f------ criminal and he got arrested and he got killed because he wouldnt comply and the bottom line is we make him a f------ hero, Zlotkin said in the video. I dont think you can make a case. You know what Timmia? Youre full of s--t too.

At one point in the brief clip, Zlotkin raises both hands to give students the finger.

Timmia said Zlotkin ordered four students to write an essay.

Superintendent Franklin Walker called the harsh language unacceptable. He said the district is investigating the situation and that police have also been notified because some of it could be at the same level as a hate crime.

Zlotkin, who is getting paid during his suspension, could not be reached for comment. The teachers union declined to comment until it has more information, union president Ron Greco said.

The comments that were made were very biased and he shouldnt be having that kind of discussion with the children  that had nothing to do with the subject matter in the classroom, Walker said. The position that he put the children in certainly was a very uncomfortable one by doing and saying those kinds of things.

Zlotkin has been at Dickinson High School for 20 years, teaching various courses like Biology, Science and Landscape and Design.

He also has been suspended with pay from his adjunct professor position at Hudson County Community College, HCCC spokeswoman Jennifer Christopher said. She said his offensive and derogatory language is in violation of the colleges anti-harassment policy and professional conduct policy.

Walker said students will be offered counseling to discuss their feelings over what was heard in the online class.

We know it affected them some type of way, Walker said. If this is the way this (teacher) feels then it means that there are other things that certainly may have gone on, things that were said to address what his personal feelings are, which have no place in the classroom with our children.

I was disheartened to see the video of a teacher in one of our Jersey City public schools verbally attacking Black students and making insensitive accusations and judgements about George Floyd, Assemblywoman Angela McKnight said of the incident. I have been informed that the teacher has been suspended but I am calling for him to be fired. This type of attitude cannot be tolerated in our school system.

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ORLANDO, Fla. (AP)  When Rep. Matt Gaetz vacationed in the Bahamas in 2018, he was joined by a doctor who donated to his campaign and a former colleague in the Florida Legislature.

The Republican congressman, Dr. Jason Pirozzolo and Halsey Beshears were united in their enjoyment of politics, fancy travel and the company of beautiful women. They also had another mutual interest: Floridas $1.2 billion medical marijuana industry.

The Bahamas trip is a central element of a federal investigation surrounding Gaetz that has suddenly endangered his political career. What began as an inquiry into sex trafficking and whether Gaetz paid women and an underage girl in exchange for sex has grown into a larger review of public corruption, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Investigators are looking at whether Gaetz and his associates tried to secure government jobs for some of the women, the people said. They are also scrutinizing Gaetzs connections to the medical marijuana sector, including whether Pirozzolo and others sought to influence legislation Gaetz sponsored. The investigation includes legislation from 2018, when Gaetz was in Congress, and earlier work in the Legislature, according to one of the people.

Pressure on the congressman could build in the coming weeks as Joel Greenberg, a Gaetz associate who has been accused of trafficking a minor for sex, faces a May 15 deadline to strike a plea deal with prosecutors. If he does, Greenberg may be pressed to cooperate with federal investigators and deliver damaging information against Gaetz.

None of the people on the trip to the Bahamas has been charged with a crime. Gaetz has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and has retained high-powered lawyers.

A spokesman for Gaetz said Saturday that Gaetz is a long-time policy expert on marijuana liberalization and passed legislation on the matter as far back as 2013. Rep. Gaetz has never been influenced by outside groups to take a stance on any given position.

Beshears and a lawyer for Pirozzolo declined to comment for this story.

The Associated Press spoke with more than 10 people familiar with the dynamic among Gaetz, Pirozzolo and Beshears. Three of the people had knowledge of the investigation. They all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to publicly discuss the ongoing investigation.

Gaetzs interest in medical marijuana dates back nearly a decade, when he was a member of the Florida House of Representatives. Well before he would gain national attention for his steadfast support of Donald Trump, Gaetz would carve out an unusual reputation in Tallahassee as a Republican who wanted to liberalize marijuana laws.

In February 2014, Gaetz co-sponsored the first state effort to allow marijuana for medical use. His proposal allowing the use of a nonhallucinogenic marijuana extract was limited to patients with cancer or a severe form of epilepsy and slowly earned the support of his father, Don Gaetz, who was then serving as president of the Florida Senate and said he was being pummeled by his son about supporting it.

Gaetz cast his proposal as a pared-down alternative to a statewide ballot measure that would have broadly legalized medical marijuana. Gaetzs law was approved with broad bipartisan support and signed into law by Republican Gov. Rick Scott in June 2014, while the statewide measure narrowly failed at the ballot box that November.

The day Gaetzs measure was up for a final debate and vote in the Florida House, both Pirozzolo and Beshears were on the floor.

Beshears was a fellow Republican member of the Legislature who joined Gaetz to support the legislation. Pirozzolo, an Orlando hand doctor and pilot, was there serving as the physician of the day for the lawmakers  a role he would frequently take on by flying his own plane to Tallahassee.

Once the legislation passed, it created lucrative new opportunities for Beshears family and Pirozzolo.

The long-standing nursery owned by Beshears family was awarded one of five highly coveted licenses to cultivate and dispense medical marijuana.

The legislation was written to specify  and restrict  who could win such a license. An amendment added by another lawmaker in the state House limited the pool of applicants to nurseries that had been in continuous business for 30 years and had an inventory of 400,000 or more plants.

The Beshears family nursery, joining with two other growers, met that standard.

The Tampa Bay Times reported in 2014 that Beshears had failed to file a conflict of interest report when he voted on the bill, and the lawmaker who sponsored the amendment wanted to err on the side of limiting who could qualify now when embarking on such a new industry. More licenses have since been awarded, but the industry is still tightly controlled.

Another amendment added to the 2014 legislation the day Pirozzolo watched in the state House required dispensary applicants to employ a doctor as a medical director.

Eight days later, Pirozzolo started a consulting firm connecting marijuana businesses with medical directors, the Orlando Sentinel reported. He later co-founded a group called the American Medical Marijuana Physicians Association, which advocates for doctors who recommend medical cannabis.

Gaetz has spoken at least twice at the associations annual conferences, including an appearance with longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone, according to the groups social media posts and the recollections of a member.

With recommendations from Gaetz and Beshears in 2018, Pirozzolo was appointed by the current governor, Republican Ron DeSantis, to serve on a board that runs Orlando International Airport. In 2019, he stood next to DeSantis on an airport tarmac and greeted Trump as he arrived in Orlando to kick off his reelection campaign, according to video posted online by a Sentinel reporter.

Two years after Gaetzs first medical marijuana law, he sponsored another measure in the Legislature to expand on it, allowing near-death patients to use nonsmokable marijuana of all strengths and doses.

The day it came up for a vote in the state House, Beshears voted for it, and Pirozzolo witnessed it, again serving as the doctor of the day.

By the time Gaetz was in Congress in 2018, he introduced legislation that would increase the number of entities that would conduct cannabis research. The legislation included provisions similar to what Pirozzolos group was pushing to also expand research.

Nearly five months later, the men would meet in the Bahamas.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP)  A Philadelphia judge running for a seat on Pennsylvanias highest court is disavowing any connection to QAnon, even though she did an interview with supporters of the conspiracy theory who also listed her as a featured speaker at an upcoming gathering.

Common Pleas Court Judge Paula Patrick told The Philadelphia Inquirer that she had no connection to QAnon, the baseless belief that former President Donald Trump waged a secret battle against a cabal of satanic child-molesting cannibals.

Look, Im a judge, she said in an interview with The Inquirers editorial board on Thursday. Theres no way I would link myself to anything that would be questionable like that.

Patrick, 53, is running in the three-way Republican Party primary contest on May 18.

She has served on Philadelphias bench for 17 years, including stints in every major trial division on the court, and received the Pennsylvania Bar Associations highest possible rating. She also has run statewide before, twice unsuccessfully, for seats on lower state appellate courts.

The other candidates on the GOP ballot are Kevin Brobson and Patricia McCullough, both Commonwealth Court judges.

Many of those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 were wearing clothes or holding signs adorned with symbols of the QAnon conspiracy theory. An FBI bulletin in 2020 warned that conspiracy theory-driven extremists have become a domestic terrorism threat.

Patrick said she wasnt invited to the Patriots Arise, Awakening the Dead! event in Gettysburg in June, which says it will feature speeches about how to fight the socialist left. Patrick did not plan to attend and had never heard of it before, she said. By Friday, her name had been removed from the site.

However, in recent weeks, Patrick sat for an interview on a YouTube and podcast show hosted by the two conservative social media personalities and self-described prophets who are organizing the event.

The website for their group is full of references to QAnon. But Patrick said she hadnt researched the podcast and wasnt aware of their views on QAnon. Rather, she said she thought the show was targeted to a Christian audience.

I just did an interview with reference to my candidacy, and that was it. I didnt know anything else about any conspiracy theories, Patrick told the Inquirer.

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WILLIAMSPORT-The investigation into the shooting death of a Lycoming County man continues with no charges filed against the person who admitted firing the fatal shot.

Jeremy Weston told Old Lycoming Twp. police he shot Brian M. Miller, 44, of Hughesville, in self-defense outside a mobile home in the Fairlawn Trailer Court in Lycoming Twp. north of Williamsport Thursday evening.

District Attorney Ryan C. Gardner confirmed that Miller came at Weston but said he needs to review recorded statements of witnesses and a full autopsy report before determining if the shooting was justified.

An autopsy was conducted Friday but Coroner Charles E. Kiessling Jr. said until toxicology test results are received he will not know if drugs or alcohol were a factor.

Township police said when they responded about 6:50 p.m. they found Miller on the ground unresponsive from the gunshot wound to the chest. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Weston was detained, but later released. The weapon was legally registered to him, police said.

Prior to being shot, Miller was involved in a physical altercation with two women who lived in the trailer park, one of whom was an ex-girlfriend with a protection from abuse order against him, police said.

It was the second time in four months that Miller was involved in a physical altercation with the same women, Gardner confirmed.

The first was on Dec. 19 in the Pine Creek area of the county where state police said Miller and his ex-girlfriend were living together. The ex-girlfriend told police noise from another woman and her child baking cookies awoke Miller and he was angry.

Miller, who reportedly had mental health issues, started slamming doors and yelling obscenities, according to an arrest affidavit. The document gives this account of what happened next:

He attempted to leave but his truck would not start so he went back into the residence, retrieved a muzzleloader rifle and threatened to kill himself.

His ex-girlfriend tried to calm him down, took the rifle and handed it to a man who put it in the trunk of his vehicle.

When Miller discovered the weapon missing, he grabbed his ex-girlfriend and then the male, throwing him onto a bed.

The women and the male attempted to leave but he grabbed his former girlfriend by the hair, claimed he wanted to die and punched her in the head repeatedly causing her to fall to the floor, where he kicked her.

When the other woman tried to intervene Miller struck her in the chest causing her to fall and hit her head on the floor. When she again attempted to stop him, he struck her in the jaw and neck. She suffered a concussion.

As the two women and the male fled in their vehicles, Miller fired a shot in the air from the muzzleloader.

Miller was charged with simple assault and harassment and was free on $12,500 bail awaiting trial.
LOS ANGELES (AP)  Game of Thrones actor Esme Bianco sued Marilyn Manson on Friday, alleging sexual, physical and emotional abuse.

Mansons attorney called the allegations provably false.

In the lawsuit filed in federal court in Los Angeles, Bianco says that Manson violated human trafficking law by bringing her to California from England under the false pretenses of roles in music videos and movies that never materialized.

The lawsuit alleges that in 2009, Manson, whose legal name is Brian Warner, flew Bianco to Los Angeles to shoot a video for the song, I want to kill you like they do in the movies.

The suit says that Bianco was expected to stay at Mansons home instead of the hotel where she had been booked, and there was no crew, only Manson himself shooting with a phone.

Manson deprived Bianco of food and sleep though gave her alcohol and drugs, locked her in a bedroom, whipped her, gave her electric shocks, tried to force her to have sex with another woman and threatened to enter her room and rape her during the night, the suit alleges. No video was ever released.

Mansons attorney Howard E. King responded: These claims are provably false. To be clear, this suit was only filed after my client refused to be shaken down by Ms. Bianco and her lawyer and give in to their outrageous financial demands based on conduct that simply never occurred. We will vigorously contest these allegations in court and are confident that we will prevail.

Manson and Bianco began a long-distance relationship later in 2009, the suit says.

Manson again brought Bianco to Los Angeles in 2011, ostensibly to appear in his feature film Phantasmagoria, though that project also never materialized.

During that visit, Manson would not allow Bianco to leave home without his permission, chased her around their apartment with an ax, cut her with a Nazi knife without her consent and photographed the cuts and posted the pictures online, also without her consent, the lawsuit alleges.

It took Ms. Bianco years to understand the extent of Mr. Warners physical, sexual, psychological, and emotional abuse. Her career suffered due to the deterioration of her mental health, the suit says. She deals with complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, anxiety, depression, and panic attacks to this day as a result.

The Associated Press generally does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted, but Bianco said in a statement that she is coming forward publicly to air her allegations with hopes that others will do the same.

The lawsuit said that at the time, Bianco feared for her safety if she didnt comply with Mansons demands, and did not go to authorities. But her attorney Jay D. Ellwanger said she has now come forward and spoken to the FBI and local law enforcement.

Bianco first aired many of the allegations in February. She was one of several women who spoke out after actor Evan Rachel Wood said on social media that Manson sexually, physically and emotionally abused her during their relationship. Mansons record label and agents dropped him at the time.

In response to the allegations in February, Manson wrote on Instagram that they were horrible distortions of reality. My intimate relationships have always been entirely consensual with like-minded partners. Regardless of how  and why  others are now choosing to misrepresent the past, that is the truth.

Los Angeles County sheriffs detectives also said in February that they were investigating domestic violence allegations against Manson dating from 2009 to 2011 in West Hollywood. They did not identify the woman who made the report.

Bianco played Ros in the first three seasons of HBOs Game of Thrones.
The shadows of Harrisburgs long-running debt crisis spilled into the hotly contested mayors race Saturday, as candidates Wanda Williams and Otto V. Banks tagged each other with responsibility for the citys long legacy of financial problems at an afternoon forum sponsored by the grassroots group Concerned About the Children of Harrisburg, or CATCH.

The firefight spiced up a forum in which three of the five Democratic candidates for mayor, Williams, Banks and the incumbent mayor, Eric Papenfuse, had a chance to lay out their competing visions of the role of Harrisburgs city government in a hoped-for city renaissance.

It started, when Williams, the current president of city council, took aim at a major campaign theme of Papenfuses.

As he seeks a third term, the mayor likes to take credit for having steered the city government back from the brink of bankruptcy to the point where he says City Hall is filled with functioning departments again, the budgets are balanced with the help of a state-approved extension of its expanded taxing authority, and private investment is coming back into the city.

Williams pushed back on that, arguing in reality it was her city council, in collaboration with then-Mayor Linda Thompson, who steered the city through a period of court-supervised receivership in which the so-called Harrisburg Strong plan was developed, which led to the sell-off of the citys incinerator and parking assets to help restructure its crushing debt.

Williams argument is that the heavy lifting on the debt crisis was already done before Papenfuse came into office, and that the current mayor has largely been riding fiscal currents that were set in motion in 2013, when he was first running for office.

The mayor had nothing to do with the restructuring of that debt. When he came here, we were debt free, and we had already sold most of our assets. We had to do that, Williams said, citing her role in holding three different mayors accountable as a member of city council.

We worked to make sure that we got that debt restructured so that it wouldnt impact the residents of the city.

Williams was a part of a group of council members that actually blocked Thompsons initial attempts to enter into a debt restructuring package. They hired an attorney in October 2011 to try to move the city into bankruptcy, arguing that that was the best way to shield city residents and taxpayers from paying for the mistakes and misjudgments of out-of-town bond dealers and contractors.

Councils bankruptcy petition was rejected in federal court.

Williams, however, contends that her early fights ultimately led to a better result for city residents.

Banks was one of six council members to vote for the major incinerator renovation in 2003 thats blamed with starting Harrisburgs plunge into fiscal chaos. He was voted off the board two years later, and before the full scope of the citys fiscal problems become fully clear, largely because he had switched his political party membership to Republican.

After leaving the council, Banks joined President George W. Bushs administration in Washington, eventually rising to become the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Development in the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Banks switched back to the Democratic Party last year. He has said he found it impossible to be part of a party that is being led by someone who I believe is a racist.

Council members from that era have repeatedly blamed Reed for hiding key aspects of the incinerator retrofit - like the fact that the prime contractor, Barlow Projects, didnt qualify for a performance bond, which would have shielded the city from some of the financial losses if it failed to deliver a successful project.

On Saturday, after listening to Williams take her bow, Banks said the subsequent city councils - which Williams has sat on since 2006 - were negligent on oversight for the next five years, as Harrisburgs debt mushroomed to $362.5 million.

They just sat there, Banks said of the subsequent councils. Because if they were doing their job, the city would have not been in the financial position that it was in, and that we found ourselves in.

That brought Williams fiery personality to the forefront. She pointed out Banks support for the $125 million bond guarantee in 2003 that was a key to the incinerator retrofit being pushed by then-Mayor Stephen R. Reed. So dont mistake that, Mister Banks, Williams said, because you were here and part of that financial debacle.

Off-mic, Banks accused Williams of lying, and he challenged her to start telling the truth.

You do (tell the truth) too, like you dont live in the city, Williams counter-punched with a reference to legal challenges early in this campaign to whether Banks truly lives in the city.

Petitioners in that case argued Banks has changed his residence on paper from Swatara Township to a home on South 19th Street, but he doesnt really live there.

Dauphin County Judge Andrew Dowling threw out the case, holding that while the evidence is clear that Banks has not stayed at the 19th Street residence every night since acquiring it in August 2020, there was enough evidence presented of sincere intent to establish it as his permanent residence.

Papenfuse, of course, had his own role in the incinerator debt crisis. As an appointee to the Harrisburg Authority board, Papenfuse launched his political career as one of the earliest whistleblowers against Reeds bond deals.

Almost as soon as the fireworks erupted, the embers faded.

Williams had to leave the CATCH forum early because of a personal engagement, and Banks left shortly after Williams to make other events on his packed Saturday campaign calendar.

But Banks, before he left, said he entered this years race because as much as Papenfuse and Williams have said theyve done for the city, nothing has changed here in the city of Harrisburg... Were still dealing with chronic unemployment. Were still dealing with police brutality, hyper-violence and a poor school district.

Were also still dealing with a leadership who pretty much has a blind eye to the needs of the people in this community. I want to be the mayor for all the city of Harrisburg, and not just a segment of the city... Thats the reason why Im running, because Im sick and tired of being sick and tired.

That left Papenfuse to circle back to his opening theme, that the city is shaking off its debt hangover, and is poised for a better future.

Papenfuse said he has high hopes that Harrisburgs recent burst of development will pay off with new job opportunities for residents, and he stressed his early support for moving Harrisburg School District into state receivership as the best way to quickly transform the citys struggling schools, which the mayor said has to be another part of the answer to addressing long-term, systemic inequities.

The two other candidates seeking the Democratic nomination, Dave Schankweiler, the founder and former publisher of the Central Penn Business Journal, and Kevyn Knox, general manager of the Harrisburg Midtown Arts Center, were not in attendance at the CATCH forum. Knox and Shankweiler cited schedule conflicts.

The primary election is May 18. The last day to register to vote in the primary is Monday.
By Josh Shapiro and Shira Goodman

On Jan. 6, armed insurrectionists attacked the U.S Capitol and the world learned what we already knew: domestic extremists present a serious, credible, dangerous threat to our democracy and to all Americans. We can find the seeds of that threat right here in Pennsylvania; we are one of the states with the highest number of residents arrested as a result of the insurrection at the Capitol.

These numbers are alarming  but we are encouraged that now, more than any other time in recent memory, Pennsylvanians acknowledge this threat and want to know how we can protect against it.

The threat is not new; this has been a persistent and growing problem through our entire history. On Oct. 27, 2018, a white supremacist motivated by antisemitism and xenophobia murdered eleven people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. The attack fit a pattern of increasing violence, and law enforcement has noted an increase in extremist-related terror plots or attacks over the year before.

Pennsylvania is home to ongoing extremist activity, which can threaten to boil over into violence and unrest. White supremacists have increasingly engaged in propaganda efforts in recent years, with the numbers of flyering and stickering incidents more-than-doubling every year since 2016.

In 2020, extremists hosted at least eight in-person events in Pennsylvania, the most in the last five years. These included protests and flash demonstrations, white power concerts and private swastika burnings - similar to the cross burnings popular with groups like the KKK. In one notable incident, approximately 15 individuals associated with the National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi group, marched through Brandon Park in Williamsport carrying flags with swastikas during their national meeting.

We can and must fight domestic extremists while also ensuring that we protect civil rights and civil liberties, including the right of free speech, peaceful protest and petitioning your own government. This is no easy task. It requires a clear understanding of the nature and threat of domestic extremism, the tactics extremists use to engage and recruit, and the tools and resources needed to counter extremist activity.

We are committed to prioritizing this threat, providing resources to respond to these threats, and seeking to prevent the next generation of extremists.

Government cannot solve this problem alone. Educational institutions, the business community, and civil society must all commit to countering the threat. This includes providing people of all ages with the skills to identify disinformation and misinformation, recognize extremist rhetoric and activity, and understand how and when to confront it.

It also means holding social media platforms responsible for adhering to and enforcing their terms of service; they must do their part and reliably monitor activity to ensure they are not empowering or enabling extremist actors. We must empower Pennsylvanians to recognize and safely confront extremist ideologies when they are expressed by friends, families, and colleagues. There is power in personal connection, and we must harness this power as part of the frontline fight against extremism.

It is difficult to accept that our neighbors and colleagues may be engaged with groups that pose such a serious threat to our safety and our democracy. But Jan. 6 brought the issue right into our homes. We must meet this threat with all the resources at our disposal.

Our organizations are working together to combat extremism, and we call on law enforcement and leadership across Pennsylvania to take meaningful action to address this threat. Thats what is required to keep Pennsylvania safe.

Josh Shapiro is the Attorney General of Pennsylvania, and Shira Goodman is the Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League.
You decide to call a store that sells some hiking boots youre thinking of buying. As you dial in, the computer of an artificial intelligence company hired by the store is activated. It retrieves its analysis of the speaking style you used when you phoned other companies the software firm services. The computer has concluded you are friendly and talkative. Using predictive routing, it connects you to a customer service agent who company research has identified as being especially good at getting friendly and talkative customers to buy more expensive versions of the goods theyre considering.

This hypothetical situation may sound as if its from some distant future. But automated voice-guided marketing activities like this are happening all the time.

If you hear This call is being recorded for training and quality control, it isnt just the customer service representative theyre monitoring.

It can be you, too.

When conducting research for my forthcoming book, The Voice Catchers: How Marketers Listen In to Exploit Your Feelings, Your Privacy, and Your Wallet, I went through over 1,000 trade magazine and news articles on the companies connected to various forms of voice profiling. I examined hundreds of pages of U.S. and EU laws applying to biometric surveillance. I analyzed dozens of patents. And because so much about this industry is evolving, I spoke to 43 people who are working to shape it.

It soon became clear to me that were in the early stages of a voice-profiling revolution that companies see as integral to the future of marketing.

Thanks to the publics embrace of smart speakers, intelligent car displays and voice-responsive phones  along with the rise of voice intelligence in call centers  marketers say they are on the verge of being able to use AI-assisted vocal analysis technology to achieve unprecedented insights into shoppers identities and inclinations. In doing so, they believe theyll be able to circumvent the errors and fraud associated with traditional targeted advertising.

Not only can people be profiled by their speech patterns, but they can also be assessed by the sound of their voices  which, according to some researchers, is unique and can reveal their feelings, personalities and even their physical characteristics.

Flaws in targeted advertising

Top marketing executives I interviewed said that they expect their customer interactions to include voice profiling within a decade or so.

Part of what attracts them to this new technology is a belief that the current digital system of creating unique customer profiles  and then targeting them with personalized messages, offers and ads  has major drawbacks.

A simmering worry among internet advertisers, one that burst into the open during the 2010s, is that customer data often isnt up to date, profiles may be based on multiple users of a device, names can be confused and people lie.

Advertisers are also uneasy about ad blocking and click fraud, which happens when a site or app uses bots or low-paid workers to click on ads placed there so that the advertisers have to pay up.

These are all barriers to understanding individual shoppers.

Voice analysis, on the other hand, is seen as a solution that makes it nearly impossible for people to hide their feelings or evade their identities.

Building out the infrastructure

Most of the activity in voice profiling is happening in customer support centers, which are largely out of the public eye.

But there are also hundreds of millions of Amazon Echoes, Google Nests and other smart speakers out there. Smartphones also contain such technology.

All are listening and capturing peoples individual voices. They respond to your requests. But the assistants are also tied to advanced machine learning and deep neural network programs that analyze what you say and how you say it

Amazon and Google  the leading purveyors of smart speakers outside China  appear to be doing little voice analysis on those devices beyond recognizing and responding to individual owners. Perhaps they fear that pushing the technology too far will, at this point, lead to bad publicity.

Nevertheless, the user agreements of Amazon and Google  as well as Pandora, Bank of America and other companies that people access routinely via phone apps  give them the right to use their digital assistants to understand you by the way you sound. Amazons most public application of voice profiling so far is its Halo wristband, which claims to know the emotions youre conveying when you talk to relatives, friends and employers.

The company assures customers it doesnt use Halo data for its own purposes. But its clearly a proof of concept  and a nod toward the future.

Patents point to the future

The patents from these tech companies offer a vision of whats coming.

In one Amazon patent, a device with the Alexa assistant picks up a womans speech irregularities that imply a cold through using an analysis of pitch, pulse, voicing, jittering, and/or harmonicity of a users voice, as determined from processing the voice data. From that conclusion, Alexa asks if the woman wants a recipe for chicken soup. When she says no, it offers to sell her cough drops with one-hour delivery.

Another Amazon patent suggests an app to help a store salesperson decipher a shoppers voice to plumb unconscious reactions to products. The contention is that how people sound allegedly does a better job indicating what people like than their words.

And one of Googles proprietary inventions involves tracking family members in real time using special microphones placed throughout a home. Based on the pitch of voice signatures, Google circuitry infers gender and age information  for example, one adult male and one female child  and tags them as separate individuals.

The companys patent asserts that over time the systems household policy manager will be able to compare life patterns, such as when and how long family members eat meals, how long the children watch television, and when electronic game devices are working  and then have the system suggest better eating schedules for the kids, or offer to control their TV viewing and game playing.

Seductive surveillance

In the West, the road to this advertising future starts with firms encouraging users to give them permission to gather voice data. Firms gain customers permission by enticing them to buy inexpensive voice technologies.

When tech companies have further developed voice analysis software  and people have become increasingly reliant on voice devices  I expect the companies to begin widespread profiling and marketing based on voice data. Hewing to the letter if not the spirit of whatever privacy laws exist, the companies will, I expect, forge ahead into their new incarnations, even if most of their users joined before this new business model existed.

This classic bait and switch marked the rise of both Google and Facebook. Only when the numbers of people flocking to these sites became large enough to attract high-paying advertisers did their business models solidify around selling ads personalized to what Google and Facebook knew about their users.

By then, the sites had become such important parts of their users daily activities that people felt they couldnt leave, despite their concerns about data collection and analysis that they didnt understand and couldnt control.

This strategy is already starting to play out as tens of millions of consumers buy Amazon Echoes at giveaway prices.

[Insight, in your inbox each day. You can get it with The Conversations email newsletter.]

The dark side of voice profiling

Heres the catch: Its not clear how accurate voice profiling is, especially when it comes to emotions.

It is true, according to Carnegie Mellon voice recognition scholar Rita Singh, that the activity of your vocal nerves is connected to your emotional state. However, Singh told me that she worries that with the easy availability of machine-learning packages, people with limited skills will be tempted to run shoddy analyses of peoples voices, leading to conclusions that are as dubious as the methods.

She also argues that inferences that link physiology to emotions and forms of stress may be culturally biased and prone to error. That concern hasnt deterred marketers, who typically use voice profiling to draw conclusions about individuals emotions, attitudes and personalities.

While some of these advances promise to make life easier, its not difficult to see how voice technology can be abused and exploited. What if voice profiling tells a prospective employer that youre a bad risk for a job that you covet or desperately need? What if it tells a bank that youre a bad risk for a loan? What if a restaurant decides it wont take your reservation because you sound low class, or too demanding?

Consider, too, the discrimination that can take place if voice profilers follow some scientists claims that it is possible to use an individuals vocalizations to tell the persons height, weight, race, gender and health.

People are already subjected to different offers and opportunities based on the personal information companies have collected. Voice profiling adds an especially insidious means of labeling. Today, some states such as Illinois and Texas require companies to ask for permission before conducting analysis of vocal, facial or other biometric features.

But other states expect people to be aware of the information thats collected about them from the privacy policies or terms of service  which means they rarely will. And the federal government hasnt enacted a sweeping marketing surveillance law.

With the looming widespread adoption of voice analysis technology, its important for government leaders to adopt policies and regulations that protect the personal information revealed by the sound of a persons voice.

One proposal: While the use of voice authentication  or using a persons voice to prove their identity  could be allowed under certain carefully regulated circumstances, all voice profiling should be prohibited in marketers interactions with individuals. This prohibition should also apply to political campaigns and to government activities without a warrant.

That seems like the best way to ensure that the coming era of voice profiling is constrained before it becomes too integrated into daily life and too pervasive to control.

Joseph Turow, Robert Lewis Shayon Professor of Media Systems & Industries, University of Pennsylvania

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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A pharmacists fills a syringe from a vial of the Janssen, Johnson & Johnson, COVID-19 vaccine at the Vaccine Village in Antwerp, Belgium, Friday, April 30, 2021. The mayor of a COVID-19 hot spot in Alberta says she's disappointed that Johnson & Johnson vaccines earmarked for her community are delayed but she values the work Health Canada is doing to ensure every dose is safe. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Virginia Mayo
FILE - In this April 9, 2021, file photo Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and his girlfriend Ginger Luckey enter 'A Woman for American First' event in Doral, Fla. Before Gaetz rose to national prominence as an ardent backer of Donald Trump, he carved out an unusual reputation in Florida: a Republican lawmaker who wanted to liberalize marijuana laws. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier, File)
Press Release

May 1, 2021 Lacson: PH needs United Stand on WPS Issue More at: https://pinglacson.net/2021/05/01/lacson-ph-needs-united-stand-on-wps-issue/ The Philippines' top leaders must come up with a united stand on the West Philippine Sea issue instead of bickering, lest it exposes a weakness that China can exploit, Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson said over the weekend. Lacson also stressed China's donation of COVID-19 vaccines should not be connected to the issue of our sovereignty and territorial integrity in the West Philippine Sea, as doing so may cause division. "Ang irony nito at nakakalungkot, sa halip na magtulong-tulong tayong mga Pilipino, especially mga leaders, tayo pa nag-aaway-away sa usaping West Philippine Sea. Dapat iisa ang position natin. Yan ang nagpapakita ng weakness natin sa China (The sad irony is that instead of coming up with a united front, we - especially our leaders - are bickering on the issue. What we need is a united position. Otherwise, we are just showing our weakness, one that China could exploit)," Lacson, who chairs the Senate committee on national defense, said in an interview on DZXL radio. "Dapat magsimula tayo na nagkakaisa tayo na dapat ipaglaban natin ang ating sovereignty and territorial integrity. Dapat walang kinalaman ang bakuna sa usaping territorial integrity and national sovereignty (Our stand must start with upholding our sovereignty and territorial integrity. Vaccines have nothing to do with this issue)," he added. Lacson said connecting the vaccine and West Philippine Sea issues will result in petty bickering among Filipinos, with some stressing the benefits of the donated vaccines from China, and others emphasizing the damage by China to our aquatic resources. "Dapat walang kinalaman ang dalawa (Both issues should not be connected)," he said. In the meantime, Lacson maintained the Philippines must continue to enhance its ties with allies including the United States, Japan, Australia and Europe, to maintain a balance of power in the region. This is despite the country's foreign policy being independent but seemingly inclined toward China, he said. He added the US already indicated it is prepared to back the Philippines as both countries have a Mutual Defense Treaty - but added the Philippines needs to take the initiative. "The US has indicated it is bound by our Mutual Defense Treaty but it is the Philippines that must make the initiative. The US cannot be more aggressive than we are in the disputed area," he said.
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Members of the Black revolutionary group MOVE accused Penn Museum and others of snatching and defiling the remains of two of their children wh
Kaya Scodelario has hit out at "abusive" people in the acting industry.

The 29-year-old actress revealed she has had nightmare auditions where she has been asked to strip naked by directors and she praised the women who have come forward with their own stories about abuse in Hollywood.

She tweeted: "I had a audition for a job a few years ago. It said she just needs to come in. Take her clothes off and thats all. I was terrified. Luckily I have an agent who swiftly said there was no way that was going to happen. This was a big movie. A big director. A big opportunity.

"MANY MANY young actors do not have the safely net of a caring agent to protect them. They will assume that it is normal for an actresses worth to be measured by the body they have. By the amount of skin they are willing to show. We have been conditioned to believe this.

"Different casting, between me and another actress.Both worked very hard to impress this notoriously difficult director. auditioned multiple times. He emailed our agents whoever agrees to go nude 1st gets the job The movie had no nudity in it. He just wanted 2 see whod say yes.

"You know whats f*****? Im going to wake up in the morning with anxiety about tweeting. Despite the fact that I havent named names. Im still going to feel scared. The women who come forward openly are so brave. I am in awe of you all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you (sic)."

Kaya later added that she is working privately to report those people referenced in her tweets.

She said: "Thank you for all your messages of support. Please know that I am taking steps to ensure the people I referenced in my tweets are held accountable. I choose to do that privately and through the correct industry channels.

"I cant stress enough how important it is to have representation that safeguards you. How important it is to have women at every level of the industry - to prevent the current system that enables people to feel as though they can say/do/behave in abusive ways without consequences."
In a succinct announcement this week, the National Nuclear Security Administration disclosed it could cost almost $4 billion to establish the production of 30 plutonium pits per year at Los Alamos National Laboratory, an installation in New Mexico with roots sprung from World War II.

The preliminary cost estimate  between $2.7 billion and $3.9 billion, expected to be refined over time  left some scratching their heads, others in disbelief.

I dont believe it, one official said, rejecting info tied to a complex conceptual design process. The person was granted anonymity to speak freely. They have failed in their estimates so many times that, just based on tradition, why would one believe these numbers are correct?

Little in the announcement, posted to the Department of Energys website and emailed out, told of how the money would be spent or what, exactly, the approach to making the nuclear weapon cores would be. And while the multibillion-dollar reanimation is anticipated to finish no later than 2028, pits are due sooner than that.

An NNSA spokesperson on Friday said the project, another step along now, phases equipment installation to ensure the base capability to produce 30 pits per year will be available in 2026, followed by additional equipment installation to enhance long term production reliability at the required rate. It is one thing to install equipment and have it primed; it is another to reliably produce the warhead components using that equipment.

Environmentalists and nuclear watchdog groups were quick to question the federal notice, several paragraphs long and laden with requisite technical terms. The lack of supporting documents was suspect to Savannah River Site Watch Director Tom Clements, who later described the preparatory price tag as an assessment that may well have no connection to a more realistic cost estimate that could be presented in the future.

A more formal cost and schedule baseline is expected in 2023 alongside another milestone.

The NNSA uses Government Accountability Office best-business practices to develop a performance baseline cost and schedule for large construction projects once design is complete, which happens at CD-2, the NNSA spokesperson explained. Any cost and schedule estimates developed for CD-0 are rough orders of magnitude. The CD-1 estimates establish range projections based on the conceptual design.

Los Alamos Study Groups Greg Mello was also skeptical, if not alarmed. A history of cost fluctuations and other uncertainties, the group director said, throw further doubt on the wisdom of proceeding with industrial pit production at LANL.

In any case, LANL's facilities are simply too old and inherently unsafe, its location too impractical, Mello continued. Even with a much smaller stockpile, LANL could not undertake this mission successfully.

The U.S. has for years lacked the means to mass produce plutonium pits, cores or triggers at the heart of modern nuclear weapons. Thats increasingly problematic, pit production supporters argue, as the nations arsenal ages and slumps toward unreliable.

This is an example where if we dont recapitalize the infrastructure, we will lose a key piece of what it means, what you have to have to be a nuclear weapons state, the commander of U.S. Strategic Command, Adm. Charles Richard, recently told members of Congress. Many NNSA facilities are decades old.

To satisfy military demand for plutonium pits  a subject of much debate  the NNSA and the Department of Defense almost three years ago recommended jumpstarting production at Los Alamos, a plutonium center of excellence, and establishing it to the Savannah River Site, utilizing the footprint of a failed nuclear fuel plant, the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility.

At least 30 pits per year would be crafted in New Mexico, they counseled, and at least 50 pits per year would be crafted in South Carolina. Together, the reasoning goes, the legally required 80 pits per year would be achieved.

If we are unable to meet 80 pits per year, the only alternative is to now start to accept pits that have aged past the point that we have a good analytical basis to have confidence in their operation, Richard told U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C. We dont have data that says they will work. We dont have data that says they wont work. But if we dont reach 80 pits per year, were going to, kind of, find out the hard way how that works out.

Building out pit production capabilities at both LANL and the Savannah River Site could cost $9 billion over a decade, according to a January 2019 analysis published by the Congressional Budget Office. A Government Accountability Office report in September 2020, citing the NNSA, offered other figures: Modernizing Los Alamos for pit production could cost up to $3 billion over the next five years, and bringing the sister facility at the Savannah River Site online could cost approximately $4.6 billion.

Wilson and other Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee have pressed the Biden administration to invest in nuclear modernization, an umbrella under which pit production falls.

Now is the time to prioritize long-overdue investments required for the Department of Defense and the National Nuclear Security Administration, the lawmakers wrote in a March 23 letter to the president. We have regrettably allowed much of our nuclear deterrent to atrophy.

The last place at which the nuclear weapon cores were produced en masse, the Rocky Flats Plant near Denver, Colorado, was abandoned after a raid to investigate environmental crimes. Cleanup of the contaminated site began in the 1990s.

I think it is useful for us to remember that this effort at pit production, I think, is the fourth or fifth attempt in our nations history to reestablish it after we terminated pit production, back in 1992, at Rocky Flats, Richard said this month.
During its Monday meeting, Aiken City Council reviewed two agenda items that concern new housing developments in Aiken.

The first of these projects was a first reading of an ordinance to rezone property and approve a concept plan on 46.59 acres on Columbia Highway at Bushwillow Circle. The applicant, Great Southern Homes, is proposing to build a 316-lot subdivision with two-bedroom 2-story duplexes on vacant parcels at that location.

The developer proposes to build 158 2-story duplexes on those lots. Each dwelling unit will have 1,036 heated square feet with a great room, kitchen and half-bath downstairs, with two bedrooms and two full bathrooms upstairs. Each unit will also have its own backyard patio area.

A traffic impact study will be required as the proposed development is projected to generate 100 or more trips during the peak traffic hours.

The units would be for-sale units.

The council voted unanimously to pass the ordinance through first reading.

The second housing-related project involved a 72-unit affordable multifamily housing development on Gregg Highway. The council had a first reading of an ordinance to authorize certain economic development incentives for the development's construction.

The development would be located between Gregg Highway and Lokey Drive off of Richland Avenue W. The project would be approximately $15 million on the 10.3-acre site, with an anticipation of construction starting in spring 2022.

The project would provide 72 affordable multifamily units at 100% affordable under the South Carolina State Housing Finance and Development Authority, with a reservation of tax credits in the 2021 application cycle. The project will consist of five 2-story buildings and a clubhouse that will include a common area with kitchen, business center, common laundry area and fitness room.

In addition, the community will offer 10% of its units to disabled residents.

The city's incentives ordinance allows for projects to be reimbursed for a period of up to five years. However, City Manager Stuart Bedenbaugh said the city is recommending only one year's worth of incentives to be reimbursed, as the project is not a "long-term job creator."

The fees and expenses will be reimbursed at a rate of 50% one year after a Certificate of Occupancy is issued for all units. The fees to be reimbursed include the building permit fees, water and sewer tap fees and other related development fees.

The council voted unanimously to pass the ordinance through first reading.
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A 430-unit new housing development is in the works for Johns Island.

Lennar Carolinas, a division of Miami-based Lennar Corp., wants to build the Wooddale subdivision on about 300 acres off Plow Ground Road about a mile off of River Road.

The 298-acre tract includes about 58 acres of wetlands. Lennar proposes to leave just over half of the parcel as open space, according to site plans submitted to the city of Charleston.

The tract sits not too far away from Charleston Executive Airport. Most of the development is not near River Road, but one of the airport's two runways is just across the road.

Plans are making their way through the city's review channels.

A Lennar representative did not immediately respond for further details on a construction timeframe or home prices.

On another part of Johns Island, Pulte Homes announced plans in March to build 387 houses on more than 700 acres off Main Road, northwest of Maybank Highway. About 360 acres are set aside for conservation, with a huge part of them being wetlands.

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Changing hands

Two small apartment complexes in Summerville are now under new ownership.

Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Z+G Property Group recently paid $1.825 million for the 20-unit Summer Square Apartments at 125 Arbor Drive.

The previous owner was Archer Capital of Florida, according to Andy Batkins of real estate investment brokerage firm Woodlock Capital of Charleston, which handled the sale for the buyer and seller.

The firm also handled the transaction for the nearby 16-unit Miles Landing Townhomes at 520 Rose Lane. Z+G bought the property for $1.5 million from Allan Terry of Charleston, Batkins said.

Z+G Property Group also owns two other properties in the Charleston area. They include the 32-unit 1 Rice Drive townhome complex in West Ashley and the 32-unit South Creek Apartments at 333 Fleming Road on James Island.
COLUMBIA  South Carolina public school districts representing one-quarter of all students statewide are now suing vaping giant Juul and other e-cigarette companies on accusations of marketing to teens and health risks.

And more could be on the way with districts covering another 14 percent of S.C pupils weighing lawsuits.

The Palmetto State districts are part of national movement to seek financial compensation from e-cigarette manufacturers. More than 750 such suits have been filed across America as of July 2020, according to Florida-based consumer advocacy group Drugwatch.

Carl Solomon, a Columbia attorney representing several South Carolina school districts in the lawsuits, said the expectation isnt for a big payout but to hold Juul and others culpable for the day-to-day impact of its products.

The addiction rate to Juul and other vaping products has created issues as it has gone up, even as smoking (addiction) has gone down among teens, he said. We dont believe that to be unintentional. When you get things that enter into schools, districts have to address those issues.

A Juul spokesman reiterated what he told The Post and Courier in February that the company is dedicated to preventing underage people from using their products.

We will continue to reset the vapor category in the U.S. and seek to earn the trust of society by working cooperatively with attorneys general, legislators, regulators, public health officials, and other stakeholders to combat underage use and transition adult smokers from combustible cigarettes, Juul spokesman Austin Finan said.

That hasn't stopped six school districts  including four of the states six largest in Greenville, Charleston, Berkeley and Lexington One  from joining a class-action suit against e-cigarette makers, according to data collected by Richland Two officials who are weighing a suit of their own.

The other districts suing are in Pickens and Anderson 3, one of the state's smaller districts with 2,500 students. Half of the districts filed suits in April, according to court records.

Three larger districts  Anderson One, Orangeburg and Richland One  have taken steps to file suits as their boards all voted to hire attorneys.

Some midsized and smaller districts  Chesterfield, Cherokee, Greenwood 50, Greenwood 52 and Marlboro  are either considering filing suit or have hosted informal talks to do so, Richland Two chief financial officer Harry Miley told district trustees on April 27.

Nearly one-fourth of South Carolina teens reported using e-cigarettes in the past 30 days, according to a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report in 2019.

During near-simultaneous board meetings on April 27, Richland One trustees unanimously voted to retain San Francisco-based attorney William Shinoff with Frantz Law Group to represent the 22,000-student district in a possible suit, while Richland Two board members voted to reconsider a Feb. 9 vote opting out of a civil action aimed at Juul and e-cigarette makers.

Leaders at Richland Two, South Carolina's fifth-largest district with 27,000 students, were considering changing their stance when they learned there was no upfront cost to joining the suit, with attorneys recouping any payments through future settlements or a judgment.

We say we want to be a district that is on the cutting edge and being progressive, to me a lawsuit that can only be good that doesn't cost us anything, I don't see where there's a loss for us in participating in that, board member Teresa Holmes said.

Greenville County Schools board chair Lynda Leventis-Wells said trustees of the 74,000-student district decided in March to sue Juul.

We agreed to pursue legal action against the makers of Juul e-cigarettes for purposely targeting its products to school-age children and the impact that it has had on the school district and its students, she said in a statement.

In its lawsuit filed April 2, the Pickens County School District said use of vaping products has led to increased security staff time spent addressing discipline and supervision issues, and increased counselor time spent speaking to addicted students about this epidemic. The district did not include data on vaping or tobacco-use rates among students in the lawsuit.

Richland Two Superintendent Baron Davis said if his district receives any compensation, the proceeds could be used in several ways, including setting up a scholarship for students pursuing health careers or more aggressive marketing and education campaigns around the dangers of smoking.
Do you believe in coincidences? Are some people just lucky? Why are certain people put in the path of certain others at just the right time in just the right place?

In 1995, just a few days before Christmas, Tom Kent was jogging on Fort Johnson Road not far from his James Island home. Tom was an avid runner with many Cooper River Bridge Runs and a couple of mini-triathlons to his credit.

Not long after Tom left the house that day, his wife, JoAnn, received a phone call. A man said he found Tom on the side of the road suffering a major heart attack. The voice on the phone explained he had found Tom across the road from a convent and she should call EMS. This unknown passerby tried to resuscitate with CPR.

Kent, 53 at that time and a non-smoker, was rushed to the Medical University of South Carolina. He was declared clinically dead and remained in a coma for four days. JoAnn was in the process of executing the paperwork to donate his organs. What she didnt know was that Tom was not ready for that. He was fighting, fighting for his life  and he was winning.

A second chance

Something in me wouldnt allow me to give up, Kent recently told me.

Its now been 25 years since that fateful day. He retired as a tenured faculty member at the College of Charleston. He still teaches business courses as an adjunct professor at The Citadel.

He admits to wondering all the time why he survived. His doctors told him his arteries were 99 percent blocked and he required five bypasses.

Kent remains thankful for the extra years, but struggles with the question of whether he was supposed to rise to a greater purpose.

Im not sure that question is answerable, he tries to explain.

Theres no way he should have survived that day. He knows that, but remains unsure all these years later why he didnt die on the side of the road.

His wife says, He complains about nothing and is a glass half-full guy.

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Tom and JoAnn have been married for 44 years, but more than half of that time could have easily been snuffed out if not for a person who happened to be passing by.

A good Samaritan

On that December day in 1995, a couple of coincidental factors played a part in prolonging Tom Kents life. The man who stopped was a Vietnam vet who had been a medic. His efforts to revive kept blood flowing to Kent's brain. Doctors later said that ultimately saved his life.

But what about the phone call? How did he even know how to contact Toms wife?

As it turned out, attached to the laces of one of Kents running shoes was a tag from one of his previous races. On the back of that tag, JoAnn was listed as the contact person in case of an emergency, along with the house phone number.

That Vietnam medic never wanted any recognition. JoAnn recalls that the man was humble and happy he could help, but he resisted efforts to meet or even to agree to a thank-you lunch.

Do people accidentally, or coincidentally, cross our paths every day? How many times have we all kept going, rather than get involved?

What are the odds that the guy who stopped would be the perfect stranger for that particular moment?

I dont believe in coincidences myself. We all probably happen upon moments that matter, even though we might not always appreciate the reason for the encounter.

Its heartwarming to know there are still people among us that care enough to lend a helping hand.
Carolyn Dorrell grew up a Southern Baptist, a conservative denomination that expresses Jesus Christ as the only pathway to salvation.

But through education and travels, Dorrell, who grew up in the Upstate, began to see things differently. Particularly, her life was transformed after studying under globally known Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh at his French monastery.

"I just think that weve narrowed our views so much that we cant see that theres more beyond the temporal," said Dorrell, who lives in Columbia and teaches early childhood education at the University of South Carolina.

The experience has been similar for Heather Lyn Mann, who now leads a sangha in Summerville, heading spiritual meditations that help people embrace the present moment.

The two women grew up Christian but have been shaped by one of the most world-renowned spiritual leaders of the Eastern world. They both have brought their experiences back to South Carolina, a state in the country's Bible Belt.

Hanh, a Vietnamese activist, was exiled from the land because he refused to side with his country during the nation's war with America.

His advocacy for peace is embraced by many faith traditions and cultures. Martin Luther King Jr. nominated Hanh in 1967 for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Dorrell will share her experiences with the Charleston Interreligious Council's upcoming Wisdom from Plum Village virtual event, hoping to let people know that it is OK to explore different faith traditions and embrace Hanh's teachings of centering oneself in the present moment.

People can register for the May 4 event at www.us02web.zoom.us.

She plans to talk about what it was like studying under Hanh at the Plum Village Monastery, a center in Bordeaux, France, that teaches engaged Buddhism and the art of mindful living.

He is a very revered and, in some ways, mystical creature," Dorrell said.

Initially, the experience in France was difficult for Dorrell, who said she grew up believing Buddha was an "idol." Worshipping idols is forbidden by God in the Bible's Old Testament.

But Dorrell learned deep spiritual insights during the 21-day retreat, where guests spend most of their days practicing sitting and walking meditations, or silently working.

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Dorrell recalls one moment of revelation when she complained about having to thoroughly clean a large rice pan. She changed her attitude when she learned that Hanh once said he would not do away "with one grain of rice" growing up in Vietnam because the food was so scarce.

"I was like, wow," Dorrell said. "I will never complain about cleaning the bottom of the pan."

Mann said Buddhist teachings taught her more about her original faith.

Mann, raised Baptist, first met Hanh in 2003 when the spiritual leader spoke at a retreat in Wisconsin. Deeply moved by the monk's teachings on mindfulness, Mann cultivated her faith by attending a local sangha in Wisconsin and trips to Plum Village.

Hanh's teachings aren't secular, but they also don't conflict with other faith traditions, Mann said. The idea is to directly connect with one's authentic life experiences, she said.

I started understanding my own original faith traditions so much more deeply," Mann said. "I fell in love with Christ again.

That's a concept Hanh discusses in his book "Living Buddha, Living Christ," where he encourages people from the religious groups to draw from each other's faith traditions.

Hanh shares of a time when he spoke at a conference about engaging in the Eucharist with the Rev. Daniel Berrigan, who was a priest and antiwar activist. Some Buddhists at the conference were shocked, and Christians were horrified, Hanh said.

"To me, religious life is life," Hanh wrote. "We human beings can be nourished by the best values of many traditions."

After studying under Hanh in France, Mann was ordained as a member of the Plum Community and now serves as a Buddhist minister, leading a sangha in Summerville.

The group features about 18 to 22 people who meet weekly on Monday nights and practice sitting meditations and walking meditations.

Being part of a community is helpful for Buddhists, especially when one's practice has become stale, Mann said.

The application of mindfulness best unfolds in our awareness and daily lives if we have a community of friends who are also walking this path with us," she said.
Georgetown, SC (29440)

Today

Isolated thunderstorms this morning with a few showers possible during the afternoon. High 84F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

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Overcast. Low near 70F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph.
Four years ago this February, a little girl was born in Colleton County.

She was three days old when she was taken into state custody. The infant had tested positive for marijuana.

On the child's birth certificate, the mother listed her boyfriend as the father. He wasn't. The biological dad wasn't aware the infant even existed. And caseworkers at the S.C. Department of Social Services had no way of finding him.

For months, a foster family in Dorchester County raised the baby. By October, everything had changed. The child's biological father had taken a paternity test. And while the father couldn't care for his daughter, his parents  the child's grandparents  wanted custody of the little girl.

Her grandfather is a Berkeley County paramedic in his early 40s. He said he called DSS the same day he first found out the child was his granddaughter. But the foster family had bonded with the baby over many months, since the first fragile days after her birth. They were devastated by the prospect of losing her.

"The foster mother reached out to me and begged me to let them adopt," the grandfather recalled.

They've been locked in a legal battle over the adoption of this child ever since.

Their story illustrates many of the challenges DSS faces in finding families  both temporary and permanent, related and unrelated  for thousands of children in state custody. It's a story about blood. But it's also a story about time and trauma and money.

Experts say most children who are removed from their parents should live with relatives, when possible. But finding these extended family members, and vetting them, isn't always easy. It takes time. And DSS caseworkers have little extra of that. They're already overworked, underpaid and tend to leave the agency in less than two years.

As recently as 2019, this state ranked 48th in the country in terms of "kinship care" placements. Before that, South Carolina ranked 49th.

"When you dont have the resources and the support and the funding," DSS Director Michael Leach said, "you end up at the bottom."

'Striving to do better'

About 4,000 South Carolina children reside in state custody, and most of them  roughly 70 percent  live in a foster home. Children who live with relatives make up about 15 percent of all kids in state custody. Nationally, that number is 33 percent.

This concept of "kinship care" isn't new. After all, grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles, and older brothers and sisters have been raising extended families "since the beginning of time," said Sharleta Woodall, who heads up the state's kinship care program at DSS.

It's considered best practice for several reasons. Blood relatives are more likely to take in siblings because they want to keep their families together. And unlike many foster families, who often express a preference for infants and young children, relatives are more likely to accept teenagers into their homes.

"I could have 5,000 foster parents ready to go, but they all want 0- to 6-year-olds. But 32 percent of the population (of children in state custody) is 13-plus," Leach said. "If 90 percent of your foster parents want 0- to 6-year-olds, you dont have enough foster parents."

There are other reasons, too. Children who live with extended family are better able to adjust to their new environment, they're less likely to face disruptions in school, and they're less likely to act out behaviorally or to be diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation. As a rule, these children are more stable and less traumatized if they're able to live with relatives instead of with strangers.

A federal lawsuit filed against DSS more than six years ago on behalf of several children in South Carolina custody claimed many kids had been abused, neglected and overmedicated in group homes and foster homes across the state.

The settlement of that lawsuit, which has been overseen by Judge Richard Gergel in Charleston, will require DSS to transform itself in nearly every way it does business. That includes this renewed push to prioritize kinship care.

Leach wants to get South Carolina closer to that national average of 33 percent. To that end, he instituted a change last year that allows relatives to receive financial help while they navigate the licensing process, which includes mandatory training and a home inspection. Kinship caregivers, just like foster parents, receive a daily stipend when they accept children in DSS custody into their homes. Previously, that money was only available to kinship families once they became officially licensed.

In next year's budget request, Leach has asked the Legislature for more money that would allow DSS to offer additional services to these families.

"We're striving to do better," Woodall said.

But that means little to families who say the state and its court system continue to neglect the importance of blood relatives when children are removed from their parents, particularly when it comes to permanently adopting them.

"We had a room set up for her. We had clothes. Weve had to give everything away," said one Upstate woman whose adult daughter recently tried and failed to adopt a cousin's 4-year-old child.

In court, DSS allegedly advocated for an unrelated foster family to adopt the girl. Her biological mother's rights had been terminated due to drug addiction.

Family court proceedings are closed to the public and the Spartanburg County judge who heard this case prohibited the girl's relatives from discussing it publicly, they said. The Post and Courier agreed to conceal their identities. The women said they spent $60,000 trying to adopt the child and likened the outcome of the case to "a death in the family."

"We ended up losing her," one of the women said. "But shell know, one day, we fought for her."

'Trying to move a pyramid'

Here's how it's supposed to work: When a child is removed from his or her parents and taken into state custody, DSS caseworkers have a small window of time to find a home for the child. They should look for extended family first.

But if there aren't family members available to take the child, the caseworker should try to find a foster home. If a nearby foster home is unavailable, the caseworker should look for one within the county; then, for one within the region. If there are no foster homes available anywhere, group homes for children can be considered, even though child welfare experts agree that these congregate care homes are much less ideal for children than a family-like setting.

There are exceptions to these rules. If a child, for example, has been diagnosed with significant behavioral or mental health needs, group homes often offer a level of care that foster homes cannot provide. But they aren't considered the best fit for most children.

Kim Clifton is executive director of Charleston Halos, a nonprofit group that supports kinship caregivers in the Lowcountry. It's the only organization of its kind in the state. Clifton said that while kinship placements should be prioritized above all other options, DSS, for many years, leaned too heavily on group homes  or what used to be called "orphanages."

"Before 2014, we were very slow in getting kids out of group homes," Clifton said. "Theres always been a mandate to give preference to family members. There was just never any support to go along with it."

In 2015, The Post and Courier published an investigation about the group home industry and its powerful lobby in South Carolina. At that point, this state sent its youngest foster children into these congregate care homes at a much higher rate than any other state in the country.

That's not allowed anymore  and it's one of the reasons DSS was sued in 2015. But changing the culture of a state agency that has given priority to group homes for too long hasn't been easy. It takes time and money. A lack of money, in particular, has been one of the agency's perennial problems  the reason it can't afford more child-welfare caseworkers and the reason it can't offer these front-line employees higher salaries in line with other states.

Many child-welfare advocates across South Carolina still blame drastic budget cuts enacted under Gov. Mark Sanford's administration for the state of affairs at DSS today.

Leach, who joined the agency in 2019 and sits on Gov. Henry McMaster's Cabinet, has been widely credited with trying to set in motion much-needed reform. He asks legislators for more money every year.

"I think hes genuinely trying to change things," Clifton said. "But hes trying to move a pyramid in Egypt. And change is slow."

The bigger picture

On April 21, a family court judge in Beaufort County held an emergency hearing. He learned that the Berkeley County grandparents  the ones who were trying to adopt their granddaughter  had contacted The Post and Courier with their story. He instructed the couple's attorney to keep their identities anonymous. Their names will not be used in this article.

For years, the little girl split her time between the foster family and her grandparents. Their son  the biological father  is now in jail. The grandparents were eligible to adopt. They'd been vetted by DSS, cleared their background checks and passed their home inspection.

On April 27, the foster family was given the green light to adopt the child. The girl's grandparents said they spent more than $50,000 fighting for her. The settlement agreement the families reached will allow the grandparents to continue to see the child.

It's not the outcome they were hoping for. But the girl's grandparents said they'd run out of money.

"They can afford to continue to litigate and we cant," the grandmother said. "DSS let it happen."

It's only one side of one family's story. The Colleton County attorney who represents the foster family did not respond to The Post and Courier's request for an interview.

The whole story is much bigger. Clifton, with Halos, said her organization is focused on supporting kinship caregivers who have taken in children outside of state custody. In thousands of cases, all across South Carolina, relatives bring children into their homes before they're ever placed under the legal authority of DSS. They're doing this to keep these children out of the foster system, Clifton explained, but this often leaves the families ineligible for much state assistance.

She estimated that for every child in state custody who is placed with extended family there are more than a dozen children who are sent to live with relatives, but who fall outside the legal guardianship of the social services agency.
Our state is resilient. Though not perfect, we have much to be proud of from the mountains to the sea, and much on which to work. Listening to the experts is an important start. Listening to those who understand the impact of a virus, or of legislation passed in Columbia, is also important.

Many experts, in law enforcement, emergency medicine, tourism and economic development, are all saying the same thing: Passing any open-carry gun law is both dangerous and reckless. Our existing laws allow those who want to carry a handgun to do so after permitting and more importantly training. We simply do not need open carry in South Carolina. The chances of civilians truly protecting themselves with a firearm is minuscule, while the chance of doing unintentional harm to themselves or others is great.

As we work together to bring our state back from the ravages of COVID-19, the last thing we need is to create a wild West scenario with open carry of any kind. It would make law enforcements job harder. It would make medical professionals job harder. It would increase the likelihood of violence in a state where gun violence is already the second-leading cause of death for children and, according to 2019 statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A state with the eighth most highest rate of gun deaths per capita in the country.

It also would make attracting much-needed tourism dollars to our coastline more difficult. It would make the job of economic development professionals harder, in the recruitment of companies from nations whose employees would find open carry hard to fathom.

Worst of all, it would throw gas on the simmering fire that is full of polarization, incivility and general unrest in which we seem to find ourselves today. Passing legislation that makes it easier to put handguns into the hands of those without extensive training, or without any training as one bill suggests, makes no sense.

Yes, we have rights under the Second Amendment, but no right is unfettered.

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I do not propose taking away anyones guns, but I do propose that we begin a cultural change in society. In my lifetime we have made cultural changes  involving integration, smoking, seat belts  never thought possible. We can do it again. We can start by not passing this legislation.

Fear has apparently taken hold of our psyche where faith in our neighbor once resided. Many of us are people of faith. My baptismal covenant tells me to strive for justice and peace among all people and to respect the dignity of every human being. For me, the continued proliferation of guns runs counter to that covenant. How does your covenant speak to you?

The members of the South Carolina General Assembly are sent to Columbia to address and offer solutions on important matters such as infrastructure, equitable taxation, education (both K-12 and higher education) and health care. Those are real problems facing our state. Open carry is simply a solution in search of a problem. I think the Second Amendment is an important part of our Constitution, but let us not cede commonsense.

If you agree with me, contact your elected state senator to let him or her know.

Allen Guignard, an eighth-generation South Carolinian, is retired from real estate management and development in the Midlands. He previously served on the boards of the Carolina Childrens Home and the S.C. Episcopal Home at Still Hopes and has been a longtime participant in the Big Brothers and Big Sisters program.
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.
The investor-owned utility that thought S.C. politicians were so desperate to unload Santee Cooper that theyd practically pay someone to take it finally got the message that a sale isnt in the offing after the S.C. Senate voted 36-8 against even soliciting new bids.

Thank goodness.

The idea of exploring a sale was never a bad one, although NextEras bid was.

But for three years now, the debate over whether to sell our state-owned utility  a debate that for too many was more about political philosophy than the merits of a purchase offer  has been a distraction that allowed the Legislature to avoid doing the basic work of making the utility accountable.

NextEras withdrawal of its bid and its lobbying force  combined with the Senate vote that occasioned it  should end that distraction and make it clear that the Legislature has no choice but to reform Santee Cooper. This year. This month.

It should make this equally clear: Anyone who objects to a reform plan because it lacks a sale option is enabling the unacceptable status quo: a completely unregulated monopoly utility that traps customers and answers to no one.

The good news is that both the Senate and the House have passed reform measures that would make Santee Cooper much more accountable; there's no reason legislative negotiators can't agree on the details quickly.

Of course, the utility is currently run by an autonomous board, with no regulatory oversight, whose members are so protected that its illegal for the governor to even ask them, pretty please, to think about maybe resigning. Even when they blow $4 billion on an over-budget, over-deadline pair of now-abandoned nuclear reactors that will never generate a single watt of power.

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Both the House- and the Senate-passed versions of H.3194 give independent state regulators the authority to sign off on some of the boards decisions, require more transparency and give ratepayers a chance to complain about rate hikes. Both hang their hats on requiring Public Service Commission approval of the utilitys long-term energy plans, which determine how much and how the utility can spend money, which should be the main driver of customers' utility bills.

But neither version allows the PSC to reject Santee Coopers rate hikes. And neither allows the governor to remove board members simply because they make bad decisions.

Lawmakers say covenants in Santee Coopers outstanding bonds make it financially impossible to subject it to PSC rate review, and theyre probably right. But they could  and should  prohibit the utility from issuing any more bonds with those restrictions, so the PSC could regulate its rates once the old bonds are paid off. The House never considered such a requirement, and the Senate voted 24-17 against Sen. Wes Climers amendment to that effect. The House still could, and should, revisit that issue, because independent oversight is the surest way to keep rates under control.

The House and Senate both took steps toward acknowledging that if Santee Cooper board members knew the governor could fire them, they almost certainly would have told their boss when things started going south at V.C. Summer  and the governor could have blown the whistle so the PSC could stop rubber-stamping SCE&Gs rate increases until the utility either pulled the plug or else started exercising some oversight to get the out-of-control project back on track.

But they're small steps. The House allows the governor to remove board members for "poor performance," while retaining their right to sue the governor for removing them. And the Senate simply shortened board members' guaranteed terms in office from 7 to 4 years. Its an improvement, but the fact remains that if your boss cant fire you, he isnt your boss.

Its not too late to fix that problem, by returning to the pre-Mark Sanford law that allowed governors to fire board members for any reason or no reason. That law worked for decades without hurting Santee Coopers bond rating, or its ability to provide reliable power at a good rate to 2 million South Carolinians. It could work again.
COLUMBIA  The race to lead the South Carolina GOP kicked off with a jolt in late March when pro-Trump attorney Lin Wood, fresh off a slew of failed efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, announced he had moved to the state from Georgia and would challenge incumbent Chairman Drew McKissick.

The decision came as a surprise to many political observers in the state.

After all, S.C. Republicans had just completed one of their most successful election cycles in recent history  easily winning an expensive U.S. Senate race, flipping back a congressional seat and expanding their majorities in the Statehouse  and McKissick had already secured the crucial endorsement of former President Donald Trump.

Over the ensuing month, though, Wood traveled around the Palmetto State spraying a plethora of innuendos at a wide range of targets, including McKissick, U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott, Gov. Henry McMaster, former Vice President Mike Pence and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.

While McKissick initially brushed off Wood's bid, saying anyone is welcome to run, he has grown increasingly assertive in pushing back against him, calling him a "carpetbagging RINO (Republican in name only)."

"Lin Wood is so far up in bizarro land, he couldn't find his way out with a flashlight and a map," McKissick told The Post and Courier. "The guys in the little white coats need to grab him with a butterfly net and take him back to Georgia."

McKissick and his supporters are confident they have now secured more than enough delegates for him to comfortably win reelection at the state party convention May 15. But the path to get there became a turbulent  and at times bizarre  battle between warring factions over who can more legitimately claim the mantle to Trump's legacy.

Wood pushes in

Wood's outsider bid began when he was approached by a few conservative activists from the Upstate, including Greenville Tea Party Chairman Pressley Stutts, who have spent the past few years needling party leaders and saw in Wood an attractive frontman for their latest efforts to take over the GOP apparatus.

In March, Wood invited the group to spend a couple of days at one of his newly purchased plantations in Beaufort County.

"They asked me to consider running because they felt like the establishment, headed up by Drew McKissick, was not being responsive to the people who make up the party and they wanted to find someone that would kind of turn it on its head," Wood said in an interview with The Post and Courier.

McKissick rejected the notion that he, a longtime conservative activist who has been involved in South Carolina politics for decades, is disconnected from the grassroots.

"It would be hard to say that's the case after being elected to this job twice already and obviously having the vast majority of support around the state right now," McKissick said. "In their estimation, anybody who's been in the party longer than five minutes is the establishment."

The feud came to a head at the recent Hampton County GOP convention, when Wood confronted McKissick and vaguely insinuated that he knew something about him and Graham.

"It's going to come out," Wood said in the conversation captured on video and spread on social media. "You need to accept that."

"You don't know anything," McKissick responded. "Bring it on out."

Asked about the accusation by The Post and Courier, Wood would only say that he has "some information" but repeatedly declined to disclose it.

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That response followed a pattern from Wood, who often implies political figures are engaged in nefarious behavior before adding that he's not directly accusing them of anything, only saying they should be investigated.

"I don't need the proof," Wood said. "I ask questions when I hear things. You need to go look for the proof."

Humor, hyperbole or serious

Alternatively, Wood will say that some of his statements, like social media posts claiming that Trump is actually still in the White House, are intended to be humorous, while others, like Pence being a traitor who should be executed by firing squad, are hyperbole.

Some of Wood's other focuses have little to do with the job of S.C. GOP chairman. He often devotes substantial portions of his remarks to decrying child sex trafficking, an issue he describes as "the real pandemic."

Though Trump once welcomed Wood's support of his election fraud claims, he has since appeared to distance himself from the attorney. The former president endorsed McKissick's reelection twice  once before Wood got into the race and then, leaving no room for ambiguity, again the day after Wood launched his bid.

Wood and Stutts claimed that Trump's initial endorsement of McKissick was actually an old one from two years ago, but McKissick said that is false. Wood also suggested without evidence that Trump has some ulterior motive for the endorsement that will come out in the future and said he would not have asked Trump for an endorsement anyway.

"I wouldn't expect the president to embrace me by an endorsement and then have the media go out and attack him for what I'm saying," Wood said.

Nate Leupp, who recently ended his tenure as Greenville County GOP chairman and became the 4th Congressional District GOP chairman, said he believes Wood and his allies  many of whom have been thorns in his side for years  capitalized on a "perfect storm."

"They're manipulating Republicans who have never been active in the party, using the frustration they have with the national election and people who don't support Trump and telling these new people that the same narratives are happening at the county and state level when that's far from the truth," Leupp said.

Stutts countered that Wood's message is resonating "because it's about getting the truth out, and that is what people are starving for in this country."

"Donald Trump had a similar message and people didn't take him seriously at first," Stutts said. "But once he became president, he kept more promises than all the presidents combined in the last 50 years."

South Carolina is not the first state to experience a similar struggle for power at the state party level in recent years.

After losing successive Republican primaries for the U.S. Senate, conservative activist Kelli Ward seized control of the Arizona GOP in 2019. And former Florida congressman Allen West ousted the incumbent chairman of the Texas GOP in 2020 a few years after relocating to the state.

McKissick now appears likely to avoid a similar fate.

"The Republican Party is a big tent party," McKissick said. "It's not a circus tent party."

But Wood said he will continue fighting until the election and threatened to sue anyone who called him a conspiracy theorist or questioned his mental state.

"Do you think the people that support me in South Carolina think I'm crazy?" Wood said. "Do you think the people that support me in Georgia think I'm crazy? Do you think all the millions of people that support me around the world think I'm crazy? I'm not crazy."
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SKIPPACK  For Montgomery Countys very own Superman, watching President Joe Bidens address to a joint session of Congress Wednesday night was an unforgettable moment.

The experience altogether was one Ill probably remember for the rest of my life, said Dr. Mayank Amin, a pharmacist and owner of Skippack Pharmacy in Schwenksville. Not because it was a special invitation to me as a pharmacist whos helped with the vaccine drives, but it was a token of appreciation to everyone thats helped in this fight.

Amin was asked by U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-4th Dist., to attend the speech as her guest.

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Dean said she wanted to lift someone up around vaccine, when choosing her plus-one for the distinguished address.

Oh I was so delighted to ask him, and just honored that he said yes, she said.

Amin, also known as Dr. Mak, said that he received a call from the congresswoman who represents constituents in Montgomery and Berks counties.

That was probably the coolest part about all of this is that it wasnt just somebody else inviting. She called, he said. We had a five-minute conversation, and she just mentioned all the points of the reasons why she chose myself to represent our team to be the special guest in her district.

Local and federal leaders have taken notice of Amins efforts to inoculate thousands across Montgomery County against the novel coronavirus.

Amin has built up a local following as hes often seen wearing his signature Superman suit.

Supermans my favorite because of his ability to fly and fight the bad guys, he said in a June 2020 interview. Although I wish I could fly, fight COVID and serve more patients, the costume gives me energy to keep going and do whatever I can with what I've been tasked to do.

He continued to keep people smiling as he delivered prescriptions to clients and personal protective equipment to first responders in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As vaccine supply became available to the Montgomery County pharmacy, Amin began holding large scale clinics as well as routine vaccination opportunities at his Schwenksville-based business.

Dean also noted that securing adequate vaccine supply for the states third most populous county was a major issue.

So when he stepped up and started filling that void ... I've never been a part of an event where I saw, witnessed hundreds of people, whether volunteers or receiving vaccine, simply thankful, a feeling of gratitude because weve been in a feeling for the last year of terror and isolation, Dean said.

Amin estimated that he and hundreds of volunteers have organized roughly 20 specialized vaccination clinics since early February, administering roughly 37,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine so far.

Dean partnered with Amin, participating in a Skippack Pharmacy COVID-19 vaccination clinic on March 28 at North Penn High School in Towamencin Township, and said she was amazed by the operation.

People are so excited to be a part of positive things for this country and for their neighbors, she said. So Dr. Mak is sort of the symbol of that here in our district.

Amin credited those giving their time to make these clinics happen.

Theyre the brains behind the operation, Amin said. I just happen to be a part of it, and I'm just thankful that I got the invitation on behalf of the core team members, and everyone thats helped with the clinics.

U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-4th dist. takes a selfie on Wednesday in Washington D.C. ahead of President Joe Biden's address to a joint session

In true COVID-19 pandemic fashion, Wednesdays address took on a hybrid approach.

While Dean sat in the socially distanced chamber in the nations capitol, Amin tuned in virtually, watching the speech from New Jersey, with his pregnant wife, Payal.

This was our opportunity to have our baby listen in too with his daddy right by his side, he said.

Other members of Amins family held a watch party in Lansdale.

Amin also assumed control of Dean's Twitter account, @RepDean, tweeting during Bidens remarks.

The unique experience I had is I never thought in my life I would get to do a social media takeover for an official of that level, and on a platform where you have thousands and thousands of people that are viewing the remarks that are being posted, Amin said.

That was so honorable that as the president was speaking, we had the opportunity to connect his speech to our vaccine clinics, and  the American Rescue Plan [Act] that the president mentioned, how that was so instrumental in us getting so many of these vaccines at the smaller pharmacies, he continued. And he mentioned it multiple times, the fact that ... 40,000 pharmacies throughout the country received the vaccines."

There were 26.9 million people who watched Wednesdays speech as Biden touched on initiatives ranging from climate to economic policy.

[It was] just a really bold, progressive speech that meets this incredible moment of challenge and opportunity in our history, Dean said. So I couldn't be prouder of the president.

But there was a point that struck a chord for Amin.

We all know life can knock us down. But in America, we never, ever, ever stay down, Biden said in his remarks.

Through hard work and perseverance, he ended up reopening a local pharmacy in 2019.

Those words gave me goosebumps because this is my story, Amin said.

Amin was humbled when reflecting on his conversation with Dean and the speech.

That was an awe inspiring experience, speaking with her, and just her telling us all the things that we've done, some of the things we cant remember because were not doing this for any kind of praise, Amin said. The sole goal of all this, and why all these people help us is because we want to get our communities safer as fast as possible, and when you don't do things for credit, and you do it because you love people, amazing [things] happen."
This story from the Telegraph evidently is not a parody. Britains spy agency promises to focus on sniffing out other countries carbon dioxide emissions:

MI6 is placing the climate emergency at the forefront of its international espionage with green spying on the worlds big polluters, its new chief has revealed. Richard Moore, head of the UKs foreign intelligence service, described climate change as the foremost international foreign policy item for this country and for the planet. It means the big industrial countries will be monitored by MI6 to ensure they are upholding their commitments to combating rising global temperatures.

After all these years, Moore is the first head of MI6 to be interviewed on broadcast media. And what does he talk about? Global warming.

China will be the agencys #1 target. Will MI6 focus on Chinas rapidly growing navy? Its threats against Taiwan? Mass incarceration and murder of the Uighurs? Nope.

He indicated that British spies will make China the focus of much of their climate-related espionage by pointing out that Beijing is certainly the largest emitter of carbon. Our job is to shine a light in places where people might not want it shone and so clearly we are going to support what is the foremost international foreign policy agenda item for this country and for the planet, which is around the climate emergency, and of course we have a role in that space, he told Times Radio.

We can only hope that this is disinformation, but sadly, I suspect it is for real. And I doubt that our own intelligence agencies are much more serious.
Mark Thiessen  thats Mark with a k, not to be confused with AEIs Marc Thiessen  holds down the Alaska bureau of the Associated Press in Anchorage. He was well situated to cover the FBIs raid at the highly rated Homer Inn & Spa resort in search of a laptop used by Nancy Pelosi that was stolen from the Capitol on January 6.

The FBI thinks they have their woman in one Marilyn Hueper. She owns the Homer Inn & Spa with her husband. The FBI seized her laptops and a cell phone during a raid at the inn this past Wednesday.

Hueper is talking and explains in a freewheeling way that this is a case of mistaken identity. The quotes in Thiessens story carry an inherent plausibility.

The FBI isnt talking. Apparently Thiessen couldnt find any unnamed sources familiar with the investigation to justify the ways of the FBI to man, a la the New York Times.

Here is Thiessens AP story:

Federal agents served a search warrant at a boutique resort in Homer, Alaska, saying they were looking for a laptop stolen from House Speaker Nancy Pelosis office during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, one of the Homer Inn and Spa owners said. Agents on Wednesday confiscated laptop computers and a cellphone, owner Marilyn Hueper said. A cellphone belonging to her husband, Paul Hueper, was also forensically audited by agents but not confiscated, she said. Marilyn Hueper said agents also claimed there was photographic evidence that she was inside the Capitol during the riot; something she denies. No arrests were made Wednesday. The couple attended then-President Donald Trumps rally in Washington on the day of the insurrection but denied entering the Capitol. When agents arrived at their living quarters at the resort on Wednesday, she said agents told her she probably knew why they were there. I was like, Yeah, no, not really, she told Kenai radio station KSRM. The Huepers did not immediately return a message The Associated Press left on the resorts phone Friday. And they said, Well, were here for Nancy Pelosis laptop. And I said, Oh, so it was stolen and its at large, good to know. I thought maybe it was just conspiracy theory, so thanks for the intel, she said. Pelosis deputy chief of staff, Drew Hammill, confirmed Jan. 8 that a laptop was taken from a conference room but said it was a laptop that was only used for presentations. Agents then asked her who she was working with, Marilyn Hueper said. She replied by starting to laugh, and then apologized to the agent. I dont mean to be disrespectful and laughing, but this is really surreal and strange, she told the radio station. Chloe Martin, a spokesperson for the FBIs Anchorage field office, confirmed agents conducted a court-authorized law enforcement activity at the Homer Inn and Spa. While individuals are free to speak about their interactions with the FBI, we do not, as a matter of practice, discuss or describe any contact we have or allegedly have with individuals, she said in a Friday email to the AP. At this time, and until it reaches the public realm, we cant discuss the details. Paul Hueper said he took a photo of his wife walking up the Capitol steps on Jan. 6, but they were no closer than 100 yards (91 meters) from the building entrance. He posted that photo on Instagram. She said agents told her there was video footage of her in the building, but Marilyn Hueper claims its a case of mistaken identity. Agents showed her photos of a woman wearing a black Columbia coat with white lettering on the left shoulder, the same as she was wearing, Marilyn Hueper said, acknowledging both women were close in age with a similar hairstyle. That is where the similarities ended, she told the station. The woman was wearing a sweater that Marilyn Hueper claimed she would never own, and she said she has attached earlobes. This chick looks like she has detached earlobes, which makes me jealous, Marilyn Hueper said of the woman in the screen grabs. Ive always wanted detached earlobes. Homer is located about 120 miles (193 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage.

Hueper doesnt sound too choked up about the whole affair. She must be one cool customer to leave us with the reflection that Ive always wanted detached earlobes.

The Anchorage Daily News publishes its story with the composite photo below. The caption reads: This composite photo illustration shows a photograph of Homer resident Marilyn Hueper, left, taken on Jan. 6, 2021 and provided by Hueper, next to two images (on the right) published by the FBI showing an unidentified woman in the U.S. Capitol on the same date.

The ADN interviewed Hueper. Its story goes into more detail on the raid and Huepers interrogation by the FBI:

Hueper said the agents broke down her door Wednesday morning as she, her husband and some guests were asleep. When she asked why they didnt just knock, she was told that they did, but no one answered, so the agents went to get breakfast. When they returned, they knocked again, and when no one answered, they broke open the door, she said. Hueper said the officers had guns drawn and handcuffed her, her husband and their guests. She and her husband were put in different rooms and couldnt see what was happening as the officers searched, according to Hueper. An officer pulled out a photo of a woman in the Capitol on Jan. 6 and asked if she knew who the woman was. Hueper was surprised, she said, because the woman looked like her and had a coat like one she owns. But Hueper said shes never had a sweater like one the woman was wearing in a second picture.

This is also of interest:

Hueper said she was able to point to other photos, provided later in the interview, to show differences in her appearance from the woman shown. The woman in the photo has detached earlobes  hers are attached. The other woman also has a different brow shape, Hueper said, adding that shes never worn the kind of high boots that the woman wore. Im like, Wait a minute. Is that her? Thats clearly not me. Why did you not show me this to start with?  Hueper said. Hueper said officers left a copy of the search warrant when they left after about four hours. She believes about a dozen officers were present, but shes not sure. She declined to provide a copy of the search warrant but said it allows the FBI to collect information related to the breach and et cetera, you know, the shenanigans in the Capitol. She said the warrant doesnt specifically name Pelosi, but she was told by officers that they are looking for that laptop.

The FBI also seized Rudy Giulianis laptops and cell phones on Wednesday. I hope they dont confuse Giulians devices with Huepers. If Hueper emerges unscathed, her story may have the makings of a Coen Brothers comedy like Burn After Reading.
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Josephine Malokwu, 51, is a smallholder farmer. She is into animal and crop production in Enugu State. She started farming as a retirement plan after leaving her fashion business two years ago.

In this episode the mother of seven shares her experience with PREMIUM TIMES.

PT: You were a seamstress for 25 years, but suddenly switched to agriculture two years ago. What caused the change of plans?

Ms Malokwu: My husband was bedridden for seven years so I reduced the speed of business then, two years ago we lost him. After his death I just got tired of the business so I started farming. The tailoring is stressful because I have to sit every time and I keep pedaling the machine. Considering my age, I cannot go through that stress so I settled for farming.

Farming is a lot easier for me because I go to the farm in the morning and return at noon. When I return from the farm, I rest. Its like an exercise for me, I just burn fat.

PT: You moved from the urban area to a rural area where you have to fight to own land, how were you able to get the land for your farming activities?

Ms Malokwu: I use my husbands land so there is no struggle for that and just two plots and I lease land for my animals (birds and pigs) where I pay N100,000 per annum to keep them. On the two plots of land, I cultivate cassava and maize. I process the cassava to garri.

PT: You mentioned animals as part of your business, how many of them do you have?

Ms Malokwu: The pigs are above 100 but I dont keep all because of space. I sold them after weaning for two months. I have 10 sows (female mature pigs) and one boar ( male mature pig). I have piglets often, they give birth in four months and they weaned after two months. The reproduction is every six months for each sow. Once a sow is done weaning, I mate it with the boar again to begin another process.

The sow gives birth to seven or eight at once. They started with two but over time they increased to seven then eight then 10. The pigs are in set, when one set is done producing I replace them with the other. I wish I had more space. I will allow the pig to get to the grower stage before selling. Some of the pigs reproduced in March will be weaned in May that is two months. I have about 200 birds.

PT: When people belong to groups or associations, it poses as a help to farmers because they may be able to access funds or other benefits, do you belong to any association?

Ms Malokwu: I dont belong to any one. Im just managing this business on my own.

PT: The government has been rolling out policies and measures to help boost Agriculture, which of them have you benefited from?

Ms Malokwu: Last year, some people came from the Ministry of Agriculture, took my name and pictures on my farm and left with the promise of getting back to me. They said they were asked to collect details of farmers in the state, but nothing to show for. I called my niece who works there, she confirmed that something came in but was syphoned by some people. I cannot confirm this claim but I know she is in a position to give some information.

I think these people use our pictures to get money from the government for their personal use. I wanted to follow up but she advised we forget it.

PT: Being a widow with only one source of income, do sell or consume your crops?

Ms Malokwu: I consume the crops, its not even enough to feed my children. I process the cassava to fufu as well. A paint of garri is N1400 and the output from the farm is small so I cant even sell any. I can only sell when I get hectares of land.

PT: Nigerias security situation is not so impressive, communal clashes, farmer herders clashes and all, whats your experience?

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Ms Malokwu: Well I will say Im fortunate, I have not experienced any of such. My farm is close to residential areas so the herders do not come around. No petty thieves who steal the animals because there are vigilante groups here.

PT: Market sometimes may be a challenge for farmers, how do you manipulate it?

Ms Malokwu: For the birds, the market is always available but we lost some of the birds last year because of the weather. Then the pigs are usually not the same size just like every other animal. The market is available but customers under price them, I have piglets of N8000 while some go as low as N5000. But if a customer wants to buy in bulk, the person will buy all at the same price.

PT: Since you dont have access to financial support how do you deal with labour, do your children support you?

Ms Malokwu: My children are the unpaid labourers I have. They help buy feeds and take care of the animals. In fact the business is still functioning because of their commitment towards the farm. Im more of a supervisor, they know I have suffered for them. Do you know when I started struggling?

PT: As a young person in the business, you must have realised that agriculture is regarded as a mans work, tell us your story?

Ms Malokwu: Dont you know a widow is a man? You cant try such things with me. I buy the seeds and finance the farm and one man somewhere comes to open his mouth to harass me or tell me Im not fit to be a farmer, the man is not serious.

PT: The prices of feeds have skyrocketed in the markets, how do you cope to feed your animals?

Ms Malokwu: The prices have really increased, last year the price of one bag of feed was N3000, currently, it is N4000 and I buy in bulk. I have to add bambara nuts, cassava, soybean and palm nuts. They eat different foods and different stages, a weaning pig eats a different food from the others and I cannot add all the other supplements so it is strictly fed on the normal feed.

PT: Generally, what is your basic challenge as a woman farmer?

Ms Malokwu: Funds, my basic problem is funds. I have an idea on what I want. I want to expand this business, buy land and build more pens and poultry. I want to create employment for young people but I cannot do it on this small farm.

This is a retirement plan for me and I love Agriculture. My children may have to leave the farm because its small and they will not grow here but if I expand it it will be a huge business.
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A notorious bandit, Auwalun Daudawa, has been killed barely nine days after he returned back to the forest, an official of the Zamfara State Government says.

Ibrahim Zauma, a spokesperson to the governor of the state, broke the news late Friday.

Just in: Barely nine days after Auwalun Daudawa returned to the jungle after swearing oath on the Glorious Quran never to go back to banditry, he met his waterloo! He was killed while trying to rustle, he wrote on Twitter.

Just in: Barely nine days after Auwalun Daudawa returned to the jungle after swearing oath on the Glorious Quran never to go back to banditry, he met his waterloo! He was killed while trying to rustle. pic.twitter.com/EeK8KRZcof  Ibrahim Bello Zauma (@Ibellozauma) April 30, 2021

Mr Daudawa, known for masterminding the abduction of over 300 students from a boys secondary boarding school on the outskirts of Kankara, Katsina State, last December, surrendered his weapons under an amnesty programme by the Zamfara State Government in February.

In an exclusive interview with Daily Trust, he recounted how he picked up arms, restating that he has forsaken his past.

I have repented and submitted myself. I dont want to look back at all.If some of us at some point came out to renounce violence and go back and continue their old ways, that is their own choice.

If someone repents but has arms in the bush, you know it cannot be a sincere one. In my case I carried myself and the arms I had and turned myself in, what should I go back and do? If I do anything Allah sees it.

However, against his words, Mr Daudawa went back to the trenches.

A security source and two other sources close to the bandit confirmed to Daily Trust few days ago that the repentant bandit has relocated to one of the forests, near the border with Katsina.

He called one of his contacts in Gusau to inform him that he had arrived at the forest and decided to pick up arms again. He did not inform anybody before he left, one of the sources told the newspaper.
Fridays tally brings the total number of infections in the West African nation to 165,110.

Nigeria on Friday recorded no new death from the COVID-19 virus which has already claimed 2,063 lives in the country.

The number of deaths recorded from the virus has drastically declined recently with only two deaths recorded in the last 17 days.

Also, in continuation of a steady run of low infection figures, the country recorded 55 new cases on Friday.

Fridays tally brings the total number of infections in the West African nation to 165,110

This is according to an update published by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) late Friday night.

According to the NCDC, the 55 new cases were reported from eight states: Lagos-21, Yobe-19, Ogun-6, Akwa Ibom-3, Kaduna-2, Plateau-2, FCT-1 and Rivers-1.

A breakdown of the data shows that 60 persons were discharged on Friday after testing negative to the virus. This brings the total number of discharged persons after treatment to 155,101.

Our discharges today includes 23 community recoveries in Yobe State managed in line with guidelines, the infectious disease body said.

Meanwhile, a little over 10,000 infections are still active in the country.

Since the pandemic broke out in Nigeria in February 2020, the country has carried out 1,912,628 million tests, according to the NCDC.

Ongoing vaccination

More Nigerians are still taking jabs of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. Approximately 1.2 million people have so far been vaccinated, according to data by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA).

Nigeria has received approximately 4.4 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines, which is quite insufficient considering the target of its population eligible for vaccination in the first phase.

Due to limited doses of vaccine available, the government recently directed states to halt vaccination once they use half of the doses allocated to them.

We are aware of the global scarcity of COVID-19 vaccines due to high demands especially in countries where vaccines are being produced, the head of NPHCDA, Faisal Shuaib, said at a briefing of the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on Monday.

Mr Shuaib said the government anticipates a delay in vaccine supply which may also affect and impact the remaining phases of the vaccination campaign.

He also said the country expects to receive about 29.8 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) COVID-19 vaccines, which requires the administering of just a single shot.

The J&J vaccine is compatible with standard vaccine storage and distribution channels with ease of delivery to remote areas.

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President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the deployment of operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to check whatever fraudulent activities might undermine the implementation of the Presidential Fertiliser Initiative (PFI).

This directive was communicated via a memo by the Chief of Staff to the President, Ibrahim Gambari, on Tuesday.

Kindly note that Mr President has directed the deployment of EFCC operatives to work with the Fertiliser Producers and Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN) monitoring team to control all criminal activities undermining the implementation of the PFI, Mr Gambari said, according to the letter exclusively obtained by PREMIUM TIMES.

He warned that the president also approved the removal of any participating blending plant from the PFI if found to be in contravention of the guidelines governing the programme.

Following reports of fertiliser diversion by two major blending plants under the PFI programme, a source familiar with the presidents sudden move said it is a necessary measure needed to curb such dubious acts.

Diversion of fertilisers

Nigerias drive to boost agriculture and food production has in part been undermined by shortage of fertiliser.

Government efforts to increase the supply and reduce cost of the commodity were in some cases hijacked by middlemen whose activities ensured farmers did not have the products or pay the government-approved rates for them.

According to the 2019 financial statements of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), despite the best efforts by all parties concerned to forestall stock loss and ensure raw material inputs translate to output for domestic production of NPK 20:10:10, a brand of fertiliser, some incidents of unauthorised lifting of the product was discovered at Bauchi Fertiliser Company and Bejafta Group Nigeria Limited.

The NSIA said the development was escalated to the security agencies for investigation, and that the blending plants involved in the fraud were delisted from participating in the 2020 PFI until the amounts owed  600 million and 1.031 billion  (by Bauchi Fertiliser Company and Bejafta Group Nigeria Limited respectively) were fully settled.

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The NSIA, in the financial statement, noted that in line with the relevant accounting standards, the full amount of 1.6 billion has been recorded as inventory loss and charged to the income statement.

The investment institution, which is saddled with the mandate of managing Nigerias sovereign wealth fund, said it was able to detect diverted stock because its system is being audited intermittently.

The Bauchi Fertiliser Company has nearly completed payment for all the diverted products, while Bejafta Group Nigeria Limited has N400 million outstanding.

The NSIA said it has recovered 80 per cent of the funds equivalent of the diverted stock from the companies.

The recoveries already made will be recognised as income in our 2020 annual report, the NSIA said.

The NSIA overall handling of the PFI has been impressive and so are the levels of transparency and disclosure of key information about the programme.

Under NSIA oversight, about 32 million bags of fertiliser were produced in four years, out of which only 300,000 of the stock were lost.

If one looks at it critically, the incident involving those two companies was miniscule in the grand scheme of things, NSIA spokesperson, Titilope Olubiyi, said.

He said his agency had in place layers of scrutiny the process is subjected to in order to ensure that losses are kept to the barest minimum.

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Mr Olubiyi said the NSIA detected the two incidents itself and elaborately reported it in its 2020 annual report.
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The Chairman, Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures in Nigeria, Abubakar Sulaiman, says the conference will ensure that all states domesticate the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act without further hesitation.

Mr Sulaiman, who is the Speaker, Bauchi State House of Assembly, said this in Bauchi during the launch of the Costed Model Action Plan (CMAP) for the implementation of the VAPP Act by Bauchi State Government.

He said that increasing cases of rape and other forms of violence against persons in many parts of the country called for swift action and effective modalities toward the implementation of the Act.

The chairman noted that the VAPP Act was passed into law by the Bauchi State House of Assembly and assented to by the state governor as a result of agitations for the protection of persons against different forms of violence which was fast becoming a trend in the country.

He explained that the VAPP Act was an improvement on the penal code in relation to violence, adding that it made provisions for compensation for victims, as well as protection of their rights.

The conference of speakers of state legislatures in Nigeria, under my leadership would embark on a legislative advocacy to ensure that all states of the federation that did not pass the VAPP Act did so without hesitation, he said.

Mr Sulaiman revealed that in an effort to give the law acceptability, all stakeholders, such as religious and cultural organisations, civil society and Non Governmental Organisations in Bauchi State were involved.

The measure is to address all aspects of the law that may have conflict with our religion and culture.

The Act prohibits all forms of violence against persons in private and public life and provides maximum protection and effective remedies for victims and punishment for offenders, the Chairman said.

He promised that Bauchi State House of Assembly would continue to give legislative support to all policies and programmes aimed at protecting the rights of people, irrespective of age, gender or religion.

Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State said the launch of the CMAP was a significant achievement that explained the commitments of the state government toward implementing the VAPP Act and eliminating violence against persons.

He explained that through the Action Plan, the state government had identified some intervention strategies that would have direct impact on the lives and welfare of most vulnerable persons in the state.

This Costed Model Action Plan is a tool that would help to produce results through clearly defined activities and targets, careful costing and identification of actors responsible for the implementation of the programme.

He said it provides an implementation strategy and a clearly defined monitoring and evaluation components and includes an estimated cost of the package of the whole programme, totalling over N3.7 billion.

The CMAP is relevant to the overall response to end violence against persons in Bauchi State, it offers a multi-sectoral and standardised approach that can be applied at all levels.

All stakeholders have an obligation to participate in creating a peaceful and safe environment for the growth and development of the state and especially for the security and protection of everyone, he advised.

Nigeria has been hit by a wave of violence in recent years due to an upsurge in crimes and insurgency.
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Two police officers were killed on Saturday by some unknown gunmen who attacked a police facility in Ikono Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, Nigerias South-south.

A female police officer was also injured in the attack, while five vehicles parked at the stations premises were set ablaze, according to a statement from the Chairman of Ikono council, Nyakno Okoibu.

The statement issued by the chairmans media aide, Nsisong Ntuk, said the attack occurred at about 3 a.m.

The statement said members of IPOBs security arm, Eastern Security Network (ESN), were suspected to be behind the attack.

The chairman has been making overarching measures to ensure that normalcy is restored to the area of attack and other parts of the Local Government Area, the statement said.

The chairman wishes to reassure the people of Ikono that in liaison with the Chief Security Officer of the State, Governor Udom Emmanuel, all necessary apparatus will be activated to ensure that the perpetrators of this heinous crime are apprehended and brought to book.

Akwa Ibom State has over the years been known as a peaceful state where lives and properties of those domiciled within it are safe and secured. The narrative will not change now, the statement added.

The local administration has requested people to volunteer to the police useful information about the attack.

PREMIUM TIMES could not immediately get the police reaction to the latest attack, as the police spokesperson, Odiko MacDon, did not respond to calls from our reporter as of the time of filing this report.

The spate of attacks on security officials in the South-east and South-south has compounded the security challenges in the two regions.

Police facilities have been previously attacked in Essien Udim and Ika local government areas of Akwa Ibom State, with scores of officers killed.

IPOB, a pro-Biafra group which has been proscribed by the Nigerian government, has denied their involvement in the attacks in the two regions.
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The governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, has urged Nigerian youth to kick out the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2023 if they (youth) are not satisfied with the partys style of governance or records.

Mr Fayemi, a prominent member of the ruling APC and chairman of Nigerian Governors Forum, said the youth should stop relocating to other countries and focus on making Nigeria better.

He disclosed this while speaking at The Platform, an annual programme organised by Covenant Christian Centre at Iganmu, Lagos.

Dont succumb to despondency, there is a lot to hail in this country. There is a lot to frustrate you, a lot to want to make you give up and pick that visa and go to Canada.

I know it (Canada) is a popular destination but you know what? There is also a glass ceiling in Canada. When you get to the top of it, you will now discover there is a glass ceiling there. This is the place where there is no glass ceiling, let us work towards making it a better place.

Even if your search is a regime change in a democracy, there is only one word for regime change in a democracy: you work towards it.

Another election is going to come if you do not like what APC is doing. Organise, stop agonising, organise against the party. Link up with others who are organising and then kick the APC out of office and put people that you think will do better, not creating a situation of anarchy, he said.

Jabs

He also threw jabs at youth and politicians he said were propagating what he tagged, Twitter revolution.

The space is more liberalised now, not like what we fought against during the military regime. Im not talking about the Twitter revolution. Many young Nigerians are cosying, giving it to governors and attacking ministers on Twitter and Facebook.

Go to the wards, go to the communities and challenge what they are doing there. Hold them accountable, he said.

Many Nigerian youths have been criticising the current government over its failure to tackle insecurity, unemployment and many other challenges facing citizens.

Many youth have relocated to Canada and other foreign countries for greener pastures.

Efforts by some youth to take over Nigerias political space proved unsuccessful in 2019 as both the APC and PDP dominate politicking with funds and also control key power brokers.
The Federal Government has told workers that the transfer of the National Minimum Wage from the Exclusive to Concurrent list would not work.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, gave the hint at the 2021 May Day celebration, on Saturday in Abuja.

The theme of the May Day celebration is: COVID-19, Social and Economic Crises; Challenges for Decent Work, Social Protection and Peoples Welfare.

Mr Ngige said that the new minimum wage was a national law, which would not be manipulated by anyone.

A tripartite clause arrangement which coordinated the government enacting the national minimum wage on April 18, 2019, and the President in signing the law, made it clear that the law takes effect on that day.

That law is a national law, it is not that which you can choose for anybody that falls within the ambit of that law. It is not a question of pick and choose.

We moved the national minimum wage from 18,000 per month to 30,000; it is an irreducible clause and we need a social protection mechanism.

We therefore expect the states and people in the private sector to comply. Amendment of trying to expand that law or trying to bring the law into the concurrent list will not work, he said.

Ayuba Wabba, the President, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), had earlier said that any attempt to remove the national minimum wage from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent List was a mischievous effort to foster crisis, chaos and anarchy in the country.

Mr Wabba said the national minimum wage served as social protection by providing a mimimum income floors to safeguard low earners.

Our argument for the retention of the national minimum wage on the exclusive legislative list is to also propel the fact that the minimum wage is a tool for social inclusion and poverty reduction.

For Nigerian workers, it has been a catalogue of workplace and trade union rights violations.

First is the criminal refusal by some state governors to pay the new national minimum wage and consequential increase in salaries, thus violating workers rights.

We have already directed all our state councils to down tool if any governor remains adamant about paying the new national minimum wage, he said.

The NLC president noted that the theme for this years celebration was apt, as Nigeria failed to protect its citizenry especially workers, from the daunting challenges occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic.

He noted that a recent research by Nigerian scholars said that the COVID-19 inspired lockdown threw an estimated 27 million Nigerians into poverty, ballooning the community of the working poor in Nigeria.

Targets

According to him, this revealed that workers are the major targets of the growing insecurity across the country.

The NLC boss further stated that in spite of efforts by government and private sector employers, millions of Nigerian workers had lost their means of livelihood and slipped into destitution, lack and misery.

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Mr Wabba added that the weakness of the social protection system further aggravated the pain and frustration of workers.

He noted that the recent unemployment statistics of 33.3 per cent as released by the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS), occasioned by the pandemic and arbitrary sack of workers by some state governors, had further driven the spate of insecurity being witnessed.

Human insecurity as marked by mass unemployment is the main driver for the physical insecurity besieging our dear country.

Part of the challenge of unemployment and insecurity is the crisis of poor governance. Weak budgets that led to poor appropriations and poorer budgetary oversight is the bane of our development.

It is unfortunate and a terrible injustice to the memory of Nigerias founding fathers, that virtually every part of the country has been engulfed by one form of security challenge or the other, he said.

Security

Mr Wabba, while however commending the efforts of the nations security apparatus, called for increased efforts and routing of security votes, through the normal budgetary process for proper oversight and accountability.

On casualisation of workers, he urged government and private employers of labour to end the slavery of workers by consolidating the milestones already gained in the current labour law review.

Mr Wabba also said that Nigerian workers reject any further hike in electricity tariff, while calling for adjustments to the gas price for the power sector, suspension of gas price increases, for the next three years in order to support electricity tariff stability.
NYU Langone Medical Center has filed an application with the State Department of Health for approval of its 55,000 square foot ambulatory care facility at Essex Crossing on the Lower East Side. The news was first reported yesterday by Crains.

In January of 2016, Delancey Street Associates, the consortium building the mixed-use project, announced that NYU had signed a 15-year lease for a space at 175 Delancey St. The medical facility, which will be called the Joan H. and Preston Robert Tisch Center, will be located in the same building housing affordable senior rentals and Grand Street Settlements senior center.

Details of NYUs $32.8 million Lower East Side facility were included in a certificate of need application filed with the state March 7. From the executive summary:

NYU Langone Medical Center proposes to open a new Ambulatory Care Center, NYU Langone Ambulatory Care Center at Essex Crossing on the Lower East Side of Manhattan (Manhattan Community District 3) that will provide residents of this neighborhood with 21st century care, focused on the provision of care in the outpatient setting. Included in this center are both Article 28 and non-Article 28 programs. NYU Langone Medical Center requests approval from the Public Health and Health Planning Council (PHHPC) for the Article 28 programs that will be located in this new facility. The NYU Langone Ambulatory Care Center at Essex Crossing will include a free-standing multi-specialty Ambulatory Surgery Center consisting of 4 Class C Operating Rooms as well as space dedicated to the provision of Physical Therapy services. It is expected that 2 of the Class C Operating Rooms will be dedicated to General Surgery procedures including ENT, GYN and Endoscopies while the remaining 2 Class C Operating Rooms will be dedicated to Orthopedic Surgery procedures.

In its application, NYU noted space limitations at its Center for Musculoskeletal Care and Ambulatory Surgery Center on 38th Street. It also pointed to high utilization rates in the operating rooms at the NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases and the need for more space for physical therapy services. The institution expects that more than 9,600 physical therapy visits from residents of Community District 3, now being accommodated at existing facilities, will be shifted to Essex Crossing.

NYU plans to situate its physical therapy center on the ground floor of the building. The ambulatory surgery program will be located on the ground floor and in the cellar level. A few administrative offices will be on the second floor. More details from the application:

Patients will enter this site on the ground floor which is located off Delancey Street. The Physical Therapy Reception and Waiting Room will be accessed directly off the entrance vestibule. The Physical Therapy suite includes an open therapy and exercise area, a private physical therapy room, office, equipment and supply storage, changing rooms, soiled holding room, janitors closet, staff lounge, patient and staff toilets. Passing through the entrance vestibule, directly to the left, is the outpatient surgical waiting room which includes a reception desk, patient toilet, and wheelchair storage The cellar floor of the program includes the pre-operative holding/recovery area containing 14 patient cubicles and one multipurpose Consultation/Examination/Observation /Perioperative holding/ recovery room.

The new facility is expected to open in late 2018.
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The draw for the 2020-21 Total CAF Champions League was conducted on Friday (30 April 2021) at the CAF Headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.

CAF Director of Competitions, Samson Adamu, assisted by Ivorian legend Abdoulaye Traore, ran the draw process that revealed some thrilling encounters in the continents premier club competition.

According to CAF, here are the Quarter-final pair-ups. The first leg will be played between May 14 and 15, 2021, and the second leg between May 21 and 22, 2021. First-named teams host the first leg.

First quarter-final  Al Ahly (Egypt) vs Mamelodi Sundowns (South Africa).

Second QF  MC Alger (Algeria) vs Wydad Casablanca (Morocco).

Third QF  CR Belouizdad (Algeria) vs Esperance (Tunisia).

Fourth QF  Kaizer Chiefs (South Africa) v Simba (Tanzania).

Semifinals (SF)  (1st leg 18, 19 June 2021  2nd leg 25, 26 June 2021)

SF 1  Winner of QF 2 vs Winner of QF 4

SF 2  Winner of QF 3 vs Winner of QF 1.

Final  (17 July 2021). Winner SF 1 vs Winner SF 2.

(PANA.NAN)
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Two motorcyclists were on Friday night crushed to death in an accident involving two motorcycles and a Leyland truck opposite Forte Oil filling station around Kotopo on the Abeokuta-lbadan road.

Babatunde Akinbiyi, the spokesperson, Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps (TRACE), confirmed the incident to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Abeokuta.

Mr Akinbiyi explained that the accident occurred at 8.25 p.m. Friday, alleging that it was caused by reckless driving and impatience on the part of the motorcycle riders.

He said that the motorcyclists rammed into the truck coming from the opposite direction.

The TRACE spokesman stated that the accident involved two Bajaj motorcycles, one with the registration number SGM 006 VG, and the other with no registration number. and a Leyland truck, marked AAB 969 XV.

The two motorcycles and the truck have been taken to Aregbe police station in Abeokuta, he said.

He added that one of the deceased was taken away by his relatives while the body of the second person was deposited at the morgue of the Federal Medical Centre, Idi Aba, in Abeokuta after being confirmed dead by a medical doctor at the hospital.

(NAN)
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The Katsina Emirate Council has suspended the district head of Kankara, Abubakar Yusuf, over alleged complicity in banditry.

The spokesperson council, Iro Bindawa, on Saturday said Mr Yusuf was suspended following complaints from residents and a security report indicting him.

The official said the sanction of the traditional ruler was meant to complement governments efforts in the ongoing fight against banditry in the state.

The council said it has inaugurated a committee to investigate the allegation that the traditional ruler was aiding banditry in his territory.

The official did not elaborate more on the alleged offences of the traditional ruler, saying that the report of the committee would be presented to the government for further action.

Some traditional rulers in Katsina and neighbouring Zamfara State have been accused of aiding banditry, thus compounding the security situation of their states.

Kankara was in the news last year December following the abduction of over 300 students of Government Science Secondary School in the town.

The mastermind of the abduction, a notorious bandit, Auwalun Daudawa, was on Friday killed by a rival group in a forest between Katsina and Zamfara states.
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Officers of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Federal Operation Unit (FOU) Zone A invaded Oja Oba Market in Ibadan in the early hours of Saturday and carted away truckloads of foreign bags of rice.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) gathered that the officers broke into shops and warehouses in the market taking away no fewer than eight truckloads of bags of rice.

The invasion is coming barely a month after a similar incident at Bodija Market, where men of the service also carried out a similar operation.

The Public Relations Officer of NCS, FOU Zone A, Theophilus Duniya, confirmed Saturdays operation in a telephone interview with NAN in Ibadan.

Mr Duniya said the act which established the service empowered it to break into any shop or warehouse whenever it suspects contraband items are stocked in them.

Yes an operation was carried out at the market.

I cannot ascertain the numbers of bags of rice that were evacuated presently. Normally after interception, examination are conducted where the bags are counted to ascertain the number.

As I speak with you, am yet to get those information but I can confirm to you that there was an operation and some bags of rice were evacuated.

The act establishing the service empowers men and officers of the service to break into any shop or warehouse upon reasonable suspicion of prohibited items stocked therein, with or without warrant, Mr Duniya said.

(NAN)
The Kano State chapter of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has appealed to Governor Abdulahi Ganduje to consider the payment of outstanding pensions, gratuities and death benefits of N26 billion to retirees.

Kabir Ado-Minjibir, the NLC Chairman in the state, made the call while briefing reporters on Saturday in Kano to mark the 2021 workers day.

The chairman said that the payment of the outstanding benefits was part of their requests to the state government for consideration.

Other requests he said include: review of retirement age for all civil servants in the state and Local Government services like what was done to teachers from 35/60 to 40/65 years.

This action will equally reduce the massive increase of pensioners within five years thereby giving an opportunity to Kano State Pension Funds Trustee (KSPT) to offset its outstanding liabilities.

Government should provide an appropriate place that will serve as a bus station for the proposed NLC mass transit scheme scheduled to commence in Kano as soon as the station is provided.

The government should support the state workers who are willing to participate and benefit from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)/NIRSAL anchor borrowers programme.

Implementation of redeployment of 1,017 staff members from Head of Civil Service office to hospital management board as approved by Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje, he said.

The NLC advised the state government to increase its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) drive to boost the states income.

Mr Ado-Minjibir added that, I must start by thanking the almighty God for sparing our lives to survive the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.

That is why the theme for the 2021 May day celebration is COVID-19 pandemic, Social and an economic crisis: challenges for decent jobs and Peoples welfare.

We wish to use this opportunity to advise Kano State Government to, as a response to the economic downturn, take urgent steps to diversify its IGR drive to boost its income.

The labour is willing to support the government in this regard.

We are of the view that all difficult moments like this, reflationary measures should be adopted to empower workers and stimulate the economy.

We are all aware that workers by their nature of responsibilities and roles are necessary tools for success or otherwise of any administration.

A happy and motivated worker is an easy tool necessary for the implementation of governments policies and programmes.

The labour on the other hand is expected to ensure the safety and well-being of workers through promoting and protecting their rights at all times.

He said that the congress had organised an award night to honour some of its members that excelled in discharge of their responsibilities aimed at encouraging others. (NAN)

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A former President of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Olisa Agbakoba, on Saturday said state governors have continuously flouted court orders adding that constitutionally irresponsibility is one of the reasons the countrys judiciary is on its knees.

Mr Agbakoba spoke at The Platform 2021 tagged Is Devolution of Powers the Solution?, a programme facilitated by the The Covenant Church in Lagos.

I am happy that Kayode Fayemi is on because he is the Chairman of the Governors Forum, yet they are not obeying the Constitution, said Mr Agbakoba.

I went to court, I got two judgments, in respect of financial autonomy, and they are not obeying the orders.

The state governors have paralysed the judiciary and they are looking for more powers. They havent shown me that they are constitutionally responsible because they are not obeying the constitution. The small (power) they have got, they are not obeying it.

The Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) has been on a nationwide strike since April 6 to press home its demand for financial autonomy. https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/455591-striking-judiciary-workers-to-hold-nationwide-protest.html

According to Mr Agbakoba, there is a need to question Nigerias existence in view of evaluating the contract.

The real thing to ask is how do we come together as a country? And I always go back to Bola Ige. Two questions, he asked, do we want to be in a country called Nigeria? It is a very serious question, it is not enough to say Nigeria is indissoluble, no, it is open to question, do we?

The second question posed by Bola Ige was if we do want to be in a country called Nigeria, by what political arrangement?

He said Nigerias problem is not the Constitution but the foundation.

I think Nigerias foundational structures are not strong enough and that is why we see all these crises and challenges, the foundational structures require to be addressed and that is the reason we have so much turmoil and so much tension.

He noted that another person might express a divergent view and say the solution lies in restructuring.

There are some Nigerians who believe very strongly that the resolution of our problem is to restructure. I take a more soft approach, I dont like the word restructure for two reasons. First, it is unclear what it means, and the second is the southern argument of restructure debate differs from that of the north.

Mr Agbakoba, who described devolution of powers as the statutory involvement of powers from the exclusive list and concurrent list, said it makes sense technically because it advocates decentralisation of power but the big question is will it resolve our problems?

If the answer is yes, then by all means, I support it. If we took powers from the federal government, handed them to the state, is there a likelihood that the state will pass it on and strengthen the local government? Well, I dont see that happening.

The senior lawyer stressed the need for state governors to be accountable while commended the Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-olu, for enacting the Public Accountability and Anti-corruption legislation.
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President Muhammadu Buhari has stated that his government will not relent until it puts an end to the insecurity troubling the country.

The National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, stated this via a statement after a security council meeting convened by the president on Tuesday.

He quoted the president to have said he is confident that the security agencies will restore the countrys glory.

Fridays meeting is the latest of the nations heads of security agencies. It comes amidst heightened insecurity across all zones of the country.

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Apart from attacks on civilians, security agencies have also been targeted lately with many killed and properties destroyed.

According to the statement, President Buhari stated that Nigeria and its citizens would defeat all forces of evil.

Read the full statement by the NSA below.

STATEMENT BY THE NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER AFTER TODAYS NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL MEETING

Concerned about the persisting security challenges in parts of the country, Mr President summoned a crucial meeting of the National Security Council today as he continues to frontally confront the situation in

the country.

At todays meeting, the President made it abundantly clear that while the insurgents, bandits and criminals are still at it, he has no doubt that the Nigerian Security agencies and all of us as a nation will certainly overcome all the current security problems and defeat the forces of evil marauding about in different parts of the country.

While the criminals continue to test the will of the Nigerian government, the President and the Council which adjourned todays critical meeting until Tuesday morning to receive further briefings from the Security Chiefs, are set and determined to decisively end the assault on the nation and will do all that it takes.

Mr President is very prepared to take profound measures in the wider interest of the people and the Nigerian nation. There shall be no relenting until peace and security is significantly restored in our communities.
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Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, the Majority Leader in the House of Representatives, says there was no plan by any of the All Progressive Congress (APC) lawmakers to leave the party for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Ado-Doguwa, representing Tudun Wada/Doguwa constituency in Kano State, disclosed this in a statement issued to journalists in Kano.

My attention has been drawn to a spurious and specious claim by Ndudi Elumelu, the Minority leader, that some imaginary members of the ruling party have met with him to discuss their desire to join the sinking opposition party.

My reaction was to ignore this delusion, but because of the consideration for unsuspecting and innocent members of our great party and constituents who we represent at the House of Representatives, we owe them this clarification.

It is a fact that there was an executive session of the House, which was indeed convened by the leadership for the sole purpose of further discussions about the way out of the insecurity situation in the country.

It must be noted that Members across the partisan divide were too busy and occupied with the sense of duty and obligation to our nations wellbeing to have time for parochial and narrow prism thoughts of partisan politics and membership recruitment.

It, therefore, remains a curious slant that Elumelu in the heat of the current situation does not have the presence of mind to face squarely the matter that affects every Nigerian rather he is opting to embark on a voyage of political philandering of looking for new members for an opposition party that is like a sinking ship beyond salvage.

It clearly shows the kind of opposition we have.

If the minority leader will want to use the meeting of their party to announce a non-existent news of members of the ruling party trying to decamp to a party in dire straits bereft of solutions.

I wish to affirm without any doubt that the infantile claim of the minority leader that some members of the APC in the House of Representatives are thinking of joining the PDP remains a figment of his imagination and that of his co-travellers on that journey.

With all emphasis, I say that members of the APC are focused, too united, determined and fully committed to working with President Muhammadu Buhari and standing in one accord with all Nigerians at this time to find a lasting solution to the challenge of insecurity that does not recognise partisan tendencies.

We believe that working together with the leadership of the House of Representatives, under the leadership of Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, who had pushed concrete legislative support actions to stem the tide of insecurity challenge. he said.

ALSO READ: PDP urges Buhari to organise conference on security

According to Mr Ado-Doguwa, the most recent of such interventions of the Speaker was the setting up of a non-partisan broad spectrum special ad-hoc committee on security.

He added that the committee is currently working out the modalities to hold a week-long crucial security summit, where statesmen, security chiefs, and other relevant stakeholders will converge to proffer solutions to the rather lingering security problems bedevilling our country.

Without doubts, we shall be counted as an integral and veritable partner and component that worked to defeat this national challenge, and when we do, which will be soon, it with be all reasonable hands on deck.

This is our sacred commitment as Members of the APC in the 9th House of Representatives beyond the lousy tendencies of a sinking opposition party, he said.

(NAN)
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A woman in Akwa Ibom State, has been missing for three days now after she left her home for a job interview in the outskirts of Uyo.

The missing woman, Iniubong Umoren, was last seen on April 29 before she went to honour the appointment with someone who promised her a job through Twitter chat.

She was screaming for help on the phone, said one of her friends who established contact with her on the day she went missing.

She sent me a 1sec audio record on WhatsApp and I had to call her back to know if she wanted to say something to me but immediately I called her I heard her screaming, the friend, Uduak Umoh, tweeted.

Concerned Nigerians have been doing an amazing job, deploying internet tools to see how they could track the missing womans location or uncover the identity and the location of the person she went out to meet.

#FindHinyUmoren has been trending on Twitter for two days now.

One of the suspects in the case has been identified and a search is going on to find him.

He is said to be among those on Twitter who said they had an employment offer for Ms Umoren, a philosophy graduate of University of Uyo.

Another Twitter user @MiraclePapaa who promised her a job as a secretary in a construction company raised suspicion when he deleted his Twitter chat with the missing woman.

He has, however, posted a video on the micro-blogging site where he said he has submitted himself to the police.

The truth is that I have a screenshot of the message the girl sent to me, and honestly speaking I dont know anything about her, he said in the video clip.

The police said two persons have been arrested over the incident, and that the anti-kidnapping squad in Akwa Ibom State was investigating the case.
The ECOWAS Court of Justice on Friday in Abuja ordered the Nigerian government to pay $200,000 in damages to an ex-air force woman who was illegally dismissed by the Nigeria Air Force (NAF) after being allegedly raped by a superior officer.

The money is about N96 million at unofficial exchange rate and about N76 million at a parallel markets rate.

Ugbei Uzezi, in her suit presented before the court in 2019, said she joined the Nigeria Air Force in 2010, and was brutally raped by his superior officer, B. S Vibelko, a flight lieutenant, in 2011.

The 29-year-old Ms Uzezi, was only 19 as of 2011 when she was reportedly raped.

She was dismissed in 2015 at the peak of the victimisation, intimidation and harrassment that she faced after she reported the case to the Air Force authorities, her court documents stated.

A panel of the court, in its judgment, delivered in the suit instituted by Ms Uzezi ordered NAF to investigate and prosecute the superior officer, Mr Vibelko, over the alleged rape.

Judgment

Sahara Reporters quoted Dupe Atoki, the ECOWAS Court judge who delivered the lead judgment of the panel, as describing the applicants experience as undeserving of a human being.

The judge added that the brutal rape of the applicant is beastly, undeserving of a human being, and the failure of the Nigerian Air Force to investigate and punish its perpetrator is a show of impunity by the Air Force and the Nigerian authorities.

The Nigerian Air Force and the Nigerian authorities are hereby ordered to arrest, investigate and prosecute the perpetrator, adding what amount of money is enough to compensate a teenager gruesomely raped by her superiors on her way to womanhood?

The court ordered that her dismissal be converted to retirement with attendant benefits.

The court also ordered the Nigerian government to pay her $200,000 as compensation and a report of compliance be submitted by the Nigerian authorities within three months of being served notice of judgement.

Suit

Ms Uzezi had in her suit filed through her counsel, Marshal Abubakar of Femi Falanas law firm, stated that she was enlisted into the Nigerian Air Force on August 15, 2010 with Service No NAF10/25157F.

She said during her over five years of active and meritorious service, she worked at various military formations including the Nigerian Air Force Base, Kaduna, the Base Services Wing, Abuja and lastly the Air Service Wing, Ikeja, Lagos on military assignments.

She recalled that on May 17, 2011 she was sexually assaulted, brutally raped and de-flowered by her superior officer, Mr Vibelko.

According to her, the development resulted in her being admitted at the accident and emergency ward in 345 Aeromedical Hospital Kaduna.

She said her health suffered greatly, and that she contracted severe sexually transmitted infections as a result of the rape.

She said her male superiors, rather than investigate and mete out appropriate sanctions, subjected her to unprecedented intimidation, victimisation and threat to her life.

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ALSO READ: ECOWAS Court orders Ivorian govt to release citizen detained since 2018

This inhuman treatments, according to her, included being regularly locked up in the guardroom for no reason, being placed on constant punishment duties, being constantly accused and put through various degrees of punishment and imprisonment with hard labour and often dragged through the ground and beaten to coma while nude resulting in bruises all over her body.

The applicant claimed that she also received death threats from several officers of the Nigerian Air Force, for daring to report an officer who raped her.

She also stated that regimental entry was made into her file stating that she should never be promoted with her colleagues, adding that this continued until her unlawful dismissal.

She noted that she was orally dismissed from the Nigerian Air Force and unlawfully evicted from her official residence Flat 445 Nigerian Air Force, Ikeja, Lagos, without adherence to the statutory provisions in the Armed Forces Act.

Prayers

She had among other prayers sought a declaration by the court, that her purported dismissal from the Air Force by the respondent without arraignment, prosecution and sentence by a duly constituted Court Martial was irregular, illegal, unlawful, null and void, and that the act of the respondent herein constitute a violation of the Applicants Fundamental Rights to fair hearing as stated in the provisions of SECTION 36 (1), (5) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic.

She sought an order compelling the respondent, its agents, organs, servants, privies to pay her $20,000,000 as aggravated and punitive damages that will serve as a deterrent to the respondent, and another $500,000 as the solicitors fees and other incidental cost.

She also asked for an order of the court directing the respondent, its agents, organs, servants, and privies or by whatsoever name called to convert the purported dismissal of the Applicant to retirement at the rank her contemporaries in the Nigeria Air Force occupy as at the time of enforcement of the Judgement.
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Harmony directors updated on district's proposed budget

WESTOVER  Harmony Area School Directors plan to approve the 2021-22 proposed budget at the boards Tuesday, May 4, business meeting.

Earlier this week at its work session, the board was briefed on details about the proposed $6.6 million spending plan.

District Business Manager Brad Brothers said next years expenses currently stand at nearly $6.6 million and revenue at $6,345,000  creating a deficit of approximately $248,000. That revenue amount breaks down to 22 percent from local sources, 7 percent from federal funds and 71 percent from state stipends.

Brothers said he kept both the expected income and operating costs flat this year. He said although the school district has received COVID-19 relief grants through the Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief program, those funds are designated for specific expenses and are not able to be used to balance the budget. The district must spend 20 percent of its ESSER funding to help students recover the learning loss they experienced during the pandemic, he said.

He said other possible uses of the funding would be to upgrade the curriculum to one that can transition to virtual learning when needed, improve the complexs air quality and upgrade the cafeterias food preparation equipment.

We want to use the funds to buy things that are sustainable. Once the funds are gone, we will be back to the regular funding, Brothers explained.

Brothers told directors when he develops the budget he plans for the worst case scenario in regards to expenses.

Even though sometimes I am not sure we will need something I include it. I try to budget high for things that might never happen, he explained, adding his projections for the last several years are are why budget expenses have been less than the amount anticipated.

He said as the weeks go on he will continue to work on crafting a balanced budget, although he said the board can approve the tentative spending plan as it currently stands and make changes up until it adopts it.

We are not bound by this. It is just a starting point, Brothers explained to directors.

Brothers said although most years he would recommend directors include a small millage increase, he said they may not be able to raise taxes because the school districts unassigned fund balance stands at almost 12 percent of its general fund  as state law does not permit it.

The school district has 10 days from May 4 when the board approves the proposed budget to advertise it and make it available for district residents who desire to review it. The June meeting will be rescheduled from June 1 to June 8 to provide the 30 days required by state law and the budget must be on display, Brothers said.

Although the board has until June 30 to adopt the final version of the budget, Brothers said he hopes directors will do that on June 8.

He said the boards finance committee has met several times during the recent weeks to review the information that went into developing the draft spending plan.
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The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Benue State Chapter, has appealed to Governor Samuel Ortom to pay the 72 months (6 years) pension arrears owed retired local government workers in the state.

Godwin Anya, the state NLC Chairman made the appeal in an address to mark the 2021 Workers Day, on Saturday in Makurdi.

Mr Anya also appealed to the governor to implement the minimum wage for workers on grade level seven and above.

The NLC chairman disclosed that the state government also owes teachers 10 months salary arrears, nine months of local government workers, and five months salaries of state government workers.

Non payment of 2017 arrears of workers salaries has not only caused untold hardship, but has dampened the morale of workers, he lamented.

He noted that the government has remained aloof to issues of pensions and salaries, and urged it to address the problems, so as to boost the morale of workers.

Addressing the workers, Governor Ortom, represented by his deputy, Benson Abounu commended the NLC for its contributions to the nations economy.

He said that without workers the economy would remain at stand still.

Mr Ortom also commended Benue NLC for always resorting to dialogue on issues affecting workers.

He blamed insecurity for his administrations inability to be up-to-date in payment of salaries and pensions.

The governor claimed that security agencies depend on the state government wholly for finances.

The governor, however, pledged to address the issue of salary and pension arrears before the end of his administration. (NAN)
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Despite the progress recorded against the death penalty, more work needs to be done by the abolitionist movement in sub-Saharan Africa to get rid of the death penalty, which still remains in place in a majority of the countries in the region The death penalty is a cruel punishment which has no place in our world.

On April 21, Amnesty International published its annual global report on the use of the death penalty. The report reveals that the global use of the death penalty decreased in 2020.

The number of known executions fell by 26 per cent, from 657 in 2019 to 483 in 2020, the lowest figure that Amnesty International has recorded in the last decade. Also, last year was the third consecutive year that Amnesty International recorded the lowest execution figure in a 10-year period. On the other hand, new death sentences known to have been imposed globally decreased significantly by 36 per cent, from 2,307 in 2019 to 1,477 in 2020.

The situation last year in sub-Saharan Africa was one of relative progress, with the use of the death penalty decreasing and positive developments recorded in the region. Compared with the previous year, in 2020 recorded executions in the region went down by 36 per cent, from 25 to 16; and recorded death sentences fell by 6 per cent, from 325 to 305. Three countries in the region  Botswana, Somalia and South Sudan  carried out executions, one less than the previous year. These three countries constitute a minority of countries in sub-Saharan Africa that consistently implement death sentences.

In July, the authorities amended the Criminal Law to prohibit the use of the death penalty for children In the same month, Sudan abolished the use of the death penalty for apostasy, which should never have been punishable with death, since international law bans the use of the death penalty for crimes that do not involve intentional killing.

Sudan, which historically executed people, did not record any execution in 2020. The country made some remarkable progress against the death penalty. In July, the authorities amended the Criminal Law to prohibit the use of the death penalty for children. That ensured the inconsistency that had existed between the Child Act and the Criminal Law was resolved, and it kept Sudans laws in line with its legal obligations under international human rights law, which strictly prohibits the use of the death penalty for people who were below the age of 18 at the time of the crime. In the same month, Sudan abolished the use of the death penalty for apostasy, which should never have been punishable with death, since international law bans the use of the death penalty for crimes that do not involve intentional killing.

Chad effectively abolished the death penalty for all crimes in May when late President Idriss Deby Itno signed into law a revised anti-terrorism bill, which removed the death penalty for terrorism-related offences. Chad had previously removed the death penalty from a new Penal Code promulgated in 2017. With the abolition, Chad became the 21st country in sub-Saharan Africa to abolish the death penalty for all crimes and joined Guinea, Benin, Madagascar and the Republic of Congo as abolitionist countries of the region in the last decade.

In Gambia, the official moratorium on executions that President Adama Barrow established in 2018 remained in place. Although the death penalty is yet to be abolished in the country and death sentences continue to be imposed by the courts, the moratorium on executions and Gambias legal commitment under the international treaty that prohibits the carrying out of executions constitute important steps in the right direction.

As COVID-19 raged through 2020 and the world focused on finding ways to protect lives from the disease, 18 countries in the world showed utter disregard for the right to life by executing people. However, some improvement was evident in sub-Saharan Africa, as recorded commutation of death sentences increased by 87 per cent.

As COVID-19 raged through 2020 and the world focused on finding ways to protect lives from the disease, 18 countries in the world showed utter disregard for the right to life by executing people. However, some improvement was evident in sub-Saharan Africa, as recorded commutation of death sentences increased by 87 per cent. At least 309 commutations were granted during the year across the region; a huge increase in comparison to 2019 when at least 165 commutations were granted. The increase in commutation of death sentences was triggered by the mass commutations in Tanzania, when late President John Magufuli commuted the death sentence of 256 prisoners in December. In all, 12 countries  Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe  were known to have granted commutations or pardons of death sentences in sub-Saharan Africa in 2020.

In Kenya, the abolition of the mandatory death penalty by the Supreme Court in 2017 continued to lead to the commutation of death sentences by the courts after resentencing hearings. In one example, 23 prisoners, who had petitioned the High Court to review their death sentences, following the Supreme Court judgement, had these death sentences commuted to various prison terms. One of the petitioners, whose death sentence was commuted to 20 years imprisonment, was released, having already been in prison for 20 years.

Despite the progress recorded against the death penalty, more work needs to be done by the abolitionist movement in sub-Saharan Africa to get rid of the death penalty, which still remains in place in a majority of the countries in the region. The exonerations of prisoners under the sentence of death, recorded by Amnesty International, in both Cameroon (3) and Zambia (6) in 2020 are stark reminders of the inherent risk of using the death penalty. The death penalty is a cruel punishment which has no place in our world. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa must protect the right to life and completely abolish the death penalty in all circumstances.

Oluwatosin Popoola is Legal Adviser at Amnesty International, London.
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To be candid, the task of presidential spokespersons at the stage of engagement Shehu occupies, especially in times of national crisis of this magnitude ought to have been scaled up beyond juvenile delinquency.

In Turkish Writer, Elif Shafaks well reverred view, passing information today is no big deal. If you dont have it, you can google it.

But passing knowledge is not as routine a task as passing information.

Knowledge, however imperfect, requires depth and focus and a capacity for introspective sobriety. Knowledge also comes with wisdom and Wisdom she argues, embodies not only knowledge but also empathy and emotional intelligence.

Thats why, in life, you might come across very smart people, who however have very low emotional intelligence. Wisdom is difficult to demonstrate because it requires cognitive flexibility. It also demands that one steps outside identity politics and echo chambers.

In listening to Garba Shehu in recent days, he has for a while, either to satisfy a growing desperation for master-servant overboard theatrics, or for reasons inexplicable to moral fortitude, held on to a pernicious code of reprehensible conduct thats fast eroding his possible legacy, if any, in advance.

You must blink with pain to see people die or university students being slaughtered. To go on TV spewing base arguments of why its not the first time people are dying is the opposite of love, which is numbness. It amounts to cold hearted indifference.

The opposite of kindness in Elif Shafaks position, is not necessarily hatred and war. It is lack of sensitivity to the plight of others and in this case, to the sorrow and agony of citizens losing loved ones to bloodshed. Love transcends ethnic, racial or political boundaries. You must blink with pain to see people die or university students being slaughtered. To go on TV spewing base arguments of why its not the first time people are dying is the opposite of love, which is numbness. It amounts to cold hearted indifference.

Same goes for those on emotional overdrive in newfound love and clamour for war. While the current situation we grapple with remains unbelievably insane, we need to sit back and think out of the box before rushing into a campaign to take up arms. If war breaks out in Nigeria today, those who will carry arms and fight may not be more than one million of our whole population. But because they hold the gun and have control of an armoury of death strange to our existence as a nation, the old, the young, the pregnant and the innocent toddlers will not escape. All hell would be let loose and the jackals amongst us will take optimal advantage of the lawlessness that war comes with to plunder, rape, maim and destroy. No one will be spared. Love does not preach war, it seeks solutions.

Unfortunately, in Garba Shehus combative deliveries, there has been a reversal of commonsense that leaves us confounded by his limited capacity to pass mere information down without the accompanying knowledge consistent with age or ideal professional solemnity.

Whats happening at our borders currently? How are these sophisticated firearms coming in? When will the president ensure heads roll within the segment where our security has been breached owing to possible sabotage and corruption at the nations points of entry? Who in leadership is going round right now to assuage the feelings of communities? And beyond the rhetoric, what pragmatic steps are being taken to secure our schools? Are politicians rolling up their sleeves to combat this critical moment or they are still busy with the delusion of the 2023 power permutations? Are they really going to be here to rule over carcasses in the control of vultures, come 2023? How many of them riding about in bulletproof automobiles would be able to rescue their cousins and relatives?

It is this conversation we should be having right now! And the demonstration of leadership should come from the very top. Unfortunately, in Garba Shehus combative deliveries, there has been a reversal of commonsense that leaves us confounded by his limited capacity to pass mere information down without the accompanying knowledge consistent with age or ideal professional solemnity.

To be candid, the task of presidential spokespersons at the stage of engagement Shehu occupies, especially in times of national crisis of this magnitude ought to have been scaled up beyond juvenile delinquency.

Akin Fadeyi is the founder of Akin Fadeyi Foundation.
Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State has called on the federal government to resume work on the Gas Revolution Industrial Park project in Ogidigben, Warri South-West Local Government Area of the state.

Mr Okowa made the call on Friday shortly after inspecting the ongoing construction work at the multi-billion Naira Floating Market at Ogheye in Warri North Local Government Area.

Mr Okowa, accompanied by the deputy governor of the state, Kingsley Otuaro, said the Gas Revolution Industrial Park project had been delayed for too long. He urged the federal government to immediately look into the issues surrounding the delay.

The governor said the project has huge economic value to the nation and the Niger Delta.

He urged the federal government to partner the state government to make life more meaningful for the coastal dwellers.

I use this opportunity to call on the federal government to pay more attention to these riverine areas.

When we bring joy to them, it is good for us as a state and as a nation.

Government should do everything to encourage the coastal people, provide a more conducive environment for the production of the oil that is the mainstay of the economy of this nation, the governor said.

Continuing, Mr Okowa said, I also use this opportunity to call on the federal government to ensure that the Gas Revolution Industrial Park project is brought alive.

For too long we have spoken about it; several meetings were held and plans were put in place.

Whatever is holding it back, it is important that the federal government takes a very serious look at it and come forth with a workable plan that will enable it to take off.

We will continue to call on the federal government to rise up to the occasion to partner the state to ensure that we develop our riverine areas.

The industrial park, originally conceived by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, ought to sit on 2,700 hectares of land and was planned to have fertilizer, methanol, petrochemicals, and aluminum plants in it.

The park has been abandoned for several years now.

Speaking on the floating market, Mr Okowa said the project was approved by the previous administration, adding that the process was slow and the contractor could not achieve much.

When we came on board, we assured the people that we will complete the entire market and also promised a redesign of the project.

The market has a banking hall, an administrative building, a standing tower and other facilities.

It sits on a 6,000 square metres platform built on top of the river and you know what that means.

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A lot has gone in and the contractor has gone ahead to build 96 open stores and 80 lock-up stores both almost completed.

It is a special market because we have a lot of communities from the Warri North, Warri South-West, and the river extending to Edo and Ondo state, he said

(NAN)
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Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State has charged the new executive of the Ijaw National Congress (INC) to protect the interest of the Ijaw nation at all times.

Mr Diri gave the charge on Saturday when the new INC executive, led by its President, Benjamin Okaba, a professor, paid him a courtesy visit in Government House, Yenagoa.

The governor urged the leadership to set aside their political interests and work toward repositioning the INC.

Mr Diri expressed happiness that the new leadership emerged through a rancour-free and exemplary electronic voting process after years of the organisation being comatose.

He said, I am indeed the happiest man that out of this electoral process, we have a brand new executive of the INC.

There is a hand of God in your election. It was Gods own design using every one of us to ensure the loud silence of the Ijaw nation would no longer be.

On no account should you compromise the interest of the Ijaw people.

I believe very strongly that the Ijaw nation is going to be heard.

Have it at the back of your mind that your paramount interest should be that of the Ijaw ethnic nationality.

You have chosen to lead the Ijaw people. You are the president of the Ijaw people and not the president of any political party.

Let it be that under your tenure, the Ijaw nation makes remarkable progress and have some degree of autonomy they have been looking forward to.

On the electronic voting system adopted for the electoral process, Mr Diri noted that the Ijaw people had shown that they were pacesetters.

According to him, hitch-free elections are possible in Nigeria.

Earlier, Mr Okaba thanked the governor for his support and assured him that the leadership would work hard to move the Ijaw nation forward.

(NAN)
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Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State has declared his intention to negotiate with bandits to ascertain their grievances and the solutions to the current security challenges in the state.

Mr Umahi made the declaration on Friday in Abakaliki at the presentation of 40 Toyota Sienna vehicles and 20 pickup trucks to security agencies for enhanced operations in the state.

The governor directed local government chairmen and Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) to identify the bandits and present them for debriefing.

I want to talk to the bandits and empower them as we cannot continue to kill ourselves and destroy public infrastructure.

The bandits are our children and I am pained when they or the security agencies are killed.

I want to ascertain their grievances against the Ebonyi or federal government, collate the facts for discussions to commence, he said.

He expressed disappointment over the announcement of guidelines for the 2023 elections, noting that the nation was at a crossroad for such engagement.

Let us forget about the 2023 elections with the leaders taking responsibility for the situation and discussing a way forward.

No one takes money to the grave and when we hear a gunshot, we will run and abandon the money we amassed.

This is not a period to discuss political parties but ensure that the resources of this nation which can truly transform it is judiciously utilised, he said.

Mr Umahi debunked the insinuation that members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) or Eastern Security Network (ESN) were after him, insisting that he has discharged his duties to the people.

Kenneth Ugbala, secretary to the state government, said the presentation was the first batch of the 100 sienna vehicles and 40 utility vehicles to be procured for security agencies.

The governor has fully paid for the 40 sienna vehicles and 20 Hilux vans being presented as the recipients are charged to judiciously utilise the vehicles.

I want to thank the governor for this feat despite the prevailing economic challenges as he had earlier distributed 70 utility vehicles to security agencies in 2019, he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the heads of various security agencies, top government officials, youth groups among others, witnessed the presentation ceremony.

If Governor Umahi goes ahead with his plan, he would not be the first Nigerian governor to negotiate with bandits.

(NAN)
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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has expanded the polling units in Enugu State from 2,958 to 4,147 to create easy access to polling units in the state.

Emeka Ononamadu, the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner for Enugu State, told reporters in Enugu on Friday that the new polling units were those converted from an existing 1,189 voting points.

Mr Ononamadu explained that the new polling units, which were created following strict adherence to the guidelines for conversion, was meant to curb overcrowding in polling units, also leading to lack of voters access.

The guidelines which state that polling units should be located based on the following considerations:

Must be in public places, preferably centrally located and accessible; and non-sectarian facilities like community halls, health centres, court premises, public recreation centres, amongst others.

Spacious facilities that can comfortably sit election officials, party agents, election observers and other legitimate election staff.

Adequately covered locations such as classrooms and halls; and locations or facilities that can take more than one polling unit, he said.

The INEC commissioner said the guidelines made it clear that no polling unit would be located in private buildings, houses of traditional rulers, religious buildings, political party buildings or residence of government officials.

Or any building which a voter may under any circumstance be denied access, except as prescribed by the law.

No new polling unit should also be located in any building or facility that is in dispute or inaccessible to persons living with disabilities, he noted.

Mr Ononamadu noted that it was necessary to address rumours and misinterpretation of the exercise.

According to him, the same standard and guideline being applied in Enugu State is applicable all over the federation.

There were certain rumours that it was only some communities that secretly applied for new polling units that were given new polling units.

There was also rumour that it was the pressure from politicians to give them new polling units that INEC is yielding to. These rumours are all false.

INEC is simply converting existing voting points into polling units; therefore, polling units-creating is not a direct response to any application or pressure, he said.

(NAN)
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The police in Enugu State said they have gunned down one armed robbery suspect, arrested two and recovered firearms and ammunition in operations carried out within seven days in the state.

The police spokesperson in the state, Daniel Ndukwe, said this in a statement in Enugu on Saturday.

Mr Ndukwe, an assistant superintendent of police, said the command recovered two firearms, three live cartridges and other incriminating items.

According to him, the states Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Aliyu, has reaffirmed commitment to rid the state of criminals and their activities.

On April 26, at about 10:45 p.m., operatives attached to 9th Mile Police Division recovered a Toyota Sienna vehicle, with registration number YAB 14 BT, alleged to have been snatched from its owner at gunpoint on the same date at about 9:10 p.m.

The recovery was due to intense pressure mounted by the operatives, which made the armed robbers abandon the vehicle and escaped, Mr Ndukwe said in the statement.

Investigation is ongoing to apprehend the suspects, he said.

In another development, operatives attached to Udi Police Division in synergy with a local vigilante group, on April 21, at about 10:45 p.m., intercepted a group of hoodlums suspected to be kidnappers, on old Udi-Oji River Road.

The suspects opened fire on the team and in the ensuing gun duel one of them was gunned down and later confirmed dead in the hospital, while others escaped with bullet injuries.

One cut-to-size locally-made double barrel gun with three live cartridges, one torch-light, one lighter, a pack of matches and items suspected to be charms were recovered, he said.

Mr Ndukwe said police operatives attached to Awkunanaw Police Division, working with Neighbourhood Watch Group, on April 19, at about 4 a.m., arrested Samuel Felix, 26, of Akwuke Road, Gariki, and recovered one locally-made double barrel gun from him.

His arrest was sequel to a swift response to a distress call received at the same date at about 3:40 a.m.

It was alleged that the suspect and his accomplices at large were robbing their victims of money, phones and other valuables at gunpoint in Agu-Uwani Akwuke Zone 2, Enugu, he said.

The police spokesperson said discreet investigations were ongoing on the various crime incidents.

The arrested suspects would be charged to court on conclusion of investigations, he said.

(NAN)
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Abia State chapter, has charged the state government to clear the outstanding salaries of workers in the parastatals and agencies.

The state chairman of the NLC, Uchenna Obigwe, gave the charge on Saturday at a news briefing in Umuahia, organised to mark the 2021 Workers Day.

Mr Obigwe commended Governor Okezie Ikpeazu for ensuring regular payment of the salaries of workers in core ministries in the state.

We appeal to him to extend similar gesture to teachers, workers in Hospital Management Board, Abia State University Teaching Hospital, Aba, Abia Polytechnic, Aba, Abia State Universal Basic Education Board, Arochukwu College of Education (Technical) among others, he said.

He urged the government to make salary and pension payments first charge, saying that regular payment of workers salaries and pensions would help to keep the economy afloat.

The problem labour is facing is that so many states in the federation are not paying workers salaries and pensions.

If salaries and pensions are not paid regularly, parents will not be able to pay the school fees of their children, who are the future leaders of our nation, Mr Obigwe said.

According to him, many workers and pensioners are dying in their numbers because of governments inability to pay salaries and pensions as and when due.

Mr Obigwe, however, said the organised labour in the state has continued to enjoy robust industrial relationship with government.

He gave assurance that NLC would continue to support the state government to ensure peace and progress of Abia, but not to the detriment of workers.

When salaries and pensions are paid and workers welfare are taken care of, then we have no problem, he said.

Low key celebration

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the workers day celebration in the state was low key.

Mr Obigwe said the prevailing security challenges and COVID-19 pandemic, still ravaging everywhere in the whole world, made it imperative to make the celebration low key.

Meanwhile, an attempt by the Trade Union Congress and a faction of NLC, led by Eze Idima to hold a rally at Ibeku High School, Umuahia, to mark the event was scuttled.

Mr Idima told reporters that they obtained permission from the school authorities to use the premises but were surprised to find the gate to the school locked.

Meanwhile, NAN reported that the national leadership of NLC removed Mr Obigwe on the ground that he had retired from service and appointed Mr Idima as the interim chairman.

Mr Obigwe, however, dragged the leadership to court and obtained an interim injunction that nullified the action of NLC leadership.

Hearing of the substantive suit, slated for April 21, was stalled by the current judiciary workers strike.

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(NAN)
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The Lagos State Government has prohibited the illegal occupation of abandoned buildings and properties under construction as part of measures to address security challenges.

Idris Salako, Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, disclosed this in a statement made available to newsmen on Friday in Lagos.

Mr Salako said the measure became necessary due to security challenges in the nation.

Lagos State Government has observed with dismay the security challenges in the nation and clearly understands the danger posed by the likely spread of this ugly situation to our dear state, he said.

Mr Salako noted that hoodlums and social miscreants had continued to convert abandoned buildings and project sites to their bases, from where they commit atrocities, posing serious danger to residents.

He said his ministry decided to invoke its powers, under Section 73 of the Lagos State Urban and Regional Planning and Development Law 2019 as amended, to ensure a safe, secure, sanitised, and sustainable environment.

Mr Salako said that owners and developers of uncompleted or existing buildings should always ensure their properties were in proper environmental, safe and sanitation conditions.

No abandoned building will be allowed, for security and safety reasons.

ALSO READ: FCTA decries rate of abandoned buildings in Abuja

He added that no worker should stay back beyond 6:00 p.m. within premises of buildings undergoing construction.

Mr Salako warned property owners and developers to comply within 30 days to avert sanctions of their buildings being sealed off and further actions taken where necessary.

The Ministry is committed to ensuring livability, safety of lives and properties as well as security in Lagos State, hence Owners/Developer(s) who fail to comply with the above conditions within 30 days, would have their buildings sealed off and further actions will be taken where necessary, he said. (NAN)
Clearfield, PA (16830)

Today

Rain showers in the morning with thunderstorms developing in the afternoon. High around 80F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Occasional showers with a thunderstorm possible. Low 64F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.
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The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Osun says eight persons have lost their lives following an accident that occurred on the Gbongan-Osogbo expressway.

The Sector Commander, Kudirat Ibrahim, made this known in a statement issued by Agnes Ogungbemi, the commands spokesperson, in Osogbo.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports the accident occurred at 1:20 a.m., on Saturday, opposite Ataoja Overhead bridge, along Abere, Osogbo-Gbongan expressway.

Mr Ibrahim said 36 others sustained various degrees of injuries in the lone accident, in which 61 persons were involved.

An articulated vehicle, a blue truck Volvo with number plate KMC 35 ZJ, loaded with Palm oil, lost control on the Ataoja-overhead bridge.

The vehicle, which was heavily loaded with Jerry cans of palm oil and over 60 passengers, was trying to ascend the ramp.

The vehicle lost control, rolled backward, and fell by the side into the drainage, throwing off the jerry cans on passengers and killing some in the process, she said.

She said the injured had been taken to Ladoke Akintola University Teaching (LAUTECH), and Asubiaro Hospitals, both in Osun.

The official appealed to motorists, especially carriage and articulated vehicles, to always follow road safety regulations.

Mr Ibrahim urged road users to avoid flouting safety rules that often endangered their lives and those of other innocent citizens.

She, however said the command had deposited the corpses in a morgue and cleared the highway to avoid gridlock. (NAN)
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The police in Ogun State have reportedly arrested Yoruba nation agitators at the rally which held in Abeokuta on Saturday.

The agitators who are members of a pro  Yoruba nation group, Ilana Omo Oodua, stormed the streets to demand a call for a break away from Nigeria.

The rally held despite the police issuing a warning against it.

The spokesperson of police in the state, Abimbola Oyeyemi, had in a statement on Friday said people are being sponsored by certain individuals outside the State and the country to destabilise Ogun State.

He said the police would not allow some citizens hold others to the ransom and threaten the corporate existence of the country.

The Command, therefore, wishes to appeal to the leaders of this group to shelve the idea of staging another public rally in any part of the State for now, as such is capable of undermining the relative peace being enjoyed in the entire State.

Consequently, the rally slated for Abeokuta on 1st May, 2021, is viewed by the Command as one too many in the State, and therefore not approved.

Parents and guardians are hereby advised to warn their children and wards not to be involved in any such gathering that may expose them to violence and consequently bring them on a collision course with the security agencies.

Despite the warning, the agitators converged at Ake Palace, around 7:00 a.m. on Saturday displaying different placards and chanting different protest lyrics.

They moved from Ake palace towards the Adatan area of the metropolis, where five of them were allegedly arrested.

Some members of the group who took part in the protest told this newspaper that the police also used tear gas on them.

The police have arrested five of our members for simply demanding freedom. We are agitating for freedom and we are not backing down. We want a Yoruba nation, Segun Aderibigbe, an agitator told our correspondent.

Premium Times is yet to authenticate the claims of arrest.

The state police spokesperson, Mr Oyeyemi, did not respond to calls and text messages seeking his reaction as of the time of filing this report.

Some high profile Nigerians including the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Enoch Adeboye, have said only an urgent restructuring would save Nigeria from breaking up.

But the presidency has maintained that calls for restructuring are recurring threats to the corporate existence of the country with factions giving specific timelines for the President to do one thing or another or else, in their language, the nation will break up.

Before now, a similar rally by Yoruba nation agitators was held in Ibadan, Oyo State capital on April 21. It was also disrupted by the police
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A former Governor of Ekiti, Segun Oni, said his ambition to contest next years governorship election in the state is geared towards rescuing Ekiti from total collapse and expanding its frontiers for the benefit of the poor masses.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain made this known in Ado Ekiti on Saturday, while unveiling members of his campaign team for the governorship project in 2022.

Mr Oni who addressed his supporters at his campaign office in the Adebayo area of the state capital, assured that his mission was to unite the party and wipe out divisive tendencies among the contending forces.

Mr Oni governed Ekiti between May 29, 2007, and October 15, 2010.

Mr Oni added that his intention to recontest the seat was not targeted at corrupt enrichment of himself, family or political cronies.

He said The PDP family is an inclusive political community with a level-playing ground for all party members; we will leave no one behind because it is big enough to accommodate diverse interests, groups and everyone.

This developmental journey is not about us, our friends or associates; it is about the people who have shown tremendous confidence in our ability to turn the states fortunes around and guarantee Ekiti a secured future.

It is largely about deploying Ekiti resources to develop its people. This is not about personal enrichment or personalising governance for a few cronies.

That the people are coming forward volunteering their cars for us in this PDP Family branding, is a testament to who we are and a demonstration of pure love, confidence and trust in our commitment to make Ekiti State a better place for all.

The campaign has not started, but the people are eager to create awareness and assure themselves that there is a viable alternative to the present situation in the State and will never take this for granted.

We urge everyone to be orderly, lawful, show good conduct and use the branded vehicles in a manner that will further endear the PDP Family to the people.

Mr Oni named a former member of the House of Representatives, who represented Efon/Ijero/Ekiti West, Yemi Arokodare, as the Director General of the campaign. (NAN)
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The Lagos State Government has announced Tuesday, May 4, as the resumption date for all public and private schools in the state for the commencement of the 2020/2021 third term academic session.

A statement by the office of the quality assurance department at the ministry of education further advised boarding school students to resume on Monday, May 3, ahead of commencement of academic activities on Tuesday.

The statement, which was signed by the public affairs officer of the quality assurance office, Emmanuel Olaniran, quoted the states commissioner for education, Folasade Adefisayo, to have approved the resumption.

School owners and managers were advised to ensure strict compliance with all subsisting protocols to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the state and ensure that students and staff stay safe.

The government added that its officials would be visiting schools to ensure compliance. It urged stakeholders including parents to collaborate in order to achieve a conducive environment for teaching and learning.

Proprietors and administrators are to ensure strict compliance to the Lagos State Government academic calendar/resumption date, the statement added.
In 2018, telling us that "trade wars are good, and easy to win," then-President Donald Trump imposed 15%-25% tariffs (versus the previous rate of 10% and the average U.S. tariff of 1.6%) on various Chinese goods, ranging from "dental cements and other dental fillings" to "Trout, fresh or chi
CHAMPLAIN [mdash] Theresa L. Ero, age 79, of State Rt. 276 passed away unexpectedly on Wednesday, June 2, 2021, in St. Luke's Healthcare with her family at her side after being stricken ill while visiting her daughter in central New York. She was born on May 2, 1942, in Champlain, N.Y., a da
SUZHOU, China, April 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A new interventional solution from China for structural heart disease is about to be launched onto the market. Recently, TaurusOne Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement System (hereinafter referred to as "TaurusOne") developed by Peijia Medical (Suzhou) Co., Ltd., located in Suzhou Industrial Park, Jiangsu Province, was officially approved for commercialization by the National Medical Products Administration of the PRC ("NMPA") with registration number GXZZ 20213130275.

Academician Gao Runlin of Fuwai Hospital Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences served as Principal Investigator for the TaurusOne registration clinical trial completed by National Centre for Cardiovascular Disease, Fuwai Hospital, The Second Affiliated Hospital ZheJiang University School of Medicine, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, General Hospital of Northern Theater Command, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University and the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University (in order of institution codes listed in the multi-center clinical trial protocol). The clinical trial protocol employed strict enrollment criteria and passed the pre-clinical review and got approved by the CFDA (now NMPA). One-year clinical study data for TaurusOne definitively confirmed its safety and effectiveness as a treatment for severe aortic stenosis, with no significant difference in clinical results between the bicuspid aortic valve and tricuspid aortic valve.

"The NMPA registration approval of TaurusOne is an important milestone for Peijia," said Dr. Zhang Yi, Chairman and CEO of Peijia Medical, "From now on, doctors in China will have a new product to conduct TAVR procedures, while patients suffering from aortic stenosis will have an additional solution."

TaurusOne consists of a prosthetic aortic valve, a delivery catheter and a compression loading system. The aortic valve leaflet is made of bovine pericardium and is processed with a proprietary anti-calcification technique. The stent's inflow end has an enhanced radial force design, given that China has a large proportion of patients with high aortic valve calcification or bicuspid aortic valves. A balanced waist design avoids blockage of the coronary artery while also maintaining a large orifice area. The inflow end is designed with inner and outer skirts to effectively avoid or reduce paravalvular leakage. The delivery catheter is ergonomically designed with a large handle for accurate operations; the catheter has a maximum outer diameter of 18 Fr and is divided into several segments for easier, more flexible passage and delivery.

Data shows that the global market of TAVR reached USD 5 billion in 2020 and is expected to maintain a high growth rate. In China, the TAVR market is still at an early development stage, suggesting enormous potential. Explosive growth is anticipated in near future to bring the industry to RMB 5.06 billion in 2025.

The approval of TaurusOne marks Peijia Medical's entry into the commercialization of TAVR products. With TAVR products as a cornerstone of the company's structural heart disease product line, Peijia Medical will focus on independent R&D and design to build a more complete portfolio for clinical practice and demonstrate its whole-process R&D and productive capacity in the field of structural heart disease. TaurusElite, Peijia Medical's second-generation TAVR product, is currently in registration stage, while the company's third-generation TAVR product TaurusNXT is in preclinical preparations. Peijia Medical's success in obtaining an "expedited" approval for TaurusOne is largely due to the company's rigorous and solid work at the product's preliminary stages. It also shows China's regulatory authorities' encouragement and support for innovation, as well as the company's rigorous innovation and meticulousness in product development, in line with its credo:"Devotion to the Heart, Reverence for Life, and Pursuit of the Most Satisfying Clinical Products".

About Peijia Medical:

Peijia Medical was founded in 2012 and its headquarters are in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China. It was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in May 2020 (stock code 09996. HK). With "Devotion to the Heart, Reverence for Life" as its vision, Peijia Medical always puts life and safety in the first place, striving to maintain human life and health with its years of exploration in technology and its persistence in innovation. Peijia Medical's strategic layout can be summarized as the "Innovation-oriented, Simultaneous Treatment of Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Diseases". It is dedicated to the innovation, R&D and production of high-end medical devices for structural heart disease and cerebrovascular interventionscovering aortic valve, mitral valve, tricuspid valve, surgical accessories, and diseases related to hemorrhage, ischemia and pathways in cerebrovascular intervention. It has built a relatively comprehensive product and solutions portfolio in the field of structural heart disease and cerebrovascular interventions in China.

Related Links

www.peijiamedical.com



SOURCE Peijia Medical
But as more international delegations take trips to Xinjiang to see the region for themselves, a different narrative has emerged. According to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, over the past years, more than 1,200 diplomats, journalists, and religious personnel from over 100 countries have visited Xinjiang. They saw the region with their eyes, realizing that what they witnessed was different from some Western media reports.

To shed new light on the ongoing debate about what's happening in Xinjiang, CGTN anchor Liu Xin invited Moin ul Haque, Pakistani Ambassador to China, Fariz Mehdawi, Palestinian Ambassador to China, and Imad Moustapha, Syrian Ambassador to China, for a 30-minute roundtable discussion. The three diplomats shared their firsthand experiences in Xinjiang and tried to uncover the intentions of some Western countries' portrayal of Xinjiang.

The discussion took place in a Chinese-style opera house in central Beijing. Liu Xin just wrapped up a two-week trip to Xinjiang, where she interviewed many local officials, academics, farmers, and local residents.

Xinjiang in the eyes of ambassadors

Pakistani Ambassador to China Moin ul Haque visited Xinjiang this March. He described this trip as "an experience of a lifetime." After visiting various places, including local families, development projects, and mosques, he was attracted by the cultural and religious diversity and harmony in this region. Instead of the so-called "forced sterilization" imposed on ethnic minorities, which some Western "researchers" claim, he said "Xinjiang is a mosaic of 50-plus ethnic minorities, and these ethnic minorities exist in Xinjiang in a very peaceful and harmonious manner."

Fariz Mehdawi, Palestinian Ambassador to China, was impressed by the number of religious places. He visited Xinjiang in 2020 and observed that there were mosques in intersections wherever he looked, and there were five mosques actually in the same neighborhood, and a specialized religious learning institution had been established too.

Some people argue that these diplomats' tours are all staged and do not reflect the real situation. Ambassador Fariz said he thinks such an opinion is not respectful. "One should not believe that diplomats are so naive that they could be maneuvered to take and buy anything," he argued, adding "the diplomats are not part of a conspiracy, that they would justify something against what they had seen."

Anti-terrorism achievements in Xinjiang

In the past, Xinjiang suffered from "the three evil forces": separatism, extremism, and terrorism. But thanks to China's efforts, there have not been any terrorist attacks in Xinjiang for more than four consecutive years.

The reason behind this, the ambassadors said, is that Chinese authorities have done two right things: one is eradicating hardcore terrorists with force, and the other is the emphasis on people and developing the society.

Syrian Ambassador to China Imad Moustapha told Liu Xin that China is doing the right thing. China went to the core issues, which are how to develop the society and how to prevent the people in Xinjiang from falling prey to the propaganda of radical extremism.

Why has Xinjiang become such a controversial topic?

The contrast between the ambassadors' personal experiences and the narratives of the Western world is stark. Why?

Fariz Mehdawi, Palestinian Ambassador to China, explained that it is not about human rights; it is about geopolitical challenges.

Syrian Ambassador to China Imad Moustapha said, "let's look at the issues as they are. The issues have nothing to do with Xinjiang. It has to do with the media campaign in the West against China, demonizing China. China is bad. And whatever China does, it's bad."

The ambassadors expressed hope that China could stay the course, continue its development path, continue opening up, continue to reform, continue the people-centric approach. They agreed that Xinjiang is a beautiful ancient land of diverse people who have hopes and inspirations.

The ambassadors' views do not represent the views of all countries, however. Since February 2021, the governments of Canada, the Netherlands, and the UK have passed non-binding motions declaring China's conduct in Xinjiang amounts to genocide. The U.S. State Department labeled China's actions in Xinjiang genocide in its 2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released in March. China has strongly rejected such allegations.

Link: https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-04-27/What-do-three-ambassadors-talk-about-Xinjiang-with-Liu-Xin--ZMA1UeE2T6/index.html

SOURCE CGTN

Related Links

www.cgtn.com


Posted Friday, April 30, 2021 10:30 am

Gov. Jay Inslee urged local residents to Take It Outside and visit Washingtons state and national parks as a free way to weather the COVID-19 pandemic this summer.

In a statement to the media at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site on Friday, Inslee expressed gratitude about living in the most beautiful state in the United States and told residents to take advantage of Washingtons natural environments.

We have discovered a secret weapon against the COVID virus, and it's a weapon that is available to all of us, Inslee said about the outdoors. It is free. It is open pretty much every day of the week. It is accessible to people of all ages and all circumstances.

Inslee said going outdoors can range from taking a walk or riding a bike to having a cold one with colleagues on the porch.

All of these things done outside are much, much safer than inside right now, he said. Take it outside, keep yourself alive.

The governor was joined by Vancouver Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle, Superintendent of Fort Vancouver National Historic Site Superintendent Tracy Fortmann, and others, as they promoted visits to national and state parks in Washington, such as Fort Vancouver. Fortmann said the National Park Service has invested and continues to invest in the construction and rehabilitation of pedestrian trails, as well as sites and historical buildings.

Stacey Graham, the interim president of The Historic Trust, said the site plans to host special Saturdays for families to come together and create arts and crafts, and mentioned opening the Pearson Field Educational Center for outdoor activities.

(Fort Vancouver) is the perfect place to refresh, Graham said. Its a great place to exercise. Its a terrific place to connect with history and heritage.

Inslee told Washingtonians the goal line is in sight for the end of the pandemic, but the state has a few more hurdles to jump before the end.

Inslee said hospitalizations in the state have risen by 50 percent in the last two weeks. To combat the fourth surge the state is experiencing, Inslee told residents to get vaccinated and spend time outside as much as possible.

This vaccine is dynamite. It knocks down the virus like crazy, he said. Take it outside while we get to the goal line.
The study and conclusions will be detailed and published in the peer-reviewed journal Antiquity on April 30th, 2021.

The Kingdoms Institute, unveiled earlier this month, was established under the auspices of the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU). The RCU has been conducting a programme of extensive research across AlUla County that is expanding knowledge of the area's human history while also becoming the intellectual foundation of the institute as a global hub for archaeological research and conservation.

His Highness Prince Badr, the Saudi Minister of Culture and Governor of the RCU, said: "Inspired by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's Vision for AlUla to protect 200,000 years of history, AlUla's cultural legacy continues with the Kingdoms Institute: a global hub for knowledge, research and collaboration, exploring the frontiers of archaeology and unlocking new careers for our community. A place for discovery and celebration, as we unfold Arabia's contribution to humanity."

Largest study to date

While the existence of the mustatils was previously known, the more than 1,000 mustatils that the RCU-commissioned team recorded are roughly twice as many as were previously identified.

The unprecedented aerial and ground research by a team from the University of Western Australia surveyed vast stretches of the region by remote sensing and helicopter. After recording their presence from the air, the team then explored some 40 at ground level and excavated one  altogether constituting the largest study of mustatils to date. These ancient structures in the Arabian desert provide early evidence of ritual activity.

Radiocarbon dating of a cattle horn and tooth that were found in a chamber at one mustatil in AlUla, and which, along with others, appear to have been used as ritual offerings, revealed a Late Neolithic, sixth-millennium BC date.

Mustatil research is a priority for the RCU. The campaign of archaeological research across AlUla, including the mustatil discoveries, is currently featured in the Discovery Channel documentary series Architects of Ancient Arabia.

A centre of discovery

The Kingdoms Institute is being established as a world-class scientific centre for archaeological and conservation research, dedicated to the study of the history and prehistory of the Arabian Peninsula and aiming to preserve its legacy as the crossroads connecting three continents, supported by fieldwork across AlUla County that is already filling gaps in the region's natural and human history.

Inspired by the role of AlUla as a cultural crossroads and its historical importance in the global cultural and trade exchange, the Kingdoms Institute will be an academic centre as well as a cultural platform for knowledge, exploration and inspiration. It will be one of the pillars of the cultural infrastructure in AlUla within The Journey Through Time Masterplan, launched this month.

The Kingdoms Institute will help fulfill Vision 2030's goal of advancing Saudi Arabia as a vibrant society, a thriving economy and an ambitious nation. In addition to developing a global hub on the AlUla County's history, The Kingdoms Institute will also train the next generation of Saudi archaeologists and future leaders of the institute, opening new avenues for the nation's young professionals.

The Kingdoms Institute's permanent home, a red-sandstone structure that will echo the monumental works of the Dadan civilisation, will open its doors to its first visitors by 2030. The RCU estimates that the institute will have 838,000 visitors a year by 2035 in a permanent home covering 28,857 square metres at its location in the Dadan District of AlUla.

Its permanent physical presence is still in the planning stages, but as an active research organisation since the inception of the RCU, over 100 archaeologists are already digging, surveying and conducting associated studies across AlUla during seasonal fieldwork. The institute's permanent collection is growing as well.

Although the Kingdoms Institute's mandate covers AlUla's 200,000 years of human and natural history, the 'era of the kingdoms'  the time of the Dadan, Lihyan and Nabataean kingdoms circa 1000 BCE to 106 CE  will be an area of emphasis for the institute.

The institute will have under its scope dozens of archaeological and conservation missions involving experts of multiple allied disciplines working across AlUla County. Already efforts involve teams from Saudi and international institutions, including King Saud University  which has performed invaluable groundwork at AlUla over the past 15 years  as well as UNESCO, ICOMOS, France's Centre national de la recherche scientifique, Germany's Deutsches Archaologisches Institut and the University of Western Australia, among others.

"We have only begun to tell the hidden story of the Ancient Kingdoms of North Arabia," said Jose Ignacio Gallego Revilla, the RCU's Archaeology, Heritage Research and Conservation Executive Director. "There is much more to come as we reveal the depth and breadth of the area's archaeological heritage, which for decades has been under-represented, but which will finally have the showcase it deserves in the Kingdoms Institute."

Not only will the institute peel back the layers of AlUla's deep history and inter-cultural influence through the lens of archaeological discovery, but also develop national and international training programmes, academic and vocational, highlighting state-of-the-art methods and techniques, deeply investing in the next generation of Saudi specialists to sustain The Kingdoms Institute for generations to come.

Progress has already been made with the appointment of Dr Abdulrahman Alsuhaibani as Acting Director of Museums and Exhibitions, as well as Munirah Almushawh, as the first female archaeologist co-directing an archaeological project in Saudi Arabia.

Dr Rebecca Foote, Director of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Research for RCU, said: "With the many research programmes under way, AlUla County is becoming the most active area of archaeological research in the Middle East. We have just completed surveying its more than 22,000 sq km of terrain from the air and on the ground and recorded more than 30,000 areas of archaeological significance. Targeted excavations at more than 50 of those sites are providing data to inform especially later prehistory (circa 6,000-2,000 BCE) with astonishing results such as our new insights into the mustatils."

To learn more about the Kingdoms Institute and The Journey Through Time Masterplan, visit https://ucl.rcu.gov.sa/

About AlUla

Located 1,100km from Riyadh in north-west Saudi Arabia, AlUla is a place of extraordinary natural and human heritage. The vast area, covering 22,561km, includes a lush oasis valley, towering sandstone mountains and ancient cultural heritage sites dating back thousands of years.

The most well-known and recognised site in AlUla is Hegra, Saudi Arabia's first UNESCO World Heritage Site. A 52-hectare ancient city, Hegra was the principal southern city of the Nabataean Kingdom and is comprised of nearly 100 well-preserved tombs with elaborate facades cut into sandstone outcrops. Current research suggests Hegra was the most southern outpost of the Romans after conquering the Nabataeans in 106 CE.

In addition to Hegra, AlUla is home to a series of fascinating historical and archaeological sites such as: an Old Town surrounded by an ancient oasis; Dadan, the capital of the Dadan and Lihyan Kingdoms, which is considered one of the most developed 1st-millennium BCE cities of the Arabian Peninsula; thousands of ancient rock art sites and inscriptions in Jabal Ikmah; and Hijaz Railway stations.

Note to editors:

Kingdoms Institute is plural, no possessive.

It is always AlUla / not Al-Ula

About the Royal Commission for AlUla

The Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) was established by royal decree in July 2017 to preserve and develop AlUla, a region of outstanding natural and cultural significance in north-west Saudi Arabia. RCU's long-term plan outlines a responsible, sustainable, and sensitive approach to urban and economic development, that preserves the area's natural and historic heritage, while establishing AlUla as a desirable location to live, work, and visit. This encompasses a broad range of initiatives across archaeology, tourism, culture, education and the arts, reflecting a commitment to meeting the economic diversification, local community empowerment, and heritage preservation priorities of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 programme.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1499035/Kingdoms_Institute_Conceptual_design.jpg

SOURCE Royal Commission for AlUla for Saudi Arabia
MOSCOW, April 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF, Russia's sovereign wealth fund) announces that the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Turkey has registered the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against coronavirus in the country.

The vaccine has been registered in Turkey under the emergency use authorization procedure (EUA). Turkey has become the 63rd country to authorize the use of Sputnik V. Total population of the countries where Sputnik V is approved for use exceeds 3.2 billion people.

Post-vaccination studies in a number of countries demonstrate that Sputnik V is the safest and most effective vaccine against coronavirus. Sputnik V ranks second among coronavirus vaccines globally in terms of the number of approvals issued by government regulators.

RDIF had earlier reached an agreement with Turkey's Viscoran Ilac pharmaceutical company to cooperate on production of Sputnik V in the country. Viscoran Ilac has carried out necessary studies for localization of the product and aims to launch the production in the country in the upcoming months at several facilities.

To date Sputnik V has also been approved in Russia, Belarus, Argentina, Bolivia, Serbia, Algeria, Palestine, Venezuela, Paraguay, Turkmenistan, Hungary, UAE, Iran, Republic of Guinea, Tunisia, Armenia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Republika Srpska (entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina), Lebanon, Myanmar, Pakistan, Mongolia, Bahrain, Montenegro, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Gabon, San-Marino, Ghana, Syria, Kyrgyzstan, Guyana, Egypt, Honduras, Guatemala, Moldova, Slovakia, Angola, Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Sri Lanka, Laos, Iraq, North Macedonia, Kenya, Morocco, Jordan, Namibia, Azerbaijan, Philippines, Cameroon, Seychelles, Mauritius, Vietnam, Antigua and Barbuda, Mali, Panama, India, Nepal and Bangladesh.

Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, said:

"Russia and Turkey have been actively cooperating in the joint fight against coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic and RDIF welcomes the decision by the Ministry of Health of Turkey today to authorize Sputnik V. The vaccine is used in dozens of countries around the world and post-vaccination studies in many of them demonstrate that Sputnik V is the safest and most effective vaccine against coronavirus. The Russian vaccine will contribute to saving lives, preventing the spread of coronavirus and creating a long-term immunity among the population in Turkey and will help to return to normal life soon."

Sputnik V has a number of key advantages:

Efficacy of Sputnik V is 97.6% based on the analysis of data on the coronavirus infection rate among those in Russia vaccinated with both components of Sputnik V from December 5, 2020 to March 31, 2021 ;

The Sputnik V vaccine is based on a proven and well-studied platform of human adenoviral vectors, which cause the common cold and have been around for thousands of years.

Sputnik V uses two different vectors for the two shots in a course of vaccination, providing immunity with a longer duration than vaccines using the same delivery mechanism for both shots.

The safety, efficacy and lack of negative long-term effects of adenoviral vaccines have been proven by more than 250 clinical studies over two decades.

There are no strong allergies caused by Sputnik V.

The storage temperature of Sputnik V at +2+8 C means it can be stored in a conventional refrigerator without any need to invest in additional cold-chain infrastructure.

The price of Sputnik V is less than $10 per shot, making it affordable around the world.

Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) is Russia's sovereign wealth fund established in 2011 to make equity co-investments, primarily in Russia, alongside reputable international financial and strategic investors. RDIF acts as a catalyst for direct investment in the Russian economy. RDIF's management company is based in Moscow. Currently, RDIF has experience of the successful joint implementation of more than 80 projects with foreign partners totaling more than RUB2 tn and covering 95% of the regions of the Russian Federation. RDIF portfolio companies employ more than 800,000 people and generate revenues which equate to more than 6% of Russia's GDP. RDIF has established joint strategic partnerships with leading international co-investors from more than 18 countries that total more than $40 bn. Further information can be found at www.rdif.ru

SOURCE The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF)
GREATER DES MOINES, Iowa, April 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Lauridsen Skatepark will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday, May 7 at 4:30 p.m. to celebrate its grand opening. The Skatepark is the largest in the country and will open to the public in Greater Des Moines (DSM) in advance of hosting a national event later this month.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place at the Skatepark at 901 2nd Ave. in Downtown DSM. The Skatepark is centrally located at the north end of the Principal Riverwalk next to the Des Moines River. Media and the public can pay to park at the Iowa Events Center parking lot or find a paid street parking spot close to the Skatepark. All attendees will need to enter through Bobber Park on the south side of the Skatepark. Masks will be recommended per CDC guidelines.

Following the ribbon cutting, the Skatepark will be open to the public beginning 5 p.m. until 10:30 p.m. Friday night, and will be open on Saturday and Sunday from 6 a.m.  10:30 p.m. each day. The opening will provide a sneak peek for the community before setup begins for the Dew Tour competition set to take place from May 20  23. Set up for the Dew Tour begins at 6 a.m. on Monday, May 10. The Skatepark will be closed to the public from May 10  27 while the Dew Tour set-up, competitions and clean-up take place. The only exception is that some skating elements are open to those with Dew Tour tickets from May 20  23.

The Dew Tour event will include World Skate sanctioned men's and women's skateboarding Street and Park competitions, serving as the only U.S. based global Olympic skateboard qualifying events for 2021. Skateboarding will make its debut at the Olympic Games this summer in Tokyo, which were rescheduled in 2020 for July 23  August 8, 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

No public registration is required. Members of the media interested in attending are asked to contact Courtney Shaw at [email protected] and Jon Cahill at [email protected]

Contacts:

Courtney Shaw

[email protected]

(405) 747-8757

Learn More About DSM USA

Jon Cahill

[email protected]

(515) 822-3039

Related Links

http://www.desmoinesmetro.com



SOURCE Greater Des Moines Partnership
BOSTON, May 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Chiesi Global Rare Diseases, a business unit of Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A., an international research-focused healthcare Group (Chiesi Group), announced today that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has approved FERRIPROX (deferiprone) for the treatment of transfusional iron overload due to sickle cell disease (SCD) or other anemias in adult and pediatric patients 3 years of age and older.* This FDA approval expands the use of FERRIPROX for patients with SCD or other anemias as well as patients with thalassemia regardless of prior iron chelation exposure.

SCD affects about 100,000 people in the U.S. and leads to a lower life expectancy by more than 20 years compared to the general population. SCD patients are typically diagnosed prior to 2 years of age and the more severe patients start to experience pain crises early in childhood. Many require hospitalization and chronic blood transfusions to manage disease complications. Disease complications include early onset stroke, acute chest syndrome, and multiorgan failure. Renal complications affect nearly 30-50 percenti of patients with sickle cell anemia and account for 16-18 percent of mortality in adults with SCD.ii

"People who are living with SCD face significant challenges with pain and organ damage that can greatly impact their quality of life, and most who need blood transfusions also need iron chelation therapy including those with known kidney issues who have limited treatment options," said Giacomo Chiesi, Head of Chiesi Global Rare Diseases. "We believe that delivering an iron chelation therapy that has no dosage adjustment required for patients with mild to severe renal impairment may address a significant unmet need in SCD. We have a long history of commitment to the rare disease community and this FDA approval is a testament to the investments we continue to make in scientific research and development with patients at the center of everything we do. We would like to thank the patients and the SCD community for their participation in clinical studies because without their support this would not have been possible."

FERRIPROX is a synthetic, orally active iron-chelating agent shown to be effective in reducing iron concentration by penetrating cell membranes and removing toxic iron from organ tissues and extracellular fluids. FERRIPROX is available as a 1000mg twice-a-day oral tablet. A controlled study that compared the efficacy of FERRIPROX to that of deferoxamine in patients with SCD and other transfusion-dependent anemias met the non-inferiority criterion for change in liver iron concentration from baseline after 12 months. Data from an extension study confirmed that liver iron concentration continued to decrease progressively over time with the mean value dropping from 14.93 mg/g dw at baseline to 12.30 mg/g dw after one year, to 11.19 mg/g dw after two years, and to 10.45 mg/g dw after three years of FERRIPROX treatment. The most common adverse reactions reported during clinical trials in patients with SCD or other anemias were pyrexia, abdominal pain, bone pain, headache, vomiting, pain in extremity, sickle cell anemia with crisis, back pain, ALT increased, AST increased, arthralgia, oropharyngeal pain, nasopharyngitis, neutrophil count decreased, cough, and nausea.

To support patients treated with FERRIPROX, Chiesi Global Rare Diseases offers the Chiesi Total CareSM Program. Through this program, healthcare professionals and patients can access a team of dedicated specialists able to provide individual support as well as information about prescription, reimbursement, financial assistance, and product refills. For information about Chiesi Total Care call 866-758-7071.

Indication and Important Safety Information

Indication*

FERRIPROX (deferiprone) is an iron chelator indicated for the treatment of transfusional iron overload due to:

thalassemia syndromes

sickle cell disease or other anemias

FERRIPROX Tablets are indicated in adult and pediatric patients 8 years of age; FERRIPROX Oral Solution is indicated in patients 3 years of age.

Limitations of Use

Safety and effectiveness have not been established for the treatment of transfusional iron overload in patients with myelodysplastic syndrome or in patients with Diamond Blackfan anemia.

Important Safety Information



WARNING: AGRANULOCYTOSIS AND NEUTROPENIA  FERRIPROX can cause agranulocytosis that can lead to serious infections and death. Neutropenia may precede the development of agranulocytosis.  Measure the absolute neutrophil count (ANC) before starting FERRIPROX and monitor weekly while on therapy.  Interrupt FERRIPROX if infection develops and monitor the ANC more frequently.  Advise patients taking FERRIPROX to report immediately any symptoms indicative of infection.

FERRIPROX is contraindicated in patients with known hypersensitivity to deferiprone or to any of the excipients in the formulations.

In pooled clinical trials, 7.5% of 642 patients with thalassemia syndromes treated with FERRIPROX developed increased ALT values. Four (0.62%) FERRIPROX-treated subjects discontinued the drug due to increased serum ALT levels and 1 (0.16%) due to an increase in both ALT and AST. In pooled clinical trials, 7.7% of 196 patients with sickle cell disease or other anemias treated with FERRIPROX developed increased ALT values. Monitor serum ALT values monthly during therapy with FERRIPROX and consider interruption of therapy if there is a persistent increase in the serum transaminase levels. Decreased plasma zinc concentrations have been observed on deferiprone therapy. Monitor plasma zinc, and supplement in the event of a deficiency.

FERRIPROX can cause fetal harm. Advise females of reproductive potential to use an effective method of contraception during treatment with FERRIPROX and for at least six months after the last dose. Advise males with female partners of reproductive potential to use effective contraception during treatment with FERRIPROX and for at least three months after the last dose. Advise females not to breastfeed during treatment with FERRIPROX and for at least 2 weeks after the last dose.

Avoid co-administration of FERRIPROX with other drugs known to be associated with neutropenia or agranulocytosis; however, if this is unavoidable, closely monitor the absolute neutrophil count. Avoid co-administration with UGT1A6 inhibitors. Allow at least a 4-hour interval between administration of FERRIPROX and drugs or supplements containing polyvalent cations (e.g., iron, aluminum, or zinc).

The most common adverse reactions in patients with thalassemia (incidence  6%) are nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, arthralgia, ALT increased and neutropenia. The most common adverse reactions in patients with sickle cell disease or other anemias (incidence 6%) are pyrexia, abdominal pain, bone pain, headache, vomiting, pain in extremity, sickle cell anemia with crisis, back pain, ALT increased, AST increased, arthralgia, oropharyngeal pain, nasopharyngitis, neutrophil count decreased, cough and nausea.

Inform patients that their urine might show a reddish/brown discoloration due to the excretion of the iron-deferiprone complex. This is a very common sign of the desired effect, and it is not harmful.

Advise patients to avoid alcohol while taking FERRIPROX tablets (twice-a-day). Consumption of alcohol while taking FERRIPROX tablets (twice-a-day) may result in more rapid release of deferiprone.

Please see full Prescribing Information, including boxed WARNING and Medication Guide.

About Chiesi Global Rare Diseases

Chiesi Global Rare Diseases is a business unit of the Chiesi Group established in February 2020 and focused on research and development of treatments for rare and ultra-rare disorders. The Global Rare Diseases unit works in collaboration with Chiesi Group to harness the full resources and capabilities of our global network to bring innovative new treatment options to people living with rare diseases, many of whom have limited or no treatments available. The unit is also a dedicated partner with global leaders in patient advocacy, research and patient care. For more information visit https://www.chiesiglobalrarediseases.com/.

About Chiesi Group

Based in Parma, Italy, Chiesi is an international research-focused pharmaceuticals and healthcare group with over 85 years' experience, operating in 30 countries with more than 6,000 employees (Chiesi Group). To achieve its mission of improving people's quality of life by acting responsibly towards society and the environment, the Group researches, develops and markets innovative drugs in its three therapeutic areas: AIR (products and services that promote respiration, from new-born to adult populations), RARE (treatment for patients with rare and ultra-rare diseases) and CARE (products and services that support special care and consumer-facing self-care). The Group's Research and Development centre is based in Parma and works alongside 6 other important research and development centres in France, the U.S., Canada, China, the UK, and Sweden to promote its pre-clinical, clinical, and regulatory programmes. Chiesi, since 2019, is the world's largest B Corp certified pharmaceutical group. Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A. has changed in 2018 its legal status to a Benefit Corporation, by incorporating a double purpose for the creation of shared value, and to generate value for its business, for society and the environment. The global B Corp movement promotes business as a force for good. Moreover, as a Benefit Corporation, Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A. is required by law to include objectives of common benefit in its bylaws and to report annually in a transparent way. The Group is committed to becoming carbon neutral by the end of 2035.

For further information: www.chiesi.com.

Chiesi Global Rare Diseases Media Contact

Jenna Urban

Berry & Company Public Relations

1-212-253-8881

[email protected]

PP-F-0148 V2.0

___________________

i Sundaram N, Bennett M, Wilhelm J et al. Biomarkers for early detection of sickle nephropathy. Am J Hematol 2011;86(7):559-66

ii Nath KA, Hebbel RP. Sickle cell disease: renal manifestations and mechanisms. Nat Rev Nephrol 2015;11(3):1171-1171.

SOURCE Chiesi Global Rare Diseases

Related Links

http://www.chiesi.com


MONTERREY, Mexico, April 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Metalsa, S.A. de C.V. (" Metalsa " or the " Company ") announced today the early tender results in connection with its previously announced cash tender offer (the " Tender Offer ") for any and all of the outstanding U.S.$300,000,000 aggregate principal amount of its 4.900% Senior Notes due 2023 (the " Notes ") and the related solicitation of consents (the " Consent Solicitation ") to certain proposed amendments to the Notes and the indenture governing the Notes (as amended, the " Indenture ").

The terms and conditions of the Tender Offer and the Consent Solicitation are described in the Offer to Purchase and Consent Solicitation Statement, dated April 19, 2021 (as amended or supplemented from time to time, the " Offer to Purchase "), previously distributed to holders of the Notes.

The Company has been advised that as of 5:00 p.m. (New York City time) on April 30, 2021 (such date and time, the " Early Tender Payment Deadline "), U.S.$181,320,000 in aggregate principal amount of the Notes, representing approximately 60.44% of the outstanding Notes, had been validly tendered (and not validly withdrawn) pursuant to the Tender Offer, for which related consents have been delivered (and not validly revoked) pursuant to the Consent Solicitation. The Company intends to purchase all Notes validly tendered (and not validly withdrawn) and accept all consents validly delivered (and not validly revoked) at or prior to the Early Tender Payment Deadline, on May 4, 2021 (the " Early Settlement Date ").

Based on the receipt of the consents, the Company intends to execute a supplemental indenture (the " Supplemental Indenture ") to the Indenture. The Supplemental Indenture will implement the proposed amendments (the " Proposed Amendments ") set forth in the Offer to Purchase, which would (i) eliminate substantially all of the restrictive covenants, as well as various events of default and related provisions contained in the Indenture, (ii) reduce the minimum required notice period for the redemption of Notes from 30 days to three business days prior to the date fixed for redemption (maintaining the maximum notice period of 60 days) and (iii) amend the covenant in the Indenture with respect to consolidation, merger, sale or conveyance to allow the Company to effect a corporate reorganization, as described in the Offer to Purchase. Although the Supplemental Indenture will be effective immediately upon execution, the Proposed Amendments will not become operative until the Early Settlement Date. The Supplemental Indenture will be binding on all holders of Notes, including holders of Notes not validly tendered and purchased pursuant to the Tender Offer.

On the Early Settlement Date, holders of Notes who validly tendered and did not validly withdraw their Notes at or prior to the Early Tender Payment Deadline will receive U.S.$1,065.00 for each U.S.$1,000 principal amount of Notes (the " Total Consideration "), which includes an early tender payment of U.S.$30.00 per U.S.$1,000 principal amount of Notes (the " Early Tender Payment "). Holders who validly tender (and do not withdraw) their Notes after the Early Tender Payment Deadline but at or prior to 11:59 p.m. (New York City time), on May 14, 2021, unless extended or earlier terminated by the Company (such date and time, as the same may be modified, the " Expiration Time "), will be eligible to receive U.S.$1,035.00 per U.S.$1,000 principal amount of Notes (the " Tender Offer Consideration "), which amount will be equal to the Total Consideration less the Early Tender Payment. In addition, the Company will pay accrued and unpaid interest on the principal amount of Notes accepted for purchase, and additional amounts thereon, from the most recent interest payment date on the Notes to, but not including, the applicable settlement date for the Notes accepted for purchase.

The Company's obligation to accept for purchase, and to pay for, Notes validly tendered and not validly withdrawn pursuant to the Tender Offer is conditioned upon the satisfaction or, when applicable, waiver of certain conditions, which are more fully described in the Offer to Purchase, including, among others, the consummation of an offering by the Company (the " New Notes Offering ") of new senior notes (the " New Notes ") at or prior to the Early Settlement Date on terms satisfactory to the Company. This condition is expected to be satisfied upon the closing of the New Notes Offering on May 4, 2021. The New Notes offered pursuant to the New Notes Offering have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the " Securities Act "), and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act.

Following payment for the Notes accepted pursuant to the terms of the Tender Offer, Metalsa may, but is not obligated to, redeem all or a portion of the Notes that remain outstanding in accordance with the terms of the Indenture. Neither the Offer to Purchase nor this press release constitutes a notice of redemption or an obligation to issue a notice of redemption.

BofA Securities, Inc. and Citigroup Global Markets Inc. are acting as dealer managers for the Tender Offer and as solicitation agents for the Consent Solicitation and can be contacted at their respective telephone numbers set forth on the back cover page of Offer to Purchase with questions regarding the Tender Offer and the Consent Solicitation.

Copies of the Offer to Purchase are available to holders of Notes from Global Bondholder Services Corporation, the information agent and the tender agent for the Tender Offer and the Consent Solicitation. To contact the information agent and tender agent, banks and brokers may call (212) 430-3774, and others may call U.S. toll-free: (866) 470-3700 or email [email protected] Additional contact information is set forth below.

By Mail, Hand or Overnight Courier: By Facsimile Transmission:



65 Broadway, Suite 404 (for eligible institutions only)



New York, NY 10006 +1 (212) 430-3775/3779



USA Confirmation by Telephone



Attention: Corporate Actions +1 (212) 430-3774

Neither the Offer to Purchase nor any related documents have been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, nor have any such documents been filed with or reviewed by any federal or state securities commission or regulatory authority of any country. No authority has passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of the Offer to Purchase or any related documents, and it is unlawful and may be a criminal offense to make any representation to the contrary.

The Tender Offer and the Consent Solicitation are being made solely on the terms and conditions set forth in the Offer to Purchase. Under no circumstances shall this press release constitute an offer to buy or the solicitation of an offer to sell the Notes or any other securities of the Company or any of its subsidiaries. The Tender Offer and the Consent Solicitation are not being made to, nor will the Company accept tenders of Notes or deliveries of consents from, holders in any jurisdiction in which the Tender Offer and the Consent Solicitation or the acceptance thereof would not be in compliance with the securities of blue sky laws of such jurisdiction. This press release also is not a solicitation of consents to the Proposed Amendments to the Indenture. No recommendation is made as to whether holders should tender their Notes or deliver their consents with respect to the Notes. Holders should carefully read the Offer to Purchase because it contains important information, including the terms and conditions of the Tender Offer and the Consent Solicitation.

About Metalsa

Metalsa is a sociedad anonima de capital variable (a variable capital corporation) organized under the laws of the United Mexican States involved in the production of structural components for automotive light vehicle and commercial vehicles, with more than 60 years of experience. Currently, Metalsa supplies the global market with manufacturing plants, offices and technology centers worldwide in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, India, Japan, Mexico, Thailand, and the United States. It also offers Just in Time services in sequencing centers located in strategic areas close to its customers. With this international presence, Metalsa can effectively fulfill and carry out locally the global customer strategies. The Company's main office is located in "Pabellon M" at Benito Juarez Street, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, 64000. For additional information, visit http://www.metalsa.com/. The information on the Company's website is not a part of, and is not incorporated by reference into, the Offer to Purchase or this press release.

Important Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains statements that constitute estimates and forward-looking statements. These statements appear in a number of places in this press release and include statements regarding the Company's intent, belief or current expectations, and those of the Company's officers, with respect to (among other things) the Company's financial condition.

The Company's estimates and forward-looking statements are based mainly on current expectations and estimates of future events and trends, which affect, or may affect, the Company's business and results of operations. Although the Company believes that these estimates and forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, they are subject to several risks and uncertainties and are based on information currently available to the Company.

The words "believe," "may," "may have," "would," "estimate," "continues," "anticipates," "intends," "hopes," and similar words are intended to identify estimates and forward-looking statements. Estimates and forward-looking statements refer only to the date when they were made, and neither Metalsa, the dealer managers and solicitation agents, the information agent and tender agent or any affiliate of any of them undertakes any obligation to update or review any estimate or forward-looking statement due to new information, future events or any other factors. Estimates and forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and do not guarantee future performance, as actual results or developments may be substantially different from the expectations described in the forward-looking statements. In light of the risks and uncertainties described above, the events referred to in the estimates and forward-looking statements included in this press release may or may not occur, and the Company's business performance and results of operation may differ materially from those expressed in its estimates and forward-looking statements, due to factors that include but are not limited to those mentioned above. The Company cautions you not to place undue reliance on any estimates or forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made.

DISCLAIMER

This press release must be read in conjunction with the Offer to Purchase. This announcement and the Offer to Purchase contain important information which must be read carefully before any decision is made with respect to the Tender Offer and the Consent Solicitation. If any holder of Notes is in any doubt as to the action it should take, it is recommended to seek its own legal, tax, accounting and financial advice, including as to any tax consequences, immediately from its stockbroker, bank manager, attorney, accountant or other independent financial or legal adviser. Any individual or company whose Notes are held on its behalf by a broker, dealer, bank, custodian, trust company or other nominee or intermediary must contact such entity if it wishes to participate in the Tender Offer and the Consent Solicitation. None of Metalsa, the dealer managers and solicitation agents, the information agent and tender agent and any person who controls, or is a director, officer, employee or agent of such persons, or any affiliate of such persons, makes any recommendation as to whether holders of Notes should participate in the Tender Offer and Consent Solicitation.

SOURCE Metalsa, S.A. de C.V.

Related Links

http://www.metalsa.com


SAN DIEGO, May 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Johnson Fistel, LLP is investigating potential claims on behalf of Resideo Technologies, Inc. (the "Company" or "Resideo") (NYSE: REZI) against certain of its officers. On March 30, 2021, Judge Wilhelmina M. Wright granted in part and denied in part defendants' motion to dismiss a shareholder class action lawsuit pending in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota against Resideo and certain of its officers.

According to the class action lawsuit, between October 29, 2018, and November 6, 2019, defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) the negative operational effects of the Honeywell spin-off were more substantial and persistent than disclosed and had negatively affected the Company's product sales, supply chain, and gross margins, putting Resideo's fiscal 2019 financial forecasts at risk; (2) as a consequence, the Company's financial guidance lacked a reasonable basis and the Company was not on track to make its fiscal 2019 guidance as defendants had claimed; and (3) as a result, according to the class action lawsuit, Resideo's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. When the true details entered the market, the class action lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.

If you are a current, long-term shareholder of Resideo holding shares since October 2018 , you may have standing to hold Resideo harmless from the alleged harm caused by the Company's executives by making them personally responsible. You may also be able to assist in reforming the Company's corporate governance to prevent future wrongdoing.

If you are interested in learning more about the investigation, please contact lead analyst Jim Baker ( [email protected] ) at 619-814-4471. If emailing, please include a phone number.

Additionally, if you have continuously owned Resideo 's shares since October 2018 , you can [Click here to join this action]. There is no cost or obligation to you.

About Johnson Fistel, LLP:

Johnson Fistel, LLP is a nationally recognized shareholder rights law firm with offices in California, New York and Georgia. The firm represents individual and institutional investors in shareholder derivative and securities class action lawsuits. For more information about the firm and its attorneys, please visit http://www.johnsonfistel.com. Attorney advertising. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.

Contact:

Johnson Fistel, LLP

Jim Baker, 619-814-4471

[email protected]

If you have continuously owned Resideo 's shares since October 2018 , you can [Click here to join this action]. There is no cost or obligation to you.

SOURCE Johnson Fistel, LLP

Related Links

http://www.johnsonfistel.com


NEW YORK, April 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --



Juan Monteverde, founder and managing partner at Monteverde & Associates PC, a national securities firm rated Top 50 in the 2018-2020 ISS Securities Class Action Services Report and headquartered at the Empire State Building in New York City, is investigating Kimco Realty Corp. ("KIM" or the "Company") (KIM) relating to its proposed acquisition of Weingarten Realty Investors (WRI). Under the terms of the agreement, WRI shareholders will receive 1.408 shares of Kimco and $2.89 in cash per share.

The investigation focuses on whether Kimco Realty Corp. and its Board of Directors violated securities laws and/or breached their fiduciary duties to the Company by 1) failing to conduct a fair process, and 2) whether the transaction is properly valued.

Click here for more information: http://monteverdelaw.com/case/kimco-realty-corp. It is free and there is no cost or obligation to you.

About Monteverde & Associates PC

We are a national class action securities litigation law firm that has recovered millions of dollars and is committed to protecting shareholders from corporate wrongdoing. We were listed in the Top 50 in the 2018-2020 ISS Securities Class Action Services Report. Our lawyers have significant experience litigating Mergers & Acquisitions and Securities Class Actions. Mr. Monteverde is recognized by Super Lawyers as a Rising Star in Securities Litigation in 2013, 2017-2019, an award given to less than 2.5% of attorneys in a particular field. He has also been selected by Martindale-Hubbell as a 2017-2020 Top Rated Lawyer. Our firm's recent successes include changing the law in a significant victory that lowered the standard of liability under Section 14(e) of the Exchange Act in the Ninth Circuit. Thereafter, our firm successfully preserved this victory by obtaining dismissal of a writ of certiorari as improvidently granted at the United States Supreme Court. Emulex Corp. v. Varjabedian, 139 S. Ct. 1407 (2019). Also, in 2019 we recovered or secured six cash common funds for shareholders in mergers & acquisitions class action cases.

If you own common stock in Kimco Realty Corp. and wish to obtain additional information and protect your investments free of charge, please visit our website or contact Juan E. Monteverde, Esq. either via e-mail at [email protected] or by telephone at (212) 971-1341.

Contact:

Juan E. Monteverde, Esq.

MONTEVERDE & ASSOCIATES PC

The Empire State Building

350 Fifth Ave. Suite 4405

New York, NY 10118

United States of America

[email protected]

Tel: (212) 971-1341

Attorney Advertising. (C) 2021 Monteverde & Associates PC. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Monteverde & Associates PC ( www.monteverdelaw.com ). Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome with respect to any future matter.

SOURCE Monteverde & Associates PC

Related Links

http://www.monteverdelaw.com


PHOENIX, May 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS) is partnering with businesses and organizations across the state to extend special offers, prizes, gift cards and experiences during National Foster Care Month in May. The celebration is a community wide "thank you" to the people who have opened their hearts and homes to Arizona's most vulnerable children.

"We value foster families' service all year round, but Foster Care Month is an opportunity to shine a light on their commitment and go a step further to show our appreciation," said DCS Director Mike Faust. "We're also incredibly grateful to so many partners who have come together to show gratitude for Arizona's foster families," said Faust.

The month-long event kicks off May 1 at OdySea Aquarium at Via de Ventura and the 101 Freeway. The OdySea Aquarium Foundation and Arizona Friends of Foster Children Foundation are providing 500 complimentary tickets to the aquarium for foster families. From 8 to 9 a.m., the families will have the aquarium to themselves to enjoy one-on-one experiences and animal interactions.

"Not only is OdySea Aquarium a fun and memorable experience for families, but being near water has extra benefits, too," said Gillian Vanasse, assistant director for foster care and post permanency supports for DCS. "It increases feel-good brain chemicals while reducing stress hormones, which is invaluable for children in the foster care system who have suffered trauma and neglect."

Another highlight of Foster Care Month, Arizona Science Center in Phoenix is offering $3 admission to foster families every day in May. It's part of the organization's commitment to making science accessible to all.

"Science is everywhere and within each of us," said Dean Briere, The Hazel A. Hare Interim CEO, Arizona Science Center. "Arizona Science Center knows the power of science centers to cultivate lifelong interests in science and we are committed to creating a welcoming environment where all people can engage with the wonders of scientific discovery."

Dozens of other businesses including Medieval Times, Papa John's Pizza, Munchpaks, Sodalicious, Bryan's Black Mountain BBQ and Dave & Busters also are extending special offers throughout the month. Butterfly Wonderland will host 100 guests on May 23, courtesy of Butterfly Wonderland Foundation, and Arizona State Parks & Trails is offering complimentary annual park passes to foster families all year round.

"These organizations are stepping up and saying thank you to the families who give children in desperate need a safe and loving environment," said Cynthia Weiss, director of communications for DCS. "It truly takes a village to raise a child."

There are more than 14,000 children in Arizona's foster care system. DCS' main goal is to place these children in a safe and loving family setting until they can safely go home to their parents. If children are unable to reunite with their parents, DCS works to connect them with loving, adoptive families.

To learn more about fostering, visit dcs.az.gov/licensed.

About the Arizona Department of Child Safety

The Department of Child Safety is dedicated to the vision that "Children thrive in family environments free from abuse and neglect." As highly motivated and caring public servants, the DCS team is committed to fulfilling this mission with excellence, providing safety and well-being for the most vulnerable population in Arizona - our children. If you suspect child abuse, call 888-SOS-CHILD.

SOURCE Arizona Department of Child Safety
NEW ORLEANS, April 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., Esq., a partner at the law firm of Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF"), announces that KSF has commenced an investigation into Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE: BSX).

On November 17, 2020, the Company announced a global recall of all unused inventory of its LOTUS Edge Aortic Valve System, due to "complexities associated with the product delivery system," and that "[g]iven the additional time and investment required to develop and reintroduce an enhanced delivery system, the company has chosen to retire the entire LOTUS product platform immediately."

Thereafter, the Company and certain of its executives were sued in a securities class action lawsuit, charging them with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws, which remains ongoing.

KSF's investigation is focusing on whether Boston Scientific's officers and/or directors breached their fiduciary duties to its shareholders or otherwise violated state or federal laws.

If you have information that would assist KSF in its investigation, or have been a long-term holder of Boston Scientific shares and would like to discuss your legal rights, you may, without obligation or cost to you, call toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or email KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn ([email protected]), or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-bsx/ to learn more.

About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

KSF, whose partners include former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is one of the nation's premier boutique securities litigation law firms. KSF serves a variety of clients  including public institutional investors, hedge funds, money managers and retail investors  in seeking to recover investment losses due to corporate fraud and malfeasance by publicly traded companies. KSF has offices in New York, California and Louisiana.

To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com.

Contact:

Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

Lewis Kahn, Managing Partner

[email protected]

1-877-515-1850

1100 Poydras St., Suite 3200

New Orleans, LA 70163

SOURCE Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

Related Links

http://www.ksfcounsel.com


Request Our Latest Free Sample Report

The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. Amazon.com Inc., Broadcom Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Cloudera Inc., HP Inc., International Business Machines Corp., McAfee LLC, Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp., and Proofpoint Inc. are some of the major market participants. Stringent regulations regarding data protection will offer immense growth opportunities. To leverage the current opportunities, market vendors must strengthen their foothold in the fast-growing segments while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments.

Data Security Market 2021-2025: Segmentation

Data Security Market is segmented as below:

Deployment

On-premises



Cloud-based

Geography

North America



Europe



APAC



South America



MEA

To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR43478

Data Security Market 2021-2025: Vendor Analysis and Scope

To help businesses improve their market position, the data security market provides a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the market. Some of these vendors include Amazon.com Inc., Broadcom Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Cloudera Inc., HP Inc., International Business Machines Corp., McAfee LLC, Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp., and Proofpoint Inc.

The report also covers the following areas:

Data Security Market size

Data Security Market trends

Data Security Market industry analysis

Market trends such as increasing IT security budget is likely to emerge as one of the primary drivers of the market. However, system integration and interoperability issues is may threaten the growth of the market.



Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the data security market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile & M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.



Related Reports on Information Technology Include:

Global Data Center Security Solutions Market - Global data center security solutions market is segmented by type (logical security and physical security) and geography (North America, APAC, Europe, South America, and MEA).

Download the Exclusive Free Sample Report

Global Internet Security Market - Global internet security market is segmented by solution (products and services) and geography (APAC, Europe, MEA, North America, and South America).

Download the Exclusive Free Sample Report

Data Security Market 2021-2025: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2021-2025

Detailed information on factors that will assist data security market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the data security market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the data security market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of data security market vendors

Table of Contents:

Executive Summary

Market Landscape

Market ecosystem

Value chain analysis

Market Sizing

Market definition

Market segment analysis

Market size 2020

Market outlook: Forecast for 2020 - 2025

Five Forces Analysis

Five forces summary

Bargaining power of buyers

Bargaining power of suppliers

Threat of new entrants

Threat of substitutes

Threat of rivalry

Market condition

Market Segmentation by Deployment

Market segments

Comparison by Deployment

On-premises - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Cloud-based - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Market opportunity by Deployment

Customer landscape

Geographic Landscape

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

North America - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

- Market size and forecast 2020-2025 Europe - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

- Market size and forecast 2020-2025 APAC - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

South America - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

- Market size and forecast 2020-2025 MEA - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Key leading countries

Market opportunity by geography

Market drivers

Market challenges

Market trends

Vendor Landscape

Overview

Landscape disruption

Vendor Analysis

Vendors covered

Market positioning of vendors

Amazon.com Inc.

Broadcom Inc.

Cisco Systems Inc.

Cloudera Inc.

HP Inc.

International Business Machines Corp.

McAfee LLC

Microsoft Corp.

Oracle Corp.

Proofpoint Inc.

Appendix

Scope of the report

Currency conversion rates for US$

Research methodology

List of abbreviations

Technavio's in-depth market research reports now include a thorough analysis of the COVID-19 impact on various markets to help industry leaders navigate their business through the new normal. Receive Latest Free Sample Report in Minutes

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

Contact

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com/

Report: www.technavio.com/report/data-security-market-industry-analysis

SOURCE Technavio

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CHICAGO, April 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- About 203,472 property owners must pay the First Installment of their Cook County property taxes by May 3, 2021, to avoid late fees charges imposed by state law, Treasurer Maria Pappas said today.

"Taxpayers like my website because they can pay their taxes online after the office is closed," Pappas said.

Payments made at cookcountytreasurer.com before 11:59 p.m. by May 3 will be recorded as on time.

"You may also use the website to search $76 million in available refunds going back 20 years," she said. "You may also verify your property tax exemptions, which lower the tax bill. Homeowners may be missing out on $46 million in exemptions."

To make a payment, go to the website:

Select the blue box labeled "Pay Online for Free"

Search by property address or enter your Property Index Number (PIN)

There is no fee if you pay from your bank account

To search for refunds or missing exemptions, visit cookcountytreasurer.com:

Select the purple box labeled "Your Property Tax Overview"

Search by property address or enter your Property Index Number (PIN)

Look for the results under "Are There Any Overpayments on Your PIN?"

Or the results under "Have You Received Your Exemptions in These Tax Years?"

Late payments are charged 1.5 percent per month, as required by Illinois law.

SOURCE Cook County Treasurer's Office

Related Links

http://www.cookcountytreasurer.com


NEW YORK, April 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --

Juan Monteverde, founder and managing partner at Monteverde & Associates PC, a national securities firm rated Top 50 in the 2018-2020 ISS Securities Class Action Services Report and headquartered at the Empire State Building in New York City, is investigating Proofpoint, Inc. ("PFPT" or the "Company") (PFPT) relating to its proposed acquisition by Thoma Bravo. Under the terms of the agreement, PFPT shareholders will receive $176.00 in cash per share they own.

The investigation focuses on whether Proofpoint, Inc. and its Board of Directors violated securities laws and/or breached their fiduciary duties to the Company by 1) failing to conduct a fair process, and 2) whether the transaction is properly valued.

Click here for more information: https://www.monteverdelaw.com/case/proofpoint-inc. It is free and there is no cost or obligation to you.

About Monteverde & Associates PC

We are a national class action securities litigation law firm that has recovered millions of dollars and is committed to protecting shareholders from corporate wrongdoing. We were listed in the Top 50 in the 2018-2020 ISS Securities Class Action Services Report. Our lawyers have significant experience litigating Mergers & Acquisitions and Securities Class Actions. Mr. Monteverde is recognized by Super Lawyers as a Rising Star in Securities Litigation in 2013, 2017-2019, an award given to less than 2.5% of attorneys in a particular field. He has also been selected by Martindale-Hubbell as a 2017-2020 Top Rated Lawyer. Our firm's recent successes include changing the law in a significant victory that lowered the standard of liability under Section 14(e) of the Exchange Act in the Ninth Circuit. Thereafter, our firm successfully preserved this victory by obtaining dismissal of a writ of certiorari as improvidently granted at the United States Supreme Court. Emulex Corp. v. Varjabedian, 139 S. Ct. 1407 (2019). Also, in 2019 we recovered or secured six cash common funds for shareholders in mergers & acquisitions class action cases.

If you own common stock in Proofpoint, Inc. and wish to obtain additional information and protect your investments free of charge, please visit our website or contact Juan E. Monteverde, Esq. either via e-mail at [email protected] or by telephone at (212) 971-1341.

Contact:

Juan E. Monteverde, Esq.

MONTEVERDE & ASSOCIATES PC

The Empire State Building

350 Fifth Ave. Suite 4405

New York, NY 10118

United States of America

[email protected]

Tel: (212) 971-1341

Attorney Advertising. (C) 2021 Monteverde & Associates PC. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Monteverde & Associates PC (www.monteverdelaw.com). Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome with respect to any future matter.

SOURCE Monteverde & Associates PC

Related Links

http://www.monteverdelaw.com


NEW YORK, April 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Juan Monteverde, founder and managing partner at Monteverde & Associates PC, a national securities firm rated Top 50 in the 2018-2020 ISS Securities Class Action Services Report and headquartered at the Empire State Building in New York City, is investigating United Rentals, Inc. ("URI" or the "Company") (URI) relating to its proposed acquisition of General Finance Corp (GFN). Under the terms of the agreement, GFN shareholders will receive $19.00 per share they own.

The investigation focuses on whether United Rentals, Inc. and its Board of Directors violated securities laws and/or breached their fiduciary duties to the Company by 1) failing to conduct a fair process, and 2) whether the transaction is properly valued.

Click here for more information: http://monteverdelaw.com/case/united-rentals-inc. It is free and there is no cost or obligation to you.

About Monteverde & Associates PC

We are a national class action securities litigation law firm that has recovered millions of dollars and is committed to protecting shareholders from corporate wrongdoing. We were listed in the Top 50 in the 2018 and 2019 ISS Securities Class Action Services Report. Our lawyers have significant experience litigating Mergers & Acquisitions and Securities Class Actions. Mr. Monteverde is recognized by Super Lawyers as a Rising Star in Securities Litigation in 2013, 2017-2019, an award given to less than 2.5% of attorneys in a particular field. He has also been selected by Martindale-Hubbell as a 2017-2019 Top Rated Lawyer. Our firm's recent successes include changing the law in a significant victory that lowered the standard of liability under Section 14(e) of the Exchange Act in the Ninth Circuit. Thereafter, our firm successfully preserved this victory by obtaining dismissal of a writ of certiorari as improvidently granted at the United States Supreme Court. Emulex Corp. v. Varjabedian, 139 S. Ct. 1407 (2019). Also, in 2019 we recovered or secured six cash common funds for shareholders in mergers & acquisitions class action cases.

If you own common stock in United Rentals, Inc. and wish to obtain additional information and protect your investments free of charge, please visit our website or contact Juan E. Monteverde, Esq. either via e-mail at [email protected] or by telephone at (212) 971-1341.

Contact:

Juan E. Monteverde, Esq.

MONTEVERDE & ASSOCIATES PC

The Empire State Building

350 Fifth Ave. Suite 4405

New York, NY 10118

United States of America

[email protected]

Tel: (212) 971-1341

Attorney Advertising. (C) 2021 Monteverde & Associates PC. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Monteverde & Associates PC ( www.monteverdelaw.com ). Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome with respect to any future matter.

SOURCE Monteverde & Associates PC

Related Links

http://www.monteverdelaw.com


COLUMBIA, Md., April 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- May is National Myositis Awareness Month! At The Myositis Association, this time in May is observed to empower patients and care partners as well as educate the community about this rare disease.

Individuals living with myositis can experience severe muscle pain and weakness, difficulty moving and standing, chronic disability, debilitating skin rashes, and other symptoms. It is common for myositis patients to wait more than three-and- a-half years and see five doctors before receiving a correct diagnosis. During this time, patients often develop complications that can be life threatening.

This May, through the "A Call to Action" theme, The Myositis Association will empower its patients to tell their stories, become advocates on their own healthcare journey, learn strategies to create increased community awareness, become successful fundraisers, leverage the power of volunteerism, and become more involved in legislative advocacy.

This year's Myositis Awareness Month will feature a calendar full of events that include patient story highlights, health/nutrition sessions, fundraising events, and the 2021 Myositis Awareness Month Virtual Summit that takes place on Saturday, May 22, 2021 from 11:00 am  5:00 pm.

The Myositis Awareness Month Virtual Summit will offer clinical and scientific updates, workshops, opportunities to connect with others in the myositis community, and access to corporate partners and exhibitors! Registration is still open for the Virtual Summit and can be secured at https://www.myositis.org/myositis-library/myositis-awareness- month-virtual-summit-a-call-to-action/ .

The Myositis Association is dedicated to raising awareness and with support will be able to educate the community and the world!

May's Myositis Awareness Month and Virtual Summit is presented by Kezar Life Sciences. A special thank you to platinum sponsors, Boehringer Ingelheim and Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals.

About The Myositis Association

The Myositis Association is committed to support and education for the myositis patient and caregiver community, increasing awareness of myositis throughout the community, and funding for myositis-related research.

Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Columbia, MD, The Myositis Association is dedicated to serve patients worldwide. To learn more, visit www.myositis.org .

SOURCE The Myositis Association

Related Links

https://www.myositis.org


BEAUMONT, Texas, May 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The USW today condemned ExxonMobil's decision to engage in an unfair labor practice lock out impacting more than 650 members of USW Local 13-243 in its Beaumont, Texas refinery and blending and packaging plant.

"It's deeply disappointing that ExxonMobil would take such a drastic step and keep its dedicated workforce off the job when our only goal throughout this whole process has been to bargain a fair agreement," said USW Local 13-243 President Darrell Kyle.

The local began bargaining a new contract with ExxonMobil on Jan. 11. On April 23, the company provided written notice of its intention to lock out workers starting May 1 unless they accepted a proposal which included major changes impacting members' safety, security and seniority. Contrary to this notice, management began escorting workers out of the blending and packaging plant the evening of April 30.

"Our members deserve to stay safe on the job, and having skilled, experienced workers operating our facilities keeps our community safe as well," Kyle said.

The USW urged the company to end its unfair labor practice lock out quickly and come back to the bargaining table so the two sides could continue negotiating.

"Over the past year, the company was perfectly willing to tell us we were essential as we performed our jobs through the Covid-19 pandemic, hurricanes, floods and most recently an unprecedented freeze," Kyle said. "Now, it's rewarding our hard work and sacrifice by forcing us off our jobs."

The USW represents 850,000 workers employed in metals, mining, pulp and paper, rubber, chemicals, glass, auto supply and the energy-producing industries, along with a growing number of workers in health care, public sector, higher education, tech and service occupations.

Contact: Richard Hoot Landry, 409-284-9807

SOURCE United Steelworkers (USW)

Related Links

http://www.usw.org


Newly expanded Knaften project adds to potential of intrusion-hosted gold target

Sweden is the leading mining nation in Europe

Gungnir is an experienced explorer and knows the Scandinavian country

What Gungnir Resources does:

Gungnir Resources Inc ( ) (OTCPINK:ASWRF) is an explorer with gold and base metal permits in the prolific Vasterbotten district of Sweden, which has a long history of mining.

The district hosts 12 million ounces of gold, which has been defined in existing and mined resources. The area is also home to several past-producing and producing volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) base metal mines.

For example, there is the Boliden mine, a 4 million ounce (Moz) past-producer, and the Agnico Eagle joint ventured Barsele gold deposit where over 2 million ounces of the yellow metal had been defined as of February last year.

Gungnir's main focus is the Knaften project, which lies at the south-end of the so-called Knaften-Barsele Arc (Gold Line), which hosts a number of gold deposits including Faboliden and Svartliden (Dragon Mining), and the above-mentioned Barsele Gold-VMS project. The asset hosts high-grade gold, VMS (zinc-copper) and copper-nickel targets, all open for expansion.

In each of the years 2017, 2018 and 2019, the company made three new discoveries via drilling at Knaften. Gungnir also holds permits covering two nickel deposits called Lappvattnet and Rormyrberget, which together host about 71 million pounds of nickel in historic resources, and lie 100 kilometres (km) and 60 km, respectively, from Knaften, covering 471.3 hectares.

It also holds the Norrbotten gold and base metal claims, namely five permits totalling 25 square kilometres (sq km). The permits cover significant gold, silver and copper mineralized boulders/blocks along a north-west trending corridor, which sits around 200 km north of the Knaften project.

How is it doing:

In March 2021, Gungnir Resources outlined what will be a busy year of exploration in Sweden, including 50 line-kilometres of IP geophysics and 2,500 metres (m) of drilling, expected to kick off in the second quarter, once approvals are received and conditions allow.

At Knaften, drilling will test structural extensions of the Knaften 300 gold zone, where previous drilling showed shallow intersections of high-grade gold like 59.6 grams per ton (g/t) gold over 1m and numerous wide zones of gold mineralization.

Induced Polarization (IP) geophysics will also bid to outline potential extensions of Knaften 300 and new targets.

It comes after Gungnir, in January this year, announced that it had expanded its key Knaften project in Sweden by 75%, having been granted new permits such that the site now comprised 4,887 hectares (nearly 50 square kilometres).

This added significantly to the potential of its intrusion-hosted gold target and the project now covers all of this 4 km by 5km prospective area, the company said.

It came after a drill program nearly doubled the extent of the Knaften 300 gold zone, showing that the gold-bearing zone extended down dip for more than 400m, twice the 200m Gungnir had thought.

Significantly, late in 2020, Gungnir revealed that it aimed to increase its spend at the Rormyrberget and Lappvattnet nickel sulphide deposits in Sweden for 2021 after a highly positive updated mineral resource.

Rormyrberget, for example, was shown to contain three times the amount of contained nickel than was reported in the most recent historical estimate in 2009, while estimated at Lappvattnet was 23.1 million pounds of inferred nickel at 1.35%, compared to 22.9 million pounds at 0.91% in the 2009 report.

There is also the potential for significant PGEs demonstrated by Gungnir's sampling, which has included 50.91 grams per ton (g/t) PGEs - 39.0 g/t platinum, 11.8 g/t palladium, 0.11 g/t gold - with 2.13% nickel over 0.45 metres at Lappvattnet. There is also potential to improve on the 65% nickel recovery, used in the current resource estimates, noted the company.

In 2021, Gungnir said drilling at Lappvattnet and Rormyrberget will test for deposit extensions, and grade and distribution of PGEs (platinum, palladium and gold).

The Lappvattnet and Rormyrberget nickel deposits are located in the same general area as the Knaften property and two deposits collectively contain a newly expanded NI43-101 resource, which outlined 177 million pounds of nickel in the inferred category.

Inflection points:

Start of exploration at Knaften

More exploration of nickel assets

Gold and or base metals price moves

What the boss says:

In November, 2020, when the company reported on the updated resources for its Rormyrberget and Lappvattnet nickel sulphide deposits, Gungnir Resources CEO Jari Paakki commented: "These are significant nickel resources in Sweden with the potential for further resource expansion and to incorporate PGEs (platinum group elements) in the estimates.

"Given the very positive mineral resource update and up-side potential, the Company plans to increase expenditures on these projects including fresh drill holes in 2021."

Contact the author at giles@proactiveinvestors.com
Washington, May 1 : The US will explore diplomacy with North Korea and adopt a "practical approach," the White House said on Friday.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters aboard Air Force One that the Biden administration had completed its policy review on North Korea, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Our policy will not focus on achieving a grand bargain, nor will it rely on strategic patience," she said. "Our policy calls for a calibrated practical approach that is open to and will explore diplomacy with North Korea and to make practical progress that increases the security of the United States, our allies, and deployed forces." The term "strategic patience" and "grand bargain" refer to US policies toward North Korea under the administrations of Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

Psaki reaffirmed that the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula remains the policy goal, noting "the efforts of the past four administrations have not achieved this objective." She added that the United States would continue to consult with South Korea, Japan, and other allies and partners on this issue.

President Joe Biden last month told reporters that North Korea ranked the top foreign policy issue for his administration. The White House said the Biden administration had reached out to Pyongyang through several channels but had not yet received any response.

North Korea First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said in March that Pyongyang would ignore US outreach until Washington "rolls back its hostile policy." Denuclearization talks between Pyongyang and Washington have been stalled since the summit talks between top North Korea leader Kim Jong Un and former US President Donald Trump ended without agreement in February 2019 at the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.
Patna, May 1 : After opposition parties, even leaders of the ruling BJP are blaming the state government over Bihar's health infrastructure that is struggling to deal with the spike in the number of Covid-19 case amid a nation-wide devastating second wave of the pandemic.

Sanjay Jaiswal, Rajya Sabha MP and BJP state president, said that the basic facilities are "running out" in Bihar.

"The situation reached at the stage that doctors are not even picking the phone. They may be helpless in the present situation. I have lost so many known persons in the second wave," Jaiswal said.

"We have recently arranged beds and oxygen in the Champaran region to save the lives of Covid patients. Now, the facility has reached the stage of closure. We are trying hard to increase the number of beds up to 90 in Bettiah city and we may succeed in our attempt but that will not seem to be adequate. The positivity rate reached up to 30 per cent," Jaiswal said.

"The best treatment of Corona is social distancing and wearing masks. Unfortunately, people are still not understanding the threat of the deadly virus and roaming freely in markets," Jaiswal said.

Meanwhile, the RJD sharply reacted to Jaiswal's remarks.

Mritunjay Tiwari, the national spokesperson of RJD, said: "Where was his Covid knowledge and awareness when he and other leaders of BJP campaigned for election in West Bengal and were responsible for huge gatherings. Was Covid protocol not breached during the election campaign? BJP is in power in the state and Centre... why it has not learnt from the first wave of Corona and why they did not develop health infrastructure to fight with Covid 19."

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
New Delhi, May 1 : Amid devastating second wave of Covid-19 in the country including the national capital, the patients are increasingly feeling helpless as hospitals are struggling to properly handle the influx of patients.

In Delhi, many patients and their relatives have been seen outside the hospitals waiting anxiously, and trying to approach the medical staff inside, only to be denied entry by the security personnel at the gate.

A Delhi resident who was seen accompanying a patient outside the LNJP Hospital, told IANS: "The patient is not being admitted. We were told to talk to the CMO of the hospital... also, someone told us that the medical director has refused (admission to patients)." He is not the only one who was seen requesting the security personnel to let him step inside.

One Kiran Bhatia was also seen waiting along with her mother in an auto rickshaw "for the hospital manager to allow her to get inside the hospital along with her mother".

Commenting on this situation, long-queues of infected patients, and their lengthy waiting time outside, LNJP Hospital Medical Director Suresh Kumar on Friday said the medical oxygen demand increased due to insufficient supply due to which "we are sending patients standing outside to other hospitals".

"We held a meeting on the same... we are left with just 8 hours of oxygen supply, and the hospital beds are also full," he said.

On being asked if the Delhi government officials have been apprised of the problems they are facing, Kumar said the government has been informed.

Meanwhile, patients continued to fight for their life outside the hospital.

Amit Sharma, who had brought a patient in a serious condition, told IANS: "... went to around 15 hospitals... everywhere, admission has been denied." Another family member who came with Amit, said: "A lot of helpline numbers have been put up but no response is being received." Security personnel deployed outside the hospital have admitted that they have been asked to stop patients from entering inside by the the medical director.

Commenting on this, some doctors of the hospital asserted that due to shortage of oxygen, the medical director has refused to admit the patients.
New York, May 1 : A former acting secretary of state, Daniel Smith, has been appointed as the head of US embassy in New Delhi, which has been without an Ambassador after Kenneth Juster left the post in January, according to State Department Spokesperson Ned Price.

Smith will hold the post of charge d'affaires ad interim - or temporarily - till an Ambassador is appointed, Price announced on Friday.

The appointment of Smith, who is among the senior-most career diplomats, is a measure of the importance the administration of President Joe Biden attaches to India.

"Smith's appointment underscores the United States' strong commitment to our partnership with the Government of India and the Indian people. He will spearhead close cooperation with India to ensure that our countries continue to advance our shared priorities, including overcoming the global pandemic," the announcement said.

When Mike Pompeo, who was the secretary of state, and other political appointees in the top echelons of the State Department left when former President Donald Trump ended his term in January, Smith briefly took over as the acting secretary of state till Anthony Blinken was confirmed by the Senate.

Smith will take over from another career diplomat, Danie Heflin, who was appointed charge d'affaires after political appointee Juster quit when Trump left office.

Smith, who holds a PhD from Stanford University, was the director of the Foreign Service Institute that trains diplomats. Before that he had been the assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research and the ambassador to Greece.

The New Delhi ambassadorship is considered a high profile post and 15 of the 23 ambassadors have been political appointees.

They have included distinguished personalities like former governors Richard Frank Celeste and Chester Bowles (who served twice), former members of Congress including Kenneth Keating, Sherman Cooper and William Saxbe, and public intellectuals like John Kenneth Galbraith and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who had also been a senator.

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed @arulouis)
Saudi Arabia is expected to make an estimated savings of about SR800 billion ($213.33 billion) over the next 10 years, by replacing liquid fuel with renewable energy and natural gas, the Minister of Finance Muhammad Al-Jadaan said.

Al-Jadaan further said: Instead of purchasing fuel from the global market at $60 and then selling it to the Saudi utilities at $6, or using a portion of the kingdoms stake in Opec to sell at $6, we will actually replace at least one million barrels of oil equivalent in the coming 10 years, with gas and renewable energy, according to a report in the Saudi Gazette

Speaking to the media, Al-Jadaan added: From now till 2025, perhaps until 2030, priority will be for financial sustainability. To achieve the goals of the kingdoms Vision 2030, requires financial sustainability and control over government spending.

On the unemployment rate, Al-Jadaan said: The objectives for lowering the unemployment rates until 2030 has not changed. However, as we have not surpassed the phase of danger yet, it is too difficult to forecast the unemployment rate for the year 2021.

Our target is to lower the figure such that we complete the year at a lower level than that of 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic, but I cannot say that this will surely happen. TradeArabia News Service
Chandigarh, May 1 : Amid the coronavirus surge, thousands of devotees on Saturday paid obeisance at gurdwaras across Punjab to commemorate the 400th Prakash Purb celebrations of Guru Tegh Bahadur Sahib.

Religious fervour was seen at Harmandar Sahib, the holiest of Sikh shrines also known as Golden Temple, in Amritsar and other historic gurdwaras across the region as devotees began to assemble since early morning to offer prayers and listen to the 'kirtan' or hymns.

The Golden Temple complex was adorned with lights to mark the occasion.

Chief Minister Amarinder Singh greeted people on the occasion and urged them to watch the events on television and offer 'ardas' for 'Sarbat Da Bhala' from their homes and avoid congregating at the religious places in view of the pandemic.
Thiruvananthapuram, May 1 : The 77-year-old two time former Congress Chief Minister, Oommen Chandy is confident that the electoral history of Kerala will remain intact as in every election, the opposition returns to power.

Counting of votes will begin at 8 a.m on Sunday for the 140-member Kerala Assembly.

The veteran leader was at his residence here after returning from Kannur, where he went to attend the funeral of V.V. Prakash, his junior party colleague and the party's candidate at the Nilambur assembly constituency, who passed away after suffering a cardiac arrest, two days back.

In a chat with IANS, Chandy said, the Congress party does not give much importance to the numerous exit polls, which have all said that Pinarayi Vijayan will create history by becoming the first to retain power.

"Neither my party, nor me subscribe to these exit polls as it has not come right here," said Chandy and put forward his rationale on why he and his party is confident, that they will return to power.

"One major reason why we feel, Vijayan will not come back is, there is a feeling among a good section of the party, for the best interest of their party, Vijayan has to lose, as he has turned into an autocrat. Then came the manner in which 33 sitting CPI-M legislators were not given the nod to contest. From our side, it's the first time that we fielded new faces in more than half of the constituencies. These are all factors why we are confident, we will return," said Chandy.

Chandy also pointed out that there are alleged reports of a secret tie up between the BJP and the CPI-M, as the BJP's enemy is the Congress party.

"The BJP's game plan is if they have to make any ground in Kerala, they have to finish off Congress and the secret pact was for this. But it appears that the RSS was not keen on this pact. Even the slowing down of the probe by the various central agencies in the gold smuggling and similar cases is because of this pact as all knows that if strong action is taken in the cases, the direct beneficiary would be the Congress party," added Chandy.

Chandy said on Saturday he will go to his home constituency Puthupally in Kottayam where he is seeking his 12th successive win, a seat which has returned him since his debut election in 1970.

And when asked when he will be back, he said, "I will return here on Sunday night as discussions will have to begin from Monday." Discussions mean, Chandy is one of the top contenders for the post of the Chief Minister, though he will see a strong challenge by Ramesh Chennithala- Leader of Opposition, as in the past all former opposition leaders from the Congress has gone on to become the Chief Minister.

"I have not applied my mind to such things. The normal practice is it's the AICC which takes the final call. So first let us wait for the results," said Chandy.

Chandy's health continues to be in the recovery mode after turning Covid negative, last month, but all knows the energy levels of not just Chandy, any politician will rise instantly, when power returns.
Gandhinagar, May 1 : At least 16 Covid-19 patients died due a fire at a Covid designated hospital in Bharuch district on Saturday morning. Over 50-60 patients were admitted in the Patel Welfare Hospital when the fire broke out in the ICU ward at midnight. The fire officers have said that the hospital did not have an NOC for fire.

The fire erupted in the middle of the night in the designated Covid hospital on the Bharuch-Jambusar highway, around 190 km from the state capital Ahmedabad. The exact cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, according to the officials.

It is believed that around 16, including 14 Covid critical patients admitted in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) were charred to death in the fire caused most probably by a leaking oxygen cylinder. But there has been no confirmation on that.

The fire was controlled within an hour and around 50 patients were rescued and shifted to nearby hospitals, according to sources.

It is learnt that the hospital building did not have a No Objection Certificate (NOC) mandatory to be obtained from the fire department. "The hospital's another building has got the NOC from the fire department, but this building did not have an NOC," said Deepak Makhija, the Bharuch regional fire officer.

Meanwhile, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has expressed condolences and announced Rs 4 lakh ex-gratia to the kin of the deceased. The CM has also ordered an inquiry into the incident.

"I express my condolences to those who lost their lives in the fire at Bharuch Hospital. The state government will provide assistance of Rs 4 lakh to the families of each of the victims of the accident," Rupani said.

The CM has appointed two IAS officials, the labour and employment department, Additional Chief Secretary ACS Vipul Mitra and Commissioner Municipalities Administration, RajKumar Beniwal to probe the incident. Both the officials have been immediately sent to the place.

The CM said that the government is also thinking of appointing a judicial probe into the incident.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Washington, May 1 : Amid protests from Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin, the US space agency has suspended work on the $2.9 billion lunar lander contract given to Elon Musk-owned SpaceX.

Blue Origin had filed a protest with the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) against NASA for awarding $2.9 billion contract to SpaceX for landing astronauts on the Moon by 2024.

The US space agency was expected to pick two lunar lander prototypes (including one of Blue Origin's) but funding cut from US Congress led the agency to select SpaceX over Blue Origin.

"Pursuant to the GAO protests, NASA instructed SpaceX that progress on the HLS contract has been suspended until GAO resolves all outstanding litigation related to this procurement," NASA spokeswoman Monica Witt said in a statement, reports The Verge.

The third company in the race, Dynetics, also protested NASA's decision to the GAO, which adjudicates bidding disputes.

SpaceX's award was a key "first step" in a broader programme to secure transportation to the Moon.

In a 175-page protest, Blue Origin accused NASA of misjudging several parts of its proposal for its lunar lander called Blue Moon.

"NASA has executed a flawed acquisition for the Human Landing System programme and moved the goalposts at the last minute," Blue Origin said in a statement.

Calling NASA's decision "high risk," the company said that the decision "eliminates opportunities for competition, significantly narrows the supply base, and not only delays, but also endangers America's return to the Moon. Because of that, we've filed a protest with the GAO".

Musk responded to Blue Origin's protest with a tweet: "Can't get it up (to orbit) lol".

The contract is part of NASA's Artemis programme, which aims to return astronauts to the moon by 2024 as a stepping stone to the first human mission to Mars.

Four astronauts aboard the SpaceX's Crew Dragon-2 arrived at the International Space Station this week for a six-month mission.
New Delhi, May 1 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday expressed condolences over the loss of lives due to fire at a hospital in Bharuch in which at least sixteen Covid-19 patients and two nurses were killed.

In a tweet, the Prime Minister said: "Pained by the loss of lives due to a fire at a hospital in Bharuch. Condolences to the bereaved families." It was a Welfare Hospital in Bharuch district where the fire broke out at around 1 a.m. on Saturday at its ICU ward. Fire department officials believed that a short circuit might have led to the blaze when the patients were sleeping. After noticing the fire, the hospital staff tried to rescue the patients who were on ventilators.

Locals broke the glass windows and rescued the other patients. Sources said there were around 27 patients in the ICU ward at the time of the fire. They were shifted to nearby private hospitals.

Fire tenders, too, reached immediately and controlled the blaze within half-an-hour.

Chief minister Vijay Rupani appointed two senior bureaucrats - Additional Chief Secretary (labour and employment) Vipul Mittra and Commissioner (municipalities) Rajkumar Beniwal - to rush to Bharuch for an inquiry. Rupani said a judicial probe would also be initiated.

An ex-gratia aid of Rs 4 lakh would be given to each of the next of kin of the victims from the Chief Minister's Relief Fund, Rupani said, while expressing grief over the incident.
Chennai, May 1 : The electoral fate of 3,998 candidates who fought in the April 6 Tamil Nadu assembly polls will be known on Sunday, the May 2.

While it will be the celebration day for the 234-successful candidates and also for the winning political party/combination, one can also hear Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! cries from some others.

As per the Election Commission of India, 72.81 per cent of the 6.29 crore voters have cast their votes in the poll.

Apart from the Assembly election results, the bypoll results for the Kanniyakumari Lok Sabha constituency will also be known on Sunday.

The bypoll was fought majorly between former Union Minister and BJP's Pon Radhakrishnan and Congress candidate Vijay Vasanth, son of late MP H. Vasanth Kumar.

Be that as it may, the assembly poll results will be crucial for the ruling AIADMK government led by Chief Minister K. Palaniswami and the principal opposition party DMK led by M.K. Stalin.

While the pre-poll opinion survey and the exit polls predicted a large win for the 10 year power starved DMK, the electronic voting machines (EVM) on Sunday will spew out the secret.

While counting would begin at 8 a.m., by noon the trend will be known as to who would storm the Fort St. George, the seat of power in Tamil Nadu.

Counting of votes will be at 75 centres in the state with the deployment of state police and central para military forces for security.

Vote counting will be videographed.

With the spread of coronavirus, counting agents and others will be allowed into the counting centres on the production of Covid-19 negative test report or should have been vaccinated twice.

The assembly poll saw a five cornered contest though the main contest was between the ruling AIADMK-led alliance and the DMK-led front.

The others were actor-turned-politicians Kamal Haasan's Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) alliance, the alliance led by Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) floated by T.T.V. Dhinakaran and movie director Seeman's Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK).

The ruling AIADMK fought in 179 seats and six other small parties each contesting in one seat under the former's Two Leaves symbol.

The others in the AIADMK alliance are the BJP (contested in 20 seats) and PMK (23), TMC (6).

The DMK contested in 173 seats while alliance parties Congress (25), CPI, CPI-M, MDMK and VCK in six seats each, IUML, KMDK (3 each), MMK (2), All India Forward Bloc, Makkal Viduthalai Katchi, Athi Thamizhar Peravai and Tamizhaga Vazhuvurimai Katchi each contesting in one seat.

A total of 187 candidates -- DMK's own and that of alliance parties -- contested under the former's Rising Sun symbol.

The MNM allied with actor Sarathkumar's AISMK and IJK while Dhinakaran's AMMK allied with the DMDK, AIMIM and others.

The Seeman-led NTK went alone contesting in all the 234 constituencies and fielding 50 per cent women candidates.

The other parties in the fray on their own are the Bahujan Samaj Party (contesting in 160 seats), Puthiya Tamizhagam (60 seats) and Republican Party of India (16 seats).

Notable candidates in the polls and the constituencies are: Palaniswami, Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam (Bodinayakkanur), Stalin (Kolathur), his son Udhayanidhi Stalin (Chepauk-Tiruvallikeni), DMDK Treasurer and Vijayakant's wife Premalatha (Vridhachalam) MNM founder Kamal Haasan (Coimbatore South), TN BJP President L. Murugan (Dharapuram), actor Khushbu Sundar (Thousand Lights), TN BJP Vice President K.Annamalai, PMK's G.K.Mani (Pennagaram) and Seeman (Tiruvottriyur).

In the neighbouring Puducherry, Union Territory having just over 10 lakh voters, the fight for the 30-member Assembly was majorly between the Congress led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) consisting of Congress, DMK, CPI, VCK and an Independent and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) comprising of All India N.R. Congress, BJP and AIADMK.

The voter turnout was 81.69 per cent.

The exit polls have predicted a victory for NDA.
Toronto, May 1 : Ontario, Canada's worst-hit province which is battling the third wave of the coronavirus, has sought a ban on the arrival of international students.

Currently, students from India make up the majority of international students studying in Ontario.

Making this announcement on Friday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said that since 94 per cent of all new cases in Ontario are of new variant of the virus and are coming from outside, he would urge the federal government to ban the arrival of International students into the province to check the spread of the virus.

The Premier said, "Not enough is being done to keep these deadly variants out of Canada. Last week, the new Indian variant was reported here in Ontario. It didn't swim here I can tell you that." Responding to the Ontario Premier's request, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that his government would do everything to stop the spread of the virus.

Trudeau said, "Premier Ford has asked that we should suspend the arrival of international students and because at this time Ontario is the only province making this request, we are happy to work narrowly with them." Canada banned all direct flights from India for one month earlier this week, after Health Canada statistics showed that many passengers from India were testing positive for the virus.

There were 219,855 Indian students in Canada last year, making up about a third of all 642,480 foreign students. The majority of them study in institutions in Ontario.
Hyderabad, May 1 : Covid vaccine shortage has forced health authorities in Telangana to stop vaccination programme on Saturday and Sunday.

On a day when phase 3 of Covid immunization for those between 18-44 years was scheduled for a roll out across the country, Telangana had to stop vaccination even for those above 45 years.

Director of public health and family welfare Dr G. Srinivas Rao announced that there will be no Covid vaccination programme on May 1 and May 2 in the Government Covid Vaccination Centres (GCVCs) across the state, due to non-receipt of vaccine doses.

This is the second time that Telangana has been forced to stop vaccination due to shortage of vaccine. Earlier, the programme was put on hold for a day on April 18.

The state government on Friday stopped supply of Covid vaccines to all private hospitals, who were administering vaccines to individuals above 45 years.

The health department asked the managements of private hospitals to return unused vials of Covid vaccines, if any.

Officials said this has been done in line with the guidelines from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Liberalised Pricing and Accelerated National Covid-19 Vaccination Strategy.

The private hospitals will now have to procure Covid vaccine doses directly from vaccine manufacturers.

Meanwhile, the health officials said due to vaccine shortage the rollout of third phase of vaccination may be delayed further.

The state has a population of 1.72 crore in 18-44 age group and it needs nearly 3.6 crore doses of vaccine to complete the programme. The officials say Telangana has daily vaccination capacity of 10 lakh people but lack of sufficient supplies from the Centre is hindering the vaccination.

Telangana government has already announced free vaccination for all the people. However, there is still no clarity as to how the state plans to achieve this.

The department has drawn plans to vaccinate 6.6 lakh people daily through 5,000 centres under the third phase of vaccination but this will depend on supplies.

The state government has been demanding the Centre to ensure sufficient and uninterrupted supplies of vaccine doses for smooth implementation of the programme.

Health minister Eatala Rajender said two day ago that the Centre should have planned production and supplies or allowed states to import vaccines from other countries.

He said if Telangana had got the required doses, vaccination of the entire 3.3 crore beneficiaries in the state could have been completed within three months.

"We are now in discussions with Bharat Biotech and Dr Reddy's Laboratories for vaccine supplies," he said.

Telangana state so far received 49 lakh doses from the Centre with the latest stock of 3.5 lakh received on April 29.

On April 30, the authorities administered 1,65,069 doses including 27,765 second dose. With this state has so far given 48,82,830 doses to healthcare workers, frontline workers and priority age group of above 45 years.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Thiruvananthapuram, May 1 : When all are interested in knowing who will rule Kerala for the next five years and will be closely following the counting of votes that begins at 8 a.m. on Sunday, one result and the progress in counting will be observed by all with a heavy heart and that is at the Nilambur assembly constituency in Malappuram district.

The reason, why it's going to be like that is V.V. Prakash, hugely popular Malappuram district Congress Committee president and the party candidate from the Nilambur assembly constituency, passed away after he suffered a cardiac arrest in the wee hours of Thursday.

The 56-year-old Prakash, according to many of the exit polls conducted, reveal that he is likely to win and if that be the case, it could be even heart breaking for all.

"He left without waiting to know the result," continues to be the general response from all.

Incidentally if the sitting legislator P.V. Anwar of the Left is going to be re-elected, then there will be no re-election and should Prakash win, then it will be the first constituency where a by-election will be held, after the 15th Kerala Legislative Assembly will be formed.

Two time former Congress Chief Minister Oommen Chandy who returned to his home here, last night after attending the funeral of Prakash said, he is still to come to terms with the passing away of Prakash.

Incidentally in the 1996 assembly polls a similar incident took place when P.K. Sreenivasan of the CPI passed away a day before the counting.

When votes were counted, he won the polls and in the by-election his son P.S. Supal won the election.
New Delhi, May 1: Pakistan is not happy with the Taliban. A report by prominent Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir published in The News, a daily newspaper, says that Pakistani security officials have approached the Afghan Taliban leadership in Doha and made it very clear to them that their refusal to participate in the Istanbul Conference was a big blow to the Afghan Peace Process and if they do not show some flexibility they will have to face the consequences.

"Enough is enough" message has been given to the Talibani leadership and the same message was conveyed to the Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani by the Pakistani delegation last week in Kabul.

According to Pakistani sources, the news has emanated from an "off the record" briefing by Pakistan's army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa at an "Iftar" party hosted by him for a bunch of "trusted" media persons at the military headquarters in Rawalpindi. Bajwa shared a lot of "information" with them but asked the journalists not to attribute the news to army sources.

The report says that the Taliban thinks that India started engaging with Pakistan recently just because India does not want Islamabad to object to its new role in Afghanistan.

This information was "leaked" by the Pakistani army chief Bajwa at a time when a lot of key changes are taking place in Afghanistan, which have crucial bearing on Pakistan's national security and strategic interests in the long run.

Bajwa is worried because he does not trust the Taliban and he would not like them moving closer to India. Pakistani security agencies found some links between Afghan Taliban and groups related to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), "They are two faces of the same coin." The PTT is staunchly opposed to the Pakistani establishment.

The India factor Bajwa saw the ground situation changing last year when US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad said that India should discuss its concerns on terrorism directly with the Taliban. The US envoy had discussed how India could play a "more active role" in the Afghan reconciliation process during his talks in Delhi.

Khalilzad told Indian media that it is for India to decide its role, but engagement between India and all the key players in Afghanistan, not only in terms of the government but also in terms of political forces, society and the Afghan body politic, is appropriate given India's regional and global position. India is an important force in Afghanistan and it would be appropriate for the India-Taliban engagement to take place.

This was followed by a Taliban statement saying the group would like to have a positive relationship with India and welcomed New Delhi's cooperation in Afghanistan.

The Taliban also said that it does not support Pakistan's 'holy war' against India and that Kashmir was India's internal matter.

Taliban's spokesperson Mohammad Suhail Shaheen told an Indian audience through a webinar speech last year in April, that the group wants to build ties with India and even was willing to enact a law against foreign terror groups conducting operations against any other country.

"Linking the issue of Kashmir with that of Afghanistan by some parties will not aid in improving the crisis at hand because the issue of Afghanistan is not related.

Pakistan's military establishment feels that Taliban may be looking for an opportunity to break away from Pakistan stranglehold to chart out an independent path by taking on board all sections of Afghan society for a futuristic settlement to the Afghan problem.

The current Taliban leadership is known to be based in Doha. Mullah Baradar, the Taliban chief negotiator in Qatar was held by Pakistan for close to 10 years. Similarly, many other senior leaders would want to break free. In the past Taliban leaders have shown an inclination to chalk out an independent path without the baggage of Pakistani patronage leading to factional fights.

While some experts believe that Taliban wants to change its image which has been that of a pawn of Pakistan, others believe that it is merely a ploy by the Taliban to project a better image.

Afghanistan was the focus at the Heart of Asia Conference held in Tajikistan on 30 March and India was represented by the External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said, "India has been supportive of all the efforts being made to accelerate the dialogue between the Afghan government and the Taliban, including intra-Afghan negotiations". He also declared India's support for a regional process to be convened under the aegis of the United Nations.

According to experts, India wants to safeguard its interests and investments in Afghanistan which run into billions. This calls for good relations with the upcoming leadership in Kabul, irrespective of who rules. This would also help to avert any future threats from its economic and political foes, both Islamabad and Beijing.

India's soft power is likely to have some influence over the Afghan government. If the Taliban comes to power, it may consider a positive political approach to New Delhi as India can play an important role in the development of Afghanistan.

(This content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)
U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken has welcomed the resumption of relations between Morocco and Israel and outlined that the Morocco-Israel relationship will bring long-term benefits for both countries.

The Secretary welcomed Moroccos steps to improve relations with Israel and noted the Morocco-Israel relationship will bring long-term benefits for both countries, said the State Department in a readout of the phone call Antony Blinken had Friday with Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita.

The resumption of ties between Morocco and Israel was part of a deal under which the US recognized Moroccos sovereignty over the Sahara and voiced support for its autonomy plan.

The recognition came in a presidential declaration with an immediate legal effect as of December 10, 2020. Since then, the Sahara is considered by Washington as part and parcel of Moroccos territory.

The US Secretary of State also highlighted the far-reaching reforms undertaken in Morocco under the leadership of King Mohammed VI.

The Secretary and the Minister discussed King Mohammed VIs far-reaching reforms over the past two decades, and the Secretary encouraged Morocco to continue implementing these reforms, the Spokesperson for the State Department Ned Price said in the statement.

Blinken commended the Kings leadership in combating climate change and investing in renewable energy and encouraged Morocco to help promote green economic growth and development in Africa.

They two parties discussed opportunities to increase cooperation in Africa to promote economic prosperity and stability and the Secretary highlighted Moroccos key role in fostering stability in the Sahel and Libya, the spokesperson added.

The U.S. Secretary of State noted, on this occasion, the longstanding and mutually beneficial bilateral relationship founded on shared values and interests in regional peace, security, and prosperity.

The two officials also noted that this year marks the two hundredth anniversary of the gift of the American Legation building in Tangier to the American people by Sultan Moulay Suliman, an example of the longstanding strategic partnership that both countries plan to showcase throughout the year.
The Embassy of the Russian Federation in Turkmenistan unveiled a monument to Yuri Gagarin in Ashgabat in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the first manned flight into space.

The monument was erected in the territory of the Russian House (Rossotrudnichestvo), functioning as the Department of Education, Science and Culture of the Russian Embassy in Ashgabat.

Speaking at the unveiling ceremony, Russian Ambassador Alexander Blokhin noted the relevance of erecting the monument to Gagarin in Ashgabat, stressing that Turkmenistan was as much part of the first manned flight into space as Russia and other republics of the former USSR.

The Russian Ambassador also expressed gratitude to the international charitable public foundation Dialogue of Cultures - United World for donating Gagarins bust, the Russian construction company Vozrozhdenie for installation of the monument, as well as representatives of a number of departments of Turkmenistan.

 TURKMENISTAN.RU, 2021
Mumbai, May 1 : Actor Pavail Gulati is very worried about how animals are managing at a time the country battles the deadly second wave of Covid. He said he has been feeding strays and also trying to supply food to feeders.

"I am not so worried about pets as much as I am worried about all the strays and homeless animals. As lockdown began, my thoughts turned to them. I have been feeding cats and dogs locally and also provide food and other resources to feeders who love animals. I am trying to do my bit as much as I can," he told IANS.

He added: "I am making sure that I do everything so that no animal sleeps hungry at night!" The actor said that he has heard stories of people abandoning pets during times as these, and urged people not to do so.

"I haven't witnessed it myself but have heard stories about it happening. There was so much miscommunication around it that people did not know what to do with their pets. I feel just making them aware that dogs and cats only spread love is very important," he said, adding that he has a plan in mind to help these animals, too.

"I have been working on something with a couple of friends of mine about a long-term plan. As for now, we should just be empathetic towards all the animals," he said.

The actor said that it feels great to see that social media is being used for such a cause as amplifying requests and needs of Covid-affected families.

"It breaks my heart to see the losses we are facing every day. (I have) Huge respect for all our doctors and frontline workers who are working determinedly to fight Covid-19. Also, it fills my heart with immense love and respect for every common man, influencer, actor who is making the correct use of social media to help the one in need. While social media can be a toxic place the same medium is working as an SOS tool for many. I would urge all to come forward in any way possible as even the smallest contribution has a huge impact," he said.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
New Delhi, May 1 : Amid exponential rise in Covid-19 cases, India on Saturday started the third phase of vaccination drive covering those above the age of 18 years.

However, the exercise began mainly in six states-- Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Odisha. All other states and Union Territories (UTs) have either deferred vaccination for the age group of 18-44 by a few days due to shortage of vaccine.

Even in these six states, the drive is "token", limited to just a few districts.

The Centre has dubbed the drive as the Liberalised and Accelerated Phase-3 strategy of Covid-19 vaccination for which registration for the new eligible population groups commenced on April 28. Potential beneficiaries can either register directly on CoWIN portal (cowin.gov.in) or through the Aarogya Setu app.

The exercise began at a time when many states are reporting shortage of vaccines on contrary to the Centre's report available till 8 a.m. on Saturday which has claimed that more than 79 lakh Covid vaccine doses (79,13,518) are still available with the states and Union Territories (UTs) to be administered.

The Centre has so far claimed to have provided nearly 16.37 crore vaccine doses (16,37,62,300) to states and UTs "free of cost" of which the total consumption including wastages is 15,58,48,782 doses.

Furthermore, the Centre has promised to provide more than 17 lakh (17,31,110) vaccine doses to the states and UTs within the next three days.

Amid deadly Covid-19 second wave surge, the Centre had said that all Indian adults will be eligible to receive the Covid-19 vaccine starting May 1. The inoculation process and documents to be provided to get the jab to remain the same.

It is to be noted that the government has made it mandatory for the 18-44 age group to register themselves on the CoWIN portal and get an appointment for vaccination against coronavirus, saying walk-ins will not be allowed initially to avoid "chaos" at immunisation centres once the inoculations drive opens up substantially.

Though vaccines are to be available for all adults below 45 from Saturday, as per the Centre's new policy, this is contingent on states-- and not the Centre-- making them available to citizens. The Centre will continue to provide vaccines to states and vaccinate, for free, those over 45.

States on the other hand have to negotiate with vaccine companies the price at which they will buy vaccines. This again will be from the 50 per cent of the vaccines that are made and cleared by the Central Drug Research Laboratory, Kasauli. The remaining will continue to go to the Centre for its programme.

So far, Delhi, Kerala and Tamil Nadu have said they have ordered batches of Covaxin and Covishield. Close to 20 States have said they will be offering the vaccine free to their residents.

Though vaccines for those below 45 can only be availed at private Covid-19 centres on payment, states and UTs can decide to vaccinate those below 45 from their quotas negotiated with companies by setting minimum age eligibility criteria.

India has so far administered 15,49,89,635 doses since January 16 when the world's largest inoculation exercise started.

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Ulan Bator, May 1 : Mongolia reported 1,306 new locally transmitted Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking its nationwide tally to 37,285, the country's National Center for Communicable Diseases (NCCD) said on Saturday.

Meanwhile, 1,039 patients have recovered from the disease, raising the total to 20,681, the NCCD said in a statement.

The disease has so far claimed 124 lives in Mongolia after six more deaths were reported over the past 24 hours, the Xinhua news agency reported.

The Asian country launched a national vaccination campaign in late February, with the aim of vaccinating at least 60 per cent of its 3.3 million population. Over 845,600 people have been vaccinated against the virus in Mongolia so far.

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Hyderabad, May 1 : Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday said development could be possible due to the hard work put in by the working class and the human progress was made from the hands of those toiled hard.

He greeted workers, farmers and other working-class people on the occasion of May Day.

KCR, as the Chief Minister is popularly known, said in his message that a vast majority of people are dependent on the agriculture based vocations and large percent of people are eking out a living by working in several factories and industries. He said as farmers, farm labourers, hereditary profession workers, majority of people are contributing the development and progress of the state and country by their sheer labour.

The Telangana state government, taking inspiration from May Day, is working for the welfare and development of these communities relentlessly. Several schemes and programmes launched for the welfare of these classes are helping the communities and strengthening the rural economy and they become role model for others in the country, KCR said.

He claimed that the innovative industrial policy of the state government is helping lakhs of workers, unemployed besides creating wealth for the state.

According to the government, the Social Security Act is being implemented to the last letter and spirit in the state. The Abolition of Child Labour Act is also effectively implemented in the state. Several welfare programmes are launched for the workers in the RTC, GHMC, Fisheries, and Handloom and Construction sectors. Awards and rewards are instituted to encourage the workers. Workers are given a top priority in several welfare schemes as beneficiaries.

RTC workers' salaries are increased and age of retirement hiked. The GHMC workers are given fixed working hours and their medical and health problems are taken care. Workers from the toddy tappers, Nayi Brahmin, and Golla Kuruma, washermen communities are also covered under welfare schemes. Workers in the construction sector are governed under Building and other Construction Workers Board and many welfare programmes launched through the Board, it added.
Shimla, May 1 : Vegetable growers in Himachal Pradesh are sowing crops but reaping despair.

Last year it was nationwide lockdown owing to the coronavirus pandemic. This time drought has left them high and dry.

"Owing to scanty rainfall from January to end of March, crops have been severely hit in the entire area," Nasib Singh Thakur, a marginal vegetable grower in Kandaghat tehsil in Solan district, told IANS.

He said almost 60 per cent of the crops in Rabi season like peas, cabbage, capsicum, beans, cauliflower and cucumber are damaged due to long spells of drought from December onwards.

"In this season during last year we had left so much food on farms to just rot in the fields owing to the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown (March 25, 2020). This time hostile weather took a heavy toll on the crops," another vegetable grower C.D. Verma of Jubbarhatti village, on the outskirts of the state capital, told IANS.

"On normal occasions, we used to harvest peas in this season of Rs 60,000. This time we earned around Rs 20,000 from them," he added.

Vegetable production is generating revenue of Rs 3,500-4,000 crore annually and has emerged as an alternate economic activity in the agriculture sector.

The returns of off-season vegetable cultivation are very high compared to traditional food crops.

As per government estimates, cultivating off-season vegetables gives a net return from Rs 60,000 to Rs 200,000 per hectare, whereas the traditional crops fetch Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 per hectare only.

Officials with the state Agriculture Department said 146,508 hectares of the 413,134 hectares cropped area have been hit due to less rainfall between January and mid of April with an estimated loss of Rs 10,820.57 lakh.

As per the preliminary survey, the highest loss has been reported in Bilaspur district where 20,280 hectares of the total cropped area of 28,020 hectares was affected resulting in loss of Rs 3,259.37 lakh.

The second worst affected district is Chamba where 3,571 hectares has been hit due to the scanty rainfall.

Chief Secretary Anil Khachi said water supply schemes of the Jal Shakti Vibhag, previously known as Irrigation and Public Health Department, had also been hit due to short rainfall.

Out of the total 9,526 schemes in the state, 401 have been hit up to 25 per cent, 197 between 25 to 50 per cent, 87 between 50 to 75 per cent and 28 schemes more than 75 per cent.

Amid the second wave of coronavirus pandemic the farmers are in despair again about their crop due to ongoing travel restrictions almost across the country.

Potato is one of the major cash crops grown in the lower and mid-hills of the state. Una district alone harvests potatoes in nearly 900 hectares, besides cultivating wheat on 29,000 hectares. Its harvesting has just begun in some pockets.

"The crop this time is less compared to the previous year but the government should have to facilitate the farmers marketing of potatoes in neighbouring states of Punjab, Chandigarh, Haryana and Delhi, where curfew-like situation is currently prevailing. Otherwise, most of the potatoes remain unsold," said Harpreet Gill, a grower on the outskirts of Una town.

Last year Una district saw the production of over 13,000 tonnes, a bumper for the second consecutive time.

About 81 per cent of the total cultivated area in Himachal Pradesh is rain-fed.

Manmohan Singh, Director of the regional meteorological department, told IANS the deficiency of precipitation in the state between January and March was more than 60 per cent. However, in April was more than normal.

However, the last week of April saw damage to crops due to unseasonal snow, hailstorms and rain.

Acting swiftly, the Chief Secretary directed the Horticulture and Agriculture Departments to prepare and submit a detailed analysis report of crop loss assessment and submit it to insurance companies.

The saving grace amidst the pandemic is that state's major harvesting of vegetables is the Kharif season that starts from August-mid and lasts till November-end.

(Vishal Gulati can be reached at vishal.g@ians.in)
Ankara, May 1 : Turkish social media account Clash Report recently posted a summary of the genocide history of the US on its twitter account, which has triggered discussions among netizens.

In a timeline format, the summary posted on Wednesday listed out more than 20 events and descriptions about the genocide history, the Xinhua news agency reported.

In the US genocide against Native Americans, "70 million Native Americans were slaughtered in their own land," it said.

It also included the Vietnam War, the coup in Iran in 1953, and the Iraq War. In the Vietnam War, for example, "the US massacred 3 million Vietnamese civilians by using Agent Orange, a powerful herbicide," it said.
Hyderabad, May 1 : Vigilance and Enforcement officials in Telangana on Saturday began probe into allegations against Health Minister Eatala Rajender that he encroached the lands of farmers in Medak district.

A day after Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao ordered the probe, the investigating officials descended on Achampet and Hakimpet villages to survey the land of Jamuna Hatcheries belonging to the minister and surrounding assigned lands of farmers.

They formed teams to conduct digital survey of the lands, gather details from the victims and to check the land records.

Six teams of officials led by Ram Prakash, Revenue Divisional Officer of Toopran were conducting the land survey.

Medak district collector Harish also visited the villages. He told reporters that the preliminary inquiry shows that assigned lands were encroached but they were now conducting a detailed investigation including survey of 117 acres of land.

Large number of police personnel were deployed in the villages and also at the minister's farm house to prevent any untoward incident.

The Chief Minister on Friday ordered inquiry into the allegations against his cabinet colleagues, hours after the victims called on the Chief Minister to lodge their complaint.

The Chief Minister instructed Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar to get an inquiry done by the district collector on the complaints of encroachment of lands.

He also instructed Vigilance DGP Purnachandra Rao to find out the truth on the allegations.

The Chief Minister ordered the probe after some farmers in Medak district submitted a complaint to the chief minister alleging that the Health Minister forcibly took over 100 acres of their assigned lands to start a poultry industry.

Eight villagers from Achampet and Hakimpet villages alleged that the minister and his followers had taken over their lands to start a poultry industry. They sought intervention by the Chief Minister and appealed to him to ensure that the assigned lands given to them by the government be restored to them immediately.

A couple of hours after the Chief Minister ordered the probe, the Health Minister addressed a news conference to deny the allegations and claimed that a campaign was being run for his character assassination.

Rajender said he was ready to face a probe even by a sitting judge or the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

He claimed that he had approached the Chief Minister, seeking land for expansion of a hatchery set up by his son and an official in the Chief Minister's Office suggested that since the surrounding lands are assigned lands the same can be allotted for the hatchery if the farmers surrender the land to the government.

The minister said 20-25 acre land was surrendered by the assignees to revenue officials and the land was still in the possession of authorities.

Rajender said his family had been running poultry business for over three decades with honesty and never indulged in any wrongdoing. He also remarked that no post is important for him than his self-respect.
Mumbai, May 1 : As India grapples with an unprecedented new wave of the Covid Pandemic, Reliance Industries has scaled up production of medical grade liquid oxygen, becoming country's largest producer of this life-saving resource from a single location in just over a year's time.

Traditionally, Reliance is not a manufacturer of medical grade liquid oxygen. Yet, starting from Nil before the pandemic, the company is its largest producer in the country from a single location. At its refinery-cum-petrochemical complex in Jamnagar and other facilities, RIL now produces over 1000 MT per day - or 11 per cent of India's total production - meeting the needs of nearly every one in ten patients.

A company statement said that under personal supervision of Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, at Jamnagar, Reliance has adopted a two-pronged approach to strengthen the availability of medical oxygen in India: the company is refocusing several industrial processes at Reliance's Jamnagar and other facilities for rapid scale-up in production of medical grade liquid oxygen. Also, RIL is augmenting loading and transportation capacities to ensure its swift and safe supplies to states.

Commenting on the initiatives, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Limited, said: "For me and for all of us at Reliance, nothing is more important than saving every life as India battles against a new wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is an immediate need to maximise India's production and transportation capacities for medical grade oxygen." "I am proud of our engineers at Jamnagar who have worked tirelessly, with a great sense of patriotic urgency, to meet this new challenge. I am truly humbled by the determination and sense of purpose shown by the bright, young members of the Reliance family who have once again risen to the occasion and delivered when India needs it the most." Nita Ambani, Founder-Chairperson of Reliance Foundation, said: "Our country is going through an unprecedented crisis. We at Reliance Foundation will continue to do everything we can to help. Every life is precious. Our plants at Jamnagar refinery have been repurposed overnight to produce medical grade liquid oxygen that is being distributed across India. Our thoughts and prayers are with our fellow countrymen and women. Together, we will overcome these difficult times." Prior to this pandemic, Reliance was not a manufacturer of medical grade liquid oxygen. However, RIL engineers quickly reconfigured and optimised current operations - designed for Refining and Petrochemicals grade oxygen - to produce high-purity medical oxygen.

Medical grade liquid oxygen has to be produced in liquid form at - (minus) 183 degree C with almost 99.5 per cent purity, which poses extraordinary challenges and risks in production and maximising tonnage. RIL through process optimisation and modifications of Cryogenic Air Separation Units, was able to maximise production of medical grade liquid oxygen in a very short span of time.

This oxygen is being provided free-of-cost to several State Governments across the country to bring immediate relief to over 1 lakh patients on a daily basis. Since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, Reliance has supplied over 55,000 MT of medical grade liquid oxygen across the country.

The company also converted nitrogen tankers into transport trucks for medical grade oxygen, through innovative and safe processes to address the problem of transportation. Reliance organised the airlifting of 24 ISO containers into India from Saudi Arabia, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands and Thailand adding 500 MT of new transportation capacity for liquid Oxygen. These ISO containers will help in removing the transport constraints for Oxygen in the country. In addition, Reliance is airfreighting more ISO containers over the next few days.

We would like to offer our sincere thanks to Aramco, BP and IAF for their immense help in providing and transporting ISO containers to help the country in its battle against Covid, a company statement said.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Sitapur : , May 1 (IANS) Jailed Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan and his son Abdullah Azam Khan have tested positive for Covid-19. The RT-PCR reports of 13 inmates, including Azam Khan, lodged in Sitapur jail, have come out positive for the infection.

Jail Superintendent R.S. Yadav said Rampur MP Azam Khan and his son Abdullah Azam Khan have been found to be infected with Covid-19 in a report released by the state health department on Friday night. Of the 13 inmates, 12 have been moved to a separate precinct.

According to the jail administration, Azam Khan had observed 14 'fasts' (roza) after which he complained of having contracted the infection. After investigation, he is undergoing treatment for Covid-19.

The prison doctor is examining all the jail inmates, including Azam Khan. The health department has been asked to investigate the other inmates. As soon as the health team arrives, Covid tests of more than 50 prisoners will be done.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
New Delhi, May 1 : Country's largest steel maker Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) is planning to set up jumbo medical facilities of about 2,500 beds with gaseous oxygen (GOX) for Covid treatment.

This will be in addition to the facilities currently available at SAIL's five integrated steel plants at Bhilai (Chattisgarh), Bokaro (Jharkhand), Rourkela (Odisha), Durgapur and Burnpur (West Bengal).

These jumbo facilities are being planned outside the existing hospital facilities and shall have oxygen support through a dedicated gas line drawn directly from the steel plants instead of extracting gaseous oxygen from liquid medical oxygen as is being done in the own hospitals of SAIL currently.

At the suggestion of the government, SAIL shall use gaseous oxygen directly as an additional source of oxygen as the demand for liquid medical oxygen is high currently, the company said in a statement.

These 2,500 bed facility will be developed in phased manner in collaboration with the respective state governments. In the first phase, the company will set up about 700 beds which will be scaled up to 2,500 beds across all the five locations.

Currently, there are around 3,000 beds in the five SAIL hospitals and about 45 per cent of beds have been earmarked for Covid patients.

The company remains committed to stand by the nation in fighting against the corona pandemic in every possible way, the SAIL statement added.
New Delhi, May 1 (UNI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday greeted the people of Gujarat and Maharashtra on their statehood day and wished them more strength to fight Covid-19 successfully.

Taking to Twitter, he said, 'Today, Gujarat and Maharashtra mark their Statehood Days. Both states are home to outstanding people, who have made landmark contributions to national growth. May these states fight COVID-19 successfully and may the people of these states be blessed with good health.'

On May 1, 1960, the former state of Bombay was divided on a linguistic basis and states of Maharashtra and Gujarat was formed.

UNI SB RHK1058
Gandhinagar, May 1 : At least 17 Covid-19 patients and two from medical staff have died after fire broke out in the Bharuch designated Covid hospital on Saturday morning. Over 50-60 patients were admitted in the Patel Welfare Hospital when the fire broke out in the ICU ward at midnight. The fire officers have said that the hospital did not have an NOC for fire.

"A fire erupted around 12.30 midnight in one of the two ICU care units in the Patel Welfare hospital in Bharuch, a designated Covid hospital on the Jambusar highway bypass. Immediately, the police, the collector and fire fighters rushed to the spot and with combined efforts, the fire has been doused," said Rajendra Chudasama, the Superintendent of Police (SP), Bharuch.

"A total of 19 people have died due to the fire, including 17 Covid critical patients admitted in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU)'s unit 1. Prima facie, it appears that the fire might have been caused by a short circuit, but the investigation is going on," Chudasama told IANS.

The fire was controlled within an hour and around 50 patients were rescued and shifted to nearby hospitals according to sources.

It is learnt that the hospital building did not have a No Objection Certificate (NOC) mandatory to be obtained from the fire department. "The hospital's another building has got the NOC from the fire department, but this building did not have an NOC," said Deepak Makhija, the Bharuch regional fire officer.

Meanwhile, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has expressed condolences and announced Rs 4 lakh ex-gratia to the kin of the deceased. The CM has also ordered an inquiry into the incident.

"I express my condolences to those who lost their lives in the fire accident at Bharuch Hospital. The state government will provide assistance of Rs 4 lakh to the families of each of the victims of the accident," Rupani said.

The CM has appointed two IAS officials, the labour and employment department, Additional Chief Secretary ACS Vipul Mitra and Commissioner Municipalities Administration, RajKumar Beniwal to probe the incident. Both the officials have been immediately sent to the place.

The CM said that the government is also thinking of appointing a judicial probe into the incident.

The Jamalpur-Khadia legislator Imran Khedawala and Dariyapur legislator Gyasuddin Sheikh rushed to the hospital on learning of the tragedy.

"This is a very unfortunate thing that has happened in these tough Covid times, when such institutions are trying to save people from the pandemic. We request the government to carry out a thorough investigation into the incident and also disburse the compensation announced to the victim's families at the earliest," Khedawala said.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
New Delhi, May 1 : Chip-maker Qualcomm on Saturday pledged $4 million (over Rs 29.7 crore) to help India fight the deadly second Covid wave that has shattered its health-care system to its core.

The $4 million donation by the Qualcomm Charitable Foundation and Qualcomm India will be used toward providing critical hospital infrastructure, medical equipment and supplies, to support the medical fraternity in waging the battle.

"As a company, we have been actively planning how we can best provide relief to the communities in India through effective philanthropic action. We recognised that one of the key areas of strain on the system is the shortage of medical supplies and lifesaving equipment," the company said in a statement.

The pandemic has created an unprecedented global public health emergency, making it more crucial than ever for us to work together and to offer each other empathy, support and solidarity.

Qualcomm said that it will continue to offer support to its colleagues, partners, local government, and communities to help them get through this difficult time.

India witnessed highest spike of 4,01,999 fresh cases of Covid-19 and 3,523 fatalities due to coronavirus infection in the last 24 hours, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHF) said on Saturday.

It was the first time when India crossed four lakh figure of Covid cases in a day. For the last nine days, over three lakh Covid cases were being reported while over 3,000 casualties have been reported for the past four days.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Hyderabad, May 1 : Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has taken the Medical, Health and Family Welfare portfolio from Eatala Rajender after allegations that the latter grabbed lands of farmers in Medak district.

The Chief Minister will keep the portfolio with him. Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan approved the transfer of the portfolio from Rajender to the Chief Minister.

"On the advice of the Chief Minister of Telangana, the Governor has approved the transfer of the Medical, Health & Family Welfare portfolio from Eatala Rajender to the Chief Minister with immediate effect," said a press communique from Raj Bhavan on Saturday.

The development came a day after the chief minister ordered inquiry into allegation of land grabbing against his cabinet colleague.

The Chief Minister on Friday evening instructed Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar to get an inquiry done by the district collector on the complaints of encroachment of lands.

He also instructed Vigilance DGP Purnachandra Rao to find out the truth on the allegations.

Chandrasekhar Rao ordered the probe after some farmers in Medak district submitted a complaint to him alleging that the Health Minister forcibly took over 100 acres of their assigned lands to start a poultry industry.

Eight villagers from Achampet and Hakimpet villages alleged that the minister and his followers had taken over their lands to start a poultry industry. They sought intervention by the Chief Minister and appealed to him to ensure that the assigned lands given to them by the government be restored to them immediately.

A couple of hours after the Chief Minister ordered the probe, the Health Minister addressed a news conference to deny the allegations and claimed that a campaign was being run for his character assassination.

Rajender said he was ready to face a probe even by a sitting judge or the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Vigilance and Enforcement officials on Saturday began the probe into the allegations. Medak district collector said that preliminary investigations show the assigned lands were encroached.
Islamabad, May 1 : Amid surging coronavirus cases in Pakistan, the federal government on Saturday imposed a ban on Youm-e-Ali processions, while majalis will be permitted under strict SOPs which are already in place for Ramadan.

An important session on the conduct of Youm-e-Ali was held at the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), chaired by Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar. Minister for Interior Sheikh Rasheed, Minister for Religious Affairs Noor-ul-Haq Qadri and SAPM on Health Dr Faisal Sultan were also present, Geo TV reported.

The provincial secretaries and representatives of law enforcement agencies attended the session through video link.

"Keeping in view the risk factor due to the ongoing surge in Covid spread across the country and particularly in major urban centres, it was decided to ban all sort of processions while holding of Majalis has been permitted under strict Covid SOPs which are already in place for Ramazan ul Mubarik," read an NCOC statement.

The forum emphasised the need to engage religious scholars and community leaders at provincial and district levels for the implementation of these decisions.

Pakistan has seen record deaths in recent days from the coronavirus, and stricter restrictions on movement and gathering in public are planned for the upcoming Eid holiday.

Officials are worried the country's health care system, already under strain, could reach breaking point if more contagious variants of the virus begin to spread, as has happened in neighbouring India.

On Saturday, authorities reported 4,696 new confirmed Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours and 146 deaths from the disease.

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Gurugram, May 1 : At least 7 patients died allegedly due to shortage of Oxygen supply in Kriti Hospital of Gurugram, located in Sector-56, on Friday night.

Attendants of the deceased created ruckus inside the hospital premises. Some family members also staged protest outside the hospital.

Reportedly the deceaseds' families approached the police and with their intervention the lives of remaining Covid patients could be saved.

"We have received an information about the incident and a team of police station Sector-56 was rushed to the spot to pacify the aggrieved family members. The reason behind the deaths will be ascertained after an investigation. No complaint has been filed till now," Sub-Inspector Dalpat Singh, additional station house officer of Sector-56 police station told IANS.

"Around 20 Covid patients were admitted at the hospital. Around 8.00 p.m. on Friday the patients' conditions started deteriorating and the hospital management didn't inform us about the shortage of liquid oxygen. Also, doctors at the hospital fled from the spot. Those who were present at the hospital were complaining about vomiting and unconsciousness," a family member of a patient told mediapersons.

However, some other family members claimed that only after police was informed, oxygen cylinders and doctors could be arranged at the hospital.

"It was a gross negligence on the part of the hospital. Nearly 20 Covid patients were admitted at the hospital without oxygen backup. The doctors at the hospital did not disclose anything about oxygen shortage. Stern action should be initiated against the guilty," alleged another patient's family member.

Meanwhile, despite several call attempts and message, nobody from the hospital management was available for the comment.

Gurugram recorded 4,435 Covid-19 cases on Friday. At present, there are 36,693 active cases in the district, out of which 33,998 are in home isolation. The number of recovered soared to 85,765.

Meanwhile, 14 deaths due to Covid were reported on Friday, taking the district's fatality toll to 476.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
New Delhi, May 1 : Eight Covid-19 patients, including a doctor, died at Delhi's Batra Hospital on Saturday afternoon due to shortage of medical Oxygen at the facility.

This is the second time in a week that Batra Hospital has run out of medical Oxygen. On April 24, the hospital received a last-minute re-supply that arrived minutes after its oxygen reserves ran out.

The tragedy was reported around 12.45 p.m. at the Batra hospital in Delhi's Mehrauli area.

Among the deceased is the hospital's gastroenteritis head Dr R.K. Himthani,62. Six of the eight were admitted to the hospital's Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and two to the wards.

Around 12.30 p.m., the hospital claimed it had run out of liquid medical Oxygen supply. An oxygen tanker reached the hospital around 1.35 p.m.

Hospital officials told the Delhi High Court -- holding a 11th straight day of hearings into the city's oxygen crisis -- that re-supply tankers reached the hospital only at around 1.30 p.m, meaning that around 230 critically ill patients were without oxygen for around 80 minutes.

"We ran out of oxygen at 12.45 p.m. Supply came at 1.30. We were out of oxygen for 1 hour and 20 mins," the hospital told the court.

"We hope no lives were lost," the court responded, to which the hospital said: "We have... including one of our own... one doctor." The hospital has 327 patients out of which 48 are in the critical care unit. It has been raising alarms since Saturday afternoon over depleting levels of Oxygen supply.

In a video SOS posted earlier on Saturday, Dr Sudhanshu Bankata, Batra's Executive Director said: "We have just run out of oxygen... currently surviving on some cylinders. Over the next 10 minutes that will also run out. We are again in crisis mode. Delhi government is trying to help but their tanker is some distance away." Earlier this month, 20 people admitted in the critical care unit of Jaipur Golden hospital in Rohini died when Oxygen levels dropped. The hospital had, before the Delhi High Court, blamed the Delhi government for the delay in oxygen reaching them.
New Delhi, May 1 : A day ahead of counting in the UP Panchayat polls, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi has said more than 700 teachers lost their lives and what is happening in UP is a crime against humanity.

"What is happening in UP is nothing less than a crime against humanity and the CEO is playing along." She said over 700 teachers died in Uttar Pradesh during the polls, including a pregnant woman who was forced to attend polling duty for the Panchayat elections.

"These elections have been conducted in almost 60,000 gram sabhas of UP without any thought of the catastrophic onslaught of the second wave. Meetings were conducted, campaigning continued and the spread of COVID in UP's villages is now unstoppable. People are dying in numbers far, far above the deceitful official figures, "she added.

People are dying in homes across rural UP, and these deaths are not being counted as COVID because people aren't being tested, she said.

The government's actions are designed to cover up the truth and terrorise both the public and the medical community, which is working tirelessly to save lives.

The State Election Commission (SEC) has announced that action would be initiated under the Calamity Management Act, 2005, against anyone found violating the COVID safety norms during the counting of votes for panchayat elections on May 2.

The SEC also announced a complete ban on victory processions by the candidates and their supporters. It also made it mandatory for the candidates to submit the list of counting agents to the district electoral officers by Friday evening.

State Election Commissioner Manoj Kumar has issued a slew of directives that include negative RT-PCR or rapid antigen test report - conducted 48 hours before the counting - by the candidates or their representatives attending the counting.

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Alappuzha : , May 1 (IANS) A series of seven works by a participating artist in 'Lokame Tharavadu', a large scale contemporary art exhibition organised by the Kochi Biennale Foundation, revealed the role played by women in the historic Punnapra-Vayalar revolt, a movement predominantly of coir workers.

The art works are on display at Port Museum, Alappuzha, one of the venues of the art show curated by Bose Krishnamachari.

"When the martyred men were celebrated as immortal, the role of women who were widowed and had an equal stake in the process of the struggle was never properly acknowledged," said Bara Bhaskaran, an artist who loves to explore subaltern histories.

Coir exports began from Travancore in the latter half of the 19th century. They surged after the first decade of the 20th century and as per a census of 1941, the coir industry had 1,33,000 cottage workers, apart from 32,000 'coir workers'.

A bulk of these workers were women, who worked on low wages, as the world looked for cheaper floor coverings, said Bhaskaran.

Bullet-ridden trunks of coconut trees in Punnapra and Vayalar stand as both victims and silent witnesses to the tumultuous events of October 1946.

In the works of Bhaskaran, bright flowers sprout from bullet holes of uprooted coconut trees.

The Punnapra-Vayalar revolt, shaped by multiple factors including literacy and a labour movement in the region was a struggle met with force.

Pitched battles were fought in many places but the areca nut staves and choppers of workers were no match for the guns of the military and many lost their lives.

Though the agitation was primarily against the Dewan of Travancore and the ruler of the princely state, who did not want to join the Indian Union, workers had a prominent role in it.

"The series is an attempt to document a historical event and pay tribute to the spirit of workers," Bhaskaran said.

Bhaskaran has participated in several national and international exhibitions including the Kochi Muziris Biennale.
In Indian history, Guru Shri Tegh Bahadurs personality shines resplendent like a bright constellation. He was born in Amritsar to Guru Hargobindji and Nankiji on Krishna Panchami in the Baisakhi month. As per the Nanakshahi calendar, Guru Tegh Bahadurs 400th birth anniversary falls on May 1 this year.

Guru TeghBahadurji was born into a tradition that challenged Mughals of Central Asia that had occupied vast tracts of Indian territory. He is a symbol of tenacity, sacrifice and his life is a wonderful example of physical and mental valour.

In fact, Shri Tegh Bahadur's life stands out as one of the greatest experiments in character-building. By reining in one's negative instincts, even ordinary men can follow the path of dharma. Those who are trapped in the chakravyuha of blasphemy, avarice and pride cannot remain stable in crisis.

Whilst the behaviour of ordinary men changes in the midst of joy and sorrow, men of great attainment rise above these considerations. Guruji proclaimed that one should be beyond "praise and slander, look upon gold and iron alike" and not be "touched by pleasure or pain, greed, emotional attachment and egotistic pride" (Shlok Mahalla 9 - page 1426 onwards of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib).

In his teachings, Guruji exhorted, "One should neither frighten away anyone nor be scared of anyone". The greatest fear is the fear of death, that goads a person renounce his values and turn a coward. Guruji said, "I cannot forget the fear of dying, and this worry has torched my body".

Through his preachings and selfless work, Guruji sought to create a society in which one could walk the path of dharma, free from worry and fear. Guruji's life is perhaps the finest example of attaining the four purusharthas (goals of human existence) - dharma (righteousness), artha (wealth), kama (desire) and moksha (liberation).

He successfully demonstrated excellent human values in his family and the society whilst accomplishing the goals of artha and kama in his domestic life. He attained martyrdom for the cause of dharma. He envisions hope and trust even in the worst of crises. Guruji famously said, "I have regained my power, my bonds are broken and all options are open on to me." Guru TeghBahadurji's thoughts and actions had such an inspiring impact that they broke the bonds shackling the country and unlocked the path of liberation. His messages in the Braj language is a unique exposition of Bharatiya culture, philosophy and spirituality.

Guruji's abode, Anandpur Sahib, emerged as a centre of mass struggle against the injustice and atrocities of the Mughals. Aurangzeb wanted to make Hindustan Darul-Islam. Kashmir, an intellectual and spiritual centre, was his key target.

The people of Kashmir approached Guruji for guidance, following which he held a lengthy discussion. Situation everywhere was grave. How could the cruel Mughal ambitions be frustrated was the question.

There was only one route - a great man would have to martyr himself to protect his nation and the faiths of her people. Through this sacrifice, a tide of public consciousness would galvanize the nation and shake the walls of the foreign Mughal empire. Who would make this sacrifice? This quandary was resolved by Guruji's son, Shri Govind Rai, who asked his father if there was anyone who commanded more respect and stature than him.

Aurangzeb's army imprisoned Guruji along with his three disciples and brought them to Delhi, where they were subjected to inhuman torture and pressurised to convert to Islam. All kinds of alluring assurances were made. But, Guruji stood firm on the path of dharma. Angered by his defiance, the Mughals forced Guruji to watch as his disciples were tortured in Chandni Chowk - Bhai Mati Das was ripped with a saw, Bhai Diyala was drenched in boiling oil and Bhai Sati Das was tied and burnt in a heap of cotton.

The Mughal regime probably felt that he would be frightened by the treatment meted out to his disciples. Guruji knew that the very essence of dharma was to fight injustice and tyranny. As Guruji did not waver, the qazi ordered the executioner to behead him. This act of martyrdom led to a reawakening across the nation. On the martyrdom of his father, tenth guru Shri Govind Singh said, "He protected the tilak (mark on the forehead) and janevu (sacred thread). His martyrdom is a significant event of the Kali Yuga. For the sake of saints, he laid down his head without even a sigh." On a day when the whole country is celebrating Guruji's 400th birth anniversary, let us be reminded that the best way to honour his memory was to follow his path. Today, there is a scramble for enjoying material pleasures. Guruji, however, showed the path of renunciation and restraint.

Envy, malice, selfishness and discrimination are prevalent all around. But, the revered Guruji spoke about creativity, harmony and conquering disorders of the mind.

One of the lasting effects of his teachings was on the people he passed en route to Delhi, who refrain from cultivating tobacco till date. Fundamentalist forces are rising to gain dominance. But, Guruji showed the path of valour, selflessness and sacrifice. At a time when mankind is entering a new phase of change, the sacred memory of Guruji propels us to follow his path and build a new India that is rooted in its soil.

(Dattatreya Hosabale is the General Secretary of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh)
New Delhi, May 1 : As the company is currently facing manpower challenges, Medical syringe major Hindustan Syringes and Medical Devices Ltd (HMD) on Saturday said that it is hiring more people to meet the target of producing 1 billion syringes by June.

The company said that the manpower shortage is due to the second wave of Covid-19, ongoing Panchayat elections and harvesting season.

"We have currently extreme shortages of manpower. To reach our target of 100 crore syringes capacity, HMD needs to strengthen our team and employ 3,200 people but currently have on roll 2,700," Rajiv Nath, Managing Director, HMD, said in a statement.

"We are 500 people short to achieve our target of 100 crore pcs of auto-disable AD syringes by June this year," Nath added.

However, amid the shortage, the company managed to timely deliver 21.75 crore syringes by April end to the Government of India, as scheduled, to help the country in its third vaccination drive.

"We are in the process of immediate recruitment of 500 people to increase production at our factories in Faridabad industrial district in Haryana," Nath said.

"We are looking for hardworking sincere people from states like Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, UP and Rajasthan that are high school pass and fresher who we will train with requisite skills," he added.

While talking to IANS recently, Nath said that the company will invest over Rs 100 crore to ramp up its production capacity from 2.5 billion syringes to over 3 billion.

The company ships out 0.1 ml and 0.5 ml auto disposable Kojak syringes for global vaccination projects in the developing world, for yellow fever, measles, hepatitis B and others.

This is in addition to Covid-19 vaccination requirements of 0.3 ml for Pfizer's vaccines or 0.5 ml auto-disable Kojak for AstraZeneca/Serum Institute of India (SII) or Bharat Biotech vaccines.

With over 9 plants, the company has created a niche for their disposable syringe -- DISPOVAN, which is today one of the most popular brands in the syringe market in India with over 60 per cent market share.
New Delhi, Apr 30 (UNI) Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday in a message to Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered to assist India in fighting the escalating new wave of COVID-19 pandemic.

Xi said China is willing to strengthen anti-pandemic cooperation with India, and provide support and help to the country.

Noting that he is very concerned about the pandemic situation in India, Xi, on behalf of the Chinese government and people as well as in his own name, expressed sincere sympathies to the Indian government and people.

"China is willing to enhance cooperation with India on fighting COVID-19 and provide support and assistance to India," state media quoted Xi as saying.

In the message, Xi said he believes that under the leadership of the Indian government, its people will surely overcome the pandemic.

This is the second straight day China has offered its help to India.

On Thursday, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China firmly supports the Indian government and people in their fight against the pandemic.

In a letter to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Wang said China-produced anti-virus supplies are entering India at a faster pace and that Beijing will continue to maximize its efforts to provide support and help in accordance with India's requests.

It is hoped and believed that Indian people will, under the leadership of their government, achieve an early victory against COVID-19, he said.

Also, on Friday, Chinese Foreign Minsitry spokesperson Wang Wenbin reiterated China's willingness to support India.

According to the spokesperson, China has exported over 26,000 oxygen concentrators and respirators, 15,000 bedside monitors and a total of 3,800 tonnes of medicinal materials and medicines to India.

Wang assured the normal operation of cargo flights between the two countries, adding that relevant companies are working around the clock to provide enough medical supplies for India.

He also noted that Chinese customs will also provide convenience for clearance and transport.

UNI SRJ SHK1814
Chandigarh, May 1 : The central government has allocated 25 metric tonnes (MT) additional quota to Haryana at the request of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, an officials statement said on Saturday.

With the supply from the Linde oxygen plant in Uttarakhand, the oxygen quota of the state has been enhanced to 257 MT.

Also, oxygen tankers carrying additional oxygen quota from Bhubaneswar and Rourkela reached the state.

Meanwhile, Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Rajeev Arora said the state has received 66 lakh additional doses for the third phase of vaccination for the age group of 18 to 44 years.

The state has so far administered 38,13,274 doses.
New Delhi, May 1 : Congress Interim President Sonia Gandhi in a video statement on Saturday asked the Union Government to evolve a national consensus to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

In a five minute video message, she offered condolences to the departed souls and her good wishes to the people. She urged the Union Government to evolve a political consensus on a policy to tackle the spread of the pandemic nationally.

She said that the time has come that the central and state governments wake up and discharge their duties.

"The present situation has shaken the humanity, oxygen shortage, lack of medicine and beds, the situation is like this in many states. The time has come that union and states should wake up and work together and fulfill your responsibility," Sonia said in the message.

"My first request to the central government would be to transfer Rs 6,000 to migrants, testing should be increased, free vaccine is key to keep people safe," she added.

Sonia Gandhi's message comes in the wake of the Covid surge which crossed 4 lakh cases on Saturday.

India witnessed highest spike of 4,01,999 fresh cases of Covid-19 and 3,523 fatalities due to coronavirus infection in the last 24 hours, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHF) said on Saturday.

It was the first time when India crossed four lakh figure of Covid cases in a day. For the last nine days, over three lakh Covid cases were being reported while over 3,000 casualties have been reported for the past four days. On Friday, India witnessed 3,498 deaths, second highest fatalities in a day.

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New Delhi, May 1 : The Centre is giving utmost priority to the development of infrastructure and has set a target of road construction worth Rs 15 lakh crore in the next two years.

Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari made the announcement on Friday while addressing the Indo-US Partnership Vision Summit through video conferencing.

The Minister was confident that his ministry will achieve target of 40 kilometres per day of highways construction in current fiscal, saying "the government is permitting 100 per FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) in road sector".

In India, Gadkari said, projects like National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) for 2019-2025 is the first-of-its-kind and the government is committed to provide world class infra to its citizens and improving quality of their lives.

He said that under the NIP, there are over 7,300 projects to be implemented at a total outlay of Rs 111 lakh crore by year 2025 and that the project aims at improving project preparation, and attract investment into infrastructure like highways, railways, ports, airports, mobility, energy and agriculture and rural industry.

"In the new era of bilateral relations, the national interests of India and the United States are converging and there is growing confidence between both the administrations that all outstanding trade issues will be resolved and major trade agreements will be signed soon.

The Minister invited the US companies to invest in infrastructure and MSME sectors in India."
Pune, May 1 : The Kochi-based Federal Bank Ltd has donated 100 refrigerators for Covid-19 vaccine storage to Maharashtra as part of its CSR initiatives, an official spokesperson said here on Saturday.

Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who is also Guardian Minister for Pune, received the refrigerators and distributed them to various health care centres for the ongoing Covid-19 vaccination programme in the district.

Present on the occasion were MP Amol Kohle, MLA Chetan Tupe, top Federal Bank and other state government officials.

An official said that Covid-19 vaccines must be kept at a certain temperature for efficacy for which it needs special cooling devices to maintain the temperatures during storage.

The refrigerators have been handed over to various vaccination centres in the Pune city and other parts of the district which have geared up for the massive inoculation program of all people in the 18-44 age group from May 1.

In the latest phase, over 5.7 crore people in the state shall be vaccinated over the next few months free of cost as per a decision of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government for which the state would procure around 12 crore vaccine doses.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Chennai, May 1 : The Chennai Air Customs said on Saturday that it has seized 1.2 kg gold from a passenger who flew into the city from Dubai.

According to a statement issued by the Commissioner of Customs, Chennai International Airport, Mohamed Badurudeen arrived from Dubai with a 55 inch LED TV. When the officials examined it by opening its back cover, they found two heavy black rectangular bars concealed inside the speakers, which turn contained two gold bars.

The two bars weighed 1.2 kg and are valued at Rs 57.75 lakh.

Badurudeen has been arrested and further investigation is underway.
New Delhi, May 1 : Experts have recently warned that using oxygen concentrators without medical guidance can be very harmful.

Speaking at a webinar organised by PIB, Covid Co-ordinator, St. John's Medical College Hospital in Bengaluru, Chaitanya H. Balakrishnan said, "Patients with moderate pneumonia induced by Covid-19 -- with oxygen saturation less than 94 -- can benefit from supplemental oxygen given through oxygen concentrator, but only till they get hospital admission. However, patients using it themselves without suitable medical advice can be harmful." Oxygen concentrators are simple devices which do precisely what its name promises - they take in ambient air and increase the oxygen concentration, by filtering out and throwing away nitrogen.

These oxygen concentrators work the same way in supplying oxygen needed by the body such as oxygen tanks or cylinders, with the use of a cannula, oxygen masks or nasal tubes. The difference is that, while the cylinders need to be refilled, the Oxygen Concentrators can work 24 x 7.

According to a WHO training manual on pulse oximetry, if the oxygen saturation is 94 per cent or lower, the patient needs to be treated quickly.

A saturation of less than 90 per cent is a clinical emergency.

Now, according to the latest clinical guidance for management of adult Covid-19 patients, issued by the Union Health Ministry, an oxygen concentration less than or equal to 93 per cent on room air requires hospital admission, while that below 90 per cent is classified as a severe disease, requiring admission in ICU.

The government advises that given the prevalent situation in the wake of the second wave, one must do whatever he or she best can, in order to try and replenish oxygen levels, in the event of delay or inability in getting hospital admission as per the clinical management protocol.

Speaking on the appropriate usage of concentrators, Professor and Head of Department Anaesthesia, B. J. Medical College, Pune, Sanyogita Naik said, "Oxygen concentrators can be used only in moderate cases of Covid-19, when the patient experiences drop in oxygen levels, where the oxygen requirement is a maximum of 5 litres per minute." Naik further stated that oxygen concentrators are also very useful for patients experiencing post-Covid complications which necessitate oxygen therapy.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Mumbai, May 1 : Actor Varun Dhawan shared an Instagram message with fans on Saturday, highlighting the need to donate for concentrators in hospitals amid the shortage of oxygen. In another post earlier in the day, the actor philosophised over an important thing we must keep in mind once the pandemic is over.

"If we all survive this, as I hope we shall, remember that when it came down to it, we didn't fight for land or weapons or house or jewellery. We didn't fight for concert tickets or fancy designations or religions or politics. We didn't fight for shares in a company or a seat at the table. We didn't fight for business class tickets or the keys to a house by the beach. When all this is over, remember, that we fought for air," he wrote in a message he poster earlier in the day.

He captioned the note as: "WE are in this together." Later, he posted about donating money for oxygen concentrators in hospitals. He urged all fans to donate.
Panaji, May 1 : Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officials have busted a drug racket at a North Goa beach shack, seizing drugs with several lakh rupees, according to an official statement issued on Saturday.

A Nigerian drug peddler Mustafa alias Tiger, who was allegedly running the racket from Negi cafe, a beach shack located at Arambol beach, however managed to give the NCB sleuths the slip.

58 grams of Amphetamine (commercial quantity), 15 blots of LSD (commercial quantity), cocaine, mephedrone, heroin and ecstasy/MDMA in intermediate quantity, were seized in the raid.

"Mustafa alias Tiger is a notorious drug trafficker of North Goa area. He was running his drug trade from Negi Cafe. Efforts are on to intercept and nab him," the statement said.

NCB officials have however arrested the caretaker of Negi Cafe, Ranbir Singh.

"The owner of the shack has been summoned for questioning," the statement also said.
New Delhi, May 1 : Don-turned-politician and former Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Mohammad Shahabuddin passed away at a hospital in Delhi where he was undergoing treatment for Covid-19, officials said on Saturday.

The 53-year-old was serving a life sentence in a 2004 double murder case. He was shifted to the Tihar jail in 2018.

Sandeep Goyal, the Director General of Tihar jail, said in a statement, "Information has been received from the DDU (Deen Dayal Upadhyay) Hospital about the death of Mohammad Shahabuddin, an inmate of Delhi prison." The official said that Shahbuddin was suffering from Covid-19 and was admitted to the DDU Hospital on April 20.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Delhi High Court had directed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government and the prison authorities to ensure proper medical supervision and care of Shahabuddin.

Justice Prathiba M. Singh had said that the doctor on duty for looking after Covid patients shall monitor Shahabuddin's health condition and treatment.

A court in Bihar had awarded a 10-year sentence to Shahabuddin for his involvement in an Arms Act case.

The former RJD Lok Sabha MP from Bihar's Siwan had then challenged the court's order and filed an appeal before the Supreme Court seeking appropriate orders.

Later, the Supreme Court had sought a detailed response from the Bihar government after hearing the petition filed by him challenging his conviction.

Shahabuddin's senior lawyer had told the apex court that his client has been in jail for the last 14 years in a murder case.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Guwahati/Agartala, May 1 : The third phase of Covid vaccination for people in the 18-44 age group was delayed by some days in most of the northeastern states as the companies are unable to meet the supply of vaccines due to huge demand in the region, where the cases have been alarmingly rising, Ministers and officials said on Saturday.

The third phase of Covid inoculation drive covering those above the age of 18 years began on Saturday in some states in India including Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Odisha.

Assam Health and Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that online registration has started.

"We are expecting some information about the vaccine soon. We have already placed orders for one crore doses each with the Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech. The central government is also pursuing vaccine manufacturers accordingly," he told the media.

Sarma said that Assam is vaccinating close to one lakh person every day and so around 26 lakh people inoculated.

Tripura Health officials said that the vaccination to the 18-44 age group is expected to start after May 15 and as the supply of vaccines by the manufacturer company being delayed due to the heavy demand of the jabs.

"The Tripura government has already sanctioned Rs 133.19 crore to purchase the vaccine to provide the jab to the age group of 18-44 at the government's costs," Education and Law Minister Ratan Lal Nath said.

The Meghalaya government has stated that it would soon announce the exact date of the inoculation drive for the age group of 18-44.

The Meghalaya government has also placed orders for the required vaccine with the Serum Institute of India.

Health officials in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland and Manipur also said that the third phase of inoculation would be delayed by some more days due to the shortages of vaccine.
Chennai, May 1 : The second wave of Covid-19 sweeping across the country has also affected the various space centres and not just the rocket launch centre in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, K.Sivan, Secretary, Department of Space said.

Sivan who is also the Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) told IANS: "Several employees in our various centres have been affected because of the coronavirus and not only the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota." He said the centres have been asked to work with 50 per cent staff capacity and the remaining people to work from home.

"Only employees manning critical functional areas have been asked to attend office. The ISRO centres have been asked to follow the local government's norms," Sivan said.

In Bengaluru where the ISRO's headquarters and some centres are located only skeletal staff attend office.

An official in SDSC on the condition of anonymity told IANS that there are about 3,000 employees with their family members and daily about 30 people are tested positive for coronavirus.

"About 200 staff would have been infected with coronavirus. Only those who work in critical areas attend to duty," the official said.

According to the official, one of the ISRO guest houses has been converted into a quarantine centre/Covid care centre so that some employees not having support infrastructure at their homes are admitted.

Many employees of SDSC had been allotted the poll duty when the bypoll for Tirupati Lok Sabha constituency held in April had been infected with Covid.

SDSC Director A. Rajarajan was not available for comments and the steps taken to mitigate the spread when contacted by IANS.

Meanwhile, Sivan said ISRO's centre in Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu is producing oxygen and supplies to the state government.

"Our production capacity is very small. The Kerala government too has asked us for oxygen supplies," Sivan said.

(Venkatachari Jagannathan can be contacted at v.jagannathan@ians.in)

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
New Delhi, May 1 : Around 600 retired armed forces doctors are being mobilised to help local administrations across the country, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh was informed during a Covid-19 review meeting on Saturday.

He reviewed the efforts of the Defence Ministry and the armed forces to support the local administrations in the fight against Covid-19.

Singh was also briefed that the Indian Navy has deployed 200 Battle Field Nursing Assistants to assist in various hospitals. The National Cadet Corps (NCC) has deployed 300 cadets and staff at various locations in Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and Haryana.

A tele-medicine service, to be operated by health service veterans, will begin soon to provide consultation to those patients who remain at home.

The Indian Army has made available more than 720 beds for civilians in various states.

Singh directed the Army to share the details with the local administrations at the state and district levels. Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat suggested that local military commands should be actively engaged in assisting the civil administration.

Singh was briefed that the 500-bed hospital being set up by the DRDO in Lucknow will start functioning in the next 2-3 days.

Another hospital is also being set up in Varanasi which is scheduled to be completed by May 5.

The DRDO Chairman said the first four out of the 380 Oxygen PSA (Pressure Swing Absorption) plants will be deployed in hospitals in Delhi by next week.

Singh appreciated the logistics support being provided by the Armed Forces in transporting oxygen containers from abroad as well as within the country between places of consumption and production.

While transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) operated many flights from Singapore, Bangkok, Dubai and within the country, the Indian Navy dispatched four ships -- two to the Middle East and two to South East Asia -- to bring filled oxygen containers to India.

As on May 1, 2021, the IAF operated 28 flights from abroad, airlifting 47 oxygen containers with 830 MT capacity, while from within the country it carried out 158 sorties, airlifting 109 containers with 2,271 MT capacity.

The Navy and the Air Force have also supplied nearly 500 portable oxygen cylinders from their stores to various civilian hospitals.

Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) are procuring 28 oxygen plants and other medical equipment worth Rs 40 crore for supplying to various hospitals in the states.

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has set up a 250-bed hospital in Bengaluru. Another 250-bed hospital is being set up in Lucknow.

Singh reiterated that the Armed Forces should provide all necessary assistance to civilian administration and asked the officials of the Ministry of Defence and the three Services to closely monitor the progress of various initiatives.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
New Delhi, May 1 : Seven Indian Navy ships have been deployed for the shipment of liquid medical oxygen-filled cryogenic containers and associated medical equipment from various countries to strengthen Indias fight against the raging second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

"INS Kolkata, Kochi, Talwar, Tabar, Trikand, Jalashwa and Airavat have been deployed for the shipment of liquid medical oxygen-filled cryogenic containers in support of the nation's fight against Covid-19 and as part of operation 'Samudra Setu II'," the Indian Navy stated.

INS Kolkata and INS Talwar, deployed in the Persian Gulf, were the first batch of ships that were immediately diverted for the task and entered the port of Manama, Bahrain, on Friday. INS Talwar is headed back home with 40 MT liquid medical oxygen (LMO).

INS Kolkata has proceeded to Doha, Qatar, for embarking medical supplies and will subsequently head to Kuwait for embarking liquid oxygen tanks.

Similarly, on the Eastern seaboard, INS Airavat has been diverted for the task, while INS Jalashwa, the LPD which played a key role during operation Samudra Setu last year, was pulled out of maintenance, readied and sailed out to augment the effort, the Navy said.

INS Airavat is scheduled to enter Singapore for embarking liquid oxygen tanks, while INS Jalashwa is standing by in the region to embark medical supplies at short notice.

The second batch of ships comprising INS Kochi, Trikand and Tabar deployed in the Arabian Sea has also been diverted to join the efforts.

From the Southern Naval Command, landing ship tank INS Shardul is being readied to join the operation within 48 hours.

The Indian Navy also has the surge capability to deploy more ships when the need arises to further the nation's fight against Covid-19, it said.

All the ships are combat ready and capable of meeting any contingency in keeping with the attributes of the versatility of sea power, the Navy said.

It may be recalled that operation Samudra Setu was launched last year by the Navy and around 4,000 Indian citizens stranded in the neighbouring countries due to the Covid outbreak were successfully repatriated back to India.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Gurugram, May 1 : The Gurugram administration has roped in Vplak India, the company which manages supply chain of e-commerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart, to ensure smooth supply of oxygen cylinder in the district.

Gurugram Divisional Commissioner Rajeev Ranjan on Saturday chaired a virtual meeting with Ravinder Yadav of Vplak India and Pradeep Aggarwal, who is an AI expert.

Ranjan said that presently there is no accounting of oxygen cylinders as many people are taking cylinders, majority of which are not returned. There are reports that some people are storing these cylinders.

He said that bar coding of oxygen cylinders may be done so that during distribution, mobile and Aadhaar numbers of the person receiving the cylinder can be noted.

"If any cylinder does not come for refilling in 48 hours, then the details of receiver person would be sent to the call centre, from where a call will be made to him or her.

If he or she still requires oxygen then it would be filled up, otherwise that person would be asked to return the cylinder, so that it can be given to another needy patient," Ranjan said, adding that the company officials had asked to devise a mechanism for proper utilisation of available resources.

He further said that the district administration would be requiring more number of doctors and paramedical staff for additional facilities and for replacement of doctors who have themselves become covid positive.

"The district administration is looking for specialists in medicine, chest specialist, pulmonology , anaesthesia and other MBBS doctors who are willing to provide their services for Covid patients. Besides, retired paramedical staff is also required.

We have urged persons having above specialities to come forward and get themselves registered with the district administration," Ranjan added.
Seoul, May 1 : A lawsuit has been filed against South Korean tech giant Samsung that claims the company used faulty glass coverings for the rear camera setup on its smartphones launched under its flagship Galaxy S20 series.

According to the law firm Hagens Berman, Samsung has ignored a widespread defect prevalent on the Galaxy S20 series of smartphones where the protective glass on top of the camera module shatters unexpectedly during normal use, reports XDA Developers.

Samsung is being accused of fraud, breach of warranty, and violations of several consumer-protection laws, the report said.

"Samsung sold its Galaxy S20 as a high-end option for consumers, with a 'professional' grade camera, charging upwards of $1,600 per device, only to have them suddenly lose a major aspect of their functionality," said Steve Berman, managing partner of the law firm.

The law firm said that Samsung sold its smartphone range with a defect affecting the rear camera module's glass that shatters spontaneously, with no external force applied, even when the phone is inside a protective case.

The defect is said to be affecting the entire Galaxy S20 series including the Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20+, Galaxy S20 Ultra, Galaxy S20 FE and all the 5G variants of these phones as well.

Notably, this issue has been around ever since the phone series first launched as a certain owner of the Galaxy S20 reported about the issue on Samsung's community website just four days after it went on sale.

However, according to the customers, the company refused to cover the issue under warranty, the report said.
New Delhi, May 1 : The Delhi High Court on Saturday warned the Centre of initiating "contempt proceedings" against its administrators if it delays the supply of 490 MT oxygen allocated to the national capital even for a single day.

A bench comprising Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Rekha Palli directed the Central government to ensure that Delhi receives its allocated supply of 490 MT oxygen "positively today (Saturday), by whatever means".

"Considering the fact that Delhi is not an industrial state and does not have the availability of cryogenic tankers of its own, which could be requisitioned under the Disaster Management Act like the other states have done, it falls upon the Central government to arrange the tankers as well, so that the allocation made to Delhi could be fulfilled, lest it remains only a paper allocation," the court noted.

The court said that the Central government shall ensure the availability of cryogenic tankers as well as the said supply.

The high court said that the allocation to Delhi, which was 480 MT earlier and has now been raised to 490 MT, has not been fulfilled even for a single day.

In case, the court said, this order is not implemented, the "concerned officers of the Central government viz Piyush Goyal and Sunita Dawra shall remain present during the hearing on May 3".

"Looking at the situation, we make it clear that we may even consider initiating contempt proceedings in case of non-compliance. Amit Mahajan shall ensure communication of this order to the concerned officers forthwith," the court ordered.

The high court gave the direction after taking a serious view of a statement made by S. Bankata, Executive Director of Batra Hospital, that there was a delay in delivery due to which oxygen supply was interrupted for about an hour-and-a-half, which led to the loss of eight lives on Saturday, including a doctor of the hospital.

Taking into account the loss of lives, the high court said: "Water has gone above the head. You have to arrange everything now. You have made the allocations. You have to fulfil them. Eight lives have been lost. We can't shut our eyes to it." The court had earlier recorded the submissions made regarding the tragic incident at the Batra Hospital in the Mehrauli area of the national capital that was reported at around 12.45 p.m. on Saturday.

This was the second time in a week that the hospital ran out of medical oxygen. On April 24, the hospital had received a last-minute supply which arrived minutes after its oxygen reserves ran out.
New Delhi, May 1 : Hospitals across the national capital continue to sound the alarm about shortage of oxygen. Sant Parmanand Hospital and Bhagat Chandra hospital have sought help from the authorities claiming that they are left with little oxygen.

Bhagat Chandra hospital in Mahavir Enclave in West Delhi will reportedly run out of oxygen by Saturday evening. "There are 81 patients of which 68 are on oxygen support and five are on ventilators. Our oxygen cylinders are almost empty. We have only about 40 minutes of supply left. We immediately need oxygen supply for uninterrupted patient care," said Mahim Bhagat, CEO Bhagat Chandra Hospital.

Bhagat said that the hospital was allotted 1.9 MT oxygen but received only one MT in the last three days till Friday. "No supply has reached today (Saturday) from the primary supplier allocated to Bhagat Chandra Hospital. Plant of the secondary supplier is closed," Bhagat said.

The over 150-bed Sant Parmanand Hospital in Civil Lines said, "Currently we are running on dangerously low levels of oxygen supply, which can lead to a very serious adverse patient incident." In a statement, the hospital said, "We at Sant Parmanand Hospital are treating a number of patients regularly. Most of these patients are being supported on un-interrupted medical oxygen. For the last few days the hospital has been facing serious difficulties in procuring adequate and regular supply of oxygen." It said that 53 patients are on liquid oxygen which will last for two hours and 25 patients are on D type calendars which are running out of oxygen. "Despite sending personnel and transportation to the allotted oxygen stations we did not get adequate supply of oxygen. We are facing supply uncertainties leading to serious concerns regarding a calamitous incident involving patients being maintained on oxygen," the hospital said.

Sant Parmanand Hospital appealed to the state and central governments to help procure oxygen immediately to avert an imminent crisis.

On Saturday afternoon, eight Covid-19 patients, including a doctor, died at Delhi's Batra Hospital due to shortage of medical oxygen at the facility.
New Delhi, May 1 : Medical aid is pouring in from around the world to India with the latest help coming from Thailand to fight the virulent second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Official sources said that the Thailand government has sent its aircraft to evacuate some Thai Embassy officials from India. The Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) flight, which arrived in India on Saturday for evacuation, also carried 15 oxygen concentrators as donation from the Thailand government to the Indian Red Cross, along with 15 concentrators donated by the Hindu Samaj of Bangkok.

Official sources said Thailand Prime Minister Gen Prayuth Chano Cha conveyed through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs his desire to offer assistance to India.

The Indian government, sources said, had indicated that it requires oxygen cylinders, concentrators, generators and cryogenic oxygen tanks.

Meanwhile, Indian corporates, in coordination with the Indian Embassy in Thailand and the Ministry of Home Affairs, have been sourcing cryogenic tanks from Thailand. Eleven tanks in three sorties by the Indian Air Force (IAF) have already reached India. The Indian community in Thailand has also extended its support.

In addition, 100 oxygen cylinders have separately been offered by the Indian Association of Thailand. Steps are being taken for their speedy transportation to India.

Thanking the Thailand government and the Indian community in that country, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi tweeted, "Further strengthening historical ties with a close maritime neighbour. Welcome the gift of 15 oxygen concentrators from our ASEAN partner and friend Thailand. Also thank the Indian community in Thailand which have generously donated another 15 oxygen concentrators." Meanwhile, by April 30, India had received 495 oxygen concentrators and 140 ventilators from the UK; 200 oxygen concentrators from Mauritius; 256 oxygen cylinders from Singapore; 20 large oxygen concentrators, 75 ventilators, 150 bedside monitors, and 2,00,000 packs of Favipiravir from Russia; 157 ventilators, 480 BiPAPs, goggles, masks from the UAE; and 700 oxygen concentrators and 365 ventilators from Ireland.

India also received 80 oxygen concentrators, 75 oxygen cylinders, and 20 high-flow humidify oxygen therapy devices from Romania, and 423 oxygen cylinders with regulators (200 Size D, 223 Size H), 210 pulse oximeters, 184,000 Abbott Rapid Diagnostic Test Kits, 84000 N-95 face masks, 17 H-size (large) oxygen cylinders and 7,00,000 Abbott Rapid Diagnostic Test Kits from the US.
Gurugram, May 1 : In a joint operation, the Gurugram and Sonipat units of the Special Task Force (STF) of the Haryana Police have arrested an inter-state most wanted criminal Sube Gujjar, who was carrying a reward of Rs 7.50 lakh, from a Delhi airport on Friday, the police said on Saturday.

The reward was announced by the Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh police.

Gujjar, a resident of Bargujjar village of Gurugram, was a key member of the Kaushal gang and was involved in 11 cases of murder, 12 attempt to murder cases, extortion, contract killing and dozens of other crimes which were serious in nature.

According to the police, Gujjar was operating the gang after the arrest of Kaushal. He was involved in multiple criminal activities since 2004-05 and was a proclaimed offender. He was yet to be arrested in 20 other cases which he had committed in the span of 16 years.

Gurugram STF incharge Inspector Varun Dahiya said the criminal was using fake IDs during his hideout period and around 15 days ago he was returning to India from Nepal.

"Gujjar had committed multiple crimes in Delhi and NCR, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. He was operating the gang from outside Delhi and NCR. Following a lead about his presence at Delhi airport, the STF arrested him on Friday. Gujjar used to extort money from wine contractors, businessman, sweet shop owners, builders and industrialists with the help of his gang members," Dahiya told IANS.

Gujjar had visited Dosa, Alwar in Rajasthan and Chennai during his hideout period with the help of fake documents. Gujjar was returning from Goa and was planning to fly to some other destination but the STF arrested him," Dahiya added.

"The investigation agency has taken him on seven days police remand to gather information about his gang members and weapons used into the crime," he said.
Chennai, May 1 : Greater Chennai Corporation Commissioner (GCC) G. Prakash on Saturday said that vaccination has restrained Covid cases among the frontline workers across the city.

The Commissioner said in a statement that this is a strong case as to why people should take the Covid vaccine jabs.

Out of the 60,000 to 70,000 frontline workers in the city including the GCC employees, health care staff and police, only 619 were infected with the pandemic as 90 per cent of them were vaccinated.

Prakash said that post inoculation no corporation staff had died due to Covid.

However, he said at least 26 Greater Chennai Corporation staff had died of the virus during the first wave.

The GCC Commissioner further said that the reduced mortality rate and less infections are mainly owing to the vaccination being taken by the frontline workers including the GCC employees.

Of the 150 journalists who had taken RT-PCR tests as part of attending the counting on May 2, only one had tested positive.

This, according to Prakash is due to the vaccination they had taken. GCC has also been vaccinating journalists as frontline workers since March 2021.

Soundarajan, a health care worker attached to a government hospital, told IANS: "We did take vaccination and this has led to the reduced infections and fatality count among the front line workers, including the healthcare staff."

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Toronto, May 1 : Even as Canada's biggest province is facing the third wave of the coronavirus driven by new, more-contagious variants, Premier Doug Ford said the ventilators were being donated in response to calls for help from the Indian High Commissioner in Ottawa and the Consul General in Toronto.

The e700 Transport ventilators, manufactured by Brampton-based O-Two Medical Technologies, will be shipped to India soon.

The Premier said his government would also arrange transportation to India of the medical equipment being donated by the Indian diaspora and friends of India in Ontario.

"We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the people of India during these difficult times. Our government will keep working closely with Ajay Bisaria, High Commissioner of India and Apoorva Srivastava, Consul General of India to Toronto and stand ready to assist further with India's urgent needs, for as long as we are able to. We are all in this together and we will all overcome this together," the Ontario Premier said.
New Delhi, May 1 : SpiceHealth on Saturday said it has set up walk-in RT-PCR testing laboratories in Delhi, Haryana and Maharashtra.

According to the healthcare company launched by the promoters of SpiceJet, SpiceHealth's RT-PCR testing labs have been conducting the country's "fastest and cheapest" RT-PCR tests.

"As the country reels under spike in Covid cases, labs struggle to keep up with the demand and home collection of samples becoming a huge challenge, SpiceHealth's walk-in RT-PCR testing facility at multiple locations across Delhi, Haryana and Maharashtra aims to address these issues," said Avani Singh, CEO, SpiceHealth.

"Our mobile labs are located at landmark, easy to locate, accessible locations. The walk-in facility provides a hassle free and safe testing experience.

The only way to counter the spread of the pandemic is to test rampantly and at SpiceHealth we have been innovating constantly to offer medical care at the most affordable cost." SpiceHealth launched a new mobile testing laboratory in Nagpur on Thursday and will soon be setting-up laboratories in Aurangabad and Nashik.

More testing laboratories will soon be opened in Delhi and other states, the company said.

Lately, the company has emerged as the fastest growing diagnostic lab in India having conducted more than 2.2 million RT-PCR tests since its launch in Delhi in November 2020.

It is also working closely with multiple state governments and hospitals to beef up the supply of oxygen concentrators, ventilators, pulse oximeters, BiPAPs and other medical devices.

In the last one week, SpiceHealth has imported more than 2,000 oxygen concentrators from Hong Kong to Delhi and many more will shortly be arriving in India.
Mumbai, May 1 : Actress Rati Pandey took to social media to share unseen footage of her show "Shaadi Mubarak".

In the video, Rati and actor Manav Gohil can be seen shooting a dance sequence for the show. She wrote about how she is "waiting eagerly" to get back on the sets.

"Waiting eagerly to be back in action @starplus @shashisumeetproductions @manavgohil #shaadimubarak #keerti #unseenfootage #thistooshallpass #majormissing," she posted.

Rumour mills were rife with reports of the show shutting shop. However, it turns out that the show is on a break since Manav is infected with Covid and is quarantined.

While other shows have moved shoots to different locations due to Maharashtra government stopping television and film shoots in the state, this show has not moved and is waiting for the lockdown restrictions to lift so that they can continue shooting, according to reports.

Rati has been part of many television shows such as "Porus", "Hitler Didi", "Miley Jab Hum Tum", "Devi Adi Parashakti", "Begusarai" and "Har Ghar Kuch Kehta Hai".
Panaji, May 1 : An unprecedented 54 persons succumbed to Covid-19 related complications in Goa and 2,303 new infections were reported in the last 24 hours, however, the health ministry has claimed that 14 prior deaths were included in Saturday's list due to a "technical glitch".

As the total number of Covid-19 cases in the state crept closer to the one lakh mark (Goa's population is around 15 lakh), an Opposition MLA urged the Bombay High Court to suo moto extend the ongoing lockdown by a few more days in order to stem the surge.

Earlier, minutes after the official statistics related to new infections and Covid-19 related deaths were released, the Health Ministry in a statement said: "Due to technical glitch in the portal, there were 14 deaths that occurred between April 29-30 at Goa Medical College have been declared today." Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat claimed that the BJP-led coalition government was trying to hide the 14 deaths.

"It is clear that they tried to hide 14 deaths yesterday. Why? How many times in the past have they done it? Chief Minister Pramod Sawant must give an explanation about this," Kamat said, accusing the government of behaving in an "irresponsible manner".

Amid the ongoing Covid-19 lockdown -- which ends on Monday morning -- Opposition MLA Sudin Dhavalikar has urged the Bombay High Court to intervene in the "shoddy" Covid management of the state and extend the lockdown suo moto, as recommended by the Goa chapter of the Indian Medical Association on Friday.

"The lockdown should be extended until everyone is vaccinated. The High Court should take up the matter suo moto and extend the lockdown to break the Covid-19 chain," Dhavalikar demanded.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
New Delhi, May 1 : The Congress has launched a plasma bank to help Covid patients who need plasma for recovery.

It said that the "Congress party knows how to serve those who are in need because it's in our legacy. We know how to do it! We open that one door when all others have shut. We reach the unreachable. And we do it all without seeking any credit." Addressing a press conference, Congress leaders Pawan Khera, Pranav Jha and Youth Congress President BV Srinivas said, "Our leader Shri Rahul Gandhi appealed to people to drop all their political work and go out to help. And today it's Congress party workers, frontal organisations and youth leaders who are leading by example." The leaders said that these were testing times for the party and despite being in the opposition, the Congress is trying to extend a helping hand. 22,000 Congress volunteers are working day and night to help the people.

Congress Interim President Sonia Gandhi in a video statement on Saturday asked the Union Government to evolve a national consensus to tackle the pandemic.

In a five minute video she offered condolences to the departed souls (Covid victims) and her wishes to the people. She urged the Union Government to evolve a political consensus on a policy to tackle the spread of the pandemic nationally.

She said that the time has come that the central and state governments wake up and discharge their duties.

Sonia Gandhi's message comes in the wake of the Covid surge with over 4 lakh new cases in 24 hours.

India witnessed its highest spike of 4,01,999 fresh cases of Covid-19 and 3,523 fatalities due to coronavirus infection in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHF) said on Saturday.

It was the first time that India crossed four lakh Covid cases in a day. For the last nine days, over three lakh Covid cases were being reported while over 3,000 casualties have been reported daily for the past four days. On Friday, India witnessed 3,498 deaths, the second highest fatalities in a day.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
New Delhi, May 1 : Twelve Covid-19 patients, including a doctor, lost their lives on Saturday afternoon at Delhi's Batra Hospital due to lack of medical oxygen for over an hour.

The tragedy was reported at around 12.45 p.m. at the Batra Hospital in Delhi's Mehrauli area when eight persons, including a doctor, were reported dead. Later the toll mounted to 12.

"Death toll at Batra Hospital increases from 8 to 12. Oxygen shortage at the facility led to these deaths. These were patients whose oxygen level sunk when the supply dropped," said Sudhanshu Bankata, the Executive Director of Batra Hospital.

Stating that it was hard to revive such patients at a later stage, the doctor expressed apprehension that the death toll may rise.

"The next 24 hours are critical and the death toll could be higher," he said.

A total of 220 patients are currently on oxygen support at the Batra Hospital.

In an SOS message, the Batra Hospital had said earlier, "Oxygen will last for another 10 minutes." Later, AAP MLA Raghav Chadha said, "Our SOS cryogenic tanker carrying liquid medical oxygen is reaching Batra Hospital within 5 minutes. Their regular supplier of oxygen has defaulted yet again due to alleged 'lack of oxygen supplies' and is being pulled up." While oxygen was later supplied to the hospital, it said that by that time, eight patients had already died. Another four patients died later.

This was the second time in a week that the hospital ran out of medical oxygen. On April 24, the hospital had received a last-minute supply which arrived minutes after its oxygen reserves ran out.

Among the deceased was the hospital's gastroenteritis head R.K. Himthani (62). Six of the 12 deceased persons were admitted to the hospital's intensive care unit (ICU).

At around 12.30 p.m., the hospital claimed that it had run out of liquid medical oxygen. An oxygen tanker reached the hospital at around 1.35 p.m.

Hospital officials later told the Delhi High Court, which is hearing a bunch of petitions on the shortage of oxygen supply in the national capital, that re-supply tankers reached the hospital only at around 1.30 p.m, meaning that around 230 critically ill patients were without oxygen for around 80 minutes.

"We ran out of oxygen at 12.45 p.m. Supply came at 1.30 p.m. We were out of oxygen for 1 hour and 20 minutes," the hospital told the court.

"We hope no lives were lost," the court responded, to which the hospital said: "We have... including one of our own... one doctor." The hospital has 327 patients out of which 48 are in the critical care unit. It has been raising alarms since Saturday afternoon over depleting levels of oxygen supply.

In a video SOS posted earlier on Saturday, Bankata said: "We have just run out of oxygen... currently surviving on some cylinders. Over the next 10 minutes that will also run out. We are again in crisis mode. Delhi government is trying to help but its tanker is some distance away." Earlier this month, 20 people admitted to the critical care unit of Jaipur Golden hospital in Rohini died when their oxygen levels dropped. The hospital had blamed the Delhi government for the delay in oxygen supply before the Delhi High Court.
San Jose, May 1 : Following a two-and-a-half-week trial, Netflix's former Vice President of IT Operations Michael Kail has been convicted of wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering, by a federal jury in the US.

Kail was indicted on May 1, 2018, of nineteen counts of wire fraud, three counts of mail fraud and seven counts of money laundering.

The indictment also sought forfeiture of Kail's Los Gatos residential property.

The jury returned a verdict of guilty on 28 of the 29 counts.

"Bribery undermines fair competition and innovation in any business arena, and particularly Silicon Valley's highly competitive environment of cutting-edge innovation," Stephanie M. Hinds, Acting US Attorney, said in a statement.

"As Netflix's Vice President of IT Operations, Michael Kail wielded immense power to approve valuable Netflix contracts with small tech vendors/and he rigged that process to unlock a stream of cash and stock kickbacks to himself," Hinds added.

The acting attorney also said that Netflix and other companies expect and deserve honest services from its employees.

According to the evidence presented at trial to the federal jury, Kail, 49, of Los Gatos, was employed at Netflix as the Vice President in charge of IT Operations from 2011 until July 2014.

Netflix prohibited conflicts of interest by its employees in its Code of Ethics and its "Culture Deck," which required disclosure of actual or apparent conflicts of interest and reporting gifts from people or entities seeking to sell to the company.

As Netflix's Vice President of IT Operations, Kail approved the contracts to purchase IT products and services from smaller outside vendor companies and authorised their payments.

The evidence demonstrated that Kail accepted bribes in akickbacks' from nine tech companies providing products or services to Netflix.

In exchange, Kail approved millions of dollars in contracts for goods and services to be provided to Netflix.

Kail ultimately received over $500,000 and stock options from these outside companies. He used his kickback payments to pay personal expenses and to buy a home in Los Gatos, California in the name of a family trust.
Bengaluru, May 1 : Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa symbolically launched the Covid vaccination drive for people in the 18-44 age group here on Saturday.

Yediyurappa's decision to launch the vaccination drive for those above 18 years came as a surprise within his party circles as on Friday night, he had justified his Health Minister K. Sudhakar's announcement on proposal to postpone the drive citing zero supply of required vaccine doses in the state.

After launching the vaccination drive at the Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital here, the Chief Minister told media that Karnataka will administer vaccines to people aged 18-44 years and the state has four lakh stock of the vaccine doses.

"We are taking a big leap towards fighting the pandemic by opening up vaccination for the 18-44 years category, which covers nearly 3.26 crore people," he said.

Yediyurappa said that Karnataka was hopeful that the imported vaccines will enhance the vaccination coverage.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi was committed to ensuring the entire population is vaccinated." Responding to apprehensions over severe shortage of Covid vaccines that has slowed down the vaccination drive in the state, the Chief Minister claimed that the state will procure two crore doses shortly to ease the situation.

Contending that the vaccines are an effective tool to fight the pandemic, he said that the state has already inoculated 96.5 lakh doses to the 45+ yrs category.

Yediyurappa also appealed to the people to extend cooperation to tide over the second wave of the pandemic and also warned the blackmarketeers of Covid medicines and vaccines of stern action.

"The private hospitals have been authorised to administer the vaccines and we have also fixed the price of vaccines. We will initiate stern action against the blackmarketeers," he said.

The Chief Minister added that to facilitate the treatment of Covid patients, 4,000 ICU beds will be set up in Bengaluru on a war footing.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Kurnool, May 1 : At least four suspected Covid patients died at the KS Care hospital here on Saturday allegedly due to the shortage of oxygen.

Soon after the incident, the remaining patients were evacuated and shifted to other hospitals in the city.

However, the hospital authorities later dismissed the allegations that the four patients had died due to the oxygen shortage.

Meanwhile, District Collector Veerapandian said: "KS Care hospital is not a notified Covid hospital. Details of the four people who had died at the hospital are being collected. Few more patients are being shifted to GGH Kurnool." Later, the district administration issued a statement stating that only three of the four deceased are suspected to have been suffering from Covid. Even they are yet to be tested.

The administration's statement said that lack of oxygen is not cause behind those deaths.

"The hospital has adequate oxygen stock. Total 136 cylinders of oxygen have been supplied to the hospital since Friday night till Saturday afternoon," it said.

The district medical health officer and police officials are collecting further information. Based on the report, further stringent action will be taken, the Kurnool Collector said.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
New Delhi, May 1 : Even as several hospital in the national capital are battling the less supply of medical oxygen, the indian Railways on Saturday said that its Oxygen Express trains will deliver a record of 250 MT of LMO to Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana by Sunday morning.

A railway ministry spokesperson said that the national transporter has accelerated the pace of delivering liquid medical oxygen to various states across the country.

He said that Indian Railways has delivered 813 MT of LMO in 56 tankers to various states across the country.

He added that 14 Oxygen Express have already completed their journey and five more loaded Oxygen Express are on the run carrying 342 MT of LMO in 18 tankers.

The official further said that Delhi will receive its 120 MT of LMO in six tankers from Durgapur in next 24 hours.

Earlier in the day, at least 12 patients at Batra hospital in died due to shortage of oxygen.

The official said that Haryana received its first and second Oxygen Express on Saturday carrying 79 MT of LMO in five tankers.

Third Oxygen Express carrying 30.6 MT LMO in 2 tankers has already started from Angul and currently on its way to Haryana.

He said that Madhya Pradesh received its second Oxygen Express carrying 70.77 MT of LMO to Jabalpur and Sagar from Jharkhand's Bokaro on Friday.

The official said that third Oxygen Express to Jabalpur carrying 22.19 MT Oxygen Express is on its way from Odisha's Rourkela and is expected to reach Jabalpur by tonight.

The official also said that Uttar Pradesh will be receiving its eighth Oxygen Express en-route from Bokaro carrying 44.88 MT LMO in three tankers. Uttar Pradesh has received approximately 355 MT LMO so far and more is on its way to Lucknow.

He also said that Telangana will also receive its first Oxygen Express currently on the way from Angul carrying 124.26 MT LMO.

Tye official said that so far, Indian Railways has delivered more than 813 metric tonnes liquid medical oxygen (LMO) to Maharashtra (174 MT), Uttar Pradesh (355 MT), Madhya Pradesh (134.77 MT), Delhi (70 MT) and Haryana (79 MT).

Telangana will start receive their Oxygen Express shortly.
Hyderabad, May 1 : Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on Saturday emphasised the need for a multi-pronged approach to contain the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Elaborating on the multi-pronged approach, she said that it is important to increase the testing, intensifying the vaccination, and ensuring that the people adhere to the Covid-appropriate behaviour to contain the pandemic.

The Governor was addressing the international webinar on the promotion of public awareness to prevent the pandemic spread, organised by the Lead India Foundation, USA chapter.

Soundararajan stressed on the importance of public education, increased awareness and adherence to the preventive norms by all sections of the people.

"There is a great deal of pressure on the available infrastructure with the massive number of patients rushing to the hospitals. It is not good to further burden them. It is high time that we all adhere to the preventive norms strictly and break the chain," she said.

Referring to the shortage of vaccine doses, the governor stated that some concrete efforts were made to ramp up the production and soon there would be required number of doses.

She expressed confidence that with the collective will of the people and their Covid-appropriate behaviour, soon our country would overcome the second wave of the pandemic.

"India will bounce back from the impact of the pandemic and will emerge victorious with the collective resolve and effort of the people," she added.

The Governor saluted the doctors and other frontline workers for their tireless and selfless services in saving millions of precious lives during this pandemic.

Lead India Foundation, USA chapter, founder Hari Eppanapally took the initiative in organising this webinar aimed at creating awareness and guiding the people in treatment options.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
London, May 1 : Manchester City could be crowned Premier League champions by the end of this weekend after Sergio Aguero and Ferran Torres secured a 2-0 win at Crystal Palace.

Aguero, City's all-time record goalscorer, will leave the Etihad Stadium when his contract expires next month and has endured a campaign ruined by fitness issues. But the Argentina striker relocated some of the old magic with a sublime touch and thumping finish to find a 57th-minute breakthrough and his second league goal of the campaign, reports DPA.

There were just 83 seconds between Aguero's opener and Torres's calmly taken second, and City will win the title for a third time in four seasons if Liverpool beat second-placed Manchester United at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Palace full-back Tyrick Mitchell made an important block when Torres met Benjamin Mendy's ninth-minute cross on the volley.

Raheem Sterling darted onto Aymeric Laporte's lofted pass and inside a couple of Palace challenges, but Mitchell was able to get back for another vital intervention.

Christian Benteke had a chance to breakthrough before the half hour -- the Belgian striker's shot on the turn smothered at close quarters by Ederson.

As their phalanx of playmakers rested up on the bench, City struggled for their usual fluency. Gabriel Jesus volleyed home Fernandinho's 36th-minute cross but had strayed needlessly offside.

With attempted intricacy failing, Aguero opted for something more uncomplicated -- in terms of conception rather than execution -- when he controlled Mendy's low cross then thumped a half-volley past the helpless Vicente Guaita.

City's four-pronged attack went for the kill and Aguero was involved once more in a swarming attack as Torres picked out the bottom left corner from the edge of the area.

As in their 2-1 Champions League semi-final first-leg win at Paris Saint-Germain, City were a team transformed after the break. Sterling thumped Jesus's pass against the base of the post and Benteke made the last-ditch block to prevent last weekend's EFL Cup final hero Laporte from adding to his tally.

Joao Cancelo thundered just over from a Torres backheel and Sterling curled agonisingly wide as Guardiola's men swaggered towards full-time and overall glory.
Mumbai, May 1 : Maharashtra on Saturday witnessed a slight dip in the number of Covid related deaths even as the states overall toll breached the 69,000-mark, while the number of daily infections rose marginally, health officials said here on Saturday.

Compared to 828 deaths reported on Friday, the state on Saturday recorded 802 fatalities, lower than the peak of 1,035 deaths (April 28), taking the state's overall toll to 69,615, the worst in the country.

The number of new cases remained above the 60,000-mark and went up slightly from 62,919 on Friday to 63,282 on Saturday, taking the state's tally to 46,65,754.

Mumbai reported 3,897 new cases on Saturday, which took the city's tally to 6,52,368 till date, after touching the highest daily spike of 11,206 cases on April 4.

However, Mumbai's death toll went up slightly, from 89 on Friday to 90 now, taking the total fatalities in the country's commercial capital to 13,215, the highest for a single city in the country.

After four days, the state's death rate went up from 1.05 per cent to 1.49 per cent, while the number of active cases stood at 6,63,758.

On the brighter side, 61,326 fully-cured patients returned home, taking the total number of recoveries to 39,30,302 now, with a recovery of 84.24 per cent.

The Mumbai Circle -- comprising Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad districts -- recorded a drop in new cases from 11,140 on Friday to 10,581 on Saturday, taking its overall tally to 13,81,460, while 160 deaths mounted its death toll to 23,466.

Of the day's 802 total fatalities, Mumbai led the chart with 90 deaths, followed by 66 in Solapur, 57 in Nagpur, 54 in Pune, 45 each in Thane and Nashik, 37 in Osmanabad, 32 in Ahmednagar, 31 each in Aurangabad and Yavatmal, 29 each in Beed and Chandrapur, 27 in Latur, 25 in Satara, 24 in Bhandara, 21 in Amravati, 20 in Raigad, 19 each in Sangli and Nanded, 18 in Wardha, 12 in Sindhudurg, 11 in Parbhani, and 10 in Akola -- in the higher range.

There were seven deaths each in Kolhapur, Jalna and Washim, 6 in Jalgaon, 5 each in Palghar, Nandurbar and Hingoli, 4 in Gadchiroli, and 2 each in Dhule and Gondia -- in the lower range. Two districts -- Ratnagiri and Buldhana -- didn't report any fatality on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home isolation decreased -- from 41,93,686 on Friday to 40,43,899 now -- while those shunted to institutional quarantine went down from 26,462 a day before to 26,420 on Saturday.
Bengaluru, May 1 : The votes polled during the by-elections to the Belgaum parliamentary constituency and two Assembly segments in Karnataka -- Maski in Raichuru district and Basavakalyana in Bidar district -- on April 17 will be counted on Sunday.

The outcome of the bypolls, held amid the raging second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in the state, assumes significance for both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition Congress.

"The counting will begin at 8 a.m. and the early trends would be known at around 10 a.m. The complete results will be out by 12 noon," a poll official told IANS.

"Due to the lockdown in place in the state, there are stringent restrictions on people's movement. Therefore, proper security arrangements are in place in Belgaum, Basavakalyan and Maski to handle the situation," the official added.

Even though upsetting results won't have any impact on the ruling party's status in the Assembly or in the Lok Sabha, they will certainly bolster the image of Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, who has come under severe attack from his own partymen over the alleged mishandling of the Covid situation in the state.

At the same time, the bypoll results will certainly test the popularity of two chief claimants of the Congress for the CM's post in the 2023 Assembly elections -- leader of opposition Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee chief D.K. Shivakumar.

The race for the CM's post in 2023 has already begun in the Congress in Karnataka, with the supporters of Kuruba (shepherd community) strongman Siddaramaiah projecting him as the future CM, resulting in groupism in the party.

The party's victory in the bypolls will certainly bolster the supporters of both Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar.

In the bypolls held on April 17, the voter turnout in Belgaum came down by around 11 per cent from the 67.21 per cent polling recorded during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The Basavakalyan segment in Bidar district also saw a drop in polling percentage from 64.85 per cent in 2018 to 61.58 per cent this time.

The turnout was the highest in Maski, an ST reserved constituency, at 70.46 per cent. The Assembly constituency located in Raichur district had recorded a turnout of 68.98 per cent during the 2018 elections.

The by-election in Belgaum was held to fill the vacancy caused by the death of BJP leader and Union Minister of State for Railways, Suresh Angadi.

In Basavakalya, the bypoll was necessitated by the death of Congress legislator B. Narayan Rao, while the disqualification of Pratapgouda Patil led to the by-election in Maski.

Angadi, a four-time Lok Sabha member from the state, fell prey to Covid-19 in September last year, while Rao also died of Covid in the same month in Bengaluru.

In all, 30 candidates -- 10 in Belgaum, 12 in Basavakalyan and 8 in Maski -- are in the fray. Of them, 26 are men and four are women, including five Independents each in Belgaum and Maski and four in Basavakalyan.

In Belgaum, the BJP fielded Mangala, the widow of Angadi, to inherit his political legacy by retaining the seat, while the Congress fielded Mallamma, the widow of Rao, to inherit his political lineage by retaining the Basavakalyan Assembly seat.

The Congress has fielded its state unit working president and sugar baron Satish Jarkiholi against Mangala in Belgaum.

Satish, 58, is a Congress legislator from the Yemakanmardi Assembly seat in Belgaum district.

Satish is also the younger brother of BJP's tainted former state minister Ramesh Jarkiholi, who was embroiled in the sleaze CD case that had rocked the state recently.

Pratapgouda Patil, who had defected to the BJP from the Congress in November 2019, is re-contesting to retain Maski on a lotus symbol this time.

The Congress has fielded Basavanagoud Turvihal in Maski. Turvihal had lost to Patil from there in the 2018 Assembly elections as a BJP candidate. He jumped ship to the Congress recently.

Though the opposition Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) is not contesting in Belgaum and Maski, it has fielded Syed Yasrab Ali Quadri in Basavakalyan, where the BJP has fielded Saharanu Salaga to wrest the seat from the Congress.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Berlin, May 1 : Paris Saint-Germain moved provisionally back to the top of Ligue 1 thanks to a battling 2-1 win over Lens at the Parc des Princes on Saturday.

Neymar scored the opener and crossed for Marquinhos to head in the champions' second as they responded well to their 2-1 home loss to Manchester City in the Champions League this week.

With Kylian Mbappe missing through injury and Marco Verratti, Angel Di Maria and Ander Herrera starting on the bench, PSG were made to work hard for a result that lifted them back above Lille at the summit, at the very least for a few hours.

Ignatius Ganago pulled a goal back for European hopefuls Lens, but Mauricio Pochettino's men held firm for a morale-boosting win ahead of their second-leg clash with City in England next Tuesday.

PSG, who lost right-back Colin Dagba to injury before the 20-minute mark, had few early chances despite their dominance, although Danilo Pereira tested Wuilker Farinez with a powerful header that was well saved by the Lens keeper.

Lens had done well to keep Neymar quiet but gifted him the opener 32 minutes in, the Brazil star slotting home confidently after Julian Draxler had pinched possession from Facundo Medina on the edge of the box.

Pablo Sarabia should have scored a second after Neymar's header from a fine Marquinhos pass, but Farinez produced a superb one-handed stop, and Lens could have snatched an equaliser before half-time had Jonathan Clauss and Clement Michelin shown more composure inside the box.

Lens began the second half well but PSG doubled their lead just before the hour mark, Marquinhos rising unchallenged to head in Neymar's corner from the right.

However, the visitors halved the deficit barely two minutes later, Ganago hooking the ball through Navas' legs after Arnaud Kalimuendo sliced an attempted overhead kick.

Neymar curled a free-kick off the right post, seemingly via the fingertips of Farinez, and Mauro Icardi saw a goal disallowed for a Marco Verratti offside, but Lens could not capitalise on those moments of fortune.
Dhaka, May 2 : The Criminal Investigation Department of Bangladesh Police arrested Hefazat-e-Islam leader Junaid Al Quasemi, one of the masterminds of the militant outfit, from Brahmanbaria on Saturday morning.

Junaid was behind the violence unleashed in the district by the radical outfit during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Bangladesh in March this year, Jisanul Haque, Senior Assistant Superintendent (media wing) of CID, told IANS.

Junaid is the son of Allama Nur Hossain Quasemi, who was the secretary general of the recently dissolved committee of Hefazat.

Haque said the police are also probing if there is any case of sabotage against Junaid, as has been reported recently.

Earlier on Friday night, the police had arrested six persons, including militant leader from Brahmanbaria, Niazul Karim, in connection with the three-day mayhem unleashed in the district in March.

The police have so far arrested 398 persons in connection with the case.

Raich Uddin, Additional Superintendent of Police (crime and administration), said that six persons were arrested in a special operation from different places on Friday. Among them, Niazul Karim had led a mob on March 26 to Radhika Bazar in Sadar Upazila which set fire to tree trunks and tyres on the streets.

Niazul Karim is the Women and Family Welfare Secretary of the Brahmanbaria District Islamic Movement and the Madrasa Secretary of the Central Committee of the National Teachers Forum.

He had led the attacks on the Central library, besides orchestrating arson in Brahmanbaria between March 26 and March 28.

Hefazat activists and supporters had wreaked havoc across the district in March, when large scale vandalism was witnessed at various government and private establishments in the district.

So far, 56 cases have been registered in connection with these incidents, in which more than 40,000 people have been accused.

During the violence on March 26-28, teachers and students of different madrasas vandalised and torched different government and non-government establishments and houses in the district.
Read your horoscope for 06 June to 12 June here 

Aries: The annual solar transit will enter the sign of Gemini and that will impact your short travels, short courses, media, communication, technology, siblings, writing, and editing. During this week you will have a lot of short travels, but there will be some issues regarding perfection. See More

Taurus: During this week, the Sun, Venus, and Mercury will be impacting the second house of finances and career. When Venus influences your finances, you will be tempted to spend money on expensive objects.These objects can be anything like household items or luxurious items. See More

Gemini: The annual solar transit is impacting your sign and thus your personal life. Mercury and Venus are also moving here and that will make your personal life very eventful. Personal and official partnerships may go through a rough phase. See More

Cancer: The annual solar transit will be impacting the emotional sector and it can be a little challenging for you. This is a very crucial transit as the Sun is also with Mercury and Venus.So, you have to take care of your communication. See More

Leo: The Sun, Venus, and Mercury are impacting your hopes and wishes. This will influence the long-term relationships and hopes. This is a time to think more about your friendships and romantic inclinations. Completions in long-term relationships are seen. See More

Virgo: The annual solar transit is impacting the tenth house of career and managers. My career is moving in a very sensitive way. There are chances for projects from the creative sector. See More

Libra: During this week, you will be interacting with people from far places. The Sun, Venus, and Mercury are inthe ninth house of foreign collaborations and spirituality. This will be a great opportunity for projects from foreign places. See More

Scorpio: The Sun, Venus, and Mercury are impacting the finances and partnerships. This is not a great transit, so, you will have to be very careful with your finances. Mercury is a planet that indicates analysis, accounting, and communication. See More

Sagittarius: During this week, you will be majorly focusing on the relationships due to the influence of the Sun, Venus, and Mercury. You will be focusing on your partnerships and contracts during this week. Mercury will influencethe sector for partnerships and deals. See More

Capricorn: During this week, the Sun, Venus, and Mercury will be impacting your work as well as colleagues. You will find a lot of focus on your work. There will be some projects with communication skills. Most of these projects can be short ones. See More

Aquarius: The Sun, Venus, and Mercury are moving through the fifth house of creativity and romance. This will be an ideal time to complete your creative dreams. Your romantic life is also very important, and you must be very careful when you deal with your partner. See More

Pisces: The Sun, Venus, and Mercury are moving through the fourth house of home and family. Mercury indicates speech and media and there will be a lot of communication regarding your family matters. It can be a real estate deal or some repairing work at home. See More
Washington, May 2 : More than 100 million adult Americans have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 as of Saturday, according to data of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The fully vaccinated account for 30.5 per cent of the US population Xinhua reported More than 144 million Americans received at least one Covid-19 shot, accounting for 43.6 per cent of the population, according to the CDC.

About 240 million Covid-19 vaccine shots have been administered across the country by Saturday, while more than 308 million Covid-19 vaccine doses have been distributed, CDC data show.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Consumers should never pay money for coupons.

According to the Department of Justice, Eastern District of Virginia, Lori Ann Talens and Pacifico Talens pled guilty to felony charges in a counterfeit coupon scam that stole more than $31 million from consumer product manufacturers and retailers. The pair used the name Master Chef and other designations on multiple social media platforms to conspire with others to create and distribute counterfeit coupons nationwide.

We greatly appreciate the efforts of the US Postal Inspection Service, the FBI and the US Attorneys Office as well as cooperating industry participants on this case and we look forward to justice being served, said CICs Executive Director, Bud Miller, CPP. Coupon fraud hurts everyone, especially honest couponers. Consumers can report counterfeiters to the CIC at our website, http://www.couponinformationcenter.com. 

Miller added, Consumers should never pay money for coupons. Coupon sales often involve counterfeit or stolen materials. Coupon purchasers should be aware that they are providing their personal information to individuals or organizations that are likely criminal enterprises and may open themselves to other criminal schemes. They may be criminally and financially liable for their counterfeit coupon activities.

CIC is currently rolling out a new free App, The CIC Suspect Coupon Checker, to retailers, law enforcement and CIC members to identify known counterfeits. Retailers can now identify known counterfeit coupons in a few seconds with the App. Suspect coupons can be transmitted to the CIC for analysis and review.

Miller concluded, It would be wise for coupon counterfeiters to immediately cease their illegal activities. The temporary profits are not worth putting their homes, freedom, and families at risk. Individuals using counterfeit coupons are subject to arrest and prosecution. The penalties can be life-changing; long prison terms, probation, restitution, and other financial penalties are not unusual. As is to be expected, additional counterfeit coupon cases are already being pursued.

The Coupon Information Corporation (CIC) is a not-for-profit association of consumer product manufacturers dedicated to fighting coupon misredemption and fraud.

LINK to the US Attorney's Office (Eastern District of Virginia) news release on this case: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/virginia-beach-couple-pleads-guilty-31-million-coupon-fraud-scheme
Dr. Richard England Its a great honor to have been selected as executive director for French African Christian Education. My wife and I, as well as other members of our family, have been blessed to make several short-term mission trips to various countries.

French African Christian Education (F.A.C.E.) has announced the hiring of Dr. Richard England, Henderson, Tennessee, as its new executive director. For the past 26 years, he and his wife, Dr. Barbara England, have been members of the Freed-Hardeman University faculty. He will retire from his work as professor of education and music at the end of the current semester. She is a professor of art at FHU.

Before joining the FHU faculty, Richard worked in education in various capacities, including teacher and school administrator and at the state department level in higher education. He has served congregations for more than 45 years as Bible class teacher, minister, deacon and elder. The Englands have done short-term mission work in several countries, including Haiti, Scotland, Belgium, Poland and the Republic of Mauritius.

Richard and Barbara are Freed-Hardeman University alumni. He holds a Bachelor of Music from Union University, a Master of Music from Memphis State University and a Doctor of Education, also from Memphis State University. He has done post-doctoral studies at Austin Peay State University, University of Memphis and Berklee College of Music, as well as continuing education studies at Oxford University.

Its a great honor to have been selected as executive director for French African Christian Education. My wife and I, as well as other members of our family, have been blessed to make several short-term mission trips to various countries, England said. We view this as an opportunity to continue our work with the church throughout the world.

F.A.C.E., whose motto is French Africans Evangelizing French Africa, has operated the Bible Training Center (BTC) in Zinvie, Benin, since 1995. Currently, 29 students are enrolled in the three-year regional school of preaching. A total of 177 have graduated since its inception.

England expects to visit with existing and potential supporters of F.A.C.E. and travel to Benin, as restrictions are lifted and international travel becomes more possible. Perhaps the most exciting but greatest challenge of my work will be the move toward accrediting the Bible Training Center as a university. The initial efforts have started to move through the accreditation process, which will be a three- to five-year project, England said. When achieved, the graduates will have a higher-level credential, leading to more missionaries of the gospel in Africa from Africa who understand the culture, customs and language and who are at a higher level of self-sufficiency.

French speaking countries in Africa include: Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo Brazzaville, Congo Kinshasa, Cote dIvoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea (konakry), Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Togo and Tunisia. Students from 11 of these countries have graduated from the Bible Training Center.

Individuals may learn more about F.A.C.E. at FrenchAfricanMissions.com.
Fort Polk, LA (71446)

Today

Mixed clouds and sun with scattered thunderstorms. High 89F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 76F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.
Find vehicle deals at Mercedes-Benz of Arrowhead.

Local dealership Mercedes-Benz of Arrowhead offers a variety of vehicle deals in Peoria, Arizona. Customers who are shopping for not only luxury brands but regular makes and models can find a variety of excellent vehicle deals waiting for them at this dealership. Examples of vehicles that have specials are:



2017 Chevrolet Malibu LT

2021 Mercedes-Benz G-Class G 550 SUV

2015 Mercedes-Benz C-Class C 400 Sedan

2018 Mercedes-Benz GLE 350 SUV

2021 Toyota Highlander XSE

2020 Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport 3.6L V6 SEL Premium R-Line

-2021 Mercedes-Benz GLA 250



2017 Mercedes-Benz GLS 550 4MATIC SUV

2018 Mercedes-Benz GLS 450 4MATIC SUV

These are just a few examples of some of the vehicles customers can find specials on when shopping at Mercedes-Benz of Arrowhead. They also have the distinct advantage of being able to shop in comfort and convenience at this specific dealership in Peoria. Not only does Mercedes-Benz of Arrowhead have three levels of vehicles for its showroom, but the entirety of its showroom is indoors. So, customers don't need to swelter in the Arizona heat or scrape dust off of their shoes before entering the vehicle, as everything is in a clean and comfortable environment. More information is available at http://www.arrowheadmb.com.

Customers who are interested in getting into contact with the dealership are encouraged to call at 623-815-3900, send an email or show up to the dealerships physical location at 9260 W Bell Road in Peoria, where an expert service team, friendly financial team, and three levels of an entirely indoor showroom await.
Robotics market - growth, trends, and forecasts (2020 - 2025) https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/robotics-market NEXT Protocol has received much appreciation from various Industry Leaders. The platform has deployed multiple Co-Robots in some of the renowned companies in the Middle East for assisting visitors, sterilization of the office space, and doing routine checkups of the COVID patients. - Shaik Hamdan

We are in a world where machine technology and artificial intelligence have taken their rightful place today. The global service robotics market is expected to reach $23.90 Billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 15.18% between 2016 and 2022. The market is expected to grow substantially owing to factors such as high demand from the medical and healthcare sector, increase usage of robots for education & research purposes and short- to medium-term payback period, and high return on investment (ROI). Demand for service robots in various sectors such as defense, healthcare, and agriculture are driving service robot growth, along with high layouts, scarcity of skilled workers, and increasing awareness of service applications. However, post-COVID, the market scenario has changed significantly, and presently the projection will be achieved well before the anticipated time.

NEXT Protocol is a blockchain-based platform designed solely to deploy robots with advantage of user driven development and enhancement. NEXTiBOT, driven by NEXT Protocol, is personally attracting clients while limiting human interaction, connect with clients and staff to exchange data, and allow telepresence to collaborate while remaining separated, which is crucial considering the current scenario due to COVID. Through Robot Gaming, and Robot NFTs, the NEXT Protocol is used to create, make, and team up creative robots and their associated AI applications to promote critical thinking.

NEXTIBOT, the robot powered by NEXT Protocol, has been launched by Next IT and Systems. It is more advanced than its predecessor Greet-iBot (greeting and guiding visitors), Safe-iBot (measuring temperature and taking care of patients), Ster-iBot (sterilization of workplace), and Cary-iBot (delivery and carrying office or personal stuff). These touch-free solutions have been a massive demand during this global pandemic. It is a fully functioning robot that does the duty of limiting human contact but brings that closeness, interaction among customers and gives them all the necessary information, and enables telepresence to work together while establishing distancing. It is self-aware sensor-enabled, voice/touch-based, camera-enabled, auto navigation, and NLP-based. NEXT Protocol is also integrating for Mobile App with IoT feature for integrated home automation. NEXT Protocol is creating the future of robots designed for the fractional robot ownership decentralized control, programming, and operation of robot swarms.

NEXT Protocol is empowering the eventual fate of robot connections utilizing NEXT tokens for fragmentary robot proprietorship, decentralized control, programming, and tasks of robot swarms.

We have devised the concept after carefully studying the Market. NEXT Protocol has received much appreciation from various Industry Leaders. The platform has deployed multiple Co-Robots in some of the renowned companies in the Middle East, where they are used for assisting visitors, sterilization of the office space, and doing routine checkups of the COVID patients. The demand has surged specifically because of the COVID situation. The market has started growing faster than it has been anticipated. Considering the situation, we have planned to make it affordable and make distributed ownership through our DeFi Protocol. So, we made the system in such a way, owners can avail rental yield by renting NEXTiBots through our protocol and the users cost will be reduced significantly.

-Shaik Hamdan, one of the pioneers of the IT Industry in the Middle East and the CEO of NEXT IT and System.

NEXT Protocol-driven NEXTiBOT has been delivered to one of the major companies, solely customized for the main function of working as a health inspector during the Covid pandemic.

NEXT Protocol is a humanoid robot platform on blockchain bringing easy ownership through NEXT tokens. With seamless touchless visitor management system & intelligent receptionist and a covid pandemic friendly monitor for ensuring safety; disinfecting and sanitizing office premises and members.

NEXT IT and Systems, the company behind NEXT Protocol, is very meticulous about customer satisfaction and will do whatever it takes to satisfy the given requirement with a 100% guarantee and support from their team.

With a Robot Operating System (ROS) integrated decentralized ledger for fractional ownership, NEXTiBot is deployed remotely to make our surrounding environment safer from Covid.

-John Kalis

NEXT IT and Systems is a global robotics company that offers robotics solutions through its NEXT Protocol platform. The NEXT Protocol robotics solution enables businesses to conduct and handle a variety of operations that include numerous safety precautions. It has many clients in the Middle East and Europe. NEXT IT and Systems has established a team of highly experienced professionals in the Robotics and AI industries and has developed a niche of its own. Presently with the amalgamation of Blockchain with Robotics and AI, it is considered one of the front-runners in this industry.
Celebrating 20 Years of More Proof. Less Reading. We look back at 20 years of success, said Frank Hessler, CEO of Schlafender Hase. Thanks to the hard work of the whole team, we are not just growing old, we seem to be getting better with age. Last year was the companys best."

Schlafender Hase, the global leader in intelligent, automated text and graphic proofreading software for sensitive, high-volume packaging and labeling requirements, celebrates its 20th birthday on May 1. The Frankfurt-based company will mark the occasion with special offers.

We look back at 20 years of success, said Frank Hessler, CEO of Schlafender Hase. Thanks to the hard work of the whole team, we are not just growing old, we seem to be getting better with age. Last year was the companys best. With new product features and improved support and training, we look forward to continuing our success story.

As an expression of its commitment to growth the company has added members to both its sales and development teams. Last year the company introduced TVT Connect, an Application Programming Interface (API) that makes it possible to connect the companys flagship proofreading software TVT, the Text Verification Tool, and all of its functionalities to any information management system, either web-based or online. Later this year, the company is scheduled to introduce its new TVT Barcode module. The TVT Barcode module will enable users to identify, detect and decode all barcodes relevant to users in the highly regulated pharma and medical devices industry.

For more information about Schlafender Hase or TVT and to register for the special anniversary offers, please contact us.

About Schlafender Hase

Since Schlafender Hase introduced TVT, the Text Verification Tool, this software has taken the lead in providing intelligent, automated text and graphic proofreading solutions for the most highly regulated industries. Schlafender Hases clients include the worlds leading pharmaceutical and medical device companies. TVT is also used by other industries where increased productivity and error-free labeling and packaging are essential, for example, pre-media, consumer packaged goods (CPG) and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG). The company recently introduced TVT Connect, a platform which makes it possible to easily connect TVT with any information management system. Schlafender Hase is proud to be known for product quality, service excellence and customer success. The year 2021 marks the 20th anniversary of the companys founding in 2001. Schlafender Hase is headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, with a North American division in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
We are grateful for teachers and the significant contributions they make on a daily basis to benefit students and our communities. Its inspiring to see so many great brands stepping up and participating to help to show their appreciation." Jake Weatherly, Chief Executive Officer, SheerID

SheerID, the identity marketing platform used by hundreds of leading brands around the world, has partnered with several brands for Teacher Appreciation Week to provide exclusive offers to the 7 million educators in the US. SheerID is proud to partner with these organizations to reward educators.

We are grateful for teachers and the significant contributions they make on a daily basis to benefit students and our communities, said Jake Weatherly Chief Executive Officer of SheerID. Its inspiring to see so many great brands stepping up and participating to help to show their appreciation and thanks for all the efforts educators have made this last year.

Educators deserve to be recognized and respected, and the message to brands is straightforward. Brands that show their support for this valuable consumer community, can win valuable loyalty and have a direct effect in classrooms by providing educators with the resources they need to educate our children.

Educators are working harder than ever while navigating changing work environments and health and family considerations. Willow honors the dedication and resilience of teachers in partnership with SheerID by offering a reduced price on our wearable, hands-free, leak-proof breast pump, said Sarah O'Leary, Chief Marketing Officer at Willow. Teaching while pumping with a traditional breast pump is challenging, and often impossible for some teachers. Willow's ultimate mobility allows teacher mamas to breast pump freely and discreetly in any classroom environment.

SheerID research from two years ago revealed that 99% of teachers spent personal funds for school-related purposes because teachers felt an obligation to ensure that students have a positive learning experience at all costs.

In recognition of the significant contributions of teachers and educators this past year, several brands are offering discounts and special offers as part of Teacher Appreciation Week. The following brands have provided an offer that, with the help of SheerIDs Identity Marketing platform, ensures rewards are instantly and securely provided to eligible recipients.

The brand offers for Teacher Appreciation Week include:

Willow Pump: One day only! Teacher mamas take $100 off Willow Pump. Celebrating all teachers with our biggest discount. Shop today! (note to SheerID team - May 4th only)

ThinkEDU: Teachers & Students can save up to 90% on tons of popular software from Microsoft, Adobe, Rosetta Stone and more. Also special offers on Laptops, iPads from $99, Computer and iPhone Accessories. Get FREE SHIPPING today on all orders. Use Coupon Code: TEACH21 (Continental US only)

LLBean: L.L.Bean offers a special 10% discount for teachers. If weve learned anything this past year, its just how important you are.

Xfinity: Teachers receive access to exclusive offers that include $150 Visa Gift cards.

Boden: Calling all teachers: shop 20% off plus free shipping & returns on orders over $49 at BODEN.COM

Birdies: Birdies is proud to offer a 20% year-round discount for educators so they can look and feel great while teachingwith best-in-class style and ultimate comfort. Shop now with Birdies 20% off discount for educators.

Purple: Thank you to all of our teachers, professors, and faculty for everything you do. Fill out your information here to claim 10% off your order at purple.com and for your chance to win a $1,000 gift card to Purple.

Kipling: Teachers receive an extra 15% off the entire purchase at Kipling. Limited Time Only!

Headspace: Headspace offers free annual Headspace Plus subscriptions to all K-12 teachers, school administrators, and supporting staff in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia.

Sonic: From May 2-9, use promo code TEACHERS at checkout online or in the SONIC app to get a free large drink or slush with any online or app purchase. 1 per guest.

Legal: Promo code TEACHERS is valid for one free Large Slush, Soft Drink, Iced Tea or Limeade with purchase when you order online or in the SONIC App. Add-Ins cost extra. One per customer. Not good in conjunction with any other offers, rewards, or delivery. Offer good for a limited time only at participating SONIC Drive-Ins. Order Ahead available only at select locations; hours may vary. Reward is valid May 2-9, 2021. Tax not included. No cash value. Copies, sale, or Internet distribution or auction prohibited.

Make sure to check out all the exclusive discounts and offers made for teachers at:

SheerID Teacher Deals.

About SheerID

SheerID is the leader in identity marketing. With SheerID, brands identify and acquire consumer communities  such as the military, students, teachers, and more  with personalized offers, gated by instant verification from the largest set of authoritative data worldwide. SheerID verifies over 2.5 billion people via 9,000 authoritative data sources; provides global insights from over 200 of the worlds leading brands, and never shares or sells customer data. As a result, the worlds biggest brands  including Amazon, Lowes, Spotify, and T-Mobile  rely on SheerID as their identity marketing partner. Founded in 2011, SheerID is backed by Arnold Venture Group, Centana Growth Partners, CVC Growth Partners, and Voyager Capital.

Contact:

Matt Tatham

SheerID

matt.tatham@sheerid.com

917-446-7227
Shoppers that might be interested in the 2022 Nissan Pathfinder when it arrives in Montgomery, Alabama, can research the vehicle ahead of time on the Jack Ingram Nissan website.

All the way back in 1985, Nissan introduced the world to a compact sport utility vehicle called the Pathfinder. In the decades since, the Pathfinder has undergone numerous changes, first becoming a midsize SUV before eventually making the transition to being a midsize crossover. With four generations in the book, the automaker introduced the long-standing models fifth generation for the 2022 model year.

Residents of the Montgomery, Alabama, area have an easy solution for learning more about the newest iteration of the iconic vehicle. Jack Ingram Nissan, a dealership local to the area, recently added an informative model research page focused on the upcoming vehicle to its website. Although the model isnt yet available in the dealerships showroom, car buyers can prepare for its release date by reading all about it on the website.

The page highlights many of the different features and some of the important specifications that make up the 2022 Nissan Pathfinder. This includes looking at things like the vehicles powertrain, highlighting information about its different color options and available features, and more. Plus, interested parties can fill out a form right on the page to let the dealerships staff know theyre interested.

Car shoppers in the area interested in learning more about the latest Nissan Pathfinder are encouraged to head to the dealerships website, http://www.jackingramnissan.com, to find this page and many others like it. Specific questions can be directed to the sales staff at 833-343-0674. Jack Ingram Motors is located at 227 Eastern Blvd. in Montgomery.
Please Join Us: Donate $1 to Sponsor One Foster Youth and Make a Difference Today!! SnackMagic is excited to be involved and support such a great charitable cause, said Shaunak Amin, Snackmagic Co-Founder and CEO. Helping raise funds to benefit foster children will be incredibly influential in giving kids better lives and we are proud to be a part of this effort

SnackMagic, a build-your-own snack box service, launched during the COVID pandemic to bring people working remotely together, has pledged its support to the 2nd annual #FosterChallenge to help raise $500,000 dollars for the nations 500,000 foster youth. The new customizable snacking service joins Philip Bailey of Earth, Wind, & Fire, founder of the Music Is Unity Foundation, and Holly Choon Hyang Bachman, Korean adoptee / founder and president of the Mixed Roots Foundation to kick off the POWER OF ONE campaign in May for National Foster Care Month.

The Power of One challenges all Americans to join the #FosterChallenge by donating $1 to benefit a child in the foster care system. SnackMagic has created the #Foster Challenge Snack Box available throughout May and included in VIP ticket offerings for THE POWER OF ONE: HOUR OF UNITY, as part of its contribution. A percentage of all proceeds from SnackMagic sales will be distributed to 20 non-profit foster care organizations to support their work and meet the urgent needs of foster youth across the country. #FosterChallenge contributors can make their $1 donation at http://www.fosterchallenge.org or buy a Snackmagic Box using the promo code fosterchallenge.

SnackMagic is excited to be involved and support such a great charitable cause, said Shaunak Amin, SnackMagic Co-Founder and CEO. Helping raise funds to benefit foster children will be incredibly influential in giving kids better lives and we are proud to be a part of this effort.

Our partnership with SnackMagic is a wonderful way to create a shared experience while raising awareness and funds for children in foster care, especially those aging out of the foster care system, said Philip Bailey, Founder of the Music Is Unity Foundation. Bailey added, We are pleased that Shaunak and SnackMagic are giving back to the community in such an innovative way.

THE POWER OF ONE: HOUR OF UNITY will be held on Thursday, May 20th at 3pm PST | 5pm CST | 6pm EST to applaud the achievements of foster youth and allow their voices and stories to be heard. All donations will be distributed to 20 non-profit foster care agencies to provide youth with essentials, including shelter, food, technology, and other goods. For more information about the Hour of Unity, to register or donate online, please visit http://www.fosterchallenge.org.

About SnackMagic

SnackMagic is minority owned company based in New York and is the only 100% customizable snack box solution, where gift recipients customize their snack stashes from a menu of over 1,000 gourmet snacks and beverages and have them delivered right to their door. SnackMagic also offers several customization options for your gift to stand out, from including swag inside the individual boxes to branding the outside of the boxes. Setting up orders takes only 2 to 3 minutes and the personalized gifts will make your friends, family, co-workers and virtual conference attendees so happy! For more info, visit snackmagic.com, SnackMagic can also be found on Facebook and Instagram @snackmagic

About the Music Is Unity Foundation

(MIU) MIU is a leading non-profit created by Mr. Bailey to focus on youth aging out of foster care. Since 2007 MIU has provided grants to non-profit, community-based organizations and agencies offering supportive services to the over 23,000 youth who are emancipating from the U.S. Foster Care system each year. For more information about MIU, please visit musicisunity.org, and follow us on Facebook, Instagram at @musicisunity.

About Mixed Roots Foundation (MRF)

Founded in 2011, MRF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization celebrating its 10-Year Anniversary based in Los Angeles, CA with regional offices in San Francisco, CA, Minneapolis, MN and New York, NY and serves as the first and only national / global multicultural foundation for adoptees and their families representative of the international, domestic, and foster care adoption experience and improves the lives of those touched by adoption and foster care by leveraging philanthropy and grassroots fundraising to support important post-adoption resources including mentoring, DNA testing and unique scholarships/grants for adoptees, foster youth and their families. For more info, please visit mixedrootsfoundation.org, Follow on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @mixedroots.
Dana Spiotta looks delighted through the camera of the computer in her Syracuse, N.Y., home office. She loves the pink cherries and a white pear she can see blooming outside her window. Theyre early this yeara reminder of all thats living outside the houses in which weve been cooped up for so long.

Spiotta is immediately approachable, confessing that her own house is really in disarray. She says its in keeping with the state of being of a middle age woman who is worried about parents and kids, and coping with the daily surprises of menopause. It is a lot, the 55-year-old acknowledges, smiling. (She looks far younger, with her long brown hair and tortoiseshell glasses.) I felt like the pandemic took away about 20% of my capacity at all times, so I had to let go of something that I couldnt quite manage and say, Thats really fine. Part of your brain isnt working right now. 

Whats left was enough to complete Spiottas latest novel, Wayward (Knopf, July). Its a modern, poignant, and often funny story about a woman reckoning with midlife. The book is set in 2017, just after the election of Donald Trump. Samantha Raymond feels untethered: her mother is sick, her teenage daughter is pulling away, and, at 52, she finds herself repeatedly waking up in the middle of the night. All at once, shes questioning everything. Her rebellionshe leaves her husband and teenage daughter behind in the suburbs of Syracuse and moves to a bungalow in the city to live simply and aloneraises plenty of questions.

With the book, Spiotta is exploring a number of weighty issues. What, exactly, gives life meaning and value? And what does it feel like to be a woman in a country going off the rails? Spiottas editor, Jordan Pavlin at Knopf, believes Wayward will be one of the summers most-discussed novels, calling it the authors finest work yet.

Spiottas four previous novelsInnocents and Others (2016), Stone Arabia (2011), Eat the Document (2006), and Lightning Field (2001)each received widespread critical acclaim and have been shortlisted for an array of literary prizes. She has also won a Creative Capital Award, a Guggenheim fellowship, a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship, the Premio Pivano, the Rome Prize in Literature, and the John Updike Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. And shes been nominated for a National Book Award twice and a National Book Critics Circle award.

But Spiotta writes to answer questions of her own. In all my books, Im interested in characters who are trying to change, or even just trying to see themselves with clarity, because I think change is so hard, she explains. The older you get, the harder it is to get over yourself, because you just have so much self. I think something dramatic sometimes needs to happen, and the book begins there. The character wonders, as she should, what has she done with all she has been given? Although it is not autobiographical, this book feels more personal and emotional because I wonder that, too.

Spiotta lives with her husband and 17-year-old daughter within walking distance of Syracuse University, where she teaches creative writing in the MFA program. Like Sam, she wakes up in the middle of the night, but she decided not to fret about it. I thought, well, some things are out of my control, so Im going to just adjust. I can either lay in bed and spiral and worry, or I can go read or write something.

When facing down the disappointments that so often descend in midlife, about choices not made and paths not taken, some people double down on their self-delusions instead of looking inward. That may seem easier in the short term, but thats not an honest life, and I dont think it ends well, Spiotta says. No one looks back and says, Oh, I asked myself too many questions about what I was doing. Nothats what you need to do, even if it costs you something.

Those questions loomed large in 2017, when the nation suddenly found itself reckoning with its own identity crisis. For Spiottas protagonist, that meant asking some foundational questions: What to do now, and how to be now? Its no wonder Sam leaves her comfortable life on the outskirts of Syracuse to find answers in the underbelly of the city.

Spiotta grew up in California, which has featured in all of her previous books. Were shaped by the geography of where we liveeverything from the weather to the architecture, she says. Living in Los Angeles shaped the characters I wrote about in a different way than the characters who are shaped by Upstate New York. Theres something about the imposing landscape in the west that changes your relationship to it. Here, its much gentler. It feels like a long-inhabited place.

Remnants of that history play their own role in Wayward. For Spiotta, stories always begin with objects: she pins scrawled notes, good luck charms, talismansdetails she wants to rememberto the cork wall above her desk. There are pictures of pottery, architectural plans. Its chaotic. But as she takes them in, she keeps switching things out. You can see things, and you can move them, she says.

Then comes the story. When I start, I dont really know where Im going, Spiotta says. I keep a notebook with notes and the questions Im interested in. Then I usually get a character, and I just get the character to talk, either to other people or to themselves. Once I hear that voice, then I understand. I either need to have dialogue, or I need to have an internal monologue. But I need to hear that voice.

By the end of the book, the fear in Sams voice about her ailing mother really highlights the anxiety about her own mortality. This is something Spiotta knows from experience: her own father died last year after a long illness. The visceral aspect of not having control of your bodywhich you dontreminds you of all the other places you dont have control, she says. You cant actually make everything okay; its not within your power, and that is liberating. Part of the job of being alive is to figure out how to die.

As she listens and writes, Spiotta keeps digging. I do way more research than I need to, she says, laughing. I used to worry about being more efficient. Now, I think, Why? What is velocity, and why is that the ultimate value of everything? The process is really messy, but its so funand you discover weird things that you can only get from just meandering through stuff.

And those details add dimensions to Spiottas characters. They also give her the confidence to be more precise. If you can just find the language to meet that moment, thats the whole fun of writing, and the challenge, she says. You want something magical to happen, and that isnt usually the straight line. Its the weird line, and sometimes its the happenstance line.

Victoria Scanlan Stefanakos has written for Forbes, Newsweek, and Working Mother.
In recent years, a rising number of both fiction and nonfiction anthologies have been published for the young adult audience, capitalizing on the formats accessibility and its unique capacity to allow for a variety of voices and perspectives to be featured within one volume. We spoke with the editors of five recently published and forthcoming anthologies for teens about the origin of their collections, how they built their lists of contributors, and their hopes for these volumes as they reach readers.

A spark of an idea

For anthology editors Laura Silverman and Dahlia Adler, previous experience collaborating with their YA author peers led to their respective projects. Silverman, who had collaborated with Katherine Locke on Its a Whole Spiel: Love, Latkes, and Other Jewish Stories, was eager to embark on another cooperative endeavor after realizing she could get paid to work with talented people and just read their stories while creating an anthology. The concept for Up All Night: 13 Stories Between Sunrise and Sunset (Algonquin, July) was inspired by the magic of the hours after parents and other adults are tucked in bed but teens are still awake.

Every single teenager has had something important happen during those midnight hours, Silverman says. The world gets quiet, and things that would never happen in the daytime are suddenly possible. You can be someone else and explore new things.

Adler, the editor of the recently published That Way Madness Lies: 15 of Shakespeares Most Notable Works Reimagined (Flatiron), had previously edited an anthology focused on Edgar Allan Poe. After seeing the success of His Hideous Heart: 13 Stories of Edgar Allan Poes Most Unsettling Tales Reimagined, including its use in classrooms and libraries, she sensed an opportunity to create another anthology highlighting a widely read and studied author. She landed on Shakespeare, whom she dubbed an obvious choice.

For others, a drive to subvert the stereotyping, misunderstanding, and vilification of their cultures and bodies was the genesis of their collections. Both PW StarWatch honoree Saraciea J. Fennell, editor of Wild Tongues Cant Be Tamed: 15 Voices from the Latinx Diaspora (Flatiron, Sept.), and Margarita Longoria, editor of Living Beyond Borders: Growing Up Mexican in America (Philomel, Aug.), say the rhetoric and actions of the previous administration moved them to push back.

I was an English teacher for years and Im a librarian now, Longoria notes. So Ive always loved books and feel books can change things, and provide an opportunity to learn about other people and cultures. She aimed to create an anthology for teens that highlighted the beauty of Mexican and Mexican American culture, showing that Mexican people are not violent and ignorant, as many anti-immigrant politicians suggest, but are a good, strong, and proud people with much to offer. For Longoria, creating this collection was a way for one little person to fight back through something she knows: books.

Similarly, Fennell was disheartened and disturbed by the previous administrations denigration. I thought, how can we, the Latinx community, combat this and show that we arent this way? she says. How can we share our truths while subverting stereotypes? At the same time, she realized that there is not a lot of nonfiction in the YA space that features Latinx writers from the diaspora, particularly Black Latinx writers, which she found important to address.

Cassandra Newbould, editor of Every Body Shines: Sixteen Stories About Living Fabulously Fat (Bloomsbury, June), had just finished writing her middle grade novel, Fat Like Me, and was considering starting a podcast when the idea of an anthology occurred to her. When I was a teenager, the only books I found that featured a relatable fat character treated that character horribly, she says, recalling the Sweet Valley High books. The poor girl was running across the track most of the book, just so she would be accepted by people. She realized that she wanted to create an intersectional anthology because fat is not a monolith and, all too often, the stories that are published focus on straight, cis, white main characters. Instead she wanted to show all the ways fat bodies thrive while fighting against the world, where none of the characters change themselves to fit the narrative, but rather change the narrative to fit them.

Building an A-team

Newbould was nervous when she began reaching out to potential contributors for Every Body Shines, unsure whether anyone would want to participate or have a story to tell. Too often the world is telling [fat people] to keep our stories to ourselves, but to break out of that mindset is a freeing thing, she says. Sometimes it can be intimidating and scary, but the moment you start putting the words down, the dam breaks and you realize these are the stories youve been wanting to tell your whole life.

Newbould approached Rebecca Sky first, whose response was overwhelmingly positive. She continued from there, asking for stories that came from the contributors hearts to create a collection that shows how distinct individual experiences can be, while making a concerted effort to be inclusive of people who live or have lived the fat experiencefrom the contributors to the editor to the cover illustrator. The other thing that ties the stories together, she says, is that every protagonist finds their shine in the end. Some have it from the beginning, and others dont find it until the last page, but its there.

To build her contributor list for Up All Night, Silverman decided to, appropriately, shoot for the stars, asking authors whose writing she knew and admired while being mindful to include writers from a variety of backgrounds and experiences. You want to be sure you consider representation while being aware that, to sell an anthology, you need names that pack a bit of a punch, Silverman says. And those authors are highly in demand, of course. She kept the submission guidelines open-ended but asked contributors to send pitches so as to avoid any direct overlap of plot or trope and to ensure a balance in tone.

Similarly, Fennell says she put a lot of thought and care into choosing the contributors, to be certain that young readers would be able to see themselves in the stories. There is a lack of diverse Latinx voices out there, she says. I was very conscious of that as I curated Wild Tongues Cant Be Tamed and, though it was hard not to include some people, it all came down to presenting a list of contributors who could address various stereotypes while writing about identity, racism, queerness, belonging, anti-Blackness, and finding oneself within the Latinx community.

Adler says that for her, selecting contributors was a bit of a mixed bag, with some authors, like Lily Anderson and Anna-Marie McLemore, being clear choices because they had already done Shakespeare reimaginings, but other picks were more unexpected. Striving to balance comedies and tragedies, Adler asked each contributor which original Shakespeare work they would like to retell, then recalibrated which writer she would ask next to deliver what she felt was lacking. If someone surprised me by saying they were going to do a comedy when I assumed they would choose a tragedy, I would then reach out to someone I thought would do a comedy, she recalls. In some cases, I had to give authors very few choices to ensure the stories I felt were most important to have in the collection, based on what is commonly read in schools, were represented.

Reaching readers

I think collections are a great way to get to know new authors, Adler says. High school kids have so much reading to do, so, if youre going to read for pleasure or a teacher is going to pair a young adult text with a classic text, it feels much more accessible and realistic for that to be short-form. She also notes that a short story anthology is a great way to see different ways of interpreting and approaching a classic text. Anthologies allow for the exploration of various genres, and they also provide an opportunity to look through a variety of lenses.

Most of Poes stories, for example, feature white, male narrators, but there are no white, male narrators in His Hideous Heart, Adler says. An anthology works well to update these stories and make them feel more relevant to a modern audience while showing how you can work creatively with text. She hopes that educators embrace this new collection, because there are some kids who are always going to struggle with Shakespeare because it isnt accessible and relevant to everyone. She believes these retellings can help change that and allow readers of all experiences to feel seen.

Adler has been thrilled to hear readers say This Way Madness Lies is ideal for readers who have a tumultuous relationship with Shakespeare, and she hopes the book continues to find exactly those readers. If you love Shakespeare, its fascinating to see the ways these stories build on the original, she says. If you dont like Shakespeare, this collection gives inroads to appreciate the original text in a different way. And, if you have a love-hate relationship with his work, youll find that many of the stories reimagine things you may have taken issue with in the original and show it through a different lens that allows you to appreciate the work more fully.

Newbould, Longoria, and Fennell hope to change hearts and minds by tapping into the accessibility of the anthology form and its ability to expose readers to voices and perspectives traditionally underrepresented and unheard.

From the beginning, I created For Every Body for the kids that danced in the shadows because they were taught to hide themselves, Newbould says. I want this book to tell every reader that it is okay to take up space, now, today. You dont have to wait, regardless of your journey in the future. In this collection about finding ones strength and power, the stories feature fully realized fat characters on journeys of self-discovery, self-reflection, and self-recognition of the internalized and external fatphobia they experience and that magical moment when they find their true selves.

With contributions that elicit joy and pieces that prompt readers to reckon with their own beliefs and perspectives, Wild Tongues Cant Be Tamed will be an eye-opener, Fennell says, for anyone who has ever wondered about Latinx cultures you dont often hear about, or how the Latinx community is navigating whiteness, Blackness, and racism within our own community.

Longoria hopes that Growing Up Beyond Borders will have a similar impact, validating those who identify as Mexican and Mexican American while allowing all readers to see her Mexican and Mexican American community as individuals with families and friends, good days and bad days, and triumphs and losses, just like everyone else. We love just like everyone else. We love our own culture and other cultures, too; we are not the ugly people others make us out to be, she says. I am humbled and grateful that we are able to give this book to the world at this time.

Sara Grochowski is a youth librarian and writer in Michigan.
Irish writer Colm Toibin, whose forthcoming novel The Magician (Scribner, Sept.) embraces the life of Thomas Mann, tells me that, though he had read all of Manns work by his early 20s, he never thought of him as a character. In the 1990s, there were three big biographies of Mann, and I read all of them, he says. They each had theories about him and filled me with information, but then I became interested in how he could be seen, since I work in details, not theories.

Toibins editor, Scribner publisher Nan Graham, calls Toibin one of my favorite people who might burst out in song at a dinner. She says hes been writing this book for a long time, that he inhabited Mann, and that no biography could compete.

According to Toibin, he was in L.A. in 2005 when I knew I was going to write this book at some point and wanted to visit the house where Mann had lived in Pacific Palisades. (In 1939, at the beginning of World War II, Mann came to the United States from his native Germany.) The woman who lived in the house had bought it from Mann and his wife, Katia Mann, and didnt let anybody in, so Toibin felt fortunate to be an exception. It was pretty much the same as when Mann lived there, he says. A magnificent house, and I was able to see his study. I thought about the weather in California, what it must have been like for someone from northern Germany, with weather similar to Irelands. I saw the house through his eyes.

When Toibin taught at Princeton, he went to the house Mann lived in there. He also saw Manns mothers housesone outside of Munich and one in Brazil that she left when she was nine. He imagined leaving this house so close to the water and all the stars of the southern hemisphere for Germany. These houses, Toibin says, gave him more of an idea of what it was like to be Manna gay man with six children in a marriage with, oddly enough, no evidence that it was not happy.

Then in 2016, Toibin went to Havana. He recalls one morning when it was too hot outside on the balcony, the same song was playing over and over, and I thought, I should write this book. The big issue, he says, is that he wanted people who hadnt read Mann to be able to read the book.

Toibins publishing relationships go back a long time. Of Graham, he says, I knew her from Penguin when I published my first book in 1991, referring to The South. She wasnt his editor, but he remembers seeing her in the corridor and thinking, Whos that?  When he wrote The Blackwater Lightship, his fourth novel, he wanted Graham to see it. I wanted her to publish it, he tells me, and I sent it to her. I was checking out of my hotel in New York for noonthis is before cell phonesand at five minutes to 12, the phone rings and she says she loved the book and was going to publish it!

Scribner published Blackwater Lightship, which was shortlisted for the Booker, in 2000, and Graham has been Toibins editor ever since. It was the first title of a multibook deal that Toibins agent, Peter Straus, brokered, and that also includes collections of essays and stories. After The Magician, theres another novel to come on the contract.

Colm knows exactly what hes doing, Graham says. Hes so in command, such authority. He delivers exquisitely controlled work, and hes so prolific: he writes essays, poetry, criticism, biography. Calling The Magician a family story that happens to be about Thomas Mann, she notes that, on top of everything else, it presents German history. Mann saw WWI, the rise of Hitler, WWII. He had this extraordinary marriage with an amazing wife who was dedicated to his work. And he became famous so young; he won the Nobel in 1929 when he was 54 years old.

Grahams admiration for Toibin is palpable. I dont know anyone as happy as Colm, she says. They dont make them like him anymore.

Toibins relationship with Straus, managing director at RCW in London, goes back over 30 years as well. Straus was an editor at Picador when he reached out to Toibin after The South was published. Toibin recalls going to Strauss office and there were these books on his desk, and all of them went on to be bestsellers. And I told him what I wanted: I want you to commission a novel from me, blind. Just trust me. Give me a contract, and when its finished, its yours. And he did it.

That second novel was 1992s The Heather Blazing, and Toibin and Straus worked together until Straus became an agent in 2002. Toibin was Strauss first client.

Straus echoes Graham when he talks of Toibins intense work ethic and diligence. When he sold that first book, Blackwater, to Graham, it was a multibook deal, Straus says, because Toibinwanted to carry on, not doting about.

Straus notes that The Magician is connected with an earlier Toibin novel, 2004s The Master, about Henry James. Mann and James are so complex, whats on the surface and whats underneath are different things, he says. The stories are sad, and then theres this ebullient reaffirmation of life. Like Colm himself, theres a duality, within him and these other great writers.

Toibin showed Straus chapters of The Magician as he was writing, and Straus says he found them very powerful. What is said is as powerful as what is not said, he adds. Colm writes silences; he joins the heart and the mind. Reading the chapters, I was reminded of the silence of Mann. Hes there and hes not there.

Straus describes how the composite portrait of Mann comes together: Colm is faithful to events. Hes so deft, not fancifuland he has such empathy and understanding.

While both Graham and Straus regard The Magician as remarkable, Toibin says, Ill tell you one thing. I do not intend to write another book about a man with six children! They were all very different, and each had to be distinguished and paid attention to.

The novel will be published in the U.K., simultaneously with the U.S. release, by Mary Mount at Viking, and to date rights have sold in 15 other territories. Straus mentions that it seems the Germans want to get a jump on the pub date: One of my authors told me that in Germany, devotion to Mann is equivalent to devotion to the royal family in England.
DEAL OF THE WEEK

McManus Re-ups at Delacorte In a seven-figure deal, Delacorte Presss Krista Marino bought North American rights to two YA thrillers by Karen M. McManus. One will be the final entry in the trilogy launched by McManuss bestseller One of Us Is Lying. The second book in the deal is a standalone thriller. The titles are slated for summer 2023 and summer 2024, respectively. McManus was represented by Rosemary Stimola and Allison Remcheck at Stimola Literary Studio.

FROM THE U.S.

Knopf Falls Under Adebayos Spell

Ayobami Adebayo sold A Spell of Good Things to Knopf, which also published her lauded 2017 debut, Stay with Me. Jennifer Jackson acquired North American rights to the title from Kathy Robbins at the Robbins Office. The book follows Eniola, a tailors apprentice in Nigeria, and Wuraola, a young doctor and the daughter of the shops most important customer. When Eniola is caught up in a web of decisions that conflicts with the local political forces, Knopf said, the fates of the two [characters] families become entwined. The author was a finalist for the Womens Prize for Fiction for Stay with Me.

Random House Nabs Odenkirk Memoir

Actor Bob Odenkirk sold North American rights to Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama: A Memoir to Random Houses Ben Greenberg. William Morris Endeavor, Odenkirk-Provissiero, and Ziffren-Brittenham brokered the deal. The memoir, set for January 2022, will, RH said, see Odenkirk open up about his legendary cult status as a comedian, and about what its like to reinvent a showbiz career after 50.

Shins Father Joins Astra House Family

For Astra House, Alessandra Bastagli preempted North American rights to South Korean author Kyung-Sook Shins new novel, I Went to See My Father. The publisher said Shins 2011 international bestseller Please Look After Mom sold more than two million copies in South Korea alone. I Went to See My Father continues the family saga begun in that book. Whereas Please Look After Mom is a very contained, personal story of a mother, Astra House said, I Went to See My Father is more ambitious, with an epic sweepnot just about one man but about war and sacrifice, wrapped in a story about a father. Anton Hur is translating the book, which is slated for January 2023. Shin was represented by Barbara J. Zitwer, who has an eponymous shingle.

HMH Builds a Castle in Howeys Sand

Jamie Levine at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt acquired North American rights to Across the Sand, the first full-length novel in five years by Hugh Howey. The bestselling author was represented by Kristin Nelson at Nelson Literary Agency. Across the Sand is a sequel to Howeys 2014 postapocalyptic novel Sand and follows a young woman seeking revenge. Nelson said that after the detonation of an old world nuclear bomb destroys her home, the woman plans to wipe out the hardscrabble settlements across the border, only to discover that injustices run deep everywhere. Across the Sand is set for fall 2022.

Postons Romantics Woo Berkley

Amanda Bergeron at Berkley preempted world English rights to Ashley Postons adult fiction debut. The publisher said The Dead Romantics was pitched as Ghost meets The Bold Type and follows a disillusioned millennial romance novel ghostwriter, who returns to her familys funeral home after her father passes away and comes face-to-face with the ghost of everything shed been running fromliterally, in the form of her very attractive new editor. Holly Root at Root Literary represented Poston in the deal. The Dead Romantics is set for summer 2022.
West Hartford (06107)

Today

Mostly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High around 90F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

A few clouds from time to time. Low around 65F. Winds light and variable.
On April 24, Independent Bookstore Day, Ontario-based publisher and independent bookstore Biblioasis did a soft launch for a new chapbook, but its not aimed at the typical bookstore customer. Instead, Josh Cooks The Least We Can Do: White Supremacy, Free Speech, and Independent Bookstores is the first in a series intended to spark discussion and debate among booksellers about important issues in the trade.

The idea for the bookseller-authored series came about last winter, when Biblioasis publisher Dan Wells read an essay by Cook, a veteran bookseller at Porter Square Books, PWs 2020 Bookstore of the Year, in Cambridge, Mass. In the pandemic, we were thinking about ways to become more responsive and responsible publishers, Wells said. We hit on the idea of returning to the pamphlet and trying to modernize the template.

Wells first thought about publishing pamphlets after opening Biblioasis as a bookshop in 1998, but the idea fell by the wayside, even as the publishing arm of his business became successful. Still, he said, chapbooks and pamphlets were never far from his thinking. In 2019 he published a pamphlet version of Lucy Ellmanns I Dated Graham Greene in honor of Independent Bookstore Day. That year, he also published Jorge Carrions Against Amazon. Those led to the creation of Field Notes, a pamphlet series launched during the pandemic.

When Cooks essay came across his screen, Wells quickly envisioned a new series just for booksellers. Each title will be no more than 48 pages and will retail for $7.95. Consortium distributes Biblioasis in the U.S.

Wells said his goal for the series is to remain open to varying approaches and vantage points. For instance, one bookseller has proposed creating a glossary of terms associated with bookselling. Bookselling symbolically and practically plays a range of important roles in our lives, Wells said. It would be great, I think, just to get booksellers off of Twitter for a little while and arguing between pages.

Many of the books will take up challenging political issues that booksellers are confronting, Wells said. The Least We Can Do delves into the heated debate surrounding publishers ongoing rollout of books by authors associated with white nationalism, white supremacy, and the politics of former president Trump.

Confronting white supremacy

Cookwho noted that his positions are his own do not represent the policy of Porter Squareargues that the current crop of conservative titles are avowedly white supremacist in nature, and that booksellers need to take a stand against giving them a platform. Were not talking about Eisen-

hower Republicans, were not even talking about Nixon Republicans, and in a lot of ways were not even talking about Reagan Republicans, he said. Were talking about Trump Republicans. We are talking about a political party that has essentially become the KKK.

Cook asks booksellers to consider the impact that publishers have had in creating todays divisive politics, pointing to figures like Rush Limbaugh, whose books were as crucial to establishing his fame and cultural influence as his radio program was. Yet Cook does not take a side about whether bookstores should ban books by right wingers, like former vice president Mike Pence. I dont argue for not selling certain booksI argue for not stocking them, he said, suggesting that stores could still order these books for customers. Theres a chance youre a journalist whos reporting on a book, or a political scientist who is working on a study. Theres a chance you study right-wing fascism. You might have a not-terrible reason why you should own it, and I have no right to know why you would buy a certain book.

Cook writes that arguments about free speech have obscured basic obligations that booksellers have, including the obligation not to display books that contain hateful speech targeted at them or their communities. Just because youve written something doesnt mean that you have a First Amendment right to have it published, he saidor to have bookstores stock it on their shelves. But something deeper is also at play with the free speech arguments put forward by conservatives, he noted: Its in bad faith.

Cook points to the confrontations that customers have occasionally had with booksellers about not displaying controversial titles. I have never seen an instance that was not performative, he said. Im sure its been done. Im not a bookseller in every bookstore, but Ive never seen that not be performance.

How does he know? Because when you say, We can order it for you, they dont order it, Cook says. They never do. They just keep talking about the absence of the book in the store displays as if those are the only books in the world that exist.

Those observations, born as much of experience on the sales floor as they are of the pages of books, are why Cook said he was eager to share his thoughts in the inaugural issue of a bookseller pamphlet series.

For his part, Wells is happy to kick off the series with ideas he can think about as he goes through publisher catalogs to stock the shelves at his own bookstore. One of Cooks arguments is that a bookstore without curation is just a warehouse, he said. There are hundreds of thousands of titles available to any bookseller in a given year. We are consistently selecting which books we want to give shelf space and visibility to on the basis of a range of criteria. He argues that this is no different than that.
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Stirring Things Up

Food editor, recipe developer, and Instagram star (638K followers) Molly Baz has the #6 book in the country with Cook This Book, which our review called an exciting crash course in cooking fundamentals. QR codes peppered throughout link to video tutorials, and lively photos harken to a pre- (and, one hopes, post-) Covid era, when inviting friends over is the norm. Crowd-pleasers include shrimp cocktail with dilled horseradish cream (and a martini so cold it hurts your fingers), and smoked trout dip with potato chips and salmon roewhich, she writes, takes all of five minutes to pull together.

Food for Thought

Musician Michelle Zauner, who performs under the name Japanese Breakfast, debuts at #7 in hardcover nonfiction with the memoir Crying in H Mart, rooted in her 2018 viral New Yorker essay of the same name. Its an earnest account of her Korean-American upbringing, musical career, and the aftermath of her mothers death, our review said. Zauners virtual tour has included a chat and demo cohosted by L.A.s Now Serving and Seattles Book Larder with YouTuber Maangchi, whose Korean cooking videos she turned to after her mother died. At r., the author, who lives in Brooklyn, signed copies for Books Are Magic in Cobble Hill.

Spring Emergence

Even after the success of Richard Wrights seminal 1940 work, Native Son, publishers rejected his proposed follow-up novel, in which a Black man is beaten and tortured by white police officers who frame him for a double murder. The publishers of the day were discounting Black readership and they didnt want to unsettle white readership, the authors daughter Julia Wright told the Guardian in an April interview. I think they were afraid of what they read in those pages. Eight decades later,

Library of America has released the book, The Man Who Lived Underground, and it debuts at #14 in hardcover fiction. The power and pain of Wrights writing are evident, our review said, and the author makes the impact of racist policing palpable as the story builds to a gut-punch ending.

NEW & NOTABLE

WORLD TRAVEL

Anthony Bourdain and Laurie Woolever

#1 Hardcover Nonfiction, #1 overall

Woolever, the late Bourdains longtime collaborator and coauthor of 2016s Appetites, put together this gloriously messy miscellany of off-kilter observations and lightning-in-a-bottle insights, our review said, which will make one want to read, eat, and experience the world the way Bourdain did.

THE MAKING OF BIBLICAL WOMANHOOD

Beth Allison Barr

#6 Trade Paperback

In this trenchant blend of memoir and analysis, historian Barr challenges the Christian evangelical belief that male dominance and female submission are required of the faithful, our review said. The author argues that, far from being a part of Gods plan, patriarchy is a sin, and the notion of biblical womanhood is a 20th-century artifact.
Today

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Tonight

Cloudy during the evening. A few showers developing late. Low 69F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 30%.

Tomorrow

Rain showers in the morning with numerous thunderstorms developing in the afternoon. High 79F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%.
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Education

'I'm graduating with everything I need'

Reading teen had dim hopes for the future. Then Kutztown University stepped in
Two Democrats, Bradley Congelio and Joshua Meck, and two Republicans, Joe Farley and Dan Novakovich, are vying for their party's nomination to one seat on Maidencreek Township Board of Supervisors in the May primary.

The two successful candidates will square off in the general election in November for a six-year term on the three-member board.

No incumbents are running. Chairman Claude Beaver's term ends Dec. 31.

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We asked the candidates to respond to two questions:

Question 1: What issue is driving you to run for office?

Question 2: What are you learning when you talk to voters?

Bradley J. Congelio, 36.

Background: I am currently an assistant professor in the College of Business at Kutztown University. I specialize in big data and analytics using the R programming language. I am also currently the vice chair of the Maidencreek Township Parks and Recreation Board.

Website: http://bradcongelio.com

Response 1: I have a young family and would like to advocate for a sustainable future in Maidencreek Township. The Township currently has one of the highest tax rates in Berks County. If elected, my main goal is to find unique ways to maintain the current level of services provided without increasing taxes or making cuts to the budget. I will propose innovate and forward-thinking strategies to make the Township an even more desirable place to live and/or open a business, thus increasing the tax base and allowing the Township to grow without further taxation on its citizens. I also promise to participate in inter-township programs, such as the Fleetwood Area Librarys Where is Forward conversation  an idea the current supervisors scoffed at. Such initiatives are vital to maintaining the high-quality community we live in and should be treated as such.

Response 2: As I canvass neighborhoods and speak to voters  Democrat and Republican alike  one thing is clear: they desperately want a return to normalcy in the Townships leadership after the debacle that was the near-dissolvement of the Northern Berks Regional Police. As well, they are seeking leadership that listens to their concerns and governs with transparency. I have told everyone the same thing: if seated on the Maidencreek Board of Supervisors, I know that it only occurred because of their vote. And, because of that, I represent them. Not my own interests. To showcase this, I will always use social media to provide transparency, insight, and truth when it comes to Supervisor decisions that ultimately impact them. Further, I plan to reach out to Maidencreek Township constituents on a regular basis to listen to their thoughts and opinions as my voice on the Board of Supervisors is ultimately theirs.

Joshua Meck, 36.

Background: Im a graduate of Fleetwood School District, attended K-12. I went onto Pennsylvania College of Technology earning an associate degree in architectural technology. From there, I have made a career in power generation, civil design and, now, substation engineering and design.

Website: https://www.facebook.com/joshua.meck.for.twp.supervisor/

Response 1: Whats driving me to run is simply that the people of Maidencreek need a voice. In the last 12 months there was a tremendous ordeal going on and there was a lot of concerns being brought up followed by nothing in return. I know the people are tired of that and want transparency when major issues arise. The other reason I have chosen to run is that I am a local/native to the area and have gotten to know so many great people in the township who have said that they are simply just fed up with the way the current board operates. So, hopefully I would bring a sign of relief having a better pulse with the neighborhoods.

Response 2: The majority of citizens that I have spoken to on both sides of the political spectrum, plain and simple, are just done with the way things are currently handled. Some of these people have seen me at the township meetings or even at the Northern Berks police commission meetings over the last 12 or so months and they know that I fully supported our officers during that embarrassing debacle. The people want plans and structure implemented so that doesnt happen again, and that I am in full support of. Maidencreek has really rallied the last few months and has really come together as a community that just wants change and progress in a forward motion. I am excited and hopeful to be a part of that progress but regardless I want the people to have a voice and use that voice at the polls.

Joe Farley  Declined to participate.

Dan Novakovich, 72.

Background: I have been a resident of the township for the last 28 years. For the past 8 years I have served on the board of the Maidencreek Township Water Authority. I currently reside in Maidencreek Township with my wife and two dogs. We raised our two daughters and son in this township. My now grown son remains in Maidencreek Township with his wife and two sons. Prior to my retirement, I led a successful 30 year career with Air Products with my time primarily focused in international affairs liaising with foreign and US government agencies. While at Air Products, I managed many complex logistics transactions and project execution. I also served as the President of the U.S. Exporters Competitive Maritime Council in Washington D.C., where we negotiated with both the Federal Maritime Commission and Exim Bank to improve the competitive position of the U.S. exporters. In prior years, I was also an active member of the Fleetwood School Board of Directors.

Response 1: Maintain personal and professional integrity among the board members to benefit the community.

Response 2: The voters want to see a cohesive board that can work together for the benefit of the residents. The regional police issue has a lot of residents feeling that the matter could have been handled differently. Fortunately the issue seems to be getting resolved to the benefit of all communities involved.
After protracted domestic unrest in 2020 in the form of massive protests attempting to oust Belarus president Alyaksandr Lukashenka, the countrys government is teetering on the verge of collapse. Moscow has rushed in to fill the vacuum. Lukashenka has suddenly fallen in line with Moscows agenda, despite years of resistance to encroaching Russian economic influence. Now it is probable that Russia is facilitating a soft takeover of the former Soviet republic.

This week, NATO was alarmed at an announcement by Belarus defense ministry that a tank battalion would be moved near the border with Poland. Just a week earlier, there was news of an alarming buildup of Russian tanks on its Crimean border with Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned NATO that additional measures would be taken if troops were sent to aid Ukraine. On April 14 Russia warned the U.S. to stay out of the escalating situation for its own good.

Multiple high-level Russian officials (the Kremlin spokesperson, the outgoing Secretary of the Russia-Belarus Union State, and the outgoing Russian ambassador to Belarus) have issued statements denying the existence of plans to, for instance, merge the Russian and Belarussian states or armed forces. Because of these denials, NATO is in a hypervigilance mode of coordinated military activity near the Polish border. Nevertheless, the political situation in Minsk is transparent: Moscow has already deployed new diplomats to Belarus that have strong relationships with Vladimir Putin.

Moscows twenty-first-century ambitions to expand its sphere of influence were first tested in 2008 with the invasion of Georgia and then again with the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Since then, Russia has moved into the Donbas region of East Ukraine, where skirmishes between Russian-backed separatist militias and Ukrainian forces have been ongoing. The international community has come to expect an exercise of hard power from Russia.

This time, Russias strategy is much subtler than in previous iterations of expansionist acts. What is happening in Belarus amounts to soft aggression against the Belarusian people, who mobilized en masse to force Lukashenka out of office in 2020, and against NATO. The strategy, in this case, involves the movement toward cementing Belarus dependence on Russian transport networks, which Lukashenka previously avoided by moving exports through the Baltics. This is a significant sign of the Kremlin establishing economic control.

There are also ideological motives at play in this strategy. As was the case with Western Ukraine, civil society in Belarus has become considerably more pro-European in recent years. Belarusians are also re-examining their country's history from the lens of periods before Belarus was absorbed into the Russian Empire in the late eighteenth century; then, it was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This shared history draws a straight line from modern Belarus to modern Poland and Lithuania, both solid NATO members.

According to Warsaws Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW), over sixty percent of Belarusians believe their country should draw inspiration from periods when they were not ruled by Russia. Along with those imperial predecessors, a smaller number of respondents pointed at the Belarusian Peoples Republic as a relatively positive example of a state that is independent in more than name, despite a brief existence as an anti-Bolshevik entity amid the fallout of the Russian Revolution.

Simultaneously, approval rates for Vladimir Putin in Belarus have been on the decline. A Chatham House poll reported a 34.6 increase in negative viewpoints of the Russian president since the beginning of the August 2020 protests.

Despite the difference in Moscows method for seizing control, the consequences will likely be the same as for its other adventures. There is currently a sanctions regime in place in Belarus, imposed by the U.S. and Europe, but no overt military action will follow because of the heavy Russian military presence, as was the case for Georgia, for Crimea, and for Eastern Ukraine.

For Russias military, having a presence in Belarus facilitates the creation of an enormous, relatively coherent bulwark against the West, and its position between the Baltics and Poland renders those countries even more accessible. Nor is Belarus far from the already-heavily armed oblast of Kaliningrad, also in the Baltic region.

Ultimately, the U.S. and NATO will have to continue to be vigilant and step up preparations for an outbreak of direct conflict with Russia in Eastern Europe, which is quickly becoming a potential war theater.

They will also have to continue building up defenses and deterrence measures in the region, particularly in Poland, which faces the most pressure on the most fronts from the presence of Russian troops.

Fortunately, that process had been underway prior to the coalescence of Russian forces in Belarus and Ukraine. As the frontline state which devotes the required two percent of GDP to NATO defenses, Poland has been gradually shifting its military spending toward increasing preparedness for overt Russian aggression. Poland has acquired both the F-35 fighter and the Patriot air defense system from the U.S., which are used by other NATO countries. The F-35 is especially important in European defense because it collects more intelligence than any other tactical aircraftand is invisible to Russian radar.

What remains under discussion is whether Poland will also acquire the M1 Abrams tank to replace its 500 or so Russian-made tanks from the Soviet era. Being able to acquire the M1 would immediately alleviate some of the stress that Poland is under to find a replacement for those tanks in the face of the current predicament; Germany has no available Leopard tanks for sale, and Poland has not been able to become part of France and Germanys Main Battle Tank coalition.

Sarah White is a Senior Research Analyst at Arlingtons Lexington Institute. The views expressed are the authors own.
McCracken Students Selected to Governor's School

By West Kentucky Star Staff

PADUCAH - Two McCracken County High School students have been selected to attend the Governor's School for Entrepreneurs.Abigail Birman and Connor Wagner were selected to attend the summer program where Kentucky students focus on product innovation and business model designs. This year's program will have 120 students from across Kentucky.Participants are selected through a competitive process that does not consider grade-point average or test scores. The experience is free for the students.The first session will take place from June 6-26, with the second session on July 5-24.Teams of students will develop a business model, design a prototype, and pitch their startups to a panel of judges.GSE alumni have launched more than 16 new businesses since the program began in 2013. Others have filed multiple patents and developed new ideas and relationships that sow seeds for business creation.
It may seem strange, but sometime after learning of the death of former Vice President Walter F. Mondale, I found myself thinking about elephants, and not because a pachyderm is the symbol of Fritz Mondales lifelong opposition -- the Republican Party. And not because elephants are descendants of huge creatures from the dinosaur era, although younger readers might view folks like Mondale and me dinosaurs because of our age and progressive ideals; it can be argued that Joe Bidens election as president, and his address to Congress Wednesday evening, show that such principles are very much alive in America.

No, I have thought about my friend, former boss and mentor Fritz Mondale and elephants together for another reason. As environmental activist and wildlife advocate Amelia Meyer has written:

"The elephant's capacity for sadness and grief is truly unique amongst members of the animal world.  Because elephants live in such close-knit herds and live for about as long as humans do (approximately 70 years), they form strong bonds with those around them. When these ones die, the rest of the herd mourns that death."

Those who worked for and with Fritz Mondale in the Senate, the White House, in political campaigns  including his crushing defeat for president in 1984  formed strong bonds with him, and with one another. To a person, we admired him, respected him, were inspired by him. Dare I say it, we loved him.

I first paid attention to Sen. Walter Mondale from a distance. I lived and worked in California, and was active in politics in my home state as a college student. Although he was from Minnesota, Mondale was one of those leaders who one quickly realized deserved our attention.

A decade or so later, when I was a new Capitol Hill aide, my boss, newly elected Rep. Norm Mineta of San Jose and I had drinks with Sen. Mondale after some sort of political event at the Capitol Hilton. I was immediately struck by his friendliness, his immediate rapport with Norm, and his unpretentiousness toward me -- a mere staff guy.

I was an early contributor to, and volunteer in, Jimmy Carters long-shot campaign for the presidency in 1976. I served as Carters whip of the California delegation to the national convention in New York City that summer. I was thrilled when Carter announced his selection of Walter Mondale as his running mate, I worked as field coordinator of the winning Carter/Mondale campaign in California that fall.

It was then my good fortune to become a part of the White House staff, where my interactions with the vice president and his staff were numerous. As we experienced the ups and downs of our term in office, and the very tough 1980 reelection campaign, I found myself spending more and more time with Mondale -- working on legislation, tending to politics, traveling with him, spending both casual as well as more official times at the vice presidents residence.

As has been noted in every article since Mondales passing, he and Jimmy Carter transformed the concept of the veep. Mondales office was in the West Wing. He was Carters partner on every matter that ended up in the presidents inbox. They got along splendidly, as did their respective staffs. We became a herd.

Mondale was a central factor in many of our legislative and other initiatives -- the Panama Canal treaties, normalization of relations with China, national energy policy, judicial appointments, Middle East peace, civil rights, womens rights, environmental protection, education, and so much more

Many of us signed up with Mondales own presidential bid. Our first meeting to discuss strategy for a 1984 campaign occurred in early January of 1981, even before Ronald Reagan was sworn in. I took on many assignments over the next four years, working my butt off in our effort to unseat the 40th president. Alas, it was not to be.

We all did our best, but President Reagan was not a candidate who could have been beaten in 1984. And we experienced the searing disappointment of the landslide defeat together. Mondale, months later, ran into his friend of many decades, George McGovern, himself a casualty of a wipeout in the 1972 election. Mondale asked, So, George, how long does it take to get over it? McGovern replied, Ill let you know.

I have hundreds of memories about those times, and of experiencing Walter Mondales political savvy, intelligence, good humor and personal warmth. One in particular is worth noting, which I remember because it involved my wife:

During the interregnum between our loss in 1980 and the launch of Mondales 1984 campaign, I frequently traveled with him  usually with two or three other aides. But on one trip, it was just the two of us  Iowa City, Detroit, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco.

He gave a speech the last morning at the Hyatt Embarcadero, and we decided to walk back to the St. Francis Hotel to pick up our bags, check out, and drive to SFO. As we were approaching the St. Francis, I said in an exasperated tone, Oh, shit! To which he naturally responded, Whats wrong?

I replied, I forgot to get Shari a gift. I always try to bring something back to her when I travel. I havent bought anything yet.

Shower caps, Mondale replied straight-faced. I always bring back the hotel shower caps for Joan. She loves em.

I tried it. Without the success he claimed.

Before he passed, the former vice president wrote a note to those of us who had worked for him: He said,

Well, my time has come. I am eager to rejoin Joan and Eleanor. Before I go I wanted to let you know how much you mean to me. Never has a public servant had a better group of people working at their side!

Together we have accomplished so much and I know you will keep up the good fight.

Joe in the White House certainly helps.

I always knew it would be okay if I arrived some place and was greeted by one of you!

My best to all of you

Fritz

It is telling that Fritz also thought of us as a herd.
Traverse City, MI (49684)

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Partly cloudy skies early. A few showers developing later in the day. High 87F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

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Some clouds early will give way to generally clear conditions overnight. Low 63F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph.
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Athens, GA (30605)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun during the morning will give way to cloudy skies this afternoon. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 89F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Cloudy with showers. Low 69F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%.
United Campus Workers of Georgias Amelia Wheeler led a crowd of about 50 people to the University of Georgia Administration building to give UGA an end-of-year review consisting of 14 failures across three major areas: compensation and jobs, racial justice and community and workplace safety.

Numerous local organizations, such as Beyond Baldwin, Dawgs Demand Better and Dignidad Inmigrante, came together for a rally at the Arch Friday evening, bringing attention to the treatment of campus employees, faculty and staff.

Compensation and jobs

As part of UCWGAs end-of-year review for UGA, UCWGA conducted its own research to find out how much of UGAs workforce has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Categories included job security, wages, part-time workers, graduate workers and chop from the top.

Their chop from the top slogan refers to cutting salaries from the universitys highest-paid employees, including UGA President Jere Morehead, who makes over $900,000 annually.

UCWGA found that UGAs workforce shrunk by 564 jobs from November 2019 to November 2020, the largest job loss out of the 26 institutions in the University System of Georgia. They requested datasets from USG.

UGA is great because of the greatness of its workers. It's time for UGA to appreciate its workers, not with the type of hollow thank yous that UGA is so fond of handing out in the form of emails, said Justin Simpson, a graduate student worker in the philosophy department.

UCWGA also found that UGA pays 16%, or about 2,665, of its workers less than $30,000 per year, does not give hazard pay and has not provided a cost-of-living adjustment since 1990.

This narrative that there's a scarcity, that there's not enough, it's not true, Wheeler said.

Racial justice

Categories under racial justice include job and pay equity, gender and racial equity, recognition and redress, support for the Latinx community and renaming buildings named after racist figures across campus.

Out of the 1,646 full time employees who are paid less than $30,000 per year, UCWGA found that 33% are Black and of those, 21% are Black women.

Prior to the pandemic, we know USG already had a diversity problem upholding job segregation with women and people of color, Gabi Lichtenstein said.

Recognition and redress refers to UGAs refusal to admit their role in displacing the Black community of the Linnentown neighborhood during the 1960s. Bobby Crook remembers being 11 years old when his family was displaced in order for UGA buildings Russell Hall and Brumby Hall to be built.

My bedroom, which we stayed at 167 Peabody St., you can stand in our bedroom and see Sanford Stadium, the 50-yard line, so just imagine what type of property we had then, Crook said.

The last category cited in UCWGAs end-of-year review is renaming buildings. Several organizations have been founded across campus to change building names, including the organization Rename Grady, referring to UGAs College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

USG created an advisory group in June 2020 to review the names of buildings and colleges at all 26 USG universities, including UGA. However, none of the buildings at UGA have been renamed.

Community and workplace safety

Categories under this topic include COVID-19 mitigation, safety policies, support for mental health and Athens health and wellbeing.

Over 6,000 positive COVID-19 cases have been reported through UGAs DawgCheck.

We should be wary of those who try to weaponize the COVID slogan that we're all in this together, Simpson said. This slogan has been used to conceal how we're not all in this together, injustices and inequalities abound.

USGs Board of Regents supported maximizing in-person instruction during the fall 2020 semester and spring 2021 semester. UGAs fall reopening made Athens per capita case rate one of the highest in the country.

We know that there are so many of our communities that work more than eight hours a day under unsafe working conditions, especially under the pandemic for low wages, said Jessica Martinez, a member of Dignidad Inmigrante.
Greenville, NC (27833)

Today

Cloudy in the morning with scattered thunderstorms developing later in the day. High 88F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms during the evening followed by occasional showers overnight. Low 71F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
Paducah Mail Processing Could Move to Evansville

By West Kentucky Star Staff

PADUCAH - The U.S. Postal Service is proposing changes in local post office facilities that may affect our mail service.That's the word this week from the American Postal Workers Union. They say that 18 mail processing facilities, including Paducah and Cape Girardeau, are facing consolidation into other locations.The union's "Mail Move operations list"says that Paducah's mail processing operations will be moved to Evansville, and the Cape Girardeau mail will be processed in St. Louis.The USPS said it is "looking to repurpose" the centers being consolidated. But there are concerns that this will lead to delays in mail, particularly for rural areas.The union document says that management's ten-year plan of "optimization and efficiency efforts" was paused in 2015, but they now want changes to take place at the 18 facilities by November.The union says the postal service is reacting to the "evolving mailing and shipping needs of the American public and business customers." The post office cites a decline in mailing letters over the years, but at the same time there's steady growth in the need for package processing.The APWU said they have not been provided with impact statements on how the consolidations will impact the workforce.We have made crystal clear to postal management that any further plant consolidations are a misguided strategy that not only disrupts the lives of postal workers but will further delay mail, said APWU President Mark Dimondstein. Previous plant closings and consolidations were a complete failure and we will fight back to save these processing plants. After a year of courageous and essential frontline work in this pandemic, managements actions are a slap in the face of postal workers.On the Net:
Beckley, WV (25801)

Today

Rain showers in the morning with thunderstorms developing in the afternoon. High around 75F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms during the evening followed by occasional showers overnight. Low 64F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%.
BROOKFIELD  Marc Rogg thought activity on Candlewood Lake might slow this summer.

After all, many have their COVID-19 vaccines and traveling elsewhere is safer. But the owner of Echo Bay Marina in Brookfield said now hes expecting another busy summer.

Just the customer demand for everything  from boat slips to boats to boat rentals  seems almost unprecedented in the 26 years Ive been doing this, Rogg said. We think it's going to be another what we consider slightly off-the-rocker summer.

Last summer, Candlewood Lake was an escape from the house and the monotony and stressors of COVID-19, although there was concern about spread of the virus after an uptick in parties on boats. But with the state and certain municipalities inland beaches closed, the lake was inaccessible for some, leading some to swim in reservoirs and other nontraditional areas deemed dangerous.

But some towns along Candlewood Lake plan to open their parks this summer, although COVID rules are still being worked out. The state is permitting swimming at its shoreline and inland parks.

Municipalities remain cautious, although most outdoor COVID restrictions, including masks, lifted May 1. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced last week that its safe in most cases for people to remove their masks outside.

We just want everybody to be safe, Danbury Mayor Joe Cavo said. We don't want the opening of the park to become an issue where we have to start shutting stuff back down again.

H John Voorhees III / Hearst Connecticut Media

COVID-19 rules

Some towns with beach access to Candlewood plan to open their parks this summer, but towns are waiting on the state before they determine what COVID-19 restrictions might be in place.

Danbury plans to open its town park around Memorial Day after keeping it closed all last season. The citys health and parks and recreation departments are still figuring out what capacity and spacing might look like, as well as how Danbury would enforce that.

We don't have all the answers yet, but were formulating our ideas and itll be a cooperative effort between a few departments, said Nick Kaplanis, director of the Parks and Recreation Department.

One issue Danbury is considering is how to prevent overcrowding in the bathrooms, Cavo said.

FirstLight Power, which owns the lake, plans to open Dike Point Park, which was closed last summer, and the islands, which were closed last August due to large gatherings.

Dike Point will have a reservation system, as always, because it gets extremely crowded, said Len Greene, FirstLights spokesman.

Were looking at Dike Point as a typical summer, he said. Obviously, masks may be required by the state, which we would obviously want to follow, as well, but we're trying to keep everything open this year as opposed to what we saw last year.

New Milford isnt sure of its plans due to the rapidly changing COVID-19 policies, said Daniel Calhoun, parks and recreation director.

We will be working closely with the New Milford Health Department in regards to park policies, he said in an email.

In New Fairfield, rules are subject to change, but the town aims to open its parks on Memorial Day weekend, with no reservations required, said Linda Lull, director of parks and recreation.

Residents were required to reserve spots last summer and keep 15 feet apart, which meant one park allowed 10 families and another permitted about 15 families, she said.

This year we will not have a need to do that because we'll be at a six-foot distancing, she said. Were leaving it up to patrons to distance themselves, whereas last year we measured out spaces.

Brookfield set up squares indicating where households could sit on the beach last year. Reservations were required limiting the park to 25 households, and only Brookfield residents were permitted, said Mary Knox, parks and recreation director.

She said that worked well last year, but shes waiting for state and local guidance to determine this years plan. She hopes to decide by mid-May whether the town can offer swimming lessons and the swim team at the park that were canceled last year.

This year going in, its really the balance of meeting the needs of the residents and social distancing requirement we need to follow, as well as program needs, Knox said.

New Fairfield hopes to hold its annual decorated boat parade on July 16, pending approval from the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. The event was open only to New Fairfield residents last year, but the hope is that everyone could attend this summer, Lull said.

Patrons may be asked to wear a mask when they walk through a building to get to the New Fairfield park, Lull said.

Kaplanis expects Danbury will recommend park patrons wear masks.

Thats a tricky thing, Kaplanis said. We just want to keep everybody safe.

One reason Danburys park stayed closed last summer was the lack of lifeguards. The city is hiring now.

Most of the kids, students, I had the previous years have aged out, Kaplanis said.

At Echo Bay Marina in Brookfield, customers are required to wear masks indoors, practice social distancing on the docks and cannot tie up multiple boats together, although some of those rules may change based on state guidelines, Rogg said.

Hes expecting a semi-normal summer.

Were sort of hoping for a no masks outdoor season, Rogg said. But as we all know, this COVID, it zigs and zags a little bit unexpectedly, so were keeping our fingers cross that peopled can spend time outside and be together.

What wont change is capacity for boat rentals. Capping capacity at 10 keeps everything saner, Rogg said.

H John Voorhees III / Hearst Connecticut Media

Lake safety

With pool clubs closed and other activities limited, Candlewood Lake and state parks saw a surge in users last summer, said state Rep. Pat Callahan, R-New Fairfield. People had stimulus checks to buy boats, too, he said.

Its great, said Callahan, a former member of the Candlewood Lake Authority. Everyone should be outside. Lets just obey the boating laws and not trash the island.

That often wasnt the case last year, he said. He found a lot of garbage when he volunteered with a group called the Lake Patriot to clean the islands and open spaces around Candlewood Lake.

He proposed a bill to better train lake patrols, who he said are vital to teach boating laws and keep the lake safe, along with the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

Rogg noted people were rambunctious last summer, and it was hard for staff to rein them in.

It was a difficult summer because people were sort of determined to have fun, regardless of what obstacles were in front of them, he said.

Last year, marina staff worked 65 hours a week and overtime bills were unprecedented, he said. Two additional staff members were hired this year.

Candlewood Lake Authority plans to increase patrol presence, as long as towns approve its proposed budget increase, said Mark Howarth, executive director. A $100,000 donation from FirstLight helped pay for a new, additional patrol boat, which is expected to arrive in May.

Boat and personal watercraft purchases, as well as enrollment in boating education classes, are on the rise, so the authority is preparing for a potentially busy season, Howarth said.

The other recreational areas FirstLight owns, including Bulls Bridge in Kent, Shepaug Recreation Area in Southbury and Falls Village Recreation Area in that town, will be fully open, Greene said.

Bulls Bridge and Falls Village have been popular swimming spots, even though swimming is not permitted or safe there, which has led to drownings, Greene said.

Two New York men died last June after going under in the Housatonic River nears the Bulls Bridge power plant.

But Greene said he hopes people will be less likely to swim in these places because they have other options.

The more we can keep things open, the better, he said. That helps with the overcrowding. That helps with all the issues that come with overcrowding, and that also helps with public safety.
TORRINGTON  Daphney Romero and Feminique Wyles never imagined theyd own a business in Torrington.

Both are involved in various business ventures, and both call Hartford home. Their active social life, however, has brought plenty of new visitors to Social House, a bar and entertainment venue on Main Street next door to the Howard building, which is being renovated by gallery owner John Noelke.

Social House was opened in 2019 by Kris Kelsey and David Garcia, business entrepreneurs and former owners of Hanqs restaurant on Water Street. The idea behind Social House was to provide a fun atmosphere, good drinks and plenty of table space, where patrons could order food in from a local restaurant. But the pandemic hit in March 2020, and Social House had to close.

In Hartford, Wyles owns Bubbles and Car Wash, and works in real estate, flipping houses for resale. Romero, a business development specialist, previously worked for an orthodontist and got into the restaurant business to make extra money. She helped one restaurant owner find a new location, then assisted another opening in Glastonbury. She also worked for Infinity Music Hall Hartford.

I started busing tables, but within eight months, I was the assistant manager of the place, she said. When I got into this industry, I did it so effortlessly that it became a passion.

One day, Wyles saw an ad for Social House, and decided to investigate. I was on Facebook and saw one of the owners had posted the bar for sale, she said. I started looking at the place and said, This is really nice. (Daphney and I) had always talked about opening something, but we had always talked about doing it in Hartford.

I didnt know where Torrington was, but I thought it was a nice spot, Wyles said. I just kept it to myself, for a couple weeks, but then I told Daphney about it, and she knew Torrington.

After a phone call to Kelsey, Romero and Wyles drove to Torrington. As soon as we went out there, we loved it, Wyles said. We made Kris an offer right away.

When Feminique showed it to me, I said, This is a winner. It was almost too good to be true, Romero said.

Buying a business during the pandemic was a risk they were willing to take. Were doing OK. We have been surviving so far, but its time to kick it in gear now, Romero said. Hopefully people are ready to get back to normal.

Daphney Romero / Contributed photo

Social House holds a Pride Night on Fridays, and a Sunday afternoon brunch from noon to 5 p.m. For the brunch, its a dine-in setting and we ask people to make reservations, Romero said. We have a DJ, to keep the music going; we have unlimited mimosas, and theres a lot of artwork on the walls, which gives people lots of places to take selfies. Its a great spot for that. Fridays are Pride Nights for the LGBTQ community, and thats going pretty well.

In May, Social Houses hours will expand. Along with bar service, the owners have added a Sunday brunch menu and a small food menu for other nights of the week. They also still allow people to order takeout to bring in or have delivered.

Their events so far have included a comedy night, live bands and a New Years Eve party. Families can reserve spaces for birthday parties or other celebrations. Whatever is going on, the clientele varies, Wyles said.

Its a hip bar, but we want to cater to everyone, she said. Id say weve had people from their 20s to their 50s and 60s.

Many friends from Hartford also have discovered Torrington, now that Wyles and Romero have set up shop.

We do get a lot of support from the Hartford community. We see Pride Night growing, and were getting people from the area and Massachusetts, and New Britain, Hartford, Manchester. ... People are coming from everywhere, Romero said.

When they come to Torrington for the first time, people say Wow, its really nice out here, Wyles said. When I analyze it, I see that so far, Torrington hasnt come out of the pandemic yet, but maybe they need a little more time. But to bring that diversity, to have Hartford and Torrington all one building is great for us.

About 800 new people have learned about Torrington by comnig to Social House, Romero said. We saw the potential, what Social House can be. Steve Temkin and Kris introduced us to a few people, and weve learned about whats going on downtown. We want to be a part of it all.
Lebanon, IN (46052)

Today

Showers this morning then scattered thunderstorms developing during the afternoon hours. High around 80F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 68F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph.
The tourism department of Abu Dhabi, DCT Abu Dhabi, has signed a partnership deal with popular social media Tik Tok as the Emirate moves to lure visitors, Gulf Business reports.

This partnership is unique in the sense that it provides viewers with an opportunity to get to know Abu Dhabi through unique reels created by locals and residents of the emirate, highlighting various elements such as iconic destinations within the capital, our people and culture, as well as our exclusivity, offerings and more, said Ali Hassan Al Shaiba, executive director of tourism and marketing at DCT Abu Dhabi.

We look forward to growing our channel on the platform through TikToks guidance and creative input and have no doubt that this opportunity will have a great outcome, he said.

Through the deal, Shant Oknayan, general manager of global business solutions Middle East, Turkey, Africa and Pakistan, said TikTok will provide DCT Abu Dhabi with the unique ability to become creators and storytellers by listening to the community and adopting an always-on approach to their content.

Abu Dhabi will be able to leverage the creativity of the platform community as well as tap into the incredible power our TikTok creators have, who will elevate their content to new heights.

In December, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, also officially joined TikTok, Gulf Business recalled.
Drug Trafficking Charges For Paducah Man

By West Kentucky Star Staff

MCCRACKEN COUNTY - A traffic stop Friday led to the arrest of a Paducah man on drug charges.Friday afternoon, McCracken County deputies stopped a vehicle on Clark's River Road for an alleged traffic violation.A search of the vehicle reportedly uncovered methamphetamine concealed in a magnetic box under the vehicle, marijuana, and drug paraphernalia.The driver, 39-year-old Kenneth Richardson, was arrested and charged with first-degree trafficking in a controlled substance, possession of marijuana, and possession of drug paraphernalia.He was lodged in the McCracken County Jail.
POTTSVILLE  Paul M. Dinger Jr. is headed to state prison after admitting Friday to a Schuylkill County judge that he sexually assaulted a teenage girl in the fall of 2020 in Pine Grove Township.

Dinger, 53, of Lebanon, pleaded guilty to statutory sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, corruption of minors and indecent exposure.

President Judge William E. Baldwin accepted Dingers plea but did not immediately sentence him. Instead, he ordered the state Sexual Offenders Assessment Board to prepare an evaluation of Dinger and said he will schedule sentencing after that is completed.

However, in the plea agreement between Dinger and prosecutors, the parties agreed that the defendant would be sentenced to spend three to 10 years in a state correctional institution and an additional 10 years on probation.

Baldwin allowed Dinger to remain free on $50,000 straight cash bail pending sentencing.

State police at Schuylkill Haven charged Dinger with sexually assaulting the girl on either Oct. 31 or Nov. 1, 2020.

Assistant District Attorney Jennifer N. Foose said the girl was 14 years old when the crime occurred.

Foose also said that regardless of the length of the prison sentence, Dinger will be subject to lifetime Megans Law sanctions as the result of his plea.

The Megans Law sanctions to which Dinger will be subject once he leaves prison require him to provide his name, address, Social Security number, telephone numbers, photograph, employment, any schools he might attend, registration of any vehicles he owns and other information to the Pennsylvania State Police.

Any violation of the sanctions would be an additional crime and subject Dinger to another prosecution.

Prosecutors withdrew one count each of rape and sexual assault, one additional count of aggravated indecent assault and two counts each of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and indecent assault against Dinger.
James R. Ferrier

ORWIGSBURG  A Philadelphia man will head to Schuylkill County Court when authorities find him after he failed to appear Tuesday for his preliminary hearing on charges that he unlawfully possessed a gun, a salable amount of marijuana and paraphernalia in March in Wayne Township.

Donnell L. Andrews, 44, of 1426 S. Marston St., faces charges of prohibited possession of firearm, possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, driving under suspension and disregarding traffic lane.

After the hearing, Ferrier ordered all charges held for court against Andrews. He also asked the court to issue a bench warrant for Andrews, who had been free on $25,000 straight cash bail.

State police at Schuylkill Haven charged Andrews, a convicted felon, with possessing a loaded Sig Sauer P365 semi-automatic 9 mm handgun, around 28 grams of marijuana and 42 packets, 20 with and 22 without drugs, at 9:07 a.m. March 20 at Route 183 and Schuylkill Mountain Road.

Police said Andrews was driving north on Route 183 when he was stopped for driving erratically.

Other defendants whose cases Ferrier considered on Tuesday, the charges against each one and the judges dispositions of the matters, included the following people:

Anna R. Beauchamp, 46, of 1159 Church St., Reading; possession of a small amount of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia; right to preliminary hearing waived, charges bound over for court.

Ambasulymar Calderon, 26, of 1500 Centre Ave. Apt. 2R, Reading; possession of drug paraphernalia; right to preliminary hearing waived, charge bound over for court.

Andrew Cotter, 34, of 18 Centre Ave., Schuylkill Haven; possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia; charges held for court after preliminary hearing that Dotter did not attend. Ferrier asked the court to issue a bench warrant for Dotter, who had been free on $2,500 unsecured bail.

Kietchen Eaches, 38, of 545 E. Elm St., Tamaqua; simple assault and harassment; right to preliminary hearing waived, charges bound over for court.

Jacquelyn L. Fitzsimmons, 40, of 162 Ebling Road, Kutztown; driving under the influence, driving unregistered vehicle, careless driving, driving under suspension-DUI related, possession of a small amount of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia; right to preliminary hearing waived, charge of driving under suspension-DUI related withdrawn, other charges bound over for court.

Amanda Fritz, 34, of Pottsville; false alarm and false reports to law enforcement; right to preliminary hearing waived, charges bound over for court.

Russell E. Killian Jr., 55, of 306 St. John St., Schuylkill Haven; DUI, accident involving damage to unattended vehicle or property and careless driving; right to preliminary hearing waived, charge of careless driving withdrawn, other charges bound over for court.

Matthew M. Mengle, 40, of 3 Mardelle Ave., Schuylkill Haven; DUI, improper turning movements, violation of restrictions on alcoholic beverages, recklessly endangering another person and careless driving; right to preliminary hearing waived, charges bound over for court.

Mateo J. Rivera, 22, of 2328 Alsace Road, Reading; DUI, careless driving, disregarding traffic lane and possession of a small amount of marijuana; charges held for court after preliminary hearing that Rivera did not attend. Ferrier asked the court to issue a bench warrant for Rivera, who had been free on $2,500 unsecured bail.

Matthew F. Santangelo III, 21, of 84 N. Berne St., Schuylkill Haven; simple assault and harassment; charges held for court after preliminary hearing that Santangelo did not attend. Ferrier asked the court to issue a bench warrant for Santangelo, who had been free on $10,000 unsecured bail.

Timothy J. Smith, 32, of 222 W. Main St., Girardville; simple assault, strangulation, theft and harassment; right to preliminary hearing waived, charges bound over for court.

Scott S. Snyder, 26, of 209 Summer Valley Road, Orwigsburg; DUI, disregarding traffic lane and violation of restrictions on alcoholic beverages; right to preliminary hearing waived, charges bound over for court.

All defendants now will have their cases moved to the county court, where they will have the option of pleading guilty to some or all of the charges or pleading not guilty and demanding a trial by jury or judge.

(Staff writer Peter E. Bortner compiled this

report)
Nurses from a hospital COVID-19 unit are planning a virtual sponsor a nurse run to raise money for patients and families.

Frackville native Jessica Dalton, R.N., said the idea came from the medical/surgical intensive care unit where she works in the Lehigh Valley.

Because of the pandemic, we thought it would be a great opportunity to raise funds which will help patients financially after their hospitalization, she said. A majority of our patients have had hospital stays for weeks to months, which accrues quite a hefty hospital bill.

Dalton said the unit has seen patients from all over Pennsylvania, including Schuylkill County, as well as New Jersey.

Alison Panno, a critical care RN from Bucks County, said the 2K South Remembrance Run, named for the intensive care unit designation, will take place throughout May. People can pledge donations per mile or make a one-time donation.

Its been devastating for families and for the health care workers, Panno said. Were all looking forward to things getting better, and were hoping that this run is a way to help everyone that we can.

Along with raising money, Panno said they wanted to remember the patients who have died and show their families that they will not be forgotten.

Part of the experience is that their families couldnt be there with them at the hospital, Panno said. We felt that pain with them. We were there with them, for their families, as much as we could be.

Panno said dealing with loss was difficult for the staff, along with other challenges such as the fear of bringing COVID-19 home.

Its very devastating because were used to healing our patients and helping them get better to leave the ICU, Panno said. A lot of our patients who were sick enough to be in our ICU, not many of them had good outcomes.

Dalton said the run will also help the staff heal from the trauma theyve experienced over the past year. She has pledged to run 2 miles for each person who died in their unit, which has been 92 people as of Wednesday.

There isnt a day that goes by where my colleagues or myself dont think about some of the patients we have cared for, Dalton said.

Dalton asked that the hospital she works for not be identified because it is not associated with the event.
VALLEY VIEW  Dogs and other four-legged companions can join their owners in an event just for them at Valley View Park.

After being postponed from last August, the Pet Carnival will take place at Valley View Park from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 8 in Hegins Township.

It will be held rain or shine, and include a Chinese auction, kids games, props for pictures, 20 vendors, a DJ, bounce house and agility course for dogs. Proceeds will go toward animal rescue organizations and participating shelters, including Two Mutts Love, Mommy and Me Rescue, Save the Strays, Ruth Steinert Memorial SPCA and All Living Things Sanctuary.

The carnival will also have bandanas for dogs priced at $5, a pudding eating contest for children, a dog food eating contest and a costume parade with prizes.

Lori Sulouff, of Hegins, and Jenn Lettich-Snyder, of Ashland, took over organizing the event last year after its previous organizers, Kids Fight for Animals, or KFFA, announced that 2019 would be their last year putting it on. The group, consisting of Tri-Valley area youths, had put it on from 2017-19. The Pennsylvania Canine Search and Rescue, which Lettich-Snyder is a member, will have a demonstration at the event.

Lettich-Snyder said they decided to take on the Pet Carnival after being approached by several members of the community who enjoyed it in previous years. Both had been participants in the past as vendors, with Lettich-Snyder running the agility course and Sulouff operating a vendor with her dog grooming business, Doggy Dos Grooming, Hegins.

Lori and I have a lot of community dedication and find helping other pets as valuable as possible, she said. People were very upset it wasnt coming back.

They originally scheduled Pet Carnival for August 2020 but pushed it to May 2021 due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Sulouff said several sponsors, including Tri-Valley Dental, were thrilled to hear it was coming back.

There is no admission price, but Lettich-Snyder said animals should be friendly with other animals. She added that those who are uncomfortable with COVID-19 can wear face masks.

Sulouff encouraged the public to attend the event to support the fur babies.
POTTSVILLE  Candidates for Pottsville Area school board told teachers that communication and improving the districts finances are important for the future.

Pottsville Area Education Association President Adrian Portland said all five candidates  current board President Noble C. Bud Quandel and member Jerome Urban, and Stephanie Buchanan, Harry Ciavarella and Bob Thomas  were present for the Meet the Candidates forum, held Wednesday night in the D.H.H. Lengel Middle School auditorium. All five candidates are cross-filed as Democrats and Republicans for four open seats in the May 18 primary. Quandel, Urban, Buchanan and Ciavarella are running as the Keep the Tide Rising committee.

The forum, which Portland said lasted just over an hour, was held for teachers union members, of which he estimates 20 to 25 attended. Also present was incoming Superintendent Sarah Yoder.

Portland, who moderated the forum, asked each candidate 12 questions that teachers sent him last week. The candidates were provided with the questions in advance.

It allowed them to prepare, he said. I didnt want them to be a surprise.

The questions touched on district programs that have been cut, improving finances and communication.

Each candidate had a chance to introduce themselves and state why they are running, and provide a closing statement.

Portland said all five stressed the need for open communication between the board, teachers, administrators and the community, as well as the need to maintain a healthy district from the financial and educational perspective. They also discussed teamwork, transparency and getting the district in better shape financially.

All the candidates felt communication with the community, community involvement with the district and the district being involved with the community were important, he said.

The candidates pointed out that more people have been attending meetings virtually since the pandemic started than they did previously in person.

Candidate Bob Thomas said Thursday he liked the forum in that it was casual and gave him a chance to hear what was on teachers minds, and their perspectives on what is going on in the district. He said he presented his platform, which is to provide a different voice on the board.

The school board needs someone like me, a regular person, he said.

Buchanan said, "In answering their questions I was able to share how I believe my legislative background has uniquely prepared me to serve the district in this capacity and the importance of learning from the mistakes made in the last decade when it comes to responsible budgeting and fiscal accountability to our taxpayers.

"Our teachers, students and taxpayers have all paid a hefty price for that financial mismanagement and they deserve a high performing school system that is both financially sound and fiscally responsible."

Quandel did not respond to requests for comment and Ciavarella and Urban could not be reached for comment.

Portland said the forum was an opportunity to develop a good relationship between future board members and teachers and to move the district forward. Teachers he talked to said they thought the forum was a good way to hear what the candidates had to say.

I think it went well overall, he said.

There are no plans to hold additional forums, he said.

Portland originally invited coverage of the forum, but on Wednesday morning told the Republican Herald that some members were wary of press coverage and didnt want what was being said to be misconstrued in the press. With that, he decided to make it a private event.
Recent murders of eight people at a FedEx processing center in Indianapolis revealed the need to enforce red flag laws and to adopt them in other states, including Pennsylvania.

Red flag laws empower courts to remove guns from the possession of people who are found, through due process in legal proceedings, to be a danger to themselves and others.

In 2020, Indiana State Police seized a shotgun from suspected FedEx shooter Brandon Hole after his mother reported that he wanted to commit suicide by cop. Police did not seek a red flag order against Hole, however, which later enabled him to legally acquire the weapons that he allegedly used in the FedEx massacre.

Mass murders draw the most attention, but the greatest benefit of red flag laws might be in preventing suicides. Multiple studies have shown that proximity to a gun increases the likelihood that a person contemplating taking his own life actually will do so.

Red flag laws are not foolproof. But there is little doubt that they help in individual cases.

Colorado, for example, passed a red flag law after four Douglas County sheriffs deputies were shot, one fatally, while serving a warrant in a Denver suburb in 2017.

Tony Spurlock, the sheriff there, said use of the red flag law has clearly saved those individuals lives. Those people are still alive, and their family members are still alive, and theyre not in custody for homicide. I do think it keeps my officers safer, and it keeps our community safer.

That, of course, is the objective. The state Legislature should pass a red flag law, which does not preclude anyone from legally and safely owning firearms.
To the Editor:

When we struggled in class, our teachers were there to lend a helping hand. When our kids are having a terrible day, their teachers are ready with welcoming smiles and encouraging words.

Its National Teacher Appreciation Week, May 3-7. What better time could there be to say thank you to the great teachers who inspire you?

Reach out to your favorite teachers to tell them what they have meant to you. Send a message of appreciation to the educators at your childrens school. Take to social media to #ThankATeacher for all they do for Pennsylvanias students.

As a teacher myself, Im proud to be part of a profession that makes students our top priority. Throughout this global health crisis, when everything was turned upside down, the one constant we could count on was the dedication and commitment of our educators.

Thank you to all our great teachers out there for building a brighter future for all of us.

Aaron Chapin

Vice President, Pennsylvania State Education Association

Harrisburg
Disputes over the South China Sea, have compelled several foreign entities to outpour their opinions and inculpate China. In a recent development, international public opinion has raised concern over the domineering Coast Guard Law of China stating that Beijing uses the law to legalise violence caused by its coast guard forces in order to serve the country's unilateral sovereignty claim in the East Sea alias South China Sea.

China's Worrying New Coast Guard Law

The Coast Guard Law of China was adopted at the 25th session of the Standing Committee of the country's13th National People's Congress in late January and officially effective since February. Constituted of 11 chapters, the law says that the coast guards would supervise 11 aspects of the sea i.e. patrolling Chinese waters, demolition of foreign structures on China's reefs and islands (including artificial islands), eliminating terrorist activities, cracking down smuggling amongst other offences; also, overseeing the marine environment and other vessels' resource exploration, as well as searching and rescuing.

However, chapter 3 of the introduced legislation 'Maritime Security' confers powers on the coast guards to exercise "all necessary measures at sea; inclusive of resorting to weapons and ammunition at the time of threat to national sovereignty, sovereign rights and unlawful infringement of jurisdiction by foreign organisations or individuals.

Now, there exist a plethora of territorial disputes between China and its neighbours in the East and South China Seas. Wary countries hooked in territorial disputes with China anticipate basis precedence that latter may interpret the law as extending to the internal waters of islands that China categorises as territory of its own. Whereas according to China, the statute has been formulated to clarify the positioning of Chinese coast guards, their functions and to convey transparent regulation for international entities thus, when foreign coast guards interact with their Chinese counterparts, they are clear about their actions and potential repercussions.

Tensions in the South China Sea

Basis fair assumption that Chinese law is a verbal threat of war to any country that defies it, Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. filed a diplomatic protest with China over the law authorising its guards to fire on foreign vessels. At a reception for Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi and Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto on March 30, Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga opined his concern over China's deeds in the waters denouncing the newly enforced legislation. The Director of University of Philippine's Institute for Maritime remarked,

"This shows the East Asian giant is just continuing with its plans to take over the South China Sea regardless of its ongoing negotiations with other States, uncluding its discussion with ASEAN for a Code of Conduct."

The spokesperson of Vietnamese Foreign Ministry Le Thi Thu Hang said that countries are obliged to comply with international laws and international treaties, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. He further said,

"Vietnam requires relevant countries respect its sovereignity, sovereign rights and jurisdiction in the East Sea and have the responsibility to enforce international laws without any action to increase tensions and actively contribute to bulding trust, maintaining peace and stability and promoting international order at sea, its security, safety and freedom of navigation in the East Sea."

China has been more assertive in sovereignty disputes of the South China Sea. According to research by the Centre of Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), significant numbers of vessels have been at Whitsun Reef since February 2020. Whitsun Reef is among maritime features in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. It is in a shallow coral region of the resource-rich Spratly Islands and is now at the centre of a deepening maritime row between Beijing and Manila. The said islands are subject to a territorial dispute and are in whole or partly claimed by numerous countries, namely, Brunei, China, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

China claims virtually all of the South China Sea while the Philippines claim the Spratly Islands as being within its exclusive economic zone alias West Philippines. A United Nations tribunal dismissed China's claim to virtually claiming all sovereignty of the South China Sea. Earlier, Beijing had rejected this ruling.

(With Agency Inputs)
The bodies of two Spanish journalists and an Irish wildlife campaigner killed by jihadists in Burkina Faso this week were flown home Friday as several European countries vowed to keep fighting extremism in Africa's Sahel region.

David Beriain, 44, and Roberto Fraile, 47, journalists with a long record of experience in conflict zones, had joined Irish conservationist Rory Young on an anti-poaching patrol led by a special military wildlife force in eastern Burkina Faso when their convoy was ambushed by jihadists on Monday.

The three Europeans and one Burkinabe soldier were killed, according to Spanish authorities.

The government of Burkina Faso said that six other people were wounded.

The bodies of the Europeans were flown overnight from the capital of the African nation, Ouagadougou, on an Airbus provided by the Spanish military.

A guard of honour carried their coffins out of the aircraft on arrival at a military airport near Madrid, where relatives of the Spanish journalists awaited.

The two-person crew was making a documentary on how Burkina Faso's authorities are tackling poaching, also focusing on the communities of people living in the park.

Young, the director of the Chengeta Wildlife Foundation, was leading the patrol in the country's Arly National Park, said a statement by the group on Facebook.

Two soldiers wounded in the attack said they tried to protect the foreigners during fighting that lasted three hours, but were outnumbered by the jihadists.

The soldiers insisted on anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

Burkina Faso has been overrun by attacks linked to Islamic extremists that have killed thousands and displaced more than 1 million people.

Violence has surged this week in hard-hit parts of the country, like the east as well as the north.

The same day the anti-poaching patrol was ambushed, 18 people were killed by gunmen in the Sahel region.

In a statement earlier this week, the government said that "terrorists have carried out acts of intimidation, looting, and assassination on civilian populations."

The governments of Spain, France, Germany and Italy said in a joint statement that they were committed to supporting the violence-struck region with military training and supplies, but also with humanitarian aid to provide much-needed stability there.

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com)
Amid a deadly outbreak of COVID-19, Spain on April 27 said that it will impose a 10-day quarantine on all travellers arriving from India. While speaking at a news conference, government spokeswoman Maria Jesus Montero informed that the measure will take effect on Wednesday and will apply to people who travelled via third countries since there are no direct flights between India and Spain.

Montero said, This is a measure which our country has already adopted towards passengers from countries where a virus variant has been found.

It is worth noting that Spain has also imposed a 10-day quarantine on passengers arriving from Brazil, Peru and Colombia as well as nine nations in Africa, including South Africa and Mozambique. However, Spains chief epidemiologist said that there was no reason to be currently concerned about the spread of the Indian variant in Spain as more than 90 per cent of new cases detected are the so-called British variant. Further, Spains Foreign Ministry also recommended that Spanish citizens currently in India return home as soon as possible.

Restriction on Indian travellers

Germany, France, the UK, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Italy, Netherlands and Australia have also imposed restrictions or travel bans on arrival from India due to the emergence of a highly contagious variant of the coronavirus that is sweeping across the country. Bangladesh has also restricted the movement of citizens by shutting down borders for two weeks. The US, on the other hand, has advised citizens to not travel to India even after getting fully vaccinated.

The action from these countries came after India witnessed an unprecedented surge in COVID-19 cases. Several passengers in foreign country airports had also tested positive for the virus making it a matter of concern for international authorities. The current virus mutant that India is battling with is spreading faster compared to last year. India is continuously reporting the highest number of COVID-19 cases as the second wave of the virus is storming upon the country. With a higher number of fresh COVID-19 cases, the fatality rate has also increased in the country.

(Image: AP/PTI)
Volunteers Sought for Oak Grove Cemetery Cleanup

By West Kentucky Star Staff

PADUCAH - The Paducah Parks and Recreation Department is looking for volunteers to help with a Spring Clean-Up Day at Oak Grove Cemetery.The event will take place on Saturday, May 15, from 10 am until noon. The cemetery is located at 1613 Park Avenue.Volunteers will work with park crews to landscape, remove debris, collect litter, and wash headstones.Garbage bags and latex gloves will be provided. Volunteers are asked to bring yard gloves and dress appropriately.Volunteers, especially large groups, are asked to pre-register by calling the Parks office at 270-444-8508 by May 12.
Worshippers lined up at churches across Greece on Orthodox Good Friday while government pandemic restrictions remained in place throughout the Easter holiday, as the country prepared to restart services for tourists.

Seating restrictions were put on church services, priests were required to perform daily COVID-19 tests, and processions were held in outside courtyards.

In the northern city of the Thessaloniki, at the church of Saint Raphael, worshippers sang Good Friday hymns and held candles as they attended a service in the church courtyard.

On Monday several restrictions which have been in effect since November will end, with restaurants and cafes permitted to serve customers outdoors.

Tourism-related businesses and services are set to start operating again on May 15.

Greece has confirmed 345,033 cases of COVID-19, and 10,381 people have died, the government announced on Friday.

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com)
Workers in Indonesia marked International Labour Day Saturday with significantly less attended marches due to coronavirus restrictions, but thousands still vented their anger at a new law they say harms their rights and welfare, in various cities in the country.

Enraged over the new Job Creation Law, several hundred workers gathered near the national monument in the capital Jakarta, waving colorful flags of labor groups and banners with demands.

Others laid tomb effigies on the street to symbolize their hopeless and uncertain future under the new law.

"You can see why we make replica of tombstones, because the law has buried the rights of us workers and labourers, we will keep rejecting that," said Riden Hatam Aziz, one of the organizers.

Protesters later marched to the Constitutional Court and near the presidential palace compound to demand the repeal of the legislation.

The demonstrators say the law will hurt workers by reducing severance pay, removing restrictions on manual labor by foreign workers, increasing the use of outsourcing, and converting monthly salaries to hourly wages.

President Joko Widodo signed the law in November despite days of protests in many Indonesian cities that turned violent weeks earlier.

The act amended 77 previous laws and was intended to improve bureaucratic efficiency as part of efforts by Widodo's administration to attract more investment.

The Confederation of Indonesian Trade Unions and dozens of other organisations have filed a legal challenge against the Job Creation Law with the Constitutional Court.

Television reports showed hundreds of workers rallying in several other cities, including Makassar.

They shouted demands for a raise in minimum wage and relaxed outsourcing rules.

Authorities in the capital, Jakarta, the epicenter of the national epidemic, have warned labor groups to adhere to social distancing and other measures, which would significantly reduce crowds, police said.

A police official said more than 6,300 personnel have been deployed to secure the capital.

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As the first batch of Sputnik V arrived in India on Saturday evening, Russian envoy Nikolay Kudashev expressed delight at the delivery meant to aid India's battle against the second COVID-19 wave. The Russian envoy has informed that local production of Sputnik V jabs is slated to begin soon and will gradually be increased to nearly 850 million doses per year. The Russia-made COVID-19 vaccine had received India's nod as the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) on April 14 registered the vaccine under the Emergency Authorization Procedure.

"Happy to share that the first batch of the Sputnik V vaccine was delivered in Hyderabad today! As Russia and India continue dedicated joint efforts to combat the COVID-19, this move is especially important to support the Indian Government's endeavours to mitigate the deadly second wave and save lives," Ambassador Kudashev said on Saturday.

While it is being imported initially, more than 850 million doses of the Russian vaccine will also be produced in India annually. Dr Reddys and Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) entered into a partnership to conduct the clinical trials of the Sputnik V vaccine and the rights for distribution in India.

Sputnik arrives in India

The vaccines efficacy is reported at 91.4% based on data analysis of the final control point of clinical trials, states its official website, which has been reviewed by Lancet journal. Currently, the vaccines clinical trials are underway in the UAE, Egypt, Venezuela and Belarus while it has been registered in Algeria, Argentina, Belarus, Bolivia and Serbia for inoculation, state reports. In September 2020, Dr. Reddys and Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) entered into a partnership to conduct the clinical trials of the Sputnik V vaccine and the rights for distribution in India.

As per its official website, Sputnik V is the worlds first registered vaccine based on a well-studied human adenoviral vector-based platform. Ranking as one of WHO's top 10 candidate vaccines, Sputnik V is currently conducting post-registration clinical trial in Russia with 40,000 volunteers. While the vaccine's overall efficacy is confirmed at 91.4%, it boasts a 100% efficacy against severe cases of coronavirus. The cost of one dose of the vaccine for international markets will be less than $10 and Sputnik V is a two-dose vaccine that can be stored at a temperature of +2 to +8 degrees Celsius. Apart from India, Brazil, China, South Korea are RDIF's international partners.

India's vaccination drive

India began its COVID-19 vaccination drive on January 16, aiming to vaccinate 3 crore health care workers. Its second phase of vaccination kicked off on March 1. The second phase was dedicated to those above 60 years of age and those above 45 years with co-morbidities - registered on CoWIN portal and walk-ins at some hospitals. On April 1, the Centre opened up vaccination for all above 45 years and from May 1, 18 years and above will be eligible to get themselves vaccinated. So far, India has administered 12,70,56,746 beneficiaries with the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine whereas 2,79,32,889 individuals have received both the jabs. Amongst all states, Maharashtra has administered the most number of total jabs with 1,61,84,823 inoculations.
Public frustration over Japans slow vaccine roll-out intensifying after it emerged that the European Union approved the export of more than 50 million COVID-19 shots to the country this year. Since the commencement of its mass inoculation drive in mid-February, the administration has been able to immunize only 1.3 per cent of the countrys total population, blaming supply bottlenecks of jabs. However, earlier this week, the EU said that it had authorized 52.3 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines made in European factories for export to Japan.

Where are the vaccines

The news of colossal vaccine supply soon created a stir on the internet, striking a nerve with Japanese residents. As the social media posts lampooning the Yoshihide Suga administration caught momentum, the countrys vaccines minister Taro Kono jumped in claiming the numbers were wrong. Later, in a statement to Bloomberg, his office stated that only 28 million shots from Pfizer had arrived in Japan. Chief Cabinet Secretariat Katsunobu Kato confirmed on the same day news reports that shots of the Moderna vaccine had also been received though did not disclose the number of doses. The country has only given a green light to vaccines developed by PfizerBioNTech for public use as of now.

@JapanGov Mr. Prime Minister, it looks like you're still not giving up the fight. However, the funds that should've been used for the Tokyo Olympics will be in turn used for the poor patients of COVID-19 instead. Where are the vaccines & anti-virus kits for the people of Japan?  Roger Cervantes (@rogerph2015) April 10, 2021

The kerfuffle overdoses is another blow to Sugas government, which has been criticized for botching the vaccination program with bureaucratic manoeuvring. With the dates of Olympic 2021 nearing, the administration recently stepped up efforts to accelerate the vaccination process. According to Bloomberg, the administration has announced new efforts to channel more resources to rollout while also asking the physicians association to increase the number of doctors who can administer vaccines. Earlier this week, the administration, in a first, asked the country's military to set up a vaccination centre in the country capital Tokyo.

The country declared a new state of emergency from April 25 to May 11 in Tokyo, Osaka and two other prefectures as short and powerful measures to contain the resurgence of COVID-19. A per the latest tally, Japan has registered over 586,782 COVID-19 cases out of whom more than 10,194 have lost their lives.

(Image Credits: AP)
Argentine President Alberto Fernandez on Friday announced a three-week extension of COVID-19 restrictions in Buenos Aires.

The measures already in place in the capital and its surrounding metropolitan area include a night-time curfew from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. as well as the suspension of face-to-face teaching.

Buenos Aires is at the centre of Argentina's latest wave of coronavirus infections.

In a recorded message, Fernandez extended the restrictions through to May 21 as he said the situation was "critical".

Nationwide measures include the suspension of group study and tourist trips, as well as limits on social gatherings of more than 10 people and work attendance for people at risk.

For the areas of "epidemiological and health alarm" such as Buenos Aires and 40 surrounding towns, in-person education remains halted and shops must close at 7 p.m.

Businesses which serve food can serve customers outside during the day but must be takeaway only after 8 p.m.

Public transport will be only for essential workers.

The latest wave of virus cases in Argentina has put the most stress on public and private hospitals in Buenos Aires and its urban belt while the vaccination rollout continues at a slow pace.

In the capital, 86% of the beds in public hospitals are occupied.

At the national level, the average is 68.4% in both the public and private healthcare systems.

So far 7.8 million people have received one dose of the vaccine - out of 45 million - with less than a million having completed both doses.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Argentina has registered 2.9 million cases of the virus and more than 63,500 deaths linked to COVID-19.

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As Argentina experienced record COVID-19 daily death tolls of more than 500 this week, hospitals are struggling to keep up with the extreme demand. At the municipal Llavallol Hospital in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, all 13 beds in the intensive care unit for coronavirus patients were occupied.

The rest of the hospital was also running at over 90% capacity which, combined with the resources allocated towards COVID-19, created a backlog that reached the emergency room. Some patients had to be treated on stretchers in the hallway. The hospital's director Patricio Mautone said he was worried the latest devastating wave of the virus would "overwhelm us".

Mautone suggested the increasing prevalence of the variant of the virus first discovered in the Brazilian city of Manaus could be playing a role in the severity of the wave. Argentina's President Alberto Fernandez said Friday procuring vaccines was his daily priority.

Concerned by the pressure on the health system and a lack of available hospital beds, the government set up a military field hospital in the western part of Buenos Aires. New restrictions have recently been put in place, including the suspension of school classes and a night-time curfew in the capital city and its surrounding area, the first measures of their kind since last year. By Friday, Argentina had reported 2.8 million coronavirus cases and more than 61,000 deaths linked to COVID-19.

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When Rep. Matt Gaetz vacationed in the Bahamas in 2018, he was joined by a doctor who donated to his campaign and a former colleague in the Florida Legislature.

The Republican congressman, Dr. Jason Pirozzolo and Halsey Beshears were united in their enjoyment of politics, fancy travel and the company of beautiful women. They also had another mutual interest: Floridas $1.2 billion medical marijuana industry.

The Bahamas trip is a central element of a federal investigation surrounding Gaetz that has suddenly endangered his political career. What began as an inquiry into sex trafficking and whether Gaetz paid women and an underage girl in exchange for sex has grown into a larger review of public corruption, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Investigators are looking at whether Gaetz and his associates tried to secure government jobs for some of the women, the people said. They are also scrutinizing Gaetzs connections to the medical marijuana sector, including whether Pirozzolo and others sought to influence legislation Gaetz sponsored. The investigation includes legislation from 2018, when Gaetz was in Congress, and earlier work in the Legislature, according to one of the people.

Pressure on the congressman could build in the coming weeks as Joel Greenberg, a Gaetz associate who has been accused of trafficking a minor for sex, faces a May 15 deadline to strike a plea deal with prosecutors. If he does, Greenberg may be pressed to cooperate with federal investigators and deliver damaging information against Gaetz.

None of the people on the trip to the Bahamas has been charged with a crime. Gaetz has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and has retained high-powered lawyers. The congressman and his representative did not respond to a message seeking comment for this story.

Beshears and a lawyer for Pirozzolo declined to comment for this story.

The Associated Press spoke with more than 10 people familiar with the dynamic among Gaetz, Pirozzolo and Beshears. Three of the people had knowledge of the investigation. They all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to publicly discuss the ongoing investigation.

Gaetz's interest in medical marijuana dates back nearly a decade, when he was a member of the Florida House of Representatives. Well before he would gain national attention for his steadfast support of Donald Trump , Gaetz would carve out an unusual reputation in Tallahassee as a Republican who wanted to liberalize marijuana laws.

In February 2014, Gaetz co-sponsored the first state effort to allow marijuana for medical use. His proposal allowing the use of a nonhallucinogenic marijuana extract was limited to patients with cancer or a severe form of epilepsy and slowly earned the support of his father, Don Gaetz, who was then serving as president of the Florida Senate and said he was being pummeled by his son about supporting it.

Gaetz cast his proposal as a pared-down alternative to a statewide ballot measure that would have broadly legalized medical marijuana. Gaetz's law was approved with broad bipartisan support and signed into law by Republican Gov. Rick Scott in June 2014, while the statewide measure narrowly failed at the ballot box that November.

The day Gaetz's measure was up for a final debate and vote in the Florida House, both Pirozzolo and Beshears were on the floor.

Beshears was a fellow Republican member of the Legislature who joined Gaetz to support the legislation. Pirozzolo, an Orlando hand doctor and pilot, was there serving as the physician of the day for the lawmakers  a role he would frequently take on by flying his own plane to Tallahassee.

Once the legislation passed, it created lucrative new opportunities for Beshears' family and Pirozzolo.

The long-standing nursery owned by Beshears' family was awarded one of five highly coveted licenses to cultivate and dispense medical marijuana.

The legislation was written to specify  and restrict  who could win such a license. An amendment added by another lawmaker in the state House limited the pool of applicants to nurseries that had been in continuous business for 30 years and had an inventory of 400,000 or more plants.

The Beshears family nursery, joining with two other growers, met that standard.

The Tampa Bay Times reported in 2014 that Beshears had failed to file a conflict of interest report when he voted on the bill, and the lawmaker who sponsored the amendment wanted to err on the side of limiting who could qualify now when embarking on such a new industry. More licenses have since been awarded, but the industry is still tightly controlled.

Another amendment added to the 2014 legislation the day Pirozzolo watched in the state House required dispensary applicants to employ a doctor as a medical director.

Eight days later, Pirozzolo started a consulting firm connecting marijuana businesses with medical directors, the Orlando Sentinel reported. He later co-founded a group called the American Medical Marijuana Physicians Association, which advocates for doctors who recommend medical cannabis.

Gaetz has spoken at least twice at the associations annual conferences, including an appearance with longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone, according to the groups social media posts and the recollections of a member.

With recommendations from Gaetz and Beshears in 2018, Pirozzolo was appointed by the current governor, Republican Ron DeSantis, to serve on a board that runs Orlando International Airport. In 2019, he stood next to DeSantis on an airport tarmac and greeted Trump as he arrived in Orlando to kick off his reelection campaign, according to video posted online by a Sentinel reporter.

Two years after Gaetz's first medical marijuana law, he sponsored another measure in the Legislature to expand on it, allowing near-death patients to use nonsmokable marijuana of all strengths and doses.

The day it came up for a vote in the state House, Beshears voted for it, and Pirozzolo witnessed it, again serving as the doctor of the day.

By the time Gaetz was in Congress in 2018, he introduced legislation that would increase the number of entities that would conduct cannabis research. The legislation included provisions similar to what Pirozzolo's group was pushing to also expand research.

Nearly five months later, the men would meet in the Bahamas.

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Pro-democracy protesters and a journalist run as riot police officers advance them during a rally against the military coup in Yangon, Myanmar, February 27, 2021.

Not long after enjoying their first taste of freedom, Myanmars journalists say they are barely able to function, as the soldiers who toppled the countrys democratically elected government three months ago have moved to choke off the flow of information through intimidation, arrests, and violence.

In interviews with RFA, multiple reporters, editors, and photographers  speaking from hiding and on condition of anonymity to protect their safety  say the junta that deposed Aung San Suu Kyi and her government on Feb. 1, has made it dangerous and difficult to gather news about the biggest story of their lives.

The media professionals cite a litany of measures -- including internet and satellite blackouts, confiscation of mobile phones, closures of independent media outlets, beatings, and arrests  that the military regime is using to thwart them and to scare off sources from talking to media.

Journalists are living in fear because there is no safety for us, a senior editor from a Myanmar news agency told RFAs Myanmar Service this week.

Many reporters have been arrested. Some of us have been barred from reporting, the editor said.

We cannot contact any of our sources due to the internet blackout, we cannot make phone calls effectively and we cannot carry our mobile phones as we travel, the editor said.

If they check Facebook accounts, the journalists will be arrested one way or another. We cannot carry any reporting gadgets now, the editor added.

The flow of news in this country has almost stopped.

A multimedia journalist from Mandalay, the countrys second largest city, told RFA that no one is safe from the junta efforts to clamp down on coverage of nationwide protests that have seen millions turn out in protests rejecting the coup, and violent crackdowns that have killed more than 750 people, mostly civilians.

Previously they would excuse journalists who were working for international outlets, but now they arrest everyone. They are also terminating licenses for local media outlets, so it is not inaccurate to say that media freedom is completely gone, the Mandalay journalist said.

Conditions have never been great for journalists in a country run by military men for two-thirds of its 72-year existence as modern state, but they were improving during a political thaw and the transition from a quasi-military government to civilian rule from 2013-17, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

During that time frame, the countrys rank in RSFs annual freedom index rose considerably, and "Myanmars journalists hoped they would never again have to fear arrest or imprisonment for criticizing the government or military, the Paris-based media freedom watchdog group said in a recent report.

"The coup detat...brought that fragile progress to an abrupt end and set Myanmars journalists back ten years," lamented RSF.

The Mandalay journalist said that the situation is so bad that people cant use mobile phones in public, because security forces now search everyone and arrest and beat those who carry mobile phones, or demand cash to avoid legal prosecution, sources said.

If they find photos, videos or social media posts they deem offensive to the military, they press charges and confiscate gear. In some cases, they confiscate expensive, latest-model phones without finding any offending content, or demand cash if they are unable to extract fines because their target left their phone alone.

They inspect everyones mobile phone. Journalists cannot go out and do their jobs because we always have news photos on our phones, the Mandalay journalist said.

Some of us wear helmets with a prominent PRESS label on them, but that only gets us targeted for beatings from the authorities. We have seen them going after reporters in the field, to arrest them, the Mandalay journalist added.

A journalist and a police officer take pictures of each other as people protest against the military coup in Yangon, Myanmar February 23, 2021. Credit: Reuters

Its now very dangerous for reporters. We have to take videos from a distance, and thats not great for many multimedia platforms, as we have to use these poor-quality videos shot from such a distance, the reporter added.

A Yangon photojournalist said the juntas security forces have actively prevented him from covering events.

As I travel into the field to take photos, the authorities have opened my bag to inspect it. They asked me to surrender my memory cards, the photojournalist said.

Freelance reporters who cannot afford to rent a car take public buses, so now the authorities are stopping  buses for inspections, added the Yangon photojournalist.

We cannot know where they will be inspecting, because the inspections on buses and vehicles are sudden, added the photojournalist.

Citizens are also afraid to talk to the media or be photographed out of fear that they could be identified and punished by the junta.

As I try to cover news from different parts of the country, it is rare that the people open up and confide in me with all the information they have. They have lost their trust in the media because the military is using all kinds of tactics to suppress freedom of speech and the press, said the senior editor.

People on the streets of Myanmars largest city get nervous as soon as they see someone holding a camera, sad the Yangon photojournalist.

It used to be pretty easy to get a photo or video because the people would work with us. But lately they are worried about repression, the photojournalist said.

Some people in the neighborhood are suspected military informants, so when you hold a camera, people might think you are an informant.

According to an RFA tally, 73 journalists and media personnel have been arrested since the coup on Feb. 1, and 44 remain in detention.

While Myanmar journalists had looked at the rule of Aung San Suu Kyi as a golden era for reporting, RSF said dark clouds were already gathering midway through her 2015-20 term.

It cited the prosecution in 2018 of two Reuters reporters who had revealed an army massacre of Muslim Rohingya civilians in western Myanmar and were jailed for 500 days "on the basis of fabricated evidence and bogus criminal proceedings."

"This coup was not a complete surprise inasmuch as the climate for press freedom had already been worsening again during the past three years," said RSF.

Reported by RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Ethnic Karen protesters flash a three-finger salute of defiance and display signs calling for the abolishment of the military dictatorship during a demonstration in Dooplaya district, southeastern Myanmar's Kayin state, April 22, 2021.

More than 30,000 Myanmar civilians have fled their villages in the eastern state of Kayin and are hiding in nearby jungles following air strikes in populated areas in response to the seizure of a government military post by a rebel ethnic army, an official from an NGO said Friday.

Fighting that flared up in March in Kayin has driven thousands of ethnic Karen into Thailand, while others cluster near the border. To Myanmars west, Bangladesh has beefed up border patrols to stop an influx of Rohingya trying to join fellow members of their ethnic minority in refugee settlements.

Myanmars northernmost state of Kachin has also seen a longstanding conflict between ethnic armies and the national military intensify since army generals overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1, igniting nationwide protests that were met with fierce violence that has killed 750 people.

The Karen National Liberation Army overran the Myanmar armys Thaw Le Hta military post on the Thai-Burmese border on Tuesday, prompting aerial attacks which sent villagers running to the jungle, said Saw Thu Bi, a spokesman for the Karen Peace Support Network.

Myanmar military attacks on populated areas of Kayin state in late March also drove many civilians to flee their homes and seek refuge near the Thai border or into Thailand.

Some of them have fled to Thailand since March 27, and they were driven back by Thailand, he said. This time when the military plane attacked their villages, they did not want to run to the Thai side again.

The Thai government has allowed the relief organization to transport food to the refugees, though it proved difficult because some villagers had fled into the mountains, he said.

On Wednesday, military jets attacked villages along Salween (Thanlwin) River four times, though it is not known if there were any casualties.

That air strike caused more than 300 civilians to flee to Thailand, said K'nyaw Paw, general secretary of the Karen Womens Organization (KWO).

The ethnic Karen refugees have been taking shelter in the mountains for almost three months now, said Say Say from the KWOs central standing committee.

There has been heavy artillery fire [and] the internally displaced persons are afraid and living in fear, she said. They have had so much anxiety since the beginning, and their main concern is safety for their lives. They are now more frightened because of the attack.

There are now more than 30,000 Karen refugees in the area, and it is the most worrying situation in more than 70 years of fighting, she said.

The monsoons will be coming very soon, [and] they are living in cramped quarters and without clean water, Say Say said. They will suffer from diarrhea and other illnesses, such as the flu, which are very common.

Fires burn at a Myanmar military base along the bank of the Salween River following an attack by an ethnic Karen rebel army in southeastern Myanmar's Kayin state, April 27, 2021. Credit: AFP/Kawthoolei Today





Crossing into Thailand

Thailands foreign ministry said Friday that more than 2,200 people from Kayin state had crossed the border into Mae Hong Son province this week as they fled fighting between rebels and Myanmar government forces.

Currently, there are still people fleeing unrest from Myanmar to the Thai side for asylum in the area of Mae Sariang district, Tanee Sangrat, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told reporters.

The Thai government has ordered relevant agencies to be prepared by allowing people fleeing unrest from Myanmar to stay in a temporary safe area under the supervision of the military. There they will be screened for the coronavirus, he said.

If there is protracted violence, the Thai armed forces and provincial service have prepared a plan to move the refugees to another shelter to wait, the spokesman said. It is about one kilometer from the border, where humanitarian aid will be provided, such as food, water, and medicine.

The Thai government has prohibited the delivery of relief supplies by humanitarian organizations because of COVID-19 regulations, he said.

Matcha Phorn-in, director of the Sangsan Anakot Yawachon Development Project, an NGO, told BenarNews that there was a lack of cooperation between CSOs, NGOs, the U.N., and the Thai government in dealing with refugee problems. Most of the war refugees are children, women and the elderly, Matcha said.

Our demand is to ask the government to open up workspaces with NGOs, U.N. agencies, humanitarian workers, to provide immediate assistance to refugees without pushing [Myanmar refugees] back, said Matcha, who also urged states to support humanitarian aid for refugees, and grant journalists access to the region.

Col. Sujin Sapsin, the commander of the 7th Infantry Regiment, told the media that the Thai military is still unable to assess the violence in Myanmar.

The refugees are not allowed to enter the regular community area. It is more important to keep the people safe as we are fighting the COVID-19, Col. Sujin said, explaining why some areas along the border in Mae Hong Son province had been closed off to outsiders.

Rohingyas head to Bangladesh

To Myanmars west, Bangladesh has intensified patrols along its border with Myanmar to prevent illegal cross-border entries by Rohingya Muslims living in Rakhine state, Bangladeshi officials said Friday.

Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) stopped 133 Myanmar nationals from entering, 104 of whom were pushed back into Myanmar in March and April alone, they said.

Between January and April, another 31 Rohingya had crossed the border but were handed over to the U.N. refugee agency after authorities found them hiding in a local refugee camp, officials said.

In recent times, there has been an increase in attempts by Myanmar nationals to infiltrate into Bangladesh, so we have intensified patrols along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border to prevent illegal entry, said BGBs operations director Lt. Col. Faizur Rahman, referring to the Rohingya.

A crackdown on Myanmars Rohingya led by the Myanmar military in 2017 drove about 745,000 members of the minority group into Bangladesh, where they now live in sprawling displacement camps. The influx of refugees strained already-scarce resources in Bangladesh, itself a developing nation.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya still live in western Myanmars Rakhine state.

Bangladesh has done more than what it can do for the Rohingyas. Now other neighboring countries should also stand beside them, said Mohammad Delwar Hossain, director general of the Myanmar wing at Bangladeshs foreign ministry.

Some of those seeking to join their families in Bangladesh include prisoners recently released by the Myanmar government during an amnesty marking the Buddhist New Year. Authorities freed more than 23,000 prisoners, including 137 foreigners under the general amnesty.

There are many freed prisoners whose families have already taken refuge in Bangladesh. Thats why they want to come here, said Mostafa Kamal, a Rohingya leader in the new refugee camp at Leda in Teknaf sub-district of southeastern Bangladesh.

Mohammad Tariqul Islam, commander of the Armed Police Battalion No. 16, said that 31 Rohingya who were hiding out in Coxs Bazar district, where the refugee camps are located, were sent this year to a transit camp run by the U.N.s refugee agency in Ukhia sub-district.

Myanmar citizens hold a candlelight demonstration against the military junta in Hpakant township, northern Myanmar's Kachin state, April 29, 2021. Credit: AFP/Kachinwaves





More IDPs in Kachin state

In Kachin state, on Myanmars northern border with China, fighting between the government military and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), an insurgent group, has intensified since the Feb. 1 coup, displacing about 10,000 people, local residents said.

Ten civilians, a monk, and at least 20 cattle were killed in clashes that began in Momauk township on April 10, they said. At least 30 houses were burned to the ground, forcing villagers to flee to refugee camps and religious schools in neighboring townships, they said.

The current situation is very intense, said one resident. There was shooting all day and all night. A military plane came again and again to attack villages below. People in villages like Sihak and Kone Law and further north cannot live there any longer. Tens of thousands of people are now displaced.

A villager was killed and a woman was seriously wounded when a mortar shell fell on his community on Thursday, residents said.

Fighting has intensified and displaced villagers are having great difficulty finding food, said a local villager from Sihak.

When our cows stepped on the mines they laid, the cows died, he said. We are in a lot of trouble now. The local crops are coming out soon, but we can no longer go to the fields. We have to abandon our crops.

Most of the people affected by the fighting, the latest flare-up in a conflict that has been going on since 2012, between Myanmar forces and the KIA township are Shan, the countrys second-largest ethnic group.

Kachin military analysts say there have been more than 40 clashes in over 70 days, with air strikes on at least 20 occasions.

This time, we are seeing a fight which is a mixture of both military and a revolution, and it will be a fierce and lengthy fight without either side giving up, said Wasaung Sayadaw, a Buddhist abbot who is helping the displaced villagers.

It will be like a revolutionary war instead of the ordinary war because the country as well as the people will suffer for a long time.

KIA spokesman Colonel Naw Bu said the rebel force stands in solidarity with the people to overthrow the military dictatorship.

We will only be able to overthrow the dictatorship if everyone participates in any way they can, he said. The people must be involved in winning this war.

RFA could not reach deputy information minister and junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, for comment

More than 120,000 displaced people in Kachin already were living in over 40 refugee camps before the military coup on Feb 1.

Two motorcyclists killed

Protests against the Myanmar junta and in support of the parallel government continued on Friday in many townships of Yangon, Mandalay, and Sagaing regions and in Shan state.

Hundreds of young people marched in Yangon, despite heavy rain.

According to RFA, more than 700 people have been killed by the military and police across the country. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a monitoring group based in Thailand, recorded 759 deaths since Feb. 1 and 4,537 arrests, with 3,485 still detained.

In Mon state, two motorcyclists were killed on the spot when police and soldiers in a car chased and rammed into them Thursday evening, said Lin Tin Htay, a lawmaker in the states assembly, on his Facebook page.

In Mandalays Chanayethazan township, a bomb exploded at a building near the district court Friday morning, prompting a rapid response by security forces, though there were no casualties, a witness said.

Bomb blasts are becoming a daily occurrence in Mandalay with similar attacks earlier this week outside the residences of local officials and offices.

Reported by Lu Seng and RFAs Myanmar Service and by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Parties to the 2015 international nuclear agreement with Iran wrapped up a third round of talks on May 1 focused on bringing the United States and Iran back into full compliance with the deal, with negotiators in Vienna giving contrasting accounts of the tasks ahead.



Senior officials from China, Germany, France, Russia, Britain, and Iran said they would adjourn until May 7.



European diplomats from the so-called E3 -- France, Britain, and Germany -- said the talks had moved slowly.



"We have much work, and little time, left. Against that background, we would have hoped for more progress this week," E3 diplomats said in a statement.



Officials have said they hope to reach a deal by May 21, when an agreement between Tehran and the UN nuclear watchdog on continued monitoring of some Iranian nuclear activities is due to expire.



"We have yet to come to an understanding on the most critical points. Success is by no means guaranteed, but not impossible," they added.



The talks are focused on creating a road map for Washington to lift its sanctions on Iran and Tehran to reinstate restrictions on its nuclear program.



Iran's delegation head, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, reiterated that Tehran expects the United States to lift sanctions across a range of sectors, including oil, banks, and most individuals and institutions.



"There are differences, big ones in fact, but since there has also been progress, we will continue negotiations next week," Araqchi told Iranian media. "We will negotiate until the two sides' positions come closer and our demands are met," he said.



"If they are met there will be an agreement, if not there will naturally be no agreement," he added.



Earlier, U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan said the talks were in "an unclear place.



"We've seen willingness of all sides, including the Iranians, to talk seriously about sanctions relief restrictions and a pathway back into the JCPOA," Sullivan said at an April 30 security event, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the formal name of the nuclear deal.

Russia's ambassador to the UN nuclear watchdog, Mikhail Ulyanov, told reporters a breakthrough would require more diplomacy.



"We need simply to continue diplomatic, day-to-day work, and we have all the reasons to expect that the outcome, [the] final outcome, will be successful and it will come quite soon, in a few weeks," said Ulyanov, who is one of the more optimistic voices at the talks.



The talks began last month in Vienna with the remaining parties to the deal. The United States does not have a representative at the table because it left the deal, but European diplomats are acting as intermediaries between the Iranian and U.S. delegations.



U.S. President Joe Biden says he wants to rejoin the deal his predecessor Donald Trump abandoned in 2018, reimposing sanctions against Tehran. Iran responded as of 2019 by breaching many of the deal's limits on its nuclear activities.



The Biden administration is considering a rollback of some of the most stringent Trump-era sanctions in a bid to get Iran to come back into compliance with the nuclear agreement, according to information from current and former U.S. officials and others familiar with the matter.



Outside the talks in Vienna, other challenges remain.



Sabotage suspected to have been carried out by Israel recently struck Iran's Natanz nuclear site, causing an unknown amount of damage. Tehran retaliated by beginning to enrich a small amount of uranium up to 60 percent purity, the highest level that Iran has reached.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, and AFP
Calvert City is encouraging kids and adults of all ages to participate in Kites Over Calvert on May 1. PHOTO:Photo by Charlotte Harrison on Unsplash

Calvert City 'Kites Over Calvert' Today

By West Kentucky Star Staff

CALVERT CITY - Calvert City encourages kids and adults of all ages to participate in Kites Over Calvert this afternoon.The event will take place from 1 pm through 3 pm in Doctors Park behind City Hall.The Calvert Area Development Association will be giving away free kites on a first-come, first-serve basis to children.The event will operate on 'kite-time,' and if the weather does not cooperate, the event will be rescheduled to May 8.
The supervisory board of Ukraine's state-owned oil and gas company Naftogaz is resigning following the government's decision to replace the firm's CEO  a move that has raised concerns among Kyivs Western backers.



On April 28, the government announced the dismissal of Andriy Kobolyev, Naftogazs chief since 2014, citing the "unsatisfactory" results of the companys operations last year, when it posted a loss of nearly $700 million.



The supervisory board, which was temporarily suspended in order to dismiss Kobolyev, issued a statement on April 30 saying that all its members were submitting notice of their resignations, effective from May 14.



"The Supervisory Board will use the coming two weeks of its notice period to help the Company as much as it can to deliver an orderly transition and will inform the Shareholder in detail early next week," the statement said.



The unexpected move to fire Kobolyev threatens to complicate talks to access a $5-billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund, with Ukraines international partners warning that integrity and transparency in such decisions were key to maintaining confidence in the countrys commitment to reform.

The European Union, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Bank, the World Bank, and the International Finance Corporation said in a joint statement on April 30 that they were "seriously concerned" about recent events at Naftogaz.



"We call upon the leadership of Ukraine to ensure that crucial management decisions at state-owned enterprises are taken in full accordance with the basic tenets of recognised corporate governance standards," they said.



The U.S. State Department earlier said that the "calculated move" showed "disregard for fair and transparent corporate governance practices."



The matter is set to be on the agenda when Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits Ukraine on May 5-6.

Ukraines western backers tied financial aid for the country to concrete steps to clean up state enterprises such as Naftogaz, one of the country's largest companies by revenue.



Naftogaz has long been the object of corruption schemes by officials and oligarchs, but the situation began to change after the 2014 upheaval that swept pro-Kremlin President Viktor Yanukovych from power.



Naftogazs new CEO, Yuriy Vitrenko, told reporters on April 30 that the concerns of international partners were "understandable" and "a number of problems needed to be resolved."



The company needed to return to profit, said Vitrenko, who was serving as acting energy minister before his appointment.



Naftogaz has said the 2020 loss reflected lower demand, lower gas prices, and provisions for bad debts.



Kobolyev's moves toward transparency won him support among Western investors and donors.



He was credited with overseeing an energy overhaul that helped Ukraine to narrow its budget deficit, and leading the former Soviet republic to a multibillion-dollar win in a legal dispute with Russian energy giant Gazprom in 2018.



He also faced criticism for increases in heating costs.

With reporting by Reuters
MANSFIELD -- The Womens Fund of the Richland County Foundation is offering people a way to honor special women in their lives with a Mothers Day gift to benefit women and girls in this community.

Donors can make a gift to honor a special woman or in memory of a loved one. Donations will support the Womens Funds grant-making.

To make a Mothers Day gift write a check to the Richland County Foundation and note the Womens Fund on the memo line. Mail checks to 181 South Main Street, Mansfield, Ohio 44902.

The Womens Fund was formed in 1996 to promote philanthropy among women to provide funding to programs and projects that empower women and girls to achieve their full potential.
POWELL, Ohio  Hes majestic, weighs approximately 3,500 pounds, and is an important representative for his vulnerable species. And his name is Brian.

The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium has recently welcomed a 4-year-old greater one-horned rhino, who arrived on April 9, 2021, from the Center for Conservation of Tropical Ungulates (CCTU), an Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) Sustainability Partner located in Florida. Columbus Zoo Animal Care staff, along with a staff veterinarian, and Facilities team members, traveled with Brian to ensure he arrived safely.

His care team in the Zoo's Asia Quest region reports that Brian has been settling in well. The team took cues from him and introduced him to different areas behind the scenes when he indicated that he was ready. Keepers have also been working with him to establish a trusting bond  especially over applesauce and alfalfa hay.

Now that Brian has had time to become more familiar with his surroundings, beginning this weekend, guests will have the opportunity to view him in the indoor habitat located in the elephant and rhino building. They will likely find him engaging in one of his favorite activities  playing in the sand pile! Viewing schedules will be determined by Brian and are subject to change.

Brian's move was recommended as part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' (AZA) Species Survival Plan (SSP), a cooperatively managed program designed to maximize the genetic diversity and increase the population sustainability of threatened and endangered species in human care.

Currently, there are approximately only 80 greater one-horned rhinos in zoological facilities in North America.

Providing a home to a greater one-horned rhino at the Columbus Zoo is extremely important. It also further allows the Columbus Zoo and The Wilds to partner together on the vital effort to breed this vulnerable species. Greater one-horned rhinos are solitary by nature and only come together during breeding. When a male and female do come together, the courting behavior can be rather extreme.

The pastures at The Wilds in Cumberland, Ohio, are a perfect location for these introductions. With this in mind, the Zoo and The Wilds support the Rhino SSP program by having the Zoo house Brian, The Wilds' future breeding bull. This partnership will allow for an easier transition when the time comes for The Wilds to welcome Brian and introduce him to the females.

Guests who visit the Columbus Zoo's Asia Question region will notice that renovations are taking place in the rhinoceros yard. This habitat was once home to Rosie, the beloved black rhino. She lived a long life, but sadly, at age 30, her health rapidly declined, and she was humanely euthanized in November 2020.

At the time, the habitat provided Rosie (and previously other black rhinos, Kijito and Kulinda), with a home that allowed the Animal Care team to manage a pair of black rhinos to support this species native to Africa.

To carry on Rosie's legacy and continue the Zoo's rhino conservation efforts, these renovations are underway in the rhino yard along the northwest corner of the elephant and rhino building to prepare for the needs of the greater one-horned rhino, which is native to Asia.

The habitat will include several new features, including the expansion of the two smaller yards into one larger space, a pool for this semi-aquatic species, and additional viewing locations for Zoo guests. The renovations, which are being funded thanks to the generosity of Franklin County voters supporting the Zoo levy, as well as other financial support and contributions, are expected to be completed in late spring.

"As a representative of his vulnerable species, Brian is playing a vital role in protecting the future of greater one-horned rhino," said Columbus Zoo and Aquarium Interim President/CEO Jerry Borin. "Our Zoo and Wilds staff are proud to join our community and conservation partners to raise public awareness about rhinos and help sustain their population so rhinos can be around for generations to come."

Once listed as an endangered species, the greater one-horned rhino has seen a steady population increase thanks to strict government protection. The International Union now lists the greater one-horned rhino for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species as vulnerable.

According to the World Wildlife Fund, only 600 individuals survived in their native ranges of India and Nepal by 1975. Since then, researchers estimate the population has grown to exceed 3,500 greater one-horned rhinos living in these areas.

However, these rhinos continue to face threats, including invasive grasses taking over their habitat and weather extremes like flooding. They are also killed by poachers who sell rhino horn for ornamental or traditional medicinal purposes even though there are no scientifically proven health benefits for its use. The horns are made of keratin  the same substance that makes up fingernails and hair.

To further protect the future of rhinos, the Columbus Zoo and The Wilds have provided more than $218,000 in the last five years to support conservation projects benefiting rhinos in their native ranges. This includes monitoring black and white rhinos in Zimbabwe's Lowveld region through the International Rhino Foundation, protecting black rhinos in the Ngulia Rhino Sanctuary in Kenya through the African Wildlife Foundation and habitat restoration focused on the shortgrass that white rhinos eat through the White Rhinos: Rhinoceros Fund Uganda.\

The Columbus Zoo is also an active participant in the AZA's Saving Animals From Extinction (SAFE) program for black rhinos. The Wilds is the only facility outside of Africa with white rhinos born four and five generations removed from their wild-born ancestors.

For additional updates about the Columbus Zoos animals, events, and more, be sure to follow the Zoos social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and visit us at ColumbusZoo.org.
Kuttawa Driver Gets Alcohol, Drug Charges

By West Kentucky Star Staff

KUTTAWA - A man faces drug and alcohol related charges after a traffic stop in Kuttawa.A Lyon County Sheriff's was on patrol Thursday night in Kuttawa when he stopped 62-year-old Scott Clayton for disregarding a stop sign and failure to use a turn signal. The deputy said Clayton had an open container of alcohol, as well as marijuana, drug paraphernalia, and suspected methamphetamine.Clayton was arrested and charged with possession of an open alcoholic beverage container in a vehicle, possession of methamphetamine, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, and traffic offenses.He was booked into the Crittenden County Detention Center.
Rocky Mount, NC (27804)

Today

Partly to mostly cloudy with a chance of thunderstorms. High 88F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms in the evening, then variable clouds overnight with more showers at times. Low 71F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.
Melbourne: Threatening a five-year jail term or hefty fine, the Australian government temporarily barred its citizens from entering the country if they happened to be in India within 14 days of their intended arrival.

The decision was announced after a meeting of the National Cabinet on Friday and will come into force from Monday.

Jail

The move aims at keeping the coronavirus spread in check in Australia as India is facing a surge in infections cases.

The decision was based on the proportion of overseas travellers in quarantine in Australia, who have contracted the infection in India, according to Health Minister Greg hunt.

Failure to comply with an emergency determination under the Biosecurity Act, 2015 may incur a civil penalty of 300 penalty units, five years imprisonment or both, an official statement from the ministry said.

FlightThe decision will be revised on May 15 following advice from the chief medical officer (CMO).

The CMO will consider the epidemiology in India and likely impacts on Australias quarantine capacity, and provide a further expert assessment of the public health risk to Australia to inform a proportionate response, it said.

The ministry statement said it is important that the integrity of the Australian public health and quarantine system are protected and the number of COVID-19 cases in isolation facilities is reduced to a manageable level.
Roanoke Rapids, NC (27870)

Today

Mostly cloudy in the morning with scattered thunderstorms developing later in the day. High 86F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms in the evening, then variable clouds overnight with more showers at times. Low 68F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%.
Livingston Sheriff's Office Searching for Suspect

By West Kentucky Star Staff

LIVINGSTON COUNTY - The Livingston County Sheriff's Office is requesting the public's assistance in locating a man involved in an incident in Ledbetter on Thursday.The Sheriff's Office says 34-year-old Jacob J. Brannon was involved in an incident at the home of his estranged wife.They report that Brannon allegedly became enraged and struck vehicles, the home, and an outbuilding, with his pickup truck.He is charged with first degree criminal mischief and violation of a Kentucky EPO.Anyone with information on Jacob Brannon is asked to call the Livingston County Sheriff's Office at 270-928-2122.
Danvers, MA (01923)

Today

Cloudy in the morning, then off and on rain showers during the afternoon hours. High 89F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

A few clouds. Low around 60F. Winds light and variable.
Dear Mediator:

A new neighbor moved in to the house behind mine; our kitchens face each other. Hes a nice guy, but he has a booming loud voice. He spends a lot of time on his deck hanging out with friends or talking on the phone. I dont have air conditioning, so I keep windows open in warm weather. His voice has driven me indoors, and it even bounces off my interior walls. Confronting him would be awkward. Would a noise complaint be too hostile?

Irritated in Washington, D.C.

Dear Irritated:

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Neighborhood quiet is a fragile commodity. It is easily shattered by machines (car alarms, leaf blowers), animals (barking dogs), and people who are in distress (fighting couples, crying babies), in repose (snoring), engaging in private activities that echo through bedroom walls and bathroom windows, or just talking loudly like your new neighbor.

This is why community mediators have no shortage of noise-related cases. Left unresolved, such tensions can spiral into ugly feuds that are far more oppressive than any irksome sound.

In any conflict, you have a choice of three mitigation pathways: You can appeal to an authority, like police or the courts, for a legal remedy. You can approach the other party to negotiate. Or you can buffer the impact of the problem on you personally.

On the legal front, non-urgent disruptive noises are governed by municipal noise ordinances.

Such laws are hard to enforce, given the volume of complaints and the difficulty of documenting sounds. And a thunderous human voice almost certainly does not violate any law, which brings us to the second option. You have two advantages in negotiating this: a new neighbor who is still a blank slate and a common belief that all of us treasure our privacy.

Establish a rapport with him by bringing over something edible (seasonal fresh fruit or baked goods). Invite him to drop by for a walk-through of your home, an irresistible lure for a new neighbor.

As a framework for broaching the subject of noise, consider this discomfiting thought: If you can hear his conversations, its a good bet that he can hear yours.

During a visit, as you sit together enjoying the spring weather, mention that the acoustics of your quiet neighborhood amplify sounds to the point where private conversations are overheard. Compliment his voice, and ask if he has worked as a broadcast announcer.

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Then tell him to contact you if he can hear you talking privately, and suggest a warning system for exchanging texts if either of you is talking too loud.

If that gentle approach doesnt work, you could be more direct about the decibels of his voice. But you might be better off with the third option.

Many noise conflicts are resolved with decor and devices. Thick carpeting on a condo floor cushions the thud of heavy footsteps on the unit below. Earplugs block snoring from a nearby house. A white noise machine cancels out the blaring TV from the apartment next door.

Right now, central air conditioning would let you close your windows when its hot. And if you can hang in there, help is on the way from researchers at Singapores Nanyang Technological University (NTU) who have invented a technology for pushing external noises away from open windows.

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The device quickly emits a countering sound or anti-noise that has the same waveform characteristics of the invading noise, says an NTU news release. When both outside noise and anti-noise converge, they cancel each other out, resulting in a softer ambient sound entering living spaces.

Steven P. Dinkin is a professional mediator who has served as president of the San-Diego based National Conflict Resolution Center since 2003.

Do you have a conflict that needs a resolution? Please share your story with The Mediator via email at mediatethis@ncrconline.com or as an online submission by visiting www.ncrconline.com/MediateThis. All submissions will be kept anonymous.
Meth Charges For Iowa Man in Lyon County

By West Kentucky Star Staff

LYON COUNTY - An Iowa man was arrested Thursday on drug charges in Lyon County.Deputies responded to a report of a man in black clothing in the roadway on I-24 near the I-69 interchange.Deputies reportedly watched the man, identified as 39-year-old Dominic J. Klostermann, throw methamphetamine and a pipe out of his hand as they approached.Deputies said a search uncovered another bag of methamphetamine in his pocket.Klostermann was arrested and charged with first-degree possession of a controlled substance, public intoxication, and drug paraphernalia possession.He was lodged in the Crittenden County Jail.
WKCTC Recognized by Department of Education

By West Kentucky Star Staff

PADUCAH - West Kentucky Community and Technical College has been named one of only two Kentucky institutions to receive the U.S. Department of Education Postsecondary Sustainability Award.Across the county, 27 schools, including WKCTC, were honored by 20 states for their innovative efforts to reduce environmental impact and utility costs, improve health and wellness, and ensure effective sustainability education.The Department of Education hopes to hold a ceremony to celebrate during the week of September 27 in Washington, D.C.
West TN Police Officer Injured Responding to Call

By West Kentucky Star Staff

JACKSON - A west Tennessee police officer was seriously injured Friday morning, during a response to a violent domestic assault.KYTN reports that the officer was called to a laundromat on Carriage House Drive in Jackson, where a man identified as David Lauderdale, was allegedly strangling and attacking a female victim.When the officer arrived on the scene, reports say Lauderdale was in a vehicle that he put into reverse and accelerated, pinning the officer against his patrol car.He then attempted to flee, but struck another vehicle.Lauderdale then fled on foot, and was later taken into custody by other Jackson police officers.The officer that was stuck by the vehicle was flown to a Nashville hospital for treatment of injuries.It was also reported that Lauderdale is a documented gang member with multiple felony convictions, and was currently on probation from Davidson County.
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Four years since the projects approval, Brentwood Mayor Rhea Little snipped the ribbon in front of the new Brentwood Police Department headquarters on Thursday. But this new, $29 million facility was far more than four years of work.

This is  a day 50 years in the making, since the establishment of the Brentwood Police Department under Chief Howard Buttrey and the protection of 41 miles, approximately 3,500 citizens with four police officers, Little said.

The police department started in a small building in the back of an Exxon station, and as the city has grown, it eventually made its way to Brentwood City Hall.

But the police department has far outgrown its spot at City Hall, and it can now enjoy its new 56,000-square-foot facility, complete with a 911 emergency communication center, crime labs, secure interview suites, a fitness center, lockers, a defensive training room, gun range, sally port, municipal courtroom and community room, and a memorial plaza.

Our role is to serve you, said Brentwood Police Chief Jeff Hughes. It is my firm belief that this facility will allow us to serve all citizens more effectively than ever before.

The building is situated in a more central location than City Hall with quick access to the highway that will allow officers and ambulances  Williamson County ambulatory and emergency medical services will be stationed there as well  easier routes to get around the city.

The facility is also equipped with various rooms and tools for officers to continue their training.

Arguably, training is the most important aspect of our job, Hughes said, mentioning that the gun range, de-escalation training system and more will continue to engage officers in the learning process.

Inside the facility, officers demonstrated the departments de-escalation program, which presents scenarios to a trainee that are customizable in real time by a trainer, allowing officers to practice their communication skills.

Officers can also seek betterment in the facilitys fitness center. Hughes thanked Brentwood resident Bill Akin, to whom a plaque in the room is dedicated, for his donation of $50,000, which provided all the funds for the fitness equipment. Akin has also committed an additional $50,000 in his will.

However, the headquarters doesn't only house the agencys operations. The courtroom inside also doubles as a community room, where the department can conduct its Citizen Police Academy and host other events.

Brentwood Vice Mayor Ken Travis said the goal is to bring more positive associations to a visit to the police station. Hughes mentioned that the open concept of officers workspaces inside also reflects that goal.

It is our desire to be open and transparent in the delivery of our services, and we want to extend a welcome invitation to all citizens to stop in, engage with us, and discuss your thoughts and concerns, Hughes said.

Perhaps the most striking feature of the building is featured right up front  a bronze lion sculpture, representing strength and courage, sitting across from an honor and memorial wall. The honor portion of the wall features retired Brentwood police officers who served at least 20 years at the department. The memorial portion honors a lone name: Destin Legieza, an officer who died in the line of duty last year.

This is a feature that I personally did not want to include in the project at the onset because I feared it would be bad luck to anticipate something that had previously never happened in the city of Brentwood, Hughes said. That all changed in June of last year when Destin was tragically killed in the line of duty. With Gods grace, Destins name will be the last and only name that will ever be engraved on that portion of the wall.

Hughes shared that the department has further honored Legieza by naming its roll call room after him. Heather Legieza, Destins wife, said the room dedication was a surprise to her.

She noted the pieces of the building that have been touched by her husband, even though he never got to see the finished product. In addition to the two locations bearing his name, he even signed the final beam placed on the building during a topping-off ceremony last April.

(Its) like hes here, Heather Legieza said. I wish he could be here.  Im so excited for the other officers. He was so excited for this building.

The headquarters is located at 910 Heritage Way and is finally ready for police and citizens alike to walk its halls.

Its been a long, hard road getting to this point  countless meetings, phone calls, emails, text messages, Hughes said. I could never have imagined the amount of time and the level of detailed involvement this project required, but when you see the final product, I trust you will agree we got this right.
Family members of Oscar Grant, a Black man killed by a BART police officer in 2009, say they will start an effort next week to recall the district attorney of Alameda County.

The announcement came after Grants mother, Wanda Johnson, and several supporters met with District Attorney Nancy OMalley on Thursday afternoon, in a second-floor conference room of Oaklands Renee C. Davidson Courthouse.

Eleven years have passed since former BART officer Johannes Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for shooting and killing Grant. Mehserle served 11 months in jail. Now Johnson and others are pressing OMalley to file felony murder charges against a second officer, Anthony Pirone, who was also involved in the incident.

OMalley reopened the investigation last October, but decided in January that she would not pursue charges against Pirone.

We made a last appeal with everything in us, former Black Panther Party Chairwoman Elaine Brown said in an interview Friday afternoon. She was among the representatives from the Justice for Oscar Grant Coalition who met with the district attorney  a conversation that Brown described as polite and professional, but certainly tense.

On Monday morning, the coalition plans to file a notice of intention, the first step in a campaign to recall a local official. Eventually, thewould have to circulate a petition and receive signatures from 10% of registered voters in Alameda County, or about 95,000 people.

Calls for murder charges against Pirone have grown louder in recent months, with several elected officials entering the fray. They include Oakland City Councilmember Loren Taylor,and Mayor Libby Schaaf, who sent a letter to OMalley, arguing that Pirone set a tragedy in motion when he hit the window of the BART train and yelled commands at Grant.

Although he did not shoot anyone, Pirone grabbed Grant by the back of the head, pushed him down and placed both knees on Grants back, according to an internal investigation. Pirone also admitted to using a racial slur while detaining Grant. The series of events ended with Mehserle shooting Grant in the back as they struggled on the platform of Oaklands Fruitvale Station.

Grant was unarmed, and died from his wounds. Bystanders captured the seismic moment in cellphone videos and uploaded the footage  the first of many police killings that would ricochet on social media.

I believe, beyond a reasonable doubt, that he committed a felony murder in the case of Oscar Grant, Schaaf, a former attorney, wrote in her letter, referring to Pirone.

Separately, BART Board Directors Lateefah Simon and Bevan Dufty sent OMalley a letter on Thursday afternoon, requesting that the district attorney prosecute Pirone.

Despite their efforts to bring accountability to the transit police force, the two directors wrote, there are limits to our ability tp deliver justice because we rely on our law enforcement partners to fully and fairly enforce the law. That has not happened in the investigation and charging decision of Officer Anthony Pirone.

OMalley said in public statements that although she found Pirones actions offensive and unacceptable, she lacks sufficient evidence to charge him. She is up for re-election in 2022.

An attorney representing Pirone declined to comment. A staff member at OMalleys office was not able to respond to questions related to the recall, and a representative from her campaign was not immediately available.

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan
A former Netflix vice president was convicted of fraud in connection with an elaborate scheme to pocket hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks and stock options, the U.S. Attorneys Office has announced.

Michael Kail, 49, the former vice president of information technology for the Los Gatos streaming service, was found guilty on 28 counts of fraud and money laundering after a two-week trial in federal court in San Jose.

According to federal prosecutors with the Northern District of California office of the U.S. attorney, Kail solicited and accepted bribes and kickbacks from nine technology companies in connection with contracts worth more than $2.9 million in services provided to Netflix. Prosecutors accused Kail of using the more than $500,000 he received to buy a home in Los Gatos and pay for personal expenses.

Kail set up a sham corporation in 2012 to facilitate kickback payments from such Netflix technology providers as Netenrich, Platfora, Sumo Logic and Netskope, prosecutors say.

Bribery undermines fair competition, acting U.S. Attorney Stephanie Hines said in an April 30 release announcing the conviction. Michael Kail wielded immense power to approve valuable Netflix contracts with small tech vendors, and he rigged that process to unlock a stream of cash and stock kickbacks to himself.

A federal probe was opened after Netflix sued Kail in 2014.

Kail, who was indicted three years ago, faces up to 20 years in prison for each fraud conviction and 10 years in prison for each money laundering conviction. A sentencing hearing is expected to be held in the next three months before district Judge Beth Freeman.

The financial losses to Netflix were absorbed by the company and ultimately by consumers, who now pay $18 a month for a premium subscription.

Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SteveRubeSF
A 35-year-old woman was arrested in Berkeley on hate crime charges after chasing down a delivery driver she thought was speeding, preventing him from leaving and confronting him with a barrage of hateful language disparaging of people of color, police said.

Berkeley police said Tuesday that Julie Walrand, a Berkeley resident, was arrested on suspicion of willfully threatening a person based on race, using offensive words and false imprisonment. The incident occurred at about 8 p.m. Wednesday when Walrand allegedly spotted a delivery vehicle that she believed was driving too fast.
In the latest public disagreement between Oaklands top two leaders, the City Council president accused Mayor Libby Schaaf of impeding the vital work for failing to submit a proposed city budget by the May 1 deadline.

Im very concerned that the Mayor failed to meet her responsibility, council president Nikki Fortunato Bas said Saturday in a release she shared as part of a thread on Twitter Saturday morning.

In the release and on social media, Bas said Schaaf told her on Tuesday that the proposed budget was done and would be published on time. On Friday, she said, the mayor sent a note saying they need a little more time and would submit the proposal by May 7.

The delay, Bas wrote on Twitter, erodes public trust ... of our entire city government.

Bas said she had spoken at length with the mayor, who had committed to meeting with (the) council budget team on May 3 to review the budget.

The council president said the mayors delay means the council will have only three or four days to review the plan before the council holds hearings.

Justin Berton, a spokesperson for the mayor, attributed the delay to the challenges of this year (that) have made it difficult for everyone to meet pre-COVID deadlines.

The mayor ... expects to publish the proposal online within a few days (with no) appreciable effect on the two months that remain for ... debate before Oaklands budget is adopted, Berton added.

It was not the first dispute between Bas and Schaaf. In February, Bas and another council member clashed bitterly with Schaaf over police budget cuts and the staffing of patrol officers. Last year, the mayor accused Bas of proposing a dangerous and irresponsible amendment regarding the police budget, calling it an irresponsible act of political theater.

In a related development, a coalition of progressive groups said that it expected Schaafs budget proposals  although not formally announced  to put the needs of corporate interests and ... development above the basic needs of the city, including addressing the homeless crisis and under-served areas of Oakland.

The coalition includes a number of organizations, including Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, the Ella Baker Center and Oakland Tenants Union.

According to a statement from the Oakland Progressive Alliance and Refund Oakland Coalition, Schaafs recent budgetary and policy choices (have) seen a spike in market rate development while homelessness has reached crisis levels.

Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SteveRubeSF
Abin Rahbar moved back to Palo Alto after her oldest son was diagnosed with cerebral palsy.

She grew up there after her family emigrated from Iran in the 1970s. By 2014, after she had spent seven years in Southern California, the tight-knit community and its elite public schools seemed like her sons best chance.

At kindergarten, Rahbars son had his own case manager. He took his first steps with help from a classroom therapist. His grandparents lived around the corner, which doubled as day care when his mom was at work as a dental hygienist.

But all the support comes at a cost. Rahbar struggles to pay almost $2,700 a month for the aging apartment where her two sons split bunk beds in the only bedroom.

Im drowning, said Rahbar, who stopped working during the pandemic for fear of bringing the virus home to her kids or her parents. For eight years, Ive been sleeping on a couch so that my kids have a room, to be in this area.

As the unofficial capital of Silicon Valley, Palo Alto has been defined in recent years by escalating bidding wars for Eichler homes and fierce development battles, like when the city fought off 60 affordable senior apartments only to approve a smattering of $5 million homes on the same land. Meanwhile, an explosion of high-paying jobs at Facebook, Tesla, Google and other companies has compounded a severe lack of new housing, upping the pressure on renters like Rahbar.

Now, as cities everywhere grapple with how and where people will live after the pandemic, Palo Alto has been thrust into a new role: reluctant poster child for the backlash to single-family-zoning reform.

Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

In recent weeks, the citys housing debates have become a rallying point for housing activists who argue that allowing bigger buildings like fourplexes or apartments in neighborhoods full of roomy individual lots would open up options for Rahbar and others currently forced into cutthroat competition for scarce units.

Its also one of the biggest opportunities in a generation, a growing chorus of academics and advocates say, to counteract entrenched patterns of segregation in housing, schools and opportunity  that is, if the reforms are done well.

I think theres a cultural shift happening, said Kelsey Banes, executive director of the Peninsula arm of YIMBY Action, the San Francisco-bred yes in my backyard housing lobbying group. Were seeing the change happening locally in some places.

Palo Altans against housing

Cities like Berkeley and Sacramento may be moving toward abolishing single-family zoning, but the prospect of doing so in Palo Alto sounded like Soviet economics or developer giveaways to roughly six dozen homeowners, anti-growth politicians and others who logged onto Zoom for an April 17 town hall titled How much housing does California REALLY need?

The meeting took place days after the Palo Alto City Council bucked the zoning reform trend by tightening restrictions against multi-family housing. City Council Member Lydia Kou, who convened the virtual town hall, went a step further by urging attendees to challenge the states directive for Palo Alto to approve 6,000 new homes by 2030.

I just want you to imagine the kind of traffic problems were going to have when theyre insisting on so much housing, said Kou, who works as a Realtor.

Palo Alto is far from the only Bay Area city lagging behind state housing mandates. The city has approved 38% of the 1,988 housing units that the state required by 2023. Much-bigger San Jose had signed off on about 53% of its state-mandated new housing by the end of 2020. Googles hometown of Mountain View exceeded its quota, on paper, by granting permits for more than 4,000 new homes  but the vast majority cater to high earners, leaving a void of more than 1,000 affordable units.

For the past several years, the nemesis of slow-growth advocates, state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, has tried to force movement on these numbers by proposing new state laws to increase density, which have met opposition from both property owners and tenants rights groups worried about gentrification.

In early April, the Biden administration unveiled plans for a federal multibillion-dollar incentive program for cities to reform what many housing researchers call exclusionary zoning, because of how single-family neighborhoods tend to lock out groups that have historically accumulated less wealth, notably Latino, Black and native households.

Its here, when the housing debate turns to racism or segregation, that Palo Alto Mayor Tom DuBois and fellow residentialist council members are caught off guard. Palo Alto already has less land zoned for single-family homes and more designated affordable housing than neighbors like Apples home of Cupertino, they point out.

Cities consider zoning reform Sacramento: Approved a plan allowing up to four housing units on all city lots Berkeley: Voted to begin process of ending single-family zoning by 2022 Oakland & South San Francisco: Initiated studies on zoning reform San Francisco: Proposed ordinance would expand area where fourplexes are allowed Palo Alto: Banned multi-family units proposed under a housing incentive program in single-family neighborhoods San Jose: Set to debate citywide upzoning to four housing units amid homeowner protests See More Collapse

I think the majority of new homes being acquired in Santa Clara County are by Asian Americans, DuBois said. I dont know how you say the zoning itself is exclusionary.

But segregation in Silicon Valley isnt black and white.

The mask is off

Researchers at UC Berkeley found that Palo Alto, which is 59% white and about one-third Asian, has a moderate level of segregation within its city limits. It abuts the most segregated city in the Bay Area, East Palo Alto.

In effect, the city boundary polices access to high-quality resources and amenities, like schools, green space and transit, said Stephen Menendian, an attorney who has studied Bay Area segregation as assistant director of the UC Berkeley Othering and Belonging Institute.

The stark divide between cities reflects both modern pressures, like displacement and a dearth of affordable housing, plus the legacy of blatantly discriminatory practices like redlining.

DuBois notes that Palo Altos famous California-modern home builder Joseph Eichler barred racial covenants. Still, the citys Human Relations Commission recently highlighted lesser-known local heritage, like a 1946 incident when the Ku Klux Klan burned down the home of a Black man in a white neighborhood, and a 1920 Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce proposal to form a segregated district for the oriental and colored people of the city.

While some residents say a sense of exclusion lingers, social justice advocates argue that todays most immediate challenge to further integrating affluent communities like Palo Alto is unequal buying power.

One recent report by progressive advocacy group California Forward calculated that moderate-income Black, Latino and native Bay Area residents can typically afford a home in the $519,000 range  far below the $1 million-plus price tags in much of the region.

The median Palo Alto home price has spiked to $3 million during the pandemic, according to the National Association of Realtors.

I mean look, the mask is off, said Micah Weinberg, CEO of California Forward. Whatever it is that people in Palo Alto might say they believe when it comes to race equity, this is the result.

Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

For Bing Wei, the cost of allowing only certain kinds of people to buy their way into Palo Alto is that her daughter is growing up with few Latino and Black neighbors, who make up about 6% and 2% of the citys population.

Wei bought her cozy 1,300-square-foot house about nine years ago. Its currently valued at roughly $2.7 million, or well over double what she paid, illustrating how lucrative stringent zoning rules can be when combined with a strong local economy. But Wei would risk some of that outrageous value, she said, for more housing. It might allow hardworking people like her Latina housekeeper from East Palo Alto to live closer.

I view that as a small compromise the whole community can make, said Wei, a global business consultant. The health of a neighborhood, she added, is not about housing price.

In Palo Alto, DuBois said that the city is exploring a range of alternatives to expand affordable housing, like converting some commercial areas to allow housing. The city already expanded the number of in-law units allowed citywide in recent years. With advocates now pushing for sweeping zoning reforms, he said, the goalposts have been moved.

The tension is poised to come to a head with Palo Altos new state deadline to approve 6,000 more units by 2030. DuBois said the city will follow state law and start planning. But he expects turbulence with new penalties for missing targets, despite a lack of new state funding for affordable housing.

Many cities are likely to fail, DuBois said. There could be a revolt of cities at that point.

To Menendian of UC Berkley, the fight over single-family zoning reform is reminiscent of the early campaign for the federal Fair Housing Act in the 1950s, which ultimately outlawed housing discrimination in 1968.

Id say were in 1956, he said, predicting a combination of zoning lawsuits and local, state and federal policy shifts as movements for housing and racial justice collide.

Despite all the housing anxiety, Rahbars nostalgia for the Palo Alto of her childhood mirrors that of many homeowners now opposed to building apartments for families like hers.

She went to Fairmeadow Elementary, the same school her sons now attend, and remembers a blur of neighborhood block parties on leafy, traffic-free streets. Now, Alma Street often resembles a parking lot, and most of the neighbors who rushed to check on her family after the Loma Prieta earthquake are gone.

Palo Alto isnt the same city she left. And she often feels like it doesnt want her to stay.

Its like privilege, this notion of, Listen, if you cant live here, you cant live here, Rahbar said. I never felt like that when I was growing up.

Lauren Hepler is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: Lauren.Hepler@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LAHepler
Prosecutors have refiled felony assault charges against Jamaica Hampton, the man who was shot by San Francisco police officers in 2019 just after, officials said, he attacked a police officer with a bottle.

The complaint comes two weeks after a San Francisco judge dismissed a case against Hampton citing insufficient evidence.

We presented evidence of identification, including video evidence, but the judge ruled it was insufficient, said Rachel Marshall, a spokesperson for the San Francisco District Attorneys Office.

Hampton and one of two officers who shot at him, Christopher Flores, were indicted by a grand jury last year on charges stemming from the Dec. 7, 2019, confrontation near 23rd and Mission streets.

The incident left Hampton in the hospital for weeks with severe injuries; a leg was amputated and he lost partial use of his dominant arm, his attorney Danielle Harris said. Hampton was arrested and charged after the incident but District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who took office in January 2020, set aside the case to avoid a conflict of interest between the Flores and Hampton investigations.

Boudin announced the grand jury indictments against both Flores and Hampton in December.

Flores, whose case is still pending in court, is charged with assault with a semiautomatic firearm, negligent discharge of a firearm and assault by a public officer, with two charging enhancements of personal use of a firearm during a felony.

Hampton is charged with four counts of felony assault with a deadly weapon, a felony charge for battery on a peace officer and two counts of threats to an executive officer. Flores is the victim named in the battery charge.

We objected to the courts dismissal, and are continuing to prosecute both the charges against Mr. Hampton as well as the charges against Officer Flores as they each inflicted unlawful violence on each other, San Francisco District Attorneys Office spokesperson Rachel Marshall said.

Harris said it was beyond disappointing to see the same case filed against Hampton for a third time.

SFPD held him more than accountable when two cops shot him again and again and again that morning, compounding his pre-existing, extreme trauma history, Harris said.

Hampton is in a stable home, in therapy, in school, and attempting to build a meaningful life despite the two permanent disabilities SFPD gave him, Harris continued. It is past time for the system to allow Mr. Hampton and his family the space to try to truly heal, instead of causing them further harm.

Video footage of the incident showed Hampton attacking Flores and Hayes, Flores training officer, just as the two were stepping out of their patrol car in the Mission District.

Hampton bashed Flores in the head with a glass vodka bottle, before leading the two officers on a brief foot chase around parked cars, police said. In video footage, Hampton was seen closing in on Hayes just moments before the training officer opened fire, sending Hampton to the ground.

Flores fired his own weapon as Hampton attempted to stand up, and after critics argued that Hampton was no longer an immediate threat. It is unclear whether Flores shot struck Hampton.

Megan Cassidy is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidy
A crowd of several hundred union workers and supporters marched up San Franciscos Market Street on Saturday morning to support pro-union legislation in Congress and celebrate what they called the real Labor Day  May 1 or May Day.

Marchers, led by civil rights activist Angela Davis and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union drill team, gathered in front of the Ferry Building and walked up Market Street to Civic Center Plaza. Dressed in colorful union shirts, carrying banners for labor unions as familiar as the Teamsters and as little known as the Theatrical Stage Employees Union, they marched, six or seven abreast in a line that stretched about five blocks.

As they marched, groups of drummers banged out a beat, occasionally joined by a tuba player as the stream of union supporters chanted Lets go, labor and Stand up, fight back.

While May 1  or May Day  is a celebration of spring in many places, and a demonstration of military might in some nations, it is also known around the world as International Workers Day, a high holy day for the labor movement. In many countries its called Labor Day.

In the U.S., it recognizes the Haymarket Incident, an 1886 rally that turned into a riot and helped lead to the eight-hour work day.

Were here to support workers and the historical significance of the real Labor Day  May Day, said Ashley Mates, a union representative for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

Aside from celebrating the labor movement, the marchers were also urging the passage of the PRO Act, the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, pro-union legislation thats stalled in Congress. The bill would enhance penalties against employers who interfere in union organizing campaigns and make it easier for labor unions to organize workers. Supported by President Biden, the PRO Act is a top priority of organized labor.

Labor unions are still stinging over their failed attempt to organize an Amazon plant in Alabama, and are critical of labor laws they say gave the company an unfair advantage over the union.

We have to protect the right to organize, Davis said at a rally in Civic Center Plaza after the march up Market. Pass the PRO Act.

Now Playing: Video: Caron Creighton / The Chronicle

Others had their own agendas: support for beleaguered postal processing workers, increasing the number of transit operators being rehired as the economy recovers, fighting for health care for hospitality workers who lost their health insurance when their hours were cut during the pandemic.

Other participants said they were there in a spirit of solidarity  not just for workers but to show support for Black Lives Matter, for efforts to combat anti-Asian violence and to eliminate police brutality and reform policing.

Were here in support of not only Black lives and Asian lives but workers lives, said John Varga, a member of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, which represents public sector engineers.

Frances Hsieh a vice president with the IFPTEs San Francisco local, said this May Day was an opportunity for labor to show its support for Black, Asian and other disenfranchised communities, including those that have suffered from a growing economic gap, particularly during the pandemic. Californias unemployment rate was 8.5% in February, about double what it was 12 months earlier.

Were not just city employees, she said. We live here, we work here and we are community members. Especially when were coming out from under four years of attack, its important to show our solidarity.

Elsewhere in the Bay Area, May Day events were planned in Oakland, San Rafael, Livermore and Fairfield. Other pro-labor actions, both live and virtual, were expected to take place in Sacramento, Los Angeles and other California cities.

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan
Most people whove interacted with the charismatic, upbeat Gary McCoy as hes climbed San Franciscos political ladder  working for then-Supervisors Scott Wiener and London Breed, as well as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi  never would have guessed he nearly died on the citys streets as his drug addiction ravaged his body.

For 10 years, he slept wherever he could find a private patch of pavement or dirt  behind a pump house in a Chinatown park, in the bushes in Buena Vista Park, under an overhang at Becks Motor Lodge in the Castro.

He couldnt shake his addiction to methamphetamine, and he and his friends would score free drugs by helping dealers inject safely or by trading sex for them. He ignored his HIV diagnosis, skipping his prescribed medication because it ruined his high.

Abscesses covered his skin, and Kaposis sarcoma lesions  the purple spots common among AIDS patients  covered his arms, torso and even the inside of his esophagus. He shrank to 110 pounds. He had a T cell count of just four.

I wanted to kill myself, but I didnt have the strength to jump in front of a car or off a bridge, he said. I hoped that the next time I used would be the time I killed myself.

Thankfully for McCoy, his husband, the bosses who rave about him and San Francisco itself, he dodged a deadly overdose  the fate thats killing two people in the city every day, but which hasnt grabbed the attention of the citys leaders like it should.

McCoy reached out a few weeks ago asking whether he could share his story with readers. Hed talked about his homelessness and drug addiction, but hed never publicly shared that hed been in and out of jail throughout those awful years.

But now, he said, he wants to divulge the whole story. Partly because he doesnt want to keep secrets anymore. Partly because he has a new, not-so-political job as the director of public affairs for HealthRight 360, which runs residential substance abuse treatment programs in the city. And partly because he has ideas for how San Francisco can begin to pull itself out of its depths of despair.

Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle

People are frustrated, said McCoy, 42. As a city, we havent tried everything yet  we really havent. A lot of things have been put on hold.

McCoy grew up in a conservative family in a conservative place, Norfolk, Va. He was closeted as a teenager and hung out with an older crowd to try to fit in. He dabbled in heroin, and it quickly became an addiction.

I didnt care, he recalled. It helped numb a lot of pain that I was going through.

Hed shoplift items, return them and use the cash to buy drugs. On one such escapade at Walmart, a friend tried to steal a computer, and police arrested both of them. McCoy was charged with grand larceny.

He got three years probation, but kept failing to show up for the required checks and drug screens. That eventually led to a year in jail. When he got out in late 2001, he headed to San Francisco in hopes of starting fresh, but life got even worse. Within months, he developed a meth addiction and an HIV infection. He said drugs are easy to find anywhere if youre desperate, but theyre especially easy to score in San Francisco.

And he quickly got picked up by police  again  for drug possession. He was diverted to drug court, but again struggled with the required check-ins. He said drug court could have helped him if it had promoted harm reduction, but the deal was abstinence in exchange for wiping his record clear, and he couldnt manage it.

Years of homelessness, addiction and misery followed. In 2005, he was diagnosed with AIDS. Finally, when his T cell count plummeted to four, he told a caseworker at San Francisco General Hospitals famed Ward 86 for AIDS patients that he was ready to enter a treatment program so he could start taking his HIV medications again.

That was my only goal, he said. Just to get into a routine where I was taking my HIV medications.

She got him into a 90-day treatment program. He left after a month to use again, but the overnight counselor called him and told him to return. He did, saying the counselors deep concern and his own physical pain after coming down from his first high in a month made him go back. He finished the program, and hes been sober since Feb. 23, 2011.

A mutual acquaintance of his and Wieners got him a volunteer position in the then-supervisors office answering phones. He then worked as a legislative aide for Wiener, Breed and former Supervisor Julie Christensen. He worked in policy and public affairs for the Recreation and Park Department. And he worked as a senior congressional aide to Pelosi in her San Francisco office.

Each time, he underwent a background check and confessed his secrets to his future bosses. Each time, they welcomed him.

It was a big deal for me, a big deal, to be able to tell someone the truth about something I was ashamed of, he said. Its still traumatic to have to go through that every single time.

The arrests only delayed his recovery, he said, and he argues police are not the answer to people experiencing mental health and drug crises. Instead, he supports the citys street crisis teams. Each team is comprised of a paramedic, a clinician and a peer whos been homeless or struggled with mental health or drug problems.

Three teams are working now, covering the Tenderloin, the Mission and the Castro. On Monday, one of those three will be dedicated to the Bayview. These teams need to be expanded as quickly as possible, but the city has no start date for its planned three additional teams.

Likewise, a long-planned meth sobering center for people to ride out their dangerous highs in a calm environment and get connected to treatment will not open until fall at the earliest  and will serve only 20 people. A safe injection site has been discussed for years with no real progress. A planned overhaul of the citys behavioral health system is years away.

McCoy supports all of this  on a much hastened timeline  plus more outreach workers fanning out around the city offering help and treatment. He doesnt remember a single outreach worker approaching him when he lived outside, but there was always somebody shouting in the Tenderloin that they had drugs for sale.

The Homeless Outreach Team started in 2004 when McCoy was in the thick of his crisis, but he never saw any members. Theyre still understaffed and underpaid. McCoy said that to truly make a difference, each neighborhood in the city should have its own outreach team  meaning a homeless person would see a caring person with access to help every day.

Planting that seed, making sure they know the treatment opportunities exist, I think the significance of that gets overlooked a lot, he said.

Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle

Wiener, McCoys first boss in San Francisco and the officiant at his wedding, said he believes everybody deserves a second chance and that McCoy wound up being a big asset to this office  and to the city itself. And he fully agrees with McCoy about San Franciscos slow pace in addressing a fast-moving crisis.

We do a little bit here, a little bit there, Wiener said. We know these strategies work, but only if youre all in.

Life is good for McCoy now. His career is thriving. Hes the co-chair of the Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club. He has a T cell count of 700. Hes gained weight  45 pounds before the pandemic, 55 now, he said with a laugh. He got married. He rents an apartment in Twin Peaks  a two-bedroom because he and his husband are thinking about adopting a baby.

He walks to the Castro every morning for coffee and sees familiar faces from his days on the streets. He smiles. He says hello. He tells people he can help them.

He said hes tried to help scores of people since recovering. He estimates that, stunningly, 25 ended up dying. But he guessed hes eased 10 people into treatment.

Its one more person, he said, telling someone there is a better way.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Heather Knight appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Email: hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hknightsf Instagram: @heatherknightsf
Franklin, TN (37064)

Today

Rain showers in the morning with thunderstorms developing in the afternoon. High 79F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Locally heavy rainfall possible..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy with showers and a few thunderstorms. Low 69F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
In a blow to Uber and other ride-hailing companies, a state appeals court ruled Friday that a judge, not an arbitrator, must decide under state law whether Uber drivers in California were employees before a ballot initiative sponsored by the companies classified them as independent contractors. A plaintiffs lawyer said the ruling would apply to more than 200 Uber drivers.

Proposition 22, financed by more than $200 million from Uber, Lyft and other companies, was approved by nearly 60% of the states voters on Nov. 3 and took effect in mid-December. At issue in the court case is whether drivers working for Uber before Prop. 22 can seek back pay and employee benefits they were denied because the company considered them contractors.

A lawsuit by drivers claiming employee status before Prop. 22 is pending before a federal judge in San Francisco. Fridays ruling came in a separate suit, filed by a driver in Los Angeles County Superior Court under a California law known as the Private Attorneys General Act or PAGA, which allows private citizens to sue alleged wrongdoers in the name of the state.

A judge in a PAGA suit who finds a defendant has violated state law can assess financial penalties, with the private whistle-blower collecting 25% and the rest going to the state. More importantly, in this case, the judge would also determine whether the drivers were employees before Prop. 22. Employees are entitled to minimum wages, overtime, sick pay, workers compensation and payment of work expenses that are not guaranteed by law to independent contractors.

State courts have already ruled, in separate cases, that Uber drivers should have been classified as employees before passage of the ballot measure, finding that they did not operate independent businesses and were subject to the companys control. AB5, a state law that took effect last year, considers workers to be employees rather than contractors if their jobs are within the usual course of the hiring entitys business.

In response to the Los Angeles suit, which was filed in 2018, Uber argued that the drivers status must be determined by a private arbitrator. The company cited provisions in the drivers contract specifying that all disputes would be resolved not by judicial decisions but by arbitration, a forum generally far more favorable to businesses than the courts.

But the Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles said Friday that the arbitration requirement does not apply to PAGA suits. Those suits are brought on behalf of the state, which is not bound by the drivers contract and did not waive its right to sue, the court said.

Such a lawsuit is a dispute between the employer and the state, Justice Elizabeth Grimes said in the 3-0 ruling, quoting a 2014 state Supreme Court decision in another arbitration case. She said other appellate courts have reached similar conclusions in PAGA suits over workers status, most recently a March 1 ruling allowing a judge to decide whether drivers for the Zum school bus company are employees.

Although the suit is not a class action, Michael Gold, a lawyer for the Uber driver who filed the suit, said the ruling would apply to all Uber drivers in the state  more than 200,000, according to the company  and would lead to similar cases on behalf of drivers for Lyft and food-delivery companies.

The court affirmed that Californias rights to protect its people and the workers of California are not going to be waived by private agreements, Gold said.

Lawyers for Uber in the case could not be reached for comment.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko
Regarding Is Texas migration sign California is slipping? (Front Page, April 28): As the father of a daughter who along with her husband moved to Austin last summer, there should be little mystery about why people are exiting California for the Lone Star state.

California state income tax rates are among the highest in the nation. Texas has no state income tax. For a professional couple who each earn six figure incomes, this is significant. Buying that first house? They found one in a leafy, established neighborhood minutes from downtown Austin, paying less than $1 million. Work opportunities? No worries there either.

One joined a law firm practicing her specialty. The other joined a real estate development firm with plenty of opportunities. As for the ludicrous comment that you can make California look better by making Texas look worse, that is a race to the bottom. Emblematic of why politicians opinions on such matters contribute to the problem, not the solution.

Paul Wiefels, San Rafael

Police need degrees

We have recently seen justice served in Derek Chauvins case, but that celebration was short lived. In that same week, Andrew Brown Jr. was gunned down by police officers during a traffic stop. Police reform needs to take place that will address the root of this injustice that continues to take innocent lives. A great step in the right direction would be a four-year degree requirement for police officers.

Requiring future police officers to have a four-year degree would allow them to understand the injustice and inequality within the justice system before they become apart of it. Being a justice student myself, I feel that police officers can benefit greatly from gaining a degree before given authority. Most police departments only require a high school diploma to become employed. By increasing the education requirement, I believe that less African American lives will be taken by law enforcement.

Yolanda Kuljis, San Jose

Extend the lockdown

Given the result of Indias ravaging COVID-19 increase after opening up when it appeared to be less of a problem, I suggest we extend our lockdown at least another 10 days to prevent the same thing happening here. Yes, its frustrating extending the year-plus lockdown, but just think of the problems that might generate if we step into larger crowds even a bit too soon.

Allen Schaaf, Richmond

Eating disorder stigma

The rise in eating disorder diagnoses during the pandemic is no surprise. Often, people think these mental health conditions are only the result of living in a thinness-, beauty- and appearance-obsessed culture, but that is wrong. Eating disorders are behaviors, and they are fomented by trauma, issues in the family unit, depression and anxiety.

These are the hallmarks of the pandemic. It has created a social environment that is perfect for an eating disorder to thrive. The fact that most first-time eating disorder diagnoses occur between the ages of 12 and 25 means that it is mostly children and young adults that are becoming sick. Eating disorders are also the deadliest of any mental health conditions. In other words, people are hurting and maybe even dying.

Perhaps it is time to let go of the stigma and talk about this issue to help people to get the treatment they need before it is too late.
If you want to catch a glimpse of San Franciscos uneven recovery, look to the citys 21,000 parking meters.

On a recent Saturday afternoon, cars busily streamed through Stanyan Street in Cole Valley on the eastern edge of Golden Gate Park, dueling for prime metered parking. Some who snagged a parking spot headed toward the park across the street. Some arrived to catch the UFC pay-per-view at the parklet outside Kezar Pub. Others walked north toward the vibrant row of local shops on Haight Street.

Four and a half miles away, parking was at a surplus on a quiet corridor of Sansome Street near the Transamerica Pyramid.

At a stoplight, as a woman and child finished taking pictures in front of the triangular skyscraper, a man popped out of the sunroof of a white BMW to take his own selfie in front of the tower. Cars trickled past Sansome and into adjacent streets with more activity. But few cars stopped to park.

I wouldnt call it dead. (But) I wouldnt call it busy, Nigel Brim, a downtown cleaning ambassador, said as he observed the corner of Sansome Street and Pacific Avenue near the end of a Saturday shift.

A Chronicle analysis of more than two years of city parking data found that while citywide parking-meter transactions, any time someone makes an initial payment for parking, have rebounded closer to matching their 2019 monthly totals, there remains a wide variance in meter transactions within the citys neighborhoods.

The citys meters, mostly concentrated in its northeast neighborhoods, account for a fraction of the citys total parking spaces and reflect one data point in the broader picture of how people move around the city. Still, the peaks and valleys of meter usage mirror the citys various stages of the pandemic.

Last April, in the early days of shelter in place, citywide monthly transactions declined to 23% of April 2019 figures. Monthly transactions rose to 65% last July as the state was well into its first crack at reopening the economy.

By December, meter transactions were at 89%, a pandemic high, before declining to 73% in January as the city scaled back reopening amid a surge in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations.

Parking meter use has steadily increased since then. Currently, monthly citywide transactions are 86% of what they were in April 2019.

In an effort to examine where in the city people are driving during the pandemic and whether the citys habits have changed, The Chronicle analyzed more than two years worth of parking meter data from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.

Most parking meters in the city are enforced Monday through Saturday between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. at varying rates and time limits, according to Muni. The city lowered meter rates and removed time limits between last April and June, possibly skewing figures for those months.

As the pandemic changed how San Franciscans work, live and play, its also affected which parking meters in the city are seeing the most action.

For example, meters appear to be in greater use in residential neighborhoods near Golden Gate Park these days than most of downtown, where meter activity has declined as much as 39% due to the growth of remote work.

Monthly meter transactions in some ZIP codes, such as Chinatowns 94108 and 94109 encompassing Polk Gulch and Russian Hill, have actually bounced back to pre-pandemic levels.

Meter transactions in the citys 94117 ZIP code, which includes the Cole Valley and Haight-Ashbury neighborhoods, were at 88% of transactions compared with pre-pandemic levels.

Cyril Hackett, owner of Kezar Pub on Stanyan Street, said he saw a rise in customers  and use of parking meters on Stanyan Street  the weekend after St. Patricks Day. Thats also when the pub owner noticed a sea change in peoples attitude.

That weekend, Hackett spent hours greeting customers, including several regulars who hadnt visited the pub in more than a year.

It couldnt have come at a better time, Hackett said. Because I mean, we were in dire straits like everybody else.

Though the pubs customer base is still not near back to the numbers where we were, Hackett said there are more weekend crowds now.

Theres definitely more people in the neighborhood, theres more people parking in the neighborhood, a lot more people out and about, Hackett said. It definitely is more difficult to find parking in the neighborhood.

In the Inner Sunset, parking meter transactions on the blocks of Irving Street between Seventh and 27th Avenues saw almost as many transactions this March as before the pandemic. Transaction rates were at 92% of pre-pandemic figures.

As more people have become fully vaccinated this spring, business has picked up at some local establishments, such as San Franciscos Hometown Creamery on Ninth Avenue off Irving Street.

Its seemed like a slow revival, but compared to other parts of the city that I've seen, I feel like this Ninth urban corridor has done pretty well, said Saadi Halil, the creamerys executive chef and co-owner.

On Sansome Street in the Financial District, transaction rates in April were at 52% of pre-pandemic figures. Metered parking during the recent Saturday afternoon was noticeably more plentiful near Schott NYC, a high-end clothing store on the 600 block of Sansome Street, than on Stanyan Street in Cole Valley. Nearby lots that charge $15 for weekend parking were almost empty.

The corridor has historically been much busier on weekdays when masses of people descended on downtown for work. Harland Spinks, manager of Schott NYC, said the store has seen an uptick in monthly sales as more of the stores loyal customers travel downtown for purchases.

Sansome Street looks different than it did before the pandemic, though. Now, theres just fewer people down here, Spinks said.

People dont really have a purpose to come down here, Spinks said, unless they're going to have a nice dinner, or they need to buy something, like a leather jacket.

Ricardo Cano and Nami Sumida are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: ricardo.cano@sfchronicle.com, nami.sumida@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ByRicardoCano, @namisumida
Oscar winner Olympia Dukakis, the theater veteran who rose to prominence late in her career with memorable turns in 1980s films such as Moonstruck and Steel Magnolias, has died at the age of 89.

Dukakis, who appeared in Bay Area productions and also starred in the adaptation of Armistead Maupins Tales of the City, Look Whos Talking and Mr. Hollands Opus, died at her home in New York City.

My beloved sister, Olympia Dukakis, passed away this morning in New York City, wrote her brother Apollo, who confirmed her death on his Facebook page Saturday. After many months of failing health she is finally at peace and with her (husband) Louis (Zorich).

The longtime theater actress showcased her talent on a broader stage in 1987 as Chers sardonic mother in Norman Jewisons romantic classic Moonstruck. She was 56 when she played meddlesome Italian matriarch Rose Castorini, whose involvement in her widowed daughters love life and wry concerns about her own straying husband earned Dukakis an Academy Award for supporting actress, a Golden Globe and a BAFTA nomination.

The fun part is that people pass me on the street and yell lines from my movies: For Moonstruck they say, Your life is going down the toilet, she told the Los Angeles Times in 1991.

Her famous toilet line hadnt been in the script, but was improvised based on experiences with her own mother.

Dukakis became a household name in 1988 by way of her Academy Award and her cousin, former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, winning the Democratic nomination in the 1988 presidential election. During her Oscars acceptance speech, she stumped for him, concluding her remarks by spontaneously shouting OK, Michael, lets go! as she lifted her Oscar statuette in the air.

Her cousin lost the election to George H.W. Bush, but the Dukakis cousins remained politically active. The actress was a lifelong arts patron and liberal activist who advocated for numerous causes, particularly womens rights and the environment.

In 2019, she was awarded the San Francisco Greek Film Festivals Honorary Astron Award for her significant lifelong artistic contribution in the film industry.

Born in Lowell, Mass., on June 20, 1931, Dukakis was the daughter of immigrants from southern Greece. She and her brother Apollo grew up first-generation Greek Americans in New England, which shaped much of her world view. Assimilating to American culture, she said, was a lifelong process.

A self-proclaimed poster child for the bad Greek daughter, Dukakis said she was encouraged to strive to be authentic and to become an American without betraying her Greek heritage. The stage gave her a safe arena to do just that.

It was a place with firm enough boundaries that I could take emotional and psychological risks there. It was also a place where I could be physical, sexual, and spontaneous. It was the place where I felt the most alive, she wrote.

Dukakis graduated from Boston University, where she earned a degree in physical therapy and a masters in performing arts. She dreamed of having her own theater company (she would eventually have two) and touring Europe, performing the classics.

I did not become an actor in order to become famous or rich. I became an actor so I could play the great parts, she said.

Realizing that to get what she wanted, she would have to make things happen for herself, she turned to Broadway, where she made her debut in The Aspern Papers in 1962. That year she married actor-producer Louis Zorich, who rose to fame on the television show Mad About You. They have three children.

Carey Perloff, artistic director emerita for San Franciscos American Conservatory Theater, recalled meeting Dukakis for the first time in 1986 while directing the world premiere of Ezra Pounds Elektra in New York. She said she instantly knew she wanted to work with her, so Perloff commissioned Timberlake Wertenbaker to create a new translation of Euripides Hecuba for Dukakis in 1998.

From then on, she had a long and deep relationship with ACT, Perloff told The Chronicle on Saturday. She believed in acting companies and great classical literature, she believed in training and generosity of spirit, she believed in community.

Dukakis went on to star in ACT productions of A Mother, The Vigil and Elektra, among others. She also became a trustee at ACT and spent hours and hours in the classroom every time she came to ACT, Perloff added.

In 1963, she won an Obie Award for A Mans a Man and a second two years later in The Marriage of Bette and Boo.

But it was her work the next year in the Broadway comedy Social Security playing Marlo Thomas mother that caught Jewisons eye. She said she took the role in Moonstruck largely for the money, but regarded it as one of her lesser works.

But with the success of Moonstruck and her cousins presidential run, the first-generation Greek American ultimately embraced the laurels and said it allowed her to stop living her life as a hyphenated American. The success, she said, allowed them to break through the barrier of ethnic discrimination, which had been at times, vicious, unforgiving, and isolating.

But the newly minted film star still devoted much of her time and resources to the theater, working on and offstage for more than 40 years.

As an actress, Ive made choices that led me directly away from the fame and fortune acting is supposed to bring, she wrote.

She and Zorich founded the Charles Playhouse in Boston and the Whole Theater in Montclair, N.J., in the 1970s. They appeared together in several productions, and Dukakis worked tirelessly as an actress and producer trying to keep the lights on.

She also taught drama at New York University and occasionally worked with her former students. Theres such a thing as payback in this business, she told Canadas Globe and Mail in 2013. People have stepped out for me. If I find somebody that has talent, I step out for him.

That maternal quality carried over in her film and television careers. Dukakis was frequently cast in motherly roles that called for wisdom and strength  portraying Kirstie Alleys overbearing mom in Look Whos Talking and Look Whos Talking Too and Ted Dansons smothering septuagenarian mother in Dad.

Her television credits include the transgender drama Tales of the City, set in San Francisco, and its sequel, which earned her an Emmy nomination.

Her latest acting credits include Away From Her (2006), In the Land of Women (2007), Bored to Death (2009), Forgive Me (2013), and three projects with filmmaker Thom Fitzgerald, including the series Sex and Violence and the one-woman play Rose.

I love transforming, Dukakis told the Globe and Mail. Its the fun part of acting.

San Francisco Chronicle Senior Arts and Entertainment Editor Mariecar Mendoza contributed to this report.

Nardine Saad is a Los Angeles Times writer.
Tucked away in a remote canyon, park rangers in Death Valley National Park stumbled across a massive, illegal marijuana grow.

The 40-acre grow was found in Jail Canyon, a rarely visited canyon on the western side of the Panamint Mountains, the National Park Service said in a news release. The area is near the border between California and Nevada.

While California legalized marijuana in 2016, it remains prohibited on federal lands. It's not known who was cultivating the spot, but a park spokesperson told National Parks Traveler that rangers flew over the area to "photograph the extent and to (hopefully) encourage the growers to abandon the site."

The illegal grow is one of hundreds that authorities have found in Death Valley over the last decade, officials said, and marijuana grow sites can damage or destroy parts of the national park. Chemicals used in pesticides, clearing of protected lands and diverting water resources can all cause irreparable destruction.

The park service said in a statement that illegal marijuana growers have also been known to threaten hikers who inadvertently came across their crops.

The natural and cultural resources in these areas are irreplaceable and invaluable, damaging them for profit shows incredible disrespect to our homeland, Barbara Durham, Traditional Historic Preservation Officer for the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe, said in a statement. The Timbisha Shoshone Tribe's reservation is within the park.

National Parks Traveler reported Jail Canyon is closed while rangers survey the area.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
With Avengers Campus' opening on the horizon, Disneyland has released more information and photos of the new Marvel land.

The "tour" on Disney's blog gives a sneak peek into the land that visitors have been glimpsing for months through high barriers in California Adventure. The land's attempt to integrate the already-existing Guardians of the Galaxy drop ride is shown; the ride will face the campus' back entrance.

"A late addition to the Campus, Taneleer Tivan, a.k.a. the Collector, placed his Fortress [the Guardians of the Galaxy ride] against its edges," the blog writes. "This placement warped the ground immediately surrounding the alien stronghold causing a cosmic disruption to ooze from the ground below. Hues of blues, purples and yellows glow in the daylight."

Nearby will be the Terran Treats food cart, which will sell the land's unique "spiral" churros.

The tour also shows a new image of Pym Test Kitchen, where food is either comically large or unusually small in an homage to Ant-Man. The photo shows enormous soda cans and ketchup and mustard bottles hanging above the condiment station.

A few more pics are available on the Disney Parks Blog, including a few shots of the iconic Quinjet.

Heres everything we know about Disneylands Avengers Campus, which opens on June 4. (Spoilers below for MCU plot points.)

The Tech Is Very Advanced

The only ride debuting at Avengers Campus when it opens will be Web Slingers: A Spider Man Adventure, an all-ages ride that tracks a persons head, hand and eye movements 60 times a second to create the feeling that the rider is actually shooting Spider Mans webs out of their own hands in real time. Tom Holland, who plays Spider Man in the MCU movies and stars in this ride, has called it the most Ive ever felt like Spider Man.

The Food Will Be Avenger-fied

Infinity Stone-themed circular churros are just the beginning of what you can eat at Avengers Campus. At Pym Test Kitchen, food is either enormous  think a two-foot Pym-ini sandwich or the single serving Tiny Pym-ini, and a Not So Little Chicken Sandwich that takes up the entire plate. Next door at the Pym Tasting Lab, beer mugs fill themselves up from the bottom. Food at Disneyland has a comprehensive preview of the food and drink offerings, including, thankfully, the Shawarma Palace thats a major Easter egg at the end of "The Avengers." You can also drink the Pingo Doce soda that doesnt technically exist in the Disney MCU  its in the 2008 The Incredible Hulk, made before Disney purchased Marvel  unless youre counting one poster in Ant-Man.

David Nguyen/Disneyland Resort

The Timeline Has Been Modified

This land incorporates Iron Man, who died at the end of Avengers: Endgame, and takes place in a point in time when the Blip that erased half of humanity never happened. How? The Marvel multiverse. Disney is running with the idea that this campus exists out of the MCU timeline that we know, in an alternate timeline in the multiverse.

There Will (Kinda) Be Black Widow Spoilers

The villain of the aerial stunt show, which features Captain America, Black Panther and Black Widow, is Taskmaster, who is the foil of Black Widow in her upcoming movie, which is being released on July 9. While the show likely wont spoil any of the major plot points of Black Widow, it will be the first full iteration of that villain anywhere outside the comic books.

Theres a Real Quinjet

But no, you cant fly in it. The plane that Hulk flew all the way to Sakaar  and that Thor is forced to log into as Point Break, which will never not be funny  is on display on top of Avengers Headquarters.

Courtesy of Disneyland

Avengers Will Freely Roam the Campus

Doctor Strange has his own Sanctum to teach people the mystic arts, and Spider Man has a dedicated meet-and-greet area, but other avengers like Star Lord, Gamora and Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy will be walking around as though theyre on the real, working Avengers Campus.

Christian Thompson/Disneyland Resort

Avengers Campus is Part of A Worldwide Network

While there wont be a land like this at Walt Disney World, there is an Avengers Campus at Disneyland Paris scheduled to open later this year, and Stark Expo at Hong Kong Disneyland, where there is already an Ant-Man ride and there will be an Avengers Quinjet Experience sometime next year. So you cant fly in a Quinjet today, but theres hope for the future.
Twelve members of the dissolved National Congress Party of deposed leader Omar Bashir have been arrested for participating in a political gathering, authorities said Thursday, Turkish news agency Anadolu reported.

The statement from the Empowerment Removal and Funds Recovery Committee (government) indicated that he police arrested 12 members of Al-Bashirs party after holding a breakfast for political purposes in the Riyadh park, east of the capital, with political slogans and full coordination with the former Security and Intelligence Service Operations Authority.

The police issued communications against the accused under the June 30 Law of Dismantling and Recovery of Public Funds and the Criminal Procedure Law. Because of their political activity under the umbrella of the dissolved party, the statement added.

The statement further noted that the accused sparked riot in the area.

Bashir who ruled the country for 30 years was removed from power by the army following months of protests against economic hardship.

The new authorities passed a law dissolving Bashirs regime and his party as well as the Islamic Movement.
BEIJING, April 30 (Xinhua)  Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday extended festive greetings and best wishes to the country's working people ahead of the International Workers' Day, which falls on Saturday.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, sent the greetings and wishes on behalf of the CPC Central Committee.

The working people have risen to the challenges, working hard to overcome adverse circumstances such as the COVID-19 epidemic, thus contributing greatly to the development of the cause of the Party and the country, Xi said.

He called on the working people to take the lead in devoting themselves with full confidence to the great cause of building China into a modern socialist country in all respects and realizing the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation.

Xi urged the protection of the legitimate rights and interests of workers, and supporting and encouraging them to accomplish more achievements in the new era.

(Source: Xinhua)
She is the perfect ghost. Shes said to glide through rooms, gently sway chandeliers, murmur and laugh, and sometimes touch unsuspecting visitors. She is beautiful and wistful, forever gazing out to the Pacific Ocean in her glistening blue dress.

The Blue Lady of the Moss Beach Distillery is perhaps Northern Californias single most famous ghost. Shes featured constantly in most haunted lists and is an attraction unto herself at the restaurant 20 miles south of San Francisco. And although the lore around her might lead you to believe shes been a fixture at the restaurant for 100 years, theres little to prove she didnt suddenly appear in the 1980s, fully formed and ready to haunt.

To tell the story of the Blue Lady, you must first know the history of the restaurant, which begins with Frank Torres, a Peruvian immigrant with a penchant for trouble. In 1923, he was busted selling alcohol at the Waldemar Grill on Fell Street in San Francisco. After paying a $300 fine, he moved south to a Moss Beach eatery called the Marine View Tavern and picked up selling booze there. Its not surprising  Moss Beachs quiet cove made it a popular spot for bootleggers to land and pull their cases of Canadian whisky ashore.

Bill Koplitz/Getty Images

By 1928, the Marine View Tavern had quite a reputation, as revealed in the divorce filings of Torres business partner Marie Windt. Windts husband Albert alleged she was making over $1,000 a week (over $15,000 today) selling bootleg liquor with her South American co-proprietor.

The Marine View Tavern is known to the general public as a bootlegging resort and patronized as such, Albert Windt stated in his filing. It is widely known to the public with the exception of the U.S. prohibition authorities and officials of San Mateo County.

Despite at least one raid by federal prohibition agents, Torres was undeterred, and soon opened up his own joint just down the coast from the Marine View: what is today the Moss Beach Distillery.

Moss Beach went legit after Prohibition, serving cocktails alongside steak, fish and chicken dinners. After Frank retired, the restaurant went to his son Vic, who ran the beloved local spot until 1964, when he died suddenly of a heart attack. From there, it changed hands a few times before ending up with Mike and Shirley Sarno in 1980. Their February 1981 interview with the San Francisco Examiner marks the first time the Blue Lady story appears in a local newspaper story.

Favorite haunt of blue lady is Moss Beach restaurant, the headline reads. The Sarnos told the paper their playful ghost was known to slap kitchen staff on the backside  not her most elegant introduction to the world.

There are a number of iterations on the Blue Lady story, most with less sexual harassment involved. Almost all are set during Prohibition. Commonly, shes a local girl who falls in love with the restaurant pianist. Sometimes theyre torn apart by a love triangle. Other times, she is unhappily married, and the spurned husband kills her (and sometimes the pianist) in a fit of rage. In one version, the despondent, lovelorn woman drowns herself in the sea.

Then, theres The Girl With the Silver Eyes.

Its not Dashiell Hammetts best story, and its far from his most famous. It tells the tale of a private eye (naturally) who goes in search of crooks at a roadhouse south of San Francisco. The roadhouse is a famed spot for rum runners  the story is set during Prohibition  and plays host to a strange, intoxicating femme fatale.

She was a slender girl in a glistening blue gown that exhibited a generous spread of front, back and arms that were worth showing, Hammett writes. She had a mass of dark brown hair above an oval face of the color that pink ought to be. Her eyes were wide-set and of a grey shade that wasnt altogether unlike the shadows on polished silver that the poet had compared them to.

If you havent read the story, youd never see the parallels. But once you have, its impossible not to think of the Blue Lady.

---

In the 1990s, a new owner began asking Americas most (in)famous psychic to visit his haunted restaurant.

When Sylvia Browne arrived in March 1992, she took a walk around the property, perched on a cliff above the Pacific Ocean. She immediately began talking about a woman named Mary Morley. She had no prompting and no background information, the Examiner reported. Considering shed had a years warning, though, she had ample time to do a little research  but she made a mistake that will soon become evident.

In April, Browne told her newsletter subscribers she would be holding a seance at the Moss Beach Distillery. They assembled in a private dining room and held their breath as Browne called upon the dead.

There were three ghosts, forever trapped in an ill-fated love triangle, with them in the room. One was Morley, a married woman. Another was John Contina, a handsome playboy. And the third was Anna Philbrook, another pretty paramour of Continas. Browne said Mary Morley loved Contina, who was two-timing her with Anna. Anna, for unclear reasons, threw herself into the ocean and drowned. Mary died of crushing injuries to her chest and head.

When restaurant staffers went looking for Mary Morley in San Mateo County archives, they were astonished to find a woman with her name died in a highway crash in 1919. This, believers say, is proof she is the Blue Lady of Moss Beach.

There are a number of problems with this origin story, however. The first is that the car crash happened nowhere near Moss Beach. Contemporary newspaper stories report the woman was driving home to Redwood City after an evening seeing friends in San Francisco. The car overturned near Visitacion Valley, crushing her to death. There is nothing to indicate she had any connection to Moss Beach or its famed tavern, which didnt even exist at the time of her death.

In addition, there are no John Continas or Anna Philbrooks in Bay Area census records who could be the right people for Brownes ghost story. And theres no Anna who cast herself into the sea in any newspaper archives.

Were one to hazard a guess, Browne (or an intrepid staffer) discovered the death certificate of a young woman who died in a San Mateo County highway accident, erroneously assumed it was on Highway 1 near Moss Beach, and turned her into the Blue Lady.

The story, over the past three decades, stuck.

Navin K. via Yelp

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Since the early 1990s, the Moss Beach Distillery has added a few bells and whistles to enhance its haunted experience. In 2008, paranormal investigators from the popular show Ghost Hunters were invited to investigate. They found a series of pranks built into the restaurant, like a ghostly face in a bathroom mirror and a speaker that emitted laughter when triggered by a sensor.

In 2018, a former Disney employee named Daryn Coleman did an interview with the Fresno Bee in which he said he used his animatronics experience to build a hydraulic contraption that made the chandeliers sway. He also built a phone that rang of its own accord.

But some Moss Beach Distillery employees swear the place is really haunted. The add-ons merely guarantee that ghost-seekers get a thrill.

The Blue Lady herself can be a bit shy.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 02:39:28|Editor: huaxia

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GENEVA, April 30 (Xinhua) -- More than 62 million COVID-19 cases and over 1.5 million deaths have been reported in the region of the Americas, combining North, South and Central America, in the last 15 months, a representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday.

"At this moment, most of the countries in South America ... are reporting increasing trends ... And in many of these countries, ICUs (intensive care units) are overwhelmed with severe patients," Sylvain Aldighieri, Deputy Director of the Pan American Health Organization, WHO's Regional Office for the Americas, told a virtual press conference.

According to the latest WHO statistics, the Americas currently tops all six WHO regions in both cumulative COVID-19 infections and deaths, accounting for over 40 percent of global confirmed cases and more than 47 percent of global deaths.

The WHO said on Wednesday that 1.4 million new cases were found in the Americas last week. Brazil reported the highest number of deaths in the region, with 17,667 new deaths in the past week.

Brazil's Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga told the press conference that the country's priority is the vaccination campaign.

The Brazilian president has also allocated more than 3 billion reals (555 million U.S. dollars) "so that we can buy (more) doses (of vaccine)," he said.

"By Monday, we will have administered more than 16 million doses of vaccinations against COVID-19," said the minister. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 03:03:36|Editor: huaxia

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UNITED NATIONS, April 30 (Xinhua) -- Some aid operations in South Sudan are curtailed, even closed, following youth attacks on humanitarian workers, UN humanitarians said on Friday.

"Some organizations have been forced to relocate staff to safer areas and are limiting movements due to insecurity," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said. "Activities have been suspended or scaled down, including critical health and nutrition assistance."

At least 140,000 people are in dire need of humanitarian relief in the area, the office said. Their needs will deepen if aid workers -- many of them South Sudanese -- cannot safely resume their activities, it said.

The attacks come amid high levels of youth unemployment and demands by them to be hired by humanitarian organizations, said OCHA.

"Humanitarian organizations are working across South Sudan to deliver much-needed assistance to vulnerable communities," said the humanitarian coordinator in South Sudan, Alain Noudehou. "Attacks against them are completely unacceptable and must stop. I urge authorities and communities to guarantee the safety and security of aid workers, and the government to enforce law and order."

On Saturday, in Jamjang in Ruweng Administrative Area, young people entered an international nongovernmental organization (NGO) compound and physically attacked staff, resulting in multiple injuries. Four days later, humanitarian staff from a UN agency and a national NGO were physically assaulted by young people in separate incidents in Torit town, Eastern Equatoria.

In Sudan, OCHA said, the security situation in Ag Geneina town in western Darfur is stable but remains tense and unpredictable.

Violence has displaced almost 237,000 people in Darfur since the beginning of this year. The figure is more than four times the people displaced in all of 2020, it said. The top needs of the newly displaced population are food, non-food essential supplies, protection, shelter and water, said OCHA.

Scaling up the humanitarian response as the rainy season approaches is a significant challenge. Yet the humanitarian response plan for Sudan has received only about 10 percent of its requirements, it said. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 06:30:24|Editor: huaxia

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Photo taken on Sept. 8, 2018 shows an avenue decorated with national flags in Pyongyang, capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). (Xinhua/Jiang Yaping)

"Our policy calls for a calibrated practical approach that is open to and will explore diplomacy with the DPRK and to make practical progress that increases the security of the United States, our allies, and deployed forces," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said.



WASHINGTON, April 30 (Xinhua) -- The United States will explore diplomacy with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and adopt a "practical approach," the White House said on Friday.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters aboard Air Force One that the Biden administration had completed its policy review on the DPRK.

"Our policy will not focus on achieving a grand bargain, nor will it rely on strategic patience," she said. "Our policy calls for a calibrated practical approach that is open to and will explore diplomacy with the DPRK and to make practical progress that increases the security of the United States, our allies, and deployed forces."

The term "strategic patience" and "grand bargain" refer to U.S. policies toward the DPRK under the administrations of Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

Psaki reaffirmed that the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula remains the policy goal, noting "the efforts of the past four administrations have not achieved this objective."

She added that the United States would continue to consult with South Korea, Japan, and other allies and partners on this issue.

President Joe Biden last month told reporters that the DPRK ranked the top foreign policy issue for his administration. The White House said the Biden administration had reached out to Pyongyang through several channels but had not yet received any response.

DPRK First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said in March that Pyongyang would ignore U.S. outreach until Washington "rolls back its hostile policy."

Denuclearization talks between Pyongyang and Washington have been stalled since the summit talks between top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un and former U.S. President Donald Trump ended without agreement in February 2019 at the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi. 
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 10:02:35|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, May 1 (Xinhua) -- China is ready to provide support and assistance to the best of its capability to help India fight the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Friday.

In a phone conversation with Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Wang said that China is very concerned about the new wave of COVID-19 infections in India, and Chinese President Xi Jinping has sent a message of sympathy to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

China, as a close neighbor and partner, fully understands the challenges facing India, he said, adding that the Red Cross Society of China, local governments, non-governmental friendship organizations and enterprises have rendered assistance to the Indian side.

China hopes and believes that the Indian government and people will secure a victory against the coronavirus, he said.

To further support India's fight against the pandemic, Wang said China is willing to take the following measures in response to India's needs:

Firstly, China will continue to encourage and support Chinese enterprises to speed up production and provide India with medical supplies.

Secondly, the Chinese side will facilitate customs clearance and transportation of anti-virus materials purchased by the Indian side.

Thirdly, health and infectious disease experts of the two countries will be organized to share experience and effective measures in overcoming the epidemic via video link.

Jaishankar, on behalf of the Indian government and people, expressed gratitude for Xi's message of sympathy to Modi and for China's goodwill and solidarity, as well as its strong support for India's purchase of anti-virus supplies.

As the COVID-19 pandemic is a global challenge, tackling it requires joint efforts by all parties involved, he said, adding that the cooperation measures proposed by China are very important and that India is ready to further strengthen cooperation with China in fighting the pandemic.

The two sides also exchanged views on bilateral relations and global cooperation. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 10:25:59|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, May 1 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese mainland on Friday reported 16 new COVID-19 cases, all of which were imported, the National Health Commission said in its daily report on Saturday.

Of all the cases, seven were reported in Guangdong, three in Shanghai, two in Sichuan and one each in Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangxi and Yunnan.

Three new suspected cases arriving from outside the mainland were reported in Shanghai on Friday, the commission said.

No new deaths related to COVID-19 were reported Friday, it added.

A total of 5,673 imported cases had been reported on the mainland by the end of Friday. Among them, 5,386 had been discharged from hospitals following recovery, and 287 remained hospitalized. No deaths had been reported among the imported cases.

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases on the mainland reached 90,671 by Friday, including 325 patients still receiving treatment, three of whom were in severe condition.

A total of 85,710 patients had been discharged from hospitals following recovery on the mainland, and 4,636 had died as a result of the virus.

There were 11 suspected COVID-19 cases on the mainland on Friday.

A total of 16 asymptomatic cases were newly reported, all arriving from outside the mainland. There were a total of 319 asymptomatic cases, of whom 310 were imported, under medical observation by Friday.

By the end of Friday, 11,774 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 209 deaths, had been reported in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), while 49 cases had been reported in the Macao SAR, and 1,128 cases, including 12 deaths, had been reported in Taiwan.

A total of 11,416 COVID-19 patients in the Hong Kong SAR had been discharged from hospitals following recovery, while 49 had been discharged in the Macao SAR, and 1,053 had been discharged in Taiwan. Enditem
Mario Tama/Getty Images

The Transportation Security Administration announced Friday it will extend a federal mandate that requires people to wear masks in transportation settings, including at airports, on commercial aircraft and on commuter bus and rail systems through September 13.

The initial requirement went into effect on Feb. 1 and was set to expire May 11.
By Victoria Franco

Bay City News Foundation

San Joaquin County is considering adopting a crisis response unit, similar to those already implemented in other states, that would potentially allow law enforcement to focus on and attend to more violent crimes happening in the county.

The crisis response unit would include non-sworn individuals who partner with law enforcement officers to respond to low-risk, non-violent calls. These individuals would have the training and qualifications needed to assist in calls such as transporting individuals to services and shelters, mental health calls and families in crisis situations.

"The call for change surrounding responses to people in need of crisis assistance has resonated nationwide," District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar said. "As a society, we have asked too much from our law enforcement partners."

Salazar said the likelihood of the crisis response unit model being implemented in San Joaquin County heavily depends on funding, training and the creation of new protocols.

The model also could help reduce the number of people living in the streets, a serious problem facing San Joaquin County.

"Potentially this would include those who are homeless, or who have mental health or substance use disorders, who need a little assistance resolving difficulties and getting connected to appropriate services or supports," Salazar said.

As of now, the county is still researching the CRU model but has included it in next year's proposed budget and brought the model before the chiefs of police.

In May, Salazar will be accompanied by Board of Supervisor Chairman Tom Patti as well as other law enforcement leaders in San Antonio, Texas, to shadow the state's crisis response unit.

Copyright  2021 Bay City News, Inc. All rights reserved. Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.

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.
In the latest air travel developments, a new California-based low-cost carrier operates its first flights; new California service from Southwest, United and Alaska; Europes plan to open up to vaccinated U.S. visitors by summer still faces some significant technical challenges; United offers new perks to get MileagePlus members back in the air; the FAA slaps more five-figure fines on unruly passengers; TSA warns air travelers about carrying marijuana products from one legal state to another; Delta begins a big upgrade of its in-flight Wi-Fi service; four foreign airlines plan their first U.S. flights; and Mineta San Jose adds hundreds of parking spots.

The U.S. hasnt seen the launch of a significant new domestic airline since 2007, when Virgin America started flying (it was merged into Alaska Airlines in 2018). But that changed last week when California-based Avelo Airlines started service with a flight from Hollywood Burbank Airport to Sonoma Countys Charles M. Schulz Airport in Santa Rosa, a route that it will operate once a day. The new low-cost carrier is led by Chairman and CEO Andrew Levy, a former CFO of United Airlines and a founder of low-cost Allegiant Airlines. Avelo, which is based at Burbank, is starting with a fleet of three 737-800s. After its inaugural Santa Rosa-Burbank flight, it quickly launched service from Burbank to Pasco, Wash., with three flights a week, and to Bozeman, Mont., with four weekly roundtrips. In May, Avelo will phase in additional routes from Burbank to Arcata-Eureka and Redding, Calif.; Bend-Redmond, Eugene, and Medford, Ore.; Grand Junction, Colo.; Phoenix-Mesa, Ariz.; and Ogden-Salt Lake City, Utah.

The airline has a website at www.aveloair.com, and has introductory one-way fares starting as low as $19. Avelo has a roster of add-on fees including $10 for the first checked bag, $35 for a carry-on stowed in the overhead bin and $10 for priority boarding. Most seats will feature a tight, 29-inch pitch (i.e. legroom; the standard at major U.S. airlines is 30-31 inches), but 60 of them will have 31-38 inches of pitch for an extra fee of at least $18. And pre-reserving a window or aisle seat will carry a fee starting at $5.



In other California route news, Southwest Airlines last week started flying out of Fresno Yosemite Airport to Denver once a day and to Las Vegas three times a day. On May 6, United is due to kick off the only service between Orange County Airport in Santa Ana and Honolulu, with one daily 737-700 flight. Alaska Airlines has now set a June 17 start for daily service to San Luis Obispo from both Portland and San Diego, using 76-seat Embraer 175s. And United is adding a daily San Francisco International-Aspen, Colo., flight (and two a day between LAX-Aspen) to its summer schedule starting June 3.

Although the president of the European Commission said last week that the E.U. expects to open up this summer to U.S. travelers who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the details of how that program will be implemented still have to be worked out, and one big technical obstacle remains: how travelers will prove they got the shots. In an interview with the New York Times, EC President Ursula von der Leyen said that as long as Americans are inoculated with vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency  and all those used in the U.S. are  This will enable free movement and travel to the European Union. However, she offered no details on how soon that might happen or what type of vaccination proof will be needed  presumably a digital file on a mobile app that can be easily and quickly scanned at the point of arrival.

To a degree, the E.U.s hand is being forced after some European nations have already started to move ahead with opening up to vaccinated U.S. tourists, including Iceland and Greece. Frances president recently said he expects his government to start removing restrictions on travelers by May, and last week Spain also got on board, saying that it should reopen in June to international visitors who are vaccinated, who got a negative COVID test or who recently recovered from the disease.

The Biden Administration is on record as saying the U.S. Government will not create its own version of a so-called digital health passport for travelers, although it is willing to work with the private sector in developing technical standards for such a document. Major international airlines are desperate for more transatlantic flights to resume, especially with the summer peak travel season almost at hand, and the International Air Transport Assn. last week called von der Leyens comments a step in the right direction. But IATA said travel shouldnt be limited to vaccinated individuals. The presentation of negative COVID-19 test results should also facilitate travel. Central to this is acceptance by EU governments of rapid antigen tests that the Commission has approved for use and which fulfil the critical criteria of effective, convenient and affordable, IATA said.

The airline group added that the EC must now work with carriers to create public health benchmarks and timelines that will enable unconditional travel for those vaccinated, not just from the U.S. but from all countries using vaccines that are approved by the European Medicines Association. Equally critical will be clear, simple and secure digital processes for vaccination certificates. The organization is working on its own IATA Travel Pass, which is being tested in select international markets, but we are still awaiting the development of globally recognized standards for digital vaccine certificates, IATA said.

The IATA Travel Pass is just one of several versions under development. (Japan Airlines last month started testing three of them on select routes  the IATA app, VeriFly, and Common Pass.) So far, apps have focused on working with health organizations to capture results of COVID tests, but now theyll have to start obtaining and storing digital confirmation of vaccinations. That could be easy enough for individuals who will go to vaccination sites that link to one or more of the digital apps, but what about travelers who got their shots weeks or months ago? They might upload a photo of their vaccination card, but there is widespread concern that those paper certificates can too easily be forged. The U.S. has no central database of vaccinations; thats handled mainly on the state level. Meanwhile, international airlines and the E.U. (as well as other foreign governments) have to decide which apps theyll accept from travelers.

The tech website CNET last week published a good summary of digital travel apps and the complications to be overcome. A lack of standardization would be a burden for everyone, CNET observed. Some apps, for example, could request more information than others or could work in different ways. Another potential problem could be countries and airlines accepting only some apps, forcing you to upload your vaccination records multiple times. We'll have to see how that plays out, but it could be one avenue for governments to step in and sort out the mess.

United Airlines has come out with new incentives for Premier-level members of its MileagePlus program to start flying again -- or flying more often. Theyre available through July 27, and members can select one of three options: 1) A Welcome Back bonus of up to 25% of Premier Qualifying Points required to maintain their current status level (this is in addition to the 25% PQP deposit offered to members early this year); 2) An Easy PQP promotion providing 10% of the PQPs needed to keep their current status level, designed for members who dont plan to travel before July 27; and 3) An offer of double miles  up to 10,000 total bonus miles  on transactions made through the airlines MileagePlus X app, like shopping online, eating at participating restaurants, and buying eGift cards from hundreds of merchants. The offers are available to members who held Premier status on April 19, 2021. They have until May 13 to select a promotion through www.united.com/pickyourpath or via the MileagePlus X app. Members who dont pick one will be automatically enrolled in the Welcome Back bonus offer.

The Federal Aviation Administration is continuing its crackdown on bad in-flight behavior. Last week the agency announced three new cases of heavy civil penalties being imposed on unruly passengers. In each case, the miscreants had overindulged in alcohol they brought onboard themselves  which is itself a violation of FAA regulations. All three passengers allegedly yelled at and/or grabbed the arms of flight attendants and bothered other passengers. Two of the fines -- $31,750 and $16,750  were levied against travelers on separate JetBlue flights from Haiti to Boston. The third fine, for $14,500, was assessed on a SkyWest passenger traveling from Yuma to Dallas/Ft. Worth. In all three incidents, the flight crew asked for law enforcement officers to meet the aircraft when it landed and take the troublemakers off the plane.

As more and more states move to legalize cannabis sales, some users might assume that flying from one legal state to another with cannabis in your carry-on is perfectly fine. But the Transportation Security Administration has issued a warning against the practice via its Instagram account. According to the agencys pun-heavy advisory: Let us be blunt with you Even though legalization is growing like a weed state-by-state, passengers must still follow federal laws when traveling. Marijuana and certain cannabis infused products, including some CBD oils, still remain illegal federally. That means no pot or pot-based products in your carry-on or your checked luggage even when its legal at both your origin and destination. The only exceptions: products with no more than 0.3% THC on a dry weight basis, or that are approved by the FDA. TSA said that while its airport officers dont search for marijuana products, if they happen to find any, they are required to report it to law enforcement.



On May 1, Delta will put a new Airbus A321ceo into service  the first plane to feature a major upgrade of Wi-Fi service coming to the airlines fleet in the months ahead. Delta said it will continue to expand the Wi-Fi tech upgrade this year to 300 more planes, including A321ceos as well as 737-900s and 757-200s. By the end of 2022, the company said it expects to offer best-in-class high-speed Wi-Fi on almost all of its domestic fleet. Delta said it is working with Viasat to equip the aircraft with high-speed Ka-band satellite connectivity that will provide a streaming quality connection to everyone onboard. It is also introducing a new portal platform this summer for Wi-Fi users on Viasat-equipped aircraft, and in June will adopt a standard fee of $8 per device per flight for Wi-Fi service. With the new portal platform, Delta said, text messaging will still be free.

It looks like some foreign carriers will be adding their first U.S. routes in the months ahead, including one coming to San Francisco International. Bamboo Airlines, a Vietnamese carrier that started flying two years ago, said it hopes to begin long-haul flights to SFO in September with a 787-9. If that happens, it would be the only non-stop service between Vietnam and the U.S. The airline has U.S. approval to fly to the U.S. from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).

Meanwhile, the Italian airline Neos recently received U.S. approval to start flying to the U.S., and it is planning to begin service in late June between New York JFK and Milan Malpensa twice a week with a 787. Neos is 20 years old; until now it has operated intra-European flights and service to Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, but decided to expand its international reach and recently acquired two 787-9s from Norwegian, giving it a total of six. Starlux, a Taiwanese carrier that started flying in 2020, also won Dept. of Transportation approval to serve the U.S., and it is hoping to launch flights later this year from Taiwan to Los Angeles International, using one of several Airbus A350s that it has on order. And Vistara, a joint venture of Indias Tata Sons conglomerate and Singapore Airlines, has filed for U.S. approval to fly here from India beginning in September, although it hasnt named any specific city-pairs yet.

In airport news, an indication of how quickly passenger numbers are rebounding comes from Mineta San Jose, which just added more than 300 parking spaces by reconfiguring its facilities, the airport said. Changes to SJCs parking configurations mean more spaces closer to the terminals, and a lower pricing option available in lots near both terminals. Starting May 1, parking rates in Lot 2 and Lot 4 are $18 per day, and the price for Lot 3 and Lot 5 is $24 per day, the airport noted. SJC has a parking website at flysanjose.com/parking where travelers can find the location of lots and their rates as well as real-time data on which parking areas have the greatest availability of open spots.

Also this week: the federal governments face mask mandate for air travelers, which was slated to expire on May 11, has been extended through September 13, the agency said on Friday. TSA works closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the issue, and even though the CDC recently said that fully vaccinated individuals can safely travel on domestic flights, its general COVID guidelines still call for face masks, social distancing and hand washing. The extension of the face mask requirement (for air travel) is consistent with this most recent CDC guidance, TSA said. Exemptions from the face mask requirement will remain in place for children under age 2 and for persons with certain disabilities. The existing civil penalty fine structure will also remain in place, which starts at $250 and rises to $1,500 for repeat offenders who violate this face mask requirement, TSA said. Individual airlines have had their own masking rules in place since last year, but the Biden Administration made face coverings mandatory for all airline travelers in February. With the initial expiration date for that rule quickly approaching, the government has been under increasing pressure from airlines and their employee unions  especially flight attendants  to extend the mandate.
Sharon, PA (16146)

Today

Showers this morning then scattered thunderstorms developing during the afternoon hours. High 81F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms early, then variable clouds overnight with more showers at times. Low 67F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 10:34:51|Editor: huaxia

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SHANGHAI, May 1 (Xinhua) -- China's index of export container transport went up in the past week ending Friday, according to the Shanghai Shipping Exchange.

The average China Containerized Freight Index (CCFI) stood at 1,991.16, up 4.6 percent from a week earlier, according to the exchange.

The sub-reading for the Persian Gulf/Red Sea service led the growth with a week-on-week gain of 17.5 percent.

The CCFI tracks spot and contractual freight rates from Chinese container ports for 12 shipping routes across the globe, based on data from 22 international carriers.

The index was set at 1,000 on Jan. 1, 1998. Enditem
SHELTON  George Floyds death at the hands of Derek Chauvin sparked a year of rage and further deteriorated the publics trust in law enforcement on a national level.

Police Officer John Staples, in his city of some 41,000 people, is working to rebuild that trust.

Were so far apart right now, police and the public, Staples said. The only way to overcome this and get back to any kind of normalcy is to communicate.

Staples, known among the citys youth as Officer Bubbles or Bubbz, is bringing his Small City Big Dreams initiative to the Shelton schools. He is already working with students at Perry Hill School and will soon be spending days at the high and intermediate schools.

Everything right now is negative about law enforcement, Staples, who has the dual role of crime prevention officer and school resource officer, said. This program is so important. We need a way to connect with youth, to rebuild that trust. We all want the same thing - for our youth to stay safe, make better decisions, be a success in life. I feel I can help with that.

Perry Hill fifth grade teacher Steve Giroux said students view Staples in a positive light.

He is the perfect example for young children establishing an initial perception of a police officer, Giroux added.

Perry Hill fifth grade teacher Courtney Dishian said Staples  whose personal motto is Live with Honor, Serve with Pride  is helping develop relationships within the community of trust, respect and safety.

It helps our students understand the act of one does not define the police force as a whole, Dishian said. Building relationships is at the forefront of our teaching and now that extends to our community.

Stapless program is designed to build relationships and acquaint children and young adults with law enforcement officials while providing safety, crime prevention within the school and throughout the community. Staples also acts as a mentor to dozens of local youths.

I appreciated the fact that he wanted to volunteer in our school because he is showing us that not all police are scary  some are amazing and here to help us, Perry Hill School student Donyeliz Council said.

The curriculum for the program is slightly different for each school. At Perry Hill, Staples focuses on how to interact with a police officer, bullying, defusing tension and being aware of surroundings.

"I thought that Officer Staples' message was very important, Perry Hill School student Akshita Upadhyay said, and I like how he explained that there are four different types of bullies: cyber, physical, verbal and relational. He had said to make a doughnut with our hands and that was how many times we should tolerate bullying ... zero."

At the intermediate school, Staples tackles effective communication; how to interact with police and what you should do if you are involved in a police matter; bullying and cyber-bullying; impacts of vaping and tobacco products; and growth and opportunities.

Staples said his high school curriculum mirrors that of the intermediate school, with the additional focus on personal relationships. He said he teaches youth it is OK to agree to disagree. He also works with students on the importance of networking and negotiating.

"I think that Officer Staples did a great job talking to us about bullies and different types of bullies, Council said. I liked the fact that he was talking to us about bullying because kids tend to bully people because of their own personal problems.

Council said Staples helped students see that sometimes bullies are not just mean kids; sometimes they just do not know what to do about their own problems.

Perry Hill Principal Lorraine Williams said Staples presence, although only once a week, has been immensely positive for students and staff.

One student ran into Officer Staples in the community, Williams said. He told the class that he went right up to him and reminded him that he was a PHS student. I think that is great if students  and families  feel welcome to approach an officer outside of school.

Shelton High Principal Kathy Riddle echoed Williams sentiments.

Shelton High School / Contributed photo

Officer Staples serves as a positive role model for our students and is willing to work with families as well, Riddle said. Despite COVID, he has been able to connect with our students and encourage them to make positive life choices. I hope to see his program grow in future years."

Giroux said Staples is incredibly kind and charismatic, and the students take to him immediately.

Dishian agreed, specifically citing Staples ability to reach students on the difficult topic of bullying.

Identifying the different types of bullies  verbal, physical, relational, cyber  has led students to understand that bullying is not just physical, it can be emotional, Dishian said.

In our follow-up classroom discussions, students have expressed that they, themselves, have changed their behavior when online with friends and have also spoken up to their friends who are portraying mean behavior, Dishian said. We have discussed that stopping mean behavior can end bullying before it starts.

Staples said his goal is to make young people feel comfortable dealing with law enforcement, and if he can create a positive connection, the students will go home and talk to their parents or guardians about what they have learned.

Right now, were not everyones favorite, Staples said about police. Through programs like this, we can talk, we can express ourselves, young people can get to know how to address an officer. Kids will get home safe, and officers can conduct their business in a safe and respectful way.

Staples called the breakdown of the connection between public and law enforcement scary.

People are looking at us through the same lens (as Chauven, the White officer convicted of second-degree murder, among other charges, in Floyds death), but not all officers are bad, not all kids are bad, Staples said. The only way the world can change is through communication. In order to get respect, you have to give respect. This is a time to come together and talk. Im hoping these kids are echoing what I have taught them when they get home.

brian.gioiele@hearstmediact.com
Official sources said that the Thailand government has sent its aircraft to evacuate some Thai Embassy officials from India. The Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) flight, which arrived in India on Saturday for evacuation, also carried 15 oxygen concentrators as donation from the Thailand government to the Indian Red Cross, along with 15 concentrators donated by the Hindu Samaj of Bangkok.

New Delhi, May 1 (IANS) Medical aid is pouring in from around the world to India with the latest help coming from Thailand to fight the virulent second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Official sources said Thailand Prime Minister Gen Prayuth Chano Cha conveyed through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs his desire to offer assistance to India.

The Indian government, sources said, had indicated that it requires oxygen cylinders, concentrators, generators and cryogenic oxygen tanks.

Meanwhile, Indian corporates, in coordination with the Indian Embassy in Thailand and the Ministry of Home Affairs, have been sourcing cryogenic tanks from Thailand. Eleven tanks in three sorties by the Indian Air Force (IAF) have already reached India. The Indian community in Thailand has also extended its support.

In addition, 100 oxygen cylinders have separately been offered by the Indian Association of Thailand. Steps are being taken for their speedy transportation to India.

Thanking the Thailand government and the Indian community in that country, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi tweeted, "Further strengthening historical ties with a close maritime neighbour. Welcome the gift of 15 oxygen concentrators from our ASEAN partner and friend Thailand. Also thank the Indian community in Thailand which have generously donated another 15 oxygen concentrators."

Meanwhile, by April 30, India had received 495 oxygen concentrators and 140 ventilators from the UK; 200 oxygen concentrators from Mauritius; 256 oxygen cylinders from Singapore; 20 large oxygen concentrators, 75 ventilators, 150 bedside monitors, and 2,00,000 packs of Favipiravir from Russia; 157 ventilators, 480 BiPAPs, goggles, masks from the UAE; and 700 oxygen concentrators and 365 ventilators from Ireland.

India also received 80 oxygen concentrators, 75 oxygen cylinders, and 20 high-flow humidify oxygen therapy devices from Romania, and 423 oxygen cylinders with regulators (200 Size D, 223 Size H), 210 pulse oximeters, 184,000 Abbott Rapid Diagnostic Test Kits, 84000 N-95 face masks, 17 H-size (large) oxygen cylinders and 7,00,000 Abbott Rapid Diagnostic Test Kits from the US.

--IANS

aat/arm
Ruth Aceng, Ugandan minister of health, told reporters here that the country has been experiencing a gradual increase in coronavirus cases over the last six weeks, signalling a second wave.

Kampala, May 1 (IANS) Uganda on Friday announced a series of new Covid-19 restrictions amid a resurgence in infections, when global daily cases are also increasing fast mainly due to India's calamitous second wave.

"We are beginning to witness a resurgence in the pandemic. It's important for us to note that for viral infections, the second wave is usually more aggressive than the first wave," said Aceng.

The country is currently facing five Covid-19 variants, including those first found in India, South Africa and Britain, she said, noting that the health ministry has developed a plan to combat the resurgence of the disease, the Xinhua news agency reported.

The new plan will identify gaps in efforts to fight the first wave of the virus and draw on the experience of other countries, Aceng said.

The ministry is continuing to study the evolving pandemic situation in different countries, she said, adding that countries will be categorised in accordance with the risk they confront.

As India is in "category one" because of the high infection rates in the country, Uganda has imposed travel restrictions on travellers and passenger flights from India, the minister said.

Travelers from the "category two" countries, including the US, Britain, the UAE, Turkey, South Africa, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Tanzania, will be subject to a Covid-19 test at points of entry. Individuals from the countries who have received full vaccination and are asymptomatic will be allowed into Uganda without the need for testing on arrival.

A total of 330,077 people have been so far inoculated with the first AstraZeneca jab in Uganda, and the country has received 964,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from the World Health Organization (WHO)'s COVAX initiative and the Indian government.

The Ugandan government has prioritised access to vaccines for more than 21.9 million people at higher risk, including those working in the medical field, teachers, social workers, security personnel, the elderly and those with underlying medical conditions.

After the new variant first found in India was detected in Uganda, there is now a rush for the vaccine. "I appeal to the population to observe the standard operating procedures and get vaccinated against Covid-19," said Aceng.

Yonas Tegegn Woldemariam, WHO country representative to Uganda, said that vaccinations will save the country from a surge in daily cases.

"If you (get) vaccinated, you prevent yourself from severe disease and death due to Covid-19. Transmission decreases when vaccination increases," said Tegegn. "When transmission decreases, you prevent a mutation of the virus, save the health system and economic situation."

As of Friday, Uganda had registered 41,866 Covid-19 cases, with 41,442 recoveries and 342 deaths.

--IANS

int/rs
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Heres a look at the top criminal-justice-related headlines across the borough this week.

S.I. MAN NABBED IN ONLINE SEX STING GETS 3 YEARS

John Emilio, 42, sent pictures of his private parts to what he believed was a 14-year-old girl, the Burlington County District Attorneys said. (Provided by the Burlington County District Attorney)

The teen a Staten Island man met online and was trying to bed down wasnt really a 14-year-old girl.

She was an undercover New Jersey cop.

But the prison term slapped on John Emilio is very real.

Emilio, 44, was sentenced Wednesday in Burlington County Superior Court to three years behind bars for trying to arrange a sexual encounter with an underage girl.

Click here for more story details.

MAN SHOT DEAD IN APARTMENT KNEW HIS KILLER

The NYPD responds to Palmer Avenue in Port Richmond on Wednesday, April 28, 2021. (Steve White for the Staten Island Advance)

The 24-year-old man shot and killed Wednesday inside his Port Richmond apartment knew his attacker, according to a law enforcement source.

Police responded just after 4 p.m. to 10 Palmer Ave., where they found the victim, identified by authorities as Luis Ramirez, with what proved to be a fatal gunshot wound to the chest.

Sources said the home includes single-room occupancy apartments, with multiple individuals renting rooms. Ramirez lived in one of the apartments.

Click here for more story details.

S.I. MAN SHOT DEAD ON BRONX STREET

Police are seeking the public's assistance in identifying the operator of a black Mercedes-Benz SUV who is sought for questioning in connection with the fatal shooting of a Staten Island man Friday in the Bronx. (Courtesy of NYPD)

Police are investigating a shooting in the Bronx that took a Staten Island mans life in what sources say appears to be a targeted attack.

The victim has been identified by authorities as Jason Rivera, 35, of West Brighton.

A shocking video of the incident, captured by what appears to be a handheld camera, was released by the NYPD Monday in an attempt to identify the shooter.

Police responded at about 11:40 p.m. Friday to a report of a shooting on the 1500 block of Taylor Avenue, near a Bronx playground, according to a written statement from the NYPD.

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VANDALS STRIKE HISTORIC CHURCH

Rev. Jacqueline Nolton, the pastor of Rossville AME Zion Church, to the location at 584 Bloomingdale Road Wednesday afternoon to inspect the damage. Here she poses in front of the shattered front door. (Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel)

Rossville AME Zion Church, a historic landmark that is part of Sandy Ground with well over a century of rich history, was struck by vandalism Tuesday that left its front door fractured and a side window broken.

The bottom portion of the glass front door to the church appeared to have impact damage. Inside the kitchen of the building, shards of glass were strewn across the floor where a separate window was shattered and a brick was found nearby.

Rev. Jacqueline Nolton, the pastor of the church who arrived to the location at 584 Bloomingdale Road Wednesday afternoon to inspect the damage, said the act, represents the evil that is permeating this nation.

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HES CHARGED AS MOM-AND-POP SHOP MENACE

Police arrested a 25-year-old man from New Jersey in connection with an armed robbery Saturday at a liquor store in Port Richmond, in addition to multiple other incidents in the same police precinct. (Google Maps)

A liquor store robbery Saturday night in Port Richmond ended with the arrest of a 25-year-old New Jersey man, who authorities have tied to a string of scary holdups at mom-and-pop businesses on Staten Island.

Police say Elijah Parker, of Bayonne, N.J., brandished what appeared to be a firearm just after 8 p.m. inside the Jewett Liquor and Wine Boutique, located on the 200 block of Jewett Avenue.

A 56-year-old male at the store told police that an unknown suspect made off with nearly $1,200 cash and a $58 bottle of Casamigos Tequila, according to police and the criminal complaint.

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CONSTRUCTION CO. CONVICTED OF WAGE THEFT

A Staten Island construction company and its two owners were convicted Thursday of withholding overtime wages from employees and failing to pay unemployment contributions to the New York State Department of Labor (DOL), the states attorney general announced.

Michael Murphy and James Murphy Jr., owners of Premier Builders, were each convicted of one count of failure to pay wages, said the office of Attorney General Letitia James. The company was convicted of one count of fourth-degree grand larceny and one count of first-degree falsifying business records.

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GUN PLEA FROM MAN ACCUSED OF POLITICAL THREATS

Brooklyn federal court is shown in this file photo. An Annadale man accused of threatening to bomb FBI building pleaded guilty to gun charges on Monday. (Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel)Staff-Shot

An Annadale man who was arrested late last year after allegedly calling for the extermination of Democrats and their families and for the FBI building to be bombed pleaded guilty to illegally possessing a gun in federal court on Monday.

Brian Maiorana, 54, who was arrested at home on Nov. 10 after allegedly making a series of violent threats in the wake of citywide protests and the presidential election won by President Joe Biden, faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced.

Click here for more story details
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Sunlight spilled through the windows of the Brothers Pizza dining room as staff ladled pinwheels of sauce on dough and sliced bubbling, hot Sicilian pies into squares.

It was a typical Saturday afternoon in Port Richmond with which the late Bart Giove, one of Brothers founders, would be familiar. Except on this particular afternoon, neighbors and state Sen. Diane J. Savino visited the parlor to memorialize the business owner and present his family with a New York State proclamation.

The late Bart Giove (Staten Island Advance/Pamela Silvestri)Staten Island Advance

Savino stood by a mantle in the restaurants dining room and read from the plaque honoring Brothers and the Giove family. Its few hundred words encapsulated Gioves life story from establishing the pizzeria to his charitable work in the community to his death from brain cancer in October 2019.

From left to right: NYS Senator Diane Savino, George Giove, Filippo Giove, Mario Buonviaggio and Mary Bullock. The late Bart Giove of Brothers Pizza in Port Richmond finally gets his due with state proclamation. (Staten Island Advance/Pamela Silvestri)Pamela Silvestri

Today, Brothers Pizza is owned and operated by Barts son George, and his nephews, Giorgio and Filippo; these men work to keep traditions of their family alive, the plaque read.

From left to right: George Giove, State Senator Diane Savino, Filippo Giove. The late Bart Giove of Brothers Pizza in Port Richmond finally gets his due with state proclamation. (Staten Island Advance/Pamela Silvestri)Pamela Silvestri

The proclamation might be considered a cathartic and most welcome gesture to the Giove family after a kerfuffle in January when the City Council denied a street renaming for Giove. In December 2019, the neighborhood group Port Richmond Strong submitted a proposal through Councilwoman Debi Roses office. The request came with a whopping 1,400 signatures along with required documents yet met with a quiet rejection. This did not sit well either in neighborhood or with local civic leaders of Port Richmond Strong, Mario Buonviaggio and Mary Bullock.

Mario Buonviaggio and Mary Bullock of Port Richmond Strong, a community group that lobbied for the state proclamation. (Staten Island Advance/Pamela Silvestri)Pamela Silvestri

Our name speaks for itself. You cant have a passive mentality in this neighborhood. And Brothers is an institution, said Buonviaggio. We were extremely upset about the original decision. We hope the second time through the City Council process the street renaming will be approved.

Bullocks family dates back to 1665 in Port Richmond with roots at the historic Dutch Reformed Church on Port Richmond Avenue. Her history and roots in the area foster a love and loyalty to its small businesses and residents.

Port Richmond is so much of a community, she said. A lot of the streets are named for firemen, policemen and politicians. An ordinary businessman who came to this country, started a business, made millions of pizzas, fed people in 9/11 ... this is someone who deserves to be remembered.

The state proclamation (Staten Island Advance/Pamela Silvestri)Pamela Silvestri

But the proclamation is a fine stand in, for now, the Port Richmond Strong crew agreed.

The communitys been great since my father passed, said Gioves son, George. Its touching to see all the lives he touched just from making pizza. Im hearing stories about my dad that Ive never heard before.

Brother's famed Grandma pie (Staten Island Advance/Pamela Silvestri)Pamela Silvestri

For instance, one customer shared with George that when his own father passed many years ago, Bart dished up comfort along with a slice of pizza with the encouraging words, You have to take care of your mother now. And that very customer recently remembered Gioves sentiment and offered the same fatherly advice to a grieving George.

Youre the man now. You have to take care of your family, George recalled the customer saying to him. It was like my dad trying to talk to me.

Spinach rolls at Brother's (Staten Island Advance/Pamela Silvestri)Pamela Silvestri

Gioves youngest brother, Filippo, talked about the special dishes his late brother made, including a Pizza San Giuseppe. He made it in honor of St. Joseph for St. Josephs Day [March 19] with raisins, scallions, sausage, mortadella, dried sausage and olive oil. We roll it up and then it goes in a tray. It bakes for one hour and 40 minutes and hails from the culture of Gavina di Puglia, the Gioves hometown, a small town near Mola di Bari, Italy.

A Sicilian pie (Staten Island Advance/Pamela Silvestri)Pamela Silvestri

The Gioves, brothers Filippo, Bart and Pietro, immigrated to Brooklyn in the early 1970s where the trio operated Ginos on 13th Avenue in Borough Park. They worked 17 hours a day, recounted Filippo, working in landscaping during the day and making pizzas at night. They moved to Staten Island after two years and, in 1975, fired up ovens at 750 Port Richmond Ave. in a storefront now next door to Subway. They spotted a nearby vacant lot for sale and scooped up the property to build its current structure in 1982.

Pizza is entrenched in the familys DNA, one might say.

Petes son owns the pizza place in New Dorp, Filippo said, referencing Giove Pizzeria with proprietor Giorgio, an award-winning pizziaolo famed for his Food Network appearances, including a winning performance on Beat Bobby Flay.

George and his late father, Bart Giove of Brother's Pizza of Port Richmond. (Staten Island Advance/Pamela Silvestri) Staff-Shot

Its been 46 years in business, said George, who has been making pies since he was a teenager. He only recently started taking charge of the back-of-the-house functions of Brothers.

My uncle and father built this business up and me and my cousins are trying to keep it going. One of us is always here, he said.

Filippos wife, Jerseylicious reality star Catherine Giove, thanked several in the room for coming, including North Shore City Council hopefuls Kamillah Hanks, Michael Schnall and Kathleen Sforza. Over a dozen guests sat down after the proclamation presentation and broke bread over Sicilian pizzas, rice balls and mozzarella sticks.

Small businesses have been hit hard this past year. Im thrilled to honor a Port Richmond staple who has withstood the test of time, and has given so much back to the community, said Savino.

Its great to be a Staten Islander, Filippo said.

Pamela Silvestri is Advance Food Editor. She can be reached at silvestri@siadvance.com.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  The internet is afire from news that Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck have been spotted together multiple times, setting off rumors that the former couple, dubbed Bennifer in years past, are back together after the April 15 break up from Alex Rodriguez.

Affleck has been spotted visitng Lopezs Los Angeles mansion multiple times, during the day, according to the NY Post, having been picked up by a white Escalade, allegedly owned by J.Lo on April 28 and then again on April 29.

He was photographed wearing blue jeans and a T-shirt leaving Hotel Bel-Air in the morning in the white SUV and then deposited to her house near by. Hours later, the same Escalade drove him back to the hotel.

Security picks him up at a nearby location and drops him off after spending a few hours at her house, said the source to the Post.

Back in 2002, Affleck and J.Lo were engaged, but postponed their wedding in 2003, later splitting a year later. J.Lo has also been seeking comfort for her post-break up blues on another ex-hubby Marc Anthony, with whom she shares twins, Max and Emme, 13. Affleck shares three children, Violet, 15, Seraphina, 12, and Samuel, 9, with ex-wife Jennifer Garner.

So is official dating in the offing? Celebrity news outlet TMZ says no, having been told Affleck and Lopez were strictly friends by its sources, but didnt rule out something romantic happening later. Theres no such thing as never, especially in Hollywood, so its always possible something could be rekindled, but theres no evidence of that now, TMZ wrote.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  It has been almost 10 years since Schmul Park reopened after a $6.5 million renovation. Now, the park is showing its wear and Borough President James S. Oddo is determined to fix it.

On Friday, April 30, Oddo announced that Borough Hall is allocating $2.4 million of additional city funding to refurbish the park.

In 2012, Schmul Park reopened with a brand new playground. One of the most notable features of the playground was the colorful ground surface, which was safe but not durable and patches have deteriorated.

It was meant to allow our kids to use every inch of this park and to have fun and do things that kids do  jump up and down and go up hills and roll and be safe doing it, Oddo said while gesturing toward the playground.

Both Oddo and Borough Parks Commissioner Lynda Ricciardone said they prioritize maintaining parks such as Schmul so Staten Islanders can truly enjoy them. While his term in office will be over before the park is finished, Oddo said he intends to maximize his last days in office.

Borough Parks Commissioner Lynda Ricciardone speaks at Schmul Park in Travis during Borough President James Oddo's announcement on April 30, 2021 (Staten Island Advance/Giavanni Alves) Giavanni Alves

[Borough President Oddo] is committed and he realized that our parks are sanctuaries of sanity and this should be one of them, said Ricciardone. We want to give you the best park system that Staten Islanders deserve.

Oddo emphasized that parks have been especially important for people during the pandemic and urged people to take full advantage of what New York Citys greenest borough has to offer.

We call ourselves the borough of parks, Oddo said. I encourage Staten Islanders, now more than ever, to get out and use them and get out and move. Go out to our Greenbelt. Go out to our various parks and enjoy them.

Travis Civic Association President Gene Guerra speaks in Schmul Park.(Staten Island Advance/Giavanni Alves) Giavanni Alves

Gene Guerra, president of the Travis Civic Association, also spoke, thanking Oddo and Ricciardone for their tireless dedication to Staten Island.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  A 40-year-old motorcyclist was critically injured early Saturday morning after crashing into a utility pole in Mariners Harbor, according to police.

At approximately 1:15 a.m., emergency units arrived at the intersection of Richmond Terrace and Van Name Avenue, where police discovered a male with trauma to his hands, arms and legs, according to a spokesman for the NYPDs Deputy Commissioner of Public Information.

A 40-year-old motorcyclist was critically injured early Saturday morning after crashing into a utility pole in Mariners Harbor, according to police.

Police said the victim was transported to Richmond University Medical Center in West Brighton in critical, but stable condition.

The NYPD spokesman said investigators believe the motorcyclist was traveling at a high rate of speed eastbound on Richmond Terrace, when he lost control of his bike and crashed into the pole.

A 40-year-old motorcyclist was critically injured early Saturday morning after crashing into a utility pole in Mariners Harbor, according to police.

No one else was injured in the single-vehicle crash, police added.

Authorities had one lane of Richmond Terrace blocked off while they responded to the incident Saturday morning.

An NYPD spokesman said investigators believe the motorcyclist was traveling at a high rate of speed eastbound on Richmond Terrace, when he lost control of his bike and crashed into a pole.

As of April 13, there had been 155 collisions on Staten Island this year that were responsible for injuries to 195 people, according to NYPD data.

Of those, 42 were at least partially due to driver inattention or distraction, making it the leading cause of accidents with injury on Staten Island; 54 people were hurt in those incidents.

A 40-year-old motorcyclist was critically injured early Saturday morning after crashing into a utility pole in Mariners Harbor, according to police.

Another 23 collisions were caused by at least one driver failing to yield the right of way.

NYPD data also shows the number of fatal traffic collisions recorded on the Island so far this year has doubled over the same time period in 2020, from three to seven.

That 133% increase is an outlier when compared to the city overall, which saw only a 4% increase in fatal crashes year-to-date, from 46 to 48.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 10:37:04|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Saturday marks International Workers' Day.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has from time to time hailed the working class for their contribution to the country's development, advocating the spirit of hard work, and encouraging workers to have more brilliant achievements.

The following are some highlights of his quotes:

-- Happiness is achieved through hard work.

-- Regardless of how the times change, we must always treat work and working people with reverence and respect, and we must always attach significance to the leading role of the working class and working people.

-- The Chinese are known as a hardworking and inventive people. Just as work and creative activities were responsible for the glorious achievements of our past, they have also been responsible for everything we have achieved today.

-- There is no such thing as noble or humble work. All work is glorious no matter what the occupation.

-- Realizing the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation relies on the diligent work of people from all walks of life. Enditem
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Throughout the worst global pandemic in 100 years, most Americans have received three stimulus payments totaling $3,200.

Payments of $1,200 and $600 passed Congress and were signed during President Donald Trumps administration.

A payment of $1,400 came under President Joe Bidens administration despite Democrats promise of $2,000 in the lead-up to the runoff elections for Georgias two Senate seats. They later repackaged messaging about the $1,400 payment as an addition to the $600 payment from the Trump administration.

As more people get vaccinated and coronavirus (COVID-19) numbers continue to decline, more parts of the economy can open up, but many Americans are still in need of help from the government.

In March, a group of 11 Democratic senators, including Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), sent a letter to Biden, urging him to support recurring payments in his Build Back Better long-term economic plan.

This crisis is far from over, and families deserve certainty that they can put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads, they wrote. Families should not be at the mercy of constantly-shifting legislative timelines and ad hoc solutions.

However, the Biden administration has not included recurring payments in either of its announced spending package proposals since they sent their letter.

Biden included a five-year extension of an expanded Child Tax Credit for families and a permanent extension of the expanded Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income workers without children in his $1.8 trillion proposal announced during his speech to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday.

So far, a total of 159 million disbursements with a total value of $376 billion has been dolled out as part of the $1.9 trillion American Reduce Plan, according to the IRS.

However, for many Americans still suffering amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the third stimulus isnt enough.

According to U.S. Census Bureau data collected in March, nearly 30% of Americans came up short when trying to cover household expenses.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  After 10 days missing and a not-entirely-clear trip to Staten Island, a beloved tortoise was reunited Friday with her Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, family.

Doris the tortoise went missing from the Torres familys home April 21 after a gate to their yard was left open.

What happened next isnt entirely clear, but Laura Torres, whos had the reptile for 22 years, suspects someone picked up Doris, and brought her across the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. Tortoises cant swim.

She either walked the Verrazzano or took the S79? No, Torres said. To state something sad, I imagine that what happened is that she was taken.

The Torres family, their neighbors and citywide media launched a campaign in search of the African Leopard tortoise, including Councilman Justin Brannan (D-Brooklyn), who promoted the search on social media.

Torres, who lives near the intersection of 94th Street and Ridge Avenue with her husband and two teen children, believes that the widespread search is what might have led to the person releasing Doris, or they realized the challenges of caring for a tortoise.

Whatever the reason, after the tortoise was released, an unidentified Staten Islander saw the creature roaming the streets and contacted the Staten Island Zoo, who then proceeded to call an animal rescue in Manhattan.

Torres said that animal rescue had Doris for about a week before they were all reunited. Neither the Zoo nor the animal rescue that Torres identified responded to requests for comment by the time of publication.

Overall, the family is just thankful to be reunited with Doris, and grateful that their community and residents across the city came together to find the pet.

Maybe people from outside have the idea that New York is a cold place or a place that people dont care about each other  everybodys just very individual doing their thing  but thats not right at all, Torres said.

This is a very, very strong community, very family-oriented, very caring, and Im very, very thankful. Were just overwhelmed with how many people actually cared.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Tucked in the corner of an urban oasis in Stapleton, there is an outdoor classroom and home to one of the most important organisms in our ecosystem.

Bee University (Bee-U) is a free beekeeping educational program that launched this Spring. Currently, Bee-U has three beehives with a total of approximately 30,000 located in Maker Park.

The group meets twice a week with virtual lectures about apiology on Tuesdays and gathering on site on Saturdays to visit and help with maintenance of the beehives. At this time, there are 10 students in the BU program, ranging from young teenagers to adults in their sixties, including three families.

For many of the students, this is a completely new experience. Dressed in full beekeeping suits, students are able to observe the bees up close.

Bee University, a free beekeeping educational program that launched in March, maintains its beehives in Maker Park. Each hive has approximately 10,000 bees in it. (Staten Island Advance/ Giavanni Alves)

Jacqueline Caruso, Project Coordinator for Bee University, explained to the Advance that the Bee-U program presents an opportunity for the community to connect with nature in a unique way.

[The students] are super excited about this opportunity because it seems so unusual to engage in urban agriculture on Staten Island.

I think a lot of people think that they have to go outside of the city or out of the state to find opportunities that are related to agriculture or even things like hiking and enjoying nature. Its all here in Staten Island, said Caruso.

Since launching at the end of March, Bee-U staff has received inquiries from new people looking to join every week with more than 30 people on the mailing list so far.

Bee University's Education Manager, Renel Saint Jour, holds part of beehive for class to observe (Courtesy of Bee University)

Renel Saint Jour, who previously oversaw teen and beekeeping programming as a Program Manager for City Growers, is the Education Manager and lead instructor for Bee University. Saint Jour is pleased with the progress that Bee U has made so far.

Its been great seeing the program come to fruition. There was a lot of teamwork and partnership involved to make it happen. And its exciting to get positive reception from the community, said Saint Jour.

Carusos excitement about the sense of community that Bee University has developed was palpable as she described the various ways volunteers have contributed to the program such as building and painting the hives as well as cleaning the park.

The people are building it. The people who are part of it, theyre making it what it is. I tell everyone whenever we meet or I sign-off an email, We literally couldnt do this without everyone because we make it what it is, said Caruso.

Bee University students observe beehives as part of educational beekeeping program in Maker Park (Courtesy of Bee University)

Bee University is continuing a recent tradition of beekeeping in Maker Park. Nick Rozak, owner of Green Stinger Trading, is an avid beekeeper who has been maintaining beehives in Maker Park for the past three years, after taking a beekeeping class through Makerspace NYC. Rozak has advised Bee University staff through the process of installing and maintaining the new beehives.

Rozak shared with the Advance that Bee University is especially impactful because it educates the community about the importance of bees to our ecosystem and fosters an appreciation for them.

Bee University's Education Manager, Renel Saint Jour, holds part of beehive for class to observe (Courtesy of Bee University)

More and more people are aware that bees need our help and what their problems are, but people really do not know how to react to bees. People are terrified of bees, said Rozak.

Theres a lot of miscommunication about Africanized killer bees that are not here in New York anyway. So, people have a lot of weird information in their head. Any kind of education to let people know how to help the bees and how to save the bees is great. We definitely need to help them, he continued.

Bees from Bee University hive in Maker Park. The green dot is placed on the queen bee to identify her (Courtesy of Bee University)

As an intergenerational, free, educational program with hands-on learning about the environment, Bee University has the potential to be very impactful on Staten Island.

I think the programs significance goes beyond beekeeping. I see it as a step in the right direction when it comes to our youth, said Saint Jour.

Bee University is run by the Ranti Ogunleye campaign. Ogunleye, who is director of the Jewish Community Centers Gerard Carter Center, is running for City Council in the 49th District.

Both Ogunleye and his team told the Advance that despite the initiative being a part of his campaign, its continuation is not contingent on whether or not he is elected into office. This is just the beginning, and they have numerous ideas and visions for the trajectory of the program as it continues to grow.

This is part of Rantis campaign, but weve all talked about whats next for Bee U, campaign or not. Theres not much start up with it, so the idea, people can really take it and run with it, Caruso explained.

Caruso, who is also a kindergarten teacher at P.S. 78, shared that Bee University and Ogunleyes team have discussed ideas such as hosting school trips where local students would be able to learn about the bees, expanding to multiple locations as the hives grow, and partnering with other beekeeping organizations.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  A presentation on preventing, reporting and responding to hate crimes will take place Tuesday, May 4, during a virtual committee meeting of Community Board 3.

A representative from the city Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes (OPHC) will present, Preventing Hate Together,' at the 7 p.m. meeting of the Health and Human Services Committee. The presentation will provide insights into the work the office does to prevent and respond to hate crimes in New York City.

The Board 3 Community Alliance Committee will also meet Tuesday at 7 p.m. There is no set agenda.

On Wednesday, May 5, the Board 3 Traffic and Transportation Committee will meet virtually at 7 p.m. with no set agenda.

To attend any of the meetings, visit www.nyc.gov/sicb3 to register for the meetings and receive an email with a link to join the meeting.

Community Board 1

Community Board 1 will vote on a number of zoning issues during a Zoom Land Use Public Hearing on Wednesday, May 5, at 6:30 p.m.

At issue will be an application by Richmond University Medical Center to reduce the total number of required accessory off-street parking spaces for a proposed ambulatory diagnostic or treatment facility at 1161 Victory Blvd.

Also on the agenda is a Department of City Planning (DCP) application to permit the erection of an automotive service station at 830 Bay St. and a Board of Standards and Appeals application submitted to reopen and extend the term of variance to 10 years for the commercial building at 1444 Clove Rd.

Additionally, the Zoning for Accessibility Text Amendment will be voted on after a presentation during the meeting.

In collaboration with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), City Council and the Mayors Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD), DCP is preparing to change zoning rules that allow the MTA to leverage private development to help create accessible subway and SIR stations.

The proposal would require property owners of developments near stations to proactively work with the MTA to provide station access easements; and would expand zoning incentives for developments in high-density districts to construct station improvements.

ZFA seeks to expand existing zoning near transit to allow for construction of improvements to station accessibility and capacity.

Join the Zoom meeting here. The meeting ID is 817 4013 6842.

Community Board 2

Community Board 2 has no meeting scheduled this week.

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

All Community Board meetings and meetings of the committees are open to the public. They provide an excellent opportunity for residents to learn about happenings in their neighborhoods and surrounding areas.

Below is more information about the Islands three community boards:

COMMUNITY BOARD 1

Arlington  Castleton Corners  Clifton  Concord  Elm Park  Fort Wadsworth  Graniteville  Grymes Hill  Livingston  Mariners Harbor  New Brighton  Port Richmond  Randall Manor  Rosebank  St. George  Shore Acres  Silver Lake  Stapleton  Sunnyside  Tompkinsville  West Brighton  Westerleigh

The district manager is Joseph Carroll. The Board chairman is Nicholas Siclari. The telephone number is 718-981-6900.

COMMUNITY BOARD 2

Arrochar  Bloomfield  Bulls Head  Chelsea  Dongan Hills  Egbertville  Emerson Hill  Grant City  Grasmere  High Rock  Lighthouse Hill  Midland Beach  New Dorp  New Springville  Oakwood  Ocean Breeze  Old Town  Richmond  South Beach  Todt Hill  Travis.

The phone number is 718-568-3581. The fax number 718-568-3595. The chairman is Robert J. Collegio, P.E. The district manager is Debra A. Derrico.

COMMUNITY BOARD 3

Annadale  Arden Heights  Bay Terrace  Charleston  Eltingville  Great Kills  Greenridge  Huguenot  New Dorp  Oakwood  Pleasant Plains  Princes Bay  Richmond Valley -- Richmond -- Rossville -- Tottenville -- Woodrow.

The office phone number is 718-356-7900. The board chairman is Frank Morano; the district manager is Charlene Wagner.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Eddy Gregory was missed at Lifestyles for the Disabled when he was out for six weeks having had surgery in February. Not only were we happy and relieved to have the manager of the Media Department back, but we realized his surgery would make an interesting story at Life-Wire News Service which he established.

The tumor, he told us, was a chondrosarcoma which is rare for the neck. It was on the cricoid ring, a band of cartilage which holds up the vocal cords. It made his voice raspy and affected his breathing and eating.

The procedure to remove it was done in three steps. First remove his bottom rib. Then remove the tumor and damaged parts of the throat. Finally rebuild the cricoid ring with the cartilage from the rib.

His surgeon is Dr. Peak Woo, an otolaryngologist at Mount Sinai Hospital, Manhattan, who specializes in surgery designed specifically to improve the voice. Radio personality Don Imus was one of his famous patients.

Throat surgery improves the patients quality of life and is very rewarding, Dr. Woo told us in a written response to our questions. He recommends seeing a doctor if you have problems with the voice, breathing or swallowing.

The procedure took about four hours, Dr. Woo said. We are proud of how Eddy got through the surgery and recovery. It couldnt have been easy to have trouble breathing and talking, but the surgery could also have been dangerous if he lost his voice. We asked Dr. Woo how Eddy was as a patient.

He told us that Eddy was an excellent patient, well informed and understanding of the risks we were taking.

We werent surprised to hear that because Eddy took time to explain his symptoms, his preparation for surgery, the procedure, some setbacks and how the recovery is going.

How did you feel before the operation? Did you feel scared?

I was a little scared because if the operation didnt work out, I would be breathing through my neck. So I didnt want that, thats not something Im comfortable with. I like breathing and eating which I was having trouble with before the operation. Theyre kind of hobbies of mine.

What would you say to tumor patients that have to go through what you have to go through?

When you have something like that and it needs to be fixed, you need to do it as soon as possible. Because if it grows too big then its a more dangerous operation, and you could lose your voice permanently.

When I initially had this seven or eight years ago, they decided to take out only a piece of the tumor because they didnt want to go too drastic. And then it grew back. Once it gets to the point where its a big tumor and its dangerous; its important to get it done right away because if they have to remove too much of the cricoid ring, then they wouldnt be able to restore my voice.

Eddy Gregory shows where incisions were made during surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital, Manhattan, to remove a tumor from his throat and another for a tracheostomy so he could breathe while his throat healed. (Still from video/Life-Wire News)

Did the tumor hurt?

The tumor was a chondrosarcoma. Its very rare in the neck. It did hurt from the surgery. But it was also hurting before the surgery if I swallowed something wrong. When I swallowed certain foods it hurt. Like tuna or chicken. Stuff that was flaky that you have to push down your throat when you swallow it. Those sorts of things. And breathing. This tumor, the doctor said, was covering about 40 percent of my airway -- and after removing it, he said, about 50 percent -- so I was not breathing properly before the operation.

Are you breathing OK now?

Yes. Im not even used to this feeling. Im getting so much air. And it doesnt feel right. I speak and Im losing so much air when I talk; Im getting breathless. I dont know if thats because Im not controlling my vocal cords or because Im not used to breathing like a normal person. So its something I have to get used to, actually being able to breathe.

You should do some deep breathing exercises.

Oh I do. I do. And I do yoga and Ive been getting regular exercise as well.

RESTORING THE VOICE

Why did you have a tracheostomy?

So I could breathe. You breathe through a tracheostomy or tracheotomy. When they did the surgery, they went through part of my neck to remove the cartilage [with the tumor]. They had to put a piece of plastic in there, called a stint, to form the shape of my neck so the cartilage could form the shape. I really couldnt breathe through my mouth once they did that. So they had to put another hole in my neck, and that hole had a tube that went into my neck, and I would breathe through that tube.

- Dr. Peak Woo, a throat doctor at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, uses a model to illustrate how one vocal cord is out of alignment with the other because a tumor, known as a chondrosarcoma, pushed it out of the way. The tumor caused problems with breathing, eating and speaking. (Courtesy of Dr. Peak Woo) Life-Wire News Service

When are they going to fix your voice?

The first time I went to visit Dr. Woo, I went to see if I could get my voice fixed. Instead he found the tumor, which was a more important issue.

The tumor had pushed my vocal cords out of alignment. They should be parallel to work. The tumor had pushed the right one all the way up. So they didnt even touch. Only the one on the left moves and vibrates.

So now that the tumor is gone, the one that was pushed up is dropping closer to where its supposed to be. Dr. Woo wants to see me in four months to see what happens before going in and doing anything. Its already improved a little. I might choose not to do anything further - if I am happy with my voice, I live with my voice.

PREPARING FOR SURGERY

When you went to have the tumor cut out, was it what you expected?

It was kind of what I expected. There was some stuff that didnt go well or easy. I knew I would wake up and I would be breathing differently and feeding through a tube  so I wasnt surprised by that. But it was very uncomfortable.

Did they put a camera down your throat?

They do that all the time. They go through my nose and down my throat.

- Dr. Peak Woo displays an image of the vocal cords of Eddy Gregory from a laryngoscopy done to examine his vocal cords. They should be next to each other, but you can see the one on the right is in the wrong position. (Courtesy of Dr. Peak Woo) Life-Wire News Service

Sounds like you were well prepared for what to expect

Yes, but they can explain all they want. The actual experience of being on the gurney and rolling into the operating room is  it becomes real. When Im waiting, I try not to think too much about the unpleasant parts. So its not really real to me until the doors of the operating room open and the air temperature drops, and youre sitting there waiting for them to put you out and theyre talking to each other, making their plan on what theyre going to do. And Dr. Woo is telling the other doctors, OK, youre going to do this; youre going to do that. And I get to hear all this. Its suddenly very real.

When I go into an operation, I think about how I am going to wake up. And I think about how Im going to have to breathe. Because you can wake up in a panic and youre hyperventilating or youre holding your breath. So I think about waking up and breathing normally. And I expect to be in a different room and I expect that Im going to feel disoriented.

SOME SETBACKS

How long was the recovery?

Longer than I expected. I did have a couple of setbacks.

I mentioned there was a tube in my throat and there was a blood clot that ended up blocking that tube. So I was having trouble breathing after the operation because as much as they tried to clean out my airway with a catheter, this thing they were knocking out of the way would keep blocking me again. So I was having trouble breathing for a while. A few days later, Dr. Woo looked at my throat, saw what was in there and took me right over to the emergency room and had that blood clot removed so I could breathe again.

And then within about a week and half after that, there was a little piece of cartilage that had dislodged and ended up blocking my throat again and I had to go into the emergency room. So twice I had trouble breathing before I started healing up again.

What was the turning point?

The stint in my throat, that big piece of plastic that blocked my throat, was the most unpleasant. Once that came out I started feeling better. And then, when they took the feeding tube out.

Are you feeling better now?

Much better. I can swallow food. I can breathe. And I can speak better.

-- Written collaboratively by Meredith Arout, Anthony Difato, Kevin Distefano, Joseph Padalino, Greg Perosi, Laura Sterlacci for Life-Wire News Service with Kathryn Carse

Life-Wire News Service provides a voice for people with disabilities through a partnership between the Advance/SILive.com and Lifestyles for the Disabled, an agency serving people with developmental disabilities on Staten Island.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- While rents are plummeting across New York City amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Staten Island apartments have held their value and remain in high demand, according to local Realtors.

Following a report by Streeteasy.com that revealed rent prices in other boroughs have hit record lows, real estate experts say Staten Islands apartment market has been largely unaffected by the pandemic.

Streeteasy said the Rent Index dropped by 16.8% year-over-year in Manhattan, with rents decreasing to a new low of $2,700 a month. The report says that before the pandemic hit, during the first quarter of 2020, the median asking rent in Manhattan was $3,417.

But on Staten Island prices have appeared to remain steady.

The Staten Island rental market is very different from much of the rest of the city and has not been affected by the flight from the city during the pandemic as the other areas have, said Sandy Krueger, CEO of the Staten Island Board of Realtors (SIBOR). In fact, Staten Island was a recipient of some of the movement from the city.

RESIDENTS FLEEING OTHER BOROUGHS

During the pandemic, many renters fled Manhattan and Brooklyn for Staten Island, Realtors say.

The age-old theory of supply and demand remain at the core of all market fluctuations. Once again Staten Island continues to shine as it did after 9/11, the 08 recession, and SuperStorm Sandy compared to our neighboring boroughs, said James Prendamano, CEO/associate broker for Casandra Properties Inc., which has two Island-based offices.

Its no secret Staten Island is short on vertical living apartment options. As New Yorkers retreated from other parts of the city, Staten Island continued to emerge as a viable option for residents seeking a bit more elbow room. The residential rental market has held rock solid and the for sale market is on fire, he added.

LANDLORD PERSPECTIVE

Krueger noted that its harder to track rental prices and demand on Staten Island than in the other boroughs, due to a majority of the rentals being in private homes and marketed by landlords rather than Realtors.

Staten Island is a different animal on its own as it has proven itself over and over on many different controversial topics, said John Salis, a Staten Island landlord and real estate investor. Real estate values on Staten Island is one of them, as it has always been left behind compared to all the other boroughs. This fact for once could be a great thing for Staten Islanders.

Salis said high rents in other boroughs could lead to a trickled down effect that would benefit Staten Island.

When real estate values are at their highest point, some landlords over leverage their assets and are betting on tenants to carry on with those high rents, but this could back fire when the world is facing a pandemic crisis and those promising rent notes are not worth as much as they did initially, he said.

In my humbled opinion I believe this could be a good lesson to those high risk takers, but on the other hand I could understand the higher the risk, the higher the reward. As far as I am concerned with my personal investments on Staten Island, I have not seen or felt the impact, added Salis.

RENTALS IN STATEN ISLAND HIGH-RISES

Meanwhile, rentals in Staten Island high-rise buildings, like Bay Street Landing in St. George, are now seeing an uptick in demand as more people are vaccinated and willing to view apartments for rent.

The rental market from 2020 to 2021 has changed because in 2020 people didnt know if they were going to have long-term jobs. They were very hesitant on where to go and if they should leave their apartments. But now the job market seems to have picked up a little, and people are going back to work, said Anise Levitas, a real estate sales person for M. Donato &Co. in Richmond, who handles many sales and rentals for Bay Street Landing.

She said she believes as we come out of the pandemic apartment rents throughout the city will rebound. But it likely will take some time.

New Yorkers are very resilient, especially on Staten Island. They tend to just forget and move on, said Levitas. In my opinion, a lot of what will happen in the rental market here has a lot to do with what happens in Manhattan. And I think its going to take two or three years [for Manhattan] to pick it self up.

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AUGUSTA, Ga.  A Georgia man has been sentenced to more than eight years in federal prison for using stolen credit cards to live large in hotels and limousines while claiming to have ties to the legendary rap group Wu-Tang Clan.

Walker Washington of Augusta was sentenced to 100 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, David H. Estes, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, said in a news release.

U.S. District Judge Dudley H. Bowen also ordered Washington, 53, to pay about $300,000 to 19 businesses defrauded in the scheme, according to the release. He must serve three years of supervised release after his prison term is completed. There is no parole in the federal system.

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Washingtons co-defendant, Aaron Barnes-Burpo, 29, of Crestview, Fla., was previously sentenced to seven years after pleading guilty to the same charge and also must pay $300,000 in restitution to the businesses.

These two flim-flam artists and their phony entourage lived large for several weeks by scamming hospitality providers, Estes said. We commend the skeptical hotel clerk who saw through the scam and alerted law enforcement, bringing this scheme to a halt.

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Watch the Wu-Tang Clan on Hulu

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Barnes-Burpo and Washington admitted that they falsely claimed to be affiliated with the Roc Nation production company and the Wu-Tang Clan and used fraudulent and stolen credit cards to rent limousines, defraud hotels, caterers and production studios in multiple cities as early as September 2019, prosecutors said.

Staff at the Fairfield Inn and Suites in Augusta became suspicious on Nov. 21, 2019, and notified the FBI and the Richmond County Sheriffs Office, the release said.

These two scammers will have plenty of time to figure out if their few weeks of unearned fame was worth several years in prison, said Chris Hacker, special agent in charge of FBI Atlanta.
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Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 10:54:27|Editor: huaxia

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People wait in line to refill empty medical oxygen cylinders for COVID-19 patients in front of a shop in New Delhi, India, April 26, 2021. (Xinhua/Partha Sarkar)

China, as a close neighbor and partner, fully understands the challenges facing India, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said, adding that the Red Cross Society of China, local governments, non-governmental friendship organizations and enterprises have rendered assistance to the Indian side.



BEIJING, May 1 (Xinhua) -- China is ready to provide support and assistance to the best of its capability to help India fight the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Friday.

In a phone conversation with Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Wang said that China is very concerned about the new wave of COVID-19 infections in India, and Chinese President Xi Jinping has sent a message of sympathy to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

China, as a close neighbor and partner, fully understands the challenges facing India, he said, adding that the Red Cross Society of China, local governments, non-governmental friendship organizations and enterprises have rendered assistance to the Indian side.

Workers arrange beds at a quarantine center on the outskirts of Agartala, India, April 30, 2021. (Str/Xinhua)

China hopes and believes that the Indian government and people will secure a victory against the coronavirus, he said.

To further support India's fight against the pandemic, Wang said China is willing to take the following measures in response to India's needs:

Firstly, China will continue to encourage and support Chinese enterprises to speed up production and provide India with medical supplies.

Secondly, the Chinese side will facilitate customs clearance and transportation of anti-virus materials purchased by the Indian side.

Thirdly, health and infectious disease experts of the two countries will be organized to share experience and effective measures in overcoming the epidemic via video link.

Jaishankar, on behalf of the Indian government and people, expressed gratitude for Xi's message of sympathy to Modi and for China's goodwill and solidarity, as well as its strong support for India's purchase of anti-virus supplies.

As the COVID-19 pandemic is a global challenge, tackling it requires joint efforts by all parties involved, he said, adding that the cooperation measures proposed by China are very important and that India is ready to further strengthen cooperation with China in fighting the pandemic.

The two sides also exchanged views on bilateral relations and global cooperation. 
Former Australian cricket captain Michael Clarke has turned to Roxy Jacenko in a bid to rejuvenate his image after his shortlived romance with P.E Nation co-founder Pip Edwards made headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Lovers no longer. Credit:instagram

Pip and Pup came under fire in the press for their tone-deaf social media posts and regular jaunts on superyachts mere months after Clarke split from wife Kyly.

In February Clarke and Edwards confirmed they had split, only to then be photographed kissing on a boat a month later. The pair is adamant their relationship is now definitely over.

On Friday publicity veteran and sometime reality starlet Jacenko announced Clarke had signed onto her Ministry Of Talent stable.
The actors own commentary, geared to self-deprecation, tends to distinguish his roles by the stuff-ups he associates with them. Case in point, his acceptance speech at the 2008 Logie Awards after winning Most Outstanding Actor in a Series for The King. I got on this roll about how I should have bet my house that Chris Lilley would win this. That got a laugh, so I went on with it  I actually did bet my house on Chris Lilley and now I regret it. That got a laugh, so I held up the Logie and said, Ive got nowhere to put this now, Curry says. Because Im such an idiot I think, Three laughs, I have to make more jokes, so I get to the end thinking I nailed it, and then the shows publicist comes running over and says, You forgot to thank Foxtel, who actually paid for the entire thing. Stephen Curry, right, as Graham Kennedy, with Stephen Hall as Bert Newton, in The King. Credit: Currys latest role, which currently has no defining mishap, is the independent drama June Again. Written and directed by first-time feature director J.J. Winlove, the movie is  in the very best way  a delivery vehicle for star Noni Hazlehurst. The veteran actor plays June Wilton, a sufferer of vascular dementia who after five years in a nursing home attains a state of temporary lucidity. Its a window of opportunity for June, who looks askance upon the diverted lives of her adult children, played by Claudia Karvan and Curry, while remembering the missteps of her own life. If J.J. had miscast that role it would be the death of the film, but Noni is absolutely astonishing, Curry says. Tour-de-force is a word people mostly use to sound intelligent, but she really is an unstoppable force. She carries the film so beautifully, so heartbreakingly, and so hilariously. Ive seen it three times now, and shes something to behold.

Currys performance shapes itself to Hazlehursts  providing a reflection or a target as required for the character of the formidable matriarch. Curry does so unobtrusively, even as he continues to publicly insist that he simply has four serious faces that he cycles through because his acting process is essentially just being really good at pretending. Ive said that there are actors and there are pretenders, and that actors do vocal exercises. Im an untrained actor and what I mean by that is that Im instinctive  I dont need the Stanislavski Method to give me a framework to bring a character forward, Curry says. I like to be instinctive, and as such I make a lot more mistakes than people whove studied and have a technique. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Film work is so bitsy with the way it happens. Youre never getting more than a scene in a run, and then theres all the angles and all the set-ups, which can take a day or more to shoot, he adds. I think there are precious few screen actors who have a strict method who can do it seamlessly, like the Daniel Day-Lewis people. After decades in St Kilda East with his wife Naadein Crowe, Curry made the move last year to the Macedon Ranges, substantially expanding his backyard to provide more space for his two sons, eight-year-old Arlo and six-year-old Beau (a classic Curry aside: please note thats B-E-A-U, not B-O, which my wife hates because it suggests he smells. He does smell, but thats not the point).

Curry, who himself grew up the youngest of five children in Deepdene in Melbournes eastern suburbs and went to Marcellin College for high school, has long talked about the bedrock strength of the family values he was raised with. But life in the Macedons does offer some positives you dont get in St Kilda East. Stephen Curry, Noni Hazlehurst and Claudia Karvan in June Again. Credit: I do have a ride-on lawnmower, which makes me feel very handy. I have a chainsaw, too, but [Im] one of those people who needs proper lessons before using anything like that, so I avoid cutting my hand off, Curry says. I did get lessons, and its one of the few things that lets me feel that my testosterone is getting a real work-out. That and my ride-on mower. If I could use the ride-on mower and the chainsaw at the same time Id feel incredible. Lets just add that image to the many roles Stephen Curry has  and will  play. How family keeps Curry grounded

Loading Part of developing a level-headed outlook in the Curry household was that the five children received a healthy amount of digs from their siblings. Given that all the Curry kids, to varying degrees, were involved in acting, its no surprise that Stephens first brief appearance on Neighbours  graduating from doing Wedgwood Pies and Nintendo Game Boy commercials as a teenager  was captured for posterity. Its one of the worst performances in the history of man. My brother Bernie recorded it on VHS and whenever people came over he would show them the scene, Curry says. It was me trying to spark up a cigarette in the coffee shop and Genevieve Lemon coming over and saying, How about you put that out? And me turning to her and delivering my single line, How about some cake? It was really overacted  I was nervous, my eyes were dart-y. Curry sighs, encapsulating decades of loving derision from those closest to you. Our family has always been good at keeping our feet on the ground, he says. June Again is in cinemas May 6.
She was the inaugural chair of the Victorian governments Youth Congress, which advises the government on youth policy, and speaks at forums such as APEC and the G20. In 2019 she was listed in both the 40 Under 40 Most Influential Asian Australians and the Australian Financial Reviews 100 Women of Influence. Yasmin Poole (centre) at the AsiaLink Leaders Summit when the inaugural 40 under 40 most influential Asian Australians were announced. And in January Ms Poole received an email telling her she had won the global Youth Influencer of the Year award from the US-based King Center, which honours the legacy of Martin Luther King. I didnt even know if it was a legitimate email because I couldnt quite believe they had picked me.

She watched the ceremony (online due to COVID-19), agog as Oprah made a speech and the three founders of Black Lives Matter  Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Opal Tometi and Alicia Garza  and Lady Gaga picked up awards. Loading I was like What on earth am I doing here? Even seeing my name on the program was just insane but I figured it was a chance to talk about all the work of young women of colour, especially in Australia, who are pushing for change. Dr Blair Williams, a research fellow with the Global Institute for Womens Leadership at the Australian National University, counts her alongside Grace Tame, Brittany Higgins, Saxon Mullins and Latoya Aroha Rule in a list of nine Australians fighting for gender equality and making a difference. Its fantastic to see her speak out against the injustices in recent months, but also the general injustice of the complete lack of representation of women, particularly young women in politics, Dr Williams says.

There are hardly any politicians under the age of 30 and I find that fact actually shocks my students quite a bit. I think its great to see a young woman, particularly a young woman of colour, be one of those voices that we see on the TV telling a young perspective, and seeing that represented on shows like Q&A or The Drum, Dr Williams says. In June last year, during a discussion on Q&A about whether the government had favoured men in its response to COVID-19, Ms Poole crisply suggested to fellow panellist and government minister Paul Fletcher that it just goes to show there are not enough women in your party. If I can give you some tips, the first thing we need is gender disaggregated data around COVID-19 to understand how it is disproportionately affecting women, we then need a gender responsive budget to compensate that unfair economic structure, and when we talk about the economic impact of COVID-19 we also have to talk about the unpaid work economy and the informal work economy which women disproportionately make up. The She Can Lead report was prescient. In 2018 several Liberal women broke ranks to complain about a toxic sexist culture and Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm told Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young to stop shagging men.

[This] is why, increasingly, young women my age are refusing to pursue a career in politics, Ms Poole wrote in The Age at the time. Loading But even then Ms Poole says she would never have imagined the allegations of sexual assault that have roiled Australian politics in the past few months. At the time I was talking about the treatment of female politicians but even I back then could never have thought everything that would be revealed about Brittany Higgins, she says. I had maybe naively assumed that young women would be kept safe in that sense, the only thing that we had to deal with was sexist comments and general mistreatment. I had a better perception of the treatment of women than I do now.

She believes Australia is facing a moment of accountability. I dont know if that accountability will lead to politicians taking long-term action in the sense of actually changing our institutions but I do think its a moment where women saw crystal clear, the current state of gender inequality in Parliament. This year Ms Poole wrote the foreword for We Can Lead, Plan Internationals latest report on young peoples views on sexism and misogyny in politics in 2021 and what needs to change. Its recommendations  which were drafted by this years nine youth activists  include quotas in political parties, investing in emerging leadership programs for girls in high schools and education around consent. One of the recommendations that stood out to me was calling for independent structural reforms in Parliament to make sure that women and young women especially can have safe avenues to report sexual assault and violence, Ms Poole says.
Some people look at the coverage of whats happening in India and the situation confronting their fellow Australians and exclaim, How awful, we should do everything we can to bring them back. Others, not so generous, exclaim: Theyve had a year to come back  why didnt they?

Let me illustrate with a story about some of the challenges I faced in trying to come back to Australia. For some context, I became an Australian citizen in July 2015 after being in Australia for almost six years. In doing so, becoming Australian, I had to formally renounce my Indian citizenship (India doesnt allow both).

A worsening health crisis in India has highlighted the number of Australians stranded overseas. Credit:AP

In June 2020, I lost my dad very suddenly. I tried to go back for his funeral and applied to the government for an exemption to leave the country on compassionate grounds. They didnt approve this for a week, well after the funeral date, and my flight date had passed. My mum lives alone and has respiratory issues. I was worried for her safety and so I decided that I had to go back to be with her, even if it was only going to be for a month.

I was finally granted permission and after a few failed attempts I managed to make it back to India in September on an Indian repatriation flight. The chances of getting back to Australia still seemed good at the time, with the government promising to have everyone back by Christmas.
Principals warn new school performance targets will lead to perverse outcomes such as students being pressured to do easier HSC subjects, schools rejecting difficult or disabled kids, and parents being refused permission to take children out of school.

But the NSW Department of Education said the only reason schools would oppose the targets, introduced under the new School Success Model (SSM), would be if they wanted a less transparent and accountable education system.

Some examples of school targets Castle Hill High - to be in the states top 80 schools in the HSC, and 8th or above compared with other comprehensive schools.

Willoughby Girls - increase students in top two HSC bands from 67% to 71.2% by 2022

The Ponds High - increase attendance for year 9 and 10 students more than 90% of time from 67% to whole school average

Rooty Hills High - Reduce the percentage of students with chronic (3 or more) unjustified late arrivals in a fortnight by 0.5%

Matthew Pearce Public - Increase students in top two bands of NAPLAN by 9% by 2022

James Ruse Agricultural High - 75% of high performing students accepting entry into Year 7

Baulkham Hills High - increase students in top two HSC bands by one per cent by 2022

Marrickville High - Lift percentage of students in the top 3 bands HSC to 51.9%

In a bid to lift student outcomes, department officials have worked with schools to set targets for improvement in areas ranging from the Higher School Certificate and NAPLAN results to attendance and wellbeing. It is a modification of the controversial Local Schools, Local Decisions policy.

The targets were finalised at the end of last term across the NSW public system, after the department gave schools their baseline data plus a low and high target and principals negotiated a goal within that range.
The Kings Cross injecting rooms first medical director said she doubts the centre would have opened in todays political environment as it was the last brave thing that happened in drug reform.

The injecting room arose out of the Drug Summit held after the 1999 state election and former premier Bob Carr, whose government gave it the green light, said it was an interesting example of media campaign elevating an issue onto the public agenda.

This came after a Sun-Herald January 1999 front page with the headline: We give kids like this heroin injecting kits instead of help. Now the Health Minister admits ITS WRONG, which was accompanied by a photo of a boy aged 12 or 13 using heroin in a back lane in Redfern, near a clean needle exchange.

Liz Gal, a former long-term client of the Sydney injecting room in Kings Cross. Credit:Louise Kennerley

When NSW opened the Sydney injecting room in Kings Cross 20 years ago this week, the state was leading the way in drug reform.
More high-rise public schools are set to be built in highly populated parts of Sydney over the coming years as a way to overcome a shortage of affordable land and ensure schools are closer to where students live.

Two so-called vertical schools of up to 17 storeys have opened in Sydney in the past 18 months, presenting unique challenges for education officials who are now looking at ways to make lifts kid-proof.

Despite cost blowouts and delays to a high-rise school in Parramatta making the government lukewarm on the concept two years ago, School Infrastructure NSW chief executive Anthony Manning said the education departments development arm was not put off by vertical schools.

The 17-storey Arthur Phillip High School in Parramatta opened last year. Credit:Edwina Pickles

Vertical schools are absolutely a part of the landscape, particularly with increased urbanisation and land availability the way it is, he said. Well definitely be seeing more vertical schools.
Indigenous children made up almost two-thirds of more than 300 young offenders the Queensland government labelled hard nuts in its $38 million crackdown on youth crime, which was pushed through Parliament last week.

Advocates say the figure highlights the disproportionate impact the new laws will have on the Indigenous community amid a national discussion about its over-representation in the justice system 30 years on from a landmark royal commission.

A Youth Justice Department spokeswoman says work is being done with communities and their leaders to deliver a range of culturally responsive programs to prevent and respond to youth crime.

In response to a parliamentary question on notice, Youth Justice Minister Leanne Linard said the group targeted by the new laws  the 10 per cent of young offenders responsible for almost half of all youth crime  comprised 344 people.

The department has now confirmed 219 of those, or 64 per cent, were Indigenous. A spokeswoman said it was working with communities and their leaders to deliver a range of culturally responsive programs to prevent and respond to youth crime.
The Prime Minister, so the common refrain goes, is a pragmatist. He and his closest advisers reject big ideas and the ivory towers in which they are debated. This is a point of anti-elitist pride. The Quiet Australians dont care about the philosophical waffles of wattle-wobbling sophists.

It has also been the approach behind Morrisons key achievements. By tamping down the internal culture war that had raged for a decade within the Liberal Party, he put the Coalition in a position to win the 2019 election. Shrugging off Labors crowing that were all Keynesians now as well as the howls from dries on his own side, he and his Treasurer cast aside any thought of returning the budget to surplus and flooded the economy with borrowed cash to keep it afloat during COVID. He has a roadmap on climate change that falls short of the dramatic action or inaction, desired at the extremes, but which is finally setting the nation on a sustainable path to reducing emissions.

Rejecting ivory towers and ideology is a point of pride for Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his circle. Credit:Rhett Wyman

Pragmatism has a lot going for it. But the danger of turning your back on big ideas is that they creep up on you and snare you without you knowing it.

As John Maynard Keynes  he of the cash-splash economics we are currently calling pragmatic  famously said, Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back.
One email said: I suggest you think twice before attacking an ethical organisation. I can guarantee it will backfire and your career and personal life will suffer; not because of anything Scientology would do to you but because when you attack a pro-survival group you are in effect harming your own survival. Its been an unusual experience, even though I knew that something like this would come. Scientology is infamous for its tactic of pursuing critics, including journalists. Far worse, of course, have been allegations made by former adherents, particularly in the US church, of beatings, forced labour and forced abortions while they were in the church, and invasive surveillance and lawsuits after they leave. All of this is aggressively denied by the church. These waves of harassment are designed to scare off critics. A 10-part Channel 7 series on Scientology by reporter Bryan Seymour was pulled by the network at the last minute last year over legal concerns. The other side of this practice is darker still  the use of private investigators to trawl through peoples lives and turning family members against each other. The policy was known as Fair Game and was started by Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard. It led in the United States to the infiltration of the federal government, bizarre plots and criminal activities. Scientology says it was abandoned in 1968. But as documentaries such as Going Clear and books, including one by ABC journalist Steve Cannane, show similar practices have continued. Scientology vigorously rejects it has a Fair Game policy or targets critics.

Scientology advertisements on Facebook targeting readers of The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. In my case I can record only what Ive seen or whats been sent to me. Scientology has published eight pieces attacking me on one of their websites, sent aggressive legal letters from lawyers both in Australia and the United States threatening action for defamation, barraged my editor with complaint letters, published 19 abusive tweets from one of its own accounts, while a small army of anonymous sock-puppet accounts has echoed church attacks. In the past week it has published nine separate piece-to-camera videos from Scientologists attacking me and my reporting. The legal letters, unusually, are full of derision, dropping the formal language of typical legal exchanges. A letter from one of its top US attorneys questions whether Im an idiot. Most of the material regurgitates similar key messages, and readers of The Age and The Herald, meanwhile, have also been directly targeted by Scientology advertisements on Facebook. The Church indeed hopes the readers of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald will click on the ad and ... get the true story surrounding Scientology in Australia, the church said in response to a question from me. On its STAND account the church says: what precisely have Scientologists said therein that you find inaccurate, or is it the mere fact they deign to comment on your reporting that you find offensive?

Loading Its worth noting that most of my 13 detailed questions sent well before the original article was published went  and remain  unanswered. Of course, the media expects and deserves scrutiny for what we report, and we receive it often. The work of investigative reporters often offends powerful interests and leads to threats of legal action and criticism. Its part of the job, made worthwhile when your work can lead to positive change whether its justice for victims of powerful interests or new laws. As for my reporting on Scientology you can read it yourself online and make up your own mind. It showed how the not-for-profit Scientology had made $65.4 million in tax-free net profits since 2013 and had accumulated extraordinary wealth despite having fewer than 1700 adherents in Australia, down by a third in a decade. In response to the reporting Labor and the Greens supported an investigation by the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission. Labors Andrew Leigh said he would also consider a parliamentary inquiry.

This, and the fact we are scrutinising the churchs enormous wealth, might explain why there has been such venom in the response, which even seasoned Scientology observers say has been particularly intense. Loading The churchs latest four-page letter sent on Friday suggested I was a dolt after I sent questions about a possible charities commission investigation and the legal status of one of its former charities. Your questions make clear you are intent on manufacturing another story out of whole cloth as you did with your recent malicious lies about the Church of Scientology Australia in which you falsely mischaracterised the Churchs publicly available financial statements, among other fabrications ... Have you no sense of shame or are you too blinded by your anti-Scientology bias to see the speciousness of your reporting? It might be intended to deter scrutiny but it has not and will not work.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 10:59:02|Editor: huaxia

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NANJING, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Eleven people were killed and 102 others injured after strong gales struck east China's Nantong city on Friday night, local official sources said Saturday. Enditem
Australia is running some diplomatic posts entirely virtually, while more than 370 consular staff and their families have caught COVID-19 and one local contractor has died since the pandemic began.

A DFAT spokesperson has also revealed 46 Australians abroad have died from COVID-19 in the past year, but did not say whether any of them were registered as stranded and wanting to return to Australia.

DFAT Secretary Frances Adamson and Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne in Parliament House in Canberra Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

DFAT said the tally of 371 people infected includes 239 locally engaged staff (but not contractors), as well as public servants posted overseas from Canberra. Last week, the ABC reported that 132 government staff posted from Australia and their families had been infected while serving overseas during the pandemic. DFAT confirmed this figure.

The DFAT employee who died from COVID-19 was a contractor at the embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia - one of Australias largest diplomatic posts. The Indonesian mission has recorded more than 50 infections - one in five of DFATs total cases.
James McGrath has secured the No.1 spot on the Queensland LNP Senate ticket in a loss for the growing Christian right faction of the party and a blow to Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

After the hard-fought preselection showdown against Amanda Stoker, Senator McGrath has landed the coveted first place and a guaranteed six-year stint in the Australian Senate with a convincing win of 212 votes to her 101.

James McGrath ha triumphed over Amanda Stoker in a hard-fought battle for the top spot on the Queensland LNP senate ticket. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Hundreds of LNP delegates, including state and federal MPs, gathered in Brisbane on Saturday morning to hear final pitches from the candidates, before votes to finalise the order.

Under party rules, the Liberals get the safe first spot on the ticket as well as the third spot, which went to Senator Stoker with Nationals senator Matt Canavan assigned the second spot.
At least 13 former Liberal MPs and political staffers have been appointed to plum federal government jobs since the start of the year, including a former deputy mayor given a 26-year-long, $10 million post at the Fair Work Commission.

Alana Matheson, the former Liberal deputy mayor of Campbelltown who has worked for the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and for KPMG - and who is the daughter of two-term Liberal MP Russell Matheson - was appointed to the $387,960 per annum post as a Fair Work Commissioner on April 1.

Attorney-General Michaelia Cash. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Former Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella was also made a FWC commissioner on the same salary, on the same day. Ms Mirabella, who previously served on the board of the governments Australian Submarine Corporation, was appointed until 2033 and Ms Matheson until 2047. The end dates of their terms reflect when the two women will reach 65 and have to retire.

Labor government accountability spokeswoman Kristina Keneally has criticised the unbelievable appointments as jobs for Liberal mates.
Air purifiers have been quietly introduced throughout Victorias quarantine hotels in the hope the modest measure could drastically reduce the risk of coronavirus leaking from the rooms of infected guests.

The Sunday Age can reveal the portable machines, which remove virus particles from the air, are being placed in rooms where there are groups of people staying and when people are using CPAP or BiPAP breathing machines, which may increase the risk of virus spread.

Airborne spread of coronavirus remains a weak point of the nations quarantine system, with a spate of recent instances of the disease escaping hotel rooms, infecting other guests and staff and sparking lockdowns.

Professor Jason Monty, head of mechanical engineering at the University of Melbourne, has been advising the Victorian government on how to make hotel quarantine safer and estimates air purifiers could reduce the risk of these leaks by a factor of 10.
Ahmedabad: At least 18 people, including two healthcare workers, were killed in a fire at a COVID-19 hospital in the western Indian state of Gujarat late on Friday night.

The fire started around midnight in the intensive care ward of the Patel Welfare Hospital, a designated COVID-19 facility, in Bharuch city, 185km north of states main commercial city, Ahmedabad.

The deadly fire ripped through the intensive care ward at Welfare Hospital in India on Friday night. Credit:

Sixteen patients and two staff members have died in the fire. Twelve of them died due to fire and smoke, said R.V. Chudasama, a superintendent of police in Bharuch. Preliminary investigation shows the fire was caused because of a short circuit, he said.

Local news channels showed footage of a hospital ward completely destroyed in the fire.
New Delhi: India recorded more than 400,000 new COVID-19 cases for the first time on Saturday as it battles a devastating second wave, and the countrys massive new vaccination drive was hampered in some areas by shortages of the shots.

Authorities reported 401,993 new cases in the previous 24 hours, after 10 consecutive days of more than 300,000 daily cases. Deaths jumped by 3,523, taking the countrys total toll to 211,853, according to the federal health ministry.

The surge in infections has overwhelmed hospitals, morgues and crematoriums and left families scrambling for scarce medicines and oxygen. And while India is the worlds biggest producer of COVID-19 vaccines, shortages of the shots in some states hindered the opening of vaccinations for all adults.

West Bengal state was unable to start a drive aimed at adults aged between 18 and 45 due to a shortage of shots and urged the federal government to provide more supplies, a senior state health official said, declining to be named as he was not authorised to speak with media.
Pearl Harbour: In his first major speech as US Defence chief, Lloyd Austin has called for developing a new vision for American defence in the face of emerging cyber and space threats and the prospect of fighting bigger wars.

Reflecting President Joe Bidens promise to put diplomacy first in dealing with foreign policy problems, the former general said the military should provide leverage that diplomats can use to prevent conflict. His comments suggested a contrast with what critics call the militarisation of UU foreign policy in recent decades.

US military isnt meant to stand apart, but to buttress US diplomacy and advance a foreign policy that employs all of our instruments of national power, Austin said.

US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, speaks at a change of command ceremony for the US Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii on Friday. Credit:Honolulu Star-Advertiser/AP

He chose to spell out his ideas at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, at the centre of US military power in the Indo-Pacific region, reflecting US concerns that Chinas rapid modernisation and growing assertiveness make it a powerful adversary. Notably, Austin in his speech did not explicitly mention China or North Korea.
Hidden Champions among Chengdu\-\-s Technology Companies

CHENGDU, CHINA, Apr 30, 2021  (ACN Newswire)  From February 23rd to the 25th, the 9th Mobile World Congress (MWC) was held in Shanghai, China. A number of technology enterprises from Chengdu showed up with their innovative achievements and cutting-edge technologies. These companies are lesser-known companies  relatively unknown, small or midsize, and worldwide leaders in their markets.

You may see them grow slowly, compete in stable markets, and prefer to shun publicity to avoid attracting competition. They also concentrate on developing their own specialties, avoiding such currently popular management practices as diversification, strategic alliances, and outsourcing. Though not well known to the general public, in their fields of expertise, they are known as the \hidden champions.\

XpowerIt Tech: Pioneer of the \All-Wireless Era\

At the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in February this year, OPPO showed a scroll concept phone that can achieve complete wireless \remote charging.\ The phone uses a high-frequency magnetic resonance wireless charging technology solution, which comes from XpowerIt Tech, an enterprise from the Chengdu High-tech Industrial Development Zone.

Yu Yiqiang, founder and Chairman of XpowerIt Tech, introduced the technical framework of this high-frequency magnetic resonance coupling technology. The company then launched a new generation of magnetic resonance wireless charging technology  \RiCharge,\ which is the world\-\-s first wireless charging technology solution with the possibility of mass production and matches both international and domestic safety standards.

It also marks the transformation from wired charging and contact charging to the current medium- and long-range remote charging, truly realizing charging methods in an \all-wireless era.\ In the past 6 years, XpowerIt Tech has grown into a leader in the field of wireless charging in China.

Coxsat: New Power in 5G Era

As new infrastructure construction develops, the 5G era is accelerating like never before. In stadiums, large factories, stations, and other people-intensive places, which need large-capacity and large-bandwidth network, 5G millimeter-wave (MMW) small base station shows its great advantage. As one of the rare manufacturers in the world that can provide co-aperture dual-polarization MMW small base station, Coxsat unveiled a series of products, including 5G MMW small base station and MMW phased array antenna.

From unknown to famous, Coxsat has experienced 7 years of extreme dedication. As the first bid winner of China Mobile\-\-s 5G MMW base stations in China, Coxsat has cooperated with many large domestic equipment manufacturers. In 2021, Gexie will focus on the commercialization of 5G MMW and satellite communication phased array antenna products, providing full support for 5G networks to enable various industries.

Chengdu NTS: More than a Behind-the-Scenes Hero

Based on years of experience in the development of RF communication products, Chengdu NTS has launched 5G open base station products and solutions and formed strategic cooperative relations with many domestic and international operators.

With the advent of 5G era, Chengdu NTS adopts self-developed DPD algorithms and high-efficiency technologies to take the lead in launching 5G white-box RRU and has achieved interconnection with a number of mainstream BBU manufacturers around the world to jointly launch 5G open base station products and solutions.

From relying on a large enterprise to assisting 5G to enable various industries, Chengdu NTS has been widely deployed in the global operator market and has accumulated rich experience in the development and industrialization of RF products, which has demonstrated its technological innovation for decades.

Why Are These \Hidden Champions\ Born in Chengdu?

The \Chengdu Paradigm\ of technology innovation revolves around their innovation platform, talent policy, financial support, and so on.

Talents are the primary resource. The \Talent New Policy\ has attracted more than 410,000 young talents to the city, making the city the winner of the \Top 10 Most Attractive Cities for Talent in China\ award continuously. As a result, Chengdu ranked 47th in the Global Innovation Index in 2020.

Universities are important platforms for basic research. By establishing a collaborative innovation mechanism of \Urban Development Partnership\ between universities, institutions, enterprises, and local government, the city has signed strategic cooperation agreements with 18 well-known universities such as Tsinghua University, Peking University, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, bringing a number of innovative projects into practice.

In addition, Chengdu has vigorously implemented the program for supporting new and high-tech enterprises. In 2020, the city encouraged enterprises to invest 10.46 billion CNY in R&D through incremental awards and subsidies for research and development, up by 3.608 billion CNY.

There are many other steadily developing high-tech enterprises which are constantly overcoming technological hurdles in Chengdu since innovation-driven development has always been the choice and consensus of this city aiming at future development.

Media Contact:

Chenxi Zhang, 36Kr

E-mail: zhangchenxi@36kr.com
A New Route for Chengdu to Develop its AI Industry

CHENGDU, CHINA, Apr 30, 2021  (ACN Newswire)  In February 2020, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People\-\-s Republic of China (MIIT) issued its support to the establishment of National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Innovation and Application Pilot Zones in Beijing, Tianjin (Binhai New Area), Hangzhou, Guangzhou, and Chengdu. This is the second batch of pilot zones announced by the MIIT. So far, the number of China\-\-s AI innovation and application pilot zones has increased to 8, while Chengdu has become the first AI innovation and application pilot zone in West China.

When we talked about the AI industry in Chengdu, the one thing we must know is Chengdu Science City. It is the core of the next-gen AI industry ecosystem in Chengdu. Chengdu promotes innovative development and high-quality development through new economy.

Attracting Top Enterprises

Now, a number of enterprises have established an industrial cluster with Chengdu Science City as the core, contributing to the AI industry.

With over 90 key enterprises in the ecosystem, the cluster has greatly contributed to the local transformation of AI technology. The ecosystem has also attracted many university project teams, including the Sichuan Energy Internet Research Institute of Tsinghua University and Chengdu Innovation Research Institute of Beihang University, which have created ideal conditions for the integration of AI production and research.

In the wave of the digital economy, this ecosystem focuses on the development of AI industry, and it initially gathers companies from the whole supply chain. Gradually, Chengdu builds a complete industrial ecosystem and helps it become the \fourth city of AI.\

Attraction and Cultivation of AI Projects

The development of an industry cannot be separated from the support of policy. Since the MIIT started the support to the National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Innovation and Application Pilot Zone in 2019, Chengdu has been actively putting it into practice. At present, relevant policies have been enacted to create a positive development environment for the industry.

These policies include two parts: First, introduce strongly targeted industrial support policies. Second, provide rich application scenarios for AI enterprises and attract AI enterprises.

In addition, the ecological environment is processing. First, optimize the enterprise service system. Second, promote the implementation of policies; Third, build an efficient communication platform.

Build Industrial Area

In terms of AI infrastructure construction, Chengdu has built industrial parks and facilities, such as the \Supercomputing Center\ and the New Economy Industrial Park, to accelerate the implementation of the digital economy.

The Chengdu Supercomputing Center, with a maximum computing speed of 100 million billion calculations per second, started trial operation in September 2020. It has cooperated with more than 200 institutions and completed 1.52 million scientific research projects. The CPU utilization rate has reached 30%.

Huawei Kunpeng Industrial Ecosystem Base and Tianfu High-Performance Computing Public Technology Service Platform, and many other innovation platforms started operation, serving more than 400 enterprises and driving the development of the AI industry in Tianfu New Area.

The Unicorn Island, the Science and Technology Innovation Park, the Overseas High-level Talents Innovation Park, the Smart Port, and other core industrial carriers will create a favorable environment for the development of the AI industry. Zones A, B, C, and D of the New Economy Industrial Park have been put into use with about 6,000 employees.

Synergistic Development in Tianfu New Area

Digital economy industries such as AI and big data are frequently mentioned in China\-\-s 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), which was released last month. 36KR Sichuan learned that in the first year of the 14th Five-Year Plan, Tianfu New Area New Economy Bureau will also launch a series of policies spurring the AI industry:

First, increase the number of innovation sources, deepen the construction of a \1+3+N\ innovation system led by the Comprehensive National Science Center, with laboratories in three major fields as the core, and supported by a number of major scientific and technological infrastructure and research platforms.

Second, improve the business patterns for science and technology. Chengdu will introduce well-known service agencies from both China and overseas, accelerating the operation of Tianfu International Technology Transfer Center and build an innovation platform for the advanced computing industry based on the Chengdu Supercomputing Center.

Third, improve the ecology of the digital economy. Chengdu will accelerate the settlement of a number of leading enterprises, start the construction of a number of major projects, and spare no effort to promote the completion of provincial and municipal key projects such as M&S Electronics and put them into operation.

Fourth, optimize city management and industrial promotion. On the principle of \preferential in industry, composite in functions, intensified in space, and suitable for both living and business,\ the construction of the first zone of Fengqigu Digital Economy Industrial Park will start within the year.

As the AI industry has become the core driving force for the new scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, Chengdu regards the AI industry as an important way to transform economic development. Hence, it promotes Chengdu to become the industrial highland of China\-\-s new economy.

Media Contact

Chenxi Zhang, 36Kr

E-mail: zhangchenxi@36kr.com
Study finds up to 24 percent of esophagectomy patients can develop VTE post-operatively

Boston, MA (May 1, 2021) - A new study presented today at the AATS 101st Annual Meeting, found that the percentage of patients undergoing esophagectomy for cancer who suffer Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) post-operatively is much higher than previously reported, with as many as 24 percent suffering from Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) or Pulmonary Embolism (PE). Six-month mortality for patients with VTE was 17.6 percent compared to 2.1 percent for those without.

Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) is a common, potentially preventable post-operative complication leading to significant morbidity and mortality. Esophagectomy patients are amongst the highest risk groups for VTE due to disease burden, magnitude of surgery and high rate of perioperative morbidity. The study aimed to quantify the true incidence of VTE post esophagectomy, associated risk factors, and the impact of VTE on patients' outcomes.

Patients undergoing esophagectomy for malignancy in eight tertiary-care centers between November 2017 and March 2020 were enrolled in a prospective cohort study. All patients received guideline based VTE prophylaxis until hospital discharge and underwent bilateral lower-extremity venous-doppler ultrasonography (DUS) prior to discharge, then Computed Chest Tomography-pulmonary embolus protocol (CT-PE) as well as DUS at 30 and 90-days post-op, and DUS at 60 days. D-dimer levels were measured at each interval and patients were followed for 6 months postoperatively.

According to Yaron Shargall, M.D., FRCSC, professor and chair of the division of Thoracic Surgery at McMaster University and study leader, despite the fact that all patients were treated with VTE prophylaxis according to best practices, a high proportion would have been discharged home with VTE under standard protocols, or would have developed VTE after discharge. "When we followed this cohort of patients for six months, we saw VTE events develop mostly within one month of surgery, but also as long as six months. Even more importantly, we found that those who developed VTE had a seven-fold increase in mortality at six months, the reasons for which are yet to be determined" says Shargall. "We are yet to define if active screening for VTE in all esophagectomy patients is really justified, and if a longer duration of VTE prophylaxis, beyond the hospital stay, will improve patients' outcomes" he added.

###

Notes for Editors:

"The Contemporary Significance of Venous Thromboembolism [Deep Venous Thrombosis (DVT) and Pulmonary Embolus (PE)] in Patients Undergoing Esophagectomy: A Prospective, Multicenter Cohort Study to Evaluate the Incidence and Clinical Outcomes VTE after Major Esophageal Resections." Yaron Shargall, Sudish Murthy, Jules Lin, Gail Darling, Richard Malthaner, Biniam Kidane, Andrew Seely, Hui Li, Mark Crowther, Lori-Ann Linkins, Esther Lau, Laura Schneider, Wael C Hanna, Christian Finley, John Agzarian, James Douketis. McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada; Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI; University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada; University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada; University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada; University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada; >Beijing Chao-yang Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China

Presented by Esther Lau MD, May 1, 2021 at the AATS 101st Annual Meeting.

ABOUT THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THORACIC SURGERY (AATS)

The American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) is an international organization that encourages, promotes, and stimulates the scientific investigation of cardiothoracic surgery. Founded in 1917 by a respected group of the earliest pioneers in the field, its original mission was to "foster the evolution of an interest in surgery of the Thorax." Today, the AATS is the premiere association for cardiothoracic surgeons in the world and works to continually enhance the ability of cardiothoracic surgeons to provide the highest quality of patient care. Its more than 1,500 members have a proven record of distinction within the specialty and have made significant contributions to the care and treatment of cardiothoracic disease. Visit http://www. aats. org to learn more.

This story has been published on: 2021-05-01. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Czech Republic Thursday introduced for the first time buses manufactured in Turkey in its public transport.

Five buses produced by leading Turkish land vehicles manufacturer BMC have added to capital Pragues transportation fleet. The vehicles were sold via the BusPlan company operating in the country and its Czech partner, Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu reported.

The buses are the first Turkey-made vehicles to be introduced to the Czech public market.

Another Turkish company, automotive manufacturing company Temsa, jointly owned by Turkish conglomerate Sabanc Holding and Netherlands-based PPF Group, won the electric bus tender in Prague. Per the deal, Temsa and its sister company Skoda, will deliver a fleet of 14 buses at the end of this year. The contract is valued at around $25 million.

The fleet will enable Prague achieve its goal of guaranteeing cleaner air while reducing carbon emissions.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 12:02:46|Editor: huaxia

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BOGOTA, April 30 (Xinhua) -- Members of the Pacific Alliance on Friday commemorated the 10th anniversary of the trade bloc founded by Colombia, Peru, Chile and Mexico -- all Pacific coast countries, highlighting regional integration.

Colombian President Ivan Duque, who holds the rotating presidency of the bloc, hosted his counterparts from Peru, Francisco Sagasti, and Chile, Sebastian Pinera, as well as Mexican Economy Minister Tatiana Clouthier, via a video conference from Bogota.

Duque presented a plan for the bloc's proposed Regional Digital Market, which aims to boost the exchange of goods and services between member countries.

"Over the next 10 years, we hope that a roadmap will emerge, where markets are more integrated, trade grows, investment becomes more dynamic and, above all, the free movement of people takes place," said Duque.

"To the extent that we facilitate companies in our member countries to issue debt and bonds in the respective markets, we not only diversify their diversification instruments, but also generate a regulatory culture and good corporate governance," Duque added.

With the anniversary of the bloc taking place amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Duque proposed "that we seek shared solutions to the production, packaging and commercialization of vaccines and that we can seek spaces for co-investment for that purpose, since this pandemic is going to last much longer than we all anticipated."

Calling the past 10 years "very fruitful," Pinera said that member countries have increased their exports and therefore reduced poverty.

After the Pacific Alliance was created, several countries expressed an interest in becoming associate members or observers, the Chilean president recalled.

"Ten years later ... we have more than 50 observer countries and some of them (are about) to become associate members. The outcome of 10 years has been a good outcome," he said.

Meanwhile, Peru's Sagasti said it was necessary to "consolidate" the Pacific Alliance as the "principal multidimensional integration platform in Latin America ... by leaning on soon-to-be partner states and actively capitalizing on our relationship with ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation)."

Mexico "considers regional integration" as a priority, Clouthier said, adding "the construction of inclusive and just societies that tackle inequality should be a common goal for our region and for the Pacific Alliance."

"Let us celebrate the 10 years of this alliance as a mechanism of deep integration that serves as a tool to close the gaps," said the Mexican minister. Enditem
Somerset, KY (42501)

Today

Thunderstorms likely in the morning. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms in the afternoon. High 76F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Locally heavy rainfall possible..

Tonight

Variable clouds with showers and scattered thunderstorms. Storms more numerous during the evening. Low 67F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
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Jake Mattox

South Bend Tribune

As of now, there will be no COVID-19 vaccine requirement for the more than 100,000 students and many workers returning to Indiana University campuses this fall.

This would be a serious mistake.

Without a vaccine mandate, colleges and universities  with many students living on campus and others going back and forth between classes, homes and workplaces each day could continue as community hotspot sites of COVID-19 spread.

Instead of making progress in this regard, Indiana is going in the opposite direction. Under the guise of personal liberties, the General Assembly passed a bill prohibiting state and local governments from requiring proof of vaccinations. While its not clear if this would apply to K-12 schools and universities, it does not bode well for allowing the IU system to make the best choices for the safety of its students, faculty and staff  and for the public as a whole.

Some argue that we cannot restrict the liberties of our citizens and that the role of government at most is to encourage vaccinations and mask-wearing. It seems as though this is the position of Gov. Eric Holcomb and the legislature.

Yet consider all the ways we already collectively agree to ensure public health and safety, and the overall social good, through laws and other requirements. We do more than encourage people to drive at a reasonable speed and stop at stop signs. We require parents to educate their children, whether via public schools or other options. And attendance at public schools and universities is already contingent on students getting a variety of vaccines. In these cases, we have decided that our social good outweighs any freedom to drive dangerously fast, to withhold education from children, or to reject an easy and safe step that prevents widespread dissemination of disease.

The science of pandemic management tells us that with fewer vaccinated people, the virus will spread more, which gives it more opportunities to adapt. More new variants then emerge, some of which can then directly threaten the efficacy of the vaccine. In other words, when people choose to not get the vaccine, larger public health  our very ability to stop this pandemic  is directly endangered. Our best tool to fight it is weakened, and this will lead to more unnecessary disease and death.

Our universities should play a key role here. Presumably, they are devoted to knowledge in the service of the public good. They can educate the public about the science behind the virus, vaccines, masks and more  and thereby address what is preventing at least some from getting vaccinated: an allegiance to a particular political identity. Moreover, universities can lead by requiring vaccines, which is the best way to keep students, faculty and staff safe. Doing so would affirm that public institutions are above partisan politics and depend instead on knowledge and science  and that they are devoted to the advancement of society, which includes public health and safety. With so much misinformation circulating, these roles are absolutely vital.

Furthermore, as the nation is approaching 600,000 deaths due to COVID-19, the CDC reports a disproportionate burden of COVID-19 deaths among racial and ethnic minority groups. Lower-income people in general are in a similar situation. These groups have also been hit harder by the economic effects of the pandemic. As such, we should look to our public universities to require a safe, simple step that protects both the relatively privileged members of a community and its most vulnerable residents.

If the concern is that IU would somehow be an outlier, consider that more than 100 colleges and universities have announced that they will require the vaccine this fall. This includes state university systems in Massachusetts, Maryland and California  the latter of which serves more than one million across 33 campuses.

Closer to home here in South Bend, the University of Notre Dame has announced its own vaccination requirement. Why would IU not do the same?
South Bend Tribune

Three men with ties to Elkhart County were arrested in connection with the grisly killing of a Fort Wayne food truck operator, husband and father.

Police arrested Mathew Cramer, 21, Jacob Carreon-Hamilton, 20, and Cody Clements, 20, this week in connection with the death and dismemberment of 55-year-old Shane Nguyen. Prosecutors allege Cramer asked Nguyen for a ride from Elkhart to Fort Wayne and killed him at a storage unit once they reached Fort Wayne. Cramer and Carreon-Hamilton are accused of dismembering Nguyens body using equipment bought at two stores in Goshen.

Cramer is charged with murder and abuse of a corpse, while Carreon-Hamilton has been charged with assisting a criminal and abuse of a corpse for their roles in the incident. Both men were also charged with resisting law enforcement.

Clements has not been charged and has been released from custody, according to WANE-15 TV in Fort Wayne.

According to social media and court records, all three men grew up or spent time in Elkhart County.

Court documents tell a story of a trail of evidence pointing to the men being responsible for the death of Nguyen, who had been missing since April 23.

Fort Wayne police say they saw a suspicious vehicle and realized it was registered to Nguyen, the subject of an active Silver Alert at the time.

The van initially pulled over for a traffic stop but soon sped away, police said. Police claim Carreon-Hamilton, jumped out of the still-moving van and ran off. The passenger, Cramer, scooted over into the drivers seat and continued to flee, police claim, before he crashed into the front yard of a house near Lake and Anthony boulevards in Fort Wayne. Cramer was not in the van when police found it.

Inside the vans trunk, officers found trash bags containing body parts of Nguyen, along with receipts for tarps, a hacksaw, shovels and a knife, from a Lowes and Walmart in Goshen, court documents say.

Detectives visited those Goshen stores to watch security footage and claim to have identified Cramer, Carreon-Hamilton and Clements on the footage buying the items in question.

Investigators point to a photo on Cramers Facebook page as the next step in cracking the case. In the photo, which was still public as of Friday afternoon, Cramer is standing in front of the storage unit where police claim Nguyens body was mutilated. Investigators say they found blood, tarps and a knife in the storage unit.

Police found and arrested Carreon-Hamilton and Cramer on Monday. Cramer was arrested in Lakeville, though a spokesman for the St. Joseph County Police said county officers were requested to assist in the arrest, but Cramer was taken into custody by Fort Wayne officials before county officers made it to the scene.

Clements turned himself in and was later released without charges being filed as of Friday.

Police say Cramer told them he asked Nguyen for a ride and that he planned to kill him before they reached Fort Wayne. Once they arrived in Fort Wayne, Cramer is accused of having asked Nguyen to drive to Cramers storage unit, where he put Nguyen in a choke hold until he was unconscious. Cramer allegedly told police he then pulled Nguyen out of the van and hit his head on the pavement until he died.

It was brutal and extreme. Its not every day we come across cases of this butchery, Fort Wayne police Sgt. Jeremy Webb told WPTA21.

An autopsy concluded Nguyen died from blunt force trauma to the head.

Cramer allegedly told police Carreon-Hamilton was not present when Nguyen died, but he and Carreon-Hamilton did discuss how to get rid of the body, court documents say.

Cramer is accused of leaving Nguyens body in the storage unit and driving back to Goshen to pick up Carreon-Hamilton and Clements to shop for the tools used in the rest of the crime, allegedly paying for them with money taken from Nguyen. Clements was allegedly dropped off in Goshen before the remaining pair returned to the storage unit.

Nguyen, killed two days before he turned 56, was described as a small business owner and a family man in a GoFundMe page created by a cousin.

Hell always be remembered for being kind, welcoming, and available to help anyone in need, wrote Tran Hoang on the GoFundMe page. The page had raised over $265,000 as of Friday afternoon.

Comments on online coverage of the killing point to recent high-profile bias crimes targeting Americans of Asian descent, but police have not released any information about an alleged motive for the crime.

Cramer grew up in Elkhart and went to Elkhart Memorial High School, but was expelled for setting a fire at the school, Caleb Stanton, program director at the Lifeline Youth Ministries in Elkhart, told the Journal Gazette.

Stanton also told the Gazette that Cramer struggled to find housing and posts Cramer made to social media indicate he traveled between Fort Wayne and Elkhart in 2020 and this year. Cramers Facebook profile says he began working at Dutchmen Manufacturing in Goshen in February.

His Facebook page and court records list Cramer as living in Elkhart in January, when he was arrested for leaving the scene of an accident and reckless driving.

Records filed in the Nguyen homicide list both Cramer and Carreon-Hamilton as living in an apartment on Portage Boulevard in Fort Wayne, but other court documents show Carreon-Hamilton was evicted from the property in October. Carreon-Hamilton is listed as living in Goshen, Elkhart and Fort Wayne in different court records over the past few years.

A Facebook account for Clements says he grew up in and lives in Goshen.
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Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 12:30:20|Editor: huaxia

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Xi Jinping and other leaders of the Communist Party of China and the state present honorary certificates to representatives of the awardees at a gathering to honor model workers and exemplary individuals at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 24, 2020. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

BEIJING, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Saturday marks International Workers' Day.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has from time to time hailed the working class for their contribution to the country's development, advocating the spirit of hard work, and encouraging workers to have more brilliant achievements.

The following are some highlights of his quotes:

-- Happiness is achieved through hard work.

-- Regardless of how the times change, we must always treat work and working people with reverence and respect, and we must always attach significance to the leading role of the working class and working people.

-- The Chinese are known as a hardworking and inventive people. Just as work and creative activities were responsible for the glorious achievements of our past, they have also been responsible for everything we have achieved today.

-- There is no such thing as noble or humble work. All work is glorious no matter what the occupation.

-- Realizing the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation relies on the diligent work of people from all walks of life. 
HARTFORD  Amid looming strikes, hundreds of nursing home workers will rally outside the governors mansion Saturday afternoon in a show of displeasure over stalled contract negotiations.

Pedro Zayas, communications director for SEIU District 1199 New England, said over 200 nursing home employees are expected to join members of Recovery For All Coalition, an organization of labor and faith organizations that has been pressing state officials for more tax relief for the poor and greater state spending on health care, social services and communities in need, in protest Saturday.

The group is gathering near Elizabeth Park. From there, they plan to march to Gov. Ned Lamonts nearby residence, where they will hold a rally.

The protest comes a day after SEIU District 1199 New England, the states largest health care workers union, warned 33 nursing homes that about 3,400 of its members are prepared to walk off the job on May 14 if their contract demands arent met.

The union is seeking incremental wage increases to $20 an hour by 2023 for CNAs and $30 an hour or LPNs and nurses, affordable health care, affordable retirement plans, access to high-quality PPE and safe staffing levels.

Union representatives say members at 51 nursing homes in Connecticut have been working under contracts that expired March 15. And between now and early 2022, that could grow to 63 facilities, involving roughly 4,500 workers.

Connecticuts long-term care system relies on poverty wages. By going on strike, we are telling nursing home operators and the state of Connecticut that we are not willing to carry the yoke of poverty any longer, said Rob Baril, president of District 1199 New England, SEIU said in a statement Friday. Its time for nursing home bosses and state leaders to pay these workers what they deserve. The majority-women workforce that provides care in these nursing homes and the people who depend on their services are not expecting any less.

The strike notices were served on facilities owned by RegalCare, Genesis HealthCare, Autumn Lake Healthcare and iCare Management chains Friday.

A strike notice does not guarantee employees will walk off the job on May 14. And if there is a work stoppage, it could be indefinite  or it could be a fixed period, such as one or two days.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 12:34:15|Editor: huaxia

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KAMPALA, April 30 (Xinhua) -- French President Emmanuel Macron has called for speeding up the construction of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) that will run from Uganda's oil wells to the Tanzanian seaport of Tanga.

Macron, in a letter to his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni, said the construction of the 3.55 billion-U.S.-dollar pipeline will be a major opportunity to promote trade between the two countries and further expand their cooperation.

Uganda and Tanzania on April 11 signed three key agreements to kick off the construction of the EACOP.

The 1,440 km crude oil pipeline will transport 230,000 barrels per day. It will be the longest electrically heated pipeline in the world. Enditem
CAN DO, along with other members of The Hazleton Innovation Collaborative including the Wilkes University Small Business Development Center and the Hazleton Launch Box Powered by Pasco L. Schiavo, is partnering with Luzerne County Community College to hold a Virtual Entrepreneurship Week from Monday to May 7.

The partnerships inaugural Entrepreneurship Week is open to the public and will include Zoom sessions with experts, panel discussions, interactive workshops and industry-specific meetups. The event will feature a variety of speakers, including many who run their own small businesses, offering their advice and mentorship on how to start a business, what resources there are to help entrepreneurs, and how they can move forward with their business plans.

CAN DO Director of Economic Development Jocelyn Sterenchock said in a news release, Entrepreneurship continues to grow across our region. This initiative is specifically designed to build awareness of the tools and resources that are available throughout Northeast Pennsylvania to help entrepreneurs start businesses.

Ursula Uhrin, director of career and employment services at Luzerne County Community College, said Entrepreneurship Week provides great benefits to the community.

I see the benefit as another option for students career paths; a way to pursue their passion and enhance the workforce of NEPA, she said.

For more information on Entrepreneurship Week, or to register, visit https://www.luzerne.edu/career/events.jsp.
Hazleton, PA (18201)

Today

Showers early with isolated thunderstorms arriving for the afternoon. High around 85F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%..

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Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 14:38:12|Editor: huaxia

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by Ronald Ssekandi, Samuel Egadu

KAMPALA, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Uganda on Friday announced a series of new COVID-19 restrictions amid a resurgence in infections, when global daily cases are also increasing fast mainly due to India's calamitous second wave.

NEW WAVE

Ruth Aceng, Ugandan minister of health, told reporters here that the country has been experiencing a gradual increase in coronavirus cases over the last six weeks, signaling a second wave.

"We are beginning to witness a resurgence in the pandemic. It's important for us to note that for viral infections, the second wave is usually more aggressive than the first wave," said Aceng.

The country is currently facing five COVID-19 variants, including those first found in India, South Africa and Britain, she said, noting that the health ministry has developed a plan to combat the resurgence of the disease.

The new plan will identify gaps in efforts to fight the first wave of the virus and draw on the experience of other countries, Aceng said.

The ministry is continuing to study the evolving pandemic situation in different countries, she said, adding that countries will be categorized in accordance with the risk they confront.

As India is in "category one" because of the high infection rates in the country, Uganda has imposed travel restrictions on travelers and passenger flights from India, the minister said.

Travelers from the "category two" countries, including the United States, Britain, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, South Africa, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Tanzania, will be subject to a COVID-19 test at points of entry. Individuals from the countries who have received full vaccination and are asymptomatic will be allowed into Uganda without the need for testing on arrival.

VACCINATION CAMPAIGN

A total of 330,077 people have been so far inoculated with the first AstraZeneca jab in Uganda, and the country has received 964,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from the World Health Organization (WHO)'s COVAX initiative and the Indian government.

The Ugandan government has prioritized access to vaccines for more than 21.9 million people at higher risk, including those working in the medical field, teachers, social workers, security personnel, the elderly and those with underlying medical conditions.

After the new variant first found in India was detected in Uganda, there is now a rush for the vaccine. "I appeal to the population to observe the standard operating procedures and get vaccinated against COVID-19," said Aceng.

Yonas Tegegn Woldemariam, WHO country representative to Uganda, said vaccinations will save the country from a surge in daily cases.

"If you (get) vaccinated, you prevent yourself from severe disease and death due to COVID-19. Transmission decreases when vaccination increases," said Tegegn. "When transmission decreases, you prevent a mutation of the virus, save the health system and economic situation."

As of Friday, Uganda had registered 41,866 COVID-19 cases, with 41,442 recoveries and 342 deaths. Enditem
Content provided by Soldiers Memorial. The memorial opened with three primary goals  the first to serve as public memorial to St. Louisans who had lost their lives in World War I, the second to serve as museum to hold artifacts of the war, and the third to provide a space that could be used for veteran and public functions.
August A. Busch Sr., the president of Anheuser-Busch, was suffering from heart problems and gout when he shot himself in his bed at Grant's Farm. He used a pearl-handled .32-caliber revolver he kept by his bed.
There must be a balance, he said. I think it has been tipped toward policing and the criminal justice system so far and that the other parts of rehabilitation, investment in communities and investment in people, in terms of trying to change their life conditions, that portion of the strategy had always been minimized.

Although Isoms position is temporary for now, he will be tasked with overseeing early efforts to fulfill some of Jones top campaign promises: Closing one of two city jails, improving city 911 service and reducing the homicide rate.

Isom said he plans to continue his focus on data in reviewing the police departments operations. He said he also hopes to use his experience researching police shootings to make the departments investigations into use of force more independent. Hes already worked to hire a few more 911 police dispatchers and said he supports combining city fire and police 911 centers to improve service. He hopes to support the mayors plans to integrate social services with police patrols.

He said Jones first step to cut $4 million from the police budget, about a 2.3% reduction coming mostly from vacant officer salaries, shows her shift in priorities, but wont stop the city from fighting violent crime, as he hopes to make the department more efficient and focused on the most serious offenses.
Update: Police said Saturday that Officer Lovelace has died.

ST. LOUIS  A male St. Louis Metropolitan Police officer is accused of assaulting a female officer multiple times while on duty, according to court documents.

Rashard C. Lovelace, 31, faces four counts of fourth-degree domestic assault for assaulting an officer with whom he was in a relationship, according to court documents. The alleged assaults happened in various city locations in July and August 2020. Witnesses in the charging documents include at least four St. Louis police officers.

Lovelace punched the officer in the chest two times, and two other times he put his hand around her neck in an aggressive manner, according to court documents.

A judge initially revoked Lovelaces bond, but he was released this week on his own recognizance. Part of the condition of his bond is to stay away from the victim. His next court date is set for May 18, and his attorney did not immediately return a request for comment on Friday.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 16:45:57|Editor: huaxia

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China celebrates the International Workers' Day on May 1 each year. This year, the Year of the Ox, is defined by the "three cattle spirit."

Chinese workers are carrying forward the spirit of serving the people as willing steers, blazing new trails in development as pioneering bulls and engaging in an arduous struggle as hardworking oxen.

35-year-old Liao Xi is a technician of China Baowu Taigang Stainless Steel Precision Strip Co., Ltd. The company specializes in producing wide super-thin precision stainless steel strips, or "hand-tearable steel." Liao works during the May Day holiday as many orders need to be completed.

Over the past 40-plus years, Niu Yuqin and her family have planted more than 7,330 hectares of trees in the Maowusu Desert in Shaanxi.

From one tree to 28 million trees, several generations of Chinese are turning the desert into an "oasis."

The "three cattle spirit" has inspired Chinese workers to forge ahead in the new journey of fully building a modern socialist country.

Produced by Xinhua Global Service
New population estimates suggest St. Louis has experienced another decade of rapid decline. What will it take to make this a city that more people are moving to than moving from?

The final numbers from the 2020 U.S. Census wont be released until later this year. Those numbers are important because theyre used for everything from allocating federal dollars, to corporate decisions about where to invest and move workers, to the controversial redrawing of local ward maps that will cut the citys number of aldermen in half. Theyre also one of the best gauges of whether neighborhoods, cities and states are desirable places to live and whether the policies of those governments have been effective. Based on early estimates, between 2010 and 2020, St. Louis failed by both measures.

As of July 1, 2019, the year before the start of the official census count, the citys population fell to just 300,576, according to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. That was already a drop of nearly 6% from the 2010 official count of 319,294 and the lowest population since before the Great Divorce, when the city split from St. Louis County in 1876.
And out of nowhere, [he] just, like, kind of smacked me and grabbed me and shoved me down on the ground. And I instantly just started bawling and was just like, What is wrong with you? And I just laid there crying.

All of the girls except for one are Republican and had voted for [Greitens], and they were talking political stuff. I was staying silent.  They were talking about all these women who were complaining about Trump, [saying] theyre just babies.  And I dont know, it just got to me. I started crying. They said  Whats wrong? I said, Guys, I had something happen that Im actually sensitive to Trumps comment about  grabbing women by the [genitals] whenever you have power like that.  And so I sat there at, like, a fancy restaurant with all these women, crying with them, telling them what happened.  And they were all like, Why did you let us vote for him, you know? I said, because I dont want anybody to know.
Allowing weapons at home for protection isnt intrinsically unreasonable, but gun-safety advocates feared that declaring it a constitutional right would crack the door to more extreme arguments. And now it has.

The court has agreed to hear a challenge to New Yorks conceal-carry law, which requires applicants to demonstrate a special self-defense need before being granted permits. In essence, the court is being asked to rule that the already-shaky argument of a constitutional right to gun ownership implies a right to carry in public.

St. Louis ongoing flood of gun deaths has been driven by the GOP-dominated state Legislatures dogmatic refusal to let the city require permits and enforce other safeguards against guns on the streets. The case before the court promises to bring our citys crisis to other states that have wisely sought to mitigate such violence. Its not hard to figure out why Missouri consistently ranks in the top 10 states in gun violence rates, while New York ranks near the bottom.

The gun reforms proposed by the Biden administration and congressional Democrats would significantly reduce the potential impact of this case by ensuring that at least the newly empowered carriers of guns in public would have to show they arent criminals before getting their guns. They wouldnt be able to buy the assault-style weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines favored by mass shooters. Democrats cant fix the Supreme Courts extreme rightward tilt anytime soon, so they must do what they can to limit the damage.
In March 2021 there was another incident of Russian Cold War era espionage in a NATO country. In this case it was Italy where a navy commander (one rank below captain) working for the Defense Staff was caught passing a thumb drive full of documents on NATO plans to a Russian diplomat. The naval officer was in charge of NATO secret documents Italy received from other NATO nations, and men like this were key targets for Russian espionage efforts during the Cold War. Back then it got so bad that many NATO members, including the United States, restricted the quality and quantity of secret documents shared with NATO and had separate sharing agreements with more trusted NATO and non-NATO allies.

Russian success in gaining NATO secrets reached the point, late in the Cold War, where U.S. and many other NATO nations used an informal system, based on experience, to estimate how many months it would take for shared NATO secrets to reach the Russians. The worst offender was West Germany, which did not admit how thoroughly it had been compromised by Russian and East German spies until after Germany reunited. At that point many East German documents and participants of the Cold War espionage confirmed that West Germany was far more vulnerable than West Germany ever realized or was willing to admit. Second to West Germany was Italy, which had a large and active Communist Party throughout the Cold War and many Italians who saw the Soviet Union in a more favorable light. Some, but not all of that attitude was demolished with post-1991 revelations. But during the Cold War Russian intelligence agencies developed a lot of contacts within Italy and a few other NATO countries and those old networks began coming back to life in the late 1990s when a former Cold War Russian KGB officer, Vladimir Putin was elected president of Russia. As many Russians feared, Putin is still the elected leader by way of getting laws passed so that he could evade term limits in the post-1991 Russian constitution. The KGB was renamed (as the FSR) after 1991 and lost most of its manpower and privileges. For the last two decades Putin has been restoring the FSB and the smaller GRU (military intelligence) to some of its peak Cold War era power. Putin also declared that the Cold War was on again, with NATO plotting against Russia. That has backfired but one KGB success has been increased success in stealing foreign secrets.

NATO governments, often the post-Cold War ones in East Europe, are increasingly going public with details of the revived Russian espionage operations. This is especially true when it comes to GRU or FSB assassinations of those Russia considers traitors or simply enemies of the state. That practice had declined towards the end of the Cold War but has been revived by Putin.

In the last decade NATO nations have become more active in uncovering Russian espionage activities and the assassinations were something all NATO nations could agree was very bad and worth concentrating on. By 2019 it became public that French intelligence had discovered and was tracking a Russian GRU Unit 29155 that was operating from a secret logistics base in France near the Swiss border. From there at least fifteen GRU agents engaged in espionage, sabotage and assassination operations. Also described was a joint British, Swiss, French and American intelligence operation to track down details of Unit 29155 and what it was doing between 2014 and 2018. The Unit 29155 base was apparently moved around Western Europe frequently to avoid detection. The move often took the base closer to where agents had to concentrate efforts on specific tasks. Russia covert efforts like Unit 29155 avoided East Europe because the new NATO members there are full of people who lived through the Cold War Russian domination of their countries, which allowed the KGB to do as it pleased. Joining NATO was seen as a way of gaining more protection from the Russian threat. In East Europe Russian undercover operations are more likely to be noted and stomped on.

The renewed West European diligence in detecting Russian espionage efforts has led to a lot of embarrassing moments for the Russians. A 2018 assassination attempt in Britain led to the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats suspected of being intelligence agents and Russia responded by expelling 23 British diplomats. More nations said they would expel Russian diplomats and after confirmation that it was Russian novichok (nerve agent in solid, gel like, form) used in the British incident, the U.S. ordered into effect a series of additional sanctions on Russia. These could be limited if Russia admitted it used novichok and provided assurances it would never do so again with any banned weapons. Russia refused and denied any involvement. Since 2018 more details of these Russian assassination efforts have emerged. This has not halted the Russian assassinations but it has slowed down the program and forced the Russians to proceed with more care, especially since several of the Russian assassins have been identified and that has restricted their movement outside of Russia.

This 2018 assassination effort was nothing new for Russia. The target was a Russian security official who secretly worked for British intelligence and was responsible for causing enormous damage to Russian overseas spying efforts. This was not the first time Russia had gone after such agents in Britain. This sort of thing has happened elsewhere in Europe before and after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Russia insists that it does not do this and have been saying that since the Soviets started hunting down and killing traitors overseas back in the 1930s.

What was not revealed in 2018 was the joint investigation of Unit 29155 and how many of the growing number of Russian espionage efforts in Europe could be traced to it and similar, but smaller and less effective GRU or KGB operations in East Europe. The Russians have been quite active in Serbia and Bulgaria where local intel agencies have more experience with Russian methods. Thats because until the 1980s Bulgaria was ruled by a Russia-backed communist government that had close ties to the KGB and GRU. It was these former communist states in East Europe that were the first to detect and warn their NATO allies of the resumption of major Russian espionage efforts. Even journalists in East Europe were able to identify some Russian agents on their own.

Decades of Russian-imposed communist rule in East Europe left bitter memories of how ruthless the Russian espionage services could be, and many victims are still alive to provide personal testimony. Western Europeans, except those in East Germany, did not experience this and were slow to accept the fact that the Russians were back, since the late 1990s, at their Cold War level espionage efforts. That attitude is changing as more details of recent Russian efforts are made public.

For example, in late 2012 Germany revealed it was prosecuting two Russians (a married couple) who were arrested in 2011 on suspicion of espionage. Russia insisted that the two were not active Russian agents, but retired Cold War era spies. Germany charged the couple with recruiting and using a local spy three times between 2008 and 2011. When the police came to arrest the couple, the woman was found listening to coded messages. There was much more evidence as well that the couple was spying. Exactly who they were spying for has not yet been revealed.

The two 51-year-olds are Russians sent to Germany (via Austria and false Austrian IDs) in 1988, to serve as "sleepers", agents that spend most of their time doing nothing until activated from time-to-time for some simple, but essential, mission. While Germany let a lot of its own Soviet era spies off easy, there is still a lot of animosity towards Russian spies. That's because Russia is still very much involved with espionage. In Germany that means stealing economic secrets, which hurts the German economy. The Germans are not in a forgiving mood because of this Russian aggression.

Apparently, many, if not all, the sleepers were cut lose in the 1990s, as the KGB back home was reorganized and saw its budget cut sharply. After 2000 Vladimir Putin came to power the SVR and GRU got more money to operate in foreign lands.

There are two foreign intelligence services: SVR and GRU. The first one is the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service. It is the former First Chief Directorate of the Soviet era KGB, which has managed most foreign intelligence operations for decades. Its activities are well known throughout the world.

The second one is the GRU, Russian military intelligence. It is a part of the Defense Ministry. Its full name is much longer, as in The Chief Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Army. GRU has retained its Soviet era name and just about everything else. GRU is seen as a living relic of Soviet times. That is why GRU is so much more secretive than the "Westernized" SVR. GRU officers are considered more patriotic (and old school) than those of the SVR. During the Cold War there were fewer GRU defectors, still a point of pride. GRU prefers to stay in the shadows, which makes the exposure of Unit 29155 activities all the more unusual. Westerners have not written many books about the GRU, compared to the KGB. This is largely because GRU keeps its secrets better and, in the West, is considered an obscure part of Russian intelligence. It's possible that the GRU activated these sleepers but the Germans were not going public with a lot of information. The Germans are sharing their information with the clandestine investigation of Unit 29155.

Both GRU and SVR perform the same functions: Political Intelligence, Scientific and Technical Intelligence (industrial espionage), and Illegal Intelligence. Because of this the two agencies have a very real rivalry going.

But there was, and remains, one area where only the SVR (and its predecessor, the KGB) participates, running counter-intelligence abroad. This was long a KGB monopoly because it was the KGB's job to make sure the armed forces remained loyal, while GRU was and is very much a part of armed force intelligence efforts to find out what foreign militaries were up to.

When GRU officers are working abroad, they are monitored by Directorate K (counter-intelligence) of the SVR. Those who serve inside Russia are watched by the Directorate of Military Counter-Intelligence (The Third Directorate) of the FSB (Federal Security Service, inheritor to the KGB). Interestingly, in the Soviet period, it was also called the Third Directorate. It is not a coincidence but a continuation of the Soviet tradition. The Third Directorate of the FSB is still assigned to monitor the Defense Ministry, of which the GRU is a part. The head of GRU does not even report directly to the Russian president. GRU reports have to go through the head of the General Staff and the Defense Minister before reaching the top man. GRU is very much number two in the Russian foreign intelligence business. As such they tend to try harder and consider themselves more elite than those pampered SVR wimps.

On the other hand, there also is one function monopolized by the GRU: battlefield intelligence and NATO countries are now considered potential battlefields. The battlefield intelligence is run in peacetime as well. For example, in preparation for future wars, the GRU sets up illegal weapons and ammunition dumps in the territory of many foreign countries. This is a risky operation. It usually involves groups of junior Russian diplomats secretly going into rural areas to bury rifles, machine-guns, and other weapons. They have to do this discreetly and quickly, to avoid detection by the local counterintelligence service. It is considered a hard job.

Western analysts regard the GRU as the most closed Russian intelligence service partly because it does not even manage its own press relations. That's because GRU is one of many components of the Defense Ministry and is not eligible to have its own press relations staff. The FSB and SVR are higher up in the government pecking order and entitled to their own press relations operations. Formally, GRU is nothing but one of the numerous Chief Directorates of the General Staff of the Defense Ministry. It does not even report directly to the Minister of Defense. That is why those foreign journalists who have questions about GRU must address them to the Press Service of the Russian Defense Ministry. The questions are often handled by some press aide who knows little about intelligence work, while FSB and SVR press people are very well informed. So foreign journalists tend to seek out the SVR press department when seeking information on Russian intel operations.

During the Second World War GRU worked in close contact with the NKVD, the predecessor of the KGB. For example, in March 1941, both intelligence services jointly carried out a successful operation aimed at overthrowing the pro-German government of Yugoslavia. During the entire war, GRU and NKVD were managing a joint network of foreign agents in Europe. The current system of two separate intelligence services competing with each other only came about in the 1950s, after Stalins death. It was done by the Central Committee of the Communist Party in order to protect itself from a coup inspired by either intelligence service. GRU not only competes with the SVR, but it is also supposed to keep an eye on the SVR for signs of disloyalty.

In Soviet times, although the GRU was monitored by the KGB, both organizations reported to the Central Committee of the Communist Party. In case of emergency, the Central Committee could control the KGB using the GRU. The communists believed it best that someone guards the guards. Nowadays, GRU does not monitor the SVR anymore. GRU, the military, and the rest of Russia are all subordinate to the FSB/SVR.

SVR has more money and resources. It's long been like that, and the GRU has developed a tradition of getting by on very little. GRU methods are considered more aggressive and crude than those of the SVR. GRU operatives tend to think they are at war even during peacetime. Because of this SVR assigns its officers to do some job in the form of tasks, not orders. The task is not supposed to be necessarily accomplished, while the order is to be carried out by all means. The GRU prefers ordering and expects results no matter what.

In the GRU nobody cares how their officers obtain secret information, like parts of missiles and other weapons. They may even buy it legally or semi-legally or even steal. The SVR officers are not allowed to do so. They are supposed to use foreign collaborators for it. In the GRU you just go get it. Thats why tracking Unit 29155 and similar secret organizations was such a big deal.
QUEBEC, QC / ACCESSWIRE / April 29, 2021 / NuRAN Wireless Inc. ("NuRAN" or the "Company") (CSE:NUR)(OTC PINK:NRRWF)(FSE:1RN) is pleased to provide the following update on the progress of its Network as a Service ("NAAS") contracts with Orange S.A. (ORAN) and its affiliates previously announced February 8, 2021 and March 11, 2021 for the build out of networking sites in Cameroon and Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Each site consists of towers and related equipment to be installed by NuRAN with a particular focus on rural communities in Cameroon and DRC. The towers fall into one of four categories depending on population density and coverage requirements. NuRAN's technology uses a carrier-grade GSM base station powered by solar as part of a small-footprint (3 meters x 3 meters x 15 meters tall) remote tower.

Cameroon Rollout Plan (242 Sites Total):

First set of 48 sites have been acquired and the procurement process has been completed. During this process we have identified significantly higher population densities than anticipated.

Delivery of all materials and networking equipment necessary to build the sites to Douala, Cameroon is expected to be completed by the end of July, 2021.

The entire 48 sites are expected to be acquired by July, 2021 and fully operational in September, 2021 at which time Nuran will start invoicing Orange Cameroon.

The second set of 74 sites have been selected. The site planning and procurement process for the 74 sites is expected to be completed in May, 2021 with delivery of materials and networking equipment in order to have the site operational and delivering revenue in December, 2021.

The site selection and site acquisition are currently ongoing for the remainder of the 242 sites.

A revised financial analysis of the initial 122 sites selected suggests a 50% gross revenue increase to approximately $3 Million (CAD) per year compared to initial projections of $2 Million (CAD) per year therefore resulting in potential gross revenue of $30 Million (CAD) over the 10-year life of the contract as opposed to $20 Million (CAD) that was initially projected. This is primarily due to increased population densities from those previously estimated. This does require higher specification equipment than was previously budgeted which is expected to increase the build costs by approximately 10-15%.

NuRAN has signed an agreement with Eutelsat (ETL.PA) for the Satellite backhaul managed services. Eutelsat has a fleet of 39 satellites serving broadcasters, video service providers, telecom operators, ISPs and government agencies operating across Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas. Eutelsat is one of the leading operators in the commercial satellite business.

"We are very pleased have reached such an advanced stage of the development on the first 48 sites in Cameroon in such a short time. The deployment of these sites anticipated in July, 2021 will demonstrate our ability to execute on the NAAS business model and also highlight the effectiveness and profitability of this model. We believe this is a critically important step in allowing us to secure the necessary financing to complete the Cameroon and DRC roll out and position NuRAN as the leader in rural and remote connectivity operating under the NaaS service model. We are also pleased to be at the center of bringing connectivity to these regions globally where no connectivity currently exists. The ability to do remote banking, access health care information and communicate widely will translate into very significant economic and social benefits for the population of the areas we cover." commented Francis Letourneau, CEO of NuRAN.

DRC Rollout Plan (2,000 Sites Total):

NuRAN is currently evaluating a list of 3,000 potential site locations.

Population densities are larger than previously expected. NuRAN has determined that the densities have increased on average by 40%.

NuRAN has presented its rollout strategy and plan to Orange.

Due to previously anticipated delays in certain electronic components, NuRAN has taken steps to source and acquire a number of components in order to mitigate its risk on potential delivery delays.

NuRAN is engaged in discussions with a number of international financial institutions on alternative financing strategies to support the rollout.

"We are working as diligently as possible to advance the financing of these contracts. Our discussions to date have been productive and are progressing with a number of parties. We are 100% focussed on achieving this important milestone for our company and our stakeholders", commented Jim Bailey, CFO of NuRAN.

Additional Revenue Streams for NuRAN (Cameroon and DRC):

NuRAN has signed a distribution agreement with Orange to manage, market and promote the various Orange products and services once the sites are operational leading to new channels of revenue for the Company.

NuRAN is also exploring engaging third party providers to deliver their cellular charging services on the sites. The services which may be included are cellular recharging on site, battery rental to take home, connecting in home devices, and sale of accessories.

Other Recent Corporate Developments:

NuRAN continues to work on the development of its next generation product expected to be launched in June, 2021. The product will support 2G/3G/4G migration allowing the company to position itself for broadband services and addressing the market demand for Asia Pacific and Latin America. The product is expected to enable NuRAN's clients to upgrade the technology remotely while greatly reducing commissioning costs.

The Company is growing its management team to support its growing demand for NaaS across Africa.

NuRAN is currently in either proposal stage or negotiation stage with other major MNO (Mobile Network Operators) in Africa for potential multi-country projects.

NuRAN is also participating in a major RFP (Request for Proposal) with Orange for an additional 4 countries. News of these developments will be communicated as soon as they are material.

About NuRAN Wireless

NuRAN Wireless is a leading supplier of mobile and broadband wireless infrastructure solutions. Its innovative radio access network (RAN), core network, and backhaul products dramatically drop the total cost of ownership, thereby creating new opportunities for established, as well as emerging mobile network operators. Indoor coverage, isolated rural communities, offshore platforms and ships, NuRAN Wireless helps its customers reach everyone, everywhere.

Additional Information

For further information about NuRAN Wireless: www.nuranwireless.com

Francis Letourneau, Director and CEO

info@nuranwireless.com

Tel: (418) 264-1337

Frank Candido

Investor relations

Frank.candido@nuranwireless.com

Tel: (514) 969-5530

Cautionary Statement: Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward Looking Statements:

This news release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as, "expects", "is expected", "anticipates", "intends", "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements include those relating to the Company's NAAS agreements and the Company's proposed build out of network sites, NuRAN's ability to obtain project financing in relation to same, the delivery of equipment relating to the sites, statements relating to the RFP process with Orange and other MNOs, engagement of providers for the provision of cellular charging services for the sites and the development of next generation products on 2G/3G/4G. Forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results projected, expressed or implied by these forward looking statements. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements, such as the uncertainties regarding include risks such as the uncertainties regarding the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, and measures to prevent its spread, risks relating to NuRAN's business and the economy generally; NuRAN's ability to adequately restructure its operations with respect to its new model of NAAS service contracts; the capacity of the Company to deliver in a technical capacity and to import inventory to Africa at a reasonable cost; NuRAN's ability to obtain project financing for the proposed site build out under its NAAS agreements with Orange and other telecommunication providers, the loss of one or more significant suppliers or a reduction in significant volume from such suppliers; NuRAN's ability to meet or exceed customers' demand and expectations; significant current competition and the introduction of new competitors or other disruptive entrants in the Company's industry; NuRAN's ability to retain key employees and protect its intellectual property; compliance with local laws and regulations and ability to obtain all required permits for our operations, access to the credit and capital markets, changes in applicable telecommunications laws or regulations or changes in license and regulatory fees, downturns in customers' business cycles; and insurance prices and insurance coverage availability, the Company's ability to effectively maintain or update information and technology systems; our ability to implement and maintain measures to protect against cyberattacks and comply with applicable privacy and data security requirements; the Company's ability to successfully implement its business strategies or realize expected cost savings and revenue enhancements; business development activities, including acquisitions and integration of acquired businesses; the Company's expansion into markets outside of Canada and the operational, competitive and regulatory risks facing the Company's non-Canadian based operations. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward looking information. Other factors which could materially affect such forward-looking information are described in the risk factors in the Company's most recent annual management's discussion and analysis that is available on the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

The estimates included in this news release relating to the calculation of the gross revenue of the agreements with Orange are based on multiplying an average population per site by the expected penetration rate which yields the number of mobile customers. This is then multiplied by the average revenue per customer per month (ARPU) to derive total revenue. Orange's direct costs associated with this revenue are deducted and the resulting amount is shared by both parties. The revenue share only applies to revenue in excess of a guaranteed amount which is the minimum paid to NuRAN. A penetration rate reduction factor has been used to mitigate risk. The base data used to calculate the total potential revenue of this agreement was provided by Orange based on average population, penetration rate and ARPU. Management of the Company believes that the estimates have been prepared on a reasonable basis, reflecting best estimates and judgments, and based on a number of assumptions management believes are reasonable as well as information provided to the Company by Orange. However, because this information is highly subjective and subject to numerous risks, including the risks discussed above, it should not be relied on as necessarily indicative of future results. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the estimates prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected.

SOURCE: NuRAN Wireless Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:
Press Release

Regulated Information

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD or the Bank) has successfully subscribed to a 67 million ticket as part of the inaugural eight-year 600 million green bond issuance as announced 31 March 2021 by VGP NV (VGP or the Group), a European provider of high-quality logistics and semi-industrial real estate.

The Banks investment is earmarked to support the development of sustainable semi-industrial and logistics parks in Hungary, Latvia, Romania and the Slovak Republic.

The EBRD will further support VGP in exploring opportunities arising from the future deployment of renewable and low-carbon hydrogen and e-mobility technologies as well as the advancement of circular design features in order to achieve a low embodied carbon framework at the building level. These solutions are highly innovative in the EBRD regions.

Furthermore, the EBRD engagement will support the Group in creating new opportunities for staff training and education, especially for young people, through a corporate-level training programme consisting of a high-quality and accredited dual learning component and an on-the-job traineeship initiative which will enhance access to skills and employment for young people. The programme will be piloted in Romania and subsequently replicated across other VGP operations, including Hungary, Latvia and the Slovak Republic.

Vlaho Kojakovic, EBRD Director, Property and Tourism, said: The Covid-19 pandemic has shown that more resilient, sustainable supply chains and a better logistics infrastructure are needed across the economies where the EBRD invests. VGP is at the forefront of addressing this supply gap, as well as in delivering sustainable real-estate needed to support new consumption patterns and maintain increased inventory levels. By investing in VGPs green bond, the EBRD supports the development of green, high-quality buildings and logistics infrastructure, in line with the objectives of the EBRDs Property and Tourism Strategy 2020-24 and the EBRDs Green Economy Transition approach.

Jan Van Geet, CEO of VGP, added: As a family-owned business we aim to think across generations and therefore intend to operate in a responsible and sustainable manner. We aim to build our business on the basis of mutually prosperous, long term relationships by creating value and being a trusted partner to both our customers and the communities in which we operate. In this context we are delighted to partner with EBRD, in developing sustainable industrial parks in economies where the Bank invests.

The EBRD is a major investor in Hungary, Latvia, Romania and the Slovak Republic. To date, it has invested 15.5 billion in the four countries combined.

VGP also has a long standing presence in these countries with a focus on the development and operation of large multi-tenant business parks. As of December 2020, VGP had 13 parks in the four countries combined representing a total of over 1.3 million m2 of gross leasable area including 375,000 m2 of buildings completed, 75,000 m2 in buildings under construction and a further 880,000 m2 in development land.





CONTACT DETAILS FOR INVESTORS AND MEDIA ENQUIRIES

Martijn Vlutters

(VP  Business Development & Investor Relations) Tel: +32 (0)3 289 1433 Karen Huybrechts

(Head of Marketing) Tel: +32 (0)3 289 1432 Petra Vanclova

(External Communications) Tel: +42 0 602 262 107









ABOUT VGP

VGP is a pan-European developer, manager and owner of high-quality logistics and semi-industrial real estate. VGP operates a fully integrated business model with capabilities and longstanding expertise across the value chain. The company has a development land bank (owned or committed) of 7.65 million m and the strategic focus is on the development of business parks. Founded in 1998 as a family-owned real estate developer in the Czech Republic, VGP with a staff of over 260 employees today owns and operates assets in 12 European countries directly and through several 50:50 joint ventures. As of December 2020, the Gross Asset Value of VGP, including the joint ventures at 100%, amounted to  3.84 billion and the company had a Net Asset Value (EPRA NAV) of  1.35 billion. VGP is listed on Euronext Brussels and on the Prague Stock Exchange (ISIN: BE0003878957).

For more information, please visit: http://www.vgpparks.eu

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Lugano, Switzerland, April 29, 2021  Helsinn, a Swiss pharmaceutical group focused on building quality cancer care and rare disease products, is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Mary Lynne Hedley as a new member of its Board of Directors, effective April 28, 2021.



Dr. Hedley is an immunologist and cancer cell biologist, with a vast level of experience within the pharmaceutical industry, specifically within the field of oncology. Most recently, Dr Hedley was Director, President and Chief Operating Officer at TESARO, a biotechnology company she co-founded in 2010, focused on the development and global commercialization of oncology therapeutics. During her time at TESARO the team built up a pipeline of early and late stage drug candidates including the commercial product niraparib, a PARP inhibitor that changed the treatment paradigm for women diagnosed with ovarian cancer. The company was acquired by GlaxoSmithKline in 2019 for $5.1 billion.

Prior to founding TESARO, Dr. Hedley was Executive Vice President and CSO of the biotechnology company, Abraxis Bioscience, responsible for R&D, Operations, Medical Affairs and Business Development. Elsewhere she was Executive Vice President of Eisai Inc, with a focus on the global reorganization of its R&D program and building a global oncology strategy. She was also Executive Vice President, as well as CSO, responsible for R&D, at MGI PHARMA (MGI) until its acquisition by Eisai in 2008. In addition, she was Co-Founder, Director, President and CEO of ZYCOS prior to its acquisition by MGI in 2004. Dr. Hedley received her bachelors degree in Microbiology from Purdue University and her PhD in Molecular and Cellular Immunology from UT Southwestern Medical Center, USA. Following this, Dr. Hedley carried out her postdoctoral training at Harvard University in the areas of Immunology and Gene Regulation.

Dr. Hedley currently sits on the board at Veeva and Centessa Pharmaceuticals and is a board member of the Youville Assisted Living Communities and WITH (Women Innovating Together in Healthcare).

Riccardo Braglia, Helsinn Group Vice Chairman and CEO, commented: I am delighted to welcome Dr. Hedley to Helsinns Board of Directors and look forward to benefitting from her many years of biopharmaceutical industry experience. Helsinn Group is a leading cancer care and rare disease product company and her scientific expertise, as well as her leadership and board level know-how, will be invaluable as we continue to progress and deliver our innovative pipeline of oncology and rare disease products to patients.

Dr. Mary Lynne Hedley, newly appointed member of the Helsinn Board of Directors, commented: Helsinn is a company that has proved its long-standing commitment to providing patients with first-in-class cancer care, whether that be through supportive care or therapeutics. The teams dedication to improving patients quality of life is something I share, and I am thrilled to be working with Riccardo and the whole Board as we work towards this mission.

About the Helsinn Group

Helsinn is a privately-owned Swiss Pharma Company which, since 1976, has been improving the lives of patients, guided by core family values of respect, integrity and quality. The Group has an extensive portfolio of marketed innovative cancer and rare disease therapies, a robust drug development pipeline and ambitions to further accelerate its growth through in-licensing and acquisitions to address unmet medical needs. Helsinn operates a unique integrated licensing business model, achieving success with long-standing partners in 190 countries, who share its values. The Groups pharmaceutical business (Helsinn Healthcare) is headquartered in Lugano, Switzerland with operating subsidiaries in the U.S. (Helsinn Therapeutics US) and China (Helsinn Pharmaceuticals China) which market the Groups products directly in these countries. The Group has additional operating subsidiaries in Switzerland (Helsinn Advanced Synthesis, an active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturer) and Ireland (Helsinn Birex Pharmaceuticals, a drug product manufacturer). 3B Future Health Fund (formerly known as Helsinn Investment Fund) was created to enhance the future of healthcare by providing funding and strategic support to innovative companies.

Helsinn Group plays an active and central role in promoting social transformation in favor of people and the environment. Corporate social responsibility is at the heart of everything we do which is reinforced in the company's strategic plan by a commitment to sustainable growth.

To learn more about Helsinn Group please visit www.helsinn.com

For more information:

Helsinn Group Media Contact:

Paola Bonvicini

Group Head of Communication

Lugano, Switzerland

Tel: +41 (0) 91 985 21 21

Email: Info-hhc@helsinn.com
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 17:55:03|Editor: huaxia

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LAGOS, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian police said on Friday it had rescued seven kidnapped victims in the northwestern state of Kaduna in recent separate operations.

Mohammed Jalige, a police spokesperson in Kaduna, said in a statement that unidentified gunmen attacked the residence of a pastor at Kudenda of Chikun local government area on Tuesday, and abducted the pastor, his wife and four children.

"On getting the wind of the incident, operatives were immediately drafted to the area, who gave the bandits a hot chase deep into the forest, engaged them in a gun duel which forced the bandits to take to their heels with bullet wounds," Jalige said.

He said the pastor and his four children were rescued safely but the gunmen whisked away the pastor's wife into the forest.

According to the spokesperson, also on Tuesday, the police received a distress call that some gunmen attacked a commuting vehicle along a highway in the same local government area in their attempt to kidnap the passengers.

Police operatives engaged the gunmen and forced them to flee into the forest nearby with bullet injuries, Jalige said, adding two passengers were safely rescued from the operation. Enditem
London, UK, April 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Genetec Inc. (Genetec), a leading technology provider of unified security, public safety, operations, and business intelligence solutions, today announced that Reiknistofa Bankanna (RB), an IT service provider for Icelandic financial institutions, has recently overhauled its security infrastructure with Genetec Security Center. With the help of its system integrator Hafnes Ehf, RB is now using Genetec to manage its cameras, access control and video analytics through one unified interface.

RB is a provider of mission-critical IT systems for Icelandic financial institutions, responsible for the countrys central clearance and settlement system, and a number of multi-tenant core banking solutions. As the backbone of Icelandic Financial Services, RB places a very high importance on security; not only to ensure its data stays safe but also to protect employees and visiting clients. While its server rooms and offices were protected via disparate video and access control systems, the technology was old, and maintenance was becoming both a financial and an operational burden.

RB operates its solutions across multiple data centers in a shared, multi-bank environment. This requires a modern, reliable system that brings video and access control into a single solution  making it easy for operators to understand what is happening, when, where, and what action to take next. As an open unified platform, Genetec Security Center was the optimal choice as it simplified daily security operations, allowed for further integration with other tools such as RBs heating and cooling systems, and delivered business-wide value.

From day one we wanted a unified system which could help our teams understand the situation quickly; alerting them if anything required their attention, said Geir Smundsson, Datacenter Manager at Reiknistofa Bankanna. The Genetec solution does just this and is allowing us to build in customized alerts so we gain business intelligence  providing us with better ROI.

Physical security teams are demanding simplicity and greater functionality, said Anthonie van der Ploeg, Director of Sales for Benelux & Nordics at Genetec. Unification can offer them both by bringing together all security system components seamlessly in a single software platform in a way that can vastly improve security management. We are delighted that Icelands Reiknistofa Bankanna has experienced the deep business insights Genetec Security Center is capable of delivering, and we look forward to supporting them as they evolve and grow their operations.

The time savings delivered by Genetec have been immense. Its been a worthwhile investment, especially as it can evolve with us, and allows us to move at our chosen speed. Considering its ease of use, deep integration, and leading analytics, we look forward to continuing the partnership over the coming years, concluded Smundsson.

For more information, please read the case study

About Genetec Genetec Inc. is an innovative technology company with a broad solutions portfolio that encompasses security, intelligence, and operations. The companys flagship product, Security Center, is an open-architecture platform that unifies IP-based video surveillance, access control, automatic license plate recognition (ALPR), communications, and analytics. Genetec also develops cloud-based solutions and services designed to improve security, and contribute new levels of operational intelligence for governments, enterprises, transport, and the communities in which we live. Founded in 1997, and headquartered in Montreal, Canada, Genetec serves its global customers via an extensive network of resellers, integrators, certified channel partners, and consultants in over 80 countries.

 Genetec Inc., 2021. Genetec, and the Genetec logo are trademarks of Genetec Inc. and may be registered or pending registration in several jurisdictions. Other trademarks used in this document may be trademarks of the manufacturers or vendors of the respective product.

Attachment

Veronique Froment Genetec, Inc. 603-548-1429 veronique@highrezpr.com

Source: Genetec, Inc.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 30, 2021) - Edison Cobalt Corp (TSXV: EDDY) ("Edison Cobalt" or the "Company") is pleased to announce it has arranged non-brokered private placements of 2,006,000 flow-through common shares (the "FT Units") at a price of $0.18 per Flow-Through Share, for gross proceeds of $361,080 and 19,878,000 non-flow-through units (the "non FT Units") at a price of $0.135 per Unit, for gross proceeds of $2,683,530.

Each FT unit will consist of one common share and one warrant. Each warrant entitles the holder to acquire one common share of the Company at a price of $0.24 per common share for a period of 24 months following the date of issuance.

Each non-FT unit will consist of one common share and one warrant. Each warrant entitles the holder to acquire one common share of the Company at a price of $0.18 per common share for a period of 24 months following the date of issuance.

In connection with the Offering, the Company may pay cash finders' fees to eligible finders of up to 7% of the gross proceeds received and may issue warrants equal to 7% of the Units placed ("Finders Warrants"). The Finders' Warrants will have the same terms as the Warrants forming part of the non FT Units.

Proceeds of the private placement will be used for work on the Company's mineral properties, future acquisitions and general working capital.

Certain insiders of the Company may participate in the Offering. The issuance of Units to insiders of the Company pursuant to the Offering will be considered related party transactions within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions (MI 61-101). The Company intends to rely on exemptions from the formal valuation and minority approval requirements of sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101 in respect of such insider participation, based on a determination that the fair market value of the participation in the Offering by insiders will not exceed 25% of the market capitalization of the Company, as determined in accordance with MI 61-101.

The common shares to be issued in connection with the above private placements and any common shares to be purchased on the exercise of warrants will be subject to a statutory four-month hold period from the closing date of the private placement. The closing of the private placement is subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval.

About Edison Cobalt Corp.

Edison Cobalt Corp. is a Canadian-based junior mining exploration company focused on the procurement, exploration and development of cobalt, lithium and other energy metals. Edison Cobalt Corp.'s acquisition strategy focuses on acquiring affordable, cost-effective and highly regarded mineral properties in areas with proven geological potential. The Company is looking to build a portfolio of quality assets capable of supplying critical materials to the battery industry. The Company intends to capitalize on and have its shareholders benefit from the renewed interest in the battery metals space.

On behalf of the Board of Directors:

"Nathan Rotstein"

Nathan Rotstein

Chief Executive Officer, Director

For more information please contact:

Tel: (416) 526-3217

Email: info@edisoncobalt.com

Website: www.edisoncobalt.com

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/82537
Mathew Z. Rosiere, 37, of Fond du Lac, unexpectedly passed away on Friday, June 4, 2021. He was born on May 18, 1984, in Pawnee, OK, the son of Michael Z. Rosiere and Sandra K. Kennedy. While he was in high school, he was active in football and wrestling. Mathew loved hard rock music, played
Changes to the SunCommercial's back end processing means the e-edition is getting a facelift. The biggest change is the e-edition, by default, is now presented in Text view.
Searching for a Justice of the Peace to witness the signing of a document or to swear an affidavit at short notice can be a puzzling affair. For new migrants, having documents signed promptly can also be an urgent matter.

Anish Paudel, 28, decided to help provide this important community service, becoming Taurangas youngest Justice of the Peace.

Being a migrant, I frequently have to contact a JP and it was very hard to find one, says Anish.

We dont have any from our Nepalese network in the Bay of Plenty so I took it on as a responsibility to not only to serve my community but also to the wider communities.

Anishs family has lived in New Zealand for about 20 years with Anish joining them about three years ago.

I was studying in Nepal and staying with my grandparents. I finished my Bachelor in Business Administration degree and came here to study for my Masters at Auckland University.

My mum and dad visited me in Nepal once or twice a year but I hadnt visited NZ before. It was good to be with my family here and I instantly connected with New Zealand and really loved it.

Anish has recently finished the first semester of a Masters in Public Policy, studying in Tauranga through online distance learning.

Im going to live here permanently and planning to stay here my whole life. I wanted to give something back to New Zealand so went ahead with becoming a JP and will look for other ways to be involved in the community however I can.

The process to become a JP, which is an unpaid role, can take up to 12 months. Nominations can only be accepted from the Member of Parliament for the electorate where the nominee lives. They must be NZ citizens or residents, listed on the electoral roll, have a good command of both written and spoken English, be confident computer users, must declare all criminal convictions, not be bankrupt, and must provide letters of support from two community groups where the nominee does volunteer work.

Jan Tinetti encouraged me to go ahead with it and sent documentation through to Simon Bridges.

Anish is the general secretary for the Nepalese Association in the Bay of Plenty and has been involved in activities with Multicultural Tauranga.

As a freelance translator in Nepal, he helped businesses translate documents from English to Nepali. In NZ during the Covid-19 lockdown, he was able to provide a translation service for the Office of Ethnic Communities translating information about Covid-19 into Nepali. The organisation will become the Ministry for Ethnic Communities in July 2021.

Anish formally became a JP on March 18.

It was quite exciting and Ive already received calls and had a couple of clients. I havent seen any Nepalese clients so far, but as we dont have any Nepalese JPs in the Bay of Plenty community I will be able to help them as well as the wider community.

Anish is hoping his appointment as a JP will inspire others.

I thought it could be a motivation to the younger people to do something for society now instead of waiting until the right time after retirement.
The long paws is over as pets fly from Canada to their owners in New Zealand after up to 12 months apart.

A Noahs ark charter flight from Canada, filled with dozens of beloved cats and dogs, means pet owners across Aotearoa will be reunited with their furry companions.

Some of them have been waiting nearly 12 months, separated due to COVID-19, not knowing if they would ever see their pets again.

For 36 owners, that wait is just about over.

Jennifer Ellis and Geoffrey Nijhuis moved from Canada to New Zealand last year but were unable to bring their dog Sage with them.

In June we had to make the tough decision to leave Sage with my parents and travel over to New Zealand to start our new jobs. When flights didnt resume, we were heartbroken, says Jennifer.

Sage. Photo: Supplied.

They were over the moon when the option finally came to book Sage on a charter flight with Worldwide Animal Travel.

Sage went for her passport photo and cage fitting and was greeted by the awesome team at Worldwide Animal Travel. Its been a year since weve seen Sage, she is finally in New Zealand. We cant wait to go pick her up from quarantine and to introduce her to her new home, says Jennifer.

Forty-two pets joined the 14-hour Air Canada flight from Vancouver to Auckland, and the 36 families will be able to cuddles their pets as soon as quarantine ends.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, Worldwide Animal Travel has successfully arranged three charter flights, the first two going to Australia. If there is sufficient demand, a second charter to New Zealand might be on the cards.

Geri Hurring is very soon moving back to New Zealand, where she will meet up with her cats Romeo and Miley. Worldwide Animal Travel's flight was the 'light at the end of the tunnel', she says.

"There was a lot of anxiety as to whether the flight would actually happen, given so much uncertainty in the world and some date changes. [But] after lots of hard work and planning, this is the definition of an absolute miracle. I am looking forward to picking up our babies soon," says Geri.

Miley will soon be meeting up with owner Geri Hurring. Photo: Supplied.

Nina White and her partner Zac are also moving back to New Zealand with their Australian cattle dog Boondi.

The three of them had been isolating together through COVID-19 in Canada, in what Nina describes as 'the world's largest dog kennel, a 19-foot caravan'.

"We decided to return to New Zealand, and it feels like everyone is welcoming us back with open arms, says Nina.

We are so lucky and grateful to Worldwide Animal Travel for organising these amazing charter flights, for those who can't part with their pets. We are looking forward to seeing our little dingo running free on the beaches of New Zealand.

Pets are allowed into New Zealand, provided they meet MPI requirements, and then it is up to airlines as to whether they have the capacity to transport animals.

MPIs Director Animal & Plant Health, Pete Thomson, says this is a great outcome for the pet owners.

MPI has been working with pet transporters and authorities to help overcome issues associated with the international travel of pets, caused by reduced international passenger flights, says Pete.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic we have taken a number of steps to help owners and pet transporters accommodate these disruptions while also ensuring New Zealands high biosecurity standards are being maintained.

The 42 pets will spend ten days in an MPI-approved quarantine facility before being re-united with their owners.

The successful repatriation was a combined effort from Air Canada, MPI and Worldwide Animal Travel.

Romeo will soon be meeting up with owner Geri Hurring. Photo: Supplied.

The COVID-19 pandemic is driven by human-to-human transmission. There remains no evidence that pets play any role in spreading COVID-19. Therefore, there are no requirements to test imported animals for this disease and this is in line with international guidelines.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a significant reduction in international passenger flights to New Zealand and a huge demand for the cargo capacity on these remaining flights, resulting in ongoing disruption to global movement for cat and dog importers.

MPI has taken several steps to accommodate these disruptions while ensuring biosecurity standards are met, including the following:

 Import permits are valid for longer (extended from ten days to six months)

 A ten-day extension to tests and treatments has been added to all import permits. Due to the number of flight issues, blood samples are taking longer to reach laboratories.

 Applications for import permits are processed within ten working days of receipt of a fully correct application (instead of 20 working days).

 If the entry date of an animal changes and the new date is outside of the validity period, MPI will update the permit free of charge.

We have actively worked with pet transporters and overseas authorities to help overcome issues as they arise, says an MPI spokesperson.

To successfully import your cat or dog you need to:

Check that your cat or dog is eligible for import into New Zealand:




The Ministry of Health has been advised by Queensland health authorities of a change in classification for some passengers who flew from Brisbane to New Zealand on Thursday afternoon and evening New Zealand time.



While the health risk from the green zone breach event remains low, the Queensland authorities have advised New Zealand counterparts that those travellers who were in two locations of interest at specified times within the international terminal are casual plus contacts.



The two locations of interest are Hudsons coffee stand and adjacent seating between 9.23am and 11.20am Thursday April 29 Queensland time, and the male toilet adjacent to Gate 79 between11.23am and 11.15pm when the toilet was cleaned.



As a precaution, anyone who was at these locations at these times should now immediately return home or to their accommodation, isolate until they get a negative result from a day five test on Tuesday May 4.



Travellers who were in either of these two locations at this time should contact Healthline on 0800 358 5453 and register as a casual plus contact.



The Ministrys contact tracing team will be contacting passengers on the three flights today.



The reported breach is linked to two individuals from a red zone country who were in the cafe and also used the toilets, both accessible to green zone passengers. The two individuals were tested in Brisbane with one returning a negative result and the other returning a weak positive, confirmed by a second PCR test.



It remains reassuring that the two red zone individuals wore masks, maintained social distancing, had very little interaction with others and have not been symptomatic.



The three flights affected are Air New Zealand NZ 202 from Brisbane to Christchurch which arrived around 4.30 pm on Thursday; Air New Zealand NZ 146 from Brisbane to Auckland which arrived at 5.30 pm Thursday and Qantas QF 135 from Brisbane to Christchurch Thursday.



The Ministry remains in contact with Queensland Health authorities and will provide updates as more information becomes available



A reminder for people who may need a COVID-19 test  please visit Auckland Regional Public Health Service (ARPHS) for all testing locations in Auckland.



For all testing locations nationwide visit the Healthpoint website.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 20:40:49|Editor: huaxia

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by Burak Akinci

ANKARA, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Turkish government has sought to impose measures to regulate the booming cryptocurrency market after two major exchanges collapsed in Turkey, which had dealt a blow to hundreds of thousands of investors.

Istanbul-based Thodex ceased its operations on April 20. The founder of the company has fled to Albania, according to Ankara, allegedly with 2 billion U.S. dollars from investors' assets.

Interpol issued a red notice for the fugitive after a request by Ankara, while dozens of suspects were nabbed in a countrywide police operation.

Three days later, another cryptocurrency exchange Vebitcoin said it had ceased all activities after facing financial strain.

Turkish police detained its main executive and seven other people as part of a broader fraud investigation.

The cryptocurrency market grows exponentially in Turkey, with an estimated 5 million active investors. Experts say the collapse of the two trading platforms reflects weak regulations of the industry.

"This is a Ponzi scheme, some form of fraud network, offering the dream of getting rich easily by luring people through tempting promotional advertisements," Baki Demirel, associate professor at the economy department of Yalova University, told Xinhua.

"People move towards the unregulated market in a bid to evade taxes and make a fortune," Demirel said, highlighting the need to bring some regulation to the market.

"There has to be clear rules and transparency to prevent manipulations, and licences should be attributed to people who want to create new platforms," Demirel stressed.

Given the damage and transaction risks, Turkey announced a decree on April 16 that it would ban the use of crypto assets in payments for goods and services, which went into effect on April 30. Meanwhile, the government was also reportedly mulling over a series of measures to prevent new frauds.

Turkey's Central Bank Governor Sahap Kavcioglu said the Treasury and Finance Ministry is working on wider regulations regarding cryptocurrencies, adding that the bank does not intend to ban them.

Demirel called on international cooperation in fighting against crypto frauds. "Turkey is not the only country afflicted by this issue, which prevails over many other countries. Without a global regulatory system, fighting against crypto frauds will be difficult," he said. Enditem
Update, 4.49pm: State Highway 2 has reopened following a crash between a car and motorcycle earlier in the Karangahake Gorge.

Motorists are advised to expect delays until traffic eases.

Earlier, 4pm: Police are at the scene of a serious car and motorcylist crash on State Highway 2, Karangahake.

NZTA advise that the state highway has been closed due to the crash in the Karangahake Gorge between Paeroa and Waihi.

Police were alerted to the crash at around 3:25pm. One person is said to be seriously injured.

A traffic detour is in place.

For the Eastbound detour towards Waihi, motorists are advised to turn right onto SH26, turn right onto SH27, turn left onto SH24, continue onto SH29, turn left onto Cambridge Rd, turn left to re-join SH2.

Westbound detour (towards Paeroa) is advised to follow the same as above, only in reverse

NZTA advice motorists to follow the directions of emergency services at the scene.

It is unknown how long the road closure is expected to be.

At the scene? Phone 0800 SUNLIVE or email newsroom@thesun.co.nz
Over 2000 people attended the Papamoa Civic Memorial Service at the Papamoa cenotaph on Sunday, marking the first Anzac Day since the four stages of the cenotaph project have been completed, and the second time an Anzac service has been held since the cenotaph was erected.

What a great turn out for the Anzac Civic Service, it was the best one yet, says Michael OCarroll who had raised the flags earlier at dawn.

Well done Peter Moss from the Mount RSA and Gemma from Tauranga City Council.

The noon service, only the second Anzac Day civic service held since the cenotaph was installed in late 2018, began with people assembling on the grass near the Papamoa Pony Club. The march along Stella Place through the carpark took them to the memorial where the service was conducted.

2021 Anzac Day service at the Papamoa Cenotaph. Photo: Bryan Montuya.

Papamoa students, the local Army Unit and cadet force were absolutely outstanding. And Classic Flyers did a wonderful fly past, says Michael.

Although there was no official dawn service planned, when Michael went to the cenotaph before sunrise to raise the New Zealand and Australian flags, he was joined by Warrant Officer Steve Clarke and Chief Petty Officer Rick Smith from the NZ Navy, and also by about 150 people.

2021 Anzac Day service at the Papamoa Cenotaph. Photo: Bryan Montuya.

Michael has been a key driving force behind seeing the new war memorial cenotaph erected in Papamoa.

The black granite obelisk was installed in time for Armistice Day in November 2018, with the flagstaff in place for Anzac Day 2019.

It is a community project which we fundraised almost exclusively from the Papamoa community, says Mount/Papamoa ward councillor Steve Morris.

Steve says the cenotaph has been completed in four stages.

2021 Anzac Day service at the Papamoa Cenotaph. Photo: Bryan Montuya.

The first stage was when the three metre ground spire went in, followed by stage two - getting all the lighting hooked up, which was completed in time for Anzac Day in 2019.

The third stage is the 12 metre flagstaff, donated by the Farmer Motor Group, says Steve.

The flagstaff is similar to the flagstaff at Gate Pa, which was also donated by the Farmer Motor Group, but it is more suited to marine conditions being close to the beach.

The final elements of a wall, seating and landscaping were installed in October 2020, thanks to the generosity of many locals.

Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller at the 2021 Anzac Day service at the Papamoa Cenotaph. Photo: Bryan Montuya.

The last part of the landscaping design is a World War 1 type trench, says Michael.

There is seating on the front part of the wall so local folk can go up to the memorial, sit down and spend time to reflect and remember our current servicemen and women and also our veterans and fallen heroes.

The main sponsors for the wall and seating have been Robyn and Peter Whale from Spray Technologies Ltd, Bruce and Donna Crosby from Papamoa Beach Resort, and Baseup, with Tom Cullen and Jason Muir from BaseUp designing the seating plan.

Planes flying overhead at the 2021 Anzac Day service at the Papamoa Cenotaph. Photo: Bryan Montuya.

It's been a long journey with Michael OCarroll over the past few years, says Mount/Papamoa ward councillor Steve Morris.

We've raised more than $50,000 in cash and in kind for the cenotaph, flagstaff and landscaping.

It's a place Papamoa can be proud of and I hope, honours our fallen heroes in a way they'd approve of. Farmer Motor Group didn't need much convincing to generously donate the $20,000 flagstaff.

Steve says what once was a gravel pit has now become a beautifully landscaped memorial overlooking the Pacific.

It's humbling to think of the generosity of our community but it's not surprising. This is the same community that mobilised 8000 volunteers to make our beach pristine again after the Rena Oil spill, says Steve.

Wreath laying at the 2021 Anzac Day service at the Papamoa Cenotaph. Photo: Bryan Montuya.

Last year, the Alert 4 lockdown meant that the much-anticipated Anzac Day service at the new Papamoa cenotaph was unable to be held. Not so this year, with Michael and the flags ready to go.

I was up at 0530 to raise the flags for dawn, then people started to arrive even though there was no Dawn Service. Warrant Officer Steve Clarke and family brought along a boom box so we tuned into Radio NZ and followed their service up to the laying of wreaths, says Michael.

Then we turned off the radio, did the Last Post, and one minutes silence followed by the Ode. On completion Steves wife played our National Anthem to finish off. About 150 Papamoa people turned up. It was amazing.

Before The Last Post was played, the two navy officers lowered the flags to halfmast. On completion of The Last Post both flags were raised to the top of the mast. During the Civic Service later in the morning the procedure was repeated.

Well done Navy. Thank you to all who attended the service, says Michael.
Fred Johnson had been looking forward to lighting a candle at a special memorial service at Radius Matua on Anzac Day.

Sadly, the World War 2 veteran passed away two days before Anzac Day, aged 96 years.

Fred joined the Air Training Corp Number 7 Squadron  Hamilton aged 17 in September 1942.

It is noted on his enrolment form, that he was already a member of the Home Guard. He joined the Home Guard when he was 16, the reason being that his father was also in the Home Guard and he was one of the field cooks. Fred remembers that he would go and cook for Home Guard every Sunday lunchtime.

In February 1943 Fred applied for enlistment - Non Flying - but in March he received a letter advising him that his employer Tractor Traders Ltd had appealed for him to not be allowed to join the Royal New Zealand Air Force  RNZAF - on the grounds of public interest. The appeal was eventually withdrawn at the request of Tractor Traders Limited on May 6 1943. Tractor Traders were making farming machinery and they were short of staff.

I told them that I wanted to go, says Fred. There were two of us who enlisted, but my mate George stayed and I was allowed to go.

On May 13 1943 Fred caught the train in Hamilton with others from the wider Auckland area and travelled overnight to Wellington. One day later he caught a steamer boat to Picton and then a train on to Blenheim arriving at the RNZAF Station Omaka.

On May 15 he was discharged from ATC to join the RNZAF, age exactly 18 years and 131 days, and in the following months he was stationed at various RNZAF Stations at Omaka, Delta, Rongatai, Nelson and Hamilton.

He started as AC2 Flying Mechanic under training, finishing his training and later working as LAC Flight Mechanic and AC1 Mechanic  he specialised in diesel engines and also marine engines.

In October 1945 he was posted overseas  Lau Bay - Fiji, Noumea  New Caledonia, and a few other places and was attached to the PRP  Pacific Rear Party.

Fred Johnson lighting a candle last year for Anzac Day. Photo: Supplied.

One of his jobs was to look after Consolidated PBY Catalina.

Flying boats, says Fred. Floating coconuts used to have this annoying habit of poking holes in their aluminium hulls.

So we used to get in a dinghy to collect the floating logs, beer bottles and other floating things that could damage the Catalinas. I remember that once the American pilot managed to land on the sandbank, as it was low tide. Well that ruined the hull completely.

Fred says he only repaired and looked after the engines.

Just before returning back to New Zealand we did an overnight trip from one of the islands to New Caledonia  open seas, now you have to pay to go and see this beautiful area.

Anyway there was something in the water and as we travelled in the night and looked at the water there was such a fluorescent glow  maybe coral reefs, above New Caledonia  it was amazing  it was like a little holiday. Three weeks later we flew back to Auckland from La Tontouta New Caledonia via Fiji and Norfolk Island, where we had to refuel.

Fred was discharged in September 1946 after two years and 284 days of service, and Overseas Service - 218 days  making the total time in RNZAF three years 137days.

His War Service Gratuity Payment was 57 pounds 8 shillings and 4 pence.

Freds service number is NZ437399 LAC FH Johnson RNZAF, and he was awarded three medals - the War Medal 1939-45, the New Zealand War Service Medal, and the New Zealand Defence Service Medal with clasp Regular.

Frederick Henry Johnsons life was celebrated at a service at Pyes Pa Memorial Park Chapel on Friday April 30.
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Washington  The U.S. will restrict travel from India starting Tuesday, the White House said Friday, citing a devastating rise in Covid-19 cases in the country and the emergence of potentially dangerous variants of the coronavirus.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said President Joe Bidens administration made the determination on the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Biden signed a proclamation barring entry to most foreigners who have been in India in the past 14 days, with exceptions for legal permanent residents, spouses and close family members of U.S. citizens, and some others. He cited the spread of the virus and its variants.

The CDC advises, based on work by public health and scientific experts, that these variants have characteristics of concern, which may make them more easily transmitted and have the potential for reduced protection afforded by some vaccines, Biden said in the proclamation.

He said the CDC has concluded that proactive measures are needed to protect public health from travelers from India.

With 386,452 new cases, India now has reported more than 18.7 million since the pandemic began, second only to the United States. The Health Ministry on Friday also reported 3,498 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 208,330. Experts believe both figures are an undercount.

Biden spoke Monday with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the growing health crisis and pledged to immediately send assistance. This week, the U.S. began delivering therapeutics, rapid virus tests and oxygen to India, along with some materials needed for India to boost its domestic production of Covid-19 vaccines. Additionally, a CDC team of public health experts was expected to be on the ground soon to help Indian health officials move to slow the spread of the virus.

Vice President Kamila Harris, who is of Indian descent, called the situation in India a great tragedy and said she hadnt spoken to any of her relatives still living there since the news of the travel ban was made public. She emphasized Americas longstanding, decades-long relationship with the country in speaking about the U.S. aid to help alleviate some of the crisis there.

We have a responsibility as the United States, and particularly with people we have partnered with over the years, to step up when people are in a time of need, she said.

The White House waited on the CDC recommendation before moving to restrict travel, noting that the U.S. already requires negative tests and quarantines for all international travelers. Other restrictions are in place on travel from China, Iran, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Brazil and South Africa, which are or have been hotspots for the coronavirus.

There was no immediate comment on the new limits from the State Department, which on Thursday reissued a warning to Americans against traveling to India and said those already in the country should consider leaving by commercial means. That warning was accompanied by a notice that the department was telling the families of all U.S. government employees at its embassy in New Delhi and four consulates in India that they could leave the country at government expense.

U.S. diplomatic facilities in India have not been immune from the pandemic and a handful of local staff have perished from the virus. Several dozen other local and U.S. staffers have been sickened by Covid-19, according to officials who were not authorized to discuss personal matters publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The State Department has declined to comment on the number of staff affected, citing security and privacy concerns.

But even as the U.S. boosts pandemic assistance to India and allows some of its diplomatic families to come home, other aspects of the relationship continue unhampered.

Just minutes after the White House released the new travel restrictions, the State Department said it had approved more than $2.4 billion in arms sales to India, which the U.S. believes will be a critical counterbalance to China in the Indo-Pacific region.

The sale includes six Boeing P-8I patrol aircraft and related technology to be used for surveillance. The department said the deal will support the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to strengthen the U.S.-Indian strategic relationship and to improve the security of a major defensive partner, which continues to be an important force for political stability, peace, and economic progress in the Indo-Pacific and South Asia region.
Tahlequah, OK (74464)

Today

Rain showers early with isolated thunderstorms developing later in the day. High 88F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Variable clouds with scattered thunderstorms. Low 68F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 21:08:58|Editor: huaxia

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NANJING, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Eleven people have died and dozens were injured after powerful gales struck east China's Jiangsu Province, the provincial authorities said Saturday.

Gales and hail swept parts of Jiangsu on Friday evening, including Nantong, Huai'an, Yancheng, Taizhou, and Suqian.

The disaster left 11 people dead, 66 injured, and 3,050 evacuated, the Jiangsu Provincial Emergency Management Department said.

A fishing boat capsized due to the storm, and 11 crew members fell into the water. Two have been rescued, and the search for nine others is underway.

The gale was as strong as 45.4 meters per second at a monitoring site at Tongzhou Bay, and some areas reported seeing hails with a diameter of up to 3 cm.

More than 1,700 hectares of crops and more than 6,000 houses were damaged, resulting in the direct economic loss of 16.4 million yuan (about 2.5 million U.S. dollars).

From 6 p.m. Friday to 3 p.m. Saturday, more than 1,200 firefighters in the city of Nantong were mobilized for rescue and evacuation work.

Local power grid workers are repairing the power network, and clearing work is underway. Enditem
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Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 21:09:50|Editor: huaxia

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The relationship between Brazil and China is of "fundamental importance" for the South American country, and all-round cooperation between the two countries is progressing steadily with vast potentials, former Brazilian President Michel Temer has said.

China is Brazil's main export destination, and the two countries have close trade relations, said Temer, adding that there is a broad prospect for further development of bilateral ties and Chinese investments in Brazil are expected to grow continuously.

The veteran politician, turning 80 and retired from political life, has served as president of the Chamber of Deputies on three separate occasions and also served as vice president before taking over Brazil's top job in 2016.

Visiting China multiple times in official capacities, he said he has a profound understanding of the importance of the bilateral ties.

Talking about the trade relationship between the two countries, he also highlighted the importance of agribusiness in the Brazilian export, particularly the sales of soybean and meat.

The former Brazilian leader also underlined the importance of cooperation between the two countries on combating the COVID-19 pandemic as Brazil and a large part of the world is still struggling with surging infections and rising tolls.

The former president commended bilateral cooperation to produce vaccines against COVID-19.

"This relationship is extremely important. I have always argued that there should be great cooperation between countries, especially vaccine producers," Temer said, adding that there is a very large cooperation project on vaccine between the Butantan Institute and the Chinese laboratory Sinovac.

"We are talking about a relationship that is not only institutional, but also humanistic, because we are trying to save lives," Temer said in a recent exclusive interview with Xinhua.

Temer also recalled his visits to China, both as Brazilian vice president and president, for events such as the BRICS Summit, G20 and bilateral meetings, expressing his desire to come back to China one day.

"I would very much like to return to China as a tourist. I really liked Beijing and was delighted with Hangzhou. I'm currently reading (a book) about (late Chinese leader) Deng Xiaoping's life. And when I can, I have Chinese food here in Brazil," Temer said.

Produced by Xinhua Global Service
Friday marked Democratic President Joe Bidens 100th day in office.

The Telegraph Herald reached out to local officials and residents from both political parties, as well as stakeholders involved in a range of issues impacted so far by the Biden administration's actions, to get their thoughts on his performance so far and what lies ahead.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 21:19:53|Editor: huaxia

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HONG KONG, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Carrie Lam, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), on Saturday said the HKSAR government will continue its commitment to creating jobs, improving labor welfare and boosting protection of workers' interests.

In a video speech on social media marking the International Workers' Day that falls on Saturday, Lam expressed gratitude for the contribution of the labor sector to Hong Kong's prosperity and stability.

As Hong Kong's job market was under grave pressure due to the dual blows from the 2019 social unrest and the COVID-19 pandemic, the HKSAR government has adopted an array of measures to stabilize employment, including multiple rounds of anti-epidemic funds and over 300 billion Hong Kong dollars (38.62 billion U.S. dollars) in economic relief packages, Lam said.

Lam said the government has worked to improve the labor welfare, noting that it has submitted a bill to the Legislative Council on increasing workers' statutory holidays from 12 to 17 days in phases.

The government is also working to improve the mandatory provident fund schemes, and increase the penalty for violations of the occupational safety and health regulation.

Lam also said that presently, epidemic control remains the top priority for the HKSAR government, and urged the public to receive the COVID-19 vaccines at an early date in order to make Hong Kong's social and economic activities to return to normal as soon as possible. Enditem
Madisonville, KY (42431)

Today

Showers early then scattered thunderstorms developing later in the day. High 84F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%. Locally heavy rainfall possible..

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Scattered thunderstorms during the evening followed by occasional showers overnight. Low 71F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%.
Republican state Rep. Scott McKnight, a conservative 40-year-old Baton Rouge businessman, was torn over the proposal in the Louisiana Legislature to legalize marijuana for recreational use.

A former reserve deputy in East Baton Rouge Parish, he knew law enforcement has concerns with the idea. But one thing that helped sway McKnight to vote for the bill  making him one of three Republicans to send the proposal out of committee and on to the full House for debate in a historic vote  was public opinion.

"I have not received a negative email or call. I have received a good bit of positive emails," McKnight said. The tide is changing on this.

Several polls done this year on the question of legalizing marijuana underscore that truth, and they have given the longshot movement surprising strength. Some lawmakers on the fence have pointed to the fact they have only received positive messages from constituents on the issue. Several pollsters said they expect that drumbeat of support to only get louder in the coming years as Louisiana catches up with the rest of the nation, which overwhelmingly backs legalization.

State Rep. Richard Nelson, a 34-year-old Mandeville Republican who often votes with conservatives in the House, is carrying the bill. He was already putting the effort in motion when John Couvillon, the Baton Rouge pollster, released the results of a survey that found 67% of Louisianans favor legalizing both medicinal and recreational marijuana.

Couvillons poll, which was paid for by the Louisiana Association for Therapeutic Alternatives, a medical marijuana industry group, caught many lawmakers eyes. The prior year, Couvillon had found 54% support for the same legalization question; the new survey found that even 58% of Republicans support legalization.

Bid to legalize marijuana in Louisiana advances to full House for debate in milestone vote A Louisiana House committee has advanced a proposal to legalize marijuana for recreational use, sending the bill to the full state House in a 

That was an important finding, because conservatives around the U.S. have been slower to embrace legal weed than liberals. Louisiana voted for former President Donald Trump by an 18-point margin in 2020; two-thirds of state senators and nearly two-thirds of state representatives are Republicans.

I think its one of those things where public opinion is leaving politicians behind, Nelson said.

Another recent survey, by the University of New Orleans Survey Research Center, was not quite as bullish on recreational pot as Couvillons. But it still found legalization of the recreational use of marijuana had 55% support overall, with 36% opposed and 9% undecided. The poll found Democrats were far more likely to support it, at 66%, than Republicans, at 44%.

I think public opinion here is catching up to opinion on the issue nationwide, said Ed Chervenak, the political scientist who conducted the poll.

+3 Opinions on marijuana are mellowing in Louisiana. Are looser laws on the horizon? Six years ago, Louisiana became the first state in the Deep South to authorize a medical marijuana program, giving the state a head start over

People in Louisiana are seeing other states cashing in on the crop, Chervenak said, and the generational divides often seen with cultural issues are tilting toward legalization, with younger people strongly favoring it. He expects the trend to continue.

I dont know how the legislators are going to respond to it, Chervenak said. This is a culturally conservative state. Well have to wait and see exactly how far this moves along in the Legislature.

While legalizing marijuana has been a priority of Democratic lawmakers in recent years, the idea is lately gaining bipartisan steam. Three Republicans voted for it in the House Administration of Criminal Justice Committee last week. Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group founded by the Koch brothers, has gotten on board.

James Lee, state director of the group, said it is commissioning more polls in the districts of eight conservative House members.

+3 Follow marijuana in the Louisiana legislature and how the first of many bills fared The first of several bills aimed at changing Louisianas marijuana laws received a warm reception from lawmakers Thursday, with a bill to tax 

Speaker Pro Tem Tanner Magee, a Houma Republican in a district where three of every four votes went to Trump in 2020, commissioned a poll specific to his district. Conducted by Couvillion, the poll found 77% support for permitting marijuana for recreational use.

I think that you have basically a generational shift thats occurred, Couvillon said. Those who may have been influenced by the just say no campaign by Nancy Reagan and negative messaging around marijuana before that ... that generation is steadily dying off. And its being replaced with a generation thats not quite sure why it's illegal.

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 proposal has also garnered opposition from the powerful associations representing sheriffs and district attorneys.

Mike Ranatza, the head of the Louisiana Sheriffs Association, said he wants to study the issue for a year before considering legalization, cautioning against a rush to judgment.

I want to clearly illustrate to everyone that were open-minded to looking into this issue, he said in an interview. We really should do an in-depth look at what that road should look like.

+2 Smokable medical marijuana proposal breezing through Louisiana House; here's what to know A proposal to allow medical marijuana dispensaries to sell the smokable form of the drug to patients is gaining favor in the Louisiana House, 

As of this month, 17 states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for recreational use. That means 43% of U.S. adults now live in a place that has legalized the drug for recreational use, according to the Pew Research Center.

Significantly, however, none of the 17 states is in the Deep South, though several states in the region have legalized medical marijuana, including Louisiana.

A significant number of Republicans would need to support legalization in Louisiana for the effort to reach the governors desk. If by some miracle that happens, term limits  which have ushered in a whole new generation of lawmakers  may be part of the reason. Polling has consistently shown younger people are far more likely to support legalization.

Rep. Nicholas Muscarello, of Hammond, was one of the three Republicans to vote for Nelsons bill in committee. He said the thing that really drove it home was that the Louisiana Sheriffs Association and Louisiana District Attorneys Association  two key opponents of the legislation  both conceded the drug would be legal eventually.

What drove my decision is I think the fact that its coming. Its gonna happen, Muscarello said. I hate being the last in line every time. If we can provide a service to our state thats going to drive some tax income, then why not do it?

Muscarello, who is 46, said there were more seasoned legislators running the show years ago, when he was a legislative aide to former lawmaker John Hainkel, an influential New Orleans Republican. In the three years Muscarello has been a lawmaker himself, he said he thinks there are more forward-thinking lawmakers that are more aggressive in the way we approach things.

Rep. Joe Stagni, a Kenner Republican, said he hasnt made up his mind yet, but added that hes leaning toward voting for the bill. He likened the drugs illegal status to the U.S.s disastrous experiment with alcohol prohibition, and noted none of the states that have legalized recreational use of marijuana have gone back and criminalized it again.

He, too, believes term limits are having an impact on topics like marijuana. For some of his former colleagues, this wouldnt have even been a consideration, Stagni said.

It will happen, Stagni said. The question for everyone is, is it going to happen now or is it going to happen later?

Andrew Freedman, who was hired in 2014 by Colorados then-Gov. John Hickenlooper to be the first cannabis czar to implement the first adult-use marijuana market, said the issue was a divisive one when it came before voters in 2012. That year, voters approved the ballot proposition to legalize the drug, 54.8% to 45.1%.

Freedman now heads up the Coalition for Cannabis Policy, Education and Regulation, which he said was launched with the premise that legalization is inevitable in the U.S. The group doesnt take a stance on whether states should legalize the drug, and instead aims to advance a federal regulatory framework for cannabis.

Since 2012, Freedman said opinions in Colorado have inched steadily toward the idea that legalization was a good move. The opposition isnt so fervent anymore.

Most of the other states that have legalized marijuana in the ensuing years have done so through ballot referendums.

Legislatures may be timid because legalization is complicated, Freedman said. At the ballot box, voters are faced with a simple yes-or-no question. Lawmakers have to answer a million questions right off the bat. For instance: How do you handle people driving while high? How much control should local governments have over marijuana being grown or sold in their backyard? Should the state try to prioritize licenses for minorities?

Even if its popular, but its divisive, its still a costly thing to vote for, Freedman said. Sometimes not taking a vote is the easiest route to take.
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Several hundred seniors, mostly African American, gathered in Baton Rouge back in 2014 to visit with their elected officials.

Republican Bill Cassidy, then a member of the U.S. House but coveting a seat in the upper chamber, didnt show up even though he lives less than five miles away. Sharp politician that he is, Cedric Richmond, then a Democratic member of the U.S. House living 87 miles away in New Orleans, pointed out that their congressman, Cassidy, didnt bother to attend.

Oops.

Turns out their congressman was there and he was none other than Richmond, who was surprised to learn that the hall was actually in his 2nd Congressional District, not Cassidys 6th.

A Republican Legislature in March 2011 had drawn the lines of the 2nd District from New Orleans up the Mississippi River, only a precinct deep in some places, to north Baton Rouge. It packed in as many Democratic Black voters as possible and thereby kept Louisianas other five congressional districts safely in the GOP.

A decade later, now Troy Carters 2nd Congressional District is 31% White and Garret Graves 6th District has become 71% White  numbers so one-sided that Carter doesnt need to heed the opinions of White voters, and Graves can safely ignore the Black voices.

Redistricting this time wont be as easy.

Analyzing the Census: Louisiana saw one of the slowest growth rates in the U.S., but why? Louisianas population grew by a mere 2.75% between 2010 and 2020, only a little more than a third as quickly as the U.S. as a whole, accordin

Last weeks release of the congressional apportionment results from the nations decennial census set state legislatures across the U.S. to begin redrawing the lines of districts whose voters will choose congressmen, and all other officials not elected statewide, for the next 10 years.

Litigation and delays made the 2020 census one of the most contentious ever. And the numbers look good for Republicans who picked up congressional seats in Texas and Florida, among other traditional red states, while New York and California, historically blue, will lose seats in the next Congress. Not only seats in the House but Electoral College votes could change.

Its also the first time in decades that states with a history of civil rights violations, like Louisiana, dont have to pre-clear their plans with the U.S. Justice Department.

The first lawsuit was filed last week, which includes Louisiana voters, in what the congressional trade publication The Hill calls a preview of what is all but certain to be the most litigated remap in American history.

The lawsuit, filed by former Attorney General Eric Holders National Redistricting Action Fund, asks courts to draw the maps if the states cant agree. Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, for instance, can throw out the maps drawn by the majority Republican Legislature  leading to a veto override that the GOP would likely lose, and then paralysis heading into the 2022 congressional elections. The Southern Coalition for Social Justice in Durham, North Carolina, a few weeks ago asked Edwards to make public what criteria would trigger his veto. Edwards asked to postpone that discussion until after the annual legislative session ends in June.

Our Views: Consider huge changes in election law in the spirit of participation, not restriction At almost 800 pages, before the inevitable amendments in the U.S. Senate, a sweeping new bill would rewrite many laws about elections.

Meanwhile, a dozen or so advocacy groups are organizing voters to become more involved in the redistricting process.

Locally, the Power Coalition for Equity and Justice, based in Baton Rouge, is hosting a virtual Redistricting Academy, from 3 p.m.to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Friday to train community members on the software to draw their own maps, said founder Ashley Shelton. On-the-ground experts will follow up after the training.

The Power Coalition filed last year's lawsuit that led a federal court in Baton Rouge to order expansion of mail-in balloting and early voting in Novembers presidential election.

African American and Hispanic populations have grown in Jefferson Parish to the point that a second minority-majority congressional district is possible, Shelton said. But at the very least, the group wants congressional districts redrawn to give the population among each districts minority a greater voice.

Were looking at redistricting holistically, that is, making districts more competitive so that the voices of one group wont be neutered, Shelton said.

She defines that goal as no districts with more than 65% of one race, which is the most obvious but not the only means of defining common interests among voters. That means all but one of Louisianas six congressional seats need to be redrawn to include more Blacks or more Whites. Only the 4th Congressional District, where Whites make up about 62% of registered voters, barely meets her criteria.

Shelton said that along with energizing voters to select their member of Congress, rather than politicians selecting their voters, her group is positioning itself to file a lawsuit, if need be. We will have the evidence we will need to say the communitys needs and wants werent listened to, Shelton said.
A fire broke out at a hospital in Gujarat's Bharuch in the wee hours of Saturday, May 1, claiming the lives of at least 18 coronavirus patients who died due to the resultant smoke.

Heart-wrenching visuals of the mishap showed the remains of some patients on beds and stretchers. There were approx. 50 other patients at the four-storeyed Welfare Hospital when the tragedy struck.

The fire broke out in the COVID ward at 1 am. The patients were rescued by firefighters and locals, an official told PTI. The 12 patients in the COVID-19 ward passed away due to the fire and resultant smoke, Rajendrasinh Chudasama, a senior police officer in Bharuch, told the news agency.

Also Read: 5 dead as fire breaks out in Rajkot COVID-19 Hospital

"As per information at 6.30 am, the death count in the tragedy stood at 18. Immediately after the fire, we had confirmation of 12 deaths," a police official also told the agency.

It is not clear if the remaining six also died in the Welfare Hospital or while being shifted to other hospitals.

The COVID-19 designated hospital is situated on the Bharuch-Jambusar highway, around 190 km from the state capital Ahmedabad and is being run by a trust.

Also Read: Massive fire engulfs slums, godowns in Delhi's Okhla area, fire tenders rushed to spot

The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, the official said.

The fire was controlled within an hour and around 50 patients were rescued by locals as well as firefighters, a fire official said. They were shifted to nearby hospitals, he added.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 21:33:34|Editor: huaxia

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Li Yan (1st R) monitors the operation of equipment at a plant of China National Petroleum Corporation's (CNPC's) Jilin branch in Jilin, northeast China's Jilin Province, April 20, 2021. Carrying the title of National Model Worker, Li has been working at the company for 25 years since 1996. The branch's annual oil refining capacity has reached 10 million tonnes. (Xinhua/Xu Chang)

BEIJING, May 1 (Xinhua) -- International Workers' Day, also known as May Day, is observed on May 1 in China. Portraits of model workers from Liaoning, Heilongjiang and Jilin, were pictured by photographers of Xinhua News Agency as they endeavor to revitalize the old industrial bases in the country's northeastern region.



Li Wanjun is pictured at a plant of CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles Co., Ltd. in Changchun, northeast China's Jilin Province, April 21, 2021. Carrying the title of National Model Worker, Li has been working at the company for 34 years since 1987 and become a skilled worker on the bogie's welding work which is important for high-speed train's manufacture. (Xinhua/Xu Chang)

Li Wanjun conducts welding work at a plant of CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles Co., Ltd. in Changchun, northeast China's Jilin Province, April 21, 2021. Carrying the title of National Model Worker, Li has been working at the company for 34 years since 1987 and become a skilled worker on the bogies' welding work which is important for high-speed trains' manufacture. (Xinhua/Xu Chang)

Li Yan is pictured at a plant of China National Petroleum Corporation's (CNPC's) Jilin branch in Jilin, northeast China's Jilin Province, April 20, 2021. Carrying the title of National Model Worker, Li has been working at the company for 25 years since 1996. The branch's annual oil refining capacity has reached 10 million tonnes. (Xinhua/Xu Chang)

Li Yan operates valves at a plant of China National Petroleum Corporation's (CNPC's) Jilin branch in Jilin, northeast China's Jilin Province, April 20, 2021. Carrying the title of National Model Worker, Li has been working at the company for 25 years since 1996. The branch's annual oil refining capacity has reached 10 million tonnes. (Xinhua/Xu Chang)

Jin Tao is pictured at a plant of FAW-Volkswagen Automobile Co., Ltd. in Changchun, northeast China's Jilin Province, April 22, 2021. Carrying the title of National Model Worker, Jin has been working at the company for 21 years since 2000. Lots of innovations have been made by his team in the development of automation equipment of sedan. (Xinhua/Xu Chang)

Jin Tao operates a welding robot at a plant of FAW-Volkswagen Automobile Co., Ltd. in Changchun, northeast China's Jilin Province, April 22, 2021. Carrying the title of National Model Worker, Jin has been working at the company for 21 years since 2000. Lots of innovations have been made by his team in the development of automation equipment of sedan. (Xinhua/Xu Chang)

Qu Xiaodong is pictured at a plant of Angang Steel Co., Ltd. in Anshan, northeast China's Liaoning Province, April 20, 2021. Carrying the title of National Model Worker, Qu has been working at the plant for 24 years since 1997. The steel products produced by his team have been used in automobile, construction, shipbuilding and railway industries. (Xinhua/Pan Yulong)

Qu Xiaodong (R) and his colleague monitor the operation of equipment at a plant of Angang Steel Co., Ltd. in Anshan, northeast China's Liaoning Province, April 20, 2021. Carrying the title of National Model Worker, Qu has been working at the plant for 24 years since 1997. The steel products produced by his team have been used in automobile, construction, shipbuilding and railway industries. (Xinhua/Pan Yulong)

Li Bo is pictured at a plant of China National Petroleum Corporation's Fushun branch in Fushun, northeast China's Liaoning Province, April 27, 2021. Carrying the title of National Model Worker, Li has been working at the branch for 34 years since 1987. The aviation kerosene and diesel oil produced by his team have been widely used in aviation, automobile and sea transportation industries. (Xinhua/Pan Yulong)

Li Bo (L) examines and repairs equipment with his colleague at a plant of China National Petroleum Corporation's Fushun branch in Fushun, northeast China's Liaoning Province, April 27, 2021. Carrying the title of National Model Worker, Li has been working at the branch for 34 years since 1987. The aviation kerosene and diesel oil produced by his team have been widely used in aviation, automobile and sea transportation industries. (Xinhua/Pan Yulong)

Xu Baojun debugs machine tools at an assembly plant of Shenyang Machine Tool (Group) Co., Ltd. (SMTCL) in Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning Province, April 27, 2021. Carrying the title of National Model Worker, Xu has been working at the company for 33 years since 1988. The machine tools developed by him have been widely used in the production of automobile parts. (Xinhua/Pan Yulong)

Xu Baojun (L) debugs machine tools with his colleague at an assembly plant of Shenyang Machine Tool (Group) Co., Ltd. (SMTCL) in Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning Province, April 27, 2021. Carrying the title of National Model Worker, Xu has been working at the company for 33 years since 1988. The machine tools developed by him have been widely used in the production of automobile parts. (Xinhua/Pan Yulong)

Ma Jing is pictured at a plant of Harbin Dongan Automative Engine Manufacturing Co., Ltd. in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, April 26, 2021. Carrying the title of National Model Worker, Ma has been working at the company for 25 years since 1996. Her team has made a major breakthrough in the domestic-developed 6-speed automatic transmission. (Xinhua/Wang Song)

Ma Jing tests products at a laboratory of Harbin Dongan Automative Engine Manufacturing Co., Ltd. in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, April 26, 2021. Carrying the title of National Model Worker, Ma has been working at the company for 25 years since 1996. Her team has made a major breakthrough in the domestic-developed 6-speed automatic transmission. (Xinhua/Wang Song)

Pei Yongbin is pictured at a plant of Harbin Electric Machinery Co., Ltd. in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, April 23, 2021. Carrying the title of National Model Worker, Pei has been working at the company for 36 years since 1985 and is skilled to manufacture key parts of power-generating unit of hydropower station. (Xinhua/Wang Song)

Pei Yongbin works on a production line at a plant of Harbin Electric Machinery Co., Ltd. in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, April 23, 2021. Carrying the title of National Model Worker, Pei has been working at the company for 36 years since 1985 and is skilled to manufacture key parts of power-generating unit of hydropower station. (Xinhua/Wang Song)

Gao Lihua is pictured at a plant of Harbin Air Conditioning Co., Ltd. in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, April 29, 2021. Carrying the title of National Model Worker, Gao has been working at the company for 36 years since 1985 and is skilled to manufacture key parts of air handling units of nuclear power plant. (Xinhua/Wang Song)

Gao Lihua works at a workshop of Harbin Air Conditioning Co., Ltd. in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, April 29, 2021. Carrying the title of National Model Worker, Gao has been working at the company for 36 years since 1985 and is skilled to manufacture key parts of air handling units of nuclear power plant. (Xinhua/Wang Song)
































She laughs when I ask if she grew up  the fourth of seven  in what amounted to an ensemble.

I was never the lead, she says. There are definitely siblings of mine who are lead characters. I was always comfortable as an ensemble player. It matters to me because I have a daughter, and to see how strong she is in this moment and how outspoken, I would hate to see that voice get quieter, Credit: Liz Collins/Trunk Archive/Snapper Images I like to fly under the radar in my family  you get away with more. But it also teaches you to compromise, to understand being a team player. I was a dancer who worked in dinner theatre, and that was so much about being a team player, Amy adds. You have responsibility for your own costumes and your own make-up, you become a troupe of performers that [are] family. So I went from a big family to a bigger family. And now, just by myself on set, I get really lonely. At the same time, you understand the importance of each person on that set, she says. It isnt all about the actor. At the end of the day, Im what people see, but there are hundreds of people making that happen. Im just the final piece of the puzzle, really, but you need all of those little pieces to work together, to create the picture.

Recently, Amy set up her own production company, Bond Group Entertainment, with which she hopes to tell powerful female stories. That thread already exists in her screen work: think Sister James in Doubt, Dr Louise Banks in Arrival, and even Lois Lane in Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League. It matters to me because I have a daughter, and to see how strong she is in this moment and how outspoken, I would hate to see that voice get quieter, she says. As she is exposed to a society that may or may not support her strength, thats important to me. Its not just specifically female stories, but its the female experience and the point of view that I want to present. As she [Adams daughter] is exposed to a society that may or may not support her strength, thats important to me. Its not just specifically female stories, but its the female experience and the point of view that I want to present. Amy is an actors actor, raised in a working-class family and, when you meet her, surprisingly at ease with everything and everyone. Our conversation comes with no conditions. If she has gatekeepers, they keep a low profile. Profiling her for New York magazine, Carl Swanson described her as almost suspiciously un-narcissistic for a movie star. Im going to tell my husband that, she says.  Suspiciously un-narcissistic  I love that.

It begs the question: is narcissism the doom of a serious actor? I can get into the real reasons why I think that statement could be true but I probably wont, she says. I was the middle child, which is usually the peacekeeper. You learn how to read a situation. It causes you to be more empathetic. I dont want to be narcissistic because Ive known narcissists and thats really rough to be around. Amys husband, Darren Le Gallo, is an actor and artist. The couple met in 2001, became engaged in 2008, had a daughter, Aviana, in 2010, and married in 2015. Le Gallos paintings, she says, feel very immediate and emotional to her. They capture emotions more than they capture images, she says. Thats what I love about his art. Le Gallos art has also taught her that many human decisions are made in a state of heightened emotion. And that our emotions can either control us and overwhelm us or we can manage them, she says. Its interesting having a daughter and trying to teach her management of emotions. Ive just begun my exploration on that with her, and with myself, to some degree. As a performance palette, heightened state of emotion could have come straight from the set of The Woman in the Window. By the time the film reaches its denouement, the audiences nerves, like those of the its heroine, will be a jangling mess. Although she is not an action film star, Amy came hard at the action sequences in the film. Being a dancer helps because I understand walking, she says. And what has helped me through it are the stunt co-ordinators and stuntwomen I work with. I watch their physicality and then imitate. Even if Im not that strong, I can make it look like I am, or they can teach me how to.

For me, the beginning, middle and end is having an amazing stunt team, she adds. I do not look tough when I do things, as Ive come to figure out. I even run like a dancer. Ive had to retrain myself to do certain things. Loading In high school she had hoped to pursue a ballet career, but ultimately chose musical theatre, which served as a bridge into dramatic acting. And yet the world of ballet, as brutal and unyielding as it can be, appealed to her because of the quiet, organised, disciplined environment it offered. As one of seven children, theres no quiet, no order, chaos reigns at any given moment, she says. I loved the rules of the ballet world  thats so A Chorus Line of me, isnt it? It became the eye of the storm for me, the quiet. But there was also a discipline that I liked about it, she adds. I love it when something is hard. Ive just realised that I create problems for myself so I can then overcome them. Im thinking  Im not 100 per cent sure on that. Ill get back to you. But I think that might be true.
Detailed plans for an Italian-inspired beach club on Bondi Beach have provoked a backlash, with Lucy Turnbull, federal Labor MP Matt Thistlethwaite and TV chef Adam Liaw all voicing their opposition.

Janek Gazecki, who wants to open his Amalfi Beach Club on Bondi Beach over summer and charge patrons $80 for a cabana, said he wont be put off by the negative reaction from vocal opponents.

Planning Minister Rob Stokes has vowed to stop the development. A Facebook action group We Oppose Amalfi Beach Club has been set up and already has about 1200 members.

An artist impression of the Amalfi Beach Club for Bondi Beach, proposed by polo entrepreneur Janek Gazecki.

We wont be bullied or give in to the cancel culture, Mr Gazecki said. However, I believe our opponents will calm down once they realise what its about.
The Queenslands COVID check-in app is now mandatory for all pubs, clubs, cafes and restaurants from Saturday as the state recorded no new COVID-19 cases.

However, a cafe and toilets at Brisbane International Airport have been identified as potential exposure sites linked to a COVID-positive passenger.

There were 28 active cases and 5692 COVID-19 tests had been completed in the past 24 hours.

On Saturday, Queensland Health identified the cafe and toilet, that one of two transiting passengers from a Papua New Guinea red flight who tested positive with COVID-19 was allowed to mingle in the green zone after a human error was made, have been identified as potential exposure sites.
Staring down the barrel of Seek.com.au as a 50-plus worker fresh from yet another redundancy, Perth woman Kerry Ridley decided to take a punt instead.

Two years later, after investing all her cash and time (and family members) Ridley owns a booming business that honours twin passions nurtured in her as a girl during a very Australian rite of passage: doing the Nullarbor.

Kerry and Simon Ridley: living the dream.

Her father worked on the Kwinana industrial strip for years.

One day he decided to quit, and take the kids around Australia in a caravan.
Peak tourism bodies say flagship stimulus programs from state and federal governments have been ill-conceived and continue to fail Melbourne in its time of greatest need.

Hotels are still barely half full more than a month into the Andrews governments belated Melbourne travel voucher scheme which offers $200 to help cover the costs of city accommodation, attractions or tours.

The first public data from the Commonwealths half-priced airfares program also showed it was offering little meaningful sustenance for Melbourne tourism. The closest destination on the 17-strong list, Avalon Airport, has received about 3 per cent (20,000) of the 663,000 tickets already sold.

Sarah Noonan and Alister Winkel, from Traralgon, visiting the Sea Life aquarium in the city. Credit:Simon Schluter

In contrast, nearly 200,000 tickets have been sold to the Gold Coast, long a domestic hot spot during chilly southern winters. Adelaide was next with 160,000, followed by Hobart with 80,000.
One reason the federal government might set wheels in motion to properly address aged care reform is that it is no longer simply a question of paying for improvements. The most crucial new recommendation of this royal commission is that Australian aged care needs to become rights-based in favour of the elderly who need it.

At the moment, aged care is an industry, where those running the business have full say over what care is (or isnt) provided and what elderly people can (and cant) do once they have entered the system.

There are only two areas left where Australia has not progressed from using institutions for solutions  prisons and aged care. The former are possible to avoid; the latter awaits us all unless rights-based aged care reform is achieved.

Ruth Farr, Blackburn South

Think of it like this

I ask all the horse lovers who oppose culling brumbies to protect our national parks: how many of you let your horses roam through your front garden or your vegetable patch? (Stalking horses, The Sunday Age, 25/4.)

My guess is none. Horses destroy trees, shrubs and pasture. They foul waterways. Responsible owners (and those who prize their garden beds) keep their horses confined in paddocks.

Try thinking of our national parks as the Yorta Yortas garden, and maybe their despair at the damage caused by wild horses and other introduced species will resonate deeper.

By the way, I have five horses, all paddocked. The last thing I want is their hard hooves in my rose bushes.

Jillian Staton, Tarwin Lower
A short time ago, I rang Peter Gutwein to congratulate him on his re-election and his impressive personal result, she said. She described the election result as a strong result for the Liberal Party and Peter Gutweins leadership. She said the election had elevated new issues and urged the government to listen to the concerns that have been raised throughout this campaign. The stories of the left behind cannot continue to be ignored. In the midst of the global pandemic, incumbent governments in Western Australia and Queensland both increased their majority in state polls, while the Labor-Greens coalition in the ACT also increased its majority. Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the Coalition will be buoyed by yet another sign that the current political climate favours incumbents, especially after a damaging and difficult two months in which the governments stocks have plummeted.

Loading Tasmania, much like Queensland, regularly produces big swings against incumbents at state and federal elections. Whether state results can be used to predict the next federal results remains an open question. At the next federal poll Labor is hopeful of winning back the northern seats of Bass (which has changed incumbents at every election since 2004) and Braddon (which has changed members almost as frequently) while the Liberals are hopeful of winning back the central seat of Lyons. State factors, such as the move by Speaker Sue Hickey to the crossbench after the Liberals told her she would not be re-endorsed after less than a term in Parliament, would likely not translate to the federal sphere. Nor would the federal Liberals suffer, necessarily, because of state issues such as the growing cost of housing in Tasmania. Foremost in voters minds at each and every state poll since the pandemic began has been this question: has the government kept me safe from COVID-19?

For Peter Gutwein the answer is (mostly) yes. In his victory speech, Mr Gutwein made it clear that the pandemic was a major factor. The decisions I had to make as Premier have been among the hardest things Ive ever had to do, but Tasmanians worked together and as a community we succeeded. Tasmanians held out their hands to each other in an extraordinary display of humanity. We turned Tasmania into one of the safest places in this country and one of the safest places on this planet. Scott Morrison  who did not appear on the campaign trail once during the election  will take heart from a pandemic electoral trend that clearly favours incumbents.
It was that proposition that got to the nub of the thing  is that true? Can we criticise the wife of a prime minister or is that off limits? What if a prime minister brings his wife into the political realm? What if she is influencing policy? Loading Unlike the United States, we do not have an official First Lady role in Australia. The wife (and once, the male partner) of our prime minister does not have a defined role and the Australian public and the political system has never been very sure of what to do with them. In the media we like to maintain there is a boundary between a politicians personal and private lives, and we do not generally venture into the territory of the latter. But in reality the border between public and private is not hard; it is porous and fluid. Anyone observing Canberra over the past few months has been bashed over the head with that realisation. As ABC journalist Leigh Sales has recently mused, the longstanding convention of not reporting on the private lives of politicians has perhaps had the effect of protecting the powerful from being held to account.

There is undoubtedly public interest in politicians wives. They feature on the cover of magazines and they liven up photographs which otherwise feature grey-haired, grey-suited men. For many, they are more interesting to read about than their husbands. Perhaps one reason wives are of interest is because there are few women in senior positions in politics. If we are interested in assessing how our Prime Minister relates to women, an important piece of information is how he speaks about his wife and seems to view her. Is she an equal? Does she have a more traditional, supportive role, or is she an unofficial adviser? Does she give counsel to her husband and share opinions which then wend their way into his policy positions? Or does she support him but stay silent on matters of state? Political wives (and their children) soften their husbands, show their human side, their caring side and their capacity for nurture. In loving her husband, a political wife reflects a positive view of him to a wider public. But that only works if we get glimpses of their relationship, if their love is on display for us in some way.

Loading This is why political campaigners engineer the appearance of wives and families very consciously, with photo opportunities, careful engagement with charitable causes, Womens Weekly profiles and so on. The upshot is the women in politicians lives often end up semaphoring for the public that their husbands possess certain traits more associated with the feminine  empathy, compassion, tenderness. Why else is Jenny Morrison pictured with her husband as he signs a condolence book for a prince, and not when hes signing a trade treaty? But there is something troubling about making the wife account for the husbands political sins, and assuming her motives when she is not able to defend herself.

We may not know exactly how to treat prime ministers wives. But we have absolutely no idea how to conduct ourselves when it comes to prime ministers male partners. Julia Gillards partner, Tim Mathieson, was the butt of jokes for his profession (he was a hairdresser), and one radio host asked Gillard on air about a rumour that he was gay  an indignity it is impossible to imagine a male prime minister suffering. Loading Ditto the show At Home With Julia, broadcast by the ABC, which mocked the couple and even referenced their sex life. This week, across the world in the US, we saw another First Husband in action  the spouse of US Vice-President Kamala Harris. Doug Emhoff was in the chamber for US President Joe Bidens first joint address to Congress. His wife was positioned behind the President, and the television camera homed in on Emhoff watching her. He caught her eye, blew her multiple kisses and tapped his heart as he smiled at her. The internet lit up in appreciation.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Ken Wyatt says Australia would be better as a nation if its children learned two or three languages.

The Hasluck MP also told a crowd of linguistics lovers and Liberal Party members in Fremantle last month that political parties needed to acknowledge the strength of Aboriginal languages for the greater good of the country and to help heal the past.

Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatt says the federal government is committed to working with First Nations people. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Mr Wyatt was speaking at an event hosted by the policy committee of the Liberal Partys West Australian division, which has gained more of a say in policy development in the state following its thumping March election loss, on the topic of Aboriginal language recognition and official languages for Australia.

The minister said it would take the same kind of community groundswell as the marriage equality issue to bring policy change for language in Australia.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 22:05:45|Editor: huaxia

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Changchub Lhamo (R) chats with her family member in Surdexoi Township of Mangkam County, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, March 18, 2021. Changchub Lhamo, born in 1944, always missed her elder brother, Nyima Gyaltsen, who was among the 14 serfs in Anmaixi Village killed by a gang of rebels 62 years ago, not long before the campaign of democratic reform in Tibet in 1959. Changchub Lhamo and other serfs who survived had no time to collect the bodies of their loved ones, but were driven away from their homes. After the democratic reform in 1959, which abolished Tibet's feudal serfdom under theocracy, Changchub Lhamo's family was granted house, farmland and livestock. She now enjoys a happy life with her family. (Xinhua/Sun Fei)
New Delhi: Indian scientists are appealing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to publicly release data that would allow them to study, predict, and curb the spread of coronavirus cases.

It comes as COVID-19 cases climbed again on Friday, prompting the army to open its hospitals in a desperate bid to control a massive humanitarian crisis.

With 401,993 new cases on Saturday, India now has reported more than 19 million since the pandemic began, second only to the US. The Health Ministry also reported 3523 deaths in the previous 24 hours, bringing the total to 211,853. Experts believe both figures are an under count, but its unclear by how much.

A man waits with his sample at a Covid-19 testing station in New Delhi, India, on Friday. Credit:Bloomberg

The countrys pandemic response has been marred by insufficient data. The online appeal  signed by more than 350 scientists on Friday afternoon  asks the government to release data about the sequencing of virus variants, testing, recovered patients and how people were responding to vaccines.
Up for debate:

Live legislation tracker

Check out the latest developments on bills pending before state lawmakers in four key topics.
CEO magazine: Texas, Florida best states for business; California, New York, Illinois the worst

Tennessee, North Carolina and Indiana also among top 5 states; New York, Illinois, New Jersey and Washington near bottom
Rupert Darwall is a senior fellow of the RealClear Foundation and author of The Climate Noose.
In this March 28, 2019 photo, traffic makes its way into Manhattan from Brooklyn over the Williamsburg Bridge in New York. A congestion toll that would charge drivers to enter New York City's central business district is under consideration.
Crowds of people, many wearing masks to ward off coronavirus infection, walk down a busy sidewalk in New York City in November 2020.
Staff Reporter

Tim Gruver is a politics and public policy reporter. He is a University of Washington alum and the recipient of the 2017 Pioneer News Award for Reporting. His work has appeared in Politico, the Kitsap Daily News, and the Northwest Asian Weekly.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 22:28:14|Editor: huaxia

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BAGHDAD, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Seven members of a Kurdish security force, known as Peshmerga, were killed and two wounded on Saturday in an attack by militants of Islamic State (IS) group in the northern province of Kirkuk, a provincial police source said.

The attack took place at dawn when IS militants attacked the positions of Peshmerga near the namesake provincial capital Kirkuk, some 250 km north of the capital Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

An unknown number of IS militants were also killed by the fierce clash that followed, the source said, adding that Kurdish reinforcements arrived at the scene while the attackers withdrew to a nearby mountainous area.

The attack came hours after an overnight roadside bomb attack by IS militants on the Iraqi army in Tarmiyah area, some 30 km north of Baghdad. The bomb attack left four soldiers killed and two others wounded, according to a statement by the Iraqi Joint Operations Command.

The vast mountainous and rugged areas in the north of Baghdad have witnessed a surge in IS activities in the past months, despite repeated military operations to hunt down the militants.

The security situation in Iraq has been improving since Iraqi security forces fully defeated IS militants across the country late in 2017.

However, deadly incidents still occur sporadically in the war-ravaged country as IS remnants have since retreated into urban areas or deserts and rugged areas, waging frequent guerilla attacks against security forces and civilians. Enditem
Cheyenne, WY (82001)

Today

Some sun in the morning with increasing clouds during the afternoon. High 87F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Some clouds early will give way to generally clear conditions overnight. Low 54F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph.
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Oregon Governor Kate Brown is standing firm in her decision to move 15 counties, including Columbia County, to the state's pandemic Extreme High risk classification.

She also reaffirmed her plans to life the health and safety restrictions by the end of June.

Brown told reporters during a Friday, April 30 news briefing, that is Oregon's COVID-19 cases are widespread and driven by new more contagious variants. She said that Oregon leads the nation for the rate of increase in cases over the last two weeks.

"In fact, this is the fifth straight week Oregon has recorded cases increases 20% or more," Brown said. "Our hospitalizations have nearly doubled what they were a week ago."

The Extreme High risk classifications mean tighter public restrictions and limitations for businesses, such as no indoor dining at restaurants.

"I was presented with data showing two paths Oregon could take: One in which we took no additional action and stood by while more people die from this disease, and another that required a temporary tightening of restrictions for certain counties but could save hundreds of lives and prevent as many as 450 hospitalizations over the next three weeks, Brown said "As your Governor, I chose to save lives."

Brown also offered a more positive long-term outlook.

"The same scientific modeling also shows that over the course of the next two-to-three weeks, based on current vaccination rates, we can get ahead of these variants," she said. "Following that trajectory, we should be able to lift restrictions statewide and return to a sense of normalcy no later than the end of June."

Brown asked for Oregonians to help.

"We know vaccinations are the best way to protect yourself and your loved ones, and they are the key to fully reopening our economy and moving forward to post-pandemic life," Brown said. "But it will take each and everyone one of us to do our part to get there. If you haven't been vaccinated, please do so now  there are many available appointments statewide."

This week, Columbia County Commissioners joined 79 other elected officials from across the state and the Oregon Restaurant Association asking that Brown reconsider the pandemic risk classifications because of the adverse impact they have created for businesses and restaurants.

+2 The Letter: Commissioners ask governor to reconsider COVID risk classifications The Columbia County Board of Commissioners is asking Governor Kate Brown to reconsider her l
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 23:03:27|Editor: huaxia

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Dr. Jiang Yawen, team leader of the 16th China medical team for Malta, conducts acupuncture for a patient at the Mediterranean Regional Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine (MRCTCM) in Paola, Malta, April 27, 2021. (Photo by Chen Wenxian/Xinhua)

The traditional Chinese health exercises, such as Taiji Quan, Qigong or Baduanjin, along with massage therapy are known to be highly efficient in alleviating post-confinement anxiety and physical fatigue.

"I do the Qigong exercise every day. After getting up and before going to bed, it's necessary. That is a secret course my doctor recommended to me," 52-year-old Bulgarian Mitko Stankov told Xinhua.

by Xinhua writer Wen Xinnian

LISBON, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, doctors and practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) across the region have been working shoulder to shoulder with frontline health workers for the common goal of eliminating coronavirus.

BROADCAST AWARENESS

After the first COVID-19 case was confirmed in Portugal in early March last year, Dr. Yan Chunming, a 16-year TCM practitioner in the country and director of the Sino-Portuguese TCM Center, started his regular live broadcasts on social media in Portuguese and English, sounding the alarm to the public, raising awareness of the novel coronavirus, sharing his knowledge and recommending preventive measures.

On March 13, 2020, in one of his live video stream, which attracted more than 5,000 viewers, Yan urged the Portuguese government to close all the country's schools. The government did it on that very day.

Like Yan, more than 100 TCM practitioners from many European countries initiated a volunteers movement early on in the pandemic to provide free consultation services to Chinese in Europe and to local communities in need. Many of them tapped their resources to get TCM help.

"The Confucius Institute was quick to respond," said Zhou Miao, Portuguese president of the Confucius Institute at the University of Coimbra, which has offered TCM as a selective course for medical and pharmaceutical sciences students since 2017.

"In April 2020, our partner, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, donated to us a large shipment of medicaments, including herbal tea bags and concentrated herbal granules. This was heartily welcomed by the Chinese community in Portugal and by our local collaborators," she said.

"We translated the Chinese diagnosis and treatment protocol for COVID-19 patients into Portuguese, and we also created an online platform to offer free TCM consultation to the local community," she told Xinhua.

A patient receives acupuncture treatment at the Mediterranean Regional Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine (MRCTCM) in Paola, Malta, April 27, 2021. (Photo by Chen Wenxian/Xinhua)

TREAT COVID-19 PATIENTS

During the critical period of the first wave of the pandemic, hospitals across Europe soon became overwhelmed with serious cases of COVID-19. Mild symptom cases were mostly treated at home. For them, TCM offered a viable option.

Dr. Chen Zhen, who has been practicing TCM for more than 20 years in Hungary, said that TCM can help prevent mild COVID-19 cases from becoming severe.

"Over the year, the members of our team have treated 5,000 to 6,000 patients with mild COVID-19 symptoms, and none of them turned into severe cases," Chen said.

In Poland, Dr. Yuan Jingshan said that TCM and acupuncture, one of its key components, have proved highly effective in the prevention and treatment of coronavirus.

"For those who test positive and stay at home with mild symptoms, such as fever, cough, diarrhea and loss of taste, we also offer a delivery service of traditional Chinese medicine to their home," said Dr. Lu Mei, founder of the Zhongkang China Health clinic in Lisbon.

A student from China University of Petroleum experiences traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) therapy at the TCM cultural base in Traditional Chinese medical hospital of Huangdao District, Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, April 23, 2021. (Xinhua/Li Ziheng)

COMFORT POST-COVID PATIENTS

Most of the people recovered from COVID-19 have been reportedly suffering from many after-effects. TCM can help speed up recovery and rehabilitation, Lu said.

"Some of our patients have already tested positive for COVID-19, while others are just afraid of being infected. In general, all our patients tend to be very nervous. As a doctor, with my professional knowledge and clinical experience, my role is to offer comfort and soothe them," she said.

Dr. Yuan Jingshan has treated several patients with post-COVID symptoms, such as profuse sweating, fatigue or loss of appetite. Using acupuncture, the patients quickly alleviated those symptoms, which often persist for months.

"One of my recent patients was a hospital laboratory researcher and was hospitalized twice with COVID-19. When she was discharged from hospital in April, she came to me supported by her husband, because she was not strong enough to walk or talk. After two treatments, she regained vitality and came on her own without any problem," she recalled.

The traditional Chinese health exercises, such as Taiji Quan, Qigong or Baduanjin, along with massage therapy are known to be highly efficient in alleviating post-confinement anxiety and physical fatigue.

"I do the Qigong exercise every day. After getting up and before going to bed, it's necessary. That is a secret course my doctor recommended to me," 52-year-old Bulgarian Mitko Stankov told Xinhua.

People perform Qigong before a Chinese Spring Festival parade in downtown Liege, Belgium, Jan. 18, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhang Cheng)

BRIDGE FRIENDSHIP

Early on in the pandemic, Dr. Yan in Portugal made every effort to obtain the latest version of the TCM treatment plan from China. He then forwarded it to several major hospitals in the country via e-mail, and shared it on his social media pages.

"I tried my best to set up a bridge between the doctors in China and Portugal and to eventually save lives. I feel very satisfied and encouraged," he said.

In Malta, 38-year-old physician Jiang Yawen, leader of the six-member 16th Chinese Medical Team there, has been providing TCM treatment to the local community since last October.

"We treat around 500 people a month on average, 60 of whom are new patients," Jiang said. Enditem

(Yuan Liang in Budapest, Zhang Zhang in Warsaw, Chen Wenxian in Valletta and Sun Yifei in Sofia contributed to the story)
Batavia, NY (14020)

Today

Partly cloudy this morning, then becoming cloudy during the afternoon. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 84F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy this evening with showers after midnight. Thunder possible. Low 69F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
Towanda, PA (18848)

Today

Partly to mostly cloudy with scattered showers and thunderstorms developing in the afternoon. High around 85F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

A few clouds from time to time. Low 63F. Winds light and variable.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 23:09:25|Editor: huaxia

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TEHRAN, May 1 (Xinhua) -- The Iranian police dismantled a gang involved in online weapons trade, a police commander said on Saturday.

Qassem Rezaee, deputy commander of the police, said that all the weapon traders were arrested within less than two weeks after being detected.

All the weapons put up for sale by the gang are made in the United States and smuggled into Iran from Turkey, Rezaee was quoted as saying by Tasnim News Agency. Enditem
Oneonta, NY (13820)

Today

Cloudy skies early will become partly cloudy later in the day. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 84F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

A few clouds. Low 58F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph.
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Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-02 03:17:07|Editor: huaxia

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CAIRO, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian Minister of Health Hala Zayed announced on Saturday that 30 tons of medical supplies will be sent to India to help contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement, the minister said a shipment of 300 oxygen cylinders, 20 ventilators, 100 medical beds, 20 electrocardiography machines, 30 defibrillators and 50 electric syringe pumps will be sent to India.

The supplies will be delivered to India in cooperation with the Egyptian armed forces, the statement added.

India's COVID-19 infections tally reached 19,164,969 on Saturday, with a single-day spike of 401,993 cases, according to the Indian health ministry. Enditem
Forest City, NC (28043)

Today

Mostly cloudy in the morning. Isolated thunderstorms may develop later in the day. High 86F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 68F. Winds light and variable.
3 Cars Burned at Police Officers Home in Northern Ireland

Three cars were set alight and destroyed on Thursday at the home of a police officer in Northern Ireland.

Police in the Northern Irish town of Larne attended the officers address on Glenarm Road after receiving a report of three cars on fire in the early hours on Thursday.

All three cars were destroyed by fire, which also caused scorch damage to the house, but the officer, his wife, and daughterwho were asleep at homewere not injured.

We are investigating this as an incident of arson. This was a completely reckless attack which could have had serious consequences, Detective Chief Inspector Dunny McCubbin said in a statement.

Thankfully, no injuries have been reported in what was a terrifying ordeal for the officer and his family. There are no words to describe those who would set fire to vehicles in the dark of night outside a family home when the occupants were asleep inside. Their actions stand in stark contrast to the officer who every day serves our community with dignity, respect, and courtesy, he added.

At the present time we are keeping an open mind as to the motivation behind this attack, however, a primary line of enquiry is that criminal elements may be responsible. Detectives have now initiated a full investigation, which I can assure the community will be thorough and robust.

McCubbin appealed to locals for information.

I would take this opportunity to appeal for the help of the people of Larne and further afield in identifying those responsible, he said.

Were you in the Glenarm Road area late last night of [sic] early this morning? Did you see anyone or anything you felt was suspicious? Do you have any information about this incident? No matter how small or insignificant it may seem, please get in touch.

Simon Byrne, the chief constable at the Police Service of Northern Ireland, condemned the attack.

I fully condemn this outrageous attack on the home of our officer. I have spoken to him this afternoon to offer him and his family my full support. There is no place in our society for this behaviour and it must stop, Byrne wrote on Twitter.

I fully condemn this outrageous attack on the home of our officer. I have spoken to him this afternoon to offer him and his family my full support. There is no place in our society for this behaviour and it must stop. https://t.co/rZSpxFfENB  Simon Byrne (@ChiefConPSNI) April 29, 2021

Naomi Long, justice minister of Northern Ireland, said the attack was appalling and cowardly.

I dont underestimate the distress that is caused by an incident of this nature at a family home, LBC quoted Long as saying.

Our police officers put their lives on the line on a daily basis to keep us all safe. My thoughts are with this officer, their family, and colleagues, she added.

This violence achieves absolutely nothing and needs to stop.

In a separate incident on Monday, police found a bomb near the home of a part-time police officer in Dungiven, a town in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
A California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) officer stands guard at the front gate of San Quentin State Prison in San Quentin, Calif., on June 29, 2020. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

76,000 California Violent, Repeat Felons Get Earlier Releases

SACRAMENTOCalifornia is giving 76,000 inmates, including violent and repeat felons, the opportunity to leave prison earlier as the state aims to further trim the population of what once was the nations largest state correctional system.

More than 63,000 inmates convicted of violent crimes will be eligible for good behavior credits that shorten their sentences by one-third instead of the one-fifth that had been in place since 2017. That includes nearly 20,000 inmates who are serving life sentences with the possibility of parole.

The new rules take effect Saturday but it will be months or years before any inmates go free earlier. Corrections officials say the goal is to reward inmates who better themselves while critics said the move will endanger the public.

Under the change, more than 10,000 prisoners convicted of a second serious but nonviolent offense under the states three strikes law will be eligible for release after serving half their sentences. Thats an increase from the current time-served credit of one-third of their sentence.

The same increased release time will apply to nearly 2,900 nonviolent third strikers, the corrections department projected.

Also as of Saturday, all minimum-security inmates in work camps, including those in firefighting camps, will be eligible for the same month of earlier release for every month they spend in the camp, regardless of the severity of their crime.

The changes were approved this week by the state Office of Administrative Law.

The goal is to increase incentives for the incarcerated population to practice good behavior and follow the rules while serving their time, and participate in rehabilitative and educational programs, which will lead to safer prisons, department spokeswoman Dana Simas said in a statement.

Additionally, these changes would help to reduce the prison population by allowing incarcerated persons to earn their way home sooner, she said.

Simas provided the emergency regulations and estimates of how many inmates they will affect at the request of The Associated Press.

Simas said the department was granted authority to make the changes through the rulemaking process and under the current budget. By making them emergency regulations the agency could impose the new rules without public comment.

The department now must submit permanent regulations next year. They will be considered a public hearing and opportunity for public comment.

Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation that represents crime victims, said the notion that the credits are for good behavior is a misnomer.

You dont have to be good to get good time credits. People who lose good time credits for misconduct get them back, they dont stay gone, he said. They could be a useful device for managing the population if they had more teeth in them. But they dont. Theyre in reality just a giveaway.

Republican state Sen. Jim Nielsen, who once headed the state parole board, criticized Gov. Gavin Newsoms administration for unilaterally deciding to make the changes.

Sen. Jim Nielsen (R-Tehama), left, during a news conference in Sacramento, Calif., on April 28, 2020. (Rich Pedroncelli/File Photo via AP)

Hes doing it on his own authority, instead of the will of the people through their elected representatives or directly through their own votes, Nielsen said. This is what I call Newsoms time off for bad behavior. Hes putting us all at greater risk and there seems to be no end to the degree to which he wants to do that.

California has been under court orders to reduce a prison population that peaked at 160,000 in 2006 and saw inmates being housed in gymnasiums and activity rooms. In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court backed federal judges requirement that the state reduce overcrowding.

The population has been declining since the high courts decision, starting when the state began keeping lower-level felons in county jails instead of state prisons. In 2014, voters reduced penalties for property and drug crimes. Two years later, voters approved allowing earlier parole for most inmates.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the population had dropped to 117,00 inmates. In the last year, 21,000 more have left state prisonswith about half being held temporarily in county jails.

Meantime, officials announced in mid-April that they will close a second prison as a result of the dwindling population, fulfilling a promise made by Newsom. California Correctional Center in Susanville will close by July 2022. Officials announced last fall that Deuel Vocational Institution in Tracy, east of San Francisco, will close by this October.

Many Democratic lawmakers and advocacy groups have been calling for further releases or shorter sentences. Californians United for a Responsible Budget, for instance, earlier in April said the state should shutter at least 10 more of its 35 prisons.

Faye Maloney, chairwoman of the California Narcotic Officers Association, attends the anti-SB-82 rally in Oakland, Calif., on April 30, 2021. (Mark Cao/The Epoch Times)

Petty Theft Bill

Some Californians have expressed concern about laws becoming more lenient toward criminals.

Senate Bill 82 (SB-82), introduced by Senator Nancy Skinner, would redefine the crime of petty theft.

Opponents of the bill held a rally on April 30 at Skinners office in Oakland to stop the bill.

So this is going to give the option that, if the item thats being stolen [is] less than a certain amount of money, even though its by force or fear, that its no longer a robbery or no longer stands for the punishment of or the correction of a robbery. So that is not okay, because its going to empower many individuals to commit robbery, Faye Maloney, chairwoman of the California Narcotic Officers Association, told NTD Television.

According to the bill, if the robbery is under $950, no gun is used, and the victim is not seriously injured, it would be considered a petty theft instead of a felony.

This is not acceptable. We, especially our elderly, need to feel safe, Greg Tanaka, council member of the City of Palo Alto, said at the rally.

Any robbery is a felony, Frank Lee, president of the Organization for Justice and Equality, told NTD Television. And if a robbery involves the use of a weapon or serious injury, then it would go to a higher level, aggravated felony. So Skinner is going the opposite direction. Therefore, everybody is frustrated.

When they reached out to Skinners office, she offered amendments to the bill, he said.

Lee said that amendments dont mean much if the essence of the bill isnt changed.

Opponents are asking Skinner to withdraw SB-82 altogether. The bill is currently on hold.

Ilene Eng contributed to this report.
White House senior adviser Stephen Miller at an event at the White House in Washington on July 8, 2020. (Anna Moneymaker-Pool/Getty Images)

America First Legal Pursuing Lawsuit Against Critical Race Theory: Stephen Miller

America First Legal (AFL) is pursuing a lawsuit to stop critical race theory (CRT) training in the federal government, according to Stephen Miller, a White House adviser during the Trump administration.

Were also looking for plaintiffsif we can find themwho are willing to stand up and file suit on critical race theory, he said during an interview with Fox News.

Miller encouraged federal workers who have been compelled to participate in CRT training to join the effort.

Go to our website and tell us what happened to you, he said.

The White House and the Justice Department didnt immediately respond to requests by The Epoch Times for comment.

President Joe Biden signs a series of executive orders at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office just hours after his inauguration in Washington on Jan. 20, 2021. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Critical race theorywhich espouses the idea that race is not natural, but socially constructed to oppress and exploit people of coloris an offshoot of the Karl Marx-influenced critical theory social philosophy that was promoted by the Frankfurt School of thought.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning CRT training in federal agencies in September 2020 with the White House describing it as anti-American propaganda.

However, this socialist ideology has been embraced by President Joe Biden and his administration. He reversed Trumps September 2020 executive order right after he came into the White House and pushed CRT training on all fronts.

The Biden administrations efforts triggered widespread pushback from federal and state Republican lawmakers, conservatives and related organizations, and parents.

In an April 27 letter, Reps. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) and Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) warned Education Secretary Miguel Cardona about pushing CRT in the education system.

Simply put, the teachings of Critical Race Theory want to reject the principles established in our Constitution and our individual God-given rights, and instead divide individuals into competing racial identity groups while doing little to help minority students advance, they wrote in the letter.

AFL is a legal group founded by Trump-era officials to promote the America First agenda and push back against leftist radical movements in the United States.

Several high-profile officials from the Trump administration including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, and former Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russ Vought joined the AFL board of directors along with Miller.

AFL filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration and joined two other lawsuits within one month of its establishment.

For decades, left-leaning lawyer organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have been pushing liberal agendas through legal fights in various courts. The ACLU reportedly raised just under $120 million in online donations and its members increased to 1.84 million from 400,000 within a year and a half after Trump won the 2016 presidential election.

However, legal efforts from the conservative side to push back against the left-leaning agenda are relatively small and not as well established.

Miller urged Republicans and conservatives to fight back instead of just focusing on raising their families, living their lives, pursuing their dreams.

We have to save our country and fight back, just like [the hardcore leftists] do. Instead of fighting to destroy, we will fight to rescue, he said.
Military delegates leave after China's rubber-stamp legislatures conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, on March 8, 2021. (Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images)

Amid China-US Maritime Tension, Chinese Rear Admiral Is Sacked

Song Xue, a rear admiral and deputy chief of staff of the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) Navy was removed from his post as a delegate to the regimes rubber-stamp legislature and suspected of serious violation of discipline and law, according to a notice from the Standing Committee of the legislature on April 29.

According to an article by the Beijing Youth Daily WeChat official account Politics and Insights, the notice stated that in the past six years, Song was the first high-ranking navy general sacked after Cheng Jie, deputy chief of staff of the North Sea Fleet of the Navy, who was put under investigation in 2015.

It also indicated that five military delegates to the legislature were previously disqualified because of serious violations of discipline. However, Song is the first military official who is suspected of serious violations.

According to the article, Xongs purge is believed to be a signal that Xi Jinpings anti-corruption effort in the army has been enhanced.

Song, 62, used to be deputy chief of the navys equipment department. He became a deputy to the legislature in February 2018.

Song was once the secretary of late navy deputy commander He Pengfei, and he is therefore known as a member of the former military officials secretary gang. These powerful secretaries of state-level officials were often promoted to hold high-ranking positions and their deep involvement in corruption cases has them labeled as the secretary gang. It is therefore believed that Song was removed because of suspected involvement in corruption.

After Xu Caihou, former party leader Jiang Zemins military spokesperson and former vice-chairman of the CCPs Military Commission was purged in March 2014, Xi Jinpings anti-corruption campaign started to target Xu Caihous military connections in northeastern China. Xu started his career in Northeastern China and was given the name of northeastern tiger.

An article titled Connections, Father-son Relationships, Secretary Relationships of Generals in Active Duty After 2012 went viral online on July 14, 2014. The article exposed the list of the CCPs army princelings and secretary gangs. The list was subsequently deleted from the Chinese network.

Recently, the United States and Chinese navies have engaged in unprecedented large-scale maritime confrontations, involving countries such as Japan and Taiwan in the north, Australia and Indonesia in the south, and the Philippines in the east. From the East China Sea to the Taiwan Strait to the South China Sea in the surrounding areas of China, a series of mutual deterrence campaigns between the U.S. and Chinas naval forces marks the escalation of a Cold War.

Song had made many public appearances to the outside world to promote the construction and development of the communist navys aircraft carriers.

According to the regimes mouthpiece Xinhua News in 2012, The media disclosed for the first time the details of the entire process of the J-15 landing on the Liaoning aircraft carrier. In this article, Song was interviewed as deputy commander-in-chief of takeoff and landing test mission of J-15 carrier-based aircraft.

The Politics and Insights article also explained that Song accepted multiple interviews to talk about the construction of Chinese carriers. For instance, in April 2013, he said that thousands of Chinese companies professional in technical systems such as ships, aviation, and electronics, had participated in the construction of the first Chinese carrier.
An arrest was made April 28, 2021 in connection with the 1980 sexual assault and murder of 79-year-old Viola Hagenkord. (Courtesy of the Anaheim Police Department)

Anaheim Police Make Arrest in 1980 Cold Case

Anaheim police say a New Mexico man has been arrested in connection with the decades-old sexual assault and murder of a 79-year-old woman.

The case began Feb. 18, 1980, when Viola Hagenkord was found dead on her apartment floor. Before being killed, she had been sexually assaulted inside her home, on the 2500 block of W. Winston Road.

A neighbor discovered her body after residents grew concerned about not seeing her for two days.

The case went cold until 2020, when Anaheims homicide unit reopened the file.

We continue to hunt down anybody responsible for homicides regardless of how much time has gone by, Anaheim Police spokesperson Sgt. Shane Carringer told The Epoch Times. Advancement in DNA technology made this case solvable now when it wasnt 41 years ago.

In collaboration with the Orange County crime lab and FBIs Orange County violent crime task force, William Lepere was identified as a top suspect, police said.

At the time of the murder, Lepere was a California resident and had family in Hagenkords surrounding area, Carringer said.

Lepere, now 64, was arrested April 28 at his New Mexico home. He is being extradited to Orange County, where he faces a special circumstances murder charge.
Work is done on a new border wall being constructed in Jacumba, Calif., on Jan. 22, 2021. (Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)

Biden Administration Cancels Military-Funded Border Wall Projects

The Department of Defense (DOD) announced it is canceling U.S.-Mexico border wall construction efforts that were paid with funds that were initially allocated for the military.

Former President Donald Trump ordered the diversion of billions of dollars in military and defense funds toward building the wall, using his emergency executive powers.

The Department of Defense is proceeding with canceling all border barrier construction projects paid for with funds originally intended for other military missions and functions such as schools for military children, overseas military construction projects in partner nations, and the National Guard and Reserve equipment account, said Jamal Brown, a spokesperson for the Pentagon, in a statement.

Brown said the returned funds will now be used for deferred military construction projects.

DOD has begun taking all necessary actions to cancel border barrier projects and to coordinate with interagency partners. Todays action reflects this Administrations continued commitment to defending our nation and supporting our service members and their families, he said.

The Department of Homeland Security also announced on Friday that it would take steps to address physical dangers resulting from the previous administrations approach to border wall construction.

The decision is expected to draw criticism from Republicans.

GOP Congress members have previously accused President Joe Biden of illegally halting congressionally approved border wall construction projects, while the Government Accountability Office is investigating whether the administration acted illegally.

Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) described Fridays move as a national security threat.

Having a secure, defined border is important to our national security & public health efforts. This is an ill-advised decision at best, he wrote on Twitter.

Illegal immigration has become an issue for Biden as his administration has dealt with a surge of illegal immigrants and unaccompanied minors along the southern border. Several weeks after taking office in January, Biden signed executive orders rescinding several of Trumps policies, including the remain in Mexico initiative.

Even some Democrats have faulted the president for his messaging, including Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), who said the president has not laid out a comprehensive immigration plan so far.

While I share President Bidens urgency in fixing our broken immigration system, what I didnt hear tonight was a plan to address the immediate crisis at the border, he stated, referring to Bidens speech to Congress on Wednesday. And I will continue holding this administration accountable to deliver the resources and staffing necessary for a humane, orderly process.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Blighted San Francisco Diagnoses Its Perilous Trifectaand Bungles the Cure

San Francisco is coming undone. In recent years, the city has manifested a series of visible and persistent inequalities, with a spoils-to-the-victor world for its technological elite, and a chaotic, brutalized world for its dispossessed. In the citys Tenderloin district, men openly hawk drugs on the street corners, desperate addicts are crumpled across the sidewalks, and first responders dart through the chaos to revive overdose victims.

The city has become a web of contradictions. There are thousands of new millionaires, and, by the latest estimates, 18,000 people in and out of homelessness. The headquarters of Uber, Twitter, and Square are blocks away from the open-air drug markets of the Tenderloin, Mid-Market, and SoMa. Wealthy families attending an art opening at the Civic Center have to cross through the tent encampments that line the sidewalks.

Residents, property owners, and small businesseswho pay an enormous premium to live and work in San Franciscohave begun to erupt in frustration. Citizens tell pollsters that homelessness is the citys most pressing issue and business owners tell pollsters that conditions on [the] streets have progressively deteriorated.

City Hall has begun coming to terms with the crisis. Mayor London Breed recently hired a director of mental health reform, Dr. Anton Nigusse Bland, who compiled a statistical summary of the problem. People have long known that San Francisco has a homelessness problem, but Nigusse Bland discovered a population-within-a-populationthe so-called perilous trifecta: 4,000 men and women who are simultaneously homeless, psychotic, and addicted to alcohol, meth, or heroin. About 70 percent of them have been on the streets for more than five years; 40 percent have been on the streets for more than 13 years.

This is the citys fundamental predicament. How do you help people in the grips of the perilous trifecta? What interventions could make progress? Where do social workers even start? Its almost impossible to understate the depths of this challenge.

An aerial view of San Franciscos first temporary sanctioned tent encampment for the homeless in San Francisco, Calif., on May 18, 2020. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

San Franciscos current policy toward the perilous trifecta can be best described as compassionate neglect. Every year, the chronically homeless cycle through the institutions of the socialized state, from hospitals, jails, and shelters, to sobering centers, case management appointments, and 72-hour psychiatric holds. Local government provides enough to meet an outward standard of compassion, but not enough to alter the trajectories of the homeless. The result is a disaster, which has drawn criticism across the political spectrum. Progressives are demanding more funding for existing programs, while moderates are bewildered by the eternal recurrence of tents, needles, and feces in their neighborhoods.

The current policy regime can be divided into three domainsthe hospital, the jail, and the subsidized apartment. Together, these institutions represent the new orthodoxy of the modern urban approach: Homelessness is reduced to a set of social-scientific variables, to be manipulated through the intensive application of the medical and social sciences.

As part of its medical system, San Francisco currently spends more than $255 million per year on mental health and substance abuse programs, many of which cater to the citys homeless. In a recent audit of the behavioral health system, the citys budget and legislative analyst found that 70 percent of all psychiatric emergency visits involved a homeless individual and that 66 percent of all visitors had co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders. In total, the top 5 percent of super-users, totaling 2,239 adults, the majority of whom fall into the perilous trifecta, accounted for 52 percent of total systemwide service use. Doctors at San Francisco General see the same set of patients so frequently that they have developed an entire vocabulary to describe the population that circles in and out of their doors.

The jail system is next. According to the San Francisco County Jail, the homeless account for 40 percent of all inmatesdespite being less than 1 percent of the citys overall population, and even after San Francisco decriminalized many quality-of-life crimes associated with homelessness. Again, the perilous trifecta looms large. Inmates with co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders are more likely to be homeless and more likely to be charged with a violent crime compared to the general jail population. The pithy observation about deinstitutionalization is largely true: The people who might have once lived in the state mental hospital have simply been transferred to the county jail.

Finally, the public-housing complex is the new great hope, and fastest-growing public expenditure, for the homeless. Like many major West Coast cities, San Francisco has gone all in on Housing First, the theory that the municipal government must provide free housing for the homeless in perpetuity, with no expectations of sobriety, work, or participation in rehabilitation programs. For a city with a recurring homeless population of 18,000, this is an enormous expense. In 2019, San Francisco spent $285 million on shelters and permanent supportive housing, plus $65 million on traditional public housing, vouchers, and SRO units. At the same time, voters passed an additional $600 million bond to build affordable housing. But still, 67 percent of the Bay Areas homeless are unsheltered.

Even as they tout evidence-based interventions, data-driven solutions, and best practices, leaders in San Francisco have recognized the failure of the current system and proposed an ambitious reform agenda. However, in broad terms, this agenda only deepens its dependency on the social-scientific model and doubles-down on its worst assumptions. It can be summarized this way: deinstitutionalization, destigmatization, and decriminalization.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed speaks during a news conference outside of Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital in San Francisco, Calif., on March 17, 2021. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

In 2019, Mayor Breed and Supervisors Matt Haney and Hillary Ronen championed legislation for sweeping mental health reform. The plan would increase total spending on mental health and substance abuse to $500 million per year, and prioritize the homeless, create a central service center, and pressure private insurers to cover more costs. When it passed unanimously through the Board of Supervisors, Ronen celebrated it as a progressive milestone: We just created the first universal mental health and substance use system in the country.

But this universality is only a theoretical formulation. The legislation does not include a funding source and, more important, simply expands the existing behavioral health system rather than reforming it. For the perilous trifecta, the problem is often not access to services, but participation in services. According to the latest one-night count, only 17 percent of the homeless reported using mental health services and only 11 percent reported using substance abuse services. For the unsheltered population, these figures are almost certainly lower.

The problem is that members of the perilous trifecta are the least likely to seek services. According to the Treatment Advocacy Center, approximately half the patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder suffer from anosognosia, which is the inability to understand their own disorder, often leading to a refusal to enter treatment and take medication. Adding a serious addiction to methamphetamine, which can cause paranoia, psychosis, hallucinations, and violent behavior, only compounds the problem.

In the past, the solution to this paradox was a compulsion. The state took custody of the gravely disabled and treated them in long-term residential institutions. However, with the exposure of civil rights abuses and the release of Ken Keseys 1962 novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, the United States gradually dismantled its mental health system, reducing the number of mental health beds per capita by an astonishing 95 percent between 1955 and 2016. Today, California has fewer beds per capita than the national average, with San Francisco having only 219 adult psychiatric beds available at a given timedrastically insufficient for the number of people in need.

Although Mayor Breed has tentatively moved towards a return to short-term conservatorships, a form of involuntary commitment for individuals who present a grave danger to themselves or others, the plan has neither the scope nor the force to significantly reduce the numbers of the perilous trifecta. Because of pressure from disability activists and the ACLU, which have called conservatorships the greatest deprivation of civil liberties aside from the death penalty, the plan is limited to individuals who have had eight or more involuntary psychiatric holds in the past year, which, in practice, would mean less than 100 people citywide.

Mayor Breed did not return a request for comment.

Many progressive socialists argue that there is too much force in the system, not too little. San Franciscos district attorney, Chesa Boudin, took office in January 2020 pledging to substantially reduce the county jail population, end cash bail, and decriminalize quality-of-life crimes associated with homelessness, including public camping, drug consumption, prostitution, and public urination. Boudin contends that the criminal justice system in San Francisco is a domain of persistent inequalitieslocking up a disproportionate number of poor and minority residentsand has become the dumping ground for the addicted and mentally ill. Rather than continue this system, Boudin argues, the city must implement a comprehensive transformation of the criminal justice system to decriminalize and treat mental illness, housing instability, and substance use as public health issues rather than criminal justice issues.

Boudins formulation does align with a single-day snapshot of the San Francisco County Jail population from 2016, which found that 48 percent of inmates were African American, 70 percent self-reported substance abuse, and 10 percent were deemed to have a serious mental illness. However, the narrative that the city is somehow targeting non-violent drug offenders and criminalizing homeless is specious. The snapshot also shows that 68 percent of inmates were arrested for violence, weapons possession, and serious felonies. Contrary to progressive rhetoric, only 4 percent were arrested for drug crimesa vanishingly small number of people for a city in the midst of a heroin and methamphetamine epidemic.

Chesa Boudin (L), Leif Dautch (C), and Nancy Tung (R) on Sept. 4, 2019. (Nancy Han/NTD)

The hard reality is that the perilous trifecta has fueled a boom in property crime and public disorder. In 2019, at least 1,120 individuals in the trifecta spent time in the county jail. Although the homicide rate remained static during Boudins first-year office, burglaries have soared in a city that already had one of the highest property crime rates in the nation, while authorities enabled massive open-air drug markets in neighborhoods like the Tenderloin, which is a central hub for the homeless population.

The nexus between homelessness, addiction, and crime is clear: According to city and federal data, virtually all of the unsheltered homeless are unemployed, while at the same time, those with serious addictions spend an average of $1,256 to $1,834 a month on methamphetamine and heroin. With no legitimate source of income, many addicts support their habit through a hustle, which can include fraud, prostitution, car break-ins, burglaries of residences and business, and other forms of theft.

Boudins plan to decriminalize such property offensesthe mirror opposite of the low-tolerance broken windows approach adopted in the late 1980s as crime rates began historic declineshas contributed to the sense that he is not holding criminals accountable. In 2019, the city had an incredible 25,667 smash-and-grabs, as thieves sought valuables and other property from cars to sell on the black market. The following year, rather than attempt to prevent or even disincentivize this crime, Boudin has proposed a $1.5 million fund to pay for auto glass repair, arguing that it will help put money into San Francisco jobs and San Francisco businesses. In literal terms, Boudin is subsidizing broken windows, under the notion that it can be transformed into a job-creation program.

Boudin did not return a request for comment.

Some San Franciscans are pushing back. Earlier this year, a group of residents and business owners launched a recall effort targeting Boudin, arguing that his policies have enabled crime and not done enough to protect victims.

The final plank of San Franciscos policy platform is destigmatization. Public health experts in the city have gradually abandoned recovery and sobriety as the ideal outcome, preferring the limited goal of harm reduction. In a recent task force report on methamphetamine, the San Francisco Public Health Department noted that meth users are likely to experience high levels of stigma and rejection in their personal and social lives, which are often reinforced by language and media portrayals depicting individuals who use alongside images of immorality, having chaotic lives, and perpetual use.

On the surface, this is a strange contention. If San Franciscos perilous trifecta is any guide, methamphetamine use is heavily correlated with chaotic lives, perpetual drug abuse, crimes against others, and various transgressions against traditional morality. The harm reductionists argument, however, rests on the belief that addiction is an involuntary brain disease, akin to Alzheimers or dementia. In this view, addiction is better seen as a disability, and any stigma associated with it is therefore an act of ignorance and cruelty. According to the Department of Public Health, the goal of harm reduction policy is to reduce this unjustified stigma and focus public policy on non-abstinence-based residential treatment programs, supervised injection services, trauma-informed sobering site[s], and training for staff on how to engage marginalized or vulnerable communities in ways that do not perpetuate trauma or stigma.

In practice, the task force recommendations would create an entire infrastructure to service addiction, rather than to reduce it. Although proponents of harm reduction claim the mantle of compassion, its a fatalistic theory. It assumes that most people cannot recover from serious addiction and, therefore, the social obligation is to provide the space and resources for addicts to pursue their own ends, which, for 40 percent of the perilous trifecta population, means 13 or more years in and out of homelessness. Activists have suggested that addicts can reduce harms by [using] indoors instead of on the street, reducing how much [they are] using, transitioning from injecting to smoking, and continuing to use one type of drug but quitting another drug. But in the face of the pathological overload of the perilous trifecta, these recommendations are negligently naive, relegating a large portion of the homeless to a lifetime of chaos, sickness, and despair.

A homeless person sleeps on a bench in front of closed retail stores in San Francisco, Calif., on April 16, 2021. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

In the long term, the real danger of destigmatization is that it would lead to the normalization of serious addiction and its consequences. In San Francisco, progressives have attempted to normalize the worst aspects of street homelessness, minimizing drug use, toxic waste, psychotic episodes, and related crimes; they have blurred the lines between sickness and health, madness and sanity. Moreover, without a trace of irony, they have weaponized destigmatization itself, stigmatizing anyone who opposes the breakdown of public order as fascists and homeless haters.

The implicit wager of San Franciscos policy is that the social-scientific apparatus can rescue people faster than the perilous trifecta expands its ranks. But the evidence suggests the opposite: that San Francisco has become a magnet for the troubled homeless. Methamphetamine deaths are up nearly 400 percent over the past five years; fentanyl overdoses doubled between 2019 and 2020. Meanwhile, the socialized state has reached a point of near exhaustion. First responders, police officers, and emergency room nurses are burning out. Psychiatrists at San Francisco General Hospital despair about the mass migration of out-of-state residents in search of the San Francisco Special: housing, a psychiatrist, case manager, primary care provider, and transfer of Medicaid or general assistance.

The political class has insisted on greater control over the corporations, developers, and landlords, while deregulating life at the bottom. The result has been a deepening inequality, and an even more anarchic world for the poor. There is an entire social media community of mostly anonymous accounts who document the squalor of the encampments and psychotic episodes in the streets; they are the last resistance to the normalization of the perilous trifecta, and maintain their anonymity, it seems, out of fear of retribution. Its a dark reality, but perhaps a warning of whats to come.

In the end, San Francisco finds itself fighting a monster. Homelessness isnt just a problem; its a symptom, says its mayor. The symptom of unaffordable housing, of income inequality, of institutional racism, of addiction, untreated illness, and decades of disinvestment. These are the problems. And if were going to fight homelessness, weve got to fight them all. But this is part of the reason homelessness has become so intractablethe political class has haunted its own world with abstractions; it has projected its own ideological premises onto the brutal reality of the streets.

This article was written by Christopher F. Rufo for RealClearInvestigations.

Christopher F. Rufo is a senior fellow of the Manhattan Institute and contributing editor of City Journal.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-02 06:50:54|Editor: huaxia

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SANTIAGO, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Chilean President Sebastian Pinera announced on Saturday that the country will accelerate its mass vaccination program against COVID-19 after already having 6.6 million people fully vaccinated.

Pinera reported that starting next week, the vaccination program will expand to reach younger people "early," and in the next two weeks, the government plans to vaccinate people between 35 and 44 years of age.

The president also stated that the vaccination of pregnant women, which began earlier this week, complies with "all the rules and protocols established by the health authority."

He explained that the speeding up of mass vaccinations can be done thanks to the fact that the Chilean government has closed contracts that will give it access to a total of 40 million doses of vaccines this year.

More than 7 million people are expected to be fully vaccinated by the time constituent elections will be held in the country on May 15 and 16, when citizens will choose representatives to draft the country's new constitution.

According to the latest report from the Chilean government, to date, 14,777,093 doses of vaccines have been administered, with 8,083,408 people having received the first dose and 6,693,685 people having received both doses.

Chile began its mass vaccination program in February after first inoculating health personnel in December 2020 and January 2021. Enditem
People look out from a damaged buidling a day after a car bomb attack in the Pul-e-Alam area in Logar province on May 1, 2021. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)

Car Bomb Kills 27 in Afghanistans Eastern Logar Province

KABULA huge car bomb blast killed at least 27 people and injured dozens more in Afghanistans eastern Logar province on Friday evening, with high school students among the casualties, local officials said.

The car packed with explosives detonated in Logars capital of Pul-e Alam near the house of the former head of the provincial council, Didar Lawang, the spokesman for Logars governor, said.

The house also operated as a guesthouse and the blast had struck just as guests were breaking their fast during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, according to the head of Logars provincial council, Hasibullah Stanekzai, who told Reuters 27 people had been killed and dozens more wounded.

He said among the casualties were high school students who had been staying at the house, having travelled to the capital to sit their university entrance exam, as well as pro-government militia members who were staying there while waiting for air transport to another distinct.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the blast. A spokesman for the insurgent Taliban said in response to Reuters questions that they were looking into the matter.

Relatives stand near victims a day after a car bomb attack in the Pul-e-Alam area in Logar province on May 1, 2021. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)

Violence in Afghanistan has escalated in recent weeks after U.S. President Joe Biden announced the United States would withdraw troops by Sept. 11 to end two decades of foreign military presence.

That decision angered the Taliban who had signed a deal with previous U.S. President Donald Trump that specified troops would be gone from the country by May 1 subject to certain security guarantees.

Interior ministry spokesman Tariq Arian said 21 people had been killed and 91 wounded and that a rescue and recovery operation was continuing.

A provincial health official said just over 60 injured people had been taken to hospital and many students were among the victims.

The European Unions delegation to Afghanistan condemned the attack.

In the holy month of Ramadan, horrible news on a car bomb in Pul-e-Alam, Logar province, killing and injuring innocent civilians, including students.this is a tragedy for the whole country, it said on Twitter.

By Abdul Qadir Sediqi and Orooj Hakimi
China in Focus (April 30): Indian Variant of CCP Virus Found in China

The Indian variant of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus has been found in China. The discovery has drawn attention from hundreds of millions of people there.

As thousands succumb to the virus in India, China may be taking advantage of the situation. Beijing is now further asserting its territorial claims along their shared border.

Communist Chinas first-ever anti-spy law takes effect. Authorities will now offer rewards for those that report rule-breakers.

We look at why the United States should care about Taiwan and whether America will defend the island, should Beijing decide to invade. Experts explain that Taiwans security has a lot to do with the safety of Americans.

Beijing has quietly taken control of energy suppliers around the world. But whats behind its unique shopping list? We explain in a special report.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more first-hand news from China.

For more news and videos, please visit our website and Twitter.
A man walks past an advertisement for the WeChat social media platform, owned by Tencent, at Hong Kong International Airport on Aug. 21, 2017. (Richard A. Brooks/AFP/Getty Images)

Chinese Regime Clamps Down on 13 Tech Giants

On April 29, 13 internet platform providers engaged in finance services were summoned to a meeting in Beijing with regulators, the latest in a series of meetings aimed at tightening control over its homegrown internet giants.

WeChat operator Tencent Holdings Ltd. and the on-demand delivery giant Meituan are among those tech firms which offer financial services like personal loans and insurance policies on their mobile apps.

Earlier this month, Ant Group, e-commerce giant Alibabas financial wing, confirmed that it would transform into a financial holding company overseen by Chinas central bank after its representatives were summoned to a meeting with the regimes regulators.

Ants groups case had some warning effect, but other financial platforms remain in a wait-and-see mode, reported state-run media Xinhua News.

Companies were told to proactively restructure their financial wings as holding companies subject to more rigorous supervision and obtain licenses before launching financial services, according to a statement issued by four regulators, the Peoples Bank of China, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

Meanwhile, Reuters analyzed on April 29 that Tencent could be made an example of with a penalty of at least $1.5 billion for its monopolistic practices and not properly reporting acquisitions and investments for antitrust reviews.

State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), another regulator, imposed a record $2.8 billion fine on Alibabas Ant Group on April 10, claiming for its anti-competitive behaviors.

Shares in Meituan dropped 3.6 percent and Tencent fell 1.8 percent Friday in Hong Kong.

The meeting signals that the authorities have a systematic plan to rein in big private firms, Lu Zhenning, a scholar in sociology at Zhejiang University, told Free Radio Asia.

It is quite possible that [the regime] will transform them into the state-owned as the next step. The state will purchase its shares and even become a controlling holder, warned Lu.

Thirty-four big internet companies were summoned to a meeting in Beijing on April 13 by the SAMR, and were given one month to rectify monopolistic practices.
Cyber Ninjas owner Doug Logan talks about overseeing a 2020 election ballot audit ordered by the Arizona Senate at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, during a news conference in Phoenix, Ariz., on April 22, 2021. (Ross D. Franklin/AP Photo)

Firm Overseeing Arizona Election Audit Says Court Released Security Plan to Public

The Florida-based firm thats overseeing the 2020 election audit in Arizonas largest county on April 30 claimed that a court released its security plan to the public, despite knowing it was meant to be shielded from public view.

Cyber Ninjas submitted a slew of documents to the Maricopa County Superior Court in response to a recent ruling by Judge Daniel Martin, who rejected an attempt to file the documents under seal because of their sensitive nature and ordered them filed by noon local time on April 29.

But even the plaintiffs in the case, the Arizona Democratic Party, agreed that one exhibit, which gave an overview of the security for the audit, should be withheld from the public.

The seven-page plan appeared on the website of the court on April 29; it was available for anyone to view and download. The Epoch Times obtained the plan while it was publicly accessible.

According to a request for an emergency hearing, the court was aware the filing was meant to be shielded but still published it online for anyone to see.

At 11:02 a.m., about an hour before the deadline, lawyers for Cyber Ninjas informed Martins judicial assistant that the exhibit shouldnt be publicly released. They offered to send over a stipulated motion saying as much.

The court, approximately 30 minutes later, asked for the motion. Lawyers drafted the motion and sent it to all parties involved. The court at 12:58 p.m. asked about the motion, and lawyers promptly informed the assistant that all parties had been provided with the proposed motion and they were waiting for approval. At 3:32 p.m., Cyber Ninjas filed the stipulation. Three minutes later, the judicial assistant responded, Thank you.

Additionally, the courts clerk said in an entry from 3:20 p.m. that it received the stipulation and that the exhibit would be sealed.

But the security plans, known as Exhibit D9, were still released to the public.

A general view of Veterans Memorial Coliseum shows ballots being reviewed during an audit of the 2020 election, in Phoenix, on April 29, 2021. (Rob Schumacher/The Arizona Republic via AP/Pool)

Although the Court had knowledge since 11:02 am that the Parties agreed that Exhibit D9 should be sealed and not made available to the public, the Court released Exhibit D9 to the public via Maricopa Countys Clerk of the Superior Court website, Cyber Ninjas lawyers wrote in the request for a hearing.

The exhibit began to appear on the internet after 6 p.m. and later that evening, a local media outlet published an article describing details of the exhibit.

The request was for an emergency status conference regarding what happened.

The court and Cyber Ninjas didnt respond to requests by The Epoch Times for comment.

Martin was appointed by a Democratic governor. He took over the case, an attempt to block the audit by Arizona Democrats, after another judge had recused himself. On April 28, Martin rebuffed a bid to immediately halt the audit.

The audit started on April 23 and is scheduled to continue until May 14. Workers are reviewing ballots cast and machines used in Maricopa County in the 2020 presidential election.
An officer from the New York Police Department places barricades outside the apartment building of Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, personal attorney to former President Donald Trump, in Manhattan, New York City, on April 28, 2021. (Andrew Kelly/Reuters)

Dershowitz: FBIs Raid of Giuliani Unconstitutional

The FBIs recent raid on an apartment owned by Rudy Giuliani, a lawyer for former President Donald Trump, violated the Constitution, according to constitutional expert Alan Dershowitz.

This was just a misuse of the search and seizure power. Initially, it was turned down; now it was approved, both by a judge and by the attorney general of the United States, so it wasnt lawless action, but I believe that they acted inconsistently with both the spirit and the letter of the Constitution and that there should be remedies for it, Dershowitz said on Newsmax on Saturday.

It should be done through subpoena, and that is the constitutional route to getting evidence, he added.

A search warrant being executed points to officials believing the subject would destroy evidence if the search was not carried out. But the lawyer knew that he was being investigated for months, so theres no basis for a search unless a subpoena was obtained, Dershowitz argued.

The 4th Amendment demands a subpoena in these situations, not a search warrant. What they did in this case was unconstitutional, he said.

Agents obtaining information that is covered by attorney-client privilege would taint prosecutors who may try to prosecute Giuliani, Dershowitz added, saying that he has advised Giulianis lawyers on a pro-bono basis to move to get the material back, have the government subjected to subpoena analysis, and force anybody who goes over the material to be from outside the prosecutors office, such as a judge.

The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Federal agents searched Giulianis home because of accusations he failed to register with the Department of Justice, which includes the FBI, according to the former New York City mayor. He disputed the allegation, saying he never represented a Ukrainian national or any foreign national.

Dershowitz sees the allegation as a way for investigators to continue to try to obtain damaging information against Trump.

I dont think they have anything on this registration because, really, Giuliani was representing an American; he was representing the president. He was doing investigations in the Ukraine to see if it can help his president, he said on Newsmax.

The White House has said it is not involved in the situation. The Department of Justice is independent now and theyre going to make their own decisions, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.

Trump lamented the raid on Fox Business, calling it very unfair.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks to the media about the cruise industry during a press conference at PortMiami in Miami, Fla., on April 8, 2021. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

DeSantis on Notion of Systemic Racism in America: A Bunch of Horse Manure

During an appearance on Fox News The Ingraham Angle, Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said that America is not a systemically racist country, calling the notion a bunch of horse manure.

Give me a break. This country has had more opportunity for more people than any country in the history of the world, DeSantis said.

And doesnt matter where you trace your ancestry from. Weve had people that have been able to succeed and all. And heres the problem with things like critical race theory that they are peddling. They are basically saying all our institutions are bankrupt and theyre illegitimate. Okay, so how do you have a society if everything in your society is illegitimate? said the governor.

DeSantis noted that critical race theory is getting banned in Florida public schools.

Its a very harmful ideology, and I would say really a race-based version of a Marxist-type ideology. So we banned it here in our schools in here Florida. We are not going to put any tax dollars to critical race theory. We want to treat people as individuals, not as members of groups.

Theres no room in our classrooms for things like critical race theory. Teaching kids to hate their country and to hate each other is not worth one red cent of taxpayer money, he said in March.

On April 27, Reps. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) and Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) wrote a letter (pdf) to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona saying that they have deep concern about a criterion prioritization recently proposed for a $5.3 million American History and Civics Education grant, which would give higher concern to courses that include the New York Times 1619 Project and the teachings of critical race theorist Ibram X. Kendi.

Students should learn about the uniqueness and greatness of the American systems and the challenges we have overcome as a nation, the letter reads. It is therefore counterproductive and even dangerous to allow our vulnerable school children to be taught the falsehoods prevalent in the 1619 Project or in Ibram X. Kendis How to Be an Anti-Racist.'

Former President Donald Trump is floating the idea of running for president in 2024 and might consider DeSantis as a running mate.

I endorsed Ron, and after I endorsed him, he took off like a rocket ship, Trump told Fox Business on April 29. Hes done a great job as governor. Im saying what I read and what you read, they love that ticket. Certainly, Ron would be considered. Hes a great guy.
A worker passes a Dominion Voting ballot scanner while setting up a polling location at an elementary school in Gwinnett County, Ga., outside of Atlanta on Jan. 4, 2021. (Ben Gray/AP Photo)

Dominion Worker Drops Newsmax From Lawsuit After Network Apologizes for Allegations

A Dominion Voting Systems worker has dropped a lawsuit against Newsmax after the broadcaster apologized to him for allegations it said were unfounded.

Newsmax apologized to Eric Coomer, Dominions director of product strategy and security, for covering claims by lawyers for former President Donald Trump and others that he played a role in manipulating Dominion voting machines, Dominion voting software, and the final vote counts in the 2020 presidential election.

Newsmax subsequently found no evidence that such allegations were true, the company said in a statement. Newsmax has found no evidence that Dr. Coomer interfered with Dominion voting machines or voting software in any way, nor that Dr. Coomer ever claimed to have done so. Nor has Newsmax found any evidence that Dr. Coomer ever participated in any conversation with members of Antifa, nor that he was directly involved with any partisan political organization.

We would like to apologize for any harm that our reporting of the allegations against Dr. Coomer may have caused to Dr. Coomer and his family, the network said. Coomer said in his lawsuit that he had gone into hiding because of death threats.

Coomer sued Newsmax, Trumps campaign, and others in December 2020, accusing them of defamation.

Defendants, by their actions, have elevated Dr. Coomer into the national spotlight, invaded his privacy, threatened his security, and fundamentally defamed his reputation across this country, the lawsuit said.

Coomer on Friday removed Newsmax from the suit. The other defendants have not been dropped.

Neither Newsmax nor a Coomer spokeswoman would comment on whether Coomer was paid anything to drop the company from his lawsuit.

Newsmax also said in its statement that many of the states whose results were contested by the Trump campaign after the November 2020 election have conducted extensive recounts and audits, and each of these states certified the results as legal and final.

An audit is currently taking place in Arizonas largest county but officials there have said it is meant to restore confidence in election integrity moving forward, not alter the results of the 2020 election. Dominion has referred to the process as a bootleg audit and criticized the firms chosen by Arizonas Senate to conduct the audit.

The Colorado-based company, which produces election machines and other equipment used in over half of the 50 states in the country, has been aggressive after a burst of allegations in the wake of the 2020 election. It has sued Fox News and MyPillows Mike Lindell, among others.

Newsmax previously issued a statement in response to a legal notice from Dominion, stating that it has not reported as true certain claims made about Dominion and Smartmatic, an election software firm.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Dr. Warren Farrell: Toxic Masculinity Origins and the Regressive Nature of Feminist Victimhood

What is a remarkable common link between the overwhelming majority of mass shootings in America?

Is male privilege really to blame for so much of societys ills?

And why is it a mistake for society to focus so much on the issues women face, while ignoring or not prioritizing challenges men might encounter?

To understand more about whats going on, I sat down with Dr. Warren Farrell, whos spent decades researching and writing about gender-related issues. He is the author of The Boy Crisis, The Myth of Male Power, and a number of other books. A longtime feminist, he is the only man elected three times to the Board of Directors of the National Organization for Women (NOW) in New York City.

Jan Jekielek: Warren Farrell, such a pleasure to have you on American Thought Leaders.

Dr. Warren Farrell: It is really a pleasure to have you in my home.

Mr. Jekielek: Well, its great to be here, Warren. Youve been doing a bit of work looking at some of these folks that have perpetrated mass shootings in the past, and youve drawn some conclusions about their histories and so forth. And of course, this is something that weve been seeing a number of times now in 2021. Tell me what youre seeing.

Dr. Farrell: Well, I see a number of things happening. One is theres common denominators among mass shooters. The most obvious is that theyre male; 98% are male. The second common denominator is that theyre almost all dad deprived males.

So you have two groups of mass shooters that enormously overlap. One is school shooters and the other are mass shooters that are shooting areas that are not schools.

But the school shooters in particular tend to be boys who are suicidal, depressed, and also dad deprived. That is like a recent school shooter in Indianapolis; his father committed suicide when he was just barely a teenager.

And that type of pattern, the father missing, getting a divorce, not being involved in the childs life at all. And the child feeling that he doesnt have a constructive role model to channel his testosterone feels that hes been abandoned.

Stephen Paddock, the biggest mass shooter in U.S. history who killed 59 people and 400 or 500 were injured in the shooting in Las Vegas. Some people remember his father had been in prison and then the father escaped prison. And then he was captured and put into a maximum security prison.

And Stephen kept hoping that he would come home, come home, come home and be with him again. And the father then instead tried to impress himself or whoever by escaping the maximum security prison. Again, just three or four weeks before he would otherwise have been free to come home and be with Stephen.

Stephen, according to his mother, was so devastated by the fact that his father made a choice to demonstrate his genius of being able to escape from a maximum security prison instead of coming home to him and being with him. He wanted to prove himself worthy of his father; to also be a genius.

So he constructed, he put together the most complex and heinously successful mass shooting in all of U.S. history. And its just a way of saying, Dad, Im like you are, pay attention to me. You cant ignore me. And why didnt you come home to me? Why werent you with me?

But these stories of whether its Adam Lanza or the Parkland shooting, and its one boy who is fatherless after another boy. The dad deprivation combined with being male oftentimes leads to depression and suicidal tendencies, mass shootings.

What we think of when we think of mass shootings is the people who are hurt. We dont realize that all of these people are hurt, are hurt by boys who are hurt, who are deprived of their dads, who are feeling neglected and depressed.

When boys become mass shooters, we are not sayingor I am not saying that they should not be fully punished and fully held accountable for this. Its a heinous crime that has to be held fully accountable.

And Im also saying we care about protecting ourselves both from mass shootings and also from the other things that the crimes that the boys who are both dad deprived and depressed and suicidal tend to do. And if were going to prevent those things from happening, we can catch the boy in the process of his grief and at the same time save ourselves.

So we have a win-win situation, care about boys and boys will act more constructively. Their testosterone will be channeled more constructively. Do not care about their feelings and their fears and whats happening with them. Not only will that boy pay the price, but often hell act out in a criminal way. Hell join a gang, hell be a drug dealer. Hell commit a crime, rob a bank, do something along those lines.

Hell just drop out of high school. Hell be a tax drainer rather than a taxpayer. He will not be able to be a good father to a female that is looking for a good father. He will create many, many prices for the society at the same time, as it will be a price on him.

And so one of the things I did when I did the research for this, for the boy crisis is I found what are the things that are signs of boys being hurt. And develop some 63, a whole inventory that I believe we should be giving to every boy and girl in school and ask them, do you have these experiences? Because if you have these experiences, these are red flags that the guidance counselors and the psychologists in school should be paying attention to.

For example, if one of the questions that is on the inventory is, do you feel that no one loves you and no one needs you, and theres no hope of that changing? Thats a huge red flag.

Another question is, do you feel that if you shared your real feelings with somebody who liked you, that they would lose respect for you? Are you Caucasian or Native American? Because if youre Caucasian or Native American, youre more likely to commit suicide than if youre Hispanic, African-American or Asian in the United States.

Most of the mass shooters are not only males but a good percentage of them, a disproportionate percentage of them are also Caucasian males. And what is there about Caucasian males? So we have to be asking these questions.

And one of the things that there are about Caucasian males is these Caucasian males are often middle or upper middle class. Whats happening in middle and upper middle class families that is not happening as much in Black families or African-American families? Its theres expectations that the boys have on them that often their sister or their brother has done well in a good school, and he has dropped out of high school.

And so hes beginning to feel ashamed of himself. And so he starts turning inward on himself and becomes depressed and then starts getting involved with alcohol or addiction to drugs or opioids, or begins to be addicted to video games. And then he becomes seen as a loser and girls as a rule dont want to date losers.

And so he starts turning to pornography because pornography is access to a variety of attractive women, without fear of rejection at a price he can afford. So he starts becoming addicted to one thing or the other. The more addicted he becomes, the more depressed he becomes.

And these are just a few of the multiple characteristics. The big news that Im saying; we have a way of preventing school shootings. We have a way of preventing mass shootings. And two of those ways are discovering the boys around us who are hurt because all the boys who hurt us are boys who hurt.

Mr. Jekielek: So fascinating, and this is this index that you were just describing.

Dr. Farrell: The inventory, yes. Its a male depression, suicide inventory. And I developed it because we figured out what are the characteristics and symptoms of depression in women. But we havent looked at what are the symptoms of depression in males.

And theres a lot of different aspects of depression in males. When males are depressed, they tend to act out and do things like the mass shootings or do things like hurt other people, or they do things like bullying.

Behind every bully is a vulnerable boy who is fearful of rejection. You take away male anger and take away female anger too, and underneath almost every display of anger, you find enormous vulnerability.

And so we need to discover the vulnerability in boys. And we need to discover it in girls as well, but girls have much more permission when. So for example, when a boy and girl are going out with each other and they break up. We often think, oh, guys will just want to go on one sexual relationship after anothernot true.

Boys are far more likely to be depressed and even suicidal when they break up with a relationship thats a long-term relationship. And one of the reasons for that is when the girl breaks up, she goes tell the girlfriends and she talks and she says to the girlfriends, Oh, I broke up with Jan or Mark or whatever. And somebody says, Well, I didnt want to say this before, but sweetie, you really are worthy of somebody much better than Mark.

And then another girl will say, Yeah, and when Mark was at a party, he was flirting with me. I didnt want to tell you this because you were so in love with him. I didnt want to spoil the relationship. And by the time shes finished talking to all her girlfriends, shes feeling that, all right, maybe breaking up with Mark is a good thing. Im worthy of somebody more than that.

With guys, we talk to each other and they say, I broke up with Susan. And we get maybe a 3 second window of opportunity to talk about it. And the guy will say, Yeah, really sorry about that. You want to go out and play some basketball or get onto something else?

And we dont get the support for feelings in our fears and our feeling like maybe were worthless and maybe it was our fault; that type of thing from guys. Or guys will just say directly, Well, what did you do wrong? And just go right to accountability and responsibility without the period of empathy that precedes accountability and responsibility.

Mr. Jekielek: And this is absolutely fascinating. And also in some ways very counter-intuitive or at least counter to the prevailing orthodoxy, maybe not intuitive exactly. Now you have a lot of observations, I was actually looking or listening to your book, which I think is over 20 years old right now, Women Cant Hear What Men Dont Say.

That book is filled, I mean, 20 year old book thats filled with all sorts of challenges to certainly todays prevailing orthodoxy about how men function, especially vis-a-vis women and so forth. Its incredible actually to think about how many things we accept today as being fact that arent necessarily so with respect towhat are men like? What are women like? And what are their behaviors? What are their social roles and so forth?

Dr. Farrell: I think absolutely right. I think the biggest challenge, the thing that I hear that is most erroneous is people talking about males having male privilege and male power. And then we hear about toxic masculinity. And then we hear the toxic masculinity comes from entitlement, male privilege and male power.

Well, the challenge is that some people arent willing to acknowledge that there is such a thing as toxic masculinity. And some people arent willing to challenge the whole concept of male privilege and male power.

But so let me challenge both of them simultaneously which is thatyes, there is such a thing as male toxicity. But male toxicity does not come from male privilege and power, it comes from male obligation and responsibility to be disposable in each generations war.

And so when you have to prepare to fight in a war and all your social bribes, that is look at uncle Jimmy up there and his Marine uniform.He died in World War II and were really proud of him. He helped save America, which is certainly something to be proud of.

But Jimmy starts feeling like, Gee, Dads always criticizing me. Nobody respects me. Im losing at school. Well, maybe I can be a hero and be respected finally by joining the Marines and maybe Ill die, but at least Ill be respected.

And so today, even to this day, we have male only draft registration. A boy whos 18, who does not register for the draft will be put in or can be put in prison. And in 42 states, he can have his license taken away from him. He cant get federal aid in any form, which means he can pretty much not go to any college, because almost every college gets federal aid.

And we do not have this responsibility for females. President Biden has asked the Supreme Court to make sure that they dont review this so that women do not have to potentially be subject to the draft, so we can argue about whether or not they should.

But the important thing is, is it male privilege to dieto be the sex expected to dieto be the sex expected to be disposable? And I think not.

Certainly if we wanted to think it was male privilege that we wanted to reverse roles and have an affirmative action program for 200 years in which only females had female only drafted illustration and any wars were fought almost exclusively by females, and will be oppressed by having to stay home and love our children and be loved by our children and develop nurturing skills and caring skills and emotional intelligence and skills of nuance and so on, as a result are far being oppressed. When you reverse it, its pretty apparent.

But in the process of learning to do these things, you develop toxicities. So the toxicities for example, is that you keep your feelings to yourself. So if youre, lets say youre Jewish and youre going through bootcamp and the sergeant says, makes an anti-Semitic comment and you say, Hey, wait a minute. Sir, thats an anti-Semitic comment. I really feel offended by that.

Well, the response of the sergeant will be, Oh, you have feelings, thats so sweet. And if theres any response at all, hell be assigned 15, 20 pushups. And until Bobby learns that his feelings are not wanted, because whats wanted is for him to lose himself as a human being and his sensitivities and to focus completely on being part of the war machine.

The war machine does not function well where theres squeaky wheels that say, Please pay attention to me. The war machine functions well when nobody has any feelings and you just go ahead and be willing to die if needed.

And so preparing yourself to die is good preparation for being a human. But its not good preparation for being a human being. And the people who probably know this the best are Japanese millennials. Japanese millennials have a little game that they play called Karoshi. Karoshi is Japanese for death at the desk or death from overwork.

They try to get to the top of the ladder. The one who wins is the one who gets to the top of the ladder first. And what is the prize for the winner? He commits suicide, not in real life, but in the game.

And whats the message of that? The message is the process that weve used to train men to get to the top of the ladder; a process that ends their life as a human being. Its suicide to their emotions, to their feelings, to their fears. Its just a march up the ladder to earn money that somebody else spends while they die sooner and to disconnect from who they are.

For the last 50 years weve concentrated on women being the women that they want to be. To be able to be full-time in the workplace, to be full-time with the children and to do some combination of both. We havent spent any time at all asking men, What do you want to be? Would you like to be full-time with the children? Would you like to be full-time at work? Would you like to do some combination of both? Would you like to do work thats more fulfilling? Oh, by the way, more fulfilling work almost invariably pays less.

People say that men earn more money than women do for the same work, thats very misleading. Dads earn more money than moms earn, not for the same work, but because dads tend to be. When they become dads, they give up what they want to do like being a musician that doesnt make too much money from various gigs or being an elementary school teacherthey give up their passion for teaching.

And they become the superintendent of schools because you earn twice as much money and work twice as hard as the superintendent of schools, but the average elementary school teacher hates doing that.

But when the children are born, the average elementary school teacher, musician, artist, writer, actor, all of whom are called starving artists recognizes you cant support a family on a starving artist income. And so men do get paid more, but not for the same work, for different work, for different hours, for dirtier work, for more obligations, for more hazardous work.

And for 25 other variables that I ended up having to write a book about in order to illustrate it. The book is called Why Men Earn More and What Women Can Do About It. But if women who want to earn more do that, they can have male privilege of making these twenty-five trade-offs and sacrifices that men on average are more likely to make.

But if somebody is to learn from somebody, its men that need to learn from women how to live a balanced life in which you earn less. Marry a woman who earns a good significant income so that she could help support you as much as you support her.

Mr. Jekielek: As I mentioned earlier, one of the things that I keep seeing repeatedly in your work is you are breaking all sorts of orthodoxies in thinking or in literature, or just what extensively is common knowledge about men; about what is known or assumed about men.

When I was reading this or I was listening to Women Cant Hear What Men Dont Say, what I was really, really fascinated with in this book was you looking at how your journey from kind of becoming I think, becoming a feminist as you describe it. And then noticing that the character of the feminist movement changed from being something that was very constructive and proactive to something that was more kind of adversarial. And Im wondering if you could chat that for me.

Dr. Farrell: Certainly I think that a good portion of feminists at the beginning were very focused on things like expanding options for women and from my perspective, having two daughters. But this was way before I had two daughters; I just wanted maximum options for women.

I felt that men in life tended to have a lot of different options. I didnt realize at that time that if you went into a party as a college male, lets say, and you told a woman that you would like to be full-time homemaker and a full-time dad, the chances are she might send a journalist to the party to interview you, but she wouldnt come back for a second drink

And so I didnt realize at that time that guys didnt have a lot of options either. They only saw the limitations on female freedom. But as the feminist movement progressed, which would be more accurate to call it regressed. It went from being, I am woman, I am strong, like Helen Reddy would say, to, I am woman, Ive been wronged.

We dont respect victims. We may give them things, but I want women to be respected. And respect is not garnered by increasingly focusing on all the ways youve been oppressed and repressed. And so for me, #MeToo, was a gift and a curse. The gift was, I want women to be able to express feelings and fears that they have. The curse was, #MeToo was a monologue. #MeToo needs to be a dialogue.

Because when #MeToo is a monologue, women are talking about all the ways that men offended them, men oppress them, men did them wrong. And they think of males as having all this power.

But a #MeToo dialogue would allow us to see that men have enormous fears of being rejected by beautiful young women. And were still expecting men to take the risks of rejection. If theres real equality, why wouldnt women share the risks of rejection as often as men do? And so thats part of just the fraction of the male story.

And so a #MeToo dialogue when tried, it would begin to help both sexes hear each others struggles, inner fears and rejections. And thats the world I want this feminist movement to move toward. But when feminists and other liberals like feminist call themselves progressivesthats a self-righteous term. That just anyone that disagrees with me is not a progressive and therefore is regressive or neanderthal in some way.

And people who are quote progressive are very critical of conservatives and conservatives who call themselves patriotic, because they believe a certain way theyre doing the same type of thing that the woke liberal people are doing when they call themselves progressives.

Patriotism is all across the board being progressive, where we all do the best we can to be progressive even though some of us feel that long-term progress will come from keeping certain things stablelike the family and like fatherhood.

Other people feel that progressive is identified differently. But we all need to be open-minded to each persons definition of whats progressive and each persons definition of whats patriotism, whats best for the country.

Mr. Jekielek: So you develop this concept, which again, I just learned about recently, which I thought was really fascinating, The Lace Curtain, tell me about this.

Dr. Farrell: The Lace Curtain is what Ive experienced since I began to speak about something other than men being the enemy and men having all the power. And The Lace Curtain is that I used to write almost with a 100% acceptance for The New York Times. Now I cant get anything in The New York Times.

I used to be on all The Today Show, what used to be called The Tomorrow Show, The Oprah Winfrey Show and so on. And the first time I talked to Oprah Winfreys producer about, Id like to present something more than just the feminist perspective, a more complex perspective. That was the last out of five times that they called me.

And the first time I brought these issues up on The Phil Donahue Show, which some of the older people listening will remember, who was basically The Oprah Winfrey before Oprah Winfrey. I was dropped by the producers who had had me on eight times when I started speaking about men also have feelings and fears and things that need to be considered.

He intuitively sensed that that would not be popular with his mostly female audience and just dropped me for many, many years. And so what Ive just mentioned is just the very tip of the iceberg.

And so The Lace Curtain is basically not being able to talk about these issues that incorporate the male experience of powerlessness and the male experience of female power, but only being able to speak about the female experience of powerlessness and the female experience of male power. That is what the quote progressive mainstream liberal media is open to. And its closed to any discussion of male powerlessness.

Mr. Jekielek: Well, and this is quite incredible because you started documenting this, sort of, I guess approach whether its in the media or in the womens studies discipline as early as I think 1975, I was reading; its remarkable to me. I mean, were in 2021 today. This has been something thats been ongoing for quite some time.

Dr. Farrell: Yes. I was teaching in the First Womens Studies department in the United States in San Diego State University. And I was talking about, just exclusively womens issues. But I was beginning to develop some understanding and empathy for men as well.

And as I brought those issues into the chorus it was mostly approved of, but the great majority of students loved it and appreciated it and felt that they grew by it, but there was tension. And I was told to be careful of what I said and not to maybe include that, maybe you could leave this portion out.

And then I taught at the School of Medicine at the University of California in San Diego. And for a few years, I guess it just got extremely rave reviews from my class. But one time I was suddenly, when I was bringing up some of these issues, one feminist student female complained, and that was the end of me, and as a teacher at UCSD, University of California San Diego.

Mr. Jekielek: It sounds like some of the things that were seeing, very commonly happening in academia today. How is it that many of us are just kind of learning about this in the last five years or something like this? Thats whats fascinating to me.

Dr. Farrell: Yes. And whats really damaging now is that we have two very, very important institutions in this country. One is the family and the degree to which 53% of women who have children, who are under 30, have them without being married. So thats really having a very negative impact on the family.

The other core institution that is core to a democracy is our universities. And our universities are supposed to be completely about freedom of speech and curiosity and hearing perspectives. I dont care whose perspective is being presented at a university. The more alienating it is, the more it is a possibility for people to educate each other about whats wrong with it.

And the dialogue should be free in universities. To have universities to be the center of cancel culture, to have women be saying, Before you say anything that might trigger me, you should anticipate what might trigger me and give me a trigger warning.

Feminists are saying this. Feminists are supposed to be the ones saying, We are empowering women. But to say, we need to be warned of something that might offend us is a sign of like, I am fragile, not I am strong. Then this is just exactly the opposite of what a university should be about.

And we used to criticize conservatives for keeping, wanting to not have communist ideas in the university. And now we have the liberals like Mario Savio at the University of California, Berkeleywould be head of the free speech movement.

Now the head of the free speech movement are conservatives and liberals have become the repress speech, cancel culture people. Were too woke to have ideas that are different, I wouldnt call that woke, Id call that sound asleep. Id call that fearful. Id call that withdrawing.

I teach couples communication courses. I teach courses of getting people to listen to each other. But because Im empathetic to the male point of view, as well as the female point of view, I could not be hired by any major university in this country at this time.

And that to me is deeply sad, its not like I. Whereas before I had a PhD, before I had written my first book, and when I only had the feminist perspective in mind, I was asked to teach at Columbia University, taught at Brooklyn College, taught at Rutgers University, no books, no PhD, but I had the right belief system. So thats The Lace Curtain and thats the institution that we are ruining.

We need to invite people from multiple perspectives to the auditorium and then ask them to advocate for the perspective that is being advocated and then reverse and criticize the perspective.

When I used to talk at places like Northwestern University, Id have two podiums. One was a Warren Farrell feminist, and the other one was Warren Farrell masculinist. And Id go back and forth debating myself. And then Id require the audience to ask questions from multiple perspectives. And Id say to the audience, Youre not thinking unless youre thinking from all sides.

The real openness in universities does not come from just one speaker on this side and one speaker on this side. And then you listen to the audience and you go away with a greater belief that just reinforcing the belief you had even more; when you go out of the audience. But we need to train ourselves to think from multiple perspectives simultaneously.

Mr. Jekielek: What youre describing, theres an element of this in I guess what you describe as couples communication. But in general, just communication between people with different ideas who for whatever reason, maybe for emotional reasons arent ready, necessarily to communicate with you. Youve articulated different steps that people can take to make this happen.

Again, very, very interesting, this has been your work for many years. Ive just been learning about that myself. Im curious, we are in a time where these ideologies are very prominent. People are expected to think a certain way, and if you dont, communication can get shut down. How do we facilitate communication in these kinds of scenarios?

Dr. Farrell: The core issue is that when I started seeing the boy crisis, I started seeing the boy crisis was occurring to a large degree in divorced families, where theres a minimal amount of father involvement.

So I started asking myself the question, how could these families not have divorces so that the children would have both parents there to do the good checks and balance parenting that children tend to need? Almost always from my couples courses, I saw that the woman and the man were both totally convinced that the other one was wrong about most things.

But when I broke that down, I started seeing that neither sex nor virtually anybody was biologically, and Im saying biologically purposely prepared to be able to handle personal criticism without becoming defensive. Especially that personal criticism came from a loved one and especially if it was given badly. The more they loved somebody, the less able they were to handle criticism from that person.

Because it was so much more meaningful to be criticized by somebody that you love. And it hurt a lot more to be criticized by somebody you loved. And so here are the people that loved each other most, were most preventing the other person from sharing their concerns without feeling that they were walking on eggshells. And there was an escalation. And at the end of the day, it wasnt worth sharing that concern because it only made it worse.

And so I started working on how can we change that? Because were all naturally prone to being defensive when criticized, we have to alter our natural biological state and the meditations include things like saying to themselves, if I provide a safe environment for all of your feelings, no matter how you express them, youll feel more safe with me. Therefore youll feel more loved by me. Therefore youll feel more love for me.

And as you started thinking and feeling that, it becomes a little bit, okay, no matter what my partner says, no matter what way they say it, if I provide that safe space, thats going to end up with me being more loved.

And what they discover in that process is that both stories are very different, almost always. The more you get into your partners story, the more you will begin to see a whole different picture that your partner has based on a different history, a different background, and everyone is arguing about their way being best. And no one is really fully immersing themselves into the perspective of the other person.

I dont let people even take notes while the other person is talking. If you and I were brothers and we disagreed with each other, my job would not be to take notes so I can respond to you later. It would be totally to be there for your story and ask you more questions about it, but not confrontive questions, but facilitative questions. And so you felt so safe and so heard that you ended up expressing feelings you didnt even know you felt.

Mr. Jekielek: Okay, great. So this works for couples, people that are working hard together to try to facilitate communication in a difficult situation, right? But what about in these situations where people might just have very different ideological positions?

Some may be more open-minded, some may be very fixed on one particular way of viewing things and demanding the other, except that. Is there anything that can be learned from your methodology to facilitate that kind of communication?

Dr. Farrell: Absolutely. Theres two things we all want, one is love and the other is respect. One of the five meditations is a respect guarantee. So if you and I had totally different perspectives on the world, and I was to say to myself first before I listened to your perspective, I meditated to myself and said, The more I just hear Jans way of seeing the world, how does he all piece it together? The more he will respect me.

Im going to imagine that my job is to understand this, everything he says, but then Im going to assume that Ive now only seen one piece of his puzzle. Im going to keep drawing him out until I see not only that piece of the puzzle, but I see all the pieces of the puzzle that he has in the back of his mind.

And whats going to happen for me is Ill get an education A, and B, Jan will respect me more than he did before, because hes never gotten that type of facilitation from somebody that disagreed with him fundamentally on something.

The opposite of what normally happens when we talk with somebody with whom we disagree is that both people walk away respecting each other less, because both people are not only not listening to each other, but if they are shutting up while the other person is talking, theyre shutting up the lips, but their mind is forming responses and waiting for the weakest point to be said so they can attack the weakest point.

And if theres no weak points being said, they distort one of the points that is being said and argue with this distorted version of it, which is what we almost all do. And the result is that no one feels heard, no one feels understood. Their friends are now in the cemetery of friendships. And that is so hurtful to so many people.

One of the meditations is imagine youre at a movie and at a movie if youre getting tense, like somethings going wrong. And you just say, Wait a minute, Im only at a movie. This doesnt have to make my stomach all upset.

And so part of listening to somebody that you totally disagree with is saying, Okay, when Im at a movie, I can say Im only at a movie and I can let go of my attention, number one.

Number two, when Im at a movie, I may hear the story of somebody that I totally disagree with, but Im here to be entertained. I just watched the whole movie. I dont get up in the middle of the movie and say, Theyre wrong. And I stayed at the end usually because its just enjoyable to see how that story works.

And so lets approach the people that we disagree with with that same type of immersion that we do at a movie without interrupting and hear their story.

Hopefully things in America and around the world are getting so bad that people will have a yearning for listening to perspectives, as opposed to just arguing and calling different perspective violence. In fact, it is much more likely to lead to violence when we cannot hear someone elses perspectives.

Mr. Jekielek: I cant help but think about something thats very important to me. And its this idea of personal accountability; this theme just kind of keeps coming up. And the costs of lack of it, I guess, would be another way to put it. And I dont know if that is intentional exactly in your work, but its certainly something Im seeing. What are your thoughts?

Dr. Farrell: Very much so. And Im most disappointed that this has been something that feminists have really pioneered is the lack of accountability, lack of responsibility.

So the most recent example in history has been that theres a male only draft registration and no feminists that I know is speaking up and saying, Gee, equality is about us having to register for the draft, just like men have to register for the draft. Us not just being able to pick and choose when we want to go to war but have as much responsibility for fighting wars that we go to as men do.

Theres no part of this country that we live in, that men didnt die to be able to live here. And women are benefiting from the deaths of the men by living in this country. But feminists do not bring these issues of female responsibility and accountability up.

They say, We should be able to wear any clothes we want and without any responsibility for that, various clothes signal different things and send different messages. Any responsible parent would tell a child that if you get a bunch of tattoos on your face and you wear certain types of leather jackets and you take a motorcycle into school, it all signals certain things to other people.

And you have to take responsibility, my son for this. Theres so many dimensions of feminism in its current forum, instead of being at a university and taking responsibility for hearing any point of view that comes up and then dealing with your own feelings about it, saying things that I experienced that act as a microaggression. I experienced that as a violent speech. I experienced that as something I dont want to be brought into my university to have to deal with, because it might distract me from being able to complete my work here.

These are all things that are undermining women, that are disempowering women. Theyre the opposite of everything feminism should stand for. And were making that not only an era of irresponsibility, but were calling that progressive. Nothing could be less progressive.

Mr. Jekielek: Any final thoughts before we finish up?

Dr. Farrell: If we really want to move to a better society, one of the things I think that we can begin to do is to start communication training in first and second grade. When boys bully, lets bring the boys and the girls after their recess and talk about what just happened there, who was hurt, why, and find out and discover what are the feelings and the fears that led people to do various things.

We need to make sure that every person who contemplates becoming a parent in particular begins to have that communication training.

We need to have father warrior programs. By warrior, I mean, not W-O-R-R, but W-A-R-R-I-O-R programs in which we say, Not Uncle Sam needs you to fight in the next war, but Uncle Sam needs you to be involved as a father, to train yourself to be a good father, to be a responsible parent. Thats part of what we need.

We need to develop a male teacher core, so that men are given incentives to go to college, to become a teacher in an elementary and junior high school, so that our elementary and junior high schools have an equal, a significant number of male role models. So boys dont go from all female homes to all female teachers schools, and then we wonder why they dont have a male role model that is constructive.

And they get attracted to gang leaders and drug dealers. And are receptive to priests coming up to them or somebody else coming up to them because they so much need a male figure that they can be exploited and vulnerable.

We need to spend a great deal of time working, not just on womens issues, but the White House Gender Policy Council needs to work on both womens and mens issues. And we need to hear both sexes, not just the perspectives of women alone.

Mr. Jekielek: Warren Farrell, its such a pleasure to have you on again.

Dr. Farrell: Thank you. Its really a pleasure to be here with you, and especially to have you in my home.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) walks out of the U.S. Capitol in Washington on April 20, 2021. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

FBI Raided Wrong Home Looking for Pelosis Stolen Laptop, Couple Says

FBI agents raided a home in Alaska trying to find a laptop stolen from House Speaker Nancy Pelosis (D-Calif.) office during the Jan. 6 breach of the Capitol but misidentified the homes owner, she and her husband allege.

Paul and Marilyn Hueper, who own the Homer Inn & Spa, were shocked when agents barged into their home on April 28 with guns drawn. The agents separated the couple and began looking through the house. They disclosed that they thought Marilyn Hueper was inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, when Pelosis laptop was stolen.

I think almost right off the bat, they said, Well, you probably know why were here, or something like that. Its like, yeah, no, not really. And they said, Well, were here for Nancy Pelosis laptop. And I said, Oh, Marilyn Hueper told KSRM radio.

Agents showed the couple a photograph of a woman they thought was Marilyn Hueper. But almost immediately, the couple spotted key differences, such as the woman inside the Capitol having detached earlobes while Marilyn Huepers are attached.

Im like, Wait a minute. Is that her? Thats clearly not me. Why did you not show me this to start with? Marilyn Hueper said.

The FBI has acknowledged the raid but said it couldnt immediately confirm anything else.

While individuals are free to speak about their interactions with the FBI, we do not, as a matter of practice, discuss or describe any contact we have or allegedly have with individuals, a spokeswoman told The Associated Press. At this time, and until it reaches the public realm, we cant discuss the details.

FBI Director Christopher Wray speaks during a House Intelligence Committee hearing in Washington on April 15, 2021. (Al Drago/Pool/Getty Images)

The Huepers were in Washington on Jan. 6, but say they were no closer than 100 yards from the entrance.

We were at most within a hundred yards of the front of the building. I mean we were in a sea of a million people, so were far enough back. Then I started to kind of understand what the process of what they were looking for, you know again the case of mistaken identity, Paul Hueper said on KSRM.

A spokesman for Pelosi confirmed in January that a computer was stolen from her office. He said that it was only used for presentations.

Pelosi later brushed aside concerns for the computer, which she said happened to be one that we used for Zooms and stuff like that, I think. But she also said that trying to sell the computer to a hostile foreign power could jeopardize all kinds of information.'

FBI agents previously focused on another suspect, Pennsylvania woman Riley June Williams, in their attempt to recover the device. An agent claimed that Williams meant to send the computer to a friend in Russia who would then sell it to Russian intelligence officials.

But Williams lawyer, and a friend of hers, said that the story had been fabricated by the accuseds abusive ex-boyfriend.

FBI agents searched Williamss home and apartment and came up empty, her lawyer later told the court.
Indirect routes to Australia from India via Doha, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore have been banned. Sydney International airport on Feb. 28, 2021 in Sydney, Australia. (Edwina Pickles - Pool/Getty Images)

Fines, Jail Time for Australians Defying India Travel Ban

Australia is yet to add other countries to its high-risk list as Indias COVID-19 crisis sees almost 400,000 daily new cases added to a tally of human misery.

Australians trying to return from India as the country faces an escalating coronavirus crisis now face fines or jail time for getting on a plane.

Travellers from India are banned from entering Australia at least until May 15, when the decision will be reassessed.

Indirect routes from India via Doha, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore have also been banned.

On Friday night, Health Minister Greg Hunt announced anyone who attempted to defy the rules would be hit with fines of up to $66,600 or five years in prison, or both.

More than 9,000 Australians in India are registered as wanting to return, including 650 people registered as vulnerable.

The decision is based on the number of positive cases from India detected in the countrys quarantine facilities, Hunt said.

More than 150 overseas-acquired cases have been reported across the country in the past week, many from India.

The government does not make these decisions lightly, Hunt said in a statement.

However, it is critical the integrity of the Australian public health and quarantine systems is protected and the number of COVID-19 cases in quarantine facilities is reduced to a manageable level.

Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly and foreign affairs officials have been putting together a list of high-risk countries for consideration.

National cabinet instead noted Kellys assessment that India is the first country to meet the threshold of a high risk country.

India set another world record on Thursday with more than 379,000 new cases and 3,645 deaths.

National cabinet expressed solidarity with the Indian community both within Australia and overseas, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in a statement on Friday, not fronting the media after the meeting.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese said the government needed to offer vaccines and financial support for Australian citizens stuck in India.

Whilst theres some very high-profile people in India who are getting some publicity, theres also Australian citizens who are doing it really tough, he told reporters in Sydney.

By Marion Rae and Tiffanie Turnbull
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 01:02:32|Editor: huaxia

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A medical worker administers a dose of COVID-19 vaccine in Marrakech, Morocco, on April 30, 2021. Morocco's total COVID-19 tally rose to 511,249 on Friday as 363 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, 5,054,642 people have received so far the first vaccine shot against COVID-19 in the country, and 4,260,412 people the second dose. (Photo by Chadi/Xinhua)

RABAT, April 30 (Xinhua) -- Morocco's total COVID-19 tally rose to 511,249 on Friday as 363 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours.

According to a statement by the Ministry of Health, the death toll rose to 9,023 with three new fatalities during the last 24 hours, while 329 people are in intensive care units.

The total number of recoveries from COVID-19 in Morocco increased to 497,621 after 516 new ones were added, the statement said.

The COVID-19 fatality rate in Morocco stands at 1.8 percent while the recovery rate is 97.3 percent.

Meanwhile, 5,054,642 people have received so far the first vaccine shot against COVID-19 in the country, and 4,260,412 people the second dose.

The North African country launched a nationwide vaccination campaign on Jan. 28 after the arrival of the first shipment of China's Sinopharm vaccines. Enditem
President Joe Biden's dogs Champ and Major are seen on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, on March 31, 2021. (Mandel Ngan/Pool via Reuters)

First Dog Major Back at White House After Post-Bite Training

WASHINGTONPresident Joe Bidens younger dog, Major, is back at the White House after extra trainingincluding spending time with some catsto address biting incidents, first lady Jill Biden said in an NBC interview broadcast on Friday.

Major, a German Shepherd rescue, received training outside the White House this month after two biting incidents.

Hes back, Jill Biden said in the interview, conducted on Thursday. He is such a sweet, lovable dog, he really is.

The Bidens are expecting to bring a cata femaleinto their fold soon, she said, and Major has been prepped for that.

That was part of his training, they took him into a shelter with cats, she said. He did fine.
A sign lets voters know they can cast early ballots for the Floriday primary election at the South Creek Branch Library in Orlando, Fla., on Jan. 27, 2012. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Florida Joins Election Integrity Movement

On April 26, in a vote of 23-17, the Republican-controlled State Senate approved SB 90 (pdf), which overhauls Florida election law ahead of the 2022 primary and 2024 presidential election cycles. State Sen. Jeff Brandes was the only Republican to vote against the measure.

On April 19, a Florida House panel approved changes to an elections package sponsored by Republican state Rep. Blaise Ingoglia. Both chambers must agree on the language of the legislation in order for the bill to advance to the desk of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

As Supervisors of Elections, Craig Latimer, Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections and President of the Florida Supervisors of Elections, said we are unwavering in our commitment to keeping our elections both secure and accessible. We did that in 2020, to universal acclaim. Elections ran smoothly, voters participated in record numbers, and election results were verified with audits in every county in Florida, as provided for in our current election law, in an April 30 statement obtained by The Epoch Times.

The new legislation seeks to mandate that vote-by-mail ballot signatures match the most recent signature on file to be counted. The measure also dictates that political parties and candidates cannot be shut out from observing the signature matching process.

Upon request, the new legislation proposes, a physically present candidate, a political party official, a political committee official, or an authorized designee thereof, must be allowed to observe the duplication of ballots. The observer must be able to observe the duplication of ballots in such a way that the observer is able to see the markings on each ballot and the duplication taking place.

Secure drop boxes shall be placed at the main office of the supervisor, at each branch office of the supervisor, and at each early voting site.

A supervisor shall designate each drop box site at least 30 days before an election. After a drop box location has been designated, it may not be moved or changed. On each day of early voting, all drop boxes must be emptied at the end of early voting hours and all ballots retrieved from the drop boxes must be returned to the supervisors office. Employees of the supervisor must comply with procedures for the chain of custody of ballots as required by s. 101.015(4).

Last November, Florida held the smoothest, most successful election of any state in the country, DeSantis said in February. While we should celebrate this feat, we should not rest on our laurels.

By strengthening these election integrity protections, we will ensure that our elections remain secure and transparent, and that Floridas electoral process remains a blueprint for other states to follow.

My colleagues and I will continue to work every day to increase voter participation and maintain the integrity of our elections, Latimers statement states further, following any new requirements established by our lawmakers.

Latimer also explained that Floridas supervisors of elections have spent hours talking to legislators about how proposed legislation would impact voters.

He noted how Floridas voters overwhelmingly appreciated the peace of mind that came from dropping their mail ballot off in a secure drop box, because they knew that by using the drop box instead of a mailbox, their ballot would be received on time. Latimer also said they should be looking for cost-effective ways to expand the use of drop boxes, such as use of 24-hour drop boxes with camera surveillance. However, Latimer noted that the new legislation prohibits that.

If any drop box at an early voting site is left accessible for the return of ballots outside of early voting hours, the new legislation dictates, the supervisor is subject to a civil penalty of $25,000. The division is authorized to enforce this provision.

Fortunately, Latimer added, proposals that would have been the most disenfranchising, such as canceling Vote By Mail requests that voters currently have on file, were dropped from the final version of the bill.

However, Latimer noted, this legislation still makes requesting Vote By Mail ballots and returning those ballots harder.

After days of debate, our hope is that the initial and unnecessary call for election reform will not detract from the confidence that was well-earned in 2020, Latimers statement continued. Indeed, after the 2020 General Election, Governor DeSantis said that we had finally vanquished the ghosts of Bush vs. Gore, praising our ability to count 11 million votes quickly and holding Florida up as an example for other states to follow.

Throughout this legislative process, legislators who supported and opposed the bill commended our performance in 2020, over and over, the statement concluded. I look forward to continuing to earn the trust of my community as I work to preserve our most precious right to participate in our democratic government.

As of now, I am reviewing the final bill, Floridas Hernando County Supervisor of Elections Shirley Anderson told The Epoch Times. The legislature sets policy, and we implement.

I am confident that 2022 will be another successful election for Hernando County and the State of Florida, Anderson said further. Voters will need to read materials that are sent out and posted so they will be prepared for voting. We look forward to educating our voters with the changes to election law.

On March 29, Gov. Brian Kemp signed the Georgia Election Integrity Act into law, which reduces the number of days before an election when voters can request an absentee ballot, makes the deadline to complete an application earlier, and extends the length of time voters can return their ballot.

There are also new ID rules. All counties must now have at least one drop box. Ballots are to be printed on secure paper and the new law prohibits state and local governments from sending unsolicited applications to voters who did not request one.

In North Carolina, Senate Bill 326titled the Election Integrity Actwill prohibit county and state boards of election from accepting private donations, amends dates for voters requesting and returning absentee ballots, and provides $5 million from the General Fund to develop a program to identify voters who need a photo ID and to help them get one.

A bill moving through the South Carolina state Senate would require that election laws be uniform across all counties and would give senators the ability to approve or reject the governors appointments to the State Election Commission.
The suspended Twitter account of U.S. President Donald Trump appears on an iPhone screen on Jan. 08, 2021. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Florida Passes Bill Prohibiting Social Media Giants Deplatforming Politicians

The Florida legislature on April 29 passed a bill to prohibit social media platforms with huge user bases from knowingly deplatforming politicians and other Floridians.

If a social media company deplatforms a user they know to be a political candidate they face penalties of up to $250,000 per day for statewide officials and $25,000 per day for a candidate for other offices, the bill states.

This applies to platforms with over $100 million in annual revenue and over 100 million monthly users, eliminating many but the giants like Facebook and Twitter.

The move comes amid significant criticism from all over the world that social media platforms Facebook and Twitter have de-platformed users for merely expressing differing political viewpoints.

Read More Big Techs Trump Censorship Stokes Global Security Fears

Meanwhile, Democratic critics argue the legislation is a payback for the deplatforming from social media of former President Donald Trump.

The bill, SB 7072, was introduced by Republican Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez. It passed 77 to 38 and has now been sent to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis for signing.

It states that Floridians have come to rely on social media platforms which have transformed to become the new town squares to express public opinion.

Social media platforms hold a unique place in preserving first amendment protections for all Floridians and should be treated similarly to common carriers, the text of the bill reads (pdf).

Social media platforms that unfairly censor, shadowban, deplatform, or apply post-prioritization algorithms to Florida candidates, Florida users, or Florida residents are not acting in good faith.

The bill defines post-prioritization as an action by a social media platform to place, feature, or prioritize certain content or material ahead of, below, or in a more or less prominent position than others in a newsfeed, a feed, a view, or in search results. This can make it more or less likely that a user will see a post by a politician if these censorship tools have been applied.

The legislation also extends protections to media outlets, with the text of the bill stating that it will be illegal for a social media platform to censor, deplatform, or shadow ban a journalistic enterprise based on the content of its publication or broadcast.

Recently, Twitter suspended media outlet Project Veritas, leading its founder James OKeefe to file a defamation lawsuit against the social media platform.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) speaks during a House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, on April 15, 2021. (Susan Walsh-Pool/Getty Images)

GOP Rep. Malliotakis Urges Biden to Go to Border After Joint Address to Congress

U.S. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) spoke with President Joe Biden after his address on Wednesday, urging him to go to the southern border to support the border patrol agents that are dealing with the huge influx of migrants.

I urged the president to go to our border to support our customs and border patrol agents, that they need his help, and that was my message for him, Malliotakis told Fox News on Wednesday.

He said he wanted to discuss it further, asked me for my card where he can reach me, and lets see if he does call, she added.

Biden did not address the record number of migrants, including minors coming to the United States at the southern border during his address on Wednesday but, Republicans and some Democrat lawmakers are calling it a crisis and say he should have commented on the issue.

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) criticized Biden for ignoring the current surge of migrants during his first speech before Congress on Wednesday night.

While I share President Bidens urgency in fixing our broken immigration system, what I didnt hear tonight was a plan to address the immediate crisis at the border, Kelly said in a statement following the presidents speech. I will continue holding this administration accountable to deliver the resources and staffing necessary for a humane, orderly process as we work to improve border security, support local economies, and fix our immigration system.

Immigrants who arrived illegally from across the Rio Grande river from Mexico make their way along a track towards a processing checkpoint set up by Border Patrol agents in the border city of Roma, Texas, on March 27, 2021. (Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images)

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why Biden did not address the border crisis during his speech Wednesday night.

Biden, however, said on Thursday his administration is taking urgent action to get things under control at the southern border during an interview with the Today Shows host Craig Melvin. Biden blamed the state of the southern border on the previous administration because he said they did not share information about staffing at the border.

Hey look, heres what happened. The failure to have a real transition, the two departments that didnt give us access to virtually anything were the immigration and the Defense Department, so we didnt find out they had fired a whole lot of people, that they were understaffed considerably, said Biden.

Melvin pressed Biden on the issue, calling it a crisis. In April alone, Mr. President 170,000 people, migrants apprehended at the border. Its a 20-year record. There are 22,000 unaccompanied children in our country right now, thats a record. That sounds to most folks like a crisis.

Bidens response was that there was no infrastructure in place to deal with [The influx of migrants] it comes every year, this flow.

Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris, who was put in charge of solving the southern border crisis, told CNN in an April 25 interview that her perspective is in order to control the flow of migrants, she will focus on the root cause of the huge influx, which she sees as people fleeing great danger, or famine.

Its usually for one or two reasons, theyre fleeing some harm, or they cannot stay and satisfy the basic necessities of life such as feeding their children and having a roof over their head, said Harris. Understanding that we have to give people some sense of hope that if they stay, that help is on the way.

Harris said she recently convened a meeting that included a number of cabinet members to talk about a virtual trade mission to help farmers who have been affected by the climate crisis in the northern triangle countries. Harris also said she is speaking directly with the presidents of the three countries to see how they can support people who are wanting to migrate to America.

Vice President Kamala Harris listens while holding talks with Guatemalas President Alejandro Giammattei via video conference at the White House in Washington, on April 26, 2021. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)

The vice president also said that the United States will increase aid to the region and will assist Guatemala with the construction of shelters for returned migrants.

The U.S. government will provide $310 million in assistance for humanitarian relief and to address food insecurity in the Northern Triangle, Harris said.

Harris announcement marks a stark contrast to policies under the Trump administration, which in June 2019, withheld hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid from the Northern Triangle countriesthe main source of mass illegal migration into the United States.
Relatives carry the body of a person who died of COVID-19 as multiple pyres of other COVID-19 victims burn at a crematorium in New Delhi, India on May 1, 2021. (Amit Sharma/AP Photo)

India Hospital Fire Kills 18 COVID-19 Patients

NEW DELHIA fire in a COVID-19 hospital ward in western India killed 18 patients early on May 1, as the country is grappling with the worst outbreak yet.

The same day, India set yet another daily global record with 401,993 new cases, taking its tally to more than 19.1 million. Another 3,523 people died in the past 24 hours, raising the overall fatalities to 211,853, according to the Health Ministry. Experts believe both figures are an undercount.

The fire broke out in a COVID-19 ward on the ground floor of the Welfare Hospital in Bharuch, a town in Gujarat state, and was extinguished within an hour, police said. The cause is being investigated.

Thirty-one other patients were rescued from the blaze by hospital workers and firefighters and their condition was stable, police officer B.M. Parmar said. Late last month, a fire in an intensive care unit killed 13 COVID-19 patients in the Virar area, on the outskirts of Mumbai.

Charred furniture and other items are seen after a deadly fire at the Welfare Hospital in Bharuch, western India, on May 1, 2021. (Viral Rana/AP Photo)

Indias capital extended its week-old lockdown by another week to curb the explosive surge in virus cases, Arvind Kejriwal, a top elected official said on Twitter.

All shops and factories will remain closed until May 9, except for those that provide essential services such as grocery stores. People are not supposed to leave their homes, except for a handful of reasons like seeking medical care or going to the airport or railroad stations. Daily wage earners and small businesses are expected to suffer a further blow to their livelihoods.

Separately, 12 COVID-19 patients, including a doctor, on high-flow oxygen died May 1 at a hospital in New Delhi after it ran out of the supply for 80 minutes, said S.C.L. Gupta, director of Batra Hospital. Gupta said the hospital has been facing irregular oxygen supply from manufacturers for more than a week, but it exhausted it completely for the first time.

He said the hospital tank was refilled with enough oxygen for 12 hours and it will again be looking for replenishment.

The New Delhi television news channel also said an attorney for the Batra hospital complained to a New Delhi court that is hearing petitions by several hospitals on the issue.

Damaged equipment and furniture are seen in the burnt interior of a hospital treating COVID-19 patients, after a deadly fire, in Indias western Gujarat state, on May 1, 2021. (ANI/ Reuters TV via Reuters)

Hospitals in the Indian capital have been complaining of emergencies caused by irregular oxygen supplies from manufacturers due to the sudden rise in demand caused by the massive spike in infections.

Faced with an unprecedented COVID-19 surge that has filled hospitals and crematoriums, Prime Minister Narendra Modis government described the pandemic as a once-in-a-century crisis. Modi held a Cabinet meeting on April 30 that discussed steps to save the countrys crumbling health system by adding hospital beds, resolving issues in production, storage and transport of oxygen, and tackling the shortage of essential medicines.

In a now-familiar scene, television images showed a woman gasping for breath in her car while her family looked for a hospital bed on the outskirts of New Delhi. The 33-year-old woman couldnt find room at three hospitals and died in the car on April 30, The Times of India newspaper reported.

The United States has joined a growing list of countries restricting travel from India, the White House said, citing the devastating rise in COVID-19 cases and the emergence of potentially dangerous variants.

The U.S. also began delivering therapeutics, rapid virus tests, and oxygen to India last week, along with some materials needed for India to boost its domestic production of COVID-19 vaccines.

In this photo provided by the U.S. Air Force, Airman 1st Class Fernando Beltran secures oxygen cylinders to a pallet at Travis Air Force Base in California, on April 28, 2021. (Nicholas Pilch/U.S. Air Force via AP)

Additionally, a CDC team of public health experts was expected to be on the ground soon to help Indian health officials try to slow the spread of the virus.

Other nations have also sent assistance, and the Indian air force airlifted oxygen containers from Singapore, Dubai, and Bangkok.

A German military aircraft with 120 ventilators departed for India on May 1, and plans were being made for other flights with more supplies. Also on board was a team of 13 that will help prepare to set up a mobile oxygen production unit that will be flown to India next week, the German news agency dpa said.

Epoch Times staff contributed to this report.
GOP House Members Question Possible Political Interference in Census

A group of House Republicans is questioning whether political interference contributed to what they describe as questionable results from the recently completed 2020 Census.

The lawmakers on April 30 pointed to the discrepancy between projections of census numbers last year and the final figures, and also that the Census Bureau referred them to the White House when questioned about the apportionment count.

While Democrats falsely accused the Trump Administration of using the Census process for political gain, President [Joe] Biden has done just that, the group wrote to Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.

Even as President [Donald] Trump sought to ensure the accuracy of the 2020 Census apportionment results by excluding illegal aliens from the apportionment count, President Biden reversed course, deciding to dilute American citizens representational interests by rescinding this commonsense measure. Several liberal states with sanctuary policies may have lost more congressional seats if illegal immigrants had not been included in the apportionment base.

Population numbers for each state garnered through the census, a once-per-decade query of Americans, is used to tally how many seats in the House of Representatives each state receives.

The newly released figures show Texas gained two seats and five others gained one seat, while New York, California, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia each will lose one seat.

But final population numbers for multiple states diverged widely from estimates the bureau released late last year.

New York, for instance, was estimated to have 19.3 million residents. The states final tally was 20.2 million. Texas, on the other hand, was estimated to have over 29.3 million residents, but its final tally was under 29.2 million.

Remarkably, the differences benefit traditionally blue stateswhich gained population compared to the estimatesover red states which tended to lose population compared to the estimates, House Republicans said in their letter.

This trend calls into question whether there was any political interference with the apportionment results released by the Census Bureau, they said.

States that will gain or lose congressional seats in the wake of the 2020 census

The group, led by House Oversight Ranking Member James Comer (R-Ky.), asked Raimondo for documents and communications on a range of issues by May 14.

The Census Bureau didnt immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.

Some Democrats have also questioned the final numbers, including officials in Washington.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the Trump administration may have had a chilling effect on illegal immigrants answering the census. He says he doesnt think the count was accurate and asked New York State Attorney General Letitia James, another Democrat, to explore legal options to challenge the count.

The bureau, in response to Cuomos comments, directed The Epoch Times to a recent statement.

The release included a statement from Ron Jarmin, acting director of the bureau, saying that the completeness and accuracy of these first 2020 Census results are comparable with recent censuses.

We had numerous quality checks built into collecting the data, and we have conducted one of the most comprehensive reviews in recent census history during data processing. We are confident that todays 2020 Census results meet our high data quality standards.
Leaders That Wont Respond: Ashli Babbitts Mother to Travel to Sacramento to Protest

Ashli Babbitts mother has announced shes going on a Mothers Day journey on a Twitter account dedicated to her daughter, who was fatally shot during the Jan. 6 Capitol breach.

On January 6th, 2021 Ashli Babbitt was murdered in the United States Capitol in front of the world. Ashli was my daughter and I miss her everyday, Micki wrote. Ashli was a strong, independent, American, woman full of life, love, and promise, who was taken from us by an over zealous cop.

We will be traveling to Sacramento to have our voices heard by our leaders that wont respond to letters, emails, or phone calls. This will be a journey of remembrance, tears, laughter, love, and friendship, she wrote.

Babbitt was a U.S. Air Force veteran and Trump supporter who traveled to the U.S. Capitol to protest election integrity on Jan. 6. She joined a group that entered the Capitol building that day. A witness to the event said that police were asking people to get back and out of the way from a door that had its windows smashed. Babbitt didnt heed the call, and as she tried to climb through, a police officer wearing a suit fatally shot her in the neck area.

Micki said: The death of a child is really quite unbearable. I am motivated to move forward a little every day in an effort to conduct myself in a manner that would make her half as proud of me as I am of her. Mothers Day, May 9th, my dear friend, Wilma & I will begin a [journey] of healing.

The Justice Department announced on April 14 that the U.S. Capitol Police officer who fatally shot Babbitt wont be charged.

Babbitts family plans to sue the officer and the police department for $10 million, their attorney said.

Terrell Roberts, an attorney for the Babbitt family, told The Epoch Times that the decision was baffling, given the circumstances that its a clear case of shooting an unarmed person without any legal justification.

Mark Schamel, a lawyer representing the officer, told The Epoch Times via email that the officer had to resort to deadly force and that his actions stopped the mob from breaking through and turning a horrific day in American history into something so much worse.
West Virginia Sen. Joseph "Joe" Manchin arrives for a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower, in New York, on Dec. 12, 2016. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images)

Manchin Opposes DC Statehood Bill, Says Let the People of America Vote

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said on April 30 that he doesnt support legislation that would make Washington, D.C., the nations 51st state, dealing a blow to the initiative, which Republicans have panned as an unconstitutional power grab.

If Congress wants to make D.C. a state, it should propose a constitutional amendment. It should propose a constitutional amendment and let the people of America vote, Manchin told West Virginias MetroNews in an April 30 radio interview.

Last month, the House passed H.R. 51the Washington, D.C. Admission Actin a vote of 216208, backing congressional Democrats view of no taxation without representation. But Republicans see the legislation as an unconstitutional ploy to add two more Democratic senators.

The measure, which is backed by President Joe Biden, faces daunting odds in the evenly split Senate, as the legislative filibuster would require buy-in from at least 10 Republican senators, assuming all Democrats vote for it. Manchins declaration of opposition to the measure casts a further shadow of doubt on its fate.

Manchin said in the interview that he and his staff had taken a deep dive into the bill and its background, including a review of conclusions reached by the Department of Justice (DOJ) under previous administrations. He said prior analyses of the matter found that Washington statehood would require a constitutional amendment, adding that he views the 23rd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution as the main obstacle.

Every legal scholar has told us that, so why not do it the right way and let the people vote to see if they want to change? Manchin said, referring to a constitutional amendment.

While Manchin didnt explicitly mention a repeal of the 23rd Amendment in the interview, H.R. 51 provides for expedited consideration of a joint resolution that would repeal the 23rd Amendment, which gave D.C. three Electoral College votes in presidential elections.

Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), a former tenured professor of constitutional law who has long championed Washington statehood, issued a statement on April 30 insisting that making Washington into the 51st state wouldnt require a repeal of the 23rd Amendment.

Even though the 23rd Amendment does not need to be repealed before Washington statehood, some scholars have argued that the 23rd Amendment would be nullified under the Washington statehood bill, either because the bill would repeal the enabling statute for the amendment, or because the bill would lead to the unreasonable result of allowing the reduced federal district to participate in the Electoral College, she said.

Norton said she expects Congress would quickly move to repeal the 23rd Amendment to prevent the reduced federal district from participating in the Electoral College.

The effort for Washington statehood, which would endow its citizens full representation in Congress and control over issues that affect the district, was started in 2013 by Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and has been championed by Norton in the House.

Carper and fellow Democrats say its consistent with what the Founding Fathers envisioned for America and fair representation.

This isnt a Republican or Democratic issue; its an American issue because the lack of fair representation for Washington residents is clearly inconsistent with the values on which this country was founded, Carper said in a statement in January.

In mid-March, prior to a hearing on H.R. 51, ranking member of the House Oversight and Reform Committee Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) echoed Republican sentiment about the bill when he called it unconstitutional and a bid to tip the scales in Democrats favor.

D.C. statehood is all about Speaker Pelosi and liberal democrats consolidating their power to enact radical policies nationwide like the Green New Deal, packing the Supreme Court, and eliminating the filibuster, Comer said in a statement.

The Democrats bill is unconstitutional and no amount of testimony can change that basic fact. The bill does not address the financial burden that would fall on the District if statehood was granted or other practical implications. H.R. 51 doesnt rest in sound policy and is a dangerous political power grab that will ensure more government intrusion into Americans daily lives.

Masooma Haq contributed to this report.
President Joe Biden addresses a joint session of Congress in the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington on April 28, 2021. (Melina Mara/Pool/Getty Images)

Many Key China Issues Still Under Review at Bidens First 100 Days

WASHINGTONAs President Joe Bidens first 100 days come to a close this week, a number of key policy positions and contentious issues remain under review, to use the White Houses terminology.

Many relate to China, the United States strategic competitor, a rivalry that Biden has starkly defined, most recently in a speech to Congress on Wednesday, as a struggle between democracy and autocracy for control of the global economy in the 21st century.

The Biden administration has begun to flesh out an overarching strategy to compete with China that relies on renewing relations with partners like India and allies like Japan and South Korea, and heavy domestic investment.

But critics say slow reviews of specific policies could cost U.S. companies and the economy.

After Bidens speech, Republican Senator Mitt Romney told reporters, I dont believe we yet have as a nation a comprehensive strategy to deal with a China intent on dominating the world, eventually.

We dont have the luxury of time to sit around and marvel at the problem, said one Republican aide in the House of Representatives, speaking on condition of anonymity. We need action and specific policies in place.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the Republican criticism of their policy reviews. Democrats argue privately, however, that the administration is still racing to get crucial jobs filled.

Biden has yet to name an ambassador to China and many other countries, or to fill a key post at the Commerce Departments Bureau of Industry and Security, which oversees exports of critical U.S. technology to China.

Administration officials have said they will look to add new targeted restrictions on some sensitive technology exports to China in cooperation with allies, but have not offered further details.

President Joe Biden delivers an address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol in Washington, on April 28, 2021. (Doug Mills/Pool/Getty Images)

Tariffs on Chinese Goods

The Biden administration has said it will conduct a thorough review of U.S. tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on nearly $400 billion worth of Chinese goods, but it has not given a deadline.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in a recent interview that the United States was not ready to lift the duties, in part because of the leverage it gives American negotiators.

China has fallen short of pledges to buy U.S. goods made in a January 2020 trade deal.

Supply Chain Review

Biden launched a 100-day review of risks to critical supply chains in February, citing the United States need for secure, diverse, dependable goods in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, electric vehicle batteries, and rare earth minerals.

The Defense, Commerce, Energy, Agriculture, Transportation, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services departments are expected to submit reports addressing supply chain resiliency due one year after the February order.

Investment Ban

The Biden administration also has not addressed how it will use a tough sanctioning tool introduced by former President Donald Trump that would prohibit U.S. investments in Chinese companies that the previous administration said were owned or controlled by the Chinese military.

Chinese Vice Chair Xi Jinping (R) and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden speak with Chinese business leaders at the Beijing Hotel in Beijing, on Aug. 19, 2011. (Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

The Biden administration has signaled for weeks it is finalizing a broad review of North Korea (Successive U.S. administrations have sought to persuade the Stalinist country to part with its nuclear weapons.) A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Wednesday the administration was closer to the end of that review than we are to the beginning, but offered no details.

The White House has shared little about the review and whether it will offer concessions to get Pyongyang to return to talks. It has simultaneously signaled a hard line on human rights, denuclearization and sanctions, while making diplomatic overtures that officials say have been rebuffed by Pyongyang, which has long demanded economic sanctions relief.

Biden promised during the 2020 presidential campaign to reverse parts of Trumps tough measures against Cuba, and aides have said they are looking especially at Trumps last-minute decision to designate Havana as a state sponsor of terrorism.

But the new administration appears to be in no rush. And any significant move of this type would risk a political backlash in the crucial swing state of Florida ahead of the 2022 congressional midterm elections. Trumps hard-line approach was popular among the Miami areas large Cuban-American population, helping him win the state in November though he lost the presidential election.

Among the other issues still being decided are how to craft a new policy on Venezuela, and how to close the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cubawhich houses suspected and convicted terrorists, as well as others believed to pose a major security risk.

By Michael Martina and Matt Spetalnick

Ep0ch Times staff contributed to this report
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) holds a press conference following the Senate GOP policy luncheon in the Rayburn Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 2, 2021. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

McConnell Urges Biden Administration to Drop Divisive, Radical 1619 Project From Grant Programs

Thirty-seven Republicans led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Thursday penned a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona urging him to remove the 1619 Project from federal grant programs, arguing it skews American history for divisive political ends.

Our nations youth do not need activist indoctrination that fixates solely on past flaws and splits our nation into divided camps. Taxpayer-supported programs should emphasize the shared civic virtues that bring us together, not push radical agendas that tear us apart, McConnell and his GOP colleagues wrote in the letter (pdf).

The Republicans expressed concern that the Biden administration is seeking to prioritize funding educational programs that incorporate the ideas of the 1619 Project and critical race theory into their teaching of U.S. history and civics, reorienting bipartisan programs away from their intended purposes toward a politicized and divisive agenda.

In a proposed new rule released April 19, the Education Department outlined new priority criteria for a $5.3 million American History and Civics Education grant, as well as exemplary materials for K-12 educators to use. Specifically, the Education Department cited the 1619 Project, and critical race theorist Ibram X. Kendis antiracism as leading examples for the kind of content it wants to use taxpayer dollars to promote in history and civics classrooms across the country.

The 1619 Project, inaugurated with a special issue of The New York Times Magazine, attempts to cast the Atlantic slave trade as the dominant factor in the founding of America instead of ideals such as individual liberty and natural rights. The initiative has been widely panned by historians and political scientists, with some critics calling it a bid to rewrite U.S. history through a left-wing lens. Some historians have criticized the project over inaccuracies such as the American Revolution having been fought to preserve the institution of slavery rather than for seeking independence from Britain.

Families did not ask for this divisive nonsense. Voters did not vote for it. Americans never decided our children should be taught that our country is inherently evil, McConnell and his colleagues wrote.

The Pulitzer Center, an advocate of the 1619 Project, provides a series of lesson plans for use in classrooms and says the project challenges us to reframe U.S. history by marking the year when the first enslaved Africans arrived on Virginia soil as our nations foundational date, referring to the date of 1619.

Thats in contrast to the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the traditional date when the foundational principles of the United States were framed.

Some of the activities for children include directing them to read an essay by New York Times writer Nikole Hannah-Jones, which contains the central assertion that the year 1619 is as foundational to the American story as 1776  black Americans, as much as those men cast in alabaster in the nations capital, are this nations true founding fathers.

The curriculum urges students to read the essay and consider such issues as, What evidence can you see for how some might argue that this nation was founded not as a democracy but as a slavocracy?

Thomas Mackaman, a history professor at Kings College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, told The Wall Street Journal that, in his view, the American Revolution didnt establish a slavocracy, as Hannah-Jones suggests, but it instead brought slavery in for questioning in a way that had never been done before by raising universal human equality as a fundamental principle.

In their letter, the Republicans characterized the 1619 Project as putting ill-informed advocacy ahead of historical accuracy, arguing that it serves to double down on divisive, radical, and historically-dubious buzzwords and propaganda.

Actual, trained, credentialed historians with diverse political views have debunked the projects many factual and historical errors, such as the bizarre and inaccurate notion that preserving slavery was a primary driver of the American Revolution, the letter states.

The Republicans concluded their letter with a call for the Education Department to withdraw these Proposed Priorities and refocus on civic education and American history programs that will empower future generations of citizens to continue making our nation the greatest force for good in human history.

According to the Education Department, the reasoning behind its choices of examples is President Joe Bidens executive order that aimed to advance racial equity and better support underserved communities.

The Department recognizes that COVID-19with its disproportionate impact on communities of colorand the ongoing national reckoning with systemic racism have highlighted the urgency of improving racial equity throughout our society, including in our education system, reads the Education Department document, which is undergoing a 30-day public review period in the Federal Register.

The proposed rule marks the Biden administrations latest move to teach American students that historical racism remains deeply embedded in todays America. On his first day in the White House, Biden dissolved the Trump administrations advisory 1776 Commission and tossed its first and last report, which called for a return to patriotic education focusing on how generations of Americans overcame racism to live up to the nations founding ideals.

GQ Pan contributed to this report.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 01:17:28|Editor: huaxia

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ABUJA, April 30 (Xinhua) -- A total of 323 people were killed and 949 others kidnapped within three months in a spate of attacks by gunmen who have been on the rampage in Nigeria's northwestern state of Kaduna, an official data released by the government on Friday indicated.

In a security report for the first quarter of 2021 made available to Xinhua, the Kaduna government also confirmed that troops killed 64 gunmen and arrested several gunrunners during the period under review.

The report, according to Samuel Aruwan, the commissioner for internal security and home affairs in the state, covers various attacks, including banditry, reprisal attacks, kidnapping, and cattle-rustling in the northern state.

Of the total number of deaths recorded from the various aforementioned attacks, 20 were women and 11 were minors, Aruwan noted.

The official said, however, that multiple scores of bandits were neutralized via about 150 targeted aerial missions conducted by the Nigeria air force during the period under review.

"These missions were initiated based on credible intelligence of bandit activity and locations of camps, which were targeted and destroyed," he said.

He added that vigorous investigations are ongoing toward dismantling more gun-running and arms routes into the state, as these are central to the perpetuation of violence and armed banditry, through the trade in small arms and light weapons. Enditem
South Carolina teenager Sanaa Amenhotep, who went missing on April 5, 2021, after an alleged kidnapping. (Courtesy of the Richland County Sheriff's Department)

Missing South Carolina Girl and Daughter of Anti-Violence Activist Found Dead; Suspects Arrested

A teenage girl from South Carolina was found dead in a wooded area on Thursday after being reported as missing since early April, authorities said.

The body of 15-year-old Sanaa Amenhotepwho is the daughter of Brick City Peace Collective member Sharif Malik Amenhotepwas located in Lexington County following a three-week search, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said during a press briefing.

I cant tell you how tragic and sad this case is, to lose a 15-year-old like we lost this one, Lott said. Unfortunately we didnt bring her home the way we wish that we could.

Authorities have arrested Treveon Nelson, an 18-year-old male from Caycea city along the Congaree River in South Carolinain relation to Sanaas disappearance. He was taken into custody near Leesville on Friday and charged with kidnapping.

#BREAKING: Treveon Nelson, 18, is in custody. The Cayce resident will be charged with murder in connection to the shooting death of Sanaa Amenhotep. Deputies arrested Nelson Friday evening near Leesville. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/jrRdaMWUHw  Lexington Sheriff (@LCSD_News) May 1, 2021

A minor female whose identity was not released was also arrested, the Lexington County Sheriffs Department announced on Twitter. She is currently being held by the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice.

Sanaa was last seen on April 5 and reportedly left her home in Columbia voluntarily together with two males.

What weve been able to determine at this point is that she did leave with an acquaintance, Lott said. She probably left voluntarily  but at that point, when she was with them, it turned into a kidnapping.

He also added that detectives believe she was likely murdered on the same night that she was kidnapped, or not too long after that point.

The girls father posted an emotional message on Facebook after news broke on her death, saying he will never ever let his daughter leave his heart or mind.

Im sorry Princess I didnt protect u, he wrote. I cherish all 15 years of your life u spent with me I would lay down my life for u My Mom and Grandma got you I got Sade and the rest of your sisters and brothers I love u so much.

Authorities refused to release details on the circumstances surrounding her kidnapping or her relation to the two suspects. An autopsy to determine her cause of death was scheduled for Friday.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka also issues a statement after Sanaas body was found and expressed his sincere condolences on behalf of the people of Newark.

Mr. Amenhotep works tirelessly to increase justice and reduce violence in our neighborhoods through our Brick City Peace Collective, helping us to re-imagine public safety and prevent tragedies such as this from taking place in our very own community, Baraka said. No parent should ever have to bury their child. It is an inexplicable loss that defies imagination.

We hope that the South Carolina authorities can bring the suspects in this case to justice, he said. Our entire city is joining with the Amenhotep family in their grief and pain.

From NTD News
Missouri Deputies Kill Man Suspected of Shooting Officer

ST. PETERS, Mo.A 21-year-old eastern Missouri man suspected of shooting a police officer was shot and killed when he fired several rounds at officers who were pursuing him, authorities said.

Joe Robideau, of Troy, died after being shot Thursday evening, the Lincoln County Sheriffs office said.

Robideau was a suspect in the shooting of a St. Peters police officer during a traffic stop earlier Thursday. That officer was treated at a hospital for a gunshot wound to the leg and released.

After Robideau was spotted Thursday evening by an off-duty Lake St. Louis police officer, Lincoln County sheriffs deputies and officers from several law enforcement agencies joined in the pursuit, which led to southern Lincoln County.

The suspect stopped near Foristell, jumped out of vehicle and immediately began shooting at officers, the Lincoln County Sheriffs office said in a news release Friday. After shooting several rounds from one rifle, he continued firing from a second weapon.

Two Lincoln County deputies and a Lake St. Louis officer returned fired, hitting Robideau, who died at a hospital. No law enforcement officers were hurt.

One Lincoln County deputy is 25 with four years of service, and the other is 53 with 30 years of service, the department said. The Lake St. Louis officer is 38 with 15 years of service.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol is investigating the shooting.

The law enforcement officers involved in this incident and area residents are very fortunate to have not been killed or injured due to the amount of gunfire from the suspect, Lincoln County Sheriff Rick Harrell said in a statement. This tragic event highlights the dangers we face every day in this profession. We cannot thank the assisting law enforcement agencies enough. By the grace of God we are thankful that there was no other loss of life.
Oceanside Reckons With Tent City Lining Its Streets

OCEANSIDE, Calif.The city of Oceanside in San Diego County recently took a unique approach to its homeless problem: It replaced a growing tent city that had lined one of its major streets with large rocks.

The city took action after citizens complained that the tent community attracted crime and filth to an area with local businesses and residential neighborhoods. The rocks make it difficult for the homeless to return and camp on the same spot. In exchange, the needy were issued vouchers for temporary housing and food.

Oceanside resident Lorelee Goehle contacted The Epoch Times after noticing the number of tents lining Oceanside Boulevard had nearly tripled in a few short weeks.

I first noticed the small tents back in February, [when] there were about 10 tents. By the first of March, I drove by and counted 27, Goehle told The Epoch Times.

The rapidly growing encampmentlocated on Oceanside Boulevard near Loma Alta Creek, close to the entry of the I-5 freewaybecame the subject of many videos posted to social media accounts by frustrated area residents and businesses. The videos soon gained the attention of city officials.

Based on the increase in crime in the area, as well as complaints by residents and businesses, I knew we had to take immediate action, Oceanside City Councilmember Kori Jensen told The Epoch Times.

On the morning of April 14, bulldozers arrived and placed the rocks along the property lining the boulevard, covering the ground that a week earlier had served as home to the tent city. The move prompted immediate concerns from local homeless advocates.

The advocates say the tent city, known as Fall-town to the people who lived there, was a responsible, well-ordered communityand wonder where its residents are supposed to go when the temporary vouchers for motel rooms and meals run out in less than a month.

Officials note the city has devoted substantial resources toward assisting people experiencing homelessness, including bridge housing programs, affordable housing units, and voucher programsalthough the city has no permanent shelter.

Oceansides dilemma is one shared by many communities throughout the state: a growing problem thats spilling over into the lives of the public, whether they like it or not.

A homeless person stands next to his cart in a parking lot in Oceanside, Calif., on April 14, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

A homeless woman asks drivers for assistance in Oceanside, Calif., on April 14, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Rocks line where homeless people previously pitched their tents in Oceanside, Calif., on April 14, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

The Civic Center in Oceanside, Calif., on April 14, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Cleaning Up the Problem

According to a report, crime in the area of the Fall-town tent city had increased by 24 percent in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the last quarter of 2020. In March alone, 34 criminal cases were reported, and 25 arrests were made in the area. The report also noted a 34 percent increase in fire-related calls during the same period, increased trash and debris, and stated that downstream water tests had revealed fecal matter in samples, raising concerns of a public health threat.

The Oceanside City Council met on April 7 to deal with the growing crisis and increased crime in the tent city area. At the meeting, the council unanimously approved a $632,000 emergency motel voucher program for the areas homeless residentsand also passed an urgency ordinance prohibiting camping on city property.

The following day, the Oceanside Police Department began issuing 48-hour notices to the individuals camped on Oceanside Boulevard, alerting them that they were in violation of the citys newly revised ordinance. The people were told that they had to remove their belongings and cease camping on public properties throughout the city.

The council authorized officers from the Oceanside Police Department Homeless Outreach Team (HOT) to offer hotel vouchers to the individuals camping in public. The vouchers included rooms, meals, a service provider to provide support services and help with the adjustment, and temporary on-site security, anticipated to last for 21 days.

We are providing the necessary services to direct our unhoused residents to services available and resources already in place, Jensen said. My intention is that this is just the beginning of multiple solutions, as this is not a one-size-fits-all situation. We need situational options to meet the needs of our citizens.

Michael Gossman, Oceansides assistant city manager, told The Epoch Times that the program has been going very well.

A total of 46 people have accepted vouchers and the program is currently at capacity, he said via email on April 26.

Gossman said the city is currently seeking a service provider to operate a permanent shelter. He added that two people have involuntarily exited the program, leaving 44 people enrolled.

All 44 are receiving services, engaged in the program, and proactively taking steps toward a more permanent housing plan, he added.

According to officials, the majority of people dwelling within the homeless encampment accepted the vouchers and made the transition into the temporary housing program. However, a few stayed behind, refusing to move. Less than a week after the city used bulldozers to place the rocks along the boulevard, local business owners shot video showing two men tossing some of the rocks aside.

The Wrong Path

Jasmin Venegas, 21, runs En Mi Palma, an aid organization that assists Oceansides homeless community. Venegas told The Epoch Times that some of the areas homeless were disturbed by the disruption to their community.

Some of the folks at the encampment were excited, because it is a temporary bed and it is three meals a day, Venegas said. But some of the other folks were just taken back, because of that whole idea that they built such a strong community there, [and] its being taken away.

Venegas, who crafts jewelry to provide meals for the homeless in the area, said she has connected with many individuals on the streets of Oceanside over the past year, and that many people have common misconceptions about them.

They have that whole stereotype that everybody out heres a drug addict, everyones a criminal. But that everybody could be your daughter, could be your cousin. That everybody could be your mom, who just couldnt pay the bills that month, who just ended up choosing the wrong path, she said.

Venegas said the encampment on Oceanside Boulevard was quite different from other homeless communities in its social outlook. The site was well organized, she said, and included a bathroom system, trash cleanups, separate sections for men and women, and mental health check-ins.

She said the city targeted the group because of where it was situated, even though it was working for its inhabitants.

[The city] has chosen them because of their location, Venegas said. That whole community has worked so hard. It was effective for themand then now, its just being taken.

She said the temporary voucher program doesnt address the underlying problem.

Because the voucher program is only 20 days, I cant see any type of rehabilitation, she said. I cant see any type of sobriety. You cant get sober in 20 days, because you just cant do any type of life changes and adjustments in 20 days.

Brett, who was formerly homeless, in Oceanside, Calif., on April 14, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Just Demeaning

A visitor to the area, who identified himself as Brett, told The Epoch Times he can relate to the plight of the tent city residents, because he had been homeless on the streets of Oceanside from 2017 to 2020.

I was working full-time until 2010, and I even had my own house. Health complications contributed to my layoff, and then I could not make my house payments anymore. Then just one bad thing after another happened, he said. After a while, it started getting bad out there, with nowhere to shower, and [Id] even go a couple of days in a row without eating.

The 58-year-old said he knew a few individuals that once called the tent city their home, and understood their dilemma. Because staying clean was impossible while living on the streets, Brett said it was common for him to be the brunt of peoples negative comments about his hygiene.

I got kicked out of a coffee shop one time due to customer complaints that I smelled, he said. Its just demeaning when someone tells you that. I know my body is stinking, but I stopped going there. And I never saw myself in this position, you know?

Soon after the experience, Brett had the fortune to connect with Jordan Verdin, a local photographer who had launched Humanity Showers. The nonprofit offers mobile shower units to the homeless, with scheduled stops around the area multiple times a week.

After receiving a welcoming invite from Verdin to use the showers, Brett called his first time a spiritual experience.

You feel better about yourself when you are able to take a shower, and it was so good to be clean on Sundays for church, Brett said. If it wasnt for Jordan, I think I would still be out here homeless.

Brettwho currently works with Verdin at Humanity Showersremains connected to his friends that are currently on the streets of Oceanside, and continues to volunteer time to the homeless community.

Ive seen a lot of friends out here that are still homeless, and a lot of them even have kids. Brett said. You cant treat them any differently as people. They could be your brother, a dad, or a mom.

Officials in Oceanside say they are determined to continue connecting the homeless community with additional resources throughout the coming year. Until then, they plan to continue the voucher program as long as possible.

At this time we intend to keep the program operating until a more permanent transitional homeless shelter is up and running, said Gossman, the assistant city manager.

But for frustrated resident Goehle, the efforts are too little, too late.

The homeless population in San Diego County has been exponentially growing since I have lived in this county, she said. I have lived in California since 1985 and am leaving.
Chandler Police Department Officer Christopher Farrar, an 18-year veteran of the force who was killed during a police chase, in a file photo. (Courtesy of Chandler Police Department)

Officer Killed During Police Chase in Arizona

A police chase in Arizona on Thursday resulted in the death of one officer while critically injuring another, authorities said Friday.

The Chandler Police Department said one officer died as a result of his injuries after the suspect attempted to flee the lot of the San Tan Ford dealership with a stolen vehicle and struck multiple officers and one of the dealerships janitorial employees.

Authorities have publicly identified the officer who succumbed to his injuries as Christopher Farraran 18-year veteran of the force.

It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of Chandler Police Officer Christopher Farrar, the department wrote on Twitter. Officer Farrar was struck and killed by a suspect driving a stolen vehicle earlier this evening.

It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of Chandler Police Officer Christopher Farrar. Officer Farrar was struck and killed by a suspect driving a stolen vehicle earlier this evening. He was a 18-year veteran of the Chandler Police Department. pic.twitter.com/msQ19LT70L  Chandler Police (@ChandlerPolice) April 30, 2021

The second officer was from the Gilbert Police Department and currently remains in critical condition with a severe head injury.

Three other troopers with the states Department of Public Safety (DPS) were treated for non-life-threatening injuries, police said. The dealerships employee also received minor injuries.

The chase involved law enforcement officers from multiple agencies and also forced the temporary shut down of Chandler Municipal Airport in Maricopa County after the suspect drove into the runway of the airport, police said in a statement.

The chase was prompted after a deputy with the Pinal County Sheriffs Office attempted a traffic stop around 10 p.m. because the suspect was speeding on a highway north of Eloy.

Police said the suspect fled in his vehicle as the deputy approached him and fired multiple gunshots at him as he was going into a pursuit.

The chase continued into Chandlera city southeast of Phoenixwhere the suspect drove into the runway of the airport and then got back on the freeway while driving the wrong way.

He then eventually crashed his vehicle near a ramp and fled on foot into a motorplex where he stole a vehicle from a Ford dealership. As the suspect attempted to leave the dealership, he struck the officers and the employee.

Authorities confirmed three deputies from Pinal County and four DPS Troopers fired shots at the suspect. He was injured and taken into custody before being transported to a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.

Chandler Police Chief Sean Duggan said the slain officer touched many lives during his 18 years on the force.

I just ask that you keep Chriss family in your thoughts and prayers, and take a moment and be mindful of the brave men and women who are out there daily helping keep our communities safe, Duggan said.

From NTD News
Oregon Lawmaker Who Let Protesters Into State Capitol Charged in Breach

Oregon state Rep. Mike Nearman, a Republican, faces criminal charges for allegedly allowing demonstrators to breach the state Capitol in December.

Nearman has been charged with official misconduct and criminal trespass, both misdemeanors, following an investigation of his alleged role in a protest that turned violent at the Oregon State Capitol in Salem on Dec. 21, according to a court filing (pdf) with the Marion County District Attorney that was obtained by Oregon Public Broadcasting.

An aide at Nearmans office didnt immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.

The charges stem from an incident in which groups demanding an end to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions in Oregon gained access to the state Capitol as lawmakers were deliberating on COVID-19 relief measures.

Surveillance footage released by the Capitol in the aftermath of the incident showed what appears to be Nearman walking out a side door of the building, with a protester rushing through the open door to catch a secondary door Nearman had just walked through. While a second protester held the outside door, the two individuals started waving for other demonstrators to join them, the footage shows.

Police arrived on the scene and pushed the protesters back outside, but the door was being held open from the outside and the officers were unable to close it. A standoff between police and protesters ensued, with officers struggling to fend off surges in the doorway and both sides using pepper spray on one other. As chemical irritants filled the air, police retreated, and around 50 people forced their way into the Capitols vestibule.

Following the incident, some lawmakers and groups called for Nearmans resignation, though the legislature declined to act on the calls until a criminal investigation concluded. State House Speaker Tina Kotek, a Democrat, stripped Nearman of his committee assignments in January and invoiced him for $2,000 to cover the costs of fixing the damage to the building, according to the Statesman Journal.

Nearman, in a letter read on the House floor, agreed to several safety measures, including giving the legislature 24 hours notice before planning to enter the Capitol building, and vowed not to let any unauthorized people inside in the future.

On April 30, following the announcement of criminal charges filed again Nearman, Oregon House Majority Leader Barbara Smith Warner renewed calls for Nearmans resignation.

Given todays charges, its clear that hes got to go. I urge every one of my colleagues, in every caucus, to call this out for what it is and join me in demanding that Nearman resign immediately, Smith Warner said in a statement, according to Oregon Live.

The misconduct charge Nearman faces is punishable by a maximum of 364 days in prison and a $6,250 fine, while the trespass charge carries a maximum penalty of 30 days in jail and a $1,250 fine.

Nearman is scheduled to appear before a judge for an arraignment on May 11.
Boxes with mail-in ballots wait to be counted at the Northampton County Courthouse on Election Day in Easton, Penn., on Nov., 3, 2020. (Rachel Wisniewski/Reuters)

Pennsylvania Man Sentenced for Casting Dead Mothers Ballot

A Pennsylvania man was sentenced to five years probation after admitting to casting an illegal ballot during the Nov. 3 election.

Bruce Bartman, 70, apologized to Common Pleas Court Judge Richard Cappelli during a hearing on Friday, saying he made a stupid mistake when he illegally cast a mail-in ballot for his deceased mother.

The mans attorney, Samuel Stretton, said in court that Bartmans decision was a very misguided political mistake, and very stupid. The illegal ballot he cast was for former President Donald Trump.

Bartman entered a guilty plea to two counts of perjury and one count of unlawful voting. Aside from the probation sentencing, Bartman will not be allowed to vote in an election for four years and cannot serve on a jury.

Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer stated that he believed that justice has been served with the guilty plea, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Theres not public benefit to him being incarcerated, Stollsteimer said. This defendant from the beginning has accepted responsibility for his actions, and he has paid the price for them.

Bartman used the drivers license number for his mother, who died more than a decade ago, and registered her to vote before obtaining a mail-in ballot which he cast in her name.

Officials also said that he registered his deceased mother-in-law to vote but didnt receive an absentee ballot.

This criminal investigation and prosecution by my office should serve as a roadmap for meaningful reform for the Pennsylvania legislature and officials reviewing our voter systems, Stollsteimer said in a statement. Our office has done what it can to ensure our elections are both secure and accessible but the next fight is in Harrisburg. To those reviewing voter systems, I say, Remove failed systems, not ballot boxes.'

Following the Nov. 3, 2020, election, a number of states are considering changing rules around absentee and mail-in voting. This week, in Florida, the state Legislature passed a bill that provides more regulations for ballot drop boxes as well as more identification requirements for voters who request a mail-in ballot.

Georgias voting law so far has generated the most controversy. The bill, signed in March by Gov. Brian Kemp, adds more identification requirements for individuals who wish to vote by mail, among other provisions.

The Supreme Court earlier this month also rejected a lawsuit regarding a Pennsylvania voting dispute over the states mail-in ballot initiatives.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Hunter Biden attends his father Joe Biden's inauguration as the 46th President of the United States on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 20, 2021. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool/Reuters)

Hunter Biden Still Owns Stake in Chinese Firm

President Joe Bidens son Hunter Biden continues to own a stake in a Chinese investment company, which undermines the promise the president made on the campaign trail that his family would be free of foreign business dealings.

The younger Biden, who was involved in a number of business deals while his father was vice president, including in China, retains a 10 percent stake in a Chinese private equity firm called Bohai Harvest RST Equity Investment Fund Management Co. (BHR), according to business records available online. BHR is co-owned by the state-controlled Bank of China.

The Daily Caller News Foundation first reported on Hunter Bidens holding.

President Biden, while a candidate for office, promised Americans that no member of his family will have an office in the White House, will sit in on meetings as if they are a Cabinet member, will, in fact, have any business relationship with anyone that relates to a foreign corporation or a foreign country.

The president was inaugurated in January.

The younger Biden invested $420,000 in BHR in 2017, his lawyer, George Mesires, said in a previous statement. Hunter Biden also sat on the firms board of directors. He hadnt received a return on his investment as of 2019, Mesires said at the time.

Hunter makes the following commitment: Under a Biden Administration, Hunter will readily comply with any and all guidelines or standards a President Biden may issue to address purported conflicts of interest, or the appearance of such conflicts, including any restrictions related to overseas business interests. In any event, Hunter will agree not to serve on boards of, or work on behalf of, foreign-owned companies, Mesires wrote.

The White House and Mesires didnt immediately return requests by The Epoch Times for comment.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Feb. 5 that Hunter Biden has been working to unwind his investment, but I would certainly point youhes a private citizenI would point you to him or his lawyers on the outside on any update.
In this image from video, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin listens as the verdict is read in his trial for the 2020 death of George Floyd, at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis, Minn., on April 20, 2021. (Court TV via AP)

Prosecutors: Derek Chauvin Deserves Aggravated Sentence in George Floyd Killing

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin should receive an aggravated sentence for his actions leading to the death of George Floyd, prosecutors argued in a legal brief filed on Friday.

The facts proven beyond a reasonable doubt at trial demonstrate that five aggravating factors support an upward sentencing departure, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a Democrat, and other prosecutors wrote to Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill.

The aggravating factors, they said, include Floyd being a particularly vulnerable victim; Floyd being treated with particular cruelty; Chauvin abusing his position of authority; Chauvin committing the crime as part of a group of three or more persons; and the fact that multiple children were present when the crime was committed.

Any one of these five aggravating factors would be sufficient on its own to warrant an upward sentencing departure. Here, all five apply. The State therefore respectfully requests that the Court find the facts necessary to support the existence of these five aggravating factors, and that the Court impose an aggravated sentence on that basis, prosecutors said.

Chauvin was convicted last month in the 2020 death of Floyd, who stopped breathing while being pinned to the ground by Chauvin following an arrest for alleged use of counterfeit money in Cup Foods in Minneapolis. A jury convicted Chauvin of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter.

Per Minnesota law, Chauvin faces sentencing for only the most serious crime, second-degree murder. He faces up to 40 years in prison, depending on what Cahill decides. Whether the judge agrees there were aggravating factors will play a major role in the ultimate sentence.

In this image from video, Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill discusses motions before the court in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis, Minn., on April 15, 2021. (Court TV via AP/Pool)

Chauvins lawyer Eric Nelson said he opposed an upward departure from sentencing guidelines.

Nelson said Floyd was not particularly vulnerable because he was well over 6-feet tall, muscular, and weighed over 200 pounds, and struggled with officers against being placed in a patrol car.

He also argued that Chauvins actions were not particularly cruel; that abuse of a position of authority by an officer is not a recognized aggravating sentencing factor in Minnesota; that its not clear whether three or more persons participated in the offense because the other former officers have not yet gone on trial; and that the presence of children during the encounter is not a sufficient ground for an upward departure.

Because the State has failed to meet its burden of proving the existence of the alleged aggravating factors beyond a reasonable doubt, the Court may not consider them in making its sentencing determination, Nelson wrote in his brief.

Chauvin is due to be sentenced on June 25.
Maricopa County ballots cast in the 2020 general election are audited at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, Ariz., on April 29, 2021. (Rob Schumacher/The Arizona Republic via AP/Pool)

Reporter Kicked Out of Arizona Election Audit for Allegedly Violating Order

A reporter on Friday was booted from the 2020 election audit taking place in Arizona.

Officials removed Ryan Randazzo, a reporter with the Arizona Republic, from the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix after he published a picture that included a ballot.

We are committed to following all court orders to protect ballots and voter privacy. The press agreed to not photograph ballots, per the court order. Ryan Randazzo violated the agreement and posted this (un-blurred) photo online. He was escorted out and his access is revoked, the team managing the audit, led by former Secretary of State Ken Bennett, said in a statement.

Reporters were first let inside the coliseum last week under an agreement between Arizona Senate President Karen Fann, a Republican, and a media coalition.

Fann said that the agreement, which does not appear to have been released publicly, gave the media more access with the promise they would not zoom in on workers faces or the ballots.

She also referenced a court order, as Bennetts team did.

The picture taken was of a ballot in full view which was violation of judges order, she wrote on Twitter.

But some reporters challenged the officials, including Randazzo, who is part of a rotating pool covering the audit for Arizona-based outlets.

Fann who is in charge of the audit, is saying I broke a judges order. This is false, the reporter wrote in a tweet.

We have no judges order. We have an agreement not to show any discernible info on ballots. And our agreement states specifically we can/will show faces.

A general view of Veterans Memorial Coliseum shows ballots being reviewed during an audit of the 2020 election, in Phoenix, Ariz., on April 29, 2021. (Rob Schumacher/The Arizona Republic via AP/Pool)

A box of ballots cast in the 2020 election is delivered to be examined and recounted by contractors working for Florida-based company, Cyber Ninjas, who was hired by the Arizona Senate, at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, Ariz., on April 29, 2021. (Rob Schumacher/The Arizona Republic via AP/Pool)

A reporter watches the Maricopa County ballots cast in the 2020 general election being examined and recounted by contractors working for Florida-based company, Cyber Ninjas, who was hired by the Arizona Senate at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, Ariz., on April 29, 2021. (Rob Schumacher/The Arizona Republic via AP/Pool)

The photograph in question showed former Republican state Rep. Anthony Kern among those counting the ballots during the audit, but it also showed a full view of a ballot.

Brahm Resnik, a local reporter, deleted a retweet, or sharing of the original picture.

Media agreed not to show ballots when shooting images/video at Coliseum, he wrote, adding later: My read of agreement was not to show ballots. The language is more nuanced. Cant show ballot with discernible information. (And a reminder: Voters names are not on ballots.)

Randazzo did not appear to have violated the agreement, according to Chris Kline, president and CEO of the Arizona Broadcasters Association.

The agreement was to avoid viewing or broadcasting any identifiable ballot information, he said in a statement sent to The Epoch Times, adding that not showing any faces was never a condition of access.

Fann, Bennetts team, and the Arizona Republic did not respond to requests for comment, including requests for a copy of the agreement. The association declined to provide a copy.

It was not clear which court order Fann and Bennetts team was referencing.

The Arizona Senate earlier this year ordered the audit of ballots cast and machines used in the 2020 election in Maricopa County, the states most populous. The audit started last month and is expected to continue until at least May 14.

As for Kern, whose presence was criticized by Democrats, Bennett said that candidates for helping with the audit are not automatically excluded.

He cant change any of the votes on those ballots, so if he met the other requirements that they have for their counters, which he obviously has because hes a counter, then hes counting, he told a pool reporter on the scene.
An attendee holds a "Keep America Great" sign as President Donald Trump speaks to the crowd during a campaign rally at Freedom Hall in Johnson City, Tennessee, on Oct. 1, 2018. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

Reps. Gaetz, Greene Combine Forces to Rally Trump Base

Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), two of the strongest supporters of former President Donald Trumps America First agenda, are joining forces.

The duo filed paperwork with the Federal Election Committee on April 30 for a joint fundraising committee called Put America First, which will allow them to combine their efforts to raise money.

The pair also announced that they will kick-off an America First Tour on May 7 with an event at The Villages, a large retirement community in Florida.

The radical left is coming for you. And they know Im in the way. Come stand with me as we fight back together against this radical president and his far-left agenda, Gaetz said in a new radio ad for the May 7 event, Politico reported.

This past week has been full of encouragement from President Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Jim Jordan to the MAGA nation that shared so much love. So let me assure you, I have not yet begun to fight for the country I love, and for the nation that I know benefits from America First principles. Im built for the battle, and Im not going anywhere, said Gaetz during a Save America Summit in Florida on April 9.

Gaetz said he will take on the establishment wings of both parties to preserve Americas core values.

Gaetz criticized GOP leader Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) after she voted to impeach Trump earlier this year. He has been outspoken against policies that kill jobs in America or give money to foreign companies over American ones.

On March 24, Gaetz introduced the The No China Act, which would ensure that American taxpayer dollars used in any COVID-19 funding package do not support the communist regime in China or businesses owned by the Chinese government.

Every single American worker displaced by COVID-19 should be fully compensated before one nickel from our treasury goes to Chinese-owned corporations operating here in the United States. Full stop, Gaetz said in a statement.

Greene has also gained notoriety for her consistent criticism of the Biden Administrations policies on everything from gun control to immigration. She often speaks out against Democrat socialist policies and was stripped of her House committee assignments over social media posts she made before being elected.

A document outlining Greenes America First Caucus was published by a media outlet on Friday, with the document drawing criticism from Democrats and Republicans for phrases such as, America is a nation with a border, and a culture, strengthened by a common respect for uniquely Anglo-Saxon political traditions.

Critics said some of the language in the document was hateful and racist. But Greene in a series of tweets said she did not write or say any of the phrases in the posting.

The media released a staff-level draft proposal from an outside group that I hadnt read, she wrote.

The scum and liars in the media are calling me a racist by taking something out of context. This is just a repeat of Jewish Space Lasers. Another term I never used & the media made up. Its more proof so-called journalists lie and create false narratives. The media are the ones focused on race & use it to divide the American people with hate through identity politics.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 05:25:16|Editor: huaxia

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TRIPOLI, April 30 (Xinhua) -- Special envoy of the UN secretary-general for Libya Jan Kubis on Thursday met with President of the Libyan Presidency Council Mohamed Menfi in the eastern city of Tobruk, where they discussed implementation of the Libyan cease-fire agreement, the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) said in a statement.

Kubis briefed Menfi on key elements of the recently adopted UN Security Council Resolutions No. 2570 (2021) and No. 2571 (2021) and on his recent engagement with regional and international interlocutors, the statement said.

"They discussed ways to expedite the implementation of the cease-fire agreement in full without any further delay and with the opening of the coastal road as a necessary confidence-building step," it added.

The meeting also touched upon the Presidency Council's efforts toward the unification of critical military and security institutions.

They also discussed needed steps at national and international levels to start the withdrawal process of mercenaries and foreign fighters and forces from the entire Libya without any delay as requested by the UN Security Council, according to the statement.

Mendi expressed concern about the situation in Chad and its impact on Libya and the region, and elaborated on the steps being taken by the Presidency Council to meet these challenges.

He reiterated the Presidency Council's commitment to holding national elections on Dec. 24, as agreed recently by the UN-sponsored Libyan Political Dialogue Forum. Enditem
Retired Professor Handcrafts Arabic Musical Instrument to Help Preserve Ancient Traditions

At the age of 66, a retired professor is keeping traditions alive by helping preserve a prominent Arabic musical instrument.

Nazih Ghadban, who hails from a small village in North Bekaa, Lebanon, has been handcrafting the ouda short-neck lute-type, pear-shaped, fretless stringed instrumentfor the last four decades.

In an email interview with The Epoch Times, Ghadban, who worked in the education sector for 44 years, said that crafting the instrument was not his initial source of income.

It was a hobby that grew up with me and with time, curiosity, experimenting, and passion, it turns out to be a handicraft that has a lot of lovers in the world and I am very proud of it, Ghadban said.

One of the top luthiers in the world, Ghadban, who was the youngest of the three sons in his family, had a keen passion for music from an early age. He was only 12 when his interest in learning the oud developed, as his elder brother was an amateur player. After learning the basics from his brother, Ghadban spent hours training himself when his brother was outside.

As Ghadban was brought up in a family who faced tough economic conditions, his father couldnt afford to buy a good quality oud. Therefore, Ghadban decided to build the string instrument himself with support and encouragement from his siblings.

At the beginning, we used local wood from the nearby farm and the result was not so good, but with some improvement and encouragement, it served the purpose at that time and I was very proud of it, Ghadban said. Year after year and oud after oud, the quality started improving, it was a long journey full of learning and experiments.

Due to his interest and dedication in learning music, Ghadban joined a local band, and the members were impressed by his skill. He then participated in many events with them. With a pursuit to learn more and improve his skills, at the age of 18, he went on to get an education in music at the National Conservatory of Beirut, beside also going on to obtain a masters degree in philosophy from the Lebanese University in 1982.

Through the years, Ghadban worked as a philosophy professor and manufactured the oud during his spare time. Depending on the design, the talented musician takes anywhere from one week to one month to create the instrument. The ouds are all made by him single-handedly in his workshop.

I am taking care of my ouds from A to Z, and I believe this is the reason behind my success, Ghadban said. In my working style, the main focus is on the quality (sound, esthetic, and structure) of the instrument and not on the quantity, as I am trying to build an instrument for life.

Each oud created is Ghadbans labor of love, and each one, according to Ghadban, begins with the selection of the kind of wood and the design of the oud.

The oud comprises three main parts, namely: the bowl, the soundboard, and the neck. The neck and the bowl are made up of hardwood such as rosewood, walnut, mahogany, ebony, and maple; whilst the soundboard is made of softwood like pine, spruce, or cedarwood.

The oud has played a significant role in the Arabic culture and has appeared in many historic studies. According to Ghadban, its origins go back to 5,000 years ago. The oud was always there, it witnesses all events; ups and downs in the Arabic culture and that is why it is mentioned in many historic books, Ghadban shared.

Apart from playing an important role in history, the oud holds a special place in Ghadbans heart.

The oud is my best friend, he accompanied me wherever I went, together we went through many ups and downs and he never let me down. Through him, I express all my feelings, and  he keeps me always busy. He was beside me during sad times and joyful times, Ghadban expressed.

In return, Ghadban shares he has been doing his bit to preserve this unique piece of art and share it with the world. He has participated in many local and international events and expeditions to places such as Frankfurt, Shanghai, Damas, Doha, Beirut, Cairo, Tunisia, and more.

Ghadban admits that about 15 years ago, with the invasion of technological advancement and digital transformation, he was worried about the future of the oud, as the younger generation would be more inclined to discover unforeseen boundaries of electrical instruments. But with time, he has found out that there will always be a big fan base for authentic and traditional instruments.

I notice a shift toward the oud by western musicians, especially guitar players, who like to discover new instruments that give them new feelings and unlock their hidden potentials, Ghadban said.

Ghadban explained that the Arabic culture is very rich and at the heart of it lies its music, which plays an important role. Apart from the oud, Ghadban also sells the Arabic Buzuka two-string instrument with a charming sound that also faces the risk of disappearanceon his website.

As the talented artist shares a bit of his tradition with the world, he emphasizes that other countries, too, should be able to preserve their own authentic and traditional instruments, adding Old is Gold.

Watch this video:

(Courtesy of Nazih Ghadban)

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
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov speaks during a joint news conference with Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard following their talks in Moscow, Russia, on April 28, 2021. (Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service via AP)

Russian Minister: US-Russia Ties Worse Than During Cold War

MOSCOWRussias top diplomat said Wednesday that relations with the United States are now even worse than during Cold War times because of a lack of mutual respect.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow stands ready to normalize ties with Washington but that the United States should stop posturing like a sovereign while rallying its allies against Russia and China.

Lavrov said if the United States shuns a mutually respectful dialogue on the basis of a balance of interests, we would live in conditions of a Cold War or worse.

During the Cold War, the tensions were flying high, and risky crisis situations often emerged, but there was also a mutual respect, Lavrov said in an interview with the head of the Rossiya Segodnya state news agency, Dmitry Kiselyov, who hosts a weekly news program on Russian state television interview. It seems to me there is a deficit of it now.

Earlier this month, the Biden administration slapped Russia with sanctions for interfering in the 2020 U.S. presidential election and for involvement in the SolarWind hack of federal agenciesactivities Moscow has denied.

The United States ordered 10 Russian diplomats expelled, targeted dozens of companies and people and imposed new curbs on Russias ability to borrow money. While ordering the sanctions, U.S. President Joe Biden also called for de-escalating tensions and held the door open for cooperation with Russia in certain areas.

Russia quickly retaliated by ordering 10 U.S. diplomats to leave, blacklisting eight current and former U.S. officials and tightening requirements for U.S. Embassy operations.

As part of the restrictions, Russia moved to ban the U.S. Embassy and its consulates from hiring Russian citizens and third country nationals. Similar bans would also be applied to other nations designated as unfriendly.

Lavrov said Wednesday that a list of those countries will be published soon to formalize the decision.

During the interview with Kiselyov, Lavrov said Moscow has had a positive attitude to Bidens proposal to hold a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin but added that Russia still needs to analyze all aspects of the initiative.

Lavrov said he would attend a meeting of top diplomats of the Arctic nations in Iceland set for next month and would be ready to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken if he also joins the meeting.

By Vladimir Isachenkov
Sen. Cornyn, Senate GOP Introduce Concealed Carry Reciprocity Bill

A group of Senate Republicans, led by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), have introduced a bill that would allow individuals with concealed carry privileges in their home state to exercise those rights in any other state with concealed carry laws.

This bill focuses on two of our countrys most fundamental constitutional protectionsthe Second Amendments right of citizens to keep and bear arms and the Tenth Amendments right of states to make laws best-suited for their residents, Cornyn said in a statement. I look forward to working with my colleagues to advance this important legislation for law-abiding gun owners nationwide.

Joining Cornyn in launching the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act were Sens. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.).

The measure would allow individuals with concealed carry privileges in their home state to conceal carry in any other states that also allow it, while respecting specific state restrictions around the types of firearms and locations they can be carried in.

Law-abiding Tennesseans who are permitted to carry a firearm should be able to exercise that constitutional right in other states, consistent with those states laws, without having to obtain a separate permit, Hagerty said. The constitutional right of self-defense should not disappear while traveling or temporarily living away from home.

The idea behind the legislation is to treat state-issued concealed carry permits like drivers licenses, where people can use their home-state license to drive in another state but must follow the other states speed limit or road laws.

This bill reduces confusion and legal inconsistencies for responsible gun owners when they travel outside of their home state, while also respecting states rights to set their own laws. Im happy to again support this bill, Grassley said.

At the same time, the bill respects states authority to set their own concealed carry laws, as it does not establish national standards for concealed carry nor does it provide for a national concealed carry permit.

The Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act is common-sense legislation that protects law-abiding citizens right to self-defense and to keep and bear arms when traveling between states that allow concealed carry, Inhofe said. I am glad to join Sen. Cornyn in introducing this bill and I look forward to working with my colleagues to advance this proposal through the Senate.

The bill is co-sponsored by 27 other Senate Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

While many states honor concealed carry permits from other states, someincluding California, New York, and Marylanddo not, which effectively bans the carry of handguns by nonresidents visiting their state.

The protection of Second Amendment rights has drawn renewed scrutiny since President Joe Biden, who has repeatedly called for tougher gun restrictions, took office.
Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) (L) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), both members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, participate in a discussion at the Atlantic Council in Washington on July 16, 2018. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Senators Vow to Probe Apparent Rise in Havana Syndrome Directed-Energy Attacks Against Americans

The leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee vowed to get to the bottom of mysterious directed-energy attacks dubbed Havana syndrome, which are reportedly on the rise and have been linked to brain-damaging injuries.

Committee Chairman Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Vice Chairman Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) confirmed in a joint statement on April 30 that theres an apparent rise in the incidence of directed-energy attacks on U.S. personnel.

For nearly five years, we have been aware of reports of mysterious attacks on United States Government personnel in Havana, Cuba, and around the world, Rubio and Warner wrote. This pattern of attacking our fellow citizens serving our government appears to be increasing. The Senate Intelligence Committee intends to get to the bottom of this.

Their statement comes after media reports saying incidents bearing the hallmarks of Havana syndrome attacks had taken place in Washington, including just outside the White House and in Miami. One of the alleged energy attacks took place on the south side of the White House in November, and is believed to have sickened a White House aide, CBS reports.

U.S. authorities have struggled to understand the mysterious attacks since they were first noted in 2016, when diplomatic and intelligence personnel in Cuba first began reporting disturbing symptoms including head pressure or vibration, and dizziness, sometimes followed by visual problems and cognitive difficulties.

For some of these patients, their case began with the sudden onset of a loud noise, perceived to have directional features, and accompanied by pain in one or both ears or across a broad region of the head, reads a State Department-sponsored study into the phenomenon by the National Academy of Sciences.

A 19-person committee of medical and scientific experts involved in the study considered chemical exposures, infectious diseases, and psychological issues as being behind the symptoms, but concluded that the most likely cause was directed microwave energy.

Overall, directed pulsed RF (radio frequency) energy, especially in those with the distinct early manifestations, appears to be the most plausible mechanism in explaining these cases among those that the committee considered, the report found.

The report didnt suggest that microwave energy was part of a deliberate scheme targeting U.S. personnel, but noted that the mere consideration of such a scenario raises grave concerns about a world with disinhibited malevolent actors and new tools for causing harm to others, as if the U.S. government does not have its hands full already with naturally occurring threats.

Rubio and Warner said in their statement that the Senate Intelligence Committee has already held fact-finding hearings on these debilitating attacks, many of which result in medically confirmed cases of Traumatic Brain Injury, and will do more.

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines didnt deny the reports of the attacks when questioned this week, and told the Senate Armed Services Committee she couldnt discuss the issue openly because it involved classified information, CNN reports. Haines called the issue of the mysterious attacks critically important, adding that across the intelligence community, frankly, leaders are focused on this issue.

CIA Director William Burns, during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee in late February, committed to investigating the phenomenon.

I will make it an extraordinarily high priority to get to the bottom of whos responsible for the attacks and to ensure that colleagues and their families get the care they deserve, including treatment at Walter Reed National Medical Center and the National Institutes of Health, Burns said at the time.

Warner and Rubio said in their statement that they welcomed renewed investigation by the CIA into the incidents, noting that it was important to better understand the technology behind the weapon responsible for these attacks.

Ultimately, we will identify those responsible for these attacks on American personnel and will hold them accountable, they said.
SpaceX Making 1st US Crew Splashdown in Dark Since Apollo 8

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.SpaceX this weekend will attempt the first U.S. splashdown of returning astronauts in darkness since the Apollo 8 moonshot in 1968.

Elon Musks company is targeting the predawn hours of Sunday to bring back three NASA astronauts and one from Japan, after dangerously high wind scuttled a pair of earlier attempts.

The astronautsonly the second crew to fly SpaceXwill depart the International Space Station on Saturday night aboard the SpaceX Dragon capsule that carried them up last November. Theyll aim for a splashdown 6 1/2 hours later, around 3 a.m. in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Panama City, Florida.

SpaceX brought back a station cargo capsule with a splashdown in darkness in January. That adds to NASAs confidence for a nighttime homecoming, said Rob Navias, a spokesman at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

SpaceX has done numerous dress rehearsals and spent a lot of time with nighttime recoveries, he said.

Navias said the time slot provided the best weather conditions in the coming days.

The capsule carrying Apollo 8s three astronautsthe first men to fly to the moonsplashed into the Pacific near Hawaii before dawn on Dec. 27, 1968.

The Russians also had one crew splashdown in darkness, back in 1976. The two-man capsule could not dock to the Soviet Unions Salyut 5 space station as intended and had to make a hasty return, ending up in a partially frozen lake in Kazakhstanin the middle of a blizzard. It took hours for recovery teams to rescue the cosmonauts.

Even with the early hour, the Coast Guard promises to have more patrols to keep sightseers at a safe distance. On a Sunday afternoon last August, pleasure boaters swarmed the capsule that parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico with the first SpaceX crew.

The departure of NASAs Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker and Japans Soichi Noguchi will leave seven aboard the space station. Their replacementsrepresenting the United States, Japan and Francearrived last weekend in their own SpaceX capsule for a six-month mission. The three remaining crew membersone American and two Russianslaunched in a Russian capsule from Kazakhstan three weeks ago.

By Marcia Dunn
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon attends a debate at the Scottish Parliament on the trade and co-operation agreement between the UK and the EU, in Edinburgh, Scotland, on Dec. 30, 2020. (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Sturgeon: Independent Scotland Rejoining EU Would Need to Confront Border Issues

An independent Scotland would need to confront border issues with the rest of the UK if returning to the European Union, Nicola Sturgeon has said. Concerns have been raised by critics of Scottish independence who say Scotland rejoining the EU would result in a hard border with England.

The First Minister told BBC Radio 4s Today programme on Friday that the government of an independent Scotland would negotiate terms to allow businesses to keep trading.

Sturgeon said: This is the frankness that certain sections of the media will seek to stir up trouble onI am not denying that we would need to confront and resolve the issues of being in the European Union for the border between Scotland and England.

If we do that in a way that allows businesses to keep trading, because businesses are already paying the price of having a border because of Brexit, we open up the European Union again.

That is massively important for Scottish businesses, and also makes Scotland more attractive again in terms of inward investment to secure that access to the single market.

The First Minister also said Scotland would remain in the common travel area with the rest of the UK and Ireland, adding nobody with any shred of credibility is suggesting otherwise.

Sturgeon asserted that next weeks Holyrood election is not about the specifics of independence and neither she nor her party plan to hold a referendum in the near future, but she was asked repeatedly about the functions of an independent Scotland.

She refused to say how long an independent Scotland would retain the Trident nuclear weapons system, to which the SNP is opposed.

When asked if it could be years after Scotland becomes independent before the missiles are removed from the Clyde Naval Base at Faslane, the First Minister said: I want to see Trident removed from Scotland as quickly as possible, not least because I think there are many more important things we can do with the money that is invested in Trident.

Im not going to sit here right now and say exactly what that timescale will be other than I want it to be as quickly as is safely possible, and Im saying to you very openly that safety is a priority.

The Alba Party led by Sturgeons predecessor Alex Salmond has said that if it wins any seats in next weeks vote, it will table a motion to instruct the Scottish Government to immediately begin negotiations with the UK Government on independence in the first week of the new parliamentary term.

When asked whether the SNP would vote for such a motion, the First Minister said she doubts whether Alba will return any MSPs, and added: My immediate focus, if Im re-elected next Thursday, is to get back to work to continue to steer this country through COVID-19.

I dont believe we should propose a referendum right at this moment.

Im a life-long supporter in independence, I want Scotland to be independent. But firstly, weve got to steer the country through the crisis and weve got to build the majority for independence through patient persuasion.

People who are serious about achieving independence I think understand that.

I think talk of supermajorities and gaming the system and trying to bulldoze our way to independence almost regardless of the state of public opinion risks putting those we need to persuade of independence off rather than pulling them towards us.

By Craig Paton
Supervisors Attempt to Assuage Vaccine Fears Backfires

An Orange County supervisors attempt to dispel COVID-19 vaccine fears backfired when his comments were taken out of context by national media outlets, officials say.

During an April 27 Board of Supervisors meeting, Supervisor Don Wagner questioned Orange County Health Care Agency director Clayton Chau on concerns Orange County residents shared about the vaccine.

Is there any intention of tracking folks? Wagner asked.

Nope, Chau responded.

We heard about an injection of a tracking device. Is that being done anywhere in Orange County? said Wagner.

Chau chuckled, responding: Im sorry, I just have to compose myself. There is not a vaccine with a tracking device embedded in it, that I know of, [that] exists in the world. Period.

Wagners questions were meant to appease members of the public, who expressed concerns about vaccine tracking earlier in the meeting, Chau told The Epoch Times April 30.

This past Tuesday [April 27], at the board meeting, there were several speakers, people who come in and talked about that. Thats why he asked me that questionfor me to dispel the myth for the public, Chau said.

He doesnt believe that. I know he doesnt believe that because we talked about it; and because I was the one who vaccinated him.

Late-Night Punch Line

Some members of the media interpreted Wagners comments differently. Late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel poked fun at the politician during his April 28 show.

The clip initially appeared on April 27 in a tweet by former Daily Beast reporter Timothy Burke with the caption: Republican Don Wagner, who represents three million Orange County residents, wants to know if the Covid vaccine has a tracking device in it.

This clip was picked up and reported by the Daily Beast on April 28, with the article noting that Chau laughed in Wagners face.

The article stated: One of Southern Californias top Republican lawmakers asked a doctor if theres a tracking device inside the coronavirus vaccines being given to residentsand got the exact response he deserved.

But Chau said it wasnt Wagner he was laughing at.

There were actually people who showed up to the board of supervisors meeting believing that there is a tracking device in the vaccine, he said. Thats what I was laughing at.

Setting the Record Straight

Wagner said during an April 29 press conference that he raised these specific questions not because theyre true, but to allow Dr. Chau to assure the public that the vaccines are safe. Dr. Chau and I were addressing rumors to help overcome vaccine hesitancy.

He said the board has received many emails regarding vaccine hesitancy and myths about the vaccine. The responsible thing to do is debunk the myths, he said.

Were concerned about these sensational stories that they will cause individuals who might otherwise get the vaccine think there is a question to worry about some of the ramifications, and not get the vaccine.

Wagner said the medias coverage of the issue was an example of disinformation, and didnt present the full picture.

They did not in any way, do the due diligence responsible journalists should do to cover a story.

Following the conference, many media outlets who Wagner claimed initially misrepresented the clip, later incorporated his comments into their reports.

ABC and The Daily Beast were not immediately available for comment, nor was Timothy Burke.
Tasmanians fill out their ballot forms in Hobart, Australia on May 01, 2021 . (Steve Bell/Getty Images)

Tasmania Votes After Snap Election Call

Tasmanians are heading to the polls for an election where leaders of the two major parties have pledged not to govern in minority.

The Liberal government is seeking a historic third term on Saturday after calling the election a year ahead of schedule.

But there is an increasing feeling the level of support for the Labor opposition, and high-profile independents in the Hobart electorate of Clark, could result in a hung parliament.

Premier Peter Gutwein, who has said the Liberals wont try to govern in minority, voted alongside wife Amanda in Launceston.

Voters have a choice between certainty, stability, and a majority Liberal government or a minority government that will take us backwards, he told reporters.

The Liberals retained power in 2018, winning 13 seats, a narrow one-seat majority, in the 25-seat lower house.

An early election was called in April after Speaker Sue Hickey quit the Liberals to sit as an independent, plunging the government into minority.

Speaking on Friday, Labor opposition leader Rebecca White said she wouldnt lead a minority government, and no one from her party would either.

Were campaigning to win. Ive said throughout this entire campaign that is the only thing that Im working on, she said.

My only focus and the only focus of my team is to win majority Labor government.

Gutwein and the Liberals experienced a surge in popularity due to their coronavirus management but a recent voter survey indicated their backing could be on the slide.

Polling by uComms for the Australia Institute had the Liberals on 41 percent, Labor 32 percent, the Greens 12 percent, and independents 11 percent.

Hickey and Glenorchy mayor and fellow independent Kristie Johnston could pull sizeable votes in Clark.

Im feeling more confident because so many people have been supportive and it has been a wonderful campaign, Hickey said on Saturday after casting her vote in Hobarts northern suburbs.

People have been so disillusioned with a majority government. They are looking for change and Im hoping that I can be that change.

Gutwein, who is facing voters for the first time as premier after taking over as leader in early 2020, has pointed to the states strong economic rebound out of COVID-19.

Labor, which has nine seats, says Tasmanias stretched health system means it is time for change after seven years of Liberal government.

Gutwein is continuing to stand by embattled Braddon candidate Adam Brooks, who is accused of creating a online profile using a fake name and dating a woman using the alias.

Mr Brooks  has emphatically denied these allegations, Gutwein said.

More than 45,000 of Tasmanias 392,000 registered voters have already cast their ballots through pre-polling and postal votes, a figure estimated to reach 60,000. Polls close at 6pm.

By Ethan James
The Nation Speaks (May 1): Is Police Racism the Problem? Transgender Athletes vs. Fair Play; Burden of the High-Profile Juror

President Joe Biden pushes police reform to root out systemic racism. But does the data support the charge? Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik doesnt think so.

So why is the narrative of police brutality and racism so common? Professor Wilfred Reilly at Kentucky State University has studied exactly this question and has some answers.

Ddo you think its OK for protests to sometimes be violent? Thats what we ask this week in America Q&A.

In Connecticut, four female high school athletes will continue their fight to keep biological boys out of girls sports. We speak to their lawyer Christiana Holcomb from the Alliance Defending Freedom.

The case highlights the growing tension between transgender activists and feminist groups, as we learn from Lauren Adams, legal director at the Womens Liberation Front.

Finally, whats it like to be a juror in a high-profile case? We find out from Nichet Smith, a juror for the gruesome 2005 murder of Emily Cagal. And we speak with Diane Dimond, investigative journalist and author of Thinking Outside the Crime and Justice Box.
About 5,200 people gather to take part in a character formation at Liberty Square in Taipei, Taiwan, on May 1, 2021. (Chen Po-chou/The Epoch Times)

Thousands Gather in Taipei to Celebrate World Falun Dafa Day

TAIPEI, TaiwanAbout 5,200 Falun Gong practitioners in Taiwan adorned in colorful outfits gathered to sit in the iconic Liberty Square in Taipei on May 1, creating an immense image to commemorate almost three decades since the spiritual practice Falun Gong was made public.

The participants were arranged to form a short phrase in traditional Chinese characters. The message wished the founder of the practice, Li Hongzhi, a happy birthday and highlighted the 29th anniversary of the day that Falun Gong was introduced to the public in China.

Li introduced the spiritual discipline in northeastern China 29 years ago on May 13, which is also his birthday. Since 2000, the date has been celebrated by Falun Gong adherents and supporters as World Falun Dafa Day.

The discipline, also known as Falun Dafa, consists of five meditative exercises and moral teachings centered on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance.

More than 5,000 #FalunGong practitioners gathered in #Taipei on May 1 to form huge characters and lotus seed buns-quite a feast to the eyes They want to tell people that despite #CCP persecution and disinformation, #FalunDafa is still popular worldwide and now in its 29th year pic.twitter.com/iDYOYxUUvl  Frank Fang (@HwaiDer) May 1, 2021

Other adherents, who wore pink capes and hoods, formed two lotus seed buns. These buns, also known as longevity peaches in Chinese, are a common item served at birthdays for seniors to celebrate their accomplishments in having reached a ripe old age.

Above the Chinese characters were two heavenly beautiesimages of angels often associated with traditional Chinese culture.

The formation was the result of three days of intensive preparation that began on April 28. Organizers set out color-coordinated mats to create the outline of the image, although their task became more difficult because of rain during the two days before the event.

The weather cleared by April 30, and on May 1, the sun emerged from behind the clouds at noon while participants were sitting on their assigned mats waiting for aerial photos to be taken. Shortly after, a ring of light, known as a 22-degree halo, appeared around the sun, dazzling the participants below.

A ring of light appears around the sun in Taipei, Taiwan, on May 1, 2021. (Chen Po-chou/The Epoch Times)

Tradition

Even after staging the annual event for more than 20 years, Taiwanese adherents are still seeking to make improvements, Huang Chun-mei, the event organizer and deputy chairwoman of the Taiwan Dafa Association, told The Epoch Times.

This year marked the first time that the image involved so many Chinese characters14which made coordination of the participants more challenging, according to Huang. In addition, the image of lotus seed buns was used for the first time.

The decades-old tradition didnt originate on the island. It started in China in the 1990s, when Falun Gong adherents could still openly practice and hold public activities. But after the Chinese regime launched a nationwide persecution campaign involving mass arrests and hateful propaganda in July 1999, this activity has been kept alive by overseas adherents.

About 5,200 people gather to take part in a character formation at Liberty Square in Taipei, Taiwan, on May 1, 2021. (Chen Po-chou/The Epoch Times)

Aside from celebrating Lis birthday and commemorating World Falun Dafa Day, Huang said the event serves as a rebuttal to the communist regimes arrogance. At the start of the persecution, former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin confidently claimed that Falun Gong would be eradicated in three months. But more than two decades later, the discipline is still attracting new adherents, Huang said.

She added that it was in 1994, two years after Li introduced the discipline, that the first group of Taiwanese began practicing Falun Gong.

Wu Ching-hsiang, a retired architect who created the blueprint for the image, told The Epoch Times that the purpose of depicting two heavenly beauties was to convey a sense of universal jubilation associated with the day.

Holding such an event that involves thousands of people during the pandemic wouldnt have been possible without the success of the Taiwanese government in preventing the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes the disease COVID-19, Wu added.

After the character formation ended, adherents stood in long lines to perform Falun Gongs meditative exercises.

Falun Gong adherents practice meditative exercises to celebrate World Falun Dafa Day in Taipei, Taiwan, on May 1, 2021. (Chen Po-chou/The Epoch Times)

Falun Gong

One participant, Debbie Tung, 28, a designer in graphic design and visual arts, said she has taken part in the annual event at least four times after she started practicing Falun Gong.

I was blown away the first time I took part in it, Tung said. I found it very peaceful. As I was sitting there and listening to the music being played [by the organizer], I found a moment of serenity.

Tung says said her mental and physical health have improved dramatically since taking up the practice, compared to other people in her age group. On top of this, her skill as a designer has improved, she said, adding that she often gets inspiration that seems to come from nowhere.

Jackie Lin, 48, a production planning manager at a semiconductor company, said he has taken part in the annual character formation many times since 2014. He said he has found a new purpose in life because of the practice.

Many locals stood nearby to watch as the event was unfolding.

Mrs. Wu, a housewife, said it was her second time seeing the character formation at Liberty Square. She described the scene as a spectacular and grandeur display.

Another local, Mr. Liu, a salesperson in the auto industry, said he was impressed by how orderly adherents were when they filed to their spots in the formation. It was the first time that Liu had seen the event in person, though he had seen pictures of the past events online.

Liu expressed concern for the ongoing persecution of the practice in China, describing it as extremely inhumane.

Taipei City counselor Lin Ying-meng called on Taiwanese people and neighboring countries to condemn the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) over its human rights violations, including those perpetrated against Falun Gong practitioners and Christians.

I hope that Taiwan can be a safe harbor for all the different ethnic groups and people oppressed [by Beijing], Lin said in an interview with the Taiwanese edition of The Epoch Times. I hope that we can continue to provide assistance to people persecuted by the CCP.
The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has provided 150 medical ventilator machines from the PM CARES fund to a Delhi-based COVID care centre run by the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), officials said on Saturday. Bhaskar Khulbe, Advisor to the PM, has written in this context to the Union Health Ministry, as per a copy of the letter provided by ITBP officials.

The 150 ventilators, equipped with global positioning system (GPS), will be installed at the Sardar Patel COVID Care Centre (SPCCC) that began operating on April 26 at the Radha Soami Beas campus in south Delhi's Chhattarpur area. The ITBP, a border guarding force, has been entrusted to run the centre with the administrative support and funding of the state government.

The SPCCC was opened by the Centre on Delhi government's request in view of the recent massive surge in coronavirus infections in the national capital. The PMO letter stated that the ventilators will be made available from the PM CARES Trust Fund on a loan basis of six months now, which if necessary, may be extended further on review.

The life-saving equipment will be used to address the "needs of critical patients" at the SPCCC, it said, adding that the request seeking these equipments was made by ITBP chief S S Deswal. The PMO also directed the Health Ministry to "organise immediate installation" of the ventilators at the facility that has a total of 500 oxygen beds and provide "necessary training for the use of these ventilators may also be organised by the selected vendor".

The SPCCC, at present, does not have ventilators or ICU, and following a slow pace of admissions almost 400 COVID-19 patients have been admitted here as per latest data. The ITBP, early this week, had flagged that it was not able to admit the full capacity of patients at this facility due to "limited" supply of oxygen and had asked the Delhi government to enhance its flow.

Also read: West Bengal Assembly polls: Counting of votes to take place amid strict COVID measures on May 2
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 09:36:50|Editor: huaxia

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KINSHASA, May 1 (Xinhua) -- President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Felix Tshisekedi declared late Friday a state of siege in the northeastern provinces of North Kivu and Ituri, due to the surging violence by armed groups in the region.

The president made this decision in concert with Prime Minister Lukonde Sama as well as the speakers of the Senate and National Assembly, according to the minutes of the Council of Ministers released on the national television by government spokesman Patrick Muyaya.

A presidential order will be announced in the next few hours. "Given the seriousness of the current situation in this part of the country, an order from the president of the Republic is expected within hours," added Muyaya. Enditem
A file photo shows people protesting against COVID-19 measures in Montreal on Nov. 28, 2020. A similar large-scale protest was held in the city on May 1, 2021. (The Canadian Press/Graham Hughes)

Thousands Protest COVID Restrictions in Montreal

Thousands of people took to the streets in Montreal on Saturday, May 1, to denounce COVID-19 restrictions in Quebec.

Demonstrators, calling the restrictions excessive and unjustified, gathered at Montreals Olympic Stadium, and demanded that the provincial government lift a nighttime curfew that has been in place in much of the province since January, as well as mask mandates.

Former MP and Peoples Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier, a vocal opponent of lockdown measures, also joined the protest in Montreal.

Organizers said the protest was the first one of several planned for the coming weeks.

Similar protests were held in other parts of Canada, such as Calgary and the Toronto area.

Protests against lockdown measures have increased in Quebec and other cities in recent weeks.

Last weeks, several people were charged after attending an anti-lockdown protest in Peterborough with Bernier and Ontario MPP Randy Hillier in attendance. Both politicians were ticketed for violating COVID-19 restrictions.

With files from The Canadian Press
The Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth leaves Portsmouth Naval Base in Hampshire for exercises off Scotland before heading to the Indo-Pacific region, on May 1, 2021. (PA)

Thousands Wave Off UK Aircraft Carrier Ahead of Indo-Pacific Deployment

Thousands of well-wishers have packed the harbour walls to wave off the Royal Navys flagship HMS Queen Elizabeth as it set sail for exercises and its first operational deployment to the Far East.

The 3 billion ($4 billion) aircraft carrier sailed out of Portsmouth Harbour to cheers from the crowds who filled the walls and the beaches.

The Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth passes the Round Tower as it leaves Portsmouth Naval Base in Hampshire for exercises off Scotland before heading to the Indo-Pacific region, on May 1, 2021. (PA)

Well-wishers waved Union Flags and held banners saying farewell to their loved ones who will be at sea for about seven months.

A flotilla of small boats also lined up to view the huge carrier as it sailed off into the Solent.

The crew of the 65,000 tonne warship lined the flight deck while a piper played at the top of the ski-ramp at the front of the ship.

Earlier on Saturday, two destroyers, HMS Defender and HMS Diamond, and a frigate, HMS Kent, which also form part of the nine-ship Carrier Strike Group (CSG), also set off from Portsmouth.

The Royal Navy Type 45 destroyer HMS Diamond, part of the Carrier Strike Group 21 mission, leaves Portsmouth Naval Base in Hampshire ahead of the departure of HMS Queen Elizabeth, for exercises off Scotland before heading to the Indo-Pacific region, on May 1, 2021. (PA)

The CSG will take part in Exercise Strike Warrior off Scotland before heading to the Indo-Pacific region.

The exercises, which mirror a broad range of crisis and conflict situations, will include 1,500 ground troops at military ranges across the country and maritime exercise areas off the west and north coasts.

Australia will join NATO nations the UK, the U.S., Denmark, France, Germany, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, and Poland in taking part with 34 naval units.

HMS Queen Elizabeth and the CSG will deploy shortly after the completion of Strike Warrior.

The carrier, with eight RAF and 10 U.S. Marine Corps F35B stealth fighter jets on board, will depart for Asia accompanied by six Royal Navy ships, a submarine, 14 naval helicopters, and a company of Royal Marines.

The CSG, which will carry out visits to India, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, will include the U.S. destroyer USS The Sullivans and the Dutch frigate HNLMS Evertsen.

A total 3,700 sailors, aviators and marines are involved in the deployment which will cover 25,000 nautical miles.

Commodore Stephen Moorhouse told the PA news agency: This is an amazing capability and pulling that all together with our international partners is a real statement that the Royal Navy is very much in the Premier League.

The deployment takes us through the Mediterranean, the Middle East then operating with key partners in the Indo-Pacific just shows the Royal Navy has an ambition to be active on the global stage and operate wherever our politicians may feel fit.

Colonel Simon Doran, the senior U.S. representative in the CSG, said the deployment had been in planning for more than 10 years.

It sends a message to potential adversaries but also to our allies to reinforce should they ever be needed, we will be there, we generally always fight together so to deploy together really helps strengthen our relationship, he said.

By Ben Mitchell
Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke speaks with a supporter in Billings, Mont., as he campaigns for re-election to a second term as the state's sole representative in the U.S. House on Oct. 20, 2016. (Matthew Brown/AP Photo)

Trump Interior Secretary Runs for New Montana US House Seat

BILLINGS, Mont.Former congressman and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said Friday that hes running for Montanas newly awarded U.S. House seat.

Zinke told The Associated Press that he was running, a day after filing paperwork to organize a campaign committee.

Zinke, who said he maintains a friendship with former President Donald Trump, told AP that political division is the biggest problem facing the nation. He said its his duty to re-enter public service, after resigning from the Interior post in 2018 amid investigations that he said were politically motivated.

I think our country is in peril. And I dont think its because of Russia or China, he said. Theres a lot of problems. We have immigration problems, we have border problems, internal problems, homelessness, education. But were going to have to work together to get it done.

Montanas second House seat was awarded this week based on the states population growth compared to other states in the latest U.S. census results. The election is slated for November 2022 but the voting districts boundaries have not been set.

Zinke is a former U.S. Navy Seal and was Montanas lone U.S. House member from 2015 to 2017. After joining Trumps Cabinet, he loosened environmental restrictions on oil and gas development and mining, while also promoting the creation of wildlife migration corridors and opposing mines near Yellowstone National Park.

His last months at Interior were marked by increasing numbers of investigations into his conduct. Some of the investigations concluded with no findings of wrongdoing but others remain unresolved. He said Friday there was never any substance to allegations he misused the office.

The Interior Department inspector general in 2018 found Zinke violated travel policies when he took his wife Lola in government vehicles. In 2019, the Office of Special Counsel said he violated a ban on federal employees engaging in political activity when he tweeted a picture of himself wearing socks with Trumps campaign slogan.

Investigations not publicly resolved include a probe of his decision to reject a casino sought by two tribes in Connecticut and a land deal involving the chairman of an energy company that did business with Interior when Zinke was there.

Zinke for the past two years has worked as a consultant including for U.S. Gold, a Nevada-based mining company pursuing a gold and copper mine west of Cheyenne, Wyoming. He said has done no lobbying in that time.

Zinke said he would start his campaign with a tour of the state to talk to voters and not take donations until making an official announcement at a later date.

By Matthew Brown
People hold up banners and a union jack flag in protest against lockdown and vaccination in Hyde Park, following the outbreak of COVID-19, London, Britain, on May 16, 2020. (John Sibley/Reuters)

UK Police Seek 9 People After 14 Officers Injured When Enforcing COVID-19 Rules

The Metropolitan Police in London is asking the public for help in identifying nine people they would like to speak to after 14 officers were assaulted last weekend.

On April 24, officers approached a crowd of over 100 people in Londons Hyde Park, who were playing music and gathered closely together in breach of the UK governments CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus lockdown regulations.

A woman is detained by police officers as protestors from the Million Mask March and anti lockdown protesters demonstrate, amid the CCP virus outbreak in London, on Nov. 5, 2020. (Henry Nicholls/Reuters)

When the officers asked them to stop the music and leave the area, they came under sustained and violent attack, the Met said in a statement issued on Friday.

Fourteen officers received injuries from missiles and physical assaults, five of whom required medical treatment, said the statement.

Detective Chief Inspector Nat Norris, from the Mets Public Order Command, said the level of violence was some of the worst he had seen in recent years.

These officers were simply trying to do their job and it can never be acceptable for them to be attacked in this way, he said. I would urge anyone who recognises those pictured to contact us so we can speak to them about this incident.

Three people were arrested at the scene and have been bailed pending further enquiries, the Met said.

The UK has been under varying levels of CCP virus restrictions since the pandemic began last spring.

According to data released by the UKs Crown Prosecution Service in January, many of the CCP virus-related offences involved assaults on emergency workers.

Many of the assaults were committed against police officers, who were coughed at, spat on, kicked, bitten, or hit with heavy objects when trying to stop suspected breaches of COVID-19 restrictions.

The Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) said in January that the virus has been weaponised against police officers.

According to a survey conducted by PFEW, 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.

After Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced in late February his plan for a gradual exit from the lockdown, police officers have become increasingly reluctant to enforce the residual rules.

Ken Marsh, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation (MPF), told The Telegraph in March that police no longer wanted to police breaches of lockdown rules, as it is not policeable and not manageable.

Mary Clark contributed to this report.
UK Rural House Prices Surge Due to Urban Flight During Pandemic: Study

The UK has witnessed over the past year a shift in housing demand away from cities and towards more rural or less densely populated areas of the country, a new study has revealed.

House prices have boomed during the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic despite the most significant economic contraction in a generation, said the Resolution Foundation, a London-based think tank.

Is there evidence for this race for space in the data? Splitting the UKs local authorities into deciles by their population density, house prices have risen by over 10% in the least populous 10th of local authorities in the UK, compared to rises of only 6% for the most dense pic.twitter.com/9UlTNBHhNb  Resolution Foundation (@resfoundation) May 1, 2021

We find that, while prices have rocketed across the board, there has been a more significant jump in the least dense deciles of the UK, with areas that have higher population density lagging behind, it said in its Housing Outlook for the second quarter of 2021.

Researchers at the think tank split the UKs local authorities into deciles by their population density.

They found that, since February 2020, house prices have risen by over 10 percent in the least populous tenth of local authorities in the UK, but have increased by just 6 percent in the most densely populated decile of local areas.

Within the capital, house prices in Outer London rose by 7 percent since February 2020, while the increase was only 2 percent on average for Inner London, which is more densely populated.

This is not just a London effect, the researchers said, as cities across the UK have seen slower growth in house prices than rural areas, suggesting a reduced preference for urban living.

This forms a stark contrast with the pre-pandemic period. In the year to February 2020, price growth by density decile varied very little, and prices in the lowest density areas were actually falling in the run up to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Denser types of property have also become less attractive. While prices of houses have increased by around 9 percent over the past year, the average price of a flat has grown by just under 6 percent.

It is possible that the market has been boosted mainly by temporary policy, such as the stamp duty holiday, which has increased the purchasing power of those who want larger homes in less dense areas, the researchers said.

But they said there is some tentative evidence that those able to work from home are taking advantage of this flexibility to move to locations outside large conurbations.

If tastes continue to shift towards out-of-city living, and families are able to manifest those preferences, we may see prices actually fall in city centres, they said.
Virus Exposure Sites at Brisbane International Airport

Travellers who passed through Brisbane International Airport on Thursday have been warned of possible coronavirus exposure sites after a transiting passenger tested positive to COVID-19.

Queensland Health has identified the airports Hudsons Coffee stand and adjacent seating area, and the male toilets adjacent to Gate 79 as areas visited by the infected passenger.

It says anyone who was at the coffee stand between 9.53 a.m. and 11.20 a.m. on April 29, or the toilets between 11.23 a.m. and 11.15 p.m. on that day, should isolate and get tested.

The passenger tested positive after he and his travel partner, who were in transit to Doha from Papua New Guinea, were mistakenly directed to the international terminals green zone.

Deputy Chief Health Officer Dr. Sonya Bennett said anyone who had been at the identified sites at the specified times needed to quarantine and get tested on Tuesday, May 4, five days after their exposure.

The three flights affected are Air New Zealand NZ202 from Brisbane to Christchurch, Air New Zealand NZ146 from Brisbane to Auckland and Qantas QF135 from Brisbane to Christchurch.

It is likely that all of these contacts will be in New Zealand and NZs public health authorities are providing similar advice to people, she said.

However we need to make sure we capture any contacts who remain in Australia. Having viewed CCTV footage, we believe people who have been to these locations during the times of exposure face a potential risk.

She said the average incubation period of COVID-19 was five days, so if people tested negative on Tuesday, they would be safe to leave quarantine.

Serology tests revealed the man was likely to have been at a late stage of his infection, meaning he posed a low risk to others at the airport. He and his travel partner were masked and socially distanced while in the green zone, outside of visiting the exposure sites.

AAP
Larry and Sandy Hausner stand in their home in Santa Ana, Calif., on April 13, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Wifes Love Helps Turn Pool Hall Bum Into Kindly Neighbor

SANTA ANA, Calif.When Virginia Morts husband died suddenly three years ago, her neighbor, Larry Hausner, stopped by to offer his condolences. Hausner told Mort hed like to lend a hand by taking out her trash.

Hes been doing it ever since.

Without fail, he has never missed a week in three years, Mort told The Epoch Times.

Her 80-year-old neighbor truly enjoys helping others, she said. If every neighborhood had a clone of him, our communities would be filled with good cheer and much happiness.

Hausner has become something of a legend to his neighbors, renowned for his acts of kindness, small and large. But he wasnt always such a nice guy, he told The Epoch Times.

When he was young, he was a pool hall bum and an alcoholic, he saiduntil the love of his wife set him straight.

Hausnerever-willing to divert attention to otherscredits Sandy, his wife of nearly 50 years, for whatever positivity he spreads to those around him.

Sandys been my everything, he said. Shes been an instrumental part in why I got to where I am.

Hard Times Build Heart

Hausner said hes driven toward everyday acts of kindness because hes no stranger to hard times and personal struggles.

Born in Omaha, Nebraska, he was the youngest of 11 children in a family he said was dirt poor. He had to fend for himself from the beginning, and said that made him bitter at a young age.

He struggled to make it through school, because he was constantly distracted by gambling at bookie joints. When I got out of high school, I was a pool hall bum. Trust me, my mother called me that enough times, he said.

As soon as scraped up $300, he followed his sister to Santa Ana, Californiawhere he still lives to this day. Over time, Hausner clawed his way to success. He parlayed his strengths as a salesman into opening his own construction company in Tustin in 1976.

But even though he began to profit financially, he was fighting a personal battle with alcoholism, he saidthe same disease that plagued his fatherand he was losing.

Then, with his wifes support, Hausner stopped drinking at age 41. Thats when his life finally started to turn around for good.

Sandys been the backbone to the whole thing, because she shouldve given me the boot long ago, he said.

Hes been sober ever since. On June 1, Hausner will celebrate 39 years of sobriety.

When Sandy was asked how hard it was to straighten Larry out, she asked, Have you got all day? Then she shared a story.

My one granddaughter, Hannah, adores this man, Sandy told The Epoch Times. Shes just obsessed with him, right? And she says to her mother one day, Mom, when I get married, Im gonna have a husband just like grandpa. I want him to be just like that.

And [her mother] goes, Hannah, darling, he hasnt always been like that.

Larry Hausner in Santa Ana, Calif., on April 13, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

The Spirit of Giving

Hausners personal struggles and successes have led him to think of life as a steering wheel: whatever you put at the top of the wheel will eventually wind up in your lap. Thats why he feels its important to put something positive in the world every chance you get.

During a trip to Tecate, Mexico, in the early 1980s, Hausner spotted a half-finished orphanage. The best way to describe it was it was a skeleton of a building, he said. There were no doors or windows, and only a partial roof and a poorly made cement floor.

The woman in charge told him that it was her dream to house needy children there, if they could ever get it finished. About a week later, Hausner returned with a small band of subcontractors and finished the building in three days.

On another occasion, he went to the Orange Mall five days before Christmas, where he noticed that the Spirit of Giving tree was still covered with about 600 tags containing the names of needy Orange County residents.

Troubled by the idea that so many folks would go without gifts for the holiday, Hausner took all the tags off the tree. He and his family spent the next two days buying, wrapping, and delivering 600 gifts.

Since retiring in 2015, Hausner has written and self-published six books; the latest is a nonfiction biography of a renowned mobster from his hometown. He donates all proceeds to his favorite charity, Paralyzed Veterans of America.

Ive been giving them money for years. I make sure I take care of them, he said.

Acts of Kindness

While Hausner is proud of his larger philanthropic efforts, its the small actions that Mort feels are worthy of recognition, whether paying for the order placed by the car behind him in the drive-thru or rushing out to the store to buy groceries for a neighbor.

In April, Hausner got a call from his neighbor, Mel, who had a flat tire and was in need of onions for a Seder dinner he was hosting. Hausner didnt have any on handbut he dropped what he was doing, picked up some onions at the store, and delivered them to Mels front door.

When he heard that Mort had shared this story, Hausner burst out laughing. He couldnt understand why such a meaningless deed was worth mentioning, even after Mort explained that the average bear wouldnt want to be bothered.

The small things I do, they dont amount to anything compared to what Ive been given, he said. I dont think of it as a big deal.

Hausner refers to his acts of kindness as small potatoesbut Mort said theyre more like a big feast for her.

He doesnt even think about it. He just does it. Its just a natural thing for him, she said. Its an inherent characteristic with him. Hes just precious. But dont tell him.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 10:04:38|Editor: huaxia

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TRIPOLI, May 1 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Friday said that some 340 illegal migrants have been rescued off the coast of Libya.

"Some 340 refugees and migrants have been returned today to Tripoli by Libyan Coast Guard," UNHCR tweeted.

"UNHCR and IRC (International Rescue Committee) provided urgent medical and humanitarian assistance to all survivors before being taken to detention," UNHCR said.

Libya has become a preferred point of departure for thousands of immigrants who attempt to cross the Mediterranean Sea to reach European shores.

According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 6,000 illegal migrants have been rescued off the Libyan coast so far this year, including women and children.

Rescued migrants end up in overcrowded reception centers across Libya, despite repeated international calls to close those centers. Enditem
Raising trout in Western North Carolina is a time  and labor  intensive process, and the growing threat of climate change only worsens the situation, creating difficulties for hatcheries and recreational fisherman.

Producing trout even in optimal conditions is challenging. Its 35 seasons of disaster, joked Adam Moticak, superintendent of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commissions Bobby N. Setzer State Fish Hatchery in Brevard.

The Setzer facility, one of three cold-water trout hatcheries run by the states Wildlife Resources Commission, raises fish to support the booming sport fishing industry in Western North Carolina, a $383 million venture in 2014 that supported more than 3,500 jobs.

But sport fishing is only one part of the North Carolina trout industry affected by climate change. Farmers who raise fish to sell to restaurants and retailers, fishing guides who make their living on the water and conservationists who look for wild trout as indicators of a healthy ecosystem face mounting concerns about climate change.

Addressing the threat

North Carolina ranks second in trout production nationally, producing 5 million pounds of trout annually. Trout need cold, clean, oxygen-rich water to survive.

By 2060, however, Western North Carolina will likely see 10-20 more days a year when temperatures are above 95 degrees, and both the annual hottest and coldest temperatures will increase by 3-5 degrees, according to a 2020 report by the N.C. Institute for Climate Science.

Raceways-at-Setzer-Hatchery-scaled.jpg RACEWAYS  Climate change could eventually take its toll on the ability of the Bobby N. Setzer State Hatchery to raise trout, which need cool 

The warmer days and nights might lead to higher water temperatures, which, if they get to 70 degrees or above, can be lethal to trout, whose precarious hatchery journey at Setzer starts as an egg in a small green tray.

After hatching, the trout are moved to an indoor trough, then to a field of long channels dug in the pavement called raceways, where they live for months until they are big enough to stock.

In the raceways, stressors abound. Rain can wash silt, leaf litter and other debris into the gates that divert water from the Davidson River, stopping the flow of fresh water. Sand can wash in, making breathing difficult. Floods can wipe out an entire inventory. Summer heat lowers the water level and spikes the temperature, making the stressed trout more susceptible to disease.

Pressure on small farms

Sunburst Trout Farms in Haywood County is one of only two trout farms in the state that sell fish products to retailers. Wes Eason and his brother Ben own Sunburst, which has 25 employees.

Wes-Eason-Sunburst-Trout-Farms-scaled.jpg {span}UPHILL BATTLE  Bouts of warmer water during summer months already pose a challenge for Sunburst Trout. Pictured is Wes Eason, a third-g

The Easons are third-generation trout farmers whose grandfather started the business in 1948. Their flagship farm, located below Lake Logan, uses water from the bottom third of the lake, but if there is an extended period without rain and temperatures rise into the high 80s and above, the water temperatures start to climb.

Theres not any on-the-fly adjustments we can make to control the water temperature, Wes Eason explains.

Instead of trying to manually cool the water, which would be prohibitively expensive, the Sunburst team leased a second farm at a higher elevation to aim for cooler water in the summer. During those months, workers can reduce capacity at their main farm while continuing to grow fish at the second farm.

That water being colder by a few degrees makes all the difference in the world, Eason said. Were chasing the coolest water.

While having multiple farms helps with rising temperatures, there are other worries. Last September, a strong storm hit without warning above the leased farm, washing debris into the intake pipe and clogging it. The fish used up all the available oxygen and died.

We lost probably 30,000 pounds of fish as a result of the flood, Eason said. Some stuff you just have no control over.

Since the loss, Sunburst added an alarm so that if the water level drops, a float device notifies staff phones, alerting them to clean the intake.

Both daily work and insightful long-term planning are required for these managers to protect trout against the perils of a changing climate. And while trout are the center of many peoples jobs, theyre also much more than that.

Trout mean everything to me because its not only my livelihood, its my passion, Eason muses. Seeing the finished product that supertalented chefs can do with a fish that weve had in our care gives me a sense of pride.

Threats to the sport

Recreational fishermen share Easons passion and concern. Warmer water and stronger storms challenge fishing guides who take their clients out on the river.

Because they often visit the same fishing spots repeatedly, guides like Debbie Gillespie are attuned to the changes in weather and environment that affect trout health.

Rainbow-Trout-scaled.jpg {span}A trout at the Setzer Hatchery in Brevard. {/span}

A guide for the past five years, Gillespie has spent more than 200 days a year on rivers in North Carolina and Tennessee. One of the rivers she fishes on most is the Davidson, which feeds the Setzer hatchery.

Ive seen more changes on the Davidson as far as sedimentation, flooding, quality of fishing goes because I spend so much time there, Gillespie explained.

Intense rains can muddy the streams, killing the macroinvertebrates that trout eat and completely changing the dynamic of a fishing spot, she said. She knows which spots to avoid in the summer when the water levels are too low and warm to support trout.

On the Davidson River in the summer of 2019, Gillespie said, You could only fish in the morning because later the water temperatures were so high.

The ramifications of climate change stretch beyond the economic effects for Gillespie, who sees trout as a way to help recreational fishermen view the world in a different way.

Most people just want to go out to catch fish and are not interested in the environment, she said. Trout give me the opportunity to get people out there to help them see just how important conservation is.

Finding solutions

Climate change affects how North Carolinians grow and catch fish, raising questions about how to address the challenges moving forward.

At the Setzer Hatchery, one of the biggest hurdles is that the raceways are exposed to the elements. The concrete construction, surrounded by asphalt, can cause a 3- to 4-degree increase in the water temperature between the time it comes in and when it is discharged. Open raceways also make it easier for birds to prey on trout.

The hatchery staff is planning a renovation that will include a giant metal pole shed big enough to cover all of the raceways and tall enough to drive under. The changes will help lower temperatures, discourage birds and generally reduce stress.

In the fish world, if you can reduce stress, thats key, David Deaton, fish production supervisor for the Wildlife Resources Commission, explained. Reducing stress decreases our mortality, which increases our production and efficiency.

Other steps by hatchery managers and farmers can mitigate the risk. At Setzer, the staff can close the intake gate for a short time during storms to prevent flooding or sand buildup.

We dont like to do that, because if it happens in the middle of the summer, and the fish are already pissed, it can increase their stress, Deaton said. But it keeps them alive.

The long-term effects of rising temperatures on the trout population are not yet known, but Deaton said the shift may require a move away from trout production.

Change in temperature is going to be important in the future. Speaking for our hatcheries, I think we can still operate as trout hatcheries with minor increases, he said. If it starts to get where were pushing 75 degrees (in water temperature) three or four months out of the year, we might have to rethink whether we can do trout at those facilities.
Sevierville, TN (37876)

Today

Showers early then scattered thunderstorms developing later in the day. High 83F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%. Locally heavy rainfall possible..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy with showers and a few thunderstorms. Low 68F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.
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A recent post urging black and white South Africans to rally against witch persecution and muti killings has elicited some reactions from the pagan community in South Africa. While it has never been my intention to join issues with the pagan community, I would like to address the concerns that they raised. It is pertinent to take this opportunity to clarify what seems like some confusion and misunderstanding of the campaigns, positions, and activities of the Advocacy for Alleged Witches (AfAW). These mistaken statements and insinuations are contained in the posts and comments that were published here . And here is my brief response.

First, I am aware that the South African Pagan Rights Alliance (SAPRA) has an advocacy campaign against witchcraft accusations and witch hunts. However, I do not know enough about the SAPRA campaign to comment on it. I welcome any initiative that could help tackle the menace of witch persecution in the region. Again, the AfAW campaign is much more than this writer and his views. To reduce the AfAW campaign to the position and perspective of this writer is to discount the important work that other advocates are doing in various parts of the region and beyond. The AfAW network has continued to grow. While I initiated this advocacy group, many others work and volunteer with AfAW and help in furthering the goal of ending witch persecution in the region. AfAW has advocates in Nigeria, South Africa, Malawi, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Liberia, Zambia, and other African and non-African countries who support its mission.

Yes, I am a humanist, and as stated on its website , AfAW's position is humanist, skeptical, and human rights-based. Some advocates are religious or theistic. In fact all who have benefited from AfAW's interventions are religious and theistic persons. Thus it is absurd and misguided to associate AfAW's campaign with religious bigotry.

AfAW's advocacy is against witch persecution, not against pagans or the pagan religion. In fact across African countries, the term pagan is largely seen as a pejorative word that western Christian missionaries and their African converts introduced to describe African traditional religion. They used it to mean fetish and idol worship as opposed to 'true' religious observance as encapsulated in Christianity. The term witch or witchcraft is alien to the target cultures in Africa. Witch or witchcraft is an Anglosaxon term for a local phenomenon that predates Africa's contact with Western anthropologists. In its campaign against 'witch' persecution, AfAW speaks to a sociocultural issue that predates the pagan religion and conception of 'witchcraft' in South Africa. So the term witchcraft or witch as understood by pagans in South Africa comes with conceptual and cultural baggage that pagans in South Africa should acknowledge or ignore at their peril especially when engaging or criticizing the positions and activities of AfAW.

As stated in AfAW's Decade of Activism, the campaign uses a two-pronged approach to combat 'witch' persecution. It defends, protects, supports, and empowers victims of witch persecution. It also educates and enlightens actual and potential accusers and abusers. As part of the public enlightenment of the accusing parties, AfAW critically evaluates narratives and ideas that are used to justify witch persecution, witch hunting, and killing. These narratives include notions that some individuals can turn into birds or insects and fly out at night or that some persons can appear and harm others in their dreams or use some 'supernatural' means to cause accidents, illness, and death.

Such an approach helps in reasoning witch persecutors and hunters out of their ignorance of nature and how nature works; it clarifies misconceptions of misfortunes and how misfortunes are caused. So why should pagans in South Africa have issues with this approach? Look, AfAW is not interested in what pagans believe. It is not the goal of AfAW to affirm or deny the pagan articles of faith. Pagan faith or belief is pagans' business, not AfAW's. AfAW is only interested and concerned about the narratives that witchcraft accusers, witch persecutors, and hunters use to justify their criminal activities and atrocities. AfAW campaigns to dispel these superstitious notions and practices that sanctify and legitimize witch allegations and bloodletting. It is not of interest whether these harmful beliefs form a part of the corpus of pagan, Hindu, Christian, Islamic religious, theist, or atheistic beliefs.

Pagans in South Africa should try not to misrepresent the campaign of AfAW or the positions of advocates. When AfAW declares that witches, as conceived by accusers, are imaginary, and do not exist, it is not an exercise in denial, it is a statement of fact. When advocates state that alleged witches do not turn into birds and fly out at night as their accusers claim, that is a position based on evidence. Isn't it? That is not imposing atheism on Africans- as condescending as that sounds. What do pagans in South Africa have against campaigns based on facts? Why are they opposed to evidence-based positions and propositions? In the face of horrific abuses in the name of witchcraft, pagans in South Africa should be interested in calling out witch hunters and their mistaken propositions.

Witch persecution persists in Africa mainly due to a tongue-in-a-cheek approach of campaigners, and a lack of firm and unequivocal stand against superstition-based abuses. This trend must stop. I mean how does SAPRA expect to succeed in the advocacy against witchcraft accusations and witch hunts when it cannot critically engage and expose the mistaken beliefs and assumptions that inform the abuses?

Challenging the superstitious belief in witches is one of the hallmarks of the European Enlightenment. Skeptical rationality is one of the markers and moments of western modernity. Europeans and people of European descent look back to the era of Enlightenment with a sense of pride. And this should not be different in the case of advocacy against witch hunts and the furtherance of African modernity and Enlightenment. Pagans in South Africa should rise up to this challenge; they should come forward and cooperate with AfAW in dispelling the mistaken assumptions and superstitions that enable witchcraft accusations and witch hunts in the region.
A Michigan State Police bomb squad was dispatched to Farmington Hills at 10:40 a.m. on Saturday, after Farmington Hills Police requested assistance, MSP tweeted.

The bomb squad was sent to the 22000 block of Middlebelt and residents were told to expect police in the area.

MSP tweeted at 12:05 p.m. that the bomb squad had cleared the scene.

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Police did not provide further details about the incident or why the squad was dispatched there.

Assist other Agency: On 5/1 at approximately 10:40AM, the Farmington Hills Police Department requested assistance from the MSP Bomb squad at the 22000 block of Middlebelt. Expect police in the area. pic.twitter.com/aXCDOgvcWv  MSP Metro Detroit (@mspmetrodet) May 1, 2021

The Bomb Squad is clear the incident. pic.twitter.com/BXToz4ywjW  MSP Metro Detroit (@mspmetrodet) May 1, 2021

Grub with Gratitude supports local restaurants and benefits hospital employees To thank the local restaurants that donated meals during the pandemic, Henry Ford Health System has come up with the Grub with Gratitude progr
To thank the local restaurants that donated meals during the pandemic, Henry Ford Health System has come up with the Grub with Gratitude program to support the eateries and also benefit hospital employees.

Henry Ford has purchased 500 $50 gift cards from 25 restaurants that will be randomly awarded to its team members from a weekly drawing. The names of 50 team members will be drawn to receive a gift card to one of the participating restaurants.

We are eternally grateful to our team members who, despite exhaustion from the ongoing pandemic, continue to give their absolute all caring for patients under conditions that we have never seen in our lifetime, said Bob Riney, Henry Ford's President of Healthcare Operations and Chief Operating Officer. This is also an opportunity to show our appreciation and support for our local restaurants who have generously donated food for our team members throughout the pandemic.

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The restaurants from Metro Detroit and Jackson area are locally owned and operated and feature a variety of cuisine that ranges from Italian and Polish to Middle Eastern and American. Henry Ford plans to expand Grub with Gratitude adding additional restaurants in the future.

Gift card winners will be randomly selected from a drawing of Henry Ford team members who are nominated by a co-worker or self-nominated. Grub with Gratitude kicks off May 7 with the first drawing and continues for at least 10 weeks.

Customers of the restaurants and the general public can donate to Grub and Gratitude at www.henryford.com/grubwithgratitude. They also can show their support on social media using #GrubWithGratitude and @HenryFordHealthSystem.

Oakland County schedules its first 2 walk-in COVID vaccine clinics The Oakland County Health Division will hold its first two walk-in COVID vaccination clinics on May 7 and 8. No appointment needed.
All arrivals back to facing 14-day quarantine  again

PHUKET: All people arriving in the country from May 6 onwards will be required to observe a 14-day mandatory quarantine, the Phuket office of the Ministry of Interior has confirmed.

COVID-19Coronavirushealthtourism

By The Phuket News

Saturday 1 May 2021, 11:32AM

The office announced the warning on its official COVID-19 information Facebook page, Phuket Anti-COVID19 at 10pm last night (Apr 30).

From 1 May 2021, all travelers who wish to enter Thailand will be quarantined for 14 days regardless to their country of origin or vaccination status, the office announced.

However, it did note that, Travellers who have obtained their Certificate of Entry (COE) prior to 1 May 2021 and arrive before 6 May 2021 will be quarantined for 7 or 10 days, depending on their vaccination status. There is no need to apply for a new COE.

Travellers who arrived in Thailand from 6 May 2021 onward will be quarantined for 14 days.

For those who already have a COE, your quarantine period will be changed to 14 days automatically.

The hotel will contact you to revise the quarantine package before your arrival in Thailand, said the announcement
Aussies bowl over competition to win inaugural International trophy

BOWLS: A brand new competition has been added to the calendar at Kamala Lawn Bowls Club as 18 players competed in the International last Monday (Apr 26).

Bowls

By Robert Knight

Saturday 1 May 2021, 10:04AM

Six teams of three participants representing five different countries played in a Champions League styled format competition where each team plays eachother.

The countries represented saw teams from Thailand, Canada, England, Sweden, and two from Australia (Aussie 1 and Aussie 2) taking part.

Each match was a triples game of 8 ends, with 2 points for a win, 1 for a draw and naturally no points for a loss. With five matches for each team consistency and stamina would be crucial as would the need to pace themselves and hydrate in the heat of the afternoon.

In this format, even if a team experienced early setbacks in the competition, there would always be the opportunity to claw back up the league. In the event of a tie in the league bowl difference then bowls scored would be taken into consideration.

On paper there were no clear favourites but quite a few were vocal in promoting their team and country as probable winners.

After the first two rounds only team Canada, made up of Ken Sammy Sampert, Duncan Kennedy and Ron Blackwood, and Nidnoy, Noon and Spensa of team Thailand looked out of the running with two straight losses.

Leading the pack were Ray Rocket Austin, Greg Hollywood Holman and Rob Iceman Daminato of Aussie 2 closely followed by their compatriots from Aussie 1, Dean Lambert, Derek Rocky Chalmers and Nobby Styles, and Dot Barker, Rob Knight and Glenn Collins of team UK with all to play for with three more matches to go. Sneaking up the table were the Swedish team of Ulf Egerstaad, Pat Ailm and Pierre Hammar

The next round saw defeats for both the UK and Aussie 1, meaning it was Aussie 2 and Sweden vying for the title going into the final round.

With the Swedes having a superior bowl difference they knew they could snatch the title from under the noses of Aussie 2 if the more junior Aussies fell at the final hurdle.

Sweden did as well as they could by beating Thailand by a 3-point margin which increased their bowls difference considerably.

Therefore the final showdown between the two Aussie teams became pivotal as to who would emerge champions.

In spite of suggestions from some quarters that some national skulduggery might take place, Aussie 1 did anything but roll over and found themselves in the position of needing 2 points on the last end to snatch a victory, which would have seen the Swedes winning the title.

As he had done all day, ably backed up by his Aussie 2 team members, Hollywood held his nerve and bowled a snorter to put the pressure back on the elder team who were unable to secure any points at the last end.

So Aussie 2 finished the competition with a 100% winning record to deservedly take the title even though pre-tournament they were arguably not one of the fancied teams.

The final league table was as follows:

Team Played Won Lost Draw Points Difference

Aussie 2 5 5 0 0 10 +8

Sweden 5 4 1 0 8 +13

UK 5 2 2 1 5 -8

Aussie 1 5 1 3 1 3 -7

Thailand 5 1 4 0 2 -2

Canada 5 1 4 0 2 -4

Despite this being the first time this particular format had taken place, it was a resounding success and no doubt will become a permanent fixture on the calendar for many years to come. A special thanks to Ulf Egerstaaad for organising the day.

Kamala Lawn Bowls Club is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday and everyone is welcome to join. Private parties are also available on the other days. All equipment is provided and barefoot bowls is the preferred style. For further details please contact the club on 0991307299.
COVID alert for Phuket airline passengers

PHUKET: Passengers on specific flights between Phuket and Bangkok operated between Apr 15-26 have been urged to present themselves to a government hospital for a COVID test and observe any quarantine order by officials.

COVID-19Coronavirushealthtransporttourism

By The Phuket News

Saturday 1 May 2021, 10:27AM

The Phuket office of the Public Relations Department (PR Phuket) announced the warning on its official Facebook page at 11:26pm last night (Apr 30).

The post noted that flights by AirAsia, Vietjet and Thai Smile were affected.

The post also included images of seating plans of the flights showing where the affected person was sitting (see gallery above) so people know how close they were to a person now believed to be infected with COVID-19, though no explanation of how serious the threat of infection was given.

People sitting in the seats in close proximity to the person now suspected or confirmed as infected with COVID-19 were advised to present themselves at a hospital near their home.

The flights of concern were reported as:

AirAsia

Flight FD3027  Don Mueang Airport - Phuket  April 15, travel time 5:50pm - 8.30pm

Flight FD4110  Suvarnabhumi - Phuket  April 20, travel time 12:06pm - 1:21pm

Thai Smile

Flight W285  Suvarnabhumi - Phuket, April 21, travel time 12:30pm - 1:55pm

Vietjet

Flight VZ401  Chiang Rai - Phuket  April 16, travel time 11:05am - 1:10pm

Flight VZ301  Phuket - Bangkok  April 23, travel time 1:40pm - 3pm

Flight VZ316  Suvarnabhumi - Phuket  April 25, travel time 6:30pm - 7:50pm

Flight VZ308  Suvarnabhumi - Phuket  April 26, travel time 6pm

If you were seated at the specified numbers, you are a high-risk person. You are requested to be tested at a nearby hospital and detained in a place designated by the government, the notice advised.

People with queries about the announcement were advised to call the Phuket COVID hotlines 094-5938876, 062-2435116.
Phuket running short of COVID quarantine hotel rooms for high risk contacts

PHUKET: People identified as high-risk contacts for exposure to a person now confirmed as infected with COVID-19 can observe their 14-day quarantine at home if COVID-protection measures can be met to protect other people living in the same household.

COVID-19Coronavirushealth

By The Phuket News

Saturday 1 May 2021, 02:25PM

Phuket Vice Governor Pichet Panapong confirmed the news during an inspection of the Local Quarantine facilities available at the Nai Yang Beach Resort & Spa on Phukets northwest coast yesterday (Apr 30).

Joining Vice Governor Pichet for the inspection was Phuket Provincial Public Health Office (PPHO) Chief Dr Kusak Kukiattikoon and a team of medical officers.

Vice Governor Phichet explained that there were two hotels in Thalang District, which covers the northern half of the island, to detain high-risk contacts: the Airport Hotel and the Nai Yang Beach Resort & Spa.

Modifications made and the procedures observed at both hotels were satisfactory, he noted.

Vice Governor Pichet explained that from April 4-30, a total of 1,530 people had been ordered to observe high-risk detention, half of which were quarantined at hotels, and the rest observed their quarantine at home.

Currently about 549 people remain in hotels, and 500-600 others remain in their homes, he said.

There are 510 hotel rooms available in Phuket for high-risk contacts to observe their quarantine, Mr Pichet noted.

The Recenta hotel in Phuket Town has 154 rooms for people in Muang Phuket, the Royal Paradise Hotel in Patong has 150 rooms for people in Kathu District, while the Nai Yang Beach Resort & Spa Hotel has 133 rooms and the Airport Hotel has 73 rooms for people Thalang District, he explained.

Most of those exposed to high risk from COVID-infected patients are now almost fully quarantined, he said.

As a result, some of the high-risk people are now confined to their homes, he added.

If the authorities consider that they can be detained at home, if, for example, they can be confined to a room alone, without affecting the family, or placing the whole family under quarantine, he added.

Health officials will go to monitor the symptoms [of the high risk contact] at home every day and conduct swab tests to detect infection on the fifth and 13th day of the quarantine, he said.

However, he noted that not all people were able to observe their quarantine at home as they were unable to remain separated from other family members, prompting the need for hotels to be used to serve as Local Quarantine venues.

"We require a large number of rooms, and the province needs to spend a lot of money on hotel room rental as well, even if rented at the government rate, he said.

Therefore we are allowing this if people can be safely detained at home. But if they cannot be detained at home, they will need to be detained in the hotel in the province. It is necessary to find more rooms to ensure maximum safety, he added.

The move to allow high risk contacts to observe their quarantine at home follows Dr Somsak Akksilp, Director-General of the Ministry of Public Healths Department of Medical Services, presenting the suggestion to national health officials on Apr 24.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the increasing number of infected cases, to improve the treatment and the management of patient beds in this current situation officers of the Department of Medical Services and other officials already discussed and altogether agreed to adjust the treatment plan, Dr Somsak said.

The suggestions were explained as follows: Those who are infected but do not have any symptoms: are to come to receive treatment in hospital or places that the government has arranged for at least 10 days after they are tested positive, and then allow to recuperate at home for 14 days more.

Those who are infected with only light symptoms: are to come to receive treatment in hospitals at least 10 days after they have symptoms. If they receive treatment for 10 full days but still have symptoms, allow them to stay in the hospitals or places that the government has arranged for 24-48 hours, and then allow them to recuperate at home for 14 days more.

However, during the recuperation at home, patients must strictly follow the suggestions given by medical staff before returning home.

Medical staff have a system to follow up patients symptoms and provide care for 14 days, in order to create confidence in health safety. If any abnormal symptoms arise, patients can contact medical staff or a hospital at any time 24 hours a day.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 21:30:59|Editor: huaxia

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NAIROBI, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Saturday lifted a ban on movement in and out of the capital Nairobi and other four counties deemed COVID-19 hotspots amid declining infections.

Speaking during Labour Day celebrations, Kenyatta revised curfew hours in the five counties that were declared disease-infested zones in March from 8 pm until 4 am to 10 pm until 4 am.

He said that schools will reopen as per the schedule on May 10 while restaurants and eateries in the disease-infested zones will resume normal operations subject to adherence to COVID-19 containment measures.

Kenyatta said that bars countrywide will operate until 7 pm, adding that houses of worship in the five counties will be allowed to operate at one-third of their capacity.

The Kenyan leader said sporting activities that had been suspended in the five counties bearing the brunt of coronavirus transmission will resume with strict observance of public health protocols aimed at curbing the spread of the virus.

He said that a ban on political gatherings had been extended, adding that health facilities were required to limit the number of visitors.

"The containment measures we have instituted today and all the interventions that the government has made over the last 14 months are geared towards responding to the unprecedented health threat that has gripped the world," said Kenyatta.

He warned the public against complacency amid the risk of another wave of coronavirus transmission that could overwhelm health facilities.

"If public responsiveness to the health protocols goes up, then the possibility of further de-escalating the containment measures is within reach. A surge of infections will necessitate an escalation of the containment measures," said Kenyatta.

He said that easing of COVID-19 containment measures was informed by a declining rate of infections in the five counties throughout April.

Kenyatta on March 26 placed five counties on lockdowns, extended night curfew hours, suspended physical learning and mass gatherings to help tame a third wave of COVID-19 infections that had placed enormous strain on public health infrastructure. Enditem
Southern Pines, NC (28387)

Today

Rain showers early with scattered thunderstorms arriving for the afternoon. High 84F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Cloudy skies after midnight. Low 69F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
Joe Sneve

Sioux Falls Argus Leader

Gov. Kristi Noem is following through with a threat to take the federal government to court if it doesn't allow fireworks at Mt. Rushmore during an Independence Day celebration.

The first-term Republican governor filed a lawsuit Friday against a series of President Joe Biden's Cabinet members over the administration's decision to cancel a previously planned fireworks celebration in the Black Hills.

She announced her intent to file the lawsuit Thursday during a Rotary meeting in Watertown.

Noem said after aformal requestfor the administration to reconsider was made by her office, they got no response, leaving the courts the last option for thestate iffireworks at Mt. Rushmore are to return this summer

After telling us theyd circle back, the Biden administration has not responded to our request to uphold the Memorandum of Agreement between the State of South Dakota and the National Parks Service (NPS) to host a safe and responsible national celebration and fireworks show," Noem said in a statement. Unfortunately, the new administration departed from precedent and reneged on this agreement without any meaningful explanation.

Filed in the United States District Court for the District of South Dakota Central Division, the lawsuit names the Secretary of the Interior; the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish and Wildlife and Parks; the director of operations of the National Park Service; and the National Park Service (NPS) director of the Midwest Region.

The NPS regional director, Herbert Frost, earlier this spring cited potential risks to the park and health of employees and visitors for a fireworks demonstration to be held in the NPS's rejection letter Thursday.

Frost also said tribal opposition to a fireworks demonstration at Mount Rushmore and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic factored into the rejection of the memorandum.

"With an event this size, it would be difficult if not impossible, to comply with social distancing protocols if they continue to be in place in early July," Frost said in March.

Noem responded to NPSs reasons for cancelling the fireworks celebration in both the letter asking for the decision to be reconsidered and Friday's lawsuit. She argues the state and its partnersundertook a series of actions that led to a safe event last year and the decision made under the Biden administration to allow fireworks in the Black Hills this year is purely political.

We are asking the court to enjoin the Department of Interiors (DOI) denial of the fireworks permit and order it to issue a permit for the event expeditiously,"Noem said.

The lawsuit lists Noem in her official capacity as governor and the state of South Dakota.

The South Dakota Attorney General's Office is not directly related to the case and instead is being litigated by legal counsel under the governor's office.
Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with special menus, drinks and parties at these Connecticut restaurants and bars. All events are on May 5 unless otherwise noted.

Camacho Garage, 36 Fountain St., New Haven, hosts Five Days of Cinco from May 1 to 5, with specials like a $6 blood orange margarita, assorted taco specials ($6 to $8) and a takeout package ($135) with a quart of guacamole, a quart of polpo ceviche, a smugglers dozen (13) of Chicken Wings, a build-your-own taco kit (choice of chicken, steak or carnitas), a quart of rice, a quart of beans and half-tray of tres leches. Margarita kits ($49 to $99 for 8 to 16 drinks) can be added on. The package must be pre-ordered 24 hours in advance.

On May 5, Camacho Garage hosts an outdoor pig roast. 203-691-1969, camachogarage.com.

Geronimo Tequila Bar and Southwest Grill will be celebrating the Five Days of Cinco from May 1 to May 5 at both its Fairfield and New Haven locations, with food and drink specials including birria and carnitas tacos ($6 to $8) and $6 specialty margaritas.

On May 5 only, Fairfield will host an outdoor pig roast, as well as a live mariachi band from 5 to 8 p.m. New Haven will also host an outdoor pig roast, in addition to a live mariachi band from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. and a visit from Cuco the Donkey from 5 to 7 p.m. geronimobarandgrill.com.

Shell & Bones, 100 S. Water Street, New Haven, offers its Geronimo Margarita for $6 on May 5 only. 203-787-3466, shellandbones.com.

Bartaco, with locations in Stamford, West Hartford and Westport, is offering a Cinco package that feeds four to six, with two taco fillings (makes 16 tacos), 3 sides, salsa verde and chips. Choose from veggie or carne options ($77 to $88.) Each kit comes with a swag bag, including a reusable tote, koozies, sunglasses, cups, a sticker sheet and temporary tattoos. Margarita kits are available as an extra add-on. All orders must be placed by the end of the day on May 4. bartaco.com.

El Segundo, with locations in New Haven and South Norwalk, plans Cinco festivities all weekend, with food and drink specials, and parties on May 5 with live music and global street food. elsegundorestaurants.com.

Margaritas, with locations in East Hartford and Mystic, starts its celebrations May 1, with the chance to win free dinner for a year. Other festivities include a launch for its summer drinks on May 2 and a sizzle and shake promotion May 4 with a $24.99 deal on fajitas with any original margarita. A Cinco fiesta on the 5th includes swag and giveaways. margs.com.

Judys Bar + Kitchen, 927 High Ridge Road, Stamford, offers Cinco specials, including soft tacos, nachos, quesadillas, tres leches cake and happy hour prices all day on classic margaritas, Corona and Corona Light beers and red and white sangria. Specials are available for both dine-in and takeout. 203-890-9999, judysbarandkitchen.com.

Black Rock Social House, 2895 Fairfield Ave., Bridgeport, features a global food culture series with Mexican spotlighted during the month of May. Food specials include carnitas sopes, rock shrimp tacos, Mexican dips, birria tamales, posole and tres leches, and drink specials include a Michelada and honey Paloma. 203-549-8333, blackrocksocialhouse.com.

Hoodoo Brown BBQ, 967 Ethan Allan Hwy, Ridgefield, promises a special menu of Tex-Mex flair for Cinco de Mayo. 203-438-6033, hoodoobrownbbq.com.

SolToro at Mohegan Sun offers Cinco specials from 4 to 9 p.m. on May 5, including a seafood platter for $34 (citrus fresco mahi-mahi ceviche, fresh oysters, littleneck clams, pico de gallo, PEI mussels, spicy cocktail sauce); and an entree of parrillada (surf and turf) for $38, featuring chimichurri marinated skirt steak, grilled vegetables, tocino, jumbo shrimp, and guajillo tomatillo salsa with flour tortillas, rice, beans and guacamole. A Paradise Punch drink special ($12) features spicy tamarind vodka, mango brandy, mango puree, pineapple and lemon. soltororestaurant.com.

Tacomida, 50 Bridge St., Shelton, offers takeout taco-bar trays ($45) with BBQ beef, chicken or pork; sides and dessert, along with batches of margaritas and sangria. 203-712-7557, tacomidashelton.com.

Wood-n-Tap, with 9 locations across Connecticut, offers $3 margaritas all day May 5. woodntap.com .

Que Whiskey Kitchen, 461 Queen St., Southington, offers a $5 prickly pear margarita with Cazadores Reposado and a black sea salt rim on May 5. qwhiskeykitchen.com.
Because you can now go outside and mix it up in the greenery  vaccinated, unmasked and hugging  do not forget what lurks in the dry leaves and unmown grass nearby.

It is already tick season, as anyone with a romping dog or an unkempt field can attest.

The weather is warm, said Neeta Connally, as associate professor of biology at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury and director of its Tickborne Disease Prevention Laboratory. People are out.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, people are escaping to the great outdoors, just to get out of the house.

Eric Hammerling, executive director of the Connecticut Forest and Park Association said the associations surveys and those conducted by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection show a 40 to 50 percent increase in the number of people walking trails in 2020.

We loved it, Hammerling said.

But people tromping around outside can walk where ticks abound.

What were seeing now are adult ticks  big enough to see crawling across our sleeve or pants leg. In another two weeks, tiny nymphal black-legged ticks will emerge from the ground looking for a blood meal.

Theyre easily missed. But their bites can deliver a package of bacteria that can cause Lyme disease. You do not want this to happen.

It will, unless you are careful.

According to the state Department of Public Health statistics, about 2,000 Connecticut residents have gotten Lyme disease each year from 2014 to 2018  the most up-to-date records the state has published.

This varies from year to year. In 2015, there were 2,553 recorded cases; in 2016, there were 1,752. But by most accounts, these figures are low by a factor of 10. So figure there are about 20,000 cases a year, with the southern tier of the state getting more cases than the northern half.

Tick populations can rise and fall each year, depending on a variety of factors. Connally said her team is seeing average to low tick numbers so far this spring. People are noticing them more, she said, because theyre outside more.

But Kirby Stafford, state entomologist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven said his monitoring program is showing a significant increase  about 40 percent  over the tick numbers it saw in the spring of 2020.

Part of this may be due to the relatively mild winter we had, with warmer temperatures in January, and thick snow cover to insulate them in February.

Now, its perfect tick weather, said Karen Gaudian, chairwoman of the Ridgefield-based Tick Connection.

Planet Earth has about 900 tick species. You cant escape these eight-legged, parasitic little arachnids. Although they favor humid climates, they can be found in deserts and high mountains. On the Antarctic shores, they feast on penguin blood.

In Connecticut, the tick thats been the bane to humans is the black-legged tick.

It carries and spreads Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria that causes Lyme disease and all the woes that come with it  high fever, headaches, swollen knees and a host of other severe symptoms that linger in a small number of patients not cured by an initial round of antibiotics.

But it also spreads babesiosis, a parasitic disease, and anaplasmosis, another bacterial disease.

In recent years, another tick  the lone star tick  has been spreading slowly northward from the coast of the Long Island Sound.

It can cause yet another bacterial disease, ehrlichiosis as well as red-meat allergy. Unlike the black-legged tick, the lone star tick is aggressive, tracking its prey rather than waiting for a passing ride.

Stafford, of the Agricultural Experiment Station, said two other ticks are emerging in the state  the Asian long-horned tick and the Gulf Coast tick. Luckily, these two seem to be livestock, rather than human, pests.

As those with COVID-19 shots can testify, vaccines are wonderful. But a vaccine to protect humans against Lyme disease may be years away.

Which is why people have to be on the tick lookout.

Gaudian, of Ridgfield, said Lyme Connections BLAST message  to shower after outdoor activities; to vigilantly look for ticks; to use insect repellents; to spray busy portions of your yard; and to make sure pets get treated for ticks with veterinarian-approved methods  still pertains.

But with people worried about COVID-19, they may forget or dismiss misery caused by ticks.

People dont understand the depth of the problem, Gaudian said.

Contact Robert Miller at earthmattersrgm@gmail.com
NEW CANAAN  From the lavish wedding to Jennifer Dulos arriving home the morning she vanished and the investigation that ensued, A+E Networks Lifetime Television has offered a brief glimpse into its movie based on the Connecticut mothers disappearance.

On Saturday, Lifetime released a 30-second trailer to its movie, Gone Mom: The Disappearance of Jennifer Dulos, which is set to premiere on June 5.

I love Fotis, Im going to have a family with him, actress Annabeth Gish, portraying the 50-year-old New Canaan mother of five, says during the preview.

A few clips later, a woman tells investigators, You need to find her husband, whatever happened to Jennifer, he is behind it.

The movie chronicles the life and disappearance of Jennifer Dulos, who was embroiled in a two-year divorce and custody battle with her estranged husband when she vanished on May 24, 2019.

People make all sorts of horrible assumptions, they dont know me, actor Warren Christie said in a clip as he portrayed international water ski champion and high-end real estate developer Fotis Dulos. Im innocent.

The real-life saga that unfolded in the quiet Fairfield County community made international headlines as the frantic search and investigation gripped Connecticut following the disappearance.

Friends reported Jennifer Dulos missing around 7 p.m. May 24, 2019 after police said she didnt show up for several appointments that day and wasnt answering her phone.

When they arrived at her Welles Lane home, police said they found blood in her garage and signs the scene had been cleaned up, according to arrest warrants in the case.

The discovery touched off one of the largest police investigations in Connecticut history.

Police believe Fotis Dulos was lying in wait for his wife to return home from dropping off their children at school around 8 a.m. May 24, 2019, the warrants state.

The states chief medical examiner determined Jennifer Dulos was the victim of a serious physical assault and would likely have died of her injuries without immediate medical attention, the arrest warrants state.

However, while defending Fotis Dulos, attorney Norm Pattis offered several alternative theories to what happened that day, including that Jennifer Dulos staged her own disappearance like the Gone Girl novel that was turned into a movie.

But police and prosecutors contended the evidence pointed to Fotis Dulos.

Around the time Jennifer Dulos was reported missing, police said Fotis Dulos and his girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, were captured on Hartford surveillance video. Police said Fotis Dulos was seen making a series of stops and discarding bags that were later determined to contain his estranged wifes blood and clothing, the warrants state.

Police said they later found more evidence connecting Fotis Dulos with the crime when they seized a pickup truck belonging to one of his employees, the warrants state.

Police said traffic cameras captured the pickup truck driving to and from New Canaan the day of the disappearance and it was also seen near Waveny Park where Jennifer Dulos abandoned SUV was later found, according to arrest warrants.

One of the seats that Fotis Dulos told his employee to remove from the truck was found stained with his estranged wifes blood, according to arrest warrants.

Fotis Dulos died from a suicide in January 2020 while facing murder, kidnapping and other charges in the case.

Troconis has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit murder, tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution. She is scheduled to be back in court on May 25  two years and one day since the disappearance.

Kent Mawhinney, a longtime friend and former attorney for Fotis Dulos, has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit murder. Mawhinney is accused of helping to create an alibi for Fotis Dulos the day of the disappearance, according to arrest warrants. Prosecutors have said Mawhinney is expected to testify if Troconis case goes to trial.

Gone Mom: The Disappearance of Jennifer Dulos will air at 8 p.m. June 5 on Lifetime. A+E Networks is a joint venture between Hearst and The Walt Disney Company.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 22:13:01|Editor: huaxia

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NAIROBI, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Unpaid leave, restructuring, pay cuts, redundancies and work from home are some of the phrases featuring Kenyan workers as they join the rest of the world in celebrating Labor Day on Saturday.

While the labor-related phrases have been in Kenya for years, the COVID-19 pandemic has entrenched them into the east Africa nation's job market.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Kenya in March 2020, many workers have lost their jobs while others have been sent on unpaid leave or have taken pay cuts of up to 60 percent.

The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics latest data puts the number of people who have lost their jobs since the onset of the pandemic at about two million.

The pandemic has upended Kenya's labor sector, on one side making employers resort to various measures like salary cuts to stay afloat and on the other, workers clinging on hope as jobs become scarcer.

A s the world marked Labor Day on Saturday, there were muted celebrations in the East African nation.

This is partly because public gatherings remained banned to curb the spread of COVID-19 and second, the pandemic has disrupted the labor market, leaving many workers struggling to survive.

"There is little to celebrate about this Labor Day," Caroline Makuyu, who works at a logistics firm at Kenya's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, said in a phone interview.

"The last one year has been tough because of the pandemic and things don't look any better as the disease continues to spread locally and globally," she added.

Before the pandemic, Makuyu used to work full-time and would get her full pay.

"But we have now been put in shifts. I go three times a week and we are paid depending on the revenue generated by the company that month. There is no fixed salary," said Makuyu, with her predicament reflecting that of tens of thousands of other Kenyans.

Makuyu is grateful though that she has kept her job as some of her friends, especially in Kenya's hospitality sector have lost their jobs.

This year's Labor Day theme is "maintaining safety and security at the workplace", however, thousands of workers in Kenya cannot resonate with it since they work from home.

"My bedroom is now my workplace," said Brian Kimala, who works from home. He works with a leading telecom company and for the last one year, he has never stepped into the office.

"So if I am told to maintain safety at the workplace, I don't get it because there is no workplace for me in the first place," he said.

In his address to the nation, President Uhuru Kenyatta acknowledged that the economy has slowed down, jobs have become scarcer and the informal sector has shrunk.

Amid declining infections, Kenyatta on Saturday reopened bars and hotels, reduced curfew hours and lifted movement restrictions in five counties, handling thousands of workers in the transport and hospitality sectors a lifeline.

Ernest Manuyo, a business lecturer at Pioneer Institute, observed that the pandemic has altered Kenya's job market. "Even after the pandemic is surmounted, work from home or teleworking would remain the norm. Employers would certainly continue with some of the practices picked during the pandemic," he said. Enditem
Today

Sunny, along with a few afternoon clouds. Hot. High 94F. NE winds shifting to SSE at 10 to 15 mph.

Tonight

A few clouds. Low 58F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph.

Tomorrow

Sunny. Becoming windy late. High 96F. Winds SSW at 20 to 30 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.
In response to the ongoing pandemic, the Government is giving employers the flexibilities to hire youth to work on a full-time or part-time basis, as well as beyond the summer months, with some placements extending to February 2022.
Please note The Sun Chronicle is providing this story and all of our local coronavirus coverage for free so that all readers have access to this important information about the pandemic. Please visit our dedicated coronavirus coverage page for more stories. If you'd like to support our mission, please subscribe.
Editor: Kevin D. Anderson, CPA, J.D.

The COVID-19 pandemic drastically altered how U.S. businesses operate and where Americans work. Over a year into the pandemic, many Americans continue to work remotely and are unsure when they will return to the office, while others left their primary residences to stay in second or vacation homes or to care for family members. The shift toward permanent teleworking from, or long-term, temporary living arrangements in, states other than an individual's pre-2020 employment location or place of abode has income tax consequences such as dual residency, which can create double taxation. This item discusses the difference between statutory residency and domiciliary residency and how both can affect personal income taxes.

Domiciliary and statutory residency

The difference between resident and nonresident status can affect state taxpayers greatly. Residents are normally taxed on their worldwide income, while nonresidents are usually taxed only on state-source income. There are two ways an individual can be considered a resident for state personal income tax purposes: (1) domicile or (2) statutory residency.

Domicile is defined differently depending on the state, but in general it is the state where a person's principal place of abode is located and to which a person intends to return. Domicile is determined based on multiple pieces of evidence including, but not limited to, the place of principal residence, voter registration state, the issuing state of a driver's license, the state where government mail is received, and the amount of time spent in a state. Some states, such as Massachusetts and New Jersey, also consider a person's family ties within the state (N.J. Div. of Tax., Informational Memo GIT-6 (December 2020); Massachusetts Dep't of Rev., Technical Information Release (TIR) 12-10 (12/12/12)). An individual can only have one domicile, and it remains unchanged until clear-cut evidence is shown to prove domicile has changed.

Documentation should be maintained to prove a change in domicile. Factors that demonstrate evidence of intent to switch domicile include:

Buying a home in the new state;

Moving belongings to the new state;

Obtaining a new driver's license in the new state;

Registering a vehicle in the new state;

Registering to vote in the new state; or

Engaging medical professionals in the new state.

If a taxpayer chooses to move back to his or her original domicile after being away even one or two years, this action could negatively affect the individual's assertion that the original domicile was changed. It is unlikely that a taxpayer who left his or her state for the duration of the pandemic with the intent to move back will convince a state that his or her domicile has changed.

Compared to the multiple factors used in determining domicile, the test for statutory residence is relatively simple. Under the law of many states, a statutory resident is an individual who maintains a dwelling in the state and spends more than 183 days (or in some states a different number of days such as 182 or 184) in that state. The taxpayer usually bears the burden of proving he or she is not a resident of a state. To limit the possibility of becoming a statutory resident, a taxpayer must keep records showing that he or she did not exceed the 183-day limit. The definition of "dwelling" varies state-by-state but generally will not include dwellings that are seasonal/unwinterized or lack a kitchen and bathrooms.

The following is an example of how an individual can be considered a statutory resident in one state while still being considered domiciled in his or her original or home state.

A taxpayer considers Arizona as the domicile state and owns a house there, is issued an Arizona driver's license, is registered to vote in Arizona, and maintains bank accounts with an Arizona financial institution. The taxpayer also rents an apartment in New Mexico where she works four days a week. Most of the taxpayer's family and economic ties are in Arizona. The taxpayer spent 180 days in Arizona and 185 in New Mexico during an entire year. The taxpayer is considered a statutory resident of New Mexico for the tax year since she spent 185 or more days in the state (which New Mexico sets as the threshold) and maintained a permanent place of abode there. The taxpayer is also a domiciliary resident of Arizona under these facts. Thus, she is a resident of two states.

Dual taxation

The taxpayer in the previous example is now subject to dual taxation. Both New Mexico and Arizona can tax her on her total income because she qualifies as a resident in both states. Numerous states allow an individual tax credit for taxes paid to other jurisdictions, but the extent of the credit varies depending on the state. Generally, the state of domicile allows an income tax credit for taxes paid to other states for income that is also taxable in the domicile state. It is less clear how statutory resident states treat credits for income tax paid to the domicile state. For example, in Oklahoma, taxpayers who have claimed a credit for taxes paid to another state on the other state's income tax return do not qualify for an Oklahoma credit based on the same income (Okla. Admin. Code 710:50-15-72).

Tax credits are usually not available for every type of income (e.g., dividends, capital gains, or intangibles). Massachusetts, for example, allows a credit to statutory resident taxpayers on income sourced to the domicile state in addition to any unsourced income (Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 62, 6(a)). On the other hand, New York will not provide a credit for unsourced income (Edelman, 80 N.Y.S.3d 241 (N.Y. App. Div. 2018)). These two conflicting laws could result in dual taxation of unsourced income for a taxpayer that is both a Massachusetts domiciliary and a New York statutory resident. Additionally, some states, such as Vermont, only allow statutory resident credits for taxes paid to other states if the domicile state adopts similar provisions. This law could therefore fail to offset dual taxation if a Vermont statutory resident is domiciled in a state without matching credits for taxes paid. It is also important to note that some dual taxation will only be partially offset due to states having different tax rates, or laws allowing for only partial credit offsets.

Planning ahead to mitigate potential double taxation

The COVID-19 pandemic has generated many new questions surrounding residency tax laws, including whether a state will alter its normal tax residency rules for employees who have relocated during the pandemic. While some state tax authorities have issued guidance on this question, others have yet to do so.

Many Americans left their domicile states to telework from vacation or second homes or to care for family members in other states. Although their absence from their domicile state may have been intended initially to be short-lived, the pandemic continues. As a result, a number of Americans will find themselves confronting a dual-residency dilemma. Due to the two definitions of residents, and the potential risk of multiple taxation resulting from individual state limits on "other state tax credits," taxpayers and their advisers may need to address the dual-residency dilemma for 2020 and should also plan ahead to mitigate any potential dual-residency issues for 2021.

EditorNotes

Kevin D. Anderson, CPA, J.D., is a managing director, National Tax Office, with BDO USA LLP in Washington, D.C.

For additional information about these items, contact Mr. Anderson at 202-644-5413 or kdanderson@bdo.com.

Contributors are members of or associated with BDO USA LLP.
Editor: Kevin D. Anderson, CPA, J.D.

Whether you have an existing trust or are creating a new trust, location matters. The total tax owed by a trust can be significantly affected by the location of grantors, beneficiaries, trustees, and even trust assets. This is especially true for tax years 2020 and 2021, when most people have been working remotely and could do so from anywhere or are quarantining somewhere other than their usual residence. Trustees and planners can no longer ignore the ever-expanding reach of states in their pursuit of state and local tax (SALT) revenue.

A trust can be taxed as a resident trust in multiple states or in no states. A single characteristic may classify a trust as a resident trust in some states, while in other states, a combination of factors is required. Currently, eight states  Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming  do not tax the income of nongrantor trusts. The remaining states tax a trust based on a number of factors: (1) residency of the testator or the trustor; (2) administration of the trust; (3) residency of the trustee; and(4) residency of the beneficiary.

Residency of testator or trustor

Numerous states tax a testamentary trust based on whether the testator lived in the state at the time of death. Numerous states also tax an inter vivos trust based on whether the trustor resided in the state. Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Virginia are some of the states that rely solely on the residency of the testator or trustor. The reach of this state residency factor leads to a trust that is tainted from creation (a forever tainted trust) and that cannot seem to escape taxation by the original resident state of the trustor, regardless of how long the trustor has been gone from the state.

Some of these states, however, have been forced to consider more than just the residency of the trustor in determining whether the state has an ongoing right to tax a resident trust. Michigan faced a federal constitutional challenge and Pennsylvania faced state and federal constitutional challenges addressing trust residency based on the trustor and can no longer rely solely on the residency of the trustor if the trust does not have ongoing connections to the state (Blue v. Michigan Dep't of Treasury, 462 N.W.2d 762 (Mich. Ct. App. 1990); McNeil, Jr. Trust v. Pennsylvania, 67 A.3d 185 (Pa. Commw. Ct. 2013)). Thus, courts have created a third trust classification when they have not permitted a state to tax a trust based on the state's residency definition. States with such jurisprudence now have nonresident trusts, resident trusts, and nontaxable resident trusts because the courts, while allowing the state's residency definition to stand, have held that the application of the residency definition to a trust with a given fact pattern was unconstitutional.

Defective trusts that are irrevocable but treated as grantor trusts for income tax purposes are problematic and create a unique issue under this state residency factor. Suppose a Michigan-domiciled grantor creates a defective trust in 2008, the grantor moves to Illinois in 2015, and in 2020, the defective trust becomes a nongrantor trust. Under a Michigan statute, Mich. Comp. Laws Section 206.18(1)(c), a resident trust is "any trust created by, or consisting of property of, a person domiciled in this state, at the time the trust becomes irrevocable." Under Illinois statute, 35 ILCS 5/1501(a)(20)(D), a resident trust is "[a]n irrevocable trust, the grantor of which was domiciled in this State at the time such trust became irrevocable. For the purpose of this subparagraph, a trust shall be considered irrevocable to the extent that the grantor is not treated as the owner thereof under Sections 671 through 678 of the Internal Revenue Code."

The trust in the above example becomes a resident of Illinois in 2020 because the grantor, while a resident of Illinois, toggled off the grantor trust powers under the irrevocable (nongrantor) trust in 2020, such that the grantor was not treated as the owner of the trust under Secs. 671 through 678. The trust also is a resident of Michigan because the grantor in 2008, while a resident of Michigan, created an irrevocable defective (grantor) trust. With this slight variation in the definition of a resident trust, the trust is defined to be a resident trust in both Illinois and Michigan, which will complicate the trust's tax situation, as both states will attempt to tax the same income. However, the trust may not be taxable under Blue if the trust does not have any ongoing connections with Michigan (e.g., if the trustee, assets, administration, and beneficiaries are all outside of Michigan). With the subtle differences in the residency definitions and the constitutional framework that overlays all state taxes, a trust may be a resident of multiple states, yet taxable in none or all states depending on the trust's ongoing connections to each state.

Administration of the trust

Numerous states tax a trust based on whether it is administered in the state. These states include Colorado, Kansas, Maryland, New Mexico, Oregon, South Carolina, and Virginia. Administration of the trust is a factor that can be managed and avoided. For example, if a corporate trustee is administering the trust, the state of administration can be changed by transferring the duties and decision-making to an office in another state.

Some states provide guidance regarding when a trust is being administered within the state. Virginia's Department of Taxation has held on three occasions that a trust was not administered in the state when the trust was administered by a committee not operated or controlled in Virginia that had a Virginia resident member, but control over the trust could only be exercised by a majority or consensus of the committee and not by a committee member individually (Va. Dep't Tax., P.D. 02-101 (2002); P.D. 07-164 (2007); P.D. 13-18 (2013)).

Residency of the trustee

Several states  including Arizona, California, Montana, Oregon, and Virginia  tax a trust if one or more trustees reside in the state. Trust advisers and protectors who act in a fiduciary manner may be considered co-trustees, potentially exposing a trust to additional state tax jurisdictions. California, for example, applies a broad definition of fiduciary, which includes "any person ... acting in a fiduciary capacity" (Cal. Rev. & Tax. Code 17006). The individual need not be named a trustee or adviser or protector; he or she need only to act in a fiduciary manner to fall within the California definition. Residency of the trustee is a factor that can be mitigated by appointing nonresident trustees or obtaining the resignation of the resident co-trustee, if the other co-trustees are nonresidents.

Residency of the beneficiary

California, Georgia, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, and Tennessee tax a trust if it has one or more resident beneficiaries. Generally, only income attributable to the resident beneficiary is taxed by the state. Some states, such as California, will tax accumulated trust income when distributed or distributable to the resident beneficiary (McCulloch v. Franchise Tax Bd., 61 Cal. 2d 186 (1964)). Also, states may differ in their definition of beneficiaries. Beneficiaries may include mandatory beneficiaries, discretionary beneficiaries, and contingent remainder beneficiaries. Massachusetts, for example, includes unborn and unascertained persons, as well as persons with uncertain interests, in its definition of resident beneficiaries (Mass. Gen. Laws. Ch. 62, 10(a)).

The most recent U.S. Supreme Court decision dealing with a state's right to tax a trust involved a state's trust residency definition that was based on the residency of the beneficiaries. North Carolina's attempt to tax a trust based solely on the residency of the beneficiary was addressed in North Carolina Dep't of Revenue v. The Kimberley Rice Kaestner 1992 Family Trust, where the Court held that the mere presence of in-state beneficiaries did not meet the minimum connection required to impose state tax because the beneficiaries had not received any trust income nor exercised control over trust income or assets (139 S. Ct. 2213 (2019), aff'g 814 S.E.2d 43 (N.C. 2018), aff'g 789 S.E.2d 645 (N.C. Ct. App. 2016), aff'g 2015 NCBC 36 (N.C. Sup. Ct. (Bus.) 2015)). Along with court challenges that scrutinize the taxation of a trust based solely on the residency of the trustor, Kaestner creates uncertainty in states that have trust residency definitions that look to something other than the residency of the trustor.

There is no objective rule for determining the residency of a beneficiary. Residency is a question of fact and circumstances, including the intentions of beneficiaries and their conduct and declarations. The residency of a beneficiary is a factor that is difficult to mitigate because beneficiaries relocate for a multitude of reasons, least of which is trust tax planning.

Avoid inadvertent SALT consequences

Trusts can end up paying a considerable amount of SALT, especially trusts that accumulate income and have large capital gains. The movement of beneficiaries, the appointment of a co-trustee, and even the toggling of a grantor power can have unintended tax consequences. The utmost vigilance, including ongoing dialogues with the testator, beneficiaries, and trustees, is necessary to ensure that inadvertent trust tax consequences do not arise. Whether you are creating a new trust or managing an existing trust, remember to minimize the SALT.

EditorNotes

Kevin D. Anderson, CPA, J.D., is a managing director, National Tax Office, with BDO USA LLP in Washington, D.C.

For additional information about these items, contact Mr. Anderson at 202-644-5413 or kdanderson@bdo.com.

Contributors are members of or associated with BDO USA LLP.
Editor: Kevin D. Anderson, CPA, J.D.

In December 2018, the IRS issued revised instructions to Form 8858, Information Return of U.S. Persons With Respect to Foreign Disregarded Entities (FDEs) and Foreign Branches (FBs), which expanded the requirement to file this form to include the reporting of foreign branch operations of U.S. persons, controlled foreign corporations (CFCs), and controlled foreign partnerships. Previously, this requirement had applied only with respect to foreign disregarded entities. Certain U.S. citizens and U.S. residents doing business abroad can have surprising tax reporting obligations as a consequence of this expanded requirement. The penalties for any missed (or late) Form 8858 reporting can be great, ranging from a $10,000 fine per missed form per tax year, to potentially losing the ability to claim foreign tax credits, to the potential imposition of criminal penalties in certain cases.

Background

U.S. persons that operate a foreign branch or that own (directly or indirectly, through a tier of foreign disregarded entities or partnerships) certain interests in foreign tax owners of foreign branches must now file Form 8858 and Schedule M, Transactions Between Foreign Disregarded Entity (FDE) or Foreign Branch (FB) and the Filer or Other Related Entities, to satisfy their reporting obligations under Secs. 6011, 6012, 6031, and 6038 and related regulations. As defined in Sec. 7701(a)(30), U.S. persons are (1) citizens of the United States or U.S. resident aliens; (2) domestic partnerships; (3) domestic corporations; (4) estates, other than foreign estates (within the meaning of Sec. 7701(a)(31)(A)); or (5) domestic trusts.

A foreign branch is first defined by reference to Temp. Regs. Sec. 1.367(a)-6T(g) as an integral business operation carried on by a U.S. person outside the United States (which, under the Sec. 7701 definitions, seems to be confined to the United States and the District of Columbia, without taking into account U.S. territories). All the facts and circumstances are to be analyzed to determine whether the activities of a U.S. person outside the United States constitute a foreign branch. Evidence supporting the existence of a foreign branch includes the existence of a separate set of books and records and an office or fixed place of business used by employees or officers of the U.S. person in carrying out business activities outside the United States. Activities carried out in a foreign country would constitute a foreign branch if the activities constitute a permanent establishment under the provisions of an income tax treaty entered into by the United States and that foreign country. Temp. Regs. Sec. 1.367(a)-6T(g) also states that any U.S. person, including a corporation, partnership, trust, estate, or individual, may be treated as having a foreign branch.

A foreign branch is also defined by reference to the qualified business unit (QBU) rules in Regs. Sec. 1.989(a)-1. Under Regs. Sec. 1.989(a)-1(b)(2)(ii), a QBU includes a separate and clearly identified unit of a trade or business of a taxpayer, provided that separate books and records are maintained with respect to the unit. While Regs. Secs. 1.989(a)-1(b)(2)(i)(B) and 1.989(a)-1(c) clearly exclude activities carried on by an individual as an employee, under Regs. Sec. 1.989(a)-1(b)(2)(ii), activities conducted by an individual other than in his or her capacity as an employee could give rise to a QBU if the activities constitute a trade or business and a separate set of books and records is maintained with respect to such activities.

Similar to the rules in Temp. Regs. Sec. 1.367(a)-6T, to determine if an activity constitutes a trade or business, one must examine all the related facts and circumstances. Regs. Sec. 1.989(a)-1(c) defines a trade or business as "a specific unified group of activities that constitutes (or could constitute) an independent economic enterprise carried on for profit, the expenses related to which are deductible under [Sec.] 162 or 212 (other than that part of [Sec.] 212 dealing with expenses incurred in connection with taxes). . . . Such group of activities must ordinarily include the collection of income and the payment of expenses. . . . However, activities that are merely ancillary to a trade or business will not constitute a trade or business."

The "facts and circumstances" reference grants the IRS flexibility with respect to the definition of a foreign branch and the scenarios in which it applies. Therefore, while it is generally clear that a U.S. citizen or resident has a Form 8858 and Schedule M filing requirement when he or she owns a foreign branch through a tier of partnerships or through a CFC, it is less evident in which situations a U.S. citizen's or resident's activities outside the United States rise to the level of a QBU and create a Form 8858 and Schedule M filing requirement.

The following examples demonstrate some situations in which individuals living and earning income abroad should consider filing a Form 8858 and Schedule M.

The restless retiree

Taxpayer A, a U.S. citizen and renowned psychologist, decides to spend his retirement years in a warmer climate and moves to the island of Corfu, Greece. He has been consulting for various professional journals, continuing to publish and review articles, and he has also opened a small psychology practice on Corfu for a handful of patients. A is keeping track of the income and expenses from these two activities separately, and he is currently reporting this income on separate Schedules C, Profit or Loss From Business, on his Form 1040, U.S. Individual Income Tax Return.

In this example, A's two activities in Greece (consulting and counseling) should be considered separate foreign branches and therefore should be reported on separate Forms 8858. A can identify the income and expenses separately for each activity and is reporting them on separate Schedules C. Therefore, it can be argued that he keeps separate books and records and that each of the activities constitutes a separate trade or business (as opposed to a hobby).

The enterprising expat

Taxpayer B, a Texas CPA, moved with her spouse, who works as an expat in the Middle East. From her home, she prepares tax returns for a number of expats and some of her U.S. clients, with whom she has regular Zoom calls. B is reporting income and expenses from these activities on a Schedule C on her Form 1040, and she would seem to have the same Form 8858 reporting requirements for her activities as a CPA while residing abroad.

In this example and in the previous example, the frequency and extent of the activities performed abroad and the existence of separate books and records are clear indicators of the existence of separate QBUs for each of these activities. The analysis could be more nuanced, and the conclusion could be different, if these taxpayers perform independent services in the foreign jurisdictions for a short time. However, a three-month consulting/implementation project could still create a Form 8858 filing requirement if the taxpayer tracks the project's income and expenses separately (effectively creating "books and records" for the project). The same could apply if the duration of the project is one week, the separate books and records requirement is met, and the project is significant compared to the taxpayer's other trade or business activities.

While the physical location where the services are being conducted may also be considered (indicating the existence of a fixed place of business), it must be done in relation to all the other facts and circumstances. Whether A and B conduct these services abroad from a separate executive office or from a home office should not affect the conclusions reached, because of the extent and frequency of the activities performed. A home office can be considered a fixed place of business even if the taxpayer does not claim depreciation or deduct electricity bills and other utilities for the section of the home used for conducting business activities. A rental house, hotel room, neighborhood coffee shop, or even a favorite spot on the beach could be considered a fixed place of business and indicate the existence of a QBU if the other facts and circumstances weigh in that direction.

However, what if A's consulting services are always performed in locations that would not be classified as "his" office or a fixed place of business. Would this mean he does not have a Form 8858 filing requirement for the consulting activities?

The industrious immigrant

Taxpayer C is an Irish citizen and a U.S. resident. C markets and sells products in Ireland and in the United States. He leases an office in Ireland. He employs sales personnel to solicit sales leads in Ireland. He maintains a separate set of books and records with respect to his activities in Ireland. Aside from this work, C also maintains a portfolio of foreign currency-denominated investments through an Irish broker. The broker is responsible for all activities necessary to the management of C's investments and maintains books and records with respect to all of C's investment activities. These investment activities generate expenses that are deductible under Sec. 212 (other than that part of Sec. 212 dealing with expenses incurred in connection with taxes). According to Examples 6 and 8 in Regs. Sec. 1.989(a)-1(e), C has a QBU for his marketing and sales activities and a separate QBU for his investment activities. Therefore, C should have separate Form 8858 filing requirements for each QBU.

The existence of separate books and records for each trade or business activity is a key factor, but other factors must be weighed to determine whether an activity rises to the level of a QBU. As it relates to the marketing and sales of products, this example highlights the following items to be considered: (1) ownership of the products; (2) the office lease in Ireland; and (3) employing a salesperson in Ireland. Similarly, as it relates to the investment activities, the considerations include (1) the use of a broker that manages all the investment activities and (2) expenses (other than taxes) incurred for the production of income.

If C's marketing and sales activities are all conducted in the United States and, instead of leasing an office, he leases a warehouse that is only used to distribute the product in Ireland, as well as using independent agents to generate sales leads, it is much less clear that a QBU exists, even if C does keep separate books and records for the Irish activities.

Similarly, aside from keeping separate books and records, Example 6 in Regs. Sec. 1.989(a)-1(e) highlights that even investment activities through foreign brokers can give rise to QBUs. The example indicates C incurs expenses that are ordinary and necessary for the production of income or the management of property held for the production of income. If C uses a broker that does not charge a management fee, would this activity create a QBU? Furthermore, as management adviser fees for tax years 2018 through 2025 are not deductible, if C does not incur other expenses, would the activity still create a QBU?

The cost of freedom

Many freelancers and independent contractors, who are typically working from their home offices, have weighed their options of living their dreams and working from tropical paradises or remote mountain locations abroad (provided they had good internet connections). While 2020 brought more freedom to relocate, there may be unintended tax reporting requirements for what otherwise would not constitute foreign reportable activities.

Experience shows that everyone's facts and circumstances are different. This difference leads to situations where one person may have to file Form 8858 while another person may not. As the penalties for not filing the form are significant, individuals who have business and investment activities outside the United States should seek advice from an experienced tax professional.

EditorNotes

Kevin D. Anderson, CPA, J.D., is a managing director, National Tax Office, with BDO USA LLP in Washington, D.C.

For additional information about these items, contact Mr. Anderson at 202-644-5413 or kdanderson@bdo.com.

Contributors are members of or associated with BDO USA LLP.
GREENVILLE  Greenville University plans to welcome students to campus for in-person classes in the fall, according to school officials.

GU remained one of the few institutions in the nation to offer in-person classes throughout the 2020-2021 school year. It partnered with the University of Illinois to test all GU students, staff and faculty weekly for COVID-19, allowing the school to contain spread of the virus.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-04-30 22:51:07|Editor: huaxia

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ULAN BATOR, April 30 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia has started COVID-19 vaccination for foreign nationals in the country, the Foreign Ministry said Friday.

"Foreigners living in Mongolia are being vaccinated against COVID-19 on a voluntary basis. Foreign nationals who wish to be vaccinated can recieve doses of COVID-19 at nearby vaccination sites," the ministry said in a statement.

There are now around 14,500 foreign nationals in Mongolia who have permanent residency permits.

Mongolia launched its national vaccination campaign in late February, with the aim of vaccinating at least 60 percent of its 3.3 million population. So far, 811,452 people have been vaccinated against the virus. Enditem
A tip that a felon in Scranton secretly had a gun and a later slip of the suspects tongue led to two arrests Thursday and the seizure of more than a pound of heroin, 6 ounces of methamphetamine and tens of thousands of dollars.

Javier Luis Correa, 39, 1408 Sanderson Ave., is not allowed a firearm because of a 2008 conviction for drug charges, according to a criminal complaint filed by officers of the city police Street Crimes Unit.

On Thursday, Agent Joseph Harte and others from the state Board of Probation and Parole went to check on Correas home after getting information that he had a gun.

Street Crime Unit Officers Jason Hyler, James Petrucci and Scott Benzeleski went to assist after Harte told them they found a 9 mm handgun under his couch.

That was far from the only illegal thing kept in his home, police said. Correa indicated to police he had narcotics. City Officer Jason Gula and Trooper Frank Carito, task force officers assigned to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, also responded with other DEA agents, according to the complaint.

During the initial search of the home  which is shared by Correas 29-year-old girlfriend, Mariela Vargas de Mendez  authorities found 57 grams of an unknown rock-like substance in a plastic tool box kept in a closet, sifters holding white, powdery residue, and paraphernalia often used by drug dealers.

The substance they found will be sent to a state police laboratory for testing, according to the complaint. Benzeleski also found 50 grams of marijuana in a bedroom during the first search. Police also found cash totaling between $10,000 and $20,000.

Correa admitted the handgun was his and went with the police to their South Washington Avenue headquarters for an interview.

During the interview, authorities allowed Correa to call his girlfriend on the telephone. The couple conversed in Spanish. Correa did not know Carito speaks Spanish and understood what he was saying.

Correa asked Vargas de Mendez three times if the police had found everything, according to the complaint. They hadnt, she replied, and Correa made reference to something under the bed.

That brought the cops back to Sanderson Avenue. Vargas de Mendez gave them consent to search a second time.

In an upstairs bedroom, they found 10 bags of heroin tied together with a rubber band  known as a bundle  and 3 grams of meth in a pack of Newport cigarettes.

Benzeleski searched the basement and found bullets for Correas handgun. He also found, in Vargas de Mendezs purse, containers holding 174 grams of meth and 611 grams of heroin. Police took her into custody.

Correa is charged with several drug charges and a felony count of illegally possessing a firearm. Vargas de Mendez also faces drug charges.

Both were jailed Friday in Lackawanna County Prison in lieu of bail  $150,000 for Correa and $50,000 for Vargas de Mendez. They have preliminary hearings scheduled May 13.
A Dunmore native who was awarded one of the U.S. Department of State's highest honors more than two decades ago died Friday.

John Kane earned the Award for Heroism for his actions following the 1998 terrorist bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. The Diplomatic Security Service officer was responsible for guarding the embassy when it was attacked on Aug. 7, 1998. Al-Qaida coordinated that and a nearly simultaneous attack at the U.S. Embassy in Tanzania, killing 224 people  including 12 Americans  nearly all of them in Nairobi.

For days after the bombing, Kane guarded the embassy at night and led search efforts for the wounded and dead during the day.

Kane, who resided in North Carolina, was in Northeast Pennsylvania visiting family when he died Friday morning, according to Vanston & James Funeral Director Chris James. The Scranton funeral home is handling arrangements.
PITTSTON  A park along Main Street that had no name will soon be dedicated to honor the late state Rep. James A. Musto  the man responsible for pushing legislation that delivered black lung benefits to coal miners in Pennsylvania and nationwide.

The park  which is situated between Pittston Dental and Napolis Pizza  will be named the Honorable James A. Musto, Greater Pittston Miner and Garment Worker Memorial Park.

The park will feature a bust of Musto and plaques  funded by the Musto family  that will give a history lesson on his life. A dedication ceremony will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday at the park.

There are many reasons why I did this, but if I was resigned to just one reason, it is because I wanted to show the young generation. I wanted to inspire them to know if you believe in the miracle anything could happen. My grandfather was a miracle, said Mustos grandson Raphael Musto, who spearheaded the project. What my grandfather was able to accomplish was inconceivable.

James Musto dropped out of school when he was 8 years old to be a breaker boy for the local coal mines and make money to help his family. He later became a barber and then a store owner before running for state representative.

He was in his 23rd year in the state Legislature when he died May 2, 1971. Sundays dedication will be held on the 50th anniversary of his death.

Known as the Champion of the Miner, James Musto sponsored legislation in Pennsylvania that provided compensation to miners with black lung, a respiratory disease and scarring of the lungs caused by inhaling coal dust.

Raphael Musto remembers listening to his grandfather asking a man named Danny Boy to push the same legislation in the U.S. Congress. Danny Boy ended up being influential U.S. Rep. Dan Flood, who represented the region for 25 years and helped make sure black lung legislation passed federally.

Raphael Musto said he lobbied the city to do something to honor his grandfather. They came up with the idea of naming the park after him.

The park, which now has landscaping and trees, was an empty lot after demolition of two buildings years ago. It has seats and tables, where people sit to eat on nice days.

Mayor Mike Lombardo said the park dedication is a good way to honor Musto and local coal miners.

Its a great celebration of someone who worked hard for Northeastern Pennsylvania, Lombardo said.Contact the writer: bkalinowski@citizensvoice.com; 570-821-2055; @cvbobkal on Twitter.
Some state lawmakers, again, are pushing proposals to expand gambling by adding slot machines to pizza parlors, convenience stores, gas stations and bars.

The legislation would add tens of thousands of video gaming terminals and, potentially, legalize so-called skills games that continue to proliferate across the state, even though these machines clearly are illegal.

This reckless policy proposal makes no sense. At a time when state revenues slowly are recovering, but income from non-federal sources lags, we must shore up our revenue-producing agencies rather than encourage the spread of slot machines.

Pennsylvania remains the only state that dedicates all lottery proceeds to senior programs and for good reason: Pennsylvania ranks fifth by the sheer size of its population age 65 and over, 2.2 million, and seventh by percentage, 17.8%.

Since the sale of the first Pennsylvania lottery ticket in 1972, the Pennsylvania Lottery has contributed more than $31 billion to these programs.

Adding these machines would drain millions of dollars from programs for older Pennsylvanians that the state lottery provides, from Meals on Wheels to assistance paying for lifesaving prescription drugs.

The proliferation of illegal slot machines creates a perfect storm of lower lottery revenues at a time when more of our seniors than ever before are looking for the socialization and services funded by the lottery.

If we have learned anything from state budget lessons of the past, it is that we must protect these vital services from cuts that likely will take years, if not decades, to restore. These programs are too important to the lives of our older Pennsylvanians for us to turn our backs on them now.

Pennsylvanians need to understand that so-called skills games have been at the root of an alarming rise in crimes across the state right now. Raids of illegal machines have been conducted in Berks, Delaware, and Dauphin counties. In Philadelphia, police charged three men who used sledgehammers to smash open skills games. In Reading, a man who was frustrated by the skill machine pulled a pistol on a clerk.

Slot machines in corner stores just cannot be supervised or regulated like those in one of our states 14 licensed casinos. This type of distributed gaming is impossible to manage and ripe for corruption. We have seen, time and again, children playing these illegal machines throughout the state.

We know, unfortunately, that many operators rely on one, low-paid, hourly employee to serve as monitor, cashier, and security for these illegal games while they are expected to perform other duties at the same time. Clearly, the voluntary compliance that operators and distributors of these machines rely on is not stringent enough.

Several arrests have been made in crimes involving these illegal machines. A public safety director in Philadelphia recently called the machines easy pickings for criminals.

Law enforcement officials, the state police, the Gaming Control Board, the Office of Attorney General and Gov. Tom Wolf all have stated that these machines are illegal and should be shut down. The Wolf administration stated that, the commonwealths consistent position is that so-called games of skill are illegal gambling devices and not authorized anywhere in the commonwealth.

A state police captain outlined the risk to the public from these machines, saying, We dont know what the payout percentages are, we dont know if theyre fair to the citizens of the commonwealth because there are no safeguards, theyre not inspected, theyre not certified. That is our duty to the citizens of the commonwealth: to protect them from these unlicensed, unregistered devices.

The danger embodied in illegal gambling devices is clear. They are a public safety nightmare that will cause the commonwealth to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in lottery revenue.

Expanding gambling is a short-sighted, risky game that makes Pennsylvanians of all ages losers.
Sometimes, your friends may prove troublesome.

Back in 2014, state Rep. Marty Flynn, D-113, Scranton, a bit more than a year in the office, endorsed Tom Wolf in his primary election contest for governor against three other contenders, Katie McGinty, Allyson Schwartz and Rob McCord.

The winner would face incumbent Republican Gov. Tom Corbett.

Tom Wolf has made education his number-one priority, and my priority is to help him get elected, Flynn said in the news release from Wolfs campaign. Scranton public schools are in disrepair, and the state is holding money that we desperately need to repair our schools infrastructure. Northeast Pennsylvania cannot afford more funding cuts and broken promises. Tom Wolf will give our region the fresh start it needs to grow.

The news release squeezed into our inbox on April 16, 2014, about a month before the primary election. No one cared that a first-term legislator like Flynn endorsed Wolf.

But Wolf didnt forget.

When Flynn decided to seek the 22nd Senate District seat vacated by John Blake, the governor quietly threw his support behind Flynn, who faced a stiff challenge for the Democratic nomination from Rep. Kyle Mullins, a Blake protege.

Wolf called Lackawanna County Commissioner Jerry Notarianni and asked him to help. Martys his guy, which is where the trouble starts.

Flynn is getting plenty of help from state Democrats.

His Republican opponent, Lackawanna County Commissioner Chris Chermak, is getting even more help from the Senate Republican Campaign Committee.

The committee has set out to fasten Wolf and Flynn to each other like conjoined twins.

He stood with Wolf 100% of the time on shutting down small businesses, restaurants and bars. Flynn stood by Wolf while 13,000 seniors died, says one SRCC commercial, referring to nursing home deaths.

These are highly debatable claims, but you see what we mean about troublesome friends. Wolf is Marty, Marty is Tom, and thats bad for Pennsylvania, according to the Republicans.

The Republicans have polls that show people dont like the governor as much as they did.

Back in October 2019, pre-pandemic days, 57% of voters surveyed by the Franklin & Marshall College poll viewed the state as headed in the right direction. It was unusual because 59% said the nation was off on the wrong track.

The same poll showed 51% of voters believing Wolf was doing a good (39%) or excellent (12%) job, and only 35% believing President Donald Trump was doing a good (14%) or excellent (21%) job.

A March Franklin & Marshall poll didnt ask about Wolfs job approval, but it did show only 36% now believing the state is headed in the right direction.

Thats a huge dropoff. A Muhlenberg Institute of Public Opinion poll last month showed 54% of Pennsylvanians approving of President Joe Bidens handling of the pandemic, but only 40% approving Wolfs COVID-19 work and 41% disapproving.

Republicans are testing whether COVID-19 and Wolfs response will work as a top issue as they try to regain the governors office next year, and Democrats try to win a third straight term. (Wolf already has served the allowed two terms.)

He was in pretty good shape before the pandemic, said Christopher Borick, Ph.D., director of the Muhlenberg polling institute.

Flynn still has the advantage of a district that is almost 2-to-1 Democratic in voter registration, but the cycle after a president of your own party wins is usually tough for party incumbents, Borick said.

Flynn isnt a senator, but hes a representative and boasts about knowing his way around Harrisburg.

He knows where the bathrooms are, as he said on Chuck Volpes show recently.

It would actually be cool to see how Biden did in that district, Borick said.

Biden beat President Donald Trump in the 22nd, 53.87% to 45.19%.

But its a district that I think has trended Republican in terms of its voting behavior, more so than in the past, like a lot of Lackawanna County places have, Borick said.

Thats true. Biden didnt win it the way President Barack Obama won it twice.

The pandemic response hurting Wolf now might look better to voters next year once more people are vaccinated and the economy is running smoothly again.

If it is, that is.

We also have the complicating factors of two third-party candidates  Green Marlene Sebastianelli, and Libertarian Nate Covington of Barrett Twp.

A friend of ours says he thinks Sebastianelli, who lives in Blakely, will draw a lot of votes in the Midvalley and that could hurt Flynn. The Sebastianelli name is well known in the traditionally Democratic Midvalley, but the region actually has trended more Republican lately. That may hurt Flynn more. Covingtons effects on Chermaks chances are more uncertain because hes so unknown.

Flynn should win, but you can bet many friends of Rep. Kyle Mullins hope he loses.

Mullins, D-112, Blakely, badly lost the Senate nomination to Flynn when local Democratic committee members voted in March. (We saw Flynn and Mullins together in Scranton last week, and they seemed to get along just fine, by the way.)

If Chermak wins, Democrats likely will look to win back the seat next year with Mullins as the candidate.

Chermak says he and Mullins get along fine now, but this is politics.

Friendships now can mean trouble later.

BORYS KRAWCZENIUK, The Times-Tribune politics reporter, writes Random Notes.
Editor: Well help you is a precious phrase that, when said to any volunteer who needs recruits, mean a lot.

We, the flock of the Catholic Church, see a migrant crisis unfolding before our eyes. We see children, helpless undernourished children, yet we cant understand why our cardinals and bishops have not stepped up to President Biden and said, Well help you.

The U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops has a chance to resist the demonization of Biden because of his stance on abortion, religious freedom and same-sex marriage. Bishops have a chance to seek common ground to promote the common good and promote partial reparation for all the clerical sex abuse.

The flock urges bishops: Pack away your clerical garb, put on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt and get down to the border and come back and give us our assignments. Each bishop could return with hundreds of children slated to be placed with family members, distant relatives or foster families within their jurisdictions.

We, the flock, always volunteer for church. Instead of manning church bazaars, flea markets and spaghetti dinners, wed like to cook for these children, teach them, play games with them, comfort them and hug them. Wed like to bring them into the church family.

Look at the resources at our disposal: empty convents, rectories, schools, churches and church halls  all waiting to be sold to finance sex abuse case defenses and settlements.

We, the flock, wish that our bishops would learn from St. Oscar Romero rather than former President Donald Trump and suspected fraudster Steve Bannon.

The long arm of the church has an excellent opportunity to change the pro-life playbook  to all life, childrens lives. The church has an opportunity to regain the respect of the flock.

JOANNE DAHMS

DUPONT

Editor: May is Mental Health Awareness month.

One area of mental health that is not talked about is maternal mental health. May 5 is World Maternal Mental Health Day.

One misconception regarding maternal mental health is that its only postpartum depression. Maternal mental health is all-encompassing. Perinatal mood and anxiety disorders is the correct term and it is an umbrella term that encompasses maternal mental illness during pregnancy and up to a year after giving birth. It is the No. 1 complication of pregnancy and childbirth and one in five mothers and families are affected. Think about that. If you arent personally affected, someone you know is.

Many moms throughout Northeast Pennsylvania battle through their struggles alone. Many are afraid to ask for help and moms who do reach out are often turned away. In Northeast Pennsylvania, there are currently only two practicing therapists who have the Postpartum Support International certificate, neither of whom accepts medical assistance. This is unacceptable. Access to trained mental health professionals is crucial.

If we as a community want to improve, we must start taking care of our mothers. Mood and anxiety disorders do not just affect mothers, but whole families and our community.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness is the nations largest grass-roots organization on mental illness. NAMI supports individuals and families who battle mental health concerns. Join us to advocate for more maternal mental health professionals. Our moms, sisters, daughters, friends and neighbors depend on us.

KATIE SPENCER

NAMI NORTHEAST REGION

DUNMORE

Editor: On April 2, I testified at a Pennsylvania House Health Committee hearing.

The committee has held hearings to push its aggressive anti-abortion agenda and highlight the three that have been introduced to ban abortions in the commonwealth.

Many lies were trotted out, too many to address, as legislators used pregnant peoples lives and health as political pawns. Even more alarming was the insistent use of inflammatory rhetoric and refusal to use medically accurate terminology. But, most disappointing was a failure to address how these abortion bans, led by mostly white lawmakers, would disproportionately harm Black and Indigenous citizens and people of color  the same communities impacted most severely by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Moreover, given Pennsylvanias high rates of maternal and infant mortality, high rate of opioid addiction and low vaccine rates in communities of color, it is time to focus on increasing access to preventive care, not on working to restrict access to health care. For many of the 22,000 patients we serve each year, Planned Parenthood Keystone is often the only provider accessible. Any erosion of access to abortion and sexual and reproductive care jeopardizes the health of our patients, their families and the state as a whole.

MELISSA REED

WARMINSTER, BUCKS COUNTY

PLANNED PARENTHOOD KEYSTONE

Editor: On Monday a womans car became disabled on Fellows Street in Scranton.

On Tuesday, the car and the woman were still there. She asked several people for help, but did not receive assistance. I called Scranton police and explained the situation to an officer who assured me she would send help for the woman. Within 15 minutes a police car arrived. I didnt get the officers name but he had Gunner the police dog with him. The officer spoke to the woman and said he would get more help. Another car arrived and soon they were able to get her car started.

Thanks to these officers, who came to the assistance of this woman. Your good deed spoke volumes.

ANN ROBINSON

SCRANTON

Editor: I went over the notice that came with my drivers license renewal about a real identification.

It says I will need to get one to enter a federal building or airport later this year. But I am not required to show ID when I vote.

Arent polling places a federal concern? Also, recently a news article mentioned alleged illegal aliens being transported across the United States to camps in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. They dont need ID but I, as a natural citizen, need one?

Someone please tell us which politicians are responsible for this so we can replace them on Election Day.

TONY EZMAN

UNION DALE,

SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY
London, KY (40741)

Today

Thunderstorms. High 74F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Locally heavy rainfall possible..

Tonight

Thunderstorms early, then variable clouds overnight with still a chance of showers. Low 68F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-04-30 23:13:31|Editor: huaxia

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ISLAMABAD, April 30 (Xinhua) -- The first-ever containerized shipment from Pakistan's southern Karachi port left for Uzbekistan after getting clearance from the country's northwest Torkham border under the Transport Internationaux Routiers (TIR) rules, Abdul Razak Dawood, advisor to Pakistani prime minister on commerce and investment, said on Friday.

Calling the development "the beginning of a new era whereby there would be free movement of trucks between Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asian Republics (CARs)," Dawood said in a tweet that Pakistan's Ministry of Commerce had been working to open up trade with Uzbekistan and beyond since long.

A statement by the Ministry of Commerce said that the consignment consisted of herbal medicines and after completion of all custom formalities at Torkham on Thursday, it will reach its destination in Uzbekistan's Tashkent via Afghanistan.

Dawood attended a briefing by the Pakistani customs on recent developments in the trade and connectivity of Pakistan with the neighboring regions.

"At the outset, the advisor said that connectivity with trading partners is vital for viable trade relations. He said that the structure and efficiency connectivity networks enable access to markets and should be considered a facet of the trade competitiveness," the statement added.

He added that the Pakistani government is working to make the country a hub for trade, transit and transshipment by enhancing trade relations with landlocked Afghanistan and the CARs.

"The trade must be based on secure, open, consistent, reliable and legal movement of goods at the Afghan border along with enhanced connectivity with Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and CARs," Dawood said. Enditem
Westerly, RI (02891)

Today

Rain showers early with overcast skies later in the day. High 83F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy. Low 63F. Winds light and variable.
Barclaycard customers who have had their credit limits cut by as much as 95 per cent have faced yet more confusion, after wrongly being told new limits were based on their average balances over the last two years.

Several customers, many of whom have had perfect payment histories, told This is Money they were informed the cuts were based on average spending, rather than the maximum balance they had accumulated.

It would mean those who only used their card for occasional big purchases like holidays to benefit from higher consumer protections would be left with a limit which would not cover them.

Some 100,000 customers of Barclaycard are facing huge cuts to their credit limits

For example, someone who spent 2,000 annually on a family holiday and made no other purchases on the card, could be left with a credit limit of as little as 166 if their average balance was used to calculate it.

Meanwhile consumer spending has largely slumped over the last 13 months due to the pandemic and multiple lockdowns, with billions of pounds being cleared from credit card balances.

Following Barclaycard's proposed cuts, some customers are facing spending limits as low as a few hundred pounds, which in some cases are set to be reduced by as much as 99 per cent.

This is Money has received more than 450 emails about the impending cuts since last Monday, with many from long-standing customers angered by the proposals and cutting up their Barclaycards in protest.

The credit card company flatly denied on multiple occasions that average balances would be used to calculate new credit limits.

However, multiple customers have told This is Money this is the explanation they have been given by its customer services.

Louise Porter, 42, from Hampshire, whose limit is due to be cut from 11,900 to 1,650, received a letter last week dated 19 April.

Louise Porter was told the cuts were down to her average balance over the last 2 years. However, Barclaycard denied it was making cuts on this basis

It said: 'Your future credit limit will be 1,650, the reason we have chosen this amount is because when we have checked your average balance for the last two years it has been slightly lower than this amount.'

Louise previously told This is Money she used the card for one-off large payments and then paid them off over the course of a year.

She added: 'Their criteria of using average balance is stupid, they should surely look at the highest balance. I don't understand their logic, or lack of it.'

Some reported similar experiences. Mark Uffindell, another who wrote to This is Money, said: 'I have recently been informed by Barclaycard that they are reducing my expenditure limit from 8,000 to 400.

'The reason given when I contacted them was that 400 was my average expenditure with them.

Your future credit limit will be 1,650, the reason we have chosen this amount is because when we have checked your average balance for the last two years it has been slightly lower than this amount. Barclaycard letter to Louise Porter, 19 April

'My average account is between 1,200 and 3,000 per month. The proposed facility wouldn't pay my monthly fuel bill.'

He added: 'As with many customers I have a direct debit to pay the required minimum payment every month although the full amount is generally paid monthly before this facility kicks in.

'I am, again I suspect like many other customers, looking to apply for another card. I feel dumped on and put out that I have to spend time now looking for alternative arrangements.'

A third customer, Daniel James, is having his spending limit reduced from 12,500 to 2,200, which he described as a 'slap in the face' and was initially below his current balance.

He said: 'I complained about this and was then told they averaged out how much a customer uses on their card.'

The move means more confusion for an estimated 100,000 customers already struggling to understand Barclaycard's rationale for the proposed cuts, which it pinned on affordability concerns amid the coronavirus pandemic.

We reported last week the company, which along with Barclays debit cards accounts for nearly 1 in every 3 spent in the UK, appeared to have applied a one-size-fits-all approach to borrowers.

Some, including Louise, have been told they need to provide details of their income, which in many cases has remained the same or even improved in recent years, to keep their old credit limit but were also told the company had never checked on their financial situation. The company has denied this.

What can you do if you're affected? Those affected by the Barclaycard credit card cull fall into two categories. There are those who have been told they can appeal the decision if they provide the bank with up-to-date information about their incomes, and others who cannot. For the first group, the matter is quite straightforward if they wish to try and keep their Barclaycard limit. They can write to the bank and argue why the decision should be reversed and their old limit given back to them. However, there is no guarantee this would be successful. For the latter, they can either accept the decision and keep a card with a lower credit limit, or go elsewhere. Some Barclaycard customers told they could appeal decision by sending in proof of income If they wish to go elsewhere, the best thing to do first is either to clear the balance off of their Barclaycard or transfer it to an interest-free balance transfer deal, with term lengths of as long as 29 months available. However, transferring a balance does incur a fee. The best available deal in our guide, from Virgin Money, charges 3 per cent on the amount of money being transferred over. If someone wishes to apply for a new card, it is first of all worth checking their chances of eligibility. The likes of ClearScore and Experian offer this, which allows applicants to see how likely they would be to be accepted for a card without carrying out a formal application which shows up on a credit file. Experian also offers a service for some card providers which lets applicants see if they'll get a high enough credit limit to cover their balance transfer which, given what has happened with Barclaycard, may be worth checking out. Sara Williams, a debt adviser who runs the blog Debt Camel, added: 'So many customers have had their limits slashed that Barclaycard don't seem to be targeting people in financial difficulty specifically. 'But some people affected will be struggling. If this is you, this is a good opportunity to talk to a debt adviser such as StepChange about your options - getting the interest frozen on credit card debts could take a lot of the pressure off.' She added: 'If your limit had been stupidly high before and this has caused you a lot of trouble over the last few years you may have good reason to make an affordability complaint and ask for a refund of the interest you have paid.'

As a result, This is Money has called on the company to reconsider its cuts for those whose finances have remained stable.

However, those whose new limit is higher than their maximum balance over the past two years cannot appeal the decision.

It told This is Money after looking into Louise Porter's case she was given the wrong explanation 'due to a human error'. Instead, it said her new limit was 'based on a personal affordability assessment' and apologised.

A spokesperson said: 'I can confirm that Barclaycard does not use customers' average balances to calculate limit decreases.

'For some customers, their new limit is higher than their peak balance over the past two years, which means that they should be able to continue using the card in the same way as before.'

They added: 'We have a duty of care to our customers to make sure their credit limits are affordable so that they are able to manage their borrowing effectively.

'To make an affordability assessment, we review our customers' finances across their full lending portfolio to ensure we are lending responsibly and that they are not borrowing more than they can comfortably afford.

'If customers feel they can afford a higher limit than communicated, we ask they get in touch with us so we can re-review our assessment. We are extending the time customers have to provide this additional information until the end of May and will not be reducing any limits before this.

'Customers can reach us by contacting us on the details provided in our correspondence to them.'
Earlier this week, Elon Musk, the Tesla boss, asked his 52.5million Twitter followers what the future would hold.

For the tycoon, it might augur a 9billion bonus, thanks to the surging sales of Tesla models which, like other electric cars, are increasingly popular.

The battery technology that powers these vehicles is seen as a way to slash carbon emissions  the planet-friendly goal now being pursued by the US, Britain and other governments.

The UK plans to phase out sales of all non-electric cars by 2035. But does this technology, despite its planet-friendly credentials, also have downsides for those who aspire to invest more ethically?

By next year, there may be as many as 500 different types of electric vehicles available worldwide, according to the BloombergNEF data.

Aanand Venkatramanan, investment director at Legal & General Investment Management, says that there are already at least 100 electric vehicle manufacturers in China, highlighting the speed of the transportation revolution.

This is picking up pace as the cost of batteries falls and storage density improves, with car makers striving for the target of an 80 per cent charge in 15 minutes  an acceptable wait time, apparently.

Such is the excitement surrounding advances in the battery technology which will drive this revolution, that the share price of QuantumScape rose by 22 per cent this week.

This secretive US company is working on the next generation solid-state batteries that should offer speedier charging times. These batteries, which are seen as more environmentally friendly, should dispel the 'range anxiety' (worry over how far a car can travel on one charge) that can deter buyers. QuantumScape's shareholders include Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Volkswagen, which aims to build 25m electrical vehicles by 2030.

As a result of the demand that will be created by these ambitions and the plans of other car makers, the large battery market could be worth $109billion by 2024, against $64billion in 2019. This forecast does not take into account sales to the fast-expanding renewables energy storage sector, which also relies on this source of power to release energy when customers need it.

If you believe that battery technology could give a spark to your portfolio, you could consider the companies tipped to be the major beneficiaries from the move to electric vehicles. They include Panasonic, Samsung, the German group Varta  and, of course Tesla, although its share price is up 351 per cent over a year. You may be exposed to the stock through funds and trusts like Baillie Gifford American and Scottish Mortgage.

Also on the list are the Korean LG Chem and the Chinese Catl (Contemporary Amperex Technology). These two battery makers are opening gigafactories in Europe.

If you want to put money into UK companies exploiting the transition from petrol to battery, your options are limited. At present, just one gigafactory seems set to be built in Britain.

The start-up Britishvolt is seeking to establish a plant in Blyth, Northumberland. The company may soon go public, but in New York, through a Spac (special purpose acquisition company).

The 495 per cent increase over 12 months in the share price of Aim-listed Ilika illustrates investors' eagerness to back British.

This pioneer has received a grant from the Government's Faraday Battery Challenge to develop solid-state batteries via partnerships with Honda, Jaguar Land Rover and McLaren Automotive, hinting that further share price appreciation may be possible.

The complexity of what insiders call 'battery chemistries suggests that for some, a specialist fund may be the best route into this risky area. Legal & General's Battery Value Chain ETF (exchange traded fund) is based on an index of stocks built by Venkatramanan.

Going green: This month BMW promised that its solid-state technology would, by the end of this decade, produce the 'greenest car in the world'

Its constituents include the Australian lithium miners Galaxy and Pilbara, Japan's Toshiba, plus motor giants BMW, Daimler, Renault and Tesla.

This month BMW promised that its solid-state technology would, by the end of this decade, produce the 'greenest car in the world'.

It will be attractive to investors who are prioritising sustainability. But putting money into this sector now represents a bet that such pledges can be kept.

And while battery technology may be key to reducing carbon emissions, it has a darker side.

Tesla and most other brands are endeavouring to improve their standards, but they still rely on lithium-ion batteries which contain cobalt, lithium and nickel.

The companies that mine these metals have a record on the environment, and workers' rights that is often poor, and controversy surrounds the involvement of child labour in the supply of cobalt from Congo.

This metal's price has soared this year from $30,000 a tonne to $49,500, driven by the shift to electric cars. They are promising to improve. But many potential buyers may be deterred by this, so investors should perhaps agitate for faster change.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 11:12:51|Editor: huaxia

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Photo taken on May 1, 2021 shows a damaged hospital after a major fire in Bharuch of India's western state of Gujarat. At least 18 COVID-19 patients were killed early Saturday in a devastating fire inside a four-storeyed welfare hospital in India's western state of Gujarat, officials said. The fire broke out inside the hospital in Bharuch district, about 212 km south of Gandhinagar, the capital city of Gujarat. (Str/Xinhua)

NEW DELHI, May 1 (Xinhua) -- At least 18 COVID-19 patients were killed early Saturday in a devastating fire inside a four-storeyed welfare hospital in India's western state of Gujarat, officials said.

The fire broke out inside the hospital in Bharuch district, about 212 km south of Gandhinagar, the capital city of Gujarat.

"Twelve patients in the COVID-19 ward died due to the fire and resultant smoke. However, it is not clear if the remaining six also died in the hospital or while being shifted to other hospitals," local media quoted a police official as having said.

According to officials, there were around 50 other patients in the hospital and were shifted safely to another hospital.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

Officials said firefighters and fire tenders were rushed to the spot immediately after the blaze.

Authorities have ordered a probe into the incident. Enditem
Boohoo investors have been subjected to a roller-coaster ride in the last 12 months despite booming demand for online fashion and a series of well received acquisitions.

The internet-only retailer has snapped up Debenhams and a series of bombed out Arcadia brands on the cheap, and promised the 'transformational' deals could be a stepping stone to it becoming a leader in UK retail.

But, as the business prepares to announce its full-year results on Wednesday, investors are still focused on its response to the sweatshop slavery scandal.

The share price, up 1.2 per cent, or 4.1p, to 340.1p last night, remains well down on the 415p peak before investigative reporters revealed its staff were illegally underpaid.

But investors are starting to sense an opportunity as the firm's response wins plaudits.

It has appointed a top judge, Sir Brian Leveson, to oversee the shake-up of its supply chain, severed ties with more than 400 suppliers and published a list of everyone it now deals with on its website.

Boohoo executive chairman Mahmud Kamani has even said the board is looking at linking bonuses with Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) improvements.

Its trading performance is expected to impress again. Analysts expect sales to jump 39 per cent to 1.7billion, boosting earnings to 147.3million.

City watchers will want to hear about the integration of new brands into its website and logistics platform, and its plans to use the Debenhams acquisition to launch into beauty, sport and homeware.
What's happening?

Ricardo is a great engineering name that has been around since the days of the Kaiser, when an engineer called Mr Ricardo advised the military on how to improve these new 'tank' things.

Since then, it has built a glorious record of engineering developments in all sorts of areas but has never been able to catch the imagination of investors.

As a history of great engineering it appears a treasure trove, but somehow, no matter how clever or classy the areas it was involved in, such as Bugatti, the company never caught the right wave of enthusiasm.

On the move: Ricardo's share price performance over five years has been dreadful, falling from just over 10 in 2016 to 3.10 in August last year, but since then it has come up a bit

Why Does It Matter?

That might be about to change. The share price performance over five years has been dreadful, falling from just over 10 in 2016 to 3.10 in August last year. Since then it has come up a bit along with the market to an unexciting 4.27.

However something has changed, as the company has at last found a streak of business at which it succeeds.

This may well now catch the market's interest. Yes, it is back to the over-used letters of ESG again (Environmental, Social and Governance). Ricardo has developed an expertise which has become vital for all companies and governments to at least claim to know something about  how to measure and minimise your low-carbon and clean-air profiles.

Reduction in energy use as well as 'decarbonisation'  which means cleaning up systems to you and me  are both core areas of expertise. No matter how cynical you may be over the green future, this whole sector is going to be growing.

What Should I Do?

Sad to say that great engineering stories rarely get the credit they deserve. Make it a technology story or even better an environmental one, and suddenly it's a different game.

Ricardo is in exactly that position and is very likely to carry on polishing its environmental credentials and services. This will not only make the company far more appealing to investors but also to potential industrial buyers trying to find a quicker way into the environmental market.

Any Suggestions?

Obviously I am suggesting Ricardo as an attractive opportunity but as ever, a single company is a greater risk.

The theme, though, can be reflected in certain funds, some of which have been around long before this fashion fad became popular. Royal London Global Sustainable Equity fund and the Liontrust Sustainable fund both have successful track records.

Justin Urquhart Stewart co-founded fund manager 7IM and is chairman of investment platform Regionally.
Darktrace shares surged by more than 30 per cent after the company floated in London for the first time.

Investors piled into the Cambridge-based cyber-security company yesterday lifting the price of its stock from 250p to 330p, and sending its market value up from 1.7billion to 2.2billion.

The strong opening, under the ticker 'DARK', was a huge boost for London's technology sector, and a sign that investors had put the disastrous Deliveroo IPO flop behind them.

On the up: Darktrace, led by Poppy Gustafsson (pictured), cut its initial valuation by 1billion

Darktrace cut its initial valuation by 1billion earlier this week in order to avoid the fate of Deliveroo, which suffered a 30 per cent plunge on its first day of trading.

Chief executive Poppy Gustafsson said: 'This milestone marks an exciting day for Darktrace. Our company is deeply rooted in the UK's tradition of scientific and mathematical research, so we are especially proud to be listing on the London Stock Exchange.'

The business was founded in 2013 by computer scientists, mathematicians from the University of Cambridge, and cyber-security specialists from government security agency GCHQ. It now operates from 40 offices around the world with 1,500 employees.

The company makes digital products that use artificial intelligence to automatically detect, investigate and respond to cyberthreats in real time. The company is loss-making despite its takings jumping 45 per cent to 144million in the last financial year. Darktrace raised 143.4million gross proceeds from the float and existing shareholders sold shares worth 21.7million.

It had previously targeted a valuation of up to 3billion, before settling on a range of 1.6billion to 1.9billion on Monday, which equated to a share price of 220p to 280p.

The float follows successful IPOs of retail tech conglomerate The Hut Group in September 2020, which is now valued at 6billion, and Pensionbee, which listed last week and is now worth 396million.

But the involvement of British tech billionaire Mike Lynch, whose Invoke Capital was Darktrace's first and largest shareholder, means a cloud hung over the float.

The 55-year-old is fighting extradition to the US where he is accused of 17 counts of fraud related to his takeover of Autonomy, a software developer that he co-founded.

The US authorities have charged Lynch with making Autonomy's accounts look more attractive ahead of an $11billion (7.9billion) Hewlett Packard in 2011.

The computer giant wrote $8.8billion (6.3billion) off the value of Autonomy a year later, $5billion (3.6billion) of which it attributed to an alleged accounting fraud. He could face a maximum prison sentence of 25 years if found guilty. Lynch denies all the charges.

Success: The float follows successful IPOs of retail tech conglomerate The Hut Group in September 2020, which is now valued at 6bn

Darktrace warned in its IPO filings that the billionaire's previous investments could lead to potential liabilities in the future.

Lynch and his wife hold a 16.2 per cent stake, which was worth 389.3million last night. In the prospectus bosses warned of the potential for 'significant damage to the Group's reputation', adding this could hit the share price in future.

But, despite this, Lynch is being allowed to continue as a member of the company's Science & Technology Council, an advisory group.

Yesterday Gustafsson said: 'We owe much gratitude to the Invoke team for their pivotal role in the vision, technology, positioning and operational input in the early years, without which today's success would not have been possible.'

The 38-year-old joined the company in 2016 and was made an OBE in 2019 for services to the cyber-security industry.
Credit Suisse's departing chairman issued a rare apology as he signed off at the scandal-stricken bank.

Urs Rohner, who has overseen a string of disasters at the Swiss lender in recent months, handed over to former Lloyds Bank boss Antonio Horta-Osorio yesterday.

Speaking at the annual general meeting, Rohner offered a mea culpa for presiding over the Archegos Capital implosion and the Greensill Capital disaster  which have both blown a hole in Credit Suisse's finances.

Apology: Urs Rohner (pictured) handed over to former Lloyds Bank boss Antonio Horta-Osorio

He said: 'The inexcusable losses that we have had to inform you about in recent weeks have cast a shadow over all the other strategic and operating developments in our company in the last years.

'We've disappointed not just our clients but also our shareholders, and not for the first time unfortunately. I offer my apologies for this.'

Rohner, a former lawyer who has been chairman of Credit Suisse for a decade, had initially managed to cling on during a turbulent time for the bank last year.

Shareholders attempted to oust the Swiss businessman in the wake of a spying scandal in 2020, after it emerged that the lender had hired private detectives to follow former staff.

The debacle  which involved a high-profile row between top bosses at a cocktail party and a Zurich car chase  eventually resulted with the ousting of then boss Tidjane Thiam.

Thiam's replacement Thomas Gottstein will be joined by Horta-Osorio as the pair attempt to get Credit Suisse back on the straight and narrow.

Horta-Osorio said what had happened at Credit Suisse over the past eight weeks went 'beyond' anything he had seen in his 30-year career. His appointment to the board came as the bank's risk committee head Andreas Gottschling agreed to step down, after shareholders threatened to vote him out following the Greensill and Archegos meltdowns.

The lender is facing serious questions over its risk management, after it took a 3.9billion hit from Archegos and still owes millions to clients who were exposed to Greensill.

Archegos, a hedge fund which managed the money of financier Bill Hwang, had borrowed money from several major banks so it could buy larger stakes in companies. When shares began to fall, Archegos fell into trouble  leaving lenders including Credit Suisse nursing heavy losses.

Greensill packaged up the loans it gave to customers and sold them on to investors through Credit Suisse funds. Now Greensill has gone bust, Credit Suisse is trying to get its clients' money back.
Bullish: Virgin Voyages chief executive Tom McAlpin with Sir Richard Branson

'He's very excited, he's been waiting a long time to launch this business,' says Tom McAlpin, chief executive of the new Virgin Voyages cruise line.

McAlpin is referring to Sir Richard Branson, who has been dreaming of adding cruise ships to his vast Virgin Group empire for 40 years.

Finally, this August, the first Virgin superyacht, the Scarlet Lady, is set to launch in Portsmouth.

It will start with six 'staycation-at-sea' cruises  three or four-night tours off the English coast  available only to UK residents.

Virgin 'will throw a big party' for the first launch, says McAlpin, hinting that Branson could stage one of his signature publicity stunts. 'Richard will not be able to miss being there in the UK and I'm sure he'll have some family with him as well.'

McAlpin, a Miami-born cruise industry veteran, has been helping develop Branson's vision of a 'different way of cruising' for ten years, before coming on board full-time in 2015 to complete financing.

He says he is 'super happy' about the number of bookings for the debut summer sailings and calls the UK launch a 'homecoming' for Virgin before it launches US and Caribbean cruises from September, followed by European trips next summer.

'There is huge awareness of the Virgin brand in the UK,' he says. 'This gives us an opportunity to showcase the cruise business, work out the kinks, and get ready for the launch in the US.'

Branson's foray into the $23.8billion cruise market has not been plain sailing. He originally planned to launch Virgin Voyages in the Caribbean last April, but McAlpin says the business has been in 'a holding pattern' since last March, when cruises were banned due to Covid outbreaks on ships that started on the Diamond Princess.

Cruise giant Carnival has raised $24 billion to stay afloat and McAlpin says Virgin Voyages has also secured an 'equity infusion' from its investors  led by Virgin Group and US private equity firm Bain Capital  after its expected revenues hit the rocks.

Last week regulators said US cruises could restart in mid-July, if ships meet strict requirements.

Some may question the timing of launching a cruise firm when the outlook remains uncertain.

But McAlpin says there is a huge pentup demand from Britons keen for a summer break once UK cruise restrictions are lifted from May 17, and that Virgin's fleets will be one of the safest environments possible, with automatic temperature testing and hospital-grade air purification systems to kill bacteria and viruses.

Passengers on this summer's UK staycation cruises must have had both vaccinations and Virgin will supplement the health checks through rapid antigen testing.

McAlpin says: 'This is the safest way to travel  I can't even go to a theatre or a grocery store and be assured that everyone I come into contact with has been vaccinated and tested. We know we have got the right things to control it [the virus] and we can do it in this highly controlled environment.'

Virgin's ships, which each carry around 2,700 passengers, are designed to look like boutique hotels. They are for over-18s only to offer a more 'sophisticated' experience than more family-friendly cruise brands.

The 'adult places' on the Scarlet Lady's 17 decks include gourmet restaurants, spas, fitness studios, cocktail bars, a tattoo parlour and a late-night cabaret show by Virgin's 'resident sexologist'.

McAlpin, who recently became a grandfather aged 61, says: 'We love kids, but parents need to have a vacation and have some fun too. We are an adult-focused brand, and that means we can offer a more premium experience.'

Virgin is also aiming to shake off the cruise industry's image of catering for mostly older customers, saying it is for 'the young at heart'.

McAlpin adds: 'We want to provide an opportunity so you don't have to be with old people. But if you have a few years on you, like me, it doesn't matter. This is for like-minded people who want to come and have a good time.'

Branson is betting big on his cruise line, which is more than 50 per cent owned by Virgin Group and Boston-based Bain Capital. Bain also helped prop up Virgin Atlantic during the pandemic and bought the Virgin Australia airline.

So far, the tally is $2.8billion for the four $700million superyachts in the fleet, plus start-up costs and the pandemic fundraising, which are undisclosed.

The ships, built by Italian firm Fincantieri, are financed by 80 per cent of debt, which is guaranteed by the Italian government, and its total borrowing is understood to be several billion pounds.

The main base for the fleet will be at PortMiami in Florida, in a $130million berth called Terminal V that has been designed with a roof shaped like palm trees. PortMiami is building the terminal, due to be completed in November, and Virgin Voyages will lease it in a 30-year deal.

Virgin has also agreed a partnership with Genting, the Malaysian gaming group, to create a Virgin Voyages Beach Club at Genting's Hilton Resorts World on Bimini island in the Bahamas.

Virgin will pay an undisclosed fee to use the resort as a stop-off on all its Caribbean cruises, with shark-spotting and beach yoga in the day followed by DJs late into the night.

Once the fleet ramps up, Scarlet Lady  named after an early Virgin Atlantic plane  will be joined by sister ships Valiant Lady, Resilient Lady and a third, unnamed superyacht.

Valiant Lady and Resilient Lady will cruise round the Mediterranean in the summer months but will only sail in the Caribbean in the winter, due to the European climate. 'I went to Dover last February,' recalls McAlpin. 'Man, it was cold.'
Would you buy a home that used to be an office?

More people are being encouraged to do just that, as the City of London announced plans to build 1,500 new homes in former office blocks left vacant due to the pandemic this week.

But the trend of converting commercial buildings into homes has been around for a few years.

Since 2015, property developers have been allowed to convert offices into apartments without getting full planning permission, under a system called permitted development rights - and that policy now applies to shops and warehouses, too.

The City of London wants to see 1,500 apartments built in disused office buildings

More recently, there have been plans lodged to convert department stores into flats as big retailers have gone under.

The House of Fraser in Aberdeen, for example, is now home to 34 apartments.

Conversions are not everyone's idea of a dream home, but they can offer a chance to live in a central location at a more affordable price, as homes converted from shops or offices are often the cheapest in any given area.

While many are perfectly habitable, some have caused controversy due to their small size as the Government's minimum space standard of 37 square metres doesn't apply to homes built in this way.

Converted properties aren't just city boltholes for first-time buyers, though.

On the other end of the scale we see barns turned into dream country homes and Victorian warehouses into trendy loft apartments.

'Industrial proportions of old warehouses, vaulted ceilings of former churches  these are big spaces packed full of character,' says Edward Heaton, founder and managing partner at national buying agents, Heaton & Partners.

'Many offices started life as residential houses, so returning these often period buildings back to their original use can make a lot of sense.'

But buying a home that wasn't always a home comes with some potential pitfalls.

You want to be sure the work has been done to the right standard, for example, and that you will be able to get a mortgage on it.

So what do buyers of converted properties need to look out for?

First and foremost, you want to make sure that the property is a nice place to live.

If you're buying a converted home, you will want to check the building work is up to standard

Developers of the new apartments in the City might find that creating a cosy atmosphere can be a challenge in a building that used to be a corporate headquarters.

'Where I think there will be a growing issue is with purpose-built glass office blocks that were never designed to be lived in,' Heaton continues.

'The glass can make you feel like a lab rat, and because of the restrictive floorplans, creating absolutely tiny studio flats is often the result.'

When it comes to building new apartments in the City of London, it is easy to assume the new residents will be living in glass and steel skyscrapers.

But other types of older commercial buildings can create a more pleasant environment.

Lauren Atkins is managing director of The Malins Group, a developer which has converted many historic buildings into homes.

This includes The Apple Apartments in Baker Street, the former home of The Beatles' Apple Records, and The Metalworks in Clapham, the former workshop of Arts and Crafts pioneer William Bainbridge Reynolds.

'In the City of London, there is a real opportunity to amalgamate its rich history with the new emerging cultural landscape,' Atkins says.

'Conversions produce far more interesting homes than new build schemes, through the adaptation of the existing structure.

The interior of a flat at Swanne House in Greenwich, where The Malins Group converted a former Metropolitan Police building into 21 apartments

'Older buildings often have superior floor-to-ceiling heights and are typically built more robustly.

'There is also the opportunity to use spaces innovatively and enhance the beauty of existing architectural features, all of which would not be considered or possible in a new build.'

Interrogate the quality of the build

If you're looking seriously at a converted property, you will firstly want to interrogate to the quality of the building work.

There are several things to look out for when assessing whether it is a suitable home.

'Remember offices and shops were not meant to be used as bedrooms, so check there is sufficient noise protection,' says Angus Stewart, chief executive of online mortgage broker, Property Master.

'Internal walls have probably been installed to divide the building up, so how well has that been done by the developer? There may also have been false floors where office cables were stored before, so how has the developer dealt with that issue?'

Home buyers choose to get surveys on all kinds of properties, but this is especially important if it is a conversion.

'It is very important to have a survey done, particularly to check out the services,' says Jeremy Leaf, North London estate agent and a former RICS residential chairman.

'When it comes to insulation and so on, you also need to ensure that the conversion fulfils minimum requirements in terms of heat loss and other issues. Essentially, you need to check that the property is comfortable for your occupation.'

Having a survey if you are buying a conversion will help you assess whether it is habitable

You should also bear in mind that, if you are buying a leasehold flat, you will be jointly responsible for the upkeep of the whole building - so you will want to check out the common areas as well as just your own apartment.

Finally, you will want to be sure that the conversion has been carried out in an above-board manner and that all the right documentation is in place.

The current Land Registry status of the property, planning documents and warranties are all things that your mortgage lender may want to see in order to check that there are no covenants or other restrictions.

This is something that your solicitor will most likely be able to handle.

Size matters when there are no space standards

If you're looking at a converted flat that is on the smaller side, knowing the exact proportions is vital.

Firstly, this will enable you to work out the price per square metre. This is one way of comparing how good a deal you are getting when viewing homes of different sizes.

If the price per square metre of a conversion is much higher than a regular flat in the same area, for example, you may want to think again about buying it.

But more importantly, you need to know about minimum space standards. The Government says new homes should be at least 37 square metres.

This rule doesn't apply if they have been converted under permitted development rights - but it is still a good benchmark of whether or not a property is of a reasonable size to live comfortably in.

Aside from being unpleasant to live in, there are a host of other problems that come with a small space - from fitting in standard-sized furniture to being able to get a mortgage.

Converted properties can cause mortgage headaches

'A significant problem with properties that are converted from commercial to residential is whether they are deemed as "habitable" by the lender's surveyors,' says Gerard Boon of mortgage firm Boon Brokers.

'A key factor that has led to many ex-commercial properties being classed as uninhabitable revolves around national space standards', he explains.

'For example, many former commercial properties, particularly flats, may have only a few metres of floor space with no windows.'

Most lenders are unlikely to lend on homes of less than 30 square metres, while some stick to the 37 square metre Government rule.

Victorian warehouse conversions, like these ones in London's Shad Thames, can offer vast spaces, high ceilings and river views

It will be classed as a 'new build'

Another potentially tricky issue is that, if a property has just been converted from commercial to residential use, lenders will class it as a new build - despite the outer shell being decades or even centuries old.

This usually means a higher deposit, which could be a problem for first-time buyers in particular.

'If a property is to be lived in its current state for the first time, it will be classed as a new build by the lender,' says Dean Esnard, director at broker Magni Finance.

'Therefore, borrowers will normally have to put down a deposit of 15 per cent or more, which will be an issue for some.'

Check out the local area

Most home buyers will want to carry out a fact-finding mission into the local area when they're seriously considering making an offer.

But when you're buying a home that was initially designed as an office, shop or warehouse, it is even more crucial.

For example, lots of mid-century office buildings were designed for people commuting by car - so check that there are good public transport links if that is important to you.

You will also want to make sure that there are good local amenities such as schools and supermarkets.

Find out the uses of the buildings around the property, too. Not only will this have an impact on your experience of living there, for example if a converted warehouse is within a noisy industrial area, but it could also affect your mortgage.

'High rise buildings and properties above or adjacent to commercial premises, which are obviously common in the City, are generally more problematic' says Esnard.

'But I am sure lenders will be keen to adapt their criteria to suit current trends and Government initiatives, so we should see improvements in this space shortly,' he adds.

Co-existing alongside offices is not always a problem, but lenders are often reticent about lending on properties that are adjacent to restaurants, takeaways or betting shops.

This is because they deem this kind of property to be less desirable and therefore harder to sell in the event of a repossession.

Can I renovate or extend it?

Finally, you may also wish to think about whether you could do further work on a converted property in future.

'It may be more restrictive to get planning permission in future than it would be if you were buying in a residential building so this needs to be investigated', says Leaf.

'This is not such an issue if you are buying on the twentieth floor as you would be limited in what you can do, but if you are buying a ground floor property and may wish to add an extension or knock down walls at some point, it may be more difficult than it might otherwise have been.'


remaining of

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Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 15:25:04|Editor: huaxia

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SEOUL, May 1 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's export growth hit the highest in around 10 years, keeping an upward trend for the sixth consecutive month, a government report showed Saturday.

Export, which accounts for about half of the export-driven economy, amounted to 51.19 billion U.S. dollars in April, up 41.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

The outbound shipment continued to expand for six months since November last year, marking the fastest increase in over 10 years since January 2011.

The daily average export, which excludes the working-day effect, advanced 29.4 percent last month.

Import spiked 33.9 percent from a year ago to 50.8 billion dollars in April, sending the trade surplus to 390 million dollars. The trade balance stayed in black for 12 months in a row.

The export topped 50 billion dollars for two straight months, indicating a global demand recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic that roiled the global economy last year.

For the first four months of this year, the outbound shipment reached a record high of 197.7 billion dollars. During the four-month period, the daily average export hit a new high of 2.2 billion dollars.

Among the 15 major export items, 13 shipments went up in double digits in April from a year earlier.

Semiconductor shipment recorded the second-highest April figure of 9.34 billion dollars, surpassing 9 billion dollars for two months.

Petrochemical export achieved the highest April reading of 4.66 billion dollars, keeping a double-digit increase for the third consecutive month.

Automotive shipment amounted to 4.15 billion dollars, exceeding 4 billion dollars for two months and continuing to rise in double figures for the fourth straight month.

Export for new growth products, including system chip, electric vehicle, secondary battery and bio-health products, increased for at least eight months through April.

Shipment to China, South Korea's biggest trading partner, posted the biggest April number of 13.37 billion dollars, expanding in double digits for four straight months.

Export to the United States logged the third-highest monthly figure of 7.54 billion dollars in April, and shipment to the European Union (EU) topped 50 billion dollars for the first time.

Export to the country's four major export destinations, including China, the United States, the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations surged more than 30 percent in April from a year earlier.

Shipment to Japan and the Middle East marked the first turnaround in four and 13 months respectively, and export to Latin American countries kept growing for six months.

Import of capital goods hit a new monthly high of 8.37 billion dollars in April on solid demand for equipment used to produce semiconductors and display panels.

Intermediary goods import posted the second-highest reading of 24.94 billion dollars, and consumer goods import advanced 25.3 percent to 7.07 billion dollars, indicating a domestic demand recovery. Enditem
Indias devastating Covid-19 surge further accelerated on Saturday with more than 400,000 new cases in 24 hours, as vaccinations opened to all adults despite shortages of shots.

Two months ago the health minister said India was in the end game of the pandemic as it sent millions of vaccines abroad, but now exports have stopped and people are desperate to be inoculated.

A crowd of around 100 people formed outside one Delhi hospital on Saturday  one of very few offering shots to those under 45 years old.

There are so many people that are getting sick so we just wanted to be here as soon as possible, one of those waiting, Aadya Mehta, 25, told AFP.

Until now, only frontline workers like medical staff, people over 45 and those with pre-existing illnesses have been given the AstraZeneca or Covaxin shots.

But even this more modest programme has stumbled, with some areas running out of jabs and others throwing them away because of lack of demand, in part because some people are scared to leave home during this recent surge.

So far, around 150 million shots have been administered, equating to 11.5 percent of the population of 1.3 billion people. Just 25 million have had two doses.

 Confusion reigns 

With the expansion of the rollout to all adults, around 600 million more people are now eligible to get vaccinated, but many states said they have insufficient stocks.

Millions of younger people terrified by the current situation and desperate to get inoculated registered on the governments digital platform.

But very few of them have been given appointments and only half a dozen of Indias 28 states began vaccinating people under 45, and in many cases only a token scale.

Half my family is positive, so everybody wanted us to get vaccinated, data scientist Megha Srivastava, 35, told AFP outside the Max clinic, one of three private hospitals in the Indian capital vaccinating younger people.

It wont completely protect us, but it will ensure that even if we get infected, well recover, she said.

Further confusion has been created by the governments decision to ask states and private hospitals to order vaccine supplies on their own.

We have contacted Serum Institute of India that has said they will be able to provide doses only after six months, DS Rana, chair of the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi, told the Hindustan Times daily.

C.K. Bakshi, a doctor at one government hospital, said there was no issue with supply and was vaccinating almost 300 people a day. But it did not have government permission to jab under 45s, she told AFP.

In Kolkata, Rupak Barua, president of the Association of Hospitals of Eastern India (AHEI), told AFP that confusion reigns.

Private hospitals have had to return all their vaccines stock to the government, he said.

 Targeted policy 

The whole thing looks like a confused elephant to me right now, said T Jacob John, a retired clinical virology professor at the Christian Medical College Vellore.

Do you want to control the epidemic, save lives or both? If you want both youll require a huge amount of vaccines. And we dont have it, John told AFP.

He and other experts say that given the shortages, and its colossal population, India should have a much more targeted policy, concentrating vaccinations in hotspots.

Gujarat is among the few states to have said they would do so, with chief minister Vijay Rupani saying Friday that vaccinations for over-18s would happen only in the 10 worst-hit districts.

(We) feel that once this (additional) vaccination drive commences the way it was designed, it will stabilise gradually, health ministry official Lav Agarwal told reporters Friday.

SOURCE: AFP
LAKE GEORGE - A former Lake George High School student was arrested Friday after sending a message threatening several Lake George students, Warren County sheriff's deputies said.

The 18-year-old man from Old Military Road is charged with making a terroristic threat, a felony. On Thursday the Sheriffs Office received a report from an administrator at the High School, and based on the information provided a student in the school received a threatening message via social media. As a result of the threat the Lake George School district cancelled all in-person classes Friday and operated remotely.

The Sheriffs Office said it staffed additional patrols at the High School and Elementary School campuses out of an abundance of caution.

The suspect was arraigned and released on his own recognizance, due in Lake George Town Court on May 6. Stay away orders of protections were issued by the court.
One of the nations largest trash haulers is, for the third time since 1999, seeking state permission to handle household garbage at its transfer station at the Port of Albany.

Waste Management says allowing the facility to transfer garbage and construction debris would cut its carbon footprint, but residents of the nearby South End neighborhood worry that the change would add the odor of household garbage to the long list of pollutants that already plague the area from passing trucks and trains.

They say its another example of how poorer neighborhoods end up hosting such facilities.

This is a low-income mostly minority community, said neighborhood resident and activist Dominick Calsolaro. Indeed, the South End neighborhood next to the Port is classified as an environmental justice area. Such locations, due to their high poverty and minority populations, are afforded extra considerations when industries look to locate businesses that could add to pollution.

Waste Managements application comes about 18 months after state and local officials discussed ways they could ease the heavy truck traffic and accompanying diesel fumes wafting through the neighborhood, especially along Route 32 and South Pearl Street where the Ezra Prentice subsidized housing complex is located.

In its application to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the company says its trucks would enter and exit the port well to the north or south of the housing complex and says it is not seeking an increase in daily truck traffic or tonnage handled at the transfer station.

Still, the history of complaints about pollution and traffic has made traffic around the port a flashpoint.

Waste Management last week postponed a public informational meeting that had been scheduled for Thursday on its proposal.

Waste Management, given our extensive experience in environmental services within New York State and across the country, understands that a proposal like this needs to be carefully scrutinized due to its location. We have taken significant steps to mitigate any potential issues, in addition to a community benefits package for both the City of Albany and the community as well as potential career opportunities, company spokesman Joe Bonilla said in a prepared statement.

As part of listening to the community and hearing its concerns, we want to continue these conversations as we postpone this public information session. We look forward to engaging with the community and its residents in order to provide more information on the long-term, positive outlook of this important project within the Port of Albany.

The transfer station, a large enclosed building at the port, is currently allowed to handle 749 tons of construction and demolition debris, dry commercial waste and recyclables each day.

Waste Management wants to also accept household municipal waste, essentially from their garbage trucks that service the greater Capital Region.

Once at the transfer station, the waste would be trucked to one of Waste Managements landfills.

The company in 2017 purchased the former Saratoga County landfill in Northumberland, about 45 miles away.

By consolidating the waste in larger trucks, Waste Management could avoid having its smaller vehicles constantly going back and forth to the landfills, thus saving fuel and the amount of carbon and overall truck traffic.

But critics like Calsolaro say there is no escaping the fact that the nearby port is next to one of the regions poorest neighborhoods.

Waste Management in its documents explains that it would also add doors to the transfer station and the doors would be closed when no trucks are entering or leaving. It would also, if needed, add a sanitizing mist system to control odors.

The company unsuccessfully sought to handle household waste at the facility in 1999 and 2010.

The application also comes as the port will be gearing up to host a large factory that will build massive offshore wind towers slated for use off the coast of Long Island. That factory will be south of the South End on a site the port annexed in the neighboring town of Bethlehem.
BALLSTON SPA - A Fulton County man admitted to having a role in the killing of a Gloversville woman who went missing from her job in Johnstown in 2019 and whose body was found in the town of Malta three days later, Saratoga County prosecutors said Friday.

James A. Duffy of Johnstown pleaded guilty in Saratoga County Court to second-degree murder for his role in the death of Allyzibeth A. Lamont of Gloversville, who was 22 when she was slain, District Attorney Karen Heggen said. The plea was made before County Judge James A. Murphy III.
WASHINGTON  Highway overhauls. New sidewalks. Electric buses. Broadband expansion. Scientific equipment.

For the first time in a decade, members of Congress have the power to earmark billions in federal funding for specific local projects, reviving a process once pockmarked by corruption scandals. New York representatives submitted lengthy wish lists this week to congressional leaders hoping to nab a few million here and there for their preferred projects.

U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, is seeking $4.8 million for floating solar panels in the Cohoes reservoir. U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, asked for $27 million for a drinking water project at Fort Drum. U.S. Rep. Antonio Delgado, D-Rhinebeck, requested $430,000 for a gun violence prevention project in Ulster County.

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., revived earmarks so that members of Congress could have more control over federal spending and direct cash at high-quality projects supported by their communities, DeLauro said in an interview. The idea is to shift more spending discretion from federal agencies to members of Congress who theoretically know the needs of their districts better.

In practice, earmarks could also help secure individual buy-in and votes for big spending bills.

The rules are different this time around: members have to make their submissions public and they must certify they dont have a financial interest in the project. The money must go to government and non-profit projects and audits will be conducted on funding recipients.

Republicans did away with earmarks in 2011 on the heels of several corruption cases tied to earmarks and in an effort to reign in federal spending.

In 2006, former Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, pleaded guilty to corruption charges for accepting illegal gifts, including overseas trips and casino chips, in exchange for delivering earmarks for a lobbyist who requested them on behalf of a client.

The same year, former Rep. Randy Cunningham, R-Calif., was sentenced to prison for taking $2.4 million in bribes from military contractors and keeping a bribe menu that showed how groups could buy his influence.

Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, in 2005 asked for a $231 million earmark for an Alaska bridge project that gained the nickname bridge to nowhere for serving few residents despite its high pricetag. Young withdrew his request after intense criticism.

Some Republicans opposed the return of earmarks and 15 Senate Republicans signed a letter in April saying they would not participate in an inherently wasteful spending practice that is prone to serious abuse. But Leahy, who leads that chambers Appropriations Committee, announced earmarks were coming back to the Senate this week.

DeLauro insisted she and Leahy have infused enough transparency into the process to avoid scandals like those of the past.

I think that what we are trying to do is to take into consideration what were some of the prior criticisms of the process as well to correct some of the areas that created abuse of the process, she said.

Previously, DeLauro and her staff, as well as other members of the House Appropriations Committee, spent weeks training for more than 1,500 congressional staffers and members on how to make earmarks under the new system.

Representatives this week submitted requests for community and transportation projects to receive funding through the budget and a transportation reauthorization bill. Other infrastructure projects could win funding through President Joe Bidens proposed American Jobs Plan or other federal funding sources.

Members could submit up to 10 transportation and 10 community earmark requests. Several members said they expected two or three of their projects could get funded, although DeLauro declined to put an exact number on it. One percent of discretionary appropriations funding will be directed at these community projects.

On the transportation side, each member will get $15 million to $20 million worth of projects proved, a congressional staffer said.

Members requests will be approved in May and June.

Tonko said he got dozens of submissions from the towns, community groups and non-profits that he solicited requests from.

"I know there are just inordinate needs in the district so we are going to fight for each one of these to my nth degree," said Tonko. "We tried to tailor the projects that we thought best met the guidelines, the restrictions, the vision of those dedicated funds."

More Information Here are 10 improvement and community development projects being submitted by U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, to the House Committee on Appropriations in a bid for federal money for the region. Project Name: City of Mechanicville Water Reliability Project

Recipient: City of Mechanicville

Address: 36 North Main Street, Mechanicville

Amount Requested: $800,000



Project Name: Community Center Project

Recipient: City of Amsterdam

Address: 61 Church Street, Amsterdam

Amount Requested: $1,000,000



Project Name: Dental Expansion for the Underserved

Recipient: Schenectady Family Health Services, Inc., D/B/A Hometown Health Centers

Address: 1044 State Street, Schenectady

Amount Requested: $750,000



Project Name: Extending Access to Reliable Broadband Internet to All of Westerlo

Recipient: Town of Westerlo

Address: 933 County Route 401 Westerlo Amount Requested: $1,687,500



Project Name: Multimodal Station Phase I - Pedestrian Connector and Station Design

Recipient: City of Amsterdam

Address: 61 Church Street, Amsterdam

Amount Requested: $3,000,000



Project Name: Municipal Floating Solar Demonstration Project

Recipient: City of Cohoes

Address: Cohoes City Hall 97 Mohawk Street, Cohoes

Amount Requested: $4,788,000



Project Name: Next Generation RNA Technology Package

Recipient: University at Albany

Address: 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany

Amount Requested: $1,000,000



Project Name: Sheriff's Homeless Improvement Program (SHIP)

Recipient: Albany County Sheriff's Office

Address: 16 Eagle Street, Albany, NY 12207

Amount Requested: $500,000



Project Name: Town of Rotterdam Wastewater Treatment Plant Improvements Project

Recipient: Town of Rotterdam

Address: 1100 Sunrise Boulevard, Rotterdam

Amount Requested: $960,000



Project Name: Urban Grow Center Expansion

Recipient: Capital Roots

Address: 594 River Street, Troy

Amount Requested: $750,000 See More Collapse

Tonko requested $6 million to buy eight electric buses in Montgomery County, $4.5 million for a transportation center in Amsterdam, thousands for bridges in Saratoga County and millions to improve road intersections and pedestrian areas in other parts of the district. He also asked for money for broadband in Westerlo, dentist services for the needy in Schenectady, scientific equipment for the University of Albany, a wastewater treatment project in Rotterdam, a community center in Amsterdam and converting old jail cells into housing units for the homeless in Albany.

Stefanik asked for $10 million to put a railhead at Fort Drum, money to expand broadband in Herkimer County, $3.5 million to remove sediment from the Salmon River,$1 million to upgrade the Ogdensburg-Prescott International Bridge, funding to upgrade North Country Community College's nursing labs, new support for child care and education programs and money to restore an old Air Force facility in Clinton County. For transportation, Stefanik asked for millions for road projects across the North Country.

Delgado's biggest requests were $1.1 million to expand broadband in Ghent, Canaan, New Lebanon, and Austerlitz and $1.1 million to expand a rail trail in Sullivan County. He also asked for money to create a new child care center, upgrade the gear of a local fire department, rebuild the public pool in Sidney, establish a Grain Innovation Center at Hartwick College, add beds to a rural birth center, redesign the Cobleskill community center and buy a license plate reader for a local police force.

Senators will have their own opportunity to make submissions in the coming weeks.

DeLauro, her staff and federal agency officials will spend the next two months reviewing the submissions, vetting them and selecting ones to be funded. She said Connecticut projects will get no leg up over other states submissions just because shes the House Appropriations chair.

U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., said he speculated the process would result in slightly more money for appropriators and senior members of Congress.

Whats that great line in Animal Farm? All pigs are equal, but some pigs are more equal than others, Himes quipped laughing. It wont surprise me if some pigs are more equal than others.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 15:29:09|Editor: huaxia

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BANGKOK, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Thailand on Saturday confirmed 1,891 new COVID-19 cases and 21 more fatalities, according to the country's Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA).

Of the new cases, 1,884 were domestic infections while seven others were imported cases, CCSA spokesman Taweesin Visanuyothin told a press conference.

A total of 739 of the new infections were detected in capital Bangkok, followed by 142 cases in Samut Prakan and 126 cases in Chonburi, both near Bangkok, according to Taweesin.

The new cases took the national tally to 67,044, with half of the cases reported in April.

The 21 fatalities, a record high reported in a single day, took the total death toll to 224 in the country. Enditem
ALBANY - A former General Electric Co. employee who admitted to stealing computer chip technology trade secrets while he was stationed at SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Albany was sentenced to a year of probation in federal court on Friday.

Yang Sui, 43, of Niskayuna, was also ordered to pay a $5,000 fine, much less than the estimated value of his theft. Sui's sentencing of probation was also much less than the maximum sentence of 10 years in prison he faces under federal sentencing guidelines.
CLIFTON PARK - The Shenendehowa school district will offer a $26.5 million capital project to voters this month meant "to address strategic repairs and enhancements."

According to the district's website, $2.5 million from the districts capital reserves will be used to offset the impact to taxpayers.

"With the reserve funds, declining debt service and approximately 69.6 percent reimbursed by New York State building aid, it is estimated that the tax impact of this project will be approximately $0.046 (less than a nickle) per thousand of tax assessed value per year over 17 years," according to the online district newsletter.

Among the projects sought: A secure front entrance at Gowana, creating a main office area that focuses on essential and safety needs; an additional art room and classroom; lighting and water system replacements; air conditioning work; upgrading science rooms and making upgrades for physical education and community use, such as replacing track and turf at the Plainsmen Stadium.

The 2021-22 budget of $187 million - also on the May 18 ballot - would raise spending by 3 percent. A property with an estimated market value of $250,000 would see a decrease of about $23 in its school property tax bill under the spending plan.

Nine people seek three seats up in the school board election: Jason DiGianni, Joseph Weber, Meghan Chapin, Ram Lalukota, Alfred Ives, Stacey Pflomm, Robert Pressly, Tom Templeton and Kara Tubbs.

A $1.76 million bus proposition, seeking permission to buy 17 vehicles, will be on the ballot as well.

Voting is 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. May 18 at the Gowana Gym.

Ballston Spa budget

Another Saratoga County school district, Ballston Spa Central will offer a $94.9 million budget to voters, a 1.8% increase in spending over the 2020-2021 budget. The projected tax levy is a 1.9 percent over current year. The tax impact on the average home in the district assessed at $258,000 is projected to be flat or increase minimally, according to a district statement.

The adopted budget supports all current programs in place and adds additional support for both struggling and accelerated students. The new funding from the American Recovery Plan Act requires a separate plan to be developed by July 1 and will provide additional student program and personnel support, the district notes.

An annual budget hearing will be 6:30 p.m, Wednesday, May 5, in the High School Library. It will be broadcast via Google Live Stream and on the districts Twitter feed. Questions may be submitted via email at BOE@BSCSD.ORG. A link to the live presentation will be posted before the start of the meeting.

Voting on May 18 will be 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.at Ballston Spa High School (residents of the Towns of Ballston, Milton and Charlton) and the Malta Town Hall (residents of Malta).

Voters will consider a proposition for school vehicle replacement ($948,000) and for the annual support for the public library ($59,840). Two candidates seek a school board seat , incumbent Jason Fernau and newcomer Timothy Turbiak.
Lori Van Buren/Albany Times Union

State Sen. Liz Krueger suggests in a commentary ("New York has a role to play in protecting the world's forests," April 20) that New York has a role in supporting sustainable forest management. Its a responsibility we embrace across Canadas publicly owned, working forests.

The senator cites forest practices in Indonesia as a reason for introducing legislation that targets forest risk commodities." However, the senators bill misses the mark as the sweeping legislation also stands to impact forest product imports from among the most sustainably managed forests in the world, including those in Canada, Sweden and Finland. As currently written, the bill would also clearly violate trade rules between two of our worlds most trusted trading partners.
Ever since Lake George experienced its first harmful algal bloom last fall, I cant stop asking myself, Was that the canary in the coal mine? What if this relatively brief occurrence of pea-soup-green bacteria is the precursor to larger and more persistent blooms?

What if the bloom had been toxic? Lake George is a drinking water source.

How will future blooms impact our ecology, economy, tax revenues and property values?

We cant afford to wait and see.

The time is now for New York to take a more aggressive approach in addressing one of the biggest culprits in the creation of harmful algal blooms  aging and failing septic systems.

Nutrient loading, particularly of phosphorus, is foremost among the likely causes of algal blooms, and inadequate septic systems are a leading cause of nutrient loading.

The Lake George Park Commission, a state agency, was mandated by state environmental conservation law decades ago to adopt rules and regulations for the discharge of sewage or treated sewage effluent  Go to the Regulations section of the commissions website and click on Wastewater Regulations. Vacant. We need to fill this vacancy now.

In June 2018, New York released a Harmful Algal Bloom Action Plan for Lake George calling for the implementation of an inspection and maintenance program for near-shore septic systems so that faulty systems can be identified, upgraded or replaced. The state Legislature, Department of Environmental Conservation and Lake George Park Commission all need to take immediate steps to create this program.

As a town supervisor who is expected to comply with a multitude of state mandates in a timely manner, Im disappointed and frustrated by the lack of urgency shown by the state in implementing these needed protections for one of New Yorks greatest treasures.

While the specific cause of the Lake George harmful algal bloom has not yet been identified, the need for a basin-wide septic system inspection and maintenance program has been clear for decades. The Task Force for the Future of the Lake George Park called for a program in 1985, as did stakeholders at basin-wide coalition meetings a decade or so ago.

In 2019, The FUND for Lake George and the Lake George Waterkeeper issued the most alarming report yet. In an assessment of more than 400 systems in the town of Lake George located within 500 feet of the lake and 100 feet of tributary streams, they found two-thirds were either near or past their estimated life expectancy; nearly one out of five were undersized; more than half had no record of maintenance or pump-out, and/or have never been pumped out; and one in five utilize drywells with limited treatment efficiencies and a greater potential for leaks. These findings were nearly identical to an earlier assessment of properties on Dunhams Bay in my town. Its a good bet youd find the same in communities around the lakes basin, with a combined total of 6,000 septic systems.

Recognizing the necessity of proper septic system maintenance to the future of Lake George, the towns of Queensbury and Bolton have taken matters into their own hands by requiring system inspections anytime waterfront properties are sold. In the two years since our program was activated, Queensbury has inspected 101 systems and found 80 percent needed some level of repair or replacement. Queensbury has also worked with property owners on Dunhams Bay to create the lakes first septic management district.

These town-based initiatives are an important step. And, giving credit where credit is due, New York has announced a program to offer grants of up to 50 percent of the cost of septic system replacement to property owners on Lake George.

But to truly give the lake the protection it needs, we need New York to fulfill its statutory responsibility and implement a mandatory, uniform septic system inspection and maintenance program in every lakeside community.

Its not often you hear a local government official asking for more state regulation, but its not often that something as important as Lake George is at stake. We need to act before the canary succumbs.

John Strough is the supervisor of the town of Queensbury in Warren County.
Farmington, WV (26555)

Today

Rain showers in the morning with scattered thunderstorms arriving in the afternoon. High 76F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%. Rainfall near an inch..

Tonight

Variable clouds with showers at times, and perhaps a rumble or two of thunder, especially early. Low 66F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 15:48:16|Editor: huaxia

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PHNOM PENH, May 1 (Xinhua) -- A prominent Cambodian academic on Saturday highlighted the importance of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in assisting Myanmar in a positive and constructive manner.

The Western powers should be objective and impartial and stay out of the issue, but support ASEAN to constructively participate in Myanmar's domestic reconciliation process in the ASEAN way and push for the easing of the Myanmar situation, Kin Phea, director-general of the International Relations Institute of the Royal Academy of Cambodia, told Xinhua.

Referring to the consensus reached at the ASEAN's emergency summit on April 24 over the Myanmar situation, he said, "It is hoped that the consensus will effectively promote the de-escalation of the Myanmar situation, and ASEAN's taking the initiative in the matter as 'the most proper and justifiable body' would avert intervention by the West."

The consensus called for an immediate end to the violence in Myanmar and for constructive dialogue among all parties involved, and it suggested a special envoy of the ASEAN Chair facilitate mediation of the dialogue process and pledged to provide humanitarian aid to Myanmar.

As an important step to a peaceful resolution, the consensus is paving the way to bring all parties concerned to the negotiation table, said the academic. "ASEAN cannot force its members to accept any scenarios for their crisis but can call for a peaceful resolution," he said.

The options and scenarios for lasting peace, security and stability depend on Myanmar's leaders and people themselves, said Phea.

"It's time for Myanmar to deal with their differences based on national unity, peace, security, political stability, prosperity and people's well-being," he added. Enditem
April 30, 2021

Channel Focused Vendor to Showcase Cloud-Managed SD-WAN for Small and Mid-Enterprise Customers

Shelton, CT  June 3, 2020  TMC (News - Alert) today announced Adaptiv Networks has signed on a Platinum sponsor for ITEXPO and SD-WAN Expo #TECHSUPERSHOW, being held June 22-25, 2021 at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami, Florida. Through its in-depth education, showcase of innovative solutions, robust exhibit floor and unique audience, ITEXPO (News - Alert) has become the leading event for IT professionals, C-levels and business owners, developers, and the channel to gather and learn about digital transformation. Resellers, enterprises, service providers, media, manufacturers and developers come to ITEXPO to make their purchasing decisions and select new partners.

































































































The massive market disruption this year has accelerated the business case for digital transformation, and the demand for agile networking solutions like SD-WAN, explains Bernard Breton, CEO of Adaptiv Networks (News - Alert) . We are proud to sponsor ITEXPO, this experience brings together so many technology vendors and service providers who are leading the way for digital transformation.

Were happy to welcome Adaptiv Networks back to ITEXPO 2021 show as a Platinum Sponsor, said Rich Tehrani (News - Alert) , TMCs CEO and ITEXPO Conference Chairman. Their SD-WAN solutions offer businesses of all sizes a direct path to success in their digital transformation.

Adaptiv Networks is the creator of powerful, software-defined wide-area networks (SD-WANs) for the most challenging locations requiring high availability for business-critical application traffic. Businesses rely on Adaptiv Networks' software-defined network to provide secure, lower-cost, higher-performance and more reliable cloud networks for their voice, data, and video communications needs.

For more information or to register for ITEXPO, contact events@tmcnet.com. For media inquiries, contact Michelle Connolly. Companies interested in exhibiting, sponsorship or advertising packages for ITEXPO or SD-WAN Expo should contact TMC's Joe Fabiano at 203-852-6800 x132 or Maureen Gambino at 203-852-6800 x109..

For the latest ITEXPO and SD-WAN Expo news, updates and information follow the event on Twitter (News - Alert) at @ITEXPO, @SDWANExpo.

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.

Media and Analyst Contact:

Michelle Connolly

Marketing Manager

TMC

203-852-6800 x 170

mconnolly@tmcnet.com

Edited by Maurice Nagle
[May 01, 2021] Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Realty is Now Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Drysdale Properties

Drysdale Properties, among the nation's fastest-growing, full-service, 100% woman-owned companies, announced its acquisition of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Realty. The Sonora professionals are joining forces with the larger Bay Area Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices brokerage to enhance services, tools, and reach. The announcement was made by Gretchen Pearson, President/CEO, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Drysdale Properties. The office, located at 133 Old Wards Ferry Road, Ste E, Sonora, transacted over $80 million in sales volume in 2020. "We are excited to expand our service area in Sonora and all of Tuolumne County," said Gretchen Pearson, President/CEO. "Our team has been involved in the Central Valley area real estate market for a number of years, and we believe that our customers will greatly benefit from our commitment to service and the value of the brand, now in Sonora." The company will continue operations with a motivated and well-trained base of sales professionals who already serve the Sonora community's home purchase and sale needs. Steve Campbell, Broker-Owner of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Realty, adds: "The tools and resources which Drysdale Properties will bring to our Mother Lode market are exciting for our team of professionals and especially for our clients. I am very pleased to be part of this wonderful leap forward."



"Operating in Sonora means that Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Drysdale Properties will remain committed to quality and customer service above all else," said Pearson. "Sales professionals who are driven to move their careers to the next level should highly consider Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Drysdale Properties. Our company's culture is ambitious, collaborative, and always focused on our agents' success." About Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Drysdale Properties

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Drysdale Properties is Northern California's and Nevada's fastest-growing, full-service and 100% woman-owned real estate brokerage specializing in residential, luxury, relocation, commercial and property management. It is the No. 16 brokerage in the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices network; No. 69 for sales volume as ranked by REALTrends; and No. 67 in RISMedia's Power Broker Top 500 Report. To learn more about joining the award-winning company or finding a home or selling your home visit www.bhhsdrysdale.com. About Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices is one of the world's fastest-growing residential real estate brokerage franchise networks, with more than 50,000 real estate professionals, nearly 1,500 offices throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe and the Middle East, and more than $119 billion in real estate sales volume. The network, among the few organizations entrusted to use the world-renowned Berkshire Hathaway name, brings to the real estate market a definitive mark of trust, integrity, stability and longevity. Visit www.berkshirehathawayhs.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210501005007/en/

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[April 30, 2021] Delaware Chancery Court Docks Skadden Over $625,000 in Unreasonable Fees

NEW YORK and WILMINGTON, Del., April 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, TransPerfect announced that it has achieved a 15% reduction in outstanding fees sought by Robert Pincus, the ex-Skadden partner who occupied TransPerfect as custodian for more than three years. TransPerfect believes the decision validates claims that Skadden, acting as a State Actor, had engaged in unethical billing practices and fee gouging. In Last Official Act as Chancellor, Andre Bouchard Reduces Custodian Bills to TransPerfect by Over 15% Skadden, Chancellor Bouchard's previous employer, came under national criticism during its three-year occupation of the translation industry's largest and most successful company. Practices included multi-million dollar invoices labeled with only "legal services," containing no specificity or support for the alleged work. Upon being ordered to disclose the nature of these fees, it was determined that Skadden overbilled TransPerfect by more than 15%. "It's unfortunate that Chancellor Bouchard had to wade through eight years of darkness, until his last day in public office, to finally see the light. I cannot help but wonder if it was the watchful eye of the Federal Courts that kept Bouchard in heck," stated Phil Shawe, President and CEO of TransPerfect. During the company's eight-year battle in the Chancery Court, Bouchard and the Delaware Courts forced TransPerfect owners to spend approximately $244 million in legal and custodian fees so that one partner could be bought out for $285 million in after-tax value. This amount was less than many voluntary offers to settle the dispute dating as far back as 2016.



U.S. District Court Judge Mark Kearney recently ruled that Chancellor Bouchard had "ordered TransPerfect to pay approximately $44.5 million in undocumented fees and costs." TransPerfect continues to explore its legal recourse based on this finding and others. In closing, TransPerfect's corporate counsel, Martin Russo of Russo PLLC said, "Notwithstanding the unnatural relationship between the Chancellor and his former employer and his clear bias, Skadden's fees were reduced by more than 15%. That indicates to me that TransPerfect is entitled to a minimum of $2.25 million in further reductions on Skadden's still-undisclosed bills of more than $14 million, rubber stamped by Bouchard and not reviewed by any party or even the judge."

About TransPerfect

TransPerfect is the world's largest provider of language and technology solutions for global business. From offices in over 100 cities on six continents, TransPerfect offers a full range of services in 170+ languages to clients worldwide. More than 5,000 global organizations employ TransPerfect's GlobalLink technology to simplify management of multilingual content. With an unparalleled commitment to quality and client service, TransPerfect is fully ISO 9001 and ISO 17100 certified. TransPerfect has global headquarters in New York, with regional headquarters in London and Hong Kong. For more information, please visit our website at www.transperfect.com. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/delaware-chancery-court-docks-skadden-over-625-000-in-unreasonable-fees-301281525.html SOURCE TransPerfect

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[April 30, 2021] UPDATE - Funds for the Front-Lines: MAGNUS Healthcare Recruitment Solutions Donates $10,000 to Expedite Front-Line Hires for Covid-19 With Workwolf

TORONTO, April 30, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In light of the recently announced third wave of COVID-19, Workwolf in partnership with MAGNUS Healthcare Recruitment Solutions has donated $10,000 to provide 1,000 registered nurses and registered practical nurses with a portable digital credential wallet, which offers access to verifiable credentials in real-time from any smart device. The two Toronto-based companies are partnering to offer healthcare workers free background checks and other credential verification services to expedite their hiring process and to support understaffed healthcare facilities. The Government of Ontario has recently reported that the province is facing another threat to its healthcare capacity as a result of the recent and rapid rise in hospitalizations, particularly in those being admitted to the ICU. As such, all qualified professionals are being sought out to relieve overworked and understaffed hospitals and other care facilities. With recent reports of over 34,000 active cases throughout the province of Ontario, Workwolf in partnership with MAGNUS will provide 1,000 healthcare professionals with the ability to share verifiable credentials via what is called a Digital Work Passport to encourage further adoption of the technology. Initially used to house digital currencies, these Digital Work Passports courtesy of MAGNUS and Workwolf leverage blockchain technology to expedite hiring in the healthcare sector and allow workers to be deployed between facilities without the friction normally associated with criminal clearance and license verification screening; for facilities experiencing a high number of COVID-19 cases who need nurses immediately, MAGNUSs donation will aid in acquiring more qualified and registered healthcare workers, inevitably saving lives. MAGNUS Founder Erik Simins has led a successful medical staffing practice for over decade, placingthousands of healthcare professionals in community, long term care, and acute care centers across the country. He has witnessed on several occasions the damage that can be done when fraudulent credentials or licenses are missed during screening. In 2019, CBC News reported on the systemic vulnerabilities within the Ontario healthcare system after Elizabeth Wettlaufer, a registered nurse murdered eight senior citizens under her care over a nine-year period. During the inquiry MAGNUS reached out to Candace Chartier who was the CEO of the Ontario Long Term Care Association at the time and received input on the technology. Candace assisted our team in identifying areas of risk that could be mitigated by the technology as well as the impact on valuable time savings when onboarding health human resources, as the province was well into a national Health Human Resource shortage. She stated the LTCHs are struggling with staffing our homes and this technology will absolutely free up time to care and even attract more registered staff to our sector, knowing the credentials of their peers have been authenticated.



With the hysteria and shortage of front-line healthcare staff, it is of utmost importance that verifications of credentials, background checks, criminal history, and instances of malpractice are performed quickly and correctly, says Simins. This is when we need proven technology to help ensure patients are safe and that we are doing our best to maintain some level of certainty in such an uncertain time. We use Workwolfs Digital Work Passports for our clients in healthcare and it is absolutely a game-changer when it comes to expediting the onboarding process. It saves clients at least two weeks in their time-to-hire. To further support MAGNUS in funding healthcare workers Workwolf Digital Work Passports, visit the MAGNUS HRS website at www.magnushrs.com. Here, front-line healthcare workers can get their passports for free, and employers or government members can donate funds towards Workwolfs Digital Work Passport initiative.



Further information Erik Simins, President & Chairman MAGNUS Healthcare Recruitment Solutions erik@magnushrs.com 1-844-8MA-GNUS 866 The Queensway, Suite 200 Toronto, ON | M8Z 1N7 www.magnushrs.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7734d2e2-70f3-42bf-8248-c3c8f5010b11



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[April 30, 2021] LEIDOS HOLDINGS 72 HOUR DEADLINE ALERT: Former Louisiana Attorney General and Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC Remind Investors With Losses in Excess of $100,000 of Deadline in Class Action Lawsuit Against Leidos Holdings, Inc. - LDOS

Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF") and KSF partner, the former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have only until May 3, 2021 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: LDOS), if they purchased the Company's securities between May 4, 2020 and February 23, 2021, inclusive (the "Class Period"). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. What You May Do If you purchased securities of Leidos and would like to discuss your legal rights and how this case might affect you and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or via email (lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com), or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-ldos/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action by overseeing lead counsel with the goal of obtaining a fair and just resolution, you must request this position by application to the Court by May 3, 2021.



About the Lawsuit Leidos and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.

On February 23, 2021, the Company disclosed disappointing 4Q and full year 2020 financial results, including only $163 million in sales (or $326 million annualized), falling well short of the projected $500 million sales, and expected cash flow of $850 million, well below analyst estimates of $1.083 billion. On this news, shares of Leidos fell $10.29, or 9.91%, to close at $93.51 per share on February 23, 2021. The case is Morton v. Leidos Holdings, Inc., et al., 1:21-cv-01911. About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC KSF, whose partners include former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is one of the nation's premier boutique securities litigation law firms. KSF serves a variety of clients - including public institutional investors, hedge funds, money managers and retail investors - in seeking to recover investment losses due to corporate fraud and malfeasance by publicly traded companies. KSF has offices in New York, California and Louisiana. To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210430005608/en/

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[April 30, 2021] SONIC AUTOMOTIVE INVESTIGATION INITIATED By Former Louisiana Attorney General: Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC Investigates the Officers and Directors of Sonic Automotive, Inc. - SAH

Former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., Esq., a partner at the law firm of Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF"), announces that KSF has commenced an investigation into Sonic Automotive, Inc. (NYSE: SAH). On October 7, 2020, news sources reported that the Company's Chief Executive Officer, David Bruton Smith, had been arrested and charged with felony assault by strangulation and misdemeanor charges of false imprisonment, assault on a female, and interfering with emergency communication. Shortly thereafter, the Company's Board of Directors issued a statement affirming that the Company "remains steadfast in its support of [its] CEO." Then, on March 1, 2021, news sources reported that Smith had been indicted by a Mecklenburg County, N.C. grand jury on all four charges related to the October 2020 arrest, according to the Mecklenburg County District Attorney's Office. KSF's investigation is focusing on whether Sonic's officers and/or directors breached their fiduciary duties to Sonic's shareholders or otherwise violated stae or federal laws.



If you have information that would assist KSF in its investigation, or have been a long-term holder of Sonic shares and would like to discuss your legal rights, you may, without obligation or cost to you, call toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or email KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn (lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com), or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-sah/ to learn more. About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

KSF, whose partners include former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is one of the nation's premier boutique securities litigation law firms. KSF serves a variety of clients - including public institutional investors, hedge funds, money managers and retail investors - in seeking to recover investment losses due to corporate fraud and malfeasance by publicly traded companies. KSF has offices in New York, California and Louisiana. To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210430005621/en/

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[May 01, 2021] Kim Spencer McPhee Barristers, P.C. Announces That The Hycroft Gold Corp. Securities Class Action Settlement Approval Hearing to Be Held July 30, 2021

Kim Spencer McPhee Barristers, P.C. today announces that the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (the "Court") has scheduled a hearing to be held on July 30, 2021, at 10:00 am EST [via video conference] to approve a settlement among all of the parties to the class proceeding styled as LBP Holdings Ltd. v. Allied Nevada Gold Corp, Scott A. Caldwell, Robert M. Buchan, Cormark Securities Inc., and Dundee Securities Limited. brought under the Court under Court File No. CV-14-50851300-CP (the "Action") The substance of the litigation (i.e. that the Defendants made misrepresentations in a 2013 short-form prospectus (the "Prospectus") released May 9, 2013 concerning a secondary public offering) has not been adjudicated by the Court. The Defendants deny the allegations. This lawsuit alleges that the Prospectus contained misrepresentations about the Company's business and operations at its Hycroft Mine. The lawsuit further alleges that when the Company issued statements correcting these misrepresentations on July 22, and August 6 and 7, 2013, the price of Hycroft's stock declined to reflect the true state of events, thereby harming Class Members. The Settlement Agreement may be viewed at https://morgantico.com/hycroft-mining-corporation/ or at www.CanadianAllieNevadaSecuritiesSettlement.ca.



YOUR TWO OPTIONS: 1. Do Nothing and Remain in the Class Action:

Class Members are automatically included in the action once certified if they do not opt-out. You do not need to do anything at this time to stay in the Class Action. If a settlement or any recovery or benefits are achieved for the Class and approved by the Court, you will be notified about how to ask for the portion to which you are entitled. You will be legally bound by all orders and judgments of the Court, and you will not be able to sue the Defendants on your own regarding the legal claims made in this case. You will NOT be required to pay any costs in the event that this Class Action is unsuccessful. 2. Opt-Out of the Class Action: All Class Members will be bound by all orders and judgments of the Court and any settlement reached unless they opt-out of the action. If you wish to pursue your own action or do not want to be bound by the outcome of the Class Action, YOU MUST OPT-OUT OF THE CLASS ACTION. If you want to opt-out of the Action, you must send an OPT-OUT FORM stating that you elect to opt-out of the Class in the Hycroft Gold Class Action. The Opt-Out Form is available at www.CanadianAlliedNevadaSecuritiesSettlement.ca The Opt-Out Form must be sent by prepaid mail, email or fax to: Trilogy Class Action Services,

117 Queen Street, P.O. Box (News - Alert) 1000,

Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, L0S 1J0,

Email: optout@trilogyclassactions.ca,

Toll-Free: 1877-400-1211, Fax: 416-342-1761,

Attention: Hycroft Class Action The Opt-Out Form must be received on or before July 2, 2021 at 5:00pm E.S.T. A copy of the long-form notice providing greater detail about the certification and your right to opt-out of the action is available at https://morgantico.com/hycroft-mining-corporation/ or www.CanadianAlliedNevadaSecuritiesSettlement.ca. Class members who seek the advice or guidance of their personal lawyers do so at their own expense. This notice has been approved by the Court. Questions about matters in this notice should NOT be directed to the Court. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210501005001/en/

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The vaccine rollout didn't go as well as planned and a great many people aren't too jazzed about getting their shot or skip their second dose.

Accordingly, here's a look at locals who confront the plague and its variants despite taking precautions . . . Read more:
Here's this week's lesson on the benefits of ignoring drama amongst youngsters . . .

"Police said a disagreement between a group of female students started inside the building. The district called the students parents to help deescalate the situation. The district said the argument spilled into the parking lot. It ended with a parent sustaining serious injuries when she was struck by a vehicle allegedly driven by 39-year-old Tyla Jack."

Aftermath . . .



Tyla Jack, 39, is charged in Wyandotte County with two counts of aggravated battery, aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, battery against a law enforcement officer, leaving the scene of an accident involving injury and criminal threat.



A judge set Jack's bond at $40,000.



She was in the Wyandotte County Jail Friday.

Check the links . . .



KMBC: Woman faces several charges after parent hit outside KCK middle school

Fox4: Woman charged after allegedly hitting another parent with car outside KCK school

KSHB: Woman charged after running over parent at Kansas City, Kansas, school

Developing . . .
The Election Commission (EC) moved the Supreme Court on Saturday, challenging the critical observations made by the Madras High Court holding it responsible for a surge in COVID-19 cases in the country, saying the remarks were "uncalled for, blatant and disparaging".

A bench of justices D Y Chandrachud and M R Shah would hear the appeal of the poll panel against the orders of the high court on Monday.

The high court had, on April 26, castigated the EC for the surge in COVID-19 cases during the second wave of the pandemic, holding it "singularly" responsible for the spread of the viral disease, called it the "the most irresponsible institution" and even said its officials may be booked under murder charges.

The poll panel allowing political parties to take out rallies and organise meetings had led to the surge in COVID cases, the court had observed.

The EC's appeal against these remarks was trashed by the division bench of the high court on April 30, leading the poll watchdog to approach the top court.

"We have filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the high court orders," EC's counsel Amit Sharma told PTI.

The EC, in its appeal in the apex court, said the high court's remarks were "uncalled for, blatantly disparaging and derogatory".

The division bench of the high court, on April 26, made the stinging observation on a plea moved by Tamil Nadu's Transport Minister M R Vijayabaskar, who was the AIADMK candidate from Karur in the April 6 Assembly polls, seeking a direction to the authorities concerned to ensure a fair counting of votes on May 2 in his constituency by taking effective steps and ensuring proper arrangements while following the COVID-19 protocols.

Also read: Over 16 crore doses provided to states, UTs free of cost: Centre

Since a total of 77 candidates were in fray in Karur, it would be very difficult to accommodate their agents in the counting hall. It may affect the observance of the protocols, the petitioner had alleged.

When the EC's counsel told the judges that all necessary steps were being taken, the bench shot back, saying by allowing the political parties to take out rallies and organise meetings, it (commission) had paved the way for a resurgence of the deadly virus.

Irked over the submission made by the EC's counsel that all precautionary measures would be taken at the counting centres, the chief justice replied that the poll panel must be "singularly" held responsible for the sudden surge in the number of coronavirus cases in the country.

The bench had even said that EC officials may be booked under murder charges.

"Public health is of paramount importance and it is distressing that constitutional authorities have to be reminded in such regard. It is only when a citizen survives that he will be able to enjoy the rights that a democratic republic guarantees," the bench had said.Also read: Mastercard donates $8.9 million to install 2,000 portable beds in India
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 18:47:25|Editor: huaxia

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An Afghan policeman checks a man at a security checkpoint after Taliban have seized an army base in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, May 1, 2021. Taliban militants have seized an army base in eastern Afghanistan's Ghazni province, a member of the provincial council, Abdul Jamih Jami, said Saturday. The official also said 25 security personnel had gone missing. (Str/Xinhhua)

GHAZNI, Afghanistan, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Taliban militants have seized an army base in eastern Afghanistan's Ghazni province, a member of the provincial council, Abdul Jamih Jami, said Saturday.

"The insurgents captured an army base in Arzo village outside provincial capital Ghazni last night," Jami told Xinhua.

The official also said 25 security personnel had gone missing.

The police and the army have yet to make comments on the situation.

In the meantime, Afghanistan's Acting Defense Minister Mohammad Yasin Zia in talks with reporters described the fallen army base as a "small one," saying they would verify the report.

Taliban militants have launched series of attacks since Friday, the eve of the formal withdrawal of the U.S. forces from Afghanistan.

U.S. President Joe Biden has announced that all U.S. troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan before Sept. 11 to end the longest war in American history.

The upcoming Sept. 11 is the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that drew the United States into war in Afghansitan. Enditem
Here's a quick glimpse at golden ghetto glare and the latest suburbanite effort to save the world.

Read more . . .

A massive solar farm stretching from west of Gardner possibly into Douglas County will, if it comes to fruition, become the biggest in Kansas, a state that has lagged behind in solar energy development.
Across the world there have been violent confrontations with police on this activist holiday that's often overlooked in the United States.



Background for those who don't know or don't want others to know about the origins of the modern "celebration" of the working-class . . .



In 1889, May Day was chosen as the date for International Workers' Day by the Socialists and Communists of the Second International to commemorate the Haymarket affair in Chicago. International Workers' Day is also called "May Day", but it is a different celebration from the traditional May Day.

Even more interestingly . . .



Quite a few locals don't know that there's an vibrant communist community at work in activist circles in Kansas City. Over the years the group has divided into quite a few factions and most of their fighting is with each other.

However, one of them did punch a police horse at the outset of the Prez Trump presidency.

Even more hilariously . . . After the horse punch kerfuffle a bunch of off-duty po-po kept sending TKC trans porn escort service listings which inadvertently revealed they were actively searching trans pr0n. To be fair, we all have our "interests" and this blog will always encourage everyone to let their rainbow colors shine.

But I digress . . .

As of this writing, thankfully, there hasn't been any violent commie protest in KCMO. In fact the Democratic Socialists in Kansas City are taking a very mainstream approach and commemorating May Day by encouraging Prez Biden to move forward on changes to labor law via social media.

Meanwhile, here's a look at how the holiday is playing out around the world . . .

Todays Demands

May Day protesters demand more job protections amid pandemic In countries that mark May 1 as International Labor Day, the annual celebration of workers' rights produced a rare sight during the pandemic: large and closely packed crowds, with marchers striding shoulder-to-shoulder with clenched fists behind banners. In Turkey and the Philippines, police prevented the May Day protests, enforcing virus lockdowns and making hundreds of arrests.

Workers Against COVID

May Day protesters in Paris demand more job protections amid pandemic Workers and union leaders dusted off bullhorns and flags that had stayed furled during coronavirus lockdowns for slimmed down but still boisterous - and at times violent - May Day marches on Saturday. The protesters demanded more labor protections amid a pandemic that has turned economies and workplaces upside down.

Plauge Cancels Cuba Party

Pandemic and economic crisis dampen May Day in Cuba For a second consecutive year Communist-run Cuba canceled its emblematic May Day march though Havana's Plaza de la Revolution Square on Saturday as it battles a surge in COVID-19 cases and a scarcity of basic goods.

Asia Wants Workers Rights

Labour Day rally to protest job creation law Workers in Indonesia marked International Labour Day Saturday with significantly less attended marches due to coronavirus restrictions. (May 1)  2021 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC.

American Labor Policy Push

Biden calls for passage of PRO Act, $15 minimum wage in joint address President Biden Joe Biden Will Seattle officials use the same lawsuit defense they want to take away from police? Taliban warns of attacks on US troops after withdrawal deadline under Trump deal passes Pandemic inspector general blasts DOJ memo, urges Congress to clarify mandate MORE on Wednesday called for the passage of the PRO Act and for a $15 federal minimum wage during his first address before a joint session of Congress.

Paris Is Burning

May Day rallies: Police, protesters clash in Berlin, Paris | DW | 01.05.2021 Protesters in Berlin threw bottles, firecrackers and stones at police during May Day marches in the Neukolln neighborhood of the German capital. According police tallies, 5,000 people took part in the rally, while organizers put the turnout closer to 20,000. Police took several demonstrators into custody.

Political Postscript

Victims of Communism Day-2021 Today is May Day. Since 2007, I have advocated using this date as an international Victims of Communism Day.

Developing . . .
For weekend denizens of the discourse we notice the pr0n companies stepping up their mainstream merch game as we check pop culture, community news and top headlines.

Kansas City Reopen Starts

Businesses open without social distancing requirements in Kansas City, Mo. KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) --- For the first time in over a year, Kansas City's restaurants had the ability to operate at full capacity. On Monday Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas announced the city would no longer require social distancing inside local shops. The Mayor added he hopes this is the last order for the city.

One & Done Redux

One-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine starting again in Kansas City metro INDEPENDENCE, Mo. - For the first time since a pause in its distribution was lifted, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is being offered to people in the metro area Friday. Public health workers believe the "one-and-done" shot may soon become popular again.

Heart Clogger For Charity

The Big Dozier: Hunter Dozier, Zarda Bar-B-Q create new sandwich that's as tasty as it is charitable Zarda Bar-B-Q announced Friday it teamed up with Kansas City Royals star Hunter Dozier to create a one-of-a-kind new sandwich -- The Big Dozier -- that is as tasty as it is charitable.

FORMER PRON STAR CAMPAIGNS ON BAD PUNS!!!

Ex-porn star Mary Carey announces bid for California guv with heavy dose of puns: 'I am ready to be on top' Former porn star and Los Angeles billboard model Mary Carey is making a second run for California's governor adding the element of absurd to the campaign to recall Gov Gavin Newsom. She already has a website ready and even has listed out some of her plans, in a double entendre-laden announcement press release.

Prez Biden Against The World

Biden's first 100 days on the global stage were the easy part LONDON - In just 100 days, President Joe Biden has begun to transform America's image in the eyes of the world, recasting it in a mold of diplomacy and professionalism and undoing some of the brash, unpredictable reputation built by his predecessor. But that's the easy part.

Prez Bush Considers GOP Self-Destruction

Bush: 'Anglo-Saxon' ideals show pro-Trump Republicans 'want to be extinct' Ahead of a special election on Saturday to replace a Texas congressman who died after contracting Covid-19, former president George W Bush said the ascendancy of supporters of Donald Trump suggest Republicans "want to be extinct". The special election is in the sixth district, whose Republican representative, Ron Wright, died in February.

Democratic Party Spoiler Rebukes 51st State

Joe Manchin opposes DC statehood bill in blow to Dem push for more Senate seats West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin on Friday said that he opposes a bill to make Washington, DC, the 51st state - effectively killing a push by fellow Democrats that would all but guarantee them two more seats in the Senate.

GOP Fight Uncle Tim Slur

Texas Dem official faces demands to resign for calling Tim Scott 'an oreo' A Texas Democratic official is facing calls to step down from his role after he called Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., a racial slur. "I had hoped that Scott might show some common sense, but it seems clear he is little more than an oreo with no real principles," Lamar County Democratic Party chair Gary O'Connor wrote in a now-deleted Facebook post, referring to Scott's rebuttal to President Biden's Congressional address on Wednesday.

Reality Show Crisis

What We Know About the Child Pornography Case Against Josh Duggar, Which He Denies The former 19 Kids and Counting star has pleaded not guilty and remains in custody pending a bail hearing The Duggar family was rocked this week when eldest son Josh Duggar was arrested and accused of possessing child pornography two years ago - a crime that could land him in prison for decades, if he is convicted.

COVID Potty Risk Revealed

Flushing a public toilet? Don't linger, because aerosolized droplets do: Study explores flushing power to test risk of COVID-19 transmission Because COVID-19 has been detected in urine and stool samples, public restrooms can be cause for concern. Researchers measured droplets generated from flushing a toilet and a urinal in a public restroom and found a substantial increase in the measured aerosol levels in the ambient environment with the total number of droplets generated in each flushing test ranging up to the tens of thousands.

Celebrate Old School Baller

Former Chiefs center Tim Grunhard to be inducted into Chiefs Hall of Fame KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Former Kansas City Chiefs center Tim Grunhard, will be inducted into the Chiefs Hall of Fame the team announced Saturday. Tim Grunhard played 11 seasons in the NFL, all with the Chiefs! He will be inducted into the Ring of Honor later this year.

Perfect Katie Forecast

Windy, warm Saturday will bring Sunday rain OVER KANSAS CITY, YOU CAN SEE A HALF-MOON IN THE SKY, IT IS BEAUTIFUL. 63 DEGREES RIGHT NOW, SOUTH AND SOUTHWEST WINDS AT 11 MILES AN HOUR.

Billie Eilish - Your Power is the song of the day and this is the OPEN THREAD for right now.
Here's an update about our favorite local contradiction that has good intentions but forgotten all of the research which indicated booze is the WORST thing for people struggling with mental probs.

Read more . . .
Johnstown, PA (15901)

Today

Partly to mostly cloudy skies with scattered thunderstorms mainly in the morning. High 77F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Cloudy skies early with showers later at night. Low around 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
Johnstown, PA (15901)

Today

Partly cloudy with isolated thunderstorms possible. High near 80F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Cloudy skies early, then off and on rain showers overnight. Low 67F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
Terre Haute, IN (47803)

Today

Rain showers in the morning with thunderstorms developing in the afternoon. High 82F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms in the evening, mainly cloudy late with a few showers. Low 69F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 22:58:29|Editor: huaxia

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Zaw Min Tun (L), spokesman for Myanmar military and the State Administration Council (SAC), speaks during an interview with Xinhua in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, on April 28, 2021. A solution to the Myanmar issue can be worked out in the "Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) way," said Zaw Min Tun. (Xinhua/Zhang Dongqiang)

YANGON, May 1 (Xinhua) -- A solution to the Myanmar issue can be worked out in the "Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) way," said Zaw Min Tun, spokesman for Myanmar military and the State Administration Council (SAC), in a recent interview with Xinhua.

Chairman of the SAC and Commander-in-chief of Defense Services Min Aung Hlaing has explained the current situation in Myanmar to ASEAN leaders in person and listened to their opinions, views and suggestions when attending the ASEAN leaders' meeting held in Indonesia's Jakarta on April 24, Zaw Min Tun said.

A five-point consensus was reached by the ASEAN leaders regarding the situation in Myanmar at the meeting, which called for an immediate end to violence in Myanmar and for a constructive dialogue among all parties involved in the fighting, and also suggested appointing a special envoy of the ASEAN Chair to facilitate mediation of the dialogue process.

"ASEAN leaders have great experience in politics in each country and within the region, which we highly respect and value," Zaw Min Tun said, adding that the regional countries' issues can be solved in accordance with the ASEAN Charter in the "ASEAN" way.

Regarding the consensus reached at the meeting, Zaw Min Tun said that constructive suggestions on Myanmar will be given careful consideration, and visits to Myanmar proposed by ASEAN will be considered based on the state stability, since priorities at the moment were to restore peace and stability in the country.

He added that the suggestions, which can facilitate the five-point roadmap laid down by the SAC, in line with the interests of the country and the ASEAN Charter, "ASEAN way" and "ASEAN spirit," will be positively considered.

Relevant work will be carried out by forming technical teams and more details about the process will come out by then, said the spokesman.

He reiterated that the five-point roadmap includes the reform of the Union Election Commission to review the electoral process of last year's general elections, continuation of ongoing preventive measures against COVID-19, recovery of business and achievement of eternal peace across the country.

Meanwhile, he said that Myanmar will pursue the multiparty democracy path, saying that free and fair elections will be held and the state power will be handed over to the winning party after tasks are accomplished, in line with the provisions of the state of emergency, hoping that ASEAN members and neighboring countries including China will have trust in this.

He said Myanmar has good neighbors, highlighting that Myanmar and China enjoy the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership and "Paukphaw" (fraternal) friendship.

Mentioning that China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson made remarks about the ASEAN leaders' special meeting, Zaw Min Tun said it is appreciated that China paid attention to the stability and development of Myanmar and they value and respect China's opinions.

Zaw Min Tun said they would like to see the UN as a global family, hoping the UN Security Council and UN organizations can understand them by reviewing the real situation in Myanmar.

He said Myanmar needs to be careful as a new wave of COVID-19 is hitting some countries, and has already approved the use of vaccines from India, Russia and China.

He said China not only donated medicines and equipment, but also shared the experience by sending medical experts to Myanmar, hoping that Myanmar can receive continuous support from China, which is globally recognized for containment and treatment of COVID-19.

Admitting that there are still violence and bloodshed in the country, Zaw Min Tun said tension has been eased to some extent as the number of protests has declined, and they will continue their efforts in restoring order and stability in Myanmar. Enditem
Canton, GA (30114)

Today

Showers early then scattered thunderstorms developing later in the day. High around 85F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy with showers and a few thunderstorms. Low 69F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 15:56:48|Editor: huaxia

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NICOSIA, April 30 (Xinhua) -- Cyprus has received 436,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines as its 14-day cumulative number of cases per 100,000 persons hit a record high of 1,145.6 on Friday.

The batch delivered in Cyprus on Monday consists of the four vaccines that the European Union (EU) has authorized for emergeney use, the state-run Cyprus News Agency reported, citing a document from the bloc's Committee of Permanent Representatives.

The Ministry of Health said Cyprus' current epidemic situation was disappointing, as case numbers for the two weeks starting April 11 hit a record high of 10,173, and 65.7 percent of them were aged between 20 and 59, while 23.2 percent were minors under the age of 19.

By Wednesday, 259,000 people in Cyprus, or 29.4 percent of the population, have received the first dose, and up to 67,000 people or 9.5 percent have received both doses, said the ministry.

Health ministry spokeswoman Margarita Kyriakou said that 11,000 doses for the 30-40 age group were quickly used up once being offered on Tuesday, and the ministry had to throw in another 3,000 doses by the end of the day.

She said it was an encouraging sign that younger people were eager to receive the jabs, and the vaccination program is expected to pick up speed next week with more doses allocated and more medical practitioners joining in.

The eastern Mediterranean island counts on achieving herd immunity for its 1.18 million population by mid-June, a peak tourist season. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 20:47:08|Editor: huaxia

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Art restorer Roberta Tironzelli restores a damaged 17th-century painting for one of her clients, a Rome art gallery, at her home studio in Rome, Italy on April 21, 2021. " (Xinhua)

ROME, May 1 (Xinhua) -- One way to look at art restoration, according to Roberta Tironzelli, is as a process of making something beautiful that over time has become damaged and obscured and to help it recover its former splendor.

Over an art restoration career lasting more than 30 years, the Rome-based and Umbria-born Tironzelli carried out that process hundreds of times. But she still struggles to identify the qualities at the center of her profession.

"Every art restorer is part artist, part scientist, part art historian, part technician, and part iconographer," the 55-year-old Tironzelli told Xinhua. "You have to understand a work of art the way a doctor understands the human body."

She said that even after years of work, the satisfaction of making progress on a restoration project remains.

"It's a multi-faceted kind of work that requires a diverse set of skills and a great attention to detail," she said. "It's challenging, but I love doing it. I still get a thrill from seeing a work of art come back to life."

Tironzelli's work was confronted by a new set of challenges during the coronavirus pandemic. Italy was hit hard by the pandemic last year and the country is now fighting to emerge from so that life return to the way it was before masks, quarantines, and social distancing became part of every resident's vocabulary -- in that way, the country is not unlike a work of art in the process of being restored.

At first glance, Tironzelli said, things did not change too much for her during the pandemic. Her work has always been solitary, which did not change. But her teenage son spent much of the pandemic home from school, which meant that her responsibilities as a mother and her work had to mix in new ways.

There was also less contact with friends and people she worked with. The economic slowdown sparked by the pandemic also had a negative impact on art galleries and collectors, her main source of work.

All that meant there were fewer commissions, though she said the pandemic only sped up a trend that had already started.

"Compared to when I first started restoring paintings the technology and the materials available have improved," Tironzelli said. "But the downside is that the trends in the art world are moving away from classical art that needs to be restored."

She went on: "There are fewer people who want a work of art that was painted hundreds of years ago hanging in their home," Tironzelli said. "Television and other aspects of popular culture have changed peoples' tastes. More modern styles of art are now in fashion."

Tironzelli predicted the trends would change in the future, noting that history has shown that specific art styles move in and out of fashion in cycles. She said that over time she believes more people will return to admiring the ancient artwork that is part of the foundation of European culture -- and as any Italian resident who looks forward to a return to the pre-pandemic lifestyle can attest, nostalgia is a powerful emotion. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-01 22:59:10|Editor: huaxia

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LONDON, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Five people, including a 16-year-old boy, were arrested Saturday as part of a police investigation into right-wing terrorism in Britain.

The boy was arrested in Swindon, about 130 km west of London, on suspicion of being concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism, according to Sky News.

The other four arrested for the same allegation were a 28-year-old woman and two men, aged 29 and 30, from Keighley in West Yorkshire and a 28-year-old man from Anglesey in Wales.

All five have been taken to a police station in West Yorkshire for questioning.

Following the arrests, bomb disposal experts were called to a property in Keighley after officers discovered "potentially suspicious material", according to the BBC.

A cordon has been put in place around the property and a number of nearby homes have been evacuated, police said.

"We recognize that local people may have concerns as a result of this activity. We would like to reassure them that these arrests are pre-planned and intelligence-led and there is not believed to be any immediate risk to the local community," Counter Terrorism Policing North East said in a statement.

According to the police, a number of properties have been searched in connection with the arrests, which are part of an ongoing investigation into right-wing terrorism. Enditem
If people are required to use quarantine facilities, as they are in many places, then it would be much easier to have them supervised and follow the rules, such as additional testing. There was one post recently from someone from Pakistan having to do mandatory quarantine upon arrival in the UK. It's not something most people would want to do , but he did it with 3 kids.

Australia has instituted fines and jail time for Australians trying to return from India. Might not be necessary to have the jail time (unless someone is found to be a repeat offender) but certainty heavy fines for those not quarantining could be a deterrent. People should have to suffer the consequences of their actions in such situations where public health is being putting at risk. Why should we allow people entry without quarantining and end up undoing the little progress we have made against Covid thru vaccinations?

I'm sure that the quarantine rules were ignored by many (so what's new about that?) but there were many who obeyed them. Having come from NY, I know how things do and do not happen there. Have several friends that traveled to NY during the quarantine period and they obeyed the rules, including getting additional Covid tests. The point is that anything would be better than the current system.
Im hoping someone local can advise if the TUI Alaya hotel is due to open by 20th May 2021.

TUI UK are not forthcoming with any info at present, preferring to wait for UK govt to allocate red/amber/green status to holiday destinations, but I am sure some hotels know they will not be opening soon, and TUI will be aware of this but choosing not to inform customers until last possible minute.

I have tried emailing hotel but got no response so this may indicate it is currently closed.

Thank you in anticipation.
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Adam Shatz in the LRB:

When Edward Said joined the Columbia University English department in 1963, a rumour spread that he was a Jew from Alexandria. He might as well have been. Born in Jerusalem in 1935 to well-off Palestinian Christian parents, he had grown up in the twilight years of multicultural Cairo, where many of his classmates were Egyptian Jews. His piano teacher was Ignace Tiegerman, a Polish Jew who had moved to Cairo in 1931 and founded a French-speaking conservatoire. Saids closest friends at Princeton and Harvard, Arthur Gold, a brilliant Luftmensch prone to tormented idleness, and the future art critic Michael Fried, were Jews. His dissertation and first book were about Joseph Conrads explorations of ambiguity and double identities. As Timothy Brennan writes in Places of Mind, Said was a photo negative of his Jewish counterparts.

Said spent his first years at Columbia as a kind of an Arab Marrano, or crypto Palestinian, among Jewish and Wasp colleagues who were either indifferent or hostile to the Arab struggle with Israel. He published essays in the little magazines of the New York intellectuals, went to cocktail parties with Lionel Trilling and Mary McCarthy, and kept quiet about his identity and his politics. His parents, who were themselves estranged from Palestine (his father said Jerusalem reminded him of death), were relieved that their moody and contentious son was showing such prudence. Thanks to his fathers service in the American Expeditionary Forces during the First World War, Said was an American citizen, and if he was reinventing himself, well, thats what immigrants did in the New World. The Egyptian literary theorist Ihab Hassan had shed his Arab identity when he moved to the US, and had never looked back.

But something in Said rebelled against the concealment and silence that the loss of Palestine had imposed, and that his father, William Said, had accepted, leaving behind not only the familys past in Jerusalem but also his Arab name, Wadie.

More here.
The Health Minister says the vaccination site at the Divali Nagar is not only to be used for the vaccination of those in the manufacturing sector.
Over the past day, April 30, six ceasefire violations by the armed formations of the Russian Federation were recorded in the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) area in eastern Ukraine.

In particular, Russian-occupation forces fired 120mm mortars banned under the Minsk Agreements near Krasnohorivka (21km west of Donetsk); under-barrel grenade launchers and small arms  outside Pisky (11km north-west of Donetsk); grenade machine guns  in the suburbs of Avdiivka (17km north of Donetsk); tripod-mounted man-portable antitank guns and small arms  in the area of Shyrokyne (20km east of Mariupol), the press center of the JFO Headquarters informs.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine suffered no combat losses.

The Ukrainian side of the Joint Control and Coordination Center (JCCC) informed the OSCE representatives about the violations by the armed formations of the Russian Federation.

As of 7 a.m. on May 1, two ceasefire violations by Russian-occupation forces were recorded.

In the area of Novhorodske (35km north of Donetsk), the enemy opened fire from tripod-mounted man-portable antitank guns and grenade machine guns. Near Vodiane (94km south of Donetsk), the Russian-occupation forces used UAVs to drop VOG-17 grenades on the positions of the Ukrainian military, wounding a soldier.

Ukrainian service members continue to control the situation in the Joint Forces Operation area and adhere to the ceasefire, the JFO Headquarters added.

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The co-chairs of subcommittees and working groups of the Joint Multinational Coordinating Committee on Military Cooperation and Defense Reform assured of their unwavering support for Ukraine and its Armed Forces.

On April 30, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Colonel General Ruslan Khomchak, by video conference took part in an extended meeting of the Joint Multinational Coordinating Committee on Military Cooperation and Defense Reform (JMCC) with representatives of the Armed Forces of Canada and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of Poland, the Kingdom of Sweden, the Kingdom of Denmark, the United States of America and the NATO Mission in Ukraine, reads the statement by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine posted on Facebook.

At the beginning of his speech, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine expressed his personal gratitude to the present for their participation in the work of the JMCC.

Despite the current partial withdrawal of some Russian units from the borders of Ukraine to the points of permanent deployment, we do not rule out the repetition of this practice in the future. Moscow is increasingly turning to muscle play and direct blackmail of Ukraine in the absence of other methods of influence. Under such conditions, the highly motivated and combat-ready Armed Forces of Ukraine remain one of the main deterrents to the Kremlin aggressor, Khomchak said.

During the meeting, the co-chairs of all JMCC subcommittees and working groups were heard on the current state of transformation of the relevant military authorities (J (G, A, N) 1 - 9) according to NATO standards.

The meeting participants summarized the activities of the JMCC in recent times and agreed on new tasks for 2021.

The JMCC is not only an effective platform for military cooperation, but also one of the mechanisms for coordinating efforts to achieve interoperability between the Armed Forces of Ukraine and NATO troops, reads the statement.

Moreover, Khomchak stressed several issues during an extended meeting of the JMCC.

It was noted that Ukraine as a state and the Armed Forces of Ukraine as its main defense component are considering their future as part of the North Atlantic Alliance. To achieve this strategic goal, appropriate planning of measures to bring troops and military authorities at all levels in line with the standards and procedures used in NATO's armed forces and in the Alliance's multinational headquarters is carried out, the statement notes.

It was underscored during the meeting that any blackmail or pressure from eastern and northern neighbors is not able to change the strategic course of Ukraine. Moreover, in recent years we have seen a significant increase in the number of supporters among the population of Ukraine of joining the Alliance in all regions of our country without exception. Today, the country has the highest level of public support for NATO membership in recent history, said Colonel-General Ruslan Khomchak.

The second issue on which the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine focused is the training of Ukrainian service members in the current training missions of the United States (JMTG-U), Great Britain (ORBITAL), Canada (UNIFIER) and Lithuania (LMTM-U).

Major General Charles Miller, Co-Chair of the US JMCC, Director of Policy, Strategy, Partnering and Capabilities, U.S. European Command (EUCOM), thanked the Ukrainian side for revealing a national approach to reforming the Ukrainian Armed Forces and expressed its intention to deepen military cooperation in professional military education.

The issues of preparation by involving the forces of the partner countries in the Strategic Command and Staff Exercise of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Joint Endeavour 2021 were also discussed.

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Ukraine has an opportunity to join the North Atlantic Alliance, and to do so it must carry out the necessary reforms to meet NATO requirements and standards.

Biden administration remains to  committed to ensuring that NATOs door remains open to aspirants when theyre ready and able to meet the commitments and obligations, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Reeker said at a briefing on April 30, commenting on Ukraines Euro-Atlantic integration prospects.

According to him, the United States is certainly committed to ensuring that a country like Ukraine can work to meet those standards.

As Reeker noted, Ukraine performs an annual national program that allows to cooperate with NATO and has an enhanced operational partnership status, which also gives a series of opportunities. A lot of that, the U.S. Department representative emphasized, involves Ukraine continuing to implement deep, comprehensive reforms.

Thats part of the necessary effort in building a more stable, democratic, and prosperous and free Ukraine. And so well continue to work with them [Ukraine] in all of those areas, he said.

As reported, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken plans to make a visit to Kyiv on May 5-6 to meet with the senior leadership of the state. Ukraines NATO membership prospect is expected to be one of the topics of talks.

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SIT to probe suicide of housewife after displaying her obscene video 07 Jun 2021 | 12:45 PM Agartala, Jun 7 (UNI) Tripura government has constituted a three-member SIT following direction from the High Court of Tripura to investigate the death of a housewife who was allegedly committed suicide after a kangaroo court in Sabroom of South Tripura insulted her in public a month ago. see more..

JSW Group amalgamates large project divisions of Steel & Cement businesses for enhanced customer experience 07 Jun 2021 | 12:32 PM Kolkata, Jun 07 (UNI) Following the successful integration of its retail trade across Steel & Cement into JSW One in the East, the US$ 12 billion JSW Group and Indias largest steel producer will now have a single group interface for all its Large Project divisions in the Steel and Cement businesses. see more..

Covid toll in Odisha surpasses 3000 mark, 6118 new cases detected in past 24 hours 07 Jun 2021 | 11:53 AM Bhubaneswar, Jun 07 (UNI) Covid fatalities in Odisha today surpassed 3000 marks with 41 covid patients succumbing to the virus in the past 24 hours. see more..

Senior advocates will now need to undergo interaction programme 07 Jun 2021 | 11:51 AM Patna, Jun 06 (UNI) Patna High Court has introduced a new system for screening of aspirant advocates to be designated as senior advocates under which they would be required to undergo an interaction programme. see more..
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Zachary D. Carter in the New York Times:

When Joan Robinson arrived at Cambridge University in 1929, nobody expected her to become one of the most important economists of the 20th century  let alone the 21st. She had spent the past three of her nearly 26 years in India, where she lived without professional responsibilities while her husband, Austin, an economist six years her senior, tutored a child maharajah. When Austin returned to Britain to join the Cambridge economics faculty, Joan, who had studied the subject as an undergraduate, felt her own ambitions kindled. But she had entered an environment hostile to women.

For 40 years, economics at Cambridge had been dominated by Alfred Marshall, whose intellectual achievements were rivaled only by his misogyny. Hed married Mary Paley, the first woman to lecture in economics at the university, and then promptly destroyed her career, pulling her book out of print. Marshall, a frustrated Robinson noted, treated his wife as a housekeeper and a secretary.

But Robinson would avenge her most emphatically. She would go on to devise a new theory that upended Marshalls intellectual legacy, radically altering our understanding of the relationship between competition and labor power. Now those ideological innovations are shaping the revived debate over antitrust reform.

More here.
Piping plovers with leg bandings matching mates Monty, right, and Rose, appear together at Montrose Beach on April 26, 2021, in Chicago. In 2019 they became the first pair to nest successfully in Chicago in decades. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune/TNS)
LANCASTER, CA - APRIL 25: Louis Moore, a 98-year-old Chinese-American WWII veteran, salutes the presentation of the flags by the Quartz Hill Young Marines, before holding a book signing event at the American Legion Post 311 on Sunday, April 25, 2021 in Lancaster, CA. Moore published a book, "Eternal Love," about his 74-year marriage to Nellie, a Japanese-American dancer who had been incarcerated in an American internment camp. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times/TNS)
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Katie Kheriji-Watts in Hyperallergic:

The artist Tania El Khoury has written that she is on a constant quest to find political meaning in the artistic form. Her installations and performances  many of which are collaborative, interactive, and site specific  have focused on a wide range of subjects, including the refugee experience, state violence, and the long history of power outages in her home country of Lebanon. She groups her multifaceted work under the label of live art, which the Live Art Development Agency describes as a framing device (rather than an art form or discipline) for a wide variety of experiences that embody new ways of thinking about what art is, what it can do, and where and how it can be experienced.

In early 2021, El Khoury and her partner, the historian Ziad Abu-Rish, relocated from Beirut to New Yorks Hudson Valley to jointly spearhead a new masters program and the Center for Human Rights and the Arts at Bard College, in collaboration with longtime faculty members Thomas Keenan and Gideon Lester. Since mid-March, the team has premiered their first digital commission, launched a series of virtual talks, and begun actively recruiting its first cohort of international graduate students.

More here.
Cheshire Superior Court Judge David Ruoff will allow the New Hampshire Attorney Generals Office to hire private attorneys to defend the state in the ConVal education funding lawsuit, but he warned the lawyers might have to work for free.
Milledgeville, GA (31061)

Today

Sunshine and clouds mixed. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High around 90F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

A few clouds from time to time. Low 71F. Winds light and variable.
Dear Star: I gave you all I could. Now, I'm ready to close this chapter.
PuleAlam, Afghanistan, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 30th Apr, 2021 ) :At least five people were killed and 60 wounded Friday when a car bomb exploded in a southern Afghan regional capital, officials said, on the eve of the formal start of the US military's withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Officials gave conflicting accounts of casualties from the blast that occurred in Pul-e-Alam, capital of Logar province, in a residential area when people were breaking their dawn-to-dusk fast of the holy month of Ramadan.

"Five dead and 60 wounded people were brought to the provincial hospital," Dastagir Nazari, spokesman to the health ministry, said.

Dedar Lawang, spokesman to the Logar governor, said seven people were killed in the blast, adding the wounded were being taken to Kabul for treatment.

The chief of Logar's provincial council, Hasibullah Stanikzai, said the bomb targeted a guesthouse in the city where dozens of people were living -- including university students.

Interior ministry spokesman Tariq Arian said the blast caused widespread damage in the area, including to a hospital and residential houses.

"The roofs of houses have collapsed and people are trapped under the debris," he told reporters.

"The security forces are trying to rescue those trapped." He said the casualties include university students who were in the guesthouse to take exams, and doctors and patients from the hospital that was damaged by the blast.

The blast comes a day before the US military formally begins to pull out its remaining troops from the violence-wracked country.

US President Joe Biden announced earlier this month that all American troops will leave Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
Kinshasa, May 1 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st May, 2021 ) :The Democratic Republic of Congo announced a "state of siege" late Friday in two provinces in the east of the country wracked by violence from armed groups and civilian massacres.

"Taking into account the gravity of the situation... the president informed the cabinet of his decision to proclaim a state of siege in the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri," said Patrick Muyaya.

He said details of what the measure would entail would be released publicly in the next few hours.

Under DRC's constitution, the president can declare either a state of emergency or a state of siege "if severe circumstances immediately threaten the independence or integrity of the national territory, or if they interrupt the regular functioning of institutions".

On Thursday, President Felix Tshisekedi said he was preparing "radical measures" to deal with the security situation in the east of the country.

That followed the prime minister suggesting on Monday that a state of emergency might be declared in the east, "replacing the civil administration with a military administration".

An estimated 122 armed groups of varying sizes operate in mineral-rich eastern DRC, many a legacy of regional wars in the 1990s.

In Paris on Tuesday, Tshisekedi asked France for help "eradicating" one of them, the Allied Democratic Forces, from the Beni region in North Kivu.

The ADF militia are Ugandan Islamist fighters who have made their base in eastern DRC since 1995.

Branded a militant organisation by Tshisekedi and the United States, the ADF has killed more than 1,200 civilians in the Beni area alone since 2017, according to a monitor called the Kivu Security Tracker (KST).

The army has conducted operations against them in the region since October 2019, but has not been able to put a stop to the massacres of civilians.

On Friday, police and soldiers in Beni used teargas and whips to disperse high-school students protesting that failure.

Several dozen students had been camping outside the town hall over the past week, demanding the departure of the UN peacekeeping force MONUSCO and for Tshisekedi to visit the troubled region.
Jerusalem, May 1 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st May, 2021 ) :Israel was preparing Saturday to bury more victims of a stampede that killed at least 45 people at a Jewish pilgrimage site, one of the nation's worst peacetime disasters.

Most of the victims were ultra-Orthodox Jews and funerals were expected to be held after sunset which ends the Sabbath, the Jewish day of rest and which was declared a national day of mourning for the victims.

Some funerals had already taken place on Friday, just hours after the overnight disaster.

Tens of thousands of people had thronged to Mount Meron and the reputed tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai to mark the Lag BaOmer holiday and commemorate the second-century Talmudic sage's death.

"So far, the bodies of 32 victims of the Meron disaster have been identified," the health ministry said late Friday, adding that 22 bodies had been released for burial.
(@FahadShabbir)

Sindh Agriculture University (SAU) TandoJam has launched a monthly online agricultural journal "Monthly Agriculture Science " and the first issue was inaugurated by the Vice Chancellor Dr. Fateh Marri on Saturday

HYDERABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st May, 2021 ) :Sindh Agriculture University (SAU) TandoJam has launched a monthly online agricultural journal "Monthly Agriculture Science " and the first issue was inaugurated by the Vice Chancellor Dr. Fateh Marri on Saturday.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Fateh Marri said there was an urgent need of scientific magazine like "Monthly Agricultural Science" based on modern agricultural subjects like agricultural research, information technology, livestock, social sciences, crop science and other agriculture related subjects, for technology transfer and awareness of new information to the farmers, scholars and students of the university.

Dr Marri said the magazine would provide guidance to farmers, students, teachers, researchers and agricultural extension workers in the province and the country on new development in agriculture sector.

The magazine would play an important role in imparting knowledge of modern agricultural science to the concerned stakeholders, he hoped and added, although the magazine would cater needs of modern agricultural scientific journals, it would also provide the latest and future needs as standard of readers.

He urged that the magazine should include research articles by teachers and experts and research articles by students of the university, as well as experts who have rendered distinguished services.

The Vice Chancellor appreciated the efforts of Dr. Jan Mohammad Marri, Dean Faculty of Crop Protection as Magazine Patron and Dr. Bhai Khan Solangi, Editor-in- Chief and Prof. Mohammad Mithal Jiskani, Managing Editor of the Magazine and commended them for continuing such services.

On this occasion, Prof. Jan Muhammad Marri and Dr. Bhai Khan Solangi briefed the Vice Chancellor about the magazine.
WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 30th April, 2021) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a phone call to his Algerian counterpart Sabri Boukadoum Thursday praised Algeria's role in stabilizing Libya, the Sahel as well as its willingness to attract American businesses, the State Department said.

"The Secretary expressed his appreciation for Algeria's role in fostering stability in the Sahel and Libya. The Secretary commended Algeria's economic and energy diversification efforts and its desire to attract more US businesses to Algeria," the statement said.

The State Department added that Blinken and Boukadoum discussed further strengthening of the bilateral relationship and explored opportunities for cooperation in promoting economic prosperity and regional stability in Africa.
(@FahadShabbir)

A plane carrying doses of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine lands in Mongolia, the drug's official Twitter account announced on Saturday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st May, 2021) A plane carrying doses of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine lands in Mongolia, the drug's official Twitter account announced on Saturday.

"Sputnik V arrives in Mongolia today," the post reads.

Mongolia's Health Ministry registered Sputnik V through an accelerated procedure in February this year.

In April, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Mongolian counterpart, Khaltmaagiin Battulga, pledged to strengthen cooperation between the two countries on fighting the pandemic.

Earlier in the day, the first batches of the Russian vaccine were delivered to India and the Philippines. Currently, Sputnik V is approved in 64 countries with the total population of 3.2 billion people, becoming the second top vaccine in terms of approvals across the world.
(@FahadShabbir)

The premier of the Canadian province of Ontario has asked the federal government to suspend the arrival of international students in the province and the request will be formalized later in the day, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday

TORONTO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 30th April, 2021) The premier of the Canadian province of Ontario has asked the Federal government to suspend the arrival of international students in the province and the request will be formalized later in the day, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday.

"Premier [Doug] Ford asked that we suspend the arrival of international students," Trudeau told reporters. "We'll be reaching out to their officials today to formalize that request."
(@FahadShabbir)

The Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom has offered Paraguay cooperation in atomic energy, including the construction of a nuclear research center, Russian Ambassador in Asuncion Alexander Pisarev told Sputnik

BUENOS AIRES (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 30th April, 2021) The Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom has offered Paraguay cooperation in atomic energy, including the construction of a nuclear research center, Russian Ambassador in Asuncion Alexander Pisarev told Sputnik.

"There are good prospects for cooperation with the Rosatom corporation. In late March, a Rosatom delegation visited Paraguay, where they discussed the documents required to launch the cooperation. The Russian state corporation has several proposals, one of them is the construction of the Center for Nuclear Science and Technology," Pisarev said, adding that a similar project was already being implemented in neighboring Bolivia.

The diplomat noted that Paraguay was also interested in Rosatom's other technologies, including food irradiation.

A Rosatom subsidiary and the Bolivian Nuclear Energy Agency signed a contract in 2017 to build a nuclear research and technology center in Bolivia's El Alto. The construction was put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic, but the facility is expected to be launched in 2023 as scheduled. It is set to become the world's most alpine research center. With a cyclotron accelerator and multipurpose irradiation center, the compound will accommodate research for agriculture and medicine.
UN Special Envoy for Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener on Friday updated in detail the members of the UN Security Council on the context of her recent engagements with senior officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Myanmar military regarding the current situation in the country

UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 30th April, 2021) UN Special Envoy for Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener on Friday updated in detail the members of the UN Security Council on the context of her recent engagements with senior officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Myanmar military regarding the current situation in the country.

Earlier on Friday, the UN Security Council met behind closed doors to discuss the political turmoil and human rights violation following the military coup on February 1 in Myanmar.

"This was part of an interactive discussion, so we're not able to tell you any in any detail what Christine Schraner Burgener had to say," United Nations spokesperson Farhan Haq said when asked to share the details of the special envoy's briefing before the UN Security Council.

"You are aware that she met with the head of the Tatmadaw [armed forces of Myanmar], she met with different foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, so of course she's providing a more in-depth discussion with the Security Council members about the sort of work she's taken," Haq said.

In early April, Schraner Burgener traveled to Bangkok after the Tatmadaw did not grant her access to visit Myanmar. The special envoy then traveled to Jakarta, where she met senior ASEAN officials and Myanmar's Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing.

The United Nations spokesman said Schraner Burgener also discussed at the UN Security Council the organization's priorities in Myanmar, including the release of all political prisoners and ensuring the improvement of the human rights situation.
WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st May, 2021) The US Transportation Security Administration said on Friday that it has extended the face mask mandate for public transportation until September 13.

"The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is extending the face mask requirement for individuals across all transportation networks throughout the United States, including at airports, onboard commercial aircraft, on over-the-road buses, and on commuter bus and rail systems through September 13," the release said.

The release also underscored that in spite of the new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines for fully vaccinated people announced in April, CDC still requires all individuals to wear a face mask during public transportation.

TSA introduced the mask mandate on February 1, requiring individuals to wear a face mask at TSA airport screening checkpoints and throughout the commercial and public transportation systems, that was set to expire on May 11.

On January 31, the agency also recommended to impose fines on individuals who violate the face mask requirement ranging from $250 for the first offense up to $1500 for repeat offenders.
Pope Francis sends a video message to Madagascar to mark the consecration of the new Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph in Miandrivazo.

By Devin Watkins

The Church in the island nation of Madagascar is celebrating on Saturday, as the Diocese of Morondava gets a new Co-Cathedral in the town of Miandrivazo.

The local Bishop blessed the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph on 1 May, the same day the universal Church celebrates the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker.

Pope Francis took the opportunity to join the faithful of Madagascar through a video message sent to mark the event.

I congratulate you for this work that you are doing, he said, and I congratulate you for all the educational, social, and religious work you are doing.

Project to promote local farmers

The Pope expressed special appreciation for a diocesan project to build a water canal to provide irrigation water for local crops.

The canal is over 50 kilometers long, and will provide water to irrigate more than 2,000 hectares of rice paddies.

Pope Francis concluded his video message by blessing the project and the new Cathedral in Miandrivazo.

I ask St. Joseph the protect you, he said. I join all of you in blessing this new Cathedral. May God bless you!

Interior of the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph

Cathedral dedicated to St. Joseph

Saturdays celebration was presided over by Bishop Marie Fabien Raharilamboniaina, who spoke to Vatican News about the way the local community joined forces to build the Co-Cathedral.

He thanked the Pope for his fatherly gaze despite the physical distance.

With his heart, he sees what happens thousands of kilometers away and is invisible to most eyes, said the Bishop. This Co-Cathedralwhich was built by 200 poor stonemasons, both men and womenwill allow the people to feel closer to God.

He said the project was only possible because of Pope Francis Apostolic Visit to Madagascar in September 2019.

That event, said the Bishop, inspired one woman and her family to donate funds to build a health clinic and the Co-Cathedral blessed on Saturday.

Her brother had left her an inheritance, said Bishop Raharilamboniaina. His name was Joseph. And the Pope has dedicated this year to St. Joseph. The neighborhood where this Co-Cathedral was built has St. Joseph as its patron.

The Bishop-emeritus of the Diocese of Morondava is also named Joseph, who will turn 90 in June. All these circumstances show us the will of God, said the Bishop.

Welcoming the Gospel

Miandrivazo lies around 300 kilometers from the diocesan seat in Morondava. The Bishop said this physical distance made the local people feel distant from the Church.

Then, five years ago, the Bishop called a diocesan synod, during which the people of Miandrivazo requested a greater presence from the diocese.

Interior of the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph

The area is made up of 80 percent of people who follow ancestral religions and 15 percent of Catholics. Yet, the animists are very open to the Gospel, said Bishop Raharilamboniaina.

After the diocesan synod, he invited various religious orders to engage in mission in the area, with a host of congregations answering the call. These included Missionaries of La Salette, Jesuits, Montfortians, Trinitarian Fathers, Sisters of Jeanne Delanoue, Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Salesian Sisters, Teresian Carmelite Missionary Sisters, Sisters of the Sacred Heart, Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, Carmelite Fathers, Cistercian monks, Orionini Fathers, and Brothers of the Sacred Heart, besides diocesan priests.

Lively communities of faith

They responded generously to the Popes appeal to go to the peripheries, said the Bishop. Their presence allows us to be near to these people and to strive forward in evangelizing.

He added that there are more than 50 new Christian base communities in various villages, and only a few days ago the Bishop baptized 200 people during Mass.

In these villages, many people have told us that they had been waiting for us for a long time, he said.

Bishop Raharilamboniaina noted that the ongoing pandemic means the celebration was marked with a limited number of the faithful.

This reminds us of the life of St. Joseph and Mary: the Child Jesus was born in a place on the peripheries and very few people went to see Him, he said. Despite the absence of huge crowds, the grace of God is present.
Rescued migrants arrive the naval base in the Libyan Capital, Tripoli (AFP or licensors)

The United Nations Childrens Fund highlights the dangerous plight of migrants, including children, attempting to reach Europe via the Mediterranean. This week alone, 125 children were among those rescued at sea off the coast of Libya.

By Vatican News staff writer

According to UNICEF, the Central Mediterranean continues to be one of the deadliest and most dangerous migration routes in the world.

Since the beginning of the year, at least 350 people, including children and women, have drowned or gone missing while trying to reach Europe, including 130 last week, UNICEF said in a statement on Friday.

This week, another 125 children  114 of them unaccompanied, were rescued at sea off the coast of Libya.

Despite these dangers, compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, refugee and migrant children continue to risk their lives in search of safety and better life, UNICEF said, expressing concern that attempts to cross the sea route are likely to increase during the summer months.

Appeal against immigration detention

UNICEF highlighted that the majority of the rescued children, fleeing situations of conflict, war and poverty, have been sent to overcrowded detention centres in Libya under extremely difficult conditions and with no or limited access to water and health services. Currently, nearly 1100 children are in these centres, the statement noted.

On this issue, UNICEF urged Libyan authorities to release all children and to put an end to immigration detention. It also called on authorities in Europe on the Central Mediterranean to receive and support migrants and refugees coming to their shores, and to strengthen search and rescue efforts.

Libya has 51,828 migrant children and an estimated 14,572 refugee children; most are unable to access services and are vulnerable to exploitation and abuse within the country. UNICEF pointed out.

Worse still, those in detention are cut off from clean water, electricity, education, health care and adequate sanitation facilities. Violence and exploitation are rampant.

UNICEF therefore reiterates its commitment to support all governments across the Central Mediterranean to find safer alternatives to sea crossing, develop and implement child-sensitive arrival procedure, reception and care facilities and long-term solutions for children attempting to cross the sea.

The detention of children in migration contexts is never in the best interest of children, UNICEF insists.
For twenty years now, an Anglo-Egyptian foundation has been working to preserve and restore one of the most prestigious collections of ancient manuscripts, which contain Christian texts of exceptional historical value that were secretly preserved for centuries.

By Jean Charles Putzolu

It is one of the oldest monasteries known to the modern world. Deir al-Surian was founded in the 6th century A.D., although this is only a hypothesis common to several researchers.

In fact, St. Mary Deipara is one of the four monasteries that survived from among the six hundred or so that existed at the time, built between the third and sixth centuries.

Over the years, Deir al-Surian, located in the Nitrie desert, near Alexandria, in Lower Egypt, has been occupied by several monastic communities coming from the Levant and Ethiopia, but especially from Syria.

View of the Deir al-Surian monastery (photo: Angelica Tarnowska)

Three Syrian monks, Matthew, Abraham and Theodore, were responsible for establishing the first library of Christian manuscripts in the 9th century. In the 10th century, it was enriched with two hundred and fifty manuscripts that the then-abbot, Moses of Nisibis, had brought back from a five-year journey to Baghdad.



Since then, the Deir al-Surian monastery has contained the oldest Christian writings in Coptic, Syriac, Arabic and Ethiopian. The library also houses the works of early church Fathers, such as St. John Chrysostom and Gregory of Nyssa.

Exceptional unique manuscripts, long kept secret, even though in the 18th and 19th centuries some works were taken away by travelers and are now divided between the Vatican Libraryoffered to Pope Clement XIand the British Library.

To stop the hemorrhaging, the monks of Deir al-Surian closed and sealed their library. It was ignored by the world for more than a century, until restoration work in the 1990s.

Manuscripts preserved in the Vatican Library

Manuscript fragments under the floor

The monasterys librarian, Abouna Bigoul, went to the "keep", the square and fortified tower of the monastery, and discovered fragments of manuscripts under a floor that was collapsing during the renovation work. Some of these fragments are in a sorry state after having spent centuries under the monks feet.

Abouna Bigoul is a librarian, so he knows the value of the volumes in the monastery's collection. Yet, he is not an expert and cannot restore these ancient pages and the precious texts they contain, which must absolutely be preserved from extinction.

So, the Orthodox priest wrote to Elisabeth Sobczynski, a curator in London: Madam, we have discovered fragments of very ancient manuscripts in the rubble of a secret room whose floor has collapsed. The researchers working on the frescoes in our church gave me your name. Would you like to come and help us? I am only the librarian. I lack the expertise to know what to do.

Elizabeth read and re-read this message, surprised that the recipient's choice was her. She flew to Egypt and met the librarian in his desert monastery.

Conservation operation on a manuscript (photo: Angelica Tarnowska)

However, the monastic council was at first suspicious. Elisabeth waited patiently for several days without seeing a single book, until the librarian presented her with a huge set of keys on the fifth day.



Together, they walked to the library door. Abouna Bigoul broke the seal, the door opened, not without moving a cloud of dust, and Elisabeth discovered a long-hidden treasure: It was a unique moment in my life," she will say later: "an emotion without equal."

One thousand two hundred volumes were displayed before her unbelieving eyes. One fragment certainly attracted her attention in 2005; carrying a date: "November 411".

It fit perfectly on the last page of a volume that had been taken to the British Library, a precious manuscript that contains Syriac texts from Greek antiquity. This last page reports a list of names of Christians persecuted and killed by a Persian king. This list was written on the indication of the Syriac Bishop Marutha, to honor the memory of the martyrs.

At the bottom of the page, on the fragment found at Deir al-Surian, he wrote his name and the date. This inscription makes this page the oldest accurately dated Christian text.

There are dozens of similar anecdotes to tell. The discovery of the manuscripts is in itself quite a story. What they contain tells our story. Everything must be done to save them.

Highlights Video: Documentary on Deir al-Surian Watch the full documentary on the Deir al-Surian Scrolls, made by The Levantine Foundation

The Levantine Foundation

Elisabeth Sobczynski has been spell-bound by the ancient collection. Yet, her means are limited. On her own, she can only feed her passion and curiosity. However, she would like this priceless literary and Christian heritage to be transmitted to future generations.

She finds it unthinkable to let one of the two oldest complete texts of the Gospel of John translated into the Coptic language still existing today to wither away.

In order to carry out a conservation campaign and train others in preservation techniques, it would be essential to raise funds. Elisabeth created The Levantine Foundation, and won the support of Britains Prince Charles. With donors expressing interest, the campaign got off to a running start.

The new library of Deir al-Surian (photo: Angelica Tarnowska)

To date, 130 manuscripts and 300 fragments have been carefully preserved, thanks in particular to the generosity of the British Council and the UK Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, which has supported The Levantine Foundation over the past two years and enabled the conservation of 22 Codexes.



Even if not all the works require heavy preservation, hundreds of others will have to pass through the expert hands of the team of curators involved in the adventure.

Due of the pandemic, fundraising campaigns were suspended last year. They should resume in 2022. Elisabeth will have to reactivate donors to fund the next campaigns, and she says the pandemic will not stop her.

Elisabeth Sobczynski and the monastery librarian (photo: Angelica Tarnowska)

For future generations



One of the commitments made this year concerns the younger generations, and seeks to help them understand how history has reached us.

The Levantine Foundation has launched an educational program entitled "The Wonders of Writing", which explores the history of the making of ancient books or Codex.

The Foundation has produced a video, which can be viewed in full in English and Arabic, made for children ages 9 to 11. It is meant to serve as a resource for elementary school teachers in Egypt and elsewhere, and for those who run educational programs in museums and libraries.

The foundation aims to raise awareness of the historical importance of writing and to show the making of a simple notebook, using Coptic bookbinding techniques which served as the basis for bookmaking as early as the 1st century AD.
ShopBack Vietnam debuted in Vietnam in August

Truc Nguyen, country manager of ShopBack Vietnam said that the startup unveiled its beta launch in Vietnam in late 2019 and made an official debut last August. It has continuosly improved the app and invested $15 million in the local market. To date, VND22 billion($956,520) in cashback has been given out to ShopBack users in Vietnam.

"Depending on the market conditions, user demand, and readiness of our technical and product partners, we will expand our offerings and raise more investment to make cashback a new shopping habit in Vietnam," she said.

ShopBack is backed by e-commerce group Rakuten Group Inc., one of the better-known companies that dole out cash-back rewards for online purchases. Other investors into the startup are EV Growth, Temasek Holdings, and Credit Saison, among others. ShopBack has raised a total funding of $134 million since 2014.

The increasing number of internet users, rising internet penetration, and steady increase of the e-commerce share of total retail sales in Vietnam makes it a core and high-potential market for ShopBack. Vietnam presents a tremendous opportunity for the startup to grow and succeed in the digital space, with large marketplaces such as Shopee, Lazada, Tiki, and Sendo  all of whom are its merchant partners  experiencing record-breaking growth in the past years.

The country manager said that it will focus on increasing the number of partners and clients in the next 2-3 years. With the current growth trajectory, ShopBack is likely to reach 2 million users in Vietnam.

In line of booming e-commerce demand, Vietnam has welcomed more online cashback platforms such as Finhay, Cashbag, Catback, and ShopBack. However, there are aslo some fraud cashback scams that customers need to be aware like consumer rewards app MyAladdinz. There is a key difference between legitimate players from fraudulent ones, which are operated like multi-level platforms. They require shoppers to submit money to the apps to receive rewards, after a short time they will shut down and steal all users' money.
Many local exporters specialised in veneer products have been suspected of falsifying prices to reduce export tax.

According to the document, the branch has received plenty of feedback about massive export volumes of these items to China since last October. With the growing cost of materials, many local exporters have been suspect of falsifying prices to reduce export tax.

According to VIFOREST, the export turnover of veneer products in the first three months of this year was about $36.11 million, up 197 per cent on-year. China is the largest export market contributing 90 per cent of the total value, equalling to $32.61 million.

The current tax rate of the products is 10 per cent. Intentionally declaring false expenses will reduce the national budget and also cause a serious shortage of veneer products in the local market [due to high exports volumes], noted the document.

The Vietnamese Plywood Branch stated that the cost of veneer materials increased by 10 per cent on-year this year. The price in the northern provinces of Bac Giang, Lang Son, Phu Tho, Yen Bai, Tuyen Quang is about VND3.2-3.75 million ($139.13-163) per cubic metre, while it is about VND4.6-4.8 million ($200-208.70) per cu.m in the southern provinces of Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc, and Dong Nai.

Most local exporters are commercial companies. However, when they fill out export dossiers, they usually declare themselves as veneer processing businesses who directly buy timber products from farmers to avoid value-added tax payments.

Therefore, the Vietnamese Plywood Branch recommended VIFOREST and the MoF to set the minimum price for export articles at around $160 per cu.m for wood-based products and $200 per cu.m for rubber-based products. In addition, the branch also proposed raising the export tax rate for veneer items to 25 per cent, equivalent to the rate for wood-chip items.
Human rights groups in Zimbabwe say the government has frequently violated peoples basic rights since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The groups presented their findings at a partially virtual meeting with officials in the capital Thursday.

At the meeting, rights groups presented a report they call "The Impact of COVID-19 on Socio-Economic Rights. The report chronicles how Zimbabwes government has violated human rights since COVID-19 lockdowns started in March 2020.

Calvin Fambirai, executive director of Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights, was one of the speakers. He said the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the gap in medical care between the haves and have-nots in the country.

The haves were able to secure that equipment and the bedding facilities in private hospitals whose pricing was far beyond the majority of poor Zimbabweans. The right to health is also another component that relates to torture and inhumane and degrading treatment, said Fambirai.

On a number of occasions, Zimbabwes doctors and nurses have gone on strike, demanding adequate protective equipment and decent salaries during the coronavirus pandemic.

Naome Chakanya, a researcher at the Labor and Economic Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe, said the government must increase salaries of all its employees to motivate them.

If the government is not doing a good service in terms of providing living wages, it is also increasing its own burden in terms of filling the gap of decent work deficit by providing social protection. So, it is in the best interest of the government to ensure that the majority of workers in the public sector enjoy decent work, said Chakanya.

The government pleaded bankruptcy whenever its workers asked for a review of its salaries. An average civil servant in Zimbabwe earns less than $200 per month. The workers salaries increased to at least $500 per month to climb above the poverty line.

Also Thursday, Sibongile Mauye of the Zimbabwe Gender Commission said cases of teenage pregnancies have increased because children are not going to school and are restricted to their homes.

We are worried about this, and we are working with other partners to ensure there is targeted support for girls who are mostly affected. Because we have seen that a number of girls have been inducted into child prostitution  because of poverty in the urban areas. That is a dent on gender equality, because these girls will never be able to rise to be leaders, even in the public and private space, said Mauye.

Rights groups in Zimbabwe have previously accused the government of taking advantage of COVID-19 restrictions to stifle citizens' rights.

A number of activists were arrested on charges of flouting lockdown regulations after they protested against the governments failure to provide for those affected by the lockdowns.

Erick Mukutiri, secretary of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission, said his organization was aware of the complaints raised by rights groups during the lockdown.

I must say from our point of view as a commission, based on the assessment that we also carried out, as well as the feedback we have been receiving from our stakeholders, including complaints on human rights violations that we received, I can confirm that the findings (in the report) are credible, he said.

Mukutiri promised no action Thursday, saying the commission is monitoring the situation.

Zimbabwe has 38,191 confirmed coronavirus infections and 1,565 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University, which tracks the global outbreak.
Morristown, VT (05661)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms this morning, then partly cloudy during the afternoon hours. High 82F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Some clouds. Low around 50F. Winds light and variable.
Photo: From left: Bruce Mcbroom/Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock, Courtesy of Amazon Prime, Moviestore/Shutterstock

In the early 1980s, Tom Clancy was working for his familys insurance company when he had an idea for a novel about a rogue submarine commander. More than anything else, Im a technology freak, he once said. And the best stuff is in the military. In his downtime, he wrote The Hunt for Red October, which would launch his blockbuster career.

Soon, Hollywood came calling, turning his action-thrillers into event movies. Clancy, who died in 2013 at the age of 66, was a self-styled red-blooded American  he loved Reagan  so its no wonder his plots became excellent supports for pro-U.S. tentpoles in which rock-solid movie stars like Harrison Ford keep us safe from foreign threats.

Clancys books made for perfect Cold War fodder, which may partly explain why movies based on his work cant help but feel anachronistic post-9/11. (Ironically, the biggest Clancy hit in years was the small-screen Jack Ryan, which transplanted the hero into our War on Terror era.) With Tom Clancys Without Remorse about to arrive on Amazon Prime, we think its a good time to look back through the highlights of the authors film oeuvre. Not surprisingly, we discovered this franchises heyday happened decades ago. In the 1990s, though, Jack Ryan was bigger than James Bond.

6. Tom Clancys Without Remorse (2021)

Amazon had success bringing Clancys most famous hero, Jack Ryan, into the 21st century in its series starring John Krasinski, so why not try the same with the authors other most notable character? Michael B. Jordan plays John Kelly (spoiler for Clancy fans: That wont be the name he ends the movie with), a fearless Navy SEAL who is nearly killed during a nighttime assassination attempt that leaves his pregnant wife dead. His journey to discover who was behind the operation will send him to Russia, but Without Remorse fails to offer much thats new to the well-trod world of guns-blazing political thrillers. As youd expect from a Clancy actioner, the film has a gung-ho militaristic spirit  sure, the story has some shady government operatives, but the U.S. armed forces are undeniably the good guys. Whats shocking about Without Remorse, though, is how it dulls Jordans star wattage. The live-wire spark he usually brings to his work is nowhere in evidence here. Its understandable why A-list actors would want to attach themselves to a franchise, but why did Jordan have to pick one thats so generic?

5. The Sum of All Fears (2002)

Much was made at the time of its release about The Sum of All Fears (which begins with a nuclear bomb blowing up most of Baltimore) coming out too soon after the events of 9/11, even though the film changed the villains in Clancys novel from Arab terrorists to Eastern Bloc neo-Nazis. (The movie actually finished filming in June 2001.) Today, The Sum of All Fears is mostly just a generic, watered-down thriller, one that Ben Affleck, playing a younger version of Ryan, cant quite fill out. Hes earnest and patriotic, but this was still the Pearl Harbor version of Affleck: an empty suit who is very clearly not Harrison Ford or Alec Baldwin. All that said, the movie was a huge hit, and Affleck was set up to play Ryan again. He decided to do Gigli instead.

Oh, and that terrorist-attack scene maybe was a little too soon after 9/11.

4. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)

For what its worth, Chris Pine is a perfectly acceptable Ryan  and would have been more than an adequate anchor for this franchise had this movie not been too dull and uninspired to spark one. Shadow Recruit isnt based on a Clancy novel, and you can sort of tell: It feels like an amalgam of several Clancy-esque and Clancy-adjacent thrillers without anything in particular to say on its own. Kenneth Branagh tries to give it some muscular direction but makes the critical mistake of casting himself as the Russian heavy, whos like a worse workshop version of his already over-the-top villain in Tenet. Were glad Pine ended up having better things to do with his time.

3. Patriot Games (1992)

The big controversy about Patriot Games when it came out was that Alec Baldwin had been pushed out of the Ryan role for the more bankable, reliable Harrison Ford, and whether or not thats true, it is undeniable that when you close your eyes and think of Jack Ryan, Ford is the person whose face comes to mind. (You can see this even in other actors portrayals of Ryan: Theyre all going after that all-American-ism that Ford pulls off so effortlessly.) This is the worse of the two Ford-as-Ryan movies, and its no wonder Clancy publicly renounced the film before it was released. Now it plays as a replacement-level Harrison Ford 90s movie, in the middle of a bunch of better (The Fugitive, Air Force One) and worse (The Devils Own, Six Days Seven Nights) Ford movies. Still: Something about having Ford as your lead always makes you feel as though youll get your moneys worth, and as silly as this movie often is, you ultimately do.

2. Clear and Present Danger (1994)

Clancy was back onboard with this Ford sequel, in which Ryan fights so hard for the American way of life that he ends up battling the president of the United States himself. Clear and Present Danger feels like the platonic ideal of a 24 episode, in which Jack Ryan/Jack Bauer is the sole person who can be trusted to do the right thing, even when his entire government is standing against him. This is Ford at his best  determined, resilient, and appropriately outraged by corruption  and he has an appropriate villain in Donald Moffats President Bennett with Henry Czerny and Harris Yulin as his minions. (The film also features a very fun performance by Willem Dafoe as the man Jordan plays in Without Remorse.) A great 90s thriller: taut, fast, a little but not too ridiculous, and suspicious of everybody and everything. The only person you can trust is Ryan, which is why Ford is perfect.

1. The Hunt for Red October (1990)

The last of the great Cold War thrillers, John McTiernans impeccable submarine drama has less action than any other Clancy adaptation, yet its easily the most riveting of the bunch. Part of that has to do with the cast: Of course, Alec Baldwin and Sean Connery are terrific as, respectively, the ambitious young Ryan and the weathered old captain Marko Ramius, but even the small parts are brought to life by a Murderers Row of excellent character actors. (Scott Glenn! James Earl Jones! Sam Neill! Stellan Skarsgard! Tim Curry!) Then theres the plot, which has a level of craft that studio pictures rarely possess. Its not simply that the chess match going on between the U.S., the Soviet Union, and Ramius is scintillating; its that screenwriters Larry Ferguson and Donald E. Stewart bring enough emotional shading to the central players that we actually care what happens to them. Also, dont forget that The Hunt for Red October is surprisingly quotable. One ping only, please. I would like to have seen Montana. Most things in here dont react too well to bullets. Welcome to the New World, Captain. People went to Tom Clancy movies for their tech and their military milieu, but this is the only one of the bunch to possess impeccable artistry and soul.

Grierson & Leitch write about the movies regularly and host a podcast on film. Follow them on Twitter or visit their site.
UPDATE: Jermy Bishop is facing several charges after a multi-county chase. Charges include resisiting arrest, driving while his license was suspended, and 3rd degree domestic violence reckless endangerment to name a few.

New Hope Police say they tried to pull Bishop over for not having a brake light at around 7:53. The cahse lasted about 20 minutes before ending in Guntersville.

---

One person is in custody after a chase Friday night.

The Guntersville Police Department said New Hope police were chasing the suspect and they assisted.

Guntersville police used spikes to stop the suspects car outside the Mapco on Highway 431 by the airport.

New Hope police took the suspect into custody.

We are working to learn more.
Decatur, IL (62521)

Today

Showers in the morning with isolated thunderstorms in the afternoon. High near 85F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy. Low 69F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph.
Washington, IN (47501)

Today

Rain showers in the morning with numerous thunderstorms developing in the afternoon. High 81F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

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Kulkarni warned in late October that mental health services were being absolutely flooded by record numbers of women experiencing anxiety and depression and says the increased mental burden has manifested as ongoing anxiety. I optimistically thought when isolation and lockdown finished we would see an improvement in mental health, in fact we are still getting a lot of referrals and seeing women not yet back to pre-COVID normal functioning, she says, adding that mental health issues often surface after a major crisis is largely resolved, as the pandemic appears to have been here. Psychiatrist Professor Jayashri Kulkarni says referrals of women suffering from mental health issues post-2020 are still coming. Credit:Penny Stephens Were seeing the ramifications of lockdowns, a number of women are struggling with substance abuse, particularly alcohol. During lockdown there was a lot of anxiety and some self-medicated with increasing alcohol use, so now there are physical as well mental health issues to be dealt with. Research last year by the Australian National University and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, found that 22.8 per cent of women reported an increase in drinking since the start of COVID-19, and 17.9 per cent of men reported an increase and there was a correlation between womens increased drinking and extra childcare work.

While other 2020 studies showed many fathers spent more time than usual on family duties, especially childcare (and some said they enjoyed that so much they intended to continue), research consistently found women shouldered most of the extra unpaid workload, contributing to what appears to be a burden of burnout. Felmingham says trying to manage work expectations while also carrying most of homeschooling and increased household work  as several prominent studies found women did even in dual-income households  plus worry about financial stress and potential loss of employment upped womens anxiety and depression. I have two masters degrees yet somehow I am now doing it all. How did this happen? Respondent to Professor Lyn Craigs study, Coronavirus Domestic Labour and Care Even if men were working at home they still werent overseeing the majority of the homeschooling or carrying the mental load. Effectively it doubled womens workload and increased their stress levels, she said. The fact colleagues without childcare responsibilities could increase their productivity due to fewer distractions and less commuting also contributed to anxiety for those who were struggling and felt they couldnt acknowledge that, and theres that overhanging fear, Felmingham says.

In one study headed by Melbourne University sociology professor Lyn Craig, the extent of exasperation experienced by some women was clear. Comments in her paper Coronavirus Domestic Labour and Care: Gendered Roles Locked Down included: I am angry, I am disillusioned, I am depressed ... the feminist cause has been set back 10 years by this pandemic and the conditioning of our society (both for males and females) makes it blatantly obvious that gender equality is far from a reality. Loading Others included: I have two masters degrees yet somehow I am now doing it all. How did this happen?, and how can we have come so far only for it to matter so little when the chips are down? Sydney University Associate Professor Elizabeth Hill, co-convener of the Australian Work and Family Policy Roundtable, says even before the pandemic many working mothers were under serious, consistent stress due to taking on the lions share at home even if they were the breadwinner, thanks to the sticky nature of gender roles in Australian society.

A lot of those comments [in Sutherlands research] align very clearly with the pre-COVID experience of Australian women. Many were having difficulty reconciling work and care, its a dominant story: many were already clearly identifying they were struggling to manage and that our policy settings and workplace policies were inadequate, she said. A lot of working mothers are feeling exhausted, anxious, unsure and theyre rethinking how theyre going to do this. Associate Professor Elizabeth Hill, co-convener of the Work and Family Policy Roundtable Thats the starting point; extreme forms of stress around managing ... and then we have a crisis which led to job loss fear, economic insecurity and changes to working hours, rapid escalation of unpaid care and work that needed to be done. Its no wonder now were on the other side of the peak that mothers are feeling a level of exhaustion. Something already very hard became harder. Sutherlands poll aligned with global meta-analyses that demonstrate there is a long tail to the impact on gender quality from financial crises. Weve got good data [on the impact on working mothers of COVID] from Lyn Craig and Leah Ruppanner, its unsurprising that a few months on when things are beginning to kind of settle down a lot of working mothers are feeling exhausted, anxious, unsure and theyre rethinking how theyre going to do this.

The tail reflects global data which says the impact of economic crisis on gender inequality goes on for many years after the immediate crisis has ended. Hopefully were going to see things in next weeks [federal] budget, but policy makers need to be thinking about the impact into the next year or two and monitoring how that crisis is playing out in the labour market for Australian women. Shivani Gopal, CEO of the mentoring network The Remarkable Woman, says women in her 300,000-strong network are talking about being overwhelmed. Businesswoman Shivani Gopal, whose platform The Remarkable Woman supported Ms Sutherlands project, said distrust from some employers eroded womens mental health when it was already under pressure. Members of her 300,000-strong online community spoke of companies installing software to measure keystrokes, which upped fear for those battling to cover their professional and home work and to compete with freer colleagues. Women in our community bore the brunt of the homeschooling and housework, and the most consistent thing were hearing from members of our community is, I dont have time for anything, no time to care for myself, no hobbies, or to care for my career and invest in going for the next promotion.

We are still hearing feedback that even though the transition back to work is happening and kids are back at school, that additional mental load hasnt decreased, she said. Loading Australias persistent male breadwinner model and the concept that fathers belong in the office and mothers can have more flexibility but must also run the home was contributing to the COVID hangover. People are just exhausted; they were living in crisis management for such a long time and whats concerning me is women giving up on all the stuff that really matters to them as a result. She cautioned women against leaving work or scaling back and said a two-week complete break and chance to reset would be far healthier for their longterm economic wellbeing.
Scott Morrison stepped onto contested ground when he chose to make a speech about morality and community. The Prime Minister condemned identity politics for pitting Australians against each other, called for a stronger sense of community and argued against people defining themselves by a sense of entitlement.

We cannot allow what we think we are entitled to, to become more important than what we are responsible for as citizens, he said on Thursday night.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for Australians to focus on community. Credit:James Alcock

Morrison put faith at the heart of his message about morality and personal freedom. He quoted Alexis de Tocqueville: Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith. He quoted Friedrich Hayek: Freedom has never worked without deeply ingrained moral beliefs.

Critics see a threat from Morrisons personal faith in language like that, especially after the leak of a speech he gave to Christian church leaders on the Gold Coast last month. Those who dislike his Pentecostal beliefs even see a risk to the separation of church and state.
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Thousands of American flags filled the lawn of the Kentucky state Capitol in Frankfort, Ky., on Friday, Jan. 22, 2021, as a memorial to those who lost their lives to the coronavirus over the past year.
Surveillance video shows two people going in and out of the woman's home, carrying out what appears to be a large television at one point.
John Locke (1632-1704)rightly seen as one of the first scholars in the then-emerging school of thought favouring individual rights and freedoms for all people, voluntary exchange, free trade and democracywas also one of the first scholars to argue that toleration of differences was beneficial. More specifically, Locke argued that toleration of religious differences (including Judaism and Islam) was a potential strength for societies rather than a weakness.

Such an idea is now taken for granted in most modern societies. But because it was such a radical idea at the time, Locke wrote the work anonymously and fled to the Netherlands from England in fear of reprisal. Lockes early advocacy for the principle of tolerating differences laid the foundation for later scholars to extend the argument for equality.

But theres perhaps no single scholar who argued more persuasively than John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) for the equality of women. As a British Member of Parliament, Mill not only wrote about the need for broad reforms to achieve equality for women, but championed them in the Parliament. His advocacy included access to the labour market, education, full voting rights, better information on birth control and no-fault divorces.

Again, these are taken as second thoughts today, but at the time Mill argued for them, women had a single choice in life: marry and conceive children for their husbands. More than anything, Mill advocated for women to have the full range of choices, rights and freedoms as their male counterparts.

One of the more modern thinkers in this tradition, late Harvard philosopher Robert Nozick (1938-2002), emphasized the need for government to protect the basic rights of all people regardless of gender, race, religion, etc. Indeed, one of his critical insights was that democracy itself wasnt a safeguard against the violation of basic rights and that such rights must be constitutionally protected with the state focused on the protection of such rights.

Recognizing the long important historical tradition of championing rights for women and minoritiesby those advocating for limited government, competitive markets and democracyis critical in understanding the actual history of the early progressives. Princeton economic historian Thomas Leonard has published both academic and popular works detailing the history of the early progressives and their linkages with racial discrimination and eugenics, to name but a few problematic connections.

Leonards 2016 book Illiberal Reformers: Race, Eugenics and American Economics in the Progressive Era details some of the shocking policies and preferences of the early progressives. For instance, progressive economists advocated for mandatory minimum wages to help exclude unfit workersmostly women and minoritiesfrom the labour market, thus reducing their wages and restricting their ability to procreate. Indeed, noted scholar at the time Richard Ely went so far as to recommend ceasing famine relief to India, saying let the famine continue for the sake of race improvement. Leonard demonstrates that many of the restrictive labour market rules were imposed not to protect women and minorities but rather to protect white men from competition.

Many people, particularly politicians who call themselves progressives, now seem unaware of the questionable history of the early progressive movement. More importantly, the history of progress for women and minorities is interwoven with the advancement of open societies characterized by markets, free trade, democracy, individual rights and most importantly constitutional protections covering all people. Thats a history worth remembering and celebrating.

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WENATCHEE  The dental industry has undergone a dramatic transformation as providers in the valley and across the state financially recover from the COVID-19 pandemic under new protocols and expectations.
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The Musicians' Union has reacted in "horror" at the revealed plans to cut government funding to certain subjects at a higher education level by 50 per cent, according to a report by the Office for Students (OFS).

The OFS (the independent regulator for higher education in England) laid in the plans earlier this year, following proposals confirmed in a letter from State Secretary for Education Gavin Williamson, which shows that the amount of money to be given to "performing and creative arts, media studies and archaeology" will be cut in half.

The letter instead prioritises additional grant funding "for subjects identified as supporting the NHS and wider healthcare policy, high-cost science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects and/or specific labour market needs."

We've provided a screenshot of Williamson's letters, which details how funding will shift for the 2021/2022 year.

The OFS has stated that "high cost subject funding for other subects" includes "music, dance, drama and performing arts, art and design, media studies and archaeology", though in the current financial year, less than 6 per cent of government funding was allocated to these subjects.

The Musicians Union has said it reacted in "horror" at the plans, stating: "The proposed funding cut will be catastrophic for music provision at HE level, affecting our members' work, the financial viability of music courses, and training for the next generation of musicians and music professionals."

It went on to warn that "the UK's HE music provision could lose its world-leading status as a result of this cut".

The plans are still in their consultation phase, so you can contact the OFS with your thoughts here.
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Lucy DaSilva had a very unsurprising problem at age 13  she didnt always love what she saw in the mirror each day.

I naturally had low self-esteem, said DaSilva, now 20, who is from Fairfield.

To perk her up and maybe help her feel a little better about herself, a family friend hired local photographer Katie Settel to take some pictures of her. DaSilva agreed, and though she was a bit reluctant, she quickly bonded with Settel.

I hated taking pictures of myself, but I was so comfortable with her, DaSilva said.

Even more remarkable, DaSilva loved the photos Settel took of her. She took really good photos, DaSilva said. She really captures a human being and not just a face. It was very special.

Photos by Katie Settel /

The shoot went so well that Settel took photos of DaSilva every year of her teens. The last one was taken shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and Settel traveled out to the University of California, Santa Cruz, where DaSilva is a student.

Settel said she loved photographing DaSilva over the years and watching her grow from this giggling young girl to this remarkable woman. For me, as a photographer, to witness that growth, that transition was just incredible.

The photos are now part of a pop-up exhibit through May 23 at Candlewood Market, 85 Mill Plain Road in Fairfield. They also inspired a new service Settel  who lives in Fairfield and has a studio in Bridgeport  is offering through her photography business. Its called Capturing the Teen Years, and involves Settel photographing a child once a year throughout their teens.

Her experience with DaSilva showed her that, while the teen years can be volatile, they are also a magical time worth memorializing, Settel said.

Everybody has their own insecurities, Settel said. This is a tool to help them to the next step. We just bust out of the way and let these kids shine.

People often view the teenage years as awkward and uncomfortable, but Settel said being regularly photographed can help teens move past their natural self-consciousness.

I get to stop them and say No, you may feel awkward, but thats just part of it. Thats not what we see,  Settel said. I get to show them the other side of awkward. I get to get them out of their heads. Its a really nice break for teens.

It also gets teenagers to view themselves differently, she said. So often, people have a warped view of how beautiful they really are, Settel said. They can be like Yeah, but. There cant be a Yeah, but when youre looking at a picture of yourself thats shiny and you just love it.

DaSilva said she looks back on the series of photos that Settel took as sort of visual diary of her youth. Its a really good record of who you are as a teenager, she said.

She agrees with Settel that the annual photographs got her to move past her insecurities and see herself in a different way. It wasnt just about seeing yourself as pretty, it was about seeing you as people might see you and it was really positive, DaSilva said.

Settel will be at the pop-up exhibit at Candlewood Market from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursdays and from 10 a.m. to noon Saturdays. More information about Capturing The Teen Years and details on booking photo sessions can be found at katiesettel.com/photosessions or by calling 917-922-8090.

acuda@ctpost.com
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OTTAWA - Plans to distribute the first 300,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine next week are on hold after Health Canada learned part of them were manufactured at a Maryland facility that messed up the ingredients in 15 million doses bound for the U.S. market.

Airport ground crew offload a plane carrying just under 300,000 doses of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine at Pearson International Airport during the COVID-19 pandemic on Wednesday, April 28, 2021. Plans to distribute the first 300,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine next week are being put on hold after Health Canada learned part of them were manufactured at a Maryland facility that messed up the ingredients in 15 million doses bound for the U.S. market. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

OTTAWA - Plans to distribute the first 300,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine next week are on hold after Health Canada learned part of them were manufactured at a Maryland facility that messed up the ingredients in 15 million doses bound for the U.S. market.

The Emergent Biosolutions facility in Baltimore was recently cited by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for violations including cleaning and sterilization failures, the potential for cross-contamination and failure to follow required protocols.

The FDA ordered the facility to stop making more J&J vaccine until the problems are corrected and the earlier mistake on the doses resulted in all 15 million being destroyed.

Health Canada had already cleared 1.5 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine made at the facility, but did not think the Canadian J&J doses had any connection to that plant.

Now Health Canada says the drug substance that makes up part of the J&J vaccine was actually produced there and then shipped elsewhere for the vaccines to be finished.

Health Canada says it is seeking information from the FDA and J&Js pharmaceutical arm, Janssen, to determine if the 300,000 doses shipped to Canada meet required safety standards.

"As with all vaccines imported into Canada, the Janssen vaccines will only be released for distribution once Health Canada is satisfied that they meet the Department's high standards for quality, safety and efficacy," Health Canada said Friday evening in a release.

"Health Canada has rigorous processes in place to continually monitor the quality of vaccines that are administered to Canadians.

"We will continue to ensure that products coming from the Emergent facility, or any other facility, will only be imported and distributed in Canada if they are of high quality and safe for use."

Until Friday, Health Canada had refused to say where Canadas doses had been made, citing fear of disrupting a confidential supply chain.

The J&J vaccine has not been used in Canada so far, and the National Advisory Committee on Immunization hasnt yet provided guidance on how they think it should be used.

The doses arrived in Canada on Wednesday and are in holding at the Innomar Strategies facility near Toronto's Pearson airport. Innomar is contracted to receive and redistribute all vaccines in Canada, except Pfizer-BioNTech. That vaccine is shipped directly to provincial governments.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 30, 2021
Its amazing how a chance encounter and a few emails can prove to be so memorable.

Its amazing how a chance encounter and a few emails can prove to be so memorable.

Its also amazing how sad it is when those lines of communication are lost forever.

The chance encounter was with a fellow kidney-transplant patient at the Health Sciences Centre in the summer of 2019.

We bumped into each other at the elevators  we both had appointments at the renal transplant clinic, which was on the fourth floor then  and she offered best wishes and encouragement. She was older than me and said she had lived with her donated kidney for 13 years. Mine had been working for mere weeks then, and she said there were many great years ahead for me, too.

No one knows how long transplanted kidneys will last, and to hear hers was still going strong after 13 years offered some positive vibes for uncertain times.

Connected by workplace, friendship and now kidney transplant Click to Expand MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Jill Wilson and Alan Small for a piece on their kidney donation experience. Jill gave a kidney so that Alan could receive one faster. See Jill's story for 49.8 191016 - Wednesday, October 16, 2019. Posted: 7:00 PM Oct. 18, 2019 Free Press writer Jill Wilson made a momentous decision to donate a kidney so Alan Small, her friend and colleague in deteriorating health, was able to receive the organ he so desperately needed. Read their stories. Read Full Story

A few months later, Rosemarie Yeo sent an email thanking me and my friend and Free Press colleague Jill Wilson  who donated one of her kidneys to the national transplant program, allowing me to get my new organ  for writing about our experiences.

Yeo described her transplant story and mentioned how our two situations were so similar; we both had friends who stepped forward to donate a kidney; she received hers in December 2006 and both she and her friend were both going strong years later.

She later encouraged me to keep taking my meds and to drink lots of water; it helps prevent clots from forming in transplanted kidneys.

Fast-forward again to last April, at the frightening start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Free Press wanted a story that asked people of different generations their views on the situation.

For a seniors point of view, I sent an email to Yeo and asked if she wanted to take part.

Pandemic creates new, unsettling reality for Manitobans regardless of age Click to Expand Rosemarie Yeo lives with her husband Dale at the Stonewall and District Lions Manor. Yeo thinks Manitobans are much better equipped to deal with a pandemic now, compared to family stories she recalls from the time of the Spanish Flu. Posted: 7:00 PM Apr. 13, 2020 In 2019, the term OK, boomer, became a popular phrase. It was a social-media retort to the baby-boom generation from millennials, many of whom had grown weary of judgmental attitudes from older generations. That OK, boomer turned into a meme didnt help foster greater understanding between the generations, which in some cases, were parents (boomers) and their children (millennials). Read Full Story

She did, and provided some fascinating insight in the story that was published a little over a year ago, on April 13, 2020.

Yeo remembered her fathers stories about the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1919 and about getting her tonsils removed in the height of the polio epidemic in 1950 when doctors in Dauphin, where she grew up, were initially hesitant to perform the surgery.

She also mentioned other pandemics and how she made sure her children and grandchildren were vaccinated.

When she sent me a photo of herself and her husband Dale, I noticed that she was the one I met at the HSC elevators after my surgery who was so happy I had joined the transplant club and cheered me on.

She wound up her response with a message filled with hope, a commodity that was in short supply back then.

"If I had to experience a pandemic, I am thankful that it is now, not 1919. Our (houses) are warmer and most have running water. We have government help, social media, television, wonderful health-care workers, pharmacists, police officers, grocery-store workers, to name a few, to help us out. Thanks to all of you. We will get through this!" she said.

We will get through this, but somehow we will have to do it without Rosemarie Yeo. On Nov. 25, she became one of almost 1,000 Manitobans who have died of COVID-19 to date.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Rosemarie Yeo, 78, and her husband of 58 years, Dale, during lockdown at the Stonewall and District Lions Manor in April 2020. Rosemarie died of COVID-19 in November.

At the beginning of the pandemic, medical experts said seniors and those with underlying medical conditions were most in danger if they had contracted the coronavirus. Taking immune-suppressing medication, as all transplant patients do, increases the risk because the meds that prevent the body from rejecting the donor organs also make fighting off illnesses more difficult.

Yeo was 79 and a high-risk case. Dale Yeo says they took all the precautions they could to keep his wife and everyone else at the Stonewall seniors residence safe, but her health declined in the summer, and when she was taken to the hospital Nov. 15, he was stunned to learn his wife had tested positive for COVID-19.

"We dont know how she got COVID. We were ridiculously careful," he says. "They told me on the 17th, Your wife has COVID. I must have said three times, How could that be? How could that be? and the nurse just said, Mr. Yeo, its everywhere."

Global or local, the COVID-19 death toll glosses over the human cost.

In Yeos case, the loss is of a pillar of her community. The Yeos settled in Roblin in 1962 and, during that time, she helped found the towns nursery school and became its director for the next 21 years. She volunteered at Roblins food bank and later became its chairperson. She also helped lobby and raise money for a palliative-care room at Roblin Health Centre.

SUPPLIED PHOTO Rosemarie with her husband Dale.

In 1993, she was named Roblins citizen of the year. The Yeos moved to Stonewall in 2017 to be closer to their grandchildren.

She was also Dales wife for more than 59 years, a mother, grandmother and had so many friends that 47 people took the time to write online condolences alongside her Free Press obituary.

Among the most difficult aspects of the pandemic are the restrictions on funerals and memorial services, which are already difficult life events, but they allow friends and family to say a final goodbye together.

"A memorial service will take place next spring or whenever this cursed virus is vanquished."

Bringing dozens of people together for any reason is the wrong thing to do now. To prevent the spread of the coronavirus, we miss seeing those who are alive and miss saying farewell to those who are gone.

The final sentence in Rosemarie Yeos obituary in the Free Press aptly sums up many folks situations.

"A memorial service will take place next spring or whenever this cursed virus is vanquished."

The sooner we can pay our respects to Rosemarie Yeo and all those who have died in the past year, the better.

alan.small@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @AlanDSmall
OTTAWA - COVID-19 contributed to Canada Post losses last year as the Crown corporation lost $779 million before tax, a fivefold increase from 2019, even as it faces record parcel volumes.

The Canada Post logo is seen on the outside the company's Pacific Processing Centre, in Richmond, B.C., on June 1, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

OTTAWA - COVID-19 contributed to Canada Post losses last year as the Crown corporation lost $779 million before tax, a fivefold increase from 2019, even as it faces record parcel volumes.

Costs related to COVID are estimated to be $292 million, mainly from special leaves for high-risk employees, those providing child and elder care and increased overtime, as well as the impact of higher parcel volumes.

Canada Post says transaction mail revenues declined by $230 million and direct marketing revenues dropped $257 million from 2019 as mailings were cancelled or delayed as marketers turned to digital alternatives.

The net impact of COVID on revenues was $194 million when factoring in the 25 per cent growth in parcels revenue to $699 million. About two-thirds of that increase is attributable to COVID-19 as total volumes increased 21 per cent to 69 million pieces.

Canada Post says its busiest day for parcel delivery was Dec. 21 when 2.4 million items were handled and it experienced 181 consecutive days of delivering at least one million parcels as more Canadians shopped online.

There was an acceleration in the decline of traditional mail as volumes of letters, bills and statements decreased 10.5 per cent to 286 million while revenue was down 8.9 per cent. About $146 million of the $230-million decrease is estimated to be tied to the pandemic.

The Canada Post Group of Companies  which includes Canada Post, Purolator, SCI Group Inc. and Innovapost Inc.  lost $626 million before tax, compared with a loss of $23 million in 2019.

The Purolator segment earned a $176-million profit, up 15.4 per cent from $152 million.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 30, 2021.
Where would the world be if farmers slashed their use of pesticides, antibiotics and fertilizer, as well as the amount of land used for food production?

Where would the world be if farmers slashed their use of pesticides, antibiotics and fertilizer, as well as the amount of land used for food production?

In truth, no one really knows, but the European Union aims to find out  much to the consternation of those immersed in conventional wisdom around global food security.

As part of its overall Green Deal commitment to building a more sustainable economy, the EUs Farm to Fork strategy (F2F) targets reducing pesticide use by 50 per cent, fertilizers by 20 per cent, land used for agriculture by 10 per cent and antibiotic use by 50 per cent by 2030. Part of its solution will be upping the amount of land farmed organically, which uses no pesticides or chemical fertilizers, to 25 per cent.

Its important to note that simply achieving those targets doesnt automatically translate to a greener economy, especially if the pesticides are simply replaced by soil-destroying tillage, or productivity losses prompt more imports from places that have fewer rules.

As it is among the worlds largest food exporters and importers, and it has been known to restrict access to its market through non-tariff trade barriers, the European Green Deal is a big deal for everyone.

Economists with the U.S. Economic Research Service used computer modelling to examine the impacts on global trade, the economy and food security under three scenarios: if the measures were adopted in the EU only, the EU and some of its trading partners, and globally.

Essentially, they found there would be a "severe reduction" in output across crops, animals and processed food. That would lead to "substantial increases" in agricultural commodity and food prices, a reduction in agricultural trade, increasing food insecurity and a shrinking global economy.

For the record, few farmers would complain about getting paid more for what they grow. More often than not, they find themselves selling for below their true costs of production, counting on taxpayer support programs to fill the gaps.

The economists working on the analysis realized almost immediately that some of their assumptions were flawed. For example, the models didnt factor in the potential for innovation to drive new productivity growth. So they took another run at it to answer the question of how long it would take innovation to bring productivity back to pre-F2F levels.

Once again, its a grim story. Wheat, a staple crop, would require a 36.6 per cent improvement in productivity to meet the EU targets, and based on historical trends, that would take 24 years to achieve. Oilseeds would require a 45 per cent productivity boost, which would take 27 years to accomplish.

You could argue that analysts vastly underestimate the power and the accelerating pace of innovation. Alternatively, recently released research cited in the journal Nature Climate Change suggests global productivity growth is already 21 per cent below what it might have been due to climate change.

"Anthropogenic climate change is already slowing us down," economist Ariel Ortiz-Bobea of Cornell University said in a February release.

A team of biotech researchers at Bayreuth University in Germany has just published a paper that courts controversy by pushing for changes to how organic agriculture is defined so that gene-editing technologies can be employed to boost yields. But that strikes at the core of the organic principles of working with rather than controlling natural processes. So, thats likely to be a hard sell.

So, the jury is still out on whether innovation can maintain or increase productivity under the EU proposal.

But there are other wild cards in play. Consumer tastes and population trends are changing in ways no one predicted even a decade ago. Increasingly, the worlds farmers are being called upon to produce better nutrition instead of simply more calories.

Research into natural-systems approaches to food production receives a fraction of the funding of research into high-input agriculture. If the EU is to meet these ambitious targets, that equation will have to change.

The EUs approach is unconventional to be sure, but it shouldnt be discounted outright. After all, since when has the status quo favoured change?

Laura Rance is vice-president of Content for Glacier FarmMedia. She can be reached at lrance@farmmedia.com
Farmers Edge, the Winnipeg-based digital farming services company, has launched a completely automated heat damage insurance product for canola farmers, which CEO Wade Barnes said will be the first of other similar technology-based insurance offerings for farmers the company will be rolling out.

Farmers Edge, the Winnipeg-based digital farming services company, has launched a completely automated heat damage insurance product for canola farmers, which CEO Wade Barnes said will be the first of other similar technology-based insurance offerings for farmers the company will be rolling out.

The Canola Heat Blast Yield Protection policy coverage would be triggered automatically when the insured areas are subjected to specific daytime and nighttime heat thresholds.

Farmers will receive an alert automatically and would receive payment automatically.

"There would be no requirement for the farmer to show proof of loss and there is no need for adjusters," Barnes said. "If it hits the temperature, the farmer gets paid. If it does not, he doesnt get paid. The farmer wont have to worry about getting into an argument with the insurance company. It is clear cut."

This policy is part of a growing number of so-called parametric insurance solutions offered in several different industry sectors, where the coverage is defined by specific parameters.

While she couldnt comment on this brand-new insurance product, Cheryl Mayer, director of policy development for the Canadian Canola Growers Association, said it is part of a growing number of insurance offerings that are becoming available to farmers.

"It is a really good thing," she said. "Farmers have to face all kinds of risks. There has been lots of different kinds of extreme weather in the last few years. The more options farmers have in their risk-management tool box to consider, the better."

There are other public and private sector crop insurance options but often that coverage will not necessarily cover the kind of profits a producer would typically expect.

For instance, on Barnes own farm, his Manitoba crop insurance only covers yields up to a certain level.

Extreme heat, especially when canola plants are flowering, may not wipe out a crop but can drastically reduce yields. For instance canola farmers can now expect yields of up to 50 bushels per acre. But Manitoba crop insurance might only cover up to 30 acres.

The way Barnes describes it, extreme heat between the end of June to the third week of July can "steal the profit."

Farmers Edge, which recently became publicly listed and raised about $120 million in an initial public offering, has been working with the international insurance company, Munich Re, for more than a year developing the product. It will cost about $10 per acre.

"They have been analyzing our data sets," Barnes said. "They have a pretty good idea how to price it."

Pricing will based on levels of coverage and will be specific to each farmers fields utilizing data from Farmers Edges own weather stations that are included in the digital offering that its farmer customers already have on site. Some have as many as 10 weather stations that digitally collect all sorts of weather data in real time.

Mayer said at about $10 per acre, it will likely be of value in many farmers risk-management scenarios.

And with canola prices on the rise  at around $15 to $16 per bushel  it would be the equivalent of about three-quarters of a bushel of canola.

"Farmers spill that much combining all the time," Barnes said.

Farmers Edges digital platform, FarmCommand, collects all the data on temperature, field conditions and planting dates and would trigger a guaranteed claim when the weather and cumulative growing degree day thresholds are met.

Powered by a combination of connected field sensors, artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and agronomic expertise, Farmers Edge customers  who pay between $3 and $6 per acre for that package of technology  have grown steadily over the years.

In its recently released year-end results for 2020, global subscribed acres grew to 23.4 million, an increase of 42 per cent from the previous year.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca
MONTREAL - Operations at the Port of Montreal were expected to resume gradually beginning Saturday after the Senate passed legislation forcing striking workers back on the job.

Striking Port of Montreal dockworkers listen to speeches during a rally in Montreal on Thursday, April 29, 2021. Operations at the Port of Montreal are expected to resume gradually Saturday after the Senate passed legislation forcing striking workers back to work. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

MONTREAL - Operations at the Port of Montreal were expected to resume gradually beginning Saturday after the Senate passed legislation forcing striking workers back on the job.

The House of Commons approved the bill Thursday, and it was debated and approved by the Senate late Friday.

The Maritime Employers Association issued a brief statement Saturday saying activities at the port would gradually ramp up.

The Port of Montreal said resuming operations and reestablishing the normal flow of goods will take several days and clients waiting to import or export goods should expect delays.

"The process established by the legislation will lead to establishing a new collective agreement between the parties, with no possibility of work stoppages," the port authority said in a statement.

"While a prior settlement between the parties would have been preferable, the strategic character of port operations has led to a decision that highlights the need to resume this major economic activity."

About $275 million worth of goods moves through Port of Montreal docks each day, including food, pharmaceuticals and construction equipment.

Michel Murray of the Canadian Union of Public Employees local that represents the dockworkers has called the federal back-to-work legislation an attack on the workers' constitutional right to strike.

He told reporters at a May Day protest in Montreal on Saturday the union would take legal action and file complaints with the International Labour Organization.

A spokeswoman for the union confirmed that its members would be back on the job as of Sunday.

The new legislation stipulates that a mediator-arbitrator will be selected in the coming days and the most recent collective agreement will be extended until a new deal is established.

The 1,150 workers at the port have been without a contract since December 2018.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 1, 2021.
Sephora furthered its foothold in Winnipeg on Friday, opening a third location in Linden Woods on Kenaston Boulevard.

Sephora furthered its foothold in Winnipeg on Friday, opening a third location in Linden Woods on Kenaston Boulevard.

The move comes after a slow year for the beauty industry, in which sales migrated online in droves.

As a result of widespread lockdowns and restrictions, people spent less time in workplaces, at restaurants or other public spaces.

That meant less reason to apply foundation, try a smoky eye or pop open a new tube of lipstick.

"Weve seen sales decline in 2020 about 17 per cent in Canada," Alecsandra Hancas, beauty analyst at The NDP Group, a company that analyzes market trends.

Before that, said Hancas, the industry as a whole was growing. In fact, that was the first time Hancas said shes seen the industry decline.

Recent months have provided the industry a glimmer of good news, however. Early March saw the first weekly increase  of three per cent  in weekly sales since November.

In the short term, Sephoras decision to open a new store may seem strange, since the pandemic has driven sales out of physical stores and into the digital realm.

Online sales blew up in 2020, increasing by a whopping 56 per cent.

"Thats unprecedented," said Hancas. "Weve never seen that for beauty."

The overarching context, of course, is online sales shot upward in many industries, also driven by the new consumer habits of pandemic shoppers.

Canadian e-commerce grew 20.7 per cent overall in 2020, raking in just over $52 billion, or 8.1 per cent of retail sales.

But even with the beauty industry outpacing overall online sales by more than double, Hancas said she expects consumers to continue trickling back into brick-and-mortar stores.

"Consumers love to interact with the product," she said. "They love testing the product. They love the beauty advice."

Besides that, she said, theres another driver into physical stores  something for which many people are pining.

"There is a social aspect to shopping in store as well," she said. "Were all looking forward to it."

One part of the shopping experience that Hancas expects to enjoy maintained online success is replenishment.

Once people get into stores, test out the products and find whats right for them, Hancas expects at least a portion of those whove become accustomed to online ordering will continue restocking their supply online.

Hair care products have been recovering quicker than any others, and with a healthy stock at Sephora, that should help sustain them until people start drifting through their doors in larger numbers.

business@freepress.mb.ca
The pandemic hasnt turned out to be the financial calamity it was first thought to be.

The pandemic hasnt turned out to be the financial calamity it was first thought to be.

At least, not for everyone.

In fact a recent BMO study  Real Financial Progress Index  launched this year found almost four in 10 Canadians are feeling more secure this year than last, and more than three-quarters surveyed were optimistic about their financial future.

Yet despite the positive findings, many were still feeling a lot of financial stress, says Gayle Ramsay, head of everyday banking and customer growth at BMO.

"And COVID was the No. 1 reason on the list with 55 per cent of respondents."

Thats followed by fear of unknown expenses at 43 per cent, their overall financial situation at 39 per cent and housing costs at 35 per cent.

Other sources of stress were credit card debt, keeping up with monthly bills and student debt among others  only to a lesser extent.

The big connector in the last year, of course, has been the pandemic, which has exacerbated existing financial problems for people already struggling, she says.

Often, its because they lack the emergency savings to deal with bumps in their finances.

"If you have something that comes up unexpectedly, and you dont have something set aside for what used to be called a rainy day fund,thats going to cause a fair amount of anxiety, right?"

Another recent study looking at financial stress during the pandemic confirms this notion as well.

But it also points to the effect of a K-shaped recovery with many Canadians, unable to work from home or who have lost their jobs, feeling much more money stress.

Alex Bierman, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Calgary, is one of the co-authors of the research.

"What seems to be happening is experience of financial stress is not uniform," he says, about the findings of the survey of 2,500 Canadians.

"People who were economically disadvantaged prior to the pandemic are much more likely to experience economic stress during the pandemic."

The reasons are many, he adds. Low income Canadians typically have been hit hardest by the pandemic given they typically work in occupations where they cannot work from home, and in industries most likely to be shuttered in lockdowns.

Another finding is that Canadians with health or mental health problems prior to the pandemic also experienced higher levels of financial stress.

"This is likely because when people are already experiencing compromised health or mental health difficulties, they may have fewer reserves to cope," Bierman says.

While the study did not specifically look at government supports like the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), he notes these programs likely helped but also presented challenges.

Executive director of Community Financial Counselling Services John Silver in Winnipeg confirms many of clients seeking help right indicate higher stress from CERB "over eligibility and how they may have to repay it."

Additionally, he notes other clients "have maxed out their credit cards" to deal with pandemic problems like job loss.

In fact another study by the Canadian Payroll Association, involving Western-Laurier Financial Data Analytics Laboratory that used machine learning techniques to examine the effects of money stress, found less correlation between income and stress, and instead higher stress levels from an inability to deal with unexpected costs.

"An inability to deal with these brief hiccups is a big symptom of financial stress if you report that you would have a hard time meeting your obligations if your paycheque was delayed for a week," Adam Metzler, associate professor of mathematics at Wilfred Laurier University, and one of the authors of the study published a few weeks prior to the pandemic.

"I guess there is maybe a lot of people making a lot of money, but maybe theyre in a house that is too expensive for them or drive a car they shouldnt be."

The lab has also analyzed more recent data from the pandemic, and early findings suggest people are feeling better off and were saving more.

"But they were still really financially stressed because its more like a forced savings from the current conditions."

Metzler further notes, however, the labs discoveries and those of the work co-authored by Bierman are not as much at odds as they might appear. The Wilfred Laurier research focused only on full-time workers, while the University of Calgary one examined a broader range of people.

Furthermore, unexpected expenses are more likely to cause stress for lower income earners because they have fewer resources to deal with them.

Ramsay says every Canadian should take steps to build up savings to deal with the unexpected while noting it can be very challenging to do amid all the other demands on the wallet. But working with a financial planner can help, she adds.

"Its almost like the physical checkup you would have with your doctor, but its taking a look at your spending, debt levels and cash flow to find opportunities to cut costs and save money."

Still, Bierman says research suggests this is likely a tall order for individuals in precarious economic situations.

In turn, governments should examine more permanent economic supports like a basic universal income.

"Without this people risk being permanently disenfranchised economically."
JAKARTA, Indonesia - Workers in Indonesia marked international labour day on Saturday with significantly less-attended marches due to coronavirus restrictions, but thousands still vented their anger at a new law they say harms their rights and welfare.

A worker wearing mask as a precaution against coronavirus outbreak, raises his fist as he shouts slogans during a May Day rally in Jakarta, Indonesia, Saturday, May 1, 2021. Workers in Indonesia marked international labor day on Saturday curtailed by strict limits on public gatherings to express anger at a new law they say could harm labor rights and welfare. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Workers in Indonesia marked international labour day on Saturday with significantly less-attended marches due to coronavirus restrictions, but thousands still vented their anger at a new law they say harms their rights and welfare.

About 50,000 workers from 3,000 companies and factories were expected to take part in traditional May Day marches in 200 cities and districts in Southeast Asia's largest economy, said Said Iqbal, the president of the Confederation of Indonesian Trade Unions. However, most rallies are held outside factories or company compounds with strict health protocols, Iqbal said.

Elsewhere in the region, police in the Philippine capital of Manila prevented hundreds of workers belonging to left-wing groups from holding a May Day rally at a public plaza, said protest leader Renato Reyes. A monthlong coronavirus lockdown there has been extended by two weeks amid an alarming surge.

In Taipei City in Taiwan, hundreds of protesters marched in the streets to ask for better salaries and more secure pensions. Most protesters wore face masks to protect themselves from the virus.

In Indonesia's capital of Jakarta, the epicenter of the national epidemic, authorities have warned labour groups to adhere to social distancing and other health measures, which would significantly reduce crowds, said Jakarta Police spokesperson Yusri Yunus. He added that more than 6,300 police personnel were deployed to secure the capital.

Enraged over the new Job Creation Law, several hundred workers gathered near the national monument, waving colorful flags of labour groups and banners with demands. Others laid tomb effigies on the street to symbolize their hopeless and uncertain future under the new law.

The Job Creation Law has incredibly buried our hope of a better future, said Riden Hatam Aziz, one of the organizers. They later marched to the constitutional Court and near the presidential palace compound to demand the repeal of the legislation.

The demonstrators say the law will hurt workers by reducing severance pay, removing restrictions on manual labour by foreign workers, increasing the use of outsourcing, and converting monthly salaries to hourly wages.

President Joko Widodo signed the law in November despite days of protests in many Indonesian cities that turned violent weeks earlier. The act amended 77 previous laws and was intended to improve bureaucratic efficiency as part of efforts by Widodos administration to attract more investment.

The Confederation of Indonesian Trade Unions and dozens of other organizations have filed a legal challenge against the Job Creation Law with the constitutional Court.

The difficult situation could lead to more strikes and protests this year, Iqbal, the president of the trade unon group, said.

Television reports showed hundreds of workers rallying in several other cities, including Makassar. They shouted demands for a raise in minimum wage and relaxed outsourcing rules.

In Manila, protesters gathered briefly at a busy boulevard demanding pandemic cash aid, wage subsidies and COVID-19 vaccines amid rising unemployment and hunger. Some opted to stage protest motorcades to avoid infections.

Workers were largely left to fend for themselves while being locked down, labour leader Josua Mata said. When workers protest the governments mishandling of the pandemic that led to a massive loss of jobs and income, authorities suppress their basic right, Mata said.

Labour Secretary Silvestre Bello III separately led a ceremony in Manila, where about 5,000 workers got their jabs for COVID-19.

In Taiwan, labour conditions and welfare for food deliverymen have become a major issue this year, as the companies they represent are not covering their pensions, nor guaranteeing any minimum salary for them.

A food delivery driver present at Saturday's protest said the pay per delivery had been cut several times, with some platforms even offering fluctuating rates, making it hard to make money. One supermarket employee said she had not seen a pay raise for several consecutive years, even though sales have been growing.

The protest lasted about two hours and led the marchers to the parliament.

____

Associated Press writers Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia, Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines and Taijing Wu in Taipei, Taiwan contributed to this report.
Thomas Berger gave Indigenous people a voice.

In 1974, when Canada held an inquiry into the construction of a gas pipeline through the Mackenzie River Valley in the Yukon and Northwest Territories  through Dene, Inuit, and Metis land  commissioner Berger did something unheard of.

He went to the people.

In what became known as the "Berger Inquiry," he held hearings in all 35 communities. Most had a majority of Indigenous populations or were First Nations.

Instead of continuing the practice of government inquiries at the time (and frankly still is), Berger didnt host meetings in expensive and intimidating city hotels. He held them in community halls and other places Indigenous people lived and worked.

He asked the media to join him, and broadcast the hearings on national television every night. For most Canadians, it was the first time they heard Indigenous languages, leaders, and everyday citizens talk about land rights, title, and Canadas violence and neglect.

It was also the first time some Indigenous people  such as my father, Murray Sinclair, a law student at the time  would hear this, too.

Bergers practice of going to Indigenous communities would be the template my dad used when he was the co-commissioner of Manitobas Aboriginal Justice Inquiry in 1988.

B.C. Justice Thomas Berger, chairman of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Commission, held hearings in all 35 affected communities while asking the media to join him and broadcast the hearings on national television every night. (Fred Chartrand / CP PICTURE ARCHIVE)

In 1977, Berger released his inquirys conclusions. It recommended a 10-year moratorium on the pipeline because of the potential environmental damage, the lack of local economic benefits, and the fact that Indigenous nations had been left out of the planning and delivery of the project.

The "social consequences of the pipeline" on Indigenous communities "will not only be serious  they will be devastating," he wrote.

Berger made a radical suggestion: that Canada settle land claims with Indigenous nations before proceeding. In other words: treat Indigenous citizens like human beings.

Berger died on Wednesday at the age of 88 after battling cancer. A former politician and justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia, he leaves behind arguably the most enduring legacy a non-Indigenous person has had on Indigenous rights in Canadian law.

While best known for the inquiry (whose final legal report became a bestseller: When does that happen?), he did far more to advance Indigenous rights.

He was counsel on the landmark 1974 Calder case, the first time Indigenous title was recognized in Canadian law.

He was appointed to the Supreme Court of British Columbia (serving until 1983) and presided over decisions that recognized Indigenous unceded land claims throughout the province  where virtually 100 percent is stolen land and there were almost no treaties.

Berger was an advocate for reconciliation when the word wasnt even used.

While there, he headed up landmark commissions that investigated, for the first time, Indigenous people's experiences with child welfare and health care. He made recommendations that found their way into the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples in 1996.

In the early 1980s, he wrote national op-eds that argued for Indigenous rights to be enshrined in the Constitution (what would eventually become the infamous section 35). He was even reprimanded by the Canadian Judicial Council for being too "opinionated" on the issue.

Returning to law, he became an advocate for Inuit by working on the Alaska Native Review Commission and, eventually, was crucial to the implementation of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement.

At the same time, Berger participated in the struggle for Metis land in Manitoba. He served as counsel for the Manitoba Metis Federation during its three-decade land claim struggle under the 1870 Manitoba Act.

Bergers work and influence culminated in 2013, when the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government had failed to honour its legal obligations to give Metis land.

Reflecting on the case, Berger wrote a piece in the Globe and Mail that called on Canada to settle the issue with the Metis nation.

"It's not too late for Canada to negotiate a modern land claims agreement with the Metis. We can't reclaim the past, but we can do justice in our own time," he wrote.

He asked the media to join him, and broadcast the hearings on national television every night. For most Canadians, it was the first time they heard Indigenous languages, leaders, and everyday citizens talk about land rights, title, and Canadas violence and neglect.

This resulted in negotiations that have yielded compensation and some of the largest expansion of Metis land, programs, and projects in this provinces history (for proof, see the new Metis Nation Heritage Centre at Portage and Main).

Berger was an advocate for reconciliation when the word wasnt even used.

He was a visionary for what is just, and possible if people treat each other fairly.

He received awards such as the Order of Canada (1989), the Order of British Columbia (2004), and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012).

For Indigenous people, he was an ally, relation, and an uncle  someone we needed during some of the most difficult struggles of our lives.

He did the same for Canada by making it a better place.

niigaan.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca
WINNIPEG actress Catherine Wreford Ledlow may have only spent a few hours in North Dakota getting a COVID-19 vaccine, but now she will have to quarantine for 14 days.

WINNIPEG actress Catherine Wreford Ledlow may have only spent a few hours in North Dakota getting a COVID-19 vaccine, but now she will have to quarantine for 14 days.

Wreford Ledlow, 40, who is a dual citizen, and her husband, an American with permanent residency in Canada, left Winnipeg at 4 a.m. Friday, so they could get to a virus testing facility in Grand Forks, N.D.  early enough that the results would be back the same day.

SUPPLIED Winnipeg actress Catherine Wreford Ledlow gets the Pfizer vaccination in Grand Forks, North Dakota Friday, April 30. Wreford, 40, and her husband, left their Winnipeg house on Friday at 4 a.m. so they could get to a virus testing facility in Grand Forks early enough that the results would be back the same day.

"We got the vaccine at 1:30, and we just got the (virus) results," Wreford Ledlow said, shortly after 2:30 p.m.

"Its negative, so we can come back. We feel great. I didnt even feel the needle. My arm doesnt hurt and we dont feel sick."

Because the return trip is so fast, Wreford Ledlow said she sent an email to Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba chief provincial public health officer, asking if the couple really has to stay home for two weeks.

"We brought food. We ate it in the car. We didnt go shopping. We just got the shot. Thats why Ive written to Dr. Roussin."

Wreford Ledlow, who said she has a job waiting for her in California late next month, said Friday was the last day she could receive her first dose, with enough time to fit in her second one a few weeks from now, before starting work.

Wreford Ledlow was born and raised in Winnipeg, and graduated from Kelvin High School before starring in the Broadway production of 42nd Street from 2001 to 2005. Since then, Wreford Ledlow starred in the musical, Strike, the Royal Winnipeg Ballets Romeo and Juliet in 2019, and the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centres musical production of Fun Home.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca
Faced with rising COVID-19 cases and highly infectious variants, Manitoba schools are adding another item to their arsenal of personal protective equipment: eyewear.

Faced with rising COVID-19 cases and highly infectious variants, Manitoba schools are adding another item to their arsenal of personal protective equipment: eyewear.

Public health officials are now supporting the use of both medical masks and eye protection by teachers and staff "who are unable to consistently and reliably maintain two metres of distance," a government spokesperson confirmed Friday.

Manitoba Education has received orders for upwards of 85,000 "frames with lenses" and 4,700 face shields from 34 school divisions.

In Winnipeg, St. James-Assiniboia, Pembina Trails, River-East Transcona and Louis Riel school divisions have all ordered the new eyewear for staff.

"Were definitely in a third wave, and what I hope is were going to take evidence-based approaches in all that we do. We see evidence-based approaches in the health sciences, and were trying our best here in LRSD to have evidence guide our decisions," said superintendent Christian Michalik.

Should the supply chain co-operate, Michalik said the division will soon be able to provide each staff member with three medical-grade face masks daily, as well as eye protection, until the end of June.

Officials have informed divisions eye protection should be cleaned daily and disposed of once every week, he said.

Some educators have already started wearing eye protection, as COVID-19 exposures in schools spike and more classes are forced to pivot to temporary remote learning.

Families at College Jeanne-Sauve, Lavallee School and Dalhousie School all learned Friday their childrens schools are shifting fully to distance learning on Monday. Earlier in the week, Ecole South Pointe School and Ecole St. Avila made similar announcements.

"From the perspective that the virus spreads as an aerosol and your eyes are vulnerable because thats a potential entry point into your body, then definitely, having some protection over your eyes is beneficial," said Thomas Tenkate, an associate professor at Ryerson Universitys School of Occupational and Public Health in Toronto.

Tenkate, however, said schools, which require engaged two-way conversations, are much different than other workplaces such as hospitals or construction sites, where eyewear is typically used as extra protection.

Given how uncomfortable eye protection can be, he said its worth considering what is actually feasible and safe for school staff working in those environments.

Tenkate added: "From a health and safety perspective, were trying to create conditions where people dont have to wear PPE because PPE is the last line of defence."

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie
Fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi has filed an appeal in the UK High Court against his extradition to India.

Modi, in his petition, has sought permission to contest the decision against his extradition order made by the lower court and granted permission by the UK Home Secretary Priti Patel.

The order was signed by the UK government on April 15 ordering the extradition of Nirav Modi to India.

Also Read: UK govt clears Nirav Modi's extradition to India

The fugitive diamond dealer's appeal is both against Westminster Magistrate's Court's February 25 extradition order and the subsequent approval given by Home Secretary Patel, who sanctioned it almost two months after the court found him guilty of money laundering and fraud in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case.

"On February 25, the District Judge gave the judgment in the extradition case of Nirav Modi. The extradition order was signed on April 15," UK's Home Office spokesperson told ANI.

Also Read: Legal battle in UK, recovering assets around world - how ED proceeded in Nirav Modi extradition trial

Nirav Modi escaped from India on January 1, 2018, before the registration of a case against him. A non-bailable arrest warrant was issued by a trial court against him followed by a red corner notice in June 2018 by Interpol.

He was arrested by the UK Police in London in March 2019 and was charged with money laundering and defrauding PNB of over Rs 11,000 crore.

His repeated applications for bail were rejected by Westminster Magistrate's Court and High Court, London.
Sometimes, neither a lollipop nor a dinosaur sticker is enough to convince someone to get a needle.

Sometimes, neither a lollipop nor a dinosaur sticker is enough to convince someone to get a needle.

Dr. Michele Feierstein, a pediatrician for more than 35 years, knows that all too well.

Feierstein has given thousands of immunizations to young patients throughout her career, but she has also had her fair share of difficult conversations with parents who are vaccine-hesitant or outright anti-vaxxers.

She does not bar families who have lukewarm feelings about or adamant views against immunization, whether they be rooted in misinformation, distrust, religious belief, or any other reason, from her practice at the Manitoba Clinic.

Instead, she answers their questions without judgment, provides them with factual information, and hopes her efforts will convince them to protect their children and others from vaccine-preventable diseases.

"Its a huge time commitment  huge, huge, huge," Feierstein said. "Its more than one visit, you spend a lot of time with these people, and its usually people who you have known for several years, who you can change their mind."

No matter the vaccine-preventable disease, the general principle in public health is that herd immunity is unlikely if immunization uptake is under 80 per cent. The gold standard is between 90 to 95 per cent or above; the more highly infectious a disease, the higher the requirement for immunization and antibodies from prior infection to protect a population.

As the COVID-19 vaccination rollout carries on, addressing vaccine hesitancy  a key stumbling block to achieving herd immunity and ending public health restrictions  is top of mind.

School vaccination rates in Manitoba The Free Press filed freedom-of-information requests for a breakdown of school-by-school and division-by-division vaccination rates for the grades 6 and 8-9 immunization programs from Shared Health and each of the five health regions, during the 2018-19 school year. The provincial authority indicated it did not collect such data, while nearly every region indicated it had different data available. click to read more The Free Press filed freedom-of-information requests for a breakdown of school-by-school and division-by-division vaccination rates for the grades 6 and 8-9 immunization programs from Shared Health and each of the five health regions, during the 2018-19 school year. The provincial authority indicated it did not collect such data, while nearly every region indicated it had different data available. Winnipeg The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority provided school year-end vaccination reports for Grade 6 hepatitis B, Grade 6 humanpapillomavirus and Grade 8 Tetanus shot uptake in 2018-19. (The Tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis vaccine, or Tdap, is typically administered via school programs in Grade 8, but Winnipeg only had figures for overall Tetanus status.) The Winnipeg data includes school names, total students in each grade who were eligible for a vaccine, and the number of students who are up-to-date with public healths immunization schedule  which is two doses of both Hep B and HPV shots by the end of Grade 6, and at least six doses of Tetanus toxoid antigen by the end of Grade 8. The reports also include average rates in Winnipeg in all these categories. Citing confidentiality, the region did not provide information regarding schools where fewer than 20 students were being reported on. Region averages: Grade 6 Hep B (75.3 per cent); Grade 6 HPV (69 per cent); and Grade 8 students with at least six doses of Tetanus toxoid antigen (47.5 per cent). InterlakeEastern The InterlakeEastern Regional Health Authority provided school immunization rates for its Grade 6 HepB, Grade 6 HPV and Grade 8 Tdap programs in 2018-19, by individual community area. There are 16 areas, which include Lac du Bonnet and Gimli-area schools, among others. The document also includes health authority-wide average rates for each vaccine category. Region averages: Grade 6 Hep B (78 per cent); Grade 6 HPV (67 per cent); and Grade 8 Tdap (78 per cent). Southern and Prairie Mountain Both Southern Health and Prairie Mountain Health provided the total number of pupils in each relevant grade in 2018-19 in their respective regions, as well as the total number of children who received doses of the relevant vaccines recommended in the provincial immunization schedule that year. The regions both submitted tables that outline HepB and HPV figures among children born in 2007. Southerns data included Tdap rates for students born in 2005, as well as 2004, because the program targets both grades 8 and 9 students in the region. Prairie Mountains data includes a combination of grade 8 and 9 students in 2018-19, as well as the total pupils in that category who received the vaccine. Southern averages: Grade 6 Hep B (44 per cent); Grade 6 HPV (45.8 per cent); and Grade 8 Tdap (55.4 per cent). Prairie Mountain averages: Grade 6 Hep B (59.8 per cent); Grade 6 HPV (65.5 per cent); and Grade 8-9 Tdap (31.8 per cent). Northern The Northern Health Region provided school immunization data for programs  including the Grade 6 HepB, Grade 6 HPV and Grade 8 Tdap  in the school districts of Thompson and area in 2018-19. Thompson-area averages: Grade 6 Hep B (17 per cent); Grade 6 HPV (66 per cent); and Grade 8 Tdap (57 per cent). Note: In September 2019, Manitoba adjusted its immunization schedule to start to offer the Meningococcal vaccine as part of the Grade 6 school vaccination program. Close

"Theres the direct protection you get from vaccination but its also part of a social contract that we have with each other," said Shannon MacDonald, an assistant professor of nursing at the University of Alberta, who studies determinants of vaccine uptake. "For the same reason that we dont blow through a red light and risk hitting somebody else, we get vaccinated so that somebody else doesnt get sick."

Every vaccine is unique, as are the reasons an individual chooses to get or abstain from a shot, but health-care professionals often encounter similar questions and concerns around hesitancy: a grey area in which patients are in limbo about whether to get vaccinated, often because of issues around access and trust.

In an effort to gauge how Manitobas longtime immunization programs are doing and pinpoint where rates are both stellar or subpar, the Free Press sought out school-by-school vaccination rates for annual shots offered via school immunization programs.

"(Vaccine coverage numbers are) a fantastic place to start, because that can show us where we might need to be focusing some more attention," said Julie Bettinger, a professor of pediatrics at the Vaccine Evaluation Center, which is jointly supported by the BC Childrens Hospital Research Institute and University of British Columbia.

"If your vaccine coverage is 50 per cent, thats probably an indication that you need to figure out whats going on there. It doesnt mean that the 50 per cent who arent vaccinated are all hesitant or that theyre all resisting vaccines, but it does indicate that theres a problem."

The vaccine with an image problem It was only five years ago that Manitoba expanded its human papillomavirus virus (HPV) vaccination program to include both boys and girls. Before that, dating back to its inception in 2008, the annual school immunization program aimed at protecting against HPV  a sexually transmitted disease that can cause cancer and genital warts  was offered only to girls. click to read more It was only five years ago that Manitoba expanded its human papillomavirus virus (HPV) vaccination program to include both boys and girls. Before that, dating back to its inception in 2008, the annual school immunization program aimed at protecting against HPV  a sexually transmitted disease that can cause cancer and genital warts  was offered only to girls. (The vaccine) still suffers from sort of an image problem, if you will, said Dr. Julie Bettinger, who researches vaccine hesitancy and attitudes around immunization uptake at the Vaccine Evaluation Center in British Columbia. I dont think its ever very good when you target a vaccine just to one segment of the population, because then that raises all sorts of questions. The other side of it is its a vaccine that prevents cancer, but the human papillomavirus is spread through sexual contact so right there, suddenly, it gets quite complicated to talk about. The premise behind the initial rollout in Canada was to protect girls from cervical cancer, but the program has been expanded in recognition that anyone can be a carrier of HPV, for which there is no cure. In fact, an estimated 75 per cent of sexually active Canadians will have at least one HPV infection in their lifetime, according to Health Canada. In 2018-19, average uptake for both doses of the Gardasil vaccine in Winnipeg was 69 per cent, according to school year-end vaccination reports obtained by the Free Press. That figure is six per cent less than uptake for both hepatitis B (HepB) shots, which are also part of the annual Grade 6 school vaccination campaigns. Thats a sign that people are selectively refusing HPV vaccination, said Dr. Shannon MacDonald, who researches determinants of vaccine uptake at the University of Alberta. MacDonald, an assistant professor of nursing, attributes the lingering hesitancy around the vaccine to how it was first rolled out; public health messaging touted Gardasil as a shot to prevent sexually transmitted disease. A lot of parents and schools and religious organizations balked at that, Why are we giving Grade (6s) a vaccine against a sexually transmitted disease? she said. A professor of community health sciences at the University of Manitoba, Michelle Driedger said some schools  particularly private and religious-based schools  in Manitoba have been reluctant to even send information home to parents about the vaccine so families can make an informed choice. A single school in Winnipeg, Al-Hijra Islamic School in River East, had zero per cent uptake for the vaccine in 2018-19. Norquay School and Ralph Brown School, both elementary schools in the Point Douglas area with significant Indigenous populations, had the second- and third-lowest uptake numbers, at 23.1 per cent and 27.3 per cent, respectively. Public health officials could do a much better job at promoting the HPV vaccine as one that protects patients against cancer, MacDonald said. She added, Yes, its a sexually transmitted disease, (but) were giving it to your child at the age when we know that a) it works most effectively and b) its before even the minority of kids have started sexual activity. Owing to parent concerns that their middle schoolers are too young to be vaccinated against HPV, some Manitoba physicians set up alternate vaccination schedules with their patients to administer Gardasil shots later than Grade 6. Ultimately, Bettinger said debunking myths and misconceptions is key. HPV is still a relatively new vaccine and parents continue to have questions about why its needed and how safe it is, said the professor of pediatrics at the University of British Columbia. Could we set up a conversation with parents at (low-uptake schools) to help them better understand why its still important that their children get this vaccine? she said. And understand that its actually preventing cancer and will protect their reproductive health rather than harm it?  Maggie Macintosh Close

Should perceptions of public healths trustworthiness affect uptake of an existing vaccine in one community, its unlikely members of that community will have faith in the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, Bettinger noted.

Every academic year, public health nurses across the province run free school vaccination clinics for students in Grade 6 to receive two doses of both the hepatitis B (hep B) and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines.

The former protects against a disease that attacks the liver and increases risk of organ failure, cancer or cirrhosis, while the latter is to protect against a sexually transmitted disease that can cause cancer and genital warts.

Nurses also offer in-school shots for students in Grade 8 or 9, depending on the district, to get the tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis (Tdap) vaccine  protection against bacterial infections and whooping cough.

Students can also get these jabs at a doctors office, should they miss the school clinic date or choose to do so for whatever reason.

Following a series of Free Press freedom-of-information requests, Manitobas five regional health authorities provided a patchwork of data for these vaccines during the most recent uninterrupted academic year, 2018-19. (In fall 2019, the Meningococcal vaccine was added to the Grade 6 program.)

Aside from the Northern Health Region, which only had data for students in the Thompson area, every authority provided region-wide averages in some form. Overall, the data, which was obtained after months of delays, indicate no health region is achieving even 80 per cent uptake, the lowest end of the herd-immunity spectrum, for any of the doses recommended by Manitoba Public Health in these grades.

The data show Interlake-Eastern has the highest vaccination rates for both hep B and Tdap in the province, with 78 per cent of its student populations fully vaccinated against these diseases. In Winnipeg, 69 per cent of Grade 6 pupils in 2018-19 received the recommended two jabs to prevent HPV.

On the bottom end of the list, Northern reported rates of 17 per cent for hep B, Southern had 45.8 per cent of sixth graders receive their HPV shots, and 31.8 per cent of Grade 8s in Prairie Mountain received the Tdap jab.

Percentage of Grade 6 students in Winnipeg with at least two doses of the Hepatitis B vaccine

"The risk, when vaccination coverage drops, are potential outbreaks of disease," said MacDonald in a phone call from Edmonton. "If coverage rates drop for pertussis vaccine, we see babies in the ICU on ventilators with whooping cough."

If vaccination rates drop for hep B and HPV, which are bloodborne or sexually transmitted infections, the impact is seen years later, she said, noting one result is rising numbers of preventable deaths related to cervical cancer.

Only the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority provided a breakdown of schools, except for those with fewer than 20 eligible pupils in the respective grades, and the percentage that was up-to-date with Manitobas immunization schedule. Other regions indicated they did not have such specific data.

The average rates for uptake of two shots of both hep B and HPV, offered during annual school clinics at the 148 Winnipeg schools, is 75 per cent and 69 per cent, respectively. Immunization rates for tetanus boosters among Grade 8 students is even lower, with less than half of the student population in Winnipeg adequately immunized against the infection.

The Winnipeg health authority declined multiple requests to contextualize the data and provide information on vaccination strategies. Manitoba Public Health also declined interview requests, offering instead generic statements about how vaccines are recorded  data from health regions about school programs and individual doctors information ends up in a massive information management system  and monitored.

The province relies on annual reports that document immunization surveillance and communicable diseases, as well as a provincial immunization registry, in planning vaccination strategies, according to a provincial spokesperson. The most recent reports posted are from 2017.

However, there are no provincial-specific targets for hep B, HPV and Tdap in Manitoba.

"Data isnt information and information isnt knowledge and knowledge isnt wisdom. We need data, information, knowledge and wisdom in order to promote public health," said Arthur Schafer, a philosophy professor with expertise in bioethics at the University of Manitoba.

Schafer said that publishing data without any analysis, nor a plan to improve rates in areas with dismal uptake, is hardly useful.

He added that hes surprised at how little public discussion there has been around the health consequences of differential vaccine uptake in Manitoba, what public health officials know about it, and what, if anything, is being done about it.

The variance in what regions collect and absence of consistent data on immunization rates across Canada is "hugely problematic," said Michelle Driedger, a professor of community health sciences at the U of M.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Michelle Driedger, a professor of community health sciences, says the lack of consistently collected data is hugely problematic.

"Our data is terrible We do need to have better centralized reporting. We need to have some consistency. There needs to be some kind of consensus agreement, provincially, federally and territorially, about what we are going to focus on in collecting," said Driedger, who researches health-risk communication and vaccine hesitancy.

Inconsistent data does little to promote confidence in a system charged with the responsibility of public health, she said.

The WRHA data that is available suggests intervention is needed to determine why rates are consistently low, no matter the vaccine, in Transcona, Point Douglas, Inkster and River East  Winnipeg neighbourhoods that ranked among the bottom in uptake for both Grade 6 and 8 school programs in 2018-19.

Norquay School and Ralph Brown School in the Point Douglas area were among the bottom three schools with the lowest rates for hep B (30.8 per cent and 39.4 per cent, respectively); and HPV (23.1 per cent, and 27.3 per cent, respectively).

As for the percentage of students with up-to-date tetanus shots, Our Lady of Victory School in Riverview, and Inkster-area schools Cecil Rhodes School and Shaughnessy Park had rates under 20 per cent.

"The numbers are so low. I cant believe it. If thats truly the school immunization program and its being recorded and reported properly, its a failure. Were not getting herd immunity for a lot of our immunizations," said Feierstein.

Only six per cent of the 148 schools included in the data met the 90 per cent threshold for two doses of the hep B vaccine, while an elementary school in Crescentwood was the only one that also achieved it for the HPV vaccine.

Its a mystery to both Grosvenor School administration and the parent association as to why the school achieved such high buy-in.

There are numerous factors that could be at play when it comes to uptake, be it high or low. For school programs, absenteeism, student anxiety and needle phobia, misplaced consent forms, and language or literacy barriers can affect whether or not a student gets a jab. Newcomer student files might also exclude immunizations received prior to moving to Manitoba.

"Its really discouraging to hear those numbers," said Radean Carter, spokeswoman for the Winnipeg School Division, reflecting on division schools recording some of the lowest rates in the city. "It sounds like we need to do even more work with our intercultural and community support workers to help increase those numbers."

The translation of consent forms is an easy fix in comparison to addressing systemic distrust and other deep-rooted factors that cause hesitancy.

Feierstein said there needs to be a re-think about how vaccinations are provided in many areas in the city, given the school vaccination data, which indicates many schools with low rates are in communities with poverty and notable racialized populations.

"If we agree that theres vaccine hesitancy, the only way youre going to get more people immunized is to make it the easiest thing possible," the pediatrician said. "If you make it difficult, they have 600 reasons why theyre not going to go get their vaccine."

Amid the COVID-19 vaccination rollout, the team at Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre, which provides the urban Indigenous population in Winnipeg with community-based programs and services, has been conducting surveys about vaccination.

Executive director Diane Redsky said fear of both the unknown and the health-care system in general have been common themes of hesitation in the inner city, North End and Elmwood. "For Indigenous people, (hesitancy stems from) a combination of access and the relationship we have with the public health system. It has not always been favourable. Theres some mistrust, and some of that is very true with experiences of systemic racism," said Redsky, who is Ojibwe from Shoal Lake 40 First Nation.

Those reasons might contribute to the low rates in schools with high Indigenous populations in the inner city, including Norquay and Ralph Brown.

Ma Mawi is running a COVID-19 vaccination centre, in part to address some of these concerns; staff will also do door-to-door outreach in the North End to let residents know about the trusted community-organization-run centre.

"This (pandemic) will be a learning experience, I believe, for the province, in how to prioritize vulnerable populations," said Redsky.

In the opposite end of the city, in Dr. Ruth Grimes practice in southwest Winnipeg, students who are not up-to-date with their immunizations tend to come from either wealthy families or families from low socioeconomic backgrounds.

JESSE BOILY / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS files Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centres Diane Redsky says a fear of the unknown and general distrust of the health-care system are among the concerns for Indigenous peoples.

"The outcome is the same, but the underlying trigger is very different," said Grimes, a community primary care and consultative pediatrician.

Whereas parents who are trying to make ends meet may not prioritize immunizations because of urgent concerns relevant to daily living, such as food insecurity, higher income caregivers may have more time to do research and question the pharmaceutical industry.

Researchers have found hesitancy is frequently associated with highly educated parents who actively seek out information.

It is often easier to find false information about vaccinations online than it is to find facts, said Driedger, who studies health risk communications.

Anti-vaxxer campaigns package bogus science in a way that appears to be very convincing, she said, noting the myth that vaccinations cause autism  which has been repeatedly debunked by legitimate science  has resonated with parents.

Misinformation aside, Driedger listed cultural and religious beliefs, as well as traditional conservative ideals that favour individual choice rather than government interference, as other factors that affect hesitancy and outright rejection.

"Even though doing nothing is still a decision, sometimes parents will feel more comfortable in making a decision not to immunize their child, even though their child might get exposure to that disease and maybe they catch it and maybe they even develop serious consequences and they might even die," she said.

"But in their minds, its like, That was fate or That was Gods will  theres other ways of rationalizing."

Percentage of Grade 8 students in Winnipeg with at least six doses of tetanus toxoid antigen

Some of these factors could be playing into Southern Healths statistics trailing behind other regions, overall, she said, adding that Southern  home to Manitobas so-called Bible Belt  traditionally has lower rates than other areas.

"The vast majority of people are not opposed to vaccination; the latest numbers in Canada (are) that between two and five per cent of people would say, Im not getting my kids vaccines because I dont believe in them or theyre not safe," said MacDonald, of the University of Alberta.

Meantime, she said approximately 20 to 25 per cent of Canadian parents start vaccinating their children, but are behind on immunizations or miss doses. In order to bridge the gap, she prescribes better awareness about immunization schedules, and quality data collection and information-sharing between health-care providers.

In particular, Tdap immunization rates across the province suggest families are not as aware of the shot as they should be, or that tetanus boosters are required every 10 years, said Grimes, incoming president of the Canadian Paediatric Society.

The Winnipeg pediatrician added, "When you dont see and hear of these illnesses, it comes out of the familys consciousness."

If distrust is affecting immunization, recruiting well-known leaders in a community to promote facts about vaccination is one strategy to improve immunization rates.

Adjusting communication strategies, tailoring messaging to unique vaccines, and ramping up reminders could address low rates in areas where accurate information is not making it into parents hands. As for problems around access and transportation, setting up mobile clinics or programs in community hubs could go a long way in improving rates.

The first step, however, is determining whats behind the numbers.

A bioethics researcher, Schafer wants to know if health officials have actually conducted surveys or knocked on doors in communities with low figures to find out whats behind them.

From his perspective, public health has an obligation to investigate rates, undertake empirical research to find out why they are so low in particular areas, and then take appropriate remedial actions.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS files Arthur Schafer, an expert in bioethics at the University of Manitoba, says the lack of discussion regarding the health consequences arising from low vaccination rates is surprising.

Manitoba undertook a childhood immunization mapping project between April 2017 and March 2020 to look into coverage for measles, pertussis, HPV and rotavirus at select ages by geographic district in the five health regions, according to a provincial spokesperson.

The spokesperson said the maps and coverage results were then shared with health-care providers and regional health authority stakeholders to identify causes of low immunization rates.

"By shifting the discussion to local district level, local intervention strategies could be developed, tailored and implemented, as opposed to one size fits all solutions at the regional health authority or provincial level," the spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement.

The results and whether officials will work directly with schools to boost rates remains to be seen.

Ideally, officials should work with community members to identify problems, as well as solutions that are meaningful to them, said Bettinger, who researches vaccine hesitancy and attitudes around uptake.

However, she said its unlikely any real progress can be made if public health continues to be underfunded and pressured to roll out vaccines at the lowest cost.

One way primary-care providers can pitch-in is to use every meeting with a patient  be it during a routine check-up or urgent hospital visit  as an opportunity to address vaccination status, said Grimes.

Doctors Manitoba recently launched the "Ask a Doctor" campaign to promote accurate information about the COVID-19 vaccines.

The expansion of such a site to include information about other vaccines could be of great use to physicians who are trying to convince patients to get a shot, said Driedger.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS A tray of syringes and other vaccination supplies at Sterling Lyon Health Centre.

The U of M academics recent study on the immunization experiences of newcomers suggests strong recommendations about vaccination from trusted physicians are also critical.

In late 2019, Driedger interviewed Nigerian mothers who had recently immigrated to Winnipeg about their attitudes towards immunization. One common theme she found among respondents was that, although these women were very vaccine-accepting, they reported that Manitoba doctors "wishy-washy" language about vaccines was off-putting.

By contrast, they indicated they received thorough breakdowns from health-care professionals in Nigeria, who outlined each disease-preventable vaccine and possible side effects, as well as each disease and all of the risk factors associated with it during appointments.

"There was always a complete sense of what they were getting into, but there was still always that really strong recommendation," she said, adding that in Winnipeg, these women felt vaccination was posed more as a choice.

"Its either important or it isnt, so you shouldnt be wishy-washy about it... That was their perspective."

While Health Canada has approved the use of Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine for people who are age 16 and older, Manitoba has yet to announce plans to immunize anyone younger than 18 against the novel coronavirus.

It also remains unclear when and if the province will take into consideration the National Advisory Committee on Immunizations recommendation that youth who are high risk and between the ages of 12 and 15 should be eligible for Pfizer shots.

But in Grimes sterile office at the Sterling Lyon Health Centre, she has already started to gauge patient feelings about the new vaccines.

"It is coming, and so in appropriate age groups, I will start planting the seed, and I would have to say that most parents are actually on board with the idea, in my practice and in my world," she said. "It certainly has been heartening to me."

Despite all the lives lost and on hold during the pandemic, Grimes recently had a conversation with a parent who was resolute in their decision their child would not receive a vaccine.

"I dont think theres any way of understanding where that (anti-vaxxer) mindset comes from; its like faith, people cant understand it, but others are immovable by it," she said.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Dr. Ruth Grimes, a consultative pediatrician, says the underlying trigger for low uptakes can differ depending on families circumstances.

One challenge leading to hesitancy is the newness of COVID-19 vaccines, but Grimes said what is known about the severity of infection is invaluable in promoting them.

Also concerning for her is fears about the virus, which are preventing families from booking or attending doctors appointments and getting caught up on immunizations.

Education disruptions have also interfered with the annual school-based vaccination programs.

Given so many children are getting behind on their immunizations because of the pandemic, vaccine-preventable outbreaks are a real possibility, said Amila Heendeniya, an infectious disease physician at the U of M.

"I bet you anything we will see more HPV-related outbreaks in the future, because of this pandemic wave," Heendeniya said.

"Unfortunately, itll affect the demographic thats already facing low health care, who dont have the time to take time out of their day to chase down doctors and chase down vaccines."

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @macintoshmaggie
With Manitoba sitting on a COVID-19 vaccine stockpile twice the size of North Dakota's, more questions are being raised about a plan to send school staff from this province south of the border to get their shot.

With Manitoba sitting on a COVID-19 vaccine stockpile twice the size of North Dakota's, more questions are being raised about a plan to send school staff from this province south of the border to get their shot.

On Friday, state officials reported having a supply of 56,494 doses. Manitoba had 109,445 unadministered doses on hand.

North Dakota health official, teachers, opposition baffled by premier's announcement Click to Expand MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Premier Brian Pallister and Dr. Brent Roussin, chief provincial public health officer, announce further restrictions during a press conference at the Manitoba Legislative building Monday afternoon. 210426 - Monday, April 26, 2021. Posted: 7:00 PM Apr. 29, 2021 Manitoba teachers and a North Dakota health official were caught off guard Thursday when Premier Brian Pallister announced that school staff in this province would soon be able to cross the border to get vaccinated in North Dakota. "This is a crazy, Band-Aid solution," said James Bedford, president of the Manitoba Teachers' Society, Thursday. He said he learned about the plan to enable teachers and school staff to drive across the border into the U.S. to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, as he listened to premier's news conference Thursday. Read Full Story

"You don't need to be a teacher to do the math on this one," NDP Leader Wab Kinew said. "Manitoba has almost twice as many doses of the COVID vaccine as North Dakota," he told reporters.

"Because of the Pallister government, apparently we're going to ask Manitoba teachers to go North Dakota to get their vaccination. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me."

During a news conference Thursday to announce summer job funding, Premier Brian Pallister mentioned a plan for school staff to get vaccinated in North Dakota. That state has generously shared some of its surplus vaccine with border-crossing Manitoba truckers at a pop-up site at the Drayton rest area off Interstate 29.

Pallister said the details of extending the initiative to Manitoba teachers hadn't been ironed out yet but more information would be available next week.

A spokesperson for North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum confirmed Friday that a plan is in the works.

"Gov. Burgum and Premier Pallister spoke directly about this topic via phone midday Wednesday, and the governor was receptive to the concept," Mike Nowatzki said in an email to the Free Press.

MIKE MCCLEARY / ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum

"Since then, our teams have been working out the details and logistics, and we hope to have more information to release next week.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday that an arrangement is far from a done deal.

"Conversations are still very much ongoing around waiving quarantine requirements," Trudeau said in response to a Free Press question during a Parliament Hill news briefing on a range of topics.

"Thats something that I think all Canadians have a little concern around."

Conversations are still very much ongoing around waiving quarantine requirements. Thats something that I think all Canadians have a little concern around.  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

He noted that the original intent of the North Dakota pilot was for workers already exempt from the Quarantine Act, such as truck drivers.

The prime minister also opted against exchanging barbs with Pallister and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, who said theyve turned to the U.S. because Ottawa has been much slower in procuring vaccines.

"We have been working incredibly hard across the country and around the world to deliver on vaccines," he said, noting shipments have been increasing steadily.

"We are in the full ramp-up phase."

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES NDP Leader Wab Kinew

Kinew said it makes no sense to send teachers and other school staff on a vaccination mission across the border, given the large supply available here.

"The solution, the common sense, which should prevail, is simply to prioritize teachers in Manitoba for vaccines right here," the opposition leader and Fort Rouge MLA said.

So far, close to 400,000 Manitobans have been vaccinated, deputy chief provincial public health officer Dr. Jazz Atwal said Friday, as the province expanded eligibility while reporting 295 new infections.

The work in accessing vaccines for Manitoba school staff across the border is "ongoing," Atwal said, adding more of them will be able to get shots here as eligibility expands. But for the time being, they're not being identified as a priority group.

"The solution, the common sense, which should prevail, is simply to prioritize teachers in Manitoba for vaccines right here."  NDP Leader Wab Kinew

"We have a limited supply of vaccine," Atwal said. "We are prioritizing those at greatest risk. Obviously, if we had vaccine for everyone, we'd be giving out vaccine to everyone. We do have to create these priority groups."

Teachers and school staff can get vaccinated right now in Manitoba if they're age-eligible or they live or work in certain neighbourhoods identified as hot spots because of elevated case counts, he said.

"As more vaccine comes in, we're going to see the ability for everyone to access more vaccines as well," he said.

 With files from Dylan Robertson

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
Grab your loudest pots and pans, and make some noise for physicians this weekend.

Grab your loudest pots and pans, and make some noise for physicians this weekend.

Doctors Manitoba is inviting the public to step out onto porches, driveways or balconies today at 7 p.m., and clang their loudest cookware together in support of physicians provincewide amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Theresa Oswald, chief executive officer of Doctors Manitoba, is inviting Manitobans to step outside today at 7 p.m. and clang their cookware in support of physicians provincewide: We think it will be a real nice way to tell docs how much we care.

"We are humbly asking all Manitobans to join in and help us recognize how doctors have made a difference over the last year," said Theresa Oswald, chief executive officer of Doctors Manitoba. "We think it will be a real nice way to tell docs how much we care."

Pots For Docs aims to pay homage to the front-line doctors helping patients dealing directly with the virus, and the "unsung heroes" whove been quietly clocking extra hours to keep clinics running smoothly.

Organizers encourage participants to share photos and videos of their high-decibel celebrations on social media (#PotsForDocs), along with any positive affirmations or stories about how physicians have helped out during the pandemic.

"Were going weave all those things together and present it to our Manitoba physicians as a sign of appreciation for everything theyre doing," Oswald said. "I think it will be special."

Oswald credits Oly Backstrom for bringing the initiative to the province. "I want to make sure we give credit where credit is due to a real hometown hero."

When the viruss second wave crept up in November, Backstrom wanted to give a shout-out to the provinces health-care workers, after seeing similar projects take off in other parts of the world.

"Pots For Docs kind of rolls off the tongue," he said with a laugh. "A little bit of a hashtag catchphrase."

He spread the word online, and many communities got on board. Following the first event, Backstroms saw videos online of whole blocks of neighbours standing in their front yards, banging pots and pans.

"That was a lot of fun. We had really great uptake and participation," he said.

Backstrom, head of SCE LifeWorks, a non-profit that helps people with developmental disabilities find work, hopes communities bring that same energy this weekend.

Todays event aligns with third wave of the pandemic presently sweeping though the province and National Physicians Day.

The day honours Dr. Emily Stowe. Born in Norwich, Ont., in 1831, Stowe was a suffragist and one of the first female physicians to earn a licence to practice in Canada.

The Forks will be lighting the "Winnipeg" sign blue to mark the occasion.

Meanwhile, Oswald, the provinces first female health minister (2006-13), said the best way Manitobans can show appreciation for physicians and other health-care workers is to book a vaccine.

"That is our pathway out of here, out of this situation with the pandemic," she said. "If people want to find a concrete, tangible way to say thanks to physicians, they need to  for just a little bit longer  maintain their attentions on the fundamentals the public health physicians are telling us."

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca
Premier Brian Pallisters plan to develop a homegrown vaccine to battle COVID-19 has fallen apart long before a single dose was approved.

Premier Brian Pallisters plan to develop a homegrown vaccine to battle COVID-19 has fallen apart long before a single dose was approved.

Pallister has steadfastly defended his deal with Providence Therapeutics in the face of doubts raised by academics and politicians.

Brad Sorenson, the companys CEO, told CBC news Friday hes tired of "the runaround" from both Ottawa and provincial governments and hes ready to move Providence overseas to develop vaccines in the Southern Hemisphere.

"Im moving on, thats where Im at now," Sorenson is quoted as saying. "Ive prostrated myself at the altar of the government in Canada for a year and Ive received nothing for it. Im tired of begging and pleading."

The province quickly assured Manitoba taxpayers they wont be on the hook for the $7.2 million non-refundable deposit the government was to give the vaccine developer.

"Manitobas agreement with Providence Therapeutics has not been finalized and, as such, no payments have been made," said Blake Roberts, director of media relations and issues management of Manitobas executive council.

In February, Pallister announced Manitoba had signed a deal with the Calgary company for two million doses of its yet-to-be-approved vaccine. He said Manitoba would make a 20 per cent down payment of the value of the contract ($7.2 million) and pay an additional 40 per cent once the vaccine was approved by Health Canada. The balance would be paid upon delivery.

There was instant criticism.

A University of Ottawa professor told the Free Press at the time the company was too far behind in its development to catch up with current approved vaccines.

"In no way do I think this is realistic, and the Manitoba government is holding out very speculative, almost certainly false, hope," said Amir Attaran, a professor in the faculty of law and the school of epidemiology and public health.

"I think the prospect of Manitoba receiving vaccine from Providence by Dec. 31, which I understand to be the agreement, is in the realm of fantasy."

In an interview with the Free Press three weeks ago, Sorenson said enrolment in the Phase 1 trial of its messenger RNA vaccine was complete, and the preliminary data from a blinded study showed its immune response to be equal to or better than those of similar Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech products.

"If what were seeing now is confirmed... we will have a best-in-class vaccine," he said at the time, adding the initial test data would be made public.

The office of federal Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne noted that Ottawa had invested $10 million to help Providence with its early trials, but placed orders only for vaccine candidates that a scientific panel deemed most likely to be effective and timely enough to immunize Canadians.

"We continue to follow Providences progress closely, and are committed to working with the company to provide support on further milestones as results are demonstrated from their clinical trials," wrote spokesman John Power.

Manitoba could still benefit from a locally produced Providence vaccine if it goes ahead, the provincial spokesman said.

"While Providence is the developer of the vaccine, their Canadian partners Northern RNA and Emergent Biosolutions remain an integral part of Providences vaccine production plans," Roberts said in an email.

"A finalized agreement would still result in vaccines for Manitoba being produced at Emergents facility in Winnipeg, which supports our governments efforts to enhance domestic vaccine production."

Manitobas Opposition party wasnt buying the governments assurances in response to Fridays news.

"Just like he rushed a plan to send teachers to North Dakota, the premier rushed into a non-refundable deal with a company no one had heard of and wasted $7.2 million of Manitobans money in the process," said a statement from NDP finance critic Mark Wasyliw.

"This is crony capitalism at its finest  the premier focusing on insider deals and political wins instead of rolling out a vaccine strategy that works. His bad deal means Manitobans get ripped off. That money would have been better spent on a faster vaccine rollout."

 with files from Dylan Robertson

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
A Manitoba man has been convicted of manslaughter for the death of a man whose remains were discovered only after they had been unearthed by animals.

A Manitoba man has been convicted of manslaughter for the death of a man whose remains were discovered only after they had been unearthed by animals.

Rylan McKay, 27, stood trial earlier this month for second-degree murder in the June 2017 killing of 44-year-old Wallace Catagas on Tootinaowaziibeeng First Nation.

In a decision issued Wednesday, Queens Bench Justice Sandra Zinchuk convicted McKay of the lesser charge, ruling he was too intoxicated by alcohol and cocaine to form the intent to commit murder.

Court heard RCMP were called to the First Nation some 170 kilometres northwest of Brandon on July 1, 2017, after a resident reported a dog had found what appeared to be part of a human skull.

Investigators later found pieces of skull, mandible, legs, and vertebrae scattered up to 200 metres apart.

Dental records confirmed the remains belonged to Catagas. Court heard testimony the remains had been disturbed and eaten by animals.

Catagas was McKays mothers common-law husband.

Court heard evidence at trial McKay beat Catagas on the head with a metal pole June 17, 2017, after Catagas had allegedly assaulted McKays mother earlier in the evening.

There was no forensic evidence tying McKay to the killing, only the testimony of four witnesses who told police he had confessed.

McKays former girlfriend testified he admitted to the killing, and threatened to kill her and other members of her family if she told anyone.

McKay remains in custody. He will be sentenced at a later date.
First Nations officials are urging Indigenous Manitobans to get vaccinated as more infectious COVID-19 variants surge on and off reserves.

First Nations officials are urging Indigenous Manitobans to get vaccinated as more infectious COVID-19 variants surge on and off reserves.

"The average age of deaths is going down for First Nations people," Dr. Marcia Anderson said Friday, the same week two First Nations people in their 20s died from COVID-19.

The First Nations Pandemic Response Co-ordination Team reported a five-fold increase in variant cases in just 10 days.

On April 20, 14 people living on reserves were infected with a variant; the number jumped to 92 by April 30.

Off-reserve, variant cases spiked from 45 to 231 in Manitoba.

Both are concerning, as First Nations residents are more likely to live in cramped housing and have weaker immune systems due to decades of inequities.

The pandemic team is working toward giving the required two Moderna vaccine shots before Canada Day to 50,000 people, all of whom either live on reserves or are non-First Nations people living in the most remote corners of the province.

This week, the team rolled out first Moderna doses to all 63 reserves and has started shipments for second shots.

As of Friday, 39 per cent of First Nations people in Manitoba, including those living off-reserve, have received a first COVID-19 vaccine dose; however, officials noted First Nations across the province still need to step up for vaccines to lower the spread of more contagious variants.

Few Pfizer-BioNTech doses were administered to First Nations people in the past week, which suggests Winnipeggers are not showing up to the downtown supersite, despite First Nations being eligible from age 30 and up, Anderson said.

Melanie MacKinnon, a nurse overseeing the pandemic team, said First Nations need to respect public health rules while those vaccines get into arms to avoid more outbreaks that strain the health system.

"This is a critical time for all of us  if we want any semblance of a summer, or gathering with our families again  to go down to one household, or no visitors," she said, adding Winnipeg clinics tailored towards First Nations are only meant for people who meet the criteria.

First Nations people without status qualify for these sites and officials are supposed to screen out those pretending to be First Nations, though it remains unclear how this process works.

"We respectfully ask that those clinics be utilized by the communities they're intended to serve," MacKinnon said.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
OTTAWA  Service Canada has pulled out of St. Vital, leaving southeast Winnipeg with no federal office where people can get help with unemployment and pension issues.

OTTAWA  Service Canada has pulled out of St. Vital, leaving southeast Winnipeg with no federal office where people can get help with unemployment and pension issues.

The agency said the 1001 St. Marys Rd. location was too crowded, so it moved to a larger site in River Heights.

"Theres no rhyme or reason," said Howard Kazuska, who said he often saw two dozen people lined up outside the office, which has limited visitors due to COVID-19 protocols.

Service Canada centres are often used by people with disabilities or limited Internet access, particularly with libraries closed.

Despite being next to an Employment Manitoba office, Service Canada closed its St. Vital branch April 16 and moved it to 1450 Taylor Ave.

"These decisions are based on a number of considerations such as suitability for service delivery, and are based on the results of the competitive tendering process which includes analysis of market availability," wrote Megan Fulton, as spokeswoman for Employment and Social Development Canada.

The department said it had issued three tenders since 2016 to find an appropriate site. The intent was to find a spot in the area of Winnipeg that has a large francophone population, but Ottawa had to keep widening the geographic boundary until it found a spot.

Service Canada operates other branches at Portage Place, 2599 Main St. and 3393 Portage Ave.

That means a 40-minute bus ride for people in Transcona or inner St. Vital.

"Its a pretty good hike, especially when its -40 C here," said Kazuska. "There are people with walkers; theres often a mother with one or two kids in tow."

He reached out to area MP, Liberal Dan Vandal, who sits in the federal cabinet, who responded that he wasnt aware of the move.

"Like you, I only found out about the move when it was made public; I was not consulted beforehand," Vandal said in an email to Kazuska.

"I am deeply concerned by this decision and the loss of services in the area. I am currently advocating for the community to see what solutions can found."

Service Canada said it consulted with the province and the Societe de la francophonie manitobaine about the move, and opted to double the hours it offers some services at the Access Centre at 170 Goulet St. in St. Boniface.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
The chief of the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service is set to retire, in the wake of severe in-fighting within his department.

The chief of the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service is set to retire, in the wake of severe in-fighting within his department.

In a memo sent to all WFPS staff Friday, John Lane announced his last working day will be Aug. 13, followed by some vacation time.

"My emotions are very mixed on making this announcement. It has been an honour and a privilege to lead the WFPS for these seven years There will always be more work to do, but 2021 marks my 40th year in emergency services. I look forward to fulfillment of family and personal life in retirement," Lane wrote in the memo.

The departure triggered a mixed response.

In a blunt, written statement, the union that represents Winnipeg paramedics called it an "opportunity for the City of Winnipeg to turn a new page and bring meaningful change to address the deplorable workplace culture at the WFPS."

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Winnipeg Fire and Paramedic Chief John Lane.

"For far too long at the WFPS, incidents of racism, discrimination, bullying and sexism have not been appropriately dealt with. This tolerance of inappropriate behaviour has been allowed to continue and has created an often toxic environment for dedicated paramedics," said Michelle Gawronsky, president of the Manitoba Government and General Employees Union.

"Were hopeful that the city will use this opportunity to repair the damage that has been done in this workplace, and to set a completely new tone at the top. We wish chief Lane a healthy retirement."

In March, the relationship between city paramedics and firefighters appeared to hit a new low, as the union wrote to Mayor Brian Bowman to demand the immediate removal of paramedics from WFPS stations.

In a letter obtained by the Free Press, Gawronsky alleged paramedics have endured an "intimidating and hostile" work environment.

In October 2020, a WFPS paramedic accused four firefighters of refusing to help provide medical care for a 23-year-old Indigenous woman who had stabbed herself in the throat.

A consultant hired to investigate the allegations found the firefighters declined to give requested medical assistance and delayed the patients transportation to hospital by two minutes. She also found the firefighters conduct was likely motivated by implicit (or unconscious) racial bias.

In a leaked memo following that finding, however, Lane wrote: "The possibility of racial animus towards the ambulance paramedic that was raised in the report was determined to be unfounded." He later backtracked, telling media the finding was not "unfounded" but actually "could not be verified."

Meanwhile, a second union leader credited Lane with advocating for all members of the WFPS.

"Chief Lane was a strong advocate for (the) health and safety of firefighters, he was a strong advocate for proper funding of the fire paramedic program," said Alex Forrest, president of United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg.

On Friday, Bowman said he appreciated the outgoing chiefs willingness to address allegations of racism in his department and ensure staff receive anti-oppression and cultural competency training.

"It has been an honour and a privilege to lead the WFPS for these seven years There will always be more work to do, but 2021 marks my 40th year in emergency services. I look forward to fulfillment of family and personal life in retirement."  John Lane

The mayor said conflict among WFPS members began before Lane joined the service.

"I think theres long-standing issues between the leadership of two of those unions, in particular, that predate the chiefs term and that will be an ongoing challenge," said Bowman.

Coun. Sherri Rollins, protection committee chairwoman, credited Lane for ramping up the citys emergency management team, while also deeming department in-fighting to be a long-standing issue.

"That was the state of Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service prior to chief Lanes arrival. There, for sure, were some bumps in the road," said Rollins.

Lane was not available for interviews Friday.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga
Opinion

PERHAPS a special occasion in our household deserves a special meal. Someone offers a three-word dinner suggestion: "Lets order in."

While it may be because no one in the house wants to cook, the suggestion can be bolstered if necessary by an appeal to the greater good: were commendably community-minded when we support Manitobas eateries that have been hard hit by pandemic restrictions.

The next decision is which app to use for delivery: SkipTheDishes, DoorDash or Uber Eats?

The correct answer is none of them, according to Manitobas independent restaurants. Dont use any of the apps. Theyre the faces of food-delivery companies that charge restaurants sky-high commissions, up to 30 per cent, even though restaurants typically operate on a razor-thin profit margin of five to 10 per cent.

Somethings rotten in the Manitoba food industry when struggling restaurants are forced to pay such high commissions to third-party companies that deliver their food. They dont buy the food, or cook the food, or package the meals; they only transport the meal to our front steps. Restaurants fight to survive, while the delivery companies have seen a boom in business thanks to pandemic restrictions that keep restaurant patrons at home.

That could change if the Manitoba Restaurant and Foodservices Association gets its way. The organizations CEO, Shaun Jeffrey, said it has lobbied the provincial government to clamp down on excessive fees by delivery companies.

"There is no cap present in Manitoba, although we have asked the provincial government to work with us to institute one," he told me in an email. "We still rely heavily on delivery and the commission fees are very hurtful to operators who are struggling to keep their doors open.

The plight of restaurants hasnt gone unnoticed by government. The Manitoba government gave $5 million to the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce to design a rebate plan for restaurant delivery costs. And many big U.S. cities and several Canadian provinces have capped third-party delivery fees, most of them temporarily until the pandemic ends and restaurants can resume indoor dining.

In some cases, the food-delivery companies themselves have found it in their best interest to help sustain the restaurant industry. After all, the relationship is mutually beneficial. When restaurants close, there are fewer calls for food delivery.

Kevin Edwards, CEO of SkipTheDishes, put it this way in an opinion column he wrote last year for the Free Press: "SkipTheDishes is only successful if our restaurant partners are successful. We have no vested interest in seeing them struggle or fail."

His company, which is headquartered in Winnipeg, announced a pandemic package of supports and rebates to restaurants worth $15 million.

Someone who has thought deeply about this situation is Corey Mintz, the Winnipeg-based food industry critic who recently published the book The Next Supper: The End of Restaurants As We Knew Them, and What Comes After.

He writes how the delivery companies are the "dirty little secret" of the hospitality industry, in terms of both how they treat restaurants and how they treat their drivers, the front-line employees who arrive on our doorsteps carrying insulated bags filled with warm meals.

The companies call their drivers "independent contractors," which Mintz says is a way to skirt labour laws and avoid paying their workers minimum wage, overtime, holiday pay and additional insurance for the workers private vehicles that are used to deliver food.

Hes writes about union-led legal battles in the U.S. that have tried to win stronger rights for so-called gig workers, and he predicts Canada will see more legal challenges to improve the working conditions of such workers here. But until then, whats a hungry family to do when a special occasion warrants a special restaurant meal, but no one in the household feels inclined to go pick it up from the restaurant?

One way to bypass the food-delivery companies is offered by Lets Order Delivery, an online directory of local restaurants that offer in-house delivery services. You order from a restaurant, they bring you the meal, they keep 100 per cent of your money. And your decision to deal directly with the restaurant increases the chances it will be in business for many meals to come.

carl.degurse@freepress.mb.ca

Carl DeGurse is a member of the Free Press editorial board.
Whatever your particular viewpoint, it is indisputable that Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitobas chief public health officer, has had an impossibly tough job the past year. In combatting the COVID-19 pandemic, he has not only had to manage the provinces public-health regulations, but also heed Brian Pallister, a micro-managing premier, who has his own agenda when it comes to balancing health and economics.

Opinion

Whatever your particular viewpoint, it is indisputable that Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitobas chief public health officer, has had an impossibly tough job the past year. In combatting the COVID-19 pandemic, he has not only had to manage the provinces public-health regulations, but also heed Brian Pallister, a micro-managing premier, who has his own agenda when it comes to balancing health and economics.

Throughout this ordeal, Roussins public profile has exponentially increased. Frequently appearing on television news shows and the subject of intense media scrutiny, his efforts to mitigate the pandemic have been frequently challenged.

FILE PHOTO: L.B. Foote Masked Free Press newsboys pose for a photo during the 1918 influenza epidemic.

His latest dictum  in place until the end of May  forbidding indoor gatherings, among other restrictions, will infuriate some Manitobans for not going far enough and others for going too far. Occasionally defensive, like other public officials, Roussin remains steadfast that the approach he has taken has been and remains the correct one.

More than a 100 years ago, the dynamics were much different. During the influenza pandemic of 1918-19, Dr. M. Stuart Fraser, Manitobas first provincial health officer, did not have to deal with an interfering premier; the affable Liberal party premier Tobias Norris, in office from 1915 to 1922, was the exact opposite of Pallister in style and temperament.

Nor did Fraser have to worry about sharp daily comments on social media, or regular criticism and second-guessing from newspaper columnists; opinion articles in this era (most were unsigned) were more polite and less personal. Yet given the inadequacies of scientific and medical knowledge at the time, the challenges Fraser faced were arguably more difficult.

Born in White Lake, Ont., west of Ottawa in 1860, Fraser later moved with his family to Manitoba. He received a BA in 1887 from the University of Manitoba and his medical degree three years later from the Manitoba Medical College. He furthered his medical training in Toronto and Edinburgh. The first two and a half decades of his career as a physician were spent in Brandon before he relocated to Winnipeg to take up his new position with the government in 1916  a job he held until his retirement in 1931.

In mid-October 1918, when the pandemic was in its second and most deadly phase, Fraser had no choice but to designate it "a contagious infectious disease." The proclamation gave him wide powers to quarantine individuals who were ill and temporarily halt all public gatherings  including closing schools, university theatres, and churches and other religious institutions.

Curiously, he did not shut down department stores and restaurants. Streetcars were also permitted to operate. Neither was there a compulsory mask mandate. Alberta did institute one for a brief time and other provinces encouraged their use. So, too, did the Town of Minnedosa, which required that masks be worn at stores and other businesses.

But there were legitimate health concerns about keeping the cloth masks  no disposable ones in those days  properly sanitized and germ-free. Still, many Winnipeggers did wear them including a group of young Free Press carriers photographed by Lewis Foote in an iconic picture of the 1918 pandemic.

Even as the situation grew dire, Fraser remained optimistic. "Things are looking very satisfactory," he reported on Oct. 18, even though there had been 72 new cases and two deaths. Ten days later, there were 171 new cases, bringing the total to 330. Fraser conceded that the "disease is undoubtedly widespread," but he insisted "it is being kept within bounds." A week after that, he was predicting that the ban on public gathering could be lifted in the near future.

The flu, however, continued to spread "at an alarming rate," as the Free Press described it, and take lives. By the end of the month, Fraser and his official were forced to echo todays refrain and admit that "prevention is up to the public." Soon, city health officials began putting up placards on the homes of people who were ill, and Fraser adopted a firmer stand that quarantining and health rules had to be followed or prosecutions would follow.

It was not sufficient. As Esyllt Jones notes in her 2007 book on the influenza in Winnipeg, "Frasers threat of prosecution for violation of quarantine was undermined by the increasing sense of disruption in the community." Like Roussin a century later, health officials in 1918, adds Jones, "faced a difficult balancing act between generating enough public concern to guarantee compliance with public health measures, and generating so much concern that fear evolved into panic."

In 1918, various attempts were made to develop vaccines that could counteract influenza  most notably by Dr. Edward Rosenow of the Mayo Clinic. But, alas, Rosenows vaccine and the others failed to provide adequate protection.

Roussin does not have this problem; incredible advancements in science have given him and other health officials across the world vaccines that are effective. Securing a sufficient supply and figuring out how to deliver these vaccines quickly enough to combat the COVID-19 variants is the real problem.

The federal government is looking after the supply, as dicey as that has been during the past few months. Still, regular deliveries of several vaccines have been underway for some time now. The same cannot be said for getting vaccines into the arms of Manitobans as quickly as possible. Despite official assertions to the contrary, that continues to be a work in progress, with much room for improvement.

Now & Then is a column in which historian Allan Levine puts the events of today in a historical context. His most recent book is Details are Unprintable: Wayne Lonergan and the Sensational Cafe Society Murder.
All hat, no cattle is a derisive description favoured by some in the cowpunching trade when they describe individuals whose bluster, posturing and conversational hot air far outstrip their actual hard work and meaningful accomplishment.

All hat, no cattle" is a derisive description favoured by some in the cowpunching trade when they describe individuals whose bluster, posturing and conversational hot air far outstrip their actual hard work and meaningful accomplishment.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister

When it comes to enforcement measures aimed at clamping down on behaviours that defy COVID-19 restrictions and therefore pose threats to the well-being of Manitobans, it could fairly be suggested that Premier Brian Pallister has to date offered up a whole lot of Stetson and very little steer.

Throughout the 14-plus months in which this province has struggled to flatten the COVID-19 curve  with varying degrees of success, dictated in large part by the provinces responses to the ebbs and surges of viral infection  Mr. Pallister has often talked a very good game when it comes to enforcement and penalties.

He has promised, on numerous occasions, that his government will hold accountable those who refuse to adhere to the sensible and measured restrictions imposed in the ongoing effort to limit transmission of the virus within Manitobas borders. But the reality of the purported hard-line enforcement from his tough-love-espousing government has turned out to be something of a rather lackadaisical nature.

For evidence of the contrast between words and deeds, one need look no further than last weekends gathering at The Forks of a few hundred mask-defiant/anti-vaxx-inclined malcontents whose seeming purpose was to bask in the dim lit ambience of their shared abject ignorance. The event had been promoted online for several days in advance  as most such convergences of misinformed mulishness have been in recent months  but this one had the added cachet of a high-profile itinerant agitator to bolster the crowd count by adding an exotic from-away flair to the pandemic-decrying prevarication.

The province would necessarily have been aware that the so-called protest was going to happen, and that it might be larger than some others in the past. As such, one might have imagined a stepped-up effort aimed at limiting  or even, preferably, pre-empting  the assembly would be the preferred manner of applying the enforcement mechanisms.

It was not.

Instead, the event occurred as scheduled; maskless hundreds milled about aimlessly, sharing groundless conspiracy theories and, very possibly, virulent viruses, and "enforcement" amounted to the issuing of a couple of  as in TWO  tickets. Late Friday, nearly a week later, 20 new fines were levied. When asked this week about the tepid response, Mr. Pallister conceded thats a good question, and added he feels "very strongly that we need to do more in terms of enforcement."

For his part, Justice Minister Cameron Friesen pointed out that enforcement staff were, indeed, present at the rally, observing and capturing video, and predicted more tickets would be issued after the gathered evidence was assessed (by late Friday, the total had reached 20). An encouraging suggestion that actions will have consequences, until one considers another report earlier this week outlining how less than 10 per cent of the $1.7 million in pandemic-related fines issued so far have actually been collected.

The closely aligned goals of prevention, deterrence and punishment seem equally underserved by the current arrangement.

The end result of this weeks discussion, it appears, is yet another firm commitment that the province is going to get tough  this time, no fooling around  with health-order scofflaws in an effort to stem what is destined to crest as COVID-19s third and most harrowing wave.

For the purposes of the aforementioned hat/cattle analogy, at least, Manitobas premier seems to have developed a very unique brand of herd immunity.
Brenda Millan didn't qualify for a COVID-19 vaccine before her scheduled breast cancer surgery next week, but she's thrilled she'll be able to get one not long after.

Brenda Millan didn't qualify for a COVID-19 vaccine before her scheduled breast cancer surgery next week, but she's thrilled she'll be able to get one not long after.

After weeks of mounting pressure to vaccinate more people with underlying health conditions, the province dropped age eligibility for residents with certain "priority" health conditions to 30 from 50-65, where it had been since March 10.

Eligibility, appointments Click to Expand Manitobans who work in a vaccine warehouse or any health-care setting including outpatient settings also became eligible for COVID-19 vaccination on Friday. Complete eligibility criteria is available here. Appointments are now being accepted at the mass vaccination clinics in Steinbach and Dauphin, which will open later in May. Appointments at supersites and pop-up clinics can be booked by calling 1-844-626-8222. Bookings for mass vaccination clinics are available online at this link. The province said anyone wanting to book an appointment at Indigenous-led urban vaccination clinics should contact the clinics directly. Ten pop-up clinics will be staged next week across Manitoba, including one in Winnipeg at 1680 Notre Dame Ave., being held from May 4 to 6, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. A complete list of pop-up clinics is available here. - Danielle DaSilva

They will be able to receive the AstraZeneca/Covishield vaccine at medical clinics and pharmacies.

"I'm glad they are listening to the public," said the 34-year-old Millan. "High-risk people will now get the chance to get the shot they need to maintain their health."

In addition, the province announced eligibility for vaccination at supersites and pop-up clinics was being expanded to include people age 18 and older in various categories, including: pregnant women; clients of Community Living disABILITY Services; anyone working in any health-care setting including outpatient settings; and workers at the vaccine warehouse.

And anyone 18 or older living or working in specified jobs in an expanded list of hot-spot communities with rising case numbers are eligible. They include:

 Prairie Mountain Health  Brandon East End and Brandon Downtown

 Winnipeg Regional Health Authority  Inkster West, Fort Garry South, Seven Oaks West, Downtown East, Point Douglas South, Inkster East, Point Douglas North and Downtown West.

 InterlakeEastern Regional Health Authority  Powerview-Pine Falls.

 All adults who live or work (in any role) in the Northern Regional Health Authority, including Churchill.

Janet Forbes, executive director of Inclusion Winnipeg, said she welcomes the changes for people with disabilities, but hopes the rest of the high-risk population is vaccinated before long, as well.

"Expanding vaccine access to people who rely on personal support is necessary and the right thing to do," said Forbes.

"We have a moral obligation to protect our most vulnerable citizens and there are still many... who do not yet have access. We unapologetically want full access for our most vulnerable citizens today."

On March 10, Dr. Joss Reimer, medical lead for the vaccine task force, announced two lists of people age 50-65 with priority high-risk health conditions and disabilities could be vaccinated, including chemotherapy patients, organ-transplant recipients and people with Down syndrome. As well, pregnant women over the age of 35 could also be immunized.

At the time, general age eligibility was limited to First Nations members over 65 and other members of the public 80 and older.

On March 29, health officials stopped offering the AstraZeneca vaccine to people younger than 55 while a rare side-effect causing blood clots was investigated. The province again changed eligibility criteria for that product on April 19, opening up eligibility to anyone 40 or older.

On April 23, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization recommended that the AstraZeneca shot be offered to people 30 years of age and older, if the person doesnt want to wait for an mRNA vaccine and the benefits of receiving the vaccine outweigh the risk.

There were at least 18,491 available doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine Friday, provincial data showed.

Meanwhile, CancerCare Manitoba has been working with public health officials and the task force to get vaccines to cancer patients at increased risk, no matter what their age.

"Because of the complexity of cancer treatment and the type and timing of treatment, we provide patient-specific counselling regarding COVID vaccination and have encouraged all patients to speak to their cancer team," a CancerCare spokeswoman said.

Millan successfully battled breast cancer in 2018, but was diagnosed again last November. She had been getting chemotherapy until about a month ago and she's slated to have surgery next week, as long as she has no COVID-19 symptoms.

That's why she wanted to be vaccinated already.

"I have to take a COVID test before surgery and, if I test positive, the surgery would be delayed," she said.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca
NEW DELHI - A fire in a COVID-19 hospital ward in western India killed 18 patients early Saturday, as the country grappling with the worst outbreak yet stepped up a vaccination drive for all adults even as some states said they don't have enough jabs.

In this photo provided by the U.S. Air Force, Airman 1st Class Fernando Beltran secures oxygen cylinders to a pallet on April 28, 2021, at Travis Air Force Base, Calif. The United States is donating medical supplies to assist the country of India in its fight against COVID-19. The donation of 440 oxygen cylinders and regulators, one million N95 masks and one million COVID-19 rapid diagnostic kits, will be transported to India aboard a U.S. Air Force C-5M Super Galaxy aircraft. (Nicholas Pilch/U.S. Air Force via AP)

NEW DELHI - A fire in a COVID-19 hospital ward in western India killed 18 patients early Saturday, as the country grappling with the worst outbreak yet stepped up a vaccination drive for all adults even as some states said they don't have enough jabs.

India on Saturday set yet another daily global record with 401,993 new cases, taking its tally to more than 19.1 million. Another 3,523 people died in the past 24 hours, raising the overall fatalities to 211,853, according to the Health Ministry. Experts believe both figures are an undercount.

The fire broke out in a COVID-19 ward on the ground floor of the Welfare Hospital in Bharuch, a town in Gujarat state, and was extinguished within an hour, police said. The cause is being investigated.

Thirty-one other patients were rescued from the blaze by hospital workers and firefighters and their condition was stable, said police officer B.M Parmar. Late last month, a fire in an intensive care unit killed 13 COVID-19 patients in the Virar area on the outskirts of Mumbai.

Indias government on Saturday shifted its faltering vaccination campaign into high gear by saying all adults 18 and over could get shots. Since January, nearly 10% of Indians have received one dose, but only around 1.5% have received both, although India is one of the worlds biggest producers of vaccines.

People stand around the Welfare Hospital after a deadly fire in Bharuch, western India, Saturday, May 1, 2021. The fire in a COVID-19 ward of the hospital killed multiple patients early Saturday, as the country grappling with the worst outbreak yet steps up a vaccination drive for all its adults even though some states say don't have enough jabs. (KK PRODUCTIONS via AP)

Some states have already said they dont have enough doses for everyone, and even the ongoing effort to inoculate people above 45 is sputtering.

The state of Maharashtra has said it wont be able to start the expanded vaccinations on Saturday. The health minister for the capital New Delhi, Satyender Jain, said earlier this week that the city doesnt have enough doses to vaccinate people between the ages of 18 and 44.

Indias capital also extended its week-old lockdown by another week to curb the explosive surge in virus cases, tweeted Arvind Kejriwal, a top elected official.

Instructions for COVID-19 patients are seen on a signage in Gujarati next to damaged equipments after a deadly fire at the Welfare Hospital in Bharuch, western India, Saturday, May 1, 2021. The fire in a COVID-19 ward of the hospital killed multiple patients early Saturday, as the country grappling with the worst outbreak yet steps up a vaccination drive for all its adults even though some states say don't have enough jabs. (AP Photo/Viral Rana)

All shops and factories will remain closed until May 9, except for those that provide essential services such as grocery stores. People are not supposed to leave their homes, except for a handful of reasons like seeking medical care or going to the airport or railroad stations. Daily wage earners and small businesses are expected to suffer a further blow to their livelihoods.

Separately, 12 COVID-19 patients, including a doctor, on high-flow oxygen died Saturday at a hospital in New Delhi after it ran out of the supply for 80 minutes, said S.C.L. Gupta, director of Batra Hospital.

Gupta said the hospital has been facing irregular oxygen supply from manufacturers for more than a week, but it exhausted it completely for the first time.

A wreath lies on the coffin of a COVID-19 victim before his cremation in Jammu, India, Friday, April 30, 2021. Indian scientists appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to publicly release virus data that would allow them to save lives as coronavirus cases climbed again Friday, prompting the army to open its hospitals in a desperate bid to control a massive humanitarian crisis. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

He said the hospital tank was refilled with enough oxygen for 12 hours and it will again be looking for replenishment.

The New Delhi television news channel also said an attorney for the Batra hospital complained to a New Delhi court that is hearing petitions by several hospitals on the issue.

Hospitals in the Indian capital have been complaining of emergencies caused by irregular oxygen supplies from manufacturers due to the sudden rise in demand caused by the massive spike in infections.

A health worker takes the nasal swab sample of an election official to test for COVID-19 on the eve of state elections results in Gauhati, India, Saturday, May 1, 2021. India on Saturday set yet another daily global record with 401,993 new cases, taking its tally to more than 19.1 million. Another 3,523 people died in the past 24 hours, raising the overall fatalities to 211,853, according to the Health Ministry. Experts believe both figures are an undercount. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

Faced with an unprecedented COVID-19 surge that has filled hospitals and crematoriums, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government described the pandemic as a "once-in-a-century crisis. Modi held a Cabinet meeting Friday that discussed steps to save the countrys crumbling health system by adding hospital beds, resolving issues in production, storage and transport of oxygen and tackling the shortage of essential medicines.

In a now-familiar scene, television images showed a woman gasping for breath in her car while her family looked for a hospital bed on the outskirts of New Delhi. The 33-year-old woman couldnt find room at three hospitals and died in the car on Friday, The Times of India newspaper reported.

Opposition Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the Modi government completely failed to understand how to tackle the pandemic, right from the very beginning, despite repeated warnings from scientists and experts.

They continuously ignored rising cases and were busy instead with election campaigns. They encouraged super-spreader events," Gandhi said in an interview with the Press Trust of India news agency.

The U.S. meanwhile joined a growing list of countries restricting travel from India, the White House said, citing the devastating rise in COVID-19 cases and the emergence of potentially dangerous variants.

President Joe Biden spoke Monday with Modi about the growing health crisis and pledged to immediately send assistance. This week, the U.S. began delivering therapeutics, rapid virus tests and oxygen to India, along with some materials needed for India to boost its domestic production of COVID-19 vaccines.

Additionally, a CDC team of public health experts was expected to be on the ground soon to help Indian health officials move to slow the spread of the virus.

Other nations have also sent assistance, and the Indian air force airlifted oxygen containers from Singapore, Dubai and Bangkok.

A German military aircraft with 120 ventilators departed for India on Saturday morning, and plans were being made for other flights with more supplies. Also on board was a team of 13 that will help prepare to set up a mobile oxygen production unit that will be flown to India next week, German news agency dpa said.
I am incredibly proud of myself, Desch said.

He added that its important for students who are struggling to seek help.

Too often we distance ourselves from others to a negative effect, Desch said. We would do ourselves a favor to realize we are all human and we all need help from others.

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For Desch, his help and support came from a few sources. One was from weekly counseling sessions through a local resource in Winona  which he forced himself to go to even when he wasnt feeling like it. Other sources of support came in forms of morale boosting from the Warrior Success Center and emotional support from those around him.

Throughout it all, Desch was able to solidify his passion and journey forward.

Before choosing to pursue Applied Computer Science, he went through a range of other majors from Spanish to Chemistry to Biology, finally landing on computer science. He knew he would be able to build off that degree in the future, whether it was in deeper exploration of computer science or in exploring math or science.
Tapia Alvarado certainly wasnt going to allow that dedication to go to waste.

Coming in armed with the determination her mother showed through example, Tapia Alvarado has worked her way through college, will graduate with a double major in Social Work and Spanish, was captain of the Womens Rugby Team her junior year, and is currently the president of the Student Organization of Latina/o/x which unites Spanish-speaking students together.

My mom is always a constant reminder to be the best that I can be because shes sacrificed so much to give me the best chances she could, Tapia Alvarado said. Ive tried to really apply myself and get involved in the best way I can.

Tapia Alvarado chose social work as a focus because she believes wholeheartedly that social workers are humanitarians who help meet the needs of vulnerable populations by helping provide equity and social justice. Everything that shes done during her time at WSU in some way revolves around that belief.

Tapia Alvarado is doing an internship for the Food as Medicine study at Winona Health which assesses the impact of healthy foods on adults who are diabetic. Its a community-based pilot that measures the effectiveness of nutrition intervention to improve food choices as a way to lower blood sugars.
Even so, these cant be seen as insurmountable obstacles, not when the situation is so dire. Several prominent figures associated with global public health and the World Health Organization issued an appeal last month in the British Medical Journal for companies to voluntarily step up with licensing and share their knowledge with multiple producers  moving from a limited set of contract manufacturers to a coordinated effort with multiple producers.

If that is to happen, governments will have to help. Rich-country governments should, in particular, consider how to pay for the renovation and expansion of facilities in the developing world to prepare them to make vaccines under license.

If both sides dont meet this challenge, then across the world people are going to wonder if a system that leads to wasted capacity and market failure even during a global pandemic is all its cracked up to be. Global trading rules, basic respect for intellectual property and much else hangs in the balance. Unless we can scale up our response soon, capitalisms reputation could take a bigger hit in 2021 than 2008, or 1929.

Mihir Swarup Sharma is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is a senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi and head of its Economy and Growth Programme. He is the author of Restart: The Last Chance for the Indian Economy, and co-editor of What the Economy Needs Now.

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Every educator knows that a learning day in August is more beneficial than a day in June, Birr said.

The districts are among those who have requested and been approved for a waiver by the Wisconsin DPI to start before Sept. 1 as a COVID-19 safety protocol. The other districts to be approved are: Alma Center-Humbird Merrillan, Durand Arkansaw, Royall School District, Stanley-Boyd School District, Cornell School District, Melrose-Mindoro School District, Brillion Public Schools and Granton School District.

With many schools all returning to learning on Sept. 1, there is a chance for an increase of COVID stats among school-age, unvaccinated individuals, which could impact our ability to conduct in-person learning, Breitlow said. If we have time with students to provide material and instruction prior to others returning, we see that as a critical advantage to a successful beginning of the school year.

Birr said he does not see the earlier start date as mostly a safety issue, but it is a better learning schedule for students.

This will help them achieve more this year and help them catch up for learning loss from the pandemic, Birr said.

Both schools did not see major issues this year with the COVID outbreaks
In its effort to make streets more pedestrian-friendly, Madison and other cities around the country have long relied on mixed-use developments, which combine offices and retail space on the first floor with apartments or condos in the stories above.

But the pandemic has exacerbated the already soft demand for some of these spaces, leaving more empty storefronts.

To address the problem, experts say, cities need to get creative in how they view those spaces, including converting some to apartments or private offices, promoting more pop-up stores and encouraging new businesses to use the space.

Even for existing businesses that have thrived in leased locations in Madisons popular commercial corridors such as State, Monroe and Williamson streets, owners will need to stay nimble as new shopping habits have been baked into consumers expectations, said Thomas Fisher, director of the University of Minnesotas Design Center.

Online shopping options and curbside pickup will likely be expected of every store from here on out, said Fisher, who is researching ways the pandemic is affecting business.

Shoppers have long sought out the convenience of online shopping, but the health concerns of shopping during a pandemic pushed e-commerce even more.
In September 2018, 17-year-old Donovan Anderson, an Indian Trail High School student, was with a group of friends diving from the eastern end of the north pier.

Witnesses said Anderson dove in once, swam back to a ladder and climbed out. Joined by a friend, he jumped in again. His friend made it back to the ladder, but Anderson was swept down by the current, surfacing some 40 feet away.

His friends and witnesses along the lakefront saw he was in trouble and called 911.

One of those watching helplessly was Marlene Tare, who was visiting Kenosha from the Chicago area.

I watched the young policeman who ran down that pier, Tare said. You can tell this is still in my memory as fresh as if it happened yesterday. He sprinted down there and there was nothing he could do. All he could do was stand there and point.

Anderson drowned. His body was not found for a week, washing ashore three miles north near Carthage College.

His death was one of four drownings on Kenoshas lakefront that summer, with three people, including Anderson, dying in areas known for strong rip currents.

At the time, there were no life rings installed on the pier and Kenosha Police did not carry flotation bags.
For Rachael Freedman, shopping for on-demand grocery delivery startup Instacart felt like something of a dream job.

Freedman, who is based in San Diego, signed up for the service in November 2020 after staying at home for years to take care of her kids.

"I loved the flexibility. I liked the money. It was good exercise -- I was enjoying it," she told CNN Business.

But in late March, Freedman was abruptly kicked off the platform she had been logging into daily to shop for and deliver groceries. An email from Instacart informed her that her account was "linked" to another account on the platform, a breach of the company's contractor agreement, according to a copy of the correspondence shared with CNN Business.

According to Instacart, a "linked account" is the term the company uses to describe an account it has detected as having indications of fraud, but it does not mean there is a duplicate account using identifying information of the shopper, or that the shopper's personal data has been compromised.

Freedman, who was informed in the email that she could appeal, insisted she had only one account and sent documents to Instacart to plead her case: "I have only one account with Instacart ... This is either an error or my account has been hacked?" she wrote.

Despite numerous attempts to get the company to review her situation, including through social media, her account remains deactivated nearly a month later. She learned through the app that her appeal was denied without further explanation. A customer service number only exists for customers -- not the platform's contractors, which are directed to utilize a 24/7 chat function within the shopper app or communicate via email in the case of deactivations.

"It's like a guillotine -- you're cut off," she said. "Boom, that's it."

In trying to piece together what happened, she believes her deactivation could be linked to a scam she fell victim to a few months prior. And she's hardly alone. CNN Business spoke with four other shoppers who received notifications about their accounts being deactivated in recent weeks which they believe might be tied back to a time when they say they were scammed.

In a statement to CNN Business, Instacart said the linked account deactivations impacted a small number of people.

"We take the safety and security of the Instacart platform very seriously," the company said. "There has not been a breach or hack of the Instacart platform. To ensure the safest possible experience for all members of the Instacart community, our Trust & Safety team is dedicated to ongoing security measures to eliminate any instances of fraudulent activity on the platform."

Instacart said an appeal will be approved if a shopper can verify they were deactivated for reasons outside of their control. For shoppers who are impacted by phishing schemes or other types of unauthorized access, it said it has measures in place to help them regain access in a timely manner.

The situations the shoppers described to CNN Business highlight the precarious nature of gig work: They can work at their convenience as it suits their lifestyles, but they're at the mercy the company's whims and often opaque or nonexistent processes to redress grievances.

The shoppers were among the over 300,000 independent contractors that began working for the company since the start of the pandemic, as demand for grocery delivery services has skyrocketed and so too the demand for workers to fulfill orders.

The shoppers said Instacart -- which has more than 500,000 shoppers and whose valuation has ballooned to $39 billion -- hasn't been responsive to their demands for help, the shoppers said.

Without clear answers from Instacart directly, the shoppers are left trying to make sense of what happened. Each reflected on scam-related incidents that happened months earlier, believing the deactivations could be connected. At the time, the shoppers were each locked out of their account temporarily but Instacart restored their access within days.

In January, Freedman picked up a batch order -- two or more small orders from different customer s -- including one for two orange juice containers. She was told by the customer via the in-app chat function to text his wife when she arrived at the location to drop off the order. Upon arrival, the location was a nursing home -- and no one by that name lived there. She texted the number the customer gave her and left the juices.

A few days later, she received a call from a person purporting to be from Instacart doing a survey. The person said he would send a verification code to update her system to ensure she received future batches. She believes the code helped the person gain access to her account. (Instacart said that shoppers are made aware they should not share account information with anyone claiming to be from Instacart or with any other third-parties.)

"Within 30 seconds, I was locked out of my account. I got an email saying my phone number had been changed. I panicked," said Freedman, noting about $1,200 in earnings was sitting in her account.

Rebecca Maynard from Berryville, Virginia, experienced a similar situation. Maynard, who works part-time for a local media outlet and takes care of her disabled mother, started working for Instacart about one year ago. She called it "a lifesaver for me to earn some money."

In August 2020, she received a call from someone claiming to work for Instacart and asking her to verify her account with a six-digit code. "As soon as I hung up, I thought, 'I hope this is legitimate.' I immediately looked at my account and I was logged out. It said my password was incorrect."

After a few days of not being able to access her account -- or earn money through Instacart -- Maynard said it was restored. In April, 8 months later, Maynard received an email about her account being linked to another Instacart account.

"I understand in gig work nothing is guaranteed and I knew all along that if I did something wrong, I would be deactivated, but I never thought I would be accused of fraud," Maynard told CNN Business.

Maynard said she was told via email that her appeal was denied the same day she was informed she was deactivated; she still doesn't understand why, despite sending numerous follow-up emails and reaching out to the company through social media.

Recent reports have surfaced of gig workers for other companies being targeted by scammers seeking to gain access to worker accounts and drain their earnings.

Ruth Wallace, who is based in Hazel Park, Michigan, provided a code to someone purporting to be from Instacart last August and was deactivated earlier this month. She told CNN Business that after working for the company throughout the pandemic, the situation hits especially hard.

"It kind of makes me angry because I didn't do anything wrong," said Wallace. "I was a 5-star shopper. Customers loved me. I had good reviews, and I had very few order issues. Just to do this, not explain it, and to completely ignore me is kind of hurtful. [It's] like, 'We used you during the pandemic, you did good work, now screw you.'"

On Friday, Wallace was notified via email that her appeal was approved and her account was reactivated. The company did not provide an explanation as to what happened.

Meanwhile, Maynard -- who is also more than two weeks into her deactivation -- said she's starting to lose hope that her account will be reactivated. "In some ways, I would hate to even go back to a company that thinks so little of me, but my circumstances are kind of unique and limited," she said.

"I can't just pack up and move across the country and find a great job. It's going to be impossible for me to recreate this flexible income I was able to find. My path forward is to keep fighting."
College students hesitant to receive a Covid-19 vaccination may need to rethink their decision. As most colleges in the US inch toward the end of the spring semester, a new procedure is taking shape for their return.

More than 100 US colleges and universities have said they will require all their students to get vaccinated against Covid-19 before they return to campus for the fall semester, according to a CNN tally.

Earlier this month, the tally indicated that at least 14 universities and colleges were adopting that policy. Since then, dozens of higher education institutions have jumped on the bandwagon, demonstrating the trajectory of vaccine requirements. Some schools have said they will make exemptions for medical, religious or personal reasons

Most recently, Drew University, the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, Washington State University and the University of Portland were among the institutions to join the growing list. Most schools adopting that policy are private, though some public institutions have as well.

"Consistent with the growing consensus of colleges and universities across the country, UMass Lowell will require all residential and commuter students to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 prior to the beginning of the fall semester to live, learn or visit any UMass Lowell campus or property," the university said in a statement.

The University of Portland took the policy a step further and announced that it will require all students, faculty and staff to receive a Covid-19 vaccination.

"We recognize that not all areas of the country or the world have equity in access to vaccines, and we commit to providing assistance to our students and employees," the University of Portland said in a statement on its website.

Meanwhile, a recent Quinnipiac University poll found 36% of adults under the age of 35 don't plan on getting the vaccine.

This is a problem because Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations have been increasing. And younger adults, most of whom aren't vaccinated, account for the majority of the uptick, according to Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Rutgers University in New Jersey became one of the first in the nation to mandate coronavirus vaccines for all students ahead of the fall semester. And the number of other institutions to follow suit is expected to grow.
Utica native Theresa Moriarty talks about starring in 'Made in Chinatown' which is due out May 11th

Utica, N.Y. - A new movie is set to come out on May 11th called 'Made in Chinatown', starring Tony Darrow of Goodfellas, Vincent Pastore of the Sopranos, and Theresa Moriarty, originally from Utica.

Moriarty, a 2006 graduate of Proctor High School now living in New York City, is home for a few days visiting her family in Utica and she took time out on Friday to talk to News Channel 2's Gary Liberatore about her new film and her career up to now.

In 'Made in Chinatown', Moriarty plays a character named Tina Di Pocco, a nice Italian girl from Little Italy in New York City, "Off of Canal Street you have Little Italy and you have Chinatown, and our writer grew up in that area and always wondered what would happen if these areas crossed. So he wrote about Vinnie Chow, played by Jay Kwon, kind of crossing over to the Italian side and really wanting to try to become in the Italian mafia so we have Tony Darrow and Vincent Pastor from the Sopranos and then all the guys that play the Chinese mafia are all real Kung Fu masters. I am the girl that Vincent Chow is after."

Moriarty says this is her first leading role after playing smaller roles in a number of other films over the past ten years.

After college in New York City, Moriarty starred as Liz Taylor in a show called Beauties which ran for 16 weeks at the Susan Batson Theatre along Times Square.

Her voice is also very active off screen as she has had a number of voice over performances as well, "For Macys, any of the commercials are currently my voice and Ive done in the past, Folger's coffee and all kinds of things."

Moriarty's latest venture, stand up comedy, "I have always wanted to try stand up. I would watch stand up and be simultaneously in awe and scared to death. Once I did it a couple of times, I really realized that that fear so quickly turns into excitement. I am mostly at the Comic Strip Live, Broadway Comedy Club, Greenwich Village Comedy Club, and a comedy festival virtually in June."

Moriarty grew up just a block away from Proctor High School and looks back at her time in High School with very fond memeroies, "Walked home to Nonnie's house across the street for lunch, over to Parkway, absolute proper Proctor High School experience."

Now Moriarty can't wait for her family to see her as a leading actress, but she says she wants everyone to know the acting business is a tough business, "The difficulty of the business, as any actor or performer knows, is theres really no guarantee. One day youre on top and the next day youre waitressing again are you bartending again. Theres no shame in that, its always like...figure it out."

Moriarty says there are several ways you can view 'Made in Chinatown' when it's released on May 11th, "We have a cable and streaming distribution so it'll be on demand on cable channels and also be streaming so Amazon, iTunes, Fandango, any of your digital platforms will have the film. The story I think will resonate with so many people, it's so funny and so silly and so much fun to watch."
The Flint Water Plant tower is seen, Friday, Feb. 5, 2016 in Flint, Mich. Flint is under a public health emergency after its drinking water became tainted when the city switched from the Detroit system and began drawing from the Flint River in April 2014 to save money. The city was under state management at the time.
Carmouche looks to become first African American jockey to win Kentucky Derby in 119 years
Loveland, Colorado, police officers laughed and joked as they watched body camera video of the arrest of a 73-year-old woman with dementia, a video released by the woman's attorney shows.
As Brazil tops 400,000 recorded COVID-19 deaths, opposition state governors of the Workers Party (PT) and the Maoist Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB) are implementing policies in tandem with fascistic President Jair Bolsonaros reopening of the economy and defense of mass infection.

Residents place roses on mattresses symbolizing COVID-19 victims, during a protest against the Government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

While the media and state governments are promoting the slightly lower Intensive Care Unit (ICU) occupation rates resulting from partial closures by state governments, the reality is that the rate of infection across Brazil has risen to unprecedented levels for more than a month. During the height of the Manaus surge in January the rolling average peaked at 55,626 cases; it reached 77,129 in March and has yet to fall below the levels of January.

The result is one of the highest coronavirus daily death counts in the world, with more than 2,000 people dying every single day for the past 40 days.

The number of COVID-19 deaths registered in April is the highest since the pandemic started. The death toll reached 200,000 ten months after the first case was registered in the country. However, 76 days later the number reached 300,000 and it only took 36 days for the country to top 400,000 deaths.

Last week, the Finance Ministry announced that the funds solicited by the Health Ministry for the vaccine effort and for the purchase of intubation kitswhich include sedatives and muscle relaxants needed for intubationwould be released in smaller installments, citing the possibility of the acute crisis winding down with the advances in vaccination.

This effective denial of resources cut the purchase of intubation kits in half, so that stockpiling would now be enough to hold on for 90 days, while the initial estimate was 180. The Finance Ministry announcement came two days after Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga postponed from May to September the end date for the vaccination of the first-priority group, which corresponds to only 37 per cent of the population.

While the government and the mainstream media publicly focus on preparations for the national mass production and new purchases of vaccines, most of which will only become available several months from now, the Health Ministry revealed its real concerns in letters sent to the Finance Ministry .

The documents stated that the situation is severe and that there is uncertainty about the demand of hospital units and medical supplies, making a reference to the beginning of April, when ICUs in 24 states were at 80 per cent capacity, while 11 had rates above 95 per cent, which characterizes a very severe situation.

Meanwhile, the delays in vaccine imports are compromising the distribution of shots. On Wednesday, a report in Estado de Sao Paulo concluded that cities in at least eight states will not be able to give the second shots in time. There are currently no studies on the effectiveness of taking a single jab, which means that the lives of hundreds of thousands may be at risk. More than 100,000 people will receive their second shots after the 28-day optimal period for the CoronaVac vaccine. In the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, 223,000 are at risk of losing their window for the second shot after a delay in the arrival of vaccines.

As the vaccination campaign suffers repeated delays, the federal and state governments policy of reopening the economy throughout the country means forcing the vast majority of the population to go back into their workplaces and risk getting infected. This murderous campaign is being waged by all sections of the political establishment, including the self-proclaimed left state governments.

The delays in the national and local vaccination rollouts havent stopped the states from reopening their economies. Last week, Governor Flavio Dino of the PCdoB announced the rolling out of vaccinations for teachers in the state of Maranhao as part of his effort to promote the return to schools in the region, which will inevitably result in a surge of COVID-19 cases among students. On April 9, during the biggest surge in the country yet, Dino announced the reopening of churches with 25 per cent capacity, following a decision by the Bolsonaro-appointed Federal Supreme Court Judge Nunes Marques.

On April 11, Governor Camilo Santana of the PT announced the reopening of the economy in the state of Ceara based on false claims about a decline in the states deaths and hospitalizations, which meant a stabilization of the numbers at more than 800 deaths per week.

The deadly threat posed by this policy is seen in a report on Thursday that 99.45 per cent of Cearas territory, or 184 out of 185 cities in the state, are under an extremely high risk of COVID-19 transmission, the highest levels reported in Ceara since January.

The PT governors murderous policy was starkly exposed by the explosion of an oxygen cylinder fulfillment plant in Ceara last Saturday, in which six workers were injured, with three being taken to the hospital. A video showed nearby houses with broken windows and people injured. White Martins, the owner company, reported 150 houses damaged.

Although the immediate causes for the explosion are not clear, the criminal response of the self-proclaimed left politicians, aligned with Bolsonaros drive to let people get sick and die to guarantee profits, has resulted in a surge in demand for oxygen cylinders.

In March, Anvisa, Brazils health regulatory agency, announced that, thanks to the loosening of rules and protocols, some companies managed to increase oxygen production and cylinder fulfillment by 200 per cent. Data published by the agency shows that the sale of oxygen cylinders spiked by 47 percent in March, even before the worst period of the pandemic.

White Martins stated during the same month that six states, including Ceara, had been presenting excessive oxygen consumption and announced that its plants were starting 24-hours-a-day production. That was before the April surge in deaths throughout the country. One day after the explosion, the company announced that it was transporting oxygen cylinders to Ceara to serve hospitals in the capital and other cities.

The Workers Party and the Communist Party are carrying out these policies while declaring that the defense against Bolsonaros preparations for a dictatorship in Brazil is to be found within the same military that imposed a regime of mass repression between 1964 and 1985. Bolsonaros herd immunity campaign has been accompanied by repeated calls for using the military to force a reopening of the economy, which would imply the establishment of an openly authoritarian regime.

During a visit to the PT-governed state of Bahia on Monday, just days before the beginning of a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) to investigate the state and federal governments handling of the pandemic, the president declared that we must not allow some pseudo-governors who want to impose a dictatorship using the virus to subdue the population. He added that it wasnt the federal government who made you stay at home or closed stores, which destroyed millions of jobs.

Amid critical levels of social inequality, widespread reports of hunger and the spread of strikes and protests by app delivery workers, oil workers, metalworkers and transport workers, these so-called left parties are focusing all of their efforts on preventing workers opposition from getting out of their control.

In the state of Pernambuco, governed by a PSB (Brazilian Socialist Party)/PCdoB coalition, teachers who had led a courageous strike against the reopening of schools in September, have again entered into struggle, striking for two weeks. The response of the PT-controlled Sintepe (Pernambucos Education Workers Union) is to raise the demand, repeated throughout the country, for the vaccination of all education workers, while leaving kids to transmit and die from the coronavirus once in-person classes begin.

The bogus campaign by the union is exposed by its own actions. Back in September, the president of the union, Fernando Melo, declared that workers dissatisfaction was caused by the way in which the announcement of the return was made, not by the lives claimed by the virus. The maneuvers of the union eventually led to the defeat of the strike.

The Sintepe is affiliated to the PT-controlled CUT, which has invited right-wing figures like Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria and Arthur Lira, who was elected chairman of the lower house of Congress with support from Bolsonaro, to participate in this years May Day Rally.

A year into the pandemic, all sections of the political establishment are exposed for their criminal indifference to widespread suffering and are actively implementing the herd immunity policy. At the same time, workers are entering into struggle to defend themselves against the policies that are killing their loved ones and destroying their living standards.

Workers must form rank-and-file committees to fight independently and in opposition to all established political parties and trade unions, including the pseudo-left groups that expound radical-sounding phrases against the political establishment while trying to suppress opposition and divert it back behind the PT-led opposition. They must demand a lockdown of all non-essential activities, with a guarantee of full income while they shelter at home, while workers in essential activities must have the right to determine safety protocols in consultation with health professionals and specialists.

The International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) is calling for the formation of an International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees to fight against the policies of the capitalist ruling classes across the globe. Committees have already been formed in the US, Europe, Sri Lanka and Australia. We call on workers to participate in the May Day Rally to discuss the fight to build the revolutionary leadership in the working class in Brazil and internationally.
On Friday evening, graduate workers at Columbia University officially rejected the concessionary Tentative Agreement (TA) endorsed by their union, the Graduate Workers of Columbia (GWC) affiliated with the United Auto Workers union (UAW). The results were 970 yes votes to approve the contract to 1,093 no to reject the contract. The union reported that 62 percent of eligible voters in the unit cast a ballot.

Columbia graduate-studenter gar streikevakt i NYC [Foto: WSWS Media]

The vote is a devastating blow to the UAW and the majority of the GWC Bargaining Committee who ferociously endorsed the contract despite overwhelming opposition from the rank and file. Union officials, shocked and furious at the vote tally, were silent for one long minute after the results were revealed in a general body meeting called for 5:00 p.m. After their initial shock wore off, the UAW officials ended the call without any discussion. Rank-and-file members cheered on the results in the chat and called for the immediate resignation of the Bargaining Committee.

The sellout contract did not come close to meeting any of the graduate student workers original demands, including increased wages, child care, dental, third party arbitration and summer stipends. The three-year tentative contract also included a no-strike clause and guaranteed the deduction of two percent of their wages for union dues payments to the UAW.

The courageous stand taken by rank-and-file workers in rejecting the contract, in the face of incredible pressure and intimidation from the UAW, is a critical step forward for CU workers and other education workers around the country and internationally. Their militancy is just one example of a growing mood of resistance to the homicidal policies of the ruling class by workers throughout the US and around the world.

However, student workers must be warned. While the immediate danger has passed, the struggle is far from over.

The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) and the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) call on student workers to immediately recall the Bargaining Committee, oust the UAW officials and arrange a mass meeting to elect an independent strike committee to assume control of the struggle. The new strike committee must immediately resume the strike and link up their struggle with graduate students at New York University (NYU) who are in the middle of a strike over the same basic demands.

Most importantly, the independent strike committee must adopt a new political strategy. Control of the strike cannot be left in the hands of the UAW, whose interests are directly tied to the same corporations and political establishment that control Columbia University.

In order to succeed, the strike must be expanded into the working class. Graduate students should organize delegations to be dispatched to workplaces and factories in New York and beyond to explain their struggle to autoworkers, teachers, transit workers, hospital workers, retail workers and other sections of the working class.

The struggle of CU graduate workers is the same struggle as workers everywhere, who are all fighting against the deadly back-to-work campaign, and against COVID-19 austerity, that is, the implementation of major cuts to wages and jobs to pay back the trillions of dollars that the Democrats and Republicans handed over to corporate America and Wall Street at the start of the pandemic.

The fact that the CU strike continues to be met with a virtual media blackout is a stark indication that the ruling class sees immense potential for this strike to spark a much broader struggle which is exactly what is required.

At neighboring New York University, graduate students, who are part of the same UAW local, are striking over the same conditions. From the very beginning the UAW has directed all of its energies to keeping the two strikes isolated from each other and from the working class as a whole.

The Columbia and NYU UAW representative and president of Local 2110, Maida Rosenstein, has spent the last week repeatedly pressing for the demands of NYU graduate students to be dropped. In fact, early this week she suggested that only one more membership meeting be held. She stressed that this should be done as fast as possible, The turnaround needs to be fast, because people are on strike, and thats a concern.

The Graduate Student Organizing Committee (GSOC), the union at NYU, has done everything to involve Democrats in the strike, including above all the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), a pseudo-left faction within the Democratic Party, in order to disorient and demobilize the strike. Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders spoke virtually to NYU graduate students on Friday for a whole four minutes, claiming blandly that he appreciated their struggle. Of course, no mention was made of the fact that it is his own party which dominates the schools Board of Trustees.

The entire experience of the Columbia and NYU strikes once again raises the need not just for a strike but for the building of a political, socialist leadership in the working class for the revolutionary struggles that are ahead.

Columbia graduate students will find powerful allies in workers who are seething with anger and eager to fight for their lives and livelihoods.

On Friday, the same day as Columbia students rejected their sellout contract, nearly 3,000 workers at Volvos New River Valley heavy truck plant in Virginia, abruptly received instructions from the UAW Local 2069 leadership to quit their pickets and prepare to return to work. The UAW claimed it has reached a tentative agreement with the company. The union is seeking to shut down their strike, not only without a vote but without even releasing any details or highlights. Workers will reportedly not be sent details on the agreement for another two weeks.

The reality is that the UAW, along with every other major trade union in the US, has sold out one struggle after another for decades. The experiences rank-and-file graduate workers have been through with the UAW in their first contract is not a fluke, but the rule.

To take only the most recent examples, these include: the isolation and betrayal of the strike at Mack Truck, a Volvo subsidiary, in which the UAW left Volvo Truck workers on the job at NRV until it was forced to idle only due to shortages, and the General Motors strike in 2019 where the union rammed through a contract that ratified plant closures and allowed for the expanded use of lower-paid temp workers.

Graduate workers must draw the necessary conclusions: The issues confronting graduate students are the same issues confronting workers all over the country and, in fact, around the world. Moreover, the forces they are combatting in the Democratic Party-controlled Board of Trustees and the corrupt UAW bureaucracy are the same class enemies workers are fighting in struggles throughout the country.

It is not to the Democrats and the union executives that students should turn, but to teachers, autoworkers, service workers, health care workers, young people and the entire working class. The strike must be expanded and transformed into a conscious political struggle against capitalism and for socialism.

Graduate students interested in this perspective should reach out to the World Socialist Web Site and make plans to attend the online May Day Rally tomorrow being organized by the International Committee of the Fourth International.
Last week marked a decade since WikiLeaks published a tranche of 779 secret files from the US governments Guantanamo Bay military prison, revealing in greater detail than ever before the global dragnet of illegal detention associated with the fraudulent war on terror.

US Army Military Police escort a detainee to his cell at Naval Base Guantanamo Bay [Credit: Shane T. McCoy/US Marshals Service]

In the words of US state operatives themselves, the files demonstrated that the American authorities were imprisoning hundreds of people from Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and elsewhere, whom they knew were not guilty of terrorist offences or any other crimes.

Instead the prisoners were victims of a new lawless frontier, in which people were bundled into detention, often sold to the CIA by local authorities, secretly held in black site prisons, and transported to the other side of the world where they were indefinitely detained in the Guantanamo Bay facility, which by 2011 had already become synonymous with state torture.

The files are not only significant because of their content.

They are the last among four major releases for which the US government has charged WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange under the Espionage Actthe first time the draconian legislation has been deployed against a publisher. According to US prosecutors, who are seeking Assanges extradition from Britain, the crime of exposing their governments illegal detention regime should be punished by up to 40 years in prison, in a Supermax facility whose conditions would resemble those of Guantanamo itself.

WikiLeaks publication of the Guantanamo Files followed its earlier releases of the US armys Iraq and Afghan war logs, which exposed thousands of illegal killings and violations of international law, and some 250,000 US diplomatic cables, revealing coups, illegal surveillance operations and other human rights abuses.

The files were provided to WikiLeaks by Chelsea Manning, the courageous US army whistleblower. She would be imprisoned for nearly seven years in conditions deemed by the United Nations to be torturous under Obama, before being detained again by the Trump administration in a failed bid to coerce her to give false testimony against Assange.

The Obama administration, in which Joe Biden served as vice president, was as hostile to the publication of the Guantanamo Files as the earlier WikiLeaks releases. It issued a statement, published by its virtual house organ the New York Times, declaring that the documents had been illegally obtained and remained classified. The government took the Orwellian step of informing the lawyers of Guantanamo Bay detainees that they were forbidden from clicking on any of the files, even after they had been published on the internet.

As part of his election campaign in 2008, Obama had pledged to close Guantanamo, in line with a broader posture of opposing some of the most blatantly illegal actions of the Bush administration. Three years later, Guantanamo remained in use, as it does today, and Obama was sharply escalating the illegal US war against Afghanistan, and opening up new fronts in US imperialisms bid to dominate the Middle East and North Africa, including Syria and Libya.

A WikiLeaks statement, announcing the release of the files, said they proved that the entire edifice constructed by the [US] government is fundamentally unsound, and that what the Guantanamo Files reveal, primarily, is that only a few dozen prisoners are genuinely accused of involvement in terrorism. The rest, these documents reveal on close inspection, were either innocent men and boys, seized by mistake, or Taliban foot soldiers, unconnected to terrorism.

Taken together, the files provided the anatomy of a colossal crime perpetrated by the US government on 779 prisoners who, for the most part, are not and never have been the terrorists the government would like us to believe they are.

The documents included interviews, assessments and intelligence reports on the prisoners, prepared by the Pentagons Joint Task Force Guantanamo between 2002 and 2009.

Perhaps the most brazen demonstration of the illegality involved was provided by the files of the youngest and oldest detainees.

Naqib Ullah, a 14-year-old Afghan villager, had been taken into US custody on the ground that he may have known a local Taliban commander.

A 2002 assessment of Mohammed Sadiq, an 89-year-old Afghan man, blandly noted that his current medical issues include major depressive disorder, senile dementia and osteoarthritis, for which he receives prescribed treatment, as well as prostrate cancer. Sadiq was imprisoned because suspicious documents that did not belong to him were found in a raid of his house.

Their cases were far from unique. The files showed that at least 150 of the 800 prisoners over the period they covered were considered by the US authorities to be innocent of any crimes. Most of the others were deemed to be low-level foot soldiers, an assessment that was frequently based on flimsy evidence of undocumented associations with Taliban or Al Qaeda forces.

Some 204 of the 223 Afghan detainees would ultimately be repatriated, in a tacit admission of their innocence, along with 121 of 135 Saudi nationals and most of the Yemeni prisoners. Many had previously been assessed as high risk by the US jailors.

A WSWS article documented the revelations in 2011. It pointed to several examples that exposed the conscious criminality of the dragnet. In one instance, a Pakistani man was sent to Guantanamo after falling foul of the countrys authorities for having exposed their connections to Islamic extremist forces. A Libyan detainee was described as having been captured in Spain and Pakistan at the same time, with no attempt made to reconcile the contradiction.

Al Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Hajj was arrested in Pakistan and held at Guantanamo for six years. According to the files, the purpose of his imprisonment was to force him to provide information on the Al Jazeera news networks training program, telecommunications equipment, and newsgathering operations in Chechnya, Kosovo and Afghanistan, including the networks acquisition of a video of UBL [Osama bin Laden] and a subsequent interview with UBL.

A similar picture emerged from many of the files. Detainees were arrested, in many cases sold to the US for cash, and then held indefinitely in a bid to turn them into American informants. To justify the continuing mass imprisonment, the US jailers cultivated a handful of sources at Guantanamo, who provided evidence against hundreds of other inmates.

The documents demonstrated that the victims included citizens of nations allied to the US, including British nationals. The US knew that many prisoners had been tortured en route, including at CIA black sites and in the prisons of Americas partners in the war on terror.

Almost 100 prisoners were listed as having major psychiatric disorders, resulting from their brutal treatment.

The WikiLeaks publications galvanised popular hostility to the neo-colonial wars in the Middle East and Central Asia and the accompanying attacks on democratic rights. They exposed, not only the criminality of the George W. Bush administration, but that of Obama and Biden, and a host of US allies, from Britain and Australia.

The US media sought to drown out the impact by focusing on the unsubstantiated statements of prisoners contained in the files, who told tales about the global reach and ambitions of Al Qaeda, some of them under duress. By 2011, the New York Times, which had earlier partnered with WikiLeaks, had decisively turned against the publishing organisation, joining the campaign against it and its then editor-in-chief Assange, which was spearheaded by the intelligence agencies.

A decade on, the files have lost none of their relevance, as the US-led wars continue, Guantanamo remains open, and Washington is preparing an even greater calamity than that which occurred over the past 20 years, by aggressively confronting China and Russia. The brutal assault on democratic rights with which Guantanamo is associated is being expanded, as governments around the world respond to mounting social opposition by turning to authoritarian forms of rule.

The anniversary underscores the necessity for workers and young people around the world to fight for Assanges immediate freedom and against his extradition to the US.
Workers at Volvo Truck in New River, Virginia have erupted in outrage over the attempt by the United Auto Workers to shut down their powerful strike aimed at regaining past concessions. On Friday the union announced it had reached a tentative agreement on a five-year deal and ordered the 3,000 workers to take down picket lines and prepare to return to work Sunday without releasing any contract details.

Striking Volvo workers [Source: Facebook, UAW Local 2069]

The Volvo settlement was announced the same day that graduate student teaching assistants at Columbia University in New York City voted down a sellout deal the UAW affiliate on campus had attempted to impose on them.

At Volvo, workers are determined to win back wage and benefit concessions handed over by the UAW in the last three contracts under conditions where the company is enjoying booming profits, $1 billion in the first quarter of 2021 alone.

One outraged worker posted on the UAW Local 2069 Facebook page, You have almost 3000 members demanding answers. This is your job. This is what you are paid to do. We should not have to go to work on an agreement we do not agree on. We voted to strike for a reason. Not to make corporate and UAW jobs easy. We made SACRIFICES. WE STOOD IN THE RAIN AND FREEZING TEMPS. WE THE MEMBERSHIP DESERVE IMMEDIATE COMMUNICATION.

The Volvo strike takes place one year into the pandemic that has seen up to one third of the workers at the plant infected, while Volvo CEO Martin Lundstedt made $5.2 million in compensation last year. The UAW has overseen the continuous operation of the plant under conditions where even token safety measures are not enforced.

Volvo workers are suffering under the impact of a series of corrupt sellout deals negotiated by UAW officials, some of whom have been caught up in the unions massive corruption scandal.

The same day as the UAW attempted to shut down the Volvo strike, graduate student workers at Columbia University voted to reject a sellout deal by the UAW-affiliated Graduate Workers of Columbia (GWC). The vote was 1,093 no to reject and 970 yes. The vote is a devastating blow to the credibility of the UAW and the GWC, who put enormous pressure on graduate students to endorse the sellout deal in order to isolate graduate student workers at New York University, who walked out earlier this week.

The grad students are fighting to win a decent pay increase in order to offset the enormous cost of living in New York City. From the start, the UAW-affiliated Graduate Student Organizing Committee worked to keep the struggle at the two schools separate, shutting down the walkout by grad students at Columbia at the same time NYU instructors were hitting the picket lines.

The fight by Virginia Volvo workers and New York grad students takes place in the context of a series of important strike battles around the US.

In Alabama, over 1,000 coal miners at Warrior Met are continuing a strike that began April 1. The workers are determined to win back concessions surrendered by the United Mine Workers of America five years ago as the company emerged from bankruptcy. In an inspiring display of solidarity and determination, Warrior Met miners voted down a sellout contract brought back by UMWA President Cecil Roberts by a vote of 1,006 to 45.

Some 1,200 Steelworkers in five states are continuing a walkout against Allegheny Technologies, Inc. (ATI). The workers have not had a pay raise since 2014 and the company is attempting to impose further concessions, including completely inadequate raises and raising health care costs. The United Steelworkers is seeking to keep the ATI workers isolated while it pursues its bankrupt strategy of calling the walkout an unfair labor practice strike. Meanwhile, workers are receiving a miserly $100 per week in strike assistance.

ExxonMobil is threatening to lock out 650 workers at its Beaumont, Texas refinery on May 1. The company is demanding that the United Steelworkers put to a vote its concessionary contract before it will resume talks. For its part, the USW is doing nothing to mobilize support for the workers. Instead, it is collaborating with management to ensure an orderly transition by management to a scab labor workforce in preparation for the lockout.

In Massachusetts, 700 nurses at St Vincent Hospital in Worcester are continuing a strike for safe patient staffing ratios. The nurses are resisting efforts by the Massachusetts Nurses Association to isolate and wear down the strikers, who are receiving broad public sympathy and support.

Striking nurses at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, Mass. [Credit: WSWS Media]

Following a 92 percent strike authorization vote, some 200 faculty at Oregon Institute of Technology went on strike April 26 for a new contract. The walkout is the first strike by university faculty in Oregon history.

Eighty-four health care workers are striking against grueling work conditions at Tyler Memorial Hospital near Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania outside of Scranton.

In addition, there are continuing job actions by teachers and autoworkers against the homicidal herd immunity policies of the ruling class that have forced workers into unsafe factories and schools in the midst of an uncontrolled pandemic. On Thursday, teachers in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, a suburb outside of Detroit, staged a sickout over the school administrations imposition of relaxed rules over social distancing. The wildcat action follows a protest last month by trim workers at the Stellantis Jefferson Assembly plant in Detroit over the UAW/management cover-up of COVID-19 cases at the massive facility.

These struggles in the United States take place amid a mounting tide of struggle by the international working class, including dockworkers in Montreal, Canada; bus drivers in Manchester, England; and public transport workers in the Indian state of Karnataka.

The fight by workers is more and more taking the form of a direct rebellion against the corrupt and bureaucratized trade union organizations that serve as enforcers for management and the capitalist elites. In over one year of the pandemic, in no country have the unions organized resistance to the criminal policy of herd immunity or the massive state handouts to the rich.

To organize a fight back, workers need new organizational forms corresponding to the international character of the class struggle, based on a program of uncompromising resistance to the demands of the ruling classes. Flowing from the nature of modern technology and communication, there is an objective need to coordinate their fight across industries and across oceans and national borders.

In the US, Britain, Germany, Sri Lanka and other countries, workers with the support of the World Socialist Web Site have already established networks of rank-and-file committees to share information and coordinate and organize struggles against the policies of the corporations and capitalist governments.

To expand and carry forward this work, the WSWS and the International Committee of the Fourth International are initiating the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC). It will be a means for workers to coordinate their struggles globally, fight for the shutdown of nonessential production, support for the unemployed and all the measures necessary to halt the pandemic, which are being resisted by the ruling class due to national rivalries and profit considerations.

Above all, the unification of these struggles requires the building of a socialist leadership in the working class. We encourage all readers of the WSWS to register and take part in the international online May Day rally set for Saturday. Please register here.
Campaigning for the May 4 regional elections in Madrid has descended into a political debacle. The month since snap regional elections were called by the ruling Popular Party (PP) has seen eight death threats on politicians, a court intervention to defend far-right Vox partys Nazi-inspired propaganda, fascist rallies in working class areas, and trumped up accusations of mail ballot fraud. Candidates also traded accusations of provoking mass COVID-19 deaths.

The election climate testifies to the advanced breakdown of democratic forms of rule in Spain and internationally. This is the product of an immense growth of social inequality and the policy of prioritising profits over lives during the COVID-19 pandemicthe herd immunity policyfor which the entire capitalist political establishment is responsible.

It unfolds amid a major political crisis in neighbouring France, where a letter signed by over 20 retired generals, and since signed by over 7,000 military personnel and backed by the far-right National Rally party, has threatened a coup. It also takes place barely four months after several thousand right-wing extremists organised by US President Donald Trump and sections of the Republican Party stormed the Capitol in Washington D.C. to try to nullify the US elections.

The incumbent conservative Madrid president Isabel Diaz Ayuso speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Madrid, Spain, April 26, 2021 [Credit: AP Photo/Bernat Armangue]

On Wednesday, a death threat letter with ammunition was sent to former Socialist Party (PSOE) Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who has been out of politics for over a decade. It was the latest incident after similar death threats with bullets were sent to regional election candidates, including Podemos candidate Pablo Iglesias and PP incumbent Isabel Diaz Ayuso. Other letters have gone to Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, general director of the Civil Guard Maria Gamez, and Industry and Tourism Minister Reyes Maroto.

One of the chief targets is Iglesias, who has been hounded by far-right forces for over a year, coinciding with a rising fear in ruling circles of workers opposition, expressed in strikes and calls for lockdowns, to the herd immunity policies on the COVID-19 pandemic. The letter warned, Your wife, your parents and you are sentenced to capital punishment, your time is running out. It came with four CETME bullets, a rifle used by the Spanish Army, Navy, Civil Guard and National Police.

The hatred of Iglesias in sections of the security forces sympathetic to Vox emerged Thursday, when La Marea revealed a Facebook page, Primavera Espanola del CENEPE (Spanish Spring of CENEPE), with 15,000 members, most linked to the security forces, attacking Iglesias. He is attacked as son of the great b*tch, scum, trash rat ... Im not saying what I would do with you because Im buckled up; And he will always be the parasite friend of terrorists or Whoever sows winds gathers storms.

Vox has unleashed violent propaganda against migrant children, directly inspired from the Nazis. Its billboards in Madrid show a dark-skinned youth, under the name MENAa pejorative acronym for unaccompanied foreign minorsand your grandma spelled on the board. It states falsely that young migrants receive 4,700 while pensioners receive 426 monthly.

The aim of this disgusting campaign is to scapegoat children fleeing imperialist war, poverty and oppression269 are under care in the Madrid regionfor social crises produced by capitalism. On Friday, the courts refused to admit a complaint that the billboards constitute hate speech, arguing it constitutes freedom of expression.

Vox has met with strong opposition in working class neighbourhoods, where it has organised small provocative rallies, protected by anti-riot police sent in by the PSOE-Podemos government. Anti-Vox protesters have faced crackdowns, arrests and, according to one report, torture in police custody.

The orgy of threats, fascistic propaganda and police violence unfolding in Madrid constitute a serious warning to the working class. Through attacks on pseudo-left politicians such as Iglesias, far-right forces are aiming at the growing anger in the working class against the deadly herd immunity policies in Spain and internationally.

Significantly, polls show that the incumbent PP may be reelected next week, and Vox may enter into the regional government. The latest polls show that the PP would be first with around 41 percent of the votes, followed by PSOE (21 percent), Mas Madrid (16 percent), Vox (910 percent) and Podemos (7 precent). The PP has already promised to include Vox in a coalition government. This is in a region where PP-Vox policies have led to mass deaths. Madrid is the Spanish region with the most infections and deaths from COVID-19, around 24,000.

Internal documents showed that Madrid regional officials issued protocols with criteria to exclude nursing home residents from being transferred to hospitals at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. This has led to the deaths of thousands.

The PSOE and Podemos could not capitalise on PP-Vox crimes, having implemented the same policy at the national level, leaving over 100,000 dead and 3.5 million infected with COVID-19. This is why the pandemic was widely discussed at the start of the campaign but then quickly shelved as candidates realised that accusing each other of social murder was a zero-sum game. All of them had supported the same criminal policy.

There is deep, historically rooted opposition to fascistic forces and herd immunity policies in the European working class. However, the working class cannot entrust the struggle against this to the same parties, including the PSOE and Podemos that implemented this policy. Whatever anti-fascist rhetoric they cynically employed during the campaign, it is clear that the PSOE-Podemos government cannot and will not oppose a far-right authoritarian regime. On the contrary, it relies on far-right forces to implement its herd immunity policy.

Indeed, a key reason the far right feel emboldened is that PSOE-Podemos adopted the political agenda set by Vox. They worked hand in hand with the regional Madrid PP government backed by Vox to implement the EUs herd immunity policy.

Last autumn, the central government threatened to deploy 7,500 soldiers against protests targeting the restricted mobility order imposed in the working class districts of Madrid amid the resurgence of COVID-19. The order, worked out between the Madrid regional and Spanish national governments, required workers and youth to continue reporting to work and school. It imposed lockdowns only in working class areas.

The current, fourth wave, which has now unnecessarily claimed 5,000 lives, has been completely absent from the electoral debate. Instead, all candidates have agreed to Voxs demand to end social distancing. The PSOE-Podemos government has spent days repeating that it will not extend the state of alarm, the legal mechanism to implement social distancing. Health Minister Carolina Darias repeated Vox mantra that we cant live forever with the state of alarm.

Vox has ended its electoral campaign with a pledge to commit to six demands of the ultra-Catholic, fascistic Hazte Oir association if it enters a PP-led regional governmentincluding lifting all travel restrictions aiming at stopping the spread of the coronavirus.

Fascistic forces pose a very real threat, and significant sections of workers and youthincluding among Podemos, More Madrid and PSOE votershate everything Vox stands for. However, the Madrid elections show that the working class can only fight them based on its own party and programme. It is impossible to oppose fascistic forces based on the reactionary record of the PSOE, Podemos or their allies in the union bureaucracies.

Building sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International in Spain and beyond, and of the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC), independent of the union bureaucracies and the pseudo-left, is the only way the pandemic can be fought.
A federal grand jury in Michigan returned on Wednesday a superseding indictment that adds charges of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction against three defendants and firearms violations against two defendants who plotted to kidnap and execute the governor of Michigan, Democrat Gretchen Whitmer, last fall.

A right-wing protester carries his rifle at the State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan in an April 30 demonstration against Whitmer [Credit: AP Photo/Paul Sancya]

Significantly, the superseding indictment issued by the US District Court for the Western District of Michigan Southern Division and signed by Chief US District Judge Robert J. Jonker states that that the plot was an act of domestic terrorism. Generally speaking, a superseding indictment can be pursued by a prosecutoror a grand jurywhen new evidence has been found and the scope of the charges has expanded.

The new indictment adds Count 2 and states that Adam Fox, 40, of Wyoming, Michigan; Barry Croft Jr., 45, of Bear, Delaware; and Daniel Joseph Harris, 23, of Lake Orion, Michigan intended to use destructive devices to facilitate their plot to kidnap the Governor, by harming and hindering the Governors security detail and any responding law enforcement officers. It also says that the three traveled in interstate commerce and used a facility of interstate commerce in furtherance of the offense.

The indictment adds that Croft and Harris knowingly possessed a firearm that was not registered to them and that Harris additionally possessed a semiautomatic assault rifle with a barrel of less than 16 inches in length that was also not registered to him.

In all, the new indictment contains four counts that incorporate the federal charges brought against the six kidnap plotters last fall. On October 8, 2020, the US Justice Department announced the arrest of the six men who were linked to an organization known as the Wolverine Watchmen. Seven others were also arrested and face a series of state charges in connection with the plot to kidnap Whitmer from her vacation home and leave her stranded in a boat on Lake Michigan. The plotters are known to have discussed transporting Whitmer to Wisconsin to face trial for treason and then execute her.

The original indictment contained important details about how the individual conspirators communicated with each other, where they met, what they discussed and what they were doing to prepare for the planned kidnapping. Among these specifics were: (1) the organization of field training exercises that included combat tactics such as assaulting motor vehicles using semiautomatic assault rifles and live ammunition; (2) a daytime surveillance of the Governors vacation home; (3) a nighttime surveillance of the Governors vacation home and a nearby public boat ramp, using two-way radios and a night-vision scope; (4) inspection of the underside of a highway bridge near Whitmers vacation home for a place to mount an explosive charge; (5) testing of an improvised explosive device containing shrapnel near human silhouette targets hung by the conspirators to assess its effectiveness; (6) purchase of a Taser-type high-voltage stunning device.

The new indictment adds more details to the facts of the plot including: (1) Daniel Joseph Harris advised through encrypted internet communications that he was a Marine Corps infantry veteran who can make things go boom if you give me what I need and could use timing detonation cord; (2) Croft and Harris traveled to Wisconsin where they assembled and attempted to detonate two improvised explosive devices containing shrapnel; (3) Croft and Harris successfully detonated an improvised explosive device containing shrapnel near human silhouette targets to assess its effectiveness as an anti-personnel weapon; (4) Fox and Harris ordered explosives from an undercover FBI agent posing as a co-conspirator and attempted to drive to Ypsilanti, Michigan, to make a good-faith payment towards these explosives.

In a section of the superseding indictment called Manner and Means, it is revealed that Fox and Croft are affiliated with the fascist Three Percenters organization. The document then explains the defendants have been charged with domestic terrorism because, they engaged in activities within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States, that involved acts dangerous to human life that were a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State; and which were intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping.

As pointed out by Buzzfeed, the charge of domestic terrorism signals a shift in how the Justice Department is approaching the case, stating, Although there are no statutory penalties for domestic terrorism at the federal level, defining the case that way could significantly increase the penalties that defendants... would face if convicted on the other counts. A press release from the Justice Department states, Defendants Adam Fox, Barry Croft, Kaleb Franks, Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta each face up to life in prison if convicted of the kidnapping conspiracy. Fox, Croft, and Harris each face up to life in prison if convicted of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction.

While the charges and pursuit of life sentences against the plotters in Michigan by the federal government are intensifying, there is a notable effort underway to prevent any connections between individuals and organizations within the US political establishmentnot to mention law enforcement and the US militaryto the fascist and white supremacist groups and organizations from being exposed to the public. This effort is being led by the Democratic Party and the administration of President Joe Biden who has consistently called for unity with his Republican colleagues since being sworn into office on January 20.

As with those in the fascist mob who have been criminally charged in connection with the January 6 coup attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 elections, the political, organizational and financial connections between the insurrectionists and the Republican Party and Trump White House are being covered up and buried. Both the assault by armed right-wing extremists on the State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan one year agowhich was the precursor to the plot to kidnap Whitmerand the January 6 siege of the US Capitol were coordinated and encouraged by Trump, his advisers and supporters in the US Congress.

In a related development, Jonathan Joshua Munafo, 34, of Albany, New York was arrested and charged with communicating an interstate threat in a court filing on Friday that describes a broader probe involving Munafo and threatening phone calls earlier this year. The complaint states that on the day before the insurrection at the US Capitol, a man who identified himself as Yankee Patriot made repeated threatening phone calls to Calhoun County, Michigan emergency dispatch.

FBI Special Agent Richard Trask, a lead investigator in the Whitmer kidnapping case, wrote, The caller, later identified as Jonathan Munafo, placed approximately 143 calls demanding to speak with a deputy sheriff or sergeant, tying up the emergency line for several hours.

Munafo told a dispatcher he knew where she lived and disclosed personal information about her mortgage and taxes. Trask wrote in his affidavit, Munafo told the dispatcher that he would maim her, kill her, and attack her family if she did not put a deputy or sergeant on the line. FBI analysis of Munafos computer showed that he had searched online for Governor Whitmer as well as the location of gun stores in the days leading up to the US Capitol insurrection.

On January 6, FBI investigators traced the phone calls to an internet phone service provider. The phone number led to another provider who gave investigators the subscribers username, email address and IP address used at the time of the threatening calls. The addresses all belonged to Munafo, according to Trask.
This year the day of international working class solidarity comes amid a deepening threat of far-right dictatorship. In the week before May Day, a political crisis has mounted in France over a letter by 23 retired or reservist generals in the neofascist magazine Current Values advocating a coup. Even as the defense ministry threatens to prosecute officers supporting the letter, growing numbers of officers are signing itnow over 7,000.

These statements must be taken as a warning to workers not only in France but internationally. Less than four months have passed since January 6, when then-US President Donald Trump sent thousands of his neofascist supporters to storm the Capitol in Washington D.C. to halt the certification of his loss in the presidential elections. This was clearly not a historical accident attributable to Trumps personal recklessness, nor did the coups failure end the threat of fascistic rule.

As working class anger mounts at the horrific death toll of herd immunity policies and the enrichment of the wealthy during the pandemic, powerful factions of the ruling class in every country are contemplating military-authoritarian rule.

The letter, addressed to President Emmanuel Macron, claimed that mortal dangers face the French nation. It called for immediate, unspecified changes in state policy to avert an explosion and the intervention of our active-duty comrades-in-arms in a perilous mission  on the national soil. Also, it asserted that the deaths, for which you will be responsible, will be counted in the thousands.

Emmanuel Macron and French Armies Chief Staff General Francois Lecointre, left, stand in the command car as they review troops before the start of the Bastille Day military parade, Tuesday, July 14, 2020 in Paris [Credit: AP Photo/Christophe Ena, Pool]

The retired and reservist generals couched their threats in the Islamophobic rhetoric of Macrons anti-separatist law targeting political Islam. Amid the debacle of Frances eight-year war in Mali and mounting anger at police violence in immigrant suburbs, they denounced Islamism and the suburban hordes for driving the separation of numerous portions of the country from state authority. They demanded that the government fight the threat of race war caused by racialism, indigenous nationalism and anti-colonial theories.

The ruling class fears not race war but class struggle. In the weeks before the letter appeared, as the COVID-19 death toll hit 1 million in Europe and 100,000 in France, Macron pledged to end social distancing, even as coronavirus variants were spreading. He bucked public expectation of a strict lockdown to halt the contagion and desperate, angry calls from medical staff for a scientific policy to halt the slaughter. He provocatively said no health statistic could change his decision to reopen schools.

On April 17, one of the leading far-right politicians behind the coup threat, far-right politician Philippe de Villiers issued a fascistic appeal in Current Values titled, I call for an insurrection. He demagogically blamed Big Pharma, Big Data, Big Finance, the Bill Gates Foundation and the Davos Forum for the pandemic.

Just four days later, on April 21, the generals letter appeared. Its timing was not fortuitous. It came 60 years after the Algiers putsch of April 21, 1961which de Villiers father Jacques, a leader of the far-right Secret Armed Organization (OAS), supported during the Algerian war. This failed putsch, led by generals linked to wealthy French colonialists in Algeria and to General Francisco Francos fascist regime in Spain, aimed to topple General Charles de Gaulle as he prepared to grant Algeria independence in 1962.

Philippe de Villiers brother, General Pierre de Villiers, came out in 2019, after retiring as army chief of staff, to demand firmer repression of yellow vests protesting social inequality. After over 10,000 yellow vests had been arrested and 4,400 wounded by police, he called for more firmness against strikers. A gulf has emerged between those who lead and those who obey. This gulf is profound.  We must restore order; things cannot continue this way.

Amid the pandemic last year he warned of a global revolutionary crisis. Today, beyond the security crisis, there is the pandemic, all of this against a backdrop of economic, social and political crisis with a lack of confidence in leaders, he said. I fear this pent-up anger will explode at once, he warned, adding, We must think the unthinkable.  The rule of law is obviously a good thing, but at some point, we also must develop a strategic plan.

The strategic plan is clearly a military dictatorship. Against this, workers best allies are their class brothers and sisters worldwide. The pandemic is a trigger event in world history, vastly intensifying international class conflict driven by 30 years of imperialist war and social austerity following the Stalinist restoration of capitalism in the Soviet Union in 1991. A global pandemic can only be halted by a globally coordinated health policy mobilizing world industry and science.

Similarly, the threat of far-right rule can only be opposed by the coordinated international action of the working class, independently of the pro-capitalist parties and union bureaucracies.

Democratic forms of rule, incompatible with the levels of social inequality and death produced by capitalism, are collapsing worldwide. Trumps historically unprecedented coupwhich nearly succeeded, as the Pentagon for hours refused to send troops to the Capitolis only the starkest example, at the heart of world imperialism, of an international process. In Germany, multiple neo-Nazi networks in the army are compiling kill lists, after neo-Nazis murdered conservative politician Walter Lubcke in 2019 for his statements on migrants.

As neofascist presidential candidate Marine Le Pen appeals to the far-right generals for support in the 2022 elections, Macron is no alternative to far-right forces. Indeed, the generals letter is framed as advice to Macron, who is himself setting up a police state. Over the last week, he has maintained a deafening silence on the generals letter.

Since his election in 2017, the president of the rich has courted the police and army. As his polls collapsed as yellow vest protests began in 2018, Macron took the unprecedented step of hailing Frances Nazi-collaborationist dictator Philippe Petain as a great soldier. His anti-separatist lawoverseen by Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, an ex-member of the far-right Action francaise aims to pose as tougher on Islam than Le Pen. This only strengthens fascistic forces in the officer corps, which Macron is cultivating as a base for herd immunity policies.

The Stalinist General Confederation of Labor (CGT) union and its ally, 2017 presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon, who is asking Macron to prosecute putschist officers, are aligning themselves with the Macron regime. Having backed the European pandemic bailouts of the banks and big business, which enriched Europes billionaires by 1 trillion, they are complicit in herd immunity.

Perhaps the clearest indication of their reactionary role is the record of their Spanish ally, Podemos General Secretary and ex-Deputy Prime Minister Pablo Iglesias. He helped implement herd immunity policies and called on workers to ignore coup threats last year from Spanish generals close to the neo-Francoite Vox party.

The deep opposition in the working class to such homicidal policies must be mobilized. The International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) has issued a call to build an International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees, to open a path for workers to mobilize in a united struggle, rejecting efforts to divide them along national or ethnic lines. The fight against neofascist dictatorship and herd immunity policies are inseparable, moreover, from a struggle for a socialist leadership in the working class fighting the capitalist system.

The ICFI urges its readers to support and join this effort and attend the International May Day rally today.
This is the fourth and final part in a series of articles on films screened at the San Francisco International Film Festival, held April 918. The first part was posted April 13, the second on April 21 and the third on April 27.

There were a number of well-made and thoughtful films screened at the recent San Francisco film festival, which give one some hope.

This Is My Desire

This is My Desire

This is My Desire (Eyimofe), written by Chuko Esiri and directed by Esiri and his twin brother Arie, is a remarkable film about life in Lagos, Nigeria. It takes place in two chapters, Spain and Italy, named for the destinations to which the films two central protagonists would like to emigrate. The work rings true in every important aspect.

Mofe (Jude Akuwudike) is an electrician working in a printing plant. It takes all his skill to keep a hopelessly jerry-rigged junction boxand, hence, the facilitys machineryrunning.

The film is only minutes old when Mofe loses important family members to a disaster at home resulting from the generally wretched living conditions. Moreover, the costs of his proposed departure keep mounting. (He so wants to move to Spain, he has his name listed as Sanchez on a new passport.) His father, with the help of a lawyer, plays a dirty financial trick on him. In general, Mofes life is a series of blows.

He remains upright, however, and doesnt indulge in self-pity. How useful would that be? He goes on fixing everything for everyone, at work and then in the evening. Until finally, on the job, after a near-electrocution, he takes out his rage and frustration on the junction box, leading to his being fired by a horrible female boss (Youre going to have to pay for this!), who has obstinately, deliberately refused to have the machinery repaired and made safe. It seems unlikely, for better or worse, that Mofe will be able to leave.

In Italy, Rosa (Temi Ami-Williams) works in both a bar and a hair salon in an effort to make ends meet, but they dont. She also takes care of her teenage sister, Grace (Cynthia Ebijie), several months pregnant. Part of her plan to leave the country involves receiving payment from a broker. The latter makes Grace promise, I swear Ill give you my baby.

The attractive Rosa has relationships that are loving or otherwise but inevitably driven in part by money problems, with her landlord, Mr. Vincent (Toyin Oshinaike), and a well-to-do American, Peter (Jacob Alexander). Things dont go well here either. As Rosa tells Peter, People push people around in Lagos.

And not only in Lagosa city of some 15 million souls, which the Esiri brothers consider a third character in the script. The Lagos metropolitan area, estimated at 21 million, makes it the second largest in Africa, after Cairo. The city is one of the fastest-growing on the planet. It has specific characteristics, but it also has characteristics in common with Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Mumbai, Dhaka, Chongqing and, for that matter, New York and Los Angeles.

The Esiri brothers set out to make a film about the haves and have-nots, they explain, those who push and those who are pushed around.

Even leaving aside the deadly pandemic, what is the essential, most general reality for vast numbers of human beings at present, especially those living in teeming urban centers such as Lagos? A precarious existence, characterized by economic insecurity and relentless pressure of various kinds. To get through a single day unscathed, while remaining housed and fed, is a triumph for tens or perhaps hundreds of millions.

In an interview, Arie Esiri described Lagos as a city of twenty million people with no organized public transport system and exceptionally bad traffic, very few traffic lights at intersections and all these kinds of things. Uneven roads, inconsistent power and water supply.

The script, he added, treats what everyone in the country goes through on a daily basis, particularly the everyday person. The story recounts what the quotidian here in Lagos entails. And that lends itself to the way we shoot, which is very objective, almost like documentary style, as we are just trying to convey a truth about a situation.

This Is My Desire is a work that addresses life in Lagos, directly, thoughtfully and artistically. Its tone is neither artificially uplifting nor cheaply, marketably bleak. More or less following Spinozas advice, it laughs, cries and tries to understand.

In an interview, Chuko Esiri commented, I remember reading James Joyces book Dubliners  Joyce said that he aimed to put up a well-polished looking glass into Dublin and the Irish people, and that for me was a moment that really crystallized what I was trying to do in the story, in the screenplay of this movie. A thoroughly admirable and, under contemporary conditions, unusual ambition.

The screenwriter also referred to Charles Dickens Bleak House. Dickens, he explained, did this thing where he made central locations [into] characters and tying people to those locations and that sort of led me to the idea of broadening the scope of the piece, which is really how Rosa ended up with her chapter.

All in all, an auspicious feature film debut.

Tales of the Accidental City, directed by Maimouna Jallow, is a slighter film set in another important African urban center, Nairobi, Kenya (metropolitan area 9.4 million). A disparate group of individuals gathers on Zoom for a court-ordered anger management session led by therapist-Counsellor Rose (Corella Jawi). Like her counterparts elsewhere, Rose has a quick-fix solution for her clients emotional outbursts, Speak up, shake it off and succeed!

It becomes obvious, even in this crowd, who do not come from the most impoverished layers for the most part, that such banal advice can have no effect whatsoever. For the most part, they seethe with outrage for good reason, and one can only imagine what the poorer population feels! Whether Jallow has this in mind or not, one mostly draws from her film a sense of impending social disaster and turbulence. How can things go on like this?

Radiograph of a Family

Radiograph of a Family

Radiograph of a Family is a sensitive, semi-autobiographical and semi-fictionalized portrait, albeit with significant questions left unanswered, of one familys experience of Iranian life over the course of a half century or more.

Director Firouzeh Khosrovanis parents, a Western-leaning radiologist father, Hossein, and a traditional, devout Muslim woman, Tayi, marry in the early 1960s.

The couple begins married life in Geneva, Switzerland, where Hossein is living and studying. The director takes an originaland impressively successfulaesthetic approach. On the screen, we see still photographs and home movies. Khosrovani has written dialogue, which is performed by actors over those images, based on her childhood memories of her parents conversations and arguments.

In Geneva, the couple leads a relatively casual lifestyle that includes spending times in cafes, drinking, etc. Hossein insists that his wife, against her protests, remove her headscarf. As far as Tayi is concerned, sin follows her everywhere in Switzerland. For their childs birth, the couple returns to Tehran and remains there.

The Iranian revolution in 1979 sweeps her mother along in its Islamic fundamentalist aspect. We see powerful footage of the revolution, as Khosrovani, the narrator (also played by an actor because, as the director remarks in an interview, she finds her own voice too childish!), explains that the enraged population poured into the streets, some driven by religion, some left-wing and some nationalist.

Khosrovanis family house becomes divided in two. Her father stays in his study, listening to classical music. Her mother increasingly takes over. In a directors note, Khosrovani explains, Religion began to creep in through the cracks. Wine, music and dance  were forbidden. The framed copy of Venus by Velazquez was taken down from the walls for the crime of nakedness.  The revolution gave my mother the role of an Islamic combatant. She tried to convert me. This frightened my father. Religion became a nightmare for me. Islamic iconography replaced all the impure objects my mother removed from our home. The mother tears up photos of herself without a veil, which her daughter attempts to piece together again.

The director uses recurring, slow tracking shots inside a house to indicate the changes. She told an interviewer, I wanted to use the idea of scanning, like the radiography machines. I wanted to play with the idea of scanning the home, scanning the body, scanning history.

Radiograph of a Family is extremely intelligent and thoughtful. As noted, however, its scanning of history leaves out certain critical issues: Why did the religious element, tragically, win out during the 1979 events? What forces and parties were responsible for the absence of a revolutionary political and social alternative? Were the liberal-minded secularism of the upper-middle class, on the one hand, and religious obscurantism, on the other, the only possible choices?

Abou Leila, from Algeria, is a muddy, murky film set in 1994, during the brutal civil war in that nation between the government and Islamic forces, a conflict that cost as many as 100,000 to 200,000 lives.

A couple of policemen, S. and Lofti, two childhood friends, head out into the desert in search of a dangerous terrorist, Abou Leila. S. descends increasingly into madness and hallucination.

The director, Amin Sidi-Boumediene told an interviewer that films that try to explain the political and social foundations of Algerian terrorism are almost doomed to fail because the subject is far too vast and mostly too complex to be dissected in a two-hour film. This not very promising premise is borne out by his film, which, as promised, sheds very little concrete or clarifying light on the subject.

Poppy Field

Poppy Field

From Romania, Poppy Field (directed by Eugen Jebeleanu) is an intense and honest film.

It focuses on Cristi (Conrad Mericoffer), a gay member of the National Gendarmerie, living in Bucharest and involved in a long-distance relationship with Hadi (Radouan Leflahi), who is French and a Muslim.

The events of the film occur more or less over the course of 24 hours. Hadi is staying with Cristi for a few days. The latters sympathetic sister Cristina (Cendana Trifan) drops by in the morning. Cristis anxiety and unease are palpable. We soon see why. He keeps his sexual orientation a secret from his colleagues in the Gendarmerie (the Romanian states specialized institution, with military status, within the Ministry of Administration and Interior which, according to the law, is tasked to protect public order and security). He pretends to have a girlfriend.

In the evening, Cristi and his unit are called in because of a protest by extreme-right, Christian-nationalist forces against the showing of a gay-themed film. Gays out of this country, they shout. One of them asks an audience member, Are you a sexo-Marxist?

Uncomfortable, Cristi goes outside and runs into another audience member in the alley, someone with whom he obviously had a relationship. Beat it, he says. Later, the man persists. Youre really going to pretend you dont know me. Cristi thereupon slugs him, bloodying the mans face. His superiors blow up at him. Various colleagues talk to him. One obviously guesses his secret. He suggests, Lets plant drugs on him [the victim], and thats that. Nothing is resolved in the end.

Jebeleanu, a Romanian stage and film director, explains that the desire to make this film came as a natural expansion of my artistic interests and needs. It emerged from the necessity to give voice to vulnerable individuals and put under scrutiny the way in which society tends to vilify the idea of being different.

It is not earth-shaking, but the events and personalities, and conflicts, are convincing.

Sons of Monarchs

Son of Monarchs (Alexis Gambis) follows a Mexican biologist, Mendel (Tenoch Huerta), now living and doing research on butterflies in New York. Following his grandmothers death, he returns to his hometown, near the astonishing butterfly forests in Michoacan, a central Mexican state. His brother, Simon (Noe Hernandez), who stayed behind and works in a nearby (and dangerous) mine, angrily confronts him: You show up when you feel like it. The traumatic death of the brothers parents in a flood hangs over the two of them.

Later, Mendel returns to Mexico again, with his American girlfriend, for his nieces wedding. The conflicts with his brother flare up once more. Simon: I stayed. You left. Mendel: I left with all the demons you put in me.

The film, by the French-Venezuelan Gambis, also a biologist, holds ones interest. The images of New York and Mexico, along with the beautiful monarch butterflies, are striking. However, the familial and other conflicts seem too neatly (and schematically) tied up in the end. The viewer was hoping for more.

Concluded
VIGO COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - Some local firefighters will receive assistance while they fight fires.

The Otter Creek Fire Department received new self-contained breathing apparatuses.

Firefighters wear the devices for breathable air in environments like fires.

On Friday, the fire department put the new equipment into service.

The Otter Creek Fire Department used a FEMA grant to buy the equipment.
WASHINGTON, Ind. (WTHI) - A suspect is in custody after a Friday standoff in Washington, Indiana.

Ronald Blackman was wanted out of Pike county in Indiana as well as out of Missouri. When officers came to his home at 504 NE 1st street Blackman ran inside. There he barricaded himself in the basement.

It took officers two hours to clear the home. Tear gas was used but was not effective.

Blackman was taken into custody just before 5pm Friday night.
ORLANDO, FL. (WTHI) - Showing honor to first responders who lost their lives in the line of duty is what one 12-year-old from Florida does nearly every day.

Zechariah Cartledge puts his feet to the pavement with his Running for Heroes foundation.

Cartledge is coming to the Wabash Valley to run.

He's already run nearly 900 miles over the past year. He runs a mile every time a first responder loses their life in the line of duty.

This weekend, he'll be coming from Florida to Sullivan in honor of fallen Terre Haute Police Officer Rob Pitts.

Pitts died in the line of duty in May of 2018. Cartledge hopes his running will keep Pitts's memory alive.

He talked told News 10 about what his mission is for his foundation.

LINK | REMEMBERING OFFICER ROB PITTS

"That's my main hope for this non-profit. Not to get any looks or attention off of it. My main thing with this non-profit is making sure the families remember that the one fact that their fallen heroes passed away too early and we want to make sure they are honored and respected," says Cartledge.

He says even though he's the face of this non-profit, he definitely can't do it alone and support means everything to him.

"They always want to support me and clap me on. I have lots of friends that come out to the runs or support me. I have such a big supporting back," says Cartledge.

He says lately he's been running every night and travels frequently but he still has time for fun.

"I fly out Friday afternoon then come back on Sunday night and that's basically my weekend. I still have time to be a kid. I travel two out of four weeks so I still have two weeks to relax and enjoy myself being an actual 12-year-old," says Cartledge.

He says sometimes it's a lot but it's worth it.

"It is just a mile run at the end of the day it's a tribute run and I'm going to make it as best as possible."
JACKSON, Miss. (WTVA) - Masks will still be required in schools through the remainder of the 2020-2021 school year.

That's according to Gov. Tate Reeves' latest executive order.

This order goes into effect at 5 p.m. Friday, April 30.

Mississippians are still encouraged to follow guidelines from the CDC and the Mississippi State Department of Health.

Read More - Open this link to view the entire order
STARKVILLE, Miss. (WTVA) - On May 1st, the city of Starkville's mask mandate lifted, but on the Mississippi State campus, that may not ring true.

Meena Raju is in her third year at Mississippi State University (MSU).

Campus of Mississippi State University in Starkville, Mississippi. Campus of Mississippi State University in Starkville, Mississippi.

She along with her fellow Bulldogs will still have to wear masks while in the classroom on campus.

The pandemic is not yet over and we are still facing the pandemic across the globe.

The vaccines have just rolled out so we have to go a long way to fight the virus," said Raju. "In that case, I think what the university has decided is a good thing.

The university made the announcement on Wednesday, according to the Commercial Dispatch.

Masks will be optional in some indoor places, but required in classrooms, laboratories, and studios.

Vy Yadav just finished her freshman year at MSU and feels masks are part of her normal routine in college.

I feel like I would be okay with not wearing it when its like low capacity, not as many people," she said, "but if I am crammed in like the auditorium with like 200 other people, I would feel safer wearing one.

Both Yadav and Raju are international students at State and haven't seen their families in months.

Because of this, Raju had a message for her classmates complaining about wearing masks.

Whenever you feel like removing your mask and being with your friends or socializing, just remember your family," she asked. "Your family needs you and you need them.
WASHINGTON (WTVA) - The remains of a missing Korean War soldier have been accounted for and will return to the South for burial.

According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Army Cpl. Henry L. Helms, 24, of Collbran, Alabama, was accounted for on April 16, 2020.

He was reported missing in action (MIA) on Dec. 2, 1950, when his unit was attacked near the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea.

His journey home began after the summit meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korea Supreme leader Kim Jong-Un in June 2018.

North Korea surrendered more than 55 boxes purported to contain the remains of American soldiers killed during the Korean War.

Hell be buried on May 22, 2021, in Ringgold, Georgia.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP)  Rep. Laura Hall has introduced legislation to redesign Alabamas coat of arms and remove the Confederate battle flag.

The House State Government Committee debated the proposal on Wednesday.

The bill will not get a vote this session, but House State Government Committee Chairman Chris Pringle said they want to study the idea and work on possible ideas.

The state coat of arms was designed in 1923 and officially adopted by the Alabama Legislature in 1939.

The coat of arms includes the Confederate battle flag and the flags of Great Britain, France, Spain and the United States.
Charleston, WV (25301)

Today

A steady, heavy rain this morning. Showers continuing this afternoon. Thunder possible. High 82F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms this evening followed by occasional showers overnight. Low 66F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
Charleston, WV (25301)

Today

Rain showers in the morning with numerous thunderstorms developing in the afternoon. High 77F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms during the evening followed by occasional showers overnight. Low 66F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%.
Morgantown, WV (26505)

Today

Rain showers in the morning with scattered thunderstorms arriving in the afternoon. High 77F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Occasional showers with a thunderstorm possible. Low 66F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.
Barb Gorges invites readers to share their bird sightings and stories. Email bgorges4@msn.com or call 307-634-0463. Her bird columns are archived at http://cheyennebirdbanter.wordpress.com.
Police blotter is a list of recent arrests compiled from public records in Laramie County. All people listed here are innocent until proven guilty. Anyone listed who has a charge dismissed or is acquitted of the charge may bring or mail a court document proving such to the WTE editor, 702 W. Lincolnway, Cheyenne, WY 82001.
Gov. Mark Gordon voiced his support for plans to reduce the number of wild horses in multiple herd management areas.
Malian filmmaker Ousmane Samassekous The Last Shelter won the top prize in Danish doc fest CPH:DOXs main international competition on Friday, picking up the Dox:Award.

A total of 11 films garnered prizes in the festivals six international competitions, including five special mentions.

More from Variety

The Last Shelter centers on the House of Migrants, located in the Malian city of Gao, on the edge of the Sahel desert, where the director meets travelers and migrants who find a temporary home there.

The Dox:Award goes to a profound film which transports us to a vast landscape of questioning, the jury said. Through its tender portraiture it populates an epic vista with unforgettable individuals on the cusp of choosing whether they will risk being obliterated in search of a dream.

The jurys special mention in the category went to Our Memory Belongs to Us, by Rami Farah and Signe Byrge Srensen, which reunites three exiled journalists on the 10th anniversary of the Syrian uprising to watch footage from the beginning of the war.

When a City Rises, an inside look at the Hong Kong protests by young activists, took the F:act Award for its directing collective, comprised of Cathy Chu, Iris Kwong, Ip Kar Man, Huang Yuk-kwok, Evie Cheung, Han Yan Yuen and Jen Lee.

If there was one underlying thread connecting all the films nominated for this award, it is courage, the jury said. The film we chose has the narrative tension of an action adventure film, is propelled forward by a powerful score and skillful editing and perhaps most importantly, pierces the depth of our emotions in its raw and honest portrayal of this real-life David and Goliath battle.

Story continues

American filmmaker Theo Anthony nabbed a special mention for All Light, Everywhere, which examines technology and power and how new tools  from arms company Axons Taser gun to the surveillance of Black residents in Baltimore  are re-inventing old prejudices.

The Nordic:Dox Award went to Nina Hoberts Julia&I, which spans four intense years in the lives of two friends who live on the edge in Copenhagen.

The jury decribed Julia&I as a personal and brave film that is both a portrait and self-portrait of two memorable characters struggling with inner turmoils and the place theyre expected to occupy in society.

The jury also awarded a special mention to Cille Hannibal and Christine Hanberg for Hes My Brother, a Danish film about the relationship between Christine and her older brother Peter, who was born without the ability to hear, see or speak and experiences life through touch, smell and taste.

The Next:Wave Award went to Fanny Chotimahs Indonesian film You and I, the moving story of two ageing women and their unusual, lifelong relationship.

Liesbeth de Ceulaers Belgian entry Holgut, a hybrid film that takes viewers on an immersive journey deep within the Siberian tundra, was awarded a special mention.

All of Your Stars are But Dust on My Shoes, by Lebanese artist Haig Aivazian, took the New:Vision Award, for his digital mosaic of video clips that build a timeline spanning two centuries, from the days of seafaring whalers to smart cities, surveillance and urban guerilla warfare.

Maxime Jean-Baptiste and Audrey Jean-Baptiste of France snagged a special mention for Listen to the Beat of Our Images, a film based on audiovisual archives from Frances National Center for Space Studies (CNES).

Celebrating local productions and filmmakers, the Politiken Danish:Dox Award honored Frigge Fris Dark Blossom, which centers on three young Goth friends in the Danish province as they deal with the trials of growing up.

The festivals CPH:Forum financing and co-production event, meanwhile, gave the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award to Tata/Father, from Romanian director Radu Ciorniciuc and Moldovan filmmaker Lina Vdovii and produced by Monica Lazurean-Gorgans Bucharest-based Manifest Film.

The film follows a young journalist who, after leaving Moldova to escape her abusive father, returns to confront him, only to learn that he is being violently abused by his employer in Italy.

All of the award-winning films are available for Danish audiences at doxonline.dk and will be screened in cinemas in Copenhagen from May 6 to May 12, along with all 120 films from CPH:DOXs competition program, following the reopening of theaters in Denmark.

This years festival has been a great digital experience for us, said Niklas Engstrm, CPH:DOXs head of program. A lot of new possibilities are opening up in the digital space, and our audiences are supporting the festival by watching films online on our streaming platform.

Engstrm added: At the same time, we are all really longing to return to the cinemas, so I am truly happy that well be able to show no less than 120 highlights from this years CPH:DOX, including all films in competition, on the big screen next week. I cant think of a better way to celebrate the reopening of cinemas here in Denmark.

The theatrical lineup will also include an additional world premiere: Gabin Rivoires Laurent Garnier: Off the Record, which follows one of the godfathers of house music, tracing his career as a mixer, DJ and producer from his start the 1980s to the present.

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The campaign to oust the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine is part of the federal inquiry into the dealings of Rudy Giuliani, the personal lawyer to former President Donald Trump, who dismissed Marie Yovanovitch from her post two years ago.

Giuliani's attorney, Robert Costello, said Friday that Yovanovitch's name was among about eight others referenced in a search warrant served during an early morning raid Wednesday at the former New York mayor's Manhattan apartment and law offices.

Yovanovitch, a career diplomat, was a key witness in the 2019 Trump impeachment hearings in which lawmakers examined the president's efforts to pressure Ukrainian officials to investigate then-Democratic rival Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.

The former ambassador's connection to the Giuliani probe was first reported by the New York Times.

More: Rudy Giuliani's apartment raided by feds, accelerating inquiry into Ukraine dealings; warrant served on DC lawyer

More: Rudy Giuliani: FBI raid on NY apartment, offices 'unjustified'; denies wrongdoing

In this file photo taken on November 20, 2016, then President-elect Donald Trump meets with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani at the clubhouse of the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Giuliani has acknowledged that federal investigators are reviewing whether he failed to register as a foreign agent while representing Ukrainian interests in the United States.

On Thursday, Giuliani characterized the FBI raid on his Manhattan apartment and law offices as "unjustified," and denied any wrongdoing related to his dealings in Ukraine, where he had openly sought to gather damaging information against Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.

Giuliani, in a Thursday appearance on Fox News, said FBI agents seized up to eight personal electronic devices, along with two other devices belonging to a separate person the former New York mayor did not identify.

Former Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch returns from a break on Nov. 15, 2019 as she testifies before the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in a public hearing in the impeachment inquiry into allegations President Donald Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate his political rivals.

He said that seven agents arrived at his apartment at 6 a.m. Wednesday, making their presence known with a "bang, bang, bang" on the door.

Federal investigators have been examining Giuliani since at least early 2019 related to his business dealings in Ukraine, including with Ukrainian-born Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, of Belarus, who were indicted in the fall of 2019 on campaign finance charges.

Story continues

The two men played instrumental roles in connecting Giuliani with Ukrainian officials as Giuliani sought information about the financial dealings there of Hunter Biden.

In the last year of the Trump administration, the federal inquiry had been tangled in an internal dispute as prosecutors sought to push it forward.

During the transition to the Biden administration, it was expected that Attorney General Merrick Garland would be consulted on how the inquiry would proceed.

The Justice Department has declined comment on the inquiry.

During his Thursday television appearance, Giuliani claimed he had sought to cooperate with federal authorities multiple times before he was served with the search warrant Wednesday.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Former Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch part of Giuliani inquiry
Senior couple walk with walkers July 3, 2014. Francis Dean/Corbis via Getty Images

An elderly couple was able to escape an assisted living facility in Tennessee by using Morse code.

The couple learned the door code after listening to staff punch numbers into the electronic keypad.

They both suffer from dementia and Alzheimer's Disease, health records show.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

An elderly couple managed to escape an assisted living facility in Tennessee last month by using Morse code to crack an electronic keypad on a door, according to The Tennessean.

Documents from the Department of Health show that the elderly husband and wife, who have not been named, both suffer from dementia and Alzheimer's Disease.

Related: A new kind of treatment center for people with Alzheimer's

The couple left staffers at the Elmcroft of Lebanon baffled after they went missing from the special care facility on March 2.

A stranger eventually found them wandering along a nearby road 30 minutes later, The Tennessean reported.

Read more: If you're looking to buy a house in 2020, these are the 5 best cities

The man told staffers he was able to decipher the door code because he "previously worked with Morse code in the military", The Tennessean reported.

He said the couple listened closely to the sounds the electronic keypad made when staffers were using it which allowed them to eventually open the door themselves.

Elmcroft of Lebanon has since been given a $2,000 fine as a result of the couple's getaway.

"The safety of our residents is the top priority at our senior living community. We are thankful both residents were returned to the community safely," the assisted living facility said in a statement according to The Tennessean.

"We reported the situation to the state and their family immediately after it happened and fully cooperated with the state during its review," the statement said.

The facility said it has since changed all its exit codes.

Read the original article on Insider
By Dave Graham and Adriana Barrera

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday the United States would probably send his country 5 million more doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine, as the company admitted production in Latin American had suffered multiple setbacks.

Mexico is struggling with behind-schedule local AstraZeneca production and shortfalls in deliveries from foreign suppliers and has asked the United States to help with more vaccines. The request is in addition to some 2.7 million AstraZeneca doses Washington sent to Mexico in March.

"It's probable that they'll help us with a loan, while the AstraZeneca plant in Mexico gets up and running," Lopez Obrador said at a regular news conference.

The U.S. State Department did not respond to a request for comment.

Related: Will AstraZeneca's COVID vaccine get approved in U.S.?

Under a deal reached last year, the mAbxience laboratory in Argentina manufactures the active ingredient of the vaccine and ships it for bottling to a factory in Mexico owned by a company called Liomont. The shots are to be delivered across Latin America, excluding Brazil, which has a separate production deal.

Argentina has delivered cargos of the active ingredient to Mexico, but Liomont's commercial production has slipped from an original target of March. In a statement shared with Reuters on Friday, AstraZeneca said deliveries of the shots would now begin before the end of June.

AstraZeneca said it regretted the setbacks, which it attributed to limited access to critical supplies, lower-than-expected process yields from initial vaccine batches, and longer times to meet internal "site qualifications" for those batches.

"This will delay the launch of our vaccine in countries across Latin America to be supplied from this supply chain," AstraZeneca said, without giving more details of what had caused the problems.

Story continues

The Mexican government has said the Liomont factory has undergone major upgrades to produce the AstraZeneca vaccine, and that it has taken longer than expected for the factory to win regulatory approvals.

Liomont referred a request for comment to AstraZeneca.

An additional site in the United States will help meet the target of 150 million doses for the region, excluding Brazil, this year, AstraZeneca said, but 80% of the shots will still be bottled at the Mexico plant.

The problems have affected vaccination programs in the region. Argentina's government this week formally requested a report on production from AstraZeneca.

In Mexico, the problems have been compounded by deliveries of far fewer Sputnik V doses from Russia than had been agreed, and lower volumes than expected of Pfizer Inc's coronavirus vaccines.

Reuters reported on Thursday that Pfizer will ship doses made in its U.S. plant to Mexico for the first time.

(Reporting by Dave Graham; Additional reporting by Adriana Barrera and Lizbeth Diaz; Editing by Bill Berkrot, Grant McCool and Daniel Wallis)
MOSCOW (AP)  Russian military police have been deployed to a city in northeastern Syria to halt clashes between Kurdish forces and Syrian government-allied fighters, a Russian officer said Tuesday.

Rear Adm. Alexander Karpov, the head of the Russian militarys Reconciliation Center in Syria, said military police backed by helicopter gunships were sent to Qamishli near the border with Turkey.

He said Russian mediation efforts helped halt the shooting in the city and stabilize the situation. Karpov didn't elaborate on what had caused the tensions or provide further details.

Russia has waged a military campaign in Syria since 2015, helping President Bashar Assads government retake control over most of the country after a devastating 10-year conflict.

Qamishli is mainly controlled by the Kurdish forces, although government troops and allied militias have a security presence near the airport and other neighborhoods. Tensions occasionally flare between the Kurdish group, dominant in Syrias northeast, and the central government in Damascus.

The latest clashes in Qamishli erupted a week ago when Syrian government-allied fighters known as the National Defense Forces attacked a position manned by the Kurdish forces in Qamishli, according to Kurdish reports. The Kurdish forces, known as Asayish, said one of their own was fatally injured in the fighting.

In the intense fighting that followed, the Asayish deployed around Qamishli, taking cover behind walls and firing at the government-allied group in the distance.

The Kurds, Syrias largest ethnic minority, have carved out a semi-autonomous enclave in Syrias north since the start of the civil war in 2011. In the area, the dominant Kurdish group, which has allied with the United States to combat Islamic State militants, has developed its own administration and controls most of Syrias oil resources.

The Kurdish-led administration has been demanding recognition as a semi-autonomous entity, as well as representation in political negotiations with the Syrian government.
Michael B Jordan in Black Panther (Marvel Studios)

Michael B Jordan has addressed the possibility of reprising the role of Erik Killmonger, the villain from Marvels 2018 hit Black Panther.

Though Jordans character died at the end of the first Black Panther film, comic-book media has often revived characters previously thought to be dead.

With Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman having died of cancer last August, it is unknown what exactly will happen with Black Panther 2, which is confirmed to be going ahead. Bosemans role, as the heroic King TChalla, will not be recast.

Speaking to Jess Cagles SiriusXM show, Jordan was asked about the likelihood of a return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, placing it on a scale from 1 to 10.

Im gonna have to go with a solid 2, he said. I didnt want to go zero! Never say never. I cant predict the future.

The actor, who can most recently be seen in Amazon Prime Videos Tom Clancy adaptation Without Remorse, said that he didnt know much at all about the direction of Black Panther 2, but said that it would reflect a lot of circumstances and tragedy that we had to deal with this past year.

Marvel Studios

I know [director Ryan Coogler] and Marvel are going to do the absolute best job at developing the story in a way that makes everybody happy and satisfied and honours Chad and moves forward with grace, he said.

We may earn commission from some of the links in this article, but we never allow this to influence our content.

Black Panther can be watched now on Disney Plus.

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May 1Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp released a new executive order Friday, rolling back restrictions on bars, restaurants, live performances, conventions, sporting events in addition to other restrictions put into place about a year ago at the start of the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

The 28-page executive order, which was released Friday, encourages state residents to continue to follow social distancing and following all Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. But it ends mask requirements for restaurant workers, does away with capacity restrictions for movie theaters and other large venues and also eliminates other safety guidelines for gyms, barbershops and other close-contact businesses.

Key provisions of the new executive order are:

1. Modifies the social distancing and sanitation requirements for residents and visitors to "strongly encouraged."

2. Eliminates the restaurant and bar table distancing requirements and workers mask requirement.

3. Eliminates all specific requirements for gyms and fitness centers, movie theaters, body art studios, estheticians, hair stylists, and massage therapists.

4. Reduces the requirements for Conventions.

5. Eliminates the requirement that childcare facilities prohibit all unnecessary visitors.

6. Provides that Live Performance Venues, regardless of seating capacity, are only required to follow the guidelines for all Organizations, and such venues may implement additional measures in conjunction with the performer or organizer of an event.

7. Maintains that professional, collegiate, and high school sports organizations and events shall operate pursuant to the rules or guidelines issued by their respective league, conference, or association.

8. Clarifies that graduation ceremonies are only required to follow the guidelines for all Organizations.
Aerial view of Na Pali coast, Kauai, Hawaii (Getty/iStock)

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan have bought another 600 acres of Hawaiian real estate for $53m.

The billionaire splashed out for three parcels of waterfront property at Kauais Larsens Beach from the non-profit Waioli Corporation.

A road that reaches the beach was not included in the sale and remains public, according to reports.

Known as the Lepeuli ahupuaa, the property houses several reef, sea, avian, flora and historical collections in their unaltered native habitat, according to the Waioli Corporation.

We know that this land will remain in their trusted hands and that Mark and Priscilla will act as responsible stewards of Lepeuli today and in the future, Waioli Corporation President Sam Pratt told Pacific Business News.

The purchase takes Zuckerbergs land ownership in Hawaii to 1,300 acres.

He bought a 700 acre estate on Kauai in 2015, but ran into issues with a number of families who owned small parcels within the estate.

The owners were known as kamaaina families or descendants of native Hawaiian families who had inherited the land without formal deeds.

The tech mogul courted controversy by filing a string of lawsuits to evict the families by forcing them to sell their land at public auction.

He eventually dropped the lawsuits and admitted his mistake in an apologetic op-ed article in the islands newspaper.

Land on his new estate is currently leased to Paradise Ranch, and the Facebook CEO was quick to say that he does not plan on evicting anyone.

Waioli does essential work promoting conservation and cultural preservation and we are mindful of their legacy with regard to this land, he and Ms Chan said in a statement to Pacific Business News.

We are committed to honoring the current ranching lease to Paradise Ranch and extending the existing agricultural dedication.

Read More

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Mohamed Salah says Liverpool have not yet discussed the possibility of a new contract with him.

The Egypt forwards current deal at Anfield is due to expire in 2023.

The 28-year-old has been linked with Real Madrid and Barcelona after previously expressing his admiration for the Spanish giants but he insists his future has not been discussed.

Salah (left) has been prolific since his arrival at Liverpool (Catherine Ivill/PA)

No one is talking to me about anything, so I cant say much about that, said Salah, laughing, when asked in an interview with Sky Sports.

No one in the club is talking to me about anything so I do not know.

Salah has scored 120 goals in 193 appearances for the Reds since his move from Roma in 2017.

The former Chelsea player has won both the Champions League and the Premier League with the Merseyside club.

The Egyptian says he wants to win another Premier League (Phil Noble/PA)

He claims his ambitions are very much focused on winning those prizes again.

Salah said: I said before that I want to win the Premier League again, I want to win the Champions League again.

Its a great thing to win, Im just trying to win it again and again and again because part of our job is we need to win trophies.
A no-till drill cuts through last years crop residue seeding peas into the corn stubble. Those adopting conservation tillage practices, such as no-till, may need to make adjustments or purchase equipment that plants into residue.
Last week, the House passed its version of the state budget for the next two years. It differs in some significant ways from the budget the Senate passed. In order to reconcile our differences, well convene a conference committee with 5 members from each chamber to work out the details. Im honored to once again serve as a conferee for the state budget.

Here are five things happening around your state:

1. Texas to gain two new congressional seats

The US Census Bureau released preliminary data this week that outlined total population in the US and in each state and which states would be gaining or losing congressional seats. Texas is set to gain two new seats in the US Congress, the most of any state in the nation. That will bring Texas total congressional delegation to 38 congressmen and women. Florida, Colorado, Montana, North Carolina, and Oregon are each gaining one seat. Seven states will lose a seat, including California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. This data reflects a population shift from northeastern areas to southern and western regions of the US. Texas is now the second most populous state and saw the largest population increase, gaining nearly 4 million people over the past ten years. The rest of the Census data will not be released until this fall, at which time the legislature will start the process of redrawing US Congress, State House, State Senate, and State Board of Education districts.

2. Gov. Abbott requests information from counties about financial impact of border crisis

This week, Governor Abbott sent a letter to county judges across the state asking them to assess the financial impact the current border crisis has had on their counties, including costs they have incurred and those they anticipate to incur. This information will be used to formally request that the federal government reimburse these costs in full, since decisions at the federal level led to the humanitarian crisis at the border. He also encouraged county judges to get a resolution of support for the States request from their Commissioners Court.

3. $11.2 billion in federal funds released to schools

This week Governor Abbott, Lt. Governor Patrick, and Speaker Phelan announced the release of $11.2 billion in federal funds for Texas public schools. The funds are aimed at helping schools recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and address students learning loss. These funds will support the recovery effort over the next three years. Due to federal requirements, only two-thirds of the funds are available immediately. The last third will be distributed when the US Department of Education approves it.

4. Battleship Texas restoration continues

Last session, the legislature passed Senate Bill 1511, a bill I authored that would pledge state resources toward saving the historic Battleship Texas. The battleship is the last of the dreadnoughts that fought in both World War I and World War II. Since its heyday, the ship has fallen into disrepair, with salt water corroding the steel hull. There is also a system of pumps constantly pushing water out of the hull, which is the only thing keeping the ship upright in the Houston Ship Channel. That pump system at one time was pumping 2,000 gallons of water an hour out of the ship. After repairs began, including filling the lower part of the hull with foam, those pumps only pump 3 gallons out an hour. In accordance with the bill, the ship will soon be floated to a dry dock in Galveston for further repairs. Meanwhile, an extensive restoration effort has been undertaken by volunteers in Pasadena. These volunteers are restoring the ships artifacts like anti-aircraft guns and spotlights. Years of wear and tear left these precious artifacts with chipped paint and rust. Id like to thank all of the volunteers who have worked countless hours to restore the Battleship Texas to her former glory!

5. Over 1.7 million doses of COVID vaccine coming to Texas

The Department of State Health Services announced that more than 1.7 million COVID-19 vaccines are headed to Texas next week. Over 700,000 of those doses are the first dose of the two-dose Moderna and Pfizer vaccines and were allocated to almost 1,000 providers in 129 counties. Those providers will also get over 570,000 second doses. The final 470,000 doses are first and second doses and were allocated to pharmacies, federally qualified health centers, and dialysis centers. So far, more than 23.4 million doses have been distributed in Texas and more than 36 percent of Texans have received at least one dose.

Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jackstonville, represents District 3.
News

Arlington, Virginia - An American military contractor was sentenced Tuesday to 51 months in prison for her role in a theft ring on a military installation in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Varita V. Quincy, 35, of Snellville, Georgia pleaded guilty on October 13, 2020, to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and commit theft of property of value to the United States and one count of making false statements. According to court documents, Quincy admitted that, between April 2015 and July 2015, she and others conspired to and did steal property of value to the United States including generators, a truck, and other items worth over $150,000. Larry Green, one of her co-conspirators, negotiated the sale of the stolen property with a third-country national middleman, who in turn facilitated the sale of the items to unknown persons in Kandahar.

Quincy further admitted that, to effectuate the theft of the generators, she used her position as a security badging and escort pass supervisor to create or cause to be made false official documents. The false official documents facilitated both the entry of unknown and unvetted Afghan nationals and their vehicles on to the military installation and effectuated the removal of the stolen property from the installation. The falsified documents were used to deceive security officers and gate guards and compromised the security of U.S. military and civilian personnel on the military installation.

Green pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and commit theft of property of value to the United States; one count of theft of property of value to the United States; and one count of aiding and abetting the submission of false statements, and was sentenced on Nov. 19, 2020, to 41 months in prison and ordered to pay $179,708 in restitution.

Quincy also was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $179,708. Further, Quincys sentence reflected her fraudulent post-trial conduct of submitting altered documents to the court on her behalf in advance of sentencing.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicholas L. McQuaid of the Justice Departments Criminal Division; Acting U.S. Attorney Raj Parekh of the Eastern District of Virginia; and Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John F. Sopko made the announcement.

SIGAR investigated the case with help from Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID) and the 939th Military Police Detachment of the Indiana Army National Guard.

Trial Attorneys Sasha N. Rutizer of the Criminal Divisions Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section, Rosaleen OGara of the Criminal Divisions Public Integrity Section, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Kosky of the Eastern District of Virginia are prosecuting the case.
News

Raleigh, North Carolina - A North Carolina man pleaded guilty Monday to production of child pornography.

According to statements made in connection with his plea, when allegations of child pornography came to light, Raul Ayala Jr., 72, of Harnett County, was interviewed by the Fuquay-Varina Police Department and admitted to molesting a prepubescent minor victim, as well as other victims as far back as the 1970s. A search warrant was thereafter executed at Ayalas residence in Angier and multiple digital devices were seized. The devices contained numerous images and videos of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). In addition, the police found a briefcase in Ayalas attic, suspended by a pulley system, that contained CSAM and Polaroid pictures of nude minor children, dating back to the late 1960s and early 1970s. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents were able to track down and identify one of the boys depicted in the Polaroids. He is now in his 60s and disclosed that Ayala had sexually abused him when he was a minor, starting when he was 8 years old.

This case demonstrates that child sex offenders too often engage in their offenses over great periods of time without detection, said acting Assistant Attorney General Nicholas L. McQuaid of the Justice Departments Criminal Division. This prosecution resulted from the successful collaboration of diligent federal and local law enforcement officers in their efforts to pursue justice for children, regardless of the passage of time. Ayala committed egregious offenses for decades and his successful prosecution ensures that he now faces a sentence of no less than 15 years. The Department of Justice is committed to tirelessly tracking down and pursuing the prosecution of defendants like Ayala who victimize the most vulnerable members of our society.

Child pornography  the horrible exploitation of the most vulnerable among us  is one of the worst and most intolerable crimes we prosecute, and this plea reflects the Department of Justices deep and abiding commitment to removing these predators and restoring our children, said Acting U.S. Attorney G. Norman Acker III of the Eastern District of North Carolina. This case allows us to take another step in the right direction as we work to eliminate this crime and its terrible consequences for our communities.

As disturbing as these child sex abuse cases are, HSI is determined to prevent and punish those who sexually abuse innocent children, said Special Agent in Charge Ronnie Martinez of HSIs Charlotte Field Office. Working together with our partners in the Fuquay-Varina Police Department and the Hartnett County Sheriffs Office, these cases can be investigated thoroughly and expeditiously so children can continue to be rescued. There is nothing more meaningful than locating, identifying, and rescuing child sex abuse victims.

Ayala faces up to 30 years of imprisonment, with a mandatory minimum term of 15 years of imprisonment, to be followed by supervised release for at least five years, and restitution. After release from prison, Ayala will be required to register as a sex offender.

Trial Attorney Charles Schmitz of the Criminal Divisions Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Charity Wilson of the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina prosecuted the case.

The HSI Raleigh Field Office investigated the case with assistance from the Fuquay-Varina Police Department and the Harnett County Sheriffs Office. CEOSs High Tech Investigative Unit provided substantial assistance.
Today

Cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy in the afternoon. High 101F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.

Tonight

Partly cloudy early with increasing clouds overnight. Low 73F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph.

Tomorrow

Mostly cloudy skies early will become partly cloudy later in the day. High 98F. Winds NW at 10 to 20 mph.
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On Saturday, Maruti Suzuki India posted a 4% decline in total sales to 1,59,691 units in April as compared to 1,67,014 units in March 2021. Indias largest carmaker blamed the pandemic for low sales as a spike in COVID-19 cases hit dispatches.

Maruti Suzuki had not sold any unit in the domestic market in April 2020 due to the nationwide lockdown. The company said its domestic sales last month stood at 1,42,454 units, down 8% from 1,55,417 units in March.

Sales of mini cars, comprising Alto and S-Presso, increased by 2 per cent to 25,041 units in April as against 24,653 units in March. Sales of compact segment vehicles, including Swift, Celerio, Ignis, Baleno and Dzire, declined by 12 per cent to 72,318 units from 82,201 cars in March this year.

Sales of mid-sized sedan Ciaz, declined by 4 per cent to 1,567 units as compared to 1,628 units in March this year.

Utility vehicle sales, including Vitara Brezza, S-Cross and Ertiga, declined 3 per cent to 25,484 units as against 26,174 in March, MSI said.

Exports in April were, however, up 49 per cent at 17,237 units as against 11,597 units in March this year. The auto major had also managed to ship out 632 units in April last year.

Meanwhile, Tata Motors said its total domestic sales declined by 41 per cent to 39,530 units in April as compared to 66,609 vehicles in March this year.

Like Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors had not sold any vehicle in April last year due to the nationwide lockdown. The company said its passenger vehicle sales in the domestic market stood at 25,095 units in April, down 15 per cent from 29,654 units in March this year.

"Commercial vehicle sales in the domestic market stood at 14,435 units, down 61 per cent from 36,955 units in March," it added.
Chandigarh: Amid a surge in coronavirus cases in Chandigarh, a weekend lockdown has been imposed in the Union Territory beginning at 5 am on Saturday (May 1).

However, with daily night curfew hours in Chandigarh starting from 6 pm to 5 am, the restrictions will effectively come into force from Friday evening.

The Chandigarh Administration said it has decided to impose weekend lockdown on similar lines as its satellite towns of Mohali in Punjab and Panchkula in Haryana.

"There will be weekend corona curfew on Saturday and Sunday in Chandigarh too on similar lines as Mohali and Panchkula. Orders issued," Advisor to Chandigarh's Administrator Manoj Parida said, as per an official statement.

"There shall be a weekend corona curfew from 5 am on May 1 till 5 am on May 3 in UT Chandigarh. No person shall leave their home or shall move on foot or by vehicle or travel or stand or roam around on any road or public places during the lockdown hours," an order issued by Mandip Singh Brar, District Magistrate-cum-Chairperson, District Disaster Management Authority, UT Chandigarh, said.

In his order, he said a meeting to review the COVID-19 situation was held here on Friday, in which it was decided that a 'weekend corona curfew' should be imposed in Chandigarh.

Among various categories exempted include those tasked with law and order/emergency and municipal services, health, electricity, fire and telecom services. Shops dealing with the supply of essential goods like milk, vegetables etc shall be allowed to remain open for home delivery up to 2 pm, the order stated.

There shall be no curbs on inter-state movement of essential and non-essential goods while vehicles in bonafide inter-state transit shall be allowed to pass.

All vaccination centres/testing centres/dispensaries and medical facilities shall remain open.

ATMs, hospitals, veterinary hospitals and all related medical establishments, besides dispensaries, chemist shops, pharmacies, ambulance services etc will continue to remain functional, the order said.

The kitchens of restaurants/eating places, hotels including food joints/courts in various malls can remain open for home delivery only up to 9 pm. Their staff shall be allowed to move on production of valid identity card issued to them by their respective establishment.

Pregnant women and patients getting medical/health services will be exempted from the lockdown restrictions.

Marriages with prior permission from the Sub Divisional Magistrate concerned with the attendance of up to 50 persons shall be allowed. Funerals/last rites with attendance of up to 20 persons are allowed, it said.

During the weekend curfew, those going for appearing examinations and those on exam duties will be allowed movement on the production of admit/identity cards.

Those government employees working in tricity (Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula), shall be allowed transit on the production of valid identity cards and duty orders.

Any breach of the orders shall invite action as per law, the order said.

Notably, weekend lockdown had been imposed in Chandigarh a fortnight ago, but the weekend restrictions barring night curfew were lifted last week. However, as the surge in COVID cases has continued, the administration again imposed the weekend lockdown.

UT Chandigarh on Friday recorded 724 fresh infections, taking the infection tally to 42,647. The death of 13 more persons took the toll to 478 in the city, according to a medical bulletin.

Amid rising COVID-19 cases, the Chandigarh administration had on April 28 announced the extension of the curfew period by three hours. The night curfew in Chandigarh, effective since April 29, starts from 6 pm till 5 am.

(inputs from PTI)

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Mastercard is donating $8.9 million (roughly Rs 64 crore) to help India in its fight against Covid-19. The leading global payments company is donating funds to American India Foundation (AIF), a New York-based non-profit body.

Overall, the grant is expected to help 2.5 million Indians get quality healthcare services. "This is AIF's largest-ever gift, and these funds will be used to procure and place portable hospitals in areas of greatest need across the country," the AIF said.

American India Foundation will also use the funds to set up 2,000 portable beds in India. Currently, the second wave of Covid-19 has gripped India, with thousands of patients gasping for medical grade oxygen across the country.

"Mastercard has granted an incredible USD 8.9 million to the AIF COVID-19 Response, to install 2,000 portable beds in India, addressing the immediate healthcare needs of the nation," the AIF announced.

All the beds will be equipped with a ventilator, medical equipment, and other supplies. Each unit can easily be de-constructed or re-purposed as extra space for various community needs, such as extra classrooms.

In the fight against Covid-19, several Indian and global firms have announced grants to provide oxygen to hospitals in the country or improve the medical infrastructure. Previously, Tata Steel, Reliance, BHEL, among many companies, have announced that they are sharing oxygen to hospital from their factories. Meanwhile, a few companies are making monetary donations to fuel the battle against Covid-19.

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#mute
Delhi's Batra Hospital on Saturday told the Delhi High Court that it ran out of oxygen supply for more than an hour, resulting in the deaths of eight COVID-19 patients, comprising a doctor.

The hospital told the high court, "We didn't get oxygen on time. We ran out of oxygen at 12 noon. We got oxygen at 1:35 pm. We have lost lives, including one of our own doctors."

The hospital said in a statement that eight of its patients, including a doctor, passed away on Saturday due to lack of oxygen.

Also Read: COVID-19 in India: Where oxygen concentrators are coming from

"We ran our operation for almost an hour without oxygen supply," said Dr. SCL Gupta, Medical Director, Batra Hospital.

Batra Hospital, in an SOS message, had earlier said that the oxygen would last for another 10 minutes and that "326 patients are admitted at this hospital."

"Our SOS cryogenic tanker carrying Liquid Medical Oxygen is reaching Batra Hospital within 5 minutes. Their regular supplier of oxygen has defaulted yet again due to alleged 'lack of oxygen supplies' and is being pulled up," said Delhi minister Raghav Chaddha later.

Also Read: 'Anyone obstructing supply won't be spared': Delhi High Court on oxygen shortage

Although oxygen was later supplied to the hospital, it said by the time the supply reached, eight patients had already died. Meanwhile, the NKS Super Specialty Hospital has told the high court that they are in a dire situation as well.

The High Court has instructed all medical superintendents, owners and directors of all Delhi hospitals and nursing homes to furnish complete details of all coronavirus patients admitted at their facilities from April 1 onwards. The court added that the information should also mention the position of the bed occupied by the patient and the discharge date. Amicus Rajasekhar Rao has been directed to ready a format for the hospitals to submit the said information within four days.

The Delhi High Court said on Saturday that hospitals should learn from their experiences concerning oxygen paucity during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and establish plants for generating the life-saving gas.
New Delhi: The auspicious occasion of Guru Tegh Bahadur's 400th Prakash Purab is being celebrated on May 1, this year. He was the 9th of the 10 Gurus that founded the Sikh religion. He was also considered to be the leader of Sikhs from 1665 until his demise in 1675.

On this day, people pay respects to the religious leader. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also visited the holy Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib today to pray to Guru Tegh Bahadur as seen on his Twitter.

Prayed at Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib today. We can never forget the life, ideals and supreme sacrifice of Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Ji.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 1, 2021

Guru Tegh Bahadur is considered to be an honourable scholar and poet who greatly contributed to the Sri Guru Granth Sahib - the main holy book of Sikhism. On his 400th Prakash Purab let's take a look at his life, teachings, and popular works.

Early life

Guru Tegh Bahadur was born in Punjab in 1621 to the Guru Hargobind Sahib, the sixth Sikh guru. He was first named Tyaga Mal but later came to be known as Tegh Bahadur after participating in the war against the Mughals and showing bravery.

He was trained in several skills such as archery and horsemanship. He also learned about classic Hindu literature including the Vedas, the Upanishads, and the Puranas. It is often believed that Tegh Bahadur preferred solitude and contemplation over excessive interaction.

Guru Tegh Bahadur's teachings and work

The Sikh guru wrote several hymns to Granth Sahib. His other works include 116 shabads, 15 ragas, and 782 compositions which were also added to the holy Sikh book - Granth Sahib. He wrote about a wide range of topics such as God, human relationships, the human condition, the body and mind, emotions, service, death, and dignity.

Guru Tegh Bahadur had also travelled across parts of the Mughal Empire and helped in the construction of Sikh temples in the areas.

Guru Tegh Bahadur's Demise

The religious leader was beheaded by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in Delhi. Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib and Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib in the national capital are considered to be where he was executed and cremated. His sacrifice and death anniversary is paid tribute with the Shaheedi Divas of Guru Tegh Bahadur every year on November 24.
New Delhi: The prevailing lockdown situation in Delhi has been extended for another week, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday (May 1, 2021) made the announcement.

Taking to Twitter, Kejriwal wrote: "Lockdown in Delhi is being extended by one week."

Lockdown in Delhi is being extended by one week  Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) May 1, 2021

Currently, the national capital is under a COVID-19 lockdown till 5 am on Monday, as the Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is running from pillar to post to stop the the fresh wave of novel coroanvirus infections and keep a check on the positivity rate that remains over 30 per cent.

On Saturday, Delhi recorded over 27,000 new cases and 375 deaths in the past 24 hours, It is the 13th consecutive day that the city has reported more than 20,000 cases per day.

The current lockdown which was imposed on Sunday, April 25 will be in effect till May 3.

Meanwhile, as many as eight people died at Batra hospital in the city after an 80-minute delay in getting a fresh supply of oxygen.

The hospitals in the city are overflowing, doctors and health care workers are overwhelmed, and there is severe shortage of beds, medicines, oxygen.
New Delhi: Bollywood actress Huma Qureshi is all set to prove her mettle in Hollywood. The 'Gangs of Wasseypur' star will be now seen in a Hollywood film, 'Army of the Dead'. The trailer of the film was released earlier this month and was appreciated by everyone.

However, Huma was not seen throughout the trailer. 'Army of the Dead' is directed by Zack Snyder and will be released on Netflix on May 21, 2021. Although, this is Humas first step towards Hollywood but the actress was not really pleased while sharing her motion poster from the film amid pandemic. She stated it as professional duty.

Sharing the poster, Huma wrote, "My heart bleeds as my country and my fellow Indians fight personal loss, hurt, pain and devastation everyday because of the Covid-19 pandemic. I stand alongside them in sharing every bit of it with them. With a heavy heart however, in keeping with my duties as a professional. I share my work for all of you to view Army Of The Dead, the Zack Snyder film I shot through 2019. Releasing on May 14th 2021 in select theatres and 21st May on Netflix."

She added, "Urging those who are safe to continue staying safe and follow every possible regulation in these torrid times, while dedicating my work to those who have encountered the wrath of this pandemic and wishing them health & peace."

In the movie, Huma will be essaying the role of Geeta, and the rest of her details are still under the wrap and so for that, we need to wait and watch. Other important characters of the film include Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, and Ana de la Reguera.
Bharuch: At least 18 patients have died after a fire broke out at a COVID-19 hospital in Gujarat's Bharuch in the wee hours on Saturday (May 1, 2021). As per the latest reports, out of the 18 killed, 12 patients were admitted to the ICU, whereas, four were in the normal ward. Two of the hospital staff have also lost their lives.

Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani expressed his condolences and said that the state government will provide assistance of Rs 4 lakh to the families of each of the victims of the accident.

Bharuch SP Rajendrasinh Chudasama told the PTI news agency that the 12 patients in the COVID-19 ward died due to the fire and resultant smoke. The official also informed that the cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained.

"The fire was controlled within an hour and around 50 patients were rescued by locals as well as firefighters," a fire official said.

"They were shifted to nearby hospitals," he added.

The COVID-19 designated hospital is situated on the Bharuch-Jambusar highway, around 190 km from Ahmedabad.

Gujarat has so far seen 5,67,777 COVID-19 cases, of which, 14,605 were registered on Friday. The state currently has 1,42,046 active cases. Gujarat's death toll also increased by 173 to 7,183.

(With agency inputs)



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New Delhi: The coronavirus situation in the national capital remained grim as eight COVID-19 patients including a doctor died at Delhi's Batra Hospital due to oxygen shortage on Saturday (May 1, 2021).

"We are trying to revive five other critical patients," PTI news agency quoted Dr SCL Gupta as saying.

Among those who died, one is a doctor of the Batra Hospital's Gastro Department Dr RK Himthani.

Earlier in the day, the Delhi High Court said that hospitals should learn from their experiences regarding oxygen scarcity during the prevailing COVID-19 situation and set up plants for generating the life-saving gas.

"Oxygen plants are essential. It is irresponsible not to have them," the bench said.

"You (hospitals) should also learn from your experience and put up a plant," the court said while hearing several pleas with regard to the oxygen crisis and other COVID-19 related issues in Delhi.

A bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli said for commercial considerations, some hospitals reduce capital expenditures on things like oxygen plants which are essential in a hospital, especially the big ones.

This is to be noted that the hospitals across the national capital have been sending out SOS messages for over two weeks now about the depleting supplies of oxygen.

Meanwhile, Delhi reported 375 coronavirus-related deaths and 27,047 new cases on Friday. This is the ninth day on the trot that the national capital has witnessed over 300 COVID-19 deaths.

Delhi's total caseload has now increased to 11,49,333, of which, 99,361 are active cases while 16,147 have succumbed to the virus.

Delhi Health Bulletin - 30th April 2021 #DelhiFightsCorona pic.twitter.com/tZiJKOGrjl  CMO Delhi (@CMODelhi) April 30, 2021

(With inputs from agencies)

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NEW DELHI: Counting of votes will be held on Sunday (May 2, 2021) for the high-stakes assembly elections held recently in Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, overshadowed by the raging COVID-19 pandemic, as the BJP seeks to consolidate its hold over more states and the Congress along with its allies attempts to regain turf.

The counting of votes will begin at 8 AM and continue late into the night. As many as 1,100 counting observers will watch the process and candidates and agents will have to produce a negative COVID test report or double dose of vaccination certificate to get an entry.

There will be 2,364 counting halls as compared to 1,002 halls in 2016 in 822 assembly constituencies in view of the coronavirus guidelines, according to the Election Commission which had drawn flak from the courts over the conduct of polls during the pandemic.

Despite the prevailing COVID-19 situation, the voter turn out was recorded in a good number in all the places. The trends and results will be available from 8 AM on May at https://results.eci.gov.in.

West Bengal: It's Mamata Banerjee Vs Modi Magic

After eight-phased Assembly polls in West Bengal, while Mamata Banerjee`s Trinamool Congress (TMC) is seeking to seize power for the third consecutive term, the BJP is making claims of winning 200 seats in the 294-member West Bengal Assembly. The power-packed campaigns by the main contenders - the Trinamool Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), involved rallies with large participations and mega roadshows. The third front - the coalition of the Congress, Left Front and Indian Secular Force - seemed to be on the back foot when it came to campaigning. The ambitious BJP did intense campaigning with the goal to topple the incumbent TMC government in the state.

The exit polls suggest that there is going to be a very close fight for the throne in West Bengal. While Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo and incumbent Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is looking for her third tenure, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is confident that it will form its maiden government in the state. The Zee News Maha Exit Poll predicts that BJP will win on over 144 seats and TMC will take 132 seats. Congress+ will take 15 and one seat to the other contenders.

Apart from the Axis My India-India Today and the Republic-CNX exit polls, which gave the saffron party an edge in the battleground state, all other surveys, including the CVoter Exit Poll for Times Now/ABP News, forecast the third victory for TMC, putting it ahead in the 294-member Assembly.

Will Lotus bloom in Assam again?

In the northeastern state of Assam, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) looks ahead in the exit polls and the lotus is likely to bloom for the second consecutive time. All major pollsters have predicted a majority for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the 126-member Assembly.

As per the Zee News Maha Exit Poll, the BJP+ will take 73 seats, whereas Congress+ will win on 51 assembly constituencies. Others will bag two seats.

Will there be a change of guard in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry?

The DMK-Congress alliance looks in a comfortable position to cross the halfway mark of 118 seats in the Tamil Nadu Assembly. As per the Zee News Maha Exit Poll, the DMK+ is likely to dethrone AIADMK+ by winning 173 seats. The Edappadi K Palaniswami-led AIADMK+ may win over 57 seats, while others will take four seats.

In Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan's Left Democratic Front (LDF) is expected to retain the power. According to Zee News Maha Exit Poll, the LDF will win on 91 seats and the United Democratic Front (UDF) will take 47 seats, whereas others will bag two seats.

Puducherry is likely to have a government headed by the Bharatiya Janata Party. The Zee News Maha Exit Poll has predicted 19 seats for BJP+ in the 30-seat Assembly. Congress+ will take 10, while one seat may go to one of the other contenders.

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New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Saturday (May 1, 2021) directed the Centre to supply 490 metric tonnes of allocated oxygen to the national capital during the day or face contempt action. The bench said the Centre has made an allocation of 490 metric tonnes of oxygen to Delhi and 'you fulfill it'.

"Much water has gone above head. Now, we mean business. Enough is enough," a bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli asserted, as per a report by PTI.

The Centre's request to defer the order till Monday or for half-an-hour was also declined.

"Do you mean we will shut our eyes to people dying in Delhi," the bench asked when the Centre's counsel said the oxygen crisis is before the Supreme Court also which will make its order public on Saturday.

Further, the court took note of eight deaths at Batra Hospital due to lack of oxygen supply in the city.

As many as eight COVID-19 patients including a doctor died at Delhi's Batra Hospital due to oxygen shortage on Saturday, revealling just how grim the coronavirus situation is in the national capital.

"We are trying to revive five other critical patients," PTI news agency quoted Dr SCL Gupta as saying.

Among those who died, one is a doctor of the Batra Hospital's Gastro Department Dr RK Himthani.
New Delhi: Attacking the Uttar Pradesh government and State Election Commission (SEC) for conducting Panchayat polls amid massive COVID-19 surge, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday (May 1) termed it a crime against humanity.

Vadra claimed that over 700 teachers, including a pregnant lady, who was 'forced' to attend polling duty have died.

These elections have been conducted in almost 60,000-gram sabhas of UP without any thought of the catastrophic onslaught of the second wave, the Congress leader said.

Sharing media reports on COVID-19 deaths in the state, Vadra tweeted, "Meetings were conducted, campaigning continued and the spread of COVID in UPs villages is now unstoppable. People are dying in numbers far, far above the deceitful official figures."

Over 700 teachers have died in Uttar Pradesh, including a pregnant lady who was forced to attend polling duty for the Panchayat elections. 1/6 pic.twitter.com/o5WPcuO7tu  Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) May 1, 2021

The Congress leader claimed that several people are dying in rural homes but the fatalities are not registered as coronavirus-related deaths as people are not being tested.

People are dying in homes across rural UP, and these deaths are not being counted as COVID because people arent being tested, she alleged.

Further, slamming the Yogi Adityanath-led UP government, Vadra said, The governments actions are designed to cover up the truth and terrorise both the public and the medical community, which is working tirelessly to save lives. What is happening in UP is nothing less than a crime against humanity and the SEC UP is playing along, she asserted.

Polling for the four-phase panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh ended on Thursday (April 29). The counting of votes will take place on May 2.

Meanwhile, as per an IANS report, the UP Teachers' Federation and workers' organisations have refused to be present during vote counting for the panchayat elections. The UP Teachers' Federation sent a letter to the SEC to postpone the counting of votes otherwise teachers and staff will boycott it. They have alleged that from training to polling, the SEC did not follow the requisite COVID-19 norms anywhere. The federation released a list claiming that nearly 706 teachers and staff engaged in election duty have succumbed to coronavirus infection, while a large number of teachers still battling the disease.

"There is no information about how many persons in the families of these Covid-hit teachers have been infected so the counting of votes to be held on May 2 should be halted," the letter read.

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New Delhi: The Election Commission on Saturday (May 1) moved Supreme Court against Madras High Court observations that the poll panel was singularly responsible for surge in coronavirus COVID-19 cases across the country. The poll panel has challeneged the Madras High Court observation where it blasted it for its failure to maintain COVID-19 protocols.

The poll panel's appeal against the Madras High Court's refusal to entertain its petition opposing the critical remarks will be heard by a bench headed by Justice D Y Chandrachud on March 3. We have filed an appeal against the high court orders," the counsel for the Election Commission, Amit Sharma, told PTI.

The Madras High Court had on April 26 castigated the ECI over the COVID-19 second wave in the country, holding it singularly responsible for the spread, called it "the most irresponsible institution" and even said its officials may be booked under murder charges. The ECI allowing political parties to take out rallies and meetings had led to the spread of the pandemic, the court had said.

The development comes a day after the Supreme Court on April 30 advised High Courts to avoid unnecessary 'off-the-cuff remarks' during hearings, a call that came against the backdrop of stinging observations made by some of them against the Centre and state governments over their handling of the escalating COVID-19 crisis.

In Chennai, the ECI's counsel told the High Court that comments of murder charges against its officials and the institution being solely responsible for the surge in COVID-19 cases had caused great damage and tarnished the poll body's image.

The call by the apex court that it expects a "degree of respect and restraint" since the remarks may have serious ramifications also came on a day when the Election Commission of India (ECI) moved the Madras High Court seeking to restrain the media from reporting its strong oral observations on the poll body's role in conducting elections amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The ECI's plea was, however, rejected by the high court.

(With PTI inputs)

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New Delhi: The death reports of former Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Mohammad Shahabuddin doing the rounds on the internet are not true, sources in Delhi confirmed on Saturday (May 1, 2021). Earlier, there were reports that the Bihar Baahubali leader passed away on Saturday morning, however, there was no official confirmation on it.

Mohammad Shahabuddin is currently in the ICU and was serving a life sentence for murder in Tihar jail.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Delhi High Court had directed the AAP government and the prison authority to ensure proper medical supervision and care of Shahabuddin.

Justice Prathiba M Singh had said the doctor on duty for looking after COVID-19 patients shall monitor Shahabuddin's health condition and treatment and if required, also consult with senior doctors of the hospital.

The court had also directed that the former RJD MP be permitted to speak to a family member twice a day and disposed of his plea for protection of his life and monitoring of the treatment being provided to him at the hospital.

However, the Delhi government additional standing counsel Santosh K Tripathi had said that as per the prison rules, calls to family members are not permitted when a prisoner is outside the jail.

He also told the court that proper medical care was being provided to Shahabuddin and the same shall continue.

The Bihar leader, in his plea, had said that he apprehended that he would not get the proper treatment as there was a scarcity of oxygen and other medicines in Delhi. He had also alleged that he was apprehending the mismanagement of his health situation at the hands of the doctors at the behest of the opposite political leaders in Delhi.

(With inputs from agencies)
New Delhi: India reported the highest ever single-day spike with 4,01,993 fresh coronavirus infections, taking the cumulative caseload to 1,91,64,969 on Saturday (May 1), as per data by the health ministry.

The country's total COVID-19 caseload has now increased to 1.91 crore (1,91,64,969) of which, 32.68 lakh (32,68,710) are active cases. India has also witnessed 2.11 lakh (2,11,853) coronavirus-related deaths.

India reports 4,01,993 new #COVID19 cases, 3523 deaths and 2,99,988 discharges in the last 24 hours, as per Union Health Ministry Total cases: 1,91,64,969

Total recoveries: 1,56,84,406

Death toll: 2,11,853

Active cases: 32,68,710 Total vaccination: 15,49,89,635 pic.twitter.com/S56SPyLZtq  ANI (@ANI) May 1, 2021

The Ministry of Health has red-flagged ten states for contributing to the national COVID-19 active cases. The ten states include Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal.

Maharashtra remains the worst affected state with total confirmed cases and active caseloads. Maharashtra reported 62,919 fresh infections and 828 deaths on Friday (April 30).

Meanwhile, Denmark joined several European countries including the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain that have already applied travel restrictions on India. US President Joe Biden on Friday (April 30) imposed new travel restrictions on India in light of the COVID-19 epidemic, barring most non-U.S. citizens from entering the United States.



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New Delhi: The Indian Navy has deployed seven warships to bring oxygen-filled cryogenic containers from abroad as hospitals across India continued to face a severe shortage of medical oxygen in view of mounting cases of COVID-19 infections.

The ships which are deployed to bring liquid oxygen and associated medical equipment from abroad under operation 'Samudra Setu II' are Kolkata, Kochi, Talwar, Tabar, Trikand, Jalashwa and Airavat, officials said.

The Navy launched the operation at a time hospitals in Delhi and several other states and union territories are running out of oxygen, triggering a healthcare crisis. Twelve people, including a doctor, died at Delhi's Batra Hospital on Saturday after it allegedly ran out of medical oxygen.

The Indian Navy said INS Talwar is bringing 40 metric tonnes of liquid medical oxygen from Manama in Bahrain while INS Kolkata has proceeded to Doha to collect medical supplies. The ship will subsequently leave for Kuwait to bring liquid oxygen tanks.

Similarly, on the eastern seaboard, INS Airavat is scheduled to bring oxygen from Singapore while INS Jalashwa is standing by to bring medical stores at a short notice.

"The second batch of ships comprising Kochi, Trikand and Tabar mission deployed in the Arabian Sea have also been diverted to join the national effort. From the Southern Naval Command, the landing ship tank INS Shardul is being readied to join the operation within 48 hours," the Navy said in a statement.

Officials said the Navy has the capability to deploy more ships when the need arises to further the nation's fight against COVID-19.

"It is pertinent that the ships are combat-ready and capable of meeting any contingency in keeping with the attributes of versatility of sea power," the Navy said.

Last year, the Indian Navy had launched Operation Samudra Setu as part of the Vande Bharat evacuation mission under which it brought back around 4,000 stranded Indians from the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Iran.

In the last few days, the Indian Air Force airlifted from abroad 47 oxygen containers with a total capacity of 830 metric tonnes to augment oxygen supply and distribution infrastructure in the country.

The IAF brought empty tanks as containers filled with oxygen are highly combustible and may pose a risk to its planes

As India battles a devastating second wave of coronavirus pandemic, countries around the world have announced sending medical supplies including oxygen-related equipment to help it tide over the situation.

The leading countries that have announced assistance to India include the US, Russia, France, Germany, Australia, Ireland, Belgium, Romania, Luxembourg, Singapore, Portugal, Sweden, New Zealand, Kuwait and Mauritius.
Thiruvananthapuram: The state of Kerala went to the polls to elect its 15th legislative assembly. Counting of votes will begin at 8 a.m on Sunday for the 140-member Kerala Assembly.

There are 140 seats in the Kerala Legislative Assembly. LDF-led by the CPI(M) holds the majority with 91 seats. Out of the 91 LDF seats, 58 belong to the CPI(M), 19 to the CPI, JD(S) holds 3, IND owns 4, KC(M) has 2 to its name while NCP, KC(B), C(S), and INL hold one each.

Polling for the Kerala State Assembly concluded on April 6 and witnessed a high-pitched battle as electoral contenders Oommen Chandy, Pinarayi Vijayan, Ramesh Chennithala and C Raghunath jumped into the fray. The 2021 Kerala Assembly Elections also found E Sreedharan make his electoral debut on a BJP ticket. The 88-year-old who recently joined the BJP before the polls is projected as the party's Chief Minister face.

Breaking down the 41 seats held by the Congress-led UDF, the INC has 21 seats, the IUML has 18, KC(J) has one belongs to NCK.

The BJP holds only one seat in the 140-seater Kerala Assembly and there are 7 vacant seats.

The exit polls on Kerala state assembly elections:

Kerala Exit Poll results (Total seats -140):

LDF is expected to retain power in Kerala, as per most pollsters.

Zee News Maha Exit Poll:

LDF  91, UDF  47, Others  2

Republic-CNX:

LDF  72-80, UDF  58-64, BJP  1-5, Others  0

India Today  Axis My India:

LDF - 104-120, UDF - 20-36, BJP - 0-2

ABP News - C Voter:

LDF - 71-77, UDF - 62-68, BJP - 0-2, Others - 0

News 24 - Chanakya:

LDF - 93-111, UDF - 26-44, BJP- 0-6, Others - 0-3

The ruling LDF alliance is expected to retain power as the pollsters predict a tough one for UDF.

Here are the five key candidates to watch out for:

1. Pinarayi Vijayan:

CM Pinarayi Vijayan achieved a massive victory in local body polls. Vijayan assumed his office in 2016 and since then he is going strong. If exit polls are considered, he is all set to come in power once again.

2. Kummanam Rajasekharan:

Rajasekharan is a BJP candidate from the state. He has worked as the former governor of Mizoram. He was Party President from 2015-2018. Rajasekharan will be contesting elections from Nemom, Thiruvananthpuram. BJP in the previous elections had managed to win a seat from this constituency and it will be interesting to observe what results come in this time.

3. Oommen Chandy:

Chandy is a key candidate from the Puthupally constituency for the Congress party. In the 2016 State Assembly elections, Chandy won from this seat beating Jaick C Thomas of CPM by a margin of 27,092 votes.

The 77-year-old veteran Congress leader is among the top contenders to be the chief minister if the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) gets a majority in the Kerala polls.

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In the second wave, ensuring access to quality public health is imperative. But in the backdrop of the current crisis, where the livelihood of informal workers has been hit the hardest, it is pertinent, now more than ever, to implement the protective social security measures for the 450 million informal workers, says Amitabh Behar, CEO Oxfam India.

Across India, May 1st (Labour Day) commemorates the labour movement and the rights of crores of workers in India. However, in the throes of a deadly second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, their plights demand the most attention, as the country witnesses a complete collapse of the healthcare system. The poor are once again being pushed further into uncertainty and abject poverty. In this wave not only are they bearing the brunt of a failed healthcare system, they are also going to face massive economic strain.

Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address to the nation said that, a nation-wide lockdown will be the last resort, the sporadic curfews and lockdowns have triggered the exodus of informal sector migrant workers from cities to their villages once again.

According to the Ministry of Labour and Employment, in the first wave after the lockdown was announced on 24 March 2020, 1.23 crore informal sector migrant workers returned to their home states.

Though the government announced a Rs 20,000 crore Atmanirbhar package in May last year for farmers, cottage industries, MSMEs, labourers, and the middle class but there was very little in it for the migrant and informal sector workers. In the last few months and even in the budget for that matter, have not seen immediate response for the informal sector workers. There are 45 crore informal sector workers in the participating labour force.

Many migrants did return to the destination states for work during last year and earlier this year. A recent study by ICRIER in collaboration with the Inferential Survey Statistics and Research Foundation (ISSRF) shows that although the migrants household income has increased after remigration to their destination places, there is still a contraction of 7.7 per cent in their income relative to the pre-lockdown level. Another lockdown will upset the momentum of recovery. If migrants decide to return to their native place, as many already have, their household income could drop by more than 80 per cent, a repeat of 2020.

It is evident that second COVID-19 wave will leave a huge economic dent on the informal sector migrant workers. While we acknowledge the Atmanirbhar package, Oxfam India strongly believes that there is an urgent need to streamline the ongoing social security schemes to support the informal sector migrant workers.

From immediate cash transfer to free health services, from ensuring uninterrupted Public Distribution to providing MGNREGA work (once the migrants return) are some of the ongoing schemes, which if well implemented can bring relief to informal and migrant workers.

Given the health and humanitarian crisis we are in, these are first few immediate measures that the Central and State governments should take:

Tracking of all returnee migrants in their source states: This requires a coordination between Labour, Health and Social Welfare Departments to function together. With the record available the government can assess their needs and provide them COVID testing free of cost and on priority.

Immediate cash transfer of INR 5,000: This will help returnee migrants and informal workers who have lost their jobs during the second wave.

Arrange isolation centres: These should be set up for all returnee migrant workers with adequate supplies of food and water, and proper provision of electricity and gender-segregated toilets.

Adequate and safe shelter facility: This will ensure that those workers who have to stay back at their worksites till they get any transport facility to return or adequate budget to afford transport cost, are safe.

Strengthen violence services in the states: Reports from last year showed a spike in domestic violence cases and cases of harassment of women and girls who were in transit or stranded at workplaces. The state should extend services to respond to such violence and widely circulate information related to crisis helpline numbers and strengthen service providers through government-civil society collaboration.

As intermediate and long term measures, the government should:

Provide uninterrupted universal coverage of the Public Distribution Centre: Families will be rendered without jobs and money and this step is key to ensure food security to the most marginalised and vulnerable. Those without ration cards should be included as well. Food and nutrition supplements should be made available for children and pregnant mothers at Anganwadi centres. Since National Disaster Management Act is in force schools are required to take the migrant children in. In West Bengal, government schools are distributing dry food ration to children of the age group of 614 year once in a month. This scheme should be introduced in states where migrants and their families are returning, making their children eligible for the same.

Uninterrupted continuation of social security pension schemes: Widow pensions and senior citizen schemes should continue unabated and the government should set up a functional helpline number with designated persons/teams at the block, panchayat and municipality levels.

Increase allocation to MGNREGS: Allocation for MGNREGS should be enhanced from Rs 73,000 Cr to Rs 1,50,000 Cr so that the migrant returnees are absorbed in the rural employment. This will save the large number of migrant workers from the poverty trap and food insecurity.

Create a database of migrant and informal sector workers: This should be through a decentralised governance system and should have gender disaggregated data along with caste and age information. We propose Panchayat and Municipality wise data base of migrant and informal workers which will help in assessing their requirements.

In the last year, we have learnt how powers to panchayats practiced by Odisha resulted in excellent management of COVID-19. Jharkhand Government had set up a Migration Collab in collaboration with Civil Society Organizations which tracked and supported migrants from Jharkhand in various other states. A database will help frame actions in favour of informal sector workers and migrants, says Ranjana Das, Lead, Private Sector Engagement.

In the second wave, ensuring access to quality public health is imperative. But in the backdrop of the current crisis, where the livelihood of informal workers has been hit the hardest, it is pertinent, now more than ever, to implement the protective social security measures for the 450 million informal workers, says Amitabh Behar, CEO Oxfam India.

(This is a featured content)


London: Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla on Saturday (May 1) spoke out about the pressures he was under over the production of COVID-19 vaccines to meet the ever-increasing demand in India as the country battles through a devastating second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

In his first comments since he was provided with 'Y' category security by the Indian government earlier this week, Poonawalla told 'The Times' in an interview about receiving aggressive calls from some of the most powerful people in India, demanding supplies of Covishield -- the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine that the Serum Institute is producing in India.

Serum Institute chief flies to London amid COVID-19 pandemic

That pressure is largely behind his decision to fly into London to be with his wife and children, the 40-year-old entrepreneur said. "I'm staying here (London) for an extended time because I don't want to go back to that situation. Everything falls on my shoulders but I can't do it alone...I don't want to be in a situation where you are just trying to do your job, and just because you can't supply the needs of X, Y or Z you really don't want to guess what they are going to do," Poonawalla told the newspaper.

According to Indian government officials, the protection to Poonawalla has been given in view of "potential threats" to him. Armed commandos of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) will be with him every time he travels to any part of the country, they said and added that the 'Y' security cover will entail a posse of about 4-5 armed commandos.

"The level of expectation and aggression is really unprecedented. It's overwhelming. Everyone feels they should get the vaccine. They can't understand why anyone else should get it before them," Poonawalla said.

The businessman indicated in the interview that his move to London is also linked to business plans to expand vaccine manufacturing to countries outside India, which may include the likes of the UK. "There's going to be an announcement in the next few days," he said, when asked about Britain as one of the production bases outside India.

According to the newspaper, by the time the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine was approved in January this year, the Serum Institute of India (SII) had increased its annual production capacity from 1.5 to 2.5 billion doses at a cost of USD 800 million, and stockpiled 50 million doses of Covishield.

Company began exporting COVID vaccine to 68 countries

The company began exporting to 68 countries, including Britain, as India seemed to be over the worse until the situation worsened in recent weeks. "We're really grasping for all the help we can get," Poonawalla said in the 'Times' interview. "I don't think even God could have forecast it was going to get this bad," he said.

India is struggling with a second wave of the pandemic with more than 3,00,000 daily new coronavirus cases being reported in the past few days, and hospitals are reeling under a shortage of medical oxygen and beds.

India's daily coronavirus tally crossed the grim milestone of four lakh on Saturday, while the death toll rose to 2,11,853 with 3,523 fresh fatalities.

Adar Poonawalla denies profiteering allegations

On the charge of profiteering as the cost of Covishield was recently hiked, he termed it as 'totally incorrect' and added that Covishield will still be the most affordable vaccine on the planet even at a higher price. "We have done the best we can without cutting corners or doing anything wrong or profiteering. I'll wait for history to judge," he said.

"I've always had this sense of responsibility to India and the world because of the vaccines we were making, but never have we made a vaccine so needed in terms of saving lives," he added.

The Serum Institute on April 21 had announced a price of Rs 600 per dose for private hospitals and at Rs 400 for state governments and for any new contract by the central government.

The announcement followed widespread criticism of the company's pricing policy as it has sold the initial doses of Covishield to the central government at Rs 150 per dose. Many states objected to the different prices for the vaccines.

Subsequently, SII on Wednesday announced a cut in price of the jab it plans to sell to states to Rs 300 per dose.

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Sitapur: Jailed Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan and his son Abdullah Azam Khan have tested positive for Covid-19. The RT-PCR reports of 13 inmates, including Azam Khan, lodged in Sitapur jail, have come out positive for the infection.

Jail Superintendent R.S. Yadav said Rampur MP Azam Khan and his son Abdullah Azam Khan have been found to be infected with Covid-19 in a report released by the state health department on Friday night. Of the 13 inmates, 12 have been moved to a separate precinct.

According to the jail administration, Azam Khan had observed 14 'fasts' (roza) after which he complained of having contracted the infection. After investigation the prison authorities found that he was infected with the virus and he is undergoing treatment for COVID-19.

The prison doctor is examining all the jail inmates, including Azam Khan. The health department has been asked to investigate the other inmates. As soon as the health team arrives, Covid tests of more than 50 prisoners will be done.

Earlier in March, while the government had supplied vaccines for the inmates of the Jail, he had refused to get inoculated despite authorities insisting it was for the safety of all the inmates in the prison.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Saturday (May 1) allowed the process of counting of votes of Uttar Pradesh Gram Panchayat polls while taking into note the assurance given by the State Election Commission that necessary measures will take place at counting centers in terms of COVID-19 guidelines.

A Bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar took into note the submissions of the State Election Commission that Class I gazetted officials will be responsible for adherence to COVID-19 protocol at each counting centre, according to news agency ANI.

The Bench also directed that no victory rallies will be permitted throughout the state of Uttar Pradesh.

It also recorded the undertaking given by the State poll panel that CCTV recording will be done centre-wise and the footage will be preserved and given in the petition pending before the Allahabad High Court.

"After considering the various submission, we decline to interfere in the SLP (filed against Allahabad High Court order) while recording the assurance given by the State government as well as State Election Commission of Uttar Pradesh that necessary measures will take place in terms of guidelines issued from time to time," the bench noted in its order.

"The operating procedures mentioned herein will be adhered to by all the stakeholders as well as duty holders without any exception. It is stated across the bar that strict curfew will be imposed in areas that will be identified by the concerned authorities in and around counting centres to ensure that only authorised representatives will be able to visit counting centres," the order stated.

It also noted in the order that the state poll panel has agreed to notify the names of persons who will be in charge of the concerned counting centres.

Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for Uttar Pradesh Election Commission, assured the court that Class I Officer of the state government will be assigned to monitor each of the 800 counting centres and will be held accountable for the counting centres.

The apex court order came on a plea seeking directions so that COVID-19 restrictions and guidelines are followed for the Uttar Pradesh Gram Panchayat polls counting day.

Live TV
New Delhi: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Saturday (May 1, 2021) removed Etala Rajender from the portfolio of Medical, Health and Family Welfare after the latter has been accused of land grabbing.

An official statement read: "On the advice of the Chief Minister of Telangana, the Honble Governor has approved the transfer of the Medical and Health and Family Welfare portfolio from Etala Rajender to the CM with immediate effect."

Further, the chief minister ordered a probe into the allegations of land grab in Medak district. Rao instructed the Chief Secretary to conduct an investigation by the district collector on the complaints of encroachments of land on the outskirts of Achampet in Masaipet Mandal in Medak.

Though, Rajender claimed that it appears to be a planned act and he will soon announce his future course of action after a discussion with his followers, PTI report.

Meanwhile, the development has kicked up a political storm in the state with opposition parties demanding similar investigation into some of other cabinet leaders and ruling party MLAs.
Shahjahanpur: A group of people camped under a 'peepal' (sacred fig) tree here after allegedly being refused admission in a hospital, believing that it emits a higher level of oxygen.

Around half-a-dozen people had spread their beds under the tree along with their patients, according to Ravindra Maurya, whose sister also took shelter.

However, the chief medical officer said only one coronavirus-positive person was found at the spot in Tilhar area -- 25 km from the district headquarters -- and the patient had been hospitalised. He claimed that there was no shortage of oxygen.

Roshan Lal Verma, the BJP MLA from Tilhar, said on Saturday that he went to the spot after getting information that some people were camping under the tree due to shortage of oxygen.

"As I went near the tree, I saw eight-nine people spreading their beds. Some people fled after seeing me, thinking that police will come, arrest them and send them to jail," Verma told PTI.

These people had gone to the medical college, but they were not admitted there. Therefore, they spread their beds under the sacred fig tree, according to the BJP leader.

"These people are staying under the tree for the past five-six days," he said.

In a purported video, a man and a woman who are sitting on a mattress is attending to a girl who seems to be ill. The man is also waving a hand fan at the teenager.

"We were sitting under the tree as it releases huge amount of oxygen. The other patients who were sitting with us had low oxygen level," Maurya told PTI over phone.

He said the Health Department had took his sister for COVID testing and she tested negative.

But despite this, she was admitted to a COVID ward, following which they decided to take shelter under the tree, Maurya alleged.

Verma claimed that he had tried to contact Shajahanpur MLA and Medical Education Minister Suresh Khanna, but to no avail.

"Even today, he (Khanna) did not receive the call. After this, when the entire matter was briefed to District Magistrate Indra Vikram Singh, he took it seriously and sent an ambulance to the spot," Verma said.

When contacted, Chief Medical Officer S P Gautam said, "On getting the information, we had sent a team, which could find only one person there. He tested positive for COVID-19 and was hospitalised."

"We have enough oxygen available with us," Gautam claimed.

"People who want to stay in their houses and get their treatment done there, giving them oxygen is not possible. But patients admitted in the hospitals are being given oxygen," the official added.
Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday said that the COVID-19 vaccination drive from May 1 to inoculate the 18-44 age group will take place between 1 pm to 6 pm in five hospitals of Mumbai.

"BMC will start the third phase of the vaccination drive on May 1 to inoculate the 18-44 age group in Mumbai. The vaccination will be conducted between 1 pm to 6 pm and no walk-in vaccination facility will be allowed," the BMC said, according to news agency ANI.

The Municipal Corporation listed Nair Hospital, BKC jumbo Covid Centre, Cooper Hospital, Seven Hills Hospital, and the Rajawadi hospital to administer the vaccine doses.

"A total of 20,000 doses will be administered across these centres," it said. Mumbai reported 3,925 fresh cases, 89 deaths and 6,380 recoveries.

This announcement comes soon after Mumbai had shut down all vaccinations centres for three days due a shortage of COVID-19 vaccination supplies.

Over 17.46 lakh COVID-19 cases were added by Maharashtra alone in April this year. This is equal to the tally it had racked up in 196 days, giving an indication of the intensity of the second wave that has hit the state.

Maharashtra added 17,46,309 cases between April 1 and 30, taking the tally from 28,56,163 cases on April 1 to 46,02,472 on April 30, state government data revealed.

The caseload was 10,97,856 on September 16 last year, and it took 196 days for the tally to reach 28,56,163 as on April 1, it showed.

The month of April also saw 13,915 COVID-19 deaths, taking the toll to 68,813, up from 54,898 as on April 1, as per the state government's data.

Live TV
New Delhi: On the occasion of the 400th Prakash Purab of Guru Tegh Bahadur, many prominent personalities visited Gurudwaras to offer their prayers and some shared their thoughts on social media.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday (May 1, 2021), visited Sis Ganj Sahib Gurudwara in the national capital and offered his prayers.

PM Modi shared the inside pictures of him paying obeisance to the 9th Sikh Guru at Sis Ganj Sahib Gurudwara.

He wrote: Prayed at Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib today. "We can never forget the life, ideals and supreme sacrifice of Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Ji.

Prayed at Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib today. We can never forget the life, ideals and supreme sacrifice of Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Ji. pic.twitter.com/62teTxLJsp  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 1, 2021

In his recent address to the nation, he said that the occasion of the 400th Prakash Purab of Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji is a spiritual privilege as well as a national duty.

Remembering the great warrior, lets take a look at some of the tweets by prominent personalities in remembrance of the 9th Sikh Guru:

I Bow down my head to Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Ji on his 400th Prakash Purab

He sacrificed his life when he refused to bow down & Mughal Te$$orist Aurangzeb beheaded him PM @narendramodi Ji also paid homage in the morning at Sis Ganj Gurudwara #GuruTeghBahadurJi #PrakashPurab pic.twitter.com/UAMI0zwEH7  Manish Pangotra (@ManishPangotra5) May 1, 2021

        || Felt deeply privileged to pay obeisance at Gurudwara Sri Sisganj Sahib this morning on the auspicious occasion of 400th Parkash Purab of Hind Di Chadar Dhan Dhan Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji. pic.twitter.com/uYV8qpVSNL  Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) May 1, 2021

Sis Ganj Sahib Gurudwara marks the place where Guru Tegh Bahadur was beheaded on orders of Aurangzeb for saving Kashmiri Pandits who refused to convert to Islam. Respects to Guru Tegh Bahadur. https://t.co/32tIuHZ7e1  Nirwa (@nirwamehta) May 1, 2021

Today morning, Prime Minister @narendramodi visited Sis Ganj Gurudwara and prayed there. He visited there without security route & special security arrangements at the Gurudwara. pic.twitter.com/llyuRoAuLQ  PIB in Manipur (@PIBImphal) May 1, 2021

Usually, on the auspicious occasion, devotees begin their day by taking a holy dip in the water with many visiting The Golden Temple - considered to be the 'abode of God' in Sikhism.

However, due to the COVID-19 surge across the nation, many religious places are closed for the public and people are advised to stay indoors. Celebrations for festivals and other important events remain low key amid the coronavirus pandemic.

He was the 9th of the 10 Gurus that founded the Sikh religion. He was born on April 1, 1621, in Amritsar, Punjab, and breathed his last on November 11, 1675.

Guru Tegh Bahadur is considered a principled and fearless warrior. He was a learned spiritual scholar and poet whose 115 hymns are included in Sri Guru Granth Sahib - the main holy book in Sikhism.
New Delhi: Good samaritan Sonu Sood has been working round-the-clock to help critical COVID-19 patients across the nation. Like last year, he made sure that migrant workers travel back home safely, this time he is doing the same for arranging beds and oxygen cylinders.

Sonu Sood wrote on Twitter: It takes me 11 hours on an average to find a bed in delhi. & It takes me 9.5 hours on an average to find a bed in UP. Still will make it happen

It takes me 11 hours on an average to find a bed in delhi.

&

It takes me 9.5 hours on an average to find a bed in UP.

Still will make it happen  sonu sood (@SonuSood) April 30, 2021

The second wave of this pandemic has wreaked havoc in the country and not just celebs but everyone who can extend a helping hand is doing his or her bit to save lives.

Now u should help others too https://t.co/dHfzseLwoD  sonu sood (@SonuSood) April 30, 2021

Sonu Sood, who is active on social media and responds to fans seeking genuine help has been trying hard to arrange for hospital beds and oxygen cylinders for COVID-19 patients. The actor recovered from COVID-19 recently and is back at helping the distressed in these testing times.

Bed organised at RML Hospital Delhi.

Wish him a speedy recovery .@SoodFoundation https://t.co/exeFmPh59E  sonu sood (@SonuSood) April 30, 2021

The actor after getting his first dose of coronavirus vaccine on Wednesday (April 7, 2021) urged the government to start the drive for people as young as 25. The 47-year-old actor, who hogged the spotlight for helping migrants reach their homes during the coronavirus-triggered lockdown last year, is now encouraging people to receive the vaccine dose.

He also launched "Sanjeevani: A Shot of Life" - a vaccination drive campaign to create awareness. The actor recently arranged for as many as 10 oxygen generators for COVID-19 patients in Indore.
Chennai: Air Customs Officials in Chennai said that they intercepted Dubai returnee Mohamed Badurudeen, 23,of Nagapattinam, based on intelligence reports.

The passenger who arrived via Emirates flight EK-544 was frisked as he was found to be in a hurry and became nervous when called for questioning.

Besides his hand and check-in baggage, he was carrying a 55 inch LED TV which was taken up for examination.

On opening the rear panel of the TV, officials found two heavy black rectangular bars ingeniously concealed inside the speakers.

Two gold bars weighing 1.2kg, with a value of Rs57.75 lakhs was recovered from within and seized. The passenger was arrested.
New Delhi: Australian citizens who are stuck in India and wish to return back home are at risk of facing fines of up to 66,000 Australian dollars (approximately USD 50,964) as Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt says a travel ban will be put in place starting Monday. "The risk assessment that informed the decision was based on the proportion of overseas travellers in quarantine in Australia who have acquired a COVID-19 infection in India," Hunt said as quoted by 9News.

The penalties are put into effect under the Biosecurity Act that will also stop people coming into the country from India via other destinations such as the United Arab Emirates and Singapore.

"Failure to comply with an emergency determination under the Biosecurity Act 2015 may incur a civil penalty of 300 penalty units, five years` imprisonment, or both," Hunt added. The new restrictions come into force after two people have arrived into Australia from India via Doha.

Over 9,000 Australians are currently stuck in India waiting to get a flight back home.

Hunt said the Federal Government has made it their top priority to bring Australians stranded in India back home with the organisation of repatriation flights. "We have to be able to continue to do two things - protect Australia and bring Australians home," he added as quoted by the TV network. The travel ban will be in place until May 15, after which repatriation and commercial flights will resume. The Health Minister added that the temporary ban in travel has helped ease some pressure off of the quarantine system.

India is currently seeing a COVID-19 crisis as the second state with the largest number of detected COVID-19 cases in the world. Over 19.1 million cases of the virus have been registered in the country with 211,000 deaths.
New Delhi: The Nepal government announced the closure of 22 border points with India in view of the prevailing COVID-19 situation.

In a meeting on Friday (April 30), the COVID Crisis Management Coordination Committee (CCMC) recommended to the Council of Ministers to shut down 22 out of the total 35 border points between Nepal and India, PTI quoted officials as saying. While the rest 13 border points between the two neighbours will remain operational.

India has become the second worst-hit COVID-19 nation, as the United States still tops the caseload tally.

In the past 24 hours, India recorded the highest-ever daily infection cases in the world with over four new lakh infections. With 3,523 fresh fatalities, the death tally stood at 2,11,853, according to the Union Health Ministry data on Saturday (May 1). There is 32.68 lakh (32,68,710) active cases in the country now.

Meanwhile, Nepal reported 5,706 new cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours, its highest single-day rise, pushing the coronavirus tally to 328,893, the Ministry of Health and Population informed.

"While conducting PCR tests on 14,403 people in the past 24 hours, 5,706 people were found infected with SARS-CoV-2," the ministry said.

The active count in the country stands at 43,213, while the recovery rate reached 85.9 per cent.

(With inputs from PTI)
An open letter warning that France could face a civil war was published recently. The letter that was signed by 1,000 military officers, both serving and retired, also contained the threat of a military coup in France.

The retired and serving officers who signed the letter had labelled 'Political Islam' as a serious threat and according to them, France's President Emmanuel Macron's failure to crack down on Islamists may lead to the disintegration of the nation, as reported by WION.

They also hinted at the possibility of a military coup, to take back the control from the government. The opinions mentioned in the open letter were published by a far-right magazine in the month of April. The recently published open letter has met with outrage in the French government.

Military sanctions on 18 soldiers were ordered as part of the crackdown following this outrage, reports suggested and according to the French armed forces Chief of staff, each of them will be presented before a senior military council and might be either forced into immediate retirement or face de-listing.

Other signatories my face formal action as well. The French defence ministry says that by appealing to their peers to take up arms against the country, these servicemen have broken military rules.

A poll conducted after the release of the letter found that 58 per cent of the French people agree with the sentiments of this letter.

French opposition leader Marine Le Pen, who plans to contest against Macron in the next elections, decided to add more fuel to the fire by calling on the signatories of this open letter to support her bid for the presidency in 2022.

This clamour from the right-wing comes at a time when the French government is pushing for an anti-corruption bill. After facing many terror attacks in the last seven months, President Macron wants to tighten the surveillance powers of security agencies and is planning to use algorithms to detect activity on jihadist and extremist websites.

Gerald Darmanin, French Interior minister said, "One must know that when someone types five or six times a search for a video of a or six times a search for a video of a decapitation, for example, from IS (Islamic State group), on the internet, the intelligence services cannot know and follow that person. Tomorrow, we can know this information.

The French security agency will ask the interior minister, the Prime Minister and the National Commission of Technical Intelligence, which is an independent administrative body that is already following telephone calls, the possibility to uncover the anonymity of the person who is conducting that search in order to be able - if the threat is grave and confirmed - to follow and eventually intervene," he said.

France should take a lesson from its history and remember that democracy remains stable only as long as the civilian leadership, i.e. the people elected government remains in control of the armed forces.

The signatories of the letter include 20 retired Generals and was released on the 60th anniversary of the 1961 failed coup attempt, Algiers putsch. In 1961, generals of the French army had launched a coup against the then-president Charles de Gaulle. The aim behind this coup was to stop the independence of Algeria.

While this letter may look like an outburst from the fringe, the right-wing has dragged the matter into the mainstream media. This series of events show that the threat of Islamic terrorism will dominate the election discourse in next year's French elections.

(Source: WION)
The Google Doodle on Saturday, May 1, focused on getting vaccinated and masking up to prevent the spread of coronavirus. In Saturday's Google Doodle, all the letters are shown wearing masks and celebrating after they get the COVID-19 vaccine.

"Get vaccinated. Wear a mask. Save lives," Google said about its doodle today. "As COVID-19 continues to impact communities around the world, help stop the spread by finding a local vaccine site, and following these steps for prevention. Learn more about resources to help you and your community stay informed and connected, and the latest ways we're responding," it further added.

It also gave links to a site on steps to prevent COVID-19 transmission and another site on COVID-19 vaccines.

COVID-19 vaccination for all adults above 18 years of age began on Saturday in India. Several states like Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi, and Goa have said they will not be able to begin vaccination, citing a shortage of COVID-19 vaccines.

Meanwhile, the Union Health Ministry has claimed that states have more than 1 crore vaccine doses still available with them and will get 20 lakh more doses in the coming days.

Google is known for presenting doodles instead of its logos for some years now. These doodles are usually made to mark significant days and remember important personalities. Since 2020, however, the US-based tech giant has been making a lot of doodles to spread awareness about the coronavirus pandemic.

Also read: Google Doodle celebrates Earth Day 2021 with a twist

Also read: COVID-19 prevention Google Doodle: 'Wear masks, save lives', urges Google in latest illustration

Also read: COVID-19 phase 3 vaccination for 18+ starts today but states don't have vaccine stock
RTHK: Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan agree ceasefire

Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan agreed what they called a complete ceasefire on Saturday after reports of fresh shooting and troop build-ups in the aftermath of border clashes earlier this week that killed 49 people.

The heads of the countries' state security bodies announced the agreement in a joint briefing in Kyrgyzstan hours after Kyrgyzstan's border guard service said Tajik troops opened fire on Kyrgyz vehicles on their side of the border.

The presidents of the two Central Asian nations also spoke on the phone on Saturday to discuss further steps, their offices said.

"The tragedy that happened in the border area must never happen again," Saimumin Yatiyev, head of Tajikistan's State National Security Committee, said as he stood next to his Kyrgyz counterpart Kamchybek Tashiyev.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by phone with his counterparts in both countries, urging them to stick to the ceasefire agreement, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, which are former Soviet republics, host Russian military bases and consider Moscow a strategic ally.

The clashes broke out this week along the frontier between Tajikistan's Sughd province and Kyrgyzstan's southern Batken province because of a dispute over a reservoir and pump, claimed by both sides, on the Isfara River.

Villagers from opposing sides hurled rocks at each other and border guards joined the fray with guns, mortars and even, according to Kyrgyz border guards, a Tajik attack helicopter.

At least one Kyrgyz border outpost and a number of houses on both sides were set ablaze and Kyrgyzstan said it had evacuated thousands of people from the area.

Kyrgyz authorities reported 34 people killed, all but three of them civilians, and 132 wounded. Local government sources in Tajikistan said 15 people had been killed on its side, including six border guards and one policeman. (Reuters)

This story has been published on: 2021-05-01. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Now on stage ??Panel: The State View.

With states & cities taking an increasingly important role on the global stage, what is the role of states in enabling their destinations grow sustainably & inclusively & ensuring the sector can reach its social impact potential? #GSCancun pic.twitter.com/hDn995VqtW
?? Ahora | La presidenta del Consejo de Ministros, y los titulares de @Minsa_Peru y de @MTC_GobPeru, continuan el circuito de supervision de puntos de vacunacion. Esta vez en la Videna, con apoyo de @LegadoOficialPE, donde ya se vacuna a adultos mayores de 70 anos. #PongoElHombro pic.twitter.com/xccJzdWnF3
YEREVAN, MAY 1, ARMENPRESS. President Armen Sarkissian released a Labour Day address, saying:

Dear compatriots,

Today is Labour Day, which reminds us that it is necessary to work, even if it is difficult and the situation is critical; this is a personal, national, and state necessity.

Each of us has the potential to do more, to achieve more, to awaken or reactivate that hidden ability in us.

Anyone who wants to serve his family, homeland, and people should be able and have the opportunity to do so. There should be no obstacles to that.

We have had generations of talented scientists, successful entrepreneurs, famous politicians, talented artists, musicians, and writers, good craftsmen, and farmers.

Let us be the inheritors of the talents, abilities, and skills of our ancestors; let us be a society that creates homeland, a society that builds homeland.

We must form the agenda of our country, especially the development agenda, and make it a reality with our work: the work of servicemen and pedagogues, doctors and programmers, [farmers] and archaeologists, cleaners and workers, diplomats and border guards, officials and actors, civil servants and artists.

Our priority tasks should be to straighten the country's back politically and economically, morally and physically, to eliminate the immediate consequences of the war, and to fight the coronavirus.

Only joint work can become the lifeline of our homeland to get out of the current situation and recover from the wounds received.

I wish everyone believed and worked to the best of their abilities to get closer to the time of success. Believe and create that time, believe and build that success.
YEREVAN, MAY 1, ARMENPRESS. Caretaker Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan released a statement on the occasion of International Workers Day/Labour Day.

Dear compatriots,

Congratulations to all of us on International Workers Day!

The COVID-19 crisis and the war triggered many challenges and problems, which cannot be tackled but through daily work, with the individual effort of each of us and a fully developed creative potential. The crisis of 2020 exposed the problems we had failed to address ever since independence as we did not take them seriously for objective or subjective reasons.

During the last three years, the main task of our government has been to encourage citizens to work, act, carry out economic activities, and to believe in their own strength and success. It seemed to bear fruit already, but last years emergencies unfortunately hampered our progress and development.

Dear compatriots,

Our further steps will be aimed at creating opportunities for our citizens to develop their individual capabilities, providing proper conditions for education, continued development of skills and knowledge. The protection of workers rights is a daily focus for the Government of Armenia, and we are taking steps in that direction.

The Armenians are hardworking, creative and talented people; they will build the homeland of their dream with hard work. We must all move towards materializing that goal, straightening our back; we must believe in our strength, build a strong, developed, innovative, forward-looking state through joint work. This process is underway and will reach its objective in spite of the crisis, the problems and difficulties caused by the war.

There is a future in Armenia, and we will build that bright future with energetic and creative work.Happy May Day! Long live creative work, Pashinyan said in the address released by his office.
YEREVAN, MAY 1, ARMENPRESS. Kim Kardashian West has said she will always continue supporting her ancestral homeland Armenia.

The Armenian-American superstar tweeted to Armenian President Armen Sarkissian in response to the latters thank-you letter regarding Kardashians efforts in achieving the US recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

Thank u President Sarkissian 4 always taking the time to educate me further on Armenia. Thank u ANCA & all Armenian groups along w every Armenian who fought 4 this day of recognition. Im happy I could help raise awareness &will always continue to support this beautiful country, Kardashian tweeted.

Great job, @KimKardashian! You & your family have a huge impact not only in the US but worldwide & it was fantastic to see how your influence &actions played an important role in an int recognition of the Genocide Thanks Kim for your tireless efforts, sincere devotion &commitment, the Armenian President earlier tweeted.

Editing by Stepan Kocharyan
WASHINGTON DC, MAY 1, ARMENPRESS. US senators Edward J. Markey (D-Mass,), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) have re-introduced a legislation envisaging sanctions against Turkey if its government continues human rights violations.

Today, Senators Edward J. Markey (D-Mass,), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) announced the reintroduction of the Turkey Human Rights Promotion Act of 2021. This legislation condemns human rights abuses carried out by the Government of Turkey, which intensified after a 2016 coup attempt. The Government of Turkey, under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has engaged in a brazen campaign to silence journalists, political opponents, dissidents, civil society activists, and minorities throughout Turkish society, as well as targeting Turkish citizens outside of its borders. This legislation makes it clear that the United States should use its considerable leverage with this NATO ally to prevent a further erosion of hard-fought democratic progress in Turkey. Senators Markey and Wyden first introduced the Turkey Human Rights Promotion Act in 2017, and again in 2019, Senator Edward J. Markeys office said in an April 29 press release.

President Erdogans free pass from the Trump White House to commit abuses has officially expired, said Senator Markey, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The United States will once again speak out forcefully and take steps to hold the Erdogan government accountable for its campaign to silence opposition by censoring social media, clamping down on free speech, and locking away critics. This legislation makes clear that President Biden must use all diplomatic tools to signal  unmistakably  that the United States comes down on the side of journalists, activists, and civil society leaders, and will stand up in opposition to Turkish officials who direct or carry out systematic human rights abuses.

Turkeys authoritarian government has trampled on the rights of journalists, political rivals and regular citizens who dare to voice criticism of President Erdogan, said Senator Wyden. Senators Markey, Merkley and I are renewing our call for accountability because America cannot stand by while partners and allies systematically violate basic freedoms.

President Erdogans track record of democratic backsliding and politically-motivated detentions of journalists, civil society leaders, members of the political opposition, and others threatens some of the most basic human rights of freedom of expression and due process, said Senator Merkley, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The United States cannot stay silent in the face of this disturbing behavior. We must use the diplomatic levers available to us to ensure that Turkeys political prisoners are released, and that dangerous anti-terrorism laws are repealed."

This legislation specifically:

Directs the Secretary of State to provide assistance to civil society organizations in Turkey that work to secure the release of prisoners of conscience and political prisoners in Turkey.

Makes it a Statement of Policy for the United States to support democracy, peace, and prosperity in Turkey and to oppose the Government of Turkeys attack on freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association.

Expresses the Sense of Senate that the Government of Turkey must 

- Take steps to significantly improve the dire climate for journalists and those supporting the journalism profession;

- Cease its ongoing crackdown on free expression on the internet, including by repealing or amending laws that allow the government to block a website or remove content from the website; and

- Halt its indiscriminate detention and prosecution of lawyers, judges, and prosecutors, and fulfill its obligations under the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) European Convention on Human Rights, and Turkeys other international human rights obligations.

Expresses the Sense of the Senate that, if the Government of Turkey does not take effective steps to address its human rights violations,

- The President should impose sanctions pursuant to the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act with respect to officials of the Government of Turkey found responsible for the detention of prisoners of conscience and political prisoners, politically motivated detention of journalists, restricting freedom of expression through social media, and other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights;

- The Secretary of State should impose visa restrictions under the so-called Khashoggi Ban for those engaged in serious extraterritorial counter-dissident activities, as the Government of Turkey is reported to have done; and

- The Treasury Secretary should direct United States executive directors of key international financial institutions to oppose any loans, grants, policies, or strategies determined to be enabling the Government of Turkey to violate human rights of its citizens.
Parts of Fiji have entered what could be the world's strictest Covid lockdown with residents not allowed to leave their home, even for food.

Capital Suva and Nausori have been plunged into a 56-hour lockdown as health authorities work to trace close contacts of a garment factory worker who tested positive for the virus.

Health authorities are focusing on two factories, with employees from both the factories travelling to and from work on the same transportation.

In what could be one of the harshest lockdowns in the world, residents are warned to not leave their homes during the snap lockdown, with those in the Suva-Nausori zones to be delivered food if they run out.

All businesses, including supermarkets, will be shut for the duration of the lockdown.

People in Suva and Nausori are warned not to leave their homes. Source: Getty

"Those living in Suva and in Nausori, we have all been through this before  we know what it means. The Suva-Nausori Lockdown Zone will be under curfew for at least 56 hours," Fiji's Health and Medical Service Secretary Dr James Fong said in a statement.

"No one should leave their homes. I'll say that again, within the lockdown zone, no one, not parents, not breadwinners, not children. no one should leave their homes.

"The police will be enforcing that movement restriction. Without Ministry approval you can only move out from your home for medical emergencies."

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Dr Fong said lockdowns were a measure of last resort but it was a necessary action with 877 factory workers needing to be contacted.

Out of 321 already tested, no positive cases had been reported.

"There are still hundreds of employees we need to contact," Dr Fong said.

"We cannot waste another minute locating the rest of them."

Covid spike following 'superspreader' event

Suva already entered a 14-day lockdown on Monday as the Pacific Island nation battled to contain a Covid-19 spike following a "superspreader" funeral event.

Story continues

Around 100,000 people in the city must stay in containment zones and non-essential businesses are shuttered after the first community coronavirus cases in 12 months were detected.

A soldier contracted the virus at a quarantine facility and is believed to have transmitted it to a maid, who then exposed up to 500 people at a funeral.

Dr Fong said four new cases then emerged over last weekend.

"Three of the cases involved persons who attended the funeral that we have identified as a superspreader event, including a husband and wife who circulated through the community," Dr Fong said.

Parts of Fiji have been plunged into a snap 56-hour lockdown. Source: Getty

It is not clear how the fourth person, a woman from the outskirts of Suva, became infected.

"She and her husband have been placed in quarantine, but prudence requires us to treat this case as a possible community transmission," Dr Fong said.

"Because we cannot yet pin down the movements of these people and identify all their contacts, we are forced to take strict precautionary measures."

Fiji has largely contained the virus through strict isolation measures and border controls, recording fewer than 100 cases and just two deaths in a population of 930,000.

New cases jeopardise travel bubble

The emergence of community transmission is a blow for Fiji's hopes of opening quarantine-free travel bubbles with Australia and New Zealand, the source of most of its international visitors.

Fiji's economy is heavily dependent on tourism, which has all but evaporated during the pandemic.

Monthly visitor numbers were down up to 99 percent from pre-pandemic levels, according to government statistics.

Australia and New Zealand opened a trans-Tasman bubble a week ago allowing quarantine-free travel between the two countries  although New Zealand has since suspended contact with Western Australia due to a Covid-19 outbreak in Perth.

with AFP

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Colombian President Ivan Duque has caved in after protests, and said he would overhaul a proposed tax reform

Colombian President Ivan Duque caved in Friday to widespread anger and said he would overhaul a proposed tax reform that many said would leave them poorer during the pandemic.

Duque announced he was shelving clauses that would lower the income tax threshold to broaden the tax base and raise value-added taxes on goods and services.

He acted two days after tens of thousands of Colombians took to the streets across the country to denounce the proposed tax changes.

They were rejected across the board -- by opposition parties, unions, students and civil society groups that complained that the reforms came at the worst possible time and were particularly harmful to the middle class.

Even some in Duque's party opposed his plan.

"I have given very clear instructions to the finance ministry for it to ... compose a new draft with congress," Duque said.

The measures had meant to raise some $6.3 billion over 10 years for Colombia, which saw GDP drop 6.8 percent in 2020 -- its worst performance in half a century.

Colombia, where almost one in five people are unemployed and the minimum wage is the equivalent of $248 per month, is battling a deadly new wave of Covid-19.

At 2.8 million, the country of 50 million inhabitants has the third-highest number of known coronavirus infections in Latin America, behind Brazil and Argentina.

It has registered more than 73,200 deaths.

While Duque has sought to portray the tax reform as a tool to mitigate the economic crisis unleashed by the pandemic, the initiative faced many obstacles in a legislature where the ruling party has no outright majority.

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The Auburn High School Z-Club is once again wrapping up the school year with extreme pride and success, having met all of our club goals. Despite the given circumstances and the changes that ensued due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this club has gone above and beyond in our efforts to better the community and stay involved. We would like to dedicate our success to all of the organizations we have collaborated with, volunteers, club members and our extremely hard-working club leader, Mrs. Liccion. This year, we came together and continued to help people in need through various school, community and international projects.

Our community service project this school year focused on making homemade masks/face coverings and donating them to the Rescue Mission and local food pantry. In addition, Z-Club members and their families and Auburn Zonta members joined together to donate large bags of clothes to the Rescue Mission for local families. These donations make a big difference in the lives of those who need them and are a great way to support our community. The Rescue Mission in Auburn provides case management, meals, clothing, household supplies, employment resources, youth and family activities, and spiritual care. The program staff specializes in trauma-informed case management to support healing and recovery for those who have experienced abuse, stress and upheaval. They offer support for basic needs such as food and clothing, and their case managers work with families to achieve their highest level of stability and independence. They connect parents to services ranging from parenting classes and employment resources to transportation and health care. Our Z-Club is proud to serve local entities like the Rescue Mission and area food pantries.
Moravia Central School District's proposed 2021-22 budget includes a property tax levy increase.

The district's board of education has approved a budget that community members will be able to vote on in May. The $25,143,256 proposal, outlined in a newsletter on the district's website, includes a 2.45% tax levy increase and a 3.73% overall spending increase from the current year.

The district said the tax levy increase would allow Moravia to expand programs while still being fiscally responsible, with a multi-year plan to avoid any large tax increases.

With increased federal and state funding, the newsletter said, the district was able to add a summer education program at the elementary, middle and high school levels, "an investment in both literacy programs and math interventions at the primary level" and a five-year technology replacement program. A cleaner position would also be added in order to keep up the level of disinfecting "required post pandemic," the district said.
Rahul Bajaj has resigned as the chairman of Bajaj Auto, one of the leading automobile companies in the country. He will now be replaced by Neeraj Bajaj, who is currently a non-executive director. Rahul Bajaj will step down as non-executive director and chairman with effect from 30 April 2021. This information was given by the company in an exchange filing on Thursday.

According to the company's statement, 82-year-old Rahul Bajaj has decided to leave the post citing age. Rahul Bajaj, the company's non-executive director, has been associated with Bajaj Auto since 1972 and the Bajaj Group of Companies for the last five decades. He will now be in the role of a consultant in the company after the board approved this decision. Rahul Bajaj's net worth is around $ 6.5 billion.

A statement issued by the company said that Rahul Bajaj has contributed immensely to the success of the company and the group over the last five decades. Given his tremendous experience and his experience, knowledge in the interests of the company, and his role as an advisor and a mentor from time to time, the Board of Directors appointed Rahul Bajaj as Chairman Emeritus of the Company with effect from 1 May, 2021.

Rahul Bajaj is the grandson of Indian freedom fighter and social worker Jamnalal Bajaj. Rahul has done his studies from St Stephens College in Delhi. He has also obtained a law degree from Law University of Mumbai.

Niraj Bajaj, who is the cousin of Rahul Bajaj, will take over the role of chairman in the company after this development. Niraj Bajaj is around 67 years old and has 35 years of experience in this field. In a career spanning over 35 years, Niraj Bajaj has held important positions in most of the companies of the Bajaj Group. He joined the board of Bajaj Auto Limited in September, 2006. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School in the US. He also serves on the board of directors of Bajaj Allianz Life and General Insurance.
She added: University years are full of trials, discovery, hard work, sleepless nights, important decision-making and being strong in your focus to achieve your dream. Your achievements are a testament to your resilience, dedication to excellence and focus on making a difference.

Resilience was the word of the day as graduates and speakers reflected on an academic year marked by public health concerns, stay-at-home orders and safety protocols.

Graduate Student Government President Savannah Berry stressed the importance of adapting to change in order to find success, especially during trying times.

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These unprecedented times, too, have silver linings. They have tested your resilience, motivation and determination to succeed, Berry said. In the midst of the pandemic we were forced to adapt to changes. While the road you have traveled might not be what you had predicted, you have arrived at a milestone and should be proud of your accomplishments.

Joe Carter, student body president, said when tomorrow challenges you, having something to be thankful and recognizing how far youve come makes tackling that tomorrow all the more worth it.
Varela dropped out of the mayoral race on July 9.

Harrison said Varela rescinded his bid for mayor after realizing his name would appear on the ballot. The city announced that because Varela had withdrawn from the race, any votes he received would not be counted.

Addressing the court Friday, Varela said he did not know the extreme extent of the actions, and that the situation had been humbling for him and his family.

Its been very humbling, Varela said. Not only to me, but to my wife and my children. I believe that maturity doesnt come with age but it comes with your words, thoughts and actions.

Likewise, Harrison contended that Varela simply did not understand the process.

Harrison said Varela has no intentions of engaging in local politics again. One stipulation in his probation is that he cannot seek public office for five years.

In addition to the standard rules of probation, another stipulation is that Varela must pay to publish an apology to the community of Flagstaff in the Arizona Daily Sun for three consecutive editions of the Sunday paper.
Birthday wishes

Call 281-422-8302 or email david.bloom@baytownsun.com to wish someone a happy birthday. We will print your birthday wish on Page 2 of The Sun.

Happy Birthday Wishes
In the year 1938 workers began asserting themselves not only in industrial centres such as Bombay, Ahmedabad, Kanpur, Madras and Calcutta, but in smaller towns such as Jubbalpur, Travancore, Bareilly and Dehri-on-Sone. Unionisation spread to the Jharia coalbelt, and to such sectors of the working class as bidi, pottery, coir, press, saw-mill and shellac workers, ekka drivers, lorry drivers, and rickshaw pullers (3). In Jamshedpur, the year opened in the shadow of the violence in Golmuri on 25 December [ . . . ]
Catherine Delaine, the store manager for Scooters, said its common for people to pay for a group of orders to honor someone, or to start a chain of paying for the order behind them.

Thats one of Scooters core values, actually, is love, Delaine said. We love to make sure that were spreading kindness, and always making sure that were making everyones day as best as it can be. I think that its such a small gesture, but for me, especially, I know my day starts off great when I have a cup of coffee. So when that little thing just kind of starts your day off right, it really sets the tone for the rest of the day for everybody.

Along with their drinks, people were given a card saying Someone just did something nice for you because theyve been impacted by the kindness of organ, tissue and eye donation. Keep the kindness going. Do something nice for someone else, then pass this card on to them. Share your experience on social media using #CountOnKindness.

Live On Nebraska has a list of suggestions on their website, including giving flowers, a tip, a treat, and, of course, registering to become an organ donor.
The astronauts even got to eat some of the crops they grew, Hopkins said during a recent press conference.

"I think all of us would would agree that it is amazing to have fresh [food] up here," Hopkins said.

It was Glover's first-ever mission to space, and his assignment was historic because he became the first Black person to become a full-time ISS staff member.

"One thing that did really profoundly impact me was the very first time I got out of the seat after [our spacecraft] was safely in orbit, and I looked out the window and saw the Earth from 250 miles up," Glover said "I will never forget that moment...It wasn't about the view. It was how the view made me feel...the Earth is amazing. It's beautiful. It protects us, and so we should work hard to protect it."
Celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument by joining

The Friends of the Missouri Breaks will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the national monument's establishment with a canoe and kayak race on Saturday, July 17.

Participants will paddle 20 miles of Montana's Wild and Scenic Missouri River from Fort Benton to Wood Bottom Recreation Area while supporting the Friends efforts to protect and preserve the monument.

After the race a Boats, Brews and Blues event will be held in historic Fort Benton. This annual event, hosted by ChoCo Fun, includes a Montana craft brewfest and a free community concert featuring The Two Tracks, The Workers and Molly & Peter Wilson.

Racers can compete solo or in teams of two in canoes or kayaks. Awards will be given to the top three finishers in the solo and pair categories. Space is limited, so register now at https://runsignup.com/Race/Info/MT/FortBenton/BoatsintheBreaks or by visiting missouribreaks.org. The registration deadline is June 30.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D.  South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem sued the U.S. Department of Interior on Friday in an effort to see fireworks shot over Mount Rushmore National Monument on Independence Day.

The Republican governor successfully pushed last year for a return of the pyrotechnic display after a decadelong hiatus. The event drew national attention when former President Donald Trump joined Noem on July 3 to give a fiery speech. But the state's application to hold fireworks this year was denied by the National Park Service, which cited safety concerns and objections from local Native American tribes.

Noem's lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for South Dakota, argues that the decision was "arbitrary and capricious" and violated the powers granted to the agency in the Constitution. The state last year signed an agreement with the Trump administration and the Department of the Interior to work towards returning the pyrotechnic display this year.

Mount Rushmore is a huge tourism draw for the state, but it has also been a source of tension between the state and local Lakota tribes. Local activists have called for the monument to be returned to tribal control, pointing out the surrounding Black Hills were taken from the tribes in violation of treaties.
Rampaging recreation trends, new restrictions from the Legislature and unresolved social direction beset Northern Continental Divide grizzlies this summer.

The crush of humanity that showed up last year will be back, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Region 1 Supervisor Jim Williams said of the coming summer tourist season.

A lot of these folks have never lived with an elk before, let alone a bear. And the demand to provide all sorts of crazy opportunities on the forest is just going to grow.

On Friday, Williams addressed a committee of grizzly managers who oversee the approximately 1,000 bears inhabiting the mountains from Glacier National Park south to Missoula, including the Flathead and Blackfeet Indian reservations. Thats one of the most successful of six grizzly recovery ecosystems in the Northwest.

The bear managers, working through the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee, have the task of helping grizzlies coexist with those vacationers, politicians and industries that also have interest in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem.
The lawsuit claims the weather that morning was windy, and dark clouds could be seen to the west. The original complaint in the case also states that the passengers received little safety instruction, other than dont fall out, before taking off. The companys response denies that claim.

Usually the only instructions we need are to listen to the pilot and not to exit early, Wyoming Balloon Company owner Andrew Breffeilh said Friday. Mostly the conditions are so calm, takeoff and landing are unnoticeable.

Breffeilh said he thought all signs pointed to smooth flying the morning of the crash. The company regularly cancels flights because of less-than-ideal conditions, he said  in the summer, as many as one out of every three flights may be called off due to wind or bad weather.

The most likely explanation for what happened that day, he said, would be an invisible gust of wind that came when the balloons were already airborne. Winds went from zero to around 25 miles per hour within 10 minutes, Breffeilh said. According to the complaint, the balloon Columbus was in started descending after around half an hour in the air.
Legislators also sought to add the agriculture commissioner to the Land Board through Senate Bill 2282 and several related measures, which would have placed the issue before voters because such a change would require an amendment to the state constitution. Board members opposed the bill in part because it would place all three regulators who make up the Industrial Commission on the board. The bill was amended into a study of the boards makeup.

The state soon will begin sharing more oil tax revenue with the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation after lawmakers passed Senate Bill 2319. The legislation allows the tribe to share in taxes collected on wells that begin off the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation and extend horizontally underground across the boundary. Previously, the tribe could collect taxes only on wells entirely within the reservation boundary and on those that begin within the border and extend outside.
Four astronauts aboard the International Space Station are preparing to return to Earth in a few days.

The Expedition 65 orbital residents are also conducting space science while preparing to send off a Russian cargo craft.

There are two four-member SpaceX crews aboard the station today including a three-member Soyuz crew. The four SpaceX Crew-1 astronauts are turning their attention to returning to Earth this week after being in space since Nov. 16.

Crew-1 commander Michael Hopkins joined Pilot Victor Glover and Mission Specialists Shannon Walker and Soichi Noguchi for a conference with mission managers on the ground today. The quartet is working on the proper time to undock the Crew Dragon Resilience from the station and splashdown off the coast of Florida this week.

The station's newest Crew-2 astronauts are in their first week aboard the station and getting used to life on orbit. Crew Dragon Endeavour commander Shane Kimbrough along with Pilot Megan McArthur and Mission Specialists Thomas Pesquet and Akihiko Hoshide docked to the station on Saturday at 5:08 a.m. EDT to begin a six-month space research mission.

As the Crew-2 Dragon was heading for the space station about 1 p.m. Friday, the NASA/SpaceX team was informed that a piece of unidentified space debris might pass close to the Dragon spacecraft. U.S. Space Command, which tracks orbital debris (or space junk), informed the team that the closest approach to dragon would be at 1:43 p.m. Since there wasn't time to compute and execute a debris avoidance maneuver with confidence, the SpaceX team elected to have the crew put on their pressure suits as part of standard safety protocols. Upon further analysis, the command's 18th Space Control Squadron determined the object was a false report, and there was never a collision threat to the Crew-Dragon. The crew successfully docked to the station and is continuing its mission in orbit.

Station Commander Walker will hand over station control to Hoshide on Tuesday at 1:25 p.m. Hoshide will assume command of Expedition 65 during the change of command ceremony live on NASA TV.

Staying aboard with Crew-2 are three crewmates who rocketed to the orbiting lab aboard the Soyuz MS-18 crew ship on April 9. NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei is on his second station mission having served previously as an Expedition 53/54 flight engineer. This is the third station visit for cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy who was last aboard the station in 2013 and 2016. Cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov is on his first space flight.

There was time for science in space today with the crew servicing combustion research gear and transferring frozen biological samples into science freezers. Hardware for an experiment supporting pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries is also being packed for return to Earth soon.

A Russian cargo craft, the ISS Progress 75, is due to depart from the Zvezda service module on Tuesday at 7:11 p.m. This will complete a year-long stay on the station's Russian segment one day before it reenters Earth's atmosphere above the Pacific Ocean for a fiery, but safe destruction.

On-Orbit Status Report

Payloads:

ACE-T-2 (Advanced Colloids Experiment-Temperature-2): The crew changed out the ACE (Advanced Colloids Experiment) Module inside the LMM (Light Microscopy Module) AFC (Auxiliary Fluids Container) for the next ACE-T2 science runs. The Advanced Colloids Experiment-Temperature-2 (ACE-T-2) experiment looks at the assembly of complex structures from micron-scale colloidal particles interacting via tunable attractive interactions. The samples contain suspensions of trifluoroethyl methacrylate (FEMA) colloidal particles (10%vol) of type A and B in binary solvents composed of water (H2O, 68%mass) and lutidine (32%mass), that upon nearing the critical solvent temperature, give rise to critical Casimir interactions between the particles. Regulating the temperature enables control of the particle interactions, which for these mixtures of particles A and B are different, leading to the growth of complex structures. This experiment helps provide a better understanding of how complex interactions lead to complex structures and the dynamics of growth of these structures.

GRIP: The crew performed the first part of GRIP seated position science tasks (1 and 2 out of 3). The GRIP experiment studies the long-duration spaceflight effects on the abilities of human subjects to regulate grip force and upper limbs trajectories when manipulating objects during different kind of movements: oscillatory movements, rapid discrete movements and tapping gestures.

RTPCG-2 (Real-Time Protein Crystal Growth-2): The crew removed excess moisture from the EasyXtal plates and prepared the plates for return on Crew-1 Dragon. Phase II Real-time Protein Crystal Growth on Board the International Space Station (RTPCG-2) demonstrates new methods for producing high-quality protein crystals in microgravity. Previous work has shown that microgravity can sometimes produce high-quality protein crystals that can be analyzed to identify possible targets for drugs to treat disease. RTPCG-2 tests high-quality proteins crystals for detailed analysis back on Earth

VECTION: The crew executed a Vection Experiment Session. The objective of the study is to determine to what extent an astronaut's ability to visually interpret motion, orientation, and distance may be disrupted in a microgravity environment, and how it may adapt and be changed upon return to Earth. Multiple experimental time points inflight and upon return to Earth allow for the adaptation and recovery process to be investigated.

ISS HAM: A crewmembers made ISS HAM contacts with St. Margaret's School, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. ISS Ham Radio provides opportunities to engage and educate students, teachers, parents and other members of the community in science, technology, engineering and math by providing a means to communicate between astronauts and the ground HAM radio units.

Systems:

MISSE Transfer Operations - On Friday, 4/23, during Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE) 14 MISSE Sample Container (MSC) Transfer ops, ROBO encountered what appeared to be a stuck Robot Micro Conical Tool (RMCT) drive mode indicator on RMCT 1 while attempting to get off of an installed MSC. This resulted in approximately 1.5-hour delay in release of MSC-3. After further investigation, it was determined that the mechanism was making all expected mode transitions, and that the mode indicator was stuck. ROBO was able to unstick the mode indicator during subsequent modding to the Collet. Also, during MISSE-14 MSC transfer ops on Friday, ROBO encountered a Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM) Arm 1 safing event while attempting to release an installed MSC. It is believed that this safing occurred due to the Force Movement Sensor (FMS) drifting during the 1.5-hour delay caused by the RMCT-1 drive mode indicator anomaly. This issue was resolved by slightly widening the Force/Moment Accommodation (FMA) limits.

On Saturday, 4/24, during MISSE Trolley Bare Bolt operations, ROBO did not get the expected end item after uplinking a command to enable Auto-Wiggle for the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM). The telemetry received after this command indicated that there was an incorrect scaling factor in the command system when compared to the command template. Ground teams discovered that there was a conversion issue that accounted for the scaling discrepancy. A Software Change Request (SCR) will be implemented to correct the command template, and to document the commanding workaround for contingency Wiggle operations.

Mobile Transporter (MT) Translation - On Sunday, 4/25, the MT translated from worksite 2 to worksite 7. This translation was in support of the scheduled MISSE transfers to bring the MISSE Transfer Tray (MTT) back to the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) Airlock.

75 Progress Prop Purge - On Sunday, 4/25, there was a successful 75P propellant purge in preparation for 75P departure on Tuesday, 4/27.

Crew Orientation - On Monday, 4/26, Crew-2 crewmembers continued working through their ISS orientation sessions as well as their increment handover and adaptation sessions. The first two weeks after a crewed vehicle arrives and has docked, the new ISS crew will have 1 hour a day to adjust to living in space.

Polar Sample Transfer: - On Monday 4/26, Polar samples were transferred from Cold Stowage. Crewmembers set up camcorders and transferred samples from Cold Stowage to Polar using Ice Bricks and a Double Coldbags in preparation for Dragon descent. Live HD camcorder video streamed the entire duration to document crew operations; video not recorded for downlink.

Completed Task List Activities:

None

Today's Ground Activities:

All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.

Columbus EPM high rate data downlink

Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer Operations and Commanding

Multiple User System for Earth Sensing Platform Resources and Commanding

Look Ahead Plan:

Tuesday, April 27 (GMT 117)

Payloads:

Vascular Echo BP closeout (CSA)

Phospho Aging blood and urine collections (JAXA)

Micro-Temperature log retrieve (JAXA)

Food Acceptability (NASA)

HRF Saliva. Urine and Blood Collect (NASA)

Food Physiology Fecal collect (NASA)

Standard Measures Cognition test and questionnaire (NASA)

MSL SCA Exchange B3#1 (NASA)

Systems

Polar Express Rack Uninstall, Transfer, And Crew Dragon Install

Final Payload Load for Crew-1 Departure

Space Acceleration Measurement System Sensor Recable

Wednesday, April 28 (GMT 118)

Payloads:

AC touch (NASA)

Vascular Aging BioMonitor Stow (CSA)

Phospho Aging blood and urine collections (JAXA)

AWP Doff (NASA)

GRIP Supine session and partial stow (ESA)

Standard Measures Ambient Blood and questionnaire (NASA)

Food Physiology Fecal processing and HISD photo (NASA)

Story Time in Space-8 Software install (NASA)

Systems

Deroute SSC 23 drag-through cables and temp stow

On Board Training (OBT) ROBoT T&C Self Study

ADLINK Troubleshooting Gather activity

Contingency Manual Fluid Transfer from EDV to Resupply Tank

Thursday, April 29 (GMT 119)

Payloads:

GRASP Seated session (ESA)

Phospho Aging Blood and Urine collect (JAXA)

ACME Controller replace (NASA)

Story Time in Space Experiment with Thermal White Sphere (NASA)

Systems

In Flight Maintenance (IFM) Waste and Hygiene Compartment (WHC) Pre-Treat Tank Remove & Replace

ACME Controller Replace 1

Regenerative Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) Recycle Tank Drain

Today's Planned Activities:

All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.

ACE-T2 Module Configuration

Antimicrobial Coatings Documentation Photos

Antimicrobial Coatings Touch

Bio-Monitor Wearables Change Out

Bio-Monitor Wearables Stow

Campout Sleeping Bag Deploy and Stow

Crew Departure Preparations for Return to Earth

Dragon Monthly Conference

ESA FSL SW Flashdrive relocation

Handover of Increment 65 Crew

Health Maintenance System (HMS) Periodic Health Status (PHS) Evaluation Setup

Health Maintenance System (HMS) Periodic Health Status (PHS) Stow Hardware

HMS Stowage Cleanup

HRF Generic Ambient Blood Collection Setup

HRF Generic MELFI Sample Retrieval and Insertion Operations

HRF Generic Saliva Collection 10 Minutes

ISS HAM Columbus Pass Kenwood

JEM WIS RSU B4 Sensor Correction for RSU B4 S/N 1001 at JPM1F0

Male UCD Mate Review

MobileHR Pedal Crank Set audit

MSRRVelcro Deploy

On Board Training (OBT) ROBoT T&C Self Study

Onboard Training (OBT) Robotics On-board Trainer (ROBoT) Setup

Polar Sample Transfer 1 From Cold Stowage

Progress 445 (DC1) Cargo Transfers and IMS Ops (including 3 unit and NALB pate)

Public Affairs Office (PAO) Event in High Definition (HD) - JEM

Public Affairs Office (PAO) Event in High Definition (HD) - Lab

Real-time Protein Crystal Growth Maintenance Work Area Preparation

Real-time Protein Crystal Growth Plate Packing

Real-time Protein Crystal Growth Plate Wicking

Roll Up and Stow Sleep Bag

Transfer Crew Dragon Cargo Operations

Transfer Cygnus Cargo Ops

Vascular Aging 13-hour Blood Pressure Monitoring Crew Time Payback

Vascular Aging 13-Hour Blood Pressure Monitoring Initialization

Vascular Aging 13-hour Blood Pressure Monitoring Mobil-O-Graph Unit Power Off

Vection Crew Member Training



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High winds fanned the Roosevelt Creek Fire in Little Missouri National Grassland, causing the blaze to nearly quadruple in size.

The fire on Friday was 40% contained and had burned 1,100 acres. By Saturday it had grown to 4,000 acres and was 10% contained, according to the U.S. Forest Service. Wind gusts in the area reached 35 mph, said Michael Hollan, National Weather Service Meteorologist.

Two North Dakota Army National Guard Black Hawk helicopters dumped 26 buckets of water  each holding 550 gallons  on the fire to aid firefighters on the ground. The helicopter crews returned on Saturday, the National Guard said.

The fire started Wednesday about 6 miles north of the Wannagan Campground, north of the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. It has threatened multiple structures and residences and oil and gas infrastructure. No structures have been lost, the Forest Service said.
The 2021 Legislature adjourned early Friday after approving a record budget. It was a session of some major achievements with forays into debates over social issues such as mandatory masks and transgender athletes.

The $17 billion budget tops the previous record by $2.5 billion and was bolstered by federal funding for COVID-19 relief. Still, its an amazing number for a body that has been historically tight with the budget. Thats been changed in recent years largely because of oil revenue.

Two of the most important steps taken by the Legislature involved improving the state for the future. One, a $680 million bonding bill for infrastructure projects with a focus on flood-control needs, reflected a change in approach. Legislators have been reluctant in the past to approve bonding. Original proposals sought more money for a wide variety of projects, but the scope of the final bill was scaled back.

The other major legislation was the creation of an expanded investment policy to provide loans for infrastructure projects and offer capital for in-state companies. The program will use 20% of future oil tax collections going into the Legacy Fund for the loans.
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Most days in the kitchen, Annie Henry is a one-woman show. Working out of a commissary prep space on Chenango Street, the Middle Sister Sandwiches co-owner grocery shops, cooks, cleans, coordinates order pickups and makes deliveries to hungry, appreciative customers around the area.

But shes not really alone. Her sister, partner and creative mastermind, Jacque Henry (pronounced Jackie), is equally, if differently, invested. A full-time oncology nurse at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Jacque simply cant be in the kitchen with Annie most shifts (though she is when she can). But it was Jacque who came up with the idea for the business, aimed at making global food less intimidating to westernized palates, and it was Jacque who jumped at the opportunity to get the fledgling business up and running.

Theres never been an open door I havent walked through, she said.

Jacque tends to be the risk taker out of the two of us, Annie agreed. It was nice that she walked through that door, and I followed right behind her.

One of those doors was an invitation to sell Middle Sisters fare, anchored by a menu of Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches, at Roswell Parks weekly farmers market in 2019. From there, Middle Sister moved on to pop-up events at local businesses like Buffalo Cider Hall in Black Rock before finding its current groove as a text-or-call-to-order, takeout-only food purveyor.

Given Annies and Jacques other professional commitments (Annie is a part-time education consultant), Middle Sisters service schedule is limited, so staying attuned to the companys Facebook and Instagram updates is essential to securing a taste of the everchanging menu.

In addition to offering a traditional banh mi made from pork roll, pate, cilantro, jalapenos and a crunchy slaw of pickled daikon and carrots, Middle Sister sells variations on the classic, swapping in proteins like soy-and-lemongrass-marinated chicken, garlicky tofu and even Spam to give customers a bevy of Asian-inflected options.

In addition to banh mi, Annie and Jacque rotate in specials inspired, in part, by foods they ate growing up. Their mother left Vietnam in 1975 after the Fall of Saigon, making her way first to Yemen, where she, Annie, Jacque and their three sisters lived until 1984, when they all moved to Western New York to live with their mothers new husband and their adoptive father, an East Aurora native. Their time in the Middle East exposed them to authentic Yemeni, Ethiopian and Indian food, among other cuisines, in addition to the culinary heritage their mother carried with her from her home country.

We have this wealth of experiences with using spices and different ingredients, said Jacque.

Their travels as adults and the diverse food traditions of their inner circles also fuel their menu ideas. Past specials have included chao (Vietnams answer to congee) topped with a choice of thousand-year egg, shrimp and stone crab, pork or mushrooms; thit bo luc lac (Vietnamese shaking beef) wrapped in cabbage leaves; char siu, or sweet-and-savory Cantonese-style barbecue pork; and Yemeni sambusas (akin to samosas) with a Middle Sister twist: rice paper shells in place of traditional flour dough wrappers. Last year, a friend from Puerto Rico taught them to make pernil, which graced a limited-edition banh mi.

For Annie and Jacque, theres no immediate goal to open a traditional restaurant. In fact, they feel fortunate that they havent had to figure out how to keep a brick-and-mortar operational through the pandemic. A restaurant also requires a tremendous devotion of time, and they enjoy their other professional pursuits too much to give them up right now.

Financially and logistically speaking, a food truck is much more feasible in the short term. They even have a vehicle lined up for the next phase of Middle Sisters evolution, but it needs a little work before its road ready.

Jacque, who has aspired to owning a food truck for going on 10 years, cant think of a more perfect next stop on their scrappy, self-made journey.

I want to fill my life with doing things that I love, she said. If I can be out there every Saturday feeding somebody some sandwiches, Im going to be happy. I mean, whats better? Im living the dream.

A taste of home

Meanwhile, in a leased kitchen on Chandler Street, Wanthureerat Baramee (who goes by the nickname Kae) is hustling equally hard to bring her dreama food truck called Tiny Thaito fruition.

Like Middle Sister, she has taken a self-starters approach, working hard to build her brand and generate community buzz through catering and pop-up events held in partnership with longer established local businesses like Buffalo Bike Tours, owned by her husband Marc Moscato, and Southern Junction, a Tex-ish barbeque joint with a loyal following.

Beyond her immediate business goals, Baramee is driven by a loftier desire to bring a true taste of her homeland to the City of Good Neighbors.

I want to make authentic Thai food and share it with the Buffalo community, she said.

For Baramee, that means focusing on Thai dishes not typically seen outside of international cities like Toronto or New York, like chor muanghand-formed, blossom-shaped rice flour dumplings made vividly purple with the addition of butterfly pea flowers. Hers are filled with a savory melange of peanuts, chicken, pickled radish, onion, garlic and soy sauce.

Massaman curry, a Thai dish of Indian and Muslim influence, is another of Baramees specialties. She makes her version with a dozen or so aromatic herbs and spices, including cumin, lemongrass, galangal and cinnamon cooked slowly and extensively before being served with paratha, a flaky flatbread.

But one of her favorite menu offerings might be khao man gai, a dish of poached chicken over rice with a ginger-chile sauce. Its served with a sidecar of savory broth suffused with winter melon, cilantro and garlic. Baramee suggests eating the soup separately fromnot mixed together withthe chicken and rice, as she would have done in growing up in Thailand.

When I was young, my mom opened a restaurant, but I never wanted to eat my moms food; I wanted to go eat khao man gai from the street vendors every day, she laughed.

Still, Baramee credits her mother as well as her aunt for teaching her to cook from scratchan interest she eventually parlayed into a restaurant career in Bangkok. There, she worked her way up to a manager position at Yayoi, a popular chain of Japanese eateries owned by MK Restaurants. Baramee says that restaurant managers perform a more extensive variety of tasks in Thailand than they do in the United States, and she credits the experience with teaching her the ropes of the kitchen as well as front-of-the-house operations.

Wanting to gain more culinary experience, Baramee eventually left Bangkok for Portland, Oregon, where a friend was able to get her a job as a cook. There, she met Moscato, and the two eventually made their way to Buffalo.

Since moving to the area, she has worked in the kitchens at Yummy Thai, The Grange and 100 Acres. Her ambition to expose Western New York to a greater variety of Thai cooking quickly grew from there, but starting a restaurant is an expensive and notoriously risky endeavor. To make her dream accessible, Baramee got creative with her approach, officially launching Tiny Thai catering in June 2020.

Her goal has always been to be more intentional and refined, with a carefully thought through menu executed really well, Moscato said.

Baramees efforts have paid off. She reports that she has secured financing for her food truck through Good Neighbors Credit Union and expects to be on the streets slinging her small but mighty menu at outdoor events and well-trafficked roadsides by late spring or summer.
So he helped organize a protest on campus April 20.

The protest was centered around his experience and an incident surrounding comments by an instructor who said she was "sick" of Black Lives Matter. That incident is the subject of an ongoing college investigation.

Many of the students he met in planning the protest described similar experiences to his, Shepard said.

"It's like we all had a similar story," he said.

Buffalo State's disciplinary process "does not make assumptions" at the beginning as to whether a student is guilty or not, said Timothy W. Gordon, vice president of student affairs at the college.

Gordon, who said he was not able to discuss the specifics of any student or their case, said when a report is filed involving student conduct, the matter gets reviewed by a separate body  the Student Conduct and Community Standards Office.

"There's a very robust process to make sure students have good due process," he said.
It's one of the stranger lost-and-found announcements you're likely to hear.

"If anybody is missing sand, its in Sturgeon Point," Evans Supervisor Mary Hosler said this week.

The Sturgeon Point Marina, a popular spot for recreational boaters and fishermen and a vital safe harbor for boats during storms that roll in on Lake Erie, is once again impassable thanks to winter storms that swept in about 28,000 cubic yards of sand, blocking its mouth. And local officials have so far been unable to come up with a plan, or the money, to do something about it.

Over the winter sand poured through holes in the breakwall, which was badly damaged by storms in October 2019 and February 2020. The pandemic slowed the process of seeking financial assistance for repairs from the Federal Emergency Management Agency last year.

And now the marina is in about the same shape as last year when boaters and anglers demanded it be dredged, except there's more sand. It's possible to walk from the shore to the outer breakwall and not get wet.

Three groups volunteered to dredge the marina last year: Local 17 of the Operating Engineers, Union Concrete Construction and Spoth Enterprises. The union and Dick Spoth said they would help again, but Spoth said he needed some compensation this year.
FILE PHOTO: A visitor speaks with a representative of Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd at the PDAC annual conference in Toronto

By Jeff Lewis

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's Arctic territory Nunavut has delayed public hearings about a key water disposal project at Agnico Eagle Mines' Meliadine gold mine, a company executive said on Friday, as the region grapples with a new wave of coronavirus.

The mineral-rich territory extended a public health emergency to May 13 on Thursday after the number of active COVID-19 cases hit 50, with Canada battling a third wave of infections largely driven by new variants.

Meliadine is an underground and open pit gold mine located near the western shore of Hudson Bay in the Kivalliq district of Nunavut, about 25 km (16 miles) north of Rankin Inlet.

Toronto-based Agnico is seeking approval to pipe excess groundwater from the mine into the Arctic Ocean and increase contaminants it can legally dispose of in a nearby lake.

Public hearings set for May 17-20 in Rankin Inlet have been indefinitely postponed, senior vice-president of operations for Canada and Europe Dominique Girard said on an analyst call.

There will be no operational impact due to lower-than-expected inflows of groundwater at the mine, he said.

Inuit leaders previously said pandemic lockdowns had hindered talks with Agnico over the plans.

The delay comes a day after top gold miner Newmont Corp said it had paused operations at its Musselwhite mine in Ontario province to limit the virus spread.

Agnico in January agreed to buy struggling TMAC Resources, increasing its sizeable presence in Nunavut, where it also operates the Meadowbank gold complex.

The miner said 219 employees, mostly in Mexico, tested positive for COVID-19 in the first quarter.

(Reporting by Jeff Lewis; Editing by David Clarke)
The International Space Station has a new commander today as four astronauts prepare for their return to Earth this Saturday.

The orbital residents will also send off a Russian cargo craft on Tuesday evening, completing its year-long stay at the orbital lab.

The four SpaceX Crew-1 astronauts have a new splashdown date after mission managers waved off Wednesday's planned departure due to weather conditions at the landing site. The quartet of Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Soichi Noguchi, is now targeting a splashdown off the coast of Florida for Saturday at 11:36 a.m. EDT.

NASA TV will begin its continuous live coverage at 3:30 p.m. Friday starting with hatch closure of the Crew Dragon Resilience set for 3:50 p.m. Resilience with its four-person crew will then autonomously undock from the Harmony module's space-facing international docking adapter at 5:55 p.m. completing a 164-day station research mission.

Walker handed over station command to today Akihiko Hoshide from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) during the traditional change of command ceremony. Hoshide, Japan's second station commander, will now lead Expedition 65 until October of this year.

Hoshide arrived at the orbital lab on April 24 aboard the Crew Dragon Endeavour with SpaceX Crew-2. NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough commanded Endeavour riding alongside Pilot Megan McArthur and Mission Specialists Hoshide and Thomas Pesquet during the near 24-hour trip that began with a launch from Kennedy Space Center.

Staying on the orbiting lab with the four Crew-2 astronauts are NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov. The trio docked to the station's Rassvet module inside the Soyuz MS-18 crew ship on April 9 and will stay on orbit until October.

Russia's ISS Progress 75 cargo craft has been packed with trash and discarded gear and its hatch closed for an undocking today at 7:11 p.m. It will leave the Zvezda service module's aft port and spend another day orbiting Earth on its own before reentering Earth's atmosphere above the Pacific Ocean for a fiery, but safe destruction.

On-Orbit Status Report

75P Departure: Today at 6:11 PM CST, 75 Progress (75P) is set to depart from the SM-Aft port of the International Space Station. The Russian cargo vehicle will stay in orbit for roughly 25 hours before beginning its deorbit burn at 7:01 PM CT on Wednesday 4/28, before re-entering the atmosphere for re-entry disposal at 7:36 PM CST. 75P was launched to station on April 25, 2020.

Change of Command Ceremony: Today at 12:25 PM CST, the ISS crew performed a Change of Command Ceremony so that Endeavour Crewmember Akihiko Hoshide will become the commander (CDR) of the International Space Station. Former Commander and Resilience Crewmember Shannon Walker will resume her previous "FE-13" designation as she and her crew prepare for departure from the ISS on Friday 4/30 as part of the Resilience Crew Undock.

Resilience Crew Undocking Delay: It has been decided, due to inclement weather at the landing zone, that the Resilience Crew Undocking that was scheduled for Wednesday 4/28 is to be postponed until no earlier than Friday 4/30.

Payloads:

MSL SCA-Batch3b-ESA: The crew removed the used MSL Sample Cartridge and installed the new 3B Sample Cartridge. Crew then prepared the facility for the next experiment run. The Materials Science Lab Batch 3b (MSL SCA-Batch 3b-ESA) serves two projects investigating how different phases organize in a structure when metallic alloys are solidified. The Microstructure Formation in Casting of Technical Alloys under Diffusive and Magnetically Controlled Convective Conditions (MICAST) experiment aims to deepen the understanding of the physical principles that govern solidification processes in metal alloys. The Columnar-to-Equiaxed Transition in Solidification Processing (CETSOL) experiment aims to deepen the understanding of the physical principles that govern solidification processes in metal alloys.

Vascular Echo: The Blood Pressure Bio-Monitor wearable hardware was doffed and stowed completing a 13-hr data collection run. Cardiac and Vessel Structure and Function with Long-Duration Space Flight and Recovery (Vascular Echo) examines changes in blood vessels, and the heart, while the crewmembers are in space as well as follows their recovery on return to Earth. The results could provide insight into potential countermeasures to help maintain crewmember health and quality of life for everyone.

Systems:

Crew-1 Dragon Prop Checkout: This morning ground teams performed a Dragon hotfire thruster test as a part of the propulsion system checkout in preparation for Crew-1 undock, now scheduled for 4/30. Both Port and Starboard Solar Alpha Rotary Joints (SARJs) and Beta Gimble Assemblies (BGAs) 2B and 4A were positioned in support of the test. Arrays were brought back to nominal stage configuration (autotracking) after completion of the test.

Completed Task List Activities:

None

Today's Ground Activities:

All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.

Crew Dragon Prop Checkout

Crew Dragon System Undock Activation

PRO MSRR Deactivation Commanding

Columbus FSL high rate data downlink

Look Ahead Plan

Wednesday, April 28 (GMT 118)

Payloads:

AC touch (NASA)

Vascular Aging BioMonitor Stow (CSA)

Phospho Aging blood and urine collections (JAXA)

AWP Doff (NASA)

GRIP Supine session and partial stow (ESA)

Standard Measures Ambient Blood and questionnaire (NASA)

Food Physiology Fecal processing and HISD photo (NASA)

Story Time in Space-8 Software install (NASA)

Systems

Deroute SSC 23 drag-through cables and temp stow

On Board Training (OBT) ROBoT T&C Self Study

ADLINK Troubleshooting Gather activity

Contingency Manual Fluid Transfer from EDV to Resupply Tank

Thursday, April 29 (GMT 119)

Payloads:

GRASP Seated session (ESA)

Phospho Aging Blood and Urine collect (JAXA)

ACME Controller replace (NASA)

Story Time in Space Experiment with Thermal White Sphere (NASA_

Systems

In Flight Maintenance (IFM) Waste and Hygiene Compartment (WHC) Pre-Treat Tank Remove & Replace

ACME Controller Replace 1

Regenerative Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) Recycle Tank Drain

Friday, April 30 (GMT 120)

Payloads:

Crew Off Duty Day

Systems

Crew Off-Duty Day

Today's Planned Activities:

All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.

Bio-Monitor Wearables Data Transfer and Removal

Bio-Monitor Wearables Stow

Campout Sleeping Bag Deploy / Stow

Change of Command

Crew Departure Preparations for Return to Earth

Crew Dragon Seat Actuator Checkout

Deactivation of TV system monitoring equipment, Close applications and downlink MPEG2 multicast and MPEG2 unicast recorded data via OCA

Deploy Sleeping Bag in Dragon

Dragon Camera Uncover

Dragon MegaHEPA Seals Install

Emergency Roles and Responsibilities Review

Handover of Increment 65 Crew

HRF Generic MELFI Sample Retrieval and Insertion Operations

HRF Generic Saliva Collection 10 Minutes

HRF Generic Urine Collection Male

IMS delta file prep

ISS CREW/SSIPC CONFERENCE

Material Science Laboratory Procedure Review

Material Science Laboratory SQF Exchange

MSL SCA Exchange Big Picture Words Review

On board Training Cygnus Emergency Procedure Review

Phospho-Aging HRF Centrifuge Frozen Blood Collection - Operator

Polar Transfer to Crew Dragon (from EXPRESS Rack) Overview

Public Affairs Office (PAO) High Definition (HD) Config LAB Setup

Roll Up and Stow Sleep Bag

Standard Measures Cognition Testing

Transfer Cygnus Cargo Ops

Unseal MegaHEPA Filter in Crew Dragon

Vascular Aging 13-hour Blood Pressure Monitoring Conclude

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As I write this Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh of the United Kingdom, husband of Queen Elizabeth II has been laid to rest at Windsor Castle. The Prince died just short of his 100th birthday. He was a man of his time and we will never see his like again; as the media has observed his era has passed.

It is always good to know if you are related to any royalty, so I did some genealogical research. I looked in Family Search, a branch of the Mormon faith for my genealogy and found far back that a family story of the Andersen Clan and Royalty is true. For it appears that my Great, Great Grandparents worked the land owned by the King of Sweden/Norway. Yes at one time the King of Sweden was also the King of Norway. My Grandfather deciding that was not for him and split Norway to land in Little Norway in Chicago about 1905.

My Mothers side of the family came from Scotland and France via Canada. The family first settled in the state of Massachusetts, then came to Wisconsin. Being from Scotland did not put her family in line for royalty.

The other side of the family being French did little to add to that contribution. So I am just an ordinary American type of mixed heritage. My research did reveal that I may have ties to the Mayflower, but then again we all have some tie to the Mayflower.
(CNN)  Israeli investigators are examining what caused a crush that killed at least 44 worshipers at a mass religious gathering in Mount Meron overnight.

Thousands of worshipers had crowded onto the mountain burial site to celebrate the Lag B'Omer holiday, an annual event to pay homage to second-century Mishnaic sage Rabbi Shim Bar Yochai.

But in the early hours of Friday morning, singing and dancing erupted into chaos, as a huge wave of people trapped others beneath them, including children, witnesses told Reuters.

"We were going to go inside for the dancing and stuff and all of the sudden we saw paramedics from MADA running by, like mid-CPR on kids, and then one after the other started coming out," said Shlomo Katz.

Another attendee, Wice Israel, said he saw people falling to the ground. "It was crowded and there were there around 60,000 to 70,000 people, no place to move, and people started to fall to the ground, a lot fell to the ground," he said.

Dov Maisel, Vice President of Operations, of volunteer-based emergency organization United Hatzalah, told CNN that an estimated 50,000 to 100,000 people had been on the mountain.

He said thousands of people tightly packed in a small area had fallen down a staircase and crushed each other.

"Overall they usually control the crowd, but at a certain point at the peak the crowd became too tight," Maisel said.

Lazar Hyman, vice president of United Hatzalah, said it was one of the worst tragedies that he had ever experienced. "I have not seen anything like this since I entered into the field of emergency medicine back in 2000," said Hyman.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a "huge disaster". "We are all praying for the well-being of the injured. I want to strengthen the hand of those carrying out rescue efforts and who are operating on site," Netanyahu tweeted.

The local police chief told Israeli TV he accepted full responsibility for the incident.

"I take overall responsibility, for good and for bad. I am ready for every eventuality," said Shimon Lavie, Israel Police's northern commander. He said Israel's northern police command had prioritized security and public safety, but he could not explain what caused the stampede.

Lavie commended police officers who tried to help victims before patients were ferried to hospitals in ambulances and by helicopter. "Police were saving people's lives while they were also dealing with this complicated incident," he said.

Each year, hundreds of thousands of Jews -- many of them ultra-Orthodox -- flock to Bar Yochai's tomb site on Mount Meron, which lies in the Upper Galilee region of northern Israel, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of the city of Haifa. Bar Yochai's book "The Zohar" is the foundation of Jewish mysticism.

Israel health ministry had urged people not to attend the festival, warning of the risk of another coronavirus outbreak. However, case numbers have been low, and Israel has already fully vaccinated more than 58% of its population, so the event was allowed to proceed.

The injured were transported to Ziv Hospital in Safed, Rambam Hospital in Haifa, and the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya, according to United Hatzalah CEO Eli Pollack. Six helicopters were used to transfer the wounded.
(CNN)  India's vaccine rollout on Saturday widened to everyone age 18 and above  yet a number of states are warning they have no shots to give.

With hospitals running out of space and India's authorities reporting more than 300,000 coronavirus cases each day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced last month that he would extend the vaccine rollout beyond health care workers and the country's most vulnerable in a bid to tackle India's spiraling Covid crisis.

So far, just over 2% of India's 1.3 billion people have been fully immunized with one of two vaccines  significantly lower than the United States, where 29.8% of the population are fully immunized.

Almost 13.3 million people applied for vaccinations on the first day of registrations opening, according to the government's dedicated website, CoWIN. But ahead of the expanded rollout, multiple states have said they are short on supply.

CNN has confirmed at least seven states or union territories where Saturday's rollout is being impacted by vaccine shortages. Although some are run by opposition party governments, they also include Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, both populous states run by Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party.

During a press conference Friday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal urged citizens not to queue up for shots as the union territory, which includes the Indian capital New Delhi, has not received vaccine supplies yet.

"As soon as the vaccines come, we will make proper announcements. Only then people with appointments can start coming to the centers," he said.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, from the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, said another 25 million doses had been ordered to meet the rollout  but those vaccines wouldn't arrive in time.

"Therefore, the over-18s vaccination program will not begin in Madhya Pradesh from May 1," he said.

The western state of Gujarat is also pushing its expanded rollout to May 15, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani announced. Vaccination for those age 18 and above "will begin once we get substantial doses of vaccines from the pharma companies, which is likely to happen soon," Rupani said in a virtual address posted on social media.

And in Andhra Pradesh state, the chief minister said Thursday the expanded rollout might not start until September, according to CNN affiliate CNN-News18.

Other states have made no mention of shifting the rollout date, even as their health authorities warn of shortages. Maharashtra, the worst-hit state, has made repeated appeals for more vaccines, with its capital Mumbai suspending all vaccinations across the city due to shortages on Thursday.

Vaccination difficulties

India started the year with an ambitious goal: to fully vaccinate 300 million people by August.

The vaccination program began in mid-January, but the rollout has been riddled with problems. It had a slow start, with logistical issues as well as vaccine hesitancy among the population  especially towards India's homegrown Covaxin vaccine, which was approved for emergency use before the efficacy data of its third phase trial was released.

Public confidence slowly rose and the rate of vaccination picked up  but then the second wave hit. With demand skyrocketing, supplies quickly dwindled.

There are several contributing factors to the ongoing shortages. For one, India rapidly exported a large number of vaccine doses to other countries and through COVAX, the global initiative to provide vaccines to low-income countries. To date, India has exported 66 million vaccines.

There is also a shortage of materials, with the United States prioritizing raw vaccine materials for its own domestic rollout  though the Biden administration has since said it intends to send vaccines to India.

The Indian government has scrambled to catch up, with increasing urgency as the second wave accelerate. To date, the government has purchased at least 205.5 million doses of vaccines, according to data from the Duke Global Health Innovation Center  placing India in the top 10 vaccine buyers in the world. On Thursday, the country's health ministry announced more than 10 million vaccines were in storage with states across India, and 2 million more would be distributed within the next three days.

But the delays and shortages have sparked frustration among some local authorities, who say the central government has been too slow and disorganized in its response to the crisis.

All through April, vaccination centers in various states complained of vaccine delays and shortages, with dozens forced to temporarily close. In the state of Maharashtra, volunteer teams and health workers went door to door, bringing eligible people to get inoculated  only to be turned away at the vaccination site because there were no more shots left.

States urged the central government to send more vaccines. But the government has pushed back, claiming any shortages were due to the states' own mismanagement or inaccurate reporting.

As frustrations grow between local, state and federal authorities, patience has long run out on the ground, where the health care system is collapsing and thousands are dying each day. Securing a steady vaccine supply with smoother nationwide distribution may be crucial to minimize the damage as the second wave sweeps the country, experts say.

"The only solution for India is to vaccinate itself out of this pandemic," said Ramanan Laxminarayan, director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy in New Delhi. "And the world really needs to help, because if India doesn't fix this problem, the world is not done with Covid."

CNN's Jessie Yeung reported and wrote from Hong Kong. Manveena Suri reported from New Delhi.

This story was first published on CNN.com "Every adult in India is now eligible for Covid vaccine shots, but some states say they have none to offer"
(CNN)  Hundreds of buses stretched over miles of winding road were ferrying thousands of worshipers off Mount Meron in northern Israel on Friday after 45 people were killed and some 150 others injured in a crush at a mass Jewish gathering overnight.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the incident a "huge disaster," while paramedics described chaotic scenes of teams administering CPR en masse to people, including children, lying breathless on the ground.

According to the Institute of Forensic Medicine, 32 of the victims have been identified, with 22 of those released for burial.

An official with knowledge of the list of fatalities said the final death toll is expected to include five US citizens.

The official said several factors were delaying an official statement, including the need to inform the families privately of their loss and Shabbat regulations. Families of two US citizens had already been told of their loss, the official said, and three more were expected to follow.

Kalanit Taub, a first responder, described a "horrific scene" with "nonstop people to care for."

"I saw 20-plus CPRs ongoing at the same time," Taub told CNN. "Anywhere you looked, you saw another person doing CPR."

In the hours afterward, she said she saw people crying or staring into space, struggling to process what they had seen.

Israeli investigators are examining exactly how the crush happened at the mountain, where worshipers marked the Lag B'Omer holiday, an annual event where participants sing, dance and light fires in homage to second-century sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai at his burial site.

Israel's health ministry had urged people not to attend the festival, warning of the risk of another coronavirus outbreak. However, case numbers have been low, and Israel has already fully vaccinated more than 58% of its population, so the event was allowed to proceed.

Dov Maisel, vice president of operations of the volunteer-based emergency organization United Hatzalah, told CNN that around 100,000 people were in attendance, though such numbers aren't unusual for the annual festival. Maisel said up to 400,000 people had attended in past years.

Hundreds of people were pouring into the site at the same time from different directions, leading to a "massive amount of congestion," he said. People tightly packed in a small area had fallen down a staircase and crushed each other, he added.

"Overall they usually control the crowd, but at a certain point at the peak the crowd became too tight," Maisel said. "It was simply tragic and horrific."

Social media video from the site show men and boys crammed into a narrow passageway, when it suddenly becomes clear that many are struggling to continue walking, being thrown back and forth in waves of the commotion.

Zohar, one of the festival-goers who was near the crush when it happened, told Israel's Channel 12 News that people were moving through the passageway well until they came to a sudden stop.

"Everyone was crammed on top of each other and no one understood why. I raised my head and saw policemen blocking the passageway. We shouted, 'People are dying in there.'"

He said he saw people losing the color in their faces. "Then, bodies began falling at my feet. I tried to call for help, and slowly rescue forces arrived. There were some people who [rescuers] did not even try to revive. People were lying on my feet, shouting 'Help me.'"

Shlomo Katz, another worshiper, told Reuters: "We were going to go inside for the dancing and stuff and all of a sudden we saw paramedics from MADA ... running by, like mid-CPR on kids, and then one after the other started coming out of ambulance, and then we understood something's going on here," he said.

Footage from the scene showed dozens of body bags lined up on the ground, and personal items like abandoned shoes and crushed eyeglasses lying scattered on the ground at the scene.

Dozens of ambulances parked in rows, their lights flashing, were on standby to receive the many injured. Authorities said 250 ambulances had been made available to respond. Six helicopters transferred some of the wounded to hospital. Paramedics were seen running all over the area, with stretchers carrying people in need of treatment.

The local police chief told Israeli TV he accepted full responsibility for the incident.

"I take overall responsibility, for good and for bad. I am ready for every eventuality," said Shimon Lavie, Israel Police's northern commander. He said Israel's northern police command had prioritized security and public safety, but he could not explain what caused the stampede.

Lavie commended police officers who tried to help victims before patients were ferried to hospitals in ambulances and by helicopter. "Police were saving people's lives while they were also dealing with this complicated incident," he said.

Lazar Hyman, vice president of United Hatzalah, said it was one of the worst tragedies that he had ever experienced. "I have not seen anything like this since I entered into the field of emergency medicine back in 2000," said Hyman.

Prime Minister Netanyahu said the nation was praying for the injured in what he called "one of the worst disasters that Israel has experienced." Speaking during a visit to the site, on a specially-recorded video for his Facebook page, the Israeli leader said that "our hearts are with the families and the wounded."

US President Joe Biden offered condolences to Israel and Netanyahu on Friday. "The loss of life among worshipers practicing their faith is heartbreaking," Biden said in a statement. "I have instructed my team to offer our assistance to the government and people of Israel as they respond to the disaster and care for the wounded."

Each year, hundreds of thousands of Jews  many of them ultra-Orthodox  flock to Bar Yochai's tomb site on Mount Meron, which lies in the Upper Galilee region of northern Israel, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of the city of Haifa. Bar Yochai's book "The Zohar" is the foundation of Jewish mysticism.

CNN's Andrew Carey reported from Jerusalem, Angela Dewan wrote from London and Julia Hollingsworth wrote from Hong Kong.

This story was first published on CNN.com "Crush at religious festival in Israel's Mount Meron kills 45 people"
(CNN)  The Biden administration has confirmed that the US will restrict travel from India starting on Tuesday in response to the surge of coronavirus cases and variants being observed in the country.

"On the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Administration will restrict travel from India starting immediately," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement on Friday. "The policy will be implemented in light of extraordinarily high COVID-19 caseloads and multiple variants circulating in the India. The policy will take effect on Tuesday, May 4."

The administration will issue a 212(f) order restricting entry into the US for foreign nationals who have been in India within the previous 14 days, a source familiar with the move said. Airlines have been told of the decision, a source said.

The new policy will take effect on Tuesday at 12:01 am ET.

The policy will not apply to American citizens, lawful permanent residents or other people with exemptions. As with all international travelers, individuals who fit that criteria traveling from India must still test negative prior to leaving the country, quarantine if they have not been vaccinated and test negative again upon reentering the US from India. The restrictions also do not apply to humanitarian workers.

The White House informed congressional offices on Friday of the move.

India recorded 386,452 Covid-19 cases on Friday, another record daily rise of cases, according to a CNN tally of figures from the Indian Ministry of Health.

Friday's tally is the ninth day in a row the country has added more than 300,000 cases a day, bringing the total number to more than 18.7 million. The country also reported 3,498 deaths, bringing the death toll to 208,330.

A day before the US' upcoming travel restrictions on India were announced, India's national airline, Air India, had said it was planning to reintroduce near pre-pandemic frequency of direct flights to the US in the first half of May. A number of countries -- including the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Canada -- have placed travel restrictions, ranging from quarantines to outright bans on travel from India.

On Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that India accounted for 38% of global coronavirus cases recorded in the week leading up to April 25.

As of Thursday evening, more than 152 million vaccine doses have been administered. More than 26.7 million people have received their second doses, which is approximately 2% of India's 1.3 billion population being vaccinated, according to a press release issued by the health ministry on Thursday.

India launched its vaccination drive on January 16 and will open up vaccinations to everyone above the age of 18 on Saturday, but some states have indicated that they will not be ready for that vaccination rollout. Mumbai's municipal administration also announced the suspension of all Covid-19 vaccinations across the city Thursday evening due to a shortage.

The Indian government on Friday invoked special provisions and granted emergency financial powers to the Armed Forces to combat the second wave of Covid-19 in the country, the country's Defense minister, Rajnath Singh, announced on Twitter.

Earlier in the week, Biden pledged to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the United States would provide "a range of emergency assistance, including oxygen-related supplies, vaccine materials, and therapeutics."

And the White House said Wednesday it was delivering supplies worth more than $100 million in the coming days to provide urgent relief to India. US shipments of personal protective equipment, oxygen, coronavirus test kits, masks have been sent to the country.

The President and the White House have also indicated they would ship doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to other countries, including India, in the coming months after passing a safety review by the US Food and Drug Administration.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Biden administration to restrict travel from India starting Tuesday."
(CNN)  Throughout the pandemic, Amazon has had no trouble generating huge returns. Once the Covid-19 crisis passes, it's in great shape to make even more money.

What's happening: The internet giant's profits more than tripled to $8.1 billion in the first three months of 2021. Shares, which are near an all-time high, are up 2% in premarket trading.

"Amazon has the almost perfect business for the world right now," said James Harris, global chief strategy officer at Mindshare Worldwide. "The world's leading e-commerce platform, a growing cloud business and a smaller but growing advertising capability all working in unison. It's a compelling offer."

A closer look at the numbers reinforces his point.

On retail: Demand for online shopping doesn't appear to be slowing, with revenue from Amazon's consumer business growing 39% in North America last quarter and 50% internationally.

Amazon now has more than 200 million paying subscribers to its Prime service worldwide. They're streaming more videos, and are set up to deliver the company another windfall during its Prime Day promotional event later this quarter.

On cloud: Amazon Web Services, which provides cloud computing services, posted net sales of $13.5 billion during the quarter, up 32% year-over-year.

And as more companies tap the technology to manage workers who are splitting time between their homes and the office, the outlook looks strong.

"During Covid, we've seen many enterprises decide that they no longer want to manage their own technology infrastructure," Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said on a call with analysts Thursday. "We expect this trend to continue as we move into the post-pandemic recovery."

On advertising: Revenue from ads is accelerating, too, as advertisers try to target consumers who are spending more time online. The company's share of the US digital ad market surpassed 10% in 2020, according to eMarketer. The research firm expects revenues from this business to hit $20 billion this year and surge past $30 billion by 2023.

"As consumers shift more [spending] online, trade spending and shopper marketing will rapidly follow, with the bulk flowing to Amazon," said eMarketer analyst Eric Haggstrom.

That's all great news for CEO Jeff Bezos, who is once again the world's richest man with a net worth of $202 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Though Bezos is set to hand the reins to Andy Jassy later this year, his 11% stake in Amazon should keep minting money.

Watch this space: Amazon continues to face the specter of antitrust action, and repeatedly grabs political attention for its treatment of workers, though it recently defeated a union drive in Alabama. But without government intervention, the company's dominance is only poised to grow.

Big picture: Amazon was the last Big Tech company to report earnings for the beginning of 2021. In aggregate, the results from these firms are even more eye-popping. Together, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft earned nearly $75 billion during the first three months of the year.

Let's say that again: almost $75 billion. With a B.

Break out the Coca-Cola: It's time for Buffettpalooza

Live from Los Angeles, it's Warren Buffett.

This Saturday, the billionaire investor will host one of the business world's biggest events, livestreaming the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting from California, my CNN Business colleague Paul R. La Monica reports.

The backstory: Usually, tens of thousands of shareholders flock to Nebraska to see the Oracle of Omaha while consuming Berkshire-owned See's Candies and Dairy Queen Dilly Bars. But LA is home to Berkshire vice chairman and longtime Buffett confidant Charlie Munger. Munger, who is 97, missed the meeting last year.

Buffett and Munger  as well as fellow Berkshire vice chairmen Ajit Jain and Greg Abel  are set to field questions from shareholders and journalists, who are expected to grill them on issues ranging from the stock market's stunning rebound to the economic outlook.

Other potential questions include:

Berkshire Hathaway is sitting on nearly $140 billion in cash. What kind of deals is Buffett considering?

Top Berkshire holdings include blue-chip companies like Apple, Coca-Cola, Bank of America and Kraft Heinz. Would the team consider more bets on high-growth firms, like its stake in the cloud database company Snowflake?

Does Buffett, who famously called bitcoin "rat poison squared," endorse recent efforts to take the cryptocurrency mainstream?

Buffett is known for buying quality companies for the long term. What does he think of meme stock mania and other trends among Robinhood investors?

Bank of America doesn't think cities are dead

When the pandemic hit last year, people left cities in droves  and, lured away by lower costs and more space, it wasn't clear they'd ever come back.

But according to a new analysis from Bank of America, "reports of the city's death have been greatly exaggerated."

The bank's economists found that while urban flight did occur in high-cost cities like New York and San Francisco, there are still incentives for people to return  especially younger workers.

"NYC and SF remain premier cities for young people as economic, financial, and cultural centers," Bank of America said. "The pullback in rents over the past year adds an additional incentive to come, and with the share of young adults living at home reaching record highs in 2020, there could be some pent-up demand."

The bank also noted that those who did migrate out of the city "did not go very far," pointing to research from the Cleveland Fed showing that many people who migrated out of New York and San Francisco stayed within 150 miles of those cities.

Watch this space: Bank of America noted that downloads of StreetEasy, a New York apartment hunting app, have "increased significantly in recent months, suggesting people are looking to return to NYC." With Mayor Bill de Blasio targeting July 1 for New York City's "full reopening," this summer could be an important test.

Up next

AbbVie, Chevron, Clorox, Colgate-Palmolive, ExxonMobil, Newell Brands and Phillips 66 report results before US markets open.

Also today: US personal income and spending data post at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Coming next week: How many jobs did the US economy add in April?

This story was first published on CNN.com Why Amazon is the 'perfect' moneymaking machine
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 30)  The Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (PAMALAKAYA) has filed three petitions asking the United Nations to stop Chinese incursion in the West Philippine Sea.

The petitions addressed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres call on the world body to declare the Chinese Coast Guard Law null and void, demilitarize the South China Sea, and address the impact of the incursion on food security.

In January, China implemented the controversial law that allows its coast guard to "take all necessary measures, including use of weapons, when national sovereign rights and jurisdiction are being illegally infringed upon by foreign organizations or individuals at sea."

PAMALAKAYA said this law and the continued presence of Chinese vessels in disputed waters may be seen as an act of aggression against Filipino fisherfolk, and is a threat to the latter's livelihood and on food security as reflected in the declining catch of Philippine fishers.

PAMALAKAYA noted that the West Philippine Sea accounts for 26% of the country's fishing grounds and is a source of income for tens of thousands of fishers in different provinces. In 2014, the Philippine government reported that China's reclamation activities in the area led to a 4.8 billion loss to the country's economy and the local fisheries sector, it added.

The fishers group also cited a study by experts from the University of the Philippines in 2019 that said damage to coral reef and livelihood because of such activities has reached a total of 33 billion. The National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea also estimated that around 240,000 kilos per day are being illegally fished by Chinese vessels, it added.

China's drills in the West Philippine Sea also causes environmental risks and marine pollution as their warships discharge oil chemicals and dump untreated solid wastes into the sea, PAMALAKAYA said.

"At present, Filipino scientists estimated that the Chinese destruction of coral reefs have caused the damage valued at 1.92 trillion per year," the group added.

The Philippine government has filed diplomatic protests against the presence of the Chinese vessels in the West Philippine Sea, but authorities said at least five of China's coast guard ships have remained as of April 28.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry even urged the Philippines to respect their sovereignty, rights, and interests in the South China Sea, and to stop any action that will complicate the situation in the region. This is despite an arbitral tribunal ruling in The Hague in 2016 affirming Manila's sovereign rights in its exclusive economic zone, which Beijing has consistently refused to recognize.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 1)  The country's COVID-19 total rose to 1,046,653 after 9,226 more people got infected, the Department of Health's Saturday case bulletin said.

It's the first time in a week that the country recorded more than 9,000 cases again. The bulletin showed 72,248 active cases or people currently sick, which is 6.9% of the nationwide tally. At least 94.9% of the active cases have mild symptoms, 1.7% have no symptoms, 1.4% are in severe condition, 1.1% are in a critical state, and 0.9% are moderate cases.

The death toll also jumped to 17,354 - which is 1.66% of the caseload - after 120 more people died from the disease. The DOH said 54 of the new fatalities were added after validation showed they were previously tagged as survivors.

Meanwhile, 10,809 more patients got better, raising the survivor count to 957,051 or 91.4% of the COVID-19 total. The department said it removed 33 duplicates from the report, including 22 recoveries.

The daily positivity rate or rate of patients who tested positive is 16.8% out of 51,598 tests administered as of April 29. The World Health Organization recommends that the positivity rate should be less than 5%. Experts say a high positivity rate may mean high transmission, and there are more cases that have yet to be detected.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 1)  The government is looking to shell out 24 billion to provide wage subsidy to around one million workers, the country's trade chief said Saturday.

During the Task Group on Economic Recovery (TGER) - National Employment Recovery Strategy (NERS) Job Summit 2021, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said the proposed wage subsidy seeks to "preserve and protect existing employment."

Lopez, who is also chairperson of the NERS Task Force, said the program hopes to provide 8,000 per month - for a maximum of three months - to workers affected by coronavirus lockdowns.

"The proposed subsidy, currently being evaluated by NEDA (National Economic and Development Authority), intends to benefit one million workers," he said.

Once approved, priority will be given to micro, small and medium enterprises currently implementing flexible work arrangements or temporary closure, and establishments availing of the zero or low-interest loan facility of DTI-SB Corp and COVID-19 Assistance to Restart Enterprises or CARES program.

"This will also a form of pump-priming the economy," Lopez added.

The 24-billion wage subsidy program is part of the government's 8-Point Employment Recovery Agenda.

Late in March, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported that 4.2 million Filipinos were jobless in February due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

READ: Unemployment worsens with 4.2 million jobless in February  PSA

As cases continued to spike, the government reimposed the enhanced community quarantine in NCR Plus for two weeks, starting March 29. Lopez earlier said the ECQ resulted in 1.5 million jobs lost, as many businesses were forced to suspend or limit the capacity of their operations.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 1)  The countrys highest leaders called for the protection of worker rights and an end to illegal contractual work in separate messages on Labor Day.

President Rodrigo Duterte expressed gratitude to frontline workers for their unwavering commitment in ensuring unhampered delivery of goods and services amid the health crisis.

He also assured them his administration will endeavor to work as vigorously as laborers have to create an environment where the security of tenure, statutory labor standards, and workers rights are not only upheld and protected but also cherished.

Meanwhile, Vice President Leni Robredo called for concrete action to end worker struggle against unauthorized contractual employment.

Maging araw sana ito hindi lamang ng papuri at pasasalamat, kundi pati ng kongkretong aksyon sa mga isyung matagal nang idinadaing ng mga manggagawa: Ang pagtuldok sa ENDO at kontraktuwalisasyon, Robredo said in a message.

[Translation: May this day not be just about gratitude and praise, but also concrete action on the long-standing issue raised by workers: End endo (end of contract) and contractualization.]

She highlighted the need to make sure workers are provided enough aid, safety at mass transportation and the workplace.

Meanwhile, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III reiterated the government is looking into proposals to raise salaries, and also considering if business owners can afford to pay higher wage amid a recession.

"'Yung pagtaas ng sahod ay pinagaaralan ng mabuti," Bello told CNN Philippines in an interview.

[Translation: We are carefully studying the proposed salary increase.]

Labor groups have long pushed to raise to 750 the daily minimum wage nationwide. The current minimum wage rates vary per region. These are from 282 to 537, according to data from the National Wages Productivity Commission.
The World Health Organisation has listed the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine (mRNA 1273) for emergency use, thus making it the fifth vaccine to receive its emergency validation from the global health body.

WHOs Emergency Use Listing (EUL) assesses the quality, safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines and is a prerequisite for COVAX Facility vaccine supply. It also allows countries to expedite their own regulatory approval to import and administer COVID-19 vaccines.

The vaccine has already been reviewed by WHOs Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE), which makes recommendations for vaccines use in populations (i.e. recommended age groups, intervals between shots, advice for specific groups such as pregnant and lactating women).

The SAGE recommended the vaccine for all age groups 18 and above in its interim recommendations dated 25 January 2021.

The US Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for the Moderna vaccine on December 18 last year and a marketing authorisation valid throughout the European Union was granted by the European Medicines Agency in January this year.

The WHO EUL process can be carried out quickly when vaccine developers submit the full data required by WHO in a timely manner. Once those data are submitted, WHO can rapidly assemble its evaluation team and regulators from around the world to assess the information and, when necessary, carry out inspections of manufacturing sites.

The Moderna vaccine is an mNRA-based vaccine. It was found by the SAGE to have an efficacy of efficacy of 94.1%, based on a median follow-up of two months.

Although the vaccine is provided as a frozen suspension at 25 C to 15 C in a multidose vial, vials can be stored refrigerated at 28 C for up to 30 days prior to withdrawal of the first dose, meaning that ultra-cold chain equipment may not always be necessary to deploy the vaccine.

The emergency use listing procedure assesses the suitability of novel health products during public health emergencies. The objective is to make medicines, vaccines and diagnostics available as rapidly as possible to address the emergency, while adhering to stringent criteria of safety, efficacy and quality.

The assessment weighs the threat posed by the emergency as well as the benefit that would accrue from the use of the product against any potential risks.

The EUL pathway involves a rigorous assessment of late phase II and phase III clinical trial data as well as substantial additional data on safety, efficacy, quality and a risk management plan. These data are reviewed by independent experts and WHO teams who consider the current body of evidence on the vaccine under consideration, the plans for monitoring its use, and plans for further studies.

As part of the EUL process, the company producing the vaccine must commit to continue to generate data to enable full licensure and WHO prequalification of the vaccine. The WHO prequalification process will assess additional clinical data generated from vaccine trials and deployment on a rolling basis to ensure the vaccine meets the necessary standards of quality, safety and efficacy for broader availability.-TradeArabia News Service
(CNN)  Almost half of Myanmar's population could be forced into poverty by the end of the year as the country teeters on the brink of economic collapse caused by the double shock of a bloody military coup and the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a new United Nations report.

Rising food costs, significant losses of income and wages, the crumbling of basic services such as banking and health care, and an inadequate social safety net is likely to push millions of already vulnerable people below the poverty line of $1.10 a day -- with women and children among the hardest hit.

Analysis from the UN Development Program (UNDP), published Thursday, warned that if the security and economic situation does not stabilize soon, up to 25 million people -- 48% of Myanmar's population -- could be living in poverty by 2022.

That level of impoverishment has not been seen in Myanmar since 2005, when the country was an isolated, pariah nation ruled by a previous military regime, it said.

UNDP administrator Achim Steiner said it is clear "we are contending with a tragedy unfolding."

"We have fractured supply chains, (disrupted) movement of people and movement of goods and services, the banking system essentially suspended, remittances not being able to reach people, social safety payments that would have been available to poorer households not being paid out. These are just some of the immediate impacts," Steiner said. "The protracted political crisis will obviously worsen this."

Myanmar had made solid progress in reducing poverty, particularly since the start of a democratic transition from military rule in 2011 that prompted economic and political reforms.

Over the past 15 years, the country effectively halved its poverty rate from 48.2% in 2005 to 24.8% in 2017, according to the report. It was still considered one of the poorest countries in Asia, however, with an estimated third of the population subsisting on such a low or precarious income it was one economic shock away from being thrown back into poverty.

For many, that shock came in the form of the global coronavirus pandemic. Lockdowns and containment measures disrupted supply chains, so businesses -- especially in retail, manufacturing and exports, as well as smaller businesses, market sellers, hairdressers and tailors -- suffered. By December last year, more than 420,000 migrant workers had returned home.

By the end of the year, 83% of households in Myanmar reported their incomes had been slashed by about half due to the pandemic, the report found.

The second shock came in the morning of February 1, when armed forces commander in chief Gen. Min Aung Hlaing seized power, overthrowing the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party and installing a military junta.

The following months have seen ongoing protests against his rule and the rise of a Civil Disobedience Movement in which thousands of blue- and white-collar workers including doctors, teachers, civil servants and factory workers have gone on strike with the aim of disrupting the economy and unseating the general.

Security forces have brutally suppressed the protests with deadly and systematic crackdowns in which police and soldiers have shot dead people in the streets and arbitrarily detained perceived opponents. More than 750 people have been killed by security forces since the coup, and more than 4,500 arrested, according to advocacy group Assistance Association of Political Prisoners.

The compounding economic crises of the pandemic and military takeover risk completely wiping out the progress Myanmar has made in reducing poverty, the report said -- and the number of people in poverty in the country is likely to double by next year.

The impact of the pandemic alone would have raised Myanmar's poverty level from 24.8% to 36.1%, the UNDP estimated. If the massive economic and social disruption of the coup continues, that increases further to 48.2%.

"By then, the shock from the crisis will have resulted in significant losses of wages and income, particularly from small businesses, and a drop in access to food, basic services and social protection," the report said.

Urban poverty is expected to triple as the towns and cities have been hardest hit by Covid-19 and remain the focus of the most severe military crackdowns.

According to the study, women and children will bear the heaviest brunt. Myanmar already has high child poverty rates and the combined crises are "putting an entire generation in peril," the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said. Rising poverty means children are less likely to stay in school and the loss of key services in education and health care, for example, will lead to "profound physical, psychological, educational and economic impacts."

Women-led households are more vulnerable, the report added, as women are more likely to be employed in sectors affected by the coronavirus, such as the garment industry. And women disproportionally bear the burden of household chores associated with Covid-19, such as caring for the sick or home-schooling children, which forces many to drop out of the labor market, the report said.

The two crises are not independent of one another. The overthrow of the civilian government has already amplified the impacts of the coronavirus -- Covid-19 testing has collapsed since the coup, doctors say.

Meanwhile, the takeover has "derailed" any hope for a post-pandemic recovery, the report said. The deteriorating security conditions have seen a further breakdown of supply chains already disrupted by Covid. Key ports are paralyzed as customs agents, dockworkers, lorry drivers and rail workers halt work.

Some shipping firms have temporarily stopped services to the country, the report said. About 80% of Myanmar's trade is seaborne, and the UNDP estimated trade in ports dropped by up to 64% in the two months after the coup.

Similar disruptions to transport and the movement of labor and goods, as well as pressure on the country's currency, the kyat, has also hit Myanmar's agriculture industry, which 70% of the population depend on for their livelihoods.

"Across Myanmar society this is a major setback, not only in development but also in terms of inequality and vulnerability," Steiner said. "People will struggle to survive."

A humanitarian crisis is unfolding as a result. The UN World Food Program last week warned "hunger and desperation" are rising in Myanmar and predicted that up to 3.4 million people will be suffering across the country in the next six months.

"Overall, Myanmar is on the brink of economic collapse and risks becoming Asia's next failed state," the UNDP report said.

To reach its conclusions, the UNDP used a range of sources, including published data from the World Bank, the Brookings Institution, reports from other UN agencies, media reports and household surveys from Myanmar.

Because real-time data is difficult to obtain, the UNDP said if the multiple crises of Covid-19, human rights, democratization and security extend even further, the estimates may be worse than predicted -- especially for vulnerable groups such as ethnic minorities and internally displaced people.

"Much will depend on what's happening in Myanmar over the next two months," Steiner said.

This story was first published on CNN.com "Double crises of coup and Covid could push half of Myanmar's population into poverty, UN warns".
(CNN)  On April 17, ahead of a state election, a maskless Prime Minister Narendra Modi boasted to a sea of cheering supporters: "I've never ever seen such huge crowds at a rally."

His country was on the brink of a humanitarian crisis. That day, India recorded more than 261,000 new coronavirus cases -- more than many countries have seen during the entire pandemic.

And it was only going to get worse. Each day since April 22, the country has reported more than 300,000 new cases -- at times, up to half of the daily cases reported globally. The capital New Delhi is now running out of wood for cremations. Hospitals are full and lacking oxygen. Only 2% of the population has been fully vaccinated. Foreign leaders are now rushing to India's aid.

While Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesman Narendra Taneja told CNN this week that responsibility for India's second wave belonged "first and foremost" to the government, he maintained the crisis could not have been foreseen -- despite countless countries being battered by second waves as new variants emerged globally.

Others in Modi's orbit have argued state governments are to blame for not imposing regional lockdowns and mismanaging their health care systems. Last weekend, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said oxygen shortages at hospitals were a problem not of supply but distribution, which he claimed was the responsibility of state governments.

But many in India believe responsibility lies with Modi and his Hindu nationalist government, which not only didn't prepare for a second wave but also encouraged mass gatherings at Hindu festivals and political rallies, including in a closely contested battleground state.

"The government has failed us all," Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the general secretary of opposition party Indian National Congress, said in a statement this week. "Even those of us who oppose and fight them could not have foreseen a complete abdication of leadership and governance at a time as devastating as this."

Modi's pandemic PR moves

Modi has been keen to tie himself to positive aspects of India's pandemic responses.

Vaccinated Indians receive a certificate with his face on it. The Covid relief fund, a charitable trust which gathers voluntary contributions to help support those affected, is named PM Cares -- an acronym for Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund. It also bears Modi's face on its official website.

With his name tied to these positive initiatives, a first wave that avoided the catastrophic caseload some experts feared, and a roaring pharmaceutical industry that had produced a homegrown vaccine, India's pandemic response was on track to be a PR win for Modi. The country was positioning itself to help other countries, having exported more than 66 million doses of vaccines, rather than be the one in need of aid.

"(India) has saved the world, entire humanity, from a major tragedy by effectively controlling coronavirus," Modi boasted at the World Economic Forum on January 28.

With many in India feeling the pandemic was over, there was a slower take-up of vaccines there than expected. About 300 million of India's 1.3 billion population are illiterate, meaning they may have had less ability to investigate what was going on for themselves.

"You can't blame people for thinking 'maybe the government knows best, maybe things are back to normal, maybe we should go out and live our normal lives,'" said Pradeep Taneja, an expert on Asian politics at the University of Melbourne and a fellow of the Australia India Institute.

But the pandemic was far from over. By February, cases were beginning to tick up. The BJP, however, still claimed India had "defeated Covid under the able, sensitive, committed and visionary leadership" of Modi.

On March 7, when the country reported about 18,000 new daily cases, the Health Minister Vardhan said India was in the "end game of the Covid-19 pandemic." And on March 30, a day before authorities reported more than 81,000 cases in a single day, Vardhan said: "The situation is under control."

Yet mutations had been circulating overseas for months, and epidemiologists in India believed another wave was coming. While the second wave was inevitable, its size took everyone by surprise, said Ramanan Laxminarayan, an economist and epidemiologist at Princeton University who is in New Delhi.

"I think there was a premature sense of optimism among many that was probably unwarranted and in hindsight has ended up being quite deadly," he said.

Asia politics expert Taneja said: "Modi was complacent, even arrogant in thinking that India had succeeded when more developed countries, countries with much stronger health systems ... were struggling."

Fury over the second wave

As it became clear India's cases were spiraling, Modi stayed largely silent -- and a second nationwide lockdown that some expected never came. In a national address last month, he actively advocated against a nationwide lockdown.

Modi's apparent inaction prompted a wave of anger, spurring hundreds to share hashtags on Twitter such as #ModiMustResign and #ModiMadeDisaster. This week, the national vice president of the Indian Medical Association, Navjot Dahiya, called Modi a "super spreader" for holding political rallies and allowing millions of pilgrims to descend on Haridwar in northern India, to celebrate the Hindu festival Kumbh Mela, local media reported.

"People expect their governments to assure them that they are in charge and taking care of things ... but the government is almost missing in action," Pradeep Taneja said. "Now that India is facing the worse crisis, in my lifetime, certainly, where is the Prime Minister?"

This sort of criticism of Modi is remarkable in a country where he is seen by many as a "saintly" figure who always acts in the national interest, according to Asim Ali, a researcher at the Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research think tank. Modi's landslide 2019 re-election for a second five-year term gave him a sweeping mandate to push his Hindu nationalist agenda, in a country where 80% of the population is Hindu.

Despite this, experts believe Modi was too concerned about losing support to impose another nationwide lockdown.

When on March 24, 2020, Modi announced an unprecedented nationwide lockdown, India had only reported 519 cases. Buses and trains were brought to a halt, cross-state travel was banned, and most people weren't allowed out of their house unless they were buying groceries. Some called it the world's strictest lockdown.

That lockdown lasted months in some parts of the country. Although cases eventually fell after peaking in September, the elongated lockdown hurt India's millions of daily wage workers. The country's economy shrank by a record 24% in the second quarter, and GDP contracted by 6.9% overall last year.

This time, Modi has instead advocated for "micro containment zones," where restrictions are focused on areas of concern. It's been up to states to decide when and how to implement them. So far, at least eight of India's states and territories have some form of lockdown, ranging from a curfew in Karnataka and Gujurat states to a full lockdown in New Delhi.

Rajeev Sadanandan, a former bureaucrat in the health ministry of the state of Kerala and CEO of non-profit Health Systems Transformation Platform, said the reason for that was simple: "Last time, the lockdown was widely criticized as a failure" because it came at a huge economic cost and suffering to the poor.

The legislative elections held over the past month in Assam, West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu states, and Puducherry union territory, may have also been a factor. Two of those are BJP-run, while one -- West Bengal -- was a closely contested state. When asked why BJP had continued to hold rallies, the party's spokesman Taneja said the "autonomous" Election Commission of India allowed election events to proceed.

Michael Head, a senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton's Clinical Informatics Research Unit, said aside from restricting gatherings and having clearer messaging, the government could have curtailed cross-country travel -- as it did during the first lockdown.

Lack of preparedness

As India enjoyed a relative period of calm at the beginning of this year, Modi could have been preparing his country for another battle with Covid-19, patching up health care gaps in preparation for a possible future outbreak.

Pradeep Taneja said there was "criminal negligence on the part of the government" to not prepare for another wave despite knowing other countries with better health care systems had experienced multiple waves.

Both the US and the UK were hit harder by their second waves than their first, despite warnings from experts. In the US, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said last June the US was preparing for a second wave by "filling the stockpile."

Despite local media in India reporting officials had warned of looming oxygen shortages in April last year, and then again in November, the government didn't appear to take action. Pradeep Taneja said it was "arrogant" for Modi to hold campaign rallies, rather than safeguarding the country's oxygen supplies.

The criticisms of the lack of preparedness in India's government, however, go beyond Modi.

In April, local media outlet The Caravan reported the country's national scientific taskforce -- a group intended to advise the central government on how to respond to the pandemic -- did not meet during February and March, as daily cases increased more than sixfold. CNN has contacted the chairman of the taskforce, V. K. Paul, for comment.

And India's health system has been underfunded for years. In 2018, India spent 3.5% of its GDP on health care, according to World Bank figures -- well below the world average of 10%, or the 17% spent in the US, which also battled to contain its Covid-19 outbreak. India has 0.9 physicians per 1,000 people, well under the world average of 1.6, or the US's 2.6, according to the World Bank.

As human rights activist Harsh Mander puts it, India had "starved" its public health systems for decades -- long before Modi's time in office.

Even before hospitals were overwhelmed, this impacted India's ability to monitor the virus. According to a paper published in February, India had only sequenced 0.06% of its reported cases. Its rate is lower than neighbors Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Sadanandan, the former Kerela health official, said most parts of India did not have an adequate surveillance system to keep track of the outbreak. But to him, that was a state-level failing -- not a central government one -- as health is a state issue. "I'm not surprised by what has happened because we've seen this happen for many epidemics," he noted.

Was it all Modi's fault?

To critics, while state leaders have some blame to bear, ultimately if Modi is going to take credit for India's pandemic wins, he also needs to take responsibility for its pandemic failings.

His extraordinary popularity means his actions have power -- so underplaying the risk of the pandemic could have influenced how millions of his followers across the country acted. By the start of this year, many people in India stopped wearing masks and many social distancing measures had fallen by the wayside.

It's too early to know if the grim scenes India is witnessing will tarnish Modi's reputation. There are still three years before the next general election, and Modi has no clear challenger.

But Taneja expects to see a "significant reevaluation of the Modi government by the Indian public."

"No single person can be blamed for the catastrophe that India finds itself in. But if you are the Prime Minister, clearly the primary responsibility falls on you," he said.

Barkha Dutt, a Washington Post columnist whose father died from Covid a few days ago, said her father's last words were: "I'm choking. Please give me treatment." She felt angry and betrayed that as people across India battled the virus, politicians were still holding rallies. Dutt described Modi's government as "callousness," "tone deaf" and in "complete denial."

She said the health care system had clearly collapsed -- but that wasn't the fault of doctors, hospitals or frontline workers.

"We've been failed by the government that did not think to put in place a contingency plan for the second wave," she said. "Is anyone going to take accountability for the thousands that are dying?"

This story was first published on CNN.com "Prime Minister Narendra Modi could have prevented India's devastating Covid-19 crisis, critics say. He didn't".
Over a year ago, Habitat for Humanity of Columbus staff came together to see how they could assist veterans in the community.

They started the Veterans Committee which helps give back to those who served to not only possibly have their own home, but work on smaller repairs in their current houses.

Habitat for Humanity of Columbus Executive Director Lori Peters said this latter has been more ideal. She added this is because most veterans are older, meaning it can be difficult for them to move into a new home.

Thats where we thought we could step in better (rather) than doing a whole house, Peters said. Well still do a whole house if we need to.

Veterans Committee Chairman Travis Hill, who also served in the U.S. Army Reserve, said its paramount to help those who served in the armed forces, even if those projects are smaller.

The opportunity to help them goes a long way, Hill said.  That can make a world of difference.
The Columbus Community Center had been closed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic since March 16, 2020. Now, it will reopen on May 3, 2021, with a celebration.

After almost 14 months, the Center, 3111 19th St., will see a flood of activities come back  but nothing compared to pre-pandemic levels.

This is minimal compared to what we were doing before, Manager Cindy Branting said. But we will get it back. I think the seniors need a place like this to go.

Still, returning activities include exercise classes, quilting groups, a movie in the wellness center, homemade pie on Wednesdays and breakfast pastries on Fridays. There will be cake and ice cream for birthday celebrations on May 13.

Its very exciting. The seniors are thrilled, she said. They have really missed getting together and being with other people and just being able to participate in the activities that we had going on.
industry is the well-paid worker.

So this May 1, in addition to grilling some carne asada as you sip your favorite beverage, please take a few moments and support the workers in your community. Here are a few easy actions you can take:

 Learn about legislation that protects workers, such as LB 241 Meatpacking Employees COVID-19 Protection Act from Senator Tony Vargas (District 7), which would require protections for workers inside meat processing plants. If you feel that workers in the plants should have basic,

enforceable protections against COVID-19 and its variants, you can submit online comments

regarding LB 241 on the NebraskaLegislature.gov website.

 Learn about the concept of Paid Sick Leave, and how some companies in Nebraska do not offer paid sick time to their employees. If you think a worker should be able to accrue, based on time working at an employer, the ability to take a paid sick day, then you can submit online comments on LB 258 Healthy and Safe Families and Workplaces Act on the NebraskaLegislature.gov

website, or by calling your local state senator.
Here in the Cornhusker State, agriculture and conservation go hand in hand. Nebraskas farmers and ranchers are the original conservationists. Agricultural families in our state have been growing crops and tending livestock for generations. They know their land and animals better than anyone else and care deeply about them. Their livelihood depends on ensuring the land remains fertilethats why they are always working to improve it so that the next generation can continue their way of life.

Despite this close connection to the land, the Biden-Harris Administration does not trust Nebraskans to responsibly manage our natural resources. They want greater federal government control over our land and water. On January 27, 2021, President Biden issued an executive order on the climate which set a goal of restricting at least 30 percent of our lands and waters by 2030 (30 x 30). Right now, only 3% of land in Nebraska is publicly owned. Achieving the goal of the Presidents 30 x 30 program would likely require far-reaching interventions by the federal governmenteither to take away private property or to subject landowners to intrusive regulations.
Kamala Harris will soon be making more history when she becomes the first United States vice president to have a figure on display at the Madame Tussauds wax museum in New York City.

The attraction in Times Square released photos Wednesday of the work done so far on busts of Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden in honor of their 100th day in office.

"We were keen to focus on her smile and the warmth in her eyes," David Burks, the principal sculptor, told CNN Thursday. "It's that twinkle in the eye that's so hard to capture... a genuine warmth that's really important to get into our figures."

Burks and Madam Tussauds' team of sculpture artists in London are creating the clay heads with the help of hundreds of photos of the leaders. Usually Burks would meet his subject, but the COVID-19 pandemic has curtailed any such plans.
Fred said he remembers the boredom waiting for something to happen, and then when something did happen, being scared.

And that happens all the time, he said. You never know, minute to minute, when youre out on a patrol or something, that somebody could have you in their sights, but its just part of being a soldier. Everybody goes through it that was over there. As far as it was all memorable. I didnt enjoy the actual combat of it, but you enjoy the people you were with and things like that.

Fred does recall meeting and speaking to General William Westmoreland and talking to him. Westmoreland was commander of United States forces during the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1968, and was chief of staff of the United States Army from 1968 to 1972.

He just asked how we were doing and where we were from, Fred said. We told him where we from and how we were doing. He asked me if I was going to make it a career. Even at that time, I knew I wanted to make it a career.

Freds grandmother died and he was sent back to St. Francois County in August of 1969. Fred and John both came home.

John extended again which prevented Fred from going back because brothers were not supposed be in country at the same time.
Swiss watchmaker Montres Etoile has announced the launch of its first complication, an automatic, tri-retrograde, Islamic Lunar and Gregorian Dual - calendar timepiece with moon face.

This complicated wristwatch based on an automatic Swiss made movement is completed by a complication module made by Agenhor in Geneva and is housed in a steel watchcase.

The watch is available through select retail partners across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman & Kuwait in time for the Eid gifting season as well as at boutiques and POS in Switzerland, Korea, China and Ukraine, said the statement from top Swiss brand.

Watch enthusiasts and collectors from other markets can contact the brand through their website.

The Islamic calendar began in 622 AD and is still used in most Islamic countries. To integrate this calendar together with the conventional Gregorian calendar on a mechanical wristwatch is a unique feature worldwide.

The Etoile dual-calendar wristwatch is housed in an octangular shaped watchcase measuring 42mm in diameters indicating hours and minutes with two large hands in the center of the dial, it stated.

The date of the Gregorian calendar is indicated by a retrograde - hand starting from the left at 10 O'clock and ending at the right at 2 O'clock with the 31st day of the month. The date of the 30 days of the Islamic calendar are indicated at 6 O'clock with Arabic numerals.

At 4 0'clock the retrograde hand starts indicating the first month of the Hijri calendar and ends at the left side of the dial at 8 O'clock with the last month, said the statement.

Creatively inspired design and untiring technique have been the driving forces behind Stefan Hafners search for innovation in Etoile watches and jewellery since 1967.

'A collection in which there is play between volume and flexibility in a three dimensional game. Etoile launched its first watch and jewellery line in 1986," said a company spokesman.

It is the famous Swiss Italian creator, Stefan Hafner who designed and manufactured the watches and jewellery of this first collection.

At that time, most watches were of very traditional concept. Etoile longed to free its design from conventional restraints and imposed its very own style by creating sumptuously worked wrist watches, blending the erudite geometry of Islamic aesthetics with flowing art Deco designs, he stated.

"Thanks to its audacious and daring designs, Etoile has been introduced successfully in Europe, the Middle and Far-East. That same passion and philosophy inspires the brand today to create new models," said the spokesman.

"By blending aesthetics of sober and pure lines with top quality Swiss movements, Etoile watches, created now created by Fulvio Borel, allow the brand Etoile to reaffirm its unique style," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
As the female splits small (1/4- to 1/2-inch diameter) twigs to lay her eggs, she can cause enough harm to kill these twigs. This is called flagging and you can remove the dead twigs from your premises promptly to prevent the nymphs from nesting in the roots of your trees. Larger and more well-established trees are not likely to be unduly harmed by the small number of twigs impacted.

Although cicadas do not bite or sting, they are not the most graceful fliers. While swarms of actual locusts can travel up to 80 miles per day, cicadas dont often go very far from where they were hatched. After spending the majority of their lives underground, the fresh air and wind are unfamiliar, and cicadas often find themselves bumping right into trees, walls or humans out trying to get from place to place as they seek the best place from which to demonstrate their vocal talents.

Many wildlife enjoy feasting on cicadas. Birds, squirrels, chipmunks, skunks, ants, raccoons, snakes, frogs and possums will gorge themselves this summer with plenty of cicadas left over. It has been said that copperheads are especially fond of the rare delicacy, so take care when out in the woods during cicada mating season to avoid startling these venomous reptiles as they enjoy their feast.
Kerrville, TX (78028)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms in the morning, then partly cloudy late. High 89F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies during the evening will give way to cloudy skies overnight. Low 72F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.
INGRAM  The city secretary of Ingram worked for one of the towns largest landowners at a time when her then-boss was negotiating waived wast
This is a community calendar. To accommodate demand for the print edition, we ask that items be brief and include time, date, place, address, admission cost and a contact number for publication. Inclusion of items is at the discretion of the newspaper. Further information is available at 541-812-6078 or jane.stoltz@lee.net.

Assistance

SUNDAY

Due to the extension by the Internal Revenue Service and the State of Oregon, the income tax due date is now May 17. Local AARP Tax-Aide councilors have appointments available in Philomath for anyone looking for free preparation of simple tax returns. Appointments: 541-602-5829.

Food distribution, by appointment, food pantry, North Corvallis Ministry Center, home of the Gathering Church, 5050 NE Elliott Circle. Call the church office at 541-220-1040 to make arrangements to pick up a box of food.

Corvallis Men's Shelter, 211 SE Chapman Place. Now serving men and women in need during the COVID emergency. Food, showers and laundry available from 1 to 6 p.m.; hot meal served from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.; overnight shelter not available.
Education

featured

Delivery drivers: The unsung heroes of COVID-19

Early mornings dont affect Emma Carpenter the way they used to.

Rather than staying in bed late to relax and then waking up five minutes before her classes on Zoom, shes out of bed by 7 a.m. every day to deliver for Uber Eats in Denton. She knows the more daylight she has, the more money shell earn.

Carpenters job as a delivery driver came unexpectedly as COVID-19 swept the United States in early March. As restrictions tightened, her job at Complete Health and Wellness, a Lewisville chiropractic office, was put on hold.

Now more than ever, delivery driving is becoming an attractive job option for individuals who need a little extra cash, especially college students, but the risks of COVID-19 loom over them as they try to maintain safety for themselves and the public.

Carpenter hurriedly wraps her dark brown hair into a ponytail and throws on a tank top, exposing her tattoo-covered arms. As she gets into her car, she opens the Uber Eats app on her phone and turns on her location, allowing her to pick up orders.

She drives a small gray Honda Fit, with a license plate cover that says Clayton. Her family members all have names for their cars, which have nametags to match.

CDs are strewn across the floorboard, bottles of kombucha nestle in the cupholders, empty Juul pods are stuck in between the seats, and air fresheners hang from the rearview mirror. She claims shes a neat person and that everything has its place in her car.

When the music is loud, the car doors shake, the speakers buzz and the mirrors vibrate to the beat.

Her phone dings, alerting her to a new order. Its McDonalds this time.

Alyssa Tranbarger/For the DRC Many restaurants that utilize Uber Eats, DoorDash, or other delivery services have drivers pick up via drive-thru rather than going inside.

I have an Uber order for Jack, Carpenter announces as she careens into the drive-thru lane.

Pull up to the next window, the employee responds flatly. The employee seems more tired than Carpenter is.

The McDonalds employee, with a lopsided visor and sunken eyes, hands her a brown bag with the customers order inside. Carpenter pulls out of the parking lot with directions to the address the customer provided.

Outside the customers house, Carpenter grabs her mask and pulls it over her face, clicking a button on her phone notifying the customer of her arrival. She walks to the door and sets the order on the doorstep, then walks back to the car and waits for the customer to grab the food.

She waves a universal thank you, have a nice day at the customer as she shuts the car door and removes her mask. Her smile is melancholy, wishing she could shake a hand or smile a real smile at a customer without the guise of a mask.

This is the new normal, she sighs.

Alyssa Tranbarger/For the DRC Emma Carpenter masks up prior to picking up a delivery order.

A rise in delivery services

Carpenter, 22, is a University of North Texas student who experienced the shock of COVID-19s job losses firsthand.

As a public health major, Carpenter had worked at Complete Health and Wellness as a receptionist before stay-at-home orders hit. Once her office closed down, she was forced to find income elsewhere.

As it turned out, Carpenters income from Uber would be the only pay shed receive for the next six months.

Carpenter balances classes, a social life, exercise, work and making enough money on Uber Eats to feed herself. Its a merciless cycle whose grip only tightens as the pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the definition of normal.

During the pandemic, people have grown to rely heavily on services that help reduce the time theyre out of the house.

Delivery services such as Uber Eats, DoorDash, Grub Hub and Favor started out making convenience a luxury, a world in which food could be left at your door with a few clicks from your phone.

From 2019 to 2020, monthly Uber Eats users grew from 21 million to 25 million, with revenue growing from $819 million to $1.2 billion.

DoorDash, the current delivery service champion, reported revenue of $1.92 billion for the first nine months of 2020, up more than three times from the same period a year earlier.

The company reported a profit of $23 million for the first time in its history during the second quarter of 2020.

Overall, the global online food delivery services market grew from $107.44 billion in 2019 to $111.32 billion at the end of 2020, according to Business Wire.

Alyssa Tranbarger/For the DRC The Uber Eats app combines navigation and information about restaurants and customers all in one interface.

The term essential worker has been used so frequently in these unprecedented times, but it rings true, regardless. Many people have been fearful to leave the house, or cant leave because of health concerns, and their only option is to get food delivered to them.

Delivery drivers are among the unsung heroes of the pandemic.

Even grocery stores and pharmacies such as Walmart and CVS are connecting with food delivery services so people can have their personal needs delivered right to their door, eliminating all possible human contact.

I was a little cautious about going out and delivering when quarantine first started, because I wasnt sure about COVID and how susceptible I would be to getting it, Carpenter said. But at that point, I wasnt making a consistent amount of money, so I didnt really have a choice.

Even college students who managed to keep their jobs during quarantine and beyond turned to delivery driving to keep themselves financially steady.

Makayla Lockhart, 19, is a UNT journalism student who started working at McAlisters Deli in February 2020, right before stay-at-home orders began in the United States.

I almost wish I hadnt kept the job, because it was so hectic trying to get everything in order once businesses started shutting down, Lockhart said. We were scrambling to set up our delivery services during that time, establish social distancing policies and just trying to keep everyone happy. I basically lost sight of my own safety because I was trying to do the same for our customers.

As the pandemic hit, Lockhart started driving for DoorDash so she could maintain her same income, since her hours at McAlisters were severely reduced.

I was only getting scheduled maybe 10 hours a week when normally Id work 30, she said. DoorDash was my only option because no one else was hiring.

Alyssa Tranbarger/For the DRC Emma Carpenter, 22, is a driver for Uber Eats in the Denton and Coppell areas. Carpenter is a University of North Texas student who worked at Complete Health and Wellness in Lewisville prior to COVID-19.

Not a stable job

Its no easy job being a delivery driver.

With Uber Eats and DoorDash, an average order can net the driver about $5, with tips added on when the order is completed. Depending on the wait time at the restaurants and travel time to the customers home, drivers make about $12 an hour.

This seems like good money to college students, but because of the pandemic, some restaurants have been swamped with online orders. A driver may have to wait 20-30 minutes before the food is ready to go.

Once the driver arrives at the customers home, an hour or more may have gone by. By then, the driver has made only $5 simply because of wait time.

Its super frustrating when people dont tip either, because Im making below minimum wage at that point, Lockhart said. Its a job you have to do day and night to make good money.

Carpenter hasnt seen much of a spike in tips either. Some people are generous with tips, but its very rare, she said. Thankfully, now Im making more money on Uber Eats than I did at Complete Health and Wellness, but its not a stable job.

Over the past several months, restaurants have reopened with increased seating, markers for social distancing, and digital menus to reduce employee contact with customers and surfaces, but delivery drivers are still just as busy.

I think delivery drivers are going to be a vital part in keeping businesses running smoothly until this pandemic passes, but I know theyre probably even busier than we are, said Mattea Edmonson, a barista at Dentons West Oak Coffee Bar. Even when we were to-go only ... people that have come in to pick up delivery orders have been so helpful in taking some of the stress off.

Alyssa Tranbarger/For the DRC In the Uber Eats app, drivers are required to take a picture of themselves with a mask on prior to delivering to make sure they and the customer are kept safe.

Extra precautions

In response to COVID-19 restrictions, delivery services added extra safety measures for drivers and customers. Contactless delivery is now the primary drop-off option, in which the driver texts the customer a picture of their food at the door, and masks are required for the driver when picking up and delivering food.

In the Uber Eats app, drivers are also required to take a picture of themselves wearing a mask to make sure they and the customer are kept safe. A COVID-19 questionnaire follows, where the driver will indicate if they have any symptoms of the virus.

Carpenter advises customers of any delivery service to wash hands properly before eating, and to discard the packaging that delivered food comes in after finishing a meal.

Its simple actions that add up to one big one, she said.

Its 7:36 a.m., just after the McDonalds run, and Carpenters phone dings again.

Its another breakfast order, this one from Panera.

She cranks up the air conditioning in her car to drown out the mornings dense humidity.

Watching as the sun creeps above the horizon, she shifts into drive.
As stargazers across the world settled in to observe the rare Pink Supermoon on April 26 and 27, Qatar National Tourism Council (QNTC) marked the epic event with the announcement of its new and bespoke range of astro-tourism experiences.

Inspired by the starry skies of the Qatari desert, the astronomer themed vacations have been curated for visitors to enjoy when the borders re-open.

The unique 'Arabian Nights' packages, available to book through Gulf Adventures and redeemable until April 2022, offer unmissable activities such as a moon-lit camel safari and stargazing with an astronomer. Also included are BBQ dinner banquets by the campfire and a stay at the Regency Sealine Camp, where modern luxury meets authentic Arabian style, overlooking Khor al Adaid, also known as the Inland Sea which is a recognised UNESCO - where the sea meets the desert.

Several of the new itineraries also offer a tour of the Souq Waqif and a dinner at the spectacular Torch 360 restaurant, which offers panoramic views of the Doha skyline.

The exclusive new tours are a once in a lifetime experience, available to be enjoyed when Qatar re-open its borders until April 2022.

To invite travellers to enjoy the Arabian Nights packages, QNTC in partnership with local astro-photographer, Vinay Swaroop Balla, captured incredible photos of the moon rising above the country's most iconic locations, Torch Tower and Al Aamriya Desert.

Chief Operating Officer of Qatar National Tourism Council, Berthold Trenkel, said: "Qatar's desert is a perfect spot for astronomy enthusiasts to observe the dark and starry skies; the packages we've put together will provide unforgettable experiences that travel-lovers can look forward to when we welcome them back to the country. As a diverse and cosmopolitan country, this new offer is a dazzling addition to a multitude of activities tourists can enjoy in Qatar."

All packages will be in line with the Qatar Clean programme and measures will be in place to adhere to government guidelines. - TradeArabia News Service
The Watchdog: Dont read this story unless you want to learn about secrets being kept from us in the Texas electricity crisis
MANUEL TABOADA lives, works and writes in Denton. He welcomes feedback and can be reached at manueltaboada.com .
Students with Palouse Prairie Charter School in Moscow were pulled Monday onto the waters of the Snake River in a bull boats they constructed out of canvass and willow branches. Aside from letting in a little water, the boat, and two others, successfully floated through the water. The boats were originally used for children, women and the elderly to escape quickly across rivers from pursuing American troops. The future of our people were in those bull boats, Garry Dorr said.
Idiomatic language and wordplay are perhaps my favorite things. Maybe its because Ive spent decades toiling in the bean field of language that a well-turned, geographically limited phrase will tickle me pink. Throw in some regional dialect and Im grinnin like a mule eating briars.

Among my favorites is one I used to hear all the time, but not so much these days. At the end of a day, someone was bound to say, Welp, Imma goat the house  meaning they were headed home. If it had been a particularly grueling day, they might add emphasis in a seemingly unusual way  Imma goat the damn house. In the vernacular, it makes perfect sense.

When I was small, I was puzzled when my grandfather would occasionally refer to getting someones goat. Kids are so literal. There were never any goats in Granddaddys back yard.

Truth be known, Ive always looked upon goats with suspicion, most likely because they represent evil in the Abrahamic religions. They have strange eyes and cloven hooves and scream like a terrorized human. Its unsettling.

Then again, Ive been intrigued by them most of my life.
A Uygur family in Yuli county, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, April 15, 2021. [Photo/Xinhua]

In recent years, manipulated and encouraged by the anti-China forces in the United States, some truth-bending "academic institutions", rumor-mongering "experts and scholars" and "amateur actors" with no moral scruples have created a chain of lies to defame Xinjiang and mislead international public discourse, often through dirty funding, fact-twisting stories and massive smear campaigns.

Truth shall not be tainted, the world should not be deceived and narrative about Xinjiang mustn't be distorted. The recent reports by independent US news website thegrayzone.com and Australian publication Australian Alert Service, and a series of press conferences held by the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region have revealed the truth about the fraudulent Xinjiang-related "databases" and the so-called "witness testimonies" and, with abundant facts and figures, exposed the real mastermind behind them. Let us get to the bottom of what's going on and reveal the ins and outs of the lies about Xinjiang.

I. As early as in the last century, the United States and other Western countries started to support separatist and terrorist activities in Xinjiang out of geopolitical purposes in order to destabilize China and contain its development.

During the Cold War, British scholar Bernard Lewis concocted the theory of "arc of crisis" aiming to fracture countries from the Middle East to India based on ethnic lines to divide the Soviet Union. Zbigniew Brzezinski, the National Security Adviser to President Carter, argued that the United States must prevent the realization of "the age-long dream of Moscow to have direct access to the Indian Ocean". The United States then launched Operation Cyclone, which lasted from 1979 to 1989 and cost up to US$630 million each year. Together with Saudi Arabia and Britain, the United States provided funding, equipment and training for Muslim guerrillas fighting against the Soviet Union.

Right after the Cold War ended, the United States and Britain started to use Xinjiang as a leverage to contain China, by supporting separatist and terrorist forces. The neoconservative forces in the US pivoted from the Soviet Union to containing China's influence in Central Asia. US and British intelligence agencies supported Pan-Turkism in order to weaken Russia and China and serve their agenda of maintaining a unipolar world. Over the years, there emerged a number of anti-China institutions and extremist groups seeking a state of "East Turkistan" or "independence" of Xinjiang, including the World Uyghur Congress and the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile. Since 2004, the National Endowment for Democracy has funneled US$8.76 million to Uyghur diaspora groups campaigning against China's policies in Xinjiang. The above-mentioned factors have caused the rapid spread of radical ideas in Xinjiang. Terrorists entered Xinjiang from the battlefields in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria. Some violent terrorist organizations overtly clamored for targeting and attacking Chinese nationals. Between 1997 and 2014, the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) frequently plotted and carried out terrorist attacks, which claimed more than 1,000 civilian lives.

The CIA suggested in 2003 that should the US find itself in a crisis or confrontation with China in the future, the option of using the "Uyghur card" as a means of exerting pressure should not be taken off the table. Under this strategy, the United States, Britain and their allies, latching on to the Cold War mentality, have directed their intelligence establishments and anti-China scholars to mobilize Uyghur diaspora groups in spinning out misinformation about the so-called severe oppression of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang,which was spread by mainstream Western media in a coordinated manner. Here are what they seek to achieve:

First, a false impression that Muslims in Xinjiang support "independence". This is often done by instigating certain groups to carry out separatist activities to make the public believe people in Xinjiang all want an independent state.

Second, the illusion that the ETIM is for peace. Nothing has been said about relevant groups' close ties with Al-Qaeda and their violent and terrorit rhetoric. In November 2020, former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo even removed the ETIM from the US list of foreign terrorist organizations.

Third, the false claim of human rights violations in Xinjiang. Some organizations including Human Rights Watch have fabricated reports on Xinjiang, but their sources are just a small group of extremely anti-China overseas Uyghurs. The baseless accounts in those reports were further hyped up and spread by institutions such as the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI).

In January 2017, then US Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard noted that under US law, it is illegal for anyone to provide funding or support for the Al-Qaida, ISIS or other terrorist organizations. However, the US government has long been, directly or indirectly, providing funds, weapons and intelligence support to these organizations through certain countries in the Middle East.

Lawrence Wilkerson, Chief of Staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell and retired US Army Colonel, when speaking at the Ron Paul Institute in August 2018 on the threefold purposes of the US presence in Afghanistan, stated unabashedly that "the third reason we were there [in Afghanistan] is because there are 20 million Uyghurs [in Xinjiang]. The CIA would want to destabilize China and that would be the best way to do it to foment unrest and to join with those Uyghurs in pushing the Han Chinese in Beijing from internal places rather than external".

In a video interview in 2015, Sibel Edmonds, a former interpreter with the FBI, talked about how the US had planned and acted to destabilize Xinjiang. She said that "Xinjiang is the entry artery of energy. We want to, gradually and internally, play the gender card and the race card. For that part of the world, we want to play the minority without land. We say we are going to help them and they are being oppressed, Chinese are gunning them down and torturing them." The plan of the US is to copy the tactics used in Afghanistan, Ukraine and Iraq to Xinjiang, making an issue out of thin air and exploit it. "We hope Xinjiang to be the next Taiwan. As Western nations, we never cared about people. That is not within our interest area, unless it can be utilized, capitalized upon to get our objective."
Workers prepare lychees for exports in the northern province of Bac Giang. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh.

A large demand for agricultural produce and electronics products as well as rising e-commerce potential give Vietnamese exporters greater opportunities in the U.S. market, experts say.

The U.S. is a market with much potential for Vietnamese companies, especially as Vietnam has been able to keep the Covid-19 pandemic under control, said Nguyen Huu Tien, director of the HCMC Investment and Trade Promotion Center.

The U.S. was Vietnams largest export market in the first four months with the value of shipments surging 50 percent year-on-year to $30.3 billion.

Top export categories included machinery and equipment, textile and garment, and computers and electronics.

Last year, Vietnamese exports to the U.S. ranked third in Asia after China and Japan.

Ken D. Duong, director of international law firm TDL, said that traditional categories such as agriculture produce and fisheries were posting strong figures despite the pandemic.

U.S. companies have stopped purchasing some hardwood products from China and are looking for alternative markets, he said, adding that last year, many Vietnamese companies were able to take advantage of this and got large orders.

Many Vietnamese-Americans are looking for suppliers in Vietnam to export products to the U.S., he added.

There are a lot of opportunities for electronics export because a number of American and Taiwanese firms have established factories in Vietnam to research and develop internet of things products.

"There are signals that indicate that Vietnam could become a hub for researching and manufacturing advanced tech products," Duong said.

Amazon Global Selling Wednesday announced a new campaign in partnership with the Vietnam e-Commerce and Digital Economy Agency (iDEA) that would help Vietnamese sellers sell more products on Amazon.

But other experts said there were challenges that Vietnamese exporters face, such as trademarks. They cited the latest example of a Vietnamese rice brand, ST25, which won an international contest as the worlds best variety, being trademarked by a U.S. company.

Duong said that usually it costs $1,000-1,800 to register a trademark in the U.S. Around 50 percent of mid-sized Vietnamese companies in the U.S. register their brand and the ratio is just 10 percent for small firms.

Vietnamese suppliers need to understand U.S. regulations on intellectual property to step up in the global supply chain, he added.

Dang Hoang Hai, head of the iDEA, said that as many Vietnamese sellers are reluctant to export their products to the U.S. via e-commerce, his organization will provide more training to help hundreds of small and medium companies sell their products on Amazon.

Although there has been speculation about the U.S. rejoining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), U.S. officials have said that this would not happen in the short-term.

Mary Tarnowka, executive director of American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam, cited a report by a Fulbright University professor to show that U.S. President Joe Biden will not consider signing another free trade agreement until the middle of his term.
Customers and market observers say local people have been buying large capacity hard drives in bulk and reselling them to the Chinese amidst a new mining craze for the Chia cryptocurrency in China.

People who need to buy large space hard drives have commented on online groups for computer component buyers that they could not find any 6TB or larger-spaced hard drives, so they were having to buy smaller ones to merge into a large one.

Hoang Lam, Subject Matter Expert of data storage company Seagate Vietnam said that Seagates 4TB hard drives have been out of stock since last month because "many of our customers bought the hard drives in bulk, from hundreds to thousands in one order, instead of a few units in one order as usual."

A computer component distributor in HCMC said that their hard drive sales surged by 50 percent last month despite prices rising 10-20 percent, and now the store is out of stock.

Thanh Phong, a cryptocurrency miner and cryptocurrency mining gear seller, said the chokehold on large capacity hard drives supply in Vietnam was caused by the cryptocurrency mining boom for Chia in China.

Chia is built around a cryptographic technique called Proof of Space and Time, which allows the cryptocurrency to be mined with unused storage space on hard drives rather unlike others like Bitcoin or Ethereum that use graphics cards. The more unused storage on the hard drive, the more Chia can be mined.

Phong said that the Chia craze is yet to spread to Vietnam. Therefore, Vietnamese were buying hard drives in bulk to sell them to China.

The Chinese miners have been stockpiling hard drives, preparing for Chias launch in May. As a result, hard drives with large capacities, from 4TB to 18 TB, have already been sold out on many Chinese e-commerce platforms, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.
Land for sale in Hon Quan District in the southern province of Binh Phuoc in February 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Phuoc Tuan.

Land prices are showing signs of cooling down in both the south and north following months of intense speculation.

According to a recent survey by VnExpress, land prices in five districts of Binh Chanh, Nha Be, Hoc Mon, Cu Chi, and Can Gio in HCMC, have been moving sideways for the last four weeks or so after increasing by 3-20 percent in the first quarter.

In mid-April, a few transactions took place in Can Gio, Nha Be and Binh Chanh at prices higher than in late March, and otherwise they remained unchanged.

In the southern provinces of Long An, Binh Duong and Dong Nai, prices have remained the same since March-end. In Dong Nai the transactions mainly involved townhouses.

The three also saw a few deals at prices 2-3 percent lower than in late 2020.

In Binh Phuoc, the "fever" in late February and early March also cooled down within two weeks. In April, many real estate agents offered lands at 30-40 percent lower than during the peak period.

The market for lands and land-related assets in the coastal tourist destinations of Ba Ria - Vung Tau, Phan Thiet, Khanh Hoa, and Da Nang too did not change much in April.

In the north, land prices around Hanoi and its neighboring provinces remain flat as people become cautious.

Hoc, a property broker, said the number of phone inquiries about lands has reduced from dozens a day to just a few now. "Many people even took back their deposits."

Nguyen Quoc Anh, deputy director of real estate site Batdongsan, said land prices are leveling off after the sharp rise in the first quarter caused by the shifting of cash flows from the stock market and the spread of rumors about development plans or status upgrade to town or city.

A "fever" like that only lasts one or two months usually, he added.

Nguyen Van Dinh, general secretary of the Vietnam Association of Realtors, said the market has stabilized again thanks to the governments efforts.

"As the government monitored and issued warnings, investors started to calm down, causing the market to cool down," he said.

The State Bank of Vietnam is tightening lending to the property sector.

The government is developing social housing to provide people with places to live, especially for workers in industrial zones.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has ordered the administration to examine land administration procedures in 26 provinces and cities.

The ministry has urged local governments to publicize information about the progress of housing and infrastructure projects to prevent rumors.

But experts said there would be no sell-off.

Anh pointed out: "Buying land is a long-term investment." He was certain the market would continue to move sideways for the next two quarters.
Soldiers and military personnel get ready to join the task force guarding the Vietnam-Laos border in Thua Thien Hue Province, April 30, 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Le Sau.

Vietnam has dispatched hundreds of military personnel to the Laos border to ensure no one enters the country illegally, possibly bringing with them the coronavirus.

The Military Command of Nghe An Province said Friday that 68 more troops have been sent to border guard posts and would reach latest by Sunday.

The central province has 34 posts and 22 stations with more than 200 troops.

Quang Tri Province has added 172 personnel to the 425 officials and soldiers who currently man 86 posts.

In Thua Thien Hue Province, 38 more soldiers have been added to the 241 already on duty.

Besides manning the posts and stations, the border guards also patrol the border round the clock, including remote trails.

The Vietnam-Laos border runs 2,161 kilometers (1,342 miles) across 10 northern and central provinces.

The number of Covid-19 cases has been steadily increasing in Laos, peaking at 100 a day.

On Friday, the country with a population of around 7.2 million recorded 85 new cases, taking its total number so far to 757.

Epidemiological investigations show that the new infections are closely connected to illegal entrants from Thailand.

In the capital Vientiane, central hospitals are full of patients, requiring field medical facilities to be mobilized. The country has not recorded any deaths so far due to the pandemic.

The country closed its borders and imposed a two-week lockdown in Vientiane more than a week ago.

For the last few months Vietnams National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control and Ministry of Health have been warning about the threat of a new outbreak as people have lowered their guard and many are entering the country illegally to avoid tests and quarantine.

Everyone entering from abroad must be quarantined for 14 days and tested at least twice.

After over a month without community transmission Vietnam has recorded 13 new local cases since Thursday, starting with a Vietnamese worker returning from Japan who tested positive two days after completing his two-week quarantine.
A medical worker in Hanoi's Thanh Nhan Hospital is vaccinated against Covid-19, March 9, 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Bao Loan.

The Ministry of Health confirmed 14 new Covid-19 patients Saturday evening - three community transmission cases, and 11 imported ones.

Patients 2940-2942 are related to "patient 2899" in the northern province of Ha Nam. The three new patients are being treated at the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases 2 in Hanoi.

Patients 2929-2939 are Vietnamese returned from Japan, UAE, Canada and Romania. They were quarantined upon arrival and are being treated at different hospitals.

Vietnam has recorded 16 new local cases since Thursday. Most of the new cases are linked to patient 2899, who tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Ha Nam after completing his mandated two-week quarantine in Da Nang where he tested negative three times.

Nearly 510,000 people have been vaccinated as of Saturday.

Vietnam has recorded 2,942 Covid-19 cases to date, including 2,549 recoveries and 35 deaths.
Vietnam's firm position is that actions taken to preserve biological resources have to be taken in accordance with relevant regulations under the United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) without compromsing the sovereignty and jurisdiction rights of other nations, Foreign Affairs Ministry deputy spokesman Doan Khac Viet said Thursday.

"Vietnam opposes and vehemently rejects China's unilateral decision," he said, asserting that Chinas unilateral fishing ban has violated Vietnams sovereignty over the Hoang Sa (Paracel) Islands and international law, including UNCLOS.

It also goes against the spirit and letter of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties at the South China Sea (DOC) and violates agreements regarding fundamental principles on conflict resolution at sea between Vietnam and China, Viet said. The South China Sea is called the East Sea in Vietnam.

He was responding to an inquiry regarding recent information that the Chinese coast guard would implement a summer fishing ban from May 1 to August 16 in certain sea regions, including parts of the Gulf of Tonkin and Vietnams Paracel Islands.

Vietnam has full legal basis and historical evidence to assert its sovereignty over the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa (Spratly) islands in accordance with international law, Viet reiterated.

China has illegally and unilaterally announced fishing bans on even foreign fishermen, threatening that it would arrest and punish violations of the ban.
A new report by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) formally accuses Syrian military forces of using banned chemical weapons.

First used by both sides during World War I, chemical weapons kill and maim indiscriminately. They cause horrible suffering, and those who survive an attack frequently are disfigured, often crippled for life.

The international community banned the use of chemical weapons in war through the implementation of the Geneva Protocol of 1925, and later established the sweeping prohibitions mandated by the Chemical Weapons Convention, which bans the use, development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, retention, and transfer of chemical weapons.

Nonetheless, time and again the Assad regime has used these weapons -- not only against opposing forces, but also intentionally targeting primarily civilian neighborhoods.

According to the OPCW IIT report, on the evening of February 4, 2018, a Syrian military helicopter dropped at least one bomb containing chlorine gas on the rebel-held town of Saraqeb. At least 12 people were injured.

This latest finding should come as a surprise to no one, said State Department spokesperson Ned Price in a written statement. The Assad regime is responsible for innumerable atrocities, some of which rise to the level of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The regime has consistently responded with death and destruction to calls by the Syrian people for reform and change.

The Assad regime and its chief enabler -- Russia -- continue to vehemently deny the use of chemical weapons by Syrian government forces, instead accusing the rebels of staging attacks and fabricating evidence. However, said Spokesperson Price, No amount of disinformation, conspiracy theories or distortion of the facts by the regime or its enablers can argue away Assads crimes.

The United States condemns the use of chemical weapons, by anyone, anywhere at any time, said Spokesperson Price. The use of chemical weapons by any state or non-state actor presents an unacceptable security threat to all states and cannot occur with impunity.

Spokesperson Price stressed, All responsible nations must stand in solidarity against the deployment of chemical weapons by preserving the global norm against such use; and we must be ready to hold the Assad regime, and anyone who chooses to use these horrific weapons, accountable.
Less experienced nurses were given crash courses in how to program and manage ventilators. Sirotek herself had to give quick lessons for nurses, and showed them which apps to download to calculate medication dosages.

With just a few more days to go in her contract, Sirotek was assigned a Black, middle-aged patient who was COVID resolved. She was hoping to see him weaned off the ventilator and discharged.

Instead, she said she was ordered to administer a medication not approved by the FDA but under clinical trial.

She refused, which nurses have a right to do under the Code for Ethical Conduct for Nurses.

The next day Sirotek was assigned new patients, which is common. But she was concerned about what might happen to the patient, so she tried calling and emailing agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Justice civil rights division, and the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services. She even tried The New York Times, Black Lives Matter and an LGBTQ Black advocacy group but no one responded during the shutdown.

With no other options, Sirotek decided to record her video on May 4 and post it for the world to see.
I had a strange epiphany a few days ago. I wonder how many others have had the same experience?

There are times we take what surrounds us so much for granted that we pass over or ignore what ought to concern us. It is easy to forget the deeper implications of what we see daily.

A news item mentioned that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg had signaled his openness to a vehicle miles-traveled tax (a VMT tax). Instead of taxing gasoline, roads would be funded by taxing travel itself. If you drive more, you would pay more. Sounds logical and fair, so what is the problem?

The first is gasoline and global warming. It is easy to get carried away by idealistic rhetoric, especially if you come to believe all proper people hold the same proper view. We have been around gasoline all of our lives. We have forgotten what a miracle it is. Gasoline is perhaps the most concentrated safe energy on the planet. I own an old economy car. A quart of gasoline will move this car 10 miles at 60 mph. To get a feel for this, go out and push your car for a mile, let alone 10 miles, and you will get a feeling for how much energy was contained in that quart of fluid.
by Madre Maria Gemma*

The monastery in the heart of the country most affected by the coronavirus today has a story to tell. All the sisters have been infected, but We are now on our feet, recovering. Despite the hardships, We experienced Gods Providence through the overflowing generosity of people.

Mumbai (AsiaNews)  Tragic scenes continue to roll over India as the new wave of COVID-19 pandemic ravages its way across the land. Yet, despite the unspeakable suffering, some stories bring some sign of hope. One such story comes from the Carmelite monastery in Mumbai, home to 16 nuns. Although all of them were infected by the coronavirus, they were still able to overcome this ordeal thanks to the precious help of a doctor whom they had helped when he was a young student as well as the assistance of families who in a thousand ways made them feel close to God's Providence.

All sixteen of us, aged from 30 to 87 years, had COVID-19 during Holy Week. One was very serious and was moved to hospital. Now she is recovering and we are giving her oxygen at our Carmel Ashram and her oxygen levels are slowing improving. We are now on our feet, recovering slowly.

Jesus was so wonderful to us. So wonderful. People came to ask about our health. We experienced Gods Providence through the overflowing generosity of people. We were all treated inside our Carmel Ashram. People came. One gave us a bag of flour; many brought us cartons of fruits, milk, vegetables. People came with cooked food and meals for us. All these precious gifts were given to us, without us asking. The parish priest had told his parishioners that we were not well. The people were so generous and so loving. I wish to send a thank you note to all these families.

Dr Prashant, a radiologist, took care of our medical treatment. When he was young, in school and college, he needed a quiet place to study. We offered him a room outside the precincts of our monastery and told him to use the room for study. He would come late in the evening. I would prepare some 'nutritious milk-based drink for him as he studied the whole night, and returned home only in the early morning for a bath and breakfast and then to college. This boy grew up here and is very grateful to us Carmelite Sisters. He is a very good person. Now he is a doctor and a radiologist. Anything we need he attends to it. He took us to hospital and to the doctor in-charge. He arranged everything for us.

Dr Prashant moved one of our sisters who was in a critical condition to a private hospital and asked us to inform her family that there was not much hope for her recovery. That night we spoke to her family, informing them that the Sister was critical.

The senior Hindu doctor spoke to Dr Prashant. He said: Tell the Sisters to do whatever prayers they wish to do. I will do my part. We exposed the Blessed Sacrament and all 15 of us worshipped Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament that night. The Sister is now back with us at the monastery, and we are giving her oxygen.

More than anything Jesus gives us an assurance that "I am there for you". COVID-19 instils fear in people. Jesus gave us the message that "I am there for you". He helped all of us, each one of us, to be on our feet again except for the one Sister who is still recovering but who will be fine.

Jesus took care of us spiritually too. In fact, he pampered us. Even though we had COVID-19 during Holy Week, we participated in the online services of the Redemptorist Fathers in Bangalore. On Good Friday, we participated in every online service by the Redemptorists.

Our prioress gave us the sacramental communion during the spiritual communion. We also joined the singing and responses too. Jesus is wonderful.

* Sister from the cloistered Carmel Ashram, Baroda, Gujarat

Nirmala Carvalho contributed to this article.
Nationwide, the effort to stem wildfires has seen very little success. Massive blazes have destroyed homes and killed residents in communities across the West. More efforts at fuel reduction are planned, but in the meantime there is plenty of potential for more massive blazes.

Weve had half the county burn up. If that doesnt reduce the fire risk, I dont know what does, County Commissioner Delmo Andreozzi told KC.

The county has seen millions of acres burn, but every large fire results in an even larger swath of cheatgrass the following year. Some rangelands have seen the same areas burn over and over. There is little doubt that large fires will continue to pose a threat to rural Nevada communities and become an increasing tax burden in the process.

Elko Daily Free Press readers who responded to a poll on elkodaily.com were evenly split over whether city residents should help pay for wildland firefighting costs or not. One need look no farther than Elko-sized Paradise, California to answer that question.

A fire started seven miles from town in November 2018, and evacuations were ordered in nearby communities. Soon after, the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history killed more than 80 people and destroyed 95% of the towns buildings.
Californias Franchise Tax Board (FTB) is distributing Golden State Stimulus payments of $600 or $1,200 to eligible Californians, as part of a $9.6bn statewide coronavirus aid package signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom in February.

How are the Golden State Stimulus checks being paid out?

Taxpayers need to have filed their 2020 state tax return to receive a Golden State Stimulus check - and the information you included in your return determines whether youll receive your payment via direct deposit or through the mail by paper check.

If you provided your bank details to set up a tax refund by direct deposit, your stimulus check will be sent straight to your account.

If not, the FTB will post your Golden State Stimulus payment in paper form to the address it has on file for you. If you have moved, get in touch with the FTB to let them know of the change of address.

The FTB notes that youll also be mailed a paper check "if you received an advanced refund through your tax service provider or paid your tax preparation fees using your refund".

Golden State Stimulus payment: who qualifies?

To qualify for a Golden State Stimulus payment, you must be:

a recipient of the California Earned Income Tax Credit (CalEITC), or

an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) tax filer who earned up to $75,000 in 2020

You must also:

have lived in California for at least half of the 2020 tax year, and

be a resident of the state on the date your Golden State Stimulus check is issued

And as mentioned above, you need to have filed your 2020 state tax return.

Golden State Stimulus payment: how much will you get?

According to the FTB, you will get a $600 one-time payment if:

you receive the CalEITC

you do not receive the CalEITC but are an ITIN filer who earned $75,000 or less in 2020

you filed a joint tax return, you or your spouse is an ITIN filer and you earned $75,000 or less in 2020

According to the FTB, you will get a $1,200 one-time payment if:

you receive the CalEITC, are an ITIN filer and earned $75,000 or less in 2020

you filed a joint tax return, you receive the CalEITC, you or your spouse is an ITIN filer and you earned $75,000 or less in 2020

When will my Golden State Stimulus payment arrive?

This depends on when you filed your 2020 state taxes.

If you filed taxes between 1 January and 1 March

Your stimulus check will arrive after 15 April: within two weeks of that date for direct-deposit recipients and within four to six weeks for paper check recipients.

If you filed taxes between 2 March and 23 April

Your stimulus check will arrive after 1 May: within two weeks of that date for direct-deposit recipients and within four to six weeks for paper check recipients.

If you file taxes after 23 April

Direct-deposit recipients will get their check within 45 days of their return being processed and paper-check recipients will be paid theirs within 60 days of their return being processed

The FTB has a wait time dashboard on its website, enabling Californians to check how long it will take for their tax return to be processed after filing.

US stimulus checks: live updates

For updates on the Golden State Stimulus payments, plus info on the third round of federal stimulus checks and news on a possible fourth round, check out our dedicated live blog.
Vaccine shortage and potentially dangerous new covid-19 strains. That is the concerning picture facing India.

The country posted a record daily rise of 401,993 new coronavirus cases on Saturday as the country opened up its mega vaccination drive to all adults, although several states warned of acute vaccine shortages.

Indias limited covid-19 vaccines

India, the world's biggest producer of covid-19 vaccines, has a limited number of shots available domestically, worsening a grim second wave of infections that has left hospitals and morgues overflowing while families scramble for increasingly scarce medicines and oxygen.

"We hope that we will get vaccines tomorrow or the day after ... I ask you to please not queue up at vaccination centres on Saturday," the Chief Minister of the hard-hit state of Delhi, said in on Friday.

Hundreds of people were seen queuing across Ahmedabad, the main commercial city in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat to get vaccinated.

A fire in a hospital in some 190 km (115 miles) north of Ahmedabad killed 16 coronavirus patients and two staff, the latest in a series of deadly accidents at hospitals.

Covid mutations could evade immune response

A forum of scientific advisers set up by the Indian government has told authorities about minor mutations in some samples of the coronavirus that could "possibly evade immune response" and require more study, a leader of the forum has told Reuters.

However the advisers said while they were flagging the mutations, there was no reason currently to believe they were expanding or could be dangerous.

Full screen Family members and relatives wearing protective gear prepare to perform the last rites of a victim who died of the covid-19 coronavirus at a crematorium in Ghazipur on 1 May 2021. (Photo by Sajjad HUSSAIN / AFP) SAJJAD HUSSAIN (AFP)

Scientists are studying what led to the current surge in cases in India and particularly whether a variant first detected in the country, called B.1.617, is to blame. The World Health Organization has not declared the Indian variant a "variant of concern," as it has done for variants first detected in Britain, Brazil and South Africa. But the WHO said on April 27 that its early modelling, based on genome sequencing, suggested that B.1.617 had a higher growth rate than other variants circulating in India.

The forum of advisers, known as the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genetics Consortium, or INSACOG, has now found more mutations in the coronavirus that it thinks need to be tracked closely.

"We are seeing some mutation coming up in some samples that could possibly evade immune responses," said Shahid Jameel, chair of the scientific advisory group of INSACOG and a top Indian virologist. He did not say if the mutations have been seen in the Indian variant or any other strain.

"Unless you culture those viruses and test them in the lab, you can't say for sure. At this point, there is no reason to believe that they are expanding or if they can be dangerous, but we flagged it so that we keep our eye on the ball," he said.

INSACOG brings together 10 national research laboratories.

India reported more than 400,000 new covid-19 cases for the first time on Saturday. The rampaging infections have collapsed its health system in places including capital New Delhi, with shortages of medical oxygen and hospital beds.

WHO lists Moderna for emergency use

The World Health Organization has listed Moderna's covid-19 vaccine for emergency use, the agency said on Friday, the fifth to be given the status meant to expedite countries' own approval of shots.

"The objective is to make medicines, vaccines and diagnostics available as rapidly as possible to address the emergency," the WHO said in a statement.

Full screen Medical supplies are loaded into a cargo plane to India to help with coronavirus disease crisis, at Roissy airport, near Paris, France. 1 May 2021. (Lewis Joly/Pool via REUTERS) POOL (REUTERS)

WHO Assistant Director-General Mariangela Simao said on Friday it was important to have more vaccines available because of supply problems for other shots, including from India, a main source of vaccines for the global COVAX vaccine sharing programme. India has restricted exports because of a crisis of infections.

Moderna announced this week an expansion plan for its production network to boost its capacity to up to 3 billion doses in 2022.

The WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) already in January had recommended Moderna's vaccine for all age groups 18 and above. Pfizer and its German partner BionTech's shot, also an mRNA vaccine like Moderna's, was the first vaccine to get a WHO emergency use listing in the final hours of 2020. Since then, the WHO has added vaccines from Astrazeneca-SK Bio, Serum Institute of India and Johnson & Johnson vaccines to the list.

The Geneva-based health organization is still considering covid-19 vaccines from Sinopharm and Sinovac following an extended review, with decisions due by the end ofnext week.

Sputnik arrives in India

India has received 150,000 Sputnik-V vaccine doses from Russia, a spokesman for India's foreign ministry said on Saturday.

"Millions of doses" of the vaccine, which will be sold in India by Dr.Reddy's Labs Ltd, will follow, the spokesman added.

Across the country deaths from covid-19 jumped by 3,523 over the past 24 hours, taking the total death toll to 211,853, according to health ministry data. The total number of cases has topped 19 million. As the second wave has picked up steam, India has added about 7.7 million cases since the end of February, according to a Reuters tally. In contrast, it took India nearly six months to add the previous 7.7 million cases.
The Office of the President of Ukraine has condemned the holding of a march in Kyiv to honor the anniversary of the creation of the Waffen SS Ukrainian Sich Riflemen (Sichovi Striltsi, SS) division Halychyna.

An official statement on this matter was released late on Friday.

"Due to the fact that a so-called march to honor the day of the creation of the SS Halychyna division during World War II by the Nazis took place in Kyiv, we consider it necessary to note that the small number of participants and the manipulation of the organizers with submitting an application to hold the action cannot be grounds for even trying to justify this situation," the Office of the President said.

The office also stated about "categorical condemnation of any manifestation of propaganda of totalitarian regimes, in particular the National Socialist regime, and attempts to reconsider the truth about the World War II."
Security assistance issue to come up during Blinken visit to Ukraine  U.S. Department of State

The issue of security assistance would come up in conversations of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his visit to Ukraine next week, Acting Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip T. Reeker has said.

"In terms of security assistance, as you know, we have provided significant security assistance, both lethal and nonlethal, to Ukraine. And I believe Congress has earmarked some 408 million in Fiscal Year 2021 for security assistance for Ukraine," he said at a briefing.

"I'm sure that [the lethal and nonlethal assistance] will come up in our conversation," Reeker said.

He said that it is "part of our regular engagement between our embassy and between those of us who are in regular contact with Ukrainian officials."

Earlier U.S. President's National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Friday that defensive materiel from the U.S. to Ukraine would continue to be part of broader diplomatic efforts to resolve the ongoing conflict.

"The United States has fielded requests from the Ukrainians in the past and supplied them, and will field requests in the future and be willing to provide certain types of materiel," he said, speaking at the Aspen Security Forum.

Sullivan said that it would be "in stride" with the ongoing security partnership.
An artillery unit of one of the mechanized brigades of the Ground Forces has tested the Czech-made 100-mm UOF12 projectiles for the MT-12 Rapira anti-tank gun at the Rivne military range, the press service of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry has reported.

"In accordance with the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for UOF12 projectiles, a significant shortage of which arose due to fires at arsenals, Ukraine's Ministry of Defense signed a public contract for the purchase of this type of ammunition in the Czech Republic," the press service said.

The projectiles were purchased at the lowest price and as actually new. The storage life is at least 10 years. In 2020, the ammunition was repaired with the analysis of all elements, replacement of gunpowder, powder-containing components and equipped with fuses manufactured in 2019-2020.

"The supplier has confirmed certain warranty periods of service, storage and technical characteristics as the new products have. The ammunition was delivered in proper technical condition and in a container suitable for use in areas where certain tasks are performed," the Defense Ministry said.

According to the group of the Ammunition Quality Control Center of the command of the Logistics Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, a visual inspection of the ammunition was competed. We measured the initial, minimum, average and maximum speed. As part of the test, 16 shots were made in various modes of deceleration and high-explosive fuse operation  each of the projectiles fired normally. All these indicators show that the UOF12 ammunition corresponds to the declared technical characteristics.

The servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine today for the first time used this ammunition. The result is every shot was at the target.
The North Korean flag flutters at the North Korea consular office in Dandong, Liaoning province, China (Photo : REUTERS/Tingshu Wang)

President Joe Biden has settled on a new approach to pressuring North Korea to give up nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles that will explore diplomacy but not seek a grand bargain with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the White House said on Friday.



White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters on Air Force One that U.S. officials had completed a months-long review of North Korean policy.



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Complete denuclearization of North Korea remains the goal, she said, but she noted that the past four presidents had been unable to get Pyongyang to forswear nuclear weapons.



The Biden policy attempts to strike a middle ground between the policy pursued by Biden's most recent predecessors.



Republican Donald Trump had held three summit meetings with Kim but achieved no breakthrough other than a pause in nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests that has lasted since 2017.



Democrat Barack Obama refused serious diplomatic engagement with North Korea absent any steps by Pyongyang to reduce tensions.



"Our policy will not focus on achieving a grand bargain, nor will it rely on strategic patience," Psaki said.



Instead, the United States will pursue a "calibrated practical approach that is open to and will explore diplomacy with" North Korea and making "practical progress" that increases the security of the United States and its allies, she said.



North Korea, so far, has refused diplomatic entreaties from the Biden administration. Pyongyang wants the United States and its allies to lift economic sanctions imposed over its weapons programs.



Psaki did not provide details of what the administration's next step might be beyond discussions with allies. Biden met Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga two weeks ago and is to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in on May 21 at the White House.



Jenny Town, director of 38 North, a Washington-based North Korea monitoring program, sad the broad strokes of the Biden policy sound good so far.



"But the details will matter greatly to assessing how successful the administration might be with this 'new approach.' Not sure there's much to say until we see more," she said.



There are ongoing concerns that North Korea might return to testing of nuclear devices. North Korea launched two suspected ballistic missiles into the sea near Japan in March.



The White House did not say whether it will offer concessions to get North Korea to return to talks.



The Biden administration has simultaneously signaled a hard line on human rights, denuclearization and sanctions, while making diplomatic overtures that officials say have been rebuffed by Pyongyang, which has long demanded sanctions relief.



On April 15, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius quoted a senior administration official as saying the likelihood of North Korea giving up nuclear weapons right now was "close to zero" and the administration was seeking interim "way stations," such as halting weapons proliferation and checking North Korea's development of new delivery systems like submarine-launched ballistic missiles.


A pregnant Egyptian mummy is pictured during a research work in this undated handout photo. (Photo : Leydo/Handout via REUTERS)

An ancient Egyptian mummy once believed to be the remains of a male priest is actually the embalmed body of a woman in the third trimester of pregnancy, Polish scientists said on Friday.



Marzena Ozarek-Szilke, an anthropologist at the Warsaw Mummy Project, was examining a CT scan of a mummy at the National Museum in the Polish capital when she spotted something peculiar.



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"When I looked at the lesser pelvis of our mummy I was interested in what was inside... I thought I saw a tiny foot," Ozarek-Szilke said.



She asked her husband, an archaeologist who also worked on the project, to take a look.



"My husband looked at the picture and as a father of three, he said: 'Well, that's a foot'. At that moment ... the whole picture started to come together," Ozarek-Szilke told Reuters.



The mummy came to Poland in the 19th century when the nascent University of Warsaw was creating an antiquities collection. For decades, it was thought the mummy belonged to an ancient Egyptian priest named Hor-Dehuti.



However, in a discovery revealed in the Journal of Archaeological Science on Thursday, scientists at the Warsaw Mummy Project said the mummy was in fact a woman in her twenties who was between 26 and 28 weeks pregnant.



The cause of death is not clear, but Ozarek-Szilke said the pregnancy may have had something to do with it.



"It is possible that the pregnancy itself contributed to the death of this woman. Now we have modern medicine, women who are between 20 and 30 weeks pregnant and something happens to the pregnancy, they have a chance to be rescued. It used to be impossible," she said.



The discovery sheds some light on the little-known role of children in ancient Egypt and the religious beliefs of the time, but also raises many questions, according to Wojciech Ejsmond, co-director of the Warsaw Mummy Project.



"What was the status of this child in the Egyptian religion? Did it have a soul, could it go to the afterlife on its own, could it be reborn in the afterlife... if it was not yet born?"



Ejsmond said scientists would study the mummy further to determine the cause of death and establish why the foetus was left in the body.



"We must be open to all possibilities," he said.


An Afghan National Army soldier sits on a back of an army vehicle at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan (Photo : REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail/File Photo)

Taliban fighters have protected western military bases in Afghanistan from attacks by rival, or rogue Islamist groups for over a year under a secret annex to a pact for the withdrawal of all U.S. forces by May 1, three Western officials with knowledge of the agreement told Reuters.



The U.S. State Department gave no immediate response to Reuters over the existence of any such document. Nor did it have any immediate comment on what the three officials described as a "Taliban ring of protection".



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Since United States struck a deal with the Taliban in February 2020, paving the way for America to end its longest war, there have been no U.S. combat deaths, and there have been only isolated attacks on U.S. bases.



Instead, the Taliban intensified attacks on Afghan government forces, and civilian casualties have spiralled.



Peace talks between the militants and the government, begun in September, have made no significant progress, and a U.N. report said civilian casualties were up 45% in the last three months of 2020 from a year earlier.



Testing Taliban patience, U.S. President Joe Biden served notice that the U.S. withdrawal would overshoot the May 1 deadline agreed by the previous U.S. administration, while giving an assurance that it would be completed by Sept. 11 - the 20th anniversary of the al Qaeda attacks on the United States.



When the deadline passes on Saturday, around 2,000 U.S. troops will still be in Afghanistan, according to a western security official in Kabul. The commander of foreign forces in Afghanistan, U.S. Army General Scott Miller earlier this week said an orderly withdrawal and the handing over of military bases and equipment to Afghan forces had begun.



Afghan soldiers left manning those bases could need plenty of firepower to resist any offensive by Taliban fighters who have been occupying strategic positions in surrounding areas.



In the past two weeks alone, the militants have killed more than 100 Afghan security personnel in a surge of attacks that followed Biden's announcement that a U.S. withdrawal would take a few months more.



Two of the Western officials said Washington had accepted the Taliban's offer to shield the western military bases from attacks by the likes of Islamic State.



The officials said the Taliban had wanted to demonstrate good faith by meeting a commitment to ensure Afghan soil was not used for attacks on U.S. interests - a key U.S. demand in the February agreement.



"They provided a layer of cover, almost like a buffer and ordered their fighters to not injure or kill any foreign soldier in this period," said one western diplomat involved in the process.



The western officials said it was also important for the Taliban to show its ability to control the more recalcitrant factions in its movement, like the Haqqani network, which has often followed its own agenda, though its leader Sirajuddin Haqqani is the second-highest ranking commander in the Taliban.



A Kabul-based western security official said that militants had kept their side of the bargain.



"The Taliban swiftly responded to even minor attacks conducted by the Haqqani network and Islamic State fighters around the bases," he said.



DEADLINE SATURDAY



Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid declined to comment on the so-called "ring of protection" agreement.



More broadly, he said no security guarantee has been given to the United States beyond Saturday's deadline, but talks were underway among the group's leadership and with the U.S. side.



"So far our commitment of not attacking the foreign forces is until May 1, after that whether we will attack or not is an issue under discussion," said Mujahid.



Mullah Baradar, the Taliban's deputy political chief, held talks with U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad to discuss the peace process on Thursday, another militant spokesman, Suhail Shaheen, said in a Twitter post.



Clearly having the militants holding positions around Western bases presents a danger if no understanding is reached.



"They've definitely moved ever closer to a lot of Afghan and foreign bases," said Ashley Jackson, co-director of the Centre for the Study of Armed Groups at Overseas Development Institute, a London-based think-tank.



"Encircling U.S., NATO, and Afghan bases seems like the Taliban strategy to poise themselves to take over when foreign forces leave."



Afghan defence ministry spokesman Fawad Aman said the Taliban had ramped up violence against the Afghan people and their government, while holding fire against foreign forces.



More than 3,000 Afghan civilians were killed and almost 5,800 were wounded in 2020, according to a United Nation report.



"By not attacking the foreign forces but continuously targeting the Afghan security forces and civilians, the Taliban have shown that they are fighting against the people of Afghanistan," Aman said.



Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Programme at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, sympathised with that view, saying: "they have every right to lambaste a U.S.-Taliban agreement for failing to bring a semblance of relief to Afghans themselves."


Film producer Harvey Weinstein arrives at New York Criminal Court ahead of the fifth day of jury deliberations for his sexual assault trial in the Manhattan borough of New York City, (Photo : REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo)

California's effort to extradite Harvey Weinstein on rape and sexual assault charges was delayed on Friday, and the convicted former movie producer will have another 30 days to challenge its latest effort to bring him to court.



Erie County Court Judge Kenneth Case said prosecutors could arrange for Weinstein's transfer to Los Angeles on May 30.



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But Weinstein's lawyer Norman Effman said he intended to file a new legal challenge to the extradition, and Weinstein might also ask New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to intervene.



Weinstein wore a long-sleeve, button-down brown shirt as he watched the hearing quietly from the maximum security Wende Correctional Facility near Buffalo.



He is serving a 23-year prison term following his February 2020 conviction in Manhattan for sexually assaulting a production assistant in 2006, and third-degree rape of an aspiring actress in 2013.



Weinstein is appealing his conviction and sentence, and has denied having non-consensual sex with anyone.



His conviction was seen as a watershed moment in the #MeToo movement against sexual abuse and harassment by men, including many with powerful jobs and influence.



A New York prosecutor, Colleen Curtin Gable, told Case that filing new extradition paperwork might speed up the process because Weinstein's opposition to the earlier paperwork could result in "extended litigation."



Gable appeared on behalf of the Los Angeles County District Attorney, who first sought Weinstein's extradition last July.



Effman said prosecutors "have agreed to basically go back to Groundhog Day, and start the process over."



Weinstein's 11-count indictment in California concerns alleged attacks on five women from 2004 to 2013 in the Los Angeles area.



The charges include forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual battery by restraint, and sexual penetration by use of force.



If convicted, Weinstein could spend the rest of his life in prison. His lawyers have said they would expect an acquittal.



Weinstein, a diabetic, has suffered from cardiac, dental and back problems, and Effman has called him "almost technically blind."


Low profile thoracic aortic endograft device reduces complications and expands patient pool

Boston, MA (May 1, 2021) - Preliminary results of a clinical trial, presented today at the AATS 101st Annual Meeting, showed that a new, low-profile thoracic aortic endograft is safe and effective in the treatment of descending thoracic aortic aneurysm or penetrating atherosclerotic ulcer (PAU) diseases. A multi-disciplinary team, led by both cardiac and vascular surgeons as co-investigators, conducted the study in 36 centers in the United States and Japan, enrolling patients between 2016 and 2019.

The trial aimed to measure safety and efficacy of the RELAYPro endovascular device, a second-generation product featuring a dramatically reduced profile and a non-bare stent (NBS) configuration.

The prospective, international, non-blinded, non-randomized pivotal trial analyzed a primary safety endpoint of major adverse events (MAE) at 30 days (death, myocardial infarction, stroke, renal/respiratory failure, paralysis, bowel ischemia, procedural blood loss) and a primary effectiveness endpoint of treatment success at one year (technical success, patency, absence of aneurysm rupture, type I/III endoleaks, stent fractures, secondary interventions, aneurysm expansion, and migration). Treatment success at one year was 89.2 percent.

"With a 3 to 4 French profile reduction, this second generation thoracic endograft device met the one year safety and effectiveness endpoints in a pivotal study for the treatment of patients with aneurysms of the descending thoracic aorta or PAUs," explained Dr. Wilson Szeto, Professor of Surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. "It is particularly positive to note that the reduction in profile and the availability of a non bare stents configuration will expand the population of patients who can be treated with the device and reduces complications."

In this study, the vast majority of patients in the United States were treated with a percutaneous approach, which can dramatically reduce surgical complications associated with higher profile devices requiring surgical cutdown for deployment. At one year follow up, patients demonstrated a low risk of mortality, endoleak or structural integrity concerns. Follow-up continues to five years and the device is currently being evaluated for approval by the FDA.

###

Notes for Editors:

"One Year Results of a Pivotal Study of a Second Generation Low-Profile Endograft in Subjects with Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm and Ulcer Pathologies," Wilson Y Szeto, Prashanth Vallabhajosyula, Hitoshi Matsuda, Sina Moainie, Mel Sharafuddin, Joel Corvera, Christopher Smolock, Shinji Miyamoto, Thomas Naslund, Venkatesh Ramaiah. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; Yale University, New Haven, CT; National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center, Suita, Japan; St Vincent Heart Center, Indianapolis, IN University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA; Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN; Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH; Oita University Hospital, Yufu, Oita, Japan; Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN; Arizona Heart Institute, Phoenix, AZ

Presented by Wilson Y. Szeto, MD, May 1, 2021, at the AATS 101st Annual Meeting.

ABOUT THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THORACIC SURGERY (AATS)

The American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) is an international organization that encourages, promotes, and stimulates the scientific investigation of cardiothoracic surgery. Founded in 1917 by a respected group of the earliest pioneers in the field, its original mission was to "foster the evolution of an interest in surgery of the Thorax." Today, the AATS is the premiere association for cardiothoracic surgeons in the world and works to continually enhance the ability of cardiothoracic surgeons to provide the highest quality of patient care. Its more than 1,500 members have a proven record of distinction within the specialty and have made significant contributions to the care and treatment of cardiothoracic disease. Visit http://www. aats. org to learn more.

This story has been published on: 2021-05-01. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Chinas Ministry of Transport expects 235 million trips, a return to pre-pandemic levels. The Great Wall, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou are among the most visited sites. Many fear delays in the vaccination campaign, which might become a political problem for Xi Jinping's administration.

Beijing (AsiaNews) - Millions of Chinese are on the move for May Day holidays, which last five days in China.

The Ministry of Transport expects 235 million journeys by train, ship and car over the entire period, a return to pre-pandemic levels and a reversal compared to the Lunar New Year (12 February) when the government imposed severe restrictions on movements.

One place that has attracted large crowds is the Great Wall at Badaling, 60 kilometres from Beijing. A high number of visitors is also expected in the capital, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

The current tourist boom will push up consumption, which so far has lagged behind the countrys solid economic recovery.

For China this is an additional sign that things are getting back to normal after the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, which was first reported in Wuhan (Hubei) in early 2020.

The official number of SARS-CoV-2 cases in the country continues to be very low; 16 were reported yesterday, all imported from abroad.

Despite this, visits to tourist sites will be limited only to those who can show a "health code", an electronic certificate on their phones to prove that they tested negative for the virus.

Meanwhile, concerns are growing in the country about delays in the vaccination campaign. At the current rate, health authorities will not be able to vaccinate 40 per cent of the population (560 million inhabitants) by June, as promised by the government.

According to data from the National Health Commission, just over 250 million doses have been administered so far. The current rate is about 4.5 million per day but about 10 million a day would be needed to reach the desired target.

Analysts note that Chinese pharmaceutical companies are unable to manufacture enough vaccines to meet domestic needs. The situation is also made worse by the government's commitment to foreign sales and donations.

In the event of failure, Xi Jinping's administration could face a political problem. At current rate of vaccination, the country will not cover 70-80 per cent of the population  the number required for herd immunity  before the end of the year or the beginning of 2022.

The United States and the European Union expect to achieve that level in the summer, enabling them to reopen their borders and revive their economy.

In view of this, China is in danger of having to keep its borders closed or under severe restrictions for months to come.
Can therapy ease the trauma of U.S. racist attacks and systemic racism?

Tracy Park sits in the park in which she was shouted at with her daughter, as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic continues, in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S. (Photo : REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson)

Chinese-American mental health counselor Monica Band started getting a flood of calls and emails soon after former U.S. President Donald Trump began blaming China for the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.



News followed of the killings of six Asian-born spa workers in Atlanta and brutal attacks on people of Asian descent nationwide. Band's mostly Asian-American clients in the Washington, D.C., area have been spat on, called racist names and in one case physically assaulted on a commuter rail line by an assailant yelling, "Go back to China!"



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To help, Band is drawing on a still-developing treatment field pioneered by African-American clinicians who have been working for years to help ease the debilitating pain of racist attacks and systemic racism that can be passed down generations.



Black Americans are suffering amid heightened visibility of racism since the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis last year and numerous other high-profile killings.



Talk therapy and other treatments have been developed for survivors of such catastrophes as war and customized to meet the needs of people from different cultures and backgrounds.



To help people cope with stress, the Association of Black Psychologists organized online group therapy "healing circles" during the trial of the former policeman who killed Floyd, New York area psychologist Jennifer Jones-Damis said. That trial ended with guilty verdicts earlier this month.



Therapists say individuals traumatized by racism can experience flashbacks, crying spells and unrelenting worry. Repeated exposure to graphic images and rising attacks make some fear leaving home and feel vulnerable.



RISING HATE



The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism tracked a rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans of 149% in 2020 in 16 major cities compared to 2019 in the wake of rhetoric blaming China for the pandemic that started in that country.



The number of people seeking help also rose - and counselors to treat them are in short supply, according to therapists interviewed by Reuters. Band in February started a support group for people who suffered anti-Asian hate incidents or were upset by attacks on others. She also works one-on-one with clients but has a months-long waiting list.



Of about 3,700 Americans of Asian-American and Pacific Islander descent surveyed by DePaul University psychologist Anne Saw, 75% said they believe the United States has become more dangerous for them, preliminary data shared exclusively with Reuters showed.



Of 421 people who agreed to be interviewed about racist incidents they had experienced and reported to the group Stop AAPI Hate, 95% said the United States had become more dangerous, said Saw, who conducted a portion of her research in collaboration with the group.



About 40% of the 421 Stop AAPI Hate respondents said they had experienced at least one symptom of racism-based traumatic stress, including depression, hypervigilance, anger, intrusive thoughts and lowered self-esteem.



"We're seeing numbers of folks experience anxiety depression, racial trauma symptoms that are like nothing we've ever seen before," Saw said.



But trauma caused by racist attacks or racism does not have a formal mental health diagnosis.



"If a phenomenon is not named, it is generally not recognized, and when it's not recognized, it's not treated," said New York therapist and author Kenneth Hardy, a pioneer in the field of racism trauma.



Over the past year, more than 400 clinicians have sought training in one of the few formal protocols for treating racial stress and trauma. Psychologist Steven Kniffley's 12-week program at Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky first helps clients to learn, for example, whether they have internalized racist views of themselves. Next, words or other means are used to retell and process experiences. Finally, tools for dealing with future incidents, such as seeking support from observers, are discussed.



Connecticut therapist Danielle Spearman-Camblard said she would like a diagnosis of racial trauma added to psychiatry's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. A designation would make it easier to bill insurance companies for treatment, and show that the psychological effects of racism are real, she said.



Robert Carter, a Columbia University psychologist who led efforts to educate mental health professionals about the impacts of racism, said racism-caused injuries should be treated. But he said people who have been impacted by racism are not mentally ill, and should not be subjected to the stigma that can accompany a diagnosis.



Carter opposes the use of treatments developed for post-traumatic stress disorder for patients who, for example, develop anxiety and hopelessness after being denied an apartment or a job because of race. He believes the stress caused by racism is different psychologically from trauma.



Dr. Paul Appelbaum, who chairs the American Psychiatric Association's DSM steering committee, said an upcoming new edition of the manual will not list racial trauma as a condition, but will explicitly reference racism as a possible underlying cause of several diagnoses including depression.



Tracy Park, 37, didn't seek therapy, citing a dearth of Asian-American counselors, after she and her family were targeted by racists.



In February 2020, as COVID-19 began to spread in the United States, the animator took her toddler and newborn baby to a Los Angeles park.



As she pushed her stroller toward the exit on her way to the library, a white man shouted at her: "Get your coronavirus babies the f--k out of here!"



Her 65-year-old mother was threatened by another white man later.



Park, anxious and at times depressed, developed trouble sleeping and was constantly on guard.



She found solace among a group of mothers who had also experienced anti-Asian hate and held online "unpacking sessions." And she wrote a "zine" expressing her anger and other feelings.



But "I'm still scanning the horizon looking for anyone charging toward us," Park said. "And that's no way to live."


KYODO NEWS - May 1, 2021 - 13:07 | All, World, Japan

New U.S. Indo-Pacific Command chief Adm. John Aquilino pledged Friday to maintain a "free and open" region and provide the deterrence needed to prevent "great power conflict" amid China's growing assertiveness.

Calling the rules-based international order the foundation for the region to thrive and prosper, Aquilino said during a change of command ceremony in Hawaii to replace Adm. Philip Davidson that the environment the United States and its allies have created for decades is "being challenged."

"We are committed to strengthening the relationships with our allies and partners across the globe. We are committed to providing the deterrence needed to prevent great power conflict, and should it be directed, we're committed to be able to fight tonight and win," he said.

Davidson, in his speech, directly mentioned China and warned of its ambitions to expand its influence in the region and its authoritarianism.

"Make no mistake, the Communist Party of China seeks to supplant the idea of a free and open international order with a new order -- one with Chinese characteristics, one where Chinese national power is more important than international law," he said.

"But the strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific is not between our two nations. It is a competition between liberty, the fundamental idea behind a free and open Indo-Pacific, and authoritarianism -- the absence of liberty and the objective of the Communist Party of China," he added.

The remarks echoed U.S. President Joe Biden's framing of the competition between the United States and China as a clash between democracies and autocracies. The administration has been rallying allies and like-mind countries to counter China's rise.

In Hawaii on Thursday, the top uniformed officers of the United States, Japan and South Korea shared their concerns about North Korea's nuclear and missile programs, according to the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.

U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and his Japanese and South Korean counterparts -- Koji Yamazaki and Won In Choul -- also discussed the importance of promoting a rules-based international order in the region, it said.

It was the first in-person meeting between the most senior U.S., Japanese and South Korean military officers since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a press release issued Friday by the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The last trilateral discussions between the top uniformed officers took place virtually in November.
KYODO NEWS - May 1, 2021 - 21:24 | All, Japan, Coronavirus

Up to around 300 people every day, who had pledged to self-isolate upon arrival into Japan as part of measures to contain the novel coronavirus, could not be confirmed to be in their quarantine location or were found to be some distance away, the health ministry and a contracted medical service firm said Saturday.

The daily checkups have been conducted as part of strengthened border control measures since the end of March to keep imported cases of the coronavirus at bay and target all arrivals into the country for a 14-day period.

But with the whereabouts of some people unable to be confirmed during the period, the ministry is now considering having private security companies pay visits to quarantine locations if the person cannot be reached for more than three days.

According to the ministry and the medical service company supporting the quarantine operation, an average of 24,000 people needed to be accounted for on a daily basis during a 14-day self-quarantine period.

Of that number, around 200 to 300 people every day could not be confirmed to be in their pledged quarantine locations, with 70 percent failing to report their whereabouts to authorities and 30 percent found to be away from the locations.

A health ministry official has called on people not to rely too heavily on the results from tests conducted when they entered the country, as it is possible to get a false negative result during an incubation period.

"We want people to properly see through their quarantine," the official said.

Japan now requires all arrivals into the country to provide COVID-19 negative test results taken within 72 hours of departure and be retested at the time of entry. Even if the results are negative, people are asked to pledge they will self-quarantine for 14 days in their home, a hotel or another facility.

People are also asked to install a location tracking app called OEL upon arrival, with notification messages requesting location information and health status sent on a daily basis during the quarantine period.

Those who fail to report their whereabouts are contacted individually via a Skype video call or other methods.

The health ministry, which has asked for people to honor their pledge, has warned that penalties for noncompliance include publicly revealing names or, in the case of a foreign national, revocation of their status of residence and deportation.
New Delhi:

The Haryana Urban Development Agency (HUDA) has sold 10 acres of land in Gurugram to the global home-furnishing company IKEA for Rs 842 crore.

Through an e-auction, Ikea has purchased the land. HUDA has put the land up for auction on October 6. IKEA already has a presence in the city, a corporate office in Cyber Hub.

The firm plans to open 25 stores in India by 2025 with an investment of Rs 10,500 crore. Before Gurugram deal, the Swedish firm has also purchased land in Hyderabad and Mumbai to set up stores.

Before this, Huda's record deal was for a 7,820 sqm (2 acres) plot it sold to car-maker Hyundai in November 2016 for Rs 205.88 crore.

J Ganesan, chief administrator of Huda, said, "It will augment our efforts to ensure a steady revenue stream for Huda. This is not a one-off deal as we have planned auctions of other institutional and commercial properties across the city in the next few months.

Gurugram has seen reduced demand for land, mainly due to rapidly changing investment scenario in real estate, especially in the commercial sector."



Ikea should have told Robert Vadera that they need 10 acres commercial land in Haryana. Ganesan hoped the Ikea land deal would act as a trigger for the real estate market and help in reviving business sentiment in the city.

"Contrary to the prevailing trend of falling real estate prices and reduced demand, this deal exhibits the city's potential to be a global destination," he said.Huda had found no takers for the Sector 47 land in earlier bids.

"The site was put up for e-auction three times but it had no takers until October 31 when the multinational company finally participated," said Huda's Gurugram administrator Yashpal Yadav, adding a few more global corporate houses were in touch for purchasing plots.

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New Delhi:

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi decided to take a break from his ongoing Navsarjan Yatra in poll-bound Gujarat and is set to visit Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday to meet the families of victims of a massive explosion at an NTPC power plant.

At least 20 people were killed and nearly 100 injured when a massive explosion ripped a boiler at the state-run power giant NTPCs Unchahar plant.

Due to the unfortunate NTPC accident, I will visit Rae Bareli tomorrow morning. Will join Gujarat Navsarjan Yatra in the afternoon, the Congress leader tweeted.

Due to the unfortunate NTPC accident, I will visit Rae Bareli tomorrow morning. Will join Gujarat Navsarjan Yatra in the afternoon.  Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) November 1, 2017

Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday began his three-day campaign tour of south Gujarat, where Assembly poll will be held in December.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who represents Rae Bareli in the Lok Sabha, in her condolence message said she wanted to be with the families of the victims to share their pain in this hour of grief, but could not do so due to her indisposition.

(With PTI Inputs)

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New Delhi :

Telecom major Bharti Airtel will transfer the optical fibre business to its wholly owned subsidiary Telesonic Networks for a valuation of up to Rs 5,650 crore, as per a regulatory filing today.

The board of directors in its meeting yesterday "has approved the scheme of arrangement between Bharti Airtel("Transferor Company") and Telesonic Networks Limited ("Transferee Company")...for the transfer of the optical fibrecable business of the transferor company to the transferee company, a subsidiary of the transferor company, by way of aslump sale", it said.

The optical fibre business of Bharti Airtel includes both underground and overground fibres. Bharti Airtel said it is transferring the cable business based on cash consideration of Rs 4,564.7 crore.

It will be subject to upward adjustment on account of incremental capital expenditure, working capital and the like incurred by the transferor company up to the date the deal is signed.

"However, the overall consideration shall in no event exceed Rs 5,650 crore," the filing said. Telesonic Networks Limited, engaged in "designing, planning, deploying, optimising and managing broadband and fixed telephone networks across India...does not belong to the promoter/promoter group/group companies", it said.

"The proposed transaction is between a holding company and its wholly owned subsidiary company," the filing said.Bharti Airtel stock closed at Rs 538.40, up 8.19 per cent, on BSE.

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New Delhi:

A day after New York attack which killed 8 people, 3 persons were killed and one got injured in a shooting at Walmart in Colorado on Thursday.

Thornton Police said "it was not an active shooter" but advised people to stay away from the area.

"Shooting just occurred at Walmart, 9900 Grant St, multiple parties down. Please stay away from the area," Thornton Police Department said in an earlier tweet.

A large number of police vehicles were seen in the parking lot of the Walmart.

Local news channels said a few ambulances were rushing to the Walmart, describing the scene as "chaotic".

A press conference by the police department was expected soon when the report last came in.

Earlier on Wednesday, a man in rented pickup truck drove onto a busy bicycle path near the World Trade Centre memorial, killing at least eight people and injuring several others in what the mayor called a particularly cowardly act of terror.

The 29-year-old driver was shot by police after jumping out of the truck with what turned out to be a fake gun in each hand, officials said. He was taken into custody. His condition was not immediately disclosed.

At least eight people were killed and 11 others injured in Lower Manhattan after a gunman in a truck plowed through a busy bike path, an incident the US termed as an act of terrorism.

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New Delhi:

Terrorists on Thursday attacked a CRPF vehicle in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag district. Five jawans were seriously injured in the cowrdly attack.

The attack took place on Thursday morning when a CRPF vehicle was moving in Anantnag district. The terrorists fled after the attack and security forces have laucnhed a massive search operation in the area to nab them.

Meanwhile, the injured jawans were rushed to a nearby hospital for the treatment where their condition is stable.

More details are awaited.

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Washington:

Osama bin Laden closely followed developments in Kashmir and the trial of Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley in the 2008 Mumbai attack case, according to documents seized from a Pakistani compound where the al-Qaeda founder was killed in a US raid in 2011.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on Wednesday released 470,000 additional files seized in May 2011 when US Navy SEALs burst into the Abbottabad compound and shot dead Laden.

The files include Ladens sons wedding video and diaries left by the Saudi-born militant.

The documents revealed that Laden closely followed news related to the arrest of Lashkar-e-Taiba operative Headley and was a regular reader of some of the top Indian publications.

An Indian Express article titled Omar Sheikh?s Pak handler Ilyas Kashmiri also handled?Headley was found from the computer of Laden in Abbottabad. The article was dated November 16, 2009.

An article Fears of air-borne terrorists strikes in India, UK published in Sri Lanka Guardian was also found in a separate file on Laden?s computer.

A Press Trust of India story headlined Al-Qaeda helping Taliban to destabilise Pakistan Government: Gates, dated February 9, 2010, was also found on Ladens computer.

Another article found on his computer was about the coded communications between Headley and his Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) links. The news was published by The Time of India on November 15, 2009.

Laden also saved on his computer another PTI article, titled: India to send magistrate to US to record Headleys statement.

Laden highlighted in yellow some portion of the article titled Pak Major handled Headleys India recce, published on March 16, 2010.

The highlighted portion reads, The dossiers also sought the custody of Pakistani terrorist, Ilyas Kashmiri.

The documents also revealed that Laden was interested in news related to Kashmir and several terrorists.

An Economic Times story US asks Pakistan to find Iyas Kashmiri dated January 7, 2010 was among the saved documents on Laden?s computer.

A February 2009 article about Pakistani Kashmiri militants now fighting NATO forces was also found.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo said the release of recovered al-Qaeda letters, videos, audio files and other materials provides the opportunity for the American people to gain further insights into the plans and workings of the terrorist organisation.

At the direction of President Donald Trump, the CIA put online 470,000 additional files.

However, the CIA withheld release of nearly two dozen videos, including the one titled The Story of India stating that they were copyrighted videos.

The Story of India is a BBC documentary series about the history of India.

The documents also include Ladens personal journal, over 18,000 document files and 79,000 audio and image files, which include practice reels for public speeches, audio correspondence and imagery gathered or generated by al-Qaeda for a variety of purposes.

The CIA will continue to seek opportunities to share information with the American people consistent with our obligation to protect national security, he said.

The materials are posted in the original Arabic and in as close to the original form as possible, modified only so the files cannot be edited, the CIA said.

The CIA said these materials provide insights into the origins of fissures that exist today between al-Qaeda and the ISIS, as well as strategic, doctrinal and religious disagreements within al-Qaeda and its allies; and hardships that the terror group faced at the time of Ladens death.

Other themes in the materials include al-Qaeda?s preparations to commemorate the tenth anniversary of 9/11 and the group?s attempts to promulgate its message through western media.

The documents also provide insight into al-Qaeda?s efforts to exploit the Arab awakening for its benefit and that of the global jihad, Laden?s efforts to maintain unity within the group and among its affiliates despite disagreements over tactics and doctrine and the terror groups efforts to rehabilitate its tarnished image among Muslims due its mistakes and negative media portrayals.

The CIA said the information remaining in the Abbottabad collection that has not been released publicly includes materials that are sensitive such that their release would directly damage efforts to keep the nation secure; materials protected by copyright; pornography; malware and blank, corrupted and duplicate file.

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Jodhpur:

Pulling up the state police over its handling of a case of a womans alleged forcible conversion to Islam and marriage, the Rajathan High Court on Wednesday directed it to register an FIR and submit a report after her family claimed that it was an instance of love jihad.

A bench of justices GK Vyas and MK Garg also directed the state government to file a reply clarifying the legal provisions pertaining to religious conversion in the state.

Hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by the 22-year-old womans brother, the bench expressed anger over the negligence of the police, which allegedly refused to file an FIR on her familys complaint.

The court questioned as to how the police could assume that the girls conversion was legal just by way of an affidavit over a stamp paper of Rs 10, when there was no provision in law in this regard.

By this way, tomorrow, even I could address myself as Gopal Mohammad, it said.

In his petition, the brother claimed that one Faiz Modi had been harassing his sister for long and abducted her while she was going to college.

She was made to sign some papers by him and fake marriage documents were prepared, he alleged.

When the family members could not find her, they approached the police which refused to file an FIR stating that Faiz Modi had already produced proof of marriage and an affidavit of religious conversion by the woman dated April 14, the brother alleged.

He alleged that she was blackmailed by the accused with objectionable pictures and forced to convert to Islam and marry him.

Appearing from the petitioner, lawyer Gokulesh Bohra argued that the girl was with her family till October 25, while the documents were predated by six months.

This is a clear case of love jihad and over half a dozen such cases have already been reported in the city in the past some time due to the disinterest shown by the police in investigating these cases, Bohra claimed.

It has been alleged that Hindu girls are being lured into conversion and marriage by Muslim men and it is often termed as love jihad especially by Hindu outfits.

Hearing the petition, the court on Wednesday asked the Rajasthan Government to specify the laws and guide lines for conversion in the state.

The court directed that the girl be sent to Nari Niketan (women shelter) for seven days and instructed the police to ensure that no one meets her there.

Seeking a detailed report in the matter, the court asked the police whether it tried to probe the truth of the purported affidavit by the girl.

It directed the police to file an FIR and probe the matter.

The matter comes in the backdrop of the controversy over a case of a Kerala Hindu woman, who had converted to Islam before marrying a Muslim man, Shafin Jahan.

The Kerala High Court had annulled his marriage and described it as an instance of love jihad, which was challenged by Jahan.

It was alleged that the woman was recruited by Islamic States mission in Syria and Jahan was only a stooge.

Ashokan K M, the father of the woman, had alleged that there was a well-oiled systematic mechanism for conversion and Islamic radicalisation.

Jahan had on September 20 approached the apex court seeking recall of its August 16 order directing the NIA to investigate the controversial case.

The matter is now before the apex court.

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by Vladimir Rozanskij

Small and poorly ventilated, Orthodox churches can spread the virus, especially during the Easter services when crowds form. Russias consumer protection and welfare agency issued recommendations for the holiday. The Patriarchate hands out awards for humanitarian projects in Syria. Onufriy of Kiev calls for a prisoner exchange.

Moscow (AsiaNews)  Orthodox Christians will celebrate Easter tomorrow, 2 May, in accordance with the Orthodox calendar. In Russia many fear more uncontrolled outbreaks of COVID-19, as was the case last year, when many churches refused to comply with health regulations.

In Moscow, the Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare recommends restricting as much as possible the number of people allowed to take part in religious services.

Of particular concern is the initial procession around the churches with candles, when people usually gather in large numbers, while only a few of them enter the church to participate in the actual service.

The authorities also recommend that ventilation and air quality in religious buildings be improved (Russian churches are often small and poorly ventilated, filled with candle smoke), that surfaces be regularly disinfected (especially icons, kissed out of devotion fervour), and that people be required to wear masks (a practice disliked by many Orthodox believers and even more so by priests).

Another recommendations is not to allow people over 65 with chronic health problems inside churches, a major issue since most worshippers who attend liturgical services tend to be seniors.

Yesterday, Good Friday, the Patriarchate organised a solemn award ceremony to recognise people involved in humanitarian work in Syria.

Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev), head of the Department of External Church Relations, met with Dr Hasan Nasrallah, president of the Arab Diaspora Association, who was given a certificate of thanks (picture 3) for his contribution to boosting inter-faith peace. Nasrallah was one of the main organisers of Russian humanitarian convoys in Syria in 2017-2020.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, John X (Yazigi), sent Patriarch Kirill (Gundyayev) a heartfelt message of gratitude, which was shown at the end of a documentary on the lives of Orthodox Christians in Syria, entitled The Antiochene Church, prepared by Metropolitan Hilarion himself and broadcast by the Kultura channel on the evening of Holy Thursday.

The Antiochene Patriarchate is one of the most loyal to Moscow, and has distanced itself from Constantinople, Athens and Alexandria over the recognition of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church.

Another heartfelt appeal came from the Metropolitan of Kiev (Kyiv) Onufriy (Berezovsky) of the Moscow Patriarchate (picture 4), who said: For the sake of Christ, stop shooting at least during the days of Easter!

The metropolitan also called for the release of the prisoners of war held by both sides in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, adding that during these holy days, he wanted to address the people who have influenced the conflict in the eastern regions of our country, in the Donbass, which is also part of Ukraine.
New Delhi :

Scientists, using data from NASA's Kepler telescope, have discovered 20 new potentially habitable exoplanets that may host alien life. The list includes several planets that orbit stars like our Sun. Some take a relatively long time to complete a single orbit, with the longest taking 395 Earth days.

The fastest orbit is 18 Earth days. The exoplanet with a 395-day year is one of the most promising worlds for life on the list, said Jeff Coughlin, part of NASA's K2 Mission, the second phase of the planet humnting Kepler Mission The planet, called KOI-7923.01, is 97 per cent the size of Earth.

It is slightly colder than our planet due to its distance from its star and the fact that the star is slightly cooler than our Sun. This means it may be a little more like tundra regions on Earth, but is still warm enough to hold liquid water. The team is 70 to 80 per cent certain that these aresolid candidates.

They cannot be confirmed yet as more observations are needed, 'New Scientist' reported. Ground-based observatories or the Hubble Space Telescope will have to take more observations over the coming years todouble-check, Coughlin said.

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Tonk:

In a yet another shocking incident at a private school, a class seven student suffered serious head injuries after her class teacher hit him with a duster in Rajasthans Tonk on Wednesday.

According to family members, their son told them that after a joke was cracked by a student sitting behind him he bursted into laugh after which his teacher threw a duster on him.

One of family members said, The student was rushed to hospital after he fell on the ground. We were not informed about the incident. We only learnt about the duster throwing incident after our son narrated us his ordeal.

The family members have lodged a complaint of the incident with the local police station. Police said that an FIR has been registered against the accused teacher and the school administration.

According to police, the class seven boy is a student of St. Joseph School and name of the accused teacher is Farzana Khan.

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New Delhi:

Plan India released gender vulnerability index (GVI) on Wednesday where it has put Goa to be safest place for woman in India. Kerala, Mizoram, Sikkim and Manipur are among the safest places for woman in India.

The places where woman are most vulnerable are Bihar, Jharkhand, UP and Delhi.

The report was released by Ministry of Women and Child Development on Wednesday.

Goa achieved top spot with a GVI of 0.656 which is also more than the national average of 0.5314.

Goa also ranked first in protection, fifth in education, sixth in health and survival, and eighth in poverty.

Kerala achieved second spot with a GVI of 0.634. They did it mainly because of its achievements in health areas.

Bihar did worst by achieving a GVI of 0.410. It is considered to be the worst liveable place for woman in India. Delhi ranks at 28 with a GVI score of 0.436. The place had poor record in education and protection.

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New Delhi:

Ajay Bisaria will be Indias new High Commissioner to Pakistan, the Ministry of External Affairs announced on Wednesday. He is currently the Indian ambassador to Poland and Lithuania.

He takes over from Gautam Bambawale, who was last month appointed India' ambassador to China. "He is expected to take up his assignment shortly," the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement.

He has a Bachelor's Degree in Economics from Delhi's St Stephen's College (1980-83), a Master's in Business Administration from IIM-Kolkata (1983-85), and a Master's in Public Policy from Princeton University, USA (2008-09).

He also worked as a Soviet internal affairs specialist in the months leading up to the break-up of the USSR.

When India was engaged in building relationships with the post-Soviet countries, he was served as under-secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs on the East Europe desk.

He was shifted to the Ministry of Commerce at a time when India was engaged in building a relationship with Soviet. He was posted as First Secretary in the Indian Embassy in Berlin. He was entrusted with the project for the construction of the now-iconic building of the Indian embassy in Berlin.

Bisaria was appointed Private Secretary to the Prime Minister in 1999 and served in this capacity until 2004. During most of this period, he was an aide to Vajpayee and focussed on economic, defence and foreign policy issues.

He was then posted to the World Bank in Washington DC as adviser to the executive director for South Asia (2004-2008), where he worked on development projects and aid issues.

Bisaria returned to India in 2009 to serve as Joint Secretary (Eurasia) in the Ministry of External Affairs (2009-2014). He helped articulate an ambitious policy vision for India in Central Asia and coordinated India's approach to six annual Indo-Russian summits.

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Raebareli:

In a tragic incident, 20 labourers were killed and more than 100 have suffered serious injuries after a boiler went off at NTPC plant in Uttar Pradeshs Unchahar on Wednesday. CM Yogi Adityanath announced ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakhs to their next of kin.

Uttar Pradesh principal secretary has confirmed death of 18 labourers in the boiler bursting incident. 18 dead bodies have been recovered, said the SDM. Senior police officers told News Nation that at least 1500 labourers were working in the NTPC plant when the boiler went off. They believe the number of casualties and injured can increase.

According to NTPC press release the incident occurred at unit no. 6 of the plant. The press release reads, Around 3:30pm, an opening was created in the boiler at the height of 20 feet. Flue gas and steam spread in the area leading to injury and deaths.

The state government has released three helpline numbers (0535-2703301, 0535-2703401 and 0535-2703201.) The Uttar Pradesh government has pressed in 50 ambulances in the plant and all major hospitals in neighbouring districts have been kept in high alert.

Uttar Pradesh ADG (Law and Order) talking to media said, "Our primary objective is to rescue people and provide immediate medical treatment."

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister taking cognizance of the incident has directed Principal Secretary Home to ensure all possible steps to rescue the labourers.

Yogi has announced Rs 2 lakh compensation for the family members of the labourers who lost their lives in the boiler blast and Rs 50 thousand for labourers who are injured grievously and Rs 25 thousand for other injured workers.

A team of 32 persons of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has been rushed to Unchahar from Lucknow to support in rescue works.

Raebareli administration told the media that the seriously injured labourers have been referred to hospitals in Lucknow, Allahabad and other nearby hospitals.

The state government has ordered a probe the cause behind the NTPC boiler burst incident. Sources told the media that the blasted occurred after ash was collected in the boiler.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his grief over the incident and tweeted, "Deeply pained by the accident at the NTPC plant in Raebareli. My thoughts are with the bereaved families. May the injured recover quickly. The situation is being closely monitored & officials are ensuring normalcy is restored"

Deeply pained by the accident at the NTPC plant in Raebareli. My thoughts are with the bereaved families. May the injured recover quickly. The situation is being closely monitored & officials are ensuring normalcy is restored: PM @narendramodi  PMO India (@PMOIndia) November 1, 2017

The Congress president Sonia Gandhi too expressed her grief over the incident and has asked party workers to help rescue teams in rescuing the injured trapped in the plant.

 NTPC                           Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) November 1, 2017

The Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi who is in Gujarat showed his grief over the incident and tweeted, "Disturbed by the NTPC plant incident. My condolences are with the families of those who died. Urge the authorities to provide immediate help to the injured."

(With inputs from Vinod Mishra - Lucknow)

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New Delhi:

Two Army soldiers were killed during an encounter between terrorists & security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama on Thursday evening. A militant was also killed in the operation and his body was recovered.

A senior police officer not willing to be quoted said, On intelligence inputs a joint operation including Jammu and Kashmir Police and Indian Army was launched in Pulwamas Samboora village.

He added the security forces had learnt that few militants were camping in the forested area near the village. The militants opened fire when the security forces approached them. The security personnel retaliated. In the retaliatory firing one terrorists were killed.

Till the time report was filed gunbattle continued between security forces and militants.

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New Delhi:

In a bid to fight against the terrorism, US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have to come together, the White House said after Modi offered his condolences to Trump over the phone following New York attack.

Trump accepted the condolences of Modi following New York terrorists' attack in which eight people dead and about a dozen others injured, the White House added.

Modi strongly condemned terrorism, and offered thoughts and prayers for the victims and their families, a readout of the call said.

"The two leaders resolved that India and the United States will continue to fight together against the global scourge of terrorism," the White House said.

Earlier in a tweet yesterday, Modi had condemned the attack seen as the deadliest in New York since 9/11.

"Strongly condemn the terror attack in New York City. My thoughts are with the families of the deceased & prayers with those injured," he said.

British Prime Minister Theresa May also spoke with Trump over phone, according to the White House.

"President Trump and Prime Minister May agreed on the importance of closer counterterrorism coordination between the United States and the United Kingdom," the White House said.





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New Delhi :

It is in the interest of Pakistan to change its "long-standing" relationship with terrorist organisations, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said, underlining that the Trump administration will give the country an opportunity to act on actionable intelligence.

"The conversation with the Pakistani government is for them to recognise that they will be one of the greatestbeneficiaries of a successful peace process in Afghanistan, Tillerson told lawmakers during a Congressional hearing onMonday.

Tillerson, who visited Afghanistan, Pakistan and India last week, was responding to questions on Pakistan's co- operation in the fight against terrorism in the aftermath of Trump's South Asia Policy.

"Pakistan lives with two very unstable borders, one with Afghanistan, one with India and our message to them is -- Youhave to begin to create greater stability inside your country and that means denying safe haven to any of these organisations that launch attacks from your territory," he said.

"So, we are going to enter into an effort to have greater sharing of certain intelligence information, he said, addingthat Pakistanis have indicated that they will act if the US provide them information.

"We're going to have to test that, give them an opportunity to do so," Tillerson said. "And so, what will change is that Pakistan will find it in their interest to begin to disassociate these long-standing relationships that have developed over time with certain terrorist organisations, the Haqqani network, the Taliban, inside of Pakistan, which may have served their purpose for stability once upon a time but they no longer serve thatpurpose, he said. Tillerson said that it is up to Pakistan to think about its long-term stability and it future by changing that relationship with these organisations.

In August, President Trump had unveiled his Afghanistan and South Asia policy in which he had hit out at Pakistan for providing safe havens to "agents of chaos" that kill Americans in Afghanistan and warned Islamabad that it has "much to lose" by harbouring terrorists.

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Bharuch:

A video is making round the corners showing a college going girl climbs atop Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhis open roof matador to click a selfie with him.

The video was recorded on Wednesday evening during the third round of his Navsarjan Yatra in Gujarats Bharuch.

The Congress vice-president was moving in an open-roof matador. He was greeted by more than thousands of people during his rally. The Special Protection Group (SPG) engaged in his security faced a tough time in keeping supporters away from him.

In the video uploaded by ANI, one can see a college going girl dodging security personnel managed to climb the open-door matador. She presented Rahul Gandhi with a bouquet, shook hands with the Congress vice president and clicked a selfie with him. She was later helped by the SPG to get down of the matador.

#WATCH: A girl gets onto Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi's vehicle during his roadshow in #Gujarat's Bharuch, takes a selfie with him pic.twitter.com/blEnRXS2FK  ANI (@ANI) November 1, 2017

However, it is yet not clear how the college going girl managed to dodge Rahul Gandhis security circle.

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Australian have impose restriction on residents and citizens those have been in India within 14 days of the date they plan to return home will be banned from entering Australia as of Monday. Let us share here that on violation of this will face fines and jail, government officials said.

Here it is to be noted that This would be termed as criminal offence for its citizens to return home from India. Let us share that the temporary emergency determination was issued late on Friday. While this is the first time Australia has made it this kind decision. The move is part of strict measures to stop travellers to Australia from the world's second most populous nation as it contends with a surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths.

However, Health Minister Greg Hunt said in a statement that the restrictions come into effect from May 3 and breaching the ban risks civil penalties and up to five years imprisonment .

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by Sumon Corraya

The incident took place in Sarakdanga, a village near Naogaon. The victims home was destroyed, their food and valuables stolen, and both parents and children beaten. The attackers are from the same village and want to seize the Christians land. Despite a complaint, the police have not yet arrested anyone. The parish priest met with the victims and wanted to meet the attackers as well, but they fled.

Naogaon (AsiaNews)  A Christian family has been attacked and their home destroyed after a group of Muslims stormed it in order to seize their farmland.

The incident took place on 24 April in Sarakdanga, a village near Naogaon, and the family is now living in fear.

The attackers are from the same village which is home to only two Christian families. Everybody else is Muslim. The two Christian families are members of Chandpukur parish.

Salina Baska, one of the victims (picture 1), filed a complaint against the attackers, but the police refused to help her. Instead, they asked the victims for money. So far no one has been arrested in connection with the incident.

Muslims destroyed our mud house (picture 2), said the 38-year-old ethnic Santal. They stole our tin roof, took the rice, food, everything of value. They also beat me and my husband with a stick, even my children.

Her family has been living on land that belonged to her ancestors. But the attackers bought land next to them and now want to take over their neighbours land.

Being Christian and a minority is a problem, she explained. If Muslims want to, they can take over our land, occupy it quickly and easily. But let us not lose hope. We shall fight to keep our land.

The attackers now have made threats against Salina Baska demanding she withdraw her complaint.

The parish priest of Chandpukur, Fr Belisario Ciro Montoya, a Colombian associated with the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), told AsiaNews that his parishioners in Sarakdanga are terrified.

There are only two Christian families in that village, he said. They have valid property documents, but those Muslims want to seize their land illegally. It's an injustice.

I asked local authorities that they be guaranteed safety and that their home be repaired and that they be given compensation for damages.

The priest, who is putting together a file with information and documents, visited the family. He would have liked to have met the attackers as well, but they fled.

Catholics in Chandpukur are tribal people. Most of them are very poor. They are often victimised by majority Muslims because of their faith and in connection with land disputes.
Pakistan federal government on Saturday imposed a ban on Youm-e-Ali processions, in view of surging coronavirus. However, majalis will be permitted under strict SOPs which are already in place for Ramadan.

As per sources who told a leading international daily, it says an important session on the conduct of Youm-e-Ali was held at the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), chaired by Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar. Minister for Interior Sheikh Rasheed, Minister for Religious Affairs Noor-ul-Haq Qadri and SAPM on Health Dr Faisal Sultan were also present. The provincial secretaries and representatives of law enforcement agencies attended the session through video link.

"Keeping in view the risk factor due to the ongoing surge in Covid spread across the country and particularly in major urban centres, it was decided to ban all sort of processions while holding of Majalis has been permitted under strict Covid SOPs which are already in place for Ramazan ul Mubarik," read an NCOC statement.

The forum emphasised the need to engage religious scholars and community leaders at provincial and district levels for the implementation of these decisions. Pakistan has seen record deaths in recent days from the coronavirus, and stricter restrictions on movement and gathering in public are planned for the upcoming Eid holiday.

On Saturday, authorities reported 4,696 new confirmed Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours and 146 deaths from the disease.

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According to a statement issued by the Prime Minister and Health Ministry, it says that the Israeli government on Friday decided to prohibit travel of Israeli citizens to seven countries over high Covid-19 morbidity and fear of the spread of variants of the virus. The seven are Ukraine, Ethiopia, Brazil, South Africa, India, Mexico and Turkey, the Xinhua news agency reported. The ban will take effect on Monday, and will last at least 13 days, the statement said.

The decision follows a ministry's warning against travel to the seven destinations, reflecting both the current situation and the morbidity levels according to several criteria such as the countries' declarations, the percentage of vaccination and recovery, and evidence of variants.

The ban does not include non-Israelis who live in these countries permanently, nor does it apply to stays at airports of these countries for connecting flights. On Friday, Israel reported 87 new Covid-19 cases, raising the total number in the country to 838,481.

Meanwhile, reports from England says that coronavirus reproduction number, also known as the R number, has risen slightly to between 0.8 and 1.1, up from between 0.8 and one last week, according to the British government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE). This means that on average, every 10 people infected will infect between eight and 11 other people. When the figure is above one, an outbreak can grow exponentially.

About 66,200 people in Britain tested positive for coronavirus in the week to April 24, down from 105,000 people the previous week, Britain's Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Friday.

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Kathmandu, April 30

The Ministry of Health and Population has informed that the countrys Covid-19 tally has reached 323,187 as of Friday afternoon.

The ministry says 5,657 new cases were confirmed in the country in the past 24 hours.

In this period, 15,391 swab samples were tested. So far, 2 million and 473,956 people have been tested in the country.

Likewise, in this period, 525 people underwent antigen tests for the virus, of which an additional 70 were found infected.

As of today, 38,813 cases are active.

In the past 24 hours, 928 people have achieved recovery whereas 33 deaths have been reported.

Of the total cases so far, 281,095 people have achieved recovery. Likewise, 3,279 died, according to the ministry.

Nearly 60 are quarantined across the country.
Nepal houses diverse religious and ethnic groups with different cultural festivals throughout the year. Regardless of the cultural differences and different religious and traditional beliefs, in these festivals, people gather to celebrate them together with fervour and zest.

There are numerous festivals celebrated in Nepal, but only some are considered more important. So, here are some of Nepals most important festivals.

1. Buddha Jayanti

Shakya Monastery of Tibetan Buddhism, Seattle, Washington. Photo: Wonderlane

Buddha Jayanti commemorates the birth of the Lord Buddha, which occurs during the night of the full moon in the first month of the Nepali calendar. This year, it falls on May 26. The auspicious day started being celebrated around 543 BC and, every year after that, Buddhist devotees flock to Lumbini, to pay their respects to Buddhas life and teachings.

People, especially women, visit viharas to observe the Buddhist sutras with standard all-white attire and avoiding non-vegetarian food. Devotees eat kheer (a sweet rice porridge), recite stories of Buddha, and make donations.

2. Asar 15

Women planting saplings on the occasion of Asar 15, in Bhaktapur, on Monday, June 29, 2020. The day is also celebrated as Ropai Jatra.

In a country where a major part of the population is still dependent on agriculture, the monsoon itself also marks a festival for farmers. The 15th day in the month of Asar (or Aashadh), popularly called Asar 15, is being celebrated as an agricultural festival for centuries. Few years ago, the government endorsed the tradition and decided to celebrate it as Ropain Diwas or Dhan Diwas (National Rice Plantation Day or National Paddy Day).

This is completely a farming festival, celebrated every year. It falls on June 29, 2021, next.

Ropain Diwas has a strong relationship with people in almost all parts of the country and also impacts their cultural and economic life. Even non-families also gather together to enjoy the traditional delicacy of dahi-chiura (yoghurt and beaten rice).

3. Saaune Sankranti

Luto Phalne tradition being observed. Photo: Kiran Babu Subedi

This is the first day of the fourth month of the Nepali calendar, which next falls on July 16, 2021. This festival holds significance in rural Nepal as people observe a unique Luto Phalne tradition.

The whole family gathers on the yard, outside the house, ignite small pieces of firewood and throw them on all sideswishing the family would not catch luto (scabies) throughout the year.

In urban Nepal, however, the tradition of throwing away lighted fire wishing good health is not as vibrant as it used to be in villages. As the young people of the village are in cities or abroad, the tradition is dying out gradually.

4. Janai Purnima/Raksha Bandhan

A priest putting janai, the sacred thread, over the shoulders of a devotee on the occasion of Janai Purnima, at Pashupatinath Temple on Thursday, August 15, 2019. Photo: Chandra Bahadur Ale

Janai Purnima is a major festival for Brahmin and Chhetri communities following Hinduism in Nepal. On the full moon day of the fourth month of the Nepali calendar (August/September), men wear a sacred thread known as janai whereas both men and women wear a sacred wristband also known as raksha bandhan. (The festival itself is also known as Raksha Bandhan.)

On this day, people visit various holy sites. Among them, the Gosainkunda trek is more interesting for outsiders.

The festival will be celebrated on August 22 this year.

5. Gai Jatra

People escorting a cow to mark the occasion of Gai Jatra at Hanuman Dhoka, Kathmandu, on August 4, 2020. Photo: Chandra Bahadur Ale

Gai Jatra is a traditional festival that takes place in August/September, exactly one day after Janai Purnima. It is one of the major festivals of the Newa community of Kathmandu valley; nonetheless, the festival exists throughout the country.

On this day, people roam around the city dressed as a cow in fancy clothes or walk together with a cow with photos of their lost ones.

The festival is a celebration dedicated to families who lost loved ones throughout the year. They share sorrows but also feel comfort in knowing that their lost ones are safe in their afterlife.

It is also common for people to cross-dress, and for the LGBTQIA+ community to parade in the city.

The festival will be celebrated on August 23 this year.

6. Krishnaashtami/Janmaashtami/Krishna Janmaashthami

File: People throng the Krishna Temple to offer their prayers, on the day of Krishnaashtami, in Patan Durbar Square.

According to myths, Lord Krishna was born on the eighth day of the waning moon of August. The deity has special importance in the Hindu religion and a key role in the Bhagwad Geeta, as a mentor to Arjuna. The day will be observed on August 30 this year.

On this day, devotees flock to the Krishna Mandir in Patan to celebrate the festival. Men and women visit this temple to sit in vigil, waiting for midnight to arrive. They light butter/oil lamps as a sign of felicitation and devotion to the lord. Some religious groups also carry Lord Krishnas images in a procession, accompanied by jubilant crowds and musical bands, throughout the city.

7. Teej

File: Women dance on the day of Teej in Pashupati area.

Teej is a major religious celebration that is observed mostly by women of the Nepali Hindu community. It is a fasting festival during which women pray for marital happiness, the health of their spouse and children, and the purification of their own body and soul. This festival occurs in August/September; this year, it is on September 9.

Women gather and enjoy music along with dances with their friends and families during this celebration. They also exchange gifts such as tika, bracelets, etc. On the eve, they also gather to have dar, a special kind of dish that is eaten by women to prepare for the fast.

8. Indra Jatra

People pull the chariot of living Goddess Kumari marking the commencement of the eight-day festival, Indra Jatra aka Kumari Jatra, in front of Kumari Ghar at Basantapur, on Monday, September 5, 2017. Photo: Bikash Shrestha

Indra Jatra is Kathmandus largest religious street festivals in Nepal. This eight-day festival is mostly celebrated by the Newa communities and is referred to as Yen Ya (festival of Kathmandu). The festival honours the Hindu god of rain and heaven, Indra.

However, Indra Jatra is a festival celebrated by both Hindus and Buddhists devotees. The festivities are focused mostly on Basantapur or Kathmandu Durbar Square area.

The festival is also called Kumari Jatra where chariots of living gods Ganesh and Bhairav, as well as goddess Kumari, are pulled around the city. On this day, goddess Kumari steps out of Kumari Ghar, her residence in the square. The chariots are taken out from Basantapur to different parts of the town for people to get a glimpse of the festival. It starts on September 19 this year.

9. Dashain

Tika and jamara for the tenth day of Dashain.

Dashain is the biggest and most important Hindu festival in Nepal. The festival commemorates the victory of good over evil and nine forms of Goddess Durga. Dashain is observed for ten days, starting on October 7 this year.

It is also known as Bijaya/Vijaya Dashami or Bada Dashain. The festival celebrates the day when Lord Ram won over Ravana.

It is also the time for people to visit friends and family for a get-together and share a meal. People dress in new clothes and accept tika on their forehead and jamara from the hands of their elders.

10. Tihar

File: An illuminated street in Kathmandu during the Tihar/Deepawali festival, 2019.

Tihar is Nepals second most popular festival and is also called the festival of lights and colours. It starts on November 3 this year.

Tihar is a Hindu festival dedicated to many Hindu gods and goddesses, including Laxmi, Yamaraj and Yamuna.

It is observed for five days in total. The first day is devoted to crows (the death god Yamarajs messenger), and the second day to dogs (for their loyalty and protection). The festival is also dedicated to Goddess Laxmi and to the bond between brothers and sisters (Bhaitika). The Newa community also celebrates Mha Puja and their new year, on the fourth day.

11. Chhath Parva

File: A Chhath celebration in Kathmandu in 2019. Photo: Bikas Shrestha

On this day of worshipping the sun god, thousands of pilgrims flock to the holy town of Janakpur and mark the day. People visit this southeastern side of Nepal to reach the Janaki temple and take ceremonial baths in the rivers and ponds. The day this year is on November 10.

The devotees light candles, sing songs, and spend the night before Chhath Parva on the banks of rivers and ponds. They pray to the sun for safety from skin diseases.

On the day, people prepare a special dish known as thekuwa.

12. Maghe Sankranti

An assortment of sesame seed laddus, molasses, ghee, and yam eaten during the first day of Nepali month of Magh (December/January).

On the first day of Magh (the next is January 15, 2022), people observe Maghe Sankranti. It is observed as the beginning of the auspicious month of Magh in Nepal. The festival aims to signal the end of the winter season and the arrival of spring. On the day, people wish for better health and fortune.

Hindus celebrate this festival by taking a ceremonial dip in holy river confluences such as the one in Devghat, Chitwan. During the day, families get together and share meals including sesame seed laddus, molasses, ghee, sweet potatoes, and yam. During the entire Magh month, devotees worship Lord Vishnu by performing pujas and reading the holy Bhagwad Gita.

13. Mahashivaratri

An aerial view of Pashupatinath Temple on Shivaratri, on March 3, 2019.

Mahashivaratri is a Hindu festival dedicated to Lord Shiva that takes place in February/ March. The next Mahashivarati festival is on March 1, 2022.

Tens of thousands of pilgrims visit Kathmandu and reach the Pashupatinath temple for a huge celebration. They reach the holy site on the eve and chant holy scriptures. Those who cannot make it to Kathmandu visit nearby Shiva temples that are across the country.

It holds great importance in the Hindu community.

14. Phagu Purnima/Holi

People celebrating Holi festival at Basantapur Durbar Square on Monday, March 9, 2020. Photo: Chandra Bahadur Ale

Phagu Purnima is a Hindu festival held on the full moon day in the month of Phalgun during the spring season, from February/May. The festival will be celebrated next on March 17, 2022.

Arguably, it is one of Nepals most famous festivals among foreigners filled as it is filled with vibrant colours, friendship, and love. As a sign of appreciation, people gather and put colours on each other. It is celebrated for two days throughout the country with the people of Nepals Terai region celebrating Holi the day after Kathmanduites do.

15. Chaite Dashain

Representational graphic of Goddess Durga killing demon Mahisasur

Chaite Dashain occurs in the Nepali calendars final month, Chaitra. Goddess Durga is worshipped on Chaite Dashain day, and animal sacrifices are performed in some temples, especially those dedicated to Durga Bhawani.

In Nepal, this festival is observed nationally and people enjoy spending time with their families and friends, eat healthy food and invite their loved ones and friends to the feast.

On the next day, Ram Nawami is also celebrated when people observe a fast and visit Lord Rams temples. The next Chaite Dashain falls on April 9, 2022, and Ram Nawami on April 10.
Apple faces an antitrust complaint in Europe, TikTok has a new CEO and YouTube TV disappears from Roku. This is your Daily Crunch for April 30, 2021.

Also, this is my last day at TechCrunch, and therefore my last day writing The Daily Crunch. It's been a blast rounding up the news for all of you, and thank you to everyone who took the time to tell me they enjoyed the newsletter.

On Monday, TechCrunch will be debuting a more collaborative approach to The Daily Crunch  stay tuned!

The big story: Europe charges Apple with antitrust breach

The European Commission has filed preliminary charges against Apple, focusing on complaints by Spotify that Apple's App Store policies  particularly its requirements around in-app purchase  are anti-competitive.

"The Commission takes issue with the mandatory use of Apples own in-app purchase mechanism imposed on music streaming app developers to distribute their apps via Apples App Store, it wrote. The Commission is also concerned that Apple applies certain restrictions on app developers preventing them from informing iPhone and iPad users of alternative, cheaper purchasing possibilities.

Apple has 12 weeks to respond to the charges.

The tech giants

ByteDance CFO assumes role as new TikTok CEO  Eight months after former TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer quit in the midst of a full-court press from the Trump administration, TikTok finally has a new permanent leader.

Roku removes YouTube TV from its channel store following failed negotiations  Earlier this week, Roku warned customers that the YouTube TV app may be removed from its streaming media players and TVs, and it alleged that Google was leveraging its monopoly power during contract negotiations to ask for unfair terms.

Computer vision inches toward common sense with Facebooks latest research  One development Facebook has pursued in particular is whats called semi-supervised learning.

Startups, funding and venture capital

Developer-focused video platform Mux achieves unicorn status with $105M funding  I think videos eating software, the same way software was eating the world 10 years ago.

Story continues

As concerns rise over forest carbon offsets, Pachamas verified offset marketplace gets $15M  The startup is building a marketplace for forest carbon credits that it says is more transparent and verifiable thanks to its use of satellite imagery and machine learning technologies.

Heirlume raises $1.38M to remove the barriers of trademark registration for small businesses  Heirlume's machine-powered trademark registration platform turns the process into a self-serve affair that wont break the budget.

Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch

Optimism reigns at consumer trading services as fintech VC spikes and Robinhood IPO looms  But services that help consumers trade might need to retool their models over time to ensure long-term income.

Amid the IPO gold rush, how should we value fintech startups?  If there has ever been a golden age for fintech, it surely must be now.

The health data transparency movement is birthing a new generation of startups  Twin struggles seem to be taking place: a push for more transparency on provider and payer data, and another for strict privacy protection for personal patient data.

(Extra Crunch is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.)

Everything else

Cloud infrastructure market keeps rolling in Q1 with almost $40B in revenue  Thats up $2 billion from last quarter and up 37% over the same period last year.

The second shot is kicking in  A new episode of the Webby-nominated Equity podcast.

Pitch your startup to seasoned tech leaders, and a live audience, on Extra Crunch Live  We're bringing the pitch-off format to Extra Crunch Live.

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch's roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you'd like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 3pm Pacific, you can subscribe here.
SAO PAULO, April 30, 2021 /CNW/ - Igua Saneamento S.A. ("Igua") has won the auction for the concession of Block 2 in the privatization of water and sewage services from CEDAE, Rio de Janeiro's water and sewage company, for a fixed grant fee of R$7.286 billion (C$1.7 billion). The new concession will be funded with additional capital invested into Igua from among its current shareholders, as well as debt financing.

CPP Investments (CNW Group/Canada Pension Plan Investment Board)

Igua is a water and sewage service holding company currently operating 18 concessions and contracts across five Brazilian states, and providing sanitation services for more than six million people. This new transaction will expand its operations to the Greater Rio de Janeiro area and add one million people to its client base.

"Igua prepared itself for this moment. We have been investing resources and energy to improve our processes, transform and innovate within the sanitation chain and delight our customers. We are ready to be leaders in the sector, promoting a better quality of life for the people we serve. Winning this auction amplifies Igua's ESG strategy, leveraging the company's approach to value creation and reinforcing our vision of being a leader in this theme in Latin America, as well as setting an international benchmark in sustainability. Winning the contract for one of the CEDAE blocks is also an important milestone for Igua's expansion plans, and it further reinforces the company's long-term strategy," said Carlos Brandao, Chief Executive Officer of Igua.

The new concession will have a length of 35 years. CEDAE, as a state-owned company, will remain responsible for supplying clean and treated water to the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro. Igua will be responsible for water distribution, collection, treatment and sewage services in its designated concession area.

Existing Igua shareholder Canada Pension Plan Investment Board ("CPP Investments") will make a capital investment of up to R$1.7 billion (C$385 million) into Igua, including the acquisition of both equity and convertible debentures, to fund the new concession. CPP Investments will continue to hold a 46.7% aggregate equity stake in Igua, as announced in March, 2021.

Story continues

"This additional investment to support Igua's expansion into Rio de Janeiro will help address the high demand for improved water and sanitation services in Brazil over time, making this a good fit for long-term investors such as CPP Investments," said Scott Lawrence, Managing Director and Head of Infrastructure, CPP Investments. "Igua can continue to build on its strong track record in the sector in the coming years, and we look forward to working with our partners to support that development."

Alberta Investment Management Corporation ("AIMCo") will continue to own a 38.6% aggregate stake in Igua and will invest up to R$500 million (C$115 million) in Igua to fund the new concession.

"We are excited for Igua in its successful tender on Block 2 and for the opportunity to invest further in the business alongside like-minded partners to increase the service levels in water distribution and sanitation in the State of Rio de Janeiro. This long-term investment is an excellent addition to our infrastructure portfolio that is well-aligned to meeting our clients' investment objectives," said Ben Hawkins, AIMCo's Senior Vice President of Infrastructure & Renewable Resources.

"Igua's winning bid at CEDAE's auction shows our competitiveness, strength and commitment to grow and expand investments in water and sanitation services in Brazil," said Paulo Mattos, co-founder and CEO of IG4 Capital Group ("IG4 Capital"). IG4 Capital has a proprietary 3.8% stake in Igua and is the asset management company that manages the FIP Igua and FIP Mayim, jointly Igua's controlling shareholders, in partnership with CPP Investments and AIMCo.

BNDES Participacoes S.A. ("BNDESPar") also owns a direct stake of 10.9% of Igua.

Igua continues to be the third-largest private water and sewage treatment service provider in Brazil. The company is focused on acquiring concessions and forming public-private partnerships to build scale in the Brazilian water and sewage sector.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

About Igua Saneamento

Igua is a sanitation company, controlled by IG4 Capital, which operates in the management and operation of water supply and sewage systems through concessions and public-private partnerships. It is currently present in 37 municipalities in five Brazilian states  Alagoas, Mato Grosso, Santa Catarina, Sao Paulo and Parana  through 18 operations that benefit about 6 million people. The range of services provided by the company places it among the largest private operators in the country's sanitation sector. In 2020, Igua joined the Brazilian Network of the Global Compact, an initiative of the United Nations (UN) to mobilize the business community in the adoption and promotion of Ten Principles universally accepted in the areas of human rights, work, environment and combating corruption. In 2020, for the fourth consecutive year, Igua was named a great company to work for by Great Place to Work (GPTW). It currently employs around 1,500 people. The name Igua is a direct reference to the universe in which it operates: in Tupi-Guarani, "ig" means water. www.Igua.com.br.

About CPP Investments

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) is a professional investment management organization that manages the Fund in the best interest of the more than 20 million contributors and beneficiaries of the Canada Pension Plan. In order to build diversified portfolios of assets, investments are made around the world in public equities, private equities, real estate, infrastructure and fixed income. Headquartered in Toronto, with offices in Hong Kong, London, Luxembourg, Mumbai, New York City, San Francisco, Sao Paulo and Sydney, CPP Investments is governed and managed independently of the Canada Pension Plan and at arm's length from governments. At December 31, 2020, the Fund totalled $475.7 billion. For more information, please visit www.cppinvestments.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.

About Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo)

AIMCo is one of Canada's largest and most diversified institutional investment managers with more than $118 billion of assets under management. AIMCo was established on January 1, 2008 with a mandate to provide superior long-term investment results for its clients. AIMCo operates at arms-length from the Government of Alberta and invests globally on behalf of 32 pensions, endowments and government funds in the Province of Alberta. For more information on AIMCo please visit www.aimco.ca.

About IG4 Capital

IG4 Capital is a specialist alternative investment asset management firm focused on generating superior performance with purpose through value creation, ESG integration and sustainable capitalism in the emerging markets. With offices in London, Sao Paulo, Santiago, Lima, and Madrid, IG4 has approximately USD 700 million under management.

For more information on IG4 Capital please visit www.ig4capital.com.

IG4 Logo (CNW Group/Canada Pension Plan Investment Board)

AIMCo Logo (CNW Group/Canada Pension Plan Investment Board)

Igua Logo (CNW Group/Canada Pension Plan Investment Board)

SOURCE Canada Pension Plan Investment Board

Cision

View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/April2021/30/c3580.html
A logo of Twitter is pictured next to the logo of Facebook in this illustration photo in Sarajevo

As Indias Covid-19 crisis becomes insurmountable, the Narendra Modi government has been widely criticised for trying to filter what the world hears about the worst pandemic outbreak anywhere on the planet.

In the last week, the government has sent notices to Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to take down around 100 posts and block several accounts that were discussing the pandemic and its management. On April 23, at the behest of the Indian government, Twitter blocked over 50 tweets from politicians, filmmakers, and others criticising the mishandling of the pandemic.

Earlier this week, the #ResignModi hashtag was blocked on Facebook for hours. The social media platform later restored it and said it was a mistake and not because the Indian government asked us to. Facebooks policy communications director Andy Stone did not reply to Quartzs query on whether this error was caused by an algorithm or a human.

While such mistakes are not entirely impossible, people arent buying Facebooks reasoning mainly because the Modi government has a history of shutting down critics.

In the past, this government has got social media firms to clamp down on criticism about the farmers protest, the Citizen Amendment Act, the revocation of Article 370 in Kashmir, and more. It has also threatened social media platforms if they did not follow instructions.

Buzzfeed journalist Ryan Mac called this mistake by Facebook truly bizarre and worrying.

Modi censorship

The Twitter battle between Modi and his critics

The governments justification for getting these posts removed is that it is trying to control the spread of misinformation and curb panic. But many believe the real motivation is to suppress and intimidate.

The goal, many said, is to take control of the public narrative. Earlier, what we witnessed was shoot the messenger, Sevanti Ninan, a media critic, told DW. Now, the government is shooting the platform too.

Story continues

Modi censorship

Modi censorship

Some of the tweets that were taken down this week were from members of political parties that oppose Modi. These include posts from Indian National Congress member Revanth Reddy, All India Trinamool Congress member Moloy Ghatak, and anti-Modi freelance journalist Pieter Friedrich, among others.

These tweets mention rising cases and deaths, a shortage of medicines, accompanied by photos of Modis election rallies even as the Covid wave became uncontrollable, scores of funeral pyres, and patients struggling outside hospitals.

Theres no denying that all these claims are accurate.

Cases and deaths are skyrocketing despite severe undercounting, medicines are running out, finding a hospital bed is becoming next to impossible, and elections are continuing in full force.

Pieter Friedrich

A blocked tweet about Modis handling of the pandemic.

How can the Indian government takedown Twitter posts?

The Section 69A of Indias Information Technology Act, 2000 authorises the government to block any digital information if it is satisfied that it is necessary or expedient to do so, in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognisable offence.

This law gives Modi government a nearly free run to dictate what stays and what is removed from Indian social media.

On Twitters side, the company says when we receive a valid legal request, we review it under both the Twitter Rules and local law. If the content violates Twitters rules, the content will be removed from the service. If it is determined to be illegal in a particular jurisdiction, but not in violation of the Twitter Rules, we may withhold access to the content in India only.

Modi censor

Modis censorship bid.

But a glance at Twitters relationship with the Indian government proves the two are constantly in a tug of war.

In February, the government threatened Twitters officials with jail time for not taking down specific tweets and handles related to the farmers protest. When there was a delay in Twitter taking down the material, several prominent leaders in Modis cabinet started endorsing a rival home-grown app, KooIndias Parlerand asking their followers to join that platform to connect with them. Perhaps fearing loss of business, Twitter, which has over 17.5 million users in India, restricted the visibility of some hashtags and penalised 500 accounts but it continued to push back, refusing to limit accounts of news outlets, journalists, activists, and politicians, citing free speech.

In 2019, too, the government had warned that Twitter executives could face up to seven years in prison if the platform didnt follow content removal instructions for what the government deemed objectionable and inflammatory.

Facebook, which has 20 times more users in India than Twitter does, seems to have more crafty intentions.

Is Facebook currying favour from Modi government?

On April 28, when Facebook temporarily banned #ResignModi, more than 12,000 posts got hidden for hours. That it happened accidentally is plausible. Facebook has earlier accidentally blocked and then restored hashtags like #savethechildren and #sikh.

But skeptics have a reason for why they dont trust Facebook.

The worlds largest social media site, led by Mark Zuckerberg, has been accused of pandering to Modis BJP in the past. It has taken down pages of BJP rivals and turned a blind eye to BJP flouting ad rules. Its allowed fake accounts to artificially boost a BJP politicians popularity.

Last October, Facebooks India public policy head Ankhi Das had to step down following allegations that she had asked staff members to not apply hate speech rules to posts of BJP politicians.

And on the day of the #ResignModi debacle, Zuckerberg was silent on India. Instead, he was chatting about memes on the other side of the world.

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NEW YORK, April 30, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Champignon Brands Inc. (Champignon or the Company) (OTCMKTS: SHRMF). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at newaction@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980.



The investigation concerns whether Champignon 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 17, 2021, Champignon announced that the Company has determined to withdraw and refile its condensed interim consolidated financial statements and managements discussion & analysis (MD&A) for the three and six month periods ended March 31, 2020. The Company advised investors that [f]or the three and six month periods ended March 31, 2020, the Company previously recognized intangible assets in connection with the acquisitions of Artisan Growers Ltd., Novo Formulations Ltd. and Tassili Life Sciences Corp. (the Acquisitions) that aggregated approximately $12 million, but that subsequently management determined that the financial statements needed to be restated to correct the accounting for the Acquisitions as the assets do not meet the definition of intangible assets for the purposes of international financial reporting standards and as result will be recorded as transaction costs in the Companys statement of loss and comprehensive loss. The Company also announced that it was determined that a shareholder and contracted consultant (the Consultant) of the Company was a related party with respect to the Acquisitions.

On this news, Champignons stock price fell roughly $0.08 per share, or 10.78% to close at $0.69 per share on February 17, 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

Story continues

CONTACT:

Robert S. Willoughby

Pomerantz LLP

rswilloughby@pomlaw.com




The Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce honored local businesses for their successes, entrepreneurial spirit, and community commitment Friday at its 30th annual Awards & Gala.

Jaime Garza won the Entrepreneur of the Year award. Garza has combined his video and storytelling talents to help business owners, nonprofit leaders and brides and grooms tell their stories through video. During the pandemic, he teamed with other small businesses to highlight the resilience of our community.

A. Smith Bowman Distillery received the Small Business of the Year award. Shutting down to the public for months when COVID-19 hit, the business pivoted from one kind of distilled product to another, producing hand sanitizer and disinfectants. The first batches were donated to local front-line workers and those at risk in the community.

Atlantic Builders received the Large Business of the Year award. The chamber notes that executives Adam Fried, Tom Schoedel and Gene Brown lead with core values that extend to employees as they provide exceptional service to their customers. Atlantic Builders has served the region for 33 years, and they are proud to have a management philosophy of If the company does well, we all do well.
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As A-Plus is a member of the Nebraska Arbors Association, Bogus said they received an email asking members to do something special for the community and share pictures for the newsletter.

So that kind of planted the idea, he said. And then I was just thinking of different areas around Fremont, some public areas like schools or lakes like this.

Bogus said the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission was grateful for the offer, as Nebraska only has one tree crew that covers all of the states parks.

Theres like 93 state parks, and so they get about a week from that tree crew here, he said. And really, you could spend multiple weeks out here just getting out all the broken branches and everything thats overhanging these areas where a bunch of people are.

Starting at 7 a.m., the team spent about eight hours removing eight dead trees hanging over campsite and roads. Bogus said the work done by the four-man team was standard for their usual work.

Although A-Plus doesnt offer any tree-planting services, Bogus said hes hoping to make the free removals an annual Arbor Day event for the company.
The federal entities report vaccinations directly to the federal government, and the the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention counts doses administered by those entities in a state as being administered by the state, so the state is now incorporating these administrations in the dashboard to be consistent with CDC reporting methodology, Ricci said in an email.
Saturday

American Red Cross blood drive, 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Arlington City Auditorium. To schedule an appointment to donate blood, visit www.redcrossblood.org.

HomeStore, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., 701 E. Dodge St., Fremont. The HomeStore sells donated items at discounted prices. Proceeds support the mission of Fremont Area Habitat for Humanity.

Pancake feed, 8-11 a.m., Nickerson Volunteer Fire Department, 101 Maple St. Freewill donations will be collected. A silent auction will start at 8 a.m. at the fire department and move to One Horse Saloon from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. All proceeds will be used for the 2021 Nickerson 150th Celebration.

Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, 10 a.m., Chapter 5 Club, 136 N. Main St., Fremont.

Empress Open House & Sneak Peak, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., 419 N. Main St., Fremont. Attendees can learn more about plans for the historical building and the fundraising endeavors. Free hot dogs, popcorn and gift bags with special treats will be available for the first 250 people who stop by. Guests from the Star Wars universe, Imperial Storm Troopers and heroes from the Rebel Alliance will be on hand.
Randy Reyzlik hired Sue Reyzlik as KFB's executive director, with one of her first projects being an arboretum site and tree planting at Midland University.

"Since I was a Midland graduate, that was something he and I worked on with the state arboretum, trying to get an arboretum and trying to get something with Kiewit and trying to get the funding and all that stuff," she said.

Working with Randy Reyzlik, Sue Reyzlik said she began to learn more about how government worked and how to benefit different groups of people within the community.

"I just fell in love with him over all the Kiewit grants, planting the trees," she said. "To me, there wasn't anything more appropriate for our relationship, and understanding what it means to do something for your community, to be a part of your community, to strengthen it and to make it grow and be beautiful."

After developing a close connection, the two were married on April 4, 1987.

"To have someone who was dedicated to Fremont and to my hometown and brought new ideas and new ways of approaching problems and benefiting the community and taking care of my hometown, this friendship just grew," Sue Reyzlik said.
The United States and NATO officially began withdrawing their last troops from Afghanistan on May 1, leaving the war-torn country to an uncertain future amid raging violence in the absence of a peace deal.



Up to 3,500 U.S. troops and some 7,000 NATO soldiers are to leave Afghanistan by September 11, ending two decades of foreign military presence.



U.S. and NATO troops, as well as military equipment had already started leaving the country, but Washington has made an issue of the May 1 date because it is a deadline agreed with the Taliban in February 2020 to complete the pullout.

Amid concerns that an emboldened Taliban might attack the forces during the withdrawal process, a NATO official said any attacks would be met with a forceful response.

Late on April 30, acting Afghan Interior Minister Hayatullah Hayat ordered top police commanders to "increase the checkpoints in cities and carry out search operations on entry gates," saying the Taliban "might increase the violence."



A stark reminder of the continued insecurity came late on April 30, when a car-bomb explosion in Pul-e Alam, the capital of Logar Province, killed at least 26 people and wounded more than 100.



No one claimed responsibility for the blast.

U.S. President Joe Biden last month announced the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan by September 11, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the United States in 2001.



Thats four months later than the deadline agreed by the previous U.S. administration of Donald Trump.



NATO has said it would follow the same timetable for withdrawing members of its Resolute Support mission.

Afghan acting Defense Minister Zia Yasin told reporters on May 1 that U.S. and allied troops will gather at Bagram Air Field, the largest U.S. military installation in Afghanistan, from where they will leave the country.



The pullout will be a test for the Afghan security forces, with U.S. generals expressing concerns in recent weeks that it might lead to the collapse of the Afghan government or a new civil war.

But Afghan President Ashraf Ghani insisted earlier this week that government forces were "fully capable" of keeping the militants at bay.



Ghani said in a speech that the pullout of foreign forces means the Taliban have no reason to fight.



"Who are you killing? What are you destroying? Your pretext of fighting the foreigners is now over."



Peace efforts stalled after the Western-backed government in Kabul and the Taliban began talks in Qatar last year.

An Istanbul international summit was for last month but the event was postponed because the Taliban refused to participate, and no new date has been set.

With reporting by AFP and dpa
When the Mason City Trades and Labor Assembly received its official charter from the American Federation of Labor on Oct. 8, 1915, the document was signed by then AFL President Samuel Gompers.

At that point, the London native had been the organization's head since 1886 when it arose out of the former Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions.

That very same year, on May 4, in Chicago, at Haymarket Square, a workers strike for an eight-hour work day descended into chaos when an unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at police who had killed a person the day prior while breaking up a strike at a local machine company. After the bomb went off on May 4, gunfire rang out and at least 11 people were killed (seven police and four civilians). Steadily, in the years after that, May 1, May Day, began to be marked as International Workers Day.

On Saturday, in Mason City's Central Park, a coalition of local people who self-describe as activists and union supporters intend to march in solidarity with workers and recognize a celebration that's more than a century old.

The theoretical

Tahmyrah Lytle, a local activist and business manager who helped put the event together, said that they first got invested in such political thought when they were a freshman at NIACC. "There was a rep for Bernie (Sanders) in the cafeteria. It was September 2015. I immediately ran over and was hooked," Lytle said.

From there, they said that they continued to do further research by reading socialist economist Karl Marx, following what other like-minded politicians in the country were up to and even taking "underground alternative university" courses. At a local level, Lytle said that it hasn't been difficult to find folks they can chat with about all of this.

"I think its easy to find people who agree with all of these concepts but are afraid to put the term socialism on it than it is to like find a socialist book group or something," Lytle said.

Coming to terms

Jan Wann, a 70-year-old Mason City resident whose nonagenarian mother still draws $10 a month in supplemental medicine benefits through a union husband gone more than 30 years now, said that most of her life up to the past year, she would sort of flinch whenever she would come to the precipice of identifying as a socialist.

Despite going to anti-war protests as a teenager in the 1960s and raising funds as a retiree for Standing Rock Sioux Reservation residents protesting the Dakota Access oil pipeline, Wann chaffed at the label. She thinks that the younger generation, made up of people such as Lytle are less fearful of the label.

"I think they know theyre not ever going to pay off anything. Theyre not going to pay off their car. If they have a house, theyll never pay off the house. Kids Ive met are pretty hip to the fact that theyre not going to have that," Wann said.

In 1952, an article in the Globe Gazette called the previous year's opening of the Mason City Labor Temple on Pennsylvania Avenue at Fifth Street Southeast the "climax of 57 years of organized labor in Mason City" and C.I. McNutt, a Des Moines-based attorney, dedicated the building to "humanity."

Though Wann wasn't around at the time, she said that a union friend of hers has told her plenty of times about the strength of local unions in Mason City during the period.

"He told me that Mason City was one of the most union towns in the United States. If you went to a barbershop and it wasnt union, youd turn around and go to a different one that was union. They stood together. They only supported unions. All these factories were unionized and it made a difference," Wann said.

First 50 years of labor politics in Mason City 1900- Typographical Union No. 406 signs its charter on December 27. At that time, 18 members signed the charter. 1903- Bricklayers and Masons No. 21 formed on February 13. 1911- Barbers Local No. 618 comes into existence. 1912- The Cerro Gordo Leader, a Socialist newspaper, first hit newsstands on November 30. It was sponsored by the Socialist Society of Mason City and suspended publication not long after launching. 1915- Mason City Trades and Labor Assembly, which the Typographical Union was affiliated with, received its AFL charter on October 8. 1937- Plasterers and Cement Finishers were organized. 1939- Mason City Firefighters No. 633 began. 1951-Labor Temple opens.

The realities

At age 64, lifelong Mason City resident Tom Willett has been involved with labor and unions for decades now. Not all of that involvement was a roaring success.

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Willett can still remember trying to organize Schneider Metal only to see jobs shed entirely and the plant to close its doors. According to him, getting fired is a part of trying to organize when companies aren't willing to cooperate. Even in cases that didn't end in firings, Willett recognized the difficulties with labor-based political action.

"(We) did everything you can try to do to organize at Armour in Mason City (in the mid-80s)," he said. "They filed 52 unfair labor practices against us and all 52 were thrown out ... Then they refused to negotiate, it took us two years to get a contract."

According to Willett, other plants in the Armour chain organized after that contract was secured. "We went to some of those plants to work with organizers," he said. "Mason City made labor history."

Willett said that locally, statewide and nationally, there's a major misconception that labor organizers somehow want to skip right to striking because it's such a massive risk. "Good union leaders do not want to go on strike," he said. "Thats the equivalent of going to war."

But locally, in a town such as Mason City, which Willett said had a strong labor focus, workers would know they would have support if they did go to war.

"There was a brotherhood. Its like family. At that time, people were tight. We used to have Labor Day picnics and all the trades would all get together with people with Decker and you got to know them. So if they went on strike, youd know that weve got to help them out," he said.

Still alive

Wann said she believes that more than a little bit of that worker-first, economically-minded spirit is still alive in Mason City and that part of the reason for that is an increased understanding of what causes imbalance.

"People are mad. People are worried. People my age probably think they did something wrong somewhere. They messed up in their life and thats why they cant afford to do what they used to do: Go on a vacation. Have a car with less than a quarter of a million miles. I dont think young people believe that. That theyve done something wrong," she said.

Over the course of 2020, a North Iowa man who previously organized for the Sanders campaign and goes by "Conrad Organizes" on Facebook attempted to start a chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, which Wann herself got involved with. Despite that effort somewhat fizzling, he said he still believes that the area is viable for all kinds of labor-based politics in the future.

"I became more and more certain that Northern Iowa has as much potential for socialist or communist organizing as almost any other part of the country," he said.

Dillion Daniels, another Mason City activist, explained part of why he thinks that is.

"North Iowa is a part of the rust belt. Small towns are in decline, factories and businesses and good jobs have long since closed their doors, many have left the Midwest looking for greener pastures, those who remain are left working 2 or 3 jobs to scrape out an even half way decent living," he said.

Despite what he recognizes as setbacks, such as a decline in union membership by more than 10% from 1980 through the present, Willett said that he thinks it's possible to reclaim that former brotherhood in North Iowa. For him it would start with Congress passing the PRO Act which AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told NPR would "protect and empower workers to exercise our freedom to organize a bargain." It's a put up or shut up kind of moment.

"If you want to be the party of the working people, show us and pass the PRO Act," he said.

He also believes that the COVID-19 pandemic has helped bring some of these issues back to the forefront where they need to stay and be built on: "Were singing songs praising these frontline workers, how about giving them a decent living? Its not just doctors and nurses. Its the maintenance people keeping the generators running. The janitors disinfecting the place. The truck drivers and dock workers bringing produce to the grocery stores. They are essential."

Willett then said that recognizing that essentialness is a net good for everyone in the community: "All workers benefit from strong unions whether you belong to a union or not."

The May Day event in Central Park is slated to begin at 2 p.m. and last until 5 p.m.

Jared McNett covers local government for the Globe Gazette. You can reach him at Jared.McNett@globegazette.com or by phone at 641-421-0527. Follow Jared on Twitter at @TwoHeadedBoy98.

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DES MOINES  Landlords in Marion and Iowa City will again be allowed to deny leases to renters who rely on federal housing choice aid like Section 8 vouchers under a measure signed into law Friday by Gov. Kim Reynolds.

In all Friday, the governor signed 37 bills, including legislation that attempts to protect Iowas livestock production industry by creating an unauthorized sampling criminal offense  the latest version of what critics call an ag gag law aimed at whistle blowers.

Under the new housing law, Senate File 252, counties and cities will be banned from adopting local measures that prohibit landlords from refusing to rent to someone using a federal housing voucher. That provision became effective upon the governors signature, but existing ordinances prohibiting a landlord from discriminating against a source of income  like are on the books in Iowa City, Marion and Des Moines  would not be repealed until January 2023 so renters affected would not lose their homes right away.
Menu prices likely will have to increase, as well, he said.

Rick Barker, owner of Mucho Taqueria and Tequileria on Craghead Street, said $9.50-an-hour minimum wont affect the way he operates his business because thats starting wage for his employees.

It really wont change anything today, said Barker, who has about 30 employees at Mucho.

However, he opposes government intervention in determining wages.

The market should set the price for labor, rather than the government, he said. The market should determine the value of a task.

If the government increases the price for $10-to-$15-per-hour, entry-level positions, then there will be fewer jobs available at those wages, he said.

Another challenge Barker said he faces is a shortage of workers, which forced him to temporarily close his other restaurant, The Garage. Kong has faced the same situation. They both blame the scenario on generous unemployment benefits offered because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Youve got a bunch of people at home collecting unemployment, Kong said, adding that he could use two or three more workers.
Closed in 2013 because of dwindling student population and a budget deficit, the former Taylor Elementary School in Danville will hum back to life in the fall with modernized sounds of learning.

There will just be one thing missing from this school comeback: the students.

The facility will morph into a first-of-its-kind Virtual Academy in Danville, catering to all grade levels. Money for the $1.05 million makeover comes courtesy of federal coronavirus funding.

The advantage, Danville school leaders said, will be a common space for teachers to collaborate with other instructors who are navigating the still-new, and sometimes turbulent, waters of remote education. Also, technical support will be available on-site for any glitches that are sure to arise with new technology.

The coronavirus pandemic precipitated a new style of learning from home, and some students  along with their parents  want that to continue, even as both Danville and Pittsylvania County schools plan to return to a traditional, face-to-face schedule five days a week in the fall.

Virginia requires all school districts to offer the option of virtual learning, even with a push to get students back in the classroom following the March 2020 shutdown because of COVID-19.
Americans trust in the national news media is low and getting worse. Mainstream journalism has lost the respect of much of the public, though soul-searching and changes by the industry could reverse this trend.

A new study by Media Insight Project funded by The Associated Press and the University of Chicago found bedrock journalism values are respected less by much of the general public than other competing moral values. For example, the study reported that people who put more emphasis on authority and loyalty tend to be more skeptical about fundamental journalism principles. A mere 11% of Americans fully support all five of the journalism values tested. The study advises journalists to rethink how they frame their content to better resonate with broader audiences.

This new study doesnt surprise conservatives like me at all. A Gallup public opinion survey of Americans trust in institutions released near the start of the COVID-19 pandemic found eight of the nine institutions studied received a majority positive ratings  led by U.S. hospitals, with 88% approval. The media ranked dead last, and only the media received more negative than positive marks.
One thing is certain: The classrooms we all return to in September and the instruction that takes place in them will not be the same as they were on March 13, 2020. We have the power to make them even better, Arlotto wrote.
Drugs and violence

The West Boulevard strip mall has been owned by Abdoulkader Bouche and Mikiyas Gebremeskel since Dec. 30, 2016. The pair also own the West Blvd. Shop, where Bouche often works, according to the federal filing.

Neither could be reached for comment Monday. The number listed for the convenience store had been disconnected or changed. The case file does not list an attorney for the two.

Federal prosecutors say criminal activity at the site has risen dramatically under the current ownership. In 2017, the strip mall had 155 police calls for service. In 2020, that number jumped to 285, an 84% increase.

Despite pressure from police, the owners have done little to assist law enforcement, the DOJ claims in the filing, even refusing to have their names listed on arrest warrants or other legal documents.

Safety concerns may be a factor. According to a 2019 report on the strip mall by WBTV-Channel 3, many of the merchants in the area said they were afraid to go on camera out of fear of reprisals from drug traders.

Its an everyday thing. You can take your camera and point it out the window and see. All they do is sell drugs, Khaled Alhalek told the station at the time, when he ran a store across the street.
Video Only | Your family can enjoy an amazing experience starting tonight and for as many nights as you like over the next two weeks. Well send instructions on how to create the SLEEP SQUAD interactive experience using items you have at home and your imagination!

Video + Official Dreamtime Travel Kit | You get the same as above, but with this package you also get an official SLEEP SQUAD Dreamtime Travel Kit shipped to you that includes a dream journal, sleep mask, stickers, and a star projector. If you purchase this package now, you have access to the video for four weeks, and can expect Kit delivery in under two weeks.
Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte on Friday signed two bills dealing with social issues that sharply divided most majority Republicans and all minority Democrats through the legislative session that adjourned Thursday.

The bill from Republican Sen. Cary Smith, of Billings, would allow parents of students in public schools to opt out of sexual education classes and ban any provider of abortion services from providing information about sex ed in schools.

Planned Parenthood is the largest provider of sex ed in the country.

The law takes effect in July.

The second bill would require a transgender Montanan to have gender-affirming surgery and petition a court to update their birth certificate.

After the 2017 legislative session, the state Department of Public Health and Human Services under the administration of former Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock went through the administrative rule process to enact a rule that set up a process requiring a form and correctional affidavit for a person to update their birth certificate. In advocating for Sen. Carl Glimm's bill, Republicans objected both to the agency implementing the rule and the policy itself.
His critics on Capitol Hill and from environmental groups have said Zinke's efforts on behalf of conservation were overshadowed by his aggressive pursuit of Trump's energy development agenda and favoritism toward big industry.

"It's not that I don't care about the environment, but if you're going to produce energy, it's better to produce it here," he said Friday.

His last months at Interior were marked by increasing numbers of investigations into his conduct. Some of the investigations concluded with no findings of wrongdoing but others remain unresolved. He said Friday there was "never any substance" to allegations he misused the office.

The Interior Department inspector general in 2018 found Zinke violated travel policies when he took his wife Lola in government vehicles. In 2019, the Office of Special Counsel said he violated a ban on federal employees engaging in political activity when he tweeted a picture of himself wearing socks with Trump's campaign slogan.

Investigations not publicly resolved include a probe of his decision to reject a casino sought by two tribes in Connecticut and a land deal involving the chairman of an energy company that did business with Interior when Zinke was there.
Q: Do you have any news on whether "The Blacklist" and "Grey's Anatomy" will be returning next season? Both shows seem to be "winding down" this season (but I hope not).

A: The Blacklist has already been renewed for another season. As of this writing Greys Anatomy has not been renewed but ABC wants it as long as star Ellen Pompeo is there. However, Pompeo is reportedly at the end of her current contract and has not signed off on a new one. That has led to off-camera challenges, with Greys showrunner Krista Vernoff telling The Hollywood Reporter in March that she has been structuring this entire season so it can serve as a series ender if the show does not go on. That may explain why you felt the show was winding down.

Q: I was a big fan of the original Equalizer. I recently saw part of an episode of another version that featured a largely Black cast, including the title character, and was set in Europe. Can you tell me anything about this? Was it a series, and where can I find it?

A: For those of you tuning in late, The Equalizer was originally a series on CBS from 1985 to 1989. Edward Woodward starred as the title character, named Robert McCall, for most of the run. Richard Jordan played another character helping with the equalizing for a time when Woodward had to lighten his schedule following a heart attack.

In 2014, the series concept was reworked for an Equalizer movie starring Denzel Washington, with the new character again called Robert McCall. A sequel, The Equalizer 2, followed in 2018; that movie was set partly in Europe, and I suspect that is what you saw. Both of those movies have been released on DVD and Blu-ray and other formats. In February of this year, a new television series with the Equalizer title premiered on CBS. It stars Queen Latifah as Robyn McCall. You can find episodes streaming on the Paramount+ subscription service, on demand and on CBS on Sunday nights.

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Q: Do you know why Mina left The Resident?

A: Fans were surprised when Dr. Mina Okafor left the shows Atlanta setting to return to Nigeria. But it is what Shaunette Renee Wilson, who played Mina on Foxs medical drama, wanted. Her widely reported statement said: After deeply thoughtful reflection, I approached the producers some time ago asking to leave the show and they agreed  and gave my character a wonderful sendoff. I am appreciative of them for allowing me to embody as beautiful of a soul as Dr. Mina Okafor. I would also like to thank the studio, network, cast, crew and, most of all, the wonderfully dedicated fans of The Resident for their support over the last four seasons. And, as TVLIne reported, the show has left the door open if Wilson wants to return sometime.

Q: In the early 60s there was a show with Keenan Wynn where he played a worker in a construction business. Can you find out what the name of it was?

A: I think you are remembering The Troubleshooters, a half-hour adventure series on NBC in 1959-60. According to the reference Total Television, Wynn and Bob Mathias (yes, the Olympics decathlon champ) played a pair of construction engineers who traveled the world troubleshooting problems for their company.

Q: In the old Two and a Half Men series there is a woman called Chelsea. Could you tell me her name and if she played in any other shows?

A: Jennifer Taylor played Chelsea Melini, one of the girlfriends of Charlie Harper (Charlie Sheen) on the CBS sitcom. She guest-starred in an array of TV series before and after Men, as well as some movie appearances. Most recently, according to her Twitter account (@JenniferBTaylor), she released a book of poetry, Heart on Your Sleeve Girl. She has also been cast in a planned new thriller, A Deadly Deed. You can find out more about her at the website http://jennifertaylor.me.

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BELLEVILLE  Redistricting is a process that can seem perplexing and irrelevant to voters. But how Illinois lawmakers redraw the state's legislative maps over the next few months could have an enormous impact on the power of your vote.

Here's a roundup of key questions raised this week about redistricting.

Why is Illinois talking about redistricting now?

The U.S. Census Bureau released 2020 data on Monday telling each state how many of the 435 seats in Congress they will have.

Every state gets at least one House seat. The rest are apportioned based on a state's population. States that lose population, according to the Census, are at risk of losing seats, those that gain residents can add seats. The U.S. Supreme Court requires that all Congressional Districts be roughly equal in population.

Illinois will lose one of its 17 congressional districts and saw a decrease of more than 18,000 people since 2010, according to the bureau's calculations. That means when a new Congress is seated in 2023, the state will have one fewer representative in the House.

The news set off a series of last-ditch arguments about how Illinois lawmakers, who are in charge of redistricting, should draw the map.

Little time remains for them to decide, hence the fervor this week between the GOP and Democrats, who hold a majority and will likely control map drawing.

The Illinois constitution says lawmakers must approve a map by June 30. If they don't, it kicks off a convoluted constitutional mechanism involving an independent commission and even drawing names out of a replica Abraham Lincoln hat to finalize a map  something Democrats hope to avoid.

Will Republicans get a say?

Illinois Republicans may have lost their last chance at taking redistricting out of completely Democratic hands. It almost certainly means Democrats will take another opportunity to draw the map to their political advantage.

The same happens in Republican-controlled states, while others, such as California and Arizona, have removed lawmakers from redistricting altogether and handed the job over to an independent third party.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic halted lawmaking in Springfield last year, legislators were on board with a bipartisan effort to make similar changes to Illinois' constitution. It never happened, and now Republicans are banking on an eleventh-hour maneuver that would only be in effect for this redistricting cycle.

The GOP says the 2020 Census data available for now isn't reliable. Detailed information won't be available until August at the earliest because of pandemic delays, and Republicans want to wait until it's ready. Then, a special independent commission would be in charge of drawing the map, Republican lawmakers say.

But with little appetite in the General Assembly to pass such legislation, and the threat of eventual legal battles, the outlook isn't good for the GOP. Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker soured their mood even more this week when he appeared to back away from a campaign promise to veto any map drawn by lawmakers. In 2018, then-candidate Pritzker advocated for an independent commission.

The governor still says he'll veto an "unfair map," but said the state needed a constitutional amendment to create such a commission. That didn't happen, he said at a news conference in Centreville Friday.

Pritzker backpedaled from his pledge, said state Sen. Terri Bryant, R-Murphysboro.

"This is the same song and dance those of us in the minority have come to expect from the majority party," Bryant said at a news conference in Springfield Wednesday.

What does this mean if you live in southern Illinois?

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Democrats will likely try to further limit the influence of downstate Republicans in state and national politics, although it's getting harder to do as southern Illinois leans increasingly to the GOP.

After the 2000 and 2010 Census, lawmakers consolidated downstate congressional districts, isolating conservative voters into fewer districts  and under fewer U.S. representatives. From 1972 to 1983, there were four representatives south of Springfield. Now there are three: the 12th, 13th and 15th Congressional Districts.

It's likely to become two, said John Jackson, a visiting professor at the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute in Carbondale.

"We tend to lose population for all the reasons rural America is losing population, and we will be the most vulnerable," Jackson said.

The 15th Congressional District, represented by U.S. Rep. Mary Miller, R-Oakland, is the most vulnerable as a first-year congresswoman, as Jackson sees it. The chair of the Democratic Party of Illinois, Rep. Robin Kelly, has also hinted that Democrats should target Miller over the more moderate Republican U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger of northern Illinois, the Chicago Sun-Times reported earlier this month.

If her district is eliminated, Miller could face either of two more senior Republican congressmen: Mike Bost of Murphysboro or Rodney Davis of Taylorville. It could put both Bost and Davis to the test of how far they are willing to go to support the far-right and pro-Trump ideologies Miller espouses.

"This will be a real test of just how much following and influence Trump has in this part of central and southern Illinois," Jackson said, "because Mary Miller has made no bones about her great admiration and support for Donald Trump."

If Democrats are able to eliminate one Republican, they'll likely be happy regardless of who it is, said former 15th District U.S. Rep. John Shimkus, a Republican from Collinsville who now teaches political science at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

"If they have three members of Congress and can make two seats out of that by eating one up, they don't care which Republican survives in that," Shimkus said.

A bigger problem for southern Illinoisans could be geography. In a sprawling district, they're less likely to see their member of congress. Shimkus said he used to apologize to constituents for not making it to their hometowns often because it takes at least five and a half hours to drive the 15th from north to south.

"The people in the district know it, when you have to cover one third of the state of Illinois, it's almost impossible," Shimkus said.

What does redistricting mean for Black and brown communities?

Drawing political boundaries for racial reasons isn't allowed under federal law. Drawing them for political purposes is, though the two often end up being the same, said Kevin Anderson, a professor at Eastern Illinois University who specializes in African-American politics.

"You can't draw a district and stuff all the white people in one area," Anderson said, "but you can gerrymander for political reasons. You can draw districts in a weird shape to put as many Republicans in a district, as many Democrats in a district."

As a result, racial groups can still get bunched together into super-majority districts, which could be a good thing because they'd have a representative who advocates for their specific issues.

But it can end up having the opposite effect because lumping racial groups together creates extremes. There may be one elected official who strongly supports gun control and criminal justice reform, and another nearby who opposes them. Neither have to answer to a diverse electorate either in terms or race or ideology, and their agendas might cancel each other out.

As southwestern Illinois turns more conservative, bipartisan partnerships could become more scarce.

"If you concentrate minority voters in one or two districts, yeah, they get to send their person to Springfield, but you have almost no influence in the areas around you," Anderson said. "It becomes very difficult to build coalitions."

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A state audit released earlier this year warned that Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raouls office had weaknesses in cybersecurity that potentially left sensitive information on the agencys computer network susceptible to cyberattacks and unauthorized disclosure.

Three weeks ago, a hack resulted in data being stolen from the attorneys office in a ransomware attack, Raoul acknowledged in a statement Thursday.

A ransomware gang known as DoppelPaymer is believed to be behind the attack, in which some data from the attorney generals office was posted online.

Ransomware is malicious software that infects a computer system. Those behind ransomware then demand money to allow the system to work properly again.

While we do not yet know with certainty what was compromised in the ransomware attack, we are working closely with federal law enforcement authorities and outside technology experts to determine what information was exposed, how this happened, and what we can do to ensure that such a compromise does not happen again, Raoul said in a statement.

The office said work is taking place around the clock to rebuild its computer network.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker said at an unrelated event in St. Clair County that the attorney generals office operates on a completely separate platform from the rest of state government and sought to assure residents the issue is not more widespread.

Nobody should be afraid that state government systems are under attack today, Pritzker said.

A routine audit prepared last year and released in February noted that the attorney generals office, which represents the state in court and is involved in consumer protection issues, maintains computer systems that contain large volumes of confidential or personal information such as names, addresses, and Social Security numbers of the citizens of the state.

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The audit, prepared for the state auditor general by accounting firm West & Co., found that the agency had not performed a comprehensive formal risk assessment to identify and ensure adequate protection of information (i.e., confidential or personal information) most susceptible to attack and had not classified its data to establish the types of information most susceptible to attack to ensure adequate protection.

The office told auditors its information technology department didnt do a comprehensive internal cybersecurity risk assessment ... due to competing priorities, according to the report.

In addition, the coronavirus pandemic further delayed IT initiatives since March 2020, the report says.

The attorney generals office didnt dispute the findings but told auditors it administers its cybersecurity system as though all data in its possession is at high risk and susceptible to attack.

The office has not commented publicly on the effect the recent breach has had on day-to-day operations, but its civil rights division cited the attack this week in asking a federal judge for more time to file a response in a matter related to the ongoing consent decree governing operations at the Chicago Police Department.

On April 10, 2021, the state learned that the computer network in the attorney generals office had been compromised, the court filing says. As a result of this incident, counsel for the state have been unable to access work product and research.

Brett Callow, a threat analyst with cybersecurity firm Emsisoft, said ransomware attacks on government agencies have become more common in the U.S. in recent years.

In each of the past two years, at least 113 government bodies, from the federal level down to municipalities, were hit with ransomware attacks, according to a report from Emsisoft.

In the past, hackers would encrypt data and demand that companies or governments pay to have it unlocked, Callow said. More recently, theyve begun releasing data online to apply more pressure.

This is not the first time hackers have compromised state computer networks. In 2016, a breach of the states voter registration database by Russian hackers compromised the personal data of 76,000 Illinois residents. The incident was detailed in the special counsel Robert Muellers report on Russian interference in that years presidential election.

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An Illinois House measure with one sponsor that passed in the late evening hours last week will harm families with children in private schools, opponents say.

House Bill 2789 would have the Illinois Department of Public Health provide requirements for in-person instruction at not just public schools, but non-public schools, to include "personal protective equipment, cleaning and hygiene, social distancing, occupancy limits, symptom screening (and) on-site isolation protocols."

The measure also would have the state department investigate and potentially shut down not just public, but nonpublic schools, for not complying with COVID-19 mitigation, instead of local public health officials managing such orders.

State Rep. Michelle Mussman, D-Schaumburg, was the sole sponsor of the bill and called it for a vote just after 11 p.m. April 22.

"We have a plan that can work effectively for the concerned parties and allow parents, students and staff to feel that they are returning to safe and healthy learning environments," Mussman said.

State Rep. Avery Bourne, R-Raymond, who has complained that bills with more than enough co-sponsors to pass the House aren't getting called, was the only one on the House floor speaking in opposition. She said the measure isn't about COVID-19 mitigation oversight and goes too far.

"This means that for all of the schools that worked really hard to get students back in seats, I'm sorry, the state now says you're closed," Bourne said. "This takes away all local control."

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Last spring, as the pandemic hit, Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued an executive order that prohibited all in-person education. That also impacted private schools. But for the fall semester, Pritzker let local school officials decide how they would return.

For months, the vast majority of public schools were fully remote. Many families sought full in-person education for their children, something that in many areas of the state was only provided by private schools.

Jessica McGee, a parent of three children in private schools in Springfield, said she fears the worst from the proposed legislation.

"I don't want to be Chicken Little here, but I do fear that 'OK, well if our public schools are closed, so is yours,'" McGee said. "It makes absolutely no sense that we should do that to our schools. Our schools are open, they've been open, there's no sense to close them simply because the public schools have done so."

McGee had her children in public school before COVID-19 hit. She was concerned the measure passed the House in the late-night hours.

"This is a major bill, this is a major piece of legislation, that would allow the governor to shut down private and non-public home schools," she said. "So we're just concerned that it's not being heard and it's just going to happen without any kind of response."

The measure is now in the Illinois Senate and is supported by the Illinois Education Association, one of the state's leading public school unions.

The association's website said the measure keeps staff safe "by finally putting enforcement measures in place."

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The money should be put toward eligible uses by March 11, 2023. Early priority will be given to very small businesses and those owned by women, veterans or socially and economically disadvantaged entrepreneurs, according to a news release.
The U.S. Census Bureau made official Monday something most in Illinois already knew: the state would lose one seat in the U.S. Congress due to population loss here and rapid growth in the Sun Belt.

It was hardly a surprise as the state has lost at least one seat every 10 years since 1940, when it peaked at 27 districts. This year, the number goes from 18 to 17. Thirteen seats are currently held by Democrats and 5 by Republicans.

"It's not good to have your congressional delegation shrink," said John Shaw, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. "But at the same time, it's not the end of the world. Illinois still has some power players in Washington, particularly in the Senate, that allow its voice to be heard and its influence to be felt."

But the loss will have significant ramifications for the states congressional delegation, who await the results of redistricting, a process controlled by Democratic lawmakers in the Illinois General Assembly.

One lawmaker, Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Moline, did not wait to settle her fate, announcing Friday that she will not run for reelection in 2022.

Bustos said the decision was not out of fear of losing. Her district, which includes the Quad Cities, Peoria, Rockford and vast swaths of rural territory in between, has been trending Republican, with former President Donald Trump carrying it in both 2016 and 2020 and few Democratic-leaning areas around to shore it up in a remap.

But on balance, Illinois' congressional Republicans appear to have the most at stake as Democrats seek to at least maintain the 13 seats they currently hold.

Shaw said "it would be shocking if the final map that emerges is not one that has a very partisan tilt to it," with Democrats viewing Illinois as one of the few opportunities for the party to shore up its fragile House majority.

"Speaker Pelosi has a big picture view of the world, and she has a fairly narrow majority in the House," Shaw said. "And it may be that 2022 is a tough year for Democrats given just how midterms are. So she's gonna look at the map and say, 'Hey, Illinois, (currently) 13 to 5, you know, let's at least make it 13 to 4.'"

"I think national Democrats are going to want a lock in this advantage here, and then state Democrats, of course, are going to have that same incentive," he said.

Dave Wasserman, the House editor for Cook Political Report, a newsletter that analyzes elections and campaigns in the United States, said Illinois Democrats are likely to have three main mapmaking objectives: eliminating one of the five GOP-held downstate districts; protecting Democratic incumbents, including vulnerable members like Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Naperville; and defeating Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville.

Wasserman said the district most likely to be eliminated is that of Rep. Adam Kinzinger. The Channahan Republican was one of 10 in his party who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump in January.

Not only is his district geographically easy to chop up, but many (Democrats) figure he'd lose a primary to a pro-Trump candidate anyway, Wasserman wrote in a Twitter thread, which included a picture of a hypothetical Congressional map where 13 of the 17 districts voted for both Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton by at least a 10% margin.

Davis, on the other hand, has been a target for Democrats ever since he was elected in 2012.

His current diagonally-shaped district includes cities like Bloomington, Champaign, Decatur and Springfield that add an urban element to the otherwise rural constituency. It was drawn by Democrats, who also controlled the last redistricting process, to give the party a chance to compete downstate.

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Its not lost on Davis, who quipped earlier this month at an event in Decatur that there's a distinct political reason why there are four public universities in my district, four private universities in my district and we touch eight community college districts.

That was a district drawn to elect somebody from the other party in 2011 and we've been able to beat the trend every single election cycle this decade, Davis said. But it's going to change.

Indeed, there are scenarios where Davis district maintains its current urban elements while dropping GOP-leaning rural areas and picking up additional Democrat-leaning constituencies in the Metro East region, particularly in Alton, Belleville and East St. Louis.

Under that scenario, Davis wouldnt necessarily be drawn out of his district, but it could be rendered unwinnable for a Republican.

"I think there are vulnerabilities in that district for Congressman Davis," said Nick Kachiroubas, a public service professor at DePaul University. "Not necessarily because of his job, but because of political dynamics and the opportunity to ... redistrict to pull some of the Republican support out of that district and add pieces of Democratic support to the district he's in."

This is a tactic Democrats used during redistricting in 2011. GOP Reps. Judy Biggert, Bob Dold and Joe Walsh all lost reelection to Democrats the year after their districts were drastically altered. Kinzinger only returned to Congress after defeating fellow Rep. Don Manzullo in a GOP primary after they were drawn into the same district.

This could force Davis and Reps. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, and Mary Miller, R-Oakland, to compete for two safe GOP seats in southern Illinois.

As long as they live in their home state, members of Congress can live outside the district

Davis earlier this week repeated his request to state legislative Democrats to utilize an independent redistricting process.

As state lawmakers determine the course for redistricting, I urge the Democrats to keep their word on supporting independent redistricting, particularly Governor Pritzker, who pledged to veto any partisan-drawn map, Davis said. The politicians in charge should not be using the census to pick their own voters and protect their own power.

Still, Kachiroubas said there are limits to any party's map-drawing abilities, noting that some districts drawn in 2011 for Republicans in the Chicago suburbs are now held by Democrats while districts drawn for Democrats downstate are now held by Republicans.

"We look at the 14th Congressional District up here, where I would say four years ago, that was a pretty safe Republican district, and the fact that a Democrat, Lauren Underwood, was able to unseat that district and then maintain it sort of says a lot about ... shifts in voters' mindsets," he said.

A crucial unknown is exactly where most of the state's population loss has occurred. But, many suspect it's downstate, where the districts are already larger than in the Chicago region and are represented by Republicans.

"We don't have the real granular detail now, so it's hard to know exactly where the population changes have occurred," Shaw said. "But I think it's pretty safe to assume that the districts of downstate Illinois are likely to face some adjustments and that the loss of the congressional seat is likely to occur in the southern half of the state."

Unlike the state legislative map, which must be enacted by June 30 if Democrats wish to avoid a bipartisan commission, there's no such clock for congressional maps.

Lawmakers are likely to move forward using data from the American Community Survey as 2020 census data will not be available until Sept. 30.

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The best incentive for being vaccinated against COVID-19 should be that it helps guard ourselves and others against a debilitating and potentially fatal virus.

But some of us apparently require more.

Employers around the country are offering additional incentives. Some big employers have announced that they will encourage employees to get vaccinated, offering cash, paid time off or extra vacation time. Kroger is providing a one-time payment of $100 to full-timers. Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores is paying $75. Others are paying employees who have appointments to be vaccinated during work time and allowing for recovery time post-vaccination.

One of the problems is, naturally, a legal one. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has said employers may need to reasonably accommodate people with disabilities who would be at risk if they were vaccinated by exempting them from any mandatory vaccination policy that an employer may institute. In addition, an employer may need to accommodate an employee's sincerely held religious belief that opposes vaccinations.

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The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is working on guidelines, but has announced no deadline for its decisions.

Some businesses are going beyond cash, time off and gift cards. A Michigan marijuana dispensary is offering a free pre-rolled joint. Krispy Kreme is offering a free doughnut a day for a year.

That inventiveness is still rare, though. Close to 90% of organizations are undecided about such offerings.

But an incentive might be exactly what the doctor ordered as we seek to increase the percentage of vaccinations.

According to a report by the Society for Human Resource Management, nearly one-quarter of employed Americans who probably or definitely wont get vaccinated would consider getting their shot if offered a cash bonus or stipend. Its probably safe to assume a considerable number of that reluctant batch are people in their 20s and 30s, those who seem to be most likely to avoid vaccinations.

The slowing of vaccinations is jarring particularly mere weeks after seeing people wait overnight in line in cars for an opportunity to get a shot. We need to get more people inoculated. If it takes novel or offbeat ideas for that to be done, let the ideas fly.

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The world is full of gray and fuzzy areas. We urge all of us to remember as we continue to consider whether statues and other tributes should stay in place or go.

College halls in both Bloomington and Charleston saw their names come into dispute. The renaming of military bases was battled by President Donald Trump. Paintings of citizens past are regularly put into and taken out of storage.

Illinois has established a task force to review the states standards for memorial enshrinement.

Rep. Tim Butler, a Springfield Republican who serves as minority spokesperson on the task force, essentially outlined the challenges the group has at hand. He said images of Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant, two former U.S. presidents with Illinois ties, should stay in place.

While review and reevaluation are warranted on many things, he said, advocating removal of monuments for people like Lincoln and Grant really gives me pause as to whether those who advocate for this position truly understand the tremendous positive impacts individuals like them have had on where our nation and world is today.

Yet, Grant is regarded as one of the countrys worst presidents. He essentially proved he knew it in both his farewell message to Congress and by his stopping at the Civil War in his 1,200-page, two-volume autobiography.

Lincoln, meanwhile, is widely regarded as the greatest president. Yet he suspended habeas corpus, oversaw an extensive wave of brutality against Native Americans and Camp Douglas' atrocities took place in the state from which he hailed.

None of us is worthy of a statue. Theres something in our history that condemns us, even if were not immediately aware of what that might be. In addition, we are all right now immediately guilty of something that might in the future appear crude, rude, socially unacceptable or unredeemable.

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Those are the rules were applying to present honors and memorials. Those standards are clearly different now from what they have been, or we wouldnt be having the arguments. What kind of standards will be in play in 2051? In 2031? In 2022?

This is a place where critics of cancel culture have it right. Some of us are going out of our way to be outraged, and others cant wait to be outraged by someone elses outrage. If someone tells you Theres a war on Christmas and you insist there is not, you dont have much middle ground on which to build a compromise.

We all have feet of clay. Thats the best thing to remember as we evaluate the legacy of others, whatever position we take on their virtues or lack of same.

Two-thirds of our presidents through Grant, who served until 1877, were slaveholders at some point. Is that shocking and disappointing from the perspective of 2021? Of course. And its important to remember that being a slave owner was not the only part of that persons life. But if were judging our ancestors by todays standards, were leaving out context. That should be an important part of the discussion.

We dont need to sit firmly on just one side of a discussion. We can acknowledge a persons shortcomings and still praise them for the positive effect theyve had on society.

Politically correct should mean simply being sensitive to the emotions of those whose feelings we may not have considered. The demonization of woke culture can be the same as the demonization of cancel culture.

The worst thing we can do with an issue is let extremists frame the debate. One of the most deplorable traits of extremists is that of wanting those with opposing viewpoints to be punished. Someone has to win, someone has to lose. And it must be public, so joy can be taken in belittling the opponent.

If we view ourselves as a divided populace, it will take nimble footwork to even attempt to put it back together.

Thats the needle the state task force must thread.

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DECATUR  After a year of sitting idle, Macon Resources Inc. and its adult outdoor activity center, Meaningful Meadows, was filled Friday with community members and clients for Field Day.

Karina Hayes, 25, visits MRI nearly every day. Field Day was one of the first opportunities to reconnect with her friends.

Im just walking around the park, she said. But lets go play on the swing set.

Meaningful Meadows was opened to the MRI clients in September 2019, before the winter months, then COVID restrictions shut it down.

Last year was going to be our first year to use it, then COVID hit, said Amy Bliefnick, MRI president and CEO. Today is the first time weve actually been able to celebrate this beautiful activity center.

The public was invited to take advantage of the outdoor area, which includes a walking track, sensory activities and swings designed for adults with disabilities. The staff provided face painting, food, an art show and field games for Fridays event. The Millikin University womens basketball team played on the Meaningful Meadows basketball court. A community kickball game took place in the open field of the area.

The event began with a dedication to two special people. Cathys Corner is a covered pavilion designed with the late Cathy Comerford in mind. She passed away in March 2019. She began attending Decaturs Progress Resource Center in 1963, before it became MRI. Along with others special to her, her brother Jim spoke to the crowd. She would be thrilled, he said about the pavilion. This is a Cathy day. The sun is shining and everybodys smiling.

Charles Elem worked at MRI for more than 25 years. He was a quiet man, did the job to the best of his abilities, Bliefnick said.

A bright blue metal bench was dedicated to Elem, who had worked his way up in the license plates division to become a foreman.

He will always be part of us here, Bliefnick said.

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MRI limited its activities during the pandemic. According to Bliefnick, many clients did not leave their group homes during the entire year. They are so happy to be back with the friends, she said.

Becca Massey, Eisenhower High School life skills teacher, was invited to attend Field Day along with her high school students and Illinois State University student teachers.

Friday's event was the first opportunity for her to visit Meaningful Meadows.

"Some of the parents had many questions about the services they're able to obtain," Massey said. "This was a nice connection."

The Eisenhower group met and mingled with MRI staff and clients throughout the day, making connections for future events. "We'll probably volunteer this summer," Massey said. "This facility is amazing. I had no idea how big it is."

The staff slowly brought the clients back to the facility. During the shutdown, they were able to bring activities to the group homes.

Fridays Field Day was created with social distancing precautions and face protection in mind. They know if they want to come back, this is what you have to do, Bliefnick said.

Audrey Walden, 40, and her friends Tammy Kindred, 44, and Dakota Canull, 21, spent part of the morning sitting on one of the brightly colored swings waiting for the activities to begin. Weve just walked around so far, Walden said.

The friends understood the importance of the day.

Its a good thing to get out once in a while and have fun with friends, Kindred said.

Contact Donnette Beckett at (217) 421-6983. Follow her on Twitter: @donnettebHR

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BRISTOL, Tenn.  Bristol Tennessee City Council members discussed giving more than $650,000 to area nonprofits and its new destination marketing organization for the upcoming fiscal year during a work session earlier this week.

Every budget season, nonprofits in the tourism, marketing and public service arenas request funds from the council for operational or other expenses in the upcoming fiscal year.

During an April 8 work session, downtown marketing agency Believe in Bristol, the Birthplace of Country Music and United Way each requested $50,000. The Paramount Center requested $25,000 and Theatre Bristol requested $20,000.

However, after discussions Tuesday, City Council members proposed giving Believe in Bristol $50,000; Birthplace of Country Music, $30,000; Family Promise, $9,000; United Way, $25,000; Paramount Center, $25,000; Theater Bristol, $15,000; Second Harvest Food Bank, $2,500; and YWCA child care program, $25,000.

All fund allocations are a part of a nearly $70 million spending budget for fiscal 2021-22 that must be voted on during a first reading Tuesday and a second reading June 1.

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Bristol Chamber of Commerce did not request funds, however, City Council discussed funding $2,500 to its programs and $5,000 to Keep Bristol Beautiful.
Former Judge Kurt Pomrenke is once again confined at Federal Correctional Institute Loretto, in western Pennsylvania, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

Pomrenke, 57, of Abingdon, pleaded guilty last November to a single count of conspiring to defraud the federal government for actions in 2016 and 2017 regarding his wife, former BVU Chief Financial Officer Stacey Pomrenke.

Judge James P. Jones sentenced Kurt Pomrenke to 12 months and one day in prison earlier this year. His projected release date is Feb. 6, 2022.

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The Loretto facility is described as a low security federal correctional institution with an adjacent minimum security satellite camp, according to the federal website. It has 795 male inmates.

It is the same place where Pomrenke served a two-month sentence in 2018 for contempt of court, after he was found guilty in 2017 of sharing information from his wifes trial with the Virginia Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission, which directly disobeyed a judges order.
Seven mayors from Northeast Tennessee counties, including Sullivan County Mayor Richard Venable, recently met with Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and other state leaders to discuss the regions needs and opportunities, according to a statement from Washington County, Tennessee.

Along with Venable, the mayors of Carter, Greene, Hawkins, Johnson, Washington and Unicoi counties coordinated the joint visit to Nashville to discuss topics such as post-pandemic economic development, mental health, workforce reentry for prisoners, opioid litigation and tourism, the release states.

Lee called the trip historic and told the group this is the first time any regions county mayors have traveled to Nashville as a cohesive group, the statement said.

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Each mayor had an opportunity to discuss projects that are important to their counties with both the governor and commissioners, Venable said in the statement. It was very significant that we had so many of our legislators meet with the group to discuss county-specific issues that benefit the region as a whole.

Along with Lee, the statement said the group met with state Comptroller Jason Mumpower and commissioners from the states finance and administration, corrections, tourism and economic and community development departments.
As the nation moves toward the end of the pandemic, plans are underway for a community-wide celebration of the Bethlehem Star.

The star has lighted the night in the community since the beginning of the pandemic and has shone as a beacon of hope, comfort, and solidarity since March 21, 2020 during the dark days of COVID-19.

On Aug. 21, the Bethlehem Star will go dark again in anticipation of being re-lit for the Christmas season.

The remembrance and celebration for the Bethlehem community will be held on the grounds of Mt. Pisgah Lutheran church, the location of the Bethlehem Star. Plans for the celebration, led by the Bethlehem Ministerial Association and the Bethlehem Star Committee, will include food, special music and activities for children and adults.

A respectful service of remembrance will be a part of this occasion together as attendees take time to recollect those who lost their lives in the pandemic. Names of family members and close acquaintances, who attended local churches or who resided in the Bethlehem community lost to COVID-19 will be read followed by the ringing of a ships bell.
Daughter Stephanie Anne Harrison Workman writes that her moms work on the book was a labor of love.

She longed and ached for the people who have a connection with Old St. Pauls Lutheran Church, for the citizens of Catawba County, and for the people of the surrounding area to understand their religious and cultural backgrounds, helping to give courage and fortitude in the midst of a chaotic and fearful world, Workman writes.

Stephen said he and Laura Anne wanted the book to reflect an unending flow of love.

The history of Old St. Pauls is a continuous chain of people who loved our Lord and wanted to serve the community, he said.

If thats not enough about love, theres an old story included in the book about a minister who was leading a wagon train through North Carolina to Missouri. The ministers wife, suffering from tuberculosis, became very ill and when they arrived at the beautiful Old St. Pauls Church site, begged her husband to allow her to remain behind so she might be buried there.

Legend has it that the young husband decided to leave her with the folks of Old St. Pauls, and after having prayers with her he kissed her and bade her goodbye.
As leaders gathered for the groundbreaking of the new Manufacturing Solutions Center building, they took time to honor a man who was instrumental in the creation of the center.

Dan St. Louis retired from his role as director of the center last June. St. Louis was a key figure in local manufacturing through his role in the formation of the Hosiery Technology Center and later the Manufacturing Solutions Center.

St. Louis received the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, an award from the state which recognizes individuals for exemplary service to the state.

Reflecting on the successes of the center, St. Louis credited the city of Conover and other partners who helped support the centers work.

The good Lord put a lot of people in my way and in the center through the years to help guide us all the way through, St. Louis said.

Several of the speakers at the event also paid tribute to St. Louis.

Jodi Geis, who succeeded St. Louis as director of the center, was in tears as she praised St. Louis for his infectious vision and skill at leading the team.
The Annual Childrens Mental Health Matters! Campaign goal is through school and community champions across the state to raise awareness of the importance of childrens mental health. The campaign also helps reduce the stigma of mental health concerns, lets parents know that they are not alone in caring for children with mental health needs, and connects families throughout the State of Maryland with information and services to help their child. This statewide campaign is coordinated by the Mental Health Association of Maryland and the Maryland Coalition of Families.
This is Peter Hitchenss Mail on Sunday column

Over many years I have learned to despise most politicians. Im not here to defend any of them.

They are, for the most part, shallow careerists, ignorant of history, utterly uninterested in facts and clueless about the results of their actions. I really have no sympathy with them, and listen with despair to their dim speeches and interviews.

Most of those who report their doings (with some honourable exceptions) are much like them.

Politics is portrayed as showbusiness for ugly people, tedious gossip about who is up or down, in or out.

But honestly, this last weeks stuff about Boris Johnson was exceptionally wretched.

Remember, the politicians and media who have flung themselves on this story with energy and glee were mainly silent and supine about the recent huge assault on Parliament, on personal liberty and on our economy.

Yet here they are, going on and on about the wallpaper and the furniture in the Prime Ministers flat in Downing Street.

I have never visited this place, but I know people who have and I am told it is not especially nice.

Nobody would live there by choice. Premiers are forced to dwell in it by stone-faced security chiefs who insist they cannot protect them if they live anywhere else.

So Id be quite happy if some of my taxes (so much of them already wasted on really bad things) went on making it reasonably comfortable. And if that means paying someone called Lulu a bit over the odds for the wallpaper, I really do not mind.

Actually, a state allowance would be much better than putting the Queens First Minister in the hands of donors, the curse of politics who will always want something in return for their generosity.

As for whether Johnson said that thing about piles of bodies, it is of course interesting, but can we think about it for just a moment?

We all say things in private that we would not say in public, especially when we are tired and angry.

Prime Ministers are entitled to assume that those who work closely with them have, in the American phrase, come inside  that is, they have exchanged their freedom to blab for access to real power.

No serious organisation could work without such a rule.

Do we actually want surveillance and disclosure of everything our leaders say in private? Think hard about that before you say that you would.

It is a weary thing to have to say this again, but most of the few truly distinguished people who have headed the Government of this country would have been destroyed if the media of the time had told the world what they were really like their private opinions, their sex lives or their financial secrets  including the one who everybody admires, Winston Churchill.

An unwelcome truth

The BBCs propaganda soap opera, Call The Midwife, is now a ceaseless megaphone for liberal causes. Last week it ventured for the third time into the topic of abortion.

Nurse Trixie, played by Helen George, pictured right, has been working in an expensive private clinic and discovered abortions are going on undercover.

She reports this to the nuns of Nonnatus House, who  being opposed to abortion, as nuns generally are  are shocked and abandon plans to collaborate with the clinic.

Yet in past episodes, an unrestrained case has been made for abortion, with the soap concentrating on the plight of the mother involved, showing a gruesome backstreet abortion in February 2013, and then another  this time fatal to the mother  in February 2019.

This was the cue for pro-abortion speeches by characters in the programme, but not a word against them, despite all the nuns in the cast.

This is odd. But perhaps the reason for it is that campaigners for abortion in this country have always liked to hide the fact that it was legal  under strict rules  before they got their way in 1967.

They dont like the idea we might have settled on a more limited relaxation of the law, rather than the annual disposal of more than 200,000 unborn babies, often on dubious grounds, that we have now.

There are believed to have been 1,600 therapeutic abortions in NHS hospitals as early as 1958, and 2,800 in 1962. More were unrecorded in private hospitals. Some researchers think there were as many as 21,400 legal abortions in England and Wales in 1966, the year Call The Midwife has now reached.

I think anything that touches on this neglected truth is unwelcome to the abortion industry and its supporters in the media.

The horror story buried in a pile of psychobabble

Reading the official report on the case of Jonty Bravery, who cruelly hurled a small child from the top of the Tate Modern, with terrible effects, makes my blood boil.

Amid all the psychobabble and jargon (the report even refuses to use Braverys real name, though his identity is obvious) is the story of someone so dangerous that he simply should not have been free to commit his terrible crime.

A school fellow so badly hurt that the injury could have been life-threatening. Bravery biting a child and saying he needed to see that he had drawn blood to satisfy his need to harm that child. Bravery attacking a staff member at a residential home with a brick, where staff then called the police because they were afraid of trying to take the brick from him. Bravery assaulting a police officer.

By the way, he was taking unspecified medication and there is the usual lack of curiosity about how he might have become so deranged in the first place, though Im assured theres no evidence of illegal drugs. The conclusion: apparently theres a shortage of specialist community provision, among other bureaucratic waffle.

No, theres a shortage of common sense, rapidly becoming tragic.

BBC's latest panic attack

Isnt it interesting how certain countries, normally barely mentioned, suddenly get huge prominence on the BBC?

For months the Corporation reported on Covid figures from Brazil almost every day, somehow failing to mention that it is the sixth most populous country on Earth  an important context for those statistics.

Nor did they compare it with Peru, which locked down hard where Brazil did not. Yet, at the last count, the two countries had almost exactly the same number of Covid deaths per million  Brazil 1,900, Peru 1,868. The comparable figure for the UK is 1,903. By the way, the Czech Republic, one of the first countries to close its borders and the first in Europe to mandate face coverings, is way above us in this dismal chart, at 2,737 Covid deaths per million.

Now it is the turn of India. Once again, when citing figures, little effort is made to point out that India has a population of almost 1.4 billion. This is more than 20 times the size of ours, now approaching 68 million.

But unlike equally vast China, India has a democracy and a free press so cannot hide its problems the way the Peking police state does. Who really knows what is going on in China?

Under normal circumstances, roughly 26,500 Indian citizens die every day from all causes (the equivalent here is 1,700).

Its health service, by common consent, has always been way behind ours. This  though distressing given Indias rising wealth  is nothing new.

We should all be deeply sympathetic to Indias undoubted losses, and do all we can to help a great and suffering country to which we are so closely bound by history. But the use of that tragedy to rekindle panic here is wrong.

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Paris [France], May 1 (ANI/Sputnik): French police detained 34 people during the May Day demonstrations in Paris, the county's Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin reported on Saturday.

The traditional May Day demonstration began in Paris after 14:00 local time (12:00 GMT) as people gathered at the Place de la Republique. Representatives of trade unions and youth organizations, socialist and communist parties, as well as supporters of the Yellow Vest movement, are taking part in the march.

"My thanks to the police and gendarmes for their actions against those who came not to manifest, but to destroy. As of now, 34 people have been detained in Paris," Darmanin wrote on his Twitter.

Earlier in the day, reports of clashes between the police and demonstrators emerged. Law enforcement officers used tear gas.

The radical Black Bloc activists joined the May Day demonstration in Paris, vandalized banks and smashed bus stop windows. The march was temporarily blocked. (ANI/Sputnik)
Indias coronavirus cases may peak between May 3-5, according to a mathematical model of a team of scientists advising the government, a few days earlier than a previous estimate as the virus has spread faster than expected. The worlds second-most populous country has reported more than 300,000 new infections daily for nine consecutive days, hitting another global record of 386,452 on Friday.

The surge has led to a public health crisis in India, forcing the government to seek oxygen, medicines and other essentials from countries around the world. Our belief is that by next week, the daily new cases nationwide would have peaked, M. Vidyasagar, head of a government-appointed group of scientists modelling the trajectory of infections, told Reuters.

The group previously told senior government officials in a presentation on April 2 that cases would peak between May 5-10, said Vidyasagar. We said (at that presentation) that it was not a matter of putting up some structures that would come up in July or August, because by then the wave will have ended, he said.

Try to figure out how were going to fight the fight for the next four to six weeks, that was the message. Don't waste a lot of time putting up long-term solutions because your problem is right now.

Indias first wave of the pandemic peaked in mid-September with 97,894 cases. The country is now reporting more than three times as many infections daily, taking the total number of cases to 18.8 million with 208,000 deaths The real number of infections is believed to be 50 times more, said Vidyasagar, as many people who contract the disease show no symptoms.

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Shillong, Apr 30 (PTI) The Meghalaya government has requested the Centre to provide a fund of Rs 120 crore to inoculate people aged between 18 and 44 years in the third phase of the vaccination programme and tackle the second wave of COVID-19 effectively, a minister said on Friday.

The northeastern state requires 30 lakh doses of vaccines for the third phase of the immunisation programme, which will start from May 1, Health Minister Alexander Laloo Hek said.

'We have written a letter to the Centre, requesting it to provide a financial assistance of Rs 120 crore to complete the inoculation drive for people in the 18-44 years age group and manage the raging second wave of COVID-19 effectively,' he said.

The Centre had announced a liberalised policy making all above 18 years of age eligible to get inoculated from May 1 and allowing state governments and private hospitals to purchase vaccines.

'If the vaccine price is fixed at Rs 400 per dose, we will need Rs 120 crore to inoculate around 15 lakh people in the 18-44 years age group. We have requested the Centre to approve the fund or ask manufacturers to provide the vaccine at Rs 150,' the state health minister said.

Bharat Biotech on Thursday announced a cut in the price of its COVID-19 vaccine 'Covaxin' it plans to sell to the states to Rs 400 per dose from the earlier Rs 600.

This follows widespread criticism of its pricing policy as it sold 'Covaxin' to the central government at Rs 150 per dose.

Serum Institute of India (SII) also slashed the price of its COVID-19 vaccine 'Covishield' to Rs 300 per dose from the earlier Rs 400 for state governments.

Hek said the government is committed to carry out the third phase of the vaccination process to contain the spread of the disease.

Health Services Director Aman War said 2.73 lakh doses of 'Covishield' vaccine have been administered to the eligible beneficiaries till Thursday.

Meghalaya's COVID-19 tally stood at 16,617, while 14,719 people have recovered from the disease and 169 died.

The state now has 1,531 active cases, he said, adding that 4.59 lakh sample tests have been conducted for COVID-19.

PTI JOP SBN BDC BDC
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Xinjiang [China], May 1 (ANI): Sanctions imposed by western countries over human rights violations in Xinjiang are no more than "a piece of waste paper" and their real purpose is to hamper Chinese companies internationally, the region's government said on Friday.

"Their real purpose is to conduct an 'industry genocide', to sabotage the participation of Xinjiang in the global value chain," Xu Guixiang, a spokesperson for the Xinjiang regional government told a press conference in Beijing on Friday.

Xu acknowledged that the sanctions will have an impact on exports from companies based in Xinjiang, but he insisted that in the long term, these companies will increase their competitiveness by investing in science and technology, South China Morning Post reported.

Amid rising pressure on China over the Xinjiang issue, Beijing has ramped up its efforts to justify its policies against Uyghur Muslims.

Beijing has also organised media tours of Xinjiang to counter the allegations but reporters who have travelled to the region independently to investigate the allegations have reported being blocked by the authorities and followed by police, according to the SCMP.

This year the United States, Canada, Britain and the EU all imposed coordinated sanctions on those accused of human rights abuses in the region.

This prompted retaliatory measures from Beijing - and the growing international backlash has seen almost all products made in Xinjiang, including textiles, solar panels and even movies, coming under the spotlight.

Early this year, the United States become the first country in the world to declare the Chinese actions in Xinjiang as "genocide".

In February, both the Canadian and Dutch parliaments adopted motions recognising the Uyghur crisis as genocide. The latter became the first parliament in Europe to do so.

In April, the United Kingdom declared China's ongoing crackdown in Xinjiang a "genocide".

China has been rebuked globally for cracking down on Uyghur Muslims by sending them to mass detention camps, interfering in their religious activities and sending members of the community to undergo some form of forcible re-education or indoctrination.

Beijing, on the other hand, has vehemently denied that it is engaged in human rights abuses against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang while reports from journalists, NGOs and former detainees have surfaced, highlighting the Chinese Communist Party's brutal crackdown on the ethnic community. (ANI)
Collaboration is key to the work that we do, so being in a space that promotes and provides ease of access to partners is a game changer, Arrowood said. Relationships promote a healthy community. I anticipate an increase in victim identification as well as increased support to clients due to the nature of the space at the Dream Center.

The ministrys headquarters will be relocated to the Dream Center, but there are currently three locations: Concord and Matthews in North Carolina and Nairobi, Kenya. This new office will house the leadership team, and most of the ministrys programs will be run from the location.

We intend to use this space to host multi-disciplinary teams for case reviews, prevention and intervention services as well as virtual training at a national and international level, Arrowood said.

Gwen Stowers with the Dream Center said getting the space fully functional for Present Age is the top priority. Now that the centers corridor is remodeled, the center is also working on more security measures.

Present Age is just a shell right now, Stowers said, describing the state of the office space. The foundation is there and needs to be outfitted.
Just under half of Apples planned $1 billion investment in North Carolina will go to its existing data center in Maiden, about 15 miles south of Hickory.

The company announced Monday that it plans to invest $1 billion in North Carolina over 10 years for expansion and to build a new campus and engineering hub in Raleigh. State documents show $448 million of the investment will go to the Maiden data center.

Of the $448 million, $308 million will go toward construction or improvements and $140 million toward "tangible personal property," such as business equipment, according to an economic incentive summary from the N.C. Department of Commerce.

The states Economic Investment Committee approved $845.8 million in incentives over 39 years for the project, along with $20 million from Wake County, where the new Apple campus will be located.

The Wake County campus is expected to create 3,000 new jobs. No new jobs are promised in Maiden under the grant agreement, but the company promised to retain its current 1,100 jobs in the state.

The data center in Maiden opened in 2012. Apple has invested about $3 billion in the center, which employs around 400 people, Maiden Town Manager Todd Herms said. Apple owns about 450 acres of land surrounding the data center.
The ACCC has issued a public warning notice about the conduct of Postage Ink Pty Limited in relation to the unsolicited supply of labels and ink cartridges and other consumables for postage meters to business customers.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commissions (ACCC) action follows complaints from businesses which use postage meters, also known as franking machines, and which had been contacted by Postage Ink in respect of unsolicited sales or payments.

In issuing the public warning notice (PDF link) the ACCC says it has reasonable grounds to suspect that Postage Inks conduct in engaging in the supply of unsolicited goods by sending postage meter ink cartridges to businesses which had not ordered them, and subsequently seeking payment for the ink cartridges and other consumables for their postage meter, may breach the Australian Consumer Law (ACL).

The ACCC also has reasonable grounds to suspect that representatives of Postage Ink contacted various businesses and, in breach of the ACL, falsely represented that Postage Ink had an ongoing supply relationship with them, leading their staff to place orders with Postage Ink.

We have issued this public warning notice to alert businesses about the alleged conduct by Postage Ink, and to encourage all businesses using postage meters to put measures in place to protect themselves from similar conduct, ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard said.

If you receive goods that you did not order, you do not have to pay for them and, if the sender does not collect the goods within three months, you can keep them or dispose of them without having to pay for them.

Under the Australian Consumer Law, businesses must not engage in false, misleading or deceptive conduct, or assert a right to payment when they know they have no right to do so, Rickard added.

The ACCC recommends that all businesses using postage meters alert their administrative staff to the possibility of unsolicited sales calls, the supply of items that were not ordered and false invoicing for postage meter supplies; and post a copy of the ACCCs warning notice where those staff can see it.

The Public Warning Notice (PDF link) has been issued because the ACCC has reasonable grounds to suspect that Postage Inks conduct may constitute a contravention of sections 18, 29 and/or 40 of the ACL; is satisfied that one or more business has suffered or is likely to suffer detriment as a result of the conduct; and is satisfied that it is in the public interest to issue the notice.

The Australian website for PostageInk now comes up with the following error message: If you are viewing this page it is possible the domain name your are viewing is resolving to an incorrect address or that Host header bindings have not been added to your website. If you are the administrator of the site please, please log into your account management portal to correct.

The US Postage Ink company does not appear to be linked in any way to the Australian site, and in any case, services US customers only.

Postage Ink is a business registered in NSW and Mr Majed Homsi is its sole director.

ACCCs advice for businesses on how to protect themselves:

Look closely at invoices before making payment to confirm that amounts and payee details match the purchase order and that none of the details have changed.

Make sure staff are aware of internal processes for ordering supplies, including purchasing approval, and that your staff know what invoicing scams to look out for.

Know your rights and obligations with respect to unsolicited goods.

Print a copy of the public warning notice and place it near where reception and purchasing staff can see it.

For more advice about how small businesses can protect themselves from scams go to the ScamWatch site.

Background
Paul Budde: "The main complaint is that this price structure makes it impossible for the RSPs to have a good grip on their costs."

The NBN Co needs to undertake a structural change to its wholesale pricing model that takes into account the changing nature of broadband use in the wake of the pandemic, independent telecommunications analyst Paul Budde says.

He was reacting to the NBN Co's announcement on Wednesday that it would propose a soft cap on variable data capacity charges and more generous data inclusions.

"NBN Co keeps on fiddling in the margins regarding its wholesale price structure of which the CVC [connectivity virtual circuit] is the most hated element of the pricing," Budde told iTWire.

"The main complaint is that this price structure makes it impossible for the RSPs to have a good grip on their costs."

Retail service providers have to pay two kinds of charges to NBN Co. The AVC is a single price per connection based on the peak speed of that connection which means that higher speeds would cost more.

The second charge is for CVC  the total bandwidth that an ISP requests to use across all its services in an area. It is called a CSA which is just a point of interconnect.

Shortly after the NBN Co's announcement, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said it would convene an industry roundtable in June 2021.

This, the consumer watchdog said, was in order to get the views of RSPs and help inform a revised special access undertaking that applies to the entire NBN network.

Said Budde: "The problem with NBN Co is that, as a wholesale monopoly, they basically can do what they want, they dont have competition and the RSPs dont have a choice.

"It is time for the ACCC to step in and end this drama that is now lasting for more than 10 years.

He said the new pricing proposals were basically fiddling in the margins and making the CVC arrangements more complex that they already were.

"In the end, this will force broadband prices up for consumers," Budde added. "[It is] another waste of time that is leading nowhere."

The ACCC said NBN Cos existing special access undertaking spelt out the access and pricing terms for its fibre to the premise, fixed wireless and satellite networks, which only made up a quarter of active NBN connections.

This roundtable will be an important step in this process of designing a revised regulatory model for the NBN that sets pricing and access terms for its whole network, ACCC chair Rod Sims said.

Until now, access pricing has largely been developed by NBN Co, so the prospect of bringing this work squarely within the remit of a special access undertaking with effective ACCC oversight is a very significant change.

This is the start of a long reform process that would effectively put NBN pricing under the ACCCs regulatory umbrella, and would improve access pricing for NBN Co customers."
Police deal with the unpredictable every day with outcomes that are equally unpredictable. We desperately need police with the greatest aptitude for the job who are most likely to consistently perform at the highest level of competency. Unfortunately, these are the people who have plenty of other options when it comes to choosing a profession. No level of training is ever going to turn a person who does not possess the appropriate aptitude into a first-rate police officer. If we are forced to hire second- and third-tier recruits because the people we really need refuse to consider a career in law enforcement, expect to hear more about police who accidentally reach for their gun instead of their taser.
MAPLEWOOD, N.J. (AP)  Olympia Dukakis, the veteran stage and screen actress whose flair for maternal roles helped her win an Oscar as Chers mother in the romantic comedy Moonstruck, has died. She was 89.

Allison Levy her agent at Innovative Artists said Saturday that Dukakis died Saturday morning in her home in New York City. A cause of death was not immediately released.

Dukakis won her Oscar through a surprising chain of circumstances, beginning with author Nora Ephrons recommendation that she play Meryl Streeps mother in the film version of Ephrons book Heartburn. Dukakis got the role, but her scenes were cut from the film. To make it up to her, director Mike Nichols cast her in his hit play Social Security. Director Norman Jewison saw her in that role and cast her in Moonstruck.

Dukakis won the Oscar for best supporting actress and Cher took home the trophy for best actress.

She referred to her 1988 win as the year of the Dukakii because it was also the year Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, her cousin, was the Democratic Partys presidential nominee. At the ceremony, she held her Oscar high over her head and called out: OK, Michael, lets go!

Dukakis had yearned to be an actress from an early age and had hoped to study drama in college. Her Greek immigrant parents insisted she pursue a more practical education, so she studied physical therapy at Boston University on a scholarship from the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis.

After earning her bachelors degree, she worked at an understaffed hospital in Marmet, West Virginia, and at the Hospital for Contagious Diseases in Boston.

But the lure of the theater eventually led her to study drama at Boston University.

It was a shocking change, she told an interviewer in 1988, noting that she had gone from the calm world of science to one where students routinely screamed at the teachers.

I thought they were all nuts, she said. It was wonderful.

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Her first graduate school performance was a disaster, however, as she sat wordless on the stage.

After a teacher helped cure her stage fright, she began working in summer stock theaters. In 1960, she made her off-Broadway debut and two years later had a small part in The Aspen Papers on Broadway.

After three years with a Boston regional theater, Dukakis moved to New York and married actor Louis Zorich.

During their first years of marriage, acting jobs were scarce, and Dukakis worked as a bartender, waitress and other jobs.

She and Zorich had three children  Christina, Peter and Stefan. They decided it was too hard to raise children in New York with limited income, so they moved the family to a century-old house in Montclair, a New Jersey suburb of New York.

Her Oscar victory kept the motherly film roles coming. She was Kirstie Alleys mom in Look Whos Talking and its sequel Look Whos Talking Too, the sardonic widow in Steel Magnolias and the overbearing wife of Jack Lemmon (and mother of Ted Danson) in Dad.

But the stage had been her first love.

My ambition wasnt to win the Oscar, she commented after her Moonstruck win. It was to play the great parts.

She accomplished that in such New York productions as Bertolt Brechts Mother Courage and Her Children, Eugene ONeills Long Days Journey into Night and Tennessee Williams The Rose Tattoo.

For two decades she ran the Whole Theater Company in Montclair, New Jersey, specializing in classic dramas.

While her passion lay in stage, a line from her Oscar-winning performance as Rose nonetheless seemed fitting: I just want you to know no matter what you do, youre gonna die, just like everybody else.

The late Associated Press writer Bob Thomas in Los Angeles was the primary writer of this obituary.

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One of two shooters opened fire not once but twice at a car in a McDonalds drive-thru, killing 7-year-old Jaslyn Adams and wounding her father on the West Side earlier this month, prosecutors said Friday.

Demond Goudy, 21, who was on bond for four separate felony cases at the time of the shootings, appeared before Cook County Judge David Navarro, who denied bail during a lengthy hearing audio streamed live on YouTube.

Goudy, of the 3600 block of West Fillmore Street, is charged with first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder in the attack about 4:20 p.m. April 18 at the McDonalds, 3200 W. Roosevelt Road in the Homan Square neighborhood, police said.

Goudy opened fire not once but twice at a vehicle in a McDonalds parking lot,' Cook County Assistant States Attorney Kevin Deboni said in court, adding Goudy poses a real and present threat to the community.

Jaslyn, a Chicago Public Schools student in first grade, was shot six times while she waited at the McDonalds, police have said. Her father, 29, was seriously injured with a gunshot wound to the lower back.

Prosecutors didnt detail a motive in the shooting, but their evidence included Goudy being identified in a social media post a few hours before the attack, riding around in an Audi with distinctive' features including its speedometer.

The hearing, which was previously continued earlier this week, took about an hour, much longer than usual bond hearings, because Goudys attorney, Cathryn Crawford of the Lawndale Christian Legal Center, brought up several objections, including the revealing of Goudys juvenile record. Crawford said she was not provided 75% of what Deboni was detailing and wanted to be in the same room with Goudy for the hearing, all of which Navarro denied.

After admonishing Crawford several times, Navarro went forward with the hearing without Crawford detailing whats known as mitigation  positive background information on a defendant  after she said she could not go along with the proceedings.

Goudy was arrested Monday around 7:15 p.m. at a residence in the 1500 block of South Springfield Avenue in the Lawndale neighborhood.

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Goudy is the second person charged in connection with the shooting. Marion Lewis, 18, charged with murder, attempted murder and several other charges in the killing and a subsequent chase, is accused of fleeing from police officers on the Eisenhower Expressway.

In court, Deboni described the attack, saying Goudy, who was a front-seat passenger, and another person who was in the back seat and hasnt been arrested jumped out of the Audi after pulling up behind the Infiniti Jaslyn was in at the drive-thru.

Surveillance video from the McDonalds showed Goudy in the Audi, wearing the same clothing shown in the social media post, Deboni said Friday.

In video surveillance from the restaurants, Goudy is seen wearing a pink hoodie pulled over his head, holding a .40-caliber handgun, as the other gunman brandished an AK-47 type of gun with a banana clip while wearing a black hoodie and stone washed jeans, Deboni said.

They began to fire the guns at the back of the victims car, Deboni said.

They got back in the Audi, but got out again as the Infiniti pulled forward. They began firing again, before fleeing west on the Eisenhower Expressway.

Jaslyn, shot multiple times, died shortly after and her father was also shot and taken to a hospital.

Police found and took into evidence a total of 47 casings from two guns, casings that eventually matched guns they found during Lewis arrest, Deboni said. Deboni said hours before the shooting, Lewis posted a video on social media that shows him with Goudy and the other gunman driving around in an Audi. Goudy could be seen in a pink hoodie similar to that seen in the McDonalds video. Jaslyns father told detectives Lewis had threatened him over social media before.

Additionally, about 3 p.m. the day of the killing, video from a BP gas station at 3159 W. Chicago Ave. shows them pulling up to a pump. Goudy is then clearly shown, unmasked, as he walked into the gas station store, and then getting back into the Audi, Deboni said.

Goudy was out on bond on four separate felony cases: two possession of controlled substance cases, robbery, and an aggravated unlawful use of a weapon case. Additionally, he has one misdemeanor case pending, a criminal trespass to a vehicle, Deboni said.

Goudy is due back in court on Adams case on May 19.

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Reviewing the religious landscape is another way to understand the country. Changes can be noted. Sixty-five percent of American adults describe themselves as Christians, down 12 percentage points over the past decade. The number of churches declined by nearly 11%. (https://www.pewforum.org/2019/10/17/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace/) These studies support the fact that the religious base is changing.

Most U.S. Christians perceive their religion as losing influence in America, and many say that there is tension between their beliefs and the mainstream culture. Some Christians see themselves as members of a minority group because of their religious beliefs. The study finds that the public is divided over how much influence the Bible should have on U.S. laws. Half of U.S. adults say it should have a great deal or some influence  with 28% saying that the Bible should take precedence over the will of the people  while the other half want little or no biblical influence on the laws of the land. (https://www.pewforum.org/2020/03/12/views-about-religion-in-american-society/) The views cited above need to be studied for a clearer understanding.

For a more hopeful view, the religions that I have studied present the importance of righteousness, justice, love and concern for others.
More than 40 people demonstrated peacefully Friday night in downtown Winston-Salem, calling for an end to police shootings of Black people and mourning the loss of those who have died.

The demonstrators gathered at the Forsyth County Government Center on North Chestnut Street and then marched around the Forsyth County Jail. The Triad Abolition Project staged the event.

The protesters stopped periodically to wave to the jail inmates, some of whom tapped on their cells windows.

We see you. We love you, the demonstrators yelled at the inmates. We stand with you. You are worthy.

The protesters carried signs that said, Stop the Genocide, Black Lives Matter, Defund the Police Refund the Communities, and The Whole Damn System Is Guilty.

The demonstrators chanted, No Justice, No Peace, These racist cops have got to go and Abolish the Police State.

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The protesters marched on the sidewalks along Chestnut, Third, Church and Second streets. They held a moment of silence to honor the victims of police shootings such as MaKhia Bryant and Andrew Brown Jr.
A&T launched what its calling the Equity in Education Initiative to increase the number of Black graduates in engineering, business and other professional fields.

For faculty, A&T added six new endowed professorships and department chairs and started three new research centers.

The university also renamed two of its colleges for donors. Its health and human sciences colleges is now named for John R. and Kathy R. Hairston  A&T graduates who owned McDonalds franchises in the Charlotte area where they live.

Its business and economics college now carries the name of Willie A. Deese, an A&T graduate and retired pharmaceutical executive who has given about $10 million to the university. Deese, along with alum and retired Gillette executive Royall Mack Sr., was a campaign co-chairman. Greensboro native and former UNC System president Erskine Bowles was the campaigns honorary chairman.

Most of the money A&T collected will be stored in the universitys endowment, a collection of hundreds of smaller funds that can generate millions of dollars each year in interest and investment earnings.

A&T doesnt plan to touch the principal. Instead, it will spend a portion of the annual gains on scholarships, student and faculty programs and other items.
In response, she said DHHS and county health departments gradually will shift from mass-vaccination events toward community events, as well as providing primary-care physicians and other medical providers with the vaccines where they can be delivered effectively.

For example, the Forsyth Department of Public Health is shutting down its COVID-19 vaccination clinic at the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds Education building.

Tuesday will be the final first-dose vaccination date at the fairgrounds. People who received their first dose at the fairgrounds will get their second dose there through May 24.

After that, shots will be given at the health department, 799 Highland Ave. First-dose vaccinations will begin Thursday at the health department.

The countys vaccination clinic hours currently are 4-8 p.m. on Thursdays, 9 a.m. to noon on Saturdays and 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Mondays. Walk-in shots stop at one hour before clinics close.

Appointments are available at Bit.Ly/FCNCCovidVaccine or by calling (336) 360-5260 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays.

As of 1 p.m. Friday, 33% of Forsyth residents, or 125,975, have received at least one vaccine dose, while 28.6%, or 108,436, are considered as fully vaccinated.
One or two former camp residents went to a shelter, said Andrea Kurtz, a housing director with United Way of Forsyth County. Kurtz said three others had gone to a hotel.

Miles said two of the homeless people are sleeping under bridges and that two others went to another homeless camp. Miles said she will continue to bring supplies to the other four or five homeless camps.

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Kurtz said agencies that work with the homeless will continue their efforts to connect the former Tent City residents and other homeless people with services  and housing.

Kurtz said at least one couple from the Tent City was accepted into what is called a rapid rehousing program, but Kurtz didnt know if they have gotten into an apartment yet. Kurtz said Adult Protective Services is helping two others with housing options.

Miles, in a letter to city council members, said the city and agencies that have been helping the homeless have failed them. Kurtz said it is not true that no one is being helped and said that since last March a least 75 people have been put into housing from a program to serve the medically fragile.

Kurtz said 19 homeless residents have been housed from homeless shelters since January, with three more signing leases on Monday.
Before 2014, the university had a combined force of nine university and Winston-Salem police officers who monitored events at The Barn, which is located near Piccolo and Palmer residence halls.

In 2014, according to court papers filed by the plaintiff, Black and other minority students raised concerns that university police were racist in how they handled events hosted by minority students versus those held by white students. The criticism came after Wake Forest police shut down a party hosted by the Black fraternity Kappa Alpha Psi. A town hall was held and that led to the university police chief commissioning an independent study by Developmental Associations. Two law-enforcement veterans from the company did the study.

The study made a number of recommendations, including that large events such as The Barn should be heavily policed and that Wake Forest should spend more money on policing overall to ensure all events are policed as much as the ones at The Barn. The study also recommended against students solely planning and organizing major events, according to the lawsuit.
The planned expansion would take the center from 3,800 square feet to 29,600 square feet. It will include a commercial kitchen, fitness equipment room and exercise studio, large community meeting space, technology hub and a social day program for at-risk adults in the area, among other features. The building will also have a generator so it can be used by the community during emergencies.
I had to convince him even to let me tell other people that he gave us the building, Tom Dayvault, the former president and chief executive officer of the High Point Chamber of Commerce, said in 2006. He said, If I do that, then Ive given it to you for the wrong reason. I convinced him by saying it would encourage other people to give.

Three years ago, he donated another building. He gave his showroom to a charity focused on building orphanages and educating underprivileged children in Pakistan, where he grew up and has worked for years to give young people opportunities.

A past High Point Citizen of the Year, he is described by those who know him best as sincere, reflective and especially sensitive to the pain of others.

And he is someone who believes in returning the opportunities given him.

When the young college student came to the United States in 1976, following mentor Carl Wheeless, a professor at High Point College (now university), Khalifa opened a store with 40 small rugs  and a town full of friends.

Those who knew Wheeless, who had taught Khalifa political science at Forman Christian College in Lahora, Pakistan, made a point of getting to know Khalifa upon his arrival, always wanting to know if he had any difficulties.
Since more and more projects are being done in-house today, the ability for a company to be presented with grants for multiple locations can more quickly facilitate the migration of other parts of the company.

Madjd-Sadjadi said he is not a fan of the N.C. Commerce Department and legislature using large-scale incentive packages to recruit corporations from other states.

The gains to one state are typically a loss to the other state, and the payments come from taxpayers including competing firms that were in the state already, Madjd-Sadjadi said.

Bad policy?

Mitch Kokai, senior policy analyst with libertarian think tank John Locke Foundation, also frowns on the use of millions of dollars in incentives to lure corporate projects.

Its possible that this legislation has been fashioned to deal with a particular corporate recruitment project, Kokai said.

But its just as likely that the corporate recruiters who drive this type of legislation have told lawmakers that these changes would help them generally.
Support for police

In reference to High-profile killings by police (April 26): In these cases, due process of culpability appears to have been followed. Surely, as many have said, rigorous police and sheriff training is essential. Yet, I do not think most of us appreciate the risks when an officer approaches some male (and at times female) for questioning or arrest, especially if a crowd quickly gathers  and he or she resists with whatever means are available  running, fighting, kicking, biting or brandishing a knife or firearm. Do you not wonder, in this current conflagration mood, why anyone would want to serve the public in this thankless job? I fear vacancies will escalate, putting more pressure on those remaining. Early retirement seems the norm. And defunding the police as crime accelerates? Anarchy shall prevail.
Arnita Miles, community activist and former Winston-Salem police officer, accused Tonya McDaniel, a Forsyth County commissioner, of misappropriating about $47,000 in grant money meant for the Winston-Salem NAACP and pocketing it into a personal bank account. No criminal charges have been filed. Blueprint NC, a nonprofit, said it gave the grant money based on an application made on behalf of the local NAACP, but the past president of the chapter said he was never aware that a grant request had been made and he never saw any of that money come through the Winston-Salem NAACP.
Where it all started

Fitzpatrick, who studied fiber materials at the Cleveland Institute of Art, learned about Lantal from a professor who had once worked there. It was a learning internship, Fitzpatrick recalls. She was offered a job after the internship and advanced as a designer.

From the first time I stepped foot into a weaving mill, I knew without any question that this was all I wanted in life, she recalls. Seeing how textiles were made in looms running at warp speed was thrilling. Watching miles and miles of thread winding and spinning to create the massive warps was unreal.

Fitzpatrick recalls the rhythmic clatter of rows and rows of looms running in unison, weaving yards of cloth, an experience she describes as transcendent.

The smell of wet wool being dyed to the perfect color is something I will never forget, she says.

The people there also not only became her teachers, but her friends too. She credits her success today to what she learned from them.

She recalls their sweet, reassuring voices patiently teaching me to tie a chicken-head knot to repair a broken warp end, or showing me how they tested the textile to ensure a perfect product.
Guests at Lincoln Public Schools' graduations ceremonies will no longer need to reserve a ticket to attend graduation.

The school district worked with the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department and Pinnacle Bank Arena and determined the arena can be filled to 75% capacity for the ceremonies.

People who arrive after the capacity is reached may not be seated. Additionally, all guests must wear masks and practice social distancing.

The Health Department reported 31 new coronavirus cases Friday, bringing the county total to 30,946. The number of deaths in the county remains at 232.

As of Friday, 27 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Lancaster County, including two who are on ventilators.

According to the Health Department, 162,708 county residents have received at least one dose of their vaccine, and 114,629 have received either a second dose or the single shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Residents can schedule an appointment to be vaccinated at COVID19.lincoln.ne.gov or by calling (402) 441-8006 between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on weekdays.
By the time Roy Christensen was in second grade, hed called six cities spanning two coasts home.

I call my dad a professional student, and he was a vagabond back then.

His dads education, and wandering spirit, took Christensen, his mom and siblings to another two cities, circling back to family in New York along the way, until, by his sophomore year in high school theyd landed in Pocatello, Idaho, where his dad was working at Idaho State University.

The young Christensen put his foot down.

I made him promise not to move until I graduated from high school, Christensen said. The day of my high school graduation, I spent the day loading the U-Haul truck, and we moved to Birmingham, Alabama.

Christensen seemed to have inherited some of his fathers wanderlust: After high school, his faith and a stint in the U.S. Army took him to South America, Germany and Maryland, and he touched down in three more states before finally finding himself in Lincoln in 1997.

Nearly a quarter-century later, hes still here, and seeking a third term on the City Council, which hell tell you is a pretty good endorsement of Lincoln.
Promising Young Woman filmmaker Emerald Fennell has called for as much support as possible for mothers working in the movie industry.
Therese Kern, of Wind Lake, is a nurse practitioner at the Clement J. Zablocki VA Hospital in Milwaukee. She is also a member of the Wisconsin Air National Guard and previously served in various components of the US Air Force.

She started nursing in 1988 and was inspired to become a nurse by her mom and sister, who were both nurses.

My mom was such a caring person, and I wanted to emulate her, so I think thats why I chose the nursing field, she said.

Kern served as a medic and eventually a nurse in the U.S. Air Force and later in the Wisconsin National Guard. During her military service, Kern volunteered for humanitarian aid missions to help the people of Costa Rica and of the Crow Reservation in North Dakota.

During the Iraq War, she deployed as a nurse to Balad AFB Iraq, where she cared for those injured in battle at the theater hospital.

Kern said that being a veteran has helped her make a connection with other veterans at the Zablocki VA Medical Center.

I love serving the veteran population, Kern said.

One aspect of her job that is particularly rewarding, she said, is how she can help others, watch their improvement, and help them through hard times.
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Under Minnesota sentencing guidelines, the presumptive sentence for second-degree unintentional murder for someone with no criminal record like Chauvin would be 12 1/2 years. Judges can sentence someone to as little as 10 years and eight months or as much as 15 years and still be within the advisory guideline range. To go above that, Judge Peter Cahill would have to find that there were aggravating factors, and even if those are found, legal experts have said Chauvin would likely face a maximum of 30 years.
The contract between local governments and the Taiwanese tech giant was originally estimated to cost taxpayers $763 million in land acquisitions, sewer and water infrastructure, road construction and other costs. In less than two years, the estimate had grown to more than $900 million.

Approximately $300 million has already been spent.

Foxconn remains obligated to begin paying back on the villages investments in 2023.

As reported by The Journal Times in January 2019: The villages estimate that the Foxconn TID will generate $30 million of revenue a year is based on Foxconn being assessed $1.4 billion in taxable improvements ... for the Foxconn campus. Even if Foxconns campus isnt assessed at $1.4 billion, it is still expected to pay the equivalent taxes.
However, the booths have multiple benefits, including that they fold up, making them easy to store, move and set up.

Essentially, this comes with a smaller storage capacity, Coolidge said.

Due to the funds from the CTCL grant, the city has been able to make a number of purchases to support elections, including electronic poll books, so it was necessary to purchase poll booths with smaller storage requirements, Coolidge explained.

Secondly, the purchase will ensure that every ward in Racine will be accessible and approved under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Lastly, the four-station allows for more light for voters while also providing privacy.

According to Coolidge, many of the current poll booths have aged and are in disrepair.

I dont know how many people have been out to vote lately, but our poll booths could use a little love, she told the committee.

Some of the polling places cannot use the electricity of the poll booths due to broken lights and power cords, according to Coolidge.
My mom went back to school to be a medical transcriptionist when I was a kid. I remember her doing her homework at the dining room table and I would go through all of her books, especially her medical dictionary and I found it so interesting. In high school, I was able to join a medical class and we were able to go out into the community. When I went off to college, I really wanted to be a doctor so I started my undergrad with multiple science classes. I soon realized that I didnt have the study habits to be a doctor so I changed my focus and decided to be a nurse.

Q. What is your favorite nursing memory?

My favorite nursing memory is my job allowing me to travel all over the United States and meeting amazing nurses along the way. I was able to work at a world renowned hospital with world renown nurses and other healthcare workers. I was also able to explore our country, be a tourist, and learn this history of each city I lived in.

Q. Did you have any mentor? If so, can you share a story?
During Tanya Pakulskis (nee: Mau) freshman year of college, she had the inkling she wanted to go into the medical field, but didnt know what direction to take. She considered getting a degree in the sciences then going to medical school, nursing was being considered, but so was becoming a veterinarian.

I was looking at lots of different things  I loved science of the body, recalled Pakulski, MSN, AC/NP. I didnt know which route to take  something hands-on with living beings.

That all was put on hold when tragedy struck. Her brother, Ron Mau, was in a bad car wreck on April 1, 1997; two nurses who witnessed the accident rendered aid immediately, potentially saving his life and that of the woman driving the other car, The Journal Times reported at the time.

Pakulski left school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to come home and be by Rons bedside in the Intensive Care Unit.

There, she remembers watching the dynamics of the ICU: The doctors who developed treatment plans, the therapists beginning the years-long road to recovery. But it was the nurses who stood out to Pakulski.
Q: What are the advantages and challenges of being a school nurse?A: I enjoy getting to know and caring for all of our school children. Hospital stays are generally short so you dont have the same social opportunity. I feel supported and appreciated every day by the staff, students and families. The biggest challenge has been managing COVID-19.

Q: How did you and the school handle the pandemic?A: Prairie has had in-person learning all year. I have to credit (Prairie Head of School and President) Dr. (Nat) Coffman and the entire school staff for creating and implementing our comprehensive Back To School Plan. Our students and parents have done their part as well by wearing a mask, washing their hands and watching their distance and filling out our health screening app every day.

Ive met the following challenges: Managing students with allergies and other chronic conditions that also mirror COVID-19 symptoms. Dispelling misconceptions, like: all COVID cases involve a fever. Keeping up with the science and changes related to quarantine, types of testing and locations, and communicating it to our families. Tracking tests, results, and return to school dates.
1. Yes. Its important to keep my child as safe as possible. We plan to take advantage.

2. Yes. With the school district dropping its mask mandate, its a necessary step.

3. No. Local COVID cases are dropping. There is no good reason to vaccinate my child.

4. No. There hasnt been enough data on vaccinated children. I think Ill hold off.

5. Unsure. I havent decided yet whether to take part in the vaccine clinics.

Vote

View Results
In Washington, the U.S. State Department had no immediate comment on reports of progress, incremental or not, and said the U.S. assessment of the talks remained where it was on Thursday. On that day, State Department spokesman Ned Price said there had been some movement but that an agreement was far from done or even guaranteed.
The Journal Star and World-Herald stand with NOISE Omaha in its effort to be credentialed for the governors news briefings. The Ricketts administration has denied NOISE admission to the briefings because it deems NOISE an advocacy organization funded by liberal donors. They are not a mainstream media outlet.

While the rise of digital-only news operations in a rapidly changing media landscape creates new questions, and, indeed, not just anyone claiming to be media should be automatically admitted to news conferences, the implication is that anything Gov. Pete Ricketts deems to be advocacy  or liberal  can be barred.

Thats wrong, dangerous and smacks of authoritarianism.

NOISE, which stands for North Omaha Information Support Everyone, is a nonprofit news website founded two years ago to focus on coverage of Omahas minority communities. Its website, noiseomaha.com, says the organizations goal is to do community-based journalism that provides useful information and holds representatives and systems accountable ...

This is not wildly different, at all, from our mission as legacy newspapers deemed to be mainstream media. Its a proper, and traditional, journalism mission.
Dear EarthTalk: Besides generating seasonal allergens, do any plants actually reduce air quality or cause air pollution?  Mike T., San Juan, Puerto Rico

While many of us thought Ronald Reagan sounded crazy back in 1981 when he told America that trees cause more pollution than automobiles do, the then-president may have been on to something.

Researchers from the University of California at Berkeley recently unveiled the results of a study in which they determined that certain trees and plants common in Southern California off-gas natural yet nevertheless harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs)  to attract pollinators, protect against environmental stressors and repel herbivores  especially during the hottest months of the year. This so-called particulate matter pollution is not only dangerous in and of itself to breathe in as the tiny molecules can get lodged in the lungs, but it also leads to the formation of ground-level ozone and smog.
In Wisconsin, the situation is made worse by taxpayer-funded child care subsidies that are so low and so cumbersome to apply for that many qualifying families don't bother to apply, according to Ruth Schmidt, executive director of the Wisconsin Early Childhood Association.

Subsidies should cover about 75% of the market rate for care, Schmidt said, but the state's program, known as Wisconsin Shares, covers about 30% to 35%.

Taking the brunt of all these competing fiscal pressures are the industry's frontline workers, whose wages have long been on the margin of livable. A 2016 workforce study by the WECA found the the median starting and highest hourly wages for teachers in child care centers were $10 and $13, respectively, and assistant teachers made below $10. This despite education requirements they must meet if the centers they work for are to get decent marks under the state child care rating system, known as YoungStar.
Investigators are looking at whether Gaetz and his associates tried to secure government jobs for some of the women, the people said. They are also scrutinizing Gaetzs connections to the medical marijuana sector, including whether Pirozzolo and others sought to influence legislation Gaetz sponsored. The investigation includes legislation from 2018, when Gaetz was in Congress, and earlier work in the Legislature, according to one of the people.
I have been a member of St. James the Less Parish for 49 years. During that time, many priests have come and gone. I may not have always agreed with them, but I have always respected them and found comfort in their compassion for all God's children.

Enter Father Altman. From his first sermon chastising the church hierarchy's support of Vatican 2 to his present political rantings, he has fueled the fire of hate and division not only within the church but also in a nation trying to heal.

How does calling Gov. Tony Evers  Comrade Evers or preaching you can't be a Democrat and expect go to Heaven, or if you're not Catholic you won't go to Heaven, earn any respect or show any compassion? How can the Bishop allow this to go on?

I have had to leave my parish and now I am questioning my Catholic faith.

Carrie Ebner

La Crosse

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I applaud Gov. Tony Evers for including taxation and regulation of cannabis as part of his budget proposal. In spite of generations of prohibition, the market for cannabis products has not gone away, and this authoritarian approach creates more problems than it solves.

Without regulation there is no quality control, leaving cannabis users vulnerable to mislabeled or tainted products. Prohibition erodes the trust level of law-abiding cannabis users toward law enforcement.

A well-regulated cannabis industry would offer a lucrative new revenue stream for family farms, small businesses and cash-starved state and local governments. Prohibition forfeits this industry to neighboring states and to the shadowy unregulated and untaxed underground market.

Wisconsins tax and regulatory structure for cannabis production must be optimized to support a large number of small producers while discouraging large corporate operations. Other states have seen mega-growers (many backed by the tobacco and alcohol industries) force small and artisan growers into bankruptcy. Wisconsin can do better.
This piece of 19th century sheet music was composed by Walter Brown, an early resident of La Crosse. The ornate cover of I Love But Thee mirrors the sentimental lyrics of Walters 1881 composition.

The piece is dedicated to Emma Abbott of the Grand English Opera Company. Abbott was an operatic soprano of the era, famed throughout Europe and the U.S. She and her husband Eugene Wetherall toured America from 1878 until Emmas untimely death in 1891.

It is unknown if Emma Abbott performed Walter Browns song, or even heard of it. She often included popular music along with opera in her repertoire, which the public appreciated. Brown may have heard her sing in another city, or even in La Crosse where the Pomeroy Opera House had opened in 1878.

Walter Brown was one of La Crosses early settlers, arriving as a young man on the steamboat Nominee in 1851. He was born in Cuba and had trained in the hardware business in Connecticut. His future wife Abby Whitney came to La Crosse with her family from Massachusetts shortly afterward. Walter and Abby were part of La Crosses 1854 resident list, under Single Men and Single Women. They married in September 1855.
Aliyah Diffenbach is just 15 years old and has already written more than 20 original songs.

The Warwick Middle School eighth-grader began writing her own songs as a way to cope with the challenges of the past year. As she notes, dealing with loneliness and feeling cut off from the rest of the world is something everyone can understand in these days of COVID-19. For Aliyah, those feelings are more intense than for most of her friends and classmates at Warwick Middle School. She has had to do virtual classes because she cannot risk being in the classroom and any possible exposure to COVID-19.

As a baby, she was born nine weeks early, with severe medical issues that meant that the little girl needed life-saving organ transplants. When she was 11 months old, Aliyah underwent surgery at Boston Childrens Hospital, to give her a new liver, small intestine, pancreas, and a portion of her stomach.

We were told that Aliyah would not survive without it, says her mother Michelle Diffenbach, who is a nurse and was able to care for her daughter when she came home.

As the second of four children of Michelle and Jason Diffenbach, Aliyah has an older sister Mariah, 16, and two younger brothers Jared, 9, and Braxton, 7. With all her surgeries and medication to fight organ rejection, Aliyahs immune system is compromised. She also has lung and breathing issues that could be very serious if she was exposed to COVID-19.

It has been really hard being at home instead of in school because I am a very social person, says Aliyah. One of the best ways for me to reach out and express myself is with music.

Warwick Middle School teacher Aevidum Club advisor Elton Sturges discovered her talent and encouraged Aliyah to write and sing her songs. She has played the piano since she was young, and also plays the ukulele and guitar.

In her sweet, soprano voice, Aliyah performs her songs of hope, accompanying herself on ukulele or guitar. In one video, she even sings her own harmony, recording her voice in the different parts so that she sounds like her own backup band.

Aliyah posts her videos on her FaceBook page called Hope Notes. Her message is all about hope and resilience in these times. Many of her songs draw on her faith. Some examine feelings of fear and loneliness. They are all ways of expressing her heartfelt feelings that she shares with her friends.

Having spent so much time in hospitals, Aliyah reaches out to patients, dropping off cards with her messages of care. She is also involved in the Warwick Middle Schools Aevidum Club, which offers support to other teens with the promise of Ive got your back.

Aliyahs very first song was By Your Side, which was inspired by a song by Bruno Mars. In her song, she assures listeners that she will be there to comfort them.

My second song was Help me Up, and it is a cry out to God, telling Him that I cant do this alone, says Aliyah. I need Him to help me get on the right path again.

Her seventh song, Broken Tree is about dealing with change and weathering storms. She wrote it when she found out her follow-up transplant care would be transferred from the familiar hospital in Boston to a new hospital in Pittsburgh.

This move was one of the storms I had to go through. This song is about how we are Gods trees, and even through the tough times, He is with us, taking care of us, says Aliyah, who also wrote If you Say, when she was struggling with the transition of her care to another hospital and a new healthcare team.

One of her most powerful songs is Battle Cry, which was her 14th song. She wrote the song when her older sister had tested positive for COVID-19. At that time, she was expressing her fear and worry, asking for Gods help during a tough time. Fortunately, Aliyah did not get the virus.

With her life-long experiences dealing with health challenges, Aliyah is committed to educating others about the importance of organ donors, which saved her life.

With Warwicks declining virus numbers, Aliyah is hoping to be able to return to in-person classes for the next school year. The adults in her family have been vaccinated, although she cannot be vaccinated because of her compromised immunity. She will be heading to high school and looks forward to pursuing her studies in language arts, reading, music, and science. She is only 15 but already has a career in mind.

I would love to do something in music therapy because I think music has such power to help others. I am also interested in physical therapy, says Aliyah.

Or maybe shell make an album and make it big in the music world. She already has enough songs.

Laura Knowles is a freelance feature writer and regular contributor to the pages of the Lititz Record Express. She welcomes feedback and story tips at lknowleslrc@gmail.com.
Its not every day that a church makes an event out of burning important paperwork.

But after 28 years of paying off its mortgage, Mount Calvary Evangelical Lutheran Church in Manheim Township has cause for celebration. The church will host a Mortgage Burning Celebration on Sunday morning for its congregation.

There is a quiet excitement as we reflect upon the commitment of past members who gave their time and money to build Gods house and look forward to the future, says Nancy Marshall, event and board of education chair.

The Rev. Christopher Seifferlein, pastor of the church, expresses admiration for parishioners who gave generously and rose to the challenge that predates his arrival at the church. For decades, in addition to their regular weekly offering, members used a special envelope to give monthly toward paying off the mortgage.

Its humbling that while as a pastor, I stand joyously at the finish line. It was the hard work of those who came before me for this momentous occasion, Seifferlein says.

Building the church

Mount Calvary Evangelical Lutheran Church purchased 7.1 acres on Petersburg Road in Manheim Township in March 1988. The land, which cost $278,000, was paid for in cash. The buildings construction was funded with a 20-year $738,000 mortgage in 1993 through the Lutheran Church Extension Fund. Previously, the church was located at Plum and Clay streets in Lancaster.

Groundbreaking for the 13,400-square foot one story building took place March 21, 1993. Laborers for Christ, a former ministry of the LCEF, built the church. The laborers were a group of dedicated Christian men and women who volunteered some of their retirement to work for Lutheran Church Missouri-Synod ministries. For eight months, spring through fall, these skilled volunteers from around the country parked their RVs at the worksite where they lived and toiled until the project was done.

Each workday began with Bible study, Marshall says.

Church members joined the workers with grateful hearts and helping hands. Those unable to do physical labor provided snacks or cleaned up the worksite each evening for the next days work.

Before the drywall was done and carpeting laid in the chancel, members wrote Bible verses on the wood studs and flooring to give praise to God for past and current members who were motivated to plan, give and build the new church, Marshall says.

Construction was completed in November 1993 and the new building was dedicated on Dec. 5, 1993. Six stained glass windows were moved from the former church building and installed in the new sanctuary. The building housed offices, classrooms, nursery, kitchen and restrooms.

A community effort

The church hosted several fundraising campaigns throughout the years to aid in paying the mortgage, including two Venture Forward in Faith campaigns: the first chaired by Harry Shaub and the second by Ron Marshall, both deceased. Their efforts were followed by a Growing in Faith fundraiser when the building was complete, which raised $392,138.

In 2003, the church refinanced the mortgage to include $185,000 to add 2,000 square feet to the facility for an Evangelism wing. In January 2021, the church paid off the remaining mortgage amount  $530,862  in full.

It was a big achievement. Sadly, people who worked so hard on fundraising like Ron passed on before seeing the mortgage paid off, says Farley Fry, a 21-year member who serves on the event committee.

He commends Marshall on her leadership of the six-member committee that also includes Sheila Ginder, Barry Walton, Kenny Holton and Seifferlein. Past clergy, former members, architects and others involved in the original building design have been invited to the celebration. The event begins at 9 a.m. with a PowerPoint presentation created by Holton, which chronicles Mount Calvarys history.

At 9:30 a.m., a Service of Praise and Thanksgiving to God will feature Sunday school children who will sing We are the Church and a song written by Linda Myers, Venture Forward in Faith. Myers is a former member whose ancestors were charter church members.

The mortgage will be burned safely in a brazier. Those participating in the mortgage burning are: Rod Stiegler, congregation chair who will ignite the document; Barry Walton, head trustee; Marilyn Taylor, former member; Marv Trim, past treasurer; Allan Morehead, past chairman; Seifferlein and Marshall. Refreshments will be available while attendees hear comments from those involved in the building project. Memorabilia like an old church bell, a 1930s childs chair, a 1911 Baptismal Certificate and more will be on display.

Looking ahead

As the church celebrates its past, its members also look ahead to the future with a relatively new pastor.

Seifferlein was installed on Nov. 16, 2019, after serving as pastor at Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Adell, Wisconsin, for 14 years. His degrees include Concordia University, River Forest, Illinois (now Concordia Chicago), and Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Pastor Seifferlein is the most worship-oriented pastor Ive ever met. Hes totally focused on worshipping God, Fry says.

With the pandemic, Seifferlein saw an increase in people needing pastoral care. He says his shut-in list quadrupled for those needing visitation and home communion.

Its been a wonderful challenge and joy to use my pastorate to bring true balm and restoration to hurting souls, Seifferlein says.

Though in-person worship stopped in March 2020, Seifferlein says he feels fortunate to have learned to know congregants before COVID-19 closed the church doors. Audio services became and remain available through the churchs YouTube channel. In May 2020, in-person Sunday worship resumed with the church following CDC guidelines. An additional Wednesday night service helped to reduce people attending on Sunday.

Seifferlein lives in Landisville with his wife Erin and six children Claire, 18; Lillian, 16; Isabel, 14; August, 12; Theodore, 8; Frederick, 5.
Lancaster County firefighters helped free an osprey that had gotten tangled while flying over the Susquehanna River on Wednesday, according to a report by WGAL.

The Rawlinsville Fire Department, Pennsylvania Game Commission and other agencies helped free the bird from a fishing line that was hanging off the Norman Wood Bridge on Route 372 in Martic Township, south of Holtwood, on Wednesday, according to the report. The bird had gotten tangled in the line mid-flight and was unable to free itself.

A deputy fire chief was lowered on a rope to release the bird, WGAL said.

The osprey is now in a rehab facility, according to the report.
May is a good month for astronomy lovers  it will feature events from a meteor shower to a supermoon.

The Eta Aquarids meteor shower kicks off May's astronomical events.

In clear conditions, from May 7 to 8, people in the northern hemisphere could see around 30 meteors an hour, according to astronomy website SeaSky.

There are a few chances to see a stray meteor shower until around May 28, however. The moon will be in its second quarter during the shower, which means that the moon's brightness could hinder the appearance of dimmer meteors, according to SeaSky.

May's new moon will happen on May 11; the moon's dimmed appearance means that more stars will be more visible, given clear weather conditions.

Toward the end of the month will be 2021's third consecutive supermoon, when the moon will look slightly bigger and brighter in the sky. This is due to the moon being at its perigee, or the state where it's at its closest point to Earth.

Colonial groups and Native Americans would refer to May's full moon as the full flower moon, in honor of spring's blooms, according to the Old Farmer's Almanac.

The full moon will be at its most luminous on May 26. That night, there will also be a lunar eclipse, but Lancaster County at best may only see a partial eclipse.

The eastern part of the county will likely not see the eclipse at all, while the western part may see a partial eclipse, according to TimeandDate.

The lunar eclipse will be most visible in parts of western North America, eastern Asia, Japan and Australia.
A Lancaster teacher known for her commitment to students through a major health battle is one of seven Pennsylvania educators to win the 2021 Teacher Impact Award from WITF and Rotary District 7390.

The winners, which include McCaskey Campus art teacher Lisa Wolf, were announced Friday.

A colleague, who was not identified, nominated Wolf, a 32-year teaching veteran, lauding her for fighting through kidney failure and a kidney transplant, then returning to teach full-time during the COVID-19 pandemic.

After taking a year off to heal from the transplant, Wolf returned to school in person when she could have worked from home or retired, Wolfs colleague said in her award submission.

She led the department in a valiant effort to organize and assemble 950 take home art kits so our students would be able to create their work at home, Wolfs nominator said. She called her AP Art students every day to help them apply remotely for and excel in their AP portfolio reviews, often working into the late night. She helped our department design high quality lessons that could be delivered to and executed by students both synchronously and asynchronously.

The teaching award, created by the Rotary in 2005, celebrates teachers in seven Pennsylvania counties who have shown exemplary dedication to their students and community. WITF partnered with the Rotary in 2019 to present the awards.

Through these nominations, weve learned that passionate teachers do not let a pandemic stop them from being extraordinary, said Debbie Riek, WITFs director of education. We are inspired by their innovation in the classroom and their determination to connect with their students.

Wolf was the lone Lancaster County winner. Other winners were from Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Lebanon, Perry and York counties.

To her nominator, Wolf was the perfect choice for this award.

Lisa is the definition of dedication to service. Her commitment to education could not be stopped by kidney failure, dialysis, the operating table, a global pandemic or 32 years of hard work in public education, the nominator said. When I think about my own path as an educator, the David Bowie line often plays in my head, We can be heroes, just for one day. Or in Lisa Wolfs case every day, for over 30 years.
While the dam has the purpose of keeping pollutants and debris out of the Susquehanna River, it is currently full, and big storms could push these materials into the river all at once. Not only will the pollutants harm the river ecosystems, but the dam could release millions of trapped fish including invasive species. As a student at Georgetown University, I know what its like to live next to a polluted river. I would never wish this on the people near the Susquehanna River.
The New York Times once called automobiles politics on wheels. But electrifying the countrys transportation system shouldnt be a political debating point.

Everyone has a stake in breathing cleaner air and, we hope, avoiding runaway climate heating.

Fossil fuel-powered cars and trucks are part of a transportation infrastructure that spews the most emissions of any U.S. sector  28%. Decarbonizing them and the electricity generating system is one long overdue step.

And theres a plan on the table for it. President Joe Bidens American Jobs Plan would invest $174 billion to capture the emerging global electric vehicle market.

Among other things, the initiative would massively increase charging infrastructure, supercharge domestic production of electric vehicles and give Americans great incentives to buy them.

Please ask your congressional representatives to back this plan.

Jon Rutter

Lancaster Township
All of humanity is flawed, even U.S. presidents.

John F. Kennedy was a man rich with charm and youthful exuberance. Yet it is a well-documented fact that JFK indulged in extramarital affairs. He reportedly skinny-dipped with female staff members in the White House swimming pool while the Secret Service guarded the doors.

Lyndon Johnson had a foul mouth along with eating habits that matched his vile language. In my view, his war on poverty and his involvement in Vietnam were colossal failures.

Jimmy Carter was a good man but incredibly weak. Under his watch, in my view, America nearly surrendered to the former Soviet Union.

Bill Clinton was perhaps the most immoral man ever to occupy the White House.

And Barack Obama, in my view, supported behaviors that I believe are diametrically opposed to American and biblical values.

Then along came Donald Trump, a coarse, hard-hitting and sometimes vulgar man who faced what I view as unwarranted attacks  all because he fought to preserve religious liberty, safeguard our southern border, protect the lives of the unborn and keep America from sinking into worldwide socialism.

Oh, what irony.

Homer Snavely

Cleona
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Two More Voices Speak Out against the Anti-China Hysteria

April 30, 2021 (EIRNS)Two more professional voices have spoken out against the anti-China hysteria in the U.S. government and U.S. press.

Ambassador Chas Freeman, who was an interpreter for President Richard Nixons famous visit to China in 1972 (and later Charge dAffaires at the U.S. Embassy), was interviewed on April 26 by China Daily on his role in the Nixon visit. China Daily ended the interview with this comment by Freeman: I find it noteworthy that the most belligerently anti-Chinese members of the current U.S. Senate are also its youngest who have no experience of the Cold Wars anxieties and appear to take its sudden end as predestined, said the diplomat, who believes that to compare the current Sino-U.S. confrontation to the Cold War of 19471991 is

profoundly misleading and delusional. The U.S.-China contention is far broader than that of the Cold War, in part because China ... is part of the same global society as the United States. China is now fully integrated into the global economic system and cannot be walled off from it.... To recall this (the Nixon trip) is to remember the narrowness and precariousness of the strategic reasons that brought the U.S. and the Peoples Republic of China together. We were starting from complete estrangement and reaching for a common understanding,

Freeman said.

Secondly, Michael D. Swain, head of the East Asia program at the Quincy Institute, wrote in Foreign Policy on April 21 under the title China Doesnt Pose an Existential Threat for America. Although Swaine gives credence to most of the arguments and lies about Chinas allegedly bad acts, he reviews each one and insists that none rises anywhere near the level of existential threat, which, as he notes, has become a cottage industry in Washington and in parts of Europe these days. On Biden, he writes:
Saturday, May 1, 2021

Last year, I blogged about the Boeing decision in the Northern District of Illinois. In sum, a district court ruled that Boeings forum selection bylaw  requiring that all derivative actions be filed in Delaware Chancery  applied even to federal securities claims brought under Section 14(a) of the Exchange Act. That matters because Delaware Chancery has no jurisdiction to hear Section 14(a) claims; dismissal in favor of the Delaware forum, as a practical matter, was a holding that the forum selection bylaw defeated plaintiffs ability to bring derivative Section 14(a) claims at all. Which would seem to be in tension with the anti-waiver provisions of the Exchange Act, which voids [a]ny condition, stipulation, or provision binding any person acquiring any security to waive compliance with any provision of this title. 15 U.S.C.  78cc(a).

The Boeing plaintiffs have appealed to the Seventh Circuit and while we all await the outcome of that case, another court has just reached a similar result  this time, a magistrate decision in Lee v. Fisher, N.D. Cal., No. 3:20-cv-06163. Section 14(a) claims were brought derivatively against The Gap and, just as in Boeing, the court dismissed the claims due to a forum selection bylaw designating Delaware Chancery as the forum for all derivative actions.

If youve been following this issue, you can guess what follows. First, the court assumed that a forum selection bylaw is enforceable as a contract in the first place, offering no analysis beyond a footnote that the Delaware Supreme Court recently ruled that forum-selection clauses governing shareholder claims are valid and enforceable under Delawares General Corporation Law. But Delaware law applies as a matter of corporate law and the internal affairs doctrine; the court made no attempt to determine whether Delaware law should apply as a matter of contract law when were outside the internal affairs doctrine.

Assuming the bylaw was a contractual provision, the court relied on Yei A. Sun v. Advanced China Healthcare, Inc., 901 F.3d 1081 (9th Cir. 2018) to hold that contractual forum selection provisions defeat anti-waiver provisions in the substantive governing law. Here is the courts reasoning:

The Ninth Circuit has made clear that the strong federal policy in favor of enforcing forum-selection clauses supersedes the anti-waiver provisions in state and federal statutes Because the anti-waiver provision standing alone does not supersede the forum-selection clause, in order to prove that enforcement of such a clause would contravene a strong public policy of the forum in which suit is brought, . . . [P]laintiff must point to a statute or judicial decision that clearly states such a strong public policy. . Plaintiff does not point to any statute or judicial decision that clearly states that enforcing the forum selection clause would contravene a strong public policy.

(quoting Yei A. Sun, 901 F.3d at 1090).

In other words, the forum selection bylaw would be enforced because the plaintiff was unable to find evidence of a federal policy against enforcing it, other than the explicit anti-waiver provision in the Exchange Act itself. As the court put it:

[T]he Ninth Circuit has made clear that existence of an anti-waiver clause in a statute that the plaintiff intends to prosecute is insufficient to demonstrate the required strong public policy for purposes of overcoming a forum selection clause. Yei A. Sun, 901 F.3d at 1090 (Because an antiwaiver provision by itself does not supersede a forum-selection clause, in order to prove that enforcement of such a clause would contravene a strong public policy of the forum in which suit is brought, . . . the plaintiff must point to a statute or judicial decision that clearly states such a strong public policy.)

Ive got to say, the logic  which originates in Yei A. Sun  baffles me. As I understand it, the federal policy in favor of forum selection clauses is so great that even if the statute says you may not waive this claim, waivers that occur via the operation of a forum selection clause will still be respected unless theres an additional statute or judicial decision that says no, seriously, we werent kidding about the anti-waiver thing. Why should the additional affirmation on top of the explicit anti-waiver provision be necessary? And if were talking about a federal rather than state anti-waiver provision (the original Yei A. Sun case dealt with a state law anti-waiver provision), arent the federal courts  in this case, the very federal court in which the plaintiff brought her claims  equipped to make a substantive determination as to what federal policy requires, which is evidenced by the anti-waiver provision in the federal statute? Why is it necessary for another court to do that first before the anti-waiver provision can be enforced, and which court should it be, if every federal court is waiting for another one to be the first mover? Its one thing if youre interpreting a state law rule so you need a state court to make clear how the state interprets its own policy, but if its a federal cause of action, isnt a federal court competent to make a determination on its own?

Plus, all of this reasoning  about forum selection provisions trumping anti-waiver provisions  descends from the Lloyds of London cases, which I discussed in my prior post. You can go back and read that one if youre interested, but my argument is they arose in a very different context and are quite distinguishable.

Anyway, yes, I do feel a bit like Don Quixote at this point  or perhaps the analogy should be more along the lines of Sisyphus  but Im left kind of dumbstruck as I watch federal courts slowly develop a new rule that you can contractually waive securities law claims  despite literal decades of precedent holding that you cant  if youre clever enough to designate the waiver as a forum selection clause. Even arbitration law doesnt go that far, and there actually is a federal statute that has been interpreted to represent a federal policy in favor of arbitration, unlike this policy in favor of forum selection which is entirely based on federal common law.

Finally, I just have to reiterate my concern about Delaware eating the world. Delaware decides how charters get amended, how bylaws get amended, what counts as an interested-party transaction, and how it will or will not be cleansed, whether it gets business judgment review or entire fairness or enhanced scrutiny, which means, so long as this line of cases continues, Delaware will be deciding critical questions regarding the validity of these bylaws and thus how federal securities law is administered. And since part of the federal courts reasoning is that its okay if shareholders waive federal claims so long as Delaware provides some similar state law remedy, theyre functionally delegating to Delaware the power to delineate the substantive contours of what federal securities law requires. I previously blogged about Omari Simmonss article arguing that Delaware functions as a de facto federal agency, but this is a whole nother ballgame.

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/business_law/2021/05/bylaws-and-securities-fraud-claims.html
Health officials in Botswana say they have reached agreements to get enough COVID-19 vaccine injections to treat the countrys whole adult population.

If the country receives the 1.9 million vaccine doses it hopes for, it could become the first African nation to be fully vaccinated. The agreements were announced this week in a speech by Mosepele Mosepele, a member of Botswanas Presidential COVID-19 Task Force.

Botswana has an adult population of 1.6 million, but noncitizens will also be able to receive the vaccine, Mosepele said.

Last month, the country received 60,000 doses of the COVISHIELD vaccine, which is manufactured by the Serum Institute of India. COVISHIELD is produced in cooperation with the makers of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The Serum Institute of India is producing vaccines for the World Health Organization-supported COVAX vaccine program. That program seeks to deploy COVID-19 vaccines to poor and other nations around the world.

So far, Mosepele said more than 47,000 people in the country had been vaccinated since March 26. He added that he was not sure when the new vaccine supplies would arrive in Botswana. But the largest shipment -- 1.1 million doses -- was expected to come from U.S. manufacturer Johnson & Johnson.

This week, the government received 200,000 doses of the Sinovac vaccine from China. Botswana's minister of presidential affairs, Kabo Morwaeng, has urged all people to get vaccinated without delay.

Morwaeng added that the countrys health officials "will continue to ascertain that the vaccines we receive are safe for use by all of us."

Earlier this month, two people among the thousands who had been given the COVISHIELD vaccine died. Botswana health officials are investigating the incidents to establish whether there was any link between the deaths and the vaccines.

A spokesperson for the Botswana Nurses Union said it had urged the Ministry of Health to quickly begin its vaccine campaign once the new doses arrive. It is seeking a government plan with clear and simple instructions for people in all parts of the country to provide information about the campaign.

"The vaccine rollout plan should focus on using community halls so that we ease the burden on public health centers, the spokesperson said.

Botswana has so far recorded more than 700 deaths from COVID-19, with February and March being the deadliest months. Overall, the country has identified more than 46,000 cases.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Mqondisi Dube from VOA News reported this story. Bryan Lynn adapted the report for Learning English. Mario Ritter, Jr. was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

___________________________________________________

Words in This Story

dose  n. the amount of a medicine, drug, or vitamin that is taken at one time

ascertain  v. to discover something

focus  v. to give special attention to something

burden  n. something difficult or unpleasant that you have to deal with or worry about


A Chinese space mining company has designed a robot that can capture waste material left behind by spacecraft in outer space with a big net.

The state-run Xinhua news agency recently reported that the robot launched on the government's Long March 6 rocket along with several satellites. The robot will also investigate deep space to observe small objects in the universe.

The 30-kilogram robot, called NEO-01, was developed by Origin Space. The company says the robot will lead the way for future technologies capable of mining on asteroids.

The world's first asteroid mining company, Planetary Resources, was established in 2009. Since then, more than 12 businesses around the world have entered the industry, including 3D Systems of the United States and Japan's Astroscale.

Astroscale's technology uses magnets to gather up space waste. But a report on the Origin Space website says NEO-01 will use a net to capture waste and then burn it.

Thousands of satellites have been launched worldwide. As they outlive their use, many end up as waste and put other operating satellites at risk.

Su Meng is the founder of Origin Space. He said the company plans to launch many space telescopes and more spacecraft to begin the first for-profit mining of asteroids by 2045.

The Xinhua news agency reported that China was increasing efforts to land a spacecraft on a near-Earth asteroid to collect materials. China is also speeding up a plan to build a defense system against near-Earth asteroids.

The country aims to follow Russia and the United States in becoming a major space power by 2030.

Im Jonathan Evans.

Liangping Gao and Ryan Woo reported on this story for the Reuters news service. Jonathan Evans adapted this story for Learning English. Hai Do was the editor.

______________________________________

Words in This Story

asteroid  n. any one of thousands of small planets that circle around the sun

net  n. a device made of strands that weave in and out with open spaces between and used to hold or catch something
American health officials are again promising to seek a ban on menthol cigarettes. This time, they are under pressure from African American groups to remove the menthol taste popular among Black smokers.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has tried several times to ban menthol cigarettes, also known as menthols. But it faced major opposition from the tobacco industry, some lawmakers and interest groups under the two former administrations. Any menthol ban will take years to go into effect and will likely face lawsuits from tobacco companies.

The FDAs announcement Thursday is the result of legal action in 2020 by anti-smoking and medical groups. The groups argued that officials had unreasonably delayed answering a 2013 petition seeking a menthol ban.

The agency said it aims to launch measures banning menthols in the coming year.

The action would also ban tobaccos made to taste like fruit. Such products are becoming more popular with young people, especially young Black people.

Mitch Zeller leads the FDAs Center for Tobacco Products. He said in a statement: Taken together, these policies will help save lives and improve the public health of our country. Zeller noted that smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the U.S.

Menthol is the only cigarette flavor that was not banned under a 2009 law that gave the FDA power over tobacco products. But the law did require the agency to continue to consider such a ban.

Anti-smoking activists are angry that menthol products are still on the market. They point to research that menthols cooling effect suppresses a smokers sense of pain. The research says this likely makes it easier to start and harder to stop. The mint-flavored cigarettes are mostly used by young people and people of color. About 85 percent of Black smokers smoke menthols. About one-third of white smokers do as well.

The science is there, the data is there, so why are these products still on the market? Carol McGruder told the Associated Press. McGruder is a founding member of the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council.

Her group launched a lawsuit with Action on Smoking and Health, the American Medical Association and the National Medical Association (NMA). The NMA represents Black doctors.

For many years, tobacco companies marketed their menthol cigarettes to Black communities. Their campaigns included financing music performances and neighborhood events. Company documents released through the 1990s lawsuits also show the companies saw menthols as good starter products as they appealed to teens.

In the late 1990s, new restrictions banned cigarette ads from billboards, public transport and most tobacco-financed events. Companies moved much of their marketing to places like gas stations and small neighborhood markets. Research has shown both kinds of businesses are heavily present in Black neighborhoods.

About one-third of all cigarettes sold in the U.S. are menthols so a ban would hurt tobacco industry profits. As smoking has decreased in America, tobacco companies have been pushing similar products, including electronic cigarettes. But those still make up a very small percentage of industry sales.

Reynolds American makes the popular menthol cigarette Newport. In a statement, it said public science does not support treating menthol cigarettes differently from non-menthol.

The Altria corporation owns several tobacco product companies. It sharply criticized the FDA proposal, which it described as criminalizing menthol.

Smoking causes cancer, strokes and heart attacks and is blamed for 480,000 deaths each year. About 14 percent of Americans smoke cigarettes, with rates around the same between white and Black populations. But Black smokers are less likely to effectively stop smoking, which the U.S. Surgeon General and others have linked to menthol cigarettes.

Menthol is a chemical compound found naturally in mint plants. But it can be produced in a laboratory. Known for its cooling effect, the chemical is also used in some medicines. Cigarette makers began adding the chemical in the 1920s after realizing it reduced the burning feeling smokers can experience.

Past government efforts against menthol have faced resistance from lawmakers in tobacco states like North Carolina. But some members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) who received campaign donations from cigarette companies also opposed the ban.

Some CBC members warned that banning menthol would create an illegal market for the products. And they said it might lead to increased law enforcement in Black communities.

Yet calls for action have been growing. And last year the House of Representatives voted to ban the flavor with support from most Black members. The bill was ignored in the Republican-controlled Senate after President Trump made clear he opposed the measure.

Im Dorothy Gundy. And Im Alice Bryant.



The Associated Press reported this story. Alice Bryant adapted it for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story



menthol  n. an oil made from mint that has a strong smell and is used in cigarettes, candy and medicines for sore throats

cigarette  n. a small roll of paper that is filled with cut tobacco and smoked

lawsuit  n. a case in court involving a claim or complaint by one party against another

petition  n. a document that many people sign to show that they want a person or organization to do or change something

flavor  n. a substance or extract that provides a particular taste

data  n. facts or information used usually to calculate, analyze, or plan something

billboard  n. a flat surface or board, usually outdoors, on which very large advertisements or notices are posted
More than 25 cartoonists behind strips from Blondie to Zippy the Pinhead are celebrating 'No Pants Day' on Friday in a way that helps charities get clothing to those in need.
Three weeks ago, her office said the State Ethics Commission found no wrongdoing with the way she disclosed her travel and the gifts she received, although the commission, in keeping with practice, would not talk about its findings. Mosbys attorney, A. Scott Bolden, addressed the rental property in an email to The Baltimore Sun last month.
Students from Palouse Prairie Charter School in Moscow ride in a bull boat that they constructed out of willow branches and moose hide, as they cross the Snake River nearby Chief Timothy Park on Monday. Boats like these were built by Nez Perce tribal members for children, women and the elder
Santa Barbara County Planning Commission is poised to uphold an appeal and deny a permit for a homestay at a 5-acre ranch off North Refugio Road at its June 9 meeting, after continuing the hearing Wednesday so staff can develop findings to support the decision.
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Experts share concerns as decision on PA Prospect looms

JESS HUFF/The Lufkin Daily News The sun sets over Sam Rayburn Reservoir on a night in July 2020. PA Prospect LLC is applying for a permit with the Texas Railroad Commission in hopes of building an oil and gas waste landfill in the headwaters of Sam Rayburn Reservoir. The Chinquapin Community, which has fought against the permitting process for PA Prospect, will make its final stand over the next two weeks.

Sunrise catches the fog rolling off the flashes of farmlands between the tall pines of Deep East Texas along state Highway 103 east inviting drivers to slow down, breathe deep and take a sip of gas station coffee.

East Texans take pride in their homes in the heart of the states rainiest region; rural life offers peace to individuals disinterested in the hustle and bustle of the states urban areas. And they dont take kindly to people threatening the quality of their lives.

As such, countless East Texans, including state Sen. Robert Nichols and state Rep. Trent Ashby, took up the fight against a Montana-based company that applied for a permit to construct a surface oil and gas waste facility in the Chinquapin Community of San Augustine County.

PA Prospect LLCs permit will face the scrutiny of the Texas Railroad Commissioners in a two-week hearing starting Tuesday.

Members of the Chinquapin Community and several others will make their final arguments to stop the facility at that time. Theyve been here before. The same company was granted a permit for a Class II injection well at the same property in 2019, according to Jay Stewart, the companys legal representative.

The community brings with it the experience of losing that battle, resident RD Griffin said. Ann Bridges, whose property abuts PA Prospects, raised money to bring in Austin-based attorneys to fight this battle.

This community isnt opposed to the oil and gas industry; they dont like the threat of a fully functioning 256.7-acre facility straddling two tributaries of Sam Rayburn Reservoir.

Bridges doesnt want to live next to another facility like this  she moved from the coast to escape this exact problem, she said in a July 2020 interview. She and her neighbors arent thrilled about the air and noise pollution they fear it will inevitably bring; not to mention the impact continuous truck traffic will have on the highway.

Keith Dubose, whose property is east of the proposed facility, is concerned because he relies on a private well and Caney Creek, which runs through the PA Prospect property, runs within 30 yards of his home.

I know what type of nice smells you get off of the top of oil residue that would be coming through on my front porch drinking coffee every morning because it is to the west of me, he said in a pre-hearing conference in December.

These are not concerns the railroad commission has considered in the past. A similar fight in 2016 caught state and national attention as the 300 residents of Nordheim fought to prevent a similar facility from being constructed across the street from a school.

The PA Prospect application

Dubose, whose private well is 200 feet deep, expressed concern about what a breach of the leachate system would mean for his water source.

PA Prospect, for its part, guarantees the facility would not pose a threat to the water quality in the region.

Stewart, who has represented clients like PA Prospect for 25 years, doesnt believe the oil and gas waste stream should be confused with hazardous waste. Its different because the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality regulates hazardous waste that is generally the result of manufacturing processes and formulating chemicals for industrial and commercial production, he said.

Unfortunately, prior to the 1980s, East Texas experienced oil and gas drilling and production for many decades with less rigorous industry practices regarding disposal of the waste. Many of those historical East Texas sites are currently being remediated under the watchful eye of the RRC.

PA Prospects application states that, per liter, it would accept less than: five milligrams of arsenic, 100 milligrams of barium, one milligram of cadmium, five milligrams chromium, five milligrams of lead, 0.2 milligrams of mercury, one milligram of selenium, five milligrams of silver and 0.5 milligrams of benzene.

Health care professionals have classified several of these chemicals as known or probable human carcinogens, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Though the company, state and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency stand by the safety of disposal sites, the multitudes of East Texans who voiced opposition to PA Prospect, water conservation group leaders, researchers and more are skeptical.

My concerns are water quality based, Kelley Holcomb, director of the Angelina & Neches River Authority, said.

The river authority is tasked by the state to respond to and remediate water quality issues caused by pollution. In his letter against the proposed facility, Holcomb pointed to agencies currently fixing several spots in the Ayish Bayou and Sam Rayburn Reservoir, which would be even more impacted if PA Prospects facility failed to contain the waste.

Theyre going to be disposing of material, both solids and liquids, drilling waste, oil field waste in some shape or form that has contaminants in it they arent forced to disclose, No. 1, Holcomb said. Two, science doesnt know what the overall impact is if they even were required to disclose it.

He pointed to the number of vehicles moving in and out and questioned whether the materials transported to the community would be well contained. He believes the potential for surface water impact is great.

And so do residents. Resident Phillip Carrico is concerned about what a leak would do to the water supply, the livestock and agriculture in his area and whether it would lower property values.

And while the concern for the facilitys immediate impact is there, he is even more concerned about what happens when the facility is closed and dormant.

How well will that facility be maintained? he asked. Thats when the water quality issues are going to come.

His concerns extend to the two Class II injection well sites already approved by the commission, too. Its difficult to discern whats happening below ground and if the well technology were to fail, he said.

The impacts of a spill below ground could contaminate the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer, a massive sub-surface water source that extends from East Texas to the Texas border with Mexico.

Once it becomes contaminated in a groundwater scenario, its contaminated for a long period of time, Holcomb said. Surface water, you can stop the flow; generally stop the contamination and the surface environment will recover pretty quickly. The environment below ground does not recover so quickly.

The railroad commission inspects these injection wells at a minimum of every five years, Andrew Keese, a spokesman for the commission, said. But this is not enough, Zhong Lu, a researcher for the Southern Methodist University who investigates geohazards in West Texas, said.

In three separate peer-reviewed studies, he indicated problems with the injection wells, including at one point the detection of a well in West Texas that caused the ground to rise around it.

His goal is to utilize technology to determine when and where the leaks are occurring and is currently watching a few others, though he was hesitant to give any more information until more evidence supports his findings.

He, too, is concerned about how even the newer wells will withstand the test of time, he said.

Well, if it contaminated our water supply, it would  you know, we have two wells on our property, we have livestock, we have hay, and so forth  it would devastate us, potentially, Carrico said.

Railroad commission oversight

The Railroad Commission is guided by Statewide Rule 8, prohibiting the pollution of surface and sub-surface waterways in Texas. In addition to this provision, companies must adhere to construction guidelines, said Paul Dubois, head of technical permitting at the Railroad Commission.

The RRC requires these wastes to be properly disposed of at facilities subject to its regulation, Stewart said.

New facilities are subject to strict regulation and scrutiny by state regulators, including ongoing requirements for environmentally protective engineering design and construction, inspection, financial assurance, closure planning and record keeping.

Facilities will typically utilize synthetic liners installed to detect leaks and could have leachate collection systems that allow for some drainage from the cell into a collection zone, he said. The design must include how to cover the waste, closure requirements, what happens when the cell is full and how to maintain closure integrity for a period of time, he said.

When they apply for a permit, there are several things they have to do to demonstrate that those activities will protect the environment, Dubois said.

The railroad commissions permitting process requires the agency to look at the hydro geological environment and the waste management units and how they were designed and will be built, and ensures other requirements of the application were met before the facility can operate. It is then also required to make quarterly or semi-annual filings recording the sites activity.

The information we receive mostly comes from either our knowledge and our information sources regarding geology and what the applicant provides in the application, DuBois said. We dont, as part of the permitting process, receive information from third parties.

But its exactly this type of information that led the commission to reject a permit proposed for a facility in West Texas, he said. A third-party geologist notified the agency of sinkholes in the area and the commission denied the application.

Then, typically annually for a commercial facility, our district field inspectors will go out and inspect the facility again, with the permit in hand, DuBois said.

Inspectors will look at: housekeeping, whether the place is well run, whether the waste makes it where its supposed to be, if the waste is being managed as required by the permit, and whether there is evidence of a spill.

If there are violations, it can resort in enforcement, DuBois said.

Evidence of this can be seen in the Aug. 15, 2021, penalties assessed by the railroad commissioners; they collected $660,000 in penalties. However, inspections on the states 66 active facilities listed by the agency on its website are not always regular.

Twelve facilities considered active showed no inspection records on RRC Oil the railroad commissions database. Twenty-three facilities show no inspections later than 2019 on RRC Oil.

And of those with recorded inspections, certain agencies had more than a few violations. For example: McBride Operating LLC in Harrison County had 19 violations across its recent history, including some listed by the Railroad Commission as major.

Sojourner Drilling Corp. in Jones County in West Texas had 120 violations over 655 inspections in the six-year period posted online, according to the commission website. The same company name had nearly 400 violations over several counties through more than 2,000 inspections over a six-year-period.
Trent Ashby is the state representative for District 57 that includes Angelina, Houston, Leon, Madison, San Augustine and Trinity counties. His email address is trent.ashby@house.state.tx.us.
State Sen. Jill Carter of Baltimore said on the call that she hopes the PAC can help progressive candidates who are Democrats but  at the same time  maintain agendas that often set them apart from others in the party.
Thats why its so disappointing that Republican leadership, particularly Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, have announced that they again plan to block the medical marijuana provision in Gov. Evers budget proposal.

The voters want it. The medical community supports it. Regulating and taxing medical marijuana would bring increased revenue to the state. The votes are there in the Legislature to pass legalization of medical marijuana on a bipartisan basis. Tens or even hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites enduring agonizing pain each day are begging for relief, and Republican leadership stands in the way. How much longer will they have to suffer?

Sen. Bob Wirch, D-Somers, represents Wisconsins 22nd Senate District, which includes the city of Kenosha, most of the city of Racine, and parts of Somers, Mount Pleasant and Elmwood Park.

Share your opinion on this topic by sending a letter to the editor to tctvoice@madison.com. Include your full name, hometown and phone number. Your name and town will be published. The phone number is for verification purposes only. Please keep your letter to 250 words or less.
The particularly punitive aspect of this proposal for investors is that, unlike at the federal level, capital gains can push you into a higher tax bracket under the surtax, said Greg Sullivan, who co-authored A Grim Distinction: Massachusetts would have top marginal short-term capital gains tax rate in the U.S. under the proposed graduated income tax, with Andrew Mikula. That could be a significant deterrent to people who would otherwise have invested in small businesses as they emerge from the COVID crisis.

Research has shown that every job created in a high-tech firm supports the creation of up to five more jobs in other sectors of the economy. These other jobs often include low-skill service positions. The graduated income tax would provide a huge disincentive to taxpayers to invest in Massachusetts companies.
The first 100 days of any administration is a test of leadership. When you take that test in the middle of a global pandemic, after 400,000 Americans have lost their lives, you cant afford to fail. But the Biden administration has done more than just pass, theyve finally given states the partnership we need to respond to the pandemic and bounce back stronger than before.

Ive spent a lot of time talking to folks in every corner of Wisconsin about how we recover from this pandemic. Small business owners have told me they need help rehiring employees or stocking the shelves. Ive heard from health care professionals about the need for more vaccine doses and more predictability in vaccine supplies. And Ive seen that Wisconsins families need relief now.

Waiting to provide relief and take action hasnt been an option. From the beginning of the pandemic, weve worked to keep folks healthy, get relief to those who need it, and empower our medical professionals. All along, weve known that vaccination is how we put an end to this pandemic and start returning to a sense of normalcy, which is why the administrations support of our vaccination program has been so critical.
Nearly three-quarters of Wisconsin voters  including 77% of Republicans, 69% of Independents and 70% of Democrats  support reforming the states expungement law to grant eligibility after the completion of a sentence when a judge can make a better-informed decision.

The state Legislature is considering a bill that would do just that. Similar legislation passed the Assembly without opposition last session but was never taken up in the Senate. Support for this reform is bipartisan, and the bill is gaining momentum. Lawmakers should take advantage of this opportunity to let judges make informed decisions when weighing expungement requests.

Wisconsin lawmakers also should consider reducing the terms of probation and extended supervision to decrease the likelihood of an individual having his or her community supervision revoked and ending up behind bars. This reform was supported by a majority of voters, too.
I first tried cover crops about 10 years ago. I was experimenting with ways to produce a crop I could harvest to feed our cattle in early June. I wasnt sure it would work in our heavy clay soils, but it did.

I noticed that cover cropping reduced the amount of tilling I had to do, which saved money on fuel and wear and tear on my equipment. My goal is to get up to 1,000 acres with a cover crop this year. Its good for my soil, and it keeps farm runoff out of the Milwaukee River, which suffers degraded water quality from high levels of phosphorous and sediment.

Only 6% of Wisconsin farmland was planted with cover crops in the 2017 agriculture census. This can be partially explained as a fear of change. Like most farmers around here, I was taught to till the ground at the end of the growing season.

Its uncomfortable to stray from the traditional ways we grew up with. But we know now that leaving the soil exposed to winter rains causes problems that cover crops can help solve.

In a 2019 survey, two-thirds of Wisconsin farmers said that a break on crop insurance would motivate them to plant or increase their acreage in cover crops.
Thats the thing about a witch hunt. If it cant find any witches, it will find people to put pointy hats on. And when someone says there are no witches, the witch hunters will reply: Of course there are. We just burned three last week.

So the committee will put teachers in fear. Any time they decide to teach a subject, they will have to ask themselves new questions: Is someone going to file a report on me? Am I going to wind up in front of the committee?

This is an attack on education itself.

Students should be exposed to a wide variety of sources and perspectives, and they should be asked to investigate them critically. This isnt something McGeachin has to teach teachers. Its a basic tenant of their profession, something any decent teacher does every single day. McGeachins committee endangers it.

For example, it is not possible to have a decent course on the history of economic thought without examining the works of Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman, among others.
After much work and effort, Copper Creek Distillery in Marion is producing quality liquor that is hand crafted one drop at a time.

Located on U.S. 221 Business near the entrance to Hankins Road, Copper Creek Distillery will open for business during the Memorial Day weekend. Owners Greg Shuford and Randy Berry have worked for the past 14 months to create the first legal distillery in McDowell County since before Prohibition.

Shuford and Berry added that their craft distillery will be the first one for a multi-county area in western North Carolina. That includes McDowell, Madison, Mitchell and Yancey counties.

The two men are the co-owners and the operators of Copper Creek Distillery. Both of them have a background in the mountain tradition of making liquor.

Shuford said he heard stories about his grandfather hauling sugar for the moonshine stills in the mountains of North Carolina.

That was a story I was told, he said to The McDowell News. I cant prove it. I heard about it from an older man who used to make shine. My grandfathers brother used to make liquor.

Weve both been around it and we know people who has done it, said Berry.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Fresh coronavirus waves showed no sign of abating Saturday as devastating surges in India and Brazil pushed daily infections and deaths to record levels.

Despite the rollout of vaccines in many countries, Covid-19 is still wreaking destruction around the world, with close to 3.2 million lives lost and known infections soaring past 150 million.

Asia has recorded the bulk of new cases, driven largely by the surge in India. The crushing outbreak, which now accounts for more than 40 percent of the world's new infections, has overwhelmed the South Asian nation's healthcare system and depleted critical oxygen supplies.

Authorities on Saturday opened India's massive vaccination programme to all adults, but many states do not have enough doses to meet demand despite a freeze on exports of shots produced locally.

"There are so many people that are getting sick... we just wanted to be here as soon as possible," said Aadya Mehta, 25, who joined a queue of around 100 people outside a hospital in the capital New Delhi.

India reported more than 400,000 cases in 24 hours on Saturday, a global record, but experts say the official infection and death figures fall far short of the true picture.

More than 40 countries have committed to sending medical aid. A US military aircraft carrying more than 400 oxygen cylinders, other hospital equipment and nearly one million rapid coronavirus tests arrived in New Delhi on Friday.

But the crisis has also prompted travel warnings and flight bans with governments fearful of the outbreak spreading to their shores.

Australia on Saturday warned those breaking its India travel ban could face five years in jail.

'They died without the slightest dignity'

Another vast nation struggling to inoculate as many people as possible in the face of a destructive spike is Brazil, which has one of the world's highest mortality rates at 189 deaths per 100,000 people.

It reported nearly 2,600 new coronavirus deaths on Friday, bringing the total for April to 82,266the second consecutive monthly record and a sharp rise from March.

The surge has pushed Brazil's hospitals to the brink of collapse in many areas as the country's overall death toll crossed 400,000 this week.

Demonstrators from the human rights group Rio de Paz lowered Brazilian flags and mock body bags into symbolic graves at Rio de Janeiro's famous Copacabana beach on Friday, protesting the government's handling of the crisis.

"Those body bags represent the Brazilians who had to be buried in shallow graves," said Antonio Carlos Costa, the NGO's president.

"They died without the slightest dignity."

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was widely criticised for downplaying the threat of the virus, and for fighting stay-at-home measures.

The far-right president has defended his pandemic policies, telling supporters: "I was wrong about nothing."

The outbreak in neighbouring Argentina also continued to worry the government, which on Friday extended by three weeks a nightly coronavirus curfew for the capital Buenos Aires.

US vaccine milestone

In terms of total Covid-19 deaths, Brazil is behind only the United States, where the situation has taken a turn for the better in recent months with a successful vaccine rollout.

The White House said Friday that 100 million people in the country had been fully vaccinated, and more than 55 percent of American adults had received at least one dose.

The huge effort has meant coronavirus restrictions in many parts of the United States can be eased.

Fans wearing Mickey Mouse ears lined up at Disneyland in California as it finally reopened Friday, more than 400 days after the pandemic forced its closure.

"It is the greatest feeling ever," said Momi Young-Wilkins, a 55-year-old mother as she brought her children to the world-famous park near Los Angeles.

Thanks to vaccinations, some European governments have also eased or are considering relaxing coronavirus restrictions, including France and Belgium.

But the hugely uneven distribution of vaccines around the world has led to calls for greater access in poor nations and waivers for patent protections to help boost access.

A US trade official said Friday that Washington was working with World Trade Organization members to ensure "equitable" access to vaccines but stopped short of signalling a commitment to waiving patent protections.

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

 2021 AFP
Some years ago, our youngest daughter had a clever birthday gift idea. She bought a large dinner plate and with a permanent marker, she wrote many sayings or dad-isms'' I've repeated over the years. For example, when the kids whined, Im hungry, my response was usually, Hi Hungry, Im Dad. Or, when all four kids finally got in the minivan to go somewhere, Id say with a smirk, were off like a herd of turtles. Now, years later, the kids enjoy reading the several dozen sayings or they add new ones. This good-humored reminder of quirky comments is a gift that still makes us laugh.

One of my favorite sayings, and one I strongly believe is, Its just SUCH a beautiful day! Whether a crisp fall morning, a snowy afternoon or a blue-sky day, I think each day is beautiful. I realize that some days can be dreary, but looking out the window each morning makes me happy. Why? Well first off, Im still alive. Second, the prospect of good things the day may bring is more interesting to me than the challenges that are sure to arise. I guess I try to measure life by the good things I experience rather than by the difficulties and sadness common to all of us.
Lines moved quickly at the vaccination clinics, Snyder said, which he felt was one of the major victories of the effort. He also saw vaccinators go out to cars for people who were not able to get inside to get a shot.

"There was definitely one person who stands out  she was in tears she was so happy to finally get vaccinated and she was so excited to be there," Snyders said. "I think some of those above and beyond services kind of caught some people by surprise. And then many people just commented on how quickly and smoothly it went."

Firefighters and other emergency responders were pulled off regular duties to help vaccinate people as well, said Missoula Fire Department Capt. Kory Garman.

Garman acted as a safety officer with the Western Montana All Hazards Management Team, which became better known as the Vaccine Coordination Team during the pandemic.

Nurses also volunteered in droves and even on their days off, he said. Mobile clinics for homebound individuals were also used and between 50 and 100 people were vaccinated this way.

According to state data, 100,518 COVID-19 shots have been administered in Missoula County and 45,518 people are fully immunized.
Dane Alexander Morigeau

Arlee - Dane Alexander Morigeau, loving husband, father of 5, and "the best guy ever," passed away on Thursday April 1, 2021 at the age of 58.

Born July 20, 1962, the first child of Kathryn R. Reynolds and Jacque A. Morigeau in Chico Ca. His life as a young child followed Jacques' Army road from coast to coast and several places in between before eventually coming back to the Flathead Reservation. He quickly settled in and was embraced wholeheartedly by both sides of his extended family. He was a proud Dixon Demon and Ronan Chief during his school years. In high school Dane worked at Arnie's Gas and Tire, with a coveted charge account at DQ in Ronan, this job prompted his move to Arizona where he received his certificate in automotive mechanics. He returned to the Rez and continued his life's journey by working for Roy Kuntz Towing, Fred's Lounge (A bouncer!?!!), and then many careers working for his Tribal Community: TERS bus driver, Dixon Post and Pole, Fisheries, BIA Ditch Rider, Arlee Fitness Center, and finally his most challenging and rewarding time with SK Gaming at KTN, Big Arm Resort & Gray Wolf Peak Casino. These all were interwoven tightly by his service and dedication to his Arlee Fire Department Family as a volunteer Firefighter and EMT for more than 20 years.
On April 27, 2021, one of Drummond's native sons, Garry A. Mentzer, 78, took his last and most courageous ride as he rode off to heaven. His loving wife Debbie was by his side, as she has been for many years.

Upon returning to Drummond in 1966, Garry worked various jobs, including as a guide, an outfitter, and rancher, until finding his true calling as a cattle shipper. He was a hard worker, had a passion for cattle ranching and put his heart and soul into everything he did. In 1982, he established Mentzer's Used Cow lot in Drummond and made Cattle buying and shipping his life's work for 30 years. Garry had the uncannily knack to look at cattle in the field and guess the weight and be off by 5lbs. As a well-recognized Order Buyer for cattle, Garry served the local ranches for many years, and became a well-known and respected name in the community. His ability to make a friend anywhere served his business well, and he was able to send Montana beef to feed lots in Minnesota, Nebraska, and Iowa.
Its all about  this is really complex law stuff  does that contract fall into whats called a contract of adhesion? he said. The answer is yeah, because of the amount of people that signed up.

Adhesion contracts are offered on a take-it-or-leave-it basis without an opportunity for negotiation. Website terms of service fall into that category, as do cellphone and credit card service contracts, apartment leases and many forms of boilerplate legalese that most consumers accept after little more than a cursory skim. But that doesnt mean theyre automatically invalid.

In fact, courts have upheld end-user license agreements  those painfully long dialogue boxes where users must click accept when installing new software  as enforceable contracts.

Sevier may be sincere in his belief that Facebook and Twitter have sold users a false bill of goods, but he couldnt offer evidence to substantiate the claim. And intricate though it may be, contract law offers no mechanism for courts or government agencies to punish websites for content moderation.

Techdirt editor Mike Masnick explained that state lawmakers are tilting at windmills in their roundup of various social media censorship bills.
Ive been hacked. Officially. Someone pretending to be me  go figure  has applied for unemployment benefits in my name.

By the way, if you, whoever you are, really want to serve as my stuntman, there are a variety of situations in which you could actually be helpful to me. For example, the next student complaining about his or her grade would be a good start. Go for it, Pretend Me. You respond to the next email that begins, Dear Professor: What can I do?! My usual response of How about turning back time and paying attention in February? doesnt seem to resonate.

Back to the identity theft.

Keep in mind, this is Kentuckys fault. The state unemployment system suffered two data breaches last year. Initially, state officials said the personal information of Kentuckians was not at risk. Turns out, it was.

My pleas to the state of Kentucky, Hey! This is the real me. I have a job! have since been sucked into the vortex that is the state office of unemployment insurance. Go ahead. Give them a call and see what happens. Leave it to bureaucrats to come up with new ways not to deal with humans.
The data may not look good for active fund managers. But you and I aren't active fund managers. We are individuals living in the golden age of investing.

Today's wealth of knowledge and access to free information equals power without the once hefty price tag. The edge that Wall Street once had over Main Street has become blunt. In fact, Wall Street actually has many disadvantages. Active funds and even ETFs have to abide by rules and regulations, and adhere to the framework outlined in what's called a prospectus. Investors in the fund may raise their eyebrows if managers over-allocate into unproven companies or face short-term volatility. This can lead to premature selling before a company has the chance to break out or there is so much diversification that the fund practically mirrors the index.

Active funds can also face outflows after a bad quarter. In sum, active funds face quite a bit of inflexibility that the individual investor simply doesn't have to deal with.
South Africa, together with many other developing nations, has become a dumping ground for devices which are cheaply manufactured overseas using obsolete 2G technology, Vodacom has told MyBroadband.

While answering questions about its plans for the future of its 2G network, Vodacom said that a major issue it has identified is that there are retailers who keep selling outdated cellphones that only have 2G support.

Sales of these legacy devices are largely outside the control of mobile network service providers, Vodacom said.

The majority of these low cost devices are sold by independent retail chains who procure the devices overseas and sell them directly to consumers.

Vodacom called for regulatory intervention to stop the sale of such 2G-only mobile phones in South Africa.

This is in the best interests of consumers and South Africas fourth industrial revolution (4IR) ambitions, as 2G technology is not data capable and does not promote the acceleration of the digital economy, Vodacom stated.

In addition to the proposed regulatory interventions to stop the perpetuation of outdated 2G device sales, additional measures which should be considered by the government to accelerate the adoption of newer, data capable 4G devices would be the reduction of import duties and VAT on entry-level 4G smart feature phones, and entry level 4G smartphones, the operator suggested.

To provide a viable alternative to the 2G devices that are flooding the South African market, Vodacom said that it is helping to support the adoption of 4G mobile phones.

Vodacom said it has introduced low-cost 4G smart feature phones such as the Vodacom Vibe, which retails for R279.

It also said that it has made 4G devices more affordable through increased device subsidies.

Many operators across both developed and developing countries have already shutdown their legacy 2G networks. This has been made possible by intervention from their national regulatory bodies and governments, Vodacom stated.

Vodacom said that it is important that its 2G network for consumers is decommissioned and that it reduces the radio frequency spectrum resources being used for 2G machine-to-machine and Internet of Things services.

[It is] crucial in ensuring South Africa accelerates digital inclusion and is able to realise its 4IR ambitions, said Vodacom.

Vodacom previously told MyBroadband that it wants to shut down its 2G network by 2024.

New technologies such as 4G provide a better voice experience, are better suited to cope with the explosive growth in data traffic through the more efficient use of spectrum, enable the cost effective extension of mobile broadband coverage across the country, including rural communities, and are also more energy efficient.
South Africa is in the final stage of negotiations with a potential investor for its grounded flag carrier, a move that would give the airline a boost just as it emerges from bankruptcy protection.

The deal will bring capital and much-needed technical and commercial expertise to South African Airways, the Department of Public Enterprises said in a statement Friday. The agreement should be signed in the next few weeks, it said.

The comments indicate a significant stride forward in a search that has dragged on for several months and taken place during the worst crisis in aviation history.

SAA has been grounded since South African borders were temporarily closed in March last year to contain the coronavirus, and was awarded the latest in a series of state bailouts in October.

The government didnt disclose the identity of the potential investor, and few names have emerged since Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan started saying private entities may be the sought.

Ethiopian Airlines Group, Africas biggest airline, has publicly expressed interest, but has stressed in the past it would be an operational partner rather than financial backer.

One barrier to a major deal is that South Africa is cut off from large swathes of the world due to travel bans to contain a coronavirus variant identified in the country last year.

Global air travel more broadly remains at a fraction of pre-pandemic levels, as resurgent case numbers and the differing pace of vaccine rollouts keep governments wary.

Struggling Subsidiaries

While talks are ongoing, SAAs interim board will develop a business plan to sustain the carriers operations, the DPE said. A priority will be to ensure the sustainability of its units including low-cost carrier Mango and maintenance arm SAA Technical, which are both showing signs of financial strain.

These subsidiaries will need to be restructured and, in some instances, the case for continued existence must be assessed, the department said.

Mango flights were briefly suspended earlier this week over the non-payment of fees to the airports operator, while SAA Technical announced plans to cut jobs that a union representative said would impact about 60% of employees.

Neither it nor Mango were included in the 10.5 billion rand ($725 million) bailout granted to SAA last year.

SAA is now solvent and liquid, business-rescue practitioners led by Siviwe Dongwana said while handing over the airline to the board earlier Friday. The carrier has cut almost 80% of its workforce and reduced liabilities to 2.6 billion rand from 38 billion rand after deals with creditors and lessors.
The disagreements extend to uncertainty over how much AB 71 would raise. Rivas says it could be up to $1 billion a year, opponents say it could be $2.4 billion a year and the state Franchise Tax Board puts it at $950 million for a couple of years, then dropping to $600 million.

The variation stems from the very complex nature of the legislation and the impossibility of calculating how corporations would react to undoing a major change in corporate tax policy enacted in 1986.

For many years, California utilized a unitary approach to taxing multinational corporations  requiring them to report their global earnings and, using a rigid formula, calculate how much should be attributed to California for taxation.

Foreign-based companies, especially those in Japan and the United Kingdom, hated the reporting requirements, which they regarded as intrusive, and pushed California to change it. The issue arose during Jerry Browns first governorship and initially he defended Californias system, only to do a 180-degree flip after visiting Japan.
California has now joined the Rust Belt states in losing national political clout because of sluggish population growth.

Should we worry about that?

Darn right!

True, the lost clout is minuscule: one U.S. House seat and one electoral vote in presidential elections. We'll still have much more than any other state. The loss will barely be noticed  this time.

Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help. Subscribe today! Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to the Napa Valley Register.

But is this a trend? The symptom of internal decay? Is the Golden State turning to rust?

No one really knows, but it should seriously concern us and be honestly confronted.

"Sitting back and doing nothing is not the solution, whether it's on housing or the economy or equity," Jeff Bellisario, executive director of the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, was quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle.

"It's a signal to policymakers that we're not headed in the right direction."

A little history: In the 1940s, New York  the Empire State  held 45 House seats, the largest bloc in the nation. After losing another seat with last year's decennial census, New York will be down to 26, a substantial weakening of political muscle over the decades.
Election campaign formally kicks off in Armenia

World oil prices dropping

US says it does not want to be in arms race with any country

Cyprus MOD: Turkey's aggressive behavior creates dangerous climate

Turkey FM claims Armenians "have taken Turkish-French relations hostage"

Armenia ex-President Sargsyan on authorities: For years these scoundrels were saying Karabakh must be given

Bitcoin to become legal tender in El Salvador

Armenia ex-President Sargsyan: If I were Commander-in-Chief, I would shoot myself if there were such situation

Armenia 3rd President Sargsyan: We have not lied, have not manipulated people, have not divided our society

Armenia ombudsman: Azerbaijan soldiers try to steal about 20 horses from Gegharkunik Province village shepher

Russia begins testing reliability of its nuclear weapons

Armenia acting PM: There is a future

NATO kicks off BALTOPS exercise in Baltic Sea

Armenian Catholicos patriarchal visit to Artsakh ends (PHOTOS)

Iran loses right to vote at UN due to non-payment of dues

Trump: All Joe Biden had to do was sit back and do nothing

At least 88 people killed in Nigeria attacks

Armenia former President Sargsyan visits memorial chess tournament in Jermuk (PHOTOS)

Armenia acting PM's election campaign is carried out with large-scale use of administrative resources

Mexico holding parliamentary, local elections

Armenia ex-President Kocharyan: Not safe today even in Yerevan (PHOTOS)

78,004 more passengers leave Armenia by air in first 5 months of 2021 than arrive

Putin-Biden possible meeting place in Switzerland is named

UN condemns "heinous attack" in Burkina Faso

Prosperous Armenia Party leader: Only Russia can ensure security of our country

Stoltenberg warns Russias Putin, Belarus Lukashenko against destabilization in NATO eastern flank

Woman found dead in Yerevan Lake

Catholicos of All Armenians presides over Divine Liturgy in Stepanakert

Turkey airstrike kills at least 3 Kurdish refugees in Iraq

Trump demands billing China $10 trillion for coronavirus damage

Bright Armenia Party leader: We are on verge of civil war

Several explosions occur in Syria

Biden not seeking conflict with Russia

Armenia acting PM sends congratulatory message on Sweden National Day

Passenger flow at 2 Armenia international airports increase by 24% in May

37 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Apple employees are against returning to work in office

Person dies in Armenia town mountains

Kim Jong Un appears in public for first time since early May

Armenia Ombudsman: Azerbaijanis fire at Gegharkunik Province village shepherd for about 30 minutes

Iraq may face severe water shortages

G7 countries sign deal to tax largest multinational companies

1st round of debates of presidential candidates takes place in Iran

6 die and 5 go missing in Sri Lankan flooding

Powerful blast thunders in Somalia capital

A body found in Artsakh

Nearly 100 people killed in Burkina Faso

Acting PM: It is necessary to create professional army in Armenia

UN demands investigation amid discovery of mass grave of children at Canada school

Acting PM: Armenia is a paradise for business

ICRC representatives visit 6 captured Armenian soldiers

Pashinyan: An absolute record for Armenia has been set for number of registered jobs

Civil Contract party holding fundraising evening

Nikol Pashinyan sends congratulatory message to Bashar al-Assad

South Korean air force chief resigns amid scandal over female sergeant suicide

Nikol Pashinyan visits morgue in Abovyan

Acting PM announces interference of external forces in electoral processes in Armenia

Pashinyan conducts procession in Abovyan

MO: Azerbaijanis carry out engineering work on territories without crossing Armenian border

8 security officials killed in Taliban attack in Afghanistan

Philip T. Reeker's visit to Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia

Biden gives prosecutors more freedom to terminate immigration cases

93 new cases of COVID-19 reported in Armenia per day

Total of 1,557 bodies found in territories not controlled by Artsakh

Twitter launches paid subscription Twitter Blue

Robert Kocharyan: We are able to find solutions

Tennessee boat merchant willing to pay $ 100,000 to anyone who catches specially marked fish

Armenia ex-Ambassador to Vatican on Armenians' emigration and reasons

Catholicos of All Armenians takes remains of St. Gregory the Illuminator to Artsakh

Armenian ballet master Vilen Galstyan dies at 80

Putin shares expectations from upcoming meeting with Biden

Armenia 2nd President: Number of people who emigrated without returning has grown, only solution is shift of power

EU bans flights of Belarusian airline companies in its airspace

US deals blow to major Chinese companies

Armenia acting PM: 62% of weapons obtained were obtained between 2018 and 2020

Armenia acting PM: Meghri corridor issue and transfer of villages of Kazakh region were a topic in November 2020

Armenia ruling party MP drops mandate

Citizens of Armenia's Artashat greet acting PM by chanting 'Turk' and 'traitor'

Armenia Ombudsman reminds PM's ex-chief of staff about shortcomings in activities during war

Armenia 3rd President: We must start bringing back people who know everything about troops

Armenia MOD hosts consultation with deputy commanders and battalions' commanders

Armenia Ombudsman says acting PM's plan won't ensure restoration of Armenian citizens' rights

Armenia Ombudsman: Azerbaijan's failure to return POWs is equivalent to war crime

Armenia 3rd President receives Netherlands Ambassador

Armenia Prosecutor General speaks at St. Petersburg International Economic Forum

"Armenia" bloc: We plan to meet with residents of Shirak Province

Armenian water resources come under Azerbaijani control, more on COVID-19 in Armenia, Jun. 4 digest

Armenia acting PM: Health insurance is inevitable

Armenia Investigative Committee launches criminal case regarding keeping of bodies and remains of deceased servicemen

Opposition "Armenia" bloc representative: Authorities are actually busy bribing voters

Armenia legislature passes law to help ease requirements for future teachers

Russia ambassador visits Meghri, Armenia border checkpoint (PHOTOS)

Armenia ruling party's candidate for anti-corruption commission member not elected

Armenia acting premier: There will be statement in coming days about exposure of high treason

Dollar loses value in Armenia

Armenia acting PM: Our task is to support our farmers so that engaging in agriculture is planned activity

China Daily: Water tribe prospers ashore in Fujian

China calls for closer security, economic cooperation with Afghanistan

Armenia ex-President Kocharyan: There was proposal from Azerbaijans Aliyev on Meghri issue

CIS Observation Mission continues to monitor snap parliamentary elections in Armenia
Icelands Fagradalsfjall is erupting. This UB expert helps predict where lava may go

Maps comparing actual (left) and previously predicted (right) lava thickness at Fagradalsfjall as of April 18, 2021. Left map: Estimated lava thickness on April 18, produced using data from aerial surveys acquired by the University of Iceland, National Land Survey of Iceland, and Icelandic Institute of Natural History. Right map: Lava thickness predictions previously generated for April 18 using data from April 12, inputted in a lava flow model developed by Mattia de Michieli Vitturi and run by Gro B. M. Pedersen. Scientists choose a setting that tends to overestimate lava flow, as the model is used for hazard evaluation, Pedersen says. Courtesy of Gro B. M. Pedersen

Mattia de Michieli Vitturi, a geology faculty member and a mathematician, uses computational modeling to help officials in Iceland understand where lava may flow

The lava flow modeling is a collaboration between scientists at UB; the Icelandic Meteorological Office; the University of Iceland; and the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) in Italy.

Thousands of people are visiting the eruption site, making the capability of anticipating the lava propagation an important element to evaluate the hazard in the area. 

BUFFALO, N.Y.  The eruption of Fagradalsfjall on Icelands Reykjanes Peninsula, with lava emerging from multiple fissures, has captivated people around the world since March.

As molten rock continues to pour out, lighting up the landscape with its fiery glow, a University at Buffalo researcher is helping officials in Iceland predict where the lava may go next.

Mattia de Michieli Vitturi, PhD, assistant professor of volcanology in the Department of Geology in the UB College of Arts and Sciences, is a mathematician who uses computational fluid dynamics to study natural phenomena ranging from tsunamis to volcanic events.

He is working with partners in the Icelandic Meteorological Office, the University of Iceland and the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) in Italy to use a model he developed to map potential future patterns of lava flow. The model considers factors such as the regions topography (how the ground slopes and rises), the shape and location of fissures and vents, and the volume of lava thats surfacing.

Im collaborating with them as the eruption is changing almost daily, de Michieli Vitturi said late last week. The lava is exiting from multiple vents, so the last version of the model that I sent was a couple of hours ago, with a modification because they had some requests.

This cooperative research grew from a longstanding partnership between de Michieli Vitturi and Sara Barsotti, PhD, the volcanic hazards coordinator for the Icelandic Meteorological Office. The two had previously worked together on other projects in Europe, including at the INGV section in Pisa, Italy. It was at INGV, also, that de Michieli Vitturi created the lava flow model with his colleague Simone Tarquini, who is also collaborating on the effort at Fagradalsfjall.

De Michieli Vitturis work in Iceland presented his UB students with a great opportunity this semester. In early April, Barsotti gave a virtual guest lecture in a course de Michieli Vitturi is teaching on geologic hazards. The talk focused on Iceland, describing the countrys geology and how the Icelandic Meteorological Office monitors events including the ongoing activity at Fagradalsfjall. Barsotti noted that the eruption  which was preceded by tens of thousands of earthquakes  could continue for weeks or months.
President Joe Bidenwho pointedly called on his predecessor to fully implement Section 907 sanctions against Azerbaijanhas moved to waive this US Congressional sanction, clearing the way for Biden-Harris Administration assistance to the oil-rich and anti-Armenian Aliyev regime, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

American recognition of the Armenian Genocide comes with responsibilities, among them not arming or abetting Azerbaijans drive to complete this crime, said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. Any action by President Biden that greenlights U.S. aid to the Aliyev regime runs counter to his clear stand and, more profoundly, the spirit of his recent recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

Section 907, enacted in 1992, establishes statutory restrictions on U.S. assistance to the Government of Azerbaijan until the President determines, and so reports to the Congress, that the Government of Azerbaijan is taking demonstrable steps to cease all blockades and other offensive uses of force against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh [(Artsakh)]. The Congress included a Section 907 waiver in the FY2002 Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act. The Section 907 waiver and subsequent annual extensions require a number of certifications, including that granting the waiver will not undermine or hamper ongoing efforts to negotiate a peaceful settlement between Armenia and Azerbaijan or be used for offensive purposes against Armenia. The White Houseexercising this waiver authorityhas provided U.S. assistance to Azerbaijan ever since, including, during the Trump Administration, high levels (nearly $120 million) of military and security aid. This assistance has been provided without clear and consistent Congressional notifications.
YEREVAN.  The internal political developments in Armenia are conditioned by the fact that the person [i.e., acting PM Nikol Pashinyan] who brought Artsakh [(Nagorno-Karabakh)] and Armenia collapse is still in power at the moment; as the opposition could not solve this issue on the streets, everyone [now] goes to the [snap parliamentary] elections [slated for June 20]. Analyst Argishti Kiviryan told this to a press conference on Saturday.

"These elections are not a band-aid for all wounds, but are a way, an opportunity to try to form a new government through elections, to get rid of Nikol Pashinyan. There are two options: either to get rid [of him] through classic elections, the otherif he obviously goes to the use of administrative resources and [electoral] fraud, then try to turn these elections into a revolutionary process," he said.

Also, Kiviryan reflected on the current parliamentary opposition forces, noting: "Until today, we have seen that some politicians who declared themselves in opposition have behaved in the role of Nikol Pashinyan's servants." In this connection, the analyst gave the example of Edmon Marukyan, chairman of the opposition Bright Armenia Party and head of its parliamentary faction.

"It is profitable to serve from the positions of the opposition. On the other hand, it is the [parliamentary opposition] PAP [Prosperous Armenia Party] that was providing water in 2018, and now, too, it does not do badly in providing," added Kiviryan.

He noted second President Robert Kocharyan as a real opposition, who is not going to negotiate with these authorities. "The authorities managed to put Robert Kocharyan [in prison] for some time, which brought him back to politics and made him one of the main factors.

One of the most effective steps taken by Nikol Pashinyan was to return Robert Kocharyan to big politics at any cost. I am sure that Nikol will rejoice these bitter fruits for himself," said Argishti Kiviryan.

The analyst believes that the upcoming elections will be bipolar. "People elect the prime minister, and the [political] teams that will have candidates for prime minister will have the greatest chances. Robert Kocharyan's team has its candidate. People will go to elect the next prime minister. People will avoid voting for that team where there is no candidate for prime minister.

There is usually a bipolar election in Armenia. Today we see that the main opposition is Robert Kocharyan, and the political generation will occur around him. If he can apply that model, it will work. He can win in case of tabbing it in the right direction," concluded Argishti Kiviryan.
Duluth, MN (55816)

Today

Intervals of clouds and sunshine. High 67F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

A few clouds from time to time. Low 57F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph.
The Azerbaijani side has started building a trench at the highlands near Khnatsakh village in Syunik Province of Armenia. The head of Syuniks Tegh enlarged community, Nerses Shadunts, told Armenian News-NEWS.am about this.

"It is not that they [the Azerbaijani] came, they are building in our area. There was an arrangement between us that they would not stand there and we would not stand there either. But now that we're focusing on one point, they do so that they come, stand [there]. Besides, sometimes our shepherds graze the animals there, and they [the Azerbaijani] probably don't like that. They are standing in their area, have set up an observation post, are doing engineering work. And immediately in front of them, at a distance of 5-10 meters, our army puts up, close so that the village will not be visible.

What can we do? We have nothing in our hands. This is not a local government issue. (). We are working with our army corps to alleviate the situation. The area of the village and all the adjacent heights are under the control of the adversary. No delimitation work has been done yet, said the head of Tegh community.

According to Shadunts, the Azerbaijanis in the area have become more aggressive. "They used to be friendly when they came. [But] gradually their moods are changing, they are becoming aggressive, they do not let the shepherds approach," he said.

According to the head of Tegh community, there are no problems for agricultural work in the region, except for Aravus vilage where the issue will also be resolved in 1-2 days. "Shepherds in our area are told, 'Do not go near!' They [the Azerbaijanis] try to create an atmosphere of fear among the shepherds at that outpost.

There ware no obstacles for the field work; our people are not cowards. In the winter, 4-5 months ago, they sold about 60 percent of the small cattle because we did not have winter pastures [any more]," said Nerses Shadunts, adding that there is currently no large-scale emigration from Syunik's border communities.
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan agree ceasefire

Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan agree ceasefire

Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan agreed what they called a complete ceasefire on Saturday after reports of fresh shooting and troop build-ups in the aftermath of border clashes earlier this week that killed 49 people.



The heads of the countries' state security bodies announced the agreement in a joint briefing in Kyrgyzstan hours after Kyrgyzstan's border guard service said Tajik troops opened fire on Kyrgyz vehicles on their side of the border.



The presidents of the two Central Asian nations also spoke on the phone on Saturday to discuss further steps, their offices said.



"The tragedy that happened in the border area must never happen again," Saimumin Yatiyev, head of Tajikistan's State National Security Committee, said as he stood next to his Kyrgyz counterpart Kamchybek Tashiyev.



Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by phone with his counterparts in both countries, urging them to stick to the ceasefire agreement, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.



Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, which are former Soviet republics, host Russian military bases and consider Moscow a strategic ally.



The clashes broke out this week along the frontier between Tajikistan's Sughd province and Kyrgyzstan's southern Batken province because of a dispute over a reservoir and pump, claimed by both sides, on the Isfara River.



Villagers from opposing sides hurled rocks at each other and border guards joined the fray with guns, mortars and even, according to Kyrgyz border guards, a Tajik attack helicopter.



At least one Kyrgyz border outpost and a number of houses on both sides were set ablaze and Kyrgyzstan said it had evacuated thousands of people from the area.



Kyrgyz authorities reported 34 people killed, all but three of them civilians, and 132 wounded. Local government sources in Tajikistan said 15 people had been killed on its side, including six border guards and one policeman. (Reuters)
Nearly all of the technology heavyweights from Apple AAPL to Amazon AMZN posted blowout first quarter results during the last week of April. Wall Streets response to the show of strength has been largely muted, highlighting a combination of high expectations, already-impressive runs over the last year, and the possibility of tech deceleration ahead.

The technology titans remain safe long-term bets. However, given their outsized climbs off the coronavirus lows and the possibility of a sustained economic boom for the next several years, investors might want to consider stocks that are poised to benefit from pent-up consumer demand and the broader reopening (also read: Are Big Tech's Best Growth Days Behind It).

For instance, U.S. GDP jumped by a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.4% in the first quarter, to put the economy within 1% of its pre-pandemic levels, according to new Commerce Department data.

The consumer-focused U.S. economy was boosted by a big uptick in spending, driven by a record 21% jump in household income in March. The latest round of stimulus checks fueled the rise and propelled a 4.2% month-over-month pop in spending, the biggest since last summer.

The largely successful vaccine rollout in the U.S., coupled with a natural economic rebound, and the injection of trillions of dollars into the economy has pushed up 2021 U.S. GDP projections to over 6%, which would be the strongest in roughly 35 years.

With this backdrop, its time to explore three stocks that investors might want to buy in order to play the economic reopening

Darden Restaurants, Inc., DRI

Darden is a dine-in restaurant chain standout, with brands from Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse to Yard House and The Capital Grille. The companys portfolio includes over 1,800 restaurants and its poised for a rebound as consumers return to indoor dining.

DRIs sales have tumbled in four straight quarters, including a 26% drop for the three-month period (Q3 FY21) ended in February. But the companys positive outlook helped the stock surge after its March 25 release.

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Zacks estimates call for a big comeback, with its fourth quarter revenue projected to soar 67% from the year-ago period to $2.12 billion. This top-line expansion is projected to help it swing from an adjusted loss of -$1.24 a share to +$1.71 per share. Dardens fiscal 2021 revenue is still expected to dip 9%, even though its adjusted earnings are projected to pop 27%

The floodgates now appear open for a major boom at the sit-down chain power, with its FY22 revenue projected to soar 30% to $9.12 billion. This would mark by far its largest growth as a public firmwent public in the mid-1990sand see it climb well above its pre-pandemic levels of $8.5 billion. This excepted top-line expansion is projected to boost its adjusted FY22 earnings by 78% to $7.04 a share.

Dardens consensus earnings estimates climbed significantly since its last report to help it land a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). DRI has easily topped our bottom-line estimates in the trailing four periods, as part of a much longer string of beats. The company is also part of an industry thats in the top half of our over 250 Zacks industries, and 15 of the 22 brokerage recommendations Zacks has are either Strong Buys or Buys, with the remaining ratings at a Hold.

The nearby chart highlights DRIs comeback from its coronavirus downturn, with the stock up over 175% since the end of March to crush its industrys 70% average and fellow industry standouts such as Chipotle CMG. Darden has now jumped 160% in the last five years to outpace the S&P 500s 135% climb. Despite its climb, DRI comes in below overbought RSI levels (70) at around 58.

Darden has cooled down somewhat in the last month, but at around $146 a share it sits right near its all-time highs. This makes the fact that its trading at a 45% discount to its own year-long highs in terms of forward earnings all the more impressive. At 21.5X forward 12-month earnings, DRI also trades at a 30% discount to its industrys average. Plus, DRI raised its dividend last quarter and it authorized a new $500 million repurchase program.

Levi Strauss & Co. LEVI

The historic denim firm beat Zacks adjusted Q1 earnings estimate by 41% on April 8, with an average beat of 54% in the trailing four periods. Levi Strauss revenue did still slip by 13%, but its guidance finally shows a return to growth that could be boosted by the economic reopening, as people find a reason to look their best again.

Levis denim brand has been an industry leader for decades and today it sells various offerings for men, women, and kids around the world, under its namesake brand, Dockers, and others. Levi returned to the public markets in 2019 and it spent much of the last year improving its digital businesses.

More importantly, executives are focused on diversifying beyond denim bottoms to adapt to changing fashion habits In 2015, our tops business represented 11% of our total business. In 2020, it was 21% of revenues, CEO Chip Bergh said on its Q4 earnings call.

The companys chief executive said Levi expects half of its revenues to come from products that are not denim bottoms over the next decade. Investors should also remember that nothing is forever in the always-cyclical fashion industry. Therefore, the athleisure craze could be due for a slowdown. Levis price chart over the past year illuminates that Wall Street might be anticipating this shift, with the stock up 45% in 2021 vs. Lululemons LULU 4% decline.

LEVI shares have popped over 15% since its first quarter report and they closed regular trading Friday at roughly $29, just below their records. The stocks small pullback recently has pushed it below overbought RSI levels to 63. The stock also trades at a slight discount to its highly-ranked Retail-Apparel and Shoes industry at 24.3X forward earnings vs. 25.4X. And Levi management raised its dividend for the second quarter.

Along with expanding its non-denim business, Levi is working to boost its exposure at the modern retail titans. This includes a beefed-up deal with Target TGT that features a lifestyle collection that ranges from home goods to and pet supplies. And the pent-up demand and economic stimulus could benefit Levi as people can afford to revamp their wardrobes.

Zacks estimates call for Levis Q2 revenue to skyrocket 144% from last years easy to compare period. This top-line positivity is projected to help the company swing from an adjusted loss of -$0.48 a share in the year-ago period to +$0.09. The clothing firms FY21 sales are projected to climb by over 24% to $5.5 billion, with another 10% growth expected in FY22 to see it reach $6.1 billionabove its pre-pandemic levels of $5.8 billion.

At the bottom end of the income statement, its adjusted earnings are projected to soar by 430% this year to reach $1.11 a share, with FY22 set to pop 20% higher. On top of that, Levis consensus earnings outlook has improved to help it land a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) right now, alongside B grades for Growth and Momentum in our Style Scores system.

Coca-Cola KO

Away-from-home venues such as restaurants, movie theaters, and stadiums make up a large chunk of Coca-Colas business. This caused its sales to tumble roughly 30% in the second quarter of last year, and helps make the global beverage maker a solid proxy for the economic reopening. KO sales trended in the right direction in the second half of 2020, with Q4 revenue down just 5%.

Coca-Cola then on April 19 topped our Q1 earnings and revenue estimates. Most importantly, the company said volume in March returned to pre-pandemic levels. KO did provide some caution about how quickly the global economy is due to bounce back, given the uneven vaccine rollout. But Wall Street shrugged off the concerns in favor of U.S. positivity and overall optimism.

KOs coronavirus struggles did see it ramp up its restructuring efforts. Coca-Cola is reducing its workforce, while also cutting smaller, underperforming brands. And the company was already revamping its portfolio to adapt to changing consumer habits.

The companys push includes its purchase of potential Starbucks SBUX rival Costa Coffee, Coke-branded energy drinks, investments in Gatorade challenger BodyArmorwhich it could take control ofand more. Coca-Cola even launched an alcoholic version of Topo Chico sparkling water to get in on the booming market hard seltzer market and compete against Boston Beer SAM and others.

Zacks estimates call for KOs fiscal 2021 revenue to jump over 12% to reach $37.1 billion, with FY22 set to come in another 6.2% higher to hit $39.3 billion. This would see the company nearly return to pre-pandemic levels this year and blow by FY19s $37.3 billion next year. Meanwhile, the beverage giants adjusted earnings are expected to climb by 12% in FY21 and 6.5% in FY22.

Coca-Cola stock is up about 22% in the last year, to lag just behind its industry, but top PepsiCos PEP 14%. At $54 a share, KO trades just below its 52-week highs, with it up 13% in the past three months to match the benchmark indexs climb. And the stock trades right at its own year-long median at 24.3X forward 12-month earnings.

KO currently lands a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) and its certainly no longer a growth stock or anything close to glamorous. But its 3.1% dividend yield top PEPs 2.8% and crushes the 30-year U.S. Treasurys 2.3%. Coca-Cola also remains one of the worlds most valuable brands according to Forbes, ahead of Disney DIS, McDonalds MCD, and Nike NKE, and behind only the tech titans.

Furthermore, eight of the 15 brokerage recommendations Zacks has for KO are Strong Buys or Buys with none lower than a Hold. And its worth noting that the stock still has 6% more room to run before it reaches its pre-pandemic records.

5 Stocks Set to Double



Each was hand-picked by a Zacks expert as the #1 favorite stock to gain +100% or more in 2020. Each comes from a different sector and has unique qualities and catalysts that could fuel exceptional growth.



Most of the stocks in this report are flying under Wall Street radar, which provides a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor.



Today, See These 5 Potential Home Runs >>



Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report



NIKE, Inc. (NKE) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Target Corporation (TGT) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Apple Inc. (AAPL) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Starbucks Corporation (SBUX) : Free Stock Analysis Report



McDonalds Corporation (MCD) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Darden Restaurants, Inc. (DRI) : Free Stock Analysis Report



The Walt Disney Company (DIS) : Free Stock Analysis Report



lululemon athletica inc. (LULU) : Free Stock Analysis Report



CocaCola Company The (KO) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG) : Free Stock Analysis Report



PepsiCo, Inc. (PEP) : Free Stock Analysis Report



The Boston Beer Company, Inc. (SAM) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Levi Strauss & Co. (LEVI) : Free Stock Analysis Report



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Zacks Investment Research
- By GF Value





The stock of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT, 30-year Financials) shows every sign of being modestly overvalued, according to GuruFocus Value calculation. GuruFocus Value is GuruFocus' estimate of the fair value at which the stock should be traded. It is calculated based on the historical multiples that the stock has traded at, the past business growth and analyst estimates of future business performance. If the price of a stock is significantly above the GF Value Line, it is overvalued and its future return is likely to be poor. On the other hand, if it is significantly below the GF Value Line, its future return will likely be higher. At its current price of $120.08 per share and the market cap of $212.7 billion, Abbott Laboratories stock is believed to be modestly overvalued. GF Value for Abbott Laboratories is shown in the chart below.





Abbott Laboratories Stock Appears To Be Modestly Overvalued

Because Abbott Laboratories is relatively overvalued, the long-term return of its stock is likely to be lower than its business growth, which averaged 7.4% over the past three years and is estimated to grow 8.92% annually over the next three to five years.

Link: These companies may deliever higher future returns at reduced risk.

Companies with poor financial strength offer investors a high risk of permanent capital loss. To avoid permanent capital loss, an investor must do their research and review a company's financial strength before deciding to purchase shares. Both the cash-to-debt ratio and interest coverage of a company are a great way to to understand its financial strength. Abbott Laboratories has a cash-to-debt ratio of 0.36, which which ranks worse than 85% of the companies in the industry of Medical Devices & Instruments. The overall financial strength of Abbott Laboratories is 6 out of 10, which indicates that the financial strength of Abbott Laboratories is fair. This is the debt and cash of Abbott Laboratories over the past years:

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Abbott Laboratories Stock Appears To Be Modestly Overvalued

Investing in profitable companies carries less risk, especially in companies that have demonstrated consistent profitability over the long term. Typically, a company with high profit margins offers better performance potential than a company with low profit margins. Abbott Laboratories has been profitable 10 years over the past 10 years. During the past 12 months, the company had revenues of $37.3 billion and earnings of $3.19 a share. Its operating margin of 17.97% better than 79% of the companies in the industry of Medical Devices & Instruments. Overall, GuruFocus ranks Abbott Laboratories's profitability as fair. This is the revenue and net income of Abbott Laboratories over the past years:

Abbott Laboratories Stock Appears To Be Modestly Overvalued

Growth is probably one of the most important factors in the valuation of a company. GuruFocus' research has found that growth is closely correlated with the long-term performance of a company's stock. If a company's business is growing, the company usually creates value for its shareholders, especially if the growth is profitable. Likewise, if a company's revenue and earnings are declining, the value of the company will decrease. Abbott Laboratories's 3-year average revenue growth rate is in the middle range of the companies in the industry of Medical Devices & Instruments. Abbott Laboratories's 3-year average EBITDA growth rate is 12%, which ranks in the middle range of the companies in the industry of Medical Devices & Instruments.

One can also evaluate a company's profitability by comparing its return on invested capital (ROIC) to its weighted average cost of capital (WACC). Return on invested capital (ROIC) measures how well a company generates cash flow relative to the capital it has invested in its business. The weighted average cost of capital (WACC) is the rate that a company is expected to pay on average to all its security holders to finance its assets. If the return on invested capital exceeds the weighted average cost of capital, the company is likely creating value for its shareholders. During the past 12 months, Abbott Laboratories's ROIC is 11.12 while its WACC came in at 5.12. The historical ROIC vs WACC comparison of Abbott Laboratories is shown below:

Abbott Laboratories Stock Appears To Be Modestly Overvalued

Overall, the stock of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT, 30-year Financials) shows every sign of being modestly overvalued. The company's financial condition is fair and its profitability is fair. Its growth ranks in the middle range of the companies in the industry of Medical Devices & Instruments. To learn more about Abbott Laboratories stock, you can check out its 30-year Financials here.

To find out the high quality companies that may deliever above average returns, please check out GuruFocus High Quality Low Capex Screener.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.


Fellow Democrats angry at Gov. Ned Lamonts budget priorities brought their complaints to his front door Saturday as a few hundred teachers, health care employees, social workers and others massed at the Governors Residence in Hartford demanding a new mix of taxes and spending.

Activists picketed, staged a die-in and waved union banners and the American flag as they packed a portion of Prospect Avenue  closed and guarded by Hartford police  to urge more state spending to reverse racial and income disparities they say were exposed by the coronavirus pandemic. In the well-tended neighborhood of large houses behind gates, protesters called for higher taxes on the rich to fund more spending on education, health care and housing.

Were ... the most economically unequal and racially segregated, Puya Gerami, campaign director for Recovery For All, a network of community organizations, faith groups and labor unions, told the crowd. And today all the crises over the last year are bringing this truth to light for everybody to see.

A spokesman did not immediately respond when asked if Lamont was at the governors residence during the protest.

Rep. Edwin Vargas, D-Hartford, said the rally was organized by a coalition seeking a budget that addresses the problems communities are facing after COVID-19.

Hes siding with Sen. John Fonfara, an East Hartford Democrat and co-chair of the legislatures finance committee that crafted a package of tax increases intended to raise millions of dollars.

Fonfara much better addresses the issues (for) people who are out there hurting, Vargas said.

The proposal advanced by the finance committee last month would impose a 2% surcharge on capital gains realized from the sale or exchange of capital assets for taxpayers. The tax would apply to Connecticut taxable income greater than $500,000 for single tax filers and married individuals filing separately, $800,000 for heads of households and $1 million for married joint filers and surviving spouses

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A separate tax would be imposed on state residents with federal adjusted gross incomes of at least $500,000. The tax rate ranges from 0.7% for taxpayers with federal adjusted gross incomes of between $500,000 and $2 million to 1.5% for taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes of $13 million or more.

Despite their energy at the Governors Residence, activists face a steep climb to enact their tax and spending priorities into law.

Lamont, a Greenwich businessman before entering statewide politics, is not in the ranks of his partys left wing who taped to the gates of the Governors Residence photos of multimillionaires and billionaires to display Connecticuts wealth disparities.

The governor has insisted he will not back what he calls broad-based tax increases. Hes not entirely averse to raising revenue: He endorses a $50 million tax on insurance companies to fund subsidized access to the Connecticut health insurance marketplace and is urging lawmakers to adopt a proposal cutting carbon emissions from vehicles that opponents say will lead to higher prices at the pump.

Republicans, moderate Democrats and businesses also are arrayed against higher taxes and more expansive spending. Chris DiPentima, president of the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, on Friday called the legislative alternatives to Lamonts budget billion-dollar-plus tax hikes and spending gimmicks.

Liberals, however, say the pandemic has put tremendous stress on health care and education and insist the state must invest heavily to repair the damage.

Weve had a deep awakening, Suzanne Clark, secretary-treasurer of SEIU 1199, which represents health care workers, said at the rally.

Stephen Singer can be reached at ssinger@courant.com.
Apr. 30ANACORTES  The Anacortes School District announced Thursday that it will not increase in-person learning time for its middle and high school students.

With rising COVID-19 case numbers in Skagit County, the district has decided to keep its older students in the hybrid model they are currently in rather than increase in-person learning to four days a week on May 6 as it had planned.

"We know this information will be met with mixed emotions," the district said in a news release. "We continue to be committed to expanding in-person learning as long as we are able to follow Washington State K-12 guidance."

The district's elementary school students will return to full-day in-person learning four days a week beginning May 6, the district said in the release.

The Anacortes district is the third in the county this week to announce it was pulling back on bringing back students for more in-person learning.

The Sedro-Woolley and Concrete school districts pulled back on their plans.

 Reporter Kera Wanielista: 360-416-2141, kwanielista@skagitpublishing.com, Twitter: @Kera_SVH, facebook.com/KeraReports
(Corrects to show delays due to internal controls, not regulatory delays)

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - AstraZeneca has confirmed setbacks to production of its COVID-19 vaccines in Latin America, excluding Brazil, but said it will still meet a commitment to deliver 150 million doses to the region this year.

The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker said in a statement shared with Reuters on Friday that lower-than-expected production, shortages of critical supplies and longer periods to meet internal controls had slowed the process.

(Reporting by Adriana Barrera; Writing by Stefanie Eschenbacher; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel)
The mass vaccination site at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis is accepting appointments. A limited number of walk-ups will be accepted from 9 to 11 a.m. Wednesday through Sunday. People are encouraged to get an appointment to ensure a vaccine will be available. To schedule an appointment, go to onestop.md.gov/preregistration.
- By GF Value





The stock of AstraZeneca PLC (NAS:AZN, 30-year Financials) appears to be fairly valued, according to GuruFocus Value calculation. GuruFocus Value is GuruFocus' estimate of the fair value at which the stock should be traded. It is calculated based on the historical multiples that the stock has traded at, the past business growth and analyst estimates of future business performance. If the price of a stock is significantly above the GF Value Line, it is overvalued and its future return is likely to be poor. On the other hand, if it is significantly below the GF Value Line, its future return will likely be higher. At its current price of $53.07 per share and the market cap of $140 billion, AstraZeneca PLC stock appears to be fairly valued. GF Value for AstraZeneca PLC is shown in the chart below.





AstraZeneca PLC Stock Shows Every Sign Of Being Fairly Valued

Because AstraZeneca PLC is fairly valued, the long-term return of its stock is likely to be close to the rate of its business growth, which averaged 4.5% over the past three years and is estimated to grow 11.85% annually over the next three to five years.

Link: These companies may deliever higher future returns at reduced risk.

Since investing in companies with low financial strength could result in permanent capital loss, investors must carefully review a company's financial strength before deciding whether to buy shares. Looking at the cash-to-debt ratio and interest coverage can give a good initial perspective on the company's financial strength. AstraZeneca PLC has a cash-to-debt ratio of 0.39, which ranks worse than 68% of the companies in Drug Manufacturers industry. Based on this, GuruFocus ranks AstraZeneca PLC's financial strength as 4 out of 10, suggesting poor balance sheet. This is the debt and cash of AstraZeneca PLC over the past years:

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AstraZeneca PLC Stock Shows Every Sign Of Being Fairly Valued

It is less risky to invest in profitable companies, especially those with consistent profitability over long term. A company with high profit margins is usually a safer investment than those with low profit margins. AstraZeneca PLC has been profitable 10 over the past 10 years. Over the past twelve months, the company had a revenue of $26.6 billion and earnings of $1.22 a share. Its operating margin is 13.39%, which ranks better than 69% of the companies in Drug Manufacturers industry. Overall, the profitability of AstraZeneca PLC is ranked 7 out of 10, which indicates fair profitability. This is the revenue and net income of AstraZeneca PLC over the past years:

AstraZeneca PLC Stock Shows Every Sign Of Being Fairly Valued

Growth is probably the most important factor in the valuation of a company. GuruFocus research has found that growth is closely correlated with the long term performance of a company's stock. The faster a company is growing, the more likely it is to be creating value for shareholders, especially if the growth is profitable. The 3-year average annual revenue growth rate of AstraZeneca PLC is 4.5%, which ranks in the middle range of the companies in Drug Manufacturers industry. The 3-year average EBITDA growth rate is 6.6%, which ranks in the middle range of the companies in Drug Manufacturers industry.

One can also evaluate a company's profitability by comparing its return on invested capital (ROIC) to its weighted average cost of capital (WACC). Return on invested capital (ROIC) measures how well a company generates cash flow relative to the capital it has invested in its business. The weighted average cost of capital (WACC) is the rate that a company is expected to pay on average to all its security holders to finance its assets. If the return on invested capital exceeds the weighted average cost of capital, the company is likely creating value for its shareholders. During the past 12 months, AstraZeneca PLC's ROIC is 5.38 while its WACC came in at 2.41. The historical ROIC vs WACC comparison of AstraZeneca PLC is shown below:

AstraZeneca PLC Stock Shows Every Sign Of Being Fairly Valued

In short, AstraZeneca PLC (NAS:AZN, 30-year Financials) stock shows every sign of being fairly valued. The company's financial condition is poor and its profitability is fair. Its growth ranks in the middle range of the companies in Drug Manufacturers industry. To learn more about AstraZeneca PLC stock, you can check out its 30-year Financials here.

To find out the high quality companies that may deliever above average returns, please check out GuruFocus High Quality Low Capex Screener.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.


By Paulina Duran

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian residents and citizens who have been in India within 14 days of the date they plan to return home will be banned from entering Australia as of Monday and those who disobey will face fines and jail, government officials said.

The temporary emergency determination, issued late on Friday, is the first time Australia has made it a criminal offence for its citizens to return home.

The move is part of strict measures to stop travellers to Australia from the world's second most populous nation as it contends with a surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths.

The restrictions come into effect from May 3 and breaching the ban risks civil penalties and up to five years imprisonment, Health Minister Greg Hunt said in a statement.

"The government does not make these decisions lightly," Hunt said." However, it is critical the integrity of the Australian public health and quarantine systems is protected and the number of COVID-19 cases in quarantine facilities is reduced to a manageable level."

The government will reconsider the restrictions on May 15.

India's coronavirus death toll passed 200,000 this week, and cases are nearing 19 million as virulent new strains have combined with "super-spreader" events such as political rallies and religious festivals.

Neela Janakiramanan, an Australian surgeon with family in India said the decision to "criminalise" Australians returning from India was disproportionate and overly punitive.

"Indian-Australians are seeing this as a racist policy because we are being treated different than people from other countries who have had similar waves of infection like the U.S., the UK and Europe. It is very hard to feel anything other than targeted as an ethnic group."

A spokesman for the Health Minister "deeply" rejected the view that stopping arrivals from India temporarily was a biased measure, saying it was a difficult but necessary decision that applied "to all people no matter their nationality, race or religion."

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Human rights groups voiced indignation at the ban, suggesting the government's focus should be on improving its quarantine system, not on punishment.

"This is an outrageous response. Australians have a right of return to their own country," Human Rights Watch's Australia director, Elaine Pearson said in a statement.

"The government should be looking for ways to safely quarantine Australians returning from India, instead of focusing their efforts on prison sentences and harsh punishments."

Australia, which has no community transmissions, on Tuesday introduced a temporary suspension of direct flights from India until mid-May. However, some Australians, including cricketers Adam Zampa and Kane Richardson, returned via Doha.

Tuesday's move had left over 9,000 Australians stranded in India, 650 of whom are registered as vulnerable, officials said.

Australia has all but stamped out the coronavirus after closing its borders to non-citizens and permanent residents in March 2020, recording just 29,800 cases and 910 deaths.

(Reporting by Paulina Duran; editing by Sonya Hepinstall and Richard Pullin)
The Australian government said late Friday that its citizens and residents who have been in India within the past two weeks will be barred from re-entry starting Monday.

The state of play: Government officials said that anyone who disobeys the ban will face fines and up to five years imprisonment, making it the first time Australia has made it a criminal offense for its citizens to go home, per Reuters.

Stay on top of the latest market trends and economic insights with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free

What they're saying: "The government does not make these decisions lightly. However, it is critical the integrity of the Australian public health and quarantine systems is protected and the number of COVID-19 cases in quarantine facilities is reduced to a manageable level," Health Minister Greg Hunt said.

The government plans to evaluate the restrictions again on May 15.

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A huge car bomb blast killed over two dozen people and injured many more in Afghanistan's eastern Logar province late Friday (April 30) according local officials, who also said high school students were among the casualties.

The car packed with explosives detonated in the province's capital of Pul-e Alam.

Allah Noor was among the injured transferred to a Kabul hospital.

"I was at my tailor shop with others, and we wanted to break our fast when suddenly a blast took place and shattered all the doors and windows of my shop, and I don't remember what happened next."

Local authorities said the explosion happened near the house of the former provincial council head - which also operates as a guesthouse.

Hasibullah Stanekzai, the current head of the council, said the blast struck just as guests were breaking their fast during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

He added that the high school students were staying at the house, having traveled to the capital to sit their university entrance exams.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the blast.

A spokesman for the insurgent Taliban told Reuters they were looking into the matter.

Violence in Afghanistan has escalated in recent weeks, following President Joe Biden's decision to withdraw U.S. troops by Sept. 11 - ending two decades of foreign military presence.
The Chicago Cubs good vibes from ending a five-game losing streak didnt last long.

After the Cubs started with an early two-run lead Friday, the Cincinnati Reds scored seven runs between the third and fourth innings with right-hander Jake Arrieta on the mound, and the Cubs offense couldnt dig out of the hole in an 8-6 series-opening loss.

Arrieta was pulled after 3 innings, letting an early lead evaporate. The Reds hit him hard, connecting for three home runs, including the 300th of Joey Vottos career.

Cubs catcher Willson Contreras left the game in the top of the fifth with mild right thigh tightness. He singled and jogged down the line, signaling to the dugout for a pinch runner when he reached base.

The Cubs loaded the bases in the ninth with nobody out but couldnt pull off a late comeback as the rally sparked by four walks fell short.

Anthony Rizzo flew out and Javier Baez followed with a sacrifice fly to drive in a run. Pinch hitter Jason Heyward worked a full-count walk to again load the bases for the Cubs, and Jake Marisnick walked, too, to bring home another run. Right-hander Tejay Antone got David Bote to fall behind 0-2 before getting him to ground out for the final out.

Here are three takeaways from the game.

1. Willson Contreras injury is concerning on multiple levels

Cubs manager David Ross considers Contreras early exit a precautionary move because of the tightness the catcher felt in his right thigh running out of the box in the fifth.

Cubs trainers were looking at Contreras after the game. Ross wants to see how Contreras presents Saturday. It would be a surprise if Contreras were in the lineup Saturday with a quick turnaround from a night game to a 3:10 p.m. CT first pitch. Backup catcher Tony Wolters replaced Contreras on Friday.

The Cubs would need to make a 40-man roster move if they want to add another catcher to the active roster. They do not have a catcher with the team in Cincinnati as part of the taxi squad.

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Ross didnt know if the Cubs would bring in another catcher for Saturday, saying I havent gotten that far down down the line, honestly.

Contreras history with lower-body injuries makes Fridays departure somewhat concerning, even if Ross is labeling it precautionary. Contreras twice has landed on the injured list in his career because of a right hamstring strain, missing a month each time in 2017 and 2019.

The Cubs cant afford to lose Contreras for an extended stretch. He has been one of their better hitters, especially with his power production. His seven home runs are tied for the team lead while his OPS ranks second and on-base percentage third.

He went 2-for-3 with a double Friday before leaving the game. The organizations catching depth will be tested too. The drop-off to Wolters, particularly offensively, is significant. Wolters has a career 61 OPS+ in parts of six seasons in the majors. The Cubs could look at P.J. Higgins, whose performance and versatility this spring were notable.

For an offense trying to stay locked in, being without Contreras for an extended stretch would hurt on multiple levels.

2. A cut on Jake Arrietas thumb shouldnt derail his strong start

Arrieta knew from when he started warming up Friday night that he was off. His timing didnt feel right. Arrieta revealed after the game that he pitched with a small cut on his right thumb. He said the cut wasnt a huge issue, though it didnt allow him to properly throw his cutter. Arrieta tried to throw the pitch during his start, to poor results. One of the home runs he allowed  Nick Senzels two-run shot in the fourth  came off his cutter.

Thats my fault, I should have opted to go for something else and didnt, Arrieta said. One of those nights where I knew I was going to need some good fortune. I was going to just have to compete my way through it. Those starts dont happen very often, just one of those tough nights where I needed to be a little bit better than I was. I didnt have much to fall back on.

Arrieta said the skin on his thumb separated a little during his pregame warmup, but he used glue on it to prevent it from worsening. He felt the thumb healed well in the four days leading to his start Friday. Arrieta attributed the issue to the combination of dry skin and pitching in cold weather his previous starts.

It wont be an issue next time out, Arrieta said. As soon as the weather starts to heat up for the most part around the country, shouldnt have an issue keeping it moist and letting the skin strengthen for the next time out is what Im going to do.

The cut on his thumb helps explain the velocity dip he experienced against the Reds. Arrietas pitches clocked at 1 to 3 mph slower than the average velocity he produced in his first five starts.

Arrieta has been a valuable arm in the rotation through the first month, pitching at least five innings each time with three quality starts. Arrietas optimism that the cut is a one-start issue is encouraging.

3. Kris Bryant had the best opening month of his career

Bryant is rolling into May coming off a sizzling April.

Bryant went 2-for-3 in the loss Friday, putting the Cubs ahead with a first-inning home run and added an RBI double in the seventh and two walks. His performance Friday closed out the best opening month of his seven-year career, posting the top marks in home runs, RBIs, average, OPS and wRC+.

I have never really looked at the season in terms of calendar months or days so tomorrow is just another day, Bryant said. Is it May? I dont even know what day it is today. Thats where Im at. I dont care what day it is. Home, road, it doesnt matter. Show up and try to do my job.

Its the dominant production the Cubs have needed from Bryant, who has carried the offense for stretches.

I just feel that peace, that peace of mind, just knowing Im a good baseball player, Bryant said. When I go out there and play, more often than not, Im out there helping the team win ballgames. And at the end of the day, thats all I really want to do.

I dont need to be flashy or any of that. I just want to help the team win in any way I can. Always been that way, and I feel like Im getting myself back to that.
The Chicago Cubs good vibes from ending a five-game losing streak didnt last long.

After the Cubs started with an early two-run lead, the Cincinnati Reds scored seven runs between the third and fourth innings with right-hander Jake Arrieta on the mound, and the Cubs offense couldnt dig out of the hole in an 8-6 series-opening loss Friday.

Arrieta was pulled in 3 1/3 innings after letting an early lead evaporate. The Reds hit him hard, connecting for three home runs, including the 300th of Joey Vottos career.

Cubs catcher Willson Contreras left the game in the top of the fifth with mild right thigh tightness. He singled and jogged down the line, signaling to the dugout for a pinch runner when he reached the base.

The Cubs loaded the bases in the ninth with nobody out but couldnt pull off a late comeback as the rally sparked by four walks fell short.

Anthony Rizzo flew out and Javier Baez followed with a sacrifice fly to drive in a run. Pinch hitter Jason Heyward worked a full-count walk to again load the bases for the Cubs and Jake Marisnick walked too to bring home another run. Right-hander Tejay Antone got David Bote to fall behind 0-2 before getting him to ground out for the final out.
The Telegraph

The Duke of Sussexs HRH title is to be removed from a placard at a new exhibition displaying his mothers wedding gown after it was added in error. Prince Harry and Prince William lent two dresses that had belonged to Diana, Princess of Wales to the public display at Kensington Palace. Placards originally described them as "Lent by HRH the Duke of Cambridge and HRH the Duke of Sussex". But the Royal Collection Trust has now admitted that the younger brothers title should not have been used and
Weve made it to Day 3 of the draft and the Cincinnati Bengals have now added LSU WR JaMarr Chase, Clemson OL Jackson Carman and Texas EDGE Joseph Ossai. They also added two fourth-round picks in the trade with the Patriots in the second round. So what could they do on Day 3?

Heres a final mock draft for the Bengals as we enter Day 3.

111) Michael Carter, RB, North Carolina

Jan 28, 2021; National running back Michael Carter of North Carolina (7) runs the ball during National practice at Hancock Whitney Stadium in Mobile, Alabama, USA; Mandatory Credit: Vasha Hunt-USA TODAY Sports

The running backs didn't really fly off the board on Day 2 as some may have thought. Only two were taken (Javonte Williams to the Broncos in round two, Trey Sermon to the 49ers in round three). So if the Bengals are looking running back, they'll have their pick of the litter and Carter gives them a great versatile back that can be very effective out of the backfield and be a very nice replacement for Giovani Bernard.

122) Tommy Togiai, DT, Ohio State

Ohio State Buckeyes defensive tackle Tommy Togiai (72) celebrates a sack with Ohio State Buckeyes defensive tackle Haskell Garrett (92) during the fourth quarter in their NCAA Division I football game on Saturday, Nov. 21, 2020 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio.

Osu20ind Kwr39

Very physical at the line of scrimmage and could eventually be a really good replacement for Geno Atkins. Not the ideal size, but he has the competitive toughness you really like in a defensive tackle.

139) Stone Forsythe, OT, Florida

Sep 26, 2020; Oxford, Mississippi, USA; Florida Gators offensive lineman Stone Forsythe (72) during the game against the Mississippi Rebels at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Justin Ford-USA TODAY Sports

Double-dipping at the offensive line with a player who has a fitting name in Stone. He has a lot of power. He can begin as a swing tackle and maybe work his way into right tackle down the line, with second-round pick Carman possibly on the inside.

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149) Jaelon Darden, WR, North Texas

North Texas wide receiver Jaelon Darden (1) runs over MTSU linebacker Brett Shepherd's (43) back as he runs the ball on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2020, during the Blackout game at MTSU.

8 Mtsu V North Texas

The Bengals continue to work the offense and surround Joe Burrow with everything he needs to succeed. Also mocked him in Friday's mock, so we'll see if this actually comes to fruition. (It probably won't.)

190) Avery Williams, CB, Boise State

Oct 31, 2020; Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA; Boise State Broncos cornerback Avery Williams (26) scores an eighty eight yard kickoff return in the second half against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

Four-year starter in college that also has plenty of special teams experience. He can also help in sub-packages.

202) Paddy Fisher, LB, Northwestern

Dec 29, 2017; Nashville, TN, USA; Northwestern Wildcats linebacker Paddy Fisher (42) leaves the field after being ejected for targeting during the first half against the Kentucky Wildcats in the 2017 Music Bowl at Nissan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

Fisher and Tuf Borland were two linebackers considered in this late spot if the Bengals want to go ahead and add a body to the group before the end of the draft.

235) Jose Borregales, K, Miami (FL)

Jan 28, 2021; Mobile, AL, USA; American kicker Jose Borregales of Miami (30) practices field goals with American punter Max Duffy of Kentucky (93) holding during American practice at Hancock Whitney Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Vasha Hunt-USA TODAY Sports

And just for fun, why not grab a kicker here? The Bengals definitely need one and Borregales is seen as one of the better kickers, if not the best kicker, in the class, coming off a very good 2020, going 37/37 on extra points and 20/22 on field goals.

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Tens of thousands of Colombians protesting a tax reform plan took to the streets Saturday for the fourth straight day, even after the president vowed to withdraw the most unpopular parts of the package.

Many Colombians had complained that the tax changes would leave them poorer in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.

On Friday, President Ivan Duque gave in to the pressure from the streets and said he would seek a rewrite of the plan and scrap the most unpopular clauses -- lowering the income tax threshold to broaden the tax base and raising value-added taxes on goods and services.

But that was not enough to keep Colombians from marching on May Day and venting their anger against the government.

"It is not enough to withdraw the reform," said 27 year old Maria Teresa Flores in Bogota. She said the government's handling of the pandemic and other actions "blew up in our faces."

Julian Naranjo, who works in environmental issues, said, "it is incredible that in this crisis we are going through, the violence that this country is enduring," the government proposes a tax reform "that ends up making people poorer."

Besides Bogota, demonstrations were held in other major cities such as Cali, Medellin, Barranquilla and Cartagena.

The tax reform plan had been meant to raise some $6.3 billion in extra revenue over 10 years for Colombia, which saw GDP drop 6.8 percent in 2020 -- its worst performance in half a century.

Colombia, where almost one in five people are unemployed and the minimum wage is the equivalent of $248 per month, is battling a deadly new wave of Covid-19.

At 2.8 million, the country of 50 million inhabitants has the third-highest number of known coronavirus infections in Latin America, behind Brazil and Argentina. It has registered more than 73,200 deaths.

bur-dl/gma/dw/mdl
He was animated in the courtroom. He was definitely not someone who would be boring to people on the jury, said Andrew Norman, a former assistant U.S. attorney from the Baltimore office. As a cross examiner, he was skillful and could get under the skin of some of the governments witnesses. This was what he wanted. I had to admire him for it, even though he was damaging the governments case.
By Marc Frank

HAVANA (Reuters) - The leader of a group of artists, writers and activists has announced a new hunger strike, just six months after one led to a rare protest in Havana, putting them on a potential collision course with the island's communist authorities.

A previous group hunger strike by the San Isidro movement in November was broken up by police, resulting in a rare demonstration of around 300 people in front of the Culture Ministry in Havana.

Since then, the group has been vilified by authorities as outside agitators working with the United States. The few dozen members have been temporarily detained repeatedly and often told they cannot leave their homes with communications cut.

Leader Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara was arrested and some of his art destroyed and seized a few weeks ago as the performance artist protested a Communist party congress by sitting in a garrote.

Otero Alcantara, who is into the seventh day without food or fluids, is demanding his art be returned, freedom of expression and an end to police harassment.

"We are calling a national vigil of all Cubans in the world for the life of MOAlcantara (Otero Alcantara)" the movement said on Twitter Friday evening, after an earlier call for Cubans to gather in local parks holding flowers fizzled.

The government has responded by questioning the authenticity of the hunger strike, surrounding Otero Alcantara's home with police and cutting internet to the neighborhood.

People can survive more than a month without food, but rarely more than 10 days without food or fluids.

Father Ramon Suarez Polcari of the Havana archdiocese, visited Otero Alcantara on Friday and said he had no intention of backing down.

The government also appears in no rush to budge.

Unlike other dissident groups in Cuba, the San Isidro collective is social media savvy and well connected to the Diaspora and exile organizations.

They have been appealing for support since the hunger strike began, gaining little traction to date in Cuba but some abroad, including from human rights organizations and the U.S. government.

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"Dozens of Cuban artists, journalists and activists arrested, under surveillance, or confined in their homes to silence their support for MOAlcantara," the U.S. State Department said in a tweet on Friday.

"The United States stands with all who defend freedoms of expression and assembly in Cuba."

(Reporting by Marc Frank; additional reporting by Nelson Acosta; editing by Diane Craft)
Edgefield Secondary School. (SCREENSHOT: Google Maps)

SINGAPORE  A student from Edgefield Secondary School (EFSS) has tested positive for COVID-19, promoting EFSS to step up precautionary measures including implementing Home-Based Learning (HBL) from next Tuesday (4 May).

The student, who was confirmed to be infected on Friday and is an unlinked case, was last in school on Thursday with acute respiratory infection symptoms, and had consulted a doctor, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said in a statement.

The HBL will last until Friday. During the week, EFSS will continue to provide instruction and support for its students both online and using hardcopy materials. Teachers will also keep in regular contact with students and parents.

Students, staff and external vendors who had been in close contact with the infected student have been placed on Quarantine Order.

Other students, staff and external vendors of the school are required by the Ministry of Health to undergo COVID-19 swab tests.

Pending their test results, all those involved in the EFSS COVID-19 swab testing should also minimise contact with others and avoid crowded places as a precautionary measure, MOE said.

The school will also conduct cleaning and disinfecting of its premises.

MOH on Edgefield student

The 15-year-old student developed a sore throat on Wednesday, and subsequently a runny nose and anosmia the next day, the Ministry of Health said in its daily update on COVID-19 cases in Singapore on Saturday.

She reported sick while she was in school on Thursday, and sought medical treatment at a general practitioner clinic, where she was tested for COVID-19. Her test result came back positive the next day, and she was conveyed to the National University Hospital in an ambulance. Her serological test result is pending.

Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore

Related stories:

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Elon Musk. Scott Olson/Getty Images Scott Olson/Getty Images

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has had a lengthy battle with the news media.

In 2020, he shut down Tesla's PR department, and chose to use his Twitter to communicate instead.

Musk has complained about recent and past coverage of Tesla crashes.

See more stories on Insider's business page.

Elon Musk has a long history of qualms with the news media.

The chief executive officer and self-proclaimed "Technoking" of electric-car maker Tesla showed his disdain in a recent call with investors.

He lambasted news stories covering an April 17 Tesla crash, which killed two people in Houston, Texas, as "completely false," and said the journalists who reported the car's autopilot might have been engaged, "should be ashamed of themselves." Houston-area police said there were two victims in the crash - and nobody in the driver's seat.

The recent comments are just the latest in a string of attacks against the news media.

He has complained about coverage of Tesla crashes before. In one tweet from May 14, 2018, he said it was "super messed up" a Tesla crash was front page news.

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That same month he criticized news coverage of Tesla accidents in the company's quarterly earnings call. He said, "It's really incredibly irresponsible of any journalists with integrity to write an article that would lead people to believe that autonomy is less safe. Because people might actually turn it off, and then die," he said.

Read more: A fund manager overseeing $3.2 billion breaks down why Elon Musk has deterred him from investing in Tesla

Last year, Musk, who also runs SpaceX, eliminated Tesla's public relations team, the crew responsible for responding to journalists' questions and managing public perception of the company.

News outlet Electrek was the first to notice the move, and since then, many journalists' requests have gone unanswered. For example, no one responded to a request for comment on this story.

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At the time, the Public Relations Society of America said the move could result in "dramatic reputational ramifications with long-term consequences," according to a report from PR Week.

"In a world fraught with instability, disengagement is not a path to success," the group said.

Musk has instead used a Donald Trump-like method of shaping public opinion about him and his companies - by using his Twitter account. He also uses the company's YouTube channel, social media influencers, and direct email to communicate, CNN Business reported in December.

His Twitter account, which has 52 million followers, has become his main form of public communication. In a lawsuit against him, an investor claimed he has sent "erratic tweets" that have allegedly cost the company millions. One day after he tweeted "Tesla stock is too high imo," shares fell almost 10%.

In one Twitter rant on May 23, 2018, Musk called the media "holier-than-thou" and linked to an Electrek article that pointed out negative news coverage of Tesla. He also said the public no longer respects the media.

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That same day, he said he wanted to create a website where the public can rate the truth of any journalist, editor, or news outlet. He wanted to call it "Pravda," which is the Russian word for "truth" and also the name of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's newspaper.

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In response to the media coverage, just a week later on April Fool's Day, Musk sent out a tweet, which looked like the beginning of a newspaper article, with the headline "Tesla goes bankrupt."

Later on that month, Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting found Tesla failed to report a number of workplace injuries.

Tesla responded in a blog post, saying that it welcomes constructive criticism. But, "In our view, what they portray as investigative journalism is in fact an ideologically motivated attack by an extremist organization working directly with union supporters to create a calculated disinformation campaign against Tesla."

One fund manager told Insider in March that he didn't like Tesla as an investment, partly because he viewed Musk's online presence as a liability. Even so, Tesla shares have risen more than 300% in the past year, according to Markets Insider data.

Read the original article on Business Insider
By Devjyot Ghoshal and Krishna N. Das

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -A forum of scientific advisers set up by the government warned Indian officials in early March of a new and more contagious variant of the coronavirus taking hold in the country, five scientists who are part of the forum told Reuters.

Despite the warning, four of the scientists said the federal government did not seek to impose major restrictions to stop the spread of the virus. Millions of largely unmasked people attended religious festivals and political rallies that were held by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and opposition politicians.

Tens of thousands of farmers, meanwhile, continued to camp on the edge of New Delhi protesting Modis agricultural policy changes.

The worlds second-most populous country is now struggling to contain a second wave of infections much more severe than its first last year, which some scientists say is being accelerated by the new variant and another variant first detected in Britain. India reported 386,452 new cases on Friday, a global record.

The spike in infections is Indias biggest crisis since Modi took office in 2014. It remains to be seen how his handling of it might affect Modi or his party politically. The next general election is due in 2024. Voting in the most recent local elections was largely completed before the scale of the new surge in infections became apparent.

The warning about the new variant in early March was issued by the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genetics Consortium, or INSACOG. It was conveyed to a top official who reports directly to the prime minister, according to one of the scientists, the director of a research centre in northern India who spoke on condition of anonymity. Reuters could not determine whether the INSACOG findings were passed on to Modi himself.

Modis office did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

INSACOG was set up as a forum of scientific advisers by the government in late December specifically to detect genomic variants of the coronavirus that might threaten public health. INSACOG brings together 10 national laboratories capable of studying virus variants.

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INSACOG researchers first detected B.1.617, which is now known as the Indian variant of the virus, as early as February, Ajay Parida, director of the state-run Institute of Life Sciences and a member of INSACOG, told Reuters.

INSACOG shared its findings with the health ministrys National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) before March 10, warning that infections could quickly increase in parts of the country, the director of the northern India research centre told Reuters. The findings were then passed on to the Indian health ministry, this person said. The health ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

Around that date, INSACOG began to prepare a draft media statement for the health ministry. A version of that draft, seen by Reuters, set out the forums findings: the new Indian variant had two significant mutations to the portion of the virus that attaches to human cells, and it had been traced in 15% to 20% of samples from Maharashtra, India's worst-affected state.

The draft statement said that the mutations, called E484Q and L452R, were of high concern. It said there is data of E484Q mutant viruses escaping highly neutralising antibodies in cultures, and there is data that L452R mutation was responsible for both increased transmissibility and immune escape."

In other words, essentially, this meant that mutated versions of the virus could more easily enter a human cell and counter a persons immune response to it.

The ministry made the findings public about two weeks later, on March 24, when it issued a statement to the media that did not include the words "high concern." The statement said only that more problematic variants required following measures already underway - increased testing and quarantine. Testing has since nearly doubled to 1.9 million tests a day.

Asked why the government did not respond more forcefully to the findings, for example by restricting large gatherings, Shahid Jameel, chair of the scientific advisory group of INSACOG, said he was concerned that authorities were not paying enough attention to the evidence as they set policy.

"Policy has to be based on evidence and not the other way around," he told Reuters. I am worried that science was not taken into account to drive policy. But I know where my jurisdiction stops. As scientists we provide the evidence, policymaking is the job of the government.

The northern India research centre director told Reuters the draft media release was sent to the most senior bureaucrat in the country, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba, who reports directly to the prime minister. Reuters was unable to learn whether Modi or his office were informed of the findings. Gauba did not respond to a request for comment.

The government took no steps to prevent gatherings that might hasten the spread of the new variant, as new infections quadrupled by April 1 from a month earlier.

Modi, some of his top lieutenants, and dozens of other politicians, including opposition figures, held rallies across the country for local elections throughout March and into April.

The government also allowed the weeks-long Kumbh Mela religious festival, attended by millions of Hindus, to proceed from mid-March. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of farmers were allowed to remain camped on the outskirts of the capital New Delhi to protest against new agriculture laws.

To be sure, some scientists say the surge was much larger than expected and the setback cannot be pinned on political leadership alone. "There is no point blaming the government," Saumitra Das, director of the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics, which is part of INSACOG, told Reuters.

STRICT MEASURES NOT TAKEN

INSACOG reports to the National Centre for Disease Control in New Delhi. NCDC director Sujeet Kumar Singh recently told a private online gathering that strict lockdown measures had been needed in early April, according to a recording of the meeting reviewed by Reuters.

"The exact time, as per our thinking, was 15 days before," Singh said in the April 19 meeting, referring to the need for stricter lockdown measures.

Singh did not say during the meeting whether he warned the government directly of the need for action at that time. Singh declined to comment to Reuters.

Singh told the April 19 gathering that more recently, he had relayed the urgency of the matter to government officials.

"It was highlighted very, very clearly that unless drastic measures are taken now, it will be too late to prevent the mortality which we are going to see," said Singh, referring to a meeting which took place on April 18. He did not identify which government officials were in the meeting or describe their seniority.

Singh said some government officials in the meeting worried that mid-sized towns could see law and order problems as essential medical supplies like oxygen ran out, a scenario that has already begun to play out in parts of India.

The need for urgent action was also expressed the week before by the National Task Force for COVID-19, a group of 21 experts and government officials set up last April to provide scientific and technical guidance to the health ministry on the pandemic. It is chaired by V.K. Paul, Modis top coronavirus adviser.

The group had a discussion on April 15 and unanimously agreed that the situation is serious and that we should not hesitate in imposing lockdowns, said one scientist who took part.

Paul was present at the discussion, according to the scientist. Reuters could not determine if Paul relayed the groups conclusion to Modi. Paul did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

Two days after Singhs April 18 warning to government officials, Modi addressed the nation on April 20, arguing against lockdowns. He said a lockdown should be the last resort in fighting the virus. Indias two-month-long national lockdown a year ago put millions out of work and devastated the economy.

We have to save the country from lockdowns. I would also request the states to use lockdowns as the last option, Modi said. We have to try our best to avoid lockdowns and focus on micro-containment zones, he said, referring to small, localised lockdowns imposed by authorities to control outbreaks.

Indias state governments have wide latitude in setting health policy for their regions, and some have acted independently to try to control the spread of the virus.

Maharashtra, the countrys second-most populous state, which includes Mumbai, imposed tough restrictions such as office and store closures early in April as hospitals ran out of beds, oxygen and medicines. It imposed a full lockdown on April 14.

TICKING TIME BOMB

The Indian variant has now reached at least 17 countries including Britain, Switzerland and Iran, leading several governments to close their borders to people travelling from India.

The World Health Organization has not declared the India mutant a "variant of concern," as it has done for variants first detected in Britain, Brazil, and South Africa. But the WHO said on April 27 that its early modelling, based on genome sequencing, suggested that B.1.617 had a higher growth rate than other variants circulating in India.

The UK variant, called B.1.1.7, was also detected in India by January, including in the northern state of Punjab, a major epicentre for the farmers protests, Anurag Agrawal, a senior INSACOG scientist, told Reuters.

The NCDC and some INSACOG laboratories determined that a massive spike in cases in Punjab was caused by the UK variant, according to a statement issued by Punjabs state government on March 23.

Punjab imposed a lockdown from March 23. But thousands of farmers from the state remained at protest camps on the outskirts of Delhi, many moving back and forth between the two places before the restrictions began.

"It was a ticking time bomb," said Agrawal, who is director of the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, which has studied some samples from Punjab. "It was a matter of an explosion, and public gatherings is a huge problem in a time of pandemic. And B.1.1.7 is a really bad variant in terms of spreading potential."

By April 7, more than two weeks after Punjab's announcement on the UK variant, cases of coronavirus began rising sharply in Delhi. Within days, hospital beds, critical care facilities, and medical oxygen began running out in the city. At some hospitals, patients died gasping for air before they could be treated. The city's crematoriums overflowed with dead bodies.

Delhi is now suffering one of the worst infection rates in the country, with more than three out of every 10 tests positive for the virus.

India overall has reported more than 300,000 infections a day for the past nine days, the worst streak anywhere in the world since the pandemic began. Deaths have surged, too, with the total exceeding 200,000 this week.

Agrawal and two other senior government scientists told Reuters that federal health authorities and local Delhi officials should have been better prepared after seeing what the variants had done in Maharashtra and Punjab. Reuters could not determine what specific warnings were issued to whom about preparing for a huge surge.

We are in a very grave situation, said Shanta Dutta, a medical research scientist at the state-run National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases. People listen to politicians more than scientists.

Rakesh Mishra, director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, which is part of INSACOG, said the countrys scientific community was dejected.

"We could have done better, our science could have been given more significance, he told Reuters. "What we observed in whatever little way, that should have been used better."

(Reporting by Devjyot Ghoshal and Krishna N. Das in New DelhiAdditional reporting by Rajendra Jadhav, Aditya Kalra, Jatindra Dash and Zeba SiddiquiEditing by Bill Rigby)
Ailana Alvarez waddled away from relatives as they addressed a crowd of about a hundred people through a megaphone Saturday afternoon, steps from where a Chicago police officer fatally shot her father in late March.

The 2-year-old daughter of Anthony Alvarez was too young to follow along as her fathers cousin Roxana Figueroa read out loud a letter to him vowing to take care of his family. Instead, Ailana waved around a sign with I miss my daddy written in pink letters above a photo of the two of them.

She peered around with wide eyes as the throng circled around her, and the makeshift memorial filled with flowers and candles set on the grass near where he died.

Alvarez, a 22-year-old man, was killed by Chicago police during the early morning hours of March 31 at West Eddy Street and North Laramie Avenue in the Portage Park community as he ran from police officers while holding what appeared to be a gun in one hand.

A video of the shooting was made public on Wednesday, less than two weeks after officials released footage of the fatal Chicago police shooting of Adam Toledo, a 13-year-old boy who was also killed following a foot chase days before Alvarezs death.

Alvarezs family was joined by activists Saturday afternoon to march around the Portage Park neighborhood, where he lived, and demand the officer who shot him, Officer Evan Solano, be fired and charged. They started at West Irving Park Road and North Central Avenue before arriving at the site of the shooting, with Ailana, her hair twisted into two buns at the top of her head, sitting quietly in a stroller pushed by her mother for the duration of the march.

As Figueroa finished her speech at Eddy and Laramie, Ailana began smiling and cooing while the crowd clapped.

I want to promise you today that I will become someone for your daughter, for the future generation, Figueroa read from her letter to Alvarez. I dont trust these cops  so we will make the change. We will raise this little one. I will become someone that your daughter could look up to. I promise you.

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Throughout the march, neighbors on almost every block peeked outside, some engaging with the crowd and others instead chatting with the Chicago police officers who were blocking traffic on the street. The residents leaned out of windows, stopped while walking dogs and pulled over on bikes to film the protest with cellphones.

At times, the crowd also paused and raised their arms while chanting, Hands up, dont shoot. A few knelt on the road. Later, when stopped on the block where Alvarez lived, they shouted, If Anthony dont get no justice, then they dont get no peace.

The march also briefly halted in front of William Gray Elementary School, which Mike Friedberg said Alvarez attended while Friedberg was a teacher there. Friedberg said Alvarez was a sweet kid who loves soccer, though he did not have him in his classes.

I had a seizure at school  I have epilepsy  and when I returned, he came and gave me a big hug even though I was not even his teacher, Friedberg said. So Im standing with Anthony. Whether you knew him or not, were going to keep standing with him.

At the arch on the corner of Portage Park, Alvarezs aunt Teresa Martinez said before the march that her familys emotional state over the past month was of extreme anguish. She said she doesnt wish the pain she has carried since his death on anyone.

He didnt deserve to get killed this way, Martinez said. What these cops did to him, its not right. They murdered my nephew. They killed them and they killed a part of me, a part of our family. Were never going to be the same.

ayin@chicagotribune.com
May 1Anniston's former city prosecutor filed suit against the city, city officials and a local activist Thursday, alleging that he was fired in 2020 because of his age and race.

Former prosecutor Jason Odom, who is white, also alleges that he was defamed in public meetings by former City Councilman Ben Little, who is Black, and by Glen Ray, a local NAACP official. The suit also names City Manager Steven Folks as a defendant.

"Ben Little and Glen Ray made defamatory statements about Odom and interfered with his business relationship with the city," Odom's lawyers argue in a 30-page complaint filed in United States District Court Thursday.

Odom was hired as a prosecutor in Anniston's municipal court in 2015. He came under criticism from Ray and Little after the arrest of Anniston resident Rozetta Thompson. In December 2016, Thompson was cited for driving under the influence; the charge was dismissed in court but she was arrested on the same charge months later. Police cited an error on the original citation as a reason for the delayed charge. Odom issued the warrant for Thompson's arrest, the leader of a city review board said.

In 2019, Little, then a council member, began pushing for a review of the contracts of municipal court officials, including Odom. The council did reopen the position of municipal judge to new applicants, citing a past practice of reviewing judges every few years  but the job of hiring and firing a prosecutor falls to City Manager Steven Folks.

Folks did end Odom's employment with the city in January 2020. Odom in his lawsuit says the city manager at the time said the city wanted to "move in a different direction."

Odom's suit alleges that he was fired because he is white, and that Little, Ray and Folks  all of whom are Black  "engaged in a civil conspiracy to violate Odom's civil rights to terminate his employment because of his race."

Odom also alleges Little defamed him with comments made in City Council meetings, including repeated statements that Odom was "falsifying documents," for which Little offered no proof.

Story continues

He cites similar "falsifying documents" statements by Ray. According to the suit, Ray at council meetings referred to Odom as a "crook," said he "ought to be in jail" and said Odom and a municipal judge were "robbing the city."

Odom is seeking back pay, reinstatement to the prosecutor position, attorney fees and "that relief which is fair, just and equitable," according to the suit. He's also seeking court-mandated training for city officials on avoiding employment discrimination.

Odom on Friday referred questions to his lawyer, Heather Newsome Leonard. In an email, Leonard said she couldn't comment on a case that is still being litigated.

City attorney Bruce Downey  who worked with Odom as part of the city's legal staff  said the city has hired Michael Thompson, of the Birmingham firm Lehr Middlebrooks, to represent it in the case. Attempts to reach Thompson weren't successful Friday.

Attempts to reach Folks were unsuccessful Friday. City officials earlier in the week said Folks was out on medical leave.

Little, who lost a re-election bid in 2020 and is now off the council, said in a telephone interview that he wasn't worried about the suit.

"I care absolutely nothing about any stupid suit by a stupid attorney," he said.

Little said Odom's discrimination claim was "an insult to the struggle" of civil rights. He said the prosecutor job was an at-will employment position, which allowed the city to fire Odom at its discretion.

Ray, too, said he wasn't worried about the suit.

"First he's got to prove that the city terminated him because I complained about him," Ray said.

Ray also defended his "robbing the city" comment, saying it was a comment about how municipal courts treat residents.

"I've got it on my Facebook page right now that we are tired of the judicial system and the prosecutors robbing the people," he said.

Odom isn't the first white city employee to allege discrimination by city officials. Former City Manager Jay Johnson in March 2019 filed a complaint against Little and then-Councilman David Reddick, claiming they had created a hostile workplace for him because he is white.

Johnson resigned in June of that year. He told The Star that the city agreed to pay him 90 days of pay and his accrued vacation time if he agreed not to sue the city.

Capitol & statewide reporter Tim Lockette: 256-294-4193. On Twitter @TLockette_Star.
Based on five standards listed in the act, the State Department would be able to classify each nation as Tier 1, Tier 2, or Tier 3; each with the potential for accompanying punishments.This bill is incredibly important because the link between corruption, poverty, and human rights violations is so strong. Countries like Yemen and Venezuela are key examples of how corruption can lead to severe poverty, humanitarian disasters, and violence. Reducing corruption can lead to a less violent world where less citizens have to suffer for the mistakes of their leaders.
Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University, awaits the arrival of U.S. President Donald Trump to sign an executive order linking "free speech" efforts at public universities to federal grants in the East Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., March 21, 2019. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

Liberty University filed a lawsuit against former President Jerry Falwell Jr. two weeks ago.

On Thursday, he showed up at a student event and invited them to a graduation party at his home.

Liberty has also banned all staff from communicating with Falwell.

See more stories on Insider's business page.

Former Liberty president Jerry Falwell Jr. showed up at a student event uninvited and announced a graduation party at his home, a few weeks after the university sued him, Politico reported.

Relaed: Jerry Falwell, Jr. was found intoxicated and bleeding at his home

"I just want to invite all the seniors to my farm on May 8. We're going to have the real Liberty graduation," Falwell told the students, standing on a small stage erected outside an off-campus student house, according to a video reviewed by POLITICO. "If you're not a senior but you date one, you can come, too."

Two weeks ago, Liberty University filed a lawsuit in Virginia state court against Falwell alleging he misused university resources and tried to conceal a relationship involving a former pool boy. The University also banned all staff from communicating with Falwell.

The university said in the lawsuit that Falwell's years-long effort to conceal his "illicit conduct" hurt the university's reputation and breached the school code of conduct.

Politico reported that Falwell and his wife Becki showed up to a Thursday school event where around 200 students were gathered unannounced and uninvited.

A student who was there told Politico that Falwell's daughter, who is also a student at the university, told Falwell "Please don't come."

The Falwells have been engrossed in controversy including reports that he and Becki had a multi-year affair with a pool boy.

"We'd love to have you out there. Becki says there's no way we can plan it that fast, but we can and we will," Falwell said. He also encouraged students to share party information on social media, Politico reported.

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In August 2020, Giancarlo Granda told Reuters that he had a multi-year sexual relationship with Falwell and his wife Becki. Granada said he met the couple in Miami in 2012.

Falwell said it was only his wife who participated in the affair.

In August 2020, Falwell posted a picture of himself with his pants unzipped, holding an alcoholic beverage in his hand, and with his arm around a woman at a yacht party. The photo outraged the US evangelical Christian community.

The photo also violated Liberty's code of conduct. The university strictly requires students to dress "modestly" and also bars students from drinking.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Actor Esme Bianco on Friday sued goth rock icon Marilyn Manson, accusing him of sexual assault.

The federal civil lawsuit, filed in a California court, alleges that Manson, whose real name is Brian Warner, committed multiple violent sexual assaults, a rape and other abuse over the course of years from 2009 to 2013. It also accuses Manson, his former manager Tony Ciulla and Ciullas management company of violating human trafficking laws by employing fraud in the form of promises of work that were known to be fraudulent and using force and/or threats of force to obtain unpaid labor.

The suit was filed as Manson is already under criminal investigation by California authorities. In February, Los Angeles county announced that Manson is being investigated over allegations of sexual assault after several women came forward with public accounts of violence or sexual misconduct.

"While we understand that the criminal investigations are still ongoing, it is vital that we pursue every possible avenue to hold him accountable for the horrific acts he committed," said Jay Ellwanger, Bianco's attorney.

Bianco, a British-American actor, is best known for her recurring role as Ros in the HBO show "Game of Thrones."

"For far too long my abuser has been left unchecked, enabled by money, fame and an industry that turned a blind eye," Bianco said in a statement.

"Despite the numerous brave women who have spoken out against Marilyn Manson, countless survivors remain silenced, and some of their voices will never be heard. My hope is that by raising mine I will help to stop Brian Warner from shattering any more lives and empower other victims to seek their own small measure of justice."

In February, actor Evan Rachel Wood, Manson's former partner, said he "horrifically" abused her.

NBC News was unable to reach Manson.

Ciulla did not immediately respond to a NBC News request for comment.

Manson's last post to Instagram is a statement shared after Wood first went public with her allegations in February: "Obviously, my art and my life have long been magnets for controversy, but these recent claims about me are horrible distortions of reality. My intimate relationships have always been entirely consensual with like-minded partners. Regardless of how  and why  others are now choosing to misrepresent the past, that is the truth."

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com.
May 1ATLANTA  COVID-19 cases in Georgia rose by 1,019 Saturday, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health.

Public health officials have reported 880,836 virus cases since the start of the pandemic and 17,578 virus-related deaths  an increase of 19 deaths since the previous day.

The state health department reported 220,651 antigen positive cases  an increase of 389 antigen cases since the previous day; and 2,634 virus-related probable deaths.

There have been more than 61,600 hospitalizations and 10,096 ICU admissions due to COVID-19, according to data.

More than 8.35 million PCR/molecular tests have been performed since the start of the pandemic, with a 10.2% positivity rate.

More than 1.93 million antigen tests have been performed with a 10.2% positivity rate, according to the GDPH.

More than 6.14 million people have received the vaccine in Georgia, between Pfizer, Moderna and the Johnson & Johnson allocations.
Georgetown police say they have recovered a gun tied to a shooting that blinded a 5-year-old Lexington boy, and they are asking the public to help solve the case.

Police said they were investigating a call about shots fired at an apartment in Georgetown March 27 when they seized the gun, which was apparently linked to the December shooting that injured Malakai Roberts.

Though Georgetown police did not name Malakai, they said in a Facebook post Friday that the gun they found was linked to a shooting in which an innocent five-year-old child was struck by rounds that were shot into the home where the child was sleeping.

Malakai was asleep in bed with his mom when shots were fired into their home on Catera Trace in Lexington early Dec. 21, leaving him blind.

Georgetown police said they were called to the Overlook at Elkhorn Creek Apartments on River Chase Path March 27 because some shots had been fired from one of the apartments, and rounds went into the apartments next door.

Police said the people who were inside the apartment from which the shots were fired fled before officers arrived.

Detectives were called to assist with the investigation, and as a result, a significant amount of marijuana and several weapons were seized from that apartment, police said.

Georgetown police said one of the firearms was linked to the Lexington shooting through cooperation between their police department, Lexington police and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

We are asking for the publics help in solving this assault on an innocent child, Georgetown police said.

They asked that anyone with information call them at (502) 863-7826 or call Lexington police at (859) 258-3600.

Last month, a friend of Malakais family provided an update on his condition on one of the GoFundMe accounts set up for Malakai.

Kristi Joseph wrote that he has a long way to go but he is attending regular school with the assistance of a personal aide and is learning a new normal. He will continue appointments at Cincinnati Childrens Hospital and be monitored until time for his next surgery. We are so happy with his attitude and determination to succeed in performing daily tasks on his own. We want to thank everyone for their prayers and support.

An earlier update attributed to Malakais mom, Cacy Roberts, said ophthalmologists at Cincinnati Childrens Hospital had determined that the childs total vision loss is permanent.

Kind of shook me up. Lexington cop raising money for 6-year-old blinded by shooting
DUNEDIN, Fla. (AP)  Teoscar Hernandez hit a three-run homer after missing three weeks following a positive test for the coronavirus, Robbie Ray took a one-hitter into the seventh inning and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Atlanta Braves 13-5 on Friday night.

Hernandez went 2 for 5, including a sixth-inning shot to center off Jacob Webb that put Toronto ahead 10-0.

I'm glad I'm back, and happy to be with my teammates and my team," Hernandez said before the game.

Hernandez felt bad for four to five days and had symptoms that included an aching body, headaches and fever.

It wasn't a happy moment, Hernandez said. It wasn't happy days. I got through it and I'm here now.

Both Hernandez's wife and son also tested positive but have recovered.

Ray (1-1) allowed two runs, five hits and struck out five over 6 2/3 innings. The left-hander allowed just one runner through six innings, on Travis dArnauds double with one out in the second, then gave up Ozzie Albies two-run homer in the seventh.

He's throwing nothing but strikes, Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said. Threw strikes with all his pitches.

Alejandro Kirk had his first multihomer game for the Blue Jays.

Bo Bichette, Kirk and Randal Grichuk all connected off Drew Smyly (0-2), who allowed six runs and seven hits in four-plus innings. Kirk also went deep against Edgar Santana.

After the first inning, looked like he was going to get it going, Atlanta manager Brian Snitker said of Smyly. Just too any balls in the middle of the plate. Couldn't locate his fastball.

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hit Toronto's sixth homer, a solo shot in the eighth.

Bichette hit a two-run homer in the third. Kirk had a fourth-inning two-run drive on a 3-0 pitch and Grichuks solo shot in the fifth made it 5-0.

Kirk drove in two on his second home run in the fifth.

Atlantas Marcell Ozuna had been 0 for 20 against lefties this season before doubling off Ray in the seventh. He had a two-run single during a three-run eighth.

Story continues

George Springer, who signed a team-record $150 million, six-year deal this offseason, singled in the first for his first Blue Jays hit and went 1 for 3, walked twice and stole a base. After missing time because of oblique and right quadriceps strains, he was hitless in four at-bats during his first game Wednesday against Washington.

Kirk said through a translator that having both Hernandez and Springer in the lineup feels incredible.

Both are great, great hitters, Kirk said. The lineup from top to bottom, it looks good, it felt good and we showed it tonight.

SUN SPOT

The Blue Jays moved back the starting time of night games at TD Ballpark a half-hour to 7:37 EDT due in part to the sun, which was located just above first-base side roof at the single-deck stadium early on in recent games. Blue Jays 3B Joe Panik lost a high-hop single by Washingtons Ryan Zimmerman in the first inning Wednesday night in the sun.

CENTER FIELD

Braves: Ronald Acuna Jr. was in center so Guillermo Heredia, who started the previous 11 games, could be rested. Snitker said Acuna could get limited time at the position.

Blue Jays: Springer was the DH for the second straight game but might get a start in center soon.

TRAINERS ROOM

Braves: Snitker said LHP Max Fried (right hamstring) was feeling great one day after throwing to hitters. Fried could rejoin the rotation next week.  LHP Sean Newcomb (undisclosed) returned from the 10-day IL and gave up two runs, two hits and two walks in two-thirds on an inning.

Blue Jays: LHP Hyun Jin Ryu (strained right glute) could return next week after missing one start.

UP NEXT

Braves RHP Charlie Morton (2-1) faces Toronto opener Travis Bergen(0-0) Saturday night.

___

More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
A priest walks in front of the body of a person who died of the coronavirus disease, as he collects woods to make a funeral pyre at a crematorium in New Delhi, India, on July 3, 2020. Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters

India reported a record high of 401,993 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday.

India's coronavirus surge is overwhelming hospitals and crematoriums, with deaths possibly underreported.

The surge "will get worse before it gets better," according to one public-health expert.

See more stories on Insider's business page.

India's coronavirus surge is getting worse by the day, and it just hit a grim new record.

The nation reported a record high of 401,993 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday. No other country has breached 400,000 daily cases.

Crematoriums across India are overwhelmed with bodies. Patients are gasping for breath and dying as hospitals run out of oxygen. The country had reported more than 300,000 new cases each day for nine consecutive days before hitting the 400,000 mark.

India also reported more than 3,500 deaths on Saturday - the fourth day in a row that death counts have surpassed 3,000. Those numbers are likely an undercount. A New York Times investigation published this week found "mounting evidence" that suggested fatalities are being "overlooked or downplayed" by the government.

"From all the modeling we've done, we believe the true number of deaths is two to five times what is being reported," Bhramar Mukherjee, an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan, told the Times.

Experts interviewed by Reuters have suggested the death toll could even be between five to 10 times higher than what is being reported. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not responded to the allegations.

"It will get worse before it gets better," Ashish Jha, a physician and Dean of Brown University's School of Public Health, said of India's outbreak on Twitter on Saturday.

Relatives attend the funeral of a man who died from the coronavirus disease at a crematorium in New Delhi, India, on April 21, 2021. Adnan Abidi/Reuters

Rapidly spreading coronavirus variants are perhaps the biggest culprit for India's horrific new surge. But a number of other factors also contributed to their spread: massive social gatherings, a slow vaccine rollout, and a healthcare system that was woefully unprepared for the influx of patients.

Story continues

"This was a collective and shocking policy failure," Jha wrote in an op-ed in the Hindustan Times on Saturday, where he outlined steps he believes India must take "urgently and effectively."

Jha said Indian authorities should move quickly to stop indoor gatherings, implement a nationwide mask mandate, scale up testing, increase supplies of medicines and oxygen, ramp up vaccination efforts, and do more genome sequencing to track COVID-19 variants.

"May is going to be horrible in India. June is going to be hard. If we take the steps outlined here, we are going to see real progress in June, and, by July, things may be meaningfully better," he said. "But if we do these things in a half-hearted manner now, the nightmare that India is living through now will last longer."

The US, which earlier this week pledged to help India produce more vaccines, imposed new travel restrictions on the country because of the coronavirus surge. Friday's move temporarily bars most non-US citizens from entering the United States.

Sophia Ankel and Aria Bendix contributed reporting.

Read the original article on Business Insider
(Reuters) - The Serum Institute of India, which manufactures the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, is planning to start vaccine production in other countries as it struggles to meet supply commitments, its chief executive officer told The Times.

"There's going to be an announcement in the next few days," Adar Poonawalla was quoted as saying by the newspaper in an interview published on Friday.

Poonawalla said last week that the Serum Institute would be able to raise its monthly output to 100 million doses by July, later than a previous timeline of end-May. Several states in India have run out of vaccines against COVID-19.

He hoped to increase the Serum Institute's production capacity from 2.5 billion to 3 billion doses a year within six months, the Times reported, adding that he flew to London before Britain banned travellers from India eight days ago.

Coronavirus cases and deaths have surged in India as the world's second-most populous country has reported more than 300,000 new infections daily for nine consecutive days, hitting another global record of 386,452 on Friday.

The surge has led to a public health crisis and forced the government to seek oxygen, medicines and other essentials from abroad.

The nation's coronavirus cases may peak between May 3-5, according to scientists advising the government.

Some health experts said India became complacent when new cases were running at about 10,000 a day and the novel coronavirus seemed to be under control. Authorities lifted restrictions, allowing the resumption of large festivals and political rallies.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Stephen Coates)
By Francois Murphy

VIENNA (Reuters) -Iran's chief nuclear negotiator said on Saturday Tehran expects U.S. sanctions on oil, banks and most individuals and institutions to be lifted based on agreements so far in Vienna talks, Iranian media reported, while Washington again played down the prospect of an imminent breakthrough.

Russia and Western European powers meanwhile gave contrasting accounts of the task ahead in the talks to bring Iran and the United States fully back into compliance with a 2015 nuclear deal, as the talks adjourned for six days.

"Sanctions ... on Iran's energy sector, which include oil and gas, or those on the automotive industry, financial, banking and port sanctions, all should be lifted based on agreements reached so far," Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi was quoted as saying by Iranian state media.

Araqchi did not say under which mechanism sanctions would be lifted or refer to how Tehran would meet Washington's demands and return to its commitments under the deal.

"We will negotiate until the two sides' positions come closer and our demands are met," he said. "If they are met there will be an agreement, if not there will naturally be no agreement."

Asked to comment, the U.S. State Department referred back to past statements, including remarks on Friday from the U.S. national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, who said the talks were in "an unclear place."

"We've seen willingness of all sides, including the Iranians, to talk seriously about sanctions relief restrictions and a pathway back into the JCPOA," Sullivan said, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the nuclear deal's title.

"But it is still uncertain as to whether this will culminate in a deal in Vienna," he said.

The State Department also referred to remarks by State Department spokesman Ned Price on Thursday, when he said the sides were "not on the cusp of any breakthrough" and there was "a potentially long road ahead."

Story continues

President Joe Biden is seeking to return to the deal that former President Donald Trump withdrew from in 2018. Trump reimposed sanctions against Tehran and Iran responded by breaching many of the deal's limits on its nuclear activities.

Talks began last month in Vienna with the remaining parties to the deal - Iran, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany - meeting in the basement of a luxury hotel, and the United States based in another hotel across the street. Iran has refused to hold direct meetings with U.S. officials.

"We have much work, and little time, left. Against that background, we would have hoped for more progress this week," senior diplomats from the so-called E3 - France, Britain and Germany - said in a statement.

Officials have said they hope to reach a deal by May 21, when an agreement between Tehran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog on continued monitoring of some Iranian nuclear activities is due to expire.

"We have yet to come to an understanding on the most critical points. Success is by no means guaranteed, but not impossible," they added.

Russia's ambassador to the U.N. nuclear watchdog, Mikhail Ulyanov, told reporters after a meeting of the remaining parties wrapping up the third round of talks that breakthroughs should not be expected in the days to come. He said the talks would reconvene on Friday.

"We need simply to continue diplomatic, day-to-day work, and we have all the reasons to expect that the outcome, (the) final outcome, will be successful and it will come quite soon, in a few weeks," said Ulyanov, one of the more optimistic voices at the talks.

The break in talks was widely expected as diplomats said officials from several countries are also involved in the Group of Seven foreign ministers' meeting in London that begins on Monday and ends on Wednesday.

In his remarks, Araqchi said that "There are individuals and institutions that have been specifically sanctioned and their (the U.S.) list is long. Talks on the list are still ongoing". He added that under what had been agreed so far, more than a majority of the list would have the sanctions lifted.

(Additional reporting by John Irish in Paris, Dubai newsroom and Davbid Brunnstrom in Washington; Writing by Francois Murphy; Editing by John Stonestreet, David Holmes, Frances Kerry and Daniel Wallis)
Back in 2014, Netflix sued its former CTO, Michael Kail, accusing him of taking bribes before he eventually left the company to join Yahoo (in 2016 Yahoo merged with AOL to form Oath, which was the parent company of Engadget before it was purchased by Verizon). He was eventually indicted on charges of taking $690,000 in kickbacks from tech companies that had contracts with Netflix, a scheme the company said it uncovered based on reviewing emails in his work account.

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The trial was delayed due to the COVID pandemic, but on Friday a jury convicted Kail on 28 of the 29 counts he faced. In a statement to Bloomberg, Kail's attorney proclaimed his innocence, accused Netflix of using its influence as a powerful company to drive the prosecution and said there will be an appeal of the verdict. During the trial, Law360 reports that his defense attributed the deals to Netflix's "no rules" culture, and said they were legitimate.

According to FBI Special Agent in Charge Craig D. Fair, Kail "created a pay-to-play environment whereby he stole the opportunity to work with an industry pioneer from honest, hardworking, Silicon Valley companies." In a statement from the prosecution, it broke down the payments from companies to Kail's consulting firm, and what they were paid by Netflix. It says he received over $500,000 and stock options from the companies.

Netflix has not commented publicly on the result, but in 2014 it said the various vendors involved were paid more than $4 million, with Kail receiving commissions of 12 to 15 percent from at least two companies. Netflix and Kail settled their lawsuit in 2015. He remains released on bond pending sentencing, and could face up to twenty years in prison as well as a fine. Regardless of what happens during sentencing or the appeal process, between this and the recent $690 million Ponzi scheme, Netflix is racking up its own library of true crime documentary content.
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan on Saturday claimed another breakthrough in their bid to end the worst clashes at their shared border in memory as several thousand Kyrgyz demonstrators rallied against what they called an invasion attempt by their Central Asian neighbour.

Clashes between communities over land and water along the long-contested border are regular occurrences, with border guards often getting involved. However, this week's violence was by far the most serious during the Central Asian pair's 30 years of independence.

Kyrgyzstan's health ministry said that its death toll from the shooting that began between the two militaries on Thursday had reached 34, with a hundred injured.

Tajikistan, a closed authoritarian state, did not keep a casualty count or acknowledge deaths during the three-day conflict.

The two presidents spoke by telephone Monday in a bid to preserve the ceasefire that was agreed on Thursday but which broke down on both Friday and Saturday.

That prefaced a meeting of delegations headed by the countries' respective national security committee chiefs in which the pair agreed to create working groups to help enforce the ceasefire, Kyrgyzstan's national security committee said.

The committee said the groups would begin work at 0200 GMT on Sunday.

Tajikistan's foreign ministry later published a statement confirming the agreement on withdrawal of forces from the border and noted the "brotherly nations" had "declared their readiness...to resolve all existing border issues".

- Protesters demand guns -

Any long-term deal at the border may face resistance in Kyrgyzstan, where an angry crowd of several thousand citizens rallied in central Bishkek demanding weapons from the government to fight Tajiks at the border.

A statement released by the national security council via Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov's office said the demonstrators' demands were impossible to fulfil "because they are fraught with consequences".

Story continues

By evening the crowd had mostly dispersed, an AFP correspondent reported.

Kyrgyzstan on Saturday announced two days of mourning for those who died in the conflict, which also saw at least 30 properties destroyed in its southwestern Batken region.

Despite Thursday's ceasefire, Kyrgyzstan's national security committee said Tajikistan's military had "opened fire on dwellings" in Batken's Leilik district on Saturday and was building up forces again.

Tajikistan's military also blocked off a strategic section of road, the security committee said.

It later noted traffic had resumed along the road in line with the new agreement.

- School gyms for a home -

Thousands of Kyrgyz were displaced from border villages on Thursday, many of whom were relocated to temporary shelters in the city of Batken.

An AFP correspondent who visited one such shelter -- a school named after Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin -- saw doctors distribute medicines to displaced persons as children bedded down on the floor of the school's gym.

Seyitbek Erkebayev, a physical education teacher at the school, said citizens "from all corners of Kyrgyzstan" had sent "everything from food to bedding" and socks.

"Now there are no hungry people here," Erkebayev told AFP.

Bibi Eshnazarova, 58, who took up in the shelter after fleeing her border village in slippers and underclothes, leaving her husband behind to look after their livestock, said she planned to get back to the border as soon as possible.

"I don't want to move anywhere. My land is good enough for me," Eshnazarova said.

Despite signs of tensions Saturday, high-level contacts between the countries are being maintained.

Japarov and Tajikistan counterpart Emomali Rakhmon spoke Saturday for a second time in two days, with the pair also agreeing to meet face-to-face in the near future.

The violence also sparked a flurry of diplomatic activity.

Neighbouring Uzbekistan's leader Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Kazakhstan's Kassym-Jomart Tokayev spoke with both presidents during the crisis, while Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov spoke with both foreign ministers Saturday.

Russia said it hoped the countries where Moscow maintains military bases would "strictly follow the commitments made" during bilateral talks, according to a Russian foreign ministry readout.

Border disagreements between the three countries that share the fertile Fergana Valley -- Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan -- stem from demarcations made during the Soviet era.

The knotting, twisting frontiers left several communities with restricted access to their home countries.

tol-cr/jbr/cdw
Kyrgyzstan accused Tajikistan of breaking a ceasefire by firing on homes on Saturday and said 33 of its people have been killed in the deadliest border clashes between the countries since their independence from the Soviet Union.

The ceasefire was agreed on Thursday just hours after heavy fighting erupted on the Central Asian countries' long-contested border.

But Kyrgyzstan's national security committee said Saturday that Tajikistan's military had "opened fire on dwellings" in the Leilik district of Kyrgyzstan's southwestern Batken region, which borders Tajikistan.

The security committee said that villagers had been evacuated from the houses before the shooting began at 0645 GMT on Saturday.

In a previous release, Kyrgyzstan had accused Tajikistan of blocking a strategic road connecting a Kyrgyz territory to the rest of the country.

Kyrgyzstan also declared Saturday and Sunday days of mourning, while the health ministry announced that its death toll had risen from 31 to 33.

Since breaking out on Thursday, the violence has left more than a hundred Kyrgyz injured and over 30 properties destroyed, Kyrgyzstan said.

Tajikistan, a closed authoritarian state, has not officially acknowledged any deaths or damages from the conflict and did not immediately confirm that fighting had resumed.

Clashes between communities over land and water along the border are regular occurrences, with border guards often getting involved, however this week's violence was by far the most serious during the pair's 30 years of independence.

Kyrgyz authorities had said on Friday evening that fighting had finally stopped, after a ceasefire agreement that was reached on Thursday evening failed to stop intermittent shooting during the day.

Tensions had appeared to cool after talks between the presidents and national security chiefs of the two countries.

Kyrgyzstan President Sadyr Japarov and his Tajik counterpart Emomali Rakhmon spoke by telephone Friday, Japarov's press service said, and agreed to meet "in the second half of May".

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Tajikistan's state information agency also published news of the call, confirming Rakhmon had invited Japarov to visit Tajikistan.

Neighbouring Uzbekistan and Russia, which maintains bases in both countries, have offered to mediate the conflict.

Border disagreements between the three countries that share the fertile Fergana Valley -- Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan -- stem from demarcations made during the Soviet era.

The knotting, twisting frontiers left several communities with restricted access to their home countries.

tol-cr/dl
JERUSALEM  At least four U.S. citizens were among those dead after a stampede on the slopes of Israel's Mount Meron, a spokesman for the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Saturday, as funeral preparations began.

Lior Haiat told NBC News the ministry was assisting American families trying to fly into the country.

"There are four families that are in the New York area that we are in touch with, and the consulate in New York is helping them," Haiat said. "There are two other families from Canada and one from Argentina and we're also in touch with their families," he added.

At least 45 people died and more than 100 were injured in the stampede at around 1 a.m. local time Friday (8 p.m. ET Thursday) that occurred during celebrations of Lag BaOmer at Mount Meron in northern Israel, by the tomb of an ancient Jewish mystic, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.

Image: Bodies of victims (Ishay Jerusalemite / AP)

Each year, tens of thousands of people  mostly ultra-Orthodox Jews  throng to the area to celebrate the rabbi and light bonfires as part of the celebrations. The event was the first mass religious gathering to be held legally since Israel lifted nearly all restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J. tweeted Friday that one of his constituents, Donny Morris, had died in the crush.

Rabbi Yechiel Morris, his uncle, confirmed his death to several media outlets, telling them the 19-year-old had been undertaking studies in Israel. NBC News could not independently verify these reports and has reached out to his family.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Israel said Saturday that it was "working with local authorities to verify whether any additional U.S. citizens were affected and is providing all possible consular support to affected U.S. citizens and their loved ones."

Israel's Health Ministry told Reuters 32 of the dead had been identified so far by late Friday, but Haiat said observance of the Jewish Sabbath, a day of rest, had paused this process until after sunset Saturday evening. Many of the funerals are also expected to take place after that time, in keeping with religious practices.

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He said the names of the Americans who died had not been confirmed but identification was likely to be finally completed by Sunday.

It is unclear what caused the stampede, but video footage showed people being pulled back and forth by the sheer momentum of the tightly packed crowd. Other images of the event showed a mass of people, mostly men clad in black, spilling down a narrow open-air passage.

U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday and offered U.S. assistance.

"The United States stands with the people of Israel, and with Jewish communities the world over, in mourning the terrible tragedy at Mount Meron," Biden said in a statement. "The loss of life among worshipers practicing their faith is heartbreaking."

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed two Canadians were among those who died and said he felt "shock and sadness" in a statement Friday. Other world leaders including Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, also offered their condolences.

Download the NBC News app for breaking news and politics

After visiting the scene Friday, Netanyahu said it was "one of the worst disasters to hit the state of Israel."

"We will carry out a thorough, serious and in-depth investigation in order to ensure that such a disaster does not recur," he said, before declaring a national day of mourning on Sunday.

However, angry crowds appeared to jeer and boo at Netanyahu during his visit, in videos posted on social media, as many lay blame with his government and the police for the disaster.

Lawahez Jabari reported from Jerusalem and Adela Suliman from London.

Reuters contributed to this report.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)  Trying to map the long war in Afghanistan has become an increasingly challenging task ahead of the planned withdrawal of all U.S. forces.

Since the U.S.-led invasion of 2001 and subsequent overthrow of Afghanistan's Taliban government, insurgent activity shrank, then began to grow again as the conflict stretched on for two decades. Now, as the withdrawal with a summer completion date looms, even American officials acknowledge being publicly in the dark about the Taliban's strength.

By many measures, the Taliban are in a stronger military position now than at any point since 2001, though many once-public metrics related to the conduct of the war have been classified or are no longer produced, a March report by the U.S. Congressional Research Service warned.

That included data offered on the roughly 400 local districts across Afghanistan's 34 provinces. Control of those districts had been a key metric to judge overall control in the country.

In its last published report to include that level of detail, the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said the Afghan government controlled just 54% of those districts as of October 2018, the lowest number recorded since public tracking began in November 2015. Of the remaining districts, the U.S. government described 34% as contested and 12% as being under insurgent control.

In April 2019, the inspector general said the U.S.-commanded NATO Resolute Support mission no longer assessed district-level control, describing them as offering "limited decision-making value to the commander. But that decision came amid the Trump administration's push for negotiations with the Taliban in Qatar, suggesting military officials shut down the effort to avoid showing how bad things had become, said Bill Roggio, who has been tracking the war for years.

Roggio, whose Long War Journal now operates in the Washington-based hawkish think tank called the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, has tracked the conflict for years based on press reports and data he's gathered. He believes half of the country's districts are now contested between the government and the Taliban, with over 120 fully government controlled and more than 70 fully held by the Taliban.

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But even he acknowledges those numbers represent his best guess. Some districts held by the government swing back and forth depending on Taliban offensives. Others see the government hole up in central headquarters or barracks  and then the police commander is getting killed in an IED attack when he pulls out of the base, Roggio said, using an acronym for a homemade bomb.

A lot of cases in these districts that I have contested, the government really only controls the district centers, Roggio said. I think that that map actually should look worse than it really is.

Fawad Aman, a deputy spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry, disputed Roggio's figures as not correct and far from reality. However, he claimed without offering evidence that the Taliban controlled just more than 10 districts in Afghanistan in very remote parts of the country.

Aman's claim is roughly half the lowest estimate of Taliban district control ever offered publicly by the U.S., which came in January 2016.

A recent report from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported fighting across the country, with some 90,000 people internally displaced since the start of this year alone. Since 2012, some 4.8 million people have been displaced from their homes and not returned in a country of 38 million.

Even Kabul, the country's heavily guarded capital, isn't safe. The U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan showed the most civilian casualties in 2020 from any province came in Kabul, with 255 people killed and 562 wounded.

The worst violence came from targeted killings  which are targeting activists, journalists, judges and lawyers since Washington struck its deal with the Taliban. While the Islamic State group's Afghanistan affiliate has claimed some of the slayings, most aren't acknowledged by any group  only adding to the growing sense of unease there.

Aman also disputed that Kabul is insecure, citing what he described as regular security force patrols, checkpoints and raids.

The Taliban presence around the capital, Kabul, is less than any time before, he claimed. There is no concern for the Kabul people."

The U.S. withdrawal, beginning in May, is slated to see all combat troops depart the country after America's longest war. That likely will include the personnel responsible for calling in and guiding airstrikes. Without the strikes, Roggio said the Afghan military likely will face a major offensive it now is too stretched to defend nationwide.

And the map will change again.

Theyre going to have to consolidate their lines. Theyre going to have to abandon the south," Roggio said. "I just dont see how they survive otherwise. Theyll just be picked apart piecemeal.

___

Associated Press writer Rahim Faiez in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.

___

Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A U.S. bankruptcy court will allow Grupo Aeromexico, which operates Mexico's largest airline, to increase the size of its fleet of planes, the company said in a statement on Friday.

Last week, Aeromexico agreed to purchase two dozen Boeing planes as part of a deal that should yield an estimated $2 billion in savings due to better conditions in some long-term maintenance for its existing fleet and leasing contracts.

The first new planes will be incorporated into its fleet this year, including nine that should be in operation by this summer, while the rest are expected to arrive later in the year as well as in 2022, the airline has said.

Aeromexico which already has 107 planes, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a U.S. court in June after the coronavirus pandemic slammed the global travel industry.

(Reporting by Miguel Angel Gutierrez; Editing by David Alire Garcia and Richard Pullin)
Minnesota Department of Corrections via AP/Court TV via AP

Minnesota's attorney general has asked a judge to sentence Derek Chauvin beyond the normal range.

Chauvin, an ex-Minneapolis police officer, was recently convicted in the murder of George Floyd.

A court filing on Friday argued that Chauvin exhibited "particular cruelty" and abused his power.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Minnesota prosecutors on Friday requested in a court filing that ex-Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin receive "an aggravated sentence" for the death of George Floyd.

The document, signed by Attorney General Keith Ellison, urged Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill to consider five "aggravating factors" warranting a punishment beyond the typical sentencing range.

Those five factors included Floyd's vulnerability, Chauvin's "particular cruelty," Chauvin's abuse of authority, the involvement of three other officers who "actively participated in the crime," and the presence of children.

Chauvin is scheduled to be sentenced in June. Typically, a defendant with Chauvin's conviction, and with no prior criminal record, would receive a sentence of 12.5 years in prison.

Floyd, an unarmed Black man, died on May 25 after Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes during an arrest. Video of the arrest shows that Floyd repeatedly said he could not breathe.

Chauvin's "criminal conduct occurred while Mr. Floyd was in a vulnerable position on the ground: The evidence at trial showed that the officers handcuffed Mr. Floyd's arms behind his back and held him down in the prone position, with his chest against the pavement," Ellison wrote in the memo. "Defendant was trained that this position posed a significant risk of positional asphyxia."

Ellison also wrote that Floyd continued to "maintain his position" by kneeling on his neck "even as Mr. Floyd exclaimed 27 times that he could not breathe, and even as Mr. Floyd said that Defendant's actions were killing him."

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Chauvin's defense attorney, Eric Nelson, filed his own memo on Friday disputing each of the five aggravating factors prosecutors named.

Nelson argued that Floyd was not "particularly vulnerable," Chauvin did not exhibit "particular cruelty," and the other officers accused of "actively" participating have not been convicted. He also argued that the presence of a child and Chauvin's alleged abuse of authority were not considered aggravating factors.

Chauvin faces up to 40 years in prison for the second-degree murder charge. He also faces up to 25 years for the third-degree murder charge and up to 10 years for second-degree manslaughter. Because Chauvin was convicted of all charges, he will be sentenced on the top charge of second-degree murder.

Ellison also wrote that Chauvin didn't respect the "sanctity of life" or "serve with compassion," as dictated by the policies of the Minneapolis Police Department.

"Defendant thus did not just inflict physical pain. He caused Mr. Floyd psychological distress during the final moments of his life, leaving Mr. Floyd helpless as he squeezed the last vestiges of life out of Mr. Floyd's body," Ellison wrote in the memo.

Read the original article on Insider
By Josh Smith

SEOUL (Reuters) -North Korea lashed out at the United States and its allies in South Korea on Sunday in a series of statements saying recent comments from Washington are proof of a hostile policy that requires a corresponding response from Pyongyang.

The statements, carried on state news agency KCNA, come after the White House on Friday said U.S. officials had completed a months-long review of North Korean policy, and underscore the challenges U.S. President Joe Biden faces as he seeks to distinguish his approach from the failures of his predecessors.

"Our policy towards North Korea is not aimed at hostility. It's aimed at solutions," Jake Sullivan, Biden's national security adviser, said in an interview with ABC's "This Week" program on Sunday.

In one statement, a Foreign Ministry spokesman accused Washington of insulting the dignity of the country's supreme leadership by criticizing North Korea's human rights situation. This criticism is a provocation that shows the United States is "girding itself up for an all-out showdown" with North Korea, and will be answered accordingly, the unnamed spokesman said.

In a separate statement, Kwon Jong Gun, director general of the Foreign Ministry's Department of U.S. Affairs, cited Biden's speech to Congress on Wednesday in which the president said nuclear programs in North Korea and Iran pose threats that would be addressed through "diplomacy and stern deterrence."

Kwon said it is illogical and an encroachment upon North Korea's right to self-defence for the United States to call its defensive deterrence a threat.

"His statement clearly reflects his intent to keep enforcing the hostile policy toward the DPRK as it had been done by the U.S. for over half a century," he said, using the initials for North Korea's official name.

Kwon said U.S. talk of diplomacy is aimed at covering up its hostile acts, and its deterrence is a means for posing nuclear threats to North Korea. Now that Biden's policy has become clear, North Korea "will be compelled to press for corresponding measures, and with time the U.S. will find itself in a very grave situation," he added.

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'FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCES'

Talks aimed at persuading Pyongyang to surrender its nuclear weapons program have been stalled since a series of summits between Biden's predecessor Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un failed to yield a deal.

Biden's policy attempts to strike a middle ground between Trump's efforts and those of former President Barack Obama, who refused serious diplomatic engagement with North Korea absent any steps by Pyongyang to reduce tensions.

The U.S. goal remains the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and Washington is willing to engage in diplomacy and work on practical measures toward that goal, Sullivan said.

The North Korean statements appear to echo comments by the ministry in March saying relations with the United States would be shaped by the "principle of power for power and goodwill for goodwill," said Jenny Town, director of the U.S.-based 38 North program, which tracks North Korea.

"So for the U.S. to keep emphasizing the threat, it keeps focus on the negative aspects of the relationship and will elicit negative responses," Town said.

Markus Garlauskas, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council think tank and former U.S. national intelligence officer for North Korea, said Pyongyang's rhetoric is a reminder that the problem is bigger than terminology or tactics.

"The differences between the Kim regime and the United States are much more fundamental," Garlauskas said.

Kim Jong Un does not intend to give up nuclear weapons nor reform North Korea's political system, and it is hard to see how Washington could embrace a nuclear-armed North Korea that abuses human rights, Garlauskas said.

INTER-KOREAN TENSION

In a third statement on Sunday, Kim Yo Jong, a senior official in the government and sister of leader Kim Jong Un, criticized South Korea for failing to stop defector activists from launching anti-North Korea leaflets.

An activist group in South Korea said on Friday it had released balloons into North Korea carrying dollar bills and leaflets denouncing the government in Pyongyang, defying a recently imposed law banning such releases after complaints by the North.

"We regard the manoeuvres committed by the human wastes in the south as a serious provocation against our state and will look into corresponding action," Kim Yo Jong said.

Last year, North Korea blew up an inter-Korean liaison office in Kaesong, North Korea, after Kim Yo Jong led a campaign of criticism over the leaflet launches.

Biden is due on May 21 to have his first meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who has pushed for more engagement with North Korea. Moon's efforts were frustrated by the failure of denuclearisation talks under Trump, which left sanctions in place that block most economic engagement with the North.

(Reporting by Josh Smith; Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom and Doina Chiacu in Washington; Editing by Will Dunham, Cynthia Osterman and Jonathan Oatis)
An artists conception shows SpaceXs Starship rocket ship on the moon. (SpaceX Illustration)

NASA says itll hold up on its payments to SpaceX for developing its Starship super-rocket as a lunar lander while the Government Accountability Office sorts out challenges to the $2.9 billion contract award from Jeff Bezos Blue Origin space venture as well as from Alabama-based Dynetics.

Dynetics and a space industry team led by Blue Origin submitted their protests to the GAO this week, contending that the award unfairly favored SpaceX. The three teams spent months working on proposals in hopes of winning NASAs support for developing a landing system capable of putting astronauts on the moons surface by as early as 2024.

The GAO has 100 days to determine whether the challengers complaints have merit, and if so, what to do about it. That 100-day clock runs out on Aug. 4.

In the meantime, the space agency is suspending work on the Human Landing System contract.

Pursuant to the GAO protests, NASA instructed SpaceX that progress on the HLS contract has been suspended until GAO resolves all outstanding litigation related to this procurement, NASA spokeswoman Monica Witt said in a statement emailed to GeekWire. NASA cannot provide further comment due to the pending litigation.

Its not clear how much of an effect the suspension of NASA funding will have on Starship development. Even before this months contract award, SpaceX was conducting an extraordinarily rapid series of high-altitude tests of Starship prototypes. The next prototype, dubbed SN15, is due for launch from SpaceXs Boca Chica base in South Texas sometime in the next few days.

Landing people and cargo on the moon is just one of the applications that SpaceX has in mind for Starship. The reusable rocket ship and its even bigger Super Heavy booster are also meant to be used for point-to-point terrestrial travel, mass deployment of satellites in Earth orbit, commercial trips around the moon and odysseys to Mars and back. SpaceX has raised billions of dollars in private investment for its rocket development effort, and that funding seems likely to sustain SpaceX while the GAO reviews NASAs award.

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NASA officials had hoped to choose two teams to go on to the next phase of lunar lander development, but because Congress allocated only a quarter of the $3.3 billion that NASA was seeking for the project in the current fiscal year, the space agency decided to go with only one of the teams. SpaceX came in with the lowest cost and the highest rating.

Both Blue Origin and Dynetics said that NASA didnt assess their lunar lander proposals correctly, and that officials changed the rules of the competition in midcourse. Dynetics said NASA should have reworked or canceled its plan for awarding contracts once it determined there wasnt enough money for two teams.

The teams also argued in their filings that going with a single source ran counter to NASAs general trend to select multiple teams for key commercial space programs, in the interest of encouraging competition and providing redundancy if one of the teams falters. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., echoed that criticism last week during the confirmation hearing for NASAs next administrator, former Sen. Bill Nelson.

NASA has a big tradition of ensuring resilience in commercial programs by using multiple competitors and maintaining whats called dissimilar redundancy. So I want to know that you will commit to rapidly providing Congress with a plan for assuring that kind of resilience our of the Human Lander program, Cantwell told Nelson. In response, Nelson agreed that competition is always good.

On Thursday, NASA said its looking into opening up a new program to procure commercial lunar landing services for the crewed missions that will follow up on SpaceXs initial demonstration mission. Meanwhile, the Senate confirmed Nelsons nomination by unanimous consent.

More from GeekWire:
A Nigerian bandit chief who led the kidnapping of hundreds of schoolchildren has been killed in armed clashes with a rival gang, days after reneging on an amnesty deal with authorities, sources told AFP.

Awwalun Daudawa led the abduction of more than 500 students from Government Science Secondary School Kankara last December.

It was one of a series of mass abductions by heavily armed criminal gangs who have become an increasing security challenge in northwest and central Nigeria.

On Thursday a Zamfara state government official told AFP Daudawa had reneged on a peace pact he made in February and returned to lead his men in the forest.

"Daudawa was killed along with four of his commanders Friday afternoon during a gun fight with a rival gang in Dumburum forest on the border with Katsina state," a Zamfara government official said.

"He led his men on a revenge mission to avenge the death of two of his men by the rival gang during a failed raid on one of his camps last month," said the official.

In February Daudawa along with six comrades surrendered to Zamfara state governor Bello Matawalle in his office where he handed over weapons, saying he had renounced crime, as part of the amnesty to bandits to end the cycle of violence.

- Ambushed and gunned down -

But sources said Daudawa only surrendered a fraction of his weapons and maintained contact with his gangs in the forest.

Earlier this month Daudawa left his lodging in Zamfara state capital Gusau on the pretext of meeting some criminal gangs to convince them to accept a government amnesty offer and release some hostages, according to an official.

"Daudawa has been killed along with his four commanders during fighting with the men of rival bandits," a source with deep knowledge on the activities of bandits told AFP.

"He was ambushed and gunned down while trying to take away the herd of the rival gang," said the source.

It was not clear what impact the death of Daudawa would have on the deadly violence cattle thieves and kidnappers have unleashed in northwestern Nigeria.

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Some of the Kankara schoolchildren had escaped during the December kidnapping and more than 300 more were released days later after negotiations with local officials.

State authorities always deny any ransom payments were made.

Daudawa, 43, was an armed robber and a cattle rustler before he added gun-running and kidnapping for ransom to his criminal portfolio.

He was known to have ties with Boko Haram jihadists and acted as their gunrunner, selling weapons they seize from Nigerian security personnel in the northeast to bandits in the northwest.

abu/pma/lc
The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission is not going to take any action against the royal, multi-billionaire owner of this years Kentucky Derby favorite for allegedly kidnapping his daughter a few years ago.

In short, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum  ruler of Dubai, vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates  and his Godolphin racing operation will be allowed to race the unbeaten Essential Quality, now at 2-1 odds. Officials told the Herald-Leader that the sheikh would not be in attendance on Saturday, (although there are plenty of VIP spots in Churchill Downs where he could go unseen).

A group of lawyers from the University of Louisville filed the complaint on Wednesday asking to have Sheikh Mohammed and his horses barred from Churchill Downs to protest his alleged treatment of his daughter, Princess Latifa, who is apparently being held against her will in Dubai after being seized on a boat off the coast of India in 2018 as she tried to escape. Another daughter, Princess Shamsa, tried to escape in England before being caught and has been little heard of since. In February, Princess Latifa released a video saying she feared for her life; last month the United Nations asked the Emirates for proof of life.

Los Angeles civil rights attorney Lisa Bloom, UofL law professor Sam Marcosson, and the U of L Human Rights Advocacy Project filed the same complaint in 2019, but the Racing Commission rejected it because it was based on press reports. This time, however, the lawyers had more concrete evidence  last year, a British court had found evidence of both kidnappings during wardship proceedings for Princess Haya, Sheikhs Mohammeds ex-wife, who was trying to keep her two children with the Sheikh in England.

But apparently, it was not enough.

In consultation with counsel, and according to Kentucky regulations, the KHRC has determined the complaint does not articulate a violation of KHRC regulations, was the brief statement issued by Executive Director Marc Guilfoyle on Thursday night.

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On Thursday night, Marcosson called the decision deeply wrong and is simply untenable in light of prior Commission decisions finding that it has the authority to bar individuals based on misconduct that is far less egregious than Sheikh Mohammeds actions in kidnapping and holding his daughter, Princess Latifa, in violation of international law and human rights ... The message of todays decision is that if someone is rich and powerful enough, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission will give them a free pass from enforcement of our law.

Yes, yes, all that is true and yet somehow, you can be neither surprised nor disappointed. The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, a mix of 15 political appointees and professional horse people, with, according to its web site, exactly ONE WOMAN MEMBER, is hardly known as a bastion of moral fortitude or political correctness on social justice issues. Kentuckys racing poobahs decided only last year that it would no longer allow people to say racist things out loud and that yes, after 100 years, it really was time to figure out why Black people disappeared from the industry so completely. There are still only a handful of women trainers  just one, Victoria Oliver in this years Derby  and even fewer women jockeys. Keeneland just hired the first woman president in its history, and its not clear if a woman has ever been one of the three ruling trustees that oversee the Keeneland board.

Racing commissions are there to decide if they should overturn bans on popular trainers whose horses fail drug tests, not set geopolitical human rights agendas for Middle Eastern royals who sometimes want to be modern and Western and sometimes do not. Its kind of hard to blame the KHRC or the British Horse Racing Authority, which is facing a similar conundrum, for not banning one of the richest and most successful owners either country has ever seen from spending his billions on breeding, racing and buying horses when he has never been found guilty in a court of law (and never will).

Yes, it will be awkward if Gov. Andy Beshear has to earnestly hand the Derby trophy to a man accused of ordering his henchmen to stuff his daughter in a car or tie another up on a boat, but certainly no worse than in 2019 when the winner was disqualified, which then-President Donald Trump declared was an act of political correctness.

And lets face it, its a fascinating story, and the more it gets out, the more pressure there is on one of Americas most important Middle Eastern allies to move into, lets say, the 19th century when it comes to treatment of women. And maybe for American racing to join the 20th. So if you object to racings lax standards on any of these social justice issues ( we havent started to talk about wages and benefits for backside workers), send a letter to your nearest friendly race track and let them know that racing still needs non-billionaires to watch it and bet on it, and youd like to see them do just a little better.

Lawyers file complaint to ban Sheikh Mohammed and his Derby favorite from race
Image via YouTube

The New York Police Department has said good-bye to Spota canine-like robot from engineering company Boston Dynamics.

According to the New York Times, the department had acquired about 500 models of the four-legged robot, which it nicknamed Digidog, back in August 2020 and had intended to test their capabilities for an entire year. Officials argued that the machine could be useful in dangerous or hard-to-navigate situations, as it came equipped with multiple cameras, lights, and sensors. However, the Digidog was met with backlash this year after viral videos showed the robot patrolling the streets of NYC as well as a public housing building.

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Critics said the robotic dogs were not only creepy, they also demonstrated the increasing militarization of U.S. policing. Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slammed the move as a waste of NYC tax dollars and suggested the machines were being used to specifically target underserved communities.

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John Miller, NYPD deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism, said the department prematurely ended the Digidog test run because it was stoking arguments about race and surveillance.

People had figured out the catchphrases and the language to somehow make this evil, Miller told the Times, before suggesting the robot could return. But for now, this is a casualty of politics, bad information and cheap sound bytes. We should have named it Lassie.

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Cars lined up to get gas at a station in Havana on Sept. 19, 2019. (Yamil Lage/AFP/Getty Images)

Just months after Fidel and Raul Castro seized control of Cuba in 1959, they filled the Plaza of the Revolution in Havana with adoring crowds to celebrate the International Day of the Worker. The marching, shouting and singing went on for 14 raucous hours.

Cubans have partied every May Day since. But this Saturday will be different, and not just because the COVID-19 pandemic has forced everything to go virtual. For the first time since Dwight D. Eisenhower was in the White House and Dobie Gillis was on prime-time TV, no one named Castro is in charge of Cuba. Fidel died in 2016 and Raul, who ended that 14-hour revel in 1959 with a rousing speech, resigned as head of the powerful Communist Party of Cuba last month.

The Castro brothers may be gone from the stage, but the country they ruled for 62 years, the only socialist nation in the Western Hemisphere, will bear the marks of the Castro dynasty for a long time.

The May Day celebration is a good reflection of their complicated legacy. In most countries, May 1 resounds with demands for higher wages and workers rights. But in Cuba, where strikes are strictly prohibited, there never are any complaints, even though most workers earn less than $3 a day.

Cubans wont soon forget that dissent is not welcome in the Cuba the Castros created, even when they have lots of reasons to protest. I saw how they bottle up their ire when I accompanied two Cubans friends, Pipo and Lili, to the plaza on May 1, 2018. Raul was on the dais that day, standing beside Miguel Diaz-Canel, his hand-picked successor to be both party leader and president. Cuban media reported that a million people took part. The only protests I saw were aimed at the U.S. embargo.

Pipo, who belonged to the Communist Party for more than 40 years before resigning a decade ago, told me then that he always participated in May Day because the party expected him to, but he always held his tongue because any complaint could blow back on his family.

Story continues

When I got in touch with him this week, he told me he intended to watch a little of Saturdays virtual celebration on TV  old habits die hard  but hell spend most of the day running from store to store to buy food. Police demand to see his ID before hes allowed to wait in line for hours to buy whatever is left when he finally gets inside. He might gripe about it to me or a neighbor, but no one else.

Pipo isnt optimistic that anything is going to change for the better without the Castros. Although Rauls departure was widely seen as the end of an era, Pipo believes Raul, who turns 90 in June, will have the last word until he dies.

Lili surprised me. She heads the local Committee for the Defense of the Revolution and spends three hours getting to her job as a pool supervisor, earning barely enough to keep food on her table. When we were at the plaza in 2018, she loyally defended the government, repeating what shed told me many times: The U.S. embargo is crippling Cuba.

But when I heard from her this week, she complained about how difficult it has become to find food, medicine or other necessities. She still reveres Fidel and respects Raul, but shes pinning her hopes on President Biden, not Rauls successor, to make things better. (The Biden administration has made it clear that Cuba is not a priority right now.)

Three generations have grown up in the Castros Cuba. Party hacks and old-timers are still enchanted with the brothers, but the younger generation, with little to lose, is willing to join protests and go on hunger strikes. And no wonder. Cubas rickety centralized economy has been battered by COVID lockdowns and some 200 measures imposed by the Trump administration, including barring cruise ships and restricting flights. The vaunted Cuban healthcare system is struggling with chronic shortages. After a major currency change, inflation is now the big fear, with prices soaring twice as fast as salaries.

The whole country is like a vast field of dry grass, Yoani Sanchez, one of Cubas leading independent bloggers, wrote shortly after Raul stepped down. The smallest spark, she believes, could set that field aflame or lead to another one of the migration crises that we Cubans have lived through before.

The theme of last months Communist Party Congress, We Are Continuity, was an obvious attempt to prolong the Castro legacy. Banners recently posted around Cuba show the images of Jose Marti, Cubas independence hero, alongside Fidel, Raul and Diaz-Canel, stressing the line of succession.

For most Cubans, the days without Castro have changed little. El ultimo? they still ask as they approach the interminable lines for food and necessities that have become the measure of their lives. Whos last?

Raul may be the last Castro to rule Cuba, but the nation he and his brother leave behind seems stuck in a long line, with no end in sight.

Anthony DePalma, a journalist, has covered Latin America for three decades. He is the author most recently of The Cubans: Ordinary Lives in Extraordinary Times.





This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
ROME (AP)  Two Italian ports faced an influx of hundreds of migrants on Saturday, as a charity ship sailed toward a Sicilian port with 236 people rescued in the Mediterranean from traffickers' boats, while Italian coast guard and border police brought 532 others to a tiny island.

The maritime rescue group SOS Mediterranee said a ship it operates, Ocean Viking, pulled the migrants to safety four days ago from two rubber dinghies. Upon instructions from Italian authorities, the Ocean Viking was sailing to Augusta, Sicily, with its passengers, who it said included 119 unaccompanied minors.

SOS Mediterranee said some passengers told rescuers they were beaten by smugglers based in Libya and forced to embark on the unseaworthy dinghies despite high waves.

On Italy's southern island of Lampedusa, which is closer to North Africa than to the Italian mainland, Mayor Salvatore Martello said migrants from four boats that needed rescue stepped ashore overnight. They were brought to safety by Italian coast guard and customs police boats.

Separately, an Italian navy vessel rescued 49 migrants, Italian state TV reported.

Still in the central Mediterranean Sea on Saturday was another charity boat, Sea-Watch 4, which with 308 people aboard who had been rescued in four separate operations from trafficker-launched vessels, Sea-Watch said in a statement. The first rescue, of 44 people, took place on Thursday, it said.

Sea-Watch 4 has requested a port to disembark the migrants from both Italy and Malta.

The fact that we, as a civil rescue ship, saved so many people from distress at sea in such a short time again demonstrates the fundamental rescue gap European states have created at the world's most dangerous maritime border, said Hannah Wallace Bowman, the head of mission for Sea-Watch 4.

Warmer weather in the spring often increases the number of vessels launched toward Europe by Libya-based migrant traffickers.

Last month, SOS Mediterranean personnel and a merchant ship spotted several bodies from a shipwrecked dinghy, believed to have been carrying 130 migrants. People on the boat had appealed for help in the waters off Libya, but no coast guard vessels from Libya, Italy or Malta came to their aid, the group said. No survivors were found.

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Humanitarian groups have been urging European Union nations to resume the deployment of military vessels on rescue patrols in the Mediterranean. After hundreds of thousands of rescued migrants, many of them ineligible for asylum, were brought to Italy by ships from the coast guard, navy, border police and other nations, large-scale rescue operations in the sea north of Libya were ended.

Italy has been equipping and training the Libyan coast guard to rescue migrants in their search-and-rescue area and to discourage traffickers.

Human rights groups and U.N. agencies have denounced inhumane treatment at Libyan detention centers, where migrants rescued or intercepted by the Libyan coast guard are taken. They say migrants endure beatings, rapes and insufficient rations.

On Friday, the United Nation's child welfare agency said a total of 125 Europe-bound children were among those intercepted at sea earlier in the week by Libyan authorities off the Mediterranean coast. UNICEF said most of those rescued were sent to overcrowded detention centers with no or limited access to water.

Europe can no longer remain passive in the face of recurring shipwrecks while consciously upholding a system of unspeakable abuse by supporting forced returns to Libya, SOS Mediterranee said.

The risk migrants run of perishing at sea is high. UNICEF says at least 350 people, including children and women, have drowned or gone missing in the Mediterranean since January.

According to the Italian Interior Ministry, as of Friday, 9,000 migrants had reached Italy by sea this year .

Both Italian and Maltese governments in recent years have claimed that private charity boats effectively facilitate trafficking by rescuing migrants at sea. At times, rescue vessels, including commercials ones, have been kept waiting for long stretches before a safe port was assigned.

__

Follow APs global migration coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/migration
May 1COLUMBUS  Two convicted felons with lengthy criminal histories, one of whom is a validated gang member, pleaded guilty in separate illegal possession of firearms cases, acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia Peter D. Leary said.

Jermichael Bellamy, 28, of Columbus, pleaded guilty to one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon before U.S. District Judge Clay Land. Maurice Toney, 47, of Columbus, pleaded guilty to one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Both defendants face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. There is no parole in the federal system.

"Repeat violent criminals and gang members who disregard federal law by illegally possessing firearms will face federal prosecution," Leary said in a news release. "Our office is working closely with our law enforcement partners to apprehend the most egregious offenders creating havoc in the Columbus community and bring them to justice."

"Gang members like Bellamy continue to plague our communities even after being charged and convicted of serious crimes," Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta Chris Hacker said. "That's why federal law provides for serious prison time for criminals who refuse to learn from their mistakes and continue to possess firearms and endanger others. And that's why we continue to work with our state and local partners to make sure these criminals get the stiffest sentences."

"I am pleased to see the successful prosecution of these violent repeat offenders," Columbus Police Department Chief Freddie Blackmon said. "As we continue to work with our federal partners, I look forward to seeing these types of cases even more."

According to court documents, Bellamy was arrested on outstanding warrants on Oct. 15, 2020. Inside Bellamy's vehicle, law enforcement located a loaded pistol and four loaded magazines, as well as cocaine and a digital scale. Investigators also found poster boards with "ABG," "852" and gorilla images drawn on them. Bellamy was also wearing a "852" necklace and an "852" tattoo.

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Bellamy is a member of the local hybrid Alleyboy Gang and 852. Bellamy is also a validated member of the Gangster Disciples. Bellamy has prior convictions of possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, gang act violation and aggravated assault in the Superior Court of Muscogee County.

Toney was under investigation by ATF in August and September 2020 for trafficking firearms and methamphetamine in the Columbus area. In a recorded controlled buy operation, Toney sold methamphetamine and three firearms to a confidential informant. The firearms were a 20-guage pump-action shotgun, a .38SPL revolver and a semi-automatic rifle with one magazine and 15 rounds of ammunition. Toney was previously convicted of multiple felonies in the Superior Court of Muscogee County and the Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit, including two separate convictions of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

The Bellamy case was investigated by FBI and the Columbus Police Department. The Toney case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Williams is prosecuting both cases.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Police fired water cannon and tear gas in a Brussels park on Saturday to break up an anti-lockdown party of several hundred people designed to defy coronavirus social distancing rules.

The crowd of mostly young people responded to a post on Facebook announcing the unauthorised party. It took place a month after police cleared 2,000 people who gathered in the same Bois de la Cambre park for la Boum (the party), an event that had begun as an April Fool's joke.

The follow-up Boum 2 event on May 1, a traditional day for demonstrations, was held a week before the Belgian government allows cafe and bar terraces to open and lets groups of more than four people meet outside in a relaxation of COVID-19 rules.

Prime Minister Alexander De Croo urged Belgians on Friday to stay united and not "fall into this trap". Facebook also took down the Boum 2 post on Thursday after a request from Belgian prosecutors, who warned partygoers they risked being detained or fined

Police said several hundred people still attended.

Emile Breuillot, a 23-year-old dental student, said he had come to see people enjoy themselves and to defend their rights to gather.

After a calm start with groups chanting "freedom", the police announced on social media that attendees were not observing public safety measures and that they would intervene. Many people were not wearing masks, a requirement anywhere in public in the Belgian capital.

Hundreds of people also marched in central Brussels and through the eastern city of Liege demanding a relaxation of coronavirus measures.

(Reporting by Clement Rossignol and Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Frances Kerry)
Watch: William and Kate release family video to mark 10th wedding anniversary

A smiling Princess Charlotte looking relaxed and happy has been photographed by her mother in a new image shared as she turns six years old.

The new picture was shared by Kensington Palace the day before her birthday, but in a departure from tradition, won't be posted on their social media pages.

Prince William, as president of the FA, has lent his support to a boycott of social media until companies take stronger action against racism and abuse on online platforms.

So the image is unlikely to appear on the Kensington Royal accounts before the end of the four day boycott.

Charlotte was pictured earlier this week, in this image shared before her sixth birthday. (The Duchess of Cambridge)

Read more: Duke and Duchess of Cambridge 'putting children first' as they parent like Diana and Carole Middleton

In the new picture, Charlotte is wearing a blue and pink floral dress, and has her hair loose around her shoulders.

Although she has been photographed in recent months, out at the pantomime with her family in December, her hair has usually been styled back, away from her face.

The young princess bears a striking resemblance to her father at the same age.

She grins at the camera, which is being operated by Kate, a keen amateur photographer who has turned her passion into a key part of how she and Prince William share their lives with royal watchers.

Kate recently released a photograph of their youngest son Prince Louis before St George's Day, which was his third birthday.

Prince William go-karting at the British Grand Prix in July 1988. (Anwar Hussein)

Read more: Mike Tindall admits it's 'nice to have a boy around' after being 'outnumbered' by daughters

The relaxed portrait of Charlotte, which was taken over the weekend in Norfolk, differs to her fifth birthday picture, where she was shown helping to distribute food parcels around the Sandringham Estate.

Charlotte was born on 2 May 2015, in the Lindo Wing at St Mary's in Paddington, and was christened Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, after her great-grandmother and late grandmother.

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She attends Thomas's Battersea in London, over the river from the family home at Kensington Palace.

Prince George, who is seven, is at the same school as her.

Charlotte with her younger brother Louis and her mother, the Duchess of Cambridge, at the theatre in December. (Aaron Chown/AFP)

Earlier this week the Cambridges shared a video of the five of them enjoying the countryside in Norfolk, showing them taking a trip to the beach and toasting marshmallows around an open fire.

Kate has previously spoken about her love of the outdoors as a child, and how she wants to encourage her children to have the same love.

Speaking to Giovanna Fletcher on the Happy Mum, Happy Baby podcast last year, Kate said: "The simple things resonate with me the most. Life now is so busy, so distracting, the simple things like watching a fire on a rainy day, I remember that from my childhood. Going for a walk, thats really what I try to do with my children now."

She said she was happiest when "I am with my family, out in the countryside and we are all filthy dirty".

Watch: New Photos of Prince William and Kate for 10th Wedding Anniversary
We usually gather and roast a lamb at our home with family and friends. My sons have been out with me on Easter mornings for years, and theyll carry on the tradition. I suppose I wont forget when I get back to it. It might be just like riding a bicycle.
Hennepin County public defenders, joined by a state legislator, rallied in downtown Minneapolis on Friday to condemn the disproportionate number of Black drivers stopped by police for minor infractions compared to white motorists.

About 50 people showed up for the rally on the steps of the Hennepin County courthouse to protest these traffic stops, which many say criminalizes "Driving while Black." The attorneys, who represent indigent defendants, said this type of pretextual traffic stop led to the fatal shooting of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, by Brooklyn Center police on April 11.

"The public defenders are standing in solidarity with Daunte Wright, his family and all the Black community. We need to end all racist and pretextual stops," said Tanya Bishop, a Hennepin County public defender.

Bishop said public defenders have a front-row seat to the injustice that plays out thousands of times each year when people of color are pulled over for minor issues including expired tabs, failure to signal a turn far enough in advance or having an item hanging from the rearview mirror.

"We want them to know we stand with them. We hear them. We've had enough too," Bishop said.

Wright was shot and killed by former officer Kim Potter during a traffic stop. Potter is charged with manslaughter. Brooklyn Center's former police chief said he believed Potter meant to use her taser.

Brooklyn Center police said they stopped Wright for expired tabs. In a phone call with his mom moments before his death, Wright said he believed he was being stopped for the air freshener hanging from his rearview mirror.

State Rep. Cedrick Frazier,DFL-New Hope, who has introduced a bill that would limit the authority of police officers to stop or detain drivers for low-level equipment violations, also addressed the rally. Frazier said officers who want to report wrongdoing need more whistleblower protections.

"I have spoken with rank-and-file officers. They do want to do the right thing," said Frazier, an attorney and former public defender. "They do want the bad officers out of their ranks."

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According to traffic stop data obtained by the public defender's office, Minneapolis police stop and search a disproportionate rate of Black and East African drivers and their vehicles during routine traffic stops compared with other races. Black and East African motorists accounted for more than 5,400 of the 9,600 traffic stops for moving and equipment violations in the city last year.

"That is 56.5 % of the total stops. Black and East Africans are only 19 % of the population," Bishop said.

Black drivers are also more often subject to searches to white drivers, according to traffic stop data.

Bishop said the problem also extends to suburban police departments who disproportionately target drivers of color. These stops often lead to a host of injustices.

"These people are being harassed and they are being put through search and seizures," she said.

The Minneapolis Police Department did not respond to a request for comment. Last summer, Minneapolis police Cmdr. Charlie Adams said the city should dig deeper into what is driving these disparate rates.

"Let's do a study, let's figure out why that's occurring," he said.

The city was working on such a study with the nonprofit Center for Equity in Policing.

But some proponents have defended minor stops as a critical tool, helping police uncover more serious crimes. Law enforcement often point to Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, who was picked up by police after the bombing for driving without a license tag.

Hennepin County Public Defender Jesse Dong said this isn't just a police problem.

"This is a system being upheld by prosecutors and judges," Dong said.

Bishop said defense attorneys must challenge in court these kinds of traffic stops and other illegal police behavior.

Bishop, who is white, said she's witnessed these disparities in her own family. She typically leaves her work badge hanging from her rearview mirror and said she's never been stopped by police for it. However, her husband, who is Black, borrowed her car and was stopped by police for the windshield obstruction.

"Black people are being disproportionately targeted and policed," Bishop said. "Living, breathing and being Black is not a crime."

Andy Mannix contributed to this report.

Shannon Prather  651-925-5037
May 1Three children were hospitalized Wednesday evening after police found them in a car at the city-county government center.

The three children, ages 1, 3 and 4, are believed to have been left in the car for at least 2 1/2 hours before being discovered by police shortly before 5:30 p.m.

Rochester police Capt. Casey Moilanen said a car alarm alerted officers to a potential issue. When the children were found, they were "soaking wet with sweat from the heat" and the 4-year-old child was very lethargic, according to Moilanen. The vehicle had no windows down and was directly in the sun, according to court records.

The children were taken by ambulance to Mayo Clinic Hospital-Saint Marys for evaluation and then released to social services.

Law enforcement learned that the children's mother, identified by police as 29-year-old Dectrini Boldien, was at the government center that day for a court hearing. court records indicate the hearing was scheduled for 2 p.m. Boldien was taken into custody just before 3 p.m. on a warrant out of Ramsey County, according to Moilanen.

Olmsted County Sheriff's Capt. Scott Behrns said Boldien was asked at least twice by detention deputies where her children were and she said they were being taken care of in the Twin Cities. Court records state that Boldien admitted not telling anyone about her children because she did to want to lose custody of them.

Boldien was charged in Olmsted County District Court with gross misdemeanor neglect or endangerment of a child. She was ordered released on conditions in that case as well as a gross misdemeanor domestic assault case, but is being held on a Ramsey County gross misdemeanor warrant, according to court records.

Kids and Car Safety, a national nonprofit that educates and tracks the deaths of children who die in hot cars, reported that the first hot- car child death of 2021 occurred on Sunday, April 25, in North Carolina. The nonprofit reported that preliminary findings of an autopsy done on the 5-month-old baby determined that she died of environmental hypothermia.

According to KidsAndCars.org, nearly 1,000 children have died in hot cars nationwide since 1990.
A Texas deputy seen in a video punching a teenager outside a convenience store was fired for violating several department policies, the Harris County Sheriffs Office announced.

Former Deputy Bert Dillow was initially placed on administrative duty after he was accused of punching and cursing at the teen during a March 26 incident. A video of the altercation was posted last week on the Facebook page of the immigrant civil rights group FIEL Houston.

In the footage, Dillow asks the teen, identified by KTRK as high school sophomore Carlos Rodriguez, for his identification. After Rodriguez hands it over, Dillow motions for him to come closer.

Rodriguez walks toward Dillow and then appears to take a step away from him.

"Don't run from me, boy. I'll beat your f------ a-- right here," Dillow says as he grabs Rodriguez by the shirt. "Turn around and put your hands behind your back before I beat the s--- out of you."

"Don't be f------ stupid," Dillow yells.

When Rodriguez appears to pull his hand away, Dillow punches him in the face, causing the teen to fall to the ground. Dillow appears to punch Rodriguez several more times before handcuffing him.

"All I was gonna do is talk to you, but now you're f-----," Dillow says.

The sheriff's office launched an investigation into the incident on March 29, a press release stated. Dillow was fired Wednesday after it was determined that he violated several of the department's policies including use of force. He had been with the Harris County Sheriffs Office since September 2018, the department's press release said.

News of Dillow's firing came the same day the sheriff's office announced that another deputy, Eric D. Sanchez, was terminated for violating department policies.

Sanchez's firing stems from a February incident in which he was seen on video threatening to kill a driver and pulling out his gun, according to KTRK.

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The driver, George Dickerson, told the outlet that he had merged onto a freeway and got caught in a funeral procession. Dickerson said he moved into another lane that had two motorcycle officers in it.

"I really just wanted to get in front of that car, so I did that," Dickerson told KTRK. "The cop in the front slowed down, so I couldn't go around."

Dickerson said the officer behind him drove up and told him to stop and then got back behind Dickerson's vehicle. Before he could stop, Dickerson said the officer in front slammed on the brakes. So Dickerson hit his brakes, as well as the officer behind him.

Dickerson's co-worker, who was also in the car, began filming as Sanchez approached their vehicle. In the footage, Sanchez is heard saying, "I'll f------ kill you." The video also shows the deputy with his gun drawn.

Like Dillow, Sanchez was initially placed on administrative duty. He was fired April 8 for violating several policies including use of a firearm and traffic enforcement, the sheriff's office press release stated. He had been with the office since August 2016.

Both cases are being sent to the Harris County District Attorneys Office to determine if criminal charges are appropriate.

The Harris County Deputies' Organization FOP Lodge 39 did not immediately return a request for comment on Saturday.
The Democratic Republic of Congo's move to impose a "state of siege" on two violence-wracked eastern provinces brought praise on Saturday from local leaders but also sparked concern in a country where the army faces allegations of rights abuses.

President Felix Tshisekedi had said Thursday he was preparing "radical measures" for the mineral-rich east, where an estimated 122 armed groups operate as a legacy of a spate of 1990s conflicts.

Friday saw him follow up with the siege announcement for North-Kivu and Ituri provinces, haunted by violence by armed groups and civilian massacres.

North-Kivu governor Carly Kasivita thanked the president for a decision which he said "responds to our expectations", stressing he had repeatedly urged a "national mobilisation" to deal with attacks in the Beni region of the province near the Ugandan border which has borne the brunt of local unrest.

The Congolese Association for Access to Justice also said it welcomed the move but called on parliament urgently to pass legislation to "prevent abuses" which might stem from the imposition of a siege.

The country's prime minister had Monday suggested declaring a state of emergency involving "replacing the civil administration with a military administration".

Some observers have expressed concern over recourse to such a move which would involve invoking article 85 of the country's constitution.

- Army must be 'without reproach' -

"If the army must have more power then it must be without reproach," warned citizen movement Lucha.

Visiting Paris on Tuesday, Tshisekedi had asked France for help "eradicating" the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), Ugandan Islamist fighters based in eastern DRC since 1995.

Branded a jihadist organisation by Tshisekedi and the United States, the ADF has killed more than 1,200 civilians in the Beni area alone since 2017, according to a monitor called the Kivu Security Tracker (KST).

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The army has conducted operations against the group -- which Washington brands a "terrorist" organisation" affiliated to Islamic State -- since October 2019, but has not been able to put a stop to the massacres.

That failure prompted protests by high school students which police and soldiers Friday used teargas and whips to put down.

A UN human rights report in March estimated that the country had seen a 32 percent rise in human rights abuses since February, citing a sharp rise in abuses by the military in the province of North and South Kivu as well as Tanganyika.

Lucha member and academic Bienvenu Matumo told AFP: "One must set aside military who commit rights violations and who participate in economic wheeling and dealing."

Alongside such fears that a state of siege could have a negative effect on human rights, one local Twitter observer, Simon Lukombo, asked rhetorically "what additional means will be forthcoming to protect the population" for its duration?

After taking office in January 2019, Tshisekedi lost no time in indicating he planned large-scale interventions by a 150,000-strong military which contains former rebels in its ranks from two recent civil wars to tackle the unrest in North Kivu and Ituri.

In Beni, an army offensive duly followed but heralded bloody reprisals by the ADF.

Lucha has notably demanded that military interventions do not include troops formerly integrated into Rwandan-backed CNDP and M23 rebel groups, amid thinly veiled suggestions that some troops retain links to various armed groups.

Overall, however, Tshisekedi, who enjoys US support, is in a strong position having gained majority support in a parliament previously loyal to predecessor Joseph Kabila, something which had restricted his hand during his first two years in office.

st/cdw/har
The Taliban threatened to launch attacks on U.S. and NATO troops on Saturday as the May 1 deadline for the complete withdrawal of foreign troops brokered by the Trump administration came and went.

Why it matters: President Biden announced last month that the U.S. would begin withdrawing troops from the country on May 1 but would not finish until Sept. 11, and the Taliban in response vowed to resume attacks on U.S. and NATO personnel.

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What they're saying: "As withdrawal of foreign forces from [Afghanistan] by agreed upon May 1st deadline has passed, this violation in principle has opened the way for IEA Mujahidin to take every counteraction it deems appropriate against the occupying forces," Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesperson, said in a statement on Saturday.

The big picture: The Taliban said it would not attend any peace conferences until all foreign troops have left Afghanistan, Axios' Dave Lawler reports.

The Taliban boycotted a peace conference in Istanbul meant to encourage efforts to end the war in Afghanistan and sketch out a possible political settlement between the group and the Afghan government, Al Jazeera reports.

As of now, there are around 10,000 NATO troops in the country, of which roughly 3,500 are American.

The Pentagon is also preparing for possible Taliban attacks on U.S., NATO and coalition forces because of the passed deadline, AP reports.

Taliban fighters overran a key army base held by the Afghan military in the southeastern Ghazni Province on Saturday, capturing dozens of soldiers and killing several others, according to Voice of America.

A vehicle bombing in Afghanistan's Logar Province on Friday killed at least 25 people and injured more than 60, including multiple high school students.

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Teenagers at an Oregon high school said they were heckled by anti-vaccine protesters when they showed up to get their shots for COVID-19.

Bend High School is among the Central Oregon schools that are hosting voluntary vaccine clinics in order to ramp up vaccination efforts for teenagers, The Oregonian reported.

A nearby church called police Thursday after anti-vaccine protesters gathered at the site to heckle students, according to The Associated Press. The group dispersed after authorities were called.

Bend Senior High School student Sophie Haney said she went to the vaccination clinic and saw protesters before she got her shot, KTVZ reported.

When I was driving to school this morning I saw probably nine people holding signs saying that the vaccines had aborted fetus cells in them or that were not test rabbits, Haney said.

Student Camille Lentz also told the station she saw protesters.

Some of them were like little rhymes that said Dont get poked, Lentz said. Some of them just said, No.

COVID-19 cases have been surging in Oregon, prompting Gov. Kate Brown to extend the states COVID-19 emergency order for 60 days.

And with older people getting vaccinated at a higher rate than young adults, hospitals are see more cases of young people with COVID, OPB reports.

Teenagers comprise the lowest-vaccinated group in Deschutes County, where Bend is located, and as of April 18, 4% of people ages 19 or younger had gotten their first COVID-19 shot, The Associated Press reported.

Vaccines are currently approved for people ages 16 and older.

Younger people are more likely to be affected by COVID-19 variants, said Albert Noyes, a pharmacist with Mosaic Medical, which is running the clinics, according to The Oregonian.

I think its excellent timing, Noyes said of the vaccination clinics.

Minors age 15 and older have access to medical services in Oregon without parental consent, according to the Oregon Health Authority.

As of April 29, Oregon has more than 183,000 coronavirus cases since the beginning of the pandemic and at least 2,491 deaths, according the agency.

Schools should probably be open in the fall despite no vaccines for kids, Biden says

Boy dies from COVID on Hawaii vacation with fully vaccinated parents, officials say
In allowing migrant children who arrive at the border alone to enter the country, Biden has broken with part of the Trump administration policy. But officials have had to scramble to find appropriate shelter for the children, who have been arriving in record numbers. More than 18,700 unaccompanied children and teenagers were taken into custody in March after they crossed the border, including at port entries, nearly double the roughly 9,450 minors detained in February. Mayorkas has said border officials are expected to make more apprehensions this year at the border than in the last two decades.
Popular stable coin company Tether has released its consolidated reserves report, backing all USDT.

Tether has released its most recent independent assurance opinion that confirms the companys reserves are fully backed.

The report which has been verified by independent accountants Moore, clarifies that Tether are in fact fully backed. The report from Moore states Tether currently holds consolidated assets amounting to $41 billion as of 31 March 2021.

Moore also states that Tethers consolidated assets exceeds its consolidated liabilities, meaning the companys reserves that are held for its digital assets issued exceeds the amount required to redeem the digital asset tokens issued.

USDT backed by company assets

Moore concludes We believe that the evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a reasonable basis for our assurance opinion.

The news is a big step forward for Tether, who have been criticized in the past for not holding any monetary value while continuously printing more Tether (USDT).

Tether has seen tremendous growth over the past several months as the crypto market grows exponentially.

Exponential growth due to TRON expansion

Most recently, the company announced that it has surpassed the $50 billion market capitalization. The rapid growth for a stable coin such as USDT has been credited to its diversification across multiple blockchains. Tether was originally only an ERC-20 token. However its shift to add the TRON network token has seen massive expansion.

Due to high transactional fees on the ethereum blockchain, the Tron backed USDT recently surpassed the supply of its native ERC-20 token. USDT on TRON stands at $26 billion, while the ethereum USDT currently accounts for just over $24.4 billion.

The report confirms that the digital asset USDT is fully backed by company reserves. With Tether commenting on the Consolidated Reserves Report, saying Todays publication reflects our continued dedication to making this information public as part of our ongoing commitment to transparency and setting the standard in our industry. We embrace that commitment to our community.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP)  The widow of a Texas congressman who died after contracting COVID-19 carried Donald Trump's endorsement into a special election Saturday, while Democrats and GOP critics of the former president hoped voters would instead send a surprising message to the rest of the U.S.

The race has drawn only modest attention beyond Texas' 6th Congressional District, which includes the booming corridor between Dallas and Fort Worth. Still, it poses an early test of suburban voters since Trump left office.

Trump waited until just days before the election to endorse Susan Wright, a GOP activist and widow of the late Rep. Ron Wright, who in February became the first sitting member of Congress to die after being diagnosed with COVID-19. Susan Wright had already been seen as a favorite in a crowded race to fill the seat of her late husband, who won the district by 9 points in November.

Nearly two dozen other candidates are on the ballot, making it likely that Saturday's top two finishers will advance to a runoff if no one captures more than half of the vote.

Most of the Republicans in the running have made flagrant appeals to Trump and his supporters in a race that at times has resembled a typical Texas GOP primary. The lone exception is Michael Wood, a combat veteran whose campaign has become an early test for Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who is trying to lead a revolt in his party away from Trump.

For Democrats, the district is one they ambitiously considered a target in 2020. Ten Democrats are on the ballot, but nationally, the party and its allies have steered clear of the race after their massive expectations for Texas last year again ended in a demoralizing showing.

In Louisiana, a special election in March ended with Republican Julia Letlow easily winning a race to fill a U.S. House seat that her husband, Luke, couldnt fill because of his death from complications related to COVID-19.
A controversial update of the decor in the Prime Minister's flat was reportedly inspired by a desire to get rid of the "John Lewis furniture nightmare" left over by Theresa May - PA

Voters care more about whether bins are being emptied rather than who has paid for Boris Johnsons flat to be decorated, the co-chairman of the Conservative Party has said.

Amanda Milling insisted that the partys donations were being spent on campaigning ahead of next week's 'Super Thursday' local and regional elections.

Ms Milling was speaking on the campaign trail in Hartlepool to The Telegraphs Choppers Politics podcast last week, just 24 hours before the Electoral Commission launched an inquiry into whether party funds were used to pay for the redecoration (listen to the podcast using the audio player above). The Prime Minister has insisted that the watchdog will find no wrongdoing.

Asked if she could guarantee that party money was not spent on the flat, Ms Milling said: Donations are absolutely focused on campaigning on the ground in seats like this in Hartlepool, but also the elections across the country.

And from my point of view, I'm really enjoying getting out on the doorstep and talking to residents, because what's really important to them?

It is the things which we're talking about for these local elections, who fills the potholes, who empties the bins, who keeps your streets safer.

Ms Milling, pictured below, repeatedly denied any wrongdoing over how the flats renovations were funded.

Conservative co-chairman Amanda Milling - Asadour Guzelian/Guzelian Ltd

She said: The donations that are made to our party are all important to us, focusing on campaigning.

All our donations are reported to the electoral commission and transparently and published in that way.

Asked directly if the work on the flat was paid for by the Tory party, Ms Milling said: The Prime Minister has paid for the refurbishment.

Ms Milling insisted the row over the 11 Downing Street flat was one for the Westminster bubble and not for members of the public preparing to vote on Thursday.

She said: On the doorstep people are firmly focused on the issues in terms of the local area.

I was in Sandwell only yesterday and there was a gentleman talking to us about the trees, the road, the speeding. That was his complete focus.

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The time people had spent at home during the three national lockdowns over the past year had meant that they were more focused on local services, she said.

If you think about the last 12 months, we've all been staying at home following the rules," Ms Milling added. "We've really noticed those things. We noticed when the bin came to get collected, we noticed those potholes.

Tories hopeful of shock Hartlepool win

Tory sources are increasingly hopeful of pulling off a shock victory in the Hartlepool by-election, the first time the party would have held the seat since 1974.

One said: The numbers coming out of Hartlepool privately are saying they think they are going to romp it. They are getting this twin bounce of the vaccine and getting Brexit done.

However, Ms Milling said: This is a very, very tough ask. This is a seat that has been a Labour seat for decades. We didn't win it in 2019 despite winning seats in the region.

But in Jill [Mortimer], we got a great candidate and we're working really hard to make sure she gets elected on May 6.

Asked what a Tory win would mean for the Government, she added: If we were to win here, that would be a huge victory because it's been in Labour hands for such a long time.

But we're campaigning hard to make sure that the people of Hartlepool understand the benefits of having a Conservative representative.

We've been delivering on the commitments that we made in the 2019 election. We've delivered on Brexit.

'This is a difficult election for us'

Tory strategists are expecting the Tories to lose more than 1,000 seats in Thursdays local elections given the high point the party are starting from and historic low point Labour are starting from, with a government 11 years into power.

Ms Milling said: This is a really difficult election for us. And it's a bumper set of elections.

She added: In these elections we are starting from a very high base. We outperformed in the last set of local elections while Labour and the Lib Dems have underperformed and were expecting to see a post-Corbyn bounce and a Lib Dem revival.

We are likely to lose a significant number of seats this time round - but we are fighting tooth and nail across the country to keep hold of great Conservative councils, councillors, PCCs and mayors.

A Labour source also tried to manage expectations, saying: This is a big set of elections. Were fighting for every vote but we have always said its going to be tough.

We experienced our worst [general election] defeat since 1935 in December 2019. It is going to take time to win back that trust, and thats been made all the more difficult by the pandemic.

Make no mistake, this will be a pandemic election. Whether youre in Hartlepool, Scotland or London, thats still the dominant issue."

Listen to Christopher Hope's full interview with Amanda Milling on Chopper's Politics podcast using the audio player at the top of this article or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite podcast app.
Warren Buffett AP Images

Warren Buffett says he avoided a big bill by selling the "big four" airline stocks last year.

The US government might have refused them aid if Berkshire still owned their stocks.

Berkshire sold bank stocks to reduce its exposure to the industry, Buffett said.

See more stories on Insider's business page.

Warren Buffett avoided having to bail out the "big four" US airlines by selling their stocks last year, he said at Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting on Saturday.

The famed investor said that the federal government might have refused to help Delta, Southwest, American, and United last spring if Berkshire still owned between 8% and 11% of them. US officials might have told them to get the money from Berkshire, which boasted more than $120 billion of cash and short-term investments at the time.

"You're looking at probably a different result than if we had kept our stock," Buffett said.

Buffett offered other fresh insights into his thinking at Berkshire's meeting. For example, he explained why Berkshire eliminated its Goldman Sachs position, slashed its JPMorgan and Wells Fargo stakes, and took a knife to several other financial holdings last year.

"We didn't like having as much money in banks as we had at the time," Buffett said, adding that he bolstered his stake in Bank of America because he liked the company and its CEO, Brian Moynihan.

"I like banks generally," Buffett continued. "I just didn't like the proportion we had compared to the possible risks if we got bad results."

The Berkshire chief also commented on how tight liquidity became before the Federal Reserve stepped in to help last year.

"They took a market where Berkshire couldn't sell bonds a day before, and turned it into one where Carnival Cruise or whatever could sell them," Buffett said.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Clanton was hospitalized after being shot in the ear Thursday, Baltimore police say

Chris Clanton is recovering after the actor was shot and hospitalized in Baltimore on Thursday, according to city police.

Clanton, best known for his role in the HBO series The Wire, was treated and discharged after being shot in the ear around 7 p.m. that day, as reported by TMZ.

Details of what led to the shooting and whether Clanton was an intended target are unknown at this time.

READ MORE: Legal team for Baltimores Marilyn Mosby, husband call federal investigation a witch hunt

The Wire, a crime drama that first aired in 2002, is set in Baltimore. Clanton, 35, had a reoccurring role in show portraying Savino Bratton, an enforcer for a gang of drug traffickers. Clantons character appeared in The Wire nine times in the 2002 and 2008 seasons. Six of those episodes were in the first season, according to his IMDB profile.

In addition to his time on The Wire, Clanton also appeared in the horror film The Human Centipede III and played the titular character in 2009 independent film Torn. He has appeared in numerous other projects set in Baltimore. In 2010, he was in the film King of Baltimore. He is listed as star, executive producer, writer and director of the 2016 Baltimore-based series The Unrest: Web.

Chris Clanton

Fatefully, Clantons first acting gig came with HBO at age 12. He appeared in the mini-series, The Corner, also set in Baltimore.

In 2014, Clanton became the founder of boutique production company Hunted FOXX Entertainment, according to his LinkedIn. Hunted FOXX focuses on indie films, promos and branded content, including the Clanton-directed project, Sleeping With Fate. The company is currently based in Los Angeles.

Clanton has previously been a victim of a violent attack. While at a party in Maryland in 2008, he was stabbed in the chest and buttocks, as reported by The Daily Mail. He received treatment at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.

Story continues

READ MORE: Baltimore to end nonviolent criminal prosecutions

Baltimores Metro Crime Stoppers have called for the public to relay any information regarding Clantons shooting to their tip line.

Have you subscribed to theGrios podcast Dear Culture? Download our newest episodes now!

TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and Roku. Download theGrio today!

The post The Wire actor Chris Clanton released from hospital after being shot appeared first on TheGrio.
Amherst County High School junior Amya Hankton said she felt relieved after she received her first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine Friday afternoon at the school.

It feels like this is finally coming to an end, she said. Its a relief.

Hankton, 17, said she has been participating in the Amherst Remote Academy this year, primarily as a precaution because of COVID-19. She hopes, now that she and her fellow classmates and teachers are receiving the vaccine, shell feel safe enough to spend her senior year back in the classroom.

Amherst County High School held its first vaccination clinic for students Friday, following Gov. Ralph Northams announcement earlier this month that Virginians ages 16 and older would be eligible to get the vaccine starting April 18.

Amherst County Public Schools Superintendent Rob Arnold said the vaccine was optional. If getting more people vaccinated means more students will be back in classrooms next fall, Arnold said, officials want to help make that happen.

We have a vested interest, Arnold said. We want our kids back and we want to take down all the barriers that may be out there that are, for whatever reason, keeping our kids out of the classroom full time.
Japan's Golden Week holiday period began in earnest on Saturday, but the first day of five consecutive vacation days was relatively quiet in major areas as measures against COVID-19 dissuaded many people from traveling.

With Tokyo now under a third state of emergency following a resurgence of coronavirus infections, large shopping facilities remain closed and there were fewer people on the move for the annual holiday period which began this year on Thursday.

The number of rail and air passengers departing Tokyo on Saturday for other parts of Japan was still expected to be the highest for the holiday period and an increase from a year ago when a state of emergency covered the entire country.

But for Japan Railway trains departing from Tokyo on Saturday, including bullet trains, only 15 percent of some 530,000 reserved seats available in total had been sold.

Because of the increasing number of infections, driven by the rapid spread of new variants of the virus, the Japanese government late last month declared a state of emergency in Tokyo, as well as the three western prefectures of Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo.

The emergency through May 11 entails stronger measures than before including requiring restaurants serving alcohol to close, with fines for noncompliance.
Osaka reported a record 1,262 new cases on Saturday. 41 people have died, the second largest daily figure to date.

It's been almost one week since the latest state of emergency came into effect. And in Osaka, one of the four prefectures under the emergency declaration, the regional healthcare system is under stain.

Starting Saturday, Osaka University Hospital set aside all 30 of its beds in its Intensive Care Unit for Covid-19 patients, in line with the request from the prefecture.

The hospital is recognized for conducting organ transplants. But a doctor in the ICU says it will be impossible to perform such surgeries if there are no beds available.

The western prefecture of Fukuoka, which is not under an emergency declaration, is also seeing a rise in infections. The daily tally has been exceeding 300 in recent days.

The prefecture has asked the central government to allow it to implement intensive anti-virus measures.

Fukuoka Governor Hattori Seitaro says, "We haven't seen a decline in the number of infected people. Furthermore, available hospital beds are decreasing, making it difficult to predict the situation."

The governor says he will consult with the central government in deciding which municipalities will be subject to the measures and for how long.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide met with a lawmaker of his governing Liberal Democratic Party who is also a dentist.

The government has decided to allow dentists to administer vaccine shots in regions where there are staff shortages.

They discussed ways to accelerate the vaccine rollout, including using university hospitals as inoculation sites.

A new online survey by researchers that included staff from the University of Tokyo has uncovered a troubling result.

Only 46.6 percent of respondents said they have worked out who to consult and what means of transportation they will use to get to hospital should they develop symptoms.

Also, only 39 percent said they are avoiding contact with people older than them.

The researchers say the results suggest there is insufficient awareness among people despite being more than a year into the pandemic.

Across the country, officials reported nearly 6,000 new cases on Saturday. The daily count in Tokyo was 1,050.

Over 1,000 patients are in serious condition.
Torgrimson-Ojerio decided she would try to figure out whether these anecdotes were outliers or representative of a more common phenomenon. She surveyed around 2,200 adults who said they had been exposed to tear gas in Portland last summer. In a study published this week in the journal BMC Public Health, she reported that 899 of them  more than 54% of the respondents who potentially menstruate  said they had experienced abnormal menstrual cycles.
The City of Council Bluffs announced the 2021 Parks and Recreation Event Series and the 2021 Fire Hydrant Party schedule on Thursday. These events take place in multiple parks and neighborhoods throughout Council Bluffs. The variety of activities aims to engage residents of all ages.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the schedule of events is subject to change. Additionally, there may be recommendations or requirements enacted at events to keep attendees and city staff safe and healthy. Check the citys website and Facebook page regularly for the more information.

Save the date for the following Parks and Recreation events:

 June 5: Opera To-Go at Rivers Edge

Opera Omaha is delivering snackable opera bites to Rivers Edge. This free outdoor concert will feature live performances with local artists in bite-size pieces.

 June 16: Omaha Symphony Ensemble at Rivers Edge

Experience the power and splendor of a symphony orchestra ensemble at this free outdoor concert.

 June 19: Summer Fest at Rivers Edge

Enjoy live music, activities, prizes, and more. This free event is fun for the whole family.
This new version continues to have restrictions and things in place that are really going to upend the fuel market in the state of Iowa, said Tom Cope, a lobbyist for Caseys convenience stores  one of a group of speakers who told legislators the requirements would force expensive infrastructure upgrades that could not be accomplished under the bills timeline and with the level of grant money being included to assist locations that would need to crack concrete to meet the new demands.

Provisions of bills being fashioned in the House and Senate would push fuel retailers to phase out gasoline and prioritize biofuels by requiring them to have a special-use label for both E-0 fuel without ethanol and gasoline containing a 10 percent ethanol blend, and at least one nozzle for E15 gasoline with a 15 percent ethanol blend. Beginning Jan. 1, 2025, retail restrictions would expand to allow only one nozzle to dispense fuels below E15. Similar restrictions would be in place for biodiesel sales.

The most commonly used ethanol blend now is E10.

Other provisions cover biodiesel sales during summer and winter months, requirements for state agencies operating vehicles powered by renewable fuels, new tax credits for retailers that sell biofuels and incentives for infrastructure upgrades that dispense up to E85 and B-20 fuels.
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While several school districts often participate in the event, only Council Bluffs Community Schools did this year, she said. That was partly because it was postponed from the first Friday in February because of the number of COVID-19 cases occurring then and partly because some school officials were still concerned about the coronavirus.

We didnt feel comfortable doing it in February, but we knew that if we waited until later we would be able to have it, Addison said.

Tooth decay is one of the most common chronic diseases of childhood, affecting nearly half of U.S. children ages 2-19, a press release from Family stated. Rates are highest in children from low-income and racial/ethnic minority backgrounds.

Untreated decay can cause chronic infections, abscesses, mouth pain, problems eating and sleeping, growth delay, school absence and poor well-being. In rare cases, it can cause sepsis and death.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, childrens screen time, unhealthy snacking and food insecurity have increased, leading to greater risk of decay. For many months, families opted to skip important preventative procedures like dental checkups due to fears related to the pandemic. In addition, the pandemic has led to a further decrease in the access to care for Iowa families with Medicaid dental coverage.
Shudak noted the Occupational Safety and Health Administration was started 50 years ago, signed into law by President Richard Nixon.

Of those 51 deaths, at least 10 were COVID-19 related. With more than 4,600 deaths tied to the disease in 2020 and countless outbreaks at businesses, both Shudak and Charlie Wishman, president of the Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, said its possible that number is truly higher.

I dont think well ever grasp what happened to workers in the past year, Wishman said. Well never know the true impact, unless youre somebody who lost someone.

The 51 Iowans that died in workplace incidents in 2020 ranged in age from 19 to 79 and made their living in a variety of sectors. Peggy Peterson, bureau chief for Iowa OSHA consultation with the Iowa Division of Labor, told the story of her father, who died of a heart attack while working for a business that built farm machinery.

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As I began a career working with OSHA enforcement in the 90s, I had the heartbreaking job of investigating workplace fatalities and contacting the family  (and) providing tough answers, she said. I vowed to take the knowledge I learned from each of those fatalities to help prevent others from living that nightmare.
We have the best fighting force on our globe. And we have tremendous leaders. But there are also failures within the system. And this is what we're hoping we can correct.

The most recent national defense report said nearly 21,000 U.S. service members were sexually assaulted in 2018.

Ernst had previously resisted supporting Gillibrands legislation. Ernst said she always kept an open mind about the bill, and has now decided to support it for myriad reasons: despite assurances from the federal defense department that they would address the issue, incidents of sexual assault in the military have not decreased; a damning, independent report on sexual assault at a U.S. Army base in Fort Hood, Texas; and her ability to help Gillibrand craft the latest version of the bill, which includes measures designed to focus on prevention.

By the time we have a survivor and a perpetrator we have failed, Ernst said during the press conference.

Multiple speakers during the press conference said they believe Ernsts support for the bill will prove critical in finally getting it passed. Ernst said the plan is for the bill to be passed with the federal defense budget.
Prison officials have been aware of the rising rates of contraband over the past year, and have been implementing steps to reduce the increasing rates of drug-related overdoses inside the prisons. For example, the department recently modified policies after a book sent through a retailer was discovered to have been contaminated with synthetic drugs.

Last week, security, treatment and medical staff at the Clarinda Correctional Facility noticed an increase in the number of inmates experiencing symptoms consistent with consuming a narcotic. This week, investigators, security staff and K-9 officers from six Iowa prisons and Central Office coordinated a prison-wide investigation. About 60 inmates were found to be involved in the consumption, possession or introduction of K-2.

Investigators will turn over all evidence for investigation and prosecution of those involved from both inside and outside the prison. Meanwhile, the Department of Corrections is making efforts to adjust the mail system for inmates that will allow for those incarcerated to still receive mail, but in a safe and secure fashion.

ACCEPTING NOMINATIONS

The Iowa Commission of Latino Affairs is accepting nominations until July 1 for the Iowa Latino Hall of Fame, which was established in 2017.
He was at Trump Tower in 2015 when the former president rode down the escalator into the history books and four seats away from Rush Limbaugh in the gallery when Trump looked up and awarded Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom during his 2020 State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress.

Herbster also was at the rally that Trump addressed on Jan. 6 in Washington prior to the storming of the U.S. Capitol by hundreds of its participants.

"I was sick," he said. "I am absolutely against any type of violence."

Despite his long association with Trump  which he says actually extends back 16 years  Herbster said: "I will never ask him for an endorsement. He will make that decision."

Kellyanne Conway, a close Trump confidante who served as senior counselor to the former president, joined Herbster when he launched his campaign in Fremont on Monday.

If there is an endorsement, Herbster said, yes, presumably there could be a fundraising event or even an opportunity to "take him, my friend, across the state."

And that potentially could impact the dynamics of this GOP gubernatorial contest that is underway more than a year before the 2022 primary election.
The federal government is sending Nebraska $50 million to help remove whats left of the Spencer Dam after its deadly failure during the flood of spring 2019.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency initially announced Friday the $50 million would help the hydroelectric dams owner, Nebraska Public Power District, restore the facilities back to pre-disaster design, capacity and function.

But that was wrong, NPPD spokesman Mark Becker said. And he wanted to be clear: FEMA knows we were never going to rebuild.

Instead, he said, FEMA will send the $50 million to the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency to help the utility pay for decommissioning the northeast Nebraska dam -- tearing it out and restoring the river banks. A FEMA spokeswoman confirmed later Friday the funding could be spent on demolition.

Restoring the 90-year-old dam would cost far more than its worth, Becker said. Spencer Dam generated just three megawatts of electricity; by comparison, its coal-fired Gerald Gentleman Station near Sutherland generates nearly 1,400 megawatts.
Autopsies Saturday found that Kameron Jackson, 26, died of a gunshot wound to the head, and his death was ruled a suicide while Herman M. Kennedy, 47, died of multiple gunshot wounds in a homicide, according to the Cook County medical examiners office.
Steph Brouillette, an administrative secretary for the department for the past 23 years, said Ryan always seemed to be there for his co-workers. She recalled the time her family was in Omaha over the holidays as her father underwent a major surgical procedure.

We are all sitting around in this little (hospital) room trying to celebrate (Christmas), Brouillette said. I look up and theres Rick. He made the trip just to come see us. If you were one of his people, that is just how it was.

Dwight Livingston joined the police department in 1972 and held every rank from officer to interim police chief during his 38-year career.

He worked the same shift as Ryan when the latter joined the department, which was the start of a friendship that included Ryans support through Livingstons two mayoral campaigns.

Livingston and Ryan were on a stakeout one night and got a call to respond to a report of a fight at a local tavern that was on the verge of a riot.

The two of us had our hands full in there, Livingston said. But, I tell you, if there was anybody that I would want beside me in something like that, he was the guy.
The senators opposed to this bill care more about preventing educational competition than they care about helping some poor kid who is not being served in his government school. The best evidence suggests that private schools are often able to achieve better results with less money. That means that LB 364 is not just about getting a better education for at-risk kids and supporting the authority of parents to make the best decisions for their kids  it is about conserving taxpayer resources, too.

Nebraskans pay some of the highest property taxes in the nation, most of that going to the public schools. While I admire the work that teachers do in Nebraska public schools, the administration frustrates a lot of their efforts. Spending more does not mean that we are delivering a higher quality education. My constituents are in an uproar over the high cost of government schools in Nebraska and want to know what we are doing about it.
On Feb.14, 2021, urban planner Danicia Monet posted a link to an open letter on her Facebook page, with its primary demand that Newfields CEO and president Charles Venable step down from the position he had occupied at the museum since 2012. That he ultimately did step down was certainly a dramatic development, but it may also be part of a broader shift occurring in arts institutions across the country and around the world.

Monets letter quickly gained 2219 signatures.

Those who signed the letter insisted Venable step down because of a Newfields job posting that sought a museum director who would be responsible for attracting a broader and more diverse audience" while maintaining the museums traditional, core, white audience. The job posting was widely perceived as insensitive and racist and generated national attention inside and outside the museum community.

The process of coming up with the letter to Newfields happened organically, Monet said. Many of us were sharing stories about how typical that was but also how outrageous that was in terms of the job posting.

Some of the discussions online brought up incidents that had happened at Newfields and other arts organizations previously.

As I was talking with my colleagues and cohort of community members, just asking them how they felt, it just seemed like something that we could do together and potentially there would be an opportunity to make something shift in that moment, said Monet, who has served as the project manager for the Arts Council of Indianapolis' Murals for Racial Justice project. So that's how it came about; quite organically and through the support of many many community members.

More Coverage Danicia Monets MicroAffections Im so happy to see you here was the wording on Danicia Monets outdoor installation on the corner of Washington St. at the corner of Washington and Pennsylvania Streets titled MicroAffections It was part of the Arts Council of Indianapolis #SWISHIndy that used art to celebrate the NCAA Mens Division I Basketball Tournament in March, or March Madness as its better known. Monet had the help of curator Mike Barclay, the installation's co-designer Bekah Pollard and a ton of volunteers in getting the installation ready for March Madness. MicroAffections, in general, is my artistic response as an urban planner to these things called microaggressions that affect how people of color and how marginalized groups move through physical space and move through the world, she said. And that's what I'm constantly looking at as an urban planner and artist; ways to make spaces more inclusive and more more liberated for everyone involved. Monet says microaggressions are described as the wound of a thousand cuts for a reason. They happen constantly daily, cumulatively, and this is just one of my activations to begin to think about how we can start to heal as a community, she said. We were one of the last states in the country to start to think about a hate crime bill. And these hate crimes don't just happen on their own, they're part of a series of events, and from my research and my theory of learning. I think they often begin with microaggressions not being addressed that lead to compounded negative racist bias, prejudice behavior that often times and sometimes not always reported, but oftentimes leads to physical violence, which is a hate crime.

On February 16, eighty-five Newfields staff members and stakeholders released another letter, this one unsigned, also demanding Venables resignation.

On February 17, the museum released a statement of apology for the posting along with the news that Venable had resigned. The museum also promised to release an action plan in 30 days to address questions of diversity, equity, inclusion, and access at the museum.

On March 19, Newfields announced its promised action plan. This plan includes the establishment of a $20 million endowment to enhance representation in exhibitions and programming, organization-wide DEIA training, increasing leadership diversity, hiring a leadership-level diversity executive, outside review of leadership, culture, and policies, and launching a community advisory committee.

Monet sees the action plan as a starting point. I was hoping to see more definitive timelines, more structured timeline so that you know the community can honestly see progress, and accountability, she said. Right now, in my opinion, it seems very vague and abstract [...] but there's not really a definition to it about when things will be started or happening or done or updates. That is a bit disappointing to me.

The museum has not responded to two requests from NUVO for comment.

Monet sees outstanding issues that were not addressed in the document. I think there are issues still at play around their internal work, infrastructure and how they relate with their employees, which is only going to affect how they relate to the outside community. And I also think, in tandem with that, theres a really pertinent conversation about how they address community. I mean, it's still a gated facility.

Monet also thinks the aesthetics of a fenced-in museum have to be addressed if a conversation is to be had about situations of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.

It's great that they are reviewing ways to expand the fee structure so that more people can experience the space and membership structures and these types of things, but there's also those real visual key markers that have not been addressed, she said. That has just kind of been completely left out of the conversation. Spatial justice is as much a part of the conversation as their lack of cultural competency and racist behaviors.

And she is disappointed in Newfields reliance on outside consultants.

"One thing I'm a bit disappointed in is the idea of an outside organization, PINK Consulting, doing this work in our city, with an institution that is meant to be a part of our community," she said. "I am hopeful that Newfields will reach out as they continue this work and find local practitioners to help heal the wounds that we all bear together.

One of those Monet consulted with on the Newfields letter is Mindy Taylor Ross of Art Strategies LLC, who believes the changes outlined in the plan, while good and necessary, are also overdue.

A lot of these actions are things that companies and organizations across the country have been acting upon for a while, Ross said. But, of course, it's nice to know that the museum is aware of that and is catching up.

After noting that her perspective is that of a middle-aged white woman who is in the art world, Ross also criticized Newfields operational strategy. One of several things that has bothered me about the way that our museum operates is that our museum tends to want people to come to [...] versus really going out into the community and looking outward and kind of meeting people where they are in the city and in their communities.

Ross is also concerned with a sentence on the last page of the document that reads: Newfields will increase its attendance at off-site meetings and events, to hear from people who havent visited Newfields, and to share information about new programs and offerings.

Ross wonders why that sentence occurred on page 10 instead of, say, page one.

For just years and years this has been something that I have wanted the museum and the museum staff to do, she said. Now that doesn't really have necessarily to do with serving our community of color directly, but it speaks to just serving the community better period, across the board.

But the placement of the sentence on the last page of the action plan has Ross concerned because she wants this commitment to be more front and center.

Something shifting in the moment?

Newfields is far from the only museum in the country that has faced criticism from art activists and calls for greater inclusivity.

While a recent exhibition at the Herron School of Art & Design titled SHIFT: What can Museums Change? didnt reference Newfields, it did reference issues that Newfields is currently facing like the increasing pressure to return stolen artifacts to their nations of origin.

SHIFT also reflects the reality that, under increased pressure from the communities they serve, museums are revamping their institutions to revamp practices that have, in the words of the exhibitions promotional copy, historically privileged whiteness and wealth.

The exhibition, developed by students in the IUPUI Museum Studies Program, looks at four case studies of museums around the world  the Tenement Museum (New York City), the National Museum of African American History and Culture (Washington, DC), Te Papa Tongarewa (Poneke Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand), and the Pitt Rivers Museum (Oxford, England)  where architectural interventions are being implemented, old curatorial practices are being discarded, and new ones being implemented to reflect the desire to right historical wrongs, and better represent people who have traditionally been marginalized.

In addition to hosting SHIFT, in conjunction with another exhibition on display at Herron titled Creativity vs. COVID which IUPUI associate professor Laura Holzman curated in collaboration with other members of the Free the Vaccine collective, which hopes to make vaccines accessible worldwide.

Holzman, who directs the Museum Studies program at IUPUI, acknowledges that many museums have their roots in colonial practices, such as inheriting collections of artworks that have been taken by force from countries under colonial occupation.

But I think we can also look to examples of institutions that are operating differently that are working to right historical wrongs, she said.

Holzmans students in exhibit planning and design, who developed SHIFT, are also interested in righting historical wrongs. The questions they answer in their exhibition are the same questions that concern their professor.

How have museums taken big steps and small steps to be better? she asks. And to shift the focus of power?

Editor's note: I changed the title to reflect that the tentative nature of changes made so far at Newfields. (Former title: A shift at Newfields and in Museums around the world.)
Shellfish is extremely popular considering Greeces long coastline. Most of the fare is served simply with pointed seasonings. We prepared shrimp Saganaki. Onion and garlic. Oregano and smoked paprika. Tomatoes. Thats about it, and the shrimp are briefly sauteed in the hot sauce.

The special addition of feta and ouzo bring the dish to life. The briny cheese and anise bite of the spirit make a simple but bold statement. A chunk of grilled bread is a great accompaniment.

Pastitsio. Along with moussaka, these are the casseroles of Greece. Layers of eggplant, meat and potatoes are the foundation of the well-known moussaka. Pastitsio however is a pasta dish. Many times referred to as Greek lasagna.

Layers of long pasta with a hole in it (known as Greek #2) are the substance of the dish. The meat is actually a sauce like Bolognese. Its simmered with onions and marinara plus cinnamon until most of the liquid is gone. Just a sprinkling of cheese goes in the layers.

A layer of thick bechamel  a white sauce  is spread on top to cover everything. After baking for 40 minutes, the top browns, and your taste buds are excited. The haunting aroma wont leave you alone. The 20-minute wait for the pastitsio to cool enough to eat seems to take hours.
T.J. Annerino, who earned a political science degree with minors in sociology and communications, says shes thankful to be able to celebrate this moment.

Its really incredible just after everything weve been through this year with the pandemic, and then college is hard in general, Annerino said, moments before walking across the stage. Even being able to have a celebration is so important and special, and just seeing how many people made the sacrifices to travel all this way despite whats going on.

It is really just so nice of Auburn to put this on for us, Annerino added.

The university required graduates to wear face coverings while inside the Harbert Recruiting Center before the soon-to-be alumni waited in socially-distanced bleachers for their college or schools ceremony.

Thousands of unlimited guests filled both the undergraduate section of Jordan-Hare and Pat Dye field. Many guests clumped around the orange parameters surrounding the ceremony stage, pointing cameras at the line of students to catch their graduates moment.
Washington, PA (15301)

Today

Showers in the morning with isolated thunderstorms arriving in the afternoon. High 78F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy with showers and a few thunderstorms. Low 66F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.
Even as neighbors, activists and politicians support the Toledo family and call for the prosecution of the officer who killed him, others believe the boys being out overnight with a man police say is a gang member and Toledos holding a gun led to his shooting by Chicago police Officer Eric Stillman. They also point to what they view as his mothers lack of supervision. And while some residents want police reined in, others want a greater police presence in the area to deal with street violence.
OP please adjust the cut!



The <*/lj-cut*> Should be under the tweet, just remove the asterisk



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good, i hope she takes EVERYTHING from him

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Things like this make me mad that I ever went extremely hard for Mechanical Animals because he's a fucking monster. Poor Esme.

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It's a great album though.

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fucking same

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Jfc he's a monster.

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He needs to be locked up and possibly see a psychiatrist like right now.

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I really need Covid or Fentanyl to step up and be the hero we need. The best kind that dont take out anyone else.



I just want to give these ladies a hug. I was reading it earlier and omg. Hope she prevails.

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Fentanyl would be too peaceful and undeserving for him tbh. I hope he is fully conscious and terrified when his time comes.



Edited at 2021-05-01 06:22 pm (UTC)

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I just want to fucking cry every single day at the horrors of men

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Same. It literally just hurts me inside at this point that people hate women so much and that men still dont fucking care what happens to us

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Jfc, he truly is a monster.

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I was a teenager when I first saw photos of him parading Rose Mcgowan in that seethrough dress at the VMAs splashed in every single magazine for what seemed like months. Can I see photos of him in an orange junpsuit now Im an old?

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Good. Nuke him!!!

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Take him to the cleaners Jane Chatwin

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Destroy him.

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Wtf, that's torture. I never paid him much attention so I always thought he'd be a poser, that in his private life he'd be the most average guy. He's absolute trash, I hope he's hold accountable for the abuse.

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That is what he tried to sell himself as in interviews and how his "friends" spoke of him. all an act.

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has she talked about this before? i feel like i remember reading about this.



good for her. he's an absolute monster. sub-human scum.

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iirc she testified before congress with evan rachel wood but manson was not named

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https://www.thecut.com/2021/02/game-of-thrones-actor-esme-bianco-marilyn-manson.html



this might have been it



huge huge tw for rape, abuse.. its really hard to read honestly.



Edited at 2021-05-01 06:20 pm (UTC) this might have been ithuge huge tw for rape, abuse.. its really hard to read honestly.

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Oh, Esme. Here I thought she was done wrong by GoT (and she was; I thought Ros was a delight, funny and cunning, and I wanted to see her thrive) but I had no idea her reality was so devastating.



I'm sickened by the fact that this bloated old prat stuck in a teenage school shooter fantasy had such an impact on my adolescent years.

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What D&D did to her/how they killed her character was so fucking awful. Im pretty sure she even asked for a body double or to be more covered up for that scene and they refused. I hope those fucking assholes rot and never work again.

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I'm not very up to date on what went on behind the scenes but I remember her not looking back fondly on her GoT experience, to say the least, and those smug pricks really got the most out of female suffering.

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It makes me extra angry for her that D&D took such great pleasure in further torturing her on GoT. I genuinely believe those men, and perhaps others on the crew, took real pleasure in harassing and torturing the female actors.



I remember how she spoke up about the violence and nudity, and we're immediately treated to Ros' murdered body, which Esme of course had to act in front a large group of men. I think of how Natalie and Lena were open about sexism and not liking certain things in the writing - then very quickly changed to the party lines and not long after were acting out unnecessary rape scenes that they had to defend during promo. How we all knew the SECOND Sophie Turner turned 18 that we would be seeing her act out extreme sexual violence perpetrated on her character.



The overarching feeling I got from Game of Thrones was that the men in charge of it were misogynists of the highest order and used 'it's just the reality of Westeros' as a cover for how very much they enjoyed abusing actresses.

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Making Space for Smart Wearables

The smarter path to social distancing.

Workers and businesses have never been more aware of the need for positive occupational hygiene culture than they are as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The challenge business owners now face as they reopen the workplace is balancing worker health, employee concerns and legal and legislative responsibility around operating a COVID-19 secure workplace.

A key means of protecting people against exposure, in workplaces and in the wider world, has been in ensuring social distancingremaining 2m apart or 1m with extra precautions in place.1 Research shows that areas in the United States that do not adhere to any social distancing policies, face 35 times more coronavirus cases.2

Although staying safe by keeping space will prove challenging for workplaces where floor plans are designed for efficiency, businesses can turn to smart wearables to help maintain productivity, save money and ultimately, lives.

The Smarter Path to Social Distancing

There have been many smart wearable technological developments in the health and safety industry over the years, from lone worker monitoring to hard hat proximity sensors. Protection from occupational hazards has been getting smarter, faster and more economical. As COVID-19 raised new issues and standards, businesses determined to operate or return to the workplace safely. Innovators have risen to the challenge of developing social distancing (proximity) technology.

Social distancing that reduces interaction by fifty percent can cut the chances of spreading the virus in half.3 Several in-service health and safety monitoring products such as gas detectors and hand-arm vibration monitors have been re-purposed to alert wearers when in close proximity to fellow workers. Not all staff wear this equipment, however, and there are many sectors where there is no requirement for such monitoring devices, resulting in a need for new, bespoke solutions. As various organizations have sought to fill the market gap, there is an inevitable learning curve for businesses seeking to select and adopt the right solution that will keep their workforce protected.

This article originally appeared in the May 1, 2021 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.
What's New in Respiratory Protection

Understanding the difference in respiratory protection and source control.

Millions of workers are required to wear respirators in various workplaces throughout the United States. Respirators protect workers against insufficient oxygen environments, harmful dusts, fogs, smokes, mists, gases, vapors, and sprays. These hazards may cause cancer, lung impairment, diseases, or death.

Compliance with the OSHA Respiratory Protection Standard could avert hundreds of deaths and thousands of illnesses annually. There are many challenges in the administration of a respiratory protection program. Each employer has his or her own unique concerns and needs depending on the industry, whether it be health care, general industry, construction, or emergency response.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit us hard over a year ago, we have been faced with PPE and respiratory protection shortages, fraudulent sales of PPE, and counterfeit filtering face-piece respirators. They have had a major impact on the healthcare industry. It is important when purchasing respiratory protection that validity of the paperwork is verified. A review of documents from companies based in China has found a significant amount of falsified documentation.

Many healthcare providers were forced to purchase KN95s to provide respiratory protection for their healthcare providers only to find that they were unable to achieve an acceptably tight face seal for devices with ear loops. Such devices will not provide the expected level of protection against COVID-19 and other hazards. KN95 respirators with ear loops are not recommended for use in healthcare settings unless they are a last resort before downgrading protection to a medical face mask. In the battle to protect our workers we have been introduced to a new set of terminology: Respiratory Protection vs. Source Control. What is the difference? In laymans terms, respiratory protection protects the wearer and source control protects others. Unlike respirators, masks are not designed to reduce the particles that the wearer will inhale and are not evaluated by NIOSH for their effectiveness to protect the wearer from airborne hazards. How effective are face coverings in terms of protection, fit, comfort, filtration, and safety?

This article originally appeared in the May 1, 2021 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.
Wondering if your facility may have combustible dust? In some cases, less than 1/4 inch layer of dust can explode or ignite. Here's a demonstration of how to collect and ship a sample to a lab for testing. Every plant, in industries including food, pharmaceutical, wood, agricultural, cosmetic, petrochem, plastics, manufacturing, and more, can be at risk. Testing is inexpensive and can help to determine which collection units are best suited to your plant. Contact us with any questions at [email protected] or 630-323-8750. more

A potential combustible dust hazard sample arrives at Fauske & Associates, LLC lab and we are ready to start the testing process. We cover how the sample arrives, focusing on examples of material sent to us that we are unable to test or sample that was shipped in a way that damaged the sample in transit. We also show the sample that has arrived in an appropriate form of packaging that ensured the safe transit of the material. Once we have received the material, it is time to prep the material for testing according to the clients request per standards such as NFPA 652. We wrap up by showing the Explosibility Screening or Go/No Go test in the Modified Hartmann Tube and the Combustibility Screening Test of another material. www.fauske.com, 1-630-323-8750, 1-877-FAUSKE1 more
It is very hard to give up on ones own resource bounty and Australia knows it only too well. Endowed with the worlds third-largest coal reserves coupled with ample hydrocarbon plays in offshore deposits, many of which are still yet to be assessed and located, Australias energy transition to include more of renewables into its energy matrix has always been burdened by cautious skepticism. Would it serve Australias interests if it started to wind down coal production too soon? Difficult as it is to answer that question reliably, Australia would certainly benefit from a bit of experimenting, incorporating the lowest-hanging renewables fruits and then seeing where to go next. Bursting into the public consciousness with grand ambitious projects, wind energy might very well become Australias new favourite. Of the 260GW renewable energy capacity added in 2020 across the globe, Australias share corresponded to 3% (7GW). This was marked as an unprecedented result by the Australian authorities and rightly so, the tangible increase in rooftop solar installations during the past two years has significantly boosted the countrys renewables statistics (see Graph 1). COVID, several lockdowns and decreasing solar subsidies notwithstanding, Australia managed to reach its installed renewables capacity target of 33GW. At the same time, given Australias massive potential, wielding a total installed capacity of 35.7GW for all categories of renewable energy  i.e. including hydro energy which barely moved in the last decade  feels as if there remains significant underutilized capacity.

Related: Offshore Wind To See Spending Explode To $810 Billion This Decade



Graph 1. Australias Renewable Energy Capacity in 2011-2020 (in Gigawatts).





Source: IRENA. One of the most evident segments that has been missing heretofore but could provide a quick boost to Australias renewables potential is offshore wind. Wind energy as such has gradually become Australias most robust renewables segment in terms of aggregate generation (see Graph 2), largely thanks to its southern coastline lying within the Roaring Forties zone  the combination of vast swathes of open ocean and air being moved from the Equator towards the South Pole engenders winds powerful enough to keep the wind farms operating at 35-40% capacity. The state of South Australia leads the pack  almost 60% of its electricity generation is renewables-based (wind). This should not come as a surprise, considering that its entire coastline boasts average wind speeds of 9 meters/second and higher.

Graph 2. Renewables Electricity Generation in 2015-2020 (Gigawatthours).





Source: Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources; Clean Energy Council.

Robust as it remains, wind energy has heretofore had only one peculiarity  all of it was onshore (in total more than 100 wind farms). Whilst there should be no qualms about the strength and continuity of winds in Australias waters to the south of Victoria and South Australia, there still seem to be two main road blocks ahead for offshore wind - connecting the prospective wind farms into Australias grid system and erecting the legal framework underpinning offshore wind. Even the official website of Australias government admits that it still lacks legislation to support the full development of offshore projects  that is, provided the wind farm is not located within 3 nautical miles from the shore (then it is up to regional governments to decide). Canberra has been working on the offshore wind regulation for more than a year already. Related: China Snubs U.S. With Huge Iraqi Gas Deal

Source: Star of the South.

Lack of federal regulation notwithstanding, Star of the South was given a deed of licence and is thus good to go. Star of the South has already decided on its subsea transmission route, with the transmission line coming ashore next to Reeves Beach and then connecting into the grid of the National Electricity Market in Victoria. The operating company foresses 2 potential grid connection points, in Loy Yang and Hazelwood and it is the former that might be of considerable interest to Australia watchers. The 3.3GW Loy Yang power plant boasts the largest capacity in all of Australia, supplying roughly 50% of Victorias electricity needs. Needless to say Loy Yang is fuelled by brown coal from the Latrobe Valley, triggering the question whether the Australian authorities would seek to supplant or supplement it with electricity generated by Star of the South.

The future interaction between wind energy and coal projects in the Latrobe Valley, one of the largest reserve bases for brown coal globally (estimated to be as high as 65 billion metric tons), will be one of the most pertinent trends to watch. Australias public discourse is still yet to strike a consensual tone on the conditions of the energy transition, as many see the compelled moving away from coal as a badly disguised attempt to destroy domestic jobs. Australia does not have a strictly delineated national emissions-cutting target (the states stipulate their own targets), although the government has repeatedly claimed that it seeks to decrease emissions by 26-28% from their 2005 level.

Star of the South has triggered a new wave of interest in offshore wind projects in Australia. A UK firm called Australis Energy (purports to be focused on Australian wind opportunities) has submitted documents for environmental approval, with the aim of constructing a $1 billion wind farm with a total capacity of 0.3GW. This endeavor might turn out to be the first offshore wind farm along Australias western coastline, according to preliminary estimates it will amount to 20 turbines with a 15MW capacity each. Building smaller farms has its upsides, too, as Australis intention is to locate it in territorial seas requiring alignment only with regional authorities  in contrast Star of the South will be located in Australias EEZ and hence requires federal approval.



By Viktor Katona for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Indian state-owned oil and gas producer Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) is told to sell its stake in the countrys oil fields as part of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas seven-point plan to boost production after a year of limited production. According to a Press Trust of India (PTI) report the countrys Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas is communicating with ONGC on how to increase oil output over the coming years.

The plan, titled 'ONGC Way Forward', suggests that ONGC divests its stake in several onshore and offshore oil fields, including Panna-Mukta or Ratna, R-Series and the Gandhar field, as well as partnering with foreign oil and gas firms to develop its projects in the gas-rich block KG-DWN-98/2, Ashokenagar block in West Bengal and Deendayal block in the KG basin. The Ministry is also putting pressure on the ONGC to monetise existing infrastructure.

Production in the $5-billion KG-DWN-98/2 project is expected to increase substantially over the next year, with peak production projected for 2024. ONGC expects the fields to support around 2 million metric standard cubic metres per day (MMSCMD) of natural gas by the end of June. Additional fields operated by Reliance and British Petroleum in the Krishna Godavari basin will contribute to the increase in domestic natural gas production.

The plan also looks to separate various oil services such as drilling, well services, logging, workover services and data processing entities.

Related: Goldman: Oil To Hit $80 On Largest Ever Demand Jump



Efforts are being made to increase national oil and gas production as ONGC crude production fell from 20.6 million tonnes at the end of fiscal year 2020 to 20.2 million tonnes in 2021. Gas production also decreased during the same time period. The plan hopes to see ONGC increase production levels by one-third by 2024.

This plan represents the third attempt under the Modi government at convincing ONGC to privatise its marginal oil and gas fields to focus wholly on large producing fields to boost domestic production.

The plan states that national production must increase production to 40 million tonnes of crude oil and 50 billion cubic metres of natural gas by fiscal year 2023-24 if India hopes to reduce its dependence on oil and gas imports and meet domestic needs. ONGC is expected to produce the majority of this target oil production, at around 70 percent of the countrys total oil and gas output, an increase of almost 8 million tonnes of crude on its present production levels.

An official stated of the plan, Indias domestic crude oil production is constantly on a decline. It is mainly because ONGC, which contributes about 70% of the domestic output, is unable to ramp up production from existing fields and could not add new fields under production. Hence, the action plan.

However, industry experts believe the plan could significantly weaken ONGC, with private partners profiting from the corporations existing discoveries in oil and gas, likely the reason that ONGC has, until now, resisted pressure from the Ministry to divide its assets and privatise.

Yet, with Indias oil and gas production levels falling under ONGC since 2012, largely due to the reliance on low-output aging wells, it is clear that something must be done if the government hopes to increase domestic production levels. For example, boosting national production will likely require technologically intensive methods to benefit from more hard-to-access areas such as ultradeepwater fields, something ONGC is currently failing to achieve.

While ONGC will likely resist the Oil Ministrys latest attempt at privatisation, it has become clear that the state-owned corporation must adapt in order to meet national oil and gas needs over the next decade.

By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
CollegeNow courses are transferrable to colleges and universities, but credit acceptance is up to the receiving school, Owen said.

With the University of Nebraska at Omaha and other regional institutions, those transfer paths are well defined, he said.

Metro also has relationships with hundreds of universities and colleges, and largely the general education requirements, like English, math and social sciences, will transfer, he said.

So if a kid already knows Im going off to the university this fall but I want to get a head start, theyre going to want to take classes that are on that transfer path, he said.

The pandemic caused many high school students to fall behind or miss out on the CollegeNow offerings, said Chuck Chevalier, associate vice president of secondary partnerships and enrollment management.

This initiative will help students reach their academic and career goals, despite setbacks caused by COVID-19, Chevalier said.

A 10-week summer session will start June 6 and end Aug. 16. There will also be two five-week sessions, one running June 6 to July 12, the other July 13 to Aug. 16.
Niche cultures see growing market as they win increasing popularity

People's Daily Online) 16:35, April 30, 2021

Nobody would have imagined that niche cultures, such as Han costumes, Lolita fashion and JK uniforms are in fact now favored by far more than a few minor groups on the sidelines, instead propping up a market of around 10 billion yuan ($1.55 billion) today.

In fact, online searches for Han costumes exceed those of T-shirts on e-commerce shopping platforms, and a single JK dress may garner a sales volume of 300,000 units within several days after its initial launch.

Photo shows Hanfu enthusiasts appreciating pear blossoms and sipping tea in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan province. (Xinhua/Liu Mengqi)

"In the past, the number of fans for these cultures and fashions was very limited. However, about two years ago, I began to receive inquiries from a vast number of neophytes," said Fu Linying, a fan of these types of distinctive clothes and also a vendor of JK uniforms on the online Chinese e-commerce marketplace Taobao.

That was why Fu, who had been studying and working overseas, decided to return to China and start a JK uniform business with her boyfriend in 2019. According to Fu, people aged 17 to 28 are the main target consumers for her online shop.

Last year, Fu rolled out a JK dress design whose color differed from that of ordinary ones. Within a couple of days, over 20,000 units of the dress were sold.

"Most of the girls in my time could only follow trends, but the young girls today have become trend settlers," Fu said.

Last year, Fu's store achieved a sales revenue of over 2 million yuan, with the number of followers linking to her store rising to nearly 200,000.

Consumers of these kinds of unique clothing items will usually select and shop for items at one or several stores, and then share their comments and personal feelings about the dresses they purchase from individual stores on the platforms.

"A Lolita outfit costs somewhere between 1,000 yuan to 2,500 yuan," said Mu Mu, a college student who has a passionate interest in Lolita outfits, adding that she spends over 10,000 yuan on Lolita costumes every year.

She said that Lolita costume fans respect and prefer original designs and will shun any knockoffs, which is why they have become increasingly more loyal to specific brands.

Taobao now has over 1,000 stores like Fu's. The constant expansion of Chinas emerging consumer demand has provided merchants in the niche market with significant room for continued growth. Data from Taobao showed that the number of new active merchants on the platform hit its peak during the period from April 2020 to March 2021 over the past five fiscal years since 2017.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
Finally, the governor and mayor must target resources to the neighborhoods most in need. In the same way COVID-19 laid bare disparities in health care access, the disproportionate number of Black and brown victims of gun violence reveals disparities in access to safety  particularly in a city as segregated as Chicago. Despite containing just 7.4% of Chicagos population, five communities in the city  Austin, Englewood, West Garfield, West Englewood and North Lawndale  accounted for 28% of all 2019 homicides, and the concentration of violence worsened in 2020. Investments in neighborhood infrastructure, such as street lighting and greening vacant lots, have proven to be effective at increasing safety, and they should be implemented in the communities whose residents face disproportionately high levels of gun violence.
Leahy said his time on the board, as well as his work with clients, has taught him the value of listening to multiple perspectives. If elected, he said hell hold listening sessions with neighbors.

You find out what they want, they tell you their problems, and they probably have some solutions, Leahy said.

Rowe said hes a typical conservative Republican, fiscally and socially, who supports the Second Amendment and opposes abortion.

Leahy described himself as a moderate Democrat more akin to JFK-era Democrats or Reagan Republicans.

On policing, both candidates said they want the Police and Fire Departments to have the support and funding they need to hire enough employees, buy enough equipment and receive proper training. Rowe has received the endorsement of the Omaha Police Officers Association and said he would oppose any effort to defund the police.

Leahy said he would not vote to take money from the department for alternative policing options. If an idea is good enough, he said the city can find the money elsewhere. He said officers have a duty to care for the health and well-being of those in their custody. Hed also explore increasing penalties for those who harm officers.
Robert studied agriculture in high school as most farm boys did but also joined the U.S. Air Corps Reserves because he wanted to learn to fly.

He attended the University of Nebraska and South Dakota State University at Brookings, and later joined the U.S. Navy Reserve before transferring to the Air Force. He served in Korea with the 336th Fighter Squadron, 4th Fighter Interceptor Group.

He and his cousin Roger German served in Korea at the same time.

Roger was a Marine in the foxholes and Robert was in the airplanes flying overhead, German said. At one time they actually met up at a base camp. That would have been the last time a blood relative would have seen Bob.

Robert married in 1949. His wife, Nancy, was due with their first child as the aviators tour of duty was winding down in 1951.

They told him he either could go home for the birth and come back for one or two flights, or he could fly one or two more missions in Korea and not have to come back, German said. He chose to stay and was shot down on one of those missions.

A son, Richard, was born three days later.

Nancy Laier would remarry in 1954.
Humble ISD posts second financial statements of candidates

The second round of campaign financial disclosures for the Humble ISD school board election show Martina Dixon raised the most money during the second reporting period (March 23- April 21.) She raised $5,980. Chris Parker had the second highest donated, with a reporting of $5,352. Ken Kirchhofer raised $2,908.53 and Robert Sitton raised $2,763.04. The reports are posted at HumbleISD.net.

Dixon benefited from a $2,500 donation from Rick Walker, a Kingwood resident who ran for Congress in 2018. The first round of reports showed he donated the same amount to Sitton, Parker and Janie Branham. U.S. Congressman Dan Crenshaw, who defeated Walker, donated $1,000 from his campaign to Sitton.

Two candidates, William Epperson and David Poopola, did not file a second report.

Six candidates, Wilbert Baker, James Banks, Marques Homes, Chase Stevens and Andrea Glazebrook, did not receive any donations during the second period.

Candidates spent their money on items such as yard signs, push cards, snacks, T-shirts, advertising and PayPal fees. Sitton reported spending $1,600 on a booth rental at Humble's Good Oil Days and $2,500 for a table at Boots and Bling, the Humble ISD Foundation event for the annual teachers of the year recognition. Clint Horn reported spending $3,000 on a campaign manager, $720 for canvassers and $1,120 for an individual described as a fundraiser. Dixon noted a $300 payment for a consultant. Several, Parker, Sitton and Kirchhofer, spent $1,000 or more with the Harris County GOP on mailers.

The candidates have been stationed at the three early voting locations, enduring long days, rain and occasional humidity.

Election Day is Saturday, May 1. Find times and polling locations at HarrisVotes.org.
Growing Up Near Geary

by Jack Coll

October 2002

In 1940 my mother and father purchased a small home at 538-24th Avenue between Geary Boulevard and Anza Street. I was enrolled in Saint Monica's School one half block away. My father was employed by the Municipal Railway as a truck driver and worked out of the car house at Geary Boulevard and Presidio Avenue. A local history buff, he gave me a lifetime interest in local history with an emphasis on public transportation.

I have memories of life during World War II. There was rationing of food and gasoline. Streetcars and buses were jammed at all times. We patronized the Family Market on Geary Boulevard between 22nd and 23rd Avenue. The Market was divided into a grocery store, a produce market and a butcher shop. The butchers worked in uniforms. Our family also patronized the Family Drug Store and Wirth Brothers bakery at 23rd Avenue and Geary. The Family Drug Store had its own soda and ice cream fountain.

Other important stores were a Woolworth's drug store and Klabunde's ice cream store at 22nd Avenue.

During World War II the movie business thrived. The impressive Alexandria theater (then a single-screen second-run theater) was usually full. The small Star theater (now the 4-Star) had a low cost children's matinee on Saturday. The 4-Star has survived today with a wide variety of Asian and American movies.

The Coronet theater was under construction at the time of Pearl Harbor. It was not completed until 1949 and is now to be torn down.

I grew up in a religious home. Classes at St. Monica's were crowded as there was no other Catholic school in the outer Richmond. Virtually all instruction in the school was by nuns. Fees in the school were exceptionally low. The church was crowded every Sunday. The pastor was the Reverend William Campbell, a loquacious speaker with an Australian accent.

My mother and father did not own an automobile. Most of the students at St. Monica's came from modest homes. There was one student who lived in a mansion in Sea Cliff. Virtually none of the mothers worked.

The neighborhood enjoyed extremely frequent service on streetcar line "B" (Geary Boulevard-Ocean Beach). The streetcars controlled the traffic and had open end sections. Smokers could smoke outside without bothering other riders. Streetcars also operated on California, Clement, Balboa and Fulton streets.

In looking back at my grammar school days I realize that the home reinforced the parochial school of the day. I went on to St. Ignatius High School and eventually received a degree in library science. My last assignment with the San Francisco Public Library was at the Richmond branch on Ninth Avenue between Geary Boulevard and Clement Street. I retired in 1992.

Jack Coll went to St. Monica's with Jack Tillmany. The two Jacks have been very helpful with information and photos for the site!

Read Jack's article on Streetcars in the Sunset district!

Contribute your own stories about western neighborhoods places!
The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has "reminded" the Secretary General of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, Mr Wamkele Mene to remain in isolation after the Secretariat said his COVID-19 test was a false-positive.



It will be recalled that the AfCFTA in a statement issued on April 27, 2021, said Mene, will participate in upcoming events after independent PCR tests confirmed that he was issued with a false-positive COVID-19 test result at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA).



However, the GHS in a statement issued on April 29 and signed by its Director General, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye said it does not recognize any COVID-19 test conducted after a positive test at the airport and not sanctioned by its case management team.



"...It is also note-worthy that any COVID-19 test conducted after the positive test at the airport, and not sanctioned by the case management team of the Ghana Health Service, is not recognized. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat is, thus, reminded that its Secretary-General is to remain in isolation until the completion of the statutory 7-day isolation period, and is discharged, as per the COVID-19 protocols issued by the President of the Republic," the statement said.



Response



The statement is in response to an earlier statement issued by the Secretariat of the AfCFTA which said after Mr Mene tested positive, he went into quarantine and undertook two independent tests, from two different private labs - both of which returned negative results.





The AfCFTA further disclosed that Mr Mene received the Johnson & Johnson (J & J) COVID-19 vaccine two weeks ago "which should provide him with an additional measure of protection".



It said the Secretary General will therefore participate in all the upcoming events, namely: (i) the Inaugural Meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body Committee (DSB) meeting taking place from Monday 26 April 2021 until Wednesday 28th April 2021; and (ii) the meeting of Senior Trade Officials from the 29th April to 1st May 2021 and the Council of Ministers meeting on Monday the 3rd May 2021.



The attention of the Ghana Health Service has been drawn to a statement issued by the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA), which has been reproduced in sections of the media, suggesting that a FALSE POSITIVE COVID-19 result was produced for the Secretary-General of the AfCFTA at the Kotoka International Airport.



This is not accurate.



It would be recalled that on Ft September 2020, the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, reopened the Kotoka International Airport, following its closure on 22 March 2020. To reduce further importation of COVID-19 into the country, several measures were instituted at the airport. These included the presentation of a negative PCR test for COVID-19, which is not more than 72 hours old prior to departure to Ghana by all passengers, and a mandatory antigen test on arrival at the airport.



As at the 28th April, 2021, a total of 244,851 antigen tests have been conducted at the airport, yielding 1,639 COVID-19 positive cases. Out of these positive cases, Ghanaians account for 42%, whilst non-Ghanaians account for 58%.



However, since January 2021, as part of an enhanced protocol to avert further surges in cases and protect all persons living in Ghana, anybody who tests positive for COVID-19 at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) is mandatorily isolated for seven (7) days at Government designated facilities or a hotel. The person is tested again and clinically assessed by the Ghana Health Service before he or she is discharged.



These protocols apply to all persons, except for some situations as determined by the Ghana Health Service. It is also note-worthy that any COVID-19 test conducted after the positive test at the airport, and not sanctioned by the case management team of the Ghana Health Service, is not recognized. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat is, thus, reminded that its Secretary-General is to remain in isolation until the completion of the statutory 7-day isolation period, and is discharged, as per the COVID-19 protocols issued by the President of the Republic. The Ghana Health Service wishes to assure Ghanaians and everybody living in the country that we are committed to ensuring their safety, especially during this period when a third wave of the pandemic is wreaking havoc in other countries. As such, we expect everybody living in the country, or intending to stay in the country, to strictly adhere to all laid down COVID-19 protocols to prevent any surge in cases.

Source: graphic.com.gh









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The Kumasi Diocese of the Methodist Church Ghana (MCG) has declared support for the ongoing national campaign to halt illegal small-scale mining in all its forms.



Posterity will judge us if we fail to protect the environment, the Right Reverend Christopher Nyarko Andam, the Diocesan Bishop, cautioned.



He said the devastation of the countrys ecology and biodiversity was deeply worrying as the survival of mankind depended on the environment.



Right Rev. Andam, who was addressing the 60th Annual Synod of the Diocese at the Adum Wesley Cathedral, Kumasi, said the wanton pollution of water bodies and destruction of forest resources should be tackled head-on.



For so many years, the nation has been battling illegal small-scale mining, which has wrecked our water bodies as they get contaminated with poisonous chemicals.



The Methodist Church is appealing to all Ghanaians to come on board and support the Governments declaration of war on the menace to remedy the harm caused to the environment," Bishop Andam said.



According to the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GHEITI) large acres of land in the Ashanti and Central Regions and other parts of the country have been devastated by illegal mining operators.



Though the Environmental Assessment Regulation, 1999 (LI 1652), requires individuals and organizations to submit an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to the EPA, detailing the potential impact of their projects on the environment and mitigation measures to deal with such challenges, many small-scale miners had flouted the regulation with impunity over the years.



We should spare no one in this campaign to ensure decency in the management of the environment, Bishop Andam admonished.



The church, he said, had a critical role to play in speaking against environmental degradation since the flora and fauna played varied roles in the sustenance of mankind.



On the Synod, he stressed the need for members of the MCG to revise their evangelism strategy as they sought to salvage the society from evil deeds.



He said the Diocese had seen a 23 per cent increase in membership over the last five years, attributing the significant growth to the Churchs soul-winning outreach programmes.



The Synod discussed issues on the Churchs projects and vision on education, health, skills development and leadership training, youth development, among others.

Source: GNA









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The Member of Parliament for Ablekuma West Constituency and Minister for Communications and Digitalization, Hon. Ursula Owusu Ekuful has shared her experience with supi supi (in the local parlance) or lesbianism.



In an exclusive interview with popular media personality Nana Aba Anamoah on Starr Chat show, Ursula Owusu disclosed that she experimented with lesbianism whilst in secondary school when she was a teenager.



Responding to claims by some pastors that lesbianism is a medical condition, the Communications Minister pointed out it cannot be that persons who practiced lesbianism are wired that way.



According to the learned politician, citing herself as an example, at a certain point in one's life during secondary school (senior high school as presently known) days, experimenting with one's sexuality was a given.



But it should be treated as "a passing phase", she added, whiles maintaining that she is very much attracted to the opposite se.x though.



Hon. Ursula Owusu told the host that she is glad social media was non-existent at the time.



Most of us who went through the boarding system would have had some exposure particularly in girls schools and in some mixed schools as well with supism. We did it. I dont make any apologies about it, but I like my men....true, i wouldn't lie about it. We've all done it. We've experimented with stuff like that, but it was a passing phase, Ursula said.

Source: Eugene Osafo-Nkansah/Peacefmonline.com









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" " Night falls in Chinatown, San Francisco, the largest Chinatown outside of Asia as well as the oldest in North America. John Elk III/Getty Images

Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month is a celebration of the 22.6 million Asians and 1.6 million Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders living in the United States and the role they played in shaping American history. Although Americans have celebrated AAPI Heritage Month every year since 1992, when President George H.W. Bush signed legislation that permanently designated May as the commemorative month, it started out as a weeklong celebration in 1979  thanks to the efforts of a woman named Jeanie F. Jew.

Jew was a board member of the Organization of Chinese Americans and a Capitol Hill staffer when she approached government officials about acknowledging and celebrating Asian Americans for their accomplishments. She took on this challenge after noticing the lack of Asian and Pacific representation during the Bicentennial celebrations of 1976. It was personal for Jew, as her great-grandfather had helped build the Transcontinental Railroad.

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Jew enlisted the support of Ruby Moy, an administrative assistant to former New York Representative Frank Horton, and the two worked to gain support for a proclamation. Rep. Horton introduced a bill in 1977 that called for the first 10 days in May to be Pacific/Asian American Heritage Week, while Hawaii Senator Daniel Inouye introduced a similar resolution.

The drafters chose the month of May to celebrate two historic events: The first Japanese immigrant arrived in the U.S. on May 7, 1843, and the Transcontinental Railroad was completed on May 10, 1869. About 20,000 Chinese workers took part in the building of this railroad and 1,200 died from explosions, avalanches and other disasters during its construction.

" " Chinese railroad workers greet a train on a snowy day. Sketch by Joesph Becker/Wikipedia/Public Domain

The two bills failed, but the drafters didn't let that discourage them. The legislation needed at least 218 members of Congress for the bill to pass the House Post Office and Civil Service Committee, so the sponsors got to work (the bill was revised to reflect the Census Bureau's designation of the community as "Asian/Pacific" instead of "Pacific/Asian.")

Jew and Moy founded the Asian Pacific Congressional Staff Caucus, while Jew also founded and chaired the National Coalition for an Asian/Pacific American Heritage Proclamation. The Organization of Chinese Americans, Japanese American Citizens League and the Organization of Chinese American Women also advocated for the bill. Thanks to their persistence, 231 Congressional representatives co-sponsored it and it passed with massive support in both the House and the Senate.

In 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed the resolution declaring May 4-11 Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week, and the celebration started in 1979. Over the next decade, Presidents Carter, Reagan and Bush passed annual proclamations for Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week. In 1990 Congress expanded the celebration to a month, and in 1992 it became an annual celebration in perpetuity.

President Barack Obama expanded the commemoration to include Pacific Islanders and Native Hawaiians in 2009 and so the month is now known as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Now That's Interesting Before the first Transcontinental Railroad was completed in 1869, it would take you half a year to get from New York to California. After the railroad was built, it took a week to go that same distance.
Santas Village reduced its staff from 250 employees down to 12 and started an affiliated landscaping and snow removal company to help keep staff employed during the offseason, Wright said. The parks reopening is especially good for the staff, he said. The amusement park is also hiring for the summer. We have an online portal for potential employees to submit applications. We are still conducting interviews, he said.
The hill was covered with apple trees. They were diseased, my dad cut them down. Thats when we covered (the hill) with Christmas trees, he said, adding, There used to be a farmhouse right down by the edge of the road. My dad tore it down because it was too close to the road.

Two of Ben Lattimore Jr.s sons served in the Civil War, in a white regiment, which researchers have puzzled over because both men were openly known to be Black. They were described as such in the census, and the family was known to be Black. During the Civil War, black soldiers generally fought in all-Black regiments, but there were exceptions. Learning why and how the men served in their local, white regiment could be fascinating, OConnor said.

One of Lattimores granddaughters became the first graduate of Saratoga Springs High School. One of his grandsons married the first graduate of what is now known as Skidmore College.

Recent research into the family began with an inquiry from Skidmore College. Officials there had found a mention of Mattie Washington in the minutes of a trustees board meeting. She was described as colored and the first graduate.
Thank goodness for Ken Pokalsky, vice president of the Business Council of New York State, who testified in a public hearing last week that $6.5 billion of the $15 billion would not be raised on the backs of the big, bad corporate polluters that Democrats love to vilify, but on the backs of those big, bad state residents who dare to drive their car to and from work or turn on their furnace to keep their families warm in the winter.

One environmental lobbyist had the nerve to suggest that fossil fuel companies may not pass the gas tax on to consumers and instead choose to cut executive salaries. How utterly naive can one be? Other lobbyists pointed to rebates in the legislation as a way to protect low- and moderate-income New Yorkers  but nowhere in the 70-page bill is a rebate on gasoline purchases mentioned. Does anyone else trust New York state to hold those people harmless? We sure dont.

Were not saying New York and its residents doesnt need to be concerned with the states environmental future.

But we are saying the Climate and Community Investment Act is a flawed bill that shouldnt be passed in its current form. The fact it is considered for passage this year is just the latest indication of the danger of one-party rule in Albany.

Democrats used to take a few nickles and dimes from our paychecks in the name of progressive causes. That was a bearable annoyance. An extra 55 cents per gallon of gas works out to roughly $400 year for someone driving a four-cylinder vehicle with a 14 gallon gas tank that gets filled once a week. It will be more expensive for those who drive heavier minivans or trucks that have bigger engines. In our view, state government proposing taking several hundred dollars more from our wallets each year is an annoyance that many state residents cant afford to bear.

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Now would be a good time for Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, and other members of Western New Yorks delegation to remind the president that our neighboring country needs us to do more than try.

The pandemic has put Ontario hospitals through a severe stress test. Intensive care units are having to turn away patients. Hospitals cant perform anything but emergency services and the province under Premier Doug Ford has been yo-yoing between lockdown orders and partial reopenings.

The tables have turned since the summer of 2020, when this country was underperforming many others in containing coronavirus and the border closure was enacted more to protect Canadians from the people on our side.

In addition to Western New Yorkers who are kept apart from loved ones during the border closure, the two countries have overlapping economic interests. We depend on Canadians who come to shop and attend plays, concerts and sporting events. Americans also support Canadian tourism, retail and arts establishments. And Buffalo Niagara businesses often have cross-border ties.

Ford turned down an offer from Trudeau to dispatch Red Cross staff to help with inoculations. Ford said the provinces first priority was getting more vaccine supply.

Meanwhile, Canadas procurement minister, Anita Anand, told CTV on Sunday that her country is in negotiations with the United States to get more doses of AstraZeneca shots. She expected Canadas supply to ramp up significantly by late May to early June.

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MIDDLE TOWNSHP  Four New Jersey men were arrested and charged on April 22 with aggravated assault and other criminal offenses, according to news released by police Friday.

At about 6:54 a.m. on April 22, the townships emergency communications received a 911 call from the victim, Zackea Parker, 27, of Egg Harbor City, stating he was being chased and assaulted by subjects who were inside a red Subaru in the area of Routes 9 and 147, police said.

Patrol units responded and located a vehicle matching the description on New Jersey Avenue, in the Burleigh section of the township, which was occupied by four subjects, police said.

They were detained for investigative purposes, police said.

The accused were identified as: Christopher Diantonio, 19, of Wildwood; David Flanders, 24, of Del Haven, Middle Township; Josue Montalvo, 27, of Wildwood; and Daekwon Summers, 21, of Atlantic City, police said.

They were arrested and transported to police headquarters where they were charged with multiple offenses, including conspiracy to commit aggravated assault and hindering, in addition to aggravated assault, police said.
MAYS LANDING  An Atlantic City man was indicted and is wanted by law enforcement on charges of the strict liability drug-induced death of Felipe Popocati Garcia-Lopez, according to news released by the Atlantic County Prosecutors Office on Friday.

Ramon Rivera, 50, was indicted Wednesday for the drug-induced death of Garcia-Lopez on Sept. 23, Atlantic County Prosecutor Damon G. Tyner said in a statement.

On Sept. 23, Atlantic City police patrol officers went to Haps Laundromat after a report of two unresponsive men, Tyner said.

Inside, police met with Rivera, who was an employee at the laundromat, Tyner said.

The officers then located Garcia-Lopez, 42, and Isidro Arenas, 39, both of Atlantic City, who were unresponsive and suffering from apparent drug overdoses, Tyner said.

Both men were transported to the AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center, City Campus in Atlantic City, Tyner said. Garcia-Lopez was pronounced dead, and Arenas survived, Tyner said. An investigation determined that Rivera sold Garcia-Lopez a fatal combination of heroin, cocaine and fentanyl, Tyner said.

Efforts to locate Rivera have been unsuccessful, and the defendant is wanted by law enforcement, Tyner said.
We hope that this offering brings some measure of relief and reassurance to our families who are looking to schedule vaccination appointments for their students, officials said Superintendent Dr. Eric Twadell and Assistant Superintendent for Business Services Sean Carney stated in an email to students and families. These vaccinations bring us one step closer to our return to normalcy, and we thank our Stevenson families for doing their part to keep our community safe.
Be thankful they are riding bikes and not under the boards doing drugs or drinking.

Jennifer Tedesco Connelly

via Facebook

O.C. police to step up enforcement in wake of issues with teenage bike riders

The governor is running this game when its no longer needed. Open it up before we all go broke.

Allyson Kaiser

Defying governor, Cape May County,

EHT gym owners plan June 1 reopening

With this country the way it is today, I pray this goes through so I can carry.

Cory Yates

via Facebook

Supreme Court to take up appeal

over right to carry gun for self-defense

So the head of the parade committee determined that the planning was difficult because of the pandemic, but everyone blames politicians.

Michael St. Amour

via Facebook
Felons qualify for $1,400

A recent letter complained about Democrats voting to give convicted felons in prison the $1,400 stimulus check. Felons are eligible for the stimulus money. However, they must be a citizen or legal resident, and either need to have filed a tax return, possibly as part of a joint filing, or complete an Internal Revenue Service form requesting payment.

Also worth noting is that two previous rounds of stimulus checks during the Trump administration, the CARES Act in March and the supplemental package in December, also allowed prisoners to receive checks. In addition, the number of felons getting the stimulus checks was relatively small.

Karl Frank

Mays Landing

More beach, fewer shells

As I begin my daily walk on the Margate beach, I notice the tiny broken pieces of white shells amid the background of sand. The beach is now much wider. You almost need a taxi to get the edge of the water.

All this thanks to the Army Corp of Engineers, who rearranged the coast to protect us from the next Sandy. They tirelessly worked night and day: digging trenches, plowing sand, and pumping the dredges from far out in the sea.
Thumbs Up  to the efforts by local and state health departments to ramp up interest in Covid vaccinations. Its clear the pace of vaccinations have slowed somewhat over the past couple weeks nationwide. So were happy to see state and local officials in the Quad-Cities ramping up their efforts to drum up additional interest and put shots in arms where they can find them.

The Rock Island County Health Department held a pop-up clinic this week at Zion Missionary Baptist Church in East Moline, and it offered walk-in hours at the Camden Centre mass vaccination site in Milan. Meanwhile, officials from Scott and Rock Island counties were joined by representatives from Deere & Co. and Sears Manufacturing to talk about how employers can help with their own vaccination efforts.

Also, the Davenport School District announced it will hold vaccination clinics next month for students and their families. Even Davenports transit system is offering free rides to people who are going to Genesis Health Systems vaccination clinic on Elmore Avenue.

The New York Times, using CDC data, reported Friday that 33.2% of Iowans have been fully vaccinated, while in Illinois it is 29.9% (43.8% of Iowans have received one shot; 46.1% have done so in Illinois.)
Senate Republicans have blocked a bipartisan committee from seeking answers regarding the U.S. Capitol insurrection. Some senators claim it was peaceful, some doubt there was any danger of being attacked, or that weapons were present. Why are these senators devoid of knowing what is right and wrong? I would guess they were raised to distinguish between the two. Many were in peril of being killed, including Sen. Chuck Grassley. I believe he was third in line after Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker Nancy Pelosi in ascension to the presidency.
Kinzingers hope lies in Wood, another fresh-faced combat veteran, who is fighting to stand out in a field of 23. If none of the candidates on Saturdays ballot earns 50% of the vote, the top two will compete in a runoff election later in the spring.

The Trump thing, its got nowhere to go but down. Its not growing, Kinzinger said during his lunch with Wood at the Fork in the Road cafe in the Dallas suburbs. But it took a lot of time for the Republican Party to be what it is today. It may take a lot of time to bring it back.

The contest to replace Republican Rep. Ron Wright, who died of COVID-19 in February, has gone virtually unnoticed outside this north Texas district. But it offers a window into the forces tearing at the fabric of today's GOP. There are 10 Republicans among 23 candidates on the ballot, and with the exception of Wood, they are all desperate to win over Trump and his supporters.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos of Moline announced Friday she would not seek reelection next year after serving since 2013 in a northwest and west-central Illinois district that has trended increasingly Republican.

My North Star has always been to serve our community, drive real results and help build a better future. As I have rounded each new decade of my career, Ive taken time to reflect on how I can best serve. Thats how, 10 years ago, I decided to run for Congress. And its why, today, Im announcing I will not seek reelection after completing this term, said Bustos, who will turn 60 in October.

I feel its time for a new voice, she said in a video announcement. As for my tenure in Congress, well, my mission was never defined by the people in the corridors of power in Washington, but by the people in our communities who Ive been lucky enough to meet along the way.

At one time, Bustos had been viewed as a rising star among House Democrats, demonstrating an ability to win in largely Republican territory.

But she won her fifth term last November over Republican Esther Joy King by fewer than 13,000 votes out of nearly 300,000 ballots cast in a district Donald Trump won 50% to 48% over Democrat Joe Biden. It was a slight increase from Trumps 2016 victory in the district.
To receive [another] top grade shows that Rush Oak Park Hospital takes patient safety very seriously and our staff is dedicated to deliver upon this commitment, Elegant said. That all three of our hospitals received a top grade in safety from Leapfrog recognizes the level of importance we place on our system procedures. It recognizes that no matter what Rush hospital you may find yourself at, were committed to the well-being of all our patients and visitors.
"The biggest shock to us was he had no antibodies," Laurie Sporn said. "He had 18 when they should be in the high hundreds or thousands."

"We never thought of the possibility the vaccine wouldn't work," she said.

In early April, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center reported findings of a study done on patients at its Hillman Cancer Center that showed people with cancers affecting the blood, bone marrow or lymph nodes were at a higher risk of COVID-19 vaccine failure, and that the risk was particularly acute among those with chronic lymphomatic leukemia, such as Sporn.

The study results mirror those done elsewhere, including the United Kingdom, and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society recently noted that some blood cancer patients "may not get optimal protection from vaccines" and may be more susceptible to COVID-19 infections even after being vaccinated.

Sporn said her dad had been extremely cautious, and not venturing out during the pandemic, but after getting the vaccine felt he was OK and went out for meals twice with friends he hadn't seen in ages.

"These are his best friends," she said.
DES MOINES  Though this weeks Census Bureau population numbers provided answers about which states gained and lost seats in the U.S. House, they were of little help to the folks who have to draw the new Iowa legislative districts.

The Census Bureau count of 3,192,406 Iowans confirmed the state will maintain four congressional districts for the next 10 years.

So now we can divide by four and 50 and 100 and know the ideal population of a congressional district, state House district and state Senate district, said Ed Cook, senior legal counsel at the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency that will map the new boundaries.

The redistricting process already is behind schedule because of delays caused by the pandemic and the Trump administrations efforts to change how the census was done.

Ten years ago, the Iowa Legislature approved a redistricting plan April 14.

We need the granular data is to start redistricting, Cook said, referring to county, city and township population data. Given how exact we try to get each district to the ideal population, it really does depend on the Census Bureau numbers to give us what we need.
Something Sen. Joni Ernst said during a press conference this week shook me.

It wasnt the type of comment that automatically leaps off the page. I didnt even use it in my story on the press conference and its topic: new legislation designed to address sexual assault in the military.

But it stood out to me because of its raw, personal nature and how it showed exactly why sexual assault is a scourge that we must constantly combat.

The press conference, held outside Thursday in Washington, D.C., was called to highlight the legislation introduced by U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat from New York who has been working on the bill  and the issue  for eight years. The chief provision, among many in the bill, would remove the decision whether to prosecute a sexual assault allegation from the chain of command, handing it instead to an independent military prosecutor.

Ernst, an Iowa Republican who comes at the issue with a unique perspective because she is both a former military commander and a sexual assault survivor, has lent her support to the legislation and spoke at the press conference. It was when a reporter asked Ernst about her evolution on the bill  Ernst in the past did not support the bill  that Ernst said something that stuck with me.
The police dog found Nelson in a culvert on Bennington Drive and police arrested him without incident, Medina said.

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Nelson was then booked into the Pennington County Jail at 5:49 p.m, according to the jail website. He is scheduled for an initial court appearance at 10 a.m. on Monday.

All four of the suspects are also charged with aggravated assault and second-degree kidnapping against Jake Williams.

They allegedly used a "cutting instrument" against Williams, a 37-year-old from Rapid City who was found outside the motel after the shooting with cuts to his face that required staples to heal, according to police reports.

Second-degree kidnapping involves holding or retaining a person as a ransom or reward, to use them as a shield or hostage, to facilitate a felony or flight from one, or to inflict injury or terrorize them. It contrasts to first-degree kidnapping which involves first unlawfully moving someone and/or holding them in a place for a long period of time.

Williams was also allegedly found with methamphetamine, a gun holster and magazine.

He is charged in state court with meth possession and in federal court with illegally possessing ammunition on the day of the shooting.
Over the 16 years the project is proposed to last, the company will use over 52 million gallons of water. The project is anticipated to produce over 14 million pounds of uranium.

According to Powertech and Azarga, in situ uranium mining is environmentally friendly and has less impacts than other kinds of mining like open pit mining  theres minimal surface disturbance, reduced water usage, aquifers water quality is restored, and there is no additional solid waste generated from the process.

Interveners in the projects permit applications, however, oppose the mining project on the basis that it will destroy the water supply for the southwestern portion of the state, where water scarcity is already an issue. Fall River Countys biggest economic draw is agriculture, so having an ample water supply is important for community members who depend on farming or ranching.

Susan Henderson, a rancher from Edgemont and an intervener in the Powertech case, said the project wont have any benefit to anyone in South Dakota and will probably destroy Fall River County. Henderson said no mining company has ever sufficiently restored an aquifers water quality after contaminating it and she does not have faith that Powertech would be the first.
Black Hills and Badlands Tourism Association is hosting a full day of events as part of National Travel & Tourism Weeks Travel Rally Day, from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, May 4, at The Monument in Rapid City.

Visit Rapid City will host a Travel Rally Day Breakfast at 7:30 a.m. A Spring Hospitality Training hosted by the South Dakota Department of Tourism will be from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., followed by the parks and attractions meeting and the 38th annual literature swap.

National Travel and Tourism Week, the annual celebration of the contributions of the U.S. travel industry, will spotlight the role travel plays in driving economic recovery efforts.

We have a lot to celebrate going into the peak travel season, said Michelle Thomson, president and CEO of Black Hills Badlands and Tourism Association. Despite COVID-19s impact on travel, the Black Hills and Badlands region generated over $396.7 million in taxable sales in 2020. The power of travel is a key economic driver and job creator helping the Black Hills and Badlands thrive.
For over 10 years, I have had the privilege and honor of serving the people of South Dakota. First as a member of the State House of Representatives, then as a State Senator, and now as President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. Each of these roles has reinforced my core belief that our state and my tribe have the immense potential to succeed if and when meaningful opportunities that focus on our communities arise. The American Jobs Plan is such an opportunity.

The American Jobs Plan is a multi-point, locally focused investment in the rebuilding of our regional and national economies. It will create millions of critically needed jobs as the American workforce is mobilized to expand, modernize, and rebuild our country's aging infrastructure over the next eight years.

Recently, I provided testimony to Congress stating these investments will pay off in the short term for South Dakota families and hard-working individuals, both in terms of employment and in terms of improved access to safer roads, reliable internet, adequate housing, cleaner air and water, and so much more. In the long term, the Plan will lead the way to the revitalization of domestic manufacturing and small businesses with a renewed competitiveness for our American entrepreneurship in the global market that will, in turn, create greater stability for good middle-class jobs right here at home.
An oyster is a taste of the sea in a single slurp. While raw oysters are a delight shucked fresh and served naked, a little boost of acid, salt or sweet only complements their natural flavor.

Throughout Virginias seaboard, restaurants and raw bars serve up oysters buck-a-shuck-style straight from a bed of ice, simmered into a chowder or flash-fried in a floury coating with a rich sauce on the side. Some restaurants offer a classic mignonette or a fiery, horseradish-spiked cocktail sauce to accompany their fresh raw oysters. Others simply insist you need little more than a squeeze of lemon.

At Rudees on the Inlet Restaurant & Cabana Bar in Virginia Beach, Virginia, the oyster is the star of the show any time of day. We opened as a real stand-alone oyster bar in 1983. Oysters are our brand, says Carter Turpin, the original owner and founder of the restaurant.

You see the guys do everything behind the raw bar. You watch them shuck fresh off the ice in front of you, really just six inches from your barstool, he says.

Just across the water from Cherrystone Aqua-Farms, The Oyster Farm at Kings Creek hosts bed-and-breakfast guests and restaurant diners in search of the flavor of oysters. Chef Linda Wessells sources her oysters direct from various harvesters on the Eastern Shore, including Cherrystones. Some people just come for the local oysters, says Russell Molka, the restaurant manager of the Seafood Eatery at The Oyster Farm.

Protein-packed and low-calorie, oysters could be considered a health food, but restaurants like Smalls Smokehouse + Oyster Bar in Norfolk gild the lily by grilling oysters with savory sauces or slowly tenderizing them in a cream-heavy stew.

Logan has developed his own style, says John Small III, owner of Smalls. He opened the restaurant a decade ago to highlight the work of his son, Logan, who serves as the restaurants chef and creative head. We were all born on the Chesapeake Bay and the rivers around here, and weve been eating oysters from here our whole lives, Small says, harkening to his youth when the rivers were so congested with deadrise- and skiff-style boats that he could walk across the water from boat to boat, each harvesting oysters with large racks called tongs.

The history of the oyster industry in Virginia and the greater Chesapeake Bay area is present with each oyster consumed, and the recipes below offer preparations that showcase the splendor of an oyster in a variety of classic ways.

+2 New Orleans-Style Grilled Oysters Virginia chef Logan Small says oil or butter is essential in this grilled oyster recipe.

+2 Mignonette A vinegar-based French Mignonette sauce highlights salty oysters.

Cocktail Sauce This tangy cocktail sauce recipe complements the sweetness of raw or fried oysters.

Oyster Stew Chef Logan Small shares his award-winning oyster stew recipe thats famous at Smalls Smokehouse + Oyster Bar in Virginia.

Oysters Rockefeller This Oysters Rockefeller recipe is a Virginia interpretation of the original from Antoines restaurant in New Orleans.

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After about two years' preparation, the Palace Museum's new ceramics gallery is to open to the public in Beijing on Saturday.

The new gallery, in the Hall of Martial Valor (Wuying Dian), on the west side of the museum, is displaying over 1,000 highlighted Chinese ceramics ranging from 8,000 years ago to the early 20th century.

The Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City, was the imperial palace from 1420 to 1911 during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. It houses over 1.86 million cultural relics, about 370,000 of which are ceramics, mostly from royal families' collections.

"In recent years, ceramics researchers at the Palace Museum have made lots of academic discoveries through studies of such an abundant collection," Wang Xudong, director of the museum, said at the opening ceremony of the gallery on Friday.

"Through comparative studies with new archaeological discoveries and methods of new technologies, many questions have been resolved," he said. "And it's a good chance to better display these achievements to the public, and thus honor the excellence of Chinese ceramics culture."

Lyu Chenglong, chief curator of the exhibition at the gallery, said that after the fall of the Qing Dynasty and the outer section of the Forbidden City was opened as a museum, the first exhibition hall displaying ceramics was in Wuying Dian in 1914.

"To some extent, the Forbidden City's ceramics gallery has returned to Wuying Dian," said Lyu, who is also the director of the museum's department of objects and decorative arts.

The Palace Museum had its first ceramics gallery in 1952, but it was moved around the palace compound in the later decades. The Hall of Literary Brilliance (Wenhua Dian) was the last ceramics gallery from 2008 to 2017, and exhibited about 400 artifacts.

"The ceramics collections at the Palace Museum are not only huge, but also include wide ranges of varieties, and many of them are clearly dated," Lyu said. "That enables us to design an exhibition in chronological order to unveil a continuous development of the artifacts."

Among the major treasures are artifacts produced by the top five porcelain kilns of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), often referred to as the zenith of ancient Chinese aesthetics.

The products of the imperial kiln of Ming and Qing dynasties, which stood in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, and exclusively served the royals, is another landmark in the exhibition. Some of these artifacts are displayed based on their functions, such as ceramics for weddings, dining tables, sacrifice rituals and religious ceremonies.

"Chinese ceramics widely spread to the rest of the world and nurtured local styles of porcelains," Lyu said. "But they also absorbed cultural elements from overseas as key witnesses of cross-cultural communication."

To bring more of the highlighted artifacts from the museum's warehouse to the public's view, a miniature exhibition "hall" is designed within the gallery, and some important but rarely exhibited pieces will take turns being displayed there. The first group of porcelains chosen for this hall include several exquisite openwork vases with revolving interiors made during reign of Qianlong (1736-95), an emperor known as a collector and an artwork enthusiast.

Although background information is presented in the gallery explaining the researchers' findings on ceramics in everyday language, Lyu's team put a QR code on each label in the exhibits. By scanning these, visitors can get more elaborate information of the artifact on their phones.

Due to the need to contain COVID-19, only 3,000 people per day are allowed in Wuying Dian-2,000 in the morning and 1,000 in the afternoon.
The Bitterroot River has a reputation of being a river on the move.

Even in the upper reaches of its west fork, the high water that comes each spring brings a new opportunity for the river to veer off to carve out new channels that offer good habitat for trout and new dangers for those who come here to catch them.

Last week, in between oar strokes, longtime Bitterroot fishing outfitter Jenny Wests voice had a touch of awe when she talked about the changes shes seen on the river every year.

Its always been amazing to me how a river can move these huge rocks, West said. The river used to go left right here and now its going straight. Theres a huge log jam right around that corner. Its a very nasty spot. Why is the river moving like that? There can be a lot of reasons why.

When you spend a lot of time on the river, you get a chance to learn its rhythms, she said. At the same time, you know that any day the river can change. A tree can fall across it from a windstorm or a beaver at work. You always have to be paying attention.

Wests raft was one of six that launched earlier this week as part of the West Fork Task Forces first woody debris assessment tour of the West Fork of the Bitterroot.
As of Wednesday, two units at St. John's were in outbreak status after almost eight weeks without a case, said David Trost, President and CEO of St. John's United. Because vaccination rates in Yellowstone County haven't gotten to recommended levels, facilities will continue to see COVID-19 cases, Trost said.

So far, the number of registered visitors has grown to 200.

"I normally come three to four times a year," Dubinsky said. "So, this last year in particular has been so difficult  not getting to come for his birthday, not getting to come for the holidays, things like that."

Tallman said he's happy to see his daughters.

"We get together right here in my room and it's a really marvelous thing," he said.

Highgate Senior Living resident Lena O'Dea and her son Bob O'Dea were finally able to meet in person in April after spending months visiting through a window. Both are fully vaccinated.

Complying with restrictions was an adjustment, since Bob O'Dea was used to visiting his mother multiple times a week. He's had to put his full trust into Highgate staff to take care of his mother when he couldn't be there.
During the trial, federal prosecutors claimed that Hild fraudulently inflated the value of Live Well Financials portfolio of complex reverse-mortgage bonds from 2015 to 2019 in order to induce various financial institutions into loaning more money to the company by tens of millions of dollars.

Hild deceived a third-party pricing service by providing it with inflated marks, resulting in the pricing service publishing valuations for the bonds far in excess of market value. Lenders were hoodwinked into lending far more than they otherwise would have, Audrey Strauss, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement.

The house of cards came crashing down with the unwinding of Live Well and the revelation to lenders that the bond portfolio had been overvalued by $200 million, he said.

The scheme allowed Live Well to grow its bond portfolio from 20 bonds with a value of about $50 million in 2014 to approximately 50 bonds with a value of more than $500 million by the end of 2016. In May 2019, Live Well wrote down the value of its portfolio by over $200 million.

Live Well financed the acquisition and growth of its bond portfolio through a series of loans in which Live Well used its bond portfolio as collateral.
The number of wait-listed students who ultimately gain acceptance can swing significantly from year to year. Last year, Virginia Tech offered admission to 4,000 wait-listed applicants. The year before that, when it had over-offered, it took none of the applicants from the waitlist.

So much uncertainty has made for a frustrating year for high school seniors, Jackson said. Students with great SAT scores and grade-point averages are getting wait-listed, and she cant explain why.

Youre thinking, my goodness what else could they have done? Jackson said. Obviously, the kids are frustrated. It raises the expectations so high.

Some students said life would be easier had they just gotten denied, Jackson said.

In the past, Jackson could look at a high school students credentials and tell the student which colleges are a good fit. She cant easily do that anymore. Getting into college is a more competitive endeavor every year.

It used to be that about one-third of Deep Run's applicants to Virginia Tech got wait-listed. This year, it was half. At UVA, the acceptance rate has dwindled from 39% to 25% in the past 16 years.
She also said that even Black students who call affluent communities home are less likely to enroll in advanced courses than their white and Asian peers, who are both overrepresented in AP courses. Those courses  which are run by the College Board, the same company that hosts the SATs  are courses that can offer some college credit to high school students.

Economically disadvantaged students are four times less likely to take AP courses than their non-economically disadvantaged peers, who make up 81% of AP participants, the researchers say.

Much of that has to do with a lack of resources in school districts in rural communities, where white poverty is concentrated. The same applies to under-resourced schools in city school systems. White students in rural communities, the study says, are underrepresented in AP coursework similarly to Black students regardless of their economic status.

It takes resources to offer these AP classes, Siegel-Hawley said. If a school division has trouble securing the resources needed to offer AP courses which may have lower enrollment numbers, or to find the staff to staff them with teachers who are trained and qualified to teach in these more specialized and advanced subject areas, then you run into ... the fact that an AP class isnt even offered in your high school.
Its a half-hour drive from downtown Fredericksburg, but rural residents of the Wilderness area are a world apart by computer.

For many of them, access to the internet is a satellite dish on top of a silo in the middle of a cornfield, said Kevin Marshall, who represents the Berkeley District on the Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors. If youre within 100 feet, you get pretty good service.

The technological gulf has been a hardship during a pandemic that has made high-speed internet a necessity for work and school, but Marshall helped open a virtual door for hundreds of families in northwestern Spotsylvania this spring through a partnership between the county and internet provider Data Stream Broadband, with some help from the federal government.

The Florida-based company mounted its microwave radio system on two towers at the Wilderness fire station that the county erected with more than $800,000 from the CARES Act, which Congress adopted more than a year ago in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Broadband service needs to be treated as a utility, said Marshall, who acknowledged the county has a long way to go to extend high-speed internet across a county that covers more than 400 square miles of Virginias Piedmont.
For a while, it was unknown what universities would do for graduation. In March, the University of Virginia announced it wouldnt do any in-person graduation events, but then it reversed course after Gov. Ralph Northam loosened restrictions on outdoor gatherings. Now, itll have an event at Scott Stadium, as well as another one for 2020 graduates.

Radford tried to make it as normal as possible in an effort to honor students who endured a challenging senior year. Students had their names called, and they walked across the stage to receive their diplomas and smiled for their relatives to take pictures.

This isnt how I imagined our last chapter would look, said Christopher Davis, the 2021 Student Government Association president, looking out at the business school students gathered in a lawn.

McNickle and Davis went on a spring break trip last year to Gatlinburg, Tenn. They didnt think at the time the coronavirus would be such a big deal. But while driving back to Virginia, it hit them.

We didnt know what to do, what to say or how to feel, Davis said. The only think we knew was that we couldnt come back to the place we call home, and we had to adapt to a new learning style.
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday extended festive greetings and best wishes to the country's working people ahead of the International Workers' Day, which falls on Saturday.





Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, sent the greetings and wishes on behalf of the CPC Central Committee.





The working people have risen to the challenges, working hard to overcome adverse circumstances such as the COVID-19 epidemic, thus contributing greatly to the development of the cause of the Party and the country, Xi said.





He called on the working people to take the lead in devoting themselves with full confidence to the great cause of building China into a modern socialist country in all respects and realizing the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation.





Xi urged the protection of the legitimate rights and interests of workers, and supporting and encouraging them to accomplish more achievements in the new era.




We only have to look at the past year to comprehend the devastation that viruses can cause. From smallpox, to influenza, to hepatitis, to polio, to the coronavirus, these microorganisms at times nearly have destroyed whole populations.

Scientific journalist Charles Mann notes that on the eve of Christopher Columbus first visit to the New World in 1492, the total native population in the Western Hemisphere is estimated to have numbered some 100 million.

Yet within a century, that figure had plummeted to only about 10 million. The native population had been isolated from the rest of the worlds population and had not developed immunities like the invading Europeans who practically were germ- and virus-spreading machines.

The development of antivirals did not take off until the 1960s. Medical scientists found it difficult to conquer viruses because of their complex structure and their ability to mutate to other forms. The development of several different types of antiviral drugs that stimulate the bodys immune system to attack the coronavirus has been a game saver during the past year. Medical scientists, however, constantly are watching for any new virus strains that could prove more devastating than any seen before.

5) Stem cell therapy (1970s)
I think of John Marshall as Americas expounding father. He is the longest-serving U.S. chief justice, leading the court for 34 years and shaping it into what it is today, coequal to the executive and legislative branches of government. The first of his great cases was Marbury v. Madison in 1803 that established the U.S. Supreme Courts right to expound constitutional law and exercise judicial review, empowering the Supreme Court to declare laws unconstitutional. After 218 years, Marbury still is working for the American people. Were working on a lesson plan today built around Marburys role in the landmark Brown v. Board decision. Marshalls body of work includes more than 1,000 decisions, more than 500 of which he authored, that consistently uphold the courts authority to interpret the Constitution and the importance of a strong federal government to our nations health.
Botetourt County Republicans voting in Saturdays firehouse primary stuck with the incumbents in two contested races for the board of supervisors, even though one of those incumbents is still a newcomer to politics.

In the vote for Amsterdam District supervisor, held Saturday afternoon at Lord Botetourt High School, incumbent Steve Clinton decisively defeated challenger Jim Ludington.

Clinton, who has served 18 years total on the board, described the race as the most competitive intraparty challenge hes ever faced, and one that highlighted differing ideologies within the Republican Party. He felt validated that when it comes to local government, what people really care about are schools and transportation and a flourishing economy.

In the second vote, Saturday morning at Buchanan Elementary School, recently appointed Buchanan District supervisor Amy Stinnett White cruised to victory over her opponent, Will Smith.

I am humbled by the support, White said. I am humbled by the win today and it only makes me want to work harder for the community.
Chase, in an interview, said she was distracted by the forum she was participating in and did not see the beginning of the altercation.

I sit in the back, and Im doing my videos. Im not really paying attention to whats going on. But I just knew that there was a commotion going on, Chase said. She said her aides were trying to avoid the sedan and get out of the way, but were still followed.

They waited until we were making a U-turn and we were at standstill to pull up quickly beside us, and run, run at the car, Chase said.

Chase said her aides did as they were trained to do.

We could have had a really bad situation right now, and Im so thankful that my personal aides are trained to handle that type of a situation ... and they did a flawless job, she said.

Chase and her aide said their van was unmarked, but speculated as to whether they were targeted.

During another campaign event in Virginia Beach on Friday afternoon, yard signs supporting Chase were visible from the back of the van.
However, as the wage goes up to $11 an hour and to $12 an hour in the next two years, Miller said, it will put more pressure on her business and other small, independent retail stores that already must compete with big-box chain stores and online retailers.

By mandating this across-the-board thing, it ends up not necessarily helping but hurting some people, Miller said. The prices will rise. The big corporations will be fine. But the small guys will be hurt, and to me that hurts the employees. As the small businesses go out, there is less choice. What you want is an employees market where they get to pick and choose and have plenty of jobs to choose from.

A shortage of labor during the pandemic already has pushed many businesses to increase hourly wages, said Corey Divine, the owner of Candidate Source, a local company that helps clients in the warehouse, distribution and manufacturing industries find employees.

In the past 12 months, a lot of our clients have moved away from anything even below $10 an hour, because of wage pressure, he said. Right now, every client we work with has probably 10 to 30 openings for warehouse workers, and some of our clients have increased pay rates from $12 an hour to $20 an hour because they are so desperate to find people.

***
For that reason, Im not moved by Gross concerns with the law that, at its essence, puts protesters on notice that assaulting police officers, burning buildings, looting stores and attacking innocent bystanders is not constitutionally protected conduct.

If you are a peaceful protester, you will not find yourself involved with rioters. If you do see violence breaking out at the Kumbaya march youve organized, you either get out of there as quickly as possible, try and quell the violence, or call the police. Better yet, you make sure that the violent elements will be neutralized before they even have a chance to infiltrate your peaceful protest.

Im also not persuaded that these individuals referenced by Gross as peacefully protesting at a protest that turns violent through no fault of their own are entirely innocent. I said that same thing when I saw the peaceful protesters at the Capitol on Jan. 6. While the vast majority may indeed have gone to D.C. to air their grievances, the ones who got caught up in the violent assault on our Capitol cant hide behind the I am innocent mantra unless they can prove that they were, in fact, innocent.

Whats good for the goose is good for the gander, or rather, whats good for the elephant is good for the donkey.
3. Is Attorney General Mark Herring a communist? Umm, no. One of the candidates for the Republican nomination for attorney general thinks so, though. Chuck Smith recently sent out a statement that had some unkind things to say about one of his opponents  pretty standard fare in a nominating case. But he couldnt resist taking some shots at the Democratic incumbent (who, it must be pointed out, faces his own intra-party challenge from Jay Jones). Among the things Smith had to say about Herring is that hes a communist. Really?

Herring might be wrong on many things  Republicans would certainly think so  but a communist? Come on, man. Even in the heated realm of campaign hyperbole, this seems way out of bounds. This kind of charge is simply not believable and making it says more about Smith than it does about Herring. If Herring is again the nominee, Republicans will have his whole record  nearly eight years worth  to run against. Theres surely plenty there that Republicans can find to be specific about. But shouting communist does not suggest that Smith is prepared to run a thoughtful, issues-based campaign.
The Kentucky Derby is upon us. This is the day when the racing industry will attempt to put a happy face on a brutal and ugly sport. I've owned race horses in the past and have seen first hand what this industry is all about.

More than 2,000 horses are killed racing or training across America every year and hundreds more die in their stalls. If a horse actually survives racing, many are sent to slaughter. That's their reward for being kept in 12x12 stalls 23 hours a day for almost their entire lives.

Another dirty little secret of racing is that many horses are drugged or doped to mask injuries and numb pain. Some are legal, but many are not. Trainers are very skilled at masking the presence of these drugs. So now you have the perfect storm - an injured horse who feels no pain running at top speed. This is a disaster waiting to happen, and unfortunately often does.

Here are a couple of facts about the Kentucky Derby that probably won't be talked about much this week.

The 1996 Derby winner was a beautiful chestnut horse named Ferdinand. Unfortunately he was not as successful as a stallion as he was as a race horse. This poor horse ended up dead in a Japanese slaughter house.
In his first address to Congress on Wednesday, President Joe Biden unveiled his ambitious and expensive economic stimulus plan in what is essentially the third blockbuster domestic funding proposal. Biden has already hit the road to sell his jobs, infrastructure and policing initiatives that add up to about $6 trillion and reflect a desire to restore the federal government to its old role during the New Deal and Great Society.

Biden, however, faces an uphill climb trying to sell his plans--both from Republican and a cross-section of Democratic lawmakers alike.

Biden now faces bipartisan pushback against his ambitious economic plans, including from his own party particularly from powerful West Virginia Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin, signaling the long slog ahead facing the White House's sweeping domestic agenda.

Big government is back

In his 1996 State of the Union address, former President Bill Clinton famously declared that "the era of big government is over." That declaration marked a radical shift for Democrats then trying to show attention to fiscal responsibility.

But Biden is now looking to turn back the hands of time, and has declared that Big Government is back

Biden has been unabashedly rolling out new, liberal federal programs, and has already notched one legislative achievement on his belt with the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill as well as a $2.3 trillion infrastructure bill, dubbed the American Jobs Plan.

And now he wants to throw in the American Families Plan for good measure.

About a month ago, the President signed into law the American Rescue Plan, designed to provide immediate relief to American families and communities. According to the White House, ~161 million payments of up to $1,400 per person have gone out to American households. The Rescue Plan is projected to lift more than five million children out of poverty this year, effectively cutting child poverty by more than half.

However, Bidens government feels that more needs to be done, which is what the American Families Plan is meant to accomplish.

The government is now touting the $1.8 trillion American Families Plan as an investment in American families to help them cover basic expenses, lower health insurance premiums, and advance the American Rescue Plans historic reductions in child poverty. The pay would be equal to two-thirds a workers average weekly wages, up to $4,000 per month, with workers in the lowest wage cohort having 80% of their average weekly wages replaced.

Overall, the American Families Plan includes $1.8 trillion in investments and tax credits consisting of about $1 trillion in investments and $800 billion in tax cuts for American families and workers.

Higher corporate tax

And now, the million dollar question: How will Biden pay for his ambitious plans?

Biden has proposed raising the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% and forcing multinational corporations to pay significantly more in taxes.

Wall Street, however, is quite skeptical that Bidens plans will see the light of day and has adopted a wait-and-see mode as investment firms encourage clients to see how lawmakers carve up the plan.

As Evercore ISI head of U.S. public policy research, Sarah Binahci has noted, There is a vast difference between what Biden proposes and what can eventually pass Congress.

For starters, Biden and the Democrats will have to win Sen. Manchin over.

Manchin, a pivotal swing vote in the 50-50 Senate, has raised concerns about the price tag along with the proposed tax increases, and is demanding for a bipartisan approach that will see Senate Democrats work hand in hand with their Republican counterparts.

In total, Biden has outlined almost $6 trillion in spending--a good $4 trillion on top of what Congress has already approved and a staggering sum given the countrys record deficits. Democrats have managed to muscle through a COVID-19 relief bill through both chambers essentially on party-line votes. Whether they will manage to do the same with the American Families Plan in the face of mounting opposition remains to be seen.

By Michael Kern for Safehaven.com
The Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee held a meeting on Friday to study and analyze current economic circumstances and related work.





The meeting was chaired by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.





Though China's economy has got off to a good start this year, with new progress made on high-quality development, the meeting pointed out that the country's first-quarter economic data should be looked at dialectically, and that the current economic recovery is still unbalanced, while the foundation is not solid.





At a time when there is less pressure to maintain steady growth, efforts should be made to advance solid and sound economic development, deepen supply-side structural reform, and remove the impediments to domestic and international circulations, according to the meeting.





The meeting underscored the importance of accurately understanding the new development stage, fully implementing the new development philosophy, and accelerating the establishment of the new development paradigm.





China should implement macro policies with precision while maintaining their continuity, stability and sustainability, according to the meeting.





It urged efforts to maintain stable expectations, keep the economy running within an appropriate range, and ensure it reaches a higher level of equilibrium during the course of the recovery.





The country's proactive fiscal policy should be implemented thoroughly, while a prudent monetary policy should be adopted to maintain reasonable and sufficient liquidity, the meeting stressed.





The yuan exchange rate should be kept basically stable at an appropriate and balanced level, it said.





The meeting called for efforts to guide the optimization and upgrading of industries, actively develop the industrial internet, and advance the work of peaking carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality in an orderly manner.





The country will promote reform and opening-up, with the development environment for the private sector to be optimized and the building of various platforms for high-level opening-up further accelerated.





Efforts should be made to guard against and defuse economic and financial risks, strengthen and improve the supervision of the platform economy, and promote fair competition.





Sticking to the principle that "houses are for living in, not for speculation," the country will increase the supply of affordable rental housing and joint-ownership housing, and prevent speculation on "school district houses."





Great importance should always be attached to epidemic prevention and control, and efforts must be made to promote vaccination in the country, according to the meeting.





Regarding the third national land survey, the meeting pointed out that targeted measures should be taken to tackle the problems exposed in the survey.





The meeting emphasized that China should stick to the strictest system for the protection of farmland and ensure that the total amount of arable land does not decrease.





China should appropriately determine the scale of land newly approved for construction projects and raise the efficiency in land use and development.





It was also noted at the meeting that formulating and issuing regulations regarding CPC organization work are of significance in upholding and strengthening the Party's leadership, advancing institutional and standardized organization work, and promoting its quality.
 Prez Biden gets timely reminder that criminal justice reform presents unique bipartisan opportunity | Main | "Obstruction of Justice: Redesigning the Shortcut" 

April 30, 2021

Counsel file initial sentencing briefs on "Blakely factors" in preparation for Derek Chauvin's sentencing

As reported in this local article, headlined "Prosecutors seek aggravated sentence against Derek Chauvin, argue George Floyd was treated with particular cruelty," the sentencing phase of the prosecution of the former police office convicted of killing George Floyd is now at the first briefing stage. Here are the basics:

Prosecutors asked a judge Friday to give Derek Chauvin a longer prison sentence for killing George Floyd, arguing that the crime was particularly cruel.... Chauvin will be sentenced on June 25. Minnesota sentencing guidelines suggest that an individual without any prior criminal history should be sentenced to 12.5 years in prison for second-degree murder. However, prosecutors have signaled their intent for months to seek an aggravated sentence against Chauvin. If Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill grants the prosecutions request, Chauvin could face a maximum of 30 years in prison. Prosecutor Matthew Frank argued in a 26-page memorandum that an aggravated sentence is warranted because Floyd was a particularly vulnerable victim and treated with particular cruelty. Frank also said Chauvin abused his position of authority, committed the crime with three or more others and in front of children. Chauvins attorney Eric Nelson filed a 10-page memorandum Friday opposing the prosecutions ask, arguing against each of their five points. Nelson wrote that Floyd being handcuffed did not make him particularly vulnerable. Nelson pointed to how Floyd was over 6 feet tall and weighed more than 200 pounds and said he was resisting arrest.

Here are links to these new filings with their opening paragraphs:

State's Memorandum of Law In Support of Blakely Aggravated Sentencing Factors

Defendant's Memorandum of Law Opposing Upward Durational Departure

On April 20, 2021, a jury convicted Defendant Derek Michael Chauvin of all three counts alleged in the Complaint against him in connection with the death of George Floyd: unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. The State has moved for an upward sentencing departure, alleging that facts support five different reasons for which the Court may impose an aggravated sentence. Mr. Chauvin, through his attorney Eric J. Nelson, Halberg Criminal Defense, submits the following in opposition to an upward durational sentencing departure.

April 30, 2021 at 09:12 PM | Permalink

Comments

I can see this Judge giving Chauvin between 20 and 30 years for these convictions, significantly above the suggested minimum sentence of 12.5 years. 9 minutes is a long time to keep your knee on the neck of a prone, handcuffed man. And the evidence supports the idea that Mr. Floyd was actually unconscious during the last 3 minutes Chauvin had his knee on his neck.

Posted by: Jim Gormley | May 1, 2021 9:18:46 AM

Yup. Treating another persons body like a broken piece of IKEA furniture is not a good look.

Posted by: hardreaders | May 1, 2021 11:15:31 AM

Post a comment
 "Obstruction of Justice: Redesigning the Shortcut" | Main | Another effective (but still incomplete) look at possible sentencing outcomes for those prosecuted for Capitol riot 

May 1, 2021

Assessments and concerns regarding Biden Administration's early criminal justice efforts

This past week brought the end of the first 100 days of Joe Biden's presidency along with a big speech from Prez Biden to Congress. In this prior post, I lamented a bit that the big speech did not devote much attention to criminal justice reform issues. And here is a round-up of some recent articles and commentary reviewing the work of the first 100 days and urging the Biden team to lean into criminal justice issues more:

From Christina Carrega at CNN, "Biden vowed to end the death penalty. Activists are demanding action as he nears the 100-day mark"

From Morgan Chalfant at The Hill, "White House officials meet virtually with criminal justice reform advocates"

From Marc Levin and Khalil Cumberbatch at USA Today, "On racial and criminal justice, Biden has shown some promise, but little progress"

From Billy Binion at Reason, "If Biden Is Serious About Criminal Justice Reform, He Needs To Get Serious About Qualified Immunity"

From Shaun King at Newsweek, "Joe Biden Must Fix the Racist Criminal Justice System He Helped Create"

From Erica Zunkel and James Zeigler at USA Today, "Biden administration needs to walk the walk on second chances for prisoners; The Department of Justice routinely opposes releases, doing so in clearly meritorious cases."

May 1, 2021 at 02:10 PM | Permalink

Comments

Post a comment
 Counsel file initial sentencing briefs on "Blakely factors" in preparation for Derek Chauvin's sentencing | Main | Assessments and concerns regarding Biden Administration's early criminal justice efforts 

The title of this post is the title of this new paper authored by Ellen Podgor just published in the BYU Law Review and now available at this link. Here is its abstract:

When one looks to accomplish consistency and predictability in the criminal justice system  important goals tied to achieving deterrence  the architecture of obstruction of justice remains important. It is insufficient to suggest that we have consistency in sentencing by using federal sentencing guidelines, when the charging process is undermined by its failure to provide uniformity. Achieving a consistent charging framework for federal obstruction of justice needs to be individualized, remain true to the contextual setting, and provide consideration for the specific processes of a trial, sentencing, or impeachment. But it also needs to have a structure that is not rearranged dependent upon the Attorney General, United States Attorney, the politics of the time, or varying interpretations of government officials.

This Article examines obstruction of justice in the federal system, looking at it in three different contexts: as a criminal offense, as a sentencing enhancement, and as a basis for a judicial or presidential impeachment. It provides a comprehensive picture of the elements of obstruction of justice crimes, the challenges brought to courts, and the constituencies handling these matters. It focuses on the prosecutorial practices in bringing obstruction charges in federal court including its use as a "short-cut" offense that is easily proved in some contexts, while noting the difference in other arenas, such as impeachment inquiries. Like its practice regarding false statements and perjury, and unlike that for corporate criminal liability, the Department of Justice offers little internal guidance when selecting obstruction of justice crimes as the basis for a criminal prosecution. The actual practice, as recently seen in the differing view of Special Counsel Robert Mueller and Attorney General William Barr in examining the allegations of obstruction conduct by President Donald Trump  outlined in the Mueller Report  highlights the inconsistency in this area of the law. This Article provides an empirical and diagnostic lens to study the law and practice of whether federal obstruction of justice crimes require an underlying criminal offense or, alternatively can be prosecuted as a sole charge or in conjunction with other shortcut offenses such as false statements and perjury.
ORANGE CITY, Iowa -- After last year's celebration of Dutch heritage was canceled amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Orange City Tulip Festival is back for its 80th year.

Thousands of people have been known to flock to the Northwest Iowa city, which has a population of just over 6,100, to marvel at dancing children and adults in the streets, indulge in Dutch treats and visit replica windmills. This year's festival runs from May 13-15.

"All the volunteers are excited about it. We're happy to be able to bring it back and take some precautions as we need to," said Mike Hofman, executive director of the Orange City Chamber of Commerce. "We take the health of our volunteers and visitors very seriously. But, with the vaccine rollouts and the case numbers in our area, we feel we're to a point where we can proceed with caution."

Hofman said extra handwashing stations will be available and social distancing will be implemented inside buildings where events are taking place. Masks may be required inside some of those facilities when social distancing isn't possible, he said.

"We'll have extra handwashing stations. We always have handwashing stations and that kind of stuff," he said. "We're just looking at the CDC guidelines and staying in contact with local and state health officials, as well."

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"Soil conditions for planting have really been pretty good, but the temperature's been the thing that's been holding everybody back. And so, we've seen a little bit of activity, but pretty limited. Most producers are holding off until we start to get a warming trend," he added.

Many producers were expected to be out in the fields this weekend, as temperatures were expected to soar into the 80s' on Saturday.

Tom Oswald, who farms near Cleghorn, Iowa, described soil conditions in Cherokee County as "quite dry last year."

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Still, soil conditions looked good when he checked them last month, before spring planting -- excessively water-logged soil can be a hindrance to planting.

"Oftentimes we fight too wet (conditions), and I'm not seeing that as an issue yet, although a couple of storms could put it that way, and so that's kind of promising," he said.

Oswald, a no-till farmer who's concerned with soil conservation, said in mid-April that he had seen a lot of farmers in his area "getting stuff ready for when the weather improves."

"We're starting to get recharged," he said. "Our fields are looking pretty good."
The caravan gathered at the Walmart parking lot on Cabela Drive and the vehicles, embellished with Trump flags, headed to McDermotts Hammond home, where a group had gathered to show support for the mayor.

McDermott said he estimates there were about 50 people who had gathered. He said they waved and welcomed the group into Hammond, and the caravan drove by without incident. There were no issues or confrontations between either of the groups.

Hammond police facilitated the caravan for traffic safety.

It was like having a parade coming right to my neighborhood, McDermott said. It was bigger than I thought, more cars, but everyone was nice and my supporters who were in my driveway were really nice.

Before the caravan left the Walmart parking lot, members with bullhorns addressed the group, expressing that their First Amendment rights were under attack. Members advised the group that they should remain peaceful and warned against the potential of leftist mobs in the city.

The group that was waiting at McDermotts home included his friends, family and Region residents who wanted to gather as an antithesis to the Trump caravan. John Cantrell, who lives in the neighborhood, said he doesnt understand what the groups purpose for driving by was.
The number of new users of illicit drugs in China in 2020 was 30.6 percent lower than the previous year, according to a national teleconference on drug control on Friday.

Anti-drug departments have maintained a high-pressure crackdown on criminal activities involving drugs, and worked together to intercept the inflow of drugs from overseas.

In 2020, a total of 64,000 cases involving drug crimes were cracked nationwide, with 92,000 suspects arrested and 55.5 tons of drugs seized, according to data released at the conference.

To reduce the harm done by drugs, a national campaign was carried out to boost drug rehabilitation. The number of drug users was 1.8 million last year, down 16.1 percent year on year.

Efforts have also been made to promote anti-drug education. A national youth anti-drug knowledge competition was held last year, covering more than 89 million students from 213,000 schools.

In 2020, China cooperated with international community including the United Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the European Union on drug control. Efforts have also been made to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with relevant countries in areas such as the control of fentanyl substances, according to the conference.
There have been growing pains since the school opened last August. Some families have left and others have come on board.

Theyve decided to create their own state-certified curriculum instead of using Blossom and Root. Mortgage payments are now part of the fees.

Whats funny, said Jorden Brooks, whose children Luka and Harper Vanek attend, is with all the challenges that usually surround discussing money, its never been a problem for the co-op. That was a happy surprise.

We dont all pay the same amount, which is what makes us a full cooperative, she said. The more volunteer times you are able to put in, the less monetary value you can put in. Some parents dont teach.

Instead, they may be busy on weekends helping turn a house into a school. The Benson home, which is close to many of them, now gives them space for a library, teachers lounge, three classrooms, a large backyard and a basement and attic to grow into when the time is right.

The house was in the middle of renovations when they closed on it in March. It had no appliances and they had to install things like baseboards and tiles.
Last summer, I had the opportunity to serve on the Governors Economic Recovery Advisory Board. We were charged with working for 100 days to bring forth bold recommendations to help grow Iowa.

The need for affordable workforce housing emerged as a top priority, outranked only by access to childcare and broadband investment. In Sioux City and across the state, many of our essential workers struggle to pay their housing expenses. This group includes EMTs and paramedics, childcare workers, food servers, grocers, nursing assistants, pharmacy aides, preschool teachers, retail salespeople, teaching assistants and young professionals, among others. Research from the National Low-Income Housing Coalition shows that individuals with these occupations are all too often unable to afford a two-bedroom market rate apartment and utilities in Iowa without spending more than 30% of their income on housing.

Gov. Reynolds comprehensive omnibus housing bill addresses many of the ideas the Advisory Board proposed after months of research, input, and data collection from across the state. This bill will increase the supply of safe housing options, while protecting and expanding housing opportunities for Iowans of all backgrounds. It deserves our full support.
Turning the nations capital into the 51st state was already seen as an uphill battle. And it became even more steep on Friday, when Sen. Joe Manchin turned into the first Democratic senator to publicly come out against the measure. Considering the 50-50 Senate split, the opposition by the senator from West Virginia could end up delivering a fatal blow to the push for D.C. statehood. As far as Manchin is concerned, the only proper way to turn Washington, D.C. into a state is through an amendment to the Constitution.

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If Congress wants to make D.C. a state, it should propose a constitutional amendment  and let the people of America vote, Manchin said in a radio interview. When Manchin was asked directly if he would oppose a move by Congress to make the nations capital a state, he made his views clear: Yes, I would. Manchin said that any unilateral action by Congress would lead to a challenge at the Supreme Court. Every legal scholar has told us that, Manchin said. So why not do it the right way and let the people vote to see if they want to change?

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Stasha Rhodes, who is the campaign director for the group 51 for 51 that is advocating for D.C. statehood, pushed back against Manchin saying that his own state was the product of legislation. Adding states through legislation is how its been done in the United States for 200 years. It is how West Virginia was admitted in 1863, how Hawaii was admitted in 1959, and how DC will be admitted in 2021, Rhodes said. No member of the Senate should deny voting rights to 700,000 mostly Black and Brown Washingtonians based on a flimsy understanding of the Constitution and American history.

Manchin spoke on the issue a week after the Democratic-led House of Representatives approved legislation to make D.C. the 51st state in a 216-208 vote along party lines. Biden has thrown his support behind the measure. Manchin was only one of four Senate Democrats who had yet to give their opinions on the measure. And while his opposition is certainly a blow to the cause, even with his support the bill was likely headed for failure because the Senate filibuster rules would require 60 senators to support the measure in order for it to advance.
The Bidens troubled canine son, Major, is back in the White House after an intensive few weeks of schooling, the family confirmed on Friday. Major and his brother, Champ, were initially sent back to Delaware for a spate of training after Major bit a Secret Service agents hand in March, causing a minor injury. A few weeks later, the White House revealed that the 3-year-old German shepherd had nipped another staff member while out on a walk. Major then underwent another round of training, this time at an offsite location in the D.C. area.

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Thats a lot of nipping, especially from a dog that likely weighs well over 60 pounds! And yet, the Bidens have seen fit to welcome Major back into the peoples house, which remains chock full of weird noises, unfamiliar smells, and scary-looking, bite-able people. He is such a sweet, lovable dog, he really is, Jill Biden told the Today show by way of explanation.

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The Biden administration is also adding another variable to the mix: the family cat, who is set to move into the White House any day now. On Today, the first lady reassured viewers that Majors minders took him into a shelter with cats as part of his training regimen and he did fine.

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Be that as it may, and as comprehensive as his training may have been, under no circumstances should Major be returning to the scene of his two recent crimes. Biting once might be a fluke; biting a second time is a pattern. Im sure Major is still a very good boyhe has a goofy smile, his fur looks soft, and a temporary lapse in obedience is to be expected when a dog moves into a new home. But its one thing to freak out and poop on the floor (which Major also didor maybe Champ; apparently its hard to tell their poops apart). Its quite another to bite two employees at your dads workplace.

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To me, thats a clear indication that the White House is too stressful a home for this high-strung dog. Since pets cant speak, their owners have to divine their moods and desires from their behavior. Thats often a tough task: Its not always easy to tell, for instance, whether a cat is staring at you because you have a piece of bacon stuck in your teeth or because its enjoying a vivid fantasy of your painful death. It seems that Major is trying to get his message across in a more obvious waywith his teeth. Hes telling his parents that he feels uneasy and threatened in his new home, so much so that hes become a terrible nuisance, and maybe even a danger, to the people around him. His bites are saying hed much rather be frolicking across a suburban lawn with a trusted caretaker and a favorite toy, with occasional visits from the Bidens and their grandkids to spice up the routine.

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The Bidens should listen to their dog now and send him back to Delaware for good, before he bites again. The workplace-safety argument makes itself. No one at the White House should have to fear a run-in with the presidents dog. Though no severe injuries resulted from his first two White House bites, theres no telling what those plenty-capable jaws will do next time. But rehoming Major, or keeping him at the Biden home in Delaware, is a political imperative, too. Major has already distracted from the presidents celebration of his highly successful first 100 days as president, given that Joe and Jill are on a victory tour that has nowon the Today show, at leastturned into a pet apology tour. If their very good boy acts out again, that will be another news cycle lost, and another round of bad PR for both dog and presidential administration.

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Things could get even stickier for the Bidens in the future, if Major chooses to keep clamping down his jaws. Assuming that Majors victims didnt provoke him, Major could already be classified as a dangerous dog in the D.C. legal code. Such dogs have to be registered with the city, and their owners have to post warning signs outside their property (which would be its own PR disaster for the White House). They cant be out in public unless theyre on a leash, muzzled, and under the control of a responsible person. Also, in D.C. and elsewhere, if a dog has bitten someone before, the owner is expected to take extra care to prevent it from happening againand if they dont, they could be subject to additional liability. Its not clear whether the White House instated additional safety precautions in response to Majors initial bite, but according to an expert on aggressive dogs who spoke with Slate, the training he received isnt likely to work. And now that hes bitten twice, they should be taking even greater care to make sure he doesnt have the chance to do it againspecifically, by moving him to a quieter, chiller home.

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If youre a dog lover who just cant imagine the thought of Major being away from his mom and dad, consider that this might be for Majors own good. What if he seriously maims someone? Beyond the damage to his victim, this could lead to a worst-case-scenario for the beloved dog. In D.C., the mayor can destroy a dangerous dog if it has been determined to be a threat to public safety. Picture the scenario: A dog who has bitten more than two people in its bustling home-slash-workplace, and who remains in the environment that was stressful enough to trigger the bites, inflicts a gash on an employee. Its hard to imagine such a dog would not qualify as a public safety risk.

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Any dog except Major, that is. Im fairly confident Mayor Muriel Bowser wouldnt dare issue an order to destroy the First Pet. But imagine if she did. Imagine the trauma certain Major-loving Americans would suffer, on the tails of an already-traumatic pandemic and four years under Donald Trump. You never want the life of the countrys favorite pet to rest on a single politicians discretion. This should not be a difficult decision to make. If you look up better safe than sorry in an idiom dictionary right now, Ill bet youll find a photo of a sad (but serene!) Major riding an Amtrak train back to Delaware.

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So why have the Bidens dug in their heels on this multi-bite dog? Sure, they adore him, but whos really tugging the chew toy here? Well, theres the Major Biden hive to contend with, for one thing. Adult people who go absolutely wild for the presidents dogs are clamoring to put the biter back in office, and that is one interest group you do not want to piss off. On Thursday, the Oval Pawffice, an unauthorized fan account that has amassed an absolutely inexcusable 214,000 Twitter followers, tweeted an imagined message from Majors adoptive big brother, the 12-year-old Champ:

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 Its getting increasingly harder to not have my brother Major here, with me. I miss him more than woofs can say, I am counting the days and hours until hell be back where he belongs: with me and with his family. I am a patient pupper, but time is impawrtant at my age. - Champ pic.twitter.com/gwE8vooPCf  The Oval Pawffice  DOTUS Fans (@TheOvalPawffice) April 30, 2021

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This is a pro-Major pressure campaign. By raising the specter of Champs death, the Oval Pawffice has cleverly tied the Biden administrations hands. (Amazingly, people replied in earnest to the Champ tweet with photos of their own elderly dogs and reflections on the importance of an elderly dogs final months.) Now, if the White House relegates Major to Delaware, theyll be accused of depriving Champ of his brothers comforting presence in what little precious time he has left on this earth.

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The animal welfare community also has some influence here, as well as some responsibility for putting Major on a pedestal in the first place. Since Major is the first shelter dog to reside in the White House, many animal rescue agencies issued jubilant statements upon Bidens election, predicting that Majors newfound prominence would help demystify and encourage pet adoption among the American public. The Delaware shelter where Major was living when Biden adopted him held an elaborate indoguration ceremony in the pups honor. In an image posted to the ASPCAs Instagram account on Nov. 9, the organizations CEO kvelled, This is a wonderful opportunity for people to see how fostering and adopting animals saves lives, helps animal shelters, and brings love and joy to families.

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Love and joy are great, but what happens when the countrys most famous adopted dog bites people when hes scared? The adopt-dont-shop crowd could not have expected Major to be such an imperfect ambassador, but such are the perils of demanding that a glass-ceiling-breaker present a flawless image of a marginalized community. In a way, Major is a victim of the pressures of respectability politics, and of the inadequacy of representation as a means of righting structural inequities. He never asked to hold the fate of every U.S. shelter dog in his trembling little paws.

More importantly, the Bidens shouldnt be asking him to take on that responsibility when hes not ready to receive it. Major cant thrive in the White House. Sure, maybe it would look bad to admit that a few weeks of training cant cure this rescued animal of fear-based aggression. But imagine how much worse it will look when he acts out again.
A Republican lawmaker in the Oregon House of Representatives is facing two criminal charges for letting rioters into the state Capitol in December. State Rep. Mike Nearman was charged Friday with official misconduct in the first degree, which is a class A misdemeanor, and criminal trespass in the second degree, which is a class C misdemeanor. The charges came after months of investigation into what happened on Dec. 21, when rioters got into the Capitol at a time when it was closed to the public and lawmakers held an emergency session on COVID-19 relief. Surveillance footage showed Nearman leaving the Capitol into a group of protesters trying to get inside. The move appeared designed to allow the demonstrators, who were demanding an end to virus-related restrictions, into the building.

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Shortly after they were able to go inside the demonstrators attacked law enforcement officers, with one even spraying bear mace. That allowed the rioters to push their way further inside the Capitol until they were finally pushed out. After he appeared to leave the path open to protesters, Nearman walked around the building and entered again on the other side.

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Nearman had already been under fire from his colleagues after the surveillance video made clear he played a key role in allowing the demonstrators inside. House Speaker Tina Kotek called for his resignation saying that he put every person in the Capitol in serious danger and stripped him of his committee assignments. After the charges, Oregon House Majority Leader Barbara Smith Warner also called for Nearmans resignation. Nearman should have resigned in January, the moment that security footage confirmed his involvement and assistance in the attack, Smith Warner said in a statement. Given todays charges, its clear that hes got to go. I urge every one of my colleagues, in every caucus, to call this out for what it is and join me in demanding that Nearman resign immediately.

Nearman now has to appear in court on May 11 or face arrest.
Assistance for UK nationals applying for residency in Slovakia extended

IOM has provided UK nationals with advice and support in taking the action the Slovak government has required when securing correct residence documentation.

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The UK Government is extending support for potential at-risk groups including old people, disabled people and those with language difficulties who live in Slovakia and across Europe, by continuing the activity of the UK Nationals Support Fund (UKNSF) and supplementing it with an additional 1 million.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) office in Slovakia provides practical advice to UK nationals who need additional support with their residency applications, including how to exchange their residence card, to guiding them through their online appointment booking with the Foreigners' Police.

The IOM provides vital support to UK nationals in Slovakia who need additional support with their residency application or to exchange their EU Residence Card, said Nigel Baker, British Ambassador to Slovakia. I urge all UK nationals living in Slovakia to take action as soon as possible before the June 30 deadline, in order to be able to evidence their rights under the Withdrawal Agreement.

A detailed guidance

From our archive: The residence status of UK citizens in Slovakia will change Read more

The IOMs website provides information to UK nationals in Slovakia on how to process their residency applications.

The site offers UK nationals and their family members detailed guidance on residency requirements and procedures. The IOM has made a short video explaining the service they can provide for UK nationals, which is free of charge.

UK nationals should visit the Living in Slovakia Guide to check what action they may need to take on a residence, driving licences, health care, passports and travel.

28. Apr 2021 at 11:34 | Compiled by Spectator staff
The war is over when it comes to the $765 million that will go to the foundation of the Omaha-area inventor and businessman who created Streck Laboratories.

Connie Ryan, CEO of Streck, said in a statement that the company will not appeal the Nebraska Supreme Courts decision last month to uphold a judges determination that Streck owed more than three-quarters of a billion dollars to the estate of its late founder, Wayne Ryan. The foundation created by Ryan and his late wife, Eileen, is to receive that money.

The value of the company came into dispute after Connie Ryan, the Ryans daughter, took over Streck in 2013. In time, Wayne Ryan, who had retired, wanted to cash out his shares and wanted Connie Ryan to seek a sale of the company. Wayne Ryan died in 2017.

The recent Nebraska Supreme Court decision concludes a lengthy and disappointing process, Connie Ryan said in the statement. We have been planning for this potential outcome and the financial transaction, while significant, will have minimal impact on our company. Streck operations will continue as normal and staffing levels will not be affected.
The so-called forced labor in Xinjiang is a false assertion, a spokesperson with the government of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region said on Friday.

In response to accusations of forced labor in Xinjiang, spokesperson Xu Guixiang told a press briefing that the employment of people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang is protected by law, and Xinjiang has been strictly implementing the country's labor law.

Moreover, people in Xinjiang have freedom in employment, and what the government does is to improve employment policies and provide a good employment environment, Xu added.

"Whether in Xinjiang or any other region of China, the rights and interests of workers of all ethnic groups are respected and protected by law, including the rights to religious beliefs, ethnic cultures and languages," Xu said.

The forced labor accusations against Xinjiang, which were fabricated by certain anti-China forces in the United States and the West, constitute power politics and bullying practices, said Xu.

He added that their purpose is to undermine China's participation in global value chains, weaken the global competitiveness of Chinese enterprises, and use the Xinjiang conspiracy to contain China.
Among other bills passed Thursday:

Court fees. A fee charged to support the Nebraska judges retirement plan would double over four years under LB 17, passed 33-13. Sen. Mark Kolterman of Seward, the chairman of the Nebraska Retirement Systems Committee, introduced the bill to shore up the retirement plan.

The bill would increase the judges retirement fee from $6 to $12 by July 1, 2025, and direct a larger portion of other court fees into the plan. It would also require the state to start putting tax dollars equal to 5% of judges compensation into the plan.

Fireworks. State law would allow Nebraskans to buy a wider variety of fireworks under LB 152, introduced by Sen. Julie Slama of Peru and passed on a 42-3 vote.

If signed into law by the governor, the bill would go into effect in time for Nebraskans to enjoy bigger booms and flashier displays on Independence Day. But the bill would not supersede local ordinances, so cities and villages could still limit the types of fireworks sold in their communities.
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Approximately 5,000 youths in North Carolina leave the foster care system each year. Between 2016 and 2018, 12 to 18 percent of those leaving the system were between 16 and 20 years old. Many of these youths face life alone, without the support of a family and permanent home like many of their peers. Often these young people lack the skills to be successful young adults. The CHA Transitional Living Program removes these barriers to success by providing an opportunity to acquire the academic, social, emotional, vocational, and independent living skills to be successful as an adult.

We have to do something to help these young adults prepare for living on their own. The numbers clearly illustrate that they need assistance in order to be successful, CHA Chief Executive Officer Celeste Dominguez said. Thousands of kids each year leave the foster care system and a good number of them are aging out with no resources to support them.

That was Susans situation. At age 12, her father was arrested, and she was left on her own. She didnt trust anyone. She was defiant and argumentative with her caregivers, teachers and peers. After struggling in the foster care system for five years and adult responsibilities staring her in the face, Susan arrived at CHAs Transitional Living Program.
The church also sent food to several smaller ones, according to White.

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While it was only a dozen or so people from the church on Thursday, she said members from wards that were involved with this disbursement are: Lake Norman, Cornelius, Mooresville, Gastonia, Mountain Island, Huntersville and Belmont. They all played roles in the process.

Open heart, open doors

While the building the distribution took place in normally is focused on manufacturing fibers for many different uses, on Thursday afternoon it was a place for charity.

Darren White, the senior vice president of Fibrix, opened up a corner of the companys warehouse so the food could be packed and loaded for the nonprofits to pick up.

Weve got the space. Were an active manufacturer, but weve got the space available so it just works, White said. It was a great opportunity to be of service to others and help make this happen.

The church was grateful for the hospitality.

We are very grateful to Fibrix LLC of Statesville who has consistently provided warehouse resources and volunteers so we can accommodate these donations. When we approached Chris Quinney, Statesville plant manager, with this recent request for help, he replied: Our team would be glad to support this great cause by accommodating and assisting with the transfer of these foods, Sue White said. Without their assistance, we would not have been able to receive these commodities for our area. We cant do everything, but we each can do something. This something that Fibrix LLC did for us was The reason we were able to receive these food commodities in our area.

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The current tiny Democratic majorities in the House and Senate in Washington, and a Senate filibuster now used to stop almost all significant legislation, have prevented Biden from being able to match FDRs level of accomplishments during his first 100 days.

If Biden would like during his first year as president to match an FDR level of presidential achievement, it will likely be necessary to negotiate deals with at least 10 Senate Republicans. Or Biden will need to persuade a group of very reluctant Senate Democrats to abandon the filibuster power once and for all.

This is an updated version of an article originally published on April 17, 2017.

Robert Speel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Foreign friends who are objective and impartial are welcome to visit China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, an official said Friday.

Li Xuejun, deputy director of the standing committee of the regional people's congress, made the comments at a webinar, adding that Xinjiang also firmly opposes anyone who is biased or engages in investigative activities based on the presumption of guilt.

The webinar, titled "Xinjiang is a wonderful land," was co-organized by the Xinjiang regional government and the Chinese Embassy to New Zealand.

Memetili Turgun, from Bachu County of Xinjiang's Kashgar Prefecture, used to be deeply bewitched by extremism.

"The extremists incite us to sacrifice ourselves to violent and terrorist activities in order to turn humans into demons," he recalled.

His life was turned around when he was persuaded by his family to receive training at a local vocational education and training center. After graduation from the center, he got a job at a real-estate company, earning about 10,000 yuan (about 1,500 U.S. dollars) a month.

"It is the education and training center that has given me a rebirth. I'm very grateful," said Memetili Turgun.

More than 1,200 people from over 100 countries and regions, including officials from international organizations, diplomats, journalists and religious leaders, have visited Xinjiang since the end of 2018, official statistics show.
Editors note: Information is provided by the Cowlitz County Corrections Department and local law enforcement agencies. Each individual named in this report is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Violating protection order  Longview police officers Thursday arrested Tabatha Kerr, 28, of an unknown location on suspicion of violating a protection order and fourth-degree assault.

Burglary  Longview police officers Thursday arrested Michael Warner, 43, of an unknown location on suspicion of second-degree burglary and third-degree theft.

Assault

100 block of Rudy Ross Road, Woodland. Thursday.

1600 block of Kessler Boulevard, Longview. Thursday.

Alabama Street and 27th Avenue, Longview. Thursday. Man harassed passing vehicles including hitting a school bus and jumping on and blocking a city bus. Also punched a man standing on the street.

2200 block of 32nd Avenue, Longview. Thursday.

400 block of 20th Avenue, Longview. Thursday. Stabbed with broken pipe.

Burglary
Cowlitz County Health and Human Services is opening its vaccine site Sunday at the Event Center to give second doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to patients who received shots three weeks ago, as well as some first doses, with no appointment needed.

The site will prioritize giving second doses to the more than 800 people who received their first dose at the site April 11, according to a health department press release. Patients should return at the same time as their first-dose appointment.

Between 2 and 4 p.m. people 16 and older can show up to the site with no appointment needed, to receive their first or second Pfizer dose while the supply lasts. At least 300 doses will be available for people without an appointment.

Everyone who gets their second dose at the site must provide their COVID-19 vaccination record card. Second doses will not be provided less than 21 days after the first dose, according to the press release.

Site to close

The vaccination site will remain open on Sundays through May 16. The county will then close the site to prioritize mobile vaccination clinics, according to the release.

+2 Cowlitz County COVID-19 cases flattening, hospitalizations above state average Cowlitz Countys COVID-19 case rates seem to be flattening, but hospitalization rates remain above the state average, county health officials 
Benson said once during a boat ride, she accidently dropped her prized Snoopy stuffed animal overboard. Without hesitation, Sanders dove in to save it.

Thats him in a lot of ways, she said. He fully understands that if this is important to you, and I can do something to help, he would dive in.

Sanders also loved his motorcycle, Gertrude. Laura Sanders inherited it, and said while shes nervous about keeping up on the maintenance, she plans to ride it around this summer for her dad.

Her knack for vehicle repair is another thing he passed down.

Its never been my hobby, but just something I would do with him, she said. Now that hes not here Im still going to do this, even if it means sometimes turning to YouTube instead of her dad.

Laura Sanders said in the weeks after her dads death, more people than she dreamed of have reached out, sharing photos of weddings Rick Sanders officiated and telling her just how much he meant to them.

Everyone is missing him in so many different ways, she said. He had more friends and more young people who looked up to him, people he touched in meaningful ways, than I thought.
Delivery times for Apple Inc.s latest high-end iPad Pros have slipped into July just hours after going on sale, indicating a combination of strong work-from-home demand and anticipated supply constraints.

Nearly all versions of Apples new 12.9-inch iPad Pro models are now seeing delivery estimates ranging from June 24 to July 8 in the U.S., according to checks of Apples website by Bloomberg News on Friday. Apple sells the iPad Pro in two colors, five storage capacities, and in versions with just Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi and 5G. The only versions currently arriving sooner are models with 2 terabytes of storage and no 5G.

The 12.9-inch iPad Pro uses a MiniLED screen, which Apple calls the Liquid Retina XDR Display. Bloomberg News reported earlier in April that these screens are more difficult to produce and would likely see supply issues. The smaller 11-inch models that lack the new display are still arriving in May, according to a check of Apples website on Friday at about 1 p.m. New York time.

Earlier this week, Apple warned of a $3 billion to $4 billion hit to third quarter revenue due to expected iPad and Mac supply constraints related to some legacy components.
Googles Play Store is one of the largest repositories of applications on any platform, with both free and paid versions of apps. Many of these apps offer trials for premium features via in-app subscription options that later auto-debit users on a monthly basis. A new report suggests that Google is going to pause free trials for services in the country, to comply with recent regulations.

Also read: Google is doing away with Play Store app listings that look like scams

According to a report by XDA, Google will suspend all free trials for new subscription sign-ups by users in India, along with introductory pricing. This comes exactly a month after the Reserve Bank of India deferred until September end, the enforcement of its e-Mandate on online recurring transactions. On March 31, the central bank had stated that it was pushing back the date despite giving stakeholders enough time to comply with the directions.

A sample screen of what the single access pass could look like. (XDA)

During the extended timeline, no new mandate for recurring online transactions shall be registered by stakeholders, unless such mandates are compliant with the framework, the RBI notification from March 31 reads. It is likely that Google is pausing new subscription sign-ups in order to fully comply with the notification from the central bank. However, Google hasnt left developers in the dark and has provided a temporary solution in the form of single access passes, according to the report.

Developers will now have to show their customers a single access pass instead of a recurring subscription, which means after the pre-paid period, access to that app or service should revert to the free tier and users will have to buy another single access pass again if they want to continue using the service or app.

Read more: Customer privacy, data protection non-negotiable, says RBI Dy Governor M Rajeshwar Rao

The report says that Google will push these changes out to users in early May and that developers are urged to inform users that their subscriptions will not renew. They have also been asked to replace the components in their apps that request users in India to subscribe to a service, replacing it with a single access equivalent, according to the report.
China's top legislator calls for improved work to better serve country, people

Xinhua) 16:41, April 30, 2021

BEIJING, April 30 (Xinhua) -- Top Chinese legislator Li Zhanshu on Thursday called on the people's congresses to improve their work so that they can meet the legal demand for the modernization of China's governance system and governance capacity.

Li, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, made the remarks at a symposium attended by senior legislators from local people's congresses.

He highlighted the necessity of upholding the organic unity of Party leadership, the running of the country by the people, and law-based governance in the work of the people's congresses.

Li called for a thorough study of the new circumstances and problems faced by the people's congresses in their new-era work to define the roles, duties and missions of the people's congresses.

Acknowledging the efforts of local people's congresses in performing their duties, Li urged them to maintain close ties with the people.

(Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Liang Jun)
A Chinese military spokesperson on Friday slammed Japan for its "extremely erroneous and irresponsible step of hyping the so-called 'China threat'," saying China deplores and opposes it.

In response to the 2021 edition of the diplomatic blue book released by Japan on Tuesday, Chinese Ministry of National Defense spokesperson Wu Qian said the blue book maliciously attacks and slanders China and grossly interferes in China's internal affairs.

Referring to the part about China's military expenditure and military strength, Wu said that China follows the path of peaceful development, pursues a defensive national defense policy, and maintains openness and transparency regarding its military expenditure and strength.

China's annual defense expenditure has remained below 2 percent of its GDP over the last 30 years, lower than that of the world's major countries and below the global average of 2.6 percent, said Wu.

The spokesperson said China's stance on maritime issues is consistent and clear, and the Diaoyu Island and its affiliated islands are an inalienable part of China's territory.

He also warned Japan against interfering in the Taiwan question, which falls within China's internal affairs.

Wu urged Japan to view China and the Chinese military in an objective and rational way, and to make constructive efforts to promote the sound and stable development of bilateral relations.
Polarized debates have animated the United States for months

About a third of the employees at US productivity software firm Basecamp have announced their resignations after the company banned political conversations in the workplace.

The mass walkout came after Basecamp chief executive and co-founder Jason Fried published a blog post on Monday explaining new rules adopted by the company, including a ban on "societal and political discussions on our company Basecamp account."

He also announced the end of some "paternalistic" employee benefits, such as fitness and continuing education allowances, and said there would be "no more lingering or dwelling on past decisions."

"Given the recent changes at Basecamp, I've decided to leave my job as Head of Design," Jonas Downey, who had worked for the IT firm since 2011, said on Twitter Friday.

About 20 of Basecamp's 57 employees have announced their resignations on Twitter, according to a tally by developer John Breen, who works for another firm.

To justify the ban on political conversations, Fried said they had become "a major distraction" in the current climate.

"Sensitivities are at 11, and every discussion remotely related to politics, advocacy, or society at large quickly spins away from pleasant," he wrote.

"You shouldn't have to wonder if staying out of it means you're complicit, or wading into it means you're a target."

Polarized debates have animated the United States for months, from the Black Lives Matter movement, to the presidential election in November, to transgender rights.

"We make project management, team communication, and email software. We are not a social impact company... We don't have to solve deep social problems," Fried added.

He said the company would pay employees the cash value of the axed benefits so they "can spend on whatever they'd like."

"We've committed to a deeply controversial stance, some employees are relieved, others are infuriated, and that pretty well describes much of the public debate around this too," Basecamp co-founder and chief technology officer David Hansson wrote Wednesday in another blog post.

The Basecamp staffers who announced their resignation also included the head of marketing and head of customer support.

"I've resigned as Head of Customer Support at Basecamp. I'm four months pregnant, so I'm going to take some time off to build this baby and hang out with my brilliant spouse and child," Kristin Aardsma tweeted on Friday.

"I don't know what's next for me professionally, but the support team at Basecamp was the most amazing group of people I've ever worked with. I'll miss them every day."

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced a similar ban last year, with chief executive Brian Armstrong saying in October around 60 of the firm's 1,200 employees had quit over the move.

 2021 AFP
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Some Brazos Valley residents will cast ballots in a variety of elections today, and, in a Friday interview, Brazos Countys top election official previewed how proposed legislation and the areas population growth could affect the 2022 primary and general elections.

Brazos County Elections Administrator Trudy Hancock said Friday that delays in U.S. Census data could lead the Texas Legislature to push back the 2022 primary elections. According to the Houston Chronicle, the Texas Senate passed a bill last month that could, if needed, push the states primary from the planned date of March 1 to April 5  or, if delays are more severe, to May 24.

Hancock explained that the hyperpartisan redistricting process at the state level is likely to have some local impacts, because of the regions population growth in the past decade. Texas will have 38 congressional districts by the next election, up two seats from 2020 due to growth.

She also said that the number of polling locations for major elections is likely to remain at about 25 in Brazos County. In recent years, some local advocates have urged the countys commissioners court not to reduce the number of polling places and to consider increasing voting options on the Texas A&M University campus.
China will see a travel peak during the May Day holiday as tourism will rebound thanks to the country's success in curbing the COVID-19 epidemic.

About 265 million domestic trips are expected to be made by passengers during the upcoming five-day holiday from May 1 to 5, according to the Ministry of Transport (MOT). May Day, also known as Labor Day, is observed on May 1 in China.





The estimated figure represents an increase of 120.1 percent year on year, close to the 2019 level, the MOT said.





Departure passenger flows are expected to peak on the first day of the holiday with about 57.9 million passenger trips, up 115 percent and 6 percent from the levels in 2020 and 2019, respectively, MOT data shows.





Between April 29 and May 6, the number of railway passenger trips is expected to reach 106 million, up 0.8 percent compared with the same period in 2019, said China State Railway Group Co., Ltd., estimating that railway passenger trips will peak on May 1, reaching 17 million.





A total of 36 direct tourist trains to popular destinations, including northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and northeast China, will be arranged during the holiday, and panda-themed tourist trains will take visitors to tourist cities such as Golmud and Dunhuang.





The number of vehicles hitting the road on the first day of the holiday is expected to exceed 60 million, a record high, the MOT said.





Airlines are also witnessing a boom in flight bookings. According to China Eastern Airlines, during the May Day holiday, its average daily flight volume will exceed 2,700, compared to 2,650 in the same period of 2019.





Domestic ticket bookings have soared since April. In mid-April, the number of single-day flight bookings through qunar.com, an online travel service provider, hit the highest level since the company was established, said Lan Xiang, a data specialist with qunar.com.





The number of daily ticket bookings for the holiday increased by more than 30 percent compared with the same period in 2019, Lan added.





Tourist destinations nationwide have launched new tourism routes and products to provide a high-quality tourism experience for visitors amid the epidemic prevention and control measures.





Beijing's Badaling section of the Great Wall will cap its daily number of visitors at 75 percent of the maximum capacity during the holiday. Visitors need to reserve tickets in advance.





To accommodate the May Day crowds, the Badaling will extend its opening hours during the holiday and launch night tours from April 30 to May 4.





The renowned Changbai Mountain scenic area in northeast China will reopen its southern part to visitors on May 1. The part was previously closed off out of geological hazard concerns.





In Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province, the new building of the Zhengzhou Museum, covering an area of 147,000 square meters, will also open to the public on May 1.




Students attending Benjamin Franklin Middle School can apply to Talent Search, a federally funded program that connects students with resources to help them go to college.

The free program, offered through Virginia Techs TRIO Programs, is geared toward students who are income-eligible or the first generation in their family to attend college. Throughout the year, students can learn from Talent Search advisors about career exploration, goal setting and improving study skills.

Helping students find a career path that excites them is an amazing process to be a part of, said Frances Clark, director of Virginia Tech TRIO Programs. Through Talent Search, we can help students find and open the doors that will lead them to their goals.

Once accepted into the program, students can participate in Talent Search throughout the duration of their time in middle school and into high school without reapplying, according to Austin Pryor, assistant director of Talent Search.

Virginia Techs Talent Search program currently serves about 680 students in 23 middle and high schools, including Franklin County High School, and sees more than 80% of its participants enroll in colleges and universities after high school graduation.
Chad Tex Metcalf, the sales and logistics manager for Cherrystone Aqua-Farms, is affectionately called an oyster sales shaman and guru by his colleagues because of his detailed knowledge of the oyster industry. He says he works with fishmongers, restaurants, grocery stores and other retailers to determine the best oyster for their customers.

There are four factors that help me recommend a particular oyster: appearance, regionality, flavor and shuckability, says Metcalf. Some prefer bayside oysters, others the seaside oysters. Some are more focused on price and availability, while others on appearance and size. Shell integrity, which we refer to as shuckability, is important as well. Oysters that tend to grow fast will have thinner shells compared to wild oysters. Factors such a weather and food availability contribute to an oysters growth spurts and shell thickness. Thinner shells do require more finesse compared to an oyster that comes from a slower growing region, says Metcalf.

Shucked

Shucking  the act of prying open an oysters shell and freeing the muscle that keeps the oyster attached to the shell  is an art only perfected with plenty of practice. Expert shuckers can open a dozen oysters in roughly a minute, but for most, it is an arduous task that takes time. Having oysters that are easy to shuck means lower labor costs for wholesalers and restaurants looking to quickly serve oysters for hungry seafood enthusiasts.

The cultivated oysters sold by Cherrystone are raised to have harder shells that make for faster shucking.

Does shape matter?

The husbandry practices of Cherrystone and other cultivated oyster farms also help to give a desired shape to oysters. The oysters are regularly checked to ensure they are growing with deep, rounded cups in their shell that encourage the flesh to mature as plump, sweet and tender tastes of the sea. Metcalf says that shape leads to attractive oysters that look pretty when served on the half shell when raw, grilled or in a preparation like oysters Rockefeller.

Of course you have to have something that is aesthetically presentable. We have a lot of success with our oysters, from buck-a-shuck sort of places to white tablecloth restaurants, Metcalf says.

Flavor of the earth

Appearance and shucking ease outweigh the taste of the oyster, which is highly subjective, Metcalf says. Flavor is something that oyster farms have little control over, as the conditions of the natural sea water will impact the oyster more than any husbandry practice will. Oysters can filter as much as 50 gallons of water a day and the oyster will build its flavor profile based on water temperature, salinity and food sources available.

When it comes to choosing an oyster for home consumption, Metcalf suggests purchasing a variety of oysters from different locations to truly experience how habitats impact the flavor of the oyster.

What to look for in a good oyster

Oysters should be kept cold, but not submerged in ice or an ice-water slurry. When searching for an oyster, make sure they are nestled on top of ice or at least in refrigerated storage without sitting in water. Oysters should be closed tightly, and too much cold or moisture can make them open up, says Greg Coates, the hatchery manager at Cherrystone Aqua-Farms. He suggests asking your fishmonger when the oysters came into their store and to avoid oysters that have been sitting for more than a week. To confirm the origins of the oyster, ask your fishmonger for the shellfish tag that would have come with the container of oysters when shipped to the store.

Oysters that come shucked should have a viscous, shiny liquid surrounding the flesh known as liquor. The presence of liquor lets you know that the oyster is freshly shucked. If the oyster looks dry or without any liquor, its been opened and shucked for a while, and you should avoid eating it. The next thing to consider is the shape of the oyster. I like an oyster that has a nice shape, Coates says, and wild oysters will tend to be long and skinny with a shallow cup. Either is fine for home consumption. The determination depends on your preference.

Knowing your locales

There are some identifying phrases and terms that relay the flavors of an oyster before you even taste it. Some oysters come from estuaries, locations where freshwater rivers and inlets meet saltwater bays or the ocean. These oysters will have a milder taste due to the lower salinity in the water compared to sea-harvested oysters, which will have a more prevalent salt flavor.

East Coast oysters are known for their sharp, salty flavors, while West Coast oysters tend to have notes of cucumber and vegetation. Kumamotos, a variety of oyster that originated in Japan but is cultivated in various locales along the Pacific Ocean, taste sweet with a melon finish. Belon oysters, also known as European Flats, are flavored heavily by seaweed with notes of minerality. Gulf Coast oysters tend to be creamy and mild. Native oyster varieties are present in all oyster growing regions (like Olympias in the Puget Sound) and will vary with intense flavors.

When selecting oysters, stick to four to six varieties at a time, opting for at least two of each variety. This will help prevent your palate from becoming overwhelmed and losing the flavors of the oysters.

Tricks for shucking

Shucking an oyster with ease comes with practice, but you can get the hang of it with your first dozen oysters. Wild oysters will generally have a thicker shell and can withstand an aggressive approach. Farm-raised shells may be thinner and delicate which can chip more easily, leaving hard, unpleasant deposits in the oyster.

Nestle the oyster with the deep cup-side of the shell face-down in a kitchen towel, holding it in your non-dominant hand. Start at the hinge of the oyster, where the shell is usually thicker. With a proper shucking knife, first use the tip, and then the broad side of the knife, to break the hinge until it pops open. If it seems too difficult to manage starting at the hinge, you can move slightly to the side of the hinge, then move towards the hinge to pry it open.

Carefully run the knife between the top and bottom shells to separate and dislodge the top shell, making sure to scrape the oyster muscle off the top half of the shell. Discard or recycle the top shell. (States and conservation groups up and down the East Coast ask residents to recycle oyster shells which are used to restore and protect the reefs.) Loosen the adductor muscle which keeps the flesh secured to the shell. Some shuckers turn the flesh upside down to present the round, plump side of an oyster. Be sure to maintain as much oyster liquor in the shell as possible.

How to serve fresh oysters

Hardcore oyster aficionados will insist they be served as soon as possible after harvest, completely naked. A squeeze of fresh lemon or quick dash of hot sauce are common pairings, as well as traditional sauces, such as mignonette, cocktail sauce and remoulade, which complement the oysters intrinsic sweet or acidic characteristics. The only way to know what you prefer is to play around and taste everything.

Oysters need a surface that inhibits the slippery shells from sliding off the plate. It is best to serve them on a platter of crushed ice, but they can also be stabilized on a bed of rock salt, seaweed or lettuce leaves. Remember to serve oysters with a bowl for empty shells.

Popular oysters to try

While there are only five species of oysters cultivated in the U.S., there are dozens of varieties, many branded by local seafood companies. They have subtle flavor characteristics resulting from the waters and growing conditions that make each unique. Here is a sample of oysters more commonly found in North America. Sample a variety to experience the salty, briny goodness the ocean has to offer.

Watch House Point  These medium-sized oysters are a brand of Cherrystone Aqua-Farms. They are grown at Watch House Point on the Eastern Shore, near the sea, and have delicious saltiness with a crisp melon finish.

Misty Point  Misty Points are popular on raw bar menus along the Eastern Seaboard. They are known for being exceptionally plump with a sharp briny flavor as soon as they hit your tongue. Misty Points are grown only by Cherrystone Aqua-Farms.

Chunu  Chunus pack a highly salty punch in a small package. Diminutive in size and popular on cocktail menus, Chunus are a smaller version of Misty Points produced by Cherrystone Aqua-Farms.

Fanny Bay  These oysters from the waters of British Columbia are firm, mild and great for cooking.

Totten  Deeply cupped and the size of walnuts, these Northwest oysters are brightly flavored with a smooth, vegetal finish.

Glacier Point  These oysters are harvested off the Alaskan shore, offering a high salinity with a thick shell that make them stand out from other West Coast oysters.

Belon  Originating in Brittany, France, but cultivated in the U.S. as well, these oysters have a bright minerality and soft texture.

Blue Point  Legendary along the Long Island, New York, coastline, Blue Points are juicy with a clean finish and hail from the Great South Bay.

Raspberry Point  The bright green shell of a Raspberry Point oyster from Prince Edward Island contains a meaty, dense oyster with salty-sweet flavor.

Pemaquid  The cold water of Maines Damariscotta River produces a bracing, assertive and salty oyster that is more plentiful in late spring and through fall.

Wellfleet  Wellfleets, from Cape Cod, Massachusettss shore, are classics often found at raw bars around the country. They are balanced, sweet and crisp with a salty tang on the finish.

Pelican Reef  These rich and creamy oysters highlight the warm water conditions around the Florida Keys.

Pepper Grove  The distinctive shell is nearly as striking as the mildly sweet and briny flavor of these wild Gulf Coast oysters from outside of Galveston, Texas. Try them with a dash of Tabasco sauce which is produced about four hours east from where the oysters are harvested.
We have a few down at the arboretum, and its one of our biggest trees we have comments from, when it gets its fall colors, Burrows said. I thought, this park doesnt have a lot of color in the fall, so lets start putting some colorful trees here.

DAR Regent DeAnna Gillian Way recited a poem by May Bryant titled Arbor Day and offered a prayer at the event.

It was very honoring to be able to plant a tree in our parks, Way said.

DAR always has valued conservation and planting trees.

In fact, for the nations 250th anniversary, which is in 2026, the DAR is planting trees 150 miles from Pittsburgh along the route to Washington, D.C., honoring our revolutionary day patriots, Way said.

City Parks and Recreation Director Todd McCoy called Fridays celebration a beautiful event.

Its a beautiful day to plant a tree, McCoy said. Arbor Day is something we embrace in the Parks and Recreation Department.

Trees improve the quality of life, and have many other benefits for the community, he said.
To say Opal Bentley is an experienced educator would be an understatement.

The new Knickrehm Elementary School principal started out as a parent volunteer and, with the encouragement and support of a special administrator, she amassed a variety of experiences.

What got me into education were my own children, Bentley said.

Volunteering was a way to get involved in her sons school, Soaring Eagles Academy in Colorado, she said. The principal at Soaring Eagles Academy saw her potential and encouraged her to keep moving forward, first as a paraeducator and continuing their support for and encouragement of her every step of her career.

At that same school I went from volunteer to para to teacher to assistant principal, Bentley said.

In August, she will take on her newest role: principal of Knickrehm Elementary School.

Knickrehm is this great community; the teachers have a great history with the school. Im excited to join the communitys fun traditions  and day-to-day fun, Bentley said.

Traditions were a big part of her motivation to become Knickrehms next principal, she noted, including a staff with an exceptional history with the school.
Jakubowski said being honored by NCPA has special meaning to her, as she has helped connect her students with the program.

From writing nominations for eighth graders when I taught at Walnut Middle School to supporting NCPA students in my classroom at GISH, I have seen firsthand the opportunities the academy provides for our kids, she said. Being nominated and chosen as NCPAs High School Teacher of the Year means so much because it comes from the students and they are the reason we do what we do.

Making connections with her students is essential to being a teacher, Jakubowski said.

Throughout my career in education, I have learned that the foundation of teaching is forming solid relationships and for kids to feel like they have someone in their corner; this award reaffirms that they feel supported and that is what matters, she said.

Grand Island Senior High School Executive Principal Jeff Gilbertson said Jakubowskis recognition is well-deserved.

I am very proud of Mrs. Jakubowski and the impact she has had on so many of our students, Gilbertson said. Mrs. Jakubowski is a tireless worker and a remarkable leader. We are honored to have her at GISH.
Newell Elementary students might always associate crossing the Rocky Mountains with pushing a shopping cart up Tornado Hill.

The big hill next to Ryder Park stood in for the Rockies for Newell fourth-graders, who spent a good part of Friday imagining they were living in 1849. The kids pushed shopping carts from Shopko, which were dressed up to resemble covered wagons.

The 62 kids began the grueling journey in Independence, Mo., which was actually Newell Elementary. Along the way, they stopped at Fort Kearny (actually Walnut Elementary). During the trek, they spotted Chimney Rock (CHI Health St. Francis) and crossed the Sandhills.

The students took a break, where they wrote in their journals. And then we crossed the Rocky Mountains before we had our lunch, said Danielle Dudo, one of three Newell fourth-grade teachers who accompanied the students on the trip.

After such an epic morning, the lunch was well-deserved. In addition to eating, the students played games at Independence Rock, which was actually Ryder Park.

Well cross Soda Springs on the way back. We followed the Platte River, Dudo said.

The students left Newell at 9:10 a.m., with second-graders yelling, Goodbye, families. Well miss you!
OBrien did just that.

His father was not a practicing Catholic, but, he supported me. The day I left for the seminary, he took me down to the train station and said, If it doesnt work out, come home.

OBrien boarded the train to Denver. On Sept. 9, 1953, he entered St. Thomas Seminary as the youngest of his 35-member class. He had turned 18 just five days before. Eight years later, on May 23, 1961, he was ordained at St. Marys Cathedral in Grand Island. He was 25 years old.

His career begins

OBrien first served as a chaplain at St. Marys Hospital in North Platte. He then was assigned to Sidney as assistant priest at St. Patricks Church and as a teacher at the Catholic high school. You did whatever you were told, he said.

In 1961, he went to Eddyville and Amherst when the priest there was called into service during the Cuban missile crisis. I thought it would just be a couple of months, but then it became 11 months, and I never got back to Sidney, he said.

In Sept. 1, 1962, he was assigned to Grand Island as an assistant priest at St. Marys Cathedral and a teacher at Central Catholic High School.
Paris, TX (75460)

Today

Cloudy with rain in the morning...then scattered thunderstorms in the afternoon. High around 80F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms likely in the evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms later on. Low around 70F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
CARBONDALE  The Illinois Department of Transportation is inviting the public to learn more and comment about proposed improvements to Illinois 146 from U.S. 45 to west of Interstate 24 located in Vienna.

Instead of hosting a regular public meeting, IDOT will share details on the project and encourage public participation from May 3 to May 17 through a new website, IDOT.Illinois.gov/projects/IL-146-widening.

The website launches Monday, May 3.

IDOT has identified an improvement to widen and resurface Illinois 146 from the Vienna City Park east to a new roundabout at the intersection of Red Bud Lane/Old Metropolis Road.

Funding for the project is included in the Rebuild Illinois capital plan. The widening and resurfacing project is expected to be underway during the 2023 construction season.

At IDOT's new project website, the public can view aerial photography with proposed improvements, a simulation of the roundabout, proposed typical sections, a safety overview and comment online.
Since opening in 2013 with BMW Manufacturing Co. as the launch customer, Inland Port Greer has consistently broken records for cargo handled. In March, Inland Port Greer reported its busiest month in history with 16,688 rail moves, up 20.3% from last March. Fiscal-year-to-date, Inland Port Greer has handled 119,460 rail moves, up nearly 5% from the same time a year prior.

BMW Manufacturings success as the largest automotive exporter by value in the United States would not be possible without our strong relationship with SC Ports, said Knudt Flor, president and CEO of BMW Manufacturing. We export 70% of our South Carolina-made vehicles through the Port of Charleston to 125 countries around the world. BMW was also the first customer for S.C. Ports rail-served Inland Port Greer in 2013. Inland Port Greer has proved incredibly beneficial to our supply chain. We depend on reliability and speed to produce every car to order, and S.C. Ports continues to deliver for BMW.
A celebratory atmosphere filled the air April 17 as a new Orangeburg funeral home cut the ribbon on its facility and broke ground on an on-site crematory.

The Greater Orangeburg Funeral Home, located at 1656 Joe Jeffords Highway in the former fellowship hall of House of Praise Nondenominational Church of Deliverance, opened Feb. 1 but had an official ceremony of its opening April 17.

The funeral home also broke ground on its crematory. The construction of the crematory is expected to be over the next six to eight months.

Funeral home officials site the growing trend of many people choosing cremation over traditional burial as the reason for building a crematory.

The funeral home's team of owners, employees, family and friends gathered for the celebration. Attendees had a chance to tour the facility.

The Christian-based funeral home touts its services as needed in the community that has been strained by the deaths caused by the coronavirus.

We have been blessed by God to be able to serve the Orangeburg community on a steady basis since our February opening," Licensed Funeral Director Montez P.V. Haynes said. "Our funeral home crosses all nationalities and races."
The art is subtle, and mostly rendered in black and white. The formal structures of the artwork are spare, angular and gestural. These stylistic features complement the aesthetics of the newly renovated Orangeburg County Fine Arts Center, with its restful, dove gray marble and walls, she said.

Glover said, Janet Kozachek is really a mixed media genius, but she has done some works on paper. Some of it was reflective of her time living in China. She had also met Una Kim, who came to South Carolina State (University), where some of her work was on view.

Glover added that Wright, a Hampton County native, was also no stranger to the local area with his work.

John has been a figure in this area for quite a long time. He was at Benedict (College), had done a lot of work at South Carolina State, and he's also recently started a series where he's worked on paper, as well. We saw that we had all these figures and ways of expression and movement, and John's work fit into that as well, she said.

Saborosch is from Orangeburg County, while Una Kim, a native of South Korea, lives in Portland, Oregon, where she teaches at Portland State University.

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Glover said Saboroschs work with steel brought a nice contrast to the exhibit.
Job Title: Officer Applications Support (5 No Experience Fresh Graduate Job Careers)

Organisation: Uganda Revenue Authority (URA)

Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda

About URA:

The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) was established by the Uganda Revenue Authority Statute of 1991 and set up in September of the same year as a central body for assessment and collection of specified revenue, to administer and enforce the laws relating to such revenue and to provide for related matters. This statute incorporated all the laws that were in force then regarding tax collection. The new organization (URA) amalgamated the three tax administration departments that were responsible for all the taxes collected by the Central Government of Uganda.

Job Summary: The Officer Applications Support will resolve application and system issues that arise across a business area aimed at service availability, improvement of end user capabilities, experience / engagement with critical business applications and implement required system changes.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Implement application support based on departmental initiatives, using best practices in IT Service management

Implement the maintenance plan and upgrade schedule including application deployment and release processes, with a focus on quality assurance, testing, production acceptance for a given system

Implement the application support processes for in house and external partners in line with service standards and common systems.

Resolve system(s) critical issues as guided by the supervisor.

Write and execute test scripts to ensure that new products are configured and coded properly for successful integration and operations.

Assess the quality and risks of new products/releases.

Using data analysis and production progress reports, organize a release schedule for a software product.

Assemble data on release metrics, oversee the source code management system, maintain multiple build environments, and document steps relating to the release process.

Implement improvements to processes and systems to increase service availability and reliability.

Perform the day-to-day support monitoring and maintenance of the critical business applications for a business area.

Provide 247 support for event monitoring incident triage and escalation

Implement service enhancements as guided by the supervisor to minimize service disruption

Identify alternative solutions to business issues and recommend new approaches to the supervisor.

Implement all system changes as guided by the supervisor in collaboration with business counterparts

Implement the approved IT Support Service policies and procedures

Implement all changes in compliance with the approved change management policies and procedures

Update technical and standard operating procedures documents.

Conduct regressions tests on the changes implemented to confirm that no function of the application has stopped working as a result of the changes

Deliver cross training of business users on multiple areas of support.

Conduct concept and usability testing and gather user feedback.

Communicate design ideas and prototypes to the software developers

Implement activities designed to Guarantee the Resilience of Critical Business Applications

Prepare an incident an report for every IT disruption on a critical business application across the business area in a timely manner

Investigate and resolve problems in systems/services and ensure full documentation of the same.

Implementation the agreed remedies and preventative measures designed to maintain, restore or enhance customer experience.

Conduct disaster recovery drills for the various applications within the business area.

Work with software engineers to resolve any issues and document fixes for use in future reference materials.

Build test environments and troubleshoot any issues pertaining to the softwares performance

Support Internal and external clients in accessing URA services & Products to enhance service delivery and client satisfaction.

Provide feedback to stakeholders and supervisors of any updates on issues raised and resolved.

Conduct engagements of relevant stakeholders and ensure that they are rightly sensitized on the business application support process

Develop the relevant stakeholder awareness, user training and reference materials for the respective business support areas





Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

The applicant for the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) Officer Applications Support job opportunity must hold an honors Bachelors degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology or Statistics (Computing Option), Engineering and relevant degree.

Knowledge of DevOps principles

Knowledge of application debugging, containerization and programming languages for example Java, C#, Flutter and Dart, PHP

Knowledge of web server configuration

Secure deployment automation and orchestration of applications in Oracle Web logic, MS IIS, Apache among other applications servers

Application testing including use of automated testing techniques, stress and load testing tools and performance tuning.

Knowledge of carrying root cause analysis for identified incidents

Demonstrated knowledge in SQL based scripting languages and relational database management systems and design Using Oracle, MSSQL, MySQL, Orient DB

Knowledge of application performance metric and interpreting application related error conditions

Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.

Strong conceptual, problem diagnosis and decision making skills

Excellent analytical ability and attention to detail

Demonstrated creativity and innovation capability

A suitable candidate should be a person of demonstrable integrity

Excellent systems analysis as well as knowledge and interest in emerging technologies

Ability to assimilate new support tasks, while retaining and developing established ones

Ability to work within a changing business and technical environment

Ability to deal with confidential and sensitive information with tact and discretion

Technical competence and proven troubleshooting skills

Ability to explain complex ideas to those with limited IT and systems knowledge

Good customer care skills

Ability to troubleshoot and resolve web server related issues (Apache, Tomcat, IIS, Nginx, Web logic)

Desirable Requirements

Experience in deploying applications on web servers

Experience with managing databases

Experience with troubleshooting application errors

How to Apply:

All suitably qualified and interested candidates who wish to join URA should apply online at the link below.

Click Here

Deadline: 15th May 2021

For more of the latest jobs, please visit https://www.theugandanjobline.com or find us on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UgandanJobline
Job Title: Investment Officer

Organisation: Financial Sector Deepening Uganda (FSD Uganda)

Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda

About US:

Financial Sector Deepening Uganda (FSD Uganda) is an independent not-for-profit company committed to promoting greater access to Financial Services in Uganda. FSD Uganda seeks to develop a more inclusive Financial sector with a focus on low-income individuals supporting innovation, conducting research, and supporting regulatory processes that shape the Financial sector.

About Deal Flow Facility

The Deal Flow Facility, a first of its kind in-country, being incubated at FSD Uganda, is being set up with the support of the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) of Uganda and the European Union. This match-making facility between investors and potential investees has the ambitious target of facilitating at least 40 investments in five years.

The key role of the DFF is making medium-to-large enterprises investment worthy and attractive to potential investors. The Facility is sector-agnostic and is looking to solve a critical constraint in the market  The Lack of Long-Term Finance, impeding the growth of enterprises, consequently resulting in slower job growth and economic development.

Expectation of the DFF

The primary objective of the DFF is to match-make investors to high-quality investment-ready enterprises. It is expected to achieve this by stitching together a fragmented investment ecosystem of various actors, including tax advisors, investment bankers, legal advisors, auditors, accounting firms, and more  all necessary to enable successful investments. The Facility that will run multiple cohorts for enterprises each year, will build the tools and capacity building curriculum that will make participating enterprises stronger and put them on a fast-track to seeking investments when ready. Currently, the Facility is designed to be a catalyst and not make investments itself.

Job Summary: The primary objective of the deal flow facility is to match-make potential investors and investees with the aim of facilitating successful debt and equity transactions. The Investment Officer will be responsible for creating an efficient and high-level due diligence process that increases the chances of investment-worthy enterprises being recruited into the DFF. The role holder will serve as an in-house expert to perform initial diagnostic assessments/evaluations to identify relevant enterprises that will be admitted into the capacity-building program.

The Investment Officer will report to the Director  DFF. They will support the Director in thinking through the strategy, program agenda, engagement activities, capacity-building initiatives, and design of effective cohort programs.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Strategy Development and Execution:

Set-Up: Build clear criteria and templates that can be scaled to ensure the success of the DFF including but not limited to:

Distinct recruitment criteria of enterprises to the DFF as well as explicit matchmaking criteria between enterprises and investors.

Clear templates/frameworks around high-level due diligence of enterprises, their capital needs, and pitch-decks with analyses.

With the support of the Enterprise Relationship Manager build comprehensive methods and processes around enterprise information access and enterprise value creation as part of the DFF.

Due Diligence: Responsible for due diligence and analysis on prospective companies that will be recruited into the DFF or directly matched to debt/equity investors

With the other members of the DFF and FSD Uganda team contribute towards:

Development of capacity-building modules and programs for DFF enterprise cohorts. This will include supporting the building of a standardized business curriculum (with modules), tools and materials.

Program Management and Delivery:

Undertake due diligence and capacity needs assessment of DFF applicants.

Share analyses of due diligence with enterprises for finalization and onward sharing with investors to gauge interest

Educate enterprises, especially the leadership of companies that have not raised equity, on the investment process

Support the development of a standardized business curriculum (with modules) including tools and materials

Thought Leadership:

Build analyses around enterprises, including the challenges faced in capital raising to inform policymakers, ecosystem supporters with the aim of building a more enabling environment for businesses.

Lead analyses around challenges that investors face in investing in Uganda.





Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

This will be a highly technical resource with an entrepreneurial drive. The successful candidate will have good practical knowledge around equity and debt capital raising and preferably comes from a PE / VC background.

Minimum of 7 years in private equity, venture capital, investment banking, or capital markets is required.

Background in financial analysis and modelling.

Previous experience in providing business advisory services would be strongly preferred.

Advanced degree in finance or an MBA or equivalent, plus a professional accounting qualification, will be an added advantage.

Deeply curious and excited to engage with a variety of stakeholders including policymakers, investors, DFIs, and more.

Ability to deliver and communicate complex issues clearly and succinctly, and in a compelling manner.

Ability to establish a strong rapport and build relationships across the local entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Self-motivated, confident, energetic, team player, and creative.

Persons of all gender, race, sex, orientation, age, and identity are encouraged to apply.

How to Apply:

All candidates should apply online at the link below.

Click Here

For more of the latest jobs, please visit https://www.theugandanjobline.com or find us on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UgandanJobline
We're always interested in hearing about news in our community.

Let us know what's going on!

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After being closed over 13 months, Disney's flagship theme parks in the U.S. state of California reopened Friday with reduced capacity and enhanced COVID-19 safety measures in place.

The Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Chapek joined a reopening ceremony with a small group of park employees in the Disneyland Resort. Disneyland Resort, located in Anaheim, Orange County, is home to Disneyland Park and neighboring Disney California Adventure Park.

"What a day. We have waited so long for this," Chapek said during the ceremony. He thanked park employees for their spirit, persistence and patience throughout the 412-day closure to "bring magic to the world."

"We're not just another place. We're not just another theme park. We're something special and we're something special because of all of you," he noted.

"A truly happy day at the happiest place on earth, @Disneyland! To our cast and our guests, welcome back!" tweeted Robert Iger, executive chairman of The Walt Disney Company.

"Favorite sights and familiar sounds have returned, from the smiling face of Mickey Mouse on the Pixar Pal-A-Round to the welcoming whistle of the Disneyland Railroad. Beloved characters from favorite Disney stories are here to entertain and delight in new ways and sometimes in unexpected places. And those much-missed treats - DOLE Whip, Corn Dogs, not to mention churros - are also back to satisfy cravings," wrote Michael Ramirez, public relations director of the Disneyland Resort, on the Disney Park Blog.

It was the longest closure for Disneyland in its 65-year history. Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park, as well as other theme parks in California, were forced to shut down in March last year amid coronavirus fears.

It was also the first time Disneyland closed after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. The other two shutdowns of Disneyland took place after U.S. President John F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963 and the 1994 Northridge earthquake which resulted in at least 57 deaths.

According to a detailed phased reopening plan to welcome back visitors on the website of the Disneyland Resort, the parks at this stage will only open to California residents, and in groups no larger than 3 households, per state guidelines.

Given theme park capacity will be significantly limited to comply with governmental requirements and promote physical distancing, Disney will manage attendance through a new theme park reservation system that will require all guests to obtain a reservation for park entry in advance. Tickets to Disneyland are reportedly already sold out for the first seven weeks.

Park officials said that face coverings are required for all guests aged 2 and older and Disney cast members, including those who have received a COVID-19 vaccine.

Guests are required to undergo temperature screenings with no-touch thermometers, before entry to some locations at the Disneyland Resort, including the theme parks and the Downtown Disney District. Cast Members and operating participant employees are also required to complete a health screening and temperature check prior to coming to work.

Additionally, select attractions and certain experiences that draw large group gatherings - such as parades and nighttime spectaculars - will return at a later date. Character meet-and-greets are temporarily unavailable, according to Disney.

Disney has been hit severely by the pandemic. The company said last November that the pandemic cost it approximately 7.4 billion U.S. dollars in operating income for fiscal 2020, including 6.9 billion dollars from the theme parks and experiences segment.

Disney also said in its first quarter results report in February that pandemic-related costs for the company may total approximately one billion dollars in fiscal 2021.

"Since late in the second quarter of fiscal 2020 and continuing into fiscal 2021, COVID-19 and measures to prevent its spread have impacted our segments in a number of ways, most significantly at Disney Parks, Experiences and Products," noted the company.

Disney said in the report that COVID-19 cost its parks, experiences and products segment an estimated 2.6 billion dollars in operating income in the most recent quarter, while segment revenues decreased by 53 percent to 3.6 billion dollars.

"As a result of COVID-19, Disneyland Resort was closed and our cruise business was suspended in the current quarter. Disneyland Paris closed on Oct. 30, 2020 and Hong Kong Disneyland Resort closed on Dec. 2, 2020. Walt Disney World Resort (in Orlando, Florida) and Shanghai Disney Resort were open in the current quarter," the company stated in the report for the quarter ending Jan. 2, 2021, adding that its parks and resorts that were open during the quarter operated at significantly reduced capacities.

The reopening of Disney's parks in California came two weeks after the reopening of Universal Studios Hollywood, another popular tourist attraction in Southern California.

According to California's Blueprint to a Safer Economy reopen plan, theme parks in the counties in the purple tier, the most restrictive tier of the state's four-tier, color-coded system for reopening, are not allowed to reopen. But theme parks in the less-restrictive red tier will be eligible to reopen at 15 percent capacity. Maximum capacity will be increased to 25 percent for theme parks in the counties in the orange tier and to 35 percent in the yellow tier.

Orange County, where Disneyland Resort is located, remains in orange tier currently and is on track to meet yellow tier criteria. California, the most populous state in the United States, aims to fully reopen by June 15, if COVID-19 vaccinations remain widely available and hospitalizations associated with the virus stay low.


Pre-pandemic, Richardson would schlep her trove of dresses to a downtown storefront, where students could browse and try them on. Then, COVID-19 completely canceled prom last year. Its back on for Cheyennes high schoolers this year, but because of the ongoing pandemic, Richardson set up shop in her basement and is requiring appointments.

She still remembers the anticipation surrounding her own high school prom experience. Part of it was the shopping, she said. Project Prom wants to duplicate that as best as possible.

It has not disappointed.

With more than 500 gowns, the bottom level of Richardsons home on the north side of Cheyenne almost resembles a department store; its a sea of taffeta, silk and chiffon. Racks of dresses range in color, style and size, so no one feels left out.

That was a comfort to Town, who said she sometimes struggles to find clothes to fit her frame. After a few minutes of looking through the dresses, she found the perfect one: A navy number with a bedazzled bust.

When she put on the dress last Saturday night  after getting her hair and nails done  Town said she felt like Cinderella.

For her, senior prom represented a milestone.
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Trinidad and Tobago can see a reduction in the number of people dying from Covid-19 on a daily basis if the drugAzithromycinis immediately stopped, says Dr Ravi Ramjanak.

Ramjanak is a consultant in obstetrics gynaecology and pelvic reconstructive surgery.

It is my view based on the pharmacodynamics of Azithromycin that the death rate will fall if we stop using this drug in Covid-positive cases. Azithromycin has no effect on viruses, yeasts and fungi, said Ramjanak in an interview with the Sunday Express last week.
More than 2,500 manufacturing sector workers showed up at the Divali Nagar site in Chaguanas to receive their first dose of the Sinopharm Covid-19 injection at the start of a public/private sector vaccination drive.

The Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers Association (TTMA) collaborated with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Trade to facilitate the process.
 Flash

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Friday blasted the coercive diplomacy of the United States being imposed on some other countries, intended to maliciously suppress Chinese companies.

According to media reports, the U.S. Embassy in Denmark contacted the Danish newspaper Politiken, asking whether it has used electronic equipment from five Chinese companies, including Huawei. The reports said that the embassy threatened if Politiken refuses to provide relevant information or chooses to use equipment from these Chinse enterprises, the U.S. embassy may stop subscribing to its newspaper.

It is also reported that the U.S. embassy has reached out to other service providers in Denmark with similar requests, saying that this will be a coordinated global operation by the United States.

"As I said yesterday, no country fits the hat of 'coercive diplomacy' better than the United States," said spokesperson Wang Wenbin when asked to make a comment. He said the case has provided a vivid example of the coercive diplomacy of the United States.

Wang pointed out that the U.S. side not only suppressed Chinese companies, but also forced other countries to comply with its will, and even asked other nations' media to follow its instructions.

"It is 100 percent coercive diplomacy," Wang said. "The United States should feel ashamed of itself for forcing other countries to maliciously suppress Chinese companies while preaching about democracy and rules."
AS we are locked in and under strict curfew for at least the next month, there are thousands of families in our own country living in poverty and going hungry in this pandemic period.

How are we helping struggling families in Trinidad and Tobago during this time, one may ask?
Ryan Allard, this is Ancil Dennis. I am forming a Recovery Committee for Tobago and would like you to be the vice-chairman.

This was how my phone call started on an otherwise typical Saturday evening in May 2020, a few months into the pandemic.
For readers unfamiliar with the first four books in Love After Life series and their paranormal theme, it may not be immediately apparent that the swirl of characters introduced early on includes a few spirits and some clairvoyant types who can communicate with them. Helena, the series heroine, is gifted in this way, which is lucky because one of the spirits is her late husband, who helps her solve mysteries. Once the status of the characters is sorted, the Tucson-based action  of which there is plenty  makes more sense. An evil force is wreaking havoc among Helenas loved ones, inhabiting their bodies with disruptive and dangerous consequences. The body-snatching can be a bit puzzling, but the evil being also inhabits the narration periodically, keeping the reader abreast of his nefarious doings. Luckily, Helena is not alone in her fight against evil; in addition to her spirit guides, she is assisted by Tucson Detective Gil Bueno and Audrey, his curandera wife. Mary Ann Carman, who lives in Tucson, is the author of 10 mystery novels.
Now, Christ said, there are still some people out there willing to get the vaccine who may simply be busy.

And now we have to make it more convenient, more in the areas where they live, work and play, at their grocery stores, at their pharmacies, she said, all of which have been offering vaccines now for weeks. And beginning this coming week, that will include doctors.

Doctor-patient trust cited

Christ said she believes that will make a big difference in the states efforts to get as many people vaccinated as possible.

It goes beyond the convenience factor of people being able to get the vaccine when they stop by for their annual checkup. What is key, said Christ, is being able to get immediate  and trusted  answers about issues like risks and benefits.

Consider the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Its use was paused by the Centers for Disease Control following reports of a handful  less than 1 person per million doses  getting blood clots. While CDC now has again cleared it for use, Christ said the reports could make people hesitant to get inoculated, especially if that is the only vaccine available.

Doctors, she said, can put that in perspective.
Most Arizonans suspect that in spite of these prohibitions women will continue to seek abortions and thats why we persist in believing they should be safe, legal and, for those who feel queasy about the procedure, rarer than rain puddles in June.

I have a thought about their measure demanding we properly bury or cremate fetal remains. This was important to our politicians who love children and who believe Arizonas womenfolk need to be lectured on options, shown videos, told to wait and think it over and be reminded by their moral superiors abortion is a calamitous matter, because, well, theyre women and certain men know how womenfolk can lack moral instruction and be devoid of grief.

I dont think this weak attempt by our politicians, who tell us they love children, to spark the Supreme Court into overturning Roe goes far enough. The proud backers of this bill are spinelessly tip-toeing around the logical conclusion of their fundamental premise, unlike one spunky Arizona politician who refuses to beat around the bush, an uncommon man who does not dilly-dally when it comes to abortion like his fellow weak-kneed, Christian lawmakers who, by the way, love children.
OPINION: "It is never an easy decision to go through with this," writes our contributor, a retired nurse case manager. "Instead of shaming and demonizing these women, we should love and support them. Prevention, of course, is the best approach."
For Kuehn, who will attend Columbia Universitys preeminent School of International and Public Affairs in New York City in the fall, being a semifinalist is recognition for the last four years of work.

But if he is chosen to be a Presidential Scholar, that would be a very high honor, he said. I dont believe weve had a Presidential Scholar at (Charles Page) High School in the past. It would be very exciting to be the first and to represent Sand Springs in that way.

Kuehn, whose mother is Catherine Miller, the customer support manager at Omni Air International in Tulsa, is quick to give credit to his academic support system, too.

He said his selection as a semifinalist for a national honor is really meaningful, though, because it shows that we have some of the best teachers, some of the best resources, and some of the best opportunities for students to plug in and make the most of their education journey right here in Sand Springs.

Hofmeister said in a news release that we are proud to salute these exceptional seniors, who have excelled in the face of an unprecedented pandemic that has impacted all schools. Their dedication, resilience and leadership in their schools and communities are to be commended.

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Attorneys for the 187 school districts are challenging the constitutionality of the settlement and claim that it would undermine the Legislatures authority by unilaterally determining public education funding levels.

Additionally, the filing claims that the proposed settlement as approved by the state school board will make it difficult for school districts to plan their budgets for the coming school year, in part because the settlement does not explicitly lay out the formula to calculate how much charter schools would be due from a districts general fund, building fund or other local revenue sources that were previously off-limits.

The changes proposed by the settlement are supposed to be in effect by the start of the new fiscal year on July 1.

Due to the action of the SBE, each petitioner can not budget adequately for the next fiscal year and each petitioner will suffer a loss which cannot be addressed without this court assuming jurisdiction, the attorneys wrote. The urgency of this controversy cannot be overstated.

In a supporting brief, the attorneys also argue that the resolution was passed in violation of the states Open Meeting Act and should therefore be declared invalid.
In Fridays filing, attorneys for the 187 school districts challenge the constitutionality of the decision and claim that the settlement would undermine the state legislatures authority by unilaterally determining public education funding levels.

Additionally, the filing claims that the proposed settlement as approved by the state school board will make it difficult for school districts to be able to plan their budgets for the coming school year, in part because the resolution approved by the state school board does not explicitly lay out the formula to calculate how much charter schools would be due from a districts general fund, building fund or other local revenue sources that were previously off-limits.

As per the resolution adopted by the state school board, the changes proposed by the settlement are supposed to be in effect by the start of the new fiscal year on July 1.

Due to the action of the SBE, each petitioner can not budget adequately for the next fiscal year and each petitioner will suffer a loss which cannot be addressed without this court assuming jurisdiction, they wrote. The urgency of this controversy cannot be overstated.
It would also create a national registry  the National Police Misconduct Registry  to compile data on complaints and records of police misconduct and establish a framework to prohibit racial profiling at federal, state and local levels.

President Joe Biden urged the Senate to pass the act within the next four weeks during his first joint address to Congress on Wednesday, and, thanks to his voice, momentum is high, Crutcher said.

The appetite was there, she said. People think that this is the moment; this is the time for us. (Sen. Cory Booker) said change doesnt come from Congress; change comes to Congress from families like ours, from the people whove been fighting.

The meeting wasnt the first time Crutcher met with other people who, like she, lost someone they loved to police killings, but it was her first time to engage intimately with some of the newest members of the poignant group.

She described the somber moment she saw Philonise Floyd, George Floyds brother.

He immediately embraced me, she said. We didnt really even have to say much because we understood each other. What do you say?
Another contributing factor is staffing. According to AARPs COVID-19 Nursing Home Dashboard, Oklahoma continues to outpace the nation significantly in percentage of facilities with shortages of nurses and/or aides, with one-third of all facilities reporting a shortage. This is a striking statistic when you consider that facilities in Oklahoma received at least $35 million directly from the federal government, and Oklahoma taxpayers recently allocated facilities another $68 million to tackle this significant problem. Where is that money going?

It is not surprising that AARP surveys show 90% of Americans want to live independently in their own homes and communities. So, what can we do as a state? Oklahoma currently directs 70% of its long-term care spending to institutional care, with only 30% going toward home-based care. Many states have set goals to improve consumer choice, with spending going 50/50 toward each program. Other states have implemented reforms to achieve that balance, leading to better outcomes, higher customer satisfaction, and, often, cost savings.

For those who choose to live independently in their own homes, we can also better support those supporting them. Oklahoma has an estimated 530,000 unpaid family caregivers providing uncompensated care valued at nearly $6 billion annually.
On Monday, the Supreme Court grappled with a genuinely tough First Amendment issue: Should California be able to make charities that speak on matters of public concern disclose to the state the names of their big donors? The issue reveals something about the way that conservatives and liberals currently differ on free speech issues.

On the one hand, states might need the information to combat fraud. Moreover, California says that it will keep the information confidential. The IRS already gets this information from tax-exempt charities, and has so far done a good job of protecting it.

On the other hand, the Supreme Court has long held that the names of members of civic organizations like the NAACP are confidential, protected by the freedom of association. It isnt implausible to think that if the justices uphold the California law, other states might pass laws requiring that donors be made fully public.

When the justices were deciding whether to hear the case, President Donald Trumps Department of Justice filed a friend of the court brief saying it thought the law was unconstitutional. This matched the instinct of most legal conservatives, who today tend to support a First Amendment that is highly protective of absolute free speech, including protection of anonymity.
Sen. Nathan Dahm got what he wanted when implying the U.S. vice president slept her way into politics: attention.

The Broken Arrow Republican has a history of stoking flames with outlandish statements then thriving on the fallout. Criticizing Dahm for his actions has never tempered his behavior.

His latest antics go over a line of decency into the kind of sexist and misogynist attitudes women have endured for generations. Many women who obtain success  whether of liberal, conservative or independent political leanings  have been subjected to sexual innuendo.

It started with Dahm proposing to ban paper straws, which is the type of legislation voters are tired of lawmakers wasting their time on.

His press release equated paper straws with leftist loons, singling out prominent Democrats including a cryptic comment about Kamala Harris. In an interview with Tulsas KTUL-Channel 8, he alluded to oral sex.

Its a demeaning dig at our nations first female vice president and highest ranking woman in U.S. history. Since 2003, Harris has been elected on her own merits as the San Francisco district attorney, California attorney general, U.S. senator and now vice president.
After six months of hard work, engineers and workers at a Vietnamese shipyard have completed the conversion of a crude oil tanker, as large as an aircraft carrier, into a sea-floating oil storage tank for delivery to Nigeria soon.

The vessel Galilean 7, one of very large crude carriers, left the repair dock at the Dung Quat Shipyard in Quang Ngai, a central province of Vietnam, in late April after months of conversion.

This facility, which is 334 meters long and 58 meters wide, has been converted into a floating storage and offloading (FSO) vessel, which can accommodate two million barrels of crude oil at a time.

This is the largest ship that the Dung Quat Shipyard as well as any other shipyards in Vietnam has repaired and converted so far.

It required a tugboat (at the prow of Galilean 7), a push boat (at the stern) and six support boats (on the sides) to take the sea-floating oil storage tank offshore. Photo: Hoai Anh / Tuoi Tre

The successful conversion of Galilean 7 is deemed as a strong introduction to the world of Vietnams ability to build and repair large vessels.

Galilean 7 was towed to the shipyards dry dock, capable of 400,000 DWT, in mid-October 2020 in the first phase of a repair contract worth over US$10 million.

The conversion process was divided into two phases. The first phase, from October to December 2020, was mainly for surveys and assessments of the conditions of the ship, oil tanks and other components.

The tanker was later towed to the sea again and waited there until February this year, when the second phase started, focusing on installation of specialized equipment.

Such equipment, which is fabricated based on purchase orders only, include a 135-ton airport cluster, a 22-ton cargo offloading hose reel system and a new pipeline system.

As requested by the Nigerian billionaire, the floating oil storage tank has a helipad (on the left) to facilitate the access to the vessel when it is anchored offshore. Photo: Hoai Anh / Tuoi Tre

After the spread of the news that the vessel Galilean 7 has been converted in Vietnam, many shipping lines in the Middle East have had their vessels repaired at the Dung Quat Shipyard.

The Galilean 7 conversion contract has served as evidence that Vietnams shipbuilding industry is capable of competing with its counterparts in the region.

The shipyard has engaged in the Galilean 7 conversion project for two years since it heard that a billionaire in Africa wanted to buy a tanker to convert it into an FSO, Nguyen Anh Minh, deputy general director of the shipyard, said.

Among the factors thanks to which the Dung Quat Shipyard won the contract, the most important one was its experience and capability in building dozens of large vessels in Vietnam.

Another advantage was that the shipyard was transparent in its contract-related documents and showed its persistence and determination to finish the project.

Vietnamese engineers and workers at the Dung Quat Shipyard in the central province of Quang Ngai Province spent months working hard on conversion items to make their products meet international standards. Photo: Hoai Anh / Tuoi Tre

An objective reason was that many factories in China operated less efficiently in 2020 due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

By far, there has been no other ship repairers in Southeast Asia, except for those of Singapore, which operate a dry dock with a large capacity like that of the Dung Quat Shipyard.

After being towed safely from the dry dock, the ship Galilean 7  now an FSO vessel  will soon begin her 27-day voyage from Vietnam to Nigeria, where it will be handed over to its new owner, one of the richest billionaires in Africa.

The captain and crew that will steer the ship during the journey are Vietnamese.

Nguyen Thi Thao, a female worker specializing in steel sheet cutting at Dung Quat Shipyard, is satisfied with her current job that properly sustains herself and her family. Photo: Hoai Anh / Tuoi Tre

Dung Quat Shipyard had to mobilize all of its existing scaffolding systems and hire more scaffolding from outside to ensure the progress of the repair and conversion of the giant oil tanker  a great task requiring thousands of workers. Photo: Hoai Anh / Tuoi Tre

The oil pipeline system on the deck is a new piece of work requested by the ship owner. These pipes were imported from abroad and installed by Vietnamese workers. Photo: Hoai Anh / Tuoi Tre

Vietnamese workers install and complete the helipad on Galilean 7. This helipad was imported from Dubai (United Arab Emirates). Photo: Hoai Anh / Tuoi Tre

The 22-ton cargo offloading hose reel system onboard the sea-floating oil storage tank. Photo: Hoai Anh / Tuoi Tre

The 22-ton cargo offloading hose reel system is fabricated at a factory of the Dung Quat Shipyard. Photo: Hoai Anh / Tuoi Tre

The cargo offloading hose reel system is moved out of the factory for installation on the vessel Galilean 7. Photo: Hoai Anh / Tuoi Tre

The conversion of Galilean 7 into a floating storage and offloading (FSO) was divided into two phases. The first phase, from October 2020 to December 2020, was mainly for surveys and assessments of the conditions of the ship, oil tanks and other components. Photo: Hoai Anh / Tuoi Tre

The second phase of the conversion started from February, focusing on the fabrication and installation of special equipment. This great project not only brings income to the workforce of the Dung Quat Shipyard through the year of COVID-19 pandemic, but also enhances the prestige of Vietnams shipbuilding and repair industry. Photo: Hoai Anh / Tuoi Tre

Nguyen Cong Thi, a young engineer in charge of commanding the tasks on the deck of Galilean 7. He was in charge of making assignments to more than 600 workers every day. Photo: Hoai Anh / Tuoi Tre

Workers are seen standing on the scaffolding system to paint the hull of the converted vessel Galelian 7. Photo: Hoai Anh / Tuoi Tre

The ship is too tall, making the re-decoration of the name of the ship and the shipyards logos an uneasy task. Photo: Hoai Anh / Tuoi Tre

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Labor Day occurs on May 1, straight after Reunification Day so the double national celebration becomes an even greater moment of national pride.

A significant percentage of the population use the twin holidays to return to hometowns or just vacation.

Trade union groups and youth groups are among those often contributing their time to do volunteer work with socially and economically disadvantaged groups.

Nowadays, two of the largest groups, the Vietnam Womens Union and the Vietnam Farmers Association, led many of the parades to celebrate Labor Day before COVID-19, as well as working in the background throughout the year on improving labor laws, legal protection for workers, and lifting salaries and workplace conditions for hundreds of thousands across the country.

Labor Day highlights and promotes the dreams, hopes, and ambitions of working-class people  their struggles for equity in the workplace, peace, and social progress.

The shame of it all was social progress were delayed for decades as the Vietnamese had to fight the French and Americans before true independence and reunification made it possible to deal with economic issues and the problems of workers.

The Vietnamese government has always seen worker welfare as a core part of its philosophy.

In the years since 1986, when the nation began to shift from a purely central government to one that included many free market reforms, this has also included major changes to labor laws.

Some of the changes are workers rights and entitlements such as paid leave, maternity leave, and methods of resolving workplace disputes.

Called Doi Moi (Renovation), the shifts aim is to mix government planning with incentives to promote business outside of the state-run enterprises and it has been a spectacular success.

Still, theres so much work to be done.

Vietnams educational push to elevate the populations ability to gain a better income and become more productive is still struggling although it is nowhere as badly as surrounding countries such as Laos, Cambodia or Myanmar.

The industrial workforce will need to adapt to increasing automation, particularly in textiles, food processing, and manufacturing.

The average salary for rural and factory workers hasnt increased that much compared to the money filling company accounts.

The coronavirus has hit the workforce hard with millions still trying to get back into employment.

And this includes the difficulties of creating meaningful work for the nations six million disabled and handicapped population.

Be that as it may, things are always getting better in the strange time frame that the Vietnamese have; some things done blinding quickly, other issues taking years to gain attention and resolution. Gender equity in the workforce is going slowly with still too few women in senior and influential positions, which would be one example.

Last year, a new labor code was agreed in November with much of it now active as of January 1, 2021.

It raised the age for retirement and the new code will also allow small non-government trade unions to operate in particular industries.

Some of this has changed to comply with international trade agreements, especially one with the European Union, which could put the question of wages in private negotiations.

I guess time will tell how much of the salary question is dealt with effectively.

Theres also a movement to extend some legal protection to self-employed and freelance workers in the code, whereas contracts are redefined as part of that adjustment so workers can argue for enforcement of their contracts.

In any case, its still all about us workers, whoever we are.

COVID-19 is changing the way we do business and how we function within our social worlds.

I think solidarity is probably more important than it has ever been in the last few decades.

So celebrate this day and remember were all in it together!
India posted a record daily rise of 401,993 new coronavirus cases on Saturday as the country opened up its massive vaccination drive to all adults, although several states warned of acute shortages.

It was the first time India's daily case count had topped 400,000 after 10 consecutive days over 300,000.

Deaths from COVID-19 jumped by 3,523 over the past 24 hours, taking the total toll in India to 211,853, according to official data.

The world's biggest producer of COVID-19 vaccines has a limited number of shots available, worsening a grim second wave of infections that has overwhelmed hospitals and morgues while families scramble for scarce medicines and oxygen.

Hundreds of people were seen queuing to be vaccinated across Ahmedabad, the main commercial city in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat, on Saturday.

The chief minister of the hard-hit state of Delhi on Friday implored people not to queue at vaccination centres, promising more vaccines would arrive "tomorrow or the day after".

India's eastern Odisha state said on Friday it had received a consignment of 150,000 shots but would only allow a few people to get shots due to lockdown restrictions preventing movement.

A fire in a hospital about 190 km (115 miles) south of Ahmedabad killed 16 coronavirus patients and two staff, the latest in a series of deadly accidents at hospitals.

Modi offered his condolences to the families of the hospital fire victims on Twitter, hours after he posted pictures of himself praying at a Sikh temple in capital New Delhi.

Some experts blame mass religious gatherings and political rallies for the severity of India's second wave, which caught the government unprepared.

A forum of scientific advisers set up by Modi administration warned Indian officials in early March of a new and more contagious variant of the coronavirus taking hold in the country, five scientists who are part of the forum told Reuters.

Despite the warning, four of the scientists said the federal government did not seek to impose major restrictions to contain the spread of the virus.

Millions, largely unmasked, attended religious gatherings and election rallies that were held by Modi, leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and opposition politicians.

The total number of COVID cases in India has topped 19 million.

As the second wave has picked up steam, India has added about 7.7 million cases since the end of February, according to a Reuters tally.

In contrast, it took India nearly six months to add the previous 7.7 million cases.

The surge in cases led U.S. President Joe Biden to impose new travel restrictions on India on Friday, barring most non-U.S. citizens from entering the United States.

Australian officials said residents and citizens who have been in India within 14 days of the date they plan to return home will be banned from entering Australia as of Monday, and those who disobey will face fines and jail. read more

Other countries and territories have also imposed similar travel restrictions on India, including Britain, Germany, Italy and Singapore, while Canada, Hong Kong and New Zealand have suspended all commercial travel with India.
Marie Damour is one of a few high-level American diplomats in Vietnam who have an intimate connection with Ho Chi Minh City.

After first coming to the city in 2002, she left and then returned 17 years later for a new position -- U.S. Consul General in the city.

Damour welcomed Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper for an open talk ahead of this long holiday weekend to celebrate Reunification Day (April 30) and International Workers' Day (May 1).

Her reason is simple: I was trained to be an educator and historian. And we have a saying in English that those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it.

An international city with an authentic vibe

What was your impression when you arrived in Ho Chi Minh City for the first time in 2002?

I arrived in Vietnam in the summer of 2002. And after a very long flight from Washington D.C. to Hong Kong and then Ho Chi Minh City, I landed at Tan Son Nhat Airport at 11:30 pm. I got into the line for people who had diplomatic passports. And up to a certain point in the airport, I could see the people from the embassy who were there to meet me behind the immigration counter. But at the immigration counter was a very professional and stern-looking gentleman with his uniform on. I handed him my U.S. passport, which lists the state where I was born -- Kentucky. And there was a very stern gentleman, and it was very late, and I was very tired. He looked down at my passport. And he looked up at me. And he looked down. And when he looked up again, he said 'KFC.'

It took me a moment. Then, I was like 'Yes, yes, I am from Kentucky! We have Kentucky Fried Chicken! Thank you very much!' And I knew I was going to like Vietnam. Because that was such an unexpected welcome. But I thought it also was indicative since that was still relatively early -- only seven years into the relationship. The U.S. Consulate General had only been officially founded around two years before that. So the relationship was still very young. And there was a man who was making a connection between a very iconic American fast food company and my birthplace. So I thought that was going to be a good two years.

During the mission, I lived in the Indochine Park Tower in the central area of Ho Chi Minh City. Most of the people in the tower were diplomats and business people. A lot of the American businessmen there were Vietnamese American.

In your eyes, how did the city change as you came back in 2019? What do you love about the city regarding its culture, lifestyle, cuisine, and people?

When I arrived in 2019, I thought it would look like the city that I left in 2004 and to some degree it did. I recognized the traffic, I recognized the airport. But when I got to my apartment near the Independence Palace, I had a beautiful terrace and it looked out over the city and it was night-time, the entire skyline of the city has changed in the 15 years I was away.

The citys development of the physical infrastructure is really indicative of the economic and social development that the city has undergone in 15 years. In a lot of ways, Ho Chi Minh City feels like a much more international city now than it did 17-19 years ago. From the outside, the city has definitely transformed itself into a modern 21st century metropolis, but from the inside, it has remained unique and authentic and true to itself.

Here, you can find Italian, Brazilian, Korean, and even Ethiopian food, along with world-class Vietnamese cooking. Ho Chi Minh City is truly a metropolis with so much to offer in terms of history, cultural heritage, monuments, eating, and shopping. As for the lifestyle, I find it to be a very relaxing and pleasant place to live. Vietnamese people are warm and very welcoming to foreigners, and the Vietnamese mindset of 'work to live' is apparent in everything they do.

I usually walk my dog in the mornings, and its always nice to see how people from this city gather on the streets to eat a bowl of pho with friends. It shows that the Vietnamese people value relationships and good food  and that to me is what makes living and working in Vietnam such a memorable and rewarding experience. I have always felt at home in Vietnam.

Marie Damour (middle) attends the groundbreaking ceremony of a project to clean up dioxin contamination hosted by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Vietnams Ministry of National Defense at Bien Hoa airport on December 5, 2019. Photo: U.S. Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City

'If I had been born in Vietnam, that could have been my father...'

American diplomats usually avoid talking about April 30, so why did you accept our invitation for an interview?

Because we cannot focus on the future if we do not respect the past. The U.S. and Vietnam have a shared history. There is a lot about that shared history, which is very sad.

I was trained to be an educator and historian. And we have a saying in English that those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it.' So when you think about how the U.S. and Vietnam renewed our diplomatic relations 25 years ago, the bedrock of that engagement between our two countries was our work on addressing the legacies of the war.

It was the people-to-people exchanges between veterans who had fought on opposite sides. It was the combined effort to identify missing-in-action soldiers. That was how we are engaged as governments and as people, and everything else came from that. So even if millions may be happy and millions may be sad, this is the reality of our history.

If we pretend it does not exist, it does nothing to help us move forward with our relationship. And I personally believe part of the strength of the U.S.-Vietnam comprehensive partnership is that we can discuss these sensitive issues, we can work together to address those legacies of the past.

It is known that your father fought in the war in Vietnam. How do you know about the war through your father's account?

One of the first things that I did here as Consul General was going to Da Nang for a ceremony, where we were returning two sets of remains believed to be American soldiers, which had been discovered as part of this search for our war dead. While I was watching these coffins draped with the American flag, all I could think of was that it could have been my father. Because when I was two years old, my father came here and he was stationed in Phu Bai, up in Thua Thien-Hue. He came home, but so many other fathers did not.

Marie Damour visits Phu Vang District Medical Center in Thua Thien-Hue Province on April 8, 2021. Hue is where her father stationed during the war. Photo: U.S. Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City

I do not think you have to be Vietnamese or American in order to appreciate the sacrifice that people made for their countries. And to respect that, even if at the time they were your adversary, they paid that price for their country in the same way we paid the price for ours. Whatever you think about the war between the U.S. and Vietnam, you have to have respect for that. And so we want to make sure we are doing that.

Ambassador Daniel Kritenbrink particularly has made some very symbolic visits to two different cemeteries and to important sites during the war. He and I went together to the martyrs' cemetery here in Ho Chi Minh City.

And I think he was the first ambassador to visit that cemetery. He and I talked about it a little after that. It was personally meaningful because, first of all, they were not just from the war with the U.S., they were patriots who had sacrificed in other wars that Vietnam had fought.

When you look at the headstones and see the names, and see the dates of birth and the dates of death, they make you realize that it was young men who paid that price. And for me, it was very touching. Because if I had been born in Vietnam, that could have been my father.

Ambassador Kritenbrink said that if the two countries cooperate well to resolve war legacies, it would open up opportunities for more strategic cooperation. Do you agree?

I think he was very right. The willingness of both countries is critical for any partnership. Both countries need to be willing to address war legacies. I know many families in the United States are incredibly grateful for the work that the Vietnamese government and people have done to help us address our missing war dead.

The U.S. is absolutely committed to addressing the legacies of the war. Whether it is helping Vietnam account for its own missing. Whether it is cleaning up contaminated soil in the cities of Bien Hoa or Da Nang. Whether it is eradicating the unexploded ordnance, particularly up in the central region of the country. Or whether it is helping people with disabilities, regardless of the source in these eight or nine key provinces. That is an incredibly important part of our relationship.

From old adversaries to partners in peace

You are a daughter of an American veteran and now a senior U.S. diplomat in Vietnam, we think you understand the value of peace and friendship very well, right?

Marie Damour, Ambassador Daniel Kritenbrink, and U.S. Defense Attache Colonel Stevenson pay respects at the Ho Chi Minh City Military Martyrs' Cemetery on June 21, 2020. Photo: U.S. Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City

When you think about how the relationship has changed in 25 years, you think about economic development, not just in Vietnam but in the U.S. as well. The results of that peace were that we could begin a friendship that allowed both our countries to develop economically. And people's lives are demonstrably better than they were 25 years ago from both of our countries.

One of the great values of reflecting on history is the lesson that it offers. When you look at how quickly the U.S. and Vietnam went from being adversaries in a war to being partners in peace, I think there is real value to the rest of the world to see why it matters that you can set aside. You never forget what happened in the past, but if you focus on the future, on that friendship, on the bridge that can be built, look at how much we can do together.

You mentioned that the two countries are partners in peace. Did you mean the support that the U.S. offers Vietnam in the United Nations peacekeeping program in South Sudan?

From a government perspective, looking at the role that Vietnam is playing, you know Vietnam became the president of the Security Council at the United Nations (UNSC) in April. Vietnam is playing a much bigger role in the international community than when I was here 15 years ago.

I am also impressed [by Vietnam's delegation to South Sudan]. I have gone to a couple of ceremonies over it and the [175 Military Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City] to watch the delegation come back from South Sudan. Then, I was just over at Tan Son Nhat to say farewell to the third group of medical personnel who were going off. We have heard from the U.S. personnel in South Sudan about how impressive the Vietnamese hospital unit is in the work, which they do in their effort to connect with the community, and that they are serving both the UN peacekeepers and the local population.

I think that collaboration with the U.S. helps with the training, as we do it with many countries who are involved in UN peacekeeping. But the symbol of two former adversaries working together to create peace on an entirely different continent is incredibly important. Because if we can make peace, and be partners in that way, then the peacekeepers can help those two countries that are fighting right now make peace.

The land of future

Let's return to bilateral relations between the two countries. The first Vietnamese ambassador to the U.S. after the war, Le Bang, once said that the Vietnam-U.S. relationship had been rocketing after normalization. What do you think about his statement?

When we renewed our diplomatic relations 25 years ago, there was almost no trade between the U.S. and Vietnam.

And even when I was here in 2002, I remember it was probably somewhere like US$400-600 million in two-way trade. And nowadays, it's almost US$90 billion -- which is a huge growth figure.

Marie Damour, Ambassador Daniel Kritenbrink, and U.S. Defense Attache Colonel Stevenson pay respects at Bien Hoa (also known as Binh An) Cemetery on June 21, 2020. Photo: U.S. Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City

Before I came to Vietnam, I went around and spoke to all the different agencies in the U.S. government. I went and talked to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, to different representational groups, so I can learn how Vietnam had changed at least from the American perspective.

It is almost impossible to overstate how enthusiastic people in Washington were about Vietnam, whether it was the comprehensive partnership, the critical role that Vietnam plays in our Indo-Pacific strategy, or the possibilities of expanding trade.

Even though we still do not have a formal free trade agreement and there are areas we need to work together, there is that enthusiasm. It is the belief that Vietnam represents both an opportunity for American businesses to invest, as well as to send and sell American products, and a trust in Vietnam as a maturing and developing economy.

How do you comment on the fight against COVID-19 pandemic of Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City in particular, in the context that we are conversing directly without having to wear a face mask?

I am really impressed. Everybody has to recognize that Vietnam has done possibly the best job in the world, containing COVID-19 with aggressive measures that the government took to limit exposure, to do contact tracing, and to enforce quarantine. But they could not have been successful if the people of Vietnam had not been so disciplined. Everybody immediately started wearing masks everywhere. And every time there's a small outbreak, everybody does it again.

U.S. Consul General Marie Damour (second row, middle) and Vietnamese leaders, including Deputy Minister of Defense Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh, participate in the commendation of the first level-2 field hospital for completing their duties in South Sudan, held in Ho Chi Minh City, December 5, 2019. Photo: U.S. Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City

It is really impressive that Vietnam has done such a terrific job. We particularly appreciate the transparency of the Vietnamese government in sharing information, whether it was the genetic sequencing that everyone around the world has been using to develop the vaccines, or the information on where the clusters are happening. It is because knowing how the disease was transmitted is incredibly important for the rest of the world to control the pandemic. You were one of the first countries affected and without that transparent exchange of information, the rest of the world would have been at a much greater disadvantage. So it has been a real privilege to watch.

What is your comment on the mutual efforts to fight the pandemic between the two countries, especially the possibility of the U.S. transferring the technology of vaccine production to Vietnam?

We talk a lot about additional cooperation on pandemic or healthcare-related issues. There has been a lot of discussion, particularly up in Hanoi with the central government about access to the various vaccines that are available.

I know Vietnam is now in human trials to have your own, which is incredibly important. Again, 20 years ago, you would not necessarily have seen that.

President Joe Biden, when he came in, announced US$2 billion to COVAX under the WHO. And there have been two recent deliveries for Vietnam, which is a start. Part of [Vietnams] problem with being so successful in containing [the pandemic] is perhaps the vaccination came right next. But there will be another $2 billion fund through COVAX by 2022. So as new vaccines come online and production ramps up, I fully expect to see a stronger flow into Vietnam.

Thank you so much!

I would be proud if I were Vietnamese What do you think about the post-war generation's contribution to the Vietnam-U.S. relationship? I have visited universities throughout the south, and talked to a lot of the folks involved in the Young Southeast Asia Leaders Initiative. If I were Vietnamese, I would be incredibly proud. It is not just because you have young people who are so interested in education, which has probably been a hallmark of Vietnam for 3,000 years, but also because they are so creative and optimistic. They are so intent on helping develop their country. I have lived in a lot of places around the world in my 28 years in the foreign service, and very rarely come to a nation where everybody is convinced that they can make their lives, specifically in their country in general, better, and are so eager to make that happen. They are the ambassadors. And I say that in all sincerity. You know, I'm a diplomat, we get paid to say nice things. But genuinely, it's an impressive group. Vietnam is the sixth-largest country sending students to study in U.S. schools with around 30,000 people per year -- that is amazing when you think about it. They are those who literally represent the future of the relationship, a bridge between the American and Vietnamese people.

Marie C. Damour is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, having joined the State Department in 1993, and is assigned to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam as Consul General beginning in August 2019. She has previously served as Director in the Office of Maritime Southeast Asia in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, as well as in the Office of Policy Coordination and Public Affairs in the Bureau of Consular Affairs. Her previous overseas assignments include Deputy Chief of Mission in Wellington, New Zealand; Minister Counselor for Consular Affairs in Brasilia, Brazil; and Chief of Visa Services at the U.S. Embassy in London. She has also served domestically as Special Assistant in the Office of the Secretary, as well as Consular Chief overseas in Iraq, Vietnam, and Mauritania. Damour is a graduate of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. She speaks French, Portuguese, and Vietnamese.

What support does the U.S. give to Vietnam peacekeeping? Responding to Tuoi Tres question, Juan German, press attache of the U.S. Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City, said the U.S. has supplied a total of $10 million to the Vietnam Peacekeeping Force, under Global Peace Operations Initiative, to assist Vietnam in building international peacekeeping capacity. According to German, this funding is used to build and provide technical equipment for the lecture hall building in Thach Hoa Commune, Thach That District, Hanoi, to serve as training facilities for military medical forces and engineers who join the Peacekeeping Force. In addition, the United States also provided equipment to support the deployment of Vietnam's level-2 field hospital. German added that the United States has supported Vietnam's peacekeeping since 2008. The role and contribution of Vietnam in the UN peacekeeping mission demonstrate the growing influence of Vietnam in the region and around the world. The U.S. supports Vietnam to play a larger role in the international arena, German emphasized. Hong Van

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Here are todays leading news stories:

COVID-19 Updates

-- Vietnam recorded four local COVID-19 cases in northern Ha Nam Province and Hanoi and ten imported infections on Friday afternoon, bringing the national tally to 2,928 patients, with 2,516 recoveries and 35 virus-related deaths.

-- Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh announced an emergency aid worth $500,000 to help Laos cope with the COVID-19 pandemic in his letter to Lao Prime Minister Phankham Viphavanh on Friday.

-- The Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control announced that arrivals from villages where COVID-19 patients reside in Ha Nam, northern Hung Yen Province and Hanoi will be subject to 14-day home quarantine and virus test starting Friday.

-- There are four COVID-19 cases in Vietnam infected with a coronavirus variant believed to be behind a devastating surge of the virus in India, according to the result announced Friday following genetic sequencing of the patients samples by the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology.

Society

-- A sleeper bus hit a truck head-on, killing the truck driver, and seriously injuring the bus driver on the section of National Highway 14 passing through Bu Dang District in southern Binh Phuoc Province on Friday afternoon.

-- A bus stop shelter on Dien Bien Phu Street in Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City suddenly collapsed at around 6:00 pm on Friday. Two passersby fortunately avoided when the incident happened.

-- People arrived in droves in Cua Lo Town, located in north-central Nghe An Province, to enjoy beach swimming on Friday.

-- Da Lat-bound holiday makers from Ho Chi Minh City spent more than 17 hours on their vehicles but still failed to reach the capital city of Lam Dong Province in the Central Highlands region due to a nightmare traffic jam on Bao Loc Pass on Friday. It normally takes a maximum of seven hours to travel from Ho Chi Minh City to Da Lat by car.

-- A video capturing a woman insulting, hitting and biting traffic police officers, claiming that she is a police officer as well after she was booked for not wearing helmets while riding a motorbike on a street in Hanoi went viral on social media on Friday.

Education

-- Authorities in Ha Nam Province on Friday decided to request local students to stay home to prevent coronavirus transmission for one more week after the four-day public holiday to celebrate the Reunification Day (April 30) and the International Workers Day (May 1).

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Three female and two male Vietnamese scientists have been named in the 2021 edition of the Asian Scientist 100 List by Singapores Asian Scientist magazine.

This annual list features Asias most outstanding scientists and researchers in various fields.

The three women scientists are Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Thi Thu Ha of Thai Nguyen University, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vuong Thi Ngoc Lan from the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Ho Chi Minh City, and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Le Thi Quynh Mai from the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology.

Along with their male counterparts are Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Tien Son of Da Lat University and Dr. Nguyen Truong Thanh Hieu from Ton Duc Thang University.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Thi Thu Ha is a scientist focusing on propagation and intensive cultivation of plants, breeding and growing of non-timber forest products and medicinal herbs, and developing local medicinal plants.

She was given the Kovalevskaia Award in 2019.

As a specialist in biomedical research, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vuong Thi Ngoc Lan was one of the three recipients of the Ta Quang Buu Award in 2020 for comparison of the methods of fresh and frozen embryo transfers for in vitro fertilization (IVF).

She has made significant contributions to research on IVF as well as IVF implementation for thousands of families.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Le Thi Quynh Mai was the representative of a group of female scientists who were given the 2019 Kovalevskaia Prize for successfully isolating a new strain of SARS-CoV-2 virus, making Vietnam one of the first four countries succeeding in the isolation of this virus strain.

In the field of mathematics, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Tien Son is among the recipients of the Ta Quang Buu Award in 2020 for his research on the general properties of semi-algebraic planning.

Meanwhile, as an expert in physics, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Truong Thanh Hieu was also honored with the 2020 Ta Quang Buu Award for his research entitled Average free distance of low energy electrons in materials.

The 2021 edition of the Asian Scientist 100 list honors the prominent contributions of the regions best researchers as they help address the most challenging issues of our time, from climate change to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year is the sixth consecutive year that Asian Scientist magazine honors outstanding Asian researchers in various fields, including agriculture, economics, physics, mathematics and medicine, to name a few.

Besides the five Vietnamese scientists, the others on this years list are from China, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand.

Vietnam has so far had 15 scientists honored in the annual Asian Scientist 100 lists.

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The Vietnamese Ministry of Health confirmed 14 more COVID-19 cases, including four local infections, on Friday afternoon.

Two of the four community cases are natives of northern Ha Nam Province and have been admitted to Ha Nam General Hospital while the two others are workers at Bac Thang Long Industrial Park in Hanoi and being treated at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases.

All of them were linked to patient No. 2,899.

These new cases took the total number of community transmissions in Vietnam to 1,584, of which 924 were detected after January 26.

The other patients registered on Friday afternoon included eight Vietnamese returning from Germany, the Philippines, Indonesia, one arrival at Moc Bai border gate in the southern province of Tay Ninh, and one Indian national, said the ministry.

Vietnam has registered 2,928 COVID-19 patients, with 2,516 recoveries and 35 virus-related deaths.

Most of the deceased patients had suffered critical pre-existing conditions.

The health ministry added in Friday afternoons announcement that the result following genetic sequencing of four Indian COVID-19 patients samples in Vietnam by the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology showed that they were infected with a coronavirus variant believed to be behind a devastating surge of the virus in India.

One Vietnamese citizen working at the hotel where this group of four were quarantined also caught the pathogen from them.

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The Ministry of Finance has announced a draft circular encouraging the public to make their social and charitable donations by bank account transfer or electronic payment methods.

After over one year of fielding suggestions on management of such contributions, the Finance Ministry on Wednesday released its draft circular providing guidance for collection, management and expenditure of social and charitable donations as well as grants to relic sites and festive activities.

Regarding charitable donations or funding for relic site protection, donors should directly put their cash contributions into boxes for kindness, transfer their grants to the bank accounts of relic management agencies at commercial banks or state treasuries, or hand over their valuable papers to those agencies.

In case valuable papers are certificates carrying their owners names, donors are required to get through the transfer procedures as prescribed by current regulations.

For donations in forms of precious metals or stones, relic management agencies are allowed to put them up for auctions or sell them to commercial banks, with proceeds from the sale recognized as cash contributions.

In the draft circular, the Finance Ministry also set forth many principles on fund-raising and receipts of charitable donations.

Accordingly, the ministry strictly prohibits taking unfair advantage of any festivals or using relic sites for individual or group interests.

All receipts and expenditures of charitable donations must be recorded fully, correctly, publicly and transparently.

Certificates of donation must be issued at the donors requests.

In case a relic management agency receives a donation of VND100 million (US$4,300) or more, the agency must put it into its account at a commercial bank or a state treasury branch.

With respect to management of charity boxes, relic management agencies must regularly check and count the money inside such box on the daily, weekly or monthly basis.

Such activities must be made in writing with signatures of the keeper of the charity box key, the accountant in charge, and the representative of the security guard team at the relic site.

Donations to relic sites are intended to be spent on purchase of incense sticks, flowers, offerings, stationery and supplies; restoration or construction works; payment of wages and expenses on use of public services; and other expenses related to the relic sites daily activities.

Expenditures from a donation must be within the relics internal spending regulations and the expectations of its donor.

In case the donation recipient is a religious entity as a public non-business unit, expenditures from a donation are required to meet both the donors expectations and the spending rules of state agencies.

Festival organizers and relic management agencies must open their bank accounts at commercial banks or state treasury branches to receive cash donations so that the receipt of and payment from such donations can be monitored.

In case the donation receiver is a state agency or a public non-business unit, it must open its account at a commercial bank to receive and manage all cash donations.

When the receiver needs to use the money, it must transfer such amount to its account at the State Treasury for the purposes of expenditure management and settlement.

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Da Lat-bound holiday makers from Ho Chi Minh City spent more than 17 hours on their vehicles but still failed to reach the capital city of Lam Dong Province in the Central Highlands region due to a nightmare traffic jam on Bao Loc Pass on Friday.

It normally takes a maximum of seven hours to travel from Ho Chi Minh City to Da Lat by car.

But vacationers, who left Ho Chi Minh City late on Thursday evening and spent their night on cars or sleeper buses with a hope to wake up in the cool, relaxing air of Da Lat the next morning, had still found themselves amidst the stuffy atmosphere of traffic congestion as of Friday afternoon.

Traffic congestion occured on National Highway 20, especially on Chuoi Pass and Bao Loc Pass which administratively belong to Lam Dong, on Thursday night and lingered until late on Friday afternoon, with droves of vehicles moving at a snail's pace on the major route to Da Lat.

Endless lines of vehicles move slowly through Bao Loc City, Lam Dong Province, Vietnam, April 30, 2021. Video: Duc Tho / Tuoi Tre

According to traffic police officers of Lam Dong, the traffic pressure concentrated not only on these two mountain passes but also at Dau Giay intersection in southern Dong Nai Province, about 100 kilometers away.

Its terrible, Nhat Linh, a Thua Thien-Hue native who boarded a passenger bus from Ho Chi Minh City to Da Lat from 11:00 pm Thursday, said in the middle of his way at 4:00 pm on Friday.

The vehicles stayed still for most of the time and only moved slowly at a speed of five to 30 kilometers per hour for the rest.

Never have I seen traffic jams last that long.

The traffic jam made me want to go home.

Endless lines of vehicles queue in Bao Loc City, Lam Dong Province, Vietnam, April 30, 2021. Photo: Duc Tho / Tuoi Tre

It was only jammed in the direction from Ho Chi Minh City to Da Lat due to the high volume of vehicles, said Truong Ngoc Hanh Dung, a traveler in the opposite direction.

Some drivers are impatient, thus making the traffic jam even more serious, she added.

As an experienced long-distance traveler, Dung believed that the high demand for traveling, including both abroad and domestic, which has long been held back by the COVID-19 pandemic prompted abnormal large numbers of visitors to Da Lat, where offers pleasant weather -- an ideal escape from the heat in urban areas.

Further, most workers in Vietnam have four days off during the public holiday to celebrate the Reunification Day (April 30) and the International Workers Day (May 1) .

A long line of vehicles queues on Bao Loc Pass in Lam Dong Province, Vietnam, April 30, 2021. Photo: Nghia Nguyen / Tuoi Tre

To help release the traffic volume on National Highway 20, more than 100 police officers of Lam Dong Province and Da Huoai District were mobilized to the scene to direct the vehicles, steering them to the alternative route through the provincial road 721 past Da Teh District and Con O Pass to Da Lat.

This is a poorly-known route but with a guaranteed road quality, and can be used as a backup for Bao Loc Pass.

The Department of Transport of Lam Dong has also banned buses with more than 16 seats from traveling on Prenn Pass and restricted them on Mimosa Pass from 10:00 am Friday through May 3.

By the end of Friday afternoon, vehicles had been able to slowly move out of National Highway 20 and Bao Loc Pass.

Endless lines of vehicles queue in Bao Loc City, Lam Dong Province, Vietnam, April 30, 2021. Photo: Duc Tho / Tuoi Tre

Droves of vehicles stay still on a street in Bao Loc City, Lam Dong Province, Vietnam, April 30, 2021. Photo: Nhat Linh / Tuoi Tre

A long line of vehicles queues on Bao Loc Pass in Lam Dong Province, Vietnam, April 30, 2021. Photo: Nhat Linh / Tuoi Tre

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A sleeper bus hit a truck head-on, killing the truck driver and seriously injuring the bus driver on the section of National Highway 14 passing through Bu Dang District in southern Binh Phuoc Province on Friday afternoon.

The collision occurred at around 4:30 pm Friday.

The sleeper bus allegedly encroached the opposite lane as its driver, 36-year-old Le Duc Hoang from the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak, tried to overtake another vehicle in the same direction.

At that time, Tran Vu Phong, a 41-year-old man in Binh Phuoc, failed to control his truck, which was running on the opposite lane, to avoid the sleeper bus.

After a strong crash, the front parts of the two vehicles were dented deeply and stuck together.

The two drivers were trapped in their cockpits and seriously injured.

Some passengers on the sleeper bus also suffered a few cuts and bruises and a state of panic.

The two drivers were quickly taken to hospital for emergency treatment.

But Phong died later.

Traffic police officers also swiftly arrived at the scene to examine and investigate the cause of the fatal accident.

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In Latvia, two men were set alight in a suspected homophobic hate crime  exposing the fault lines in a republic that resists recognising LGBT+ people.

According to local newswires, a scuffle allegedly broke out between a homophobic man and two men living in the same apartment block in Tukums, a historic town of red-brick builds and wood-carding mills.

On 22 April, one of the two men were doused in flammable liquid before being set alight. As the flames engulfed him, another man desperately tried to put them out, getting burnt himself in the process.

The attack has drawn rage from not only LGBT+ activists groups, long frustrated by the open hostility from social conservatives they face in the republic, but Latvias president, too.

In a Twitter statement on Saturday (24 April), president Egils Levits sought to stress that there is no place for hate in Latvia.

If it is confirmed that the Tukums offenders motivation was hate toward a group of society, he wrote, it exacerbates their guilt.

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A value of the Latvian society is tolerance, and this expression of hate is a crime towards the society as well.

Men, burned alive by homophobe, encounter indifference from Latvia police

The victims claim that their attacker lived in the five-story apartment complex with them. He had long threatened and jeered at them, they claim.

Both men were burnt in the ensuing fire, with the first victim sped to a burns centre in Riga, the capital of Latvia, for treatment.

But when telling the authorities about the incident, they only encountered indifference.

We reported these threats to both the police and the neighbours workplace, but there was no reaction, the second victim told Tukums Independent News, a local newspaper.

We had to wait for someone to be mutilated or killed.

The Tukums District Police Department confirmed to the outlet that two people have been injured in the fire and an investigation has been launched.

Anger and shock quickly mingled among Latvian advocacy groups. Mozakia described brutal, incomprehensible attack as a possible hate crime in a Twitter statement.

Story continues

Calling for the Latvian State Police to intervene, the LGBT+ rights group added: The current homophobic attacks and incidents are a clear result of the hatred-based policies of some politicians and organisations.

Indeed, Latvian lawmakers have increasingly sought to make the depth of disgust they feel towards LGBT+ folk perfectly clear.

The Latvian parliament, the Saeima, overwhelmingly voted to tweak the constitution to define the family strictly as a union of a male and female person.

It was a move that added to the already long list of woes for queer Lavvians. Living in a country that refuses to recognise neither marriage equality or civil partnerships, or enshrine same-sex couples with the right to adopt or any legal protections for that matter.
Fighting broke out on Thursday between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan over control of an irrigation canal and an access road to an ethnic enclave, raising the specter of instability in Central Asia as the United States prepares to withdraw from Afghanistan. As New York Times reported, the clash escalated beyond the typical border skirmishes that break out regularly in the remote, mountainous region of southwestern Kyrgyzstan and are a legacy of the Soviet breakup. The countries dispute water rights and territory.

Border guards and other security forces exchanged small-arms fire, videos posted online showed, and mortars and artillery were fired from the Tajik side, according to Kyrgyz officials. The Kyrgyz authorities also reported that helicopters attacked several positions. Pictures from the area showed a Kyrgyz border patrol post on fire.

At least three people died, including a soldier and a civilian child, according to the Kyrgyz government. The Tajik government said three civilians had died, Reuters reported. By the end of the day, Kyrgyz authorities had evacuated several villages.

Late Thursday, the two governments announced a cease-fire and an agreement that soldiers would return to their usual positions, though it was unclear whether small areas of land that had changed hands would be returned, according to a senior Kyrgyz official who was not authorized to discuss the agreement publicly.

In announcing the cease-fire, the Kyrgyz Ministry of Interior said that it does not have designs on foreign territory and also has no plans to share its own land with anybody.

The fighting centered around Vorukh, a Tajik enclave within Kyrgyzstan and a flash point in the conflict over ethnic enclaves in and around the Ferghana Valley, a long-simmering security problem that gets little attention from the world at large. The Soviet breakup left dozens of small pockets of ethnic minorities in the valley.

Vorukh, a mountain valley lush with water and known for its apricot groves, is upstream from Kyrgyz villages that depend on it for irrigation.

In addition to the water dispute, the Tajik government claims an access corridor to the district that is contested by the Kyrgyz government. The fighting centered around this road and a sluice controlling irrigation water.

Raw ethnic tension is also a backdrop to the fighting. The clash was preceded by reports of locals hurling rocks at one another, and construction workers and shepherds being kidnapped.

Though the area is far from the Afghan border and main routes out of Afghanistan, the hostilities come at a delicate time for the United States.

In the early stages of the Afghan war, the United States opened two bases in Central Asia to move troops into Afghanistan, and transported everything from fuel to food on an overland route through the region and into the war zone.

Central Asia today provides an alternative to Pakistan as an overland route for moving equipment out of Afghanistan as the Biden administration has vowed a complete withdrawal by September.
Russia has produced the first round of COVID-19 vaccines for animals, and other countries have already expressed interest in the doses, too. "About 20 organizations are ready to negotiate registration and supply of the vaccine to their countries," the Kremlin's agricultural regulator, Rosselkhoznadzor, said on Friday, Newsweek reports.

The first 17,000 doses of the animal vaccine are ready and companies from Germany, Greece, Poland, Austria, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea, Lebanon, Iran and Argentina have voiced interest in accessing the shots, Reuters reported. The first batch will be distributed to several regions only in Russia, but the Kremlin is ready to start shipping the shots abroad.

"The file for registration abroad, in particular in the European Union, is under preparation and will be promptly used for the registration process," Rosselkhoznadzor said.The first batch comes after the agricultural agency announced in March that mass production of the vaccine, known as Carnivac-Cov, would begin after it successfully produced antibodies against COVID-19 in dogs, cats, foxes and mink. The animals showed a significant immune response to the virus since vaccine trials began last October."The results of the trials allow us to conclude that the vaccine is safe and highly immunogenic as all the vaccinated animals developed antibodies to the coronavirus," Konstantin Savenkov, Rosselkhoznadzor's deputy head, said in a statement in March.

Global health regulators have voiced concern about the risk of COVID-19 transmission between humans and animals. The World Health Organization (WHO) announced in March the most likely origin of COVID-19 was transmission of the virus from bats to humans, according to the Associated Press.

"SARS-CoV-2 spreads primarily through human-to-human transmission, but there is evidence of transmission between humans and animals," a WHO spokesperson wrote to Newsweek. "Several animals like mink, dogs, domestic cats, lions, tigers and raccoon dogs have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 after contact with infected humans. There have been reports of large animal outbreaks in mink farms in several countries."

The spokesperson added the WHO is working with other organizations, including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Organization for Animal Health, to evaluate potential transitions between humans and animals.Alexander Gintsburg, leader of the institute that developed Russia's Sputnik V human COVID-19 vaccine, said in March that farm and domestic animals would be the next frontier of defense when it comes to the virus.

"The use of the vaccine, according to Russian researchers, can prevent the development of viral mutations, which most often occur during interspecies transmission of the agent," Rosselkhoznadzor said back in March.
Acting Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Mher Grigoryan stated that the Armenian side did not give consent for the participation of an Azerbaijani representative as a guest in the meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council, which was held in Kazan.

"For any third country to participate in a meeting of the EAEU Intergovernmental Council, a consensus decision is required," Grigoryan recalled, noting that there was no consensus on this issue. "In particular, Armenia did not agree to the participation of the representative of Azerbaijan in the meeting," he said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to call for the closure of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project during an upcoming meeting with his German counterpart Heiko Maas, Acting Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Reeker said on Friday, TASS reports.

Reeker told reporters at a special briefing that the US and German top diplomats are to hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G7 ministerial meeting in London.

"I think that we will meet separately with the Germans in the bilateral format. Nord Stream 2 remains an issue. You heard that from the president, from the secretary, from the spokesmen. And we will continue to make it very clear to the Germans our views of that project, that it should stop," he said.

According to the US diplomat, many other issues will be raised during bilateral talks as well.
First Deputy Interior Minister Maj. Gen. Suyun Omurzakov met with Deputy Interior Minister of Tajikistan Maj. Gen. Ibrohimzoda Nozim on the territory of International village, Leilek district, AKI Press reports.

The Deputy Interior Ministers discussed the ways of stabilization of the situation in villages of Leilek district, re-establishment of public order and peace in border villages, joint protection of public order.

The sides reached agreement on stabilization of the situation during the talks, the Interior Ministry of Kyrgyzstan said.

The agreement was reached on the soonest normalization of the situation, cease of shooting.

The Interior Ministry said all necessary actions are undertaken to stabilize the situation in Leilek district of Batken region.
A powerful explosion occurred in Dushanbe at a gas station located in the western outskirts of the city, the fire department of the Tajik capital informs.

"A powerful explosion occurred at a gas station located in the Zarafshon microdistrict," RIA Novosti quotes the source.

It is specified that the fire whirl reached a height of at least 50 m. As a result of the explosion, the houses standing nearby were damaged.
The driver of a truck that got into a car accident in the Stavropol Territory, as a result of which five children were killed, said that he had not seen the car that collided with him when overtaking.

"We jumped out one by one. I passed the first one, but the second one was simply not visible. The second car hit the wheel, the truck got out of control and began to overturn", RIA Novosti quotes the truck driver with a reference to the 360 TV channel.
The Holy Fire from Jerusalem was delivered by a charter flight to the Stavropol Territory. In Stavropol, the shrine was met by representatives of dioceses, cossacks and local parishioners.

North Caucasus Federal District became the first district of the country, where the Holy Fire was delivered on Saturday.

Despite all the difficulties, this year we managed to promptly deliver a particle of the Holy Fire to the Stavropol Territory, the member of the Federation Council, who headed the delegation of the Stavropol Territory, Mikhail Afanasov said, TASS reports.
The parties to the negotiation process on the nuclear deal in Vienna agreed to exclude some names and organizations from the sanctions lists, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi said.

At the same time, the deputy head of the Iranian foreign ministry noted that not everything has been excluded from the sanctions lists, "discussions on this issue are still ongoing. There was an agreement to exclude the names of many individuals and organizations from the sanctions lists, but there are others who are still on these lists for various reasons," the official said.

In turn, Russia's permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, commenting on the interim results of the activities of the Joint Commission on the Iranian nuclear deal, noted progress in the negotiation process, and also indicated that there are grounds for confident optimism. "The Joint Commission on the JCPOA has summed up the interim results of the negotiations in Vienna. There has been steady progress, although many unresolved issues remain. The Commission will meet again on May 7," he wrote on Twitter.

Ulyanov also drew attention to the fact that "the parties have a common disposition to strive for a successful completion of the negotiations in three weeks."

Earlier it was reported that yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed hope that everything related to the JCPOA on the Iranian nuclear program will be restored to the previous framework and volumes.
The authorities of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan agreed on a complete cessation of the border hostilities, the Kyrgyz media reports with a reference to the chairman of the Kyrgyz State Committee for National Security.

Our peoples are going through difficult times. It is our common tragedy. It was hard for us to carry out the work, but nevertheless, on the instructions of the heads of our states, we decided to completely stop the shooting and withdraw all military formations, " the head of the State Committee for National Security of Kyrgyzstan, Kamchybek Tashiev said after negotiations with his Tajik counterpart Saimumin Yatimov in the Batken region of Kyrgyzstan.
Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed Pavel Baryshev, Deputy Head of EMERCOM of Russia, who had held this post since February 2, 2017. The reasons for the decision are not specified.

The corresponding decree was published on the official Internet portal of legal information.

"To remove Colonel-General Pavel Fedorovich Baryshev from the post of Deputy Minister of the Russian Federation for Civil Defense, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters," the presidential decree reads.

It is clarified that the decree comes into force on May 1.
Vietnam witnessed the growth of exports and imports in the first four months of 2021 hitting 10-year record high, data of the General Statistics Office (GSO) shows.

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From January-April, exports totalled 103.9 billion USD, an increase of 28.3 percent against the same period last year.

The domestic sector exported 25.76 billion USD worth of goods and services, up 12.8 percent year-on-year and accounting for 24.8 percent of the total overseas shipments, while the foreign-invested sector contributed 78.14 billion USD, up 34.4 percent and representing 75.2 percent of the total.

Highest growth was seen in the heavy industry and mining sector, which generated 57.58 billion USD in export revenue, a year-on-year rise of 33 percent. It was followed by the light and craft industries, 27.5 percent; and agriculture and forestry, 8.8 percent.

The US was Vietnams largest buyer during the period, with a value of 30.3 billion USD, up 50.1 percent year-on-year. China came second, purchasing 16.8 billion USD worth of goods and services from Vietnam, up 32.4 percent; followed by the EU, 12.6 billion USD and 18.1 percent.

Four-month imports rose by 30.8 percent from a year earlier to 102.6 billion USD. Some 93.9 percent of the imports were capital goods, worth a total of 96.31 billion USD, up 31.4 percent. The remainder was consumer goods, valued at 6.3 billion USD, up 22.5 percent.

China remained as Vietnams biggest seller with 33.1 billion USD worth of goods and services shipped to Vietnam, up 47.8 percent year-on-year, followed by the Republic of Korea (16.9 billion USD), ASEAN (14.1 billion USD), and Japan (7.2 billion USD).

The GSO also reported trade surplus of 1.29 billion USD and total retail sales of goods and services of close to 1.7 quadrillion VND (73.5 billion USD) in the first four month of the year, up 10 percent year-on-year./.VNA
As a key pillar of the national economy, Vietnams agri-food sector remained resilient during the COVID-19 pandemic and has great potential to drive economic recovery, ranking second in the region.

However, a report by Oxford Economics states that while the sector can be a significant driver of Vietnams post-COVID-19 economic recovery, supply and demand risks, fiscal policy measures, and a drawn-out pandemic could disrupt this trajectory.

The agri-food sector could play a major role in Vietnam's recovery.

Commissioned by the Food Industry Asia (FIA) to better understand the challenges and economic impact of the agri-food sector faced in 2020, The Economic Impact of the Agri-Food Sector in Southeast Asia report highlighted that the agri-food sectors role is pivotal in driving Vietnams economic recovery, creating employment, and putting food on the table at stable prices.

According to the reports Economic Recovery Matrix, Vietnam placed second across 10 countries when it comes to the sectors expected economic recovery, with a score of 6.6 out of 10, coming in just behind Singapore. This is in part due to Vietnam having contained the COVID-19 virus relatively early and minimised the economic fallout. The sector had remained resilient during the COVID-19 pandemic, seeing a 4 per cent growth in 2020, or a $3.7 billion increase in GDP contribution.

Pre-pandemic, Vietnams agri-food sector demonstrated strong contributions to the national economy. Findings from the report show that in 2019, Vietnams agri-food sector made a GDP contribution of $86.4 billion. The sector is also responsible for half of the entire workforce with 27.5 million jobs, making it the single most critical source of employment in the economy. The sector also contributed a total of $13.2 billion in tax revenue.

This was largely driven by Vietnams dominant agricultural industry, which contributes over $55.3 billion in GDP, which is nearly two-thirds of the entire sector. However, the agri-food industry saw greater diversification over the years as both food and beverage manufacturing and distribution saw double-digit growth between 2015 and 2019.

Commenting on the findings, Mary Tarnowka, executive director of AmCham Vietnam, said that while the local agri-food sector has demonstrated great resilience against the challenges of the pandemic, further developments on the COVID-19 virus, supply and demand risks, and fiscal risks still have great potential in disrupting Vietnams growth.

The effects of the pandemic have been felt widely and deeply across all sectors, including agri-food, but as a significant pillar of our national economy, the sector demonstrated its resilience by achieving robust growth throughout last year. The crisis can be an opportunity for Vietnams agri-food sector to drive our economy to greater heights, promoting food security and sustainable growth, while continuing to support over half of our countrys entire workforce," said Tarnowka.

We should continue the diversification of the sector that weve seen pre-pandemic, where we deepen our capabilities in higher value-adding roles in ag-tech, manufacturing, and services, she added.

FIA's executive director, Matt Kovac, shared the same sentiment on a need to understand the current and future risk landscape to future-proof Vietnams agri-food sector.

Kovac said, The report highlighted a range of substantial short-term and long-term challenges facing the agri-food sector in Vietnam, and that it remains crucial for policymakers to recognise and work around these risks, given the scale of the sectors contribution to Vietnams jobs and GDP. With strong headwinds projected for 2021, it is imperative for the Vietnamese government to remain mindful of this with any policy that could impact the industry.

Echoing this, James Lambert, director of Economic Consulting Asia for Oxford Economics said, As Vietnam looks to continue its trajectory of being one of the fastest growing economies in the world, it is important that policymakers provide the most conducive conditions for the agri-food industry to grow and thrive, and that any fiscal policy implemented is carefully planned, designed, and communicated. That will allow the industry to continue to provide the economic benefits it has delivered over recent decades.

Lambert notes that fiscal adjustments can include sales tax hikes, which could potentially dent demand and household wellbeing, given that more than a third of household spending in Vietnam is accounted for by food and non-alcoholic beverages.

VIR

High-tech contribution to agriculture Vietnamese agricultural enterprises are promoting the application of high technologies in production and processing to contribute to restructuring the agricultural sector.
Privacy is an interesting topic of discussion in Vietnam. It has been influenced by village culture, an important component of the Vietnamese cultural identity.

As Vietnam is primarily an agricultural country, people like to live next to each other in the same areas. Many generations live together in the same houses, while people with close relations live in the same village.

The communal character of the Vietnamese is also the product of the subsidization period, when everything was considered collective assets. The State then held pervasive power and had the right to intervene in all aspects of life, including the problems of all families and individuals. For example, one would have to report to leaders about the person with whom they were in love.

When fixed telecommunications landlines appeared in Vietnam, a publishing house released telephone directory books. Each family got one book where they could find the names, addresses and telephone numbers of their families and other families as well.

At that time, people generally were happy even though their privacy was infringed upon.

However, with doi moi (renovation) and hoi nhap (integration), Vietnam has been influenced by a western lifestyle. Personal values, including privacy, are respected.

Laws and the reality

Vietnamese laws now have provisions to protect individuals privacy. The Constitution, Civil Code and Criminal Procedure Code were compiled by lawyers who studied in other countries, which explains why they included provisions that strongly protect privacy.

The Constitution says that everyone has an inviolable right to a private life, and that no one has the right to open, control or illegally seize other people's mails, telephone calls, telegraphs or other forms of communication.

The Criminal Procedure Code stipulates that searches of residences, the examination and temporary seizure of mail, telephone calls, electronic data and other forms of communications must be implemented in accordance with the provisions of the code. This means that state agencies can see personal data only if they receive an official decision about prosecution.

However, recently, when drafting legal documents on e-commerce management, a state management agency attempted to set a regulation that e-commerce websites have to provide online tools to state management agencies so that the agencies can see their data at any time, not just when there is a sign of violation.

In other words, if officials want to find out how many dresses someone's wife bought from Lazada last year, they just need to log in to the database.

When drafting legal documents on e-commerce management, a state management agency attempted to set a regulation that e-commerce websites have to provide online tools to state management agencies so that the agencies can see their data at any time, not just when there is a sign of violation.

Every time when salesgirls ask to give my phone numbers to make a customer card, I ask them: Will the warranty policy be applied to products I buy today if I dont give you my phone number?

If the answer is yes, I will not give my telephone number. If the answer is no, I wont buy the products.

There are many regulations about privacy protection, but they are not actually applied.

One day, I won a prize at a competition. The organization board showed my photograph and personal information on the website. I mailed the organization board and asked them to delete the information. The organization board refused to implement my request, saying that when I entered the competition, I signed an agreement which said the organization board has the right to use my photographs and personal information.

So citing some provisions of the laws, I said that even if I allowed them before to use my personal information before, I still have the right to ask to delete the information if I change my mind. And they still refused my request.

Finally, I told them that if they did not do what I requested, I would send a petition to appropriate agencies about their violating the law, for which they may be fined VND30 million. They agreed to remove the information.

One day, I heard a dialogue between the director of a Vietnamese business providing platform services and a lawyer. The lawyer was concerned that if he used the service provided by the firm, his information may be exposed to the public. No worries, the director replied, reassuring clients about information security.

Then the lawyer smiled and said: What if a state management agency comes and asks you to show them my information? The director only said: Only when you do something wrong will you be scared."

The lawyer said: No. They are different categories  wrongdoing and privacy. I have enough body parts. There's certainly nothing wrong with this. But I still don't want people to see all of my body parts. As a Vietnamese, I want to use Vietnamese service. But I have decided to use foreign services because I think the services are better at information security. Sorry."

The fact that state management agencies want the right to see the data of Vietnamese enterprises turns out to help enrich foreign companies and foreign platforms.

Privacy also is sometimes viewed as covering property rights.

Nguyen Minh Duc

Experts warn of high risks for information security in 2021 Still coping with difficulties caused by Covid-19, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) also face risks in information and data security in 2021.
It was very cold at that time. Commander Le Quang Dao in person brought bottles of warm ginger water to every unit of the frontier post. After that, he quietly walked along the railway to explore the terrain

Major General Le Quang Dao (right) and DPRK's President Kim Jong Un in March 2019

Born in 1971 and gaining significant achievements in more than 30 years of military service, Major General Le Quang Dao, Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff of the Border Guard, is one of the young generals rich in energy and highly trusted by the army.

In March 1989, at the age of 18, he set out to join the army. After one year of serving as a soldier at Ha Nam Ninh provincial border guard, Dao went to the Border Police Officer School (now Border Guard Academy).

In September 1993, the young border guard officer set foot on Lang Son, starting a period of 27 years serving in the frontier area. At that time, he was head of the border guard team for Thanh Loa Frontier Post.

Proud image of border guards

In my mind that day, the image of border guards was wonderful. They looked proud on horseback when going on patrol. They were good at martial arts and they gained great victories recorded in history when guarding the frontier land, hunting down bandits, protecting leaders and headquarters. Also, they made great contributions in the foreign relation front and assisted ethnic groups in border areas, he said.

In the early 1990s, after Vietnam and China normalized relations, Lang Son became the first Vietnamese province to start cross-border trade.

Dao, who was then one of the first young border guard officers carrying out duties in the Lang Son border area in that period, together with his army companions discovered and got rid of many subjects who attempted to exploit the situation and incite people to cause uncertainties in the border area, thus harming national security.

After leaving the Thanh Loa frontier post, Dao spent five years serving as deputy head of Coc Nam Station belonging to the Tan Thanh Frontier Post (1995-1999).

The then Lieutenant Le Quang Dao was determined and ingenious in protecting every inch of the frontier land and would not let the boundary marker be displaced or encroached upon. Together with his comrades, Dao effectively fought crimes of different kinds, especially money counterfeiters and human traffickers.

Building border area of peace and friendship

In the posts of Deputy Head and Head of Huu Nghi International Border Gate Station, and then Head of Tan Thanh Frontier Post (2005-2011), he left a prominent imprint on the Lang Son frontier strip of land.

He advised the Lang Son Provincial Headquarters on the pilot implementation of joint patrols on the Vietnam-China border line.

His sharp senses and practical experience told him that apart from regular conversation and information exchange, nothing would be as effective as a joint patrol, which allowed to solve problems together.

When we put forward the question, the Chinese side was unassertive. But later, with sincere arguments, we successfully persuaded them to cooperate for the optimal purpose of building a border line of peace, friendship and mutual development, Dao recalled.

Joint patrol activities have brought efficiency in border management and protection, and have helped create confidence and understanding among the border soldiers of the two countries.

Major General Le Quang Dao is also one of the cadres who made important contributions to promoting border guard foreign relations on the Lang Son (Vietnam) - Guangxi (China) border.

His sharp senses and practical experience told him that apart from regular conversation and information exchange, nothing would be as effective as a joint patrol, which allowed to solve problems together.

Vietnams Huu Nghi international Frontier Post (Lang Son Provincial Border Guard) and Chinas Friendship Pass became the first twinned units with the slogan Friendship Check-points, Peaceful Border" in 2013.

This was followed by the village-village twinning model between the localities of Lang Son and localities in Chinas border areas. This helps protect the fatherland and from a distance, with peaceful measures.

Gaining popularity

In 2008, when he moved to Tan Thanh Frontier Post, Dao, together with his soldiers, had many new victories.

The area under the management of the post, including 15 kilometers of border line and 26 villages belonging to two communes of Tan Thanh and Tan My, was a hot spot in terms of security and social order.

Under the decisive command and ingenuity of the commander, the Tan Thanh post became an exemplary bright spot in the entire Lang Son  Guang Xi border.

Some officers laid down their lives, or were injured in the struggles, including Captain Ngo Van Vinh, leader of the drug and crime prevention team.

With the motto "people as the foundation", during his service time in Lang Son, General Dao proposed and implemented many new models and movements that brought practical benefits to local people.

Following his ideas, many generations of ethnic minority border guards have been admitted to the Communist Party before being discharged from the army.

They also created favorable conditions for vocational training, so that they could contribute to serve their homeland. And many teenagers who took false steps into drug use have been helped by Lang Son Border Guard to rebuild their lives.

Before the programs "Nang buoc em toi truong" (cherishing students steps to school) and "Con nuoi don bien phong (Adopted children of frontier posts) were launched, General Dao sponsored three young people who were in extremely difficult circumstances.

Later, one of the three teenagers became the head of the Thanh Loa Commune Police (Cao Loc district), while the other two now have stable jobs.

Warm ginger water brought to every soldier

In late February and early March 2019, the world watched Hanoi, where the US-DPRK Summit and the DPRK President Kim Jong Uns visit to Vietnam took place.

On March 2, at the 60th anniversary of the traditional Border Guard day, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said: In recent days, the Border Guard has cooperated closely with ministries, branches, localities and appropriate forces to fulfill the task of securing conference safety.

The image of border guards on duty at the Dong Dang border station, Lang Son province, welcoming the DPRKs leader Kim Jong Un to Vietnam by train has left impressions and good feelings in international friends."

Recalling this event, General Dao said the Lang Son Border Guard force only had 48 hours for the preparation work to receive the DPRK leader.

At that time, the Commander of the Lang Son Border Guard Le Quang Dao stayed up all night to give instructions for the preparation.

In the Dong Dang station area, the border guard was assigned the task of ensuring security in the area of nearly 4 square kilometers of the core zone (the most important area). Half of the troops of Lang Son Border Guard with hundreds of elite soldiers were selected to perform this particularly important task, he recalled.

Understanding that the area where Kim Jong Un's train passed and stayed before boarding the convoy moved to Hanoi had complicated terrain, he commanded his troops to coordinate with army forces and the police to thoroughly detect bombs, mines and obstacles.

It was very cold in Lang Son. In order to help soldiers on duty protect their health, in addition to ensuring food, drinks and clothes to keep them warm, the army medicinal unit was asked to prepare ginger water. Commander Dao in person brought the bottles of ginger water to the soldiers.

After that, he quietly walked along the railway to explore the terrain to fix problems and even minor mistakes in the environment.

I am honored to be the first Vietnamese border guard to shake hands to welcome President Kim Jong Un to Dong Dang station. I said when he got into the train going back to his country that I wished I would once again welcome the leader back to Vietnam and go through this road. And I would be his protector then, too," he said.

Son Khang

The border guard general who is both scholar and warrior Trained in reconnaissance at the Border Police Officer School since 1983, Major General Hoang Huu Chien, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Border Guard, has experienced many turning points in his career.
There are over 73,000 university lecturers, but only 28.8 percent of them have a doctoral degree.

The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has recently announced a plan to produce 7,300 more lecturers with a doctoral degree and more than 300 university lecturers with a master's degree in culture, arts, physical training or sports.

This is part of Project 89 on improving the capability of lecturing and managerial staff at tertiary education establishments to meet the requirements on fundamental and comprehensive reform in education and training in the 2019-2030 period. Project 89 was approved by the Prime Minister on January 18, 2019.

University lecturers would be sent to training courses for doctoral degree under three ways. They may experience full-time training in Vietnam, full-time training overseas, or training both in Vietnam and overseas.

Schools are responsible for managing and distributing scholarships under Project 89 to the lecturers sent to training courses. They also will have responsibility to return the scholarship if the lecturers violate regulations.

The deputy rector of a large university said that it would be a heavy burden on schools if they have to play a major role in managing and reimbursing scholarships. However, it would also be a difficult job for MOET.

If schools have to pay their own money if they cannot get money back from lecturers who violate regulations, they would not dare send lecturers to training courses.

After obtaining doctorates, it would be easier for Vietnamese lecturers to find a job and stay overseas, he explained.

Many programs on sending university lecturers abroad were run in the past, including Programs 322 and 911. Under the programs, it was MOET which came forward and released the decisions to send lecturers to training courses and receive them upon their return.

Meanwhile, under Project 89, it will be universities that play the major role in the entire process of selecting and sending lecturers to training courses, controlling expense items, and keeping watch over lecturers studies. Therefore, it would be reasonable to assign the schools to manage the scholarships. However, there should be a reasonable mechanism on the issue.

How can expenditures be controlled?

Nguyen Dac Trung, head of the training division of the Hanoi University of Science and Technology, agrees that schools need to be in charge of controlling expenditures.

Under Project 89, schools are the beneficiaries. Schools understand their demands for lecturers more than the ministry. Lecturers are sent to training courses depending on schools personnel development plans, and schools watch over their annual study results, he explained.

However, he said that this would not be an easy job.

There should be a strict management mechanism on claiming back funds if learners violate the regulations. Schools can urge violators to reimburse the money, but they must not be forced to pay for violators if they dont return after finishing the training courses, he said.

Where will schools get money to reimburse the funding? How can we claim money back if lecturers are not in Vietnam, but are overseas? he said, adding that even if lecturers parents, wives or husbands commit to pay the money back, it will be the lecturers who have to take responsibility.

Some experts suggested getting training funds back by deducting lecturers' salaries. However, it is still unclear how to do this and how much to deduct a month.

What if lecturers say they cannot feed themselves if their monthly salaries are deducted and they decide to resign from their posts? Trung said, adding that there should be very clear regulations.

Tran Thi Van Hoa, vice rector of the National Economics University, also said there should be stricter and clearer regulations on training funding reimbursement.

Commercial banks will require collateral for funds, while Project 89 will give money. The money should be given to the right persons, Hoa said.

One of the solutions, according to Hoa, is that lecturers should be required to pay a deposit, or their parents, husbands or wives should act as guarantors.

If the lecturers sent to training courses do not return to work for schools after finishing the course as committed, the guarantors will have to reimburse the money, or their collateral will be deducted until the funds are paid off.

The head of a training division of a school thinks the problem can be solved through diplomatic channels, especially in visa granting. Another solution is requiring the companies or organizations that hired the lecturers after graduation to take responsibility.

According to MOET, from 2000 to 2010, 4,590 individuals were granted scholarships to study abroad under Program 322. Of these, 2,268 individuals were sent to study for a doctorate, and 3,017 individuals finished the course and came back to Vietnam, including 1,074 PhDs, 984 with a masters degree, 233 interns, and 726 university students.

By that time, 33 individuals, or 1.06 percent of individuals finishing the study, had not fulfilled their study, or had finished their study and returned to Vietnam, but had not returned to their schools.

Ngan Anh

Vietnam aims to have 7,300 lecturers with doctoral degrees In the next 10 years, Vietnam's higher education sector needs to train about 7,300 lecturers with doctoral degrees and more than 300 lecturers majoring in culture, arts, physical training and sports with master degrees.
One of Vietnams top priorities in its agenda as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council (UNSC) for 2020-2021 is to strengthen the role of regional and sub-regional organisations, Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy said.

A UN Security Council (UNSC) teleconference, chaired by Vietnam, on the situation in Syria.

Quy, who is also Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the UN, made the statement following an April 29 meeting to review Vietnams rotating month-long UNSC presidency in April.

During the first time serving as UNSC President last year, Vietnam successfully hosted an open debate on partnership between the UN and ASEAN, he said.

Another virtual debate on beefing up cooperation between the UN and regional organisations during the second presidency assumption was a concrete action to fulfil Vietnams commitment, he noted, adding that it also provided a chance to promote the image of ASEAN.

Since its inception in 1967, ASEAN has been highly regarded as a grouping very successful in building trust and fostering dialogue, he explained.

Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy, Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the UN. (Photo: VNA)

As UNSC President in April, Vietnam put forward four initiatives, three of which adopted two presidential statements and one resolution, the Vietnamese ambassador said.

He held that these initiatives have profound influence on perception of the international community on the importance of a certain issue and create new pushes for the international community to come up with measures for the issue.

Compared to last years presidency, this time, Vietnam has emerged as one of few countries able to fulfilling the twin goals of maintaining positive economic growth and keeping the COVID-19 at bay, he continued. This has helped the country propose initiatives with greater confidence and become more proactive in organising consultations, he added.

According to Quy, Vietnams successful assumption of the role as President of the UNSC in April is a vivid demonstration of the implementation of the foreign policy set out in the 13th National Party Congress at this important multilateral forum. In addition, during the month, Vietnam performed well an orientation put forth at the congress which is to deepen the countrys bilateral relationship with all countries inside and outside the UNSC, especially those under the councils discussions in April.

We have had a very good relationship with those countries, paid attention to their issues, held dialogues with them and left very good impressions on our bilateral relations with them, he said.



The ambassador went on to say that Vietnams greatest achievement when joining the UNSC is to maintain its reputation as well as promote its prestige and image in the hearts of international friends. Therefore, in the remaining eight months of its tenure and beyond, Vietnam will continue efforts to contribute to the general work of the council and the UN General Assembly as a whole./. VNA
The themes and topics chosen by Vietnam during the month it served as President of the United Nations Security Council in April have received support from the international community.

Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son (C) chair UNSC's open debate on mine action (Photo: VNA)

Ambassador Olof Skoog, Head of the EU Delegation to the United Nations, hailed the relevance of the major topics that Vietnam picked for April as the UNSC President, especially those related to cooperation between the UN and regional organisations, reconciliation diplomacy and confidence-building measures.

According to him, at present, the situation is tense in many parts of the world, but the UNSC unfortunately has not been able to issue a resolution on every issue. Therefore, Vietnam's emphasis on trust building is a very good approach to seek support from other countries in promoting the councils agendas.

Ambassador Fatima Kyari Mohammed, Permanent Observer of the African Union to the UN, also spoke highly of the key topics selected by Vietnam. According to her, regional organisations are of great importance in promoting dialogue and reconciliation diplomacy in conflict prevention, as well as in finding solutions to solve conflicts.

She appreciated Vietnam's promotion of discussions on strengthening dialogue and conflict settlement through peaceful means, putting people at the centre, prioritizing humanitarian policies and intensifying relationships with regional organisations. She stressed that all of these contents are very consistent with the priorities of the AU, an alliance that always wants to tightent its cooperation with other regional organisations, especially ASEAN.

Vietnam chairs meeting to review its Month of UNSC Presidency (Photo: VNA)

Sharing the same view, Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason, Ireland's Permanent Representative to the UN, said that Ireland acknowledges the importance of regional organisations and supports the member states of each regional organisation.

According to her, the April 27 session on the protection of essential infrastructure in conflicts focused on issues closely related to human life andVietnam has created its own imprint with the results of this session.

As a new member of the UNSC, Ireland appreciates all three key topics that Vietnam brought to the discussion in April, she said, adding that the Irish Foreign Minister had attended all three high-level sessions chaired by Vietnam, showing that Ireland attaches great importance to Vietnam's Presidency of the UNSC as well as issues of substantial importance that Vietnam chose to put on table.

The ambassador also said Vietnam has done the right thing when working to connect ASEAN with the UNSC to solve the Myanmar conflict. ASEAN needs to work closely with the council to find a solution to the current situation in Myanmar, she added.

The UNSC open debate on mine action under the chair of Vietnam also won applause from the international community.

Ilene Cohn, Officer-in-Charge of the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS), stressed that Vietnam put forward the issue at the right point of time. She noted that the meeting held great importance since the UNSC is the body responsible for resolving issues to maintain the worlds peace and security, adding that when bombs and landmines remain a major threat to people around the globe, the UNSC should continue to give priority to this issue in its agenda.

Ambassador T.S. Tirumurti, head of the India Mission to the UN, and Ambassador Anouparb Vongnorkeo, head of the Laos Mission to the UN, also highly valued Vietnams active and increasingly important role in the UN Security Council during the month it chaired the council.

They said the topics that Vietnam selected for discussions in April were relevant and practical./. VNA
Throughout history, Vietnam has always put its people at the centre of every socio-economic development strategy, programme, and project, thereby obtaining considerable and multifaceted achievements in ensuring human rights.

Targets, policies consistently focus on people

In the 1945 Declaration of Independence, then President Ho Chi Minh underscored the association of fundamental human rights with the rights of the people: All peoples in the world are born equal, every people has the right to live, the right to be happy, and the right to be free.

The 2013 Constitution featured a whole chapter on human rights and citizens rights and obligations, based on which a number of legal documents relevant to human rights have been adopted to create a legal framework for ensuring these rights in reality.

The country has also been enhancing international cooperation to protect and promote human rights. It has taken part in and included in its laws, provisions from almost all UN conventions on human rights, such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Vietnam has been working tirelessly to create infrastructure that better ensures human rights. Meanwhile, every socio-economic development strategy, programme, and project has been centred on and oriented towards the people to serve the people.

People enjoy human rights in best possible manner







Reporters work at an event (Photo: VNA)

In terms of civil and political rights, the draft Constitution and important laws have been released to collect public feedback, via which people have exercised their freedom and democratic rights.

The rights to freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and access to information of Vietnamese citizens and foreigners in the country are all regulated. The rapid increase in organisations, associations, and clubs proves that peoples right to freedom of association has been respected and ensured. Meanwhile, the State has created the conditions for religious organisations to open schools and dignitary training establishments, publish religious books, and engage in social activities.

Regarding economic, cultural, and social rights, the State of Vietnam has been successfully implementing a number of socio-economic programmes over the past years, thus increasingly ensuring rights for its people and affirming the spirit of putting the peoples interests above all.

Vietnam has also made great strides in poverty alleviation, human development, and improvements to living standards, as seen in the household poverty rate coming down to under 3 percent by the end of 2020 and the countrys internationally-recognised impressive outcomes in the realisation of the UN Millennium Development Goal on poverty reduction.

The scale of education has continued to be expanded at all levels and majors to meet growing demand. At the same time, in the cultural aspect, the All people unite to build a civilised lifestyle movement has been stepped up, and many heritages nationwide recognised as part of the cultural heritage of humanity.

More and more improvements have been recorded in healthcare, with breakthrough achievements in medical techniques, securing high evaluations from the international community.

The border district of Nam Po in the northwestern province of Dien Bien has become a bright spot in poverty alleviation (Photo: VNA)

The repatriation of hundreds of thousands of overseas Vietnamese amid the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated Vietnams efforts to leave no one behind.

With regard to human rights for vulnerable groups, Vietnam was the first in the region and the second in the world to sign the 1989 International Convention on the Rights of the Child. It has called on the entire society to join hands in protecting and caring for children and creating a safe and healthy environment for their physical and mental growth.

Gender equality is another important aspect of human rights. Over the past years, the rates of women enrolled in education at all levels have been on the rise. The countrys reform policies have created conditions for women to be increasingly involved in national socio-economic development activities. In the National Assemblys 14th tenure (2016-2021), 26.71 percent of legislators were women, higher than the world average of 22.3 percent.

The Government has always worked to assist, care for, and create equal opportunities for the disabled to access education, employment, and healthcare.

Making contributions to common values, progress of humankind







Female parliamentarians visit the Presidential Palace in Hanoi (Photo: VNA)

Apart from those achievements, Vietnam has made tireless efforts to contribute to the common values and progress of humanity in terms of human rights.

It has actively taken part in human rights forums at the UN, ASEAN, and other mechanisms, while proactively putting forth relevant initiatives, especially those related to ensuring the rights of women, children, the disabled, and those hit hard by climate change, which have been highly valued by the international community.

The country has also shown its seriousness in realising international commitments on human rights. Since 2008, it has actively participated in the Universal Periodic Review, a mechanism of the UN Human Rights Council to review the protection and promotion of human rights in UN member states.

Caitlin Wiesen, Resident Representative of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Vietnam, said the country has been persistently on a development path that focuses on the people and equality in socio-economic development strategies and plans, which has helped it secure a number of achievements in human rights./.VNA
No new cases of COVID-19 were reported for the past 12 hours to 6am May 1, according to the Health Ministry.

The national count remained at 2,928, with 1,584 domestically-infected cases.

A total 37,249 people who had close contact with COVID-19 patients or arrived from pandemic-hit areas are being quarantined nationwide.

Meanwhile, 2,516 patients have been given the all-clear, and the death toll remains at 35.

Among patients under treatment, 13 have tested negative for the coronavirus once, 15 twice and 20 thrice.

An additional 3,420 people received shots of COVID-19 vaccine on April 30, raising the total number of vaccinated people to 509,855, most of whom work at the frontline in the pandemic fight.

After locally-infected cases were detected in late April, localities around the country are tightening epidemic prevention measures.

Tests on Indian experts quarantined in a hotel in the northern province of Yen Bai and a staff member at the hotel, who contracted COVID-19, showed they were infected with the virus variant B.1.617.2 now spreading in India.

The Health Ministry urges all people to strictly follow the 5K motto: Khau trang (wearing facemask)  Khu khuan (disinfecting)  Khoang cach (keeping distance)  Khong tap trung (no gathering)  Khai bao y te (Making health declaration), so as to contain the pandemic.

Earlier, on April 30 evening, Vietnam recorded 14 more COVID-19 cases in the past 12 hours to 6pm April 30, including four domestically transmitted infections, according to the Health Ministry.

Among the new local infections, two were recorded in Hanoi and two in the northern province of Ha Nam. All of them are linked to the COVID-19 hotbed in Dao Ly commune of Ly Nhan district, Ha Nam province.

The two patients in Ha Nam are now under treatment at the provincial General Hospital while the others in Hanoi, who are workers at Bac Thang Long Industrial Park, are treated at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases No.2 in the capitals Dong Anh district. .VNA
If you can stand there and not get in trouble for it, I should be able to set up my camp, Wager said.

For many like Wager, a shelter is not an option.

My take on it is that they have all been to the shelters and the shelters feel like jail with all the rules and other homeless people in the shelters arent nice all the time, Kirk said. They dont sleep well. That is the biggest thing we see. The other thing is substance abuse.

Shaun Lee, chairperson of the Heart of Texas Homeless Coalition, said the coalition would be against the ban as camps make it easier for them to find people and engage with them, adding there are many reasons homeless people dont seek a shelter.

Some find it hard to be in crowded spaces and prefer to stay in encampments, Lee said. Also, a large population of homeless individuals that work and often the only shifts available are third shifts and many shelters dont offer a day shelter offer for those working overnight.

Wager, who has been able to save up for a truck after getting a job, said balancing work is a big issue with shelters and has experienced it firsthand.
The Challenge of Democratization: Learning and Teaching History in the 21st Century edited by Kumkum Roy, 2020; New Delhi, pp 230, free e-book, https://www.academia.edu/44456294/Phoenixkrjune.

Universities and the academic world have always been part of a game of status mobility. We may not articulate it in that way to ourselves, but the reason why people study something is at least partially to increase their status, be it in their own eyes or in the more broadly accepted prestige system of their immediate community. There may or may not be something of deeper meaning in higher education, but there is always a cultural framework that gives higher and lower ranks to different codes embedded in it. The frameworks may vary; some may consider learning the language and cognitive styles of elite EuroAmerican scholars the way to rise to giddy heights, while some may consider debunking those styles to be the path to higher self-esteem.

The moral and emotional appeal of the classroom, too, is based on status differences. Classroom life, when it is effective, draws students to admiring and wanting to become like the teachers performing next to the blackboard. Their language, style, knowledge and sense of humour, all symbolise higher social rank and students tend to learn to aspire towards that. Max Weber, M K Gandhi, Pierre Bourdieu and many others have described and commented on this status politics.
President Biden has China constantly on his mind; he keeps referring to China again and again. He even did so when giving his first speech to Congress, during which he made several references to China; true to form! Funny, how a developing country like China figures so highly in Biden's scheme of things!

Is China a threat to the US? Obviously not, but Biden constantly uses China to drum up support for his policies, including his trillion dollar infrastructure bill, etc etc. trying to outdo the Republicans in anti-China rhetoric. China does not pose a threat to the US, but Biden has to create the China bogey to gain Congressional support for his actions! His acknowledgement that the US has fallen way behind China in infrastructure is a clear indication of his fear of China's rise, and that explains many of his administration's policies towards China, including its policy to maintain the tariffs imposed by his predecessor on Chinese goods, a policy that has done enormous damage to US China relations, as well as the lies about Xinjiang Uyghurs genocide!

China should not expect the Biden administration to be more benigh than the Trump administration. On the contrary, it should expect Biden to be at least as harsh, if not more so, than Trump! With this as the backdrop, it is hard to see how US and China could meaningfully co-operate in the future for the common good of mankind, something the world badly needs right now!
The return of patronage culture in Telangana calls for a re-examination of democratic claims made on behalf of Telanganas cultural turn. This turn to the centrality of sentiment, emotion, even death, in political mobilisation sought to break cultures links with the Telugu language and its dominant caste speakers and resituate it as an expression of the regions democratic demands. Cultural resources of the Adivasi, Dalit and backward castes, such as dialect, songs and performances were deemed authentic sites of regional identity even as these were widely disseminated through audiovisual media such as posters, newspapers, and internet between 2001 and 2014. Post-separation marginalised groups are unable to reclaim these cultural resources to further their demands of political representation, as political culture is now mediated by institutions of a postcolonial state and the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi partys welfarepatronage policies. Marginalised castes are also unable to move towards a common ethical and moral standard as culture is seen from the restricted logic of politics of representation.

In Telangana, during the final phase of the statehood movement, claims of distinct regional identity centred on its cultural difference from Andhra Pradesh (AP). The agitation was deemed to be unlike other statehood movements because of the centrality that the Telangana sentiment, emotion, and even death had acquired. Between 2009 and 2014, there was a distinct shift away from claims of regions backwardness due to internal colonisation by Andhraite elites and towards cultural difference. The construction of Telangana regions distinct identity as a cultural project supplied it with new idiom, language and forms of protest. This included the construction of the geographical space or bhaugolika Telangana into the regional place of samajika Telangana and prajaswamika Telangana connoting a demand for a socially just and democratic Telangana.1 However, since its formation on 2 June 2014, the state has seen a one-party dominance of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), a regional party. As the TRS seeks to appropriate and institutionalise cultural symbols, spaces and rhetoric of the separate statehood movement, a renewed opposition draws upon new rhetoric, such as kutumba palana or TRSs family rule, etc. A study of the changing political culture, before and after statehood, provides clues to answer a central problem: The unprecedented popular mobilisation for a separate state has not resulted in a democratic political culture in the new state. Political culture today has more continuity with former AP based on patronage provision by a strongman-leader.

In explaining the demand for a separate Telangana the political culture approach offers a different perspective to existing explanations centred on the role of new social movements, changing social and political coalitions and Indias federal structure. Louise Tillin (2013: 3) argues that the state boundaries can be understood as institutions that help regulate demands for political power. The formation of the new states of Uttarakhand and Jharkhand can be explained by the failure of existing boundaries to accommodate the demands of the marginalised groups, even as politicians in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar supported statehood demands to retain power. In Telangana, in contrast to Tillins argument, the anti-caste assertion of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in North Telangana in the late 1980s could be accommodated within the institutionalised two-party system in AP. The assertion of difference took the form of cultural difference, which survived such institutional accommodation.2 It opposed the otherisation of Telanganites as indolent, lazy, unenterprising and therefore as incompletely Telugu. Himadeep Muppidi agues this otherisation to be based on an opposition between Telangana sentiment and Andhra enterprise (Muppidi 2015: 61). It also came to be associated with a positive connotation such as native-folk, a mulki who owns the land, resources of the region and has sacrificed to secure them.
Jedward have stripped down to their boxers for an inspiring Instagram post as they share a candid insight into their 'body insecurities'.

Twins John and Edward Grimes, 29, wore only their underwear for a chilly Dublin bay dip on Tuesday, telling their followers: 'Always be brave enough to be you!'

Frolicking in the sea in a pair of blue and red pants, the Irish siblings penned: 'Over the years we've had many body insecurities but we've got to a point in our life where we have the who cares attitude!'

Fun: Jedward have stripped down to their boxers for an inspiring Instagram post as they share a candid insight into their 'body insecurities'

Striking a series of poses for their uplifting snap - set against Ireland's breath-taking coastline - the former X Factor stars also warned fans: 'The coasts of Ireland are beautiful but can be very treacherous and unpredictable!'

One of the twins also treated fans to a rendition of Queen's We Will Rock You while he splashed around in the water.

They wrote in full: 'Over the years we've had many body insecurities but we've got to a point in our life where we have the who cares attitude! Let's all embrace our natural selves!

'The beauty and scenic energy around Ireland is JEPIC! Always be brave enough to be you!

'We applaud everyone on social media who has the confidence to put themselves out there it's takes a lot of courage!

Great outdoors: Twin brothers John and Edward Grimes wore only their underwear for a chilly Dublin bay dip on Tuesday, telling their followers: 'Always be brave enough to be you!'

Splashing around: Frolicking in the sea in a pair of blue and red pants, the Irish siblings penned: 'We've got to a point in our life where we have the who cares attitude!'

Cautious: Striking a series of poses for their uplifting snap the stars also warned fans: 'The coasts of Ireland are beautiful but can be very treacherous and unpredictable!'

'We urge everyone to stay safe on all your travels and adventures this summer! Don't put yourself in dangerous situations the coasts of Ireland are beautiful but can be very treacherous and unpredictable!

'Know your boundaries and capabilities when it comes to exploring new terrain. Take care we love you all.'

Jedward were back in the water on Saturday, with Edward donning another pair of Diesel boxers - this time in yellow - while singing Bananarama's Venus.

The twins wrote: 'The beauty and scenic energy around Ireland is JEPIC! Always be brave enough to be you!'

In March, the twins made headlines after ditching their famous quiff hairstyles in favour of buzz cuts when they shaved their heads live on the Late Late show.

The siblings shaved their heads for charity in memory of their mother Susanna, who died in 2019 after being diagnosed with cancer.

The duo helped to raise 2.5 million for the Irish Cancer Society.

They added: 'We applaud everyone on social media who has the confidence to put themselves out there it's takes a lot of courage!'

Warning: 'Know your boundaries and capabilities when it comes to exploring new terrain. Take care we love you all'

Body positive: Alongside the fabulous photos, the Irish siblings also penned a lengthy caption

They said at the time: 'We are shaving our quiffs off to support the fighting heroes going through cancer.

'We're honouring the memory of all those who have come and gone, we are sending strength and love to all those suffering. Don't give up.'

Last year the boys revealed how they played Fleetwood Mac and held their mother's hand in her final days before she lost her five-year battle with cancer.

Another dip: Jedward were back in the water on Saturday, with Edward donning another pair of Diesel boxers - this time in yellow - while singing Bananarama's Venus

The Irish pop duo also described their heartbreak at the prospect of their late mother not meeting their children or attending their weddings.

Speaking to Ryan Tubridy on The Late Late Show, Edward said: 'We were there when she passed and we are thankful that we were there - we were able to hold her hand.

'We had some earphones listening to some music. We listened to some Fleetwood Mac and some of her favourite songs that she liked to play.'

His brother John added: 'It's very disheartening to think that she won't be at our weddings, she won't be there at the birth of our kids, but we always keep her spirit alive like have pictures of her around and tell stories.'
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  The Salvation Army has announced the appointment of Lt. Col. Ivan Wild and Lt. Col. Jennifer Wild as the new leaders of the Salvation Armys Southwest Division.

The married couple replaces Lt. Col. Kelly Pontsler, who has been reassigned to the Western Territorial Headquarters in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

As commanders of the Southwest Division, the Wilds oversee a budget of $73 million, of which $9.3 million is earmarked for New Mexico, Ivan Wild said Thursday.

In 2020, about 140,000 people in New Mexico received services through the Salvation Army, including food, clothing, shelter, rent and utility assistance, disaster relief, outreach to seniors and underprivileged children, adult addiction rehabilitation, and emotional and spiritual support.

Wild said the Salvation Army is looking at specific projects in New Mexico over the coming years, including a capital campaign to raise money to redesign and expand its addictions rehabilitation facility in Albuquerque, and to deliver case management services through a mobile unit, particularly in under-served and rural areas throughout the state.

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Based in Phoenix, the Southwest Division covers New Mexico, Arizona and Southern Nevada.

The Wilds, who most recently were assigned to Sacramento, California, are familiar with the Southwest. They met at a Salvation Army camp in Arizona in 1983, subsequently married and entered the Armys training college, where both became ordained ministers.

Our roots in the Southwest Division run deep, and we are honored to return and serve those in need, he said.
Denton, TX (76205)

Today

Mostly cloudy with showers and a few thunderstorms. Locally heavy rainfall possible early. High 83F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Rain showers in the evening with scattered thunderstorms arriving overnight. Low 72F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Indias COVID-19 vaccine policy betrays a lack of vision and social responsibility.

R Ramakumar writes:

Mass vaccination of the Indian population is critical to slow down the spread of Covid-19 infections and reduce case fatality rates. However, poor and faulty planning has led to an acute shortage of vaccines. Liberalisation of Indias vaccine market has allowed private capital to earn superprofits even as an economic crisis is building up and unemployment is rising.
Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan, Health minister, Stephen Donnelly and a number of TDs and Senators from Donegal have held a virtual meeting to discuss the high prevalence of Covid-19 in the county.

The meeting was organised on Friday after officials from the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) noted that Donegal currently the highest incidence rate of Covid-19 in the country.

The 14-day incidence rate of the virus in Donegal is now 293.4 per 100,000 population - more than double the national incidence rate of 127.3.

According to Deputy CMO, Dr Ronan Glynn, Milford and Letterkenny have incidence rates of 675 and 640 per 100,000 respectively.

At Fridays briefing, Nphet said the situation in Donegal was being driven by persistent and reasonably widespread non-compliance with Covid-19 restrictions.

In a tweet this evening, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly confirmed that the meeting between the officials had concluded and said a lot of good work already happening in Donegal would be supported.

Very positive meeting just finished on Donegal with elected reps, council, CMO & DCMO. A lot of good work already happening that can be supported. Thanks to all involved.  Stephen Donnelly (@DonnellyStephen) May 1, 2021

Also present at the meeting were Sinn Fein TD Pearse Doherty, Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue, Independent TD Thomas Pringle, Fine Gael TD Joe McHugh and Deputy CMO Dr Ronan Glynn

In a tweet, McHugh said the meeting was positive and that all present agreed to look at the suggestions presented by health officials.

Thanks to Minister @DonnellyStephen & @FrankFeighan for facilitating this evenings meeting. Positive focussed meeting, many issues raised; @CMOIreland and the Minister have agreed to look at a number of suggestions presented which is welcome pic.twitter.com/LhBNZiwwdG  Joe McHugh (@McHughJoeTD) May 1, 2021

Covid-19: Three further deaths, 569 new cases confirmed in Ireland

Also this evening, three further deaths and 569 additional cases of Covid-19 were confirmed by health officials.

The median age of the cases reported this evening is just 26 years old.

The newest figures bring the total number of Covid-19-related deaths here to 4,906 and the total number of cases recorded in Ireland to 249,437.

Of the cases notified this evening:

268 are men;

290 are women;

78% are under 45 years of age;

The median age is 26 years old

As of 8am this morning, 123 patients with Covid-19 were hospitalised - 41 of whom were in intensive care units.

Five new hospitalisations have been reported in the past 24 hours.

The five-day moving average of the virus here is now 476.

Validation of data at the HPSC has resulted in the denotification of two previously confirmed cases.

The figure of 249,437 confirmed cases listed above reflects these denotifications.

Vaccines

1,527,844 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine have been given out in Ireland, as of Thursday, April 29.

1,097,742 people have received their first dose, while 430,102 people have gotten their second jab and are fully vaccinated.
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We grew up knowing our parents would punish us if we did something wrong. If it involved lying or picking on a playmate, wed have to apologize for it. So, how about applying the same notion to Big Tech and Big Media?

More and more people who feel unfairly characterized or canceled by these two public opinion influencer groups are turning to the grown-up version of punishment  the lawsuit.

The latest such suits were filed by James OKeefe, the conservative founder of the investigative reporting group Project Veritas.

The backstory: In February, two Twitter accounts associated with the Project were permanently canceled for what the site called repeated violations of privacy. More recently, OKeefes personal Twitter account was permanently yanked.

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The first ban came after PV leaked video clips of a meeting with Facebook executives called to discuss the platforms censorship policy. Then one of PVs reporters confronted Facebooks Guy Rosen, the Vice President of Integrity, outside his home and asked for further clarification. Visible in the background were the address numbers on Rosens house but no street name was seen. Is this a violation of privacy?

In April, another banishment came after OKeefe used his personal account to announce the Projects #ExposeCNN campaign. He released undercover video of a CNN employee, technical director Charlie Chester, admitting the networks news coverage is tainted by liberal politics. Chester was filmed saying the network deliberately aired anti-Trump propaganda to get Trump out of office, played up the COVID-19 death toll for ratings and ran stories trying to help the Black Lives Matter movement.

Twitter then permanently banned OKeefe, saying he violated rules by misleading people and operating fake accounts that artificially amplify or disrupt conversations. Just how releasing videos of a CNN staffer describing the networks inner workings constitutes a disruption of conversation isnt clear, and Twitter did not identify any fake accounts OKeefe operated.

OKeefes lawsuit says Twitters accusations are extremely damaging to his reputation and amount to libel. Hes also suing CNN because anchor Ana Cabrera erroneously reported the ban on Project Veritas came as part of a crackdown to try to stop the spread of misinformation.

Perhaps the greatest irony here is everyone in the media accuses us of misinformation when that is precisely what they do, OKeefe said, and he vowed not to back down.

We dont settle, OKeefe said about the dual lawsuits. We fight all the way to a jury verdict, and we have never lost.

Case in point, last week a New York Supreme Court Judge handed Project Veritas a major victory in its defamation fight against the New York Times.

Last year Project Veritas  Latin for truth  published an investigation into allegations of voter fraud in Minneapolis. It featured online selfie-videos made by a Somali-American campaign worker bragging about illegally harvesting hundreds of absentee ballots spread out on the dashboard of his car. They also interviewed others, including a well-connected political consultant in the Somali American community who said there was widespread corruption among that clan in Minneapolis. In a series of articles, the Times declared the videos were deliberately deceptive, part of a coordinated campaign of deception against Somali-born Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and relied on unidentified sources  an odd claim for a newspaper that frequently uses unnamed sources. OKeefe insists those statements were libelous and defamed his reputation.

Last week the newspaper asked the New York Supreme court to dismiss the lawsuit, but Judge Charles Wood ruled the Times might very well have committed actual malice and shown reckless disregard for the truth. He declared the suit will go forward.

Does Project Veritas engage in controversial techniques? Unconventional, maybe. But this is a group that dares to report what other news organizations dont. If someone is flagrantly violating voter laws, I want to know about it. If Facebook, Twitter, CNN and others in the public square routinely show bias against certain schools of thought, I want to know about that, too. Who appointed them as the arbiters of civic discourse?

I want to read and learn about all sorts of viewpoints and then decide for myself what to believe and what to dismiss.

www.DianeDimond.com; email to Diane@DianeDimond.com.
India has to substantially scale up its health infrastructure to protect lives and livelihoods.

The situation in India is a devastating reminder of what the virus can do, said World Health Organization (WHO) Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a virtual briefing in Geneva last week. He was speaking in the context of the WHO survey findings which noted that one year into the COVID-19 pandemic around 90% of the 105 countries surveyed reported disruptions in essential medical services. But disruptions would be a mild word in the context of the developments in the major Indian cities, including the national capital Delhi, as the second wave of the pandemic, exposed the massive gaps in health infrastructure, despite the heroic efforts of the medical personnel to make the best of what was available.

Of course, no country can fully protect itself from pandemics of such a massive dimension with the virus mutating and transmitting even faster than in the first wave. But unfortunately, unlike the first phase, when the country was caught unprepared by the pandemic, the disaster in the second phase was human-made, wrought by the lack of any preparedness, whether it be in ensuring adequate raw materials for vaccines, containers and canisters for transporting oxygen, personnel for virus testing or adequate medicines, beds and other facilities. The failure in preparedness is beyond any rational justification, because the governments had almost a year to make adequate preparations and roll out back-up plans and yet did not fully focus on the need to do so. Tens of thousands were left to fend for themselves with the government dragging its feet even on diverting the required oxygen for medical use or for seeking help of friendly governments to secure supplies and other emergency aid. Almost overnight, all the talk of the country being the pharmacy for the world dissipated into thin air. To add to the woes, the central government even stooped down to discriminate between states in making adequate vaccines available.
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Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  A Santa Fe man charged with illegally entering the U.S. Capitol building during the Jan. 6 insurrection had the door held open for him by a Capitol Police officer, his attorney says.

He did not breach any barriers, said attorney Dan Cron, who is representing 42-year-old Matthew Martin. He thought by virtue of the fact that the Capitol Police opened the doors up that it was OK to go in.

No police or officials told Martin he had to leave, Cron said, adding that video Martin took while inside the Capitol corroborated that claim.

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Martin has been charged with unlawful entry, disorderly conduct, impeding the conduct of government business and parading, demonstrating or picketing in the Capitol buildings, according to court documents. He was released from custody pending trial after making his first appearance in the U.S. District Court in New Mexico last month. His case was also transferred to U.S. federal court in the District of Columbia at that time.

Under his conditions of release, Martin cannot possess a firearm or travel out of state without approval.

Cron said his case will essentially start over now that its been transferred to the federal court in Washington, D.C. That means Martin will get another opportunity for a preliminary hearing and a custody hearing, he said.

According to Cron, Martin was in his hotel room when the protest turned into a riot. He said Martin was protesting peacefully earlier that morning and went back to his hotel room to eat.

Thats when things turned violent at the Capitol, but Martin didnt arrive there until it was already breached. He said Martin simply walked into the Capitols rotunda, with a Capitol Police officer holding the door open for him.

One of the court documents contains an image of a Capital Police officer apparently holding a door open for protesters to enter.

It wasnt until Washington, D.C., Metro Police showed up that Martin thought he would be asked to leave, and he did. Cron said Martin went back to his hotel and flew back to Santa Fe the next day.

Martin isnt part of any radical group, Cron said, and went to Washington alone because former President Donald Trump had beckoned his supporters to the Capitol on Jan. 6, the same day Congress counted electoral votes to certify Joe Bidens victory over Trump in November.

The FBI has said Martin worked for a defense contractor and holds a security clearance, but did not identify his employer.

Cron declined to comment on the status of Martins security clearance or his place of employment to protect his clients privacy.

Cron said Martin has been cooperating with the FBI since Jan. 20, when he voluntarily handed over his cellphone and clothing from Jan. 6.

There was no indication prior to April 22 that Martin would be criminally charged, Cron said.

We werent expecting them, Cron said. We had not been told that he either would or would not be charged. Based on the nature of his circumstances there, we had no particular reason to think that he would be charged.

Martin is the third New Mexican charged with crimes stemming from the insurrection.

Shawn Witzemann, 38, of Farmington, is facing similar criminal charges as Martin. Otero County Commissioner and Cowboys for Trump founder Couy Griffin was charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority.
SAY what you like about Mussolini, at least he made the trains run on time.

Semi-apologists for fascism often state this to excuse his murderous tendencies... hey, even a dictator has his good points!

Its historic bunk though, as the Italians impact on railway punctuality appears to have been negligible. However, its a quote worth adapting when it comes to our own local governance.

Say what you like about our councils, at least they empty the bins and get rid of the dog muck.

Alas, just like Mussolini pulled the wool over the eyes of railway commuters, Irelands councils appear to have a similar blind spot when it comes to some of their most basic functions.

Take dog fouling  a major irritant and a health hazard for walkers and cyclists nationwide.

In February, we learned the astounding fact that just FOUR fines for dog fouling had been issued by Cork City Council in more than TWO DECADES. Up in Dublin, its city council doled out just two such fines in all of 2020.

For the sake of fairness, we should point out some councils are more vigilant: In 2018 alone, Cork County Council issued 426 fines to dog owners and pursued 95 through the courts. This shows it can be done, so why are so many councils so lax on it, given  as all local newspaper reporters and councillors know  it is frequently cited as a major problem?

Then there is the issue of litter, and specifically the number of bins around the place and how frequently they are emptied. Another huge public bugbear.

However, when the problem was presented to Cork County Hall Chief Executive Tim Lucey this week, he came up with an answer that angered many.

Mr Lucey ruled out providing more bins to ease littering issues, stating: If I had my way, I would have no bins around the county as I feel it only encourages people to leave litter. No matter how often we empty our bins, there will be people who will leave their rubbish at the side of a bin.

It seemed an abject acceptance of defeat from the head of the local authority. Surely this is not an insurmountable problem?

It seems clear from recent photos, highlighted by this newspaper and on social media, that rubbish is building up around bins because they are full, and thus should be emptied more often.

This isnt litter dumped on the side of a road in the middle of nowhere, it is placed beside an over-full bin  yes, people should take it home, but had there been room in those bins, the litter would surely have gone into them.

This issue has been worsening for years now, and the recent good weather, along with the relaxing of Covid restrictions, has sent many of us fleeing to the beaches and walkways of our glorious county.

These eyesore dumps of rubbish are an ugly blot on the landscape, and here is the County Councils Chief Executive admitting defeat and stating he would be throwing no more money at the problem.

What made this more hurtful was the fact we had witnessed local democracy in action. People had complained to their councillors, who had brought the matter to the council as a matter of urgency, demanding a solution, only to have the door slammed in their face.

If the local authority appears to be turning its back on the problem, it only puts more pressure on our hard-working tidy towns groups and local activists, who have resorted to doing the job of the councils to keep their areas litter-free and pristine.

One councillor said that 14 bags of rubbish had been picked up in Crosshaven over a 24-hour period last weekend. Mr Luceys refusal to provide more bins will surely only pile more work on these civic-minded shoulders.

There were no shortage of suggested constructive solutions at this weeks meeting either. Cllr Danny Collins called for more staff on the ground and Cllr Karen Coakley wanted enhanced powers for litter wardens, while Cllr Marcia DAlton said compactor bins should be installed,

Bizarrely, Mr Lucey would be happier with no bins at all!

He did offer up some solutions in regards to businesses doing more to reduce littering, and maybe he has a point, but it looked like he was passing the buck.

Then the usual solution was offered up: yet another public awareness campaign.

Great! We cant have more bins emptied more often, but we will get a lecture on littering: one the law-abiding majority will heed with a sigh, while the message goes in one ear and out the other of the litterbugs amongst us.

Education rather than enforcement, they say, while the rest of us shake our heads as we know it will not make a jot of difference. Education rather than enforcement is just another way of saying words rather than action.

In what is surely a triumph of hope over experience, Mr Lucey announced: We will be starting a public campaign. It will appeal to the hearts and minds of Cork people to show more respect. We are not throwing more money into this. We will work on peoples senses.

But the senseless minority have no shame and wont listen.

This had echoes of yet another public awareness campaign announced this week by Cork County Council, to combat dog fouling.

They could make a bigger effort to punish offenders, or examine a scheme rolled out in Leitrim to use dog DNA to trace offending dogs and their owners. Instead, they are sending out the message Please pick up after your dog.

Yeah, good luck with that.

******

I have written here before that Ireland is perhaps the worst nation in all of Europe when it comes to devolving real powers to local government.

In most countries, strong local councils are the bedrock of society, but our Government jealously lords its power over them, while ironically, handing over most of the big decisions to Brussels.

Add in the unholy mess of a Seanad the people really should have abolished a decade ago, and you are left with a creaking power structure barely fit for purpose.

And you are left with councils that appear so far removed from their own people and elected councillors, that they too often seem happy to wash their hands of the few issues within their remit.

The weakness inherent in our local governance will only be illuminated further in the coming years, when, inevitably, the Local Property Tax (LPT), or Household Charge, begins to increase.

This tax, which helps to fund essential local services such as parks, libraries, maintenance and cleaning of streets, is very low in Ireland compared to other nations, making up just 1.5% of Irish GDP, compared with 4% for our nearest neighbours, France and the UK.

We should really be paying 2,000 a year here, and as the dust settles from the pandemic, I expect the tax to rise steeply. Maybe then more power will be devolved to local government and it will start to tackle bread and butter issues that really hack off the public.

Tackle them... not issue anther public information campaign.
Columbia, MO (65201)

Today

Cloudy skies during the morning hours followed by scattered showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. High 84F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 68F. Winds light and variable.
MONTREAL, April 22, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sunshine Biopharma Inc. (OTC PINK: SBFM), a pharmaceutical company focused on the research, development and commercialization of oncology and antiviral drugs, today announced that RB Capital has injected an additional investment of $500,000 to augment the Companys Coronavirus drug development program. In addition, RB Capital has provided the Company with assurances that it will continue to provide funding over the next 30 days for the Companys other R&D activities, including Ada-27a anticancer drug.

Sunshine Biopharmas CFO, Camille Sebaaly stated, We are very pleased to continue our relationship with RB Capital as long-term investor in the Company. They truly understand our vision and are prepared to help us reach our exciting drug development objectives.

Deborah Braun of RB Capital Partners Inc. stated, Given their recent success with initial mice studies for their COVID-19 treatment, the tremendous progress with Adva-27a research and development, and the new e-commerce platform, we are happy to double our investment in Sunshine Biopharma. We understand that financial resources are required to reach the various milestones leadership has put into place for the Company and are pleased to support this growth and progress. With this added investment the Company has the resources necessary to bring these drugs to market faster than previously anticipated.

About Sunshine Biopharmas Coronavirus (COVID-19) Treatment

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the causative agent of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that has claimed the lives of over 3 million people worldwide since it first appeared in December 2019. There are currently no drugs that can effectively arrest replication of the virus in people who have contracted the illness. On May 22, 2020, Sunshine Biopharma filed a provisional patent application for several molecules which were designed by computer-aided modeling to inhibit the Coronavirus proteases, thus shutting down the ability of the virus to multiply. Sunshine Biopharma has since completed the synthesis of four such molecules and identified a lead compound, SBFM-PL4. On February 1, 2021, Sunshine Biopharma entered into an exclusive license agreement with the University of Georgia for two Anti-Coronavirus compounds which the University of Georgia had previously developed and patented. The Company is currently advancing the development of these two compounds in parallel with its own SBFM-PL4 by conducting a transgenic mice study in collaboration with the University of Georgia, College of Pharmacy. The mice being used in the study have been genetically engineered to express the human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (hACE2) transmembrane protein in their lungs making them susceptible to lethal infection by SARS-CoV-2. The SARS-CoV-2 virus uses the hACE2 receptor to gain entry into human cells to replicate. The goal of the study is to determine if these protease inhibitors will protect the hACE2-transgenic mice from disease progression and death following infection with SARS-CoV-2. Should these mice studies prove successful, Sunshine Biopharma plans to submit the results to the FDA for authorization to conduct testing on actual COVID-19 patient volunteers in a Phase I clinical trial setting.

About Adva-27a Anticancer Drug

In addition, to working on the development of a treatment for COVID-19, Sunshine Biopharma is engaged in the development Adva-27a, a unique anticancer compound. Tests conducted to date have demonstrated the effectiveness of Adva-27a at destroying Multidrug Resistant Cancer Cells, including Pancreatic Cancer cells, Small-Cell Lung Cancer cells, Breast Cancer cells, and Uterine Sarcoma cells. Clinical trials for Pancreatic Cancer indication are planned to be conducted at McGill Universitys Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, Canada. Sunshine Biopharma is owner of all patents and intellectual property pertaining to Adva-27a.

Safe Harbor Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward looking statements which are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that involve risks as well as uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from those anticipated or expected, including statements related to the amount and timing of expected revenues statements related to our financial performance, expected income, distributions, and future growth for upcoming quarterly and annual periods. These risks and uncertainties are further defined in filings and reports by the Company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Actual results and the timing of certain events could differ materially from those projected in or contemplated by the forward-looking statements due to a number of factors detailed from time to time in our filings with the SEC. Among other matters, the Company may not be able to sustain growth or achieve profitability based upon many factors including but not limited to general stock market conditions. Reference is hereby made to cautionary statements set forth in the Company's most recent SEC filings. We have incurred and will continue to incur significant expenses in our expansion of our existing as well as new service lines noting there is no assurance that we will generate enough revenues to offset those costs in both the near and long term. Additional service offerings may expose us to additional legal and regulatory costs and unknown exposure(s) based upon the various geopolitical locations we will be providing services in, the impact of which cannot be predicted at this time.

For Additional Information Contact:

Camille Sebaaly, CFO

Sunshine Biopharma Inc.

Direct Line: 514-814-0464

camille.sebaaly@sunshinebiopharma.com

www.sunshinebiopharma.com
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  A new federal program designed to help restaurants, bars and other food establishments that have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic will start accepting applications Monday.

The U.S. Small Business Administration has opened registration for the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, a federal grant program that will provide more than $28 billion in funding to a wide range of food establishments on a first-come, first-serve basis. Applications go live Monday at 10 a.m. Mountain time.

SBA administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman told the Journal that Congress wanted to target an industry that has been hit harder than many by the pandemic and associated shutdowns.

Theres a recognition that restaurants are among the businesses that have been hardest hit by the pandemic, and millions of workers have been impacted, Guzman said. We wanted to make sure that we provided relief and helped these businesses survive.

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Leisure and hospitality, which includes much of the restaurant industry, remains New Mexicos hardest hit sector, having shed 18,400 jobs since last March, according to the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions.

The Restaurant Revitalization Fund, established through the American Rescue Plan Act signed into law earlier this year, allocates $28.6 billion for grants for restaurants equal to their pandemic-related revenue loss, with a maximum of $10 million per company or $5 million per physical location.

Guzman said recipients can use funding for a wide range of expenses, from rent to supplies to expenses incurred while adapting to operating during a pandemic, and have until March 2023 to use the funding.

Were trying to integrate as much flexibility into the program to meet the needs of all these different food and beverage businesses, Guzman said.

The program covers a mix of different establishments, from restaurants to food trucks to caterers to bars where onsite sales to the public comprise at least one-third of the companys gross receipts.

Guzman said businesses owned by veterans, minorities and economically disadvantaged individuals will receive priority for the first three weeks of the program, but acknowledged that $28.6 billion likely wouldnt be enough to fund all the applications from eligible businesses that the SBA receives.

We do expect demand to be high, Guzman said.

Carol Wight, CEO of the New Mexico Restaurant Association, said shes concerned about New Mexico businesses getting enough of the funding. Because New Mexico has had more stringent restrictions than many other states, Wight said restaurants face an uphill battle to recovery.

Our restaurants are going to have a harder time coming back, because they havent had the income that other states have had, Wight said.

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., and Albuquerque City Councilor Pat Davis will host a virtual webinar about the program at 9 a.m. Monday.

Visit www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/covid-19-relief-options for more information on the program and how to apply.
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 04/30/2021



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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

star Natalie Mordovtseva has revealed she underwent liposuction on several parts of her body and plans to do another cosmetic procedure soon.Natalie, who is currently appearing on Season 6 of : Happily Ever After?, opened up about her lipo experience in Tampa, FL, while still in bandages during an Instagram Live session on Wednesday."Today was my operation day," Natalie gushed . "They did liposuction on my stomach, on my belly, on my waist and on my chin. Ta da!"Natalie urged followers not to lash out at her for getting a cosmetic procedure done."Guys, I look slim, but without clothes, I wasn't that slim," Natalie explained. "Girls with big breasts know that usually when you have big breasts, you have a big tummy."Natalie suggested she didn't want to exercise to burn the fat because then her breasts would decrease in size."It wasn't painful at all... I was awake and felt comfortable and would talk. The operation went for about an hour," Natalie shared.Natalie said she plans on having an additional skin-tightening procedure in two weeks."I'll have a skinny waist like Marilyn Monroe . At least I hope!" Natalie noted with a laugh.Viewers noticed Natalie wasn't wearing her wedding ring in the video, and she refused to say anything about Mike Youngquist or the current status of their relationship."I can't say anything unfortunately. It's not my right," Natalie said.Prior to her Instagram Live, Natalie gushed about how she was "excited" to see her transformation and hoped for a real confidence boost, In Touch Weekly reported Natalie also said, "I think this day will change my life completely."Although Natalie recently hinted she'll be appearing on 90 Day: The Single Life, the Ukraine native confirmed she isn't currently filming for the discovery+ spinoff, which features single or divorced former stars searching for love and navigating post-relationship life."About Single Life, I am not on Single Life... I cannot be on Single Life right now. It's impossible, and you will see why. I cannot say why, but I cannot be. It's for sure a 'no,'" Natalie said.Mike's uncle, Beau Lawrence, told In Touch in March that Mike and Natalie had recently separated , less than one year after getting married in April 2020, and Natalie was staying in Seattle, WA.Beau told the magazine, "She has not been home for a couple of months now. She can stay away for all I care," adding that he's "really hoping" Natalie and Mike's relationship is over for good.fans thought Natalie had confirmed her marriage is over by sharing a link Tuesday on Instagram Stories asking her followers to vote her onto the cover of Maxim magazine.In the original biographical information listed on her voting page, Natalie had listed herself as a cast member of 90 Day: The Single Life.However, Natalie's bio info was eventually changed and the 90 Day: The Single Life mention was taken out of her description.Given the first season of 90 Day: The Single Life is already currently airing on Discovery's new discovery+ streaming service, fans had assumed Natalie would be appearing on the as-of-yet unannounced second season of the new spinoff.Natalie and Mike are currently starring on Season 6 of : Happily Ever After? on TLC.The premiere episode of : Happily Ever After?'s sixth season featured Natalie pushing for Mike to wear a wedding ring because she was feeling "insecure" about his commitment to her.Given Mike had married Natalie when he wasn't ready, he worried nothing would ever be good enough for Natalie.Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage!
Watertown, NY (13601)

Today

Some sun this morning with increasing clouds this afternoon. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 87F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Overcast. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 69F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  After more than four years, the backlog of thousands of untested rape kits from the Albuquerque Police Departments Crime Lab has been cleared.

Some of the 4,742 kits dated back to the 1980s and the majority can no longer be prosecuted for various reasons. Hundreds because the deadline to file charges had passed. Some because the suspect died. In a couple dozen others, because the victim died.

Of the suspects who have been charged in backlogged cases, some were alleged to be serial rapists who committed additional attacks as the kit with their DNA sat untested.

More than a dozen suspects have been convicted while a few other cases fell apart.

Mayor Tim Keller called the occasion a difficult celebration.

Every one of those boxes is a victim and every one of those boxes tells a story that ultimately should lead to justice, he said, flanked by two photos  one of shelves stacked with untested rape kits and the other, rows of empty shelves.

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Kristie Stone, APDs Scientific Evidence Division Manager, said investigators found over 1,000 DNA profiles  out of the more than 4,000 tested kits  that were eligible to be entered into CODIS, the federal database.

She said 518 came back with a DNA match and the results have been passed onto those at APDs Sex Crimes Unit and Bernalillo County Sheriffs Special Victims Unit.

Brandale Mills-Cox, a spokeswoman for the 2nd Judicial District Attorneys Office, said 408 cases qualified for advanced screening and possible prosecution.

Thousands of others were not eligible for various reasons; a suspect was not identified or the victim did not wish to proceed, for example. She said 823 were past the statute of limitations and in at least 25 cases the victim had died.

Mills-Cox said 44 people have been charged in the backlogged cases and 13 have been convicted while 15 are awaiting trial. Another 13 are on the loose and have warrants out for their arrest.

A few cases did not lead to convictions.

Given the current state of evidence at this time, the state does not believe that it can meet the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt, a prosecutor wrote in a motion to dismiss the 2017 rape case against Philip Benavidez, one that sprung from testing backlogged kits.

Prosecutors filed the motion to drop the charges against Benavidez after a mistrial.

Additionally, a 2014 rape case against Branden Chavez was dismissed after a trial resulted in a hung jury. In another, a jury found Jose Gonzalez not guilty in a 2011 kidnapping and rape case.

Mills-Cox said the DAs Office is encouraged by APDs commitment to clearing the backlog.

In years past prosecutors would routinely request DNA testing on these cases but did not always have the full cooperation of APD supervisors over the lab, she said. The culture in the Department has clearly changed, and we appreciate their support as we do all that we can to find justice for these victims.

APD Chief Harold Medina said the backlog  something he said will not be repeated  built up over the years due to insufficient funding, inadequate technology and a history of only testing kits as requested by the District Attorneys Office.

Making survivors of sexual assault wait decades to even have their kits tested, let alone see justice  is a disservice to every one of these victims. We cannot and will not let this happen again, he said. Thats why were moving forward, focusing now on solid police work and solving these cases and bringing forth charges when were able to.

Keller said it was a local journalist who initially alerted him to the backlog when he was state auditor. Keller went on to issue a 2016 report finding there were about 5,400 untested rape kits across the state, 75% from Albuquerque.

Then-Mayor Richard Berry secured two grants in 2017 to clear the backlog and, in 2018, after Keller became mayor, he signed an order for a comprehensive plan to clear the backlog.

Keller said the process was started by sending 40 kits to get tested per month but that ramped up to 250 a month by the end.

Gail Starr, clinical coordinator for Albuquerque Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners, said she had been at SANE three years when she realized that kits were going untested and she had been lying to victims.

I was telling them it didnt matter who assaulted them, if they knew their name or not, that they would get their kit processed, she said. I remember every kit after  Im like, Theres another one for the black hole.

Starr said, without much hope of justice, SANE doubled its efforts on their medical care, patient support and providing resources. Eventually, she said, a glimmer of hope came when then-auditor Keller came in and began counting kits with Sarita Nair.

Now we can make the promise, now I get to tell my patients it doesnt matter, these kits will be tested within 90 days, she said.  That, I tell you, feels so good.
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NAME: Melanie Stansbury

POLITICAL PARTY: Democratic Party

OCCUPATION: New Mexico State House Representative

CITY OF RESIDENCE: Albuquerque

EDUCATION: Master of Science in development sociology, Cornell University; bachelors degree in human ecology and natural science, Saint Marys College

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE: 20 years of experience working with communities across New Mexico and the U.S. on water, science, natural resources, and community development in the public, private, and non-profit sectorsincluding as a Legislator in the New Mexico House of Representatives and as a policy staffer in the White House Office of Management and Budget and U.S. Senate. As a legislator, I have championed efforts to address hunger and homelessness, drought and climate change, and passed over a dozen bills to help improve education, public safety, healthcare, and economic development. As our next Congresswoman, I will put this lifetime of experience to work for our New Mexico in economic development and jobs, community well-being, and protecting our land and water.

CAMPAIGN WEBSITE: melaniefornm.com

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What role should Congress or the federal government have in responding to calls for more justice in policing following the deaths of George Floyd and others by police?

We must reform policing in America. In Congress, I will support police reform and work to address the root causes of crime by supporting the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and investments in community programs, behavioral health, education and economic development.

What is your opinion of the coronavirus response packages, including the American Rescue Plan, which was signed by President Biden? Is there anything you would have done differently?

Im proud to support Bidens American Rescue Plan, which is providing support to hardworking New Mexicans, state, tribal, and local governments, schools, and help combating the pandemic. In Congress, I will work to rebuild our economy, bring home meaningful jobs, and support critical infrastructure like broadband, water and clean energy.

What actions to restore the economy, if any, do you feel Congress should take once the outbreak has been contained?

We must prioritize economic recovery and put New Mexicans back to work. I support President Bidens American Jobs Plan to help rebuild our economy, invest in businesses and grow jobs. To do so we must invest in infrastructure, education, health care, and our hard-working families and lean into our economic strengths.

What is your position regarding climate change? What actions should Congress take, if any, regarding the environment?

The science is clear, we are facing a climate crisis that must urgently be addressed, by addressing our carbon footprint, reimagining and diversifying our economy, and providing tools, resources, and jobs to build a more just, equitable and resilient future for New Mexico and our planet.

The Biden administration has issued a temporary moratorium on issuing new oil and gas leases on federal lands. Where do you stand on the issue?

We must diversify our economy, invest in new technologies and renewable energy and tackle climate change. I support a reevaluation of federal energy policies to examine how to best achieve our climate and energy goals. Im running for Congress to work with the Administration to build a more resilient economy.

What are the most important actions Congress should take regarding people now living illegally in the U.S.? What about for those who want to come in?

We need a just, fair and humane immigration system that restores our humanity as a nation, protects the human and civil rights of those seeking asylum, reunite families, protects DREAMERs and creates just and equitable pathways to citizenship.

Do you believe the borders are secure enough? If not, what do you propose to increase security?

The best border security is promoting safety and security throughout the hemisphere. When immigrants do arrive at our border we need a just, fair and humane asylum and immigration system that can ensure people are treated with respect, dignity and justice.

Do you favor a federal ban on the sale of military style semi-automatic rifles? If so, what would you do about the millions of such weapons now legally owned by American citizens? What other, if any, gun law reforms would you support?

Congress must take action to end gun violence and prevent future tragedies. If elected, I will support common-sense gun legislation, including universal background checks, a ban on high-capacity magazines and assault weapon sales, gun buyback programs and community intervention and prevention programs.

Federal spending plays an important role in New Mexicos economy. What should be done to increase other economic drivers here?

New Mexico is filled with small businesses and entrepreneurs that are the backbone of our economy. Growing up working for our family businesses, I know its critical we invest in local businesses, education and training, and our strengths in the trades, science and technology, renewable energy, agriculture and the arts.

Do you favor or oppose a national single payer health system?

Access to health care is a human right. Everyone  regardless of income or pre-existing conditions  deserves access to quality, affordable health care. In Congress, I will fight for universal health care, including Medicare for All, to expand access for Veterans and rural and tribal communities, and health access across New Mexico.

Do you favor or oppose the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan?

Recognizing our troops service to this country and protecting the rights and benefits of veterans and their families will always be a priority for me. A withdrawal must be done with care and leadership, and that is why I support Presidents Bidens decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

Do you favor or oppose limits on late-term abortion, and do you believe tax dollars should or should not be used to fund abortions?

These decisions are deeply personal and should remain between a person, their faith, family and doctor. Every pregnancy is unique and the government should trust us to make our own decisions. I proudly supported the Respect Women and Families Act and, in Congress, I will continue to vote pro-choice.

What should be done at the federal level to address the crisis of opioid addiction? Any other drugs?

We must invest in our communities and their well-being to address the opioid crisis and ensure that communities have the resources and tools to respond. In Congress, I will support legislation and funding to increase resources for behavioral health and rehabilitative addiction services.

Why do you want to be a member of Congress?

I am running for Congress to serve and lift up the voices of our communities to tackle our biggest challenges from economic development and jobs, to food and water security, to climate change. This campaign is about building a more just, equitable and sustainable world that puts our communities first.

PERSONAL BACKGROUND

1. Have you or your business, if you are a business owner, ever been the subject of any state or federal tax liens?

No

2. Have you ever been involved in a personal or business bankruptcy proceeding?

No

3. Have you ever been arrested for, charged with, or convicted of drunken driving, any misdemeanor or any felony in New Mexico or any other state?

No
President Joe Biden is coming to New Orleans and Lake Charles on Thursday to promote his plan to rebuild the nations bridges, highways, ports and other infrastructure projects, the White House announced Saturday.

Through the $2 trillion American Jobs Plan now before Congress, Biden is seeking to reduce the countrys dependence on fossil fuels that drive climate change.

The White House hasnt yet released details of Bidens trip, but in New Orleans hes likely to highlight a proposal to remove the aging Interstate 10 overpass above Claiborne Avenue.

When Biden announced his infrastructure plan in March, he singled out demolishing the Claiborne Expressway as an example of how to reverse past roadway decisions that tore apart Black communities.

The proposal has the general support of Congressman-elect Troy Carter, but Carter also said last month that policymakers must first hear the views of residents and locals businesses in neighborhoods along Claiborne Avenue.

We have to make sure we dont swap one bad set of plans for another bad set of plans, Carter said then. The devil is in the details.

Officials in the New Orleans region have a long list of projects that they say need attention, including upgrades at the Port of New Orleans.

Officials in metro Baton Rouge want to add another bridge over the Mississippi River but havent been able to figure out yet how to pay for it  the tab would be at least $1.2 billion  or where to put it.

Overall, the White House notes that Louisiana earns a D+ grade for the sorry state of its infrastructure.

In Louisiana there are 1,634 bridges and over 3,411 miles of highway in poor condition, a White House fact sheet says. Since 2011, commute times have increased by 9.3% in Louisiana and on average, each driver pays $667 per year in costs due to driving on roads in need of repair.

Bidens proposal also includes money for child care and caregiving for older adults and the disabled, something Republicans have said shouldnt be part of an infrastructure plan. And it envisions weatherizing the homes of poor people to make them more energy efficient, plugging orphaned oil wells that are leaking earth-warming methane gas, making drinking water safer and expanding broadband service in rural areas. The latter plan is a top priority for newly elected U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, a Republican who represents northeast Louisiana.

Biden is proposing to pay for his plan by increasing the tax rate on corporations from 21% to 28% for 15 years and forcing multinational corporations to pay significantly higher taxes to the United States treasury on profits they earn and book overseas. Republicans are balking at those proposals.

Environmental news in your inbox Stay up-to-date on the latest on Louisiana's coast and the environment. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

+5 Biden infrastructure plan would 'redress historic inequities,' like this New Orleans highway The proposed $2 trillion infrastructure plan being unveiled by President Joe Biden Wednesday is aimed at fixing thousands of roads and bridges

Lake Charles also has a long list of needs, especially after Hurricanes Laura and Delta slammed the area in 2020.

The port of Lake Charles, McNeese State, Sowela Technical Community College, Chennault International Airport in Lake Charles and elementary and high schools suffered $1 billion of damage, state Sen. Mark Abraham, R-Lake Charles, said Saturday.

President Donald Trump, on a visit there in May 2019, pledged that, if re-elected, he would seek to build a new Interstate 10 bridge over the Calcasieu River in Lake Charles.

The existing bridge predates the interstate  it has two lanes on each side, no shoulder and a steep grade  and is a bottleneck for the Gulf Coast, state Transportation Secretary Shawn Wilson said on Saturday. Its ugly, its old, but its safe. It doesnt do anything for growth and future opportunities, however.

Replacing the bridge would cost $600 million to $900 million, Wilson said, while upgrading the interstate on both sides of the bridge would add another $500 million to the tab.

Biden last visited Lake Charles when he was vice president in 2010 to promote efforts for the area to recover from Hurricane Rita in 2005, and he also visited there in 2006 while he was a senator.

"He has had a sincere interest in southwest Louisiana over the years," former Mayor Randy Roach said Saturday.

Biden last visited New Orleans in July 2019 when he was running for president. On that trip, Biden spoke to a group of at-risk youth in Central City and held a fund-raiser at the National World War II Museum. In an interview with The Advocate at the time, he accused Trump of engaging in race-baiting and deliberately dividing the country to try to win re-election.

Accompanying Biden in New Orleans that day was Cedric Richmond. At the time, he was New Orleans' congressman and was serving as co-chair of Biden's presidential campaign. After Biden's victory, Richmond resigned and now serves as a senior adviser in the White House. He will undoubtedly make the trip with Biden on Air Force One.

Joe Biden thumps Trump in New Orleans, says president's 'race-baiting,' views spurred 2020 run Former Vice President Joe Biden laced into President Donald Trump during a visit to New Orleans on Tuesday, accusing the president during an i
News

El Paso, Texas - A Colorado man was sentenced Monday to 60 years in prison for production, transportation, and possession of child pornography.

Alvaro Castillo, 64, of Englewood, was convicted by a federal jury of three counts of production of child pornography; one count of attempted production of child pornography; one count of transportation of child pornography; and one count of possession of child pornography on Nov. 18, 2020.

According to trial evidence, in May 2018, Castillo traveled to his native country of Guatemala, and video recorded himself sexually abusing a 13-year-old victim who was sleeping. Evidence from that video identified Castillo as the abuser. In addition to this video recording, Castillo also possessed and transported additional images of child sexual abuse. Law enforcement agents discovered the child pornography evidence during an October 2019 search of a recreational vehicle that he was driving at the U.S.  Mexico border.

Alvaro Castillo recorded himself committing unspeakable crimes against a defenseless child in a foreign country, said Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicholas L. McQuaid of the Justice Departments Criminal Division. The department is committed to identifying and prosecuting transnational offenders like Alvaro Castillo, and todays sentence will protect children in Guatemala and the United States from such predatory behavior.

Child victimization is a crime that knows no borders and HSI, as a global investigative agency, is committed to working with its domestic and international partners to stop these criminals from exploiting innocent children anywhere in the world, said Special Agent in Charge Erik P. Breitzke for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) El Paso. We may not be able to undo the damage done, but sentences such as todays serve to hold child predators accountable and, we hope, help the victims heal.

In addition to the prison sentence, Castillo was ordered to serve a lifetime of supervised release and pay $33,586.89 in restitution.

HSI investigated the case with assistance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Trial Attorney Trial Attorney Austin M. Berry of the Criminal Divisions Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney John Cannizzaro of the Western District of Texas are prosecuting the case.
We have seen rumour saying that Samsung will be launching a tri-fold tablet in the future. To prepare for the device, the Korean tech giant has seemingly filed a trademark for 'S Display' which could be the name of the panel that is to be used on the tablet. As reported by LetsGoDigital, the trademark was filed with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO).

The display is expected to feature a Z shared hinge design, which implies that the foldable device will feature two hinge mechanisms for a single display. With the structure, the device can be folded twice. We guess that this kind of folding style is more suitable for larger devices such as a tablet as compared with smartphones. However, it's still too early to say anything with smartphone manufacturers trying to break rules nowadays.

Besides that, the source also mentioned that the display could be used on the Galaxy Z Fold Tab that is said to be launched later this year. True or not, it is worth noting that you should take this news with a grain of salt for now as Samsung might have totally different plans up its sleeve.

Let us know what you think about this on our Facebook page. Stay tuned to TechNave.com for more interesting tech news.
Garrett, IN (46738)

Today

Rain showers early with scattered thunderstorms arriving for the afternoon. High 77F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Cloudy skies this evening. A few showers developing late. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 30%.
Re: To travel to China and Japan have always been John's dream. [ #permalink

Bunuel wrote:

To travel to China and Japan have always been John's dream.





(A) To travel to China and Japan have always



(B) Traveling to China and Japan has always



(C) To travel to China and Japan has



(D) To travel to China or Japan has always



(E) Traveling to China and Japan have always

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

To travel to China and Japan have always been John's dream.

Incorrect.



This answer choice is grammatically incorrect. The singular subject To travel does not agree with the plural verb have .



Remember that a subject in the form of To Verb is considered a singular subject.

This answer choice corrects the original Subject Verb Agreement mistake, by changing the plural verb have to the singular verb has to match the singular subject Traveling .

Incorrect.



While this answer choice corrects the original Subject Verb Agreement mistake and is grammatically correct, it changes the meaning of the original sentence by omitting the word always .



After eliminating the answer choices that repeat the original mistake, you need to go over all the remaining answer choices and examine them carefully, reading them from beginning to end.



Do not assume that the only thing that changes in the answer choices is the part which was flawed in the original sentence. Different answer choices can make all kinds of changes in various parts of the sentence.

While this answer choice corrects the original Subject Verb Agreement mistake and is grammatically correct, it changes the meaning of the original sentence by replacing the word and with or.

Incorrect.



This answer choice is grammatically incorrect. The singular subject Traveling does not agree with the plural verb have .



Remember that a subject in the form of Verb+ing is considered a singular subject.

(A) To travel to China and Japan have always(B) Traveling to China and Japan has always(C) To travel to China and Japan has(D) To travel to China or Japan has always(E) Traveling to China and Japan have always_________________
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NAME: Mark Moores

POLITICAL PARTY: Republican

OCCUPATION: Health care

CITY OF RESIDENCE: Albuquerque

EDUCATION: MBA and BA at UNM

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE: State senator for nine years; small business owner; chief of staff to Lt. Gov. Walter Bradley; and staff to Congressman Steve Schiff

CAMPAIGN WEBSITE: mooresforcongress.com

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What role should Congress or the federal government have in responding to calls for more justice in policing following the deaths of George Floyd and others by police?

I believe Congress can find bipartisan solutions to police reform. Those solutions include providing $500 million to departments across the country for body cameras and other targeted policing reforms. These reforms will improve our law enforcement system to help guarantee equal protection for all.

What is your opinion of the coronavirus response packages, including the American Rescue Plan, which was signed by President Biden? Is there anything you would have done differently?

I was on the front lines battling COVID-19, having personally collected thousands of COVID tests during the pandemic. I supported the state coronavirus response bills, including payments for essential workers, loan programs for small businesses and waiver of fees for restaurants and bars that were shut down due to the pandemic.

What actions to restore the economy, if any, do you feel Congress should take once the outbreak has been contained?

Congress should promote policies that promote growth, competitiveness and productivity. With our vaccination rates as high as they are, its time for small businesses and schools to reopen. States need to safely and fully reopen so that the small businesses that were devastated by the pandemic can begin operating again.

What is your position regarding climate change? What actions should Congress take, if any, regarding the environment?

Congress should take actions to make energy more affordable, enact policies that promote innovation, and cleaner energy infrastructure. That does not mean enacting broad policies that would kill American jobs or raise energy prices on Americans.

The Biden administration has issued a temporary moratorium on issuing new oil and gas leases on federal lands. Where do you stand on the issue?

I am opposed to it. New Mexico has 134,000 energy related jobs. President Bidens ban unfairly attacks New Mexico; we rely on the 134,000 jobs, and 40% of state revenue that funds our schools, roads and law enforcement.

What are the most important actions Congress should take regarding people now living illegally in the U.S.? What about for those who want to come in?

First, we need to secure the border. Washington has failed us for decades on this issue. I am willing to work with anyone, anywhere to come to a bipartisan legal solution that respects the rule of law and respects those who came to this country the right way.

Do you believe the borders are secure enough? If not, what do you propose to increase security?

The ongoing humanitarian crisis at the border coupled with the severe problems from drugs here in New Mexico proves we must secure our border as it is a national security issue. We must provide the DHS the resources they need like technology, and more manpower for patrols.

Do you favor a federal ban on the sale of military style semi-automatic rifles? If so, what would you do about the millions of such weapons now legally owned by American citizens? What other, if any, gun law reforms would you support?

I oppose banning or confiscating commonly owned firearms from millions of law-abiding Americans who use them lawfully.  We should enforce federal firearms laws that are already on the books.

Federal spending plays an important role in New Mexicos economy. What should be done to increase other economic drivers here?

New Mexico will not be able to have economic development with the crime epidemic and out of control murder rate. No businesses will want to move here. That is why it is critical that we make our streets safer and improve our schools to attract economic development.

Do you favor or oppose a national single payer health system?

Oppose.

Do you favor or oppose the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan?

In favor.

Do you favor or oppose limits on late-term abortion, and do you believe tax dollars should or should not be used to fund abortions?

Yes, I favor limits on late-term abortions, and I do not believe tax dollars should be used to fund abortions.

What should be done at the federal level to address the crisis of opioid addiction? Any other drugs?

First, we must stop the inflow of drugs into our country, especially the methamphetamine (that) result in so many of the crimes that occur in New Mexico.

Why do you want to be a member of Congress?

I am a proud New Mexican with roots in this state that go back centuries. Lisa and I cherish this state; two of our daughters and our grandchildren live here. I want them to live in a safe and prosperous New Mexico so our great grandchildren can grow up here.

PERSONAL BACKGROUND

1. Have you or your business, if you are a business owner, ever been the subject of any state or federal tax liens?

No

2. Have you ever been involved in a personal or business bankruptcy proceeding?

No

3. Have you ever been arrested for, charged with, or convicted of drunken driving, any misdemeanor or any felony in New Mexico or any other state?

Thirty-three years ago, out of high school I was involved in an altercation and arrested.
Its not that McKenzi Payne wants to frighten the young men to whom she helps administer health screenings at Miami-area barbershops. But she cant think of a better way to convince them to get the COVID-19 vaccine than to relate some of the heartbreaking stories she has experienced as an emergency room technician at Jackson North Medical Center.

Ive seen what the virus can do to the human body, the way it can destroy families, Payne, a masters degree student in public health sciences at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, said one recent Saturday at Urgent Cutz barbershop in Liberty City, where she and first-year medical student Melissa Blake conducted free blood pressure screenings as part of the Shop Docs initiative.

Ive seen people separated from their families in the darkest moments of their lives, Payne said. And Ive seen patients walk into the ER complaining of shortness of breath, and by the time my shift was over, they were intubated.

She cant say for certain if the strategy works. Whats important, though, is that the effort to persuade more people to get vaccinated, especially the young who dont fear the virus, needs to be made, she said.

Outreach efforts

With more than 140 million people in the United States 18 or older now having received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, or 54.9 percent of the total adult population, everyone from health care workers to community activists are employing a multitude of strategies to combat the last few pockets of vaccine hesitancy, racing against timeand the variantsto dispel the rumors and persuade doubters that the inoculations are safe and effective.

Through a National Institutes of Health-funded outreach project, Dr. Olveen Carrasquillo, a Miller School physician and his team, have taken to the radio waves and the internet to spread the message about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines. They are also conducting online focus groups to learn why certain segments of Miami-Dade Countys population are distrustful of the shots.

We listen to their concerns and try to meet them halfway. We still get questions about the long-term safety of the vaccines and if they affect pregnant women. But a lot of the conspiracy-fueled questions have been on the decline, and were happy about that, said Carrasquillo, chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine and co-director for community and stakeholder engagement at the Miami Clinical and Translational Science Institute.

Partnerships with groups like Health Council South Florida, the Florida Community Health Worker Coalition, and a Little Haiti-based radio station have helped his efforts. So, too, have alliances with houses of worship. Weve had bishops, priests, pastors, and other religious leaders on our calls, Carrasquillo said. They know how to address a lot of the questions weve come across.

Outreach efforts like Carrasquillos may be working. A new poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows vaccine hesitancy rates dropping among all U.S. residents, with the most positive changes occurring among Black people. About 55 percent of Black adults said they had been vaccinated or plan to get a COVID-19 vaccine soon, an increase of 14 percentage points from February, according to the poll. The rate approaches that of Hispanics (61 percent) and whites (64 percent).

Barriers to health care

But vaccine hesitancy shouldnt be confused with barriers to health care that make it difficult for some segments of the population to get vaccinated, cautioned Sannisha Dale, a health psychologist in the University of Miamis College of Arts and Sciences. Lacking adequate transportation to get to vaccination sites, not having home WiFi to log onto the internet to make a vaccine appointment, and not being able to take time off from work are just some of the challenges marginalized groups face in getting a COVID-19 shot, she said.

People at the margins are used to communicating the challenges they face in their daily hierarchy of needs, Dale explained. And when theyre questioned about their interest in getting something, and theyre required to respond with a simple no, their answer appears to simply be a lack of interest, but its not. In reality, behind that no is a long answer, part of which is having access to those services.

More initiatives to bring vaccines closer to marginalized communities such as mobile pop-up clinics are needed, she said. Unless we are intentional about how we get vaccines to communities, theres still not going to be the level of uptake thats particularly ideal in communities that have experienced the most casualties around the virus, Dale said.

Dr. Erin Marcus, a professor of clinical medicine at the Miller School, echoed those sentiments, saying that more needs to be done to make it easier for some groups to get vaccinated. In Miami-Dade, we dont have a super robust public transportation system, she said. There is Metrorail, but if you dont live along those lines and you cant get access to it equally, the bus system can prove difficult to navigate.

Health care workers, she believes, need to be role models in reassuring others that the vaccines are safe. She admits that she is a bit of a proselytizer in that regard. From an Uber driver to a woman she met at a local post office, Marcus always has the same message for anyone with whom she strikes up a conversation: get the vaccine.

Its important that health care workers lead by example, she said. So often, if Im with a patient or just having a conversation with someone, I will point to my ID and I will point to the sticker that says COVID-19 vaccinated, and Ill say, Look, I got it. 

A pause in the Johnson & Johnson vaccine because of concerns over blood clots fueled fears of additional vaccine hesitancy. But if anything, the temporary suspension, which has since been lifted, can serve as reassurance for some who worry that the vaccine development and distribution process was hurried, Dale said. A pause shows that there is constant monitoring to ensure vaccine safety. However, I think the key thing that the moment calls for is ethical journalism and reporting the actual numbers versus catchy headlines that may exacerbate the number of rare cases and fuel skepticism.

There have been about 17 cases of clotting that occurred in about seven million doses of that vaccine, and those cases were among women between the ages of 18 and 50. These were extremely rare events, Carrasquillo said. But media really blew this up. My sense is that the media hype will pass.

One statistic that is concerning: the number of first responders who have mixed feelings about the COVID-19 vaccines. In a national survey of more than 3,100 firefighters and emergency medical services workers, Miller School researcher Alberto J. Caban-Martinez found that more than half of the respondents said they were uncertain about (24.2 percent) or had low confidence (27.6 percent) in the vaccines.

The study results were published online Feb. 1 in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

Caban-Martinez, associate professor in the Miller School of Medicines Department of Public Health Sciences, attributes those numbers to what he calls a fatalistic culture among some first responders. Many felt the nature of their work puts them at high risk of contracting the coronavirus because theyre in the community taking people from their homes and transporting them to hospital and clinical settings. Their feeling was, Were going to get it anyway. Let someone else receive the vaccine,  he said.

Since that survey, the number of firefighters reporting that they intend to get the vaccine has increased, according to Caban-Martinez, who is planning to update his study.

Reaching herd immunity

Good news comes in the fact that 99.6 million of the total U.S. population, or 30 percent, is now fully vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as of April 29. But along with that news, is a softening demand for the shots, as more and more states report a slower pace in their vaccination campaigns.

And that is why the push to vaccinate more people is important, as the nation strives to achieve herd immunity, said Dr. Roy E. Weiss, professor and chair of the Miller Schools Department of Medicine and the Universitys chief medical officer for COVID-19. The way in which were going to be able to return to normalcy both in our professional lives here at the University and in our private lives is to get to a number of approximately 90 percent of people being vaccinated, he said.

Why do I say 90 percent? Weiss continued. We dont know exactly what the number is, but we do know that with the variants and other challenges, that if we strive for that number, were likely to be able to reach a safe situation where there would be herd immunity and people wouldnt be getting very ill. Its just imperative for everyone to take that responsibility to protect themselves and to protect their co-workers and colleagues in society by getting the vaccine.

Dispelling some of the myths surrounding the coronavirus vaccines, Weiss pointed out that vaccines have been used for decades and are the primary weapon employed to fight infectious diseases.

When you think about other things that have cost human lives and high economic tolls, think of polio, think of diphtheria, think of smallpox, he said. The devastating effects that these diseases have had have all been essentially eradicated due to the use of vaccines. Theyre safe and theyre effective.

If you havent received the vaccine and youre hesitantor you just want more informationjoin a virtual town hall at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, May 4. A panel of medical experts will share updated facts and address your questions. Register here.

Video messages from University of Miami medical experts on the vaccine in English and Spanish.
Porterville, CA (93257)

Today

Cloudy skies early will become partly cloudy later in the day. High 87F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Clear skies. Low 51F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.
MERIDEN  City Council Majority Leader David Lowell will vacate his seat on the council, effective Monday.

Lowell, a Democrat, joined the council in July 2013, as an appointed member to complete the term of then-Councilor Trevor Thorpe, who had resigned his seat. In November of that year, Lowell was elected to his first full-term on the council.

Lowell, when reached Friday evening, explained he was stepping down from the council to prioritize family matters he said required my undivided attention.

I was fortunate to be part of the City Council for nearly eight years now and to be part of some important decisions to transform the city, Lowell said. I appreciate serving on behalf of all the public. And I think the city has many good things ahead of it. I learned a lot.

Lowell added he learned from his colleagues on both sides of the political aisle during his time on the council  from the people I agreed with and disagreed with. I appreciate my time in service.

Aside from his duties on the council, Lowell is vice president and chief operating officer of Hunters Ambulance.

Lowell became the councils majority leader in 2019. On Monday, the council is expected to vote to approve Chad Cardillos appointment to replace Lowell.

Lowell spoke highly of Cardillo.

I think he will do a good job on the City Council, Lowell said.

The 32-year-old Cardillo, though a political newcomer, said he is familiar with the workings of local government, through his involvement with community agencies. Cardillo has also spoken before the council during public meetings in the past. He is currently employed as a social studies teacher at Maloney High School.

Theres a lot of important work coming up, Cardillo said. The priority is making sure the tax base continues to grow. Our grand list grew last year. I would like to see it grow again.

Democratic Town Chairwoman Millie Torres-Ferguson described Cardillo as very genuine, very smart. Cardillo impressed the DTC leadership who spoke with him, Torres-Ferguson said.

That conversation included discussion of education and the economic development of Meridens downtown, Torres-Ferguson said.

Democrat Sonya Jelks, currently a deputy majority leader, will succeed Lowell as its majority leader. Democrats Larue Graham and Bruce Fontanella will be appointed co-deputy majority leaders.

Im excited and ready for the challenge, Jelks said of her upcoming appointment when reached Friday. Im grateful for Davids leadership. I learned a lot from him.

Lowells resignation comes with some shuffling in committee assignments. Lowell currently serves as chairman of the councils Economic Development, Housing & Zoning Committee and as a member of its Public Works - Parks & Recreation Committee.

City Councilor Michael Rohde, a fellow Democrat, will succeed Lowell as Economic Development, Housing & Zoning Committee chairman. Rohde, who currently chairs the finance committee, would be succeeded in that role by fellow Democrat Yvette Cortez.

Rohde described Lowell as level-headed, calm and bright  the kind of guy you like to see in elected office.

Hes only there to make the city better. Thats his whole agenda, Rohde said. Hes done an excellent job in that regard. He left a high bar to follow, thats for sure.

Republican Dan Brunet, the councils minority leader, said Lowell is an asset to the council.

Lowells departure certainly will be a loss, Brunet said. Dave has been the fourth majority leader I have worked with as minority leader, and certainly has been the most transparent and reasonable. We disagreed on many occasions, but in the end compromise was often made.

Brunet said he hopes to work with Jelks as well as he has worked with Lowell.

Brunet said a bigger issue is some of the new committee assignments, pointing to the appointment of Cortez, who is in her first term on the council, as finance committee chairperson.

Obviously you would like to see people with more experience as chair of that committee, Brunet said. But the [Democratic] party runs strong. And they determined no matter what, that they want Democrats to be in charge of that committee.

mgagne@record-journal.com203-317-2231Twitter:@MikeGagneRJ
Longtime harness racing industry participant Gerald (Gerry) Gaynor of Goderich, Ont. passed away on April 29, 2021 at the age of 59.

With shattered hearts and his girls by his side at home, his family announces that Gerry lost his courageous, 13-year battle with multiple brain tumours.

Survived by his wife, best friend, and soulmate of almost 40 years, Michelle (nee Boyce) and his daughter, Tiffany Gaynor, who he was so fiercely proud of. He never missed an opportunity to brag to anyone who would listen about his daughter, the Veterinarian. Gerry will be sadly missed by his father, Leon Gaynor (Sandra) of Goderich, and brothers, Mark (Peggy) of Walkerton, Larry (Michele) of Goderich, and Randy of Benmiller. Predeceased by his mother, Thelma, who Gerry missed every single day for the past twenty-five years, who now welcomes him into Heaven with open arms, brothers Melvin and Mathew, and nephew, Dane. Also survived by several nieces and nephews. Gerry was loved and will be missed by father and mother-in-law, Ken and Evelyn Boyce, of Goderich. Gerry is also survived by his retired Standardbred mares, Jetset Incredibabe and Jetset Tiffany.

Gerry was a participant in the Standardbred harness racing community for 50 years, starting out cleaning stalls at the Goderich Racetrack as a young boy and eventually becoming an owner, trainer and driver. Gerry was also a long-time employee at the Goderich Salt Mine. He was also a passionate Detroit Red Wings fan. Gerry will be remembered and missed by his good friends Bob and Marie Daer, Kevin Campbell and Dianne Foster, and Burt Newman.

Special thanks to the South West Lynn homecare services for providing your excellent healthcare providers in order to allow Gerry to remain at home as was his wish, in particular, Debbie Robertson. You are an amazing person who provided excellent and compassionate care to Gerry these past five weeks and allowed him to retain his dignity. We could not have fulfilled his wish without you. Special thanks also to Dagny Kane-Haas for your amazing physiotherapy with Gerry over the past years, keeping him strong and giving him the strength to continue to look after his family. You treated him with respect and compassion and we are honoured to call you our friend. Dr. Mark Duckworth, thank you for your home visits. I thought those were a thing of the past, until you. Kimberley Buttineau, what a special friend and neighbour you are, delivering us home cooked meals so that we didnt have to take time away from caring for Gerry in order to cook and for being here for us these past couple of days, taking care of things we just couldnt face. Goodbye, Gerry, we love you so much and dont know how we will carry on without you. You were an amazing husband and father. Rest in peace, Babe. You were the best.

Due to COVID restrictions, the family will meet for a private family graveside service held at St. Peters Catholic Cemetery. Donations to the Ontario Standardbred Adoption Society would be appreciated as expressions of sympathy in Gerry's memory and may be arranged through McCallum & Palla Funeral Home, 519-524-7345. Friends may sign the book of condolences at mccallumpalla.ca.

Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Gerry Gaynor.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Affinor Growers Inc. (Affinor or the Company) (CSE: AFI; OTCQB: RSSFF) is pleased to announce it has filed for patent protection in eleven additional countries.



United Arab Emirates Patent Application No. P6000245/2021

Saudi Arabia Patent Application No. 521421275

South Africa National Phase Entry of No. PCT/CA2019/051145

European Patent Office Patent Application No. 19852473.8

India Patent Application No. 202117011874

Republic of Korea Patent Application No. 10-2021-7008490

New Zealand Patent Application No. 774080

Australia Patent Application No. 2019324959

Aruba Patent Application No. OCT-01/180831

Colombia Patent Application No. NC2018/0009567

China Patent Application NO 201580020786.6

Affinor continues to protect its technology in the larger global markets to ensure proper licencing, technology transfer and procurement between governments and investment groups. This is especially important as Affinor gets ready to launch its state of the art, patented, automated, commercial vertical farm showcase in Abbotsford BC. The facility is scheduled for food production this summer, and includes TESLA battery storage and solar, efficient irrigation systems and composting technology to ensure optimal, safe, soil remediation. The companys goal is to sustainably produce food and cannabis with the highest quality and safety possible.

Nick Brusatore CEO: I am seeing the tipping point now for Affinor Growers as we head into revenue. I believe the opening of the Abbotsford facility will significantly raise our market profile. We have more exciting designs and patents coming that we believe will revolutionize this industry. We have redesigned the current towers with the cost per unit dropping substantially and will be updating the patents as needed.

About Affinor

Affinor is a publicly traded company listed on the CSE under the symbol AFI and on the OTCQB under the symbol RSSFF. Affinor is focused on developing vertical farming technologies and using those technologies to grow fruits, vegetables, and cannabis in a sustainable manner.

To learn more about Affinor, visit: https://www.affinorgrowers.com/

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

Affinor Growers Inc.

Renmark Financial Communications Inc.

Joshua Lavers: jlavers@renmarkfinancial.com

Tel: (416) 644-2020 or (212) 812-7680

www.renmarkfinancial.com

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

CAUTION REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

This news release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this new release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that the Company expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki talks with the press aboard Air Force One en route to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., April 30. Reuters-Yonhap



The United States will not seek a "grand bargain" in denuclearization negotiations with North Korea but will continue to engage with the country to completely denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Friday.



The spokeswoman made the remarks as she confirmed the completion of the administration's North Korea policy review.



"I can confirm that we've completed our DPRK policy review, which was thorough, rigorous and inclusive," said Psaki. "Our goal remains the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."



DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.



The new U.S. administration launched the North Korea policy review shortly after it took office Jan. 20 to come up with a "new" approach to dealing with the nuclear-armed North Korea.



Officials here have pointed to the failures of past administrations to denuclearize North Korea as reasons for the extensive policy review.



"With a clear understanding that the efforts of the past four administrations have not achieved this objective, our policy will not focus on achieving a grand bargain, nor will it rely on strategic patience," Psaki said while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, en route to Philadelphia with President Joe Biden.



"Our policy calls for a calibrated, practical approach that is open to and will explore diplomacy with the DPRK," she added.



Former President Donald Trump held three meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in 2018 and 2019.



While many have praised the unprecedented U.S.-North Korea summits for leading to Kim's commitment to complete denuclearization of his country in 2018, many also point out that the North still has not denuclearized while continuing to advance its nuclear and long-range missiles.






The capsizing of a ship bound for China that killed almost 6,000 cows and 41 of the 43 crew members.

New Zealand said on Wednesday it will stop the export of livestock by sea...

Asked if there were concerns the move would upset China,

a top importer of live cattle said: This is not about China. Its about animal welfare and

our reputation....

I suppose, floating tourist monsters will be eliminated as well...



As a reminder: The Titanic is the most famous maritime disaster, however;

it's not the deadliest....

Except for 24 passengers, everyone on the Dona Paz died, including its crew of 58; while on the Vector only 2 of its

13 crew survived. The combined death toll for both ships is estimated at 4,386 making the incident the deadliest peacetime maritime disaster in history...

In 2015 some 165 seafarers lost their life...

The number of reported seafarer deaths is numbered 112 in 2019 according to the inaugural State of 'Maritime Safety' report published by IHS Markit...

The capsizing of a ship bound for China that killed almost 6,000 cows and 41 of the 43 crew members.

New Zealand said on Wednesday it will stop the

export of livestock by sea...

Asked if there were concerns the move would upset China,

a top importer of live cattle said: This is not about China.

Its about animal welfare and our reputation....



I suppose, floating tourist monsters will be eliminated as well...





As a reminder:

The Titanic is the most famous maritime disaster, however; it's not the deadliest....





Except for 24 passengers, everyone on the Dona Paz died, including its crew of 58; while on the Vector only 2 of its 13 crew survived.

The combined death toll for both ships is estimated at 4,386 making the incident the deadliest peacetime maritime disaster in history...





In 2015 some 165 seafarers lost their life...



The number of reported seafarer deaths is numbered 112 in 2019 according to the inaugural State of

'Maritime Safety report published by IHS Markit...




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Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  New Mexicos bond rating is holding steady despite pandemic-related economic challenges and large unfunded pension liabilities, two national credit rating agencies affirmed this week.

And one of the rating agencies, S&P Global Ratings, upgraded the states rating outlook to stable from negative, saying New Mexico appeared well positioned to navigate headwinds that include federal policy changes regarding oil and natural gas drilling on public lands.

Both rating agencies cited New Mexicos hefty cash reserves, which are projected to hit nearly $1.8 billion for the budget year that starts in July  or about 24% of total state spending.

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The states cash reserves have been critical in recent years to ensure New Mexico can absorb big revenue swings caused by fluctuations in oil prices and production, as the oil and natural gas industries make up more than 40% of the states total revenue base.

We have been doing everything we can to navigate the pandemic to ensure our revenue streams and economy can sustain strong bond ratings, state Finance and Administration Secretary Debbie Romero said in a Friday statement.

She also said the steady ratings would help show New Mexico bonds are a stable investment.

New Mexicos credit rating was previously downgraded twice in a two-year period leading up to 2019, due to lingering pension concerns and high Medicaid enrollment, among other factors.

Credit ratings are closely watched by investors and budget officials alike, and rating downgrades can lead to higher borrowing costs for infrastructure projects.

In its update this week, Moodys Investors Service, one of the two credit rating agencies, kept New Mexicos AA2 bond rating intact but said the state faces other fundamental challenges that include low income levels and a lack of economic diversity.

Meanwhile, S&P Global Ratings said New Mexicos reliance on oil and natural gas would continue to pose risk, but said the state was better prepared for bust cycles than in past years.

Our rating anticipates that New Mexico will make efforts to keep reserve balances at strong levels during cyclical upturns to help ride out the inevitable cyclical downturns, as it has done historically, the rating agency said in its report.
TORONTO, April 30, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fountain Asset Corp. (TSXV:FA) (Fountain or the Company) would like to announce its financial results for the three months ended December 31, 2020 (Q4/20) and for the year ended December 31, 2020 (Fiscal 2020).



Highlights from Q4/20:

Adjusted net asset value ( ANAV ) of $23.46 million ($0.40 per share) at December 31, 2020 compared to $17.45 million ($0.30 per share) at September 30, 2020, representing a 33% increase quarter over quarter on a per share basis. ANAV reflects the net asset value plus the amount of available tax loss pools available;

) of $23.46 million ($0.40 per share) at December 31, 2020 compared to $17.45 million ($0.30 per share) at September 30, 2020, representing a 33% increase quarter over quarter on a per share basis. ANAV reflects the net asset value plus the amount of available tax loss pools available; Net comprehensive loss of $4.54 million compared to net comprehensive loss of $8.46 million for three months ended December 31, 2019 ( Q4/19 );

); Total revenue from investment activity was $3.97 million compared to losses of $8.15 million for Q4/19;

Net realized losses on the sale of portfolio investments of $5.34 million compared to net realized losses of $1.04 million for Q4/19;

Net unrealized gains on portfolio investments of $9.39 million compared to net unrealized losses of $7.28 million for Q4/19;

Total expenses of ($0.57) million, which included a gain on debt settlement of $1.06 million and $0.02 million of stock-based compensation, compared to $0.28 million for Q4/19 which included $0.03 million of stock-based compensation; and

Operating expenses of $0.48 million compared to $0.24 million for Q4/19.



Highlights from Fiscal 2020:

ANAV of $23.46 million ($0.40/share) at December 31, 2020 compared to $18.78 million ($0.32/share) at December 31, 2019, representing a 25% increase year over year on a per share basis;

Net comprehensive income of $2.58 million compared to a loss of $18.51 million for the year ended December 31, 2019 ( Fiscal 2019 );

); Total revenue from investment activity was $2.73 million compared to total revenue loss of $17.17 million for Fiscal 2019;

Net realized losses on the sale of portfolio investments of $9.05 million compared to net realized losses of $1.33 million for Fiscal 2019;

Net unrealized gains on portfolio investments of $11.03 million compared to net unrealized losses of $17.04 million for Fiscal 2019;

Total expenses of $0.15 million, which included a gain on debt settlement of $1.06 million, a foreign exchange loss of $0.07 million, and $0.15 million of stock-based compensation, compared to $1.31 million for Fiscal 2019 which included $0.32 million of stock-based compensation; and

Operating expenses of $0.99 million compared to $0.99 million for Fiscal 2019.



During 2020, the company saw an increase from its portfolio of publicly traded companies which included increases from Simply Inc., PopReach Corp., and Bragg Gaming Group Inc.

The Company reported total expenses of $0.15 million for Fiscal 2020 compared to $1.31 million in the prior year. Operating expenses were maintained year over year at $0.99 million for Fiscal 2020 compared to $0.99 million for Fiscal 2019.

The Company saw net comprehensive income of $2.58 million for Fiscal 2020 compared to net comprehensive loss of $18.51 million for Fiscal 2019. As at December 31, 2020, the Companys adjusted net assets were valued at $23.46 million or $0.40 per share compared to $18.78 million or $0.32 per share at December 31, 2019.

The Company returned to positive growth in Fiscal 2020. COVID created several winning themes including work from home as well as gaming platforms. We look to continue our positive momentum in Fiscal 2021 with several of our private companies looking to go public. said Andrew Parks, CEO of Fountain.

A full set of the 2020 audited financial statements and the managements discussion & analysis are available on SEDAR.

About Fountain Asset Corp.

Fountain Asset Corp. is a merchant bank which provides equity financing, bridge loan services (asset back/collateralized financing) and strategic financial consulting services to companies across many industries such as marijuana, oil & gas, mining, real estate, manufacturing, retail, financial services, and biotechnology.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information contained in this press release constitutes forward-looking information, which is information relating to possible events, conditions or results of operations of the Company, which are based on assumptions and courses of action and which are inherently uncertain. All information other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking information. Forward-looking information in this press release includes, but is not limited to, growing Fountains capital base and a strong pipeline going forward. These forward-looking statements reflect the current expectations or beliefs of the Company based on information currently available to the Company. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements, and even if such actual results are realized or substantially realized, there can be no assurance that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on, the Company. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things: the level of bridge loans and equity investments completed, the nature and credit quality of the collateral security and the nature and quality of equity investments, and the other risks disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in the Company's annual information form dated August 30, 2019 filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Although the Company believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange Inc. 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.

For further information: please contact Andrew Parks at (647) 344-4429 or visit Fountain Asset Corp.'s website at www.fountainassetcorp.com.
Imperial Valley News Center

Department of Justice Announces Investigation of the Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government and Louisville Metro Police Department

Louisville, Kentucky - Attorney General Merrick B. Garland announced Monday that the Department of Justice has opened a pattern or practice investigation into the Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government (Louisville Metro) and the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD). The investigation will assess all types of force used by LMPD officers, including use of force on individuals with behavioral health disabilities or individuals engaged in activities protected by the First Amendment. The investigation will assess whether LMPD engages in discriminatory policing, and also whether it conducts unreasonable stops, searches, seizures, and arrests, both during patrol activities and in obtaining and executing search warrants for private homes.

The investigation will include a comprehensive review of LMPD policies, training, and supervision, as well as LMPDs systems of accountability, including misconduct complaint intake, investigation, review, disposition, and discipline.

There are approximately 18,000 federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies in this country. In each one, dedicated officers put themselves in harms way to protect others, said Attorney General Garland. Promoting public trust between communities and law enforcement is essential to making both communities and policing safer. Our enforcement efforts, as well as our grant-making and other support, will contribute to achieving that end and to protecting the civil rights of everyone in our country.

Department of Justice officials informed Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer, LMPD Chief Erika Shields, County Attorney Mike OConnell, and Louisville Metro Council President David James of the investigation. As part of this investigation, the Department of Justice will reach out to community groups and members of the public to learn about their experiences with LMPD.

The Constitution and federal law require law enforcement officers to treat all people fairly and equitably, regardless of race, disability, or participation in protected First Amendment activities, said Pamela S. Karlan, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. The investigation we are announcing today will examine whether these laws are being violated, while also analyzing the root causes of any violations we may find.

The investigation is being conducted pursuant to the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 which prohibits state and local governments from engaging in a pattern or practice of conduct by law enforcement officers that deprives individuals of rights protected by the Constitution or federal law. The Act allows the Department of Justice to remedy such misconduct through civil litigation. The department will be assessing law enforcement practices under the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, as well as under the Safe Streets Act of 1968 Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
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Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

For decades, Robert Benavidez had battled alcoholism.

Barbara Robinson, Benavidezs mother, said her son would often pass out beside his fathers grave in Santa Fe when he wasnt bouncing between jail cells and the streets of Albuquerque.

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He called almost every day, sometimes in distress, hes freezing, its snowing, its raining, hes hungry, he doesnt have any shoes or clothes.

Then, in June, the 56-year-old called to say he had just gotten out of detox.

It was so good talking to him because he was straight and normal, Robinson said.

It was the last call she would receive from Robert.

Two days later, Benavidez, a father of four and a grandfather, was panhandling at San Mateo and Montgomery in Albuquerque when he was fatally struck by a car that fled the scene.

Of the nine fatal hit-and-runs in 2020, Benavidezs case is one of six that remain unsolved.

The Journal obtained the investigative reports of those six cases. The majority of the investigations range from no apparent follow-up to a limited scope of interviews at the scene.

The most detailed was the 54-page investigation into Benavidezs June 25 death.

According to an APD investigative report:

It was around 1:45 p.m. when Benavidez was struck as he crossed Montgomery, west of San Mateo. Witnesses told police the car was speeding and did not slow down before hitting him.

Within a half hour, the woman who owned the car reported it stolen from her apartment complex. Officers found the car, its windshield damaged and bearing remnants of blood, skin and hair, at the complex where the woman lived.

She told police her boyfriend had taken the car before without her permission and could have taken it while she was in the shower. In further interviews, she changed her story and told police the boyfriend was with her at the time of the crash.

The boyfriend told police he had driven the car the day before the crash, but not on the day of the crash, and maintained it had been stolen.

The boyfriends DNA was found on the steering wheel but, because he admitted to driving the car the day before, police determined it wasnt sufficient evidence to place him in the vehicle at the time of the crash.

The officers conclusion found there was no evidence the vehicle was stolen and insufficient evidence to prove the person of interest, the boyfriend, was driving at the time.

The case will be closed pending further leads, the detective wrote.

Very bad choices

Albuquerque Police Department Traffic Unit Sgt. Matt Sandoval said that, of the 20 fatal pedestrian crashes investigated by APD last year, at least 11 were ruled pedestrian error.

Until we solve the case, pedestrian error is just a factor, Sandoval said.

In a Nov. 2 crash, James Byrnes, 76, has been charged with leaving the scene of an accident in the death of Raymond Martinez at Interstate 40 and Coors.

In an April 15 crash, Ramona Ortiz, 52, was charged with homicide by vehicle and leaving the scene of an accident in the death of Gilberto Mejia at San Pablo and Central.

Within an hour of the crash, police had tracked Ortiz and her wrecked vehicle to a home a few miles away. Her boyfriend told police the couple were racing each other home when the crash occurred, something he said they do often.

The boyfriend said Ortizs driving is aggressive and unsafe, and court records show Ortiz had been cited for speeding six times in the five years leading up to the crash.

Scot Key, a traffic safety advocate who has spent years poring over crash reports, said there is a definite correlation between the drivers in pedestrian crashes and a history of extreme speeding or other violations.

Youve got people making very bad choices on the walking side and getting hit by  drivers, like really outlier bad drivers, he said.

Sandoval said many crashes happen along Central and Coors, and called inebriation on the part of pedestrians a huge contributing factor.

Letting them off the hook

Key said police gave the Benavidez case a significant look, but said there wasnt much investigative work  such as reconstructing vehicle parts  put into the other five unsolved cases.

He said the issue is a combination of a judicial system that rarely prosecutes traffic fatality cases, police that fall back on pedestrian error and drivers who dont learn a lesson without punishment.

Were just letting them off the hook  youve got people convinced that, if they do kill somebody, they can just leave the scene.  And if they do stay at the scene and the persons not in a crosswalk, they are probably not going to be charged  regardless of how fast they were driving or how dangerous, Key said.

Every step of the way, its pretty much set up that nothing is going to happen. These people are still driving around because of this process  theyre going to be able to play out their bad behaviors because they havent been busted sufficiently.

Key called the case of Kirtland Airman Calvin Cooper  who was sentenced to five years in a military prison for fatally striking Angelica Baca  refreshingly shocking.

In March 2019, Cooper hit the 39-year-old on Louisiana near Gibson while Baca, a mother of two, was in the median. Although APD initially took the case, it was later handed off to the military and Cooper was found guilty of negligent homicide, voluntary manslaughter and reckless driving after a trial by court martial.

Key said Coopers sentence was more than fair in comparison to similar cases. What driving behaviors might change if people really were dealt with (in) the way that case happened? he wondered.

Meanwhile, Benavidezs mother is resigned to never knowing who killed her son.

I figured because my son was homeless they probably didnt pursue it that much, anyway, she said, before echoing the findings of APD in its report. You know, my son was partially at fault because he did step into the street, a little ways away from the crosswalk.

Robinson said what she has left of Benavidez is some grandchildren, artwork he would make her  intricate dream catchers, bracelets and necklaces  and memories. But no more phone calls.

He was really something else, she said. He was a good son, he really loved me, she said.
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Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

New Mexico must immediately ensure that at-risk students lacking the technology needed for online learning get devices and internet access under a state District Court ruling Friday.

In whats known as the Yazzie-Martinez lawsuit, a judge previously found that the state violated the constitutional rights of students  particularly those who are from low-income homes, are English language learners, Native American or have a disability  by failing to provide them with a sufficient education. Late last year as many schools remained closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Yazzie plaintiffs asked the court to step in and order the state to provide necessary technology for virtual learning to kids who need it.

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As the 2020-21 school year nears an end, 1st Judicial District Judge Matthew Wilson on Friday ordered the state to do just that by identifying the at-risk students who are still lacking devices and high-speed internet access and ensuring those resources are provided. And the state needs to make sure teachers of at-risk students have the technology they need, too.

The Yazzie plaintiffs assert that there are thousands of at-risk students who lack the means to access remote learning.

New Mexico also must provide funding to school districts for IT staff, the court ruled.

Children who are lacking access to internet and technology for remote learning are not getting much of an education, if at all, let alone one that is sufficient to make them college and career ready, Wilson said at the hearing.

New Mexico Public Education Department spokeswoman Judy Robinson said in an email that the court hasnt issued a written order and the department wont comment on the case until officials can review it.

It is worth noting that PED and school districts have worked hard over the past year to expand high-speed internet access and put digital devices in the hands of students most in need so they could fully access their guaranteed public education, Robinson said. That work continues.

Preston Sanchez, an attorney representing the Yazzie plaintiffs, noted that many Native American students continue to learn remotely because of tribal health orders, in addition to other families who chose to finish the school year with remote learning. He said students cant get quality schooling from a distance without technological support.

Theyre losing hours of educational learning and, as a result, the academic achievement gap is widening, he told the Journal.

Pueblo of Acoma Gov. Brian Vallo called the ruling a huge victory for New Mexicos Native children.

The courts decision on the lawsuit prior to the pandemic had already flagged technology as a necessary resource for adequate learning, Sanchez said.

The pandemic arrived and revealed the major digital divide impacting rural and tribal communities today and so it becomes a much more urgent issue, but once the pandemic is over theres still the court ruling that shows the computer resources and related infrastructure are still necessary for sufficient education, Sanchez said.

He said his team has two weeks to send the judge a remedy proposal, and deadlines for improvements would follow.
NSU alum Kastigar finishes 11th place in the 400IM at Olympic trials

Kastigar finished 11th overall and swam her fourth fastest time in her career as she clocked in at 4:51.28.
Investigators from the specialist Garda Technical Bureau have been called in to help establish the pattern of the three-day fire in the Killarney National Park which saw up to 3,000 hectares of the 10,000 hectare park destroyed.

The burn pattern in the fire is proving difficult to establish, gardai say.

Four fire investigators officers from the technical bureau have arrived from Dublin and are now walking the area in an effort to establish cause and pattern.

Garda scenes of crime investigators from Kerry are also involved in the enquiry, Insp Gary Thompson, the officer assigned to lead the Killarney Gardai inquiry said.

Insp Thompson has stressed the inquiry is fact-finding and is inter-agency. Killarney Gardai are working with two other agencies, the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Fire Service.

Copies of aerial photographs are being looked at to establish the fire pattern as well as ground investigation.

The methodology used by the PSNI in the investigation in the Mourne Mountains fire will also be studied.

The inquiry is fact-finding, not a criminal investigation, Insp. Thompson said. He has appealed again to the public to contact him personally at Killarney Gardai with any information.

The information will be treated in the utmost confidence.

We are very keen to establish what gave rise to this, Insp Thompson said.

Wind, dry ground, heaps of old timber all helped the fire accelerate, gardai believe.

Garda are keeping an open mind and are exploring everything. Insp Thompson appealed to people not to rush to any one theory, or default position as this would inhibit sharing of information and he said there are several possibilities to be explored in the probe.

Call for extra rangers

Meanwhile, a founder member of the Killarney Nature Conservation Group who was helping at the scene with the volunteer Meitheal group, has called for ranger patrols during the day and at night in spring and early summer and particularly towards the end of dry spells.

Kevin Tarrant said there were peak times for the fires. The fires were never started at the beginning of a dry spell, but invariably towards the end when rain was forecast. This fire like others was started at night.

You can set your watch to when these fires will start. It is always after a dry spell and before rain comes. It is happening year after year, Mr Tarrant said.

Nothing to indicate fire was suspicious, says Garda

At the annual joint policing committee meeting this afternoon, in response to questions about pursuing those responsible, Kerry Chief Supertintendent Aileen Foster said so far, there was nothing to indicate the fire was suspicious but enquiries were ongoing.

Killarney Garda Superintendent Flor Murphy said the effort was to establish the key facts as to when, how, and where the fire started.

He confirmed that a team from the Garda Technical Bureau in Dublin, in conjunction with the Kerry Scenes of Crime Unit, were examining a number of locations in the Muckross area of Killarney.

"As part of the investigation, we are working closely with the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Fire Service. Our fact-finding investigation will determine the future course."

Any criminality, if established, would be pursued, he said.




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SANTA FE  New Mexico businesses and churches will soon be able to sign up for group COVID-19 vaccination clinics, a state Department of Health spokesman said Friday.

With all state residents age 16 and older now eligible, state health officials have said outreach efforts will be critical in ensuring as many New Mexicans as possible have access to the vaccine.

The vaccine clinics could help in that effort, as the state is working to set up an online form that would allow employers, houses of worship or other types of groups to register for such an event.

While details are still being finalized, its likely that a minimum threshold of unvaccinated adults would be required in order for a vaccine clinic to be scheduled, DOH spokesman Matt Bieber said.

As of Friday, 58% of eligible New Mexicans had received at least one COVID-19 dose, while 43.2% were fully vaccinated, according to DOH data.

Vaccination rates also play a key role in the states revised color-coded map that is used to set business restrictions on a county-by-county basis.

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Pfizer vaccine unlikely to be given to kids in...
Farmers markets help Stohrs introduce goat dairy products to SD

Stohr Diary invests in the dairy goat industry. Helps grow awareness to the benefits of goat dairy within South Dakota.
TRINIDAD and Tobago Unit Trust Corporation (UTC) executive director, Nigel Edwards, says the changes the 39-year-old financial institution is undergoing at this time are transformational.

The UTC is now in the middle of a three-year cycle of strategic changes that will culminate in 2023 and beyond, he said.
Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Showers this morning then scattered thunderstorms developing during the afternoon hours. High 76F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Cloudy with occasional showers overnight. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
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The pandemic has changed everything. The world as we knew it will never be the same. In my opinion the future will bring great opportunity to thrive in the next normal. The time to act is now. If we dont, the all-too-familiar story will prevail and we will again ask, Why is New Mexico last on good lists and first on bad lists?

Ive often referred to New Mexico as the hole-in-the-donut state compared to neighboring states Texas, Arizona, Colorado and Utah. These four all have prospered and grown with higher per capita incomes and lower unemployment rates and poverty rates, while New Mexico has struggled and literally been the hole in the donut.

But the pandemic has shifted the way global business will be done, now and forever. Massive supply chain interruptions during the pandemic exposed U.S. dependence on foreign countries that supplied critical infrastructure, like pharmaceuticals, medical protective equipment and microelectronics. New Mexico has the opportunity to capitalize on a new global business model that relies on distributed supply chains, nearshoring to Mexico and reshoring of critical infrastructure manufacturing back to the United States.

A major transformation that has accelerated during the pandemic is e-commerce. Pre-pandemic e-commerce made up about 15% of all sales. Post-pandemic e-commerce is the biggest game changer to the way we live since the introduction of the internet. Projected online sales could hit $1.5 trillion by 2025. One of the largest industries for the foreseeable future will be e-fulfillment.

In Albuquerque, we already are seeing that demand with the huge Amazon fulfillment center and the Ben E. Keith distribution centers. Albuquerque and the region have space, affordable rents and a ready workforce. Our fantastic weather, coupled with our states lowest cost of renewable energy, are strengths that will resonate with companies looking to relocate and establish operations in states like New Mexico during the next normal. Now is our time to seize this market opportunity.

The pandemic has also further accelerated the advancement of Industry 4.0, robotics, additive/advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence  and with three national labs in Sandia, Los Alamos and Air Force Research, the University of New Mexico, New Mexico State University, New Mexico Tech and Central New Mexico Community College, our state has cutting-edge research and talent to help reset and diversify our states economy in the future.

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Albuquerque Economic Development (AED), under the leadership of our new CEO Danielle Casey, has engaged in a strategic planning exercise. Its amazing what happens when silos are dismantled and people and organizations work collaboratively instead of competitively.

The New Mexico Economic Development Department is also engaged in a strategic planning process, and the AED work is a critical piece of their overall planning. AEDs member organizations and partners make up half of New Mexicos industries. Together, we will develop actionable plans that will make a marked difference for generations. It is important work. Both organizations are committed to changing our states trajectory and in the process achieving positive quality of life and economic outcomes for all New Mexicans.

If ever there was a time, this one is ours.


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Colorado Springs, CO (80903)

Today

Some sun in the morning with increasing clouds during the afternoon. High 84F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

A few clouds. Low around 55F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
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NAME: Aubrey Dunn

POLITICAL PARTY: Independent/DTS

OCCUPATION: Rancher

CITY OF RESIDENCE: Torrance County

EDUCATION: B.S. degree Colorado State University

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE: Rancher; banker 25 years, last 10 as president and CEO; land commissioner four years. Have raised three children in New Mexico attending New Mexico public schools. Auctioneer and licensed New Mexico real estate broker for over 40 years.

CAMPAIGN WEBSITE: aubreydunn.com

What role should Congress or the federal government have in responding to calls for more justice in policing following the deaths of George Floyd and others by police?

End to qualified immunity at the federal level. If a city/state determines that an officer violated their position as an enforcer of the law, states should be able to hold these officers accountable not only as a citizen, but as a sworn officer of the law and communities they protect.

What is your opinion of the coronavirus response packages, including the American Rescue Plan, which was signed by President Biden? Is there anything you would have done differently?

I support the American Rescue Plan in addressing the unique problems this pandemic presents, such as supporting our health care heroes. That said, the bill goes too far in directing states with how they should use COVID resources. Such an overreach of federal power is a troubling precedent this administration is setting. We must start addressing our national debt.

What actions to restore the economy, if any, do you feel Congress should take once the outbreak has been contained?

America is in an identity crisis and Congress is no exception. Congress should be focused more on how best to support states, each of which has a unique set of needs and resources, not on interfering with personal choices or depriving individual citizens of their hard-earned property.

What is your position regarding climate change? What actions should Congress take, if any, regarding the environment?

Congress should be on the forefront of addressing climate change, however, omnibus bills like the Green New Deal do not work. As land commissioner, I was on the front lines of climate policy. We can use market-based approaches, streamline regulations, and work together to innovate new technologies to assist in creating systems to power our state and our country with clean energy.

The Biden administration has issued a temporary moratorium on issuing new oil and gas leases on federal lands. Where do you stand on the issue?

As land commissioner, I used revenues from oil and gas leasing to boost our economy and public education. This moratorium will shift development from federal land in New Mexico to private land in Texas, costing New Mexicans millions of dollars and thousands of jobs that we desperately need. Further this moratorium will make the US dependent on foreign oil again

What are the most important actions Congress should take regarding people now living illegally in the U.S.? What about for those who want to come in?

Our immigration system is broken and needs reform. Immigrants who want to enter legally and for lawful reasons (work) should be provided a pathway to stay here and to pay into the system. That said, all immigrants, just like any U.S. citizen, can and should be held accountable if they commit crimes as a result of being here

Do you believe the borders are secure enough? If not, what do you propose to increase security?

The border problem is an issue which has transcended many administrations, and at best can be slowed, as seen by the past administration and at worst, a flood of people in crisis mode, as seen by the current administration. It is impossible to completely secure the border. We should be using all tools available to stem the tide

Do you favor a federal ban on the sale of military style semi-automatic rifles? If so, what would you do about the millions of such weapons now legally owned by American citizens? What other, if any, gun law reforms would you support?

No. Federal bans on firearms will not curb violence, but instead keep the good gun owners from protecting us from criminals that would not abide by a gun ban in any event. The Second Amendment is a constitutional right designed to protect us from a tyrannical government and self-defense is a fundamental liberty

Federal spending plays an important role in New Mexicos economy. What should be done to increase other economic drivers here?

Being at the bottom of every list (last in education, rampant crime, and over regulation) makes it impossible to attract businesses to our great state. Over-reliance on federal funds leads our state to miss out on economic growth experienced by our neighbors. High federal taxes have hurt hard-working New Mexican businesses

Do you favor or oppose a national single payer health system?

Oppose. U.S. citizens should be able to access private health care options across state lines and we should break up the insurance cartels by increasing competition in the free market. In contrast, single payer systems will reduce any Americans ability to make the best medical decision for themselves. Government has no place inside peoples homes and personal lives.

Do you favor or oppose the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan?

Support. We have enough to focus on right here at home and the Afghan government has made it clear they want to handle their own affairs, so who should trust and support them in doing so.

Do you favor or oppose limits on late-term abortion, and do you believe tax dollars should or should not be used to fund abortions?

I am pro-life. I oppose any amount of tax dollars used toward any expense related to an abortion. As such, I also support Mitt Romneys plan to support young families with a child credit that will significantly improve the livelihood of the family and child once theyre born.

What should be done at the federal level to address the crisis of opioid addiction? Any other drugs?

People with substance dependency should be encouraged to seek medical and professional treatment without fear of retribution from the government. I support diversion programs to provide more support to individuals and communities struggling with addiction as well as their families, who have been deeply impacted by this epidemic as well.

Why do you want to be a member of Congress?

As an independent, I do not answer to any party, which means my party is truly New Mexicans First. I think the partisan gridlock is destroying our country. I have the work ethic, I have the drive, and as former land commissioner, I know how to make the government work for the people, not against them

PERSONAL BACKGROUND

1. Have you or your business, if you are a business owner, ever been the subject of any state or federal tax liens?

NO

2. Have you ever been involved in a personal or business bankruptcy proceeding?

NO

3. Have you ever been arrested for, charged with, or convicted of drunken driving, any misdemeanor or any felony in New Mexico or any other state?

NO
Shenandoah, IA (51601)

Today

Generally sunny despite a few afternoon clouds. High near 90F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

A mostly clear sky. Low 66F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph.
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Public health officials have raised concerns about the prevalence of Covid-19 in Donegal, which they say is being driven by persistent and reasonably widespread non-compliance with restrictions.

Speaking at a briefing by the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) on Friday, Dr Ronan Glynn, deputy chief medical officer, said the 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 population in Donegal was more than double the national rate.

The incidence rate in Donegal is 293.4 per 100,000 population, compared to the national rate of 127.3 per 100,000, he said.

In the Milford area of Donegal, however, the incidence is 675 per 100,000 and in Letterkenny is almost 640 per 100,000, he added.

At the moment it doesn't appear that workplaces are an acute driver and unfortunately whats being reported is persistent and reasonably widespread non-compliance with basic measures, Dr Glynn said.

Social events

Outbreaks have been associated with birthday parties, peer parties, secondary school students meeting up and socialising outside of school and social events linked to funerals and wakes, he added.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said the actions that are driving the high rates of Covid-19 in this area of the country are actions that even the dogs on the street know shouldnt be happening.

There is a "window of opportunity" for the community to reverse the trend.

Its safe to say that if we had anything like the situation that pertains in Donegal pertaining to the rest of the country, we would not be recommending these [re-opening] measures. We are genuinely concerned about the situation.

He said preventing further reopening of society in Donegal due to the high incidence rate is obviously a potential scenario, but that the team "do not envisage it at this time.

Asked if he believed there would be a need to return to level 5 restrictions in the future, Dr Holohan said he could never say never, but he does not anticipate a return to such stringent restrictions.

'Significant uncertainty'

Prof Philip Nolan, chairman of the Irish Epidemiological Advisory Modelling Group, said the current situation nationally is broadly positive with some significant uncertainty.

There has been an increase in the average case count in recent days, he said, and there is a considerable amount of variability in the case count day on day.

The number of Covid-related deaths is continuing to decrease, while deaths in nursing home settings have all but disappeared.

The R number is between 1 and 1.2, Prof Nolan said, but he added that there was a need to redouble our efforts in the coming weeks.

He presented modelling which showed from May 10, following the partial reopening of society, the R number increases to 1.25 and beyond June 7, it could rise to 1.5.

We cant say with any certainty what will happen in the coming weeks [it] depends on how we choose to engage with what were allowed to do, Prof Nolan said.

If all of us strictly adhere to restrictions that remain in place, we think the next few weeks are low to medium risk. The fundamental message is not to get ahead of ourselves.

On Friday, an additional 545 confirmed cases of Covid-19 were notified to Nphet, bringing the national total of confirmed cases to 248,870.

A further four Covid-related deaths were also reported, bringing the total number of deaths to 4,903.
Bakersfield, CA (93308)

Today

Morning clouds will give way to sunshine for the afternoon. High 87F. Winds NW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

A mostly clear sky. Low 58F. Winds NW at 10 to 20 mph.
There are more than 4 million sedans sold in the U.S. each year. Carscoupes, convertibles, sedans, hatchbacks and station wagons--currently make up approximately 24 to 25% of new light vehicle sales.

Industry pundits say young people are buying cars because they dont want to be driving what their parents drove---a UV.

Kia has been attracting new buyers with its focus on good value and striking designs. Theyve been quite innovative of late. And now they are making their mark in the midsize sedan segment with a sedan that doesnt look like every other mainstream midsize sedan.

The entirely new 2021 Kia K5 is the new Optima, now adopting the K5 global model name. The 5-passenger front-wheel drive K5 has a sleek design. Its very sporty looking with its low sloped front hood and fastback roof. The K5s heartbeat front lighting signature, looking somewhat like an EKG pulse, is distinctive and attention getting.

Its longer, lower and wider riding on an all-new platform. The new platform using the latest in engineering and materials technology provides for top-notch noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) characteristics delivering a refined and comfortable ride. Overall K5 has slightly sporty ride and handling. With its unique style the K5 just looks fast.

Big news is the availability of all-wheel drive (AWD) in this sedan. So, you dont need to buy a utility vehicle to get AWD.

K5 is offered in five trims with two different turbocharged engines. A 180hp 1.6L turbo mated to a 8-speed automatic is equipped on LX, LXS, GT-Line and EX trims. AWD is optional on LXS and GT-Line trims.

GT trim comes with more punch. Up front is a 290hp 2.5L turbo 4-cylinder coupled to an 8-speed wet dual-clutch transmission. Suspension, wheel and tire performance upgrades on the GT make for more fun with the added power.

For my drive experience around by Chicago-area home I drove a K5 in the EX trim equipped with the additional Premium Package and finished in Sapphire Blue.

Inside the cabin the K5 provides a comfortable driver seating position. Tilt/telescoping steering wheel, nicely placed switches, a more traditional lever gear selector (vs. a rotatary controller or push/pull toggles) grace a well organized interior with everything seemingly well placed, at least for me. Premium materials, dual-zone temperature control, center mounted touchscreen10.25 inches with Nav in the EX Premium Package, plus a Bose 12-speaker premium audio makes things feel elegant. Theres even voice recognition, so you can tell the car what to do.

I thought the 1.6L engine delivered decent performance. I liked that Kia put a true automatic in the K5 and not a CVT--not one of my favorites, especially with a 4-cylinder. There are no shift paddles, but thats okay. Not every vehicle should have them.

Normal, Smart, Sport, and Custom drive modes adjust settings for engine, transmission, AWD (when equipped) and steering mapping to provide the desired driving experience.

I did spend a lot of time in Sport mode which overcame a bit of lag coming from stop. I do think this engine/transmission combination will deliver satisfactory performance to a wide range of drivers achieving a balance with low fuel consumption.

EPA test-cycle ratings for the front-drive EX are 27 city mpg and 37 highway mpg. I got 26 mpg in my mostly city-type driving.

Theres a complete array of driver-assist safety features on the K5 including forward collision avoidance for pedestrians. The EX I drove also had avoidance for cyclists and at junctions for vehicles approaching on a cross street.

The roomy 16 cu.ft. trunk is a good size when it comes to a midsize sedan. The 60/40 split-folding rear seat adds versatility.

The K5 pricing starts at $23,490 and goes up to $30,490. The EX I drove had a base price of $27,990. The optional Premium Package cost $3,400. AWD on the LXS or GT-Line adds $2,100. Destination charge is $965. Overall pricing provides good value.

More details and information can be found at www.kia.com. Kias 5-year/60,000 mile basic warranty is worth noting. The K5 is assembled here in the United Stated in West Point, Georgia alongside the Telluride UV.

The GT with its 290hp and 8-speed DCT gets shift paddles, sport tuned springs and shocks, upgraded front and rear disc brakes, 19-inch wheels, 40-series performance tires, plus D-shaped flat-bottom steering wheel and other GT interior and exterior trim bits. EPA ratings for the GT are 24 city mpg and 32 highway mpg.

Lastly, the 2021 Kia K5 is a candidate for the Midwest Automotive Media Association (MAMA) Family Vehicle of the Year award. The K5 has already received a number of accolades and awards, so well see.

 2021 Larry Nutson, the Chicago Car Guy

To See All Specs For All KIA K5 Cars Go To Costco Autos
TOKYO, May 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, the cryptocurrency industry is bursting forth, and the DeFi market isnt exempted. Investors can make money easily by locking their tokens for a period of time. Although the concept of DeFi has made life easy in different ways, it still leaves many drawbacks that affect the industry.



As the cryptocurrency market experiences more all-time highs, we see the influx of new investors into the market. Undoubtedly, DeFi offers great opportunities to make money, especially for early investors. However, for later entrants who have simply joined the back wagon of cryptocurrency because of the widespread popularity, there is the issue of buying tokens above the actual price or value.

A crucial reason for this challenge is the unavoidability of a value bubble, resulting in the price bursting and future collapse of the project. When you hear about a value bubble, it means the price increase of a token isnt related to the fundamental value of that coin. How can both early and late investors get the actual value of a token? That is what PROMISE wants to help the cryptocurrency industry solve.

What is PROMISE?

PROMISE is the first BEP20 token based on trust. The token promises an endless, increasing price since everyone who has access to the PROMISE token can promise to keep it for at least 15 days. The platform has a Wall of Honor where holders who hold the token for a more extended period are ranked and inducted. However, investors who couldnt keep their promise are placed on the Wall of Shame with the community mocking them.

What makes PROMISE unique?

The PROMISE project is uniquely designed to be a self-generating yield and liquidity protocol that reward its holders who hold their token for 14 days. However, the longer an investor holds its token, the greater the rewards. Besides this, there are opportunities to participate in

Lottery pool

Charity, and

Burning votes



PROMISE keeping the promise!

With so many promises made every day, this promise is different! With the guarantee of continuously price increase of this token, it now stands at +500% gains for the pasts 7 days and promises to continue to make the rapid move with so high on potential.

How to Buy PROMISE on PancakeSwap

If you are new to trading, you need to download the Trust Wallet app and install it on your phone to buy the PROMISE token. Then log into your Binance account and buy the Binance coin if you dont have it in your Binance wallet. Now to buy the PROMISE token, you need to swap your Binance coin.

Go to PancakeSwap.finance homepage and connect to your wallet.

Under the From section, enter the amount and select Smart Chain BNB, while under the To, you need to copy the PROMISE contract address - 0xcbcCf14B051947BDcd1E20b77015208a1AD5EA25 and paste on it.

Then click on Swap, and the particular PROMISE amount will reflect in your wallet.



About Promise

Promise is the world's first BEP20 token based on trust. Our token guarantees a continuously increasing price because everyone who holds the Promise token makes a promise to hold it for at least 15 days.

The longest holders will be honored with glory and shown on the top list of the Wall of Honor, while others who don't keep their promise will end up on the Wall of Shame and be mocked by the community.

Social links

Telegram: https://t.me/promisetoken

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/promisetoken

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Promise55287442

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaHxcs9zROYk6qtigibMsmw

Media contact

Company: Promise Limited

Contact Name: Kira Noguchi

E-mail: info@promisetoken.com
Scientists have discovered a frontal-temporal disconnection which could explain why people with Parkinson's believe they can see ghosts.

Around half of people suffering with the disease experience 'presence hallucinations' which causes them to sense a shadowy presence nearby.

The spontaneous nature of the event has made the phenomena hard to study.

Scientists have discovered a frontal-temporal disconnection which could explain why people with Parkinson's believe they can see ghosts

PARKINSON'S DISEASE EXPLAINED Parkinson's disease affects one in 500 people, including about 145,000 individuals in the UK. It causes muscle stiffness, slowness of movement, tremors, sleep disturbance, chronic fatigue, an impaired quality of life and can lead to severe disability. It is a progressive neurological condition that destroys cells in the part of the brain that controls movement. Sufferers are known to have diminished supplies of dopamine because their nerve cells that make it have died. There is currently no cure and no way of stopping the progression of the disease, but hundreds of scientific trials are working to change that. Advertisement

A new study using brain imaging and robotics has highlighted abnormalities in the brain which might explain it.

Professor Olaf Blanke of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology told Reuters: 'The system is actually quite simple.

'One robot is in front of the subject and will measure the movement and the second robot will feedback signals to the individual that we're testing, Parkinson's patients or healthy subject, and then when we induce a mis-match, so if the front robot is doing something else from the back robot, this is the condition when the "presence hallucination" occurs.'

Minor hallucinations often occur before other Parkinson's symptoms such as tremors and muscle rigidity.

People who have more severe hallucinations are likely to have a greater cognitive decline as the disease progresses.

Information about the hallucinations is scarce because patients are often embarrassed to report them, scientists claim.

Joseph Rey, who experiences the visions, said: 'They feel like angels protecting me. They do me no harm. They follow me around. It's reassuring in a way, because I am not alone.'

The study involved 56 Parkinson's sufferers in Switzerland and Spain.

While the disease has been traditionally defined as a movement disorder, some patients also suffer from mental symptoms like psychosis, depression, cognitive decline and even dementia.

Researchers say the growing evidence suggests that hallucinations might be precursors to these more severe mental health symptoms but they often remain under diagnosed.
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  The Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce is planning an expo Sunday that will allow Latino business owners to showcase their products and services.

The Expo de los Negocios Latinos will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday at Club Rio, 10205 Central NW, according to a release.

The chamber will also distribute PPE boxes containing hand sanitizer, medical masks, cloth masks, disinfectant spray, and some with thermometers and acrylic dividers to small business and community attendees.

Community partner vendors will also provide music, information and coupons, product samples, and raffle prizes.

Vendors will follow COVID-safe practices and guidelines, the release said.

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We are excited to bring our small businesses and community together again safely, said Ernie CdeBaca, president and CEO of the chamber, according to the release.

Participating vendors Doral Motors, Chic Gaze, ASIInk, Latinas a Otro Nivel, New York Life Insurance, XY Staffing, Ronquillo Productions, beWellnm offering information on low-cost to no-cost health insurance, and more, all offering coupons and samples.

Booth spaces are free and will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis. There will be space for up to 50 vendors and 10 food trucks.

Small business participants must register online at the Hispano Chambers website and must be small business with fewer than 50 employees that conduct business inside the Bernalillo County and Albuquerque City limits. More information is available at www.ahcnm.org.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  After a year of mostly remote learning for many teachers and students in New Mexico due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some children are once again walking the halls of our schools.

The Journal invited New Mexico families, students and teachers to share their stories from this unique transition.

Those who responded shared stories of successes and of struggles from this school year.

Their stories are below.

To share more stories about your children and how theyre moving into the next phase of life, send an email to yourstory@ abqjournal.com. You are welcome to include a high-resolution photo.

Lets not waste pandemics lessons

My kindergarten class is like a small town community.

We each hold important roles that make learning fun and engaging.

Each day, Shyla, our 5-year-old mayor, shares our learning goals and reviews academic skills previously covered. Olive, our meteorologist, shares the daily weather report and Aziah, our record keeper, reminds me to record our Zoom session for those absent that day.

All of my students regularly participate in discussions about the logistics of the day and our learning goals. My teaching through these leadership roles has increased my kindergartners achievement in written language, communication and other academic skills. We have learned that working together has increased cooperative learning opportunities, too, like providing constructive feedback on a writing project in real time to our remote learning peers, as we sit in our classroom.

All of this is important in forming a learning community that strives to achieve academically and succeed in life.

Now that we are back in person, all of the children in my classroom have adapted well and are thriving. Even when we were remote, my students and I have found that our community was an empowering place to be and learn together. Throughout this isolating year my kindergartners, led by our mayor, Shyla, stayed involved and engaged, often showing up early on Zoom. They werent just coming to learn, they were coming to be part of our community.

This experience has opened my eyes to the learnings we can take from the pandemic and the possibilities of reimagining our schools so we can better serve our students and communities.

Now, as New Mexico is proposing more days and longer hours for students in classrooms, I am wondering if thats what is best.

Even before the pandemic, educators and policymakers knew that our educational system was lacking. Rather than simply adding more instructional days to the calendar or more hours to our school day to compensate for the challenges of the pandemic and learning loss, we should use this time to examine the most important skills our students need for a successful future.

To me, these skills begin with social emotional learning. These include empowering students to use their voices to advocate what they need, teaching strong communications skills and self-reflection. The focus on these skills will lead to better solutions to harness leadership in the classroom and ultimately to better academic outcomes.

Like her peers, Mayor Shyla finds learning fun. Because she is a leader, she has engaged in the standards more deeply. Shyla leads by example, sharing to our learning community that, she is a good kinder leader because she teaches her friends what to do in class and how to do good listening.

In fact, she encourages others to lead, providing an opportunity for a very shy, new student to believe in herself and say with pride, When I am amazing in class, that makes all my friends amazing, too.

The questioning, discussion and negotiation among the members of our learning community are rich and are just what my students need to combat any learning loss.

This pandemic has awarded us all an opportunity to rethink and enhance education. Lets not waste it and instead empower our students as leaders in their own educational journey. They deserve nothing less!

 Aimee Parra, kindergarten teacher leader at Mesilla Elementary in Las Cruces and 2020-2021 Teach Plus New Mexico Fellow of the Year.

My students face adversity head-on

This past year in virtual learning has been impactful in multiple ways.

Unceremoniously, my professional and personal life became intertwined. At any other time it would have driven a person crazy. Not me. This whole situation has been a huge blessing to me. I got to stay home with my family and welcome our son to this world. Not to mention I got to spend time with my 11-year-old daughter and witness her as she continues to grow. Our other daughter came home to us and is doing great. Also I have a loving and supportive wife who is an indescribable source of strength for me.

I also have the privilege of teaching the secondary students of El Camino Real Academy.

During this long period of time, my personal and professional life stuck together no matter what. No matter what life has thrown our way, we continue to stand united. I will admit I do not know what my students went through on a daily basis but I do know this for sure  they took their time out of their life and out of whatever they may have been going through to show up for class and work.

We came together to be the best that we could for each other  even with the circumstances. In life we face numerous decisions that we must make, and with pride and a tear in my eye, they made the right one. I have taught students that I have called Champions, Team Ganas, Team Power and now this year I have my Impact Players. My students are not at a deficit for lacking in person learning. They are people who face adversity no matter the circumstances to live their life and receive an education. AMEN.

 Joaquin Cordova, teacher at El Camino Real Academy in Albuquerque

A disaster for students

This year was a disaster for students.

Many parents were still working while students were left home to babysit, making it difficult for them to log on to their classes. A great number of students did not even log on to their classes or attempt any of the work, resulting in 80% Fs. APS put the final nail in the coffin when they announced all students would pass regardless, so why even bother.

A lot of technology issues. Many students did not want to turn on their cameras or join in classroom discussions. Most of the time I felt like I was talking to myself. This was also the year for a new curriculum rollout for science. It was full of hands-on labs and projects that we could not do. It also switched the years of material presented, so seventh graders missed out on important topics they will be tested on in the eighth grade.

OK, so much for the complaining  on a positive note, this turned out to be a window into their lives.

I met family pets, learned how to make posole and found out many of my students had interests outside of school I never get to see in the classroom.

 Angela Jarvis, seventh grade science teacher at George I. Sanchez Collaborative Community School in Albuquerque

Learning a brand-new skillset

This is my 15th year teaching and it is more like my first!

I completely redesigned teaching for online learning. Because of this, I learned things I never imagined: How to be a YouTube star, create curriculum that is online and kid-friendly, and all about Google suite. All to make sure I meet my 28 students academic, emotional, social and physical needs.

My students are engaged and learning every day. I assess their emotional needs constantly and adjust instruction with Maslow in mind. We have a strong, empathetic and inclusive classroom community (that includes their very supportive families and pets).

Yes, they learn reading, writing/typing and math. But SO much more. We do STEM challenges every month. Students used the Design Process to engineer new animal adaptations, weather safe houses, theme parks, catapults and more.

Also I create Bitmoji classrooms to teach social studies standards. Students explore the rooms to complete AVID notes by clicking on the artifacts that I linked to text, videos, maps, etc. They learn all about important historical events across time.

My dad, a retired Sandia Labs Distinguished Technologist, stars in a YouTube video in the WW2 room. He shares stories about WW2 weapons and how they could be safely displayed, inspiring my young engineers. Many of these things they never would have experienced in a normal year. We will actually complete both the reading and math curriculums (a first)!

On April 5, things changed again. Since then, I teach nine in person and 19 online.

My challenge is to continue all I do and attempt to keep in-person students as safe as possible using the CDC guidelines we can follow, during a traumatic global pandemic that killed my uncle in January.

 Michelle Joy Joseph, teacher at Mission Avenue Elementary School in Albuquerque

Back-to-school means one-on-one

Im a 12th grader at La Cueva High School and so far Ive been enjoying going back to school in person.

Im able to get the one-on-one help with my teachers, where when I was online I could not get that same help.

When they say that we were going back to in-person learning, I thought and thought about it and then I came to my conclusion about it. My conclusion was that since it was my last year, I should go back to see La Cueva for the last time.

 Collin Donovan, senior at La Cueva High School

Thank you to teachers

We have a 10th grader and a sixth grader attending Albuquerque Public Schools.

They both returned for the in-person option on April 5 and so far it is going very well for both of them.

Remote learning was difficult for our son in the 10th grade, despite the valiant efforts of his teachers to keep him engaged. His teachers and the school did everything they could to help him be successful while online, but he has found it much easier to stay motivated and turn in his work since returning in-person.

Our daughter, the sixth grader, thrived in online school and found that it suited her needs very well. But, she wanted to go in-person because she had never been inside her school and was anxious to get to know the building and meet some friends. She is thrilled to be at school with her teachers and peers, but misses being at home with her dog.

We are prepared for the fact that there may be quarantining or shutdowns if COVID cases pop up at their schools, but we know that both kids teachers will ensure smooth transitions back and forth regardless of what challenges may arise in the next five weeks.

All of the teachers, faculty and staff at both schools have been phenomenal in supporting our kids this school year, both academically and emotionally. The teachers have given so much of themselves to their students this year, and we are humbled by the amazing work we have witnessed from them. Our kids learned a lot during this past year, especially resilience, patience and flexibility. We are so glad that they had the support of their schools and teachers during this scary, difficult and uncertain time. Thank you to all teachers for being there for your students!

 Shanna & Greg Jarrett, Albuquerque parents

Leaving traditional APS altogether

I am a parent of three girls, two of whom were in elementary school at an APS school during the aborted 2019-2020 school year. When they went home on that fateful March day we had no idea when they would return. As it turns out they wont be returning.

During the 2020-2021 year we chose to homeschool the older two with the youngest remaining in a preschool. It has been a great opportunity to really understand our children and their learning styles. It was a challenge but we were lucky to have both the human and financial resources to do this.

While virtual learning can work for some children, it is tougher for younger kids like mine and we didnt want to have them in front of a screen several hours a day. We regularly ask the kids whether they enjoy home school and they say yes. One of the big advantages they repeatedly mention is how they dont have their learning interrupted by misbehaving classmates.

Next year all three children WOULD be in a traditional APS school if we were sending them back. Instead, we have a sixth-grader at an APS-authorized charter school Instead, we have a sixth-grader at an APS-authorized charter school and the younger two (fourth grade and kindergarten) will be attending a Catholic school.

 Paul Gessing, Albuquerque parent

Dear 2020

You made me broke broken bronchitis  Lord Jesus!

Theres uh fire! And my people still

locked up in cages red hats on stages

the cheap cheap wall going up up

into the white between Mexico y

Los Estados Unidos, and February

comes and goes and we skip March

cry in April for my first lockdown birthday,

but false prophet opens rich mouth and

lies tries to divide blue and red white

from everyone non-white, you see you

made us broke broken this-brownness

sanitizing for breakfast lunch and dinner

virus spreading like butter like oil like water,

death in spring death in summer death in fall

death in winter comes and stays bodies

devoured by hospital beds but

we have it totally under control.

its one person coming in from China.

its going to be just fine porque

it wasnt fine lost control lost faith

lost the punctuation, you see 2020

youre done 2021 almost gone

almost nuestro pasado: and still

this boi will sing with collapsed lung

dance with inflamed muscles

paint with sad sand hands;

behind plastic thing, mask on,

students numb students sad

students confused, and I tell them:

be thankful we are breathing,

listen to these desks that want

to warm our cold hearts fill

our veins with color, because,

write this down: the sun will rise

in the morning, and then

the next morning too, and the

incomplete moon will fade

somewhere up above the blue

desert sky, even before you wake up 

 Poetic prose by Luis Lopez-Maldonado, seventh grade science special education teacher at George I. Sanchez Collaborative Community School
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SANTA FE  New Mexico education officials have started to spend about $1.5 billion in pandemic relief aid set aside for them by the federal government.

Around 4%, or $60 million, of the anticipated windfall to school districts has actually been spent as officials begin to file for reimbursements for the added costs of the pandemic, according to a legislative report released Thursday.

School districts bought thousands of laptops and tablets for students across the state, with more purchases expected to replace devices damaged by continuous use at home over months of remote learning. About 76% of the spending documented so far went to computers, Wi-Fi hot spots, and safety and cleaning supplies, the Legislative Finance Committee report estimates.

Another 18% went to staff salaries and benefits. Schools also offered hazard pay to such frontline workers as bus drivers who delivered meals and homework assignments directly to students homes.

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A total of $1.5 billion in federal funding was set aside for schools in New Mexico, with around 9.5% going to the Public Education Department and the rest going directly to school districts.

The first of three rounds of federal funding, which is comparatively small, must be spent by the fall of 2022, while the most recent one, totaling around $900 million, doesnt have to be allocated until 2024.

We want to make sure that all of this money goes toward impactful uses for schools and students as they emerge from the pandemic, and that the money does not revert, Public Education Secretary Ryan Stewart said in a statement Thursday.

The department will also escalate attention to any districts lagging their peers in spending the federal funds as part of a detailed tracking system, Stewart said.

He said the top spending categories for the departments portion of the funds are air filtration upgrades and an online learning platform made available to school districts.

Federal funding, you know, thats a huge one and, let me tell you, we are planning and we have spent a lot of dollars, said acting Las Cruces Public Schools Superintendent Ralph Ramos. Number one priority was the safety equipment.

Las Cruces Public Schools recently returned to full in-person learning after limiting attendance to small groups. The school board recently voted to not access state aid to extend the school year.

But federal funding could fill in the gaps for summer programming, as West Las Vegas school districts say they plan to do.

Around 20% of the largest round of funding is meant to be used for recovering from learning loss, and some districts are already planning to use it for summer school programs and extra tutoring.

Now, we get into socially emotional needs for students, Ramos said. Thats a big one where were going to be spending a lot of dollars to give them the support.

Detailed spending plans were not immediately available for such individual districts as Las Cruces, which will receive more than $100 million, according to the report.

Albuquerque Public Schools, which covers around 1 in 5 public school students, will get some $375 million.

That means up to a third of the Albuquerque budget will come from pandemic relief funding in the coming years, according to the Legislative Finance Committee, which met with district officials Wednesday.

Albuquerque Public Schools also did not immediately share pandemic relief spending records. Both districts have spent around 60% of the first installment of funding, according to the Legislative Finance Committee report.
An infectious disease consultant at Cork University Hospital has warned that a national approach and investment in additional resources will be needed to deal with tens of thousands of patients across the country suffering from long Covid.

As the country begins to emerge from the pandemic, the health service will face fresh challenges, including managing an unknown number of long-Covid patients, as well as growing waiting lists for non-Covid care.

Dr Arthur Jackson, one of a team of CUH medics seeing patients referred with long-Covid symptoms, said the hospital is working through a backlog of patients but that additional resources would be needed in the longer term.

We dont have a dedicated long-Covid clinic in Cork and we see patients in our general infectious diseases clinics but the demand is currently outweighing availability for our clinics, he added.

There is no internationally agreed definition of long Covid and symptoms range from fatigue and headaches to respiratory issues, or impacts on the heart, brain, nervous system, and other organs.

Ongoing and debilitating impacts

Many patients report ongoing and debilitating impacts on their health, weeks and months after initial infection, regardless of how mild or severe the initial infection was.

The scientific and medical community has yet to fully understand how the virus works and affects different organs in the body.

Long Covid is thought to affect as many as 10% of those infected by the virus.

Even if only 1% of people who contract the virus develop long Covid, it will present challenges for health services, epidemiologist Dr Andrew Kunzmann from Queens University in Belfast told a seminar hosted by the Independent Scientific Advocacy Group (ISAG) earlier this week.

Studies, he said, have shown Covid symptoms were evident 12 weeks after initial infection and impacted the social, home, and work life of those presenting with long-Covid. Those hospitalised with Covid-19 were also more likely to require hospital re-admission.

There is now growing evidence, Dr Kunzmann said, that long Covid is real and patients must be believed rather than gaslighted.

We need to start believing people when they say that something is wrong, he said.

This is happening and we need to be taking it seriously. Prevention is better than cure where possible but we still need to make sure that people who are going through it get the support that they need.



The HSE said it was extremely difficult to quantify the scale of long Covid in Ireland but that it is looking at modelling numbers and adopting a national approach to managing the new condition.

There is a lot of uncertainty in the international literature about how many people experience prolonged symptoms so it is extremely difficult to determine the scale as yet in Ireland. We are monitoring the situation very closely and looking at how we can best estimate the scale. This will take some time and will need continual review, a HSE spokesperson said.

Dr Jackson said the numbers could be in the tens of thousands, given conservative estimates of one in 10 Covid-19 patients presenting with long-Covid symptoms.

To date, almost 250,000 people have tested positive for the virus in Ireland, suggesting there may be as many as 25,000 long-Covid patients here.

This may be an underestimate, given that official figures do not include individuals who had Covid but either tested negative or were not tested for the virus.

With current resources already fully occupied with non-Covid work, there will not be the capacity to take on the tens of thousands of additional patients," Dr Jackson said. "It is something that will require investment.

Need for investment

The need for investment was also highlighted this week by public health expert Dr Gabriel Scally, who noted the British government invested 10m (11.5m) in 10 dedicated long-Covid clinics last year.

In the absence of treatment options for long-Covid patients, Dr Jackson said a multidisciplinary approach, involving specialists in infectious diseases, respiratory, and psychology or psychiatry, is required at present.

How patients are referred to specialists is also a work in progress, he said, adding that a national approach and referral pathway is needed.

At present, patients hospitalised by the virus are being seen more quickly than those who are not.

The HSE said patients experiencing long Covid can seek support from their GP or from their hospital team if they were admitted with Covid-19.

The health service said it was also engaging with long-Covid patients, as well as developing guidance to align needs with care provision.

A national approach to long Covid is currently under consideration, a HSE spokesperson said.

HSE information on recovering after Covid can be found here

We need medical cards and temporary supports

Long-Covid patients are being left to their own devices and are not getting the support they need to cope with the new illness.

Thats according to Martin Flanagan, from Douglas in Cork, who is still living with the effects of Covid-19 almost four months after he was first infected.

The 59-year-old shop manager of a builder's providers is exasperated by the lack of support available for long-Covid patients, many of whom find themselves out of work due to the virus and struggling to carry out simple everyday tasks.

Mr Flanagan was not admitted to hospital when he contracted the virus in early January but has had difficulty breathing ever since, despite clear X-rays of his chest.

He now finds himself forking out privately for further medical tests and said the Government must provide temporary supports, such as medical cards and bus passes, for long-Covid patients until such time as they recover or treatments become available.

Businesses affected by Covid restrictions were being subsidised or financially supported by the Government but long-Covid patients were left to their own devices, he said.

Nobody seems to care. I have never heard Health Minister Stephen Donnelly talking about people living with long Covid or what he plans to do for these people. We didnt ask for Covid but we got it unfortunately.

Were not looking for freebies. Were looking for the Government to help us through this by providing temporary supports like a medical card or bus pass until we are able to go back to work.

The frontline worker remains anxious about the future and if, and when, he will make a full recovery and return to work:

At the moment I cant manage my life. Its very difficult because I dont see any light at the end of the tunnel right now."

Mr Flanagan is one of almost 150,000 people to avail of an enhanced Covid-19 illness benefit payment of 350 a week that was introduced by the Department of Social Protection last year in response to the pandemic.

It is unclear, however, how many people claiming the enhanced payment went on to develop long Covid. The department confirmed that those who remain ill beyond 10 weeks will be transferred to the standard illness benefit payment of 203 per week.

The highest number of Covid-19 illness benefit claims came from people working in the wholesale and retail, health and social work, and manufacturing sectors, official figures show.
Yes, along most or all of the coast

Yes, but only places where an entry fee can cover their cost

No, people can continue swimming at their own risk

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NEW YORK, May 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of the securities of SOS Limited (NYSE: SOS) between July 22, 2020 and February 25, 2021, inclusive (the Class Period), of the important June 1, 2021 lead plaintiff deadline.



SO WHAT: If you purchased SOS securities during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement.

WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the SOS class action, go to http://www.rosenlegal.com/cases-register-2070.html or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than June 1, 2021. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.

WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience or resources. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs Bar. Many of the firms attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.

DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, defendants throughout the Class Period made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose information that resulted in a scheme that: (1) SOS had misrepresented the true nature, location, and/or existence of at least one of its principal executive offices listed in its SEC filings; (2) HY International Group New York Inc. and FXK Technology Corporation were either undisclosed related parties and/or entities SOS fabricated; (3) SOS had misrepresented the type and/or existence of the mining rigs that it claimed to have purchased; and (4) as a result, defendants public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.

To join the SOS class action, go to http://www.rosenlegal.com/cases-register-2070.html or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action.

No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investors ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff.

Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/.

Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

-------------------------------

Contact Information:

Laurence Rosen, Esq.

Phillip Kim, Esq.

The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.

275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor

New York, NY 10016

Tel: (212) 686-1060

Toll Free: (866) 767-3653

Fax: (212) 202-3827

lrosen@rosenlegal.com

pkim@rosenlegal.com

cases@rosenlegal.com

www.rosenlegal.com
YEREVAN.  The president of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia, Ararat Mirzoyan, received a delegation from the standing committee on foreign relations of the Council of Representatives (parliament) of Iraq, headed by chairman Shirko Mirwaiz of the committee, the NA press service reported.

Mirzoyan expressed satisfaction that a considerable political dialogue is taking place between Armenia and Iraq, and there is also an intensification in the economic relations between the two countries.

The NA speaker briefed his Iraqi colleagues the current situation in connection with the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict after the Azerbaijani-Turkish military aggression last fall. He stressed that Azerbaijan, contrary to the trilateral statement of November 9, 2020, is not fulfilling its obligation to return the Armenian POWs and other detainees; moreover, it continues its anti-Armenian policy.

Mirwaiz, in turn, lauded the Armenias position on matters regarding Iraq and its respective support within international platforms.

Also, the chairman of the aforesaid committee of the Iraqi parliament noted that the memorandums of cooperation in various domains play a key role in the intensification of relations between the two countries, and the legislature has an important role in overseeing its implementation.

Cooperation in various spheres were discussed at the ensuing the meeting. Both sides stressed that the visit of Iraqi lawmakers to Armenia can be a good impetus for deepening cooperation between the parliaments of the two countries.


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Trot Insider has learned that the finish order of the 2019 Don Byrne Memorial has been changed after an appeal from the connections of the disqualified winner Rockin Mystery.

The 2019 Don Byrne Memorial was contested on September 15, 2019 at Century Mile. In that race, Rockin Mystery finished first but was placed last after judges ruled that the filly received an unfair start. An inquiry after the race examined the start, stating that Rockin Mystery had an opening at the inside of the starting gate.

A decision rendered by the Appeal Tribunal on April 14 restored the original order of finish, giving Rockin Mystery the winner's share of the $125,000 purse. The ruling from Horse Racing Alberta appears below.

Now five, Rockin Mystery (Mystery Chase - Cant Stop Rockin) is owned by Rod Therres and Blair Miller of Langley, B.C.
KONNOR PERRIN, Chariho boys lacrosse, freshman: Perrin established a school record for assists in a game with nine in the Chargers 22-0 win over Ponaganset. Perrin leads the team with 21 assists to go with 14 goals.

LILA RICH, Stonington girls track, senior: Rich won two events at the ECC Division I track meet. Rich was first in the high jump (5-0) and the pole vault (10-0) as the Bears finished third at the meet.

MADIGAN HILTZ, Westerly boys lacrosse, senior: Hiltz scored seven goals and had three assists in pair of victories for the Bulldogs. Hiltz has 17 goals and seven assists for the season.

ADDIE HAUPTMANN, Wheeler softball, junior: Hauptmann was 4 for 9 with a home run and six RBIs in two games. For the season, Hauptmann is hitting .617 with eight homers and 42 RBIs. She has 50 hits.

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The contribution of religious orders to the provision of hospital services in Ireland extends back to 1834 when the Religious Sisters of Charity founded St. Vincents Hospital in Dublin. Generally, the role of religious orders was seen in a positive light by Irish Catholics but over the last two decades public opinion has changed radically.

This was clearly evident in 2017 when plans to relocate the National Maternity Hospital from Holles St. to the St Vincents site provoked an outcry. Why such a change in attitude? To answer this question, it will be necessary to make some reference to historical developments.

When the Irish Free State was set up in 1922, religious management of health services was well established. Church involvement in healthcare, education, and social welfare services gave the Catholic Church enormous power in matters of public policy and the practice of medicine in Ireland.

The Church provided a range of social, health and educational services that the State was unable or unwilling to provide. Therefore, the relationship between Church and State suited both.

The Catholic ethos prevailed. The Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital (Drogheda), under the control of the Medical Missionaries of Mary up to 1997, prohibited all forms of artificial contraception - in common with all other Catholic hospitals. The only approved birth control method within the hospital was the highly unreliable Billings method based on calculations of the infertile phase of the menstrual cycle.

Tubal ligations (female sterilization procedures) were prohibited  even in circumstances where another pregnancy was dangerous. However, Catholic ethical guidelines did permit indirect sterilisation. It was permissible to remove a diseased organ such as a uterus although the woman would then be incapable of having a baby. In such cases, the intention was to preserve the health of the patient - not to prevent future pregnancies.

In her Lourdes Hospital Inquiry report (2006) Judge Maureen Harding Clark found much evidence that the prohibition on sterilisations gave rise to the practice of compassionate hysterectomies in hospitals with a Catholic ethos  an unspoken Irish solution to an Irish question. The clinical judgement of surgeons was not questioned in such cases.

Tubal ligations were a different matter. A rigid adherence to conservative Catholic doctrine gave rise to the performance of sterilisations by hysterectomy when tubal ligations would have been more appropriate. Hysterectomy was far more invasive and traumatic for the patient. Even so, religious ideology over-ruled clinical judgement and best medical practice - the welfare of women was of secondary importance.

The issue of symphysiotomies also caused reputational damage to Catholic moral teaching. Pubic symphysiotomy is a surgical procedure to enlarge the delivery capacity of the mothers pelvis when the baby is too large to pass through. This procedure was sometimes considered as an alternative to caesarean section but it was rarely chosen. When it was chosen, some patients suffered adverse effects.

Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda

Irish obstetrical practice was constrained by a legislative framework which in turn was influenced by Catholic values. Pope Pius XIs encyclical, Casti Connubii (1930), condemned artificial contraception, abortion and sterilization, and almost certainly influenced Irish legislators to pass the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1935 which banned the importation and sale of contraceptives. Artificial contraception was illegal up to the Health (Family Planning) Act 1979 and was even then limited to married couples on prescription.

The frequency of symphysiotomy procedures needs to be seen against a background where multiple births were the norm and repeat caesarean sections presented grave dangers to maternal health (especially up to the early 1960s). Symphysiotomy seemed to offer the possibility of safe repeat deliveries for some mothers and was undertaken more frequently than would otherwise have been the case.

In recent years, an awareness of the symphysiotomy issue served to stiffen opposition to any extension of Catholic moral teaching that might obstruct access to healthcare services relating to reproductive medicine.

In a broader context, the moral authority of the Church was undermined by a relentless stream of scandals.

The sexual abuse of children by priests and brothers, cover-ups by bishops, forced adoptions of babies born outside of marriage, and the mistreatment of vulnerable women and their babies in Magdalene laundries, all provoked public outrage against the institutional Church.

In parallel with all this, public opinion about reproductive choice and sexual morality had changed radically, as indicated by referendums on divorce (1995), same-sex marriage (2015), and abortion (2018). The law changed, reflecting radical shifts in public opinion, but Catholic doctrine remained the same. A conspicuous rift emerged between the institutional Church and the Church as a community of believers.

In the late twentieth century, the decline of Church influence in healthcare services became increasingly evident. Falling vocations meant that the Church was unable to place brothers and nuns in key positions to influence policy and the training of doctors and nurses. Sterilisation procedures (tubal ligations and vasectomies) became available in the 1980s.

The power of the institutional Church was not what it once was  yet it was not negligible. Hundreds of millions of euros worth of health-service assets in Ireland were controlled by religious orders, especially by the Sisters of Bon Secours, the Religious Sisters of Charity, and the Sisters of Mercy. Ireland was not unusual in this context.

The Roman Catholic Church was the largest non-governmental provider of healthcare services internationally and issues of public concern were sometimes raised when decisions had to be made about institutions against the background of ageing and shrinking memberships. Religious orders were less and less able to directly manage the hospitals their predecessors had founded. New managerial structures were required.

Dr Peter Boylan, a former Master of the National Maternity Hospital, observed that, in recent years, Catholic religious orders worldwide transferred their assets to charities approved by the Vatican and with the intention of preserving the Catholic ethos. Transfers in Ireland include the Mater Hospital group (2016), the Mercy Hospital in Cork (2016), the Bon Secours group (2017), and St John of Gods (2019).

The Religious Sisters of Charity also felt compelled to adapt to changing conditions. In 2003 St. Vincents Healthcare Group Limited (SVHG) was formed and St Vincents University Hospital was transferred to the company. The Religious Sisters of Charity became the shareholders and the SVHG Constitution required the hospital to function in compliance with the Catholic ethos.

Government plans to relocate the National Maternity Hospital (NMH) provoked angry protests in 2017 - not only because a hospital built at taxpayers expense would be privately owned, but also because some services such as tubal ligations, would not be provided due to Catholic ethical principles.

Further to this, the historical legacy of the Religious Sisters of Charity was tainted by the scandalous abuse and exploitation of women in the Magdalene Laundries. This was exacerbated by the refusal of the religious order, and three others, to contribute to a redress scheme for several hundred survivors.

In May 2017 the Religious Sisters of Charity announced that they were transferring their ownership of SVHG, which would now become St Vincents Holdings CLG  a private company. They would not have a role in the new NMH. This failed to address concerns that religious influence might interfere with the governance of the new NMH.

Hospitals built on Church land are owned by the Church and are subject to canon law and Catholic ethics. The Constitution of St. Vincents Holdings CLG did not refer to Catholic ethics or canon law and undertook to provide healthcare services in compliance with international best practice on medical ethics and the laws of the State.

On 27 May 2020 the company, through its solicitors, assured the Department of Health that canon law shall have no impact on the Company.

Yet it remains to be seen if the Catholic ethos will be set aside so that contraception services, tubal ligations, abortions, and assisted fertility treatment will be provided consistent with secular law and womens welfare. Even if such services are provided, there is still a question of fundamental importance to be addressed.

Why should a hospital, funded by the State at enormous cost (at least 500 million), be 100% owned by a private company?
By Jeff Murphy, April 30, 2021





WARRENSBURG, MO  As the University of Central Missouri celebrates its sesquicentennial, the Spring 2021 Commencement exercises the weekend of May 7-9 are a new milestone in the life of the university as well as its many new graduates. A total of 1,940 undergraduate and graduate students who are completing their degrees this spring or by this summer are eligible to participate in ceremonies that take place in the Multipurpose Building.

While commencement traditionally occurs over a two-day period, the spring event has been extended an extra day to help promote social distancing and to support a safe environment for students, family and friends in attendance. Ten ceremonies are planned during commencement weekend to honor the 150-year class.

Graduation begins Friday, May 7 with the Harmon College of Business and Professional Studies School of Human Services and School of Public Services at 3 p.m., followed by the School of Aviation and the School of Business Administration at 5:30 p.m. On Saturday, May 8, the College of Education and students involved in the THRIVE Program will be honored at 10 a.m. Graduate ceremonies take place in the afternoon, beginning with the College of Education at 12:30 p.m., and the Harmon College of Business and Professional Studies and all schools in the College of Health, Science and Technology (CHST), except for Computer Science and Mathematics, at 3 p.m. The College of Arts, Humanities, and the Social Sciences and the CHST School of Computer Science and Mathematics will honor their graduates at 5:30 p.m. Saturday. Commencement ceremonies conclude on Sunday, May 9 with degrees conferred upon undergraduates from the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at 10 a.m, and the CHST School of Nursing and School of Natural Sciences at 12:30 p.m. In the afternoon, UCM will honor graduates of the CHST School of Technology and School of Computer Science and Mathematics at 3 p.m. and the School of Geoscience, Physics and Safety and School of Nutrition, Kinesiology and Psychological Science at 5:30 p.m.

Commencement is also a time to celebrate the achievements of individuals who are receiving special awards. This includes recognition of the top male and female citizens of the graduating class through Charno Awards presented on Friday to Olivia Waddell, Olathe, Kansas, at 3 p.m., and Zachary Zac Racy, Riverside, Missouri, at 5:30 p.m. It also includes the 2021 Byler Distinguished Faculty Award, the top award for faculty members, presented to Dr. Fran Reddington, professor and director of the Criminal Justice Institute in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, at 3 p.m. Friday, and the presentation of the 2020 Byler Distinguished Faculty Award to Dr. Dawna Lisa (Buchanan) Butterfield, professor of literacy education and English language learning, at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.

The university annually recognizes an outstanding faculty member as recipient of the Missouri Governors Excellence in Education Award. This years recipient is Dr. Julie Hentges, professor of education, program coordinator for the Master of Science in Education/Curriculum and Instruction. She will be honored during the 10 a.m. ceremony on Saturday.

Guest speakers during each ceremony will include award recipients and select representatives of the graduating class, faculty members, along with participation from UCM administrative leaders and members of the Board of Governors. A representative of the UCM Alumni Foundation also will speak during each ceremony.

Each ceremony will be livestreamed and will be available for viewing after the event on the UCM YouTube Channel. Visit ucmo.edu/gradlive to learn more.